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 DEDICATFn BY 
 
 IlKll MOST GKACI0U8 
 
 AUTHORITY TO 
 
 MAJESTY THE QUEEN. 
 
 THE 
 
 INDIAN EMPIRE: 
 
 HISTORY, TOPOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, CLIMATE, POrULATION, CHIEF CITIES AKD PROVINCES; TRIBUTARY AXD PROTECTED 
 
 STATES ; MILITAKY POWER AND RESOnRCES ; RELIGION, EDUCATION, CRIMK ; LAND TENURES ; 
 
 STAPLE PRODUCTS ; GOVERKMENT, FINANCE, AND COMMERCE. 
 
 WITH A PULL ACCOCST OP THE 
 
 MUTINY OF THE BENGAL AEMT ; OF THE INSUEEECTION IN WESTEEN INDIA; AND A.N EXPOSITION 
 
 OF THE ALLEGED CAUSES. 
 
 \ 
 
 BY R. MONTGOMERY MARTIN, 
 
 {/I 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE ** HISTORY OP THE BRITISH COLONIES, ETC. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH MAPS, PORTRAITS, AND VIEWS. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 HISTORY, TOPOGRAPHY, POPULATION", GOVERNMENT, FINANCE, COMMERCE, AND STAPLE PRODUCTS. 
 
 THE LONDON PRINTING AND PUBLISHING COMPANY, LIMITED: 
 
 97, 9S, 99, & 100. ST. JOHN STREET. LONDON; AND 35. HET STREET. VTW YORK.

 
 INDEX 
 
 VOL. I. OF THE "INDIAN EMPIRE." 
 
 Abdallin, or Dooranis, 173. 
 
 Abul Fazil, axitbor of Akher Namah 
 and Ai/eM Akbery, 91, 108; assossi- 
 nntion, 1 M. 
 
 Adit Shah dipinufi/ at fieejapoor — orij^in, 
 96 ; wur witii tlutnayuti, 130 ; extinc- 
 tion hy Auruiiifzebc, 150. 
 
 Administraiinn ofjitstice, 550, 551. 
 
 Afqhans, or Pataru, SfJ. 
 
 A/r/han war — opinions thereon, 435. 
 
 Afghanistan, 27 ; rcci'ption of Moham- 
 medanism, 56 ; war with Aurnniizebe, 
 1*17 , Shah Soojali restored by British 
 troops, 437 ; British beleaguered in 
 Cabool cantonments, 440 ; capitula- 
 tion and retreat, 442 ; massacre in the 
 JugduUuek Pass, 443 ; British reoccu- 
 pation of Cabool, 445 ; jiroceedings of 
 " army of retribution" denounced by 
 Lord Brougham, 44 7 ; destruction of 
 Great Bazaar and Mosque, 448 j evacu- 
 ation of the country, 448, 
 
 Agra occupied by Baber, 81 ; captured by 
 Lake, 3%; topography, 481. 
 
 Ahalya Bye. (See Hnlcar I'rincipalitg). 
 
 Aheer, or shepherd, 249. 
 
 Ahmedmigqitr, 98; kingdom subjugated 
 by Shah'jehan, 130. 
 
 Ahmed Shah {Emperor), accession, 173; 
 deposition, 175. 
 
 Ahmed Shah Doorani, King of Afgha- 
 nistan, 3; invades India, 173; obtains 
 cession of the Punjab, 175; gains the 
 battle of Paniput, 179. 
 
 Ajnteer, 106. 
 
 Akber (Emperor), birth. 88 ; early perils, 
 91; accession, 107; Hindoo marriages, 
 110; conquests, 110; character, 115; 
 personal appearance, 116; death, 116; 
 vast wealth, 119. 
 
 Aibur Kha?i, the Wallace of Cabool, 440, 
 442, 445. 
 
 Alexander the Great, 21, 25; invades 
 India, 27; Indian marches, 29, 36; 
 departure and ileatli, 35 ; cities or mili- 
 tary statiims fttunded by him, 37; his 
 commercial policy, 37, 
 
 All Verdi Khan, or Mohabet Jung, vice- 
 roy of Bengal. 170, 243; death, 271. 
 
 Allahabad and Corah, sold by E. I. Com- 
 pany to Shuja Dowlah, 326. 
 
 Almora (see Kinnaon), 413. 
 
 Aliimgeer JI. (Emperor), accession, 175; 
 assassination, 176. 
 
 Amber, or Jeypoor, 106; Rajah Jey Sing 
 II. builds Jeypoor, 162; condition of 
 principality in 1745, 249. 
 
 Amboynai Dutch government torture and 
 
 execute English factors, 209. 
 Ameer Khan, Mohammedan adventurer, 
 
 392, 393, 408, 416. 
 Ameer-ool-Omra ; Ameer, Emir, or Mir, 
 
 75. 
 Ameers of Sinde, division of power, 449; 
 patriarchal administration, 450; con- 
 quered and deposed by British, 452 ; 
 case of Ali Morad, 452, 459. 
 Amercot, Rajpoot principality, 88, 106, 
 452. 
 
 Amrul Rao, 393, 394. 
 
 Anjengo settlement, 253. 
 
 Arcol, founded, 251 ; occupation and de- 
 fence by Clive, 204. 
 
 Aria (Kingdom nf), 48. 
 
 Armegaun, station formed there, 211. 
 
 Army (Anglo-Indian), state in 1765. 
 304 ; increased to enforce collection of 
 taxes, 312; hired by Shuja Dowlah to 
 extirpate Rohillas, 329 ; arrears of par, 
 352; sepoys faithful, though nearly 
 starving for want of pay, 30 1 ; arrears 
 in 1780, 365; state in 1793, 378; 
 European and native force join British 
 in Egypt, 388 ; dissatisfaction of Euro- 
 peans at Madras, 409; state in 1817, 
 410; military expenditure, 422; con- 
 dition before the mutiny of 1857, 553 — 
 555 ; tabular view of Europeans and 
 natives employed, 565. 
 
 Arracan, ceded to E. 1. Company by King 
 of Ava, 425. 
 
 Artillery, early use in India, 96. 
 
 Afteerghur, 104, 105; obtained possession 
 of by the first Nizam, 1 59 ; captured 
 by the English, 398. 
 
 Asiatic Society of Bengal, 375. 
 
 A.\oca, edicts of, 86. 
 
 Asnf Jah (see Cheeii Kilich Khan), 156; 
 meaning of term, 160. 
 
 Attack Fort, 113. 
 
 Aurungzebe(Emperor),(j; character, 133; 
 usurpation, 135; imprisons his father, 
 135 ; procures the death of his brothers 
 and nephews, 135 — 139; illness, 140; 
 Hindoo insurrection, 147 ; rebellion of 
 his son. Prince Akber, 148; personal 
 appearance, 151 ; his armies, 151 ; last 
 campaign in the Deccan. 152; death, 
 153; will, deci'eeing division of empire 
 among his sons, 153; peculiar direc- 
 tions for his funeral, 153; farewell 
 letters, 153; conduct to Hindoos and 
 to conquered enemies, 154 ; anecdote, 
 229. 
 
 Auto da Fe'at Goa, 193. 
 
 Ayeen Akbery, 570. 
 
 Baber (Emperor), early history, 79 ; 
 invasion of India, 80 ; autobiogra- 
 phy, 80 — 82 ; foundation of Mogul 
 empire, 83 ; death, character, and 
 career. 84, 
 
 Bactria (Kingdom of), 48 — 50. 
 
 Bahadur Shah, or Alnm Shah Bahadur, 
 £»y;cror (Prince Mauzim), 140; geue- 
 rous mediation on behalf of King of 
 Goleonda, and seven years' imprison- 
 ment, 150; accession, 154; wars and 
 death, 155. 
 
 Bahadur Shah, King of Gu/erat, opposes 
 Hum&yun, 84 ; killed by Portuguese, 
 85. 
 
 Bahar, or Behar (M.Tgadha), 15, 18, 107. 
 
 Bahmani kings of the Deccan, origin of 
 dvnasty, 93 ; good King Mabmood 
 Shah I., 93, 94 ; Humayun the Cruel, 
 94 ; extinction of dynasty, 96. 
 
 Baird (Sir David), 381, 3S2. 
 
 Bamlu, Seik lender, 155 ; capture and 
 execution, 157, 
 
 Banians, native bankers, 218. 
 
 Banks (Indian), 565. 
 
 Ba/ipoo Gokla (.Mahratta general), 417, 
 418. 
 
 Barred Shah dynasty of Bedar, 101. 
 
 Barlow (Sir George), provisional admin- 
 istration, 406 ; breach of treotiea, 406, 
 
 Batrrala, defended by Ranee against 
 Portuguese, 191 ; massacre of English 
 for slaughter of a cow, 230. 
 
 Balla, extra pay, 304, 428. 
 
 Battles, Paniput (1526), 81; Paniput 
 (1556), 108; Huldighat (1592), 112; 
 Samaghur(1658), 134; Cujwa (1659), 
 137; Kurnaul (1738), 164; Paniput 
 (1759), 179; Plassy (1757), 278; 
 Buxar (1764), 299 ; Chercoolee (1771), 
 319; Baroilly (1774), 329; Porto 
 Novo (1781), 354; PolUoor (1781), 
 355; Assaye (1803), 395; near Delhi 
 (1803). 396; Laswaree (1803), 397; 
 Argaum (1803), 398; Kirkce (1817), 
 417; Corygaum (1818), 418; AshK* 
 (1818), 419; Mahidpoor (1817), 420; 
 Tezeen (1818), 420; Meanee (1843), 
 451; Hyderabad (1843), 452; Maha- 
 rajpoor (1843), 452; Puniar (1843), 
 452; Moodkee .wd Ferozshah (1845), 
 454 ; .Miwaland Sobraon (1846), 455; 
 Chillianwallah (1849), 456; tabular 
 view of principal battles, 460 — 463. 
 
 Beechwa, Mahratta weapon, 143. 
 
 Beejanuggur, Hindoo kingdom, 96 ; ex- 
 tinction, 97. 
 
 Becjapoor, conquered by.^urungzebe, 150. 
 
 Beera, or fmn. 111. 
 
 Benares, 1 7 ; Rajah Cheyte Sing depoied 
 by Warren Hastings ; resistance, de- 
 feat, and banishment ; annexation of 
 principality by E. I. Company, 360 — 
 352 ; natives resist a house-tax, 410. 
 
 Benfeld (Paul), intrigues in the Car- 
 natic, 34 7. 
 
 Bengal, 106; state of presidency in 1707, 
 234; in 1757, 271 — 282; revenue and 
 expenditure in 1760, 290; corruption 
 of officials, 294 ; general profligacy, 
 17G0 to 1770, 307; civil service in 
 1772, 322 ; supreme council. 331. 
 
 Bentinck (Lord William), character given 
 by Jacquemont, 428 ; administration, 
 428—431. 
 
 Berar, or Nagpoor (see Bhontlay family), 
 invaded by Patans and Pindarries, 409, 
 414; subsidiary force established in 
 Berar, 414; annexation, 459. 
 
 Bemadotte, captured by British at Cud- 
 dalore, 353. 
 
 Bemier, Shah Jehan's French physician, 
 132. 
 
 Bhairatpoor (Khan of), rewarded by Lord 
 Ellenborough, 450. 
 
 Bheels, 141. 
 
 Bhonslay family establish principahty in 
 Berar, 168; Pursojee, 168; Ragojce, 
 394 ; Cuttaek and Balasore surren- 
 dered to E. I. Company, 399; Appa
 
 INDEX TO VOL. I. OF THE " INDIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 Sahib usurps the throne, 414; joins 
 Peishwa against English, 418; defeat, 
 flight, and obscure death, 420. 
 
 Bhupal. 416. 
 
 Bhow (Mahratta term), 177. 
 
 Bhurtpoor {Jat fortress of), 249, 405, 
 420. 
 
 Bikaneer {Rajpoot state of), 106. 
 
 Bishops of Calcutta— MiddUton, 421 ; 
 Heber, 421 ; James, 421 ; Turner, 421. 
 
 Bo-mba}/, island ceded by Portugal, 216; 
 transferred by crown to E. I. Company, 
 217; population. 217; presidency, 
 315, 340—345; topography, 481. 
 
 Boodliism,\i,\!i; .\lompra, 422 ; Shwe- 
 da-gon, or Boodhist temple, 424. 
 
 Bore, Macedonian galleys injured by 
 phenomenon, 34. 
 
 Boughton (Gabriel), obtains trading pri- 
 vileges from Shah Jehan, 214. 
 
 Brahminism, 13, 15. 
 
 BrahminSj character of, by Abul Fazil, 
 117. 
 
 Briggs {Colonel), translation of Ferishta's 
 History of Mohammedan India, 55 ; and 
 of the Sigar ul Mutakherin, 156. 
 
 Brinjarries, itinerant corn dealers, 370. 
 
 Bruce' s Annals of E. I. Company. 231. 
 
 Brgdon {Dr.), survivor of Cabool mas- 
 sacre, 443. 
 
 Bullaee, Bullawa, or Dher, Hindoo func- 
 tionary, 572. 
 
 Bundelcund, 106, 395; annexation, 398. 
 
 Buonaparte, letters to Tippoo Sultan 
 and Zemaun Shah, 377. 
 
 Burman Empire, 423 ; migration of 
 Mughs, 423 ; first Burmese war, 423 ; 
 titles of kings of Ava, 423 ; English 
 invasion, 424 ; second Burmese war, 
 456. 
 
 Burnes (Sir Alexander), 438, 439. 
 
 Bit^sy, French commander-in-chief, 261, 
 263 ; captured by English, 285. 
 
 Byadhee, Hindoo functionary, 572. 
 
 Caaba, or Kaaba, at Mecca, 52. 
 
 Cabool, severed from Mogul empire by 
 Nadir Shah, 167; Zem,mu Shah, 377, 
 388, 433 ; Shah Soojah and Dost Mo- 
 hammed, 433. (See Afghanistan). 
 
 Cabot {Giovanni or John), 197. 
 
 Calcutta — settlement formed, and Fort 
 William built, 224 ; presidency created, 
 235; soil purchased in fee-simple, 240; 
 Mahratta ditch formed, 243 ; Fort 
 William besieged and taken by Surajah 
 Dowlah, 273 ; the " Black Hole," 273 ; 
 Fort William recaptured by Clive and 
 Watson, 274 ; supreme court in 1780, 
 337; topography, 481. 
 
 Call, consort of Siva, 253 ; human heads 
 offered at her shrine at Chittledroog, 
 348. 
 
 Calicut {Hindoo principality of), 182; 
 Portuguese defeated, 18C. 
 
 Cananore {Hindoo principality of), 184. 
 
 Candahar, comiuired by Baher, 80 ; lost 
 by Shah Jehan, 131 ; kingdom founded 
 by Ahmed Shah, an Afghan, 172; 
 Cashmere incorporated with Candahar, 
 219 ; city occupied by Shah Soojali 
 and the English, 436. 
 
 Canovj, ancirnt Hindoo city, 65. 
 
 Carcoovt, or clrrks, 141. 
 
 Camatic, extent, 93 ; singular misnomer, 
 251 ; English and French support rival 
 nawabs, 263 ; history during the 18th 
 century, 270 ; renewal of hostilities, 
 283; suflVrings of population, 315; 
 annexation, 387 ; Camatic debt and 
 firm of Palmer and Co., 421. 
 
 Ciuhmerc, 41 ; history of, 113; " saffron 
 
 meads," 127 ; favourite retreat of suc- 
 cessive emperors, 249 ; severance from 
 empire, 249. 
 
 Casie^ 14 ; interference with, at Vellore, 
 407. 
 
 Cazi, or Mohammedan judge, 117. 
 
 Champaneer hill-fort, 102. 
 
 Chanderi, 106. 
 
 Chandemagore, French settlement, cap. 
 tured by English, 275 ; condition in 
 1757, 275. 
 
 Chandraairi {Ray eel or Raj a lis of), 213, 
 218. 250, 253. 
 
 Changi. standard of Mewar, 112. 
 
 Charnock {Job), 222. 
 
 Cheen Kilich Khan, 1 56 ; known as 
 Nizam-ool-Moolk, the !Nizam, and 
 Asuf Jah — intrigues at Delhi, 158 ; 
 governor of Malwa, 158 ; founds an 
 independent power in the Deccan, 159; 
 becomes vizier, 160; called " the old 
 Deccani baboon," 160 ; quits Delhi in 
 disgust, 160 ; returns to the Deccan, 
 and establishes his government at Hy- 
 derabad, 160; courted back to Delhi, 
 162 ; character, 162, 167 ; death, 173. 
 
 Chelah, 118. 
 
 Child {John and Josiah), 220. 
 
 Cholera, or Black Death, traverses India 
 in 1817, 419. 
 
 Chout, levied by Sevajee, 146, 249. 
 
 Chowkeedar, Hindoo functionary, 572. 
 
 Christianity in India, 529 — 535. 
 
 Chunar fortress, captured by Humayun, 
 86. 
 
 Cities {principal Indian), 481 — 485. 
 
 Claccring {General), 331 ; quarrel with 
 Warren Hastings, 336 ; death, 337. 
 
 Climate, 486—491. 
 
 Clive {Robert, Lord), birth and early 
 career, 258 ; attempts suicide, 258 ; 
 narrow escape at Arcot, 264 ; marriage, 
 203 ; obtains jaghire from Meer Jatfier, 
 and great wealth, 281, 287 ; created 
 Baron of Plassy. 301 ; subdues mutiny 
 of English officers, 305 ; traits of 
 character, 305 ; irregular gains, 306 ; 
 parliamentary inquiry, and suicide, 307, 
 
 Cochin, 184; rajahs ill-treated by the 
 Dutch, 244 ; tribute to English, 410. 
 
 Coins, 565 ; dihnar, 62 ; dirhera, 62, 69 ; 
 fanam, 75; gold fanara, 311; boon, 
 97 ; pagoda, 75, 235, 384 ; pice, 217 ; 
 rupee, 217; sicca rupee, 294; shah- 
 ruki, 81 ; tunkha, 570. 
 
 College of Fort William, 402. 
 
 Combermere {Viscount), at Bhurtpoor, 
 426. 
 
 Commanders-in-chief- — Coote, 355, 357, 
 358 — (see Comwallis and Harris) ; El- 
 phinstone — captivity, 439 ; death, 445 ; 
 O -'-h, 445. 
 
 Commerce (Indian), 560, 562. 
 
 Conolly, three brothers, 441 ; John, 441; 
 Arthur martyred at Bokhara, 447. 
 
 Coolcurny , hereditary village accountant, 
 98. 
 
 Coolies (Hill), 141. 
 
 Coorg, 253; captured by Hyder All, 348; 
 insurrections under Tippoo Sultan, 
 307 ; Rajah Veer Rajundra supplies 
 the English with grain in the invasitm 
 of Mysoor, 379 ; annexation, 430 ; 
 ex-rajah in England, 430 ; daughter 
 god-child to Queen Victoria, 430 ; 
 question regarding rajah's funded pro- 
 perty, 430 ; landed tenure in, 569. 
 
 Cornwallis (Lord), governor-general and 
 commaiidei'-in-chief, 366 ; establislu'S a 
 fixed land rent tliroughout Bengal, 
 366; zemindar settlement, 573; judi- 
 cial system and foreign policy, 367 — 
 
 373 ; second administration, 405 ; 
 
 death, 406. 
 Covenanted and uncovenanted services, 
 
 549. 
 Crime, statistics of, 542 — 544. 
 Crishna, or Krishna, 17,253. 
 Crishna Kumari, Princess of Oodipoor. 
 
 408. 
 Cvnjee, or rice-water, 265. 
 Currency, insufficient, 311. 
 Cutwal, or magistrate, 101, 
 
 Dacoits. or Decoiis, 330. 
 
 Dalhousie (Marquis of), review of ad- 
 ministration, 459. 
 
 Danish E. I. Company, 205 ; settlements 
 in the 18th century, 234, 245. 
 
 Debt {Indian). 365, 374, 422. 
 
 Deccan, sufferings of inhabitants during 
 wars of Aurungzebe, 152. 
 
 Dehra Doon annexed by E.I. Company, 
 413. 
 
 Delhi, 41 ; slave kings of, 72 ; sacked by 
 Timur, 78; captured by Baber, 81; 
 new city built by Shah Jehan, 135; 
 earthquake, 159; seized by Nadir Shah 
 — massacre of citizens, 165; captured 
 by Mahrattas, 178 ; seized by Rohillas, 
 emperor blinded, and his family tor- 
 tured, 373 ; taken by Lake, 397. 
 
 Dellon (French physician), imprisoned by 
 Inquisition at Goa, 193. 
 
 Dennie (Colonel), 436, 444. 
 
 Deo, a good spirit, 175. 
 
 Desmookhs, 141 ; meaning of word, 157. 
 
 Devicotta, capture of, 258 ; occupation 
 by English, 259. 
 
 Deu-annee, 300 ; of Bengal, Bahar, and 
 Orissa. obtained from Shah Alum. 303. 
 
 Dhar (Puars of). 161, 320. 
 
 Dhungurs of Maharashtra, 249. 
 
 Dhurna, species of dunning, 169. 
 
 Diamonds, and other precious stones, 497. 
 
 Diseases (Indian), 491. 
 
 Diu occupied by Portuguese, 190. 
 
 Doiit Mohamjncd, 433, 436, 437, 443. 
 
 Duelling prohibited by E. I. Company, on 
 penalty of dismissal, 366. 
 
 Duff's (Captain Grant), History of the 
 Mahrattas, 149. 
 
 Duleep Sing (Maharajah). 454. 
 
 Dupleix, French governor-general, 248 ; 
 political intrigues of Madame Dupleix, 
 259 ; brilliant success, 263 ; reverses, 
 208 ; super.session and death, 269. 
 
 Durrahs, or camps, 239. 
 
 Dustucks, or passports, 416. 
 
 Dutch power, rise of, 195; Cornelius 
 Houtman, 195 ; E. I. Companies, 196 ; 
 dividends, 206 ; position in the 18th 
 century, 233 ; lucrative trade, 245 ; 
 hastilities with English, 288 ; decreased 
 importance, 317; cession of settlements 
 to English, 421, 427. 
 
 Dyt, an evil spirit, 175. 
 
 East Indiamen, 227. 
 
 Education, 537, 538. 
 
 Edwardes (Major Herbert), 456. 
 
 Ellmburovgh (Earl of), ordejs evacna- 
 tion of Afghanistan, 445; "song of 
 triumph," 448 ; recall, 453. 
 
 Elphinstone (Mountstuart), British resi- 
 dent lit Poona, 416; enibatsy to A - 
 ghaniston, 434. 
 
 English E. I. Companies, origin, 5, 6, 
 197; first company, 196; chartered 
 and protected by Elizabeth, 200 ; terms 
 of charter, 201; first fleet, 202; in- 
 crease of navy, 204, 227; commence- 
 ment of trade with Bengal, 212; par- 
 Uamentory discussions, 212 ; statisticii,
 
 INDKX TO vol.. I. OK THIi INJJIAN KMriKE. 
 
 lU 
 
 212, 213; (lividends, 213; liontilities 
 with AurunKzrbc, 221 ; ronvoy pilKriin 
 vcHscis to Mfcai, 227 ; hostilily of 
 rivjil nmipniiies, 228 ; rival JigriHMi-H nt 
 Mogul court, 229 ; large importution of 
 piece goods, 229 ; union of rompanics, 
 23H ; wtir witli Fn-ru-h, 2r)l ; bribery 
 and corruption, 301 ; parliamcntiiry 
 interference, 309 ; compiiny on verge 
 of bankruptcy, 312 ; *' regulating act" 
 of parliament, 312 ; breach of faitli with 
 the emperor, 324 ; renewal of charter 
 (1793), and financial ]H)sition, 371 ; 
 finances, -122,428; renewal of charter 
 (1833), 431. 
 
 English Rmsian Company, clmrtered by 
 Queen Klizabetl), 198. 
 
 English Turkey Compaug, 199. 
 
 Etal Rao, faitliful Mahratta leader, 3M. 
 
 Eunuchs, 120. 
 
 Eusofzie Afghans^ 1 13. 
 
 Execution by blowing from guns, prac- 
 tised by Lally, 283 ; by Munro, 299. 
 
 Famine in 16C1, 139; in Bengal, 1769- 
 '70, 310 ; in the Carnatic, 350 ; in the 
 Uecean, 400, 
 
 Fcdcgan, zealots of Almowut, 72. 
 
 Eeizi, brother of Abul Fazil, 1 15. 
 
 Ferdotm, author of Shah Namah ; death, 
 66. 
 
 Ferishta, Mohammedan historian, 55 ; his 
 works, 102; definition of Christian 
 doctrines, 232. 
 
 Feroksheer {Bmpero?-), 156 ; accession, 
 and free use of the bow-string, 156; 
 war with Sciks, 157; murdered by 
 Seyed brothers, 158. 
 
 Fish {Mogul Order of the), 262. 
 
 Foujdar, or military governor, 117. 
 
 Francis [Sir Philip), 331 ; reputed author 
 of Junius' Letters: wounded in duel 
 with governor-general, 339; resigns, 
 and returns to England, 339. 
 
 F^eJich East India Companies^ 7, 205 ; 
 company formed by Colbert, 218 ; un- 
 successful as tnulers, 227 ; position in 
 India in the IHth century, 235 ; Dumas 
 governor-general, 24G ; war with Eng- 
 lish, 254 ; proceedings in the Carnatic, 
 261; power at its height, 263; no 
 military post left, 286 ; extinction of 
 company, 287. 
 
 French officers in natitie service — Per- 
 ron, 390 ; Ventura, Court, and Allard, 
 454. 
 
 French possessions in India, 349, 350 
 (see Buonaparte); republic negotiate 
 with Tippoo Sultan, 379 ; Pondicherry 
 seized by British, 389. 
 
 Gadi, or Hindoo throne, 162. 
 
 Galloivag {General), 427. 
 
 Ganges, steam navigation, 430; source, 
 length, &c., 480. 
 
 Geography of India, extent and bounda- 
 ries, 41)4, 465 ; aspect of provinces and 
 districts, 510, 511. 
 
 Geology, 492—494. 
 
 Ghaut {Bala and Payeen), 251. 
 
 Ghazis, or Ghazeps,'^\, 96, 108, 436. 
 
 Gheria captured from the Angria family, 
 271. 
 
 Ghor {House of), 71. 
 
 Ghuznee {House of), 59; population, 66 — 
 69 ; termination of dynasty, 70 ; city 
 taken by English, 436 ; sandal-wood 
 gates, 445 ; destruction of fortress, 447. 
 
 Gillespie {Rollo), 411. 
 
 Goa captured by Portuguese, 97, 187; 
 Inquisition established, 193. 
 
 Gohud {Rana of), ill-treated by E. I. 
 
 Company, 405 ; Lord Lake's appeal on 
 
 bis behalf. 405. 
 
 Golconda, last independent Mohamme- 
 dan state destroyed by Aurungzebe, 150. 
 
 Gomantahs, or native agents, 295. 
 
 Gomhroon, 208. 
 
 Gfinedulees, 174. 
 
 Goorkas, spread over Ncpaul, 410; 
 origin of dynasty, 411 ; infantry, 445. 
 
 Gosaen, Hindoo religious mendicant, 
 146. 
 
 Government {Anglo-Indian), 545—548. 
 
 Governors - general — Warren Hastings, 
 331—365; Marquis Cornwallis, 366 — 
 374 ; Sir John Shore (afterwards Lord 
 Teignmouth), 374, 375 ; Earl of Morn- 
 ington (afterwards Marquis Wellesley), 
 370 — 404 ; Marquis Cornwallis, 405^ 
 406 ; Sir George Barlow (provisional), 
 400, 407; Earl of Minto, 408—410; 
 Lord Moira (afterwards Marquis of 
 Hastings), 410; John Adam (provi- 
 sional), 422 ; Earl Amherst, 422— 
 428 ; Butterworth Bayley (provisional), 
 428; Lord William Bentinck, 428— 
 431 ; Sir Charles Metcalfe (provi- 
 sional), 431 ; Lord Auckland, 431 — 
 433 ; Earl of Ellenborough, 443—452 ; 
 Sir Henry (afterwards Lord) Hardinge, 
 453 — 455; Earl (afterwards Marquis) 
 of Dal)iousie, 456 — 459. 
 
 Great Moguls, Emperors, or Padshahs, 
 of the House of Timur. {See Timur, 
 Babcr, llnmaymi, Akber, Shah .fehan. 
 Shah Alum, Aurungzebc, Bahadur 
 Shah, Jehander Shah, Feroksheer, 
 Mohawrned Shah, Ahmed Shah, Abnn- 
 geer II.) Enormous wealth of Great 
 Moguls, 119 ; crown and tiirone, 120; 
 peacock throne, 135; seized by Nadir 
 Shah, 166. 
 
 Grunth, Seik scriptures, 155. 
 
 Gunpowder (alleged use in India, a.d. 
 1008), 64. 
 
 Gum, 155; Guru Govind, 155. 
 
 GiLzerat, kings of, 101 ; Mahmood Be- 
 garra, 103; Bahadur Shah, 85. 103; 
 conquered by Akber, l.iO ; chout and 
 surdeshmooki granted to Mahrattas^ 
 161, 249. 
 
 GtralioTf 106; Gwalior fortress, a state 
 prison, 120, 128; Bastille of Hindoo- 
 stan, 136; taken by Rana of Gohud, 
 344 ; permanent occupation by Sindia 
 — standing camp established, and city 
 founded, 416. 
 
 Hafz, poei of Shiraz, 9L 
 
 Halhed's Digest of Hindoo Laws, 323. 
 
 Hamilton's {Captain), New Account of 
 the East Indies, 211. 
 
 Hamilton {Surgeon), cures Feroksheer, 
 and obtains privileges for E. I. Com- 
 pany, 239. 
 
 Hanivay {Jonas), 172. 
 
 Harauti, Rajpoot principality, 106. 
 
 Harbours {Principal), 512. 513. 
 
 Harris {Ijird), commander-in-chief, 398; 
 governor of Madras, 582. 
 
 Hastings {Marquis of), character of his 
 administration, 421; death, 422; his 
 wife, the Countess of Loudon, 422. 
 
 Hastings {JVai'ren), 200; advocates na- 
 tive rights. 299 ; early history, 321 ; 
 made governor of Bengal. 322 ; sells 
 children of robbers as slaves, 330 ; 
 appointed governor-general, 331 ; per- 
 son and character, 331 ; cliarges of 
 peculation, 332 ; contest with Nunco- 
 mar, 335 ; repudi.ites resignation ten- 
 dered by his agent 336 ; marries 
 Baroness Imhoff, 337 ; duel with Fran- 
 
 cis, .139 ; conduct to Rnjah of BenarPB, 
 360 ; flicH by night from lU-uawh, 301 ; 
 extorts money from Begumft of Oude, 
 303 ; torturcN their nt;ed hcrvant«, 363 ; 
 private purse of MrM, Hfititings, 364 ; 
 return to England, 365 ; impeachment, 
 305 ; acquittal, poverty, and death, 
 366. 
 
 Heber, Bishop of Calcutta, 421. 
 
 Hedaya, Mohammedan law code, 323. 
 
 Herat, seized by Uoht Mohammed, 433. 
 
 Heroic, or vanguard, 122. 
 
 HetknrecH, Concan mountaineers, 151. 
 
 Hindoo anfhors, 153. 
 
 Hmdoo-Koosh, 25, 26, 4GG. 
 
 Hindoos, character of, by Abul Fazil, 117. 
 
 Hindoostan, 13. 
 
 Holcar, or Indore Principality, origin of 
 family, 101 ; Mulhar Rao, 161 ; suc- 
 cessful administration of the good prin- 
 cess Ahalya Bye; person, character, 
 and administration, 390—392, 580; 
 Jeswunt Rao, 392; sack of Indore by 
 the Pindarries, 393 ; predatory war with 
 the English, 399 ; idiocy and death, 
 408 ; Jeswunt Rao's concubine, Toolsoe 
 Bye, 419; her career and death, 420, 
 
 Ilooghly taken by Shah Jehan from Por- 
 tuguese, 130; made the royal port of 
 Bengal, 131 ; trading post established 
 by English, 213. 
 
 Humaynn {Emperor), 84 ; memoirs, 85 ; 
 exile, 87; restoration, 92; death and 
 character, 92. 
 
 Hyderabad, capital of the Deccan, his- 
 tory during the 18th century, 270. 
 
 Ilyder Ali, of Mysoor — early career, 285 ; 
 agreement with Lally, 285 ; seizes Bed- 
 nore and Malabar, 316; detects con- 
 spiracy for his assassination, 317 ; op- 
 posed by Peishwa, 319; quarrels with 
 Tippoo, 319; extortion and economy, 
 345; confidence in Swartz, 350; French 
 officers in hie service, 353 : avoidance 
 of pitched battles, 354 ; flight from 
 Polliloor, 355; death, 356; treatment 
 of English prisoners, 359 ; tyrannical 
 assejjsment, 571. 
 
 Imad Shah dynasty of Betar, 101. 
 
 Imaum Hussyn and family murdered. S8 ; 
 fate of Imanm Hassan, 265. 
 
 Impey [Sir Elijah), 331 ; condemnation 
 of Nuncomar. 334 ; recall, 338. 
 
 Imports and Exports, 563. 
 
 India, 113; Arrian's account, 36; Me- 
 gasthenes' account, 38 ; edicts of Asoca, 
 38 ; early divisions, 40 — 44 ; social 
 condition, 43; laws, 44; position of 
 women, 44 ; astronomy, trigonometry, 
 geometry, decimal notation, chrono- 
 logy, 45; geography, medicine, litera- 
 ture, 46 ; music, painting, sculpture, 
 architecture, fetes, police system, dress, 
 currency, 47 ; condition when Akber 
 began to reign, 93 — 107; commercial 
 intercourse with Europe, 181 ; condi- 
 tion in the middle of the 1 8th century, 
 249, 253, 308; state at the close of 
 Lord Dalhousie's administration, 459. 
 
 Indo- Mohammedan dynasties (table of), 
 180. 
 
 Indus river, crossed by Alexander. 228. 
 
 Inquisition in Portuguese settlements, 193. 
 
 Interest (legal rate), 313. 
 
 interlopers, 203; favoured by Cromwell, 
 216; Skinner's case, 217; treated as 
 pirates, 225. 
 
 Invasion of India — Semiramis, Sesostris, 
 Hercules, and Cyrus. 19; Alexander 
 the Great. 26; S^^leucus, 37 ; Arab inva- 
 sion of Western India, 56 ; Mahmood
 
 IV 
 
 INDEX TO VOL. I. OF THE " INDIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 of Gbuznee, 62 — 68 ; Shahab-oo-Deen, 
 of Ghor, 71 ; Moguls from Tran- 
 EOxinna, 73 ; Tiruur Beg, or Tamerlane, 
 77 ; Baber, 80 ; Persians under Nadir 
 Shah, 162; Afghans under Ahmed 
 Shah Dcorani, 175, 176 ; threatened by 
 Zemaun Shah, .S77. 
 
 Investment (mercantile) of E. I. Com- 
 pany, 237; Bengal investment of 1771, 
 311. 
 
 Islands on the coast of India, 511. 
 
 Jaghire, origin and conditions, 306. 
 
 Jain religion, 16. 
 
 Jansi, or Jhansie, 162, 459. 
 
 Jats, Jits, or Juts, 68 ; rise under Au- 
 rungzebe, 152, 249; agriculturists, 177; 
 progress, 249. 
 
 Jebbttrn, magical incantation said to have 
 killed Lord Pigot and Hyder Ali, 357 ; 
 performed by order of Tippoo Sultan, 
 
 ' 3S0. 
 
 Jee, Mahralta adjunct, 141. 
 
 Jehander Shah {Ejnperor), accession, 
 155; violent deatli, 156. 
 
 Jehanyeer {Eviperor), Prince Selim, 114; 
 autobiography, 119; accession, 120; 
 habits of intoxication, 190; edict against 
 use of tobacco, 121 ; captivity and 
 rescue, 126 ; death and character, 127. 
 
 Jellalabad (see Sieges), destruction of for- 
 tress, 447. 
 
 Jengis, or Ghengis Khan, 72. 
 
 Jessulmer, Rajpoot principality, 106. 
 
 Jeypoor (see Amber), 106. 
 
 Jezail, Afghan rifle, 443. 
 
 Jezia, or capitation-tax on infidels, abo- 
 lished by Akber, 118; reimposed by 
 Aurungzebe, 147. 
 
 Jhalor, Rajpoot principality, 106. 
 
 Jhelum, or Hgdaspes river, crossed by 
 Alexander, 29. 
 
 Johur, Hindoo self-immolation. 111. 
 
 Jones {Sir Harford), Persian embassy, 
 409. 
 
 Jones (Sir William), 165; death, 375. 
 
 Joowaree, coarse grain, 161. 
 
 Jnanpoor {Kingdom of), 107. 
 
 Jugdulluck Pass, massacre of English, 
 443. 
 
 Jummoo {Lords of), 453. 
 
 Kalloras, Persian adventurers, 449. 
 
 Kanhojee, or Canojee Angria, of Kolaba, 
 168 ; piracies of his sous, 243. 
 
 Kativar, or Surashtra peninsula, 101. 
 
 Khaji Khan, the Mohammedan historian, 
 135; true name and position, 139; 
 negotiations with English at Bombay, 
 227. 
 
 Khan Jehan Lodi. and his sons, 129. 
 
 Khans of t'andeish, 105. 
 
 Khilji (House of), 73 ; Khiljies, 437, 442. 
 
 Khitlut, or Khelat, 168; form of recog- 
 nition necessary to legal succession, 
 426. 
 
 Khotbah, 93, 107. 
 
 Khyher Pass, 444. 
 
 Kidd {Captain), executed for piracy, 227. 
 
 Kidnapping of native children by Euro- 
 peans, 330. 
 
 Koh-i-Noor diamond, 433, 434, 435. 
 
 Kolapoor {Rajah of), 174; principality, 
 253. 
 
 Koord-Cabool Pass, massacre of English, 
 412. 
 
 Koutb Shah dynasty at Golconda — origin, 
 99 ; extinction by Aurungzebe, 150. 
 
 Koran, 53. 
 
 Kotah Principalily, 400; Regent Zalim 
 Sin<;, iW), 401. 
 
 Kudapa {Nabob of), 261, 202. 
 
 Kumaon, taken from Goorkas ; annex- 
 ation, 413. 
 
 Kurnotil, Patan chief of, 253, 261 ; 
 annexation of principality, 443. 
 
 Kurpa, Patan chief of, 253 ; captured 
 by Hyder Ali, 349. 
 
 Kurrachee, annexation, 450, 
 
 La Bourdonnais, governor of the Mau- 
 ritius, 247 ; able administration, 247 ; 
 capture of Madras, 255 ; imprisonment 
 and death, 255. 
 Lahore, capital of Punjab (Sangala), 31, 
 41; occupied by Mahmood, h7 ; royal 
 residence transferred from Gbuznee to 
 Lahore, 70 : burnt by Baber, 80. (See 
 Rvnjeet Sing). 
 
 Lake {Lord), noble conduct at Las- 
 waree, 397 ; intervention on behalf of 
 native piinces, 405 ; resignation on ac- 
 count of breach of treaties, 406; death, 
 406. 
 
 Lally {Count), 282 ; surrender to Eng- 
 lish, 286 ; return to France ; death by 
 the guillotine, 286. 
 
 Lambert's {Commodore) proceedings at 
 Rangoon, 457. 
 
 Land, tenure of, 323 ; Warren Hastings' 
 method of raising revenue, 323 ; Lord 
 Cornwallis' perj)etual settlement in 
 Bengal, 366, 367 ; Munro's ryotwar 
 assessment, 421 ; general account of 
 land tenures, 567 — 5S2. 
 
 Land-revenue in each presidency, 566. 
 
 Land-tax in each presidency, 581. 
 
 Languages of India, 503 ; Pali or Ma- 
 gadhi, 38, 39; Tamul, Canarese, Mah- 
 ratta, and Urya, 41; Persian, 124; 
 Hindoostani, 124; Mahratta, 250. 
 
 Latter {Major), success in war with Ne- 
 paul, 411. 
 
 Latter {Captain), assassinated at Prome, 
 458. 
 
 Law {John), Scottish adventurer — E. I. 
 Company, and other projects, 246. 
 
 Laws — Digests of Hindoo and Moham- 
 medan codes, 323. 
 
 Lodi {House of), 79. 
 
 Lueknow, capital of Oude, 276. 
 
 Luhburs, plundering expeditions, 416. 
 
 Lushknr, or Leskar, Indian camp, 124. 
 
 Maajun, intoxicating confection, 116. 
 
 Macartney {Lord), governor of Madras, 
 355; probity, 366; duels, 366. 
 
 Macherri (treaty witli rajah), 406. 
 
 Macnaghten {Sir \V.), 437 ; Lady Mac- 
 naghten, captivity and rescue, 446, 
 
 Madras, founded, 213 ; raised to a presi- 
 dency, 213 ; formed into a corporation, 
 221 ; first English church erected by 
 Streynsbam Masters, 232 ; state of 
 presidency at beginning of 18th cen- 
 tury, 234, 235 ; salaries of officials, 
 236 ; captured by French, 255 ; re- 
 stored, 257; history, 1761 to 1/74, 
 315—320; incursions of Hyder Ali, 
 318; money transactions of English 
 officials with Mohammed Ali, 345; 
 dealings with Hyder Ali, 351 ; his 
 secoiul invasion, 352 ; Colonel Baillie's 
 detachment cut off by Ilyder, 353, 
 topography, 481. 
 
 Maha Jibarat, or Great M'ar, 17. 
 
 Maha liajah, 325. 
 
 Maharashtra, 140, 250. 
 
 Mahi, or Order of the Fish, 262. 
 
 Mahmood of Ohuznce, peison and cha- 
 racter, 01 ; thirteen expeditions to 
 India, 62—08; death, "69. 
 
 Mahratta state, rise of, 140; reign of 
 Rajah Sevajee, 145 — 149; Rajah Suni- 
 
 bajee, 149 — 151; national flag, 151; 
 mode of fighting, !52 ; Rajah Shao, 
 155; chout levied in the Deccan, 155, 
 157; power at its zenith, 177; condi- 
 tion in 1772, 321 ; in 1800, 38'9; mili- 
 tary force in 1816, 415. 
 
 Mahrattas, 140; characteristics, 370. 
 
 Malabai — Portuguese proceedings, 184; 
 Syrian Christians persecuted by Portu- 
 guese, 193. 
 
 Malcolm {Sir John), life of Clive, 305 ; 
 Persian embassy, 388, 409 ; political 
 agent at Poona, 416. 
 
 Malwa, kings of, 104; Mandu founded, 
 104; conquered by Akber, 109; revolt 
 of governor Cheen Kilich Khan, 168. 
 
 Maritime stations {British), 513. 
 
 Maruar, Rahtore principality, 106. 
 
 Massulnh boats, 235. 
 
 Mauritius, or Isle of France, 24 7 ; French 
 governor assists Tippoo against the 
 English, 377 ; taken by English, 409. 
 
 Mau'ulees, 141, 151. j 
 
 Meer adel, Mohammedan judge, 117. 
 
 Meeran (the Chuta Nabob), career, cha- 
 racter, and death, 281 — 289. 
 
 Meer Cossim Khan made Nabob of Ben- 
 gal, 290; able administration, 292; 
 deposition, 297 ; war with English, 
 298 ; defeated at Buxar, 299. 
 
 Meer Jaffier Khan conspires with English 
 against Surajah Donlah, 275 ; made 
 Nawab of Bengal, 280; deposed, 290; 
 replaced on the musnud, 297 ; death, 
 300. 
 
 Menu {Institutes or Code of), 14, 569. 
 
 Merut, or Meerut, 1 06. 
 
 Metcalfe {Sir Charles, afteru-ards Lord), 
 421, 573. 
 
 Mewar, Rajpoot principality, 106, 249. 
 
 Mildenhall {John), embassy to Jehangeer, 
 200. 
 
 Military contingents of Native states, 525, 
 
 Military resources of India, before the 
 mutiny, 525. 
 
 Military stations {British), 513. 
 
 Mmeralogy, 495. 
 
 Mir Cholam Hussein, Mussulman his- 
 torian, 156. 
 
 Miras, form of landed tenure, 572. 
 
 Missions (Christian), 529 — 535. 
 
 Missionaries (Amo-ican) — Price and Jud- 
 son negotiate with the King of Ava, 
 425. 
 
 Missionaries (Banish) — Swartz, the only 
 ambassador Hyder Ali would receive, 
 350. 
 Missionaries (Btitch) — Baldseus, 231. 
 (Frejich) — Zavier, 191. 
 
 Alogul Empire at the death of the Em- 
 jieror Akber, 117. 
 
 Moguls, as distinguished from Turks and 
 Tartars, 81, 82. 
 
 Mohammed — birth, person, character, 
 career, 52 ; Hejira, or flight, 53 ; 
 death, 54. 
 
 Mohammedanism — rise in Arabia, pro- 
 pagation in Africa and Europe, 54, 55 
 in India, 56. 
 
 Mohammed Ali, Nawab of Carnatic, 266 ; 
 maladministration, 315; puts Moham- 
 med Esoof to death, 316; a worse ruler 
 than Hyder Ali, 345. 
 
 Mohammed Shah (Emperor), accession, 
 158; politic mother, 159; triumphs 
 over Seyed brothers, 159; just and 
 merciful, 166; his death. 173. 
 
 Mohiin Lai (Moonshee), 438, 447. 
 
 Monetary system, 559. 
 
 Monsoon, 487. 
 
 Moolloh. Mohammedan priest, 164. 
 
 Moorsaun (Rajah of), in Alighur, 580.
 
 INDKX TO VOL. I. OF TlIK " INDIAN EMPIRE." 
 
 Moomhed Kooli Khan, viceroy of Bengal, 
 clmractpr mill oiiiuliiit. 2-10; ilcntli, 21.'!. 
 
 M'iplah, or Mti/iil/ii. :117. 
 
 M„ran Kao, Irudcr .if Mahr.il I .. m.T- 
 cciuvii-s 2fil; (■sl..lilisl.fs lumscll ..t 
 Gniilv, 207; Funinilcr to lljilir Ali, 
 iin-1 liciUi .'ilB. 
 
 Moiilimi. iir Mdiilhm, 77, 107, 'ir.B. 
 
 itfoHnlfai«,v— extent, |iositi.in, elevation, 
 and Reology, 4GG— 470. 
 
 Momitaiii paxsrs, 471. 
 
 Mnnra (f^'ir Hector), at Polliloor, S.'i.'j. 
 
 Mimro (.S'lr Thumns). novern.ir of Ma- 
 ,|,.„s— exorbitant laml assessment, 421 ; 
 death, 422 ; deseriiition of ancient vil- 
 lage system. •'>73. 
 
 lUnnmlKlars. IIH. 
 
 Miixxulman aul/m-x, 15S. 
 
 Muthiij of ICni^lish soldiers at Bombay. 
 220- of sepoys under Mnnro, 298 ; of 
 English ofiieer.'i under Clive, 305 ; 
 sep.iys at Vellore. 407; sepoys at 
 Bi.rnickpoor, 424. 
 
 Mvtira. 05 ; capture by Ahmed .Sliah 
 Doorani, and massacre, 175. 
 
 Mi/tipnurie {Rajah of). 580. 
 
 Miisoor, origin of state and name, 25:i ; 
 historical summary, 270 ; restoration 
 of Hindoo dynasty, 383; revenue in 
 1799, 3H4 ; Poornea, good and able 
 Hindoo minister, 384. 
 
 Nabob, or Nawab. 221. 
 Nadir Shah, of Persia, 3 ; early career, 
 103 ; invasion of India. 105; immense 
 plunder obtained in Delhi, 100; re- 
 turns to Persia, 107; character, ap- 
 pearance, and stronc; voice, 107; crimes 
 .-.nd assassination. 172. 
 Ncf/ijoor. (See Bcrar). 
 NiKias. or Snake godx, 113. 
 Noii. 109. 
 Naik Sviahdar, 156. 
 Nnirs of Malabar, 183. 
 Nana Furnai^cfie, 390. 
 Nannk, first Guru of the Seiks, 155. 
 Napier {Sir Charles), proceedings in 
 Sindc, and controversy with Outran); 
 419. 
 Narwar {Principality of), lOG. 
 Nnvii {Indian). 555. 
 
 Nearvhia; Ale.'iander's admiral, 32 ; 
 voyage from the Indus to Persian 
 gulf, 35. 
 Nemnd, religious impostor, 159. 
 NepanI, war with Goorkas. or Nepaulese, 
 
 411,412. 
 Nizam-ool-Moolk. (See Cheen Kihch 
 
 Khan). 
 Nizam Shah dynasty at Ahmednxtygvr, 
 origin, 98 ; regency of Chand Beeby, 
 99; extinction of kingdom. l.'^O. 
 Nizams of the Veccan, or Hijderabad— 
 declaration of independeni^e, ! 5B ; 
 French corps of Nizam Ali di.sbandeJ 
 by Marquis WcUesley, 378; military 
 strength in 1810, 415. 
 Nizamnt Svddnr Adnwliit, 324. 
 Northern Circars. 2ij9. 
 North- fVesteni Proriiiccf — land revenue, 
 area, and population, 514, 515; land 
 tenure. 570. 
 Nour Malial (afterwards Empress Noiir 
 Jeban), birth, early life, 121 ; her jewels, 
 122; rescues the emperor, 120 ; widow, 
 hood and death. 127. 
 Nvkara. or state drum, 120. 
 jVimcomar— history, 313, 335; beard in 
 council against governor-general, 333 ; 
 trial and execution, 335. 
 Nuieerec tiattalions, 413. 
 Nuzur, or Nuzzvr, 108. 
 
 Ochlerlony {General Sir David), 409, 
 411, 41,3; d™th, 421,425. 
 
 fjniirhvnd pro.-ures r.-lease of Burvivorn of 
 m.i.k Ilol.', 274, 277; intriguen with 
 Knglisb, 270.277; deci-ived by forg.-d 
 tr.'i.ty.279; discovery of deceit, innunity, 
 and death, 280. 
 
 Onrrha. in Bund.dcnnd, lOG. 
 
 Opium motiopoly. 305 ; growtli or use of 
 opium )irohibited by Tijipoo Sultan, 
 37" ; not used by Ameers ol Sinde, 450. 
 
 Ormn: {Islaud if), 208. 
 
 (Jrri/, his Indian policy, 24C, 254. 
 
 Osl'cnd E. I. Company, 24 1 . 
 
 Ottde, or Ayodhya, 15, 17; Sadut Khan, 
 viceroy, 104;' his dcth, 100; Shuja 
 Dowloh, nawab-vizier, 314 ; obtain- 
 ment of Robilcund, 329 ; death. 330 ; 
 Asuf-ad-Dowlah— i-hara<;ter, 302; Be- 
 gums of Oude ill-treated by Hastings, 
 303 ; tribute reduced by Cornwallis, 
 307; disputed succession, 375; Sadut 
 Ali chosen. 375 ; Vizier Ali causes 
 death of British resident— escapes, is 
 captured, and imprisoned for life, 386 ; 
 Gliazi-oo-deen lends money to E. I. 
 Company, 4 13 ; is suffered to assume title 
 of king, 421 ; financial transactions, 
 422 ; annexation, 459. 
 
 Oudipoor, or Oodipoor, capit.al of Mewar, 
 founded. Ill; Uana I'ertap, 1 11 ; Rana 
 Cmra, 123 ; Rana Raj Sing rescues the 
 intended bride of Aurungzebe, 148 ; 
 restoration of territory by Bahadur 
 Shah. 155 ; condition in 1745, 249 ; in 
 1772^ 320; excellent minister, Umra 
 Chund, 320 ; sacrifice of Princess 
 Chrisna. 408. 
 Ovsely {Sir Gore), Persian embassy, 409. 
 Oiitram {Sir Jamr.), controversy with 
 
 Napier, 449. 
 Overland Route, 430. 
 
 Palihothra, King Chandra Gupta, 38. 
 
 Pan. HI. 
 
 Paima. in Bundelcund, lOG. 
 
 Parker {Chovans of), 106. 
 
 Paropamisvs, 25. 
 
 Parthia {Kingdom of). 4R, 50. 
 
 Patels, Hindoo village functionaries, 141. 
 
 Pegu, annexation of, 458. 
 
 Peons, native police. 221. 
 
 Pepjjer, sale of, 200 ; demand for, 208 ; 
 stock of E. I. Company seized by 
 Charles 1., 213 ; Malabar pepper, 232 ; 
 Banee of Garsopa, " the pepper queen." 
 253 ; Company agree with Hyder Ali 
 for monopoly of purchase, 319. 
 Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, 43. 
 
 Perron, 395, 396. 
 
 Peslmwer, or Peshnirvr, 65. 
 
 Peshiras, or Peishtras, 98 ; Brabmin 
 dvnasty at Poona founded by Balajee 
 AViswanath, 160; Bajee Rao, character 
 and person, 101 ; defies Nadir Shah. 
 169; death. 109; Balajee Bajee, cha- 
 racter and death, 179 ; summary, 270 ; 
 Mahdoo Rao opposes Hyder Ali. 317, 
 319; death, 320 ;Narrain Rao (Peishwa) 
 murdered. 340 ; traits of character, 
 341 ; Ragoba supported as Peishwa by 
 English, 341 ; Anundee Bye, wife of 
 Ragoba, 340, 390 ; Bajee Rao (the last 
 Peishwa), 390 ; faithlessness and un- 
 popularity, 394 ; concessions to E. I. 
 Company. 415; hostility — defeat at 
 Kirkee, 417; flight from Poona, 418; 
 surrender, and residence at Beithoor, 
 or Bithoor, as a British stipendinry, 
 419. 
 Pcllnh, native town, 33. 
 Piijot {Lord), governor of Aladras, 347; 
 
 attempt to bribe, 347; arrent, and death 
 in prison, 347. 
 Pindarries, 319, 390; etymology, 414; 
 duppression by Lord IlaKtings, 415 — 
 420; fate of lendcrK, Heeroo and Bur- 
 run, 410; Kurecm Khan, Wahil Mo- 
 hammed, an.l Chectoo, 420. 
 Pitt diamond, 238. 
 Polygars, 571. 
 
 Pimilii-herry, capital of French possen. 
 sions, foundi-d, 247; wise government 
 of M. Martin, 246; surrendered by 
 I.ally to Coote, 286. 
 Poona, 141; made Mahrattn capital by 
 Peishwa Babijec Bajee, 174,250,270; 
 annexation, 419. 
 Popalaliiin, 498—503; 514—525. 
 Portuguese dominion, rise, 182; Vase.o 
 de Gama, 182; Alvarez Cabral, 183; 
 Duarte Pacheco, 185; conquest of 
 Malacca, 187; bigotry and corruption, 
 194 ; position at the end of the 10th 
 century, 194; position in the 18th 
 century, 233. 
 Portuguese viceroys, or govemort-general 
 — Almeida, 185; Albuquerque, If 6; 
 Soarez, 188 ; Vaico de Gama, 189 ; 
 De Sousa, 190. 
 Poms, 29 ; defeated by Alexander, 30. 
 Potail, or Patel, 141, 572. 
 Pottinger {Eldred), 434, 446. 
 Potlinger (.Sir Henry), 449, 450, 458. 
 Pousta, deadly drink, 139. 
 Press — deportation of Silk Buckingham, 
 422; restrictions. 4 28 ; restrictions re- 
 m.ived, 431 ; English and Native, 539. 
 Prester {John), 192. 
 Prithee nidhee, meaning of term, 161. 
 Prize-money obtained at Gheria (1750), 
 271; ill effects, 298; Benares (1781), 
 302 ; Seringapatam (1799), 382 ; Agra 
 (1803), 396; Bhurtpoor (1826), 427; 
 Sinde (1843), 449 — 151. 
 Puar {Udajee). origin of principality of 
 
 Dhar, 161, 320. 
 Pupgee, Hindoo village detective, 572. 
 Punchayet, Hindoo village jury, 324. 
 Punjab, invaded by Alexander, 29 ; divi- 
 sions. 41 ; invaded from Ghuznee, 63 ; 
 Mahrattas expel Dooranis, 177; pos- 
 sessed by Seiks, 321 ; annexation, 456. 
 Puranas, Hindoo sacred writings, 16. 
 Purdhans, ministers of state, 161. 
 Pursaee, Hindoo village functionary, 572. 
 Pniirarree, village registrar, 572. 
 
 Railtvays, 565. 
 
 Rajast'han.or Rajpootana, 106 ; condition 
 in 1772,320. 
 
 Rajpoots, 42 ; character, 71, 122, 176. 
 
 Ramayana, Hindoo epic poem, 16. 
 
 Rainoosies. mountain tribe, 141. 
 
 Rampoor (Fyzoolla Khan, chief of), 330. 
 
 Ram Shaslree, Mahratta judge, 341. 
 
 Rangoon, capital of Pegu, 422. 
 
 Renies, or Ranees, of Malabar and 
 Canara, 97. 
 
 Religion, 527. 535, 
 
 Rerenue and Expenditxtre, 556 — 558. 
 
 Rfrenue system 3.Ao\iieA by Akber,117,570. 
 
 Rivers of India, 472 — 477. 
 
 Rivers of Afghanistan, and the north- 
 west frontier, 478. 
 [Roe {Sir Thomas), 120, 123; mission to 
 Jehangeer, 205 ; advice to E. 1. Com- 
 I pany regarding official salaries. 302. 
 
 Rohilcund and the Rohillas, 171; founder, 
 249; Nujeeb-oo-Dowlah. 313: pos- 
 sessions of various chiefs. 327 ; English 
 troops hired by Shuja Dowlah, to ex- 
 tirpate Rohillas and conquer country, 
 329 ; Hafiz Rehmet slain, 329.
 
 VI 
 
 INDEX TO VOL. I. OF THE " INDIAN EMFIRK. 
 
 Rohtas Forty in Behar, 85. 
 
 Rohtas Fort, near the Indus, 88. 
 
 Roushenia, a relii^ious sect, 113. 
 
 Rumbold {Sir Thomas), governor of Ma- 
 dras, 348 ; favoured by Lord Hastings, 
 421 ; connexion with the house of 
 Palmer and Co., 42L 
 
 Runjeet Sirtg, of Lahore, 409, 4M \ undue 
 roncessions raade by Lord Auckland, 
 435; death 436,453. 
 
 Runn of Cutch, 68. 
 
 Ryotwar settlement in Madras, 573. 
 
 Sadhs, or Satnamist 147. 
 
 Sadras. Dutch settlement, 268. 
 
 Salaries of E. I. Company's servants, 
 
 222,313. 
 Sale {Sir Robert), 424; Lady Sale 
 wounded in the Koord-Cabool Pass, 
 442 ; her captivity and rescue, 446. 
 Sal forest, bordering Nepaul, 413. 
 Salt monopoly, established by Clive, 306, 
 
 310; profits, 365. 
 Sanitaria, at hill-stations, 513. 
 (Sa^/ara, capital of Mahratta rajahs, IGl, 
 174, 251; administration of Rajah 
 Pertab Sein. 431 ; deposition of rajah. 
 432; annexation of principality, 459. 
 Savanoor, Patan chief of, 253, 261, 
 Seiks, or Sikhs, revolt during reign of 
 Aurungzebe, 152 ; origin and early pro- 
 ceedings; doctrines; Gurus or chiefs — 
 Nanuk, Guru Govind. and Bandu. 155 ; 
 number and position. 321. 
 Selirngfnir, portion of Delhi citadel, 136. 
 Senapvttee, commander-in-chief, IGl. 
 Senassies, religious mendicants, 330. 
 Sepah sillah, Mohammedan viceroy, 1 17. 
 Sepoys, 235; gallantry at A rcot, 264 ; at 
 
 Je'Ualabad, 444. 
 Serinyapata7n,how populated, 349 ; situa- 
 tion, 371; state when captured by 
 Lord Harris, 382. 
 Sevajee, birth, parentage, and education, 
 141; daring boyhood, 142; rebels 
 against Beejapoor government, 142; 
 assassinates Afzool Khan, 143; wars 
 with Aurungzebe, 144 ; surprises Mogul 
 camp, 144; plunders Surat, 144; es- 
 tablishes seat of government at Raighur, 
 144; assumes title of rajah, 145; en- 
 thronement, and costly gifts to Brahmins, 
 219; treacherously captured by Au- 
 rungzebe, 145 ; escapes from Delhi in a 
 basket, 145; first levies chout, 146; 
 civil policy, 146; conquers territory 
 from Beejapoor, 148; surlden death, 
 148; character, 148, 149. 
 Seyeds, lineal descendants of Mohammed, 
 
 156 ; Seyed rulers of Delhi, 78. 
 Seyed brothers — Abdullah Khan and 
 Hus.vein Ali ; political career, 156, 158 ; 
 their death, 159. 
 Shch Alum {Emperor), 176, 289; ar- 
 rangement witli E. 1. Company, 293, 
 303 ; enters Delhi under Maliratta pro- 
 tection, 315 ; blinded by Rohillas, 273 ; 
 taken under Iititi--h protection. 396. 
 Shahamet AH, author of Sikhs and Af- 
 ghans, 447. 
 Shah Jfhfin [Emperor), or Prince Khoo- 
 nim, 119; rebels against his father, 
 125 ; refuge in Oudipoor, 125 ; ac- 
 cession, 128 ; murders his brothers, 
 128; revenue survey, 131 ; hisrhihlren, 
 132 ; deposition, 135 ; review of his 
 reign, l."i5; miserable captivity, 139; 
 deiith. 146. 
 Shah Soojah, of Cabool, 433—445. 
 Shastrax, Hindoo scriptures, 414. 
 Sheer Shah, Afglian usurper, 88. 
 Sheiahs, followers of Ali, 62, 98, 133; 
 
 denounced by Nadir Shah, 164; strife 
 
 with Sonnites or Sunnis, in Delhi, 175. 
 
 Sheik -nl-Jubbnl, or Old Man of the 
 
 Mountain. 72. 
 Shipping (India built), 402. 
 Shroffs, native bankers, 218. 
 Sicca, royal right of stamping coin, 93. 
 Siddee, or Sccdee, of Jinjeera, 220. 
 Sieges— Chittore (1568), 111; Hooghly 
 (1632), 131; Raighur (1690), 151; 
 Devicotla (1748), 259; Arcot (1"^1)' 
 264; Pondicherry (1760), 286; Rock 
 of Amboor, 318; Wandewash (1781), 
 354: Cuddalore (1784), 359; Mangalore 
 (1784), 359; Savendroog (1791), 370; 
 Seringapatam (1792), 371 ; Seringa- 
 patam (1799), 380; Alighur (1803), 
 395; Agra (1803). 396; Aseerghur 
 (1803). 398 ; Gawilghur (1803), 398 ; 
 Delhi (1804), 401; Bhurtpoor (1804), 
 401; Kalunga, or Nalapanee (1814). 
 411: Deothul (1814), 412; Almora 
 (1816), 413; Maloun (1816), 413; 
 Aseerghur (1818). 420; Malligaum 
 (1819), 421 ; Bhurtpoor (1825-'6), 426; 
 Herat (1838), 434; Khelat-i-Nuseer 
 (1839), 447; Ghuznee (1842). 444; 
 Candahar (1842) 444 ; Jellalabad 
 (1842), 444; Mooltan (l^^^), 456; 
 Rangoon (1852), 458. (For statistics 
 of Sieges, see 460 — 463). 
 
 Simla first resorted to by Lord Amherst, 
 427. 
 
 Sinde^ Aiah conquest of, 57, 58 ; its rulers, 
 106 ; taken possession of by Nadir 
 Shah, 167; Tatta pillaged by Portu- 
 guese, 193 ; rule of the Ameers, 434 ; 
 exactions of E. I. Company, 435; an- 
 nexation, 449 — 452. 
 
 Sindia, or Gwalior Principality, origin of 
 family, 161 ; Jeiapa Sindia, 171 ; Ma- 
 hadajee Sindia's force disciplined by 
 European officers, 373; De Boigne, 
 373, 390; arrogance of Mahadajee, 
 374 ; Dowlut Rao, 374, 390, 392 ; war 
 with Holear, 393 ; Oojeen and other 
 places captured and rifled by Holear, 
 393 ; troops commanded by M. Perron, 
 (see Perron), 395 ; subsidiary force 
 stationed at Gwalior, 399 ; Dowlut 
 Rao's character, 416 ; supports Pindar- 
 rics, 416; death, 427; his favourite 
 "wife, Baiza Bye, adopts a sou and as- 
 sumes th*> regency, 427; death of 
 adopt*ii prince, and new adoption, 432 ; 
 war with English — Gwalior captured ; 
 fortress permanently occupied by Eng- 
 lish, 452, 
 
 Slavery in India, 117. 118, 349, 507. 
 
 Somnauth {Temple of ), 07; sandal-wood 
 gates taken by Mahinood to Ghuznee, 
 67; restored by order of Lord Ellen- 
 borough, 445. 
 
 St. Helena occupied by English, 216. 
 
 St, Thomas, or Meliapoor (near Madras), 
 occupied by Englisli, 257. 
 
 Stuart {General), treacherous arrest of 
 Lord Pigot,347 ; misconduct at Cudda- 
 lore, 358 ; arrested and sent to England 
 by Lord Macartney, 359; duel with 
 Lord Macartney, 366. 
 
 Subsidiary forces {British) — Nizam, 371 ; 
 Peisiiwa, 373 ; general view, 526, 
 
 Suddur Dewaimee AdauHut, 324. 
 
 &'(/mroo, German advtnturer, 297 ; Begum 
 Sumroo faitliful to Slmh Ahiru, 373. 
 
 Sirjee,or Shirzce Rao (ihatkay, 393, 400. 
 
 Strohiy Rajpoot state, 106. 
 
 Sirpa, dress of honour, 168. 
 
 Siyar-ul-Mn(akherin, 156 ; translations 
 liy General Briggs, and a Frenchman, 
 l'70. 
 
 Smith {Sir Harry), at Aliwal, 455. 
 
 Sonnites or Sunnis, traditionists, 62; 
 strife with Sheiahs, 99. 
 
 Sonthal insurrection, 459. 
 
 Stoddart {Colonel), cruel death at Bok- 
 hara, 446. 
 
 Subahdar, native officer, 117. 
 
 Sumbajee, rajah of the Mahrattas, son of 
 Sevajee, 149; capture and execution, 151. 
 
 Sunnud, edict. 287. 
 
 Surajah lJoivlah,\iceYoy of Bengal — cha- 
 racter, 271,275; deceived by Clive, 276; 
 betrayed by Meer Jaffier at Plassy, 
 278 ; defeat, flight, capture, and assas- 
 sination, 282 ; fate of conspirators, 335. 
 
 Suraj Mul, chief of the Jats, 177. 
 
 Svrat, 103; fort burned by Portuguese, 
 189; visited by Dutch, 208; annexed 
 by English, 387. ' 
 
 Surdeshmooki — Aurungzebe negotiates its 
 payment to the Mahrattas, 153; ex- 
 planation of term, 157. 
 
 Suttee or Sati, of Mifchta Rye, 391; 
 self-immolation prohibited, 428. 
 
 Swedish E. I. Company, 242. 
 
 Tabular jnejo of Anglo-Indian army, 565. 
 
 Battles and sieges, 460 — ■ 
 
 463. 
 
 East India banks, 565. 
 
 — Imports and exports,563, 
 
 564. 
 Indo-Mohammedan dy- 
 nasties. 180. 
 
 Land revenue of each 
 
 presidency, 566, 582. 
 
 Land revenue, area, and 
 
 population, 5 1 4— 538. 
 
 Mountains, 466 — 4 70. 
 
 ■ Mountain passes, 471. 
 
 Population, 500, 501. 
 
 Rivers in India, 472 — 
 
 477. 
 
 , — ^ — Rivers in Afghanistan, 
 
 and on the north-west 
 frontier, 478. 
 
 Table-lands of British 
 
 India, 479. 
 _ Table-lands of Afghanis- 
 tan and Beloochistanj 
 480. 
 
 Tributary and protected 
 
 states, 519—524. 
 Taj Mahal, erection of the, 130. 
 Talookdars, 571. 
 Talpoors of Sinde, 449. 
 Tarijore, 252 ; native troops disciplined by 
 Flemish officer, 253 ; English interfere 
 in a case of disputed sovereignty, 258, 
 259; historical summary, 270 ; capture 
 and restoration by E. I. Company, 
 34" ; Rajah Serfojee, the aeeomplisiied 
 pupil of Swartz, 387 ; annexation, 387. 
 Tara Bye, Mahratta princess, 153; cha- 
 racter, 175 ; death, 179. 
 Tariff, 505. 
 Tatla, 34. 
 Ta.n/a, 26, 
 Tadiles. 26, 29. 
 
 'J'ea, first importation into England, 217. 
 Tcgnapatam, or Fort St. David, founded, 
 
 223 ; progress, 236. 
 Tenasserim ceded by King of Ava, 425. 
 Thome {Robert), 197. 
 Thornlon^s {Edward) History of India, 
 
 431. 
 Thvys, or Phansigars, 429. 
 Tilac, the accursed number, 111. 
 Timnr Beg. or Tamerlane, 70; auto- 
 biography, 77; c!i))ture of Delhi, 78; 
 person and character, 77, 78; House of 
 I Tiniur,. 81,
 
 INIJEX TO VOL. X. Ol' TllK INDIAN ii-MriRE. 
 
 VII 
 
 Tijipna Sultan mcnnrcs Mndrns, 318; 
 character, 3.')7 ; cruelty to liiif^liili 
 prisoners. 3f>9 ; persecutes tlic '• Portu- 
 guese Nnznrciics," 307 ; circulnr hunt, 
 367 i forcihlc conversions, 3(17 ; his 
 work, The Kini; of Jfislnricf, 307; 
 intrifiucs with French republic, 377; 
 killed in defenilinR his ciipital, 380 ; 
 person and i^ovcrnnicnt, 382 ; liberal 
 provisicui made by Lord Wellesley for 
 Tippoo's family, 383. 
 
 Tod'n {Colonel) Annuls of Rajatt'han, 
 lOG, 122. 
 
 TndnrMul {Rajah), Hindoo financier, 570. 
 
 Tor/htai {Home of), 74 ; cruelties of Mo- 
 iiammed Toghlak, 75; ciicular hunt, 
 75. 
 
 T'ltnlt of Ilumaynn at Delhi, general re- 
 ceptacle for murdereil [irinces of the 
 House of Timur — Emperor Feroksheer 
 buried there, 158. 
 
 To/iassPS, 235. 
 
 Torture Commission, Madras, 577. 
 
 i'rarancore, sovereignty inherited by 
 Tamburetties, or princesses of .\ttinga, 
 253 ; historical summary, 270 ; appeal 
 to E. I. Company against Tippoo 
 Sultan, 3G8 ; annexation, 410. 
 
 yVea<iM— English and French (1754), 2G9. 
 E. I. Company with Surajah Dowlah, 
 (1757), 274 ; " Red Treaty" with Omi- 
 chund (1757), 280 ; with Meer JatHer 
 (1757), 280; of Allahabad, with the 
 eraiieror (i7t)5), 326; with Hyder Ali 
 (1769), 319; of Benares, with Nawab- 
 vizierof Oude(1773),327; of Poorundcr, 
 withtheMahrattas(1776), 342; conven- 
 tion of Wurgaum (1779), 343; of Salbye 
 with Sindia, (1782), 356; with Tippoo 
 Sultaa (1784), 359; of Chunar with 
 
 'l^ude (17S1), 363; Tippoo Sultan 
 (1792), 372; of liassi'in with Peisliwa 
 ( 1 802), 393 ; of Dcogaum with Ragojce 
 Bhonslay (1803), 398; .Surjee Anjen- 
 gaum with .Sin.lia (1803), 399; with 
 Jcypoor, Joudpoor, ISoondi, Macherry, 
 Hhurtpoor, and liana of Gohud (1803), 
 399; witii liunject .Sing (1810); Se- 
 goulee with N'cpaul (1816), 413 ; I'oona 
 with tlie I'cishwa (1816), 415; with 
 Uurmah (1826), 425; with Ameers of 
 Sinde (1838), 435, 449, 450; with 
 Runjeet .Sing and Shah Soojaii (1838), 
 434 ; with the Nizam (1853), 459. 
 
 Tributary and protected States before the 
 Mutiny — area, population, revenue, 
 amount of subsidy or tribute, and 
 military resources, .519 — 524. 
 
 Triehinopoty, 251 ; historical summary, 
 270. 
 
 Tiii/uazu, species of dunning, 169. 
 
 Turaee or Terai {Plain of), 410, 413. 
 
 lima, " the august bird," 382. 
 Uni/nnl, annexation of, 459. 
 Uzbeks, 80. 
 
 Vakeel-i-Mootluk, 60, 95. 
 
 Vedas, Hindoo scriptures, 13, 498 ; Sama 
 
 Veda, 14 ; Rig Veda, 497. 
 Vellore fortress, residence of Tippoo 
 
 Sultan's family, 383 ; and of Vizier 
 
 Ali, 383; mutiny at, 407. 
 Vicramaditya, King of Malwa, 40. 
 Villaye system {Hindoo), 571. 
 V^yasa, alleged compiler of the Vedas, 12. 
 
 Wadeyar (lord of thirty-three villages), 
 
 2,53. 
 Wagnuck, Maliratta weapon, 143. 
 
 Wattrni {AAmirat), refosen to sign a fibfl 
 treaty, 277 ; signature forged by order 
 of Clivc, 277 ; death, 279. 
 
 Wnvp-offeriny, 159. 
 
 Wriijhts and Meantres, 565. 
 
 Wellesley {Marf/ttis), birth and early IJfs 
 as Loid Mornington, 376 ; j>erson aiui 
 character, 377 ;. subsidiary system, 385 ; 
 proter!ts Rajpoot principaliti(8 against 
 Mahratta aggressions, 399 ; eradi&iteti 
 French influence in India, 402; recall, 
 and character of administration, 403, 
 407; attacked by Paull; grantof money 
 by E. I. (Jomijany ; death, 404 ; views 
 on land-tenure, 578. 
 
 Wellesley {Colonel), afterwards Duke of 
 Wellington, 382 ; military command in 
 Mysoor, 383 ; pursuit and death of 
 Dhoondea Waugh, 383 ; war with 
 Mahrattas, 394 ; Assaye, 395. 
 
 Willonyhliy {Sir Huyh), voyages, 197 ; 
 death, 198. 
 
 Wulsa, immigration in war-time, 315. 
 
 Wuttm., inheritance, 160. 
 
 Yogees, Hindoo ascetics, 28. 
 
 Zamorins of Calient, or Tamuri rajahs, 
 182; wars with the Dutch, 243; Slaan 
 Veeram Raj driven to suicide by Hyder 
 Ali, 318 J secret name of the Zamorins, 
 423. 
 
 Zavier {Fran(ois), comes to India, 191. 
 
 Zemaun Shah, projected invasion of India, 
 377, 388; deposed and blinded, 433; 
 vicissitudes of fortune, 433, 448. 
 
 Zemindar, 107, 571. 
 
 Zemindar system, established in Bengal, 
 and IJahar, 573. 
 
 Zinar, Brahminieal cord, 111. 
 
 ERRATA.— VOL. I. 
 
 Page 388, heading: for An(jlv-Inilian army join 
 Brifisli in Jnd'ui, read E(pjpt. 
 
 ,, 396, „ for haitlc of Aiiijhur — rjaUaut de- 
 fence, of Delhi — 1803, read gal- 
 lant defence of Aliyhur — battle 
 near Dc//ii— 1803. 
 
 ,, 401, „ for si'cf/c of Bhurfpimr — defence of 
 Delhi, read defence of Delhi— 
 sieye of Bhurfpoor. 
 
 „ 413, col. 1, line 11, for il/aroun, read 3/f(foH)i. 
 
 ,, 42G, „ 1, line 0, dele words nothiiuj but. 
 
 ,, 489, heading: i'or decrement, re^d diminution. 
 
 ,, 489, col. 2, line 52, for comjetation, read con- 
 gelation. 
 
 „ 492, „ 1, line 19, for rerepresentatives, read 
 rejiresentatives. 
 
 506, col. 2, 
 
 507, „ 2. 
 
 Page 503, Table : alter heading from resume of 
 censuses to piipulatiun returns, 
 and dele males and females. 
 line 3, for Suuthats, read Son- 
 thals. 
 line 16, for homogeuety, read 
 homogeneity. 
 
 Pages 550, 551, headings: aher modes of administer- 
 ing justice in India, and mode 
 of administering Justice in 
 India, to administration ofjue- 
 tice in India. 
 
 for codification, read code. 
 2, line 4 (of note), for a honour, 
 read an honour. 
 
 Page 552, heading : 
 „ 553, note, col.
 
 DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER FOR PLACING THE ENGRAVINGS.— VOL. L 
 
 Frontispiece — Lord Palmerston. 
 
 Vignette — Encampmeat on the Sutlej. 
 
 Map of Britisli India - - To face page 
 
 View of the Palace of Agra from the 
 
 River _ _ - - To face page 112 
 View of Bombay, showing the Fort - - 217 
 
 View of Madras - - - To face page 57 
 Table of Distances to be placed at end of Vol. 
 
 DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER FOR PLACING THE ENGRAVINGS.— VOL. XL 
 
 Frontispiece — Lord Clyde. ' 
 Vignette — Death of General Neil. 
 Lord Viscount Canning - To face page 1 
 
 The King's Palace at Delhi - - - - 116 
 
 Map of Northern India - - _ - 125 
 
 Mutinous Sepoys dividing Spoil - - - 215 
 
 General Sir Henry Havelock, K.C.B. - - 276 
 
 The Nana Sahib leaving Lucknow - - 346 
 
 The Palace at Agra - - To face page 358 i 
 Capture of the Guns by the Highlanders - 377 
 Portrait of Kooer Sing - _ - _ 400 
 The Relief of Lucknow by General Have- 
 lock 420 
 
 Blowing up of the Cashmere Gate at Delhi - 442 
 Capture of the King of Delhi by Captain 
 Hodson - - - - - - -447 
 
 Seik Troops di\iding the Spoil taken from 
 
 Mutineers _ _ - To face page 479 
 
 Titties' Correspondent looking on at the 
 
 Sacking of the Kaiserbagh - - - 479 
 Death of Brigadier Adrian Hope - - - 493 
 Mahomed Suraj-oo-deen Shah Ghazee - 159 
 
 Zeenat Mahal, Begum or Queen of Delhi - 453 
 
 DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER FOR PLACING THE ENGRAVINGS.— VOL. III. 
 
 Frontispiece — Hindoo and Mohammedan 
 
 Buildings. 
 Vif/nette— Scene near ChiUah Tarah Ghaut, 
 
 Bundelcund. 
 Troops encamped at the Entrance of the 
 
 Keree Pass. ... To face page 1 
 
 The Ganges entering the Plains near Hurdwar 2 
 
 Hurdwar, a place of Hindoo Pilgrimage - 3 
 
 Assemblage of Pilgrims near Hurdwar - 4 
 
 Hurdwar, the Gate of Hari, or Vishnoo - 5 
 
 Mussooree and the Dhoon, from Landour - G 
 
 The Abbey and Hills from ncai' Mussooree - 8 
 
 Snowy Range from Landour - - - 9 
 
 Snowy Range from Tynee - - - - 11 
 
 Village of Naree ------ 12 
 
 Bridge at Bhurkote ----- 13 
 
 View near Kursalee ----- 14 
 
 Kursalee, a Village in the neighbourhood 
 
 of Simla -..----15 
 
 View on the River Jurana - - - - 16 
 
 Falls near the source of the Jumna, above Delhi 18 
 Fugitive Sepoys taking refuge in a Mountain 
 
 Fastness, near Jumnootrce, on the Jumna 18 
 Snowy Mountains, Northern Bengal ; source 
 
 of the Jimina ------ 19 
 
 Fugitive Sei)oy6 crossing the River Tonse 
 
 by Rope Bridge 20 
 
 Gungootree, the sacred source of the Ganges 21 
 The Village of Khandoo, Himalaya Moun- 
 tains -23 
 
 Village of Roghera and Deodar Forest - 24 
 
 The Choor Mountains ----- 25 
 
 Jerdalr, a Hill Village; Ghurwal - - 2(i 
 
 Grass-rope Bridge at Terec, Ghurwal - - 27 
 
 View near Jubberah, Northtrn Bengal - 2S 
 
 View at Deoijun, near Umballah - - - 29 
 
 Mohuna, nerfr Deobun ----- 30 
 
 Valley of the Dhoon, Himalaya Mountains - 31 
 
 The Forti'ess of Nahun, in the dominion of 
 
 Oude - - - - -To face page 32 
 
 Fortress of Bowrie, in Rajpootana - - 33 
 
 The Pass of Makundra - - - - 34 
 
 Scene in Katteawar — Travellers and Escort 36 
 Zanghera, or the Fakeer's Rock, on the 
 Ganges -------37 
 
 Colgong, on the Ganges - - - - 38 
 
 Seik IiTegular Cavalry - - - - 39 
 
 Tomb of "Shere Shah, Sasserain - - - 41 
 
 City of Benares ------ 43 
 
 Benares - - -.- - - -44 
 
 Hindoo Temple, Benares - - - - 46 
 
 Sarnat, a Boodh Momunent, near Benares - 47 
 
 View of Cawnpoor from the River - - 48 
 Agra, the scene of the late insurrectionary 
 outbreak -------50 
 
 Taj Mahal, Agra 51 
 
 Jumma Musjid, Agra ----- 52 
 
 Agra— from the Jahara Bang - - - 53 
 
 Akber's Tomb, Secundra - - - - 54 
 
 Futtehpoor Sikri ------ 55 
 
 An old Fort at Muttra - - - - 57 
 
 Dellii, showing the entrance to the Palace - 58 
 
 Cootub Minar, Delhi 59 
 
 Tomb of Humayun, Delhi . ... 60 
 
 A ruin on the banks of the Jumna, above Delhi 61 
 
 Ruins, old Delhi 62 
 
 Ruins, south side of old Delhi - - - 63 
 
 Calcutta from the Esplanade. No. 1 - - 64 
 
 Ditto Ditto No. 2 - - 66 
 
 Fort George, Madras - - r - - 70 
 
 Bombay Harbour in the Monsoon - - 74 
 
 Simla, near Belaspoor - - - - - 76 
 
 Fortress of Shuhur, Joypoor, Rajpootana - 80 
 
 Hindoo Temple at Chandgoan - - - 81 
 
 Perawa, Malwa ------ 82 
 
 King's Fort, Boorhanpoor - - - - 83 
 
 Jumma Musjid, Mandoo - To face page 84 
 The Water Palace, Mimdoo. - - . 58 
 
 The Fortress of Dowlutabad - - - 86 
 
 Aurungzebe's Tomb, Rozah - - - 87 
 
 View of Sassoor, in the Dccean - - - 88 
 Tombs of the Kings, Golconda - - - 89 
 The British Residency at Hyderabad - - 91 
 Bcjapoor ------- 92 
 
 Sultan Mahomed Shah's Tomb, Bejapoor - 94 
 Seven-storied Palace, Bejapoor - - - 96 
 Palace of the Seven Stories, Bejapoor - - 97 
 Mosque of Mustapha Kh;in, Bejapoor - - 98 
 Tomb of Ibrahim Padshah, Bejapoor - - 99 
 Taj Bowlee, Bejapoor - ... - 101 
 Asser Mahal, Bejapoor - ' - - - 102 
 
 Singham Mahal, Torway, Bejapoor - - 104 
 Hindoo Temples and Palace, Madura - - 106 
 Entrance to the Cave of Elophanta - - 106 
 Triad Figure, interior of Elephanta - - 107 
 Cave of Karli - - - - - -III 
 
 Front View of Kylas, Caves of EUora - - 112 
 Excavated Temple of Kylas, Caves of 
 
 EUora 113 
 
 Dus Outar, EUora ----- 115 
 Rameswur, Caves of Ellora - - - - H5 
 Skeleton Group in the Rameswur, Caves of. 
 
 EUora 116 
 
 Interior of Dher AVarra, EUora - - - 117 
 Sutteeism on the banks of the Ganges - - 119 
 View of .\llahabad, showing the Fort - - 122 
 View of Lucknow ----- 124 
 Dewan Khass, or Hall of Audience, Palace of 
 
 Delhi 128 
 
 Agra— View of the Princiiial Street - - 130 
 Tomb of Elmad-ud-DowIah, Agra - - 132 
 The Residency, Lucknow - - - - 134 
 The HiU Fortress of (iwalior - - -140 
 View of Delhi, from the Palace Gate - - 143
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The Anglo-Tiulian Empire ! what do these words represent in the minds of the 
 people of Britain? 
 
 They spealc of dominion over a far-distaut sunny land, rich in barbaric gold, 
 precious stones, and architectural beauty, occupying upwards of a million square 
 miles of the most varied, fertile, and interesting i)ortion of this globe, and 
 inhabited by more than one hundred million of the human race. j 
 
 The early history of this wonderful country lies hid in deep obscurity. Not 
 the obscurity that naturally attends insignificance, but, far otherwise, caused by , 
 the dense veil which Time drew around Ancient India, in thickening folds, during ] 
 centuries of deterioration ; leaving the ruins of magnificent cities, and widely- | 
 scattei'ed records graven in mysterious characters on almost imperishable 
 materials, to attest the existence of civilised races — regarding whom even 
 tradition is silent — at a date long prior to the Christian era. | 
 
 Whence India was peopled, is quite unknown ; but thirty different lan- 
 guages, and an e(iual diversity of appearance and character, dress, manners, : 
 and customs, seem to indicate long-continued immigration from various quarters. 
 
 The Alexandrine era (b.c. 330) throws light on little beyond the Macedonian 
 invasion of the north-western frontier ; the Arab incursions (a.d. 709) afford 
 only a few glimpses of the borders of the Indus ; and the thirteen expeditions of 
 Mahmood the Ghuznivede (a.d. 1000 to 1025), give little beyond a vague and 
 general idea of the wealth of the country and the dense population of the 
 Western Coast, whose idolatry INIahmood was empowered to scourge with the 
 strong arm of an Iconoclast; though he himself was but an instrument in the 
 hands of Providence ; and in battering down guardian fortresses and destroying 
 temples and shrines dedicated to false gods, had evidently no higher motive , 
 than that of pillaging the dedicated treasures, and carrying away the worshippers 
 into slavery. 
 
 From this period we can faintly trace the progress of Mohammedan con- 
 quest in India, to the establishment of the dynasty known as the Slave Kings 
 of Delhi (a.d. 1208.) Its founder, Kootb-oo-deen, originally a Turki slave, 
 established the centre of Moslem dominion in the grand old Hindoo capital, 
 chiefly by reason of the disunion which had arisen among the leading Rajpoot 
 princes upon the f^iilure of a direct heir, and the consequent jealousies and 
 disputes regarding tlie succession.
 
 INTEODTJCTION. 
 
 Then the page of history becomes more and more legible until it records 
 the invasion of Timor or Tamerlane (a.d. 1398), the terrible details of the siege 
 of Delhi, and the general massacre in which it terminated ; and all the horrors 
 enacted before " the apostle of desolation " took his departure, carrying off men 
 and women of all ranks and ages into slavery, and leaving the devoted city 
 without a government, and almost without inhabitants. 
 
 The succeeding Indian annals, though confused, are tolei'ably full to the 
 commencement of that important epoch which comprises the reigns of the 
 Great Moguls. This brings us within the pale of modern history : we can note 
 the growth and decay of Mogul dominion, and trace, at least in measure, the 
 operating causes of its extension and decline. Viewed as a mere series of 
 biographies, the lives of the Great Moguls attract by incidents, which the 
 pen of fiction, fettered by attention to probability, would hardly venture to 
 trace. The members of this dynasty had a decidedly literary turn, and several 
 of them have left records not only of the public events in which they plaj'ed a 
 leading part, but also of the domestic scenes in which they figured as sons, 
 husbands, or fathers. 
 
 The value of these memoirs in elucidating- or corroborating the histories of 
 the period, is, of course, very great, and their authenticity rests on solid grounds, 
 apart from the strong internal evidence they afford of having been actually 
 AAritten by the persons whose names they bear. 
 
 Nothing can be more characteristic than the intense self-adulation with 
 which Timur, or Tamerlane, narrates his perfidious and sanguinary career, 
 except perhaps the peculiar power of observation and analysis brought to bear 
 on new scenes which mark the autobiography of his descendant Baber, who, 
 following in his footsteps, invaded India from Cabool, and, after a fierce struggle 
 on the plains of Paniput (a.d. 1526), gained easy possession of Delhi and Agra, 
 and succeeded in laying the foundation of an extensive empire. 
 
 numayun(A.D. 1530), Akber (a.d. 1556), Jehangeer (a.d. 1605), Shah Jehan 
 (a.d. 1628), all encountered vicissitudes of the most singular and varied character; 
 and the Mogul history increases in interest until it culminates in the long reign of 
 Aurungzebe (a.d. 1658), the ablest and most powerful, but the most ambitious and 
 bigoted of his race. During his sway the predatory hordes of Maharashtra Avere 
 formed by the Hindoo adventurer, Sevajee, into a poAverful state; the hated and 
 despised Mahrattas grew strong upon the spoil of independent kingdoms demolished 
 Ijy the haughty emperor ; and finally, his troops, vA^orn by incessant toil, became 
 mutinous for want of pay and provisions, and suffered their aged leader to be 
 hunted even to the death by foes he had been accustomed to treat as utterly 
 contem])tiblc. The decay of the empire, Avhich commenced several years before
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the death of Aurnngzebc (ad. 1707), then became rapid; usurping viceroys, 
 rebelling against their government and warring with the rulers of neighbouring 
 states or provinces, aggravated the internal disorganisation. Nor were external 
 foes wanting to complete the work of destruction : adventurers of all creeds and 
 comi)lexions fought fiercely over the ruins; while, distancing meaner com- 
 petitors, Nadir Sluih (a.d. n."?!)) and Ahmed Shah (a.d. 1759), the robber 
 kings of Persia and Alfghanistan, swooped down like vultures to secure 
 their share of the carcass; and the chief cities of India, especially Delhi, 
 repeatedly witnessed the most sanguinary enormities, and continued to do so 
 until, one by one, they became gradually included in the widening circle of 
 British supremacy. 
 
 And why dwell thus on the past at such a crisis as thi.s, when the mag-ic 
 circle of our power has been rudely broken — when Delhi, filled to overHowing- 
 with all the munitions of war, has been treacherously snatched from our 
 unsuspecting- hands — and \\hen the Crescent; raised again in deadly strife 
 against the Cross, has been reared aloft as if in testimony that the Moslems 
 who came into India i)roclainiing war to the death against idolatry, have 
 quite abandoned their claim to a Divine mission, and are ailecting- to make 
 common cause with the Hindoos, whose creed and practice they formerly 
 declaimed against with so much horror and disgust? Now Mohammedans 
 and Hindoos unite in committing crimes of a character so deep and deadly, 
 so foul and loathsome, that we find no parallel for them ; not in the relentless, 
 inventive vengeance of the Ked Indians ; not even in that crisis of civilised 
 infidelity, that fierce paroxysm of the French Revolution, still shudderingly 
 called the " lleign of Terror." The Red Republicans made public avowal of 
 atheism 5 and awful was the depravity into which they sank, world-wide the 
 shame they incurred : but recantation soon followed. These treacherous 
 Sepoys, who have so suddenl}' risen in a body, violating every oath of fidelity, 
 every tie of feeling and association — they, too, have their watchword : it is 
 not " There is no God j" it is " Death to the Christians !" 
 
 As in France, no religious persecution, but rather a state of conventional 
 apathy, leavened by the poison of Voltaire, Diderot, Condorcet, and their 
 clique, preceded the atheistical and sanguinary outburst ; even so has it 
 been with India. Efibrts for the extension of Chi-istianity have been wholly 
 exceptional; the rule has been tolerance, amounting to inditierence, in all 
 religious matters. Few who have been in the habit of reading Indian 
 periodicals, much less of mixing in Indian society, will deny that, however 
 manifest the desire for the diffusion of the Gospel might be in individuals, the 
 government had remained markedly neutral.
 
 INTEODTJCTION. 
 
 The Mussulmans, let it be repeated, subjug-ated and g'overned India in 
 the character of anti-idolaters. The}' tolerated — and barely tolerated — the 
 heathenism around them, to which their aversion was, for the most part, 
 quite undisguised; and they were al\va3-s eag-er for individual conversions. 
 Their open assertion of the superiority of their faith was viewed as natural 
 by the Hindoos; nor does any angry feeling- appear to have been excited, save 
 in exceptional cases of actual persecution. Aurungzebe certainly' alienated a 
 larg-e portion of his subjects by reviving a long--abandoned capitation-tax on 
 infidels; and Avhether he did this from a desire to refill the treasury emptied 
 by incessant warfare, or from sheer big-otry, the result was the same. Many 
 causes (among- which may be named, not as the avowed ones, but certainly 
 not as the least powerful — sloth and sensualit}^, fostered bj' an enervating- 
 climate) have concurred in rendering- the Indian followers of Mohammed 
 comparatively reg-ardless of that integ-ral portion of their creed which 
 enjoins its extension by all and every means. But no earnest believer in 
 the Koran can be tolerant of idolatry ; and therefore, when we hear of 
 Moslem and Hindoo linked tog-ether in a most unprovoked crusade ag-ainst 
 Christians, it is manifest that the pretext is altog-ether false, and that the 
 Mussulman, who is taught by the book he deems inspired never to name our 
 Blessed Lord without reverence, or idols without abhorrence, cannot now be 
 actuated by any relig-ious motive, however perverted or fanatical, in violating- 
 the first principles of his faith and by affected sympath}' with the professors 
 of a creed heretofore declared utterly polluted and debasing-, using- them 
 as dupes and tools in carrying- out an incendiary plot, the planned details 
 of which only Devil-worshippers, possessed by unclean spirits, could have 
 been supposed capable of conceiving- and executing-. The conspirac}', beyond 
 a doubt, has originated in the desire of the Mohammedans to recover their 
 lost supremacy in India. Its immediate and secondary causes are involved 
 in temporary obscurity ; but the j)rimum mobile must be sought for in the 
 pages of history. It is true the flame has spread like wildfire : but the 
 important question for those who are capable of grappling- with the com- 
 plicated bearings of this all-eng-rossing- subject, is not — what hand applied 
 the match ? but how came such vast masses of combustibles to be so widely 
 spread, so ready for ignition ? 
 
 To understand this in any satisfactory degree, the inquirer must be 
 
 content to begin at the beginniug-j by carefully weighing- the fragmentary 
 
 I records we possess of the history and character of the Hindoos as a distinct 
 
 people, noting the causes Avhich led to their gradual subjugation by the 
 
 Moslems; next, those which paved the way for the introduction of European
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Powers; iiud, liistly, the establisliinent mid operation of British supreirisicv 
 throuo-liout. ]ii(liii. 
 
 The indiiFereiicn wliieli the British nation and its ruh-rs have so 
 long" evinced to the study of Asiatic histor}', has been most unfortunate. 
 Wrapped in fancied security, we. have been too i<^'norant to be anxious, too 
 indolent to be watchful ; and the kw who have felt it an imperative duty to 
 speak words of warning- by bringung- the experience of the past to bear upon 
 the sig'ns of the present; have found themselves set down as alarmists on this 
 point at least, whatever their g-eneral character for ability and sound judg-- 
 ment. Yet the fact is certain, that almost every leading* authority from the 
 date of our earliest assumption of territorial power, has dwelt forcibly on the 
 necessity for unsleeping* vigilance in the administration of Indian affairs. 
 This conviction has been the invariable result of extensive acquaintance with 
 the natives, and it is abundantly corroborated by the recorded antecedents 
 of both Hindoos and Mohammedans. 
 
 The history of India, whether in earl}^ times or during" the Mohammedan 
 epoch, is — as the brief outline sketched in preceding- pag-es was desig-ned to 
 indicate — no less interesting- as a narrative than important in its bearing; on 
 the leading* events of the present epoch, which, in fact, cannot, without it, be 
 rendered intelligible. The struggles of European Powers for Asiatic ascen- 
 dancy, form leading- features in the annals of each of these states. Portug-al 
 was first in the field, and lono" and fierce was the combat she wao-ed to 
 maintain exclusive possession of the rich monopoly of Oriental conunerce. 
 The Dutch (then known as the Netherlanders) enjoyed a share of the 
 profits in the capacity of carriers between the Portug-uese factories and the 
 northern nations of Europe ; but when, in 1079, the>' formed themselves into a 
 separate g-overnment in defiance of the power of Philip of Spain, that 
 monarch, who then g-overned Avitli an iron sceptre the united king-doms 
 of Spain and Portug-al, forbade the employment of the Dutch as inter- 
 mediaries — a prohibition which led to their trafficking- on their own account, 
 formino- various trading- settlements in the East in the commencement of 
 the seventeenth centur}', and supplanting* their former employers. 
 
 The first attempts of Eug-land were made, at the same period, b\' a 
 company of London merchants, warmly eucourag*ed by the Queen, who 
 signed a charter on their behalf on the last day of the sixteenth century. 
 During* the following- century the English continued to be simply traders, 
 with no cravings for political or territorial ag*g*randisement — absorbed in the 
 business of buying- and selling-, and anxious only for the safety of their fleet, 
 Avhich rapidl}' became more formidable and extensive in proportion to the rich 
 
 u
 
 INTEODUCTIOK 
 
 freig'ht it Avas destined to bear throug'h seas infested with pirates, and fre- 
 quently preoccupied b}' hostile European squadrons. 
 
 The eig'hteenth century opened upon an entirely new phase of Indian 
 annals. The deca}^ of Mog'ul power, which had, as has been stated, com- 
 menced before the death of Aurung'zebe in 1707, was greatly accelerated by 
 that event, and by the Avar of succession which followed, as a natural con- 
 sequence, the death of a Mog-ul emperor. The will of the deceased ruler 
 decreed the division of his dominions among' his sons ; and had they consented 
 to this arrangement, and cordially united in carr^'ing- it out, their allotted 
 portions might possibly have been consolidated into distinct kingdoms. But 
 brotherly love rai'ely flourishes under the shadoAV of a despotic throne ; and 
 the House of Timur formed no exception to this rule, having- evinced a 
 remarkable tendency to fratricide throug-hout the entire period of its Indian 
 career. The younger sons of Aurung-zebe went to war with their elder 
 brother, each on bis own account, and died the death they had provoked, 
 leaving" the survivor, Bahadur Shah, to rule as best he might the scattered 
 territories styled the Empire. Anything- more devoid of org-anisation — of any 
 approach to unity — than the so-called Empire, cannot well be conceived. When 
 Aurung-zebe snatched the sceptre from the hands of his father. Shah Jehan, 
 and condemned him to life-long- captivity, the dominions he usurped were 
 comparatively well g-overned, and might, under the sway of a ruler of such 
 unquestionable ability, such indomitable perseverance, have been consolidated 
 into a comparatively homogeneous mass But the unhallowed ambition at 
 whose shrine he had sacrificed the liberty of his father and the lives of his 
 brothers, still hurried him on, rendering- him reckless of the internal decaN^ 
 which was manifestly at work in the very heart of his king-dom, while 
 he was lavishing- his resources in spreading- desolation and ruhi, lamine and 
 the sword, throug-h every independent king-dom within his reach — extending- 
 his own only in name, throwing- down gfovernments and ancient land-marks 
 yet erecting- none in their stead; becoming- terrible as a destroj-er, when he 
 mioht have been creat as a statesman and a consolidator. 
 
 A right view of the character of Aurung-zebe, and a patient investigation 
 of his career, is absolutely necessary to the obtainment of a clear insig-ht into 
 the state of India at the period when the English East India Company began 
 to exchang-e their position of traders on suiierance for that of territorial lords. 
 The first steps of this strange transformation can hardly be said to have been 
 voluntary. The Eng-lish merchants were still essentially traders. An exami- 
 nation of the East India House records (and no attempt has ever been made 
 to g-arble or hide them away from friend or foe), will prove to the most pre-
 
 INTRODtrCTION. 
 
 judiced observer, tliiit, its a body, tliey persistently opposed tbe acquisition of 
 dominion. Nothing- short of complete iiiditFerence can account for the exces- 
 sive ig-nornnce of Indian politics manifested in their official correspondence. 
 It may, indeed, be urged that English factors in a foreign land, in addition to 
 their characteristic reserve, are naturally much engrossed by the duties and 
 cares of their calling, and, apart from prejudice, may well be excused for a 
 degree of preoccupation which prevents them from making- any very vio-orous 
 effort to penetrate the barriers of language and creed, manners and customs, 
 which sepnrato them from the ])eople with whom they come to traffic. A 
 time arrived, however, when the English could no long-er be blind to the 
 alarming- political and social state of India. Evei-y 3'ear, much more every 
 decade, the disorganisation increased. Certain native Hindoo states, such as 
 Mysoor, Travancore, the little mountainous principality of Coorg-, and a few 
 others, had been exempted, by their position or their insignificance, from 
 Moslem usurpation. With these exceptions^ strife and anarchy spread over 
 the length and breadth of India. It was no oro-anised struiiji-le of race or 
 creed ; for Mussuhnan fought against Mussulman, Hindoo against Hindoo, 
 and each ngainst the other ; Affghan warred with Mogul, Mogul with 
 Ilajpoot; Mahratta M'ith all. The hand of every man was raised ag-ainst his 
 neighbour: the peasant went armed to the plough — the shepherd stood ready 
 to defend his flock with his life; the energy and determination of local 
 authorities kept up some degree of order in their immediate districts; but, 
 in general, the absence of a government strong- enough to protect its 
 innocent subjects from internal vice or external aggression, was manifested 
 in the fearful audacity Avith which the Pindarr}-, Dacoity, and Thug, the 
 trained marauder, thief, and assassin, pursued their murderous avocations, 
 in the blaze of noon as in the darkness of midnight. 
 
 The Hindoos fell back upon the ancient village system, which the 
 usurping Mohammedans had vainly striven to destroy ; and the internal 
 organisation of the, '■ little municipalities, each possessing its own Potail 
 or Mayor, enabled them to parrv', or at least rally from, attacks from 
 without. 
 
 The English laboured for the effectual fortification of the various factories 
 gradually established in different parts of India, and included, according to 
 their situation, in the three presidencies of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay. 
 Armed neutrality, however, would have been barely practicable, even so far 
 as the numerous warring native powers were concerned. The conduct of 
 their European rivals rendered such a position quite untenable. The French 
 East India Compan}- had, so far as trade was concerned, proved a decided
 
 INTEODTJCTIOX. 
 
 failure : its employes were very inferior to the Eug'lish as factors ; but as 
 political ag'ents, they jjossessed diplomatic instincts peculiar to themselves. 
 
 Dumas, Dupleix, and the g-ifted La Bourdonnais, saw clearly the oppor- 
 tunity afforded for the territorial establishment of their nation, and they 
 eagerly took part in the quarrels around them, making- offensive and defensive 
 alliances with the neighbouring" states, interfering* in cases of disputed 
 succession, and taking-, with bold and unfaltering* steps, the apparent road to 
 political power. None of the English functionaries approached their rivals 
 in ability 5 but they could not be blind to the increasing" dang'er of their 
 situation ; and the example set by the French, of drilling- iiati^'e troops and 
 org-anising- them as far as possible in accordance with European notions, was 
 followed throuo'hout the British settlements. Then came the inevitable 
 struo-gle between the two powers whose unsleeping- rivalry had so often 
 evidenced itself in strife and bloodshed at the vei'y ends of the earth. At 
 first they met in indirect hostility as the auxiliaries of native princes j but the 
 first indications of European war were eag'erl}- seized on as a cause for direct 
 opposition, and a fierce strug-gle ensued, which eventually left the English 
 complete masters of the field. While the Carnatic, in Avhich Madras is 
 situated, was the scene of this contest, the English in Beng-al were sub- 
 jected to the most oppressive exactions by the usurping- Mohammedan 
 g-overnor, Surajah Dowlah, whose seizure and pillag-e of Calcutta in June, 
 1766, was marked by the horrible massacre of the " Black Hole" — a deed 
 which, up to that period, even Mohammedan annals can hardly equal in 
 atrocity; but to which, after the lapse of a hundred years, man}" terrible 
 parallels have been furnished. 
 
 The tiding's spread like wildfire through the British settlements, and the 
 conviction became deep and g-eneral, that it would be madness to trust to the 
 faith or humanity of such men as the depraved Surajah Dowlah and his 
 Moslem compeers. The Mog-ul Empire had become an empty name so far 
 as the distant provinces were concerned, and there war. absolutely no native 
 state either strong" enoug'h to protect the Eng-lish settlements, or just enoug-h 
 to be trusted. Never was the indomitable resolve of Britons in a foreio-n 
 land more sternly tested, or more triumphantly evinced, than when their 
 fortunes seemed at the lowest ebb — when the French and the Mohammedans, 
 in different quarters, menaced then- overthrow and extinction. "To drive 
 these dogs into the sea 1" was then, as now, the fervent aspiration of every 
 Mosleui regarding" every European. But they wished to squeeze the 
 orange before they threw awaj^ the rind. Tiiey were themselves divided, and 
 had plana of individual aggrandizement to can"}" out ag-ainst each other, and
 
 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 g^enerally over the Hindoos ; and tliey well knew tlie value of European 
 co-opf'ration nnd instruction in the art of" war. 
 
 Tlie recapture of Calcutta was speedily efFected by a force of 900 
 Euroi)eaii troops and 1,500 Sepoys, commanded by a ci-devant writer, who 
 had turned soldier, and risen to distinction in the Carnatic war. 
 
 Robert Clive — for it was he — looked round and saw tlie opportunity ofTered 
 for exchangino- the precarious footing- then occupied by his countrymen for 
 one of far g-reater importance and security. The Hindoos were daily becon)ino' 
 more impatient of the Mohammedan yoke, and the haug-lity Mussulmans 
 were themselves divided reg-arding- their ruler, whose reckless proflig-acy and 
 violent temper had g-iven man}^ of them provocation of a description which 
 excites, in an Oriental, feelino-s of the fiercest and most endurinof reveno-e. 
 The English watched the course of affairs with deep anxiety, and soon 
 ascertained that, in violation of a treaty entered into after the reconquest of 
 Calcutta, Surajah Dowlah was plotting- with the French for their destruction. 
 Unquestionably, this procedure justified them in adopting- hostile measures 
 against their treacherous foe ; thoug-h it does not even palliate some of the 
 minor details, in which the crooked policy of Clive appears in painful contrast 
 to his braver}^ as a soldier and his skill as a g-eneral. Tiie result was the 
 battle of Plassy (a.d. 17o7), rapidly followed by the permanent establishment 
 of Eritish dominion in Beng-al. 
 
 After this, the tide of success flowed on fast and full. If the reader will 
 patiently peruse the pages of this history, he will see that our power has 
 increased with marvellously little effort on our own part. As, Avhen a stone 
 is flung- into a river, the first small circle expands and multiplies beyond 
 calculation — so, in India, have we g-one on extending- our 1-imits, as from the 
 action of some inevitable necessity; less from our own will, than because we 
 could not stand still without hazarding- the position already g-ained. True, 
 there have been most distressing- instances of injustice and ag-g-ression ; but 
 these are the few and comparatively unimportant exceptions. So far as the 
 g-eneral obtainment of political ascendancy in India is concerned, we may 
 quote the apt comparison used by an old Eajpoot prince to Colonel Tod, in 
 1804, as conveying a perfectly correct idea of our process of appropriation. 
 Alluding to a sort of melon which bursts asunder when fully matured, Zaliin 
 Sing- said, "You stepped in at a lucky time; the p'foot was ripe, and you had 
 only to take it bit by bit."* 
 
 The manner in which we have acquired power in India, is one thing; the 
 use we have made of it, is another and more complicated question. For ray 
 
 * Annah of EajasChan, Yol. I., p. 766.
 
 10 
 
 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 own part, I have long* watched the Anglo-Indian g-overnment with feelings 
 of deep anxiety, and have laboured to the utmost of my ability to awaken the 
 British nation to a sense of the responsible and critical situation they had 
 been led to occupy. It is now close upon twenty years since I was permitted, 
 by the East India Company, to edit the official records of a survey made by 
 Dr. Buchanan in Eastern India ; and the impression on my mind was so 
 forcible, that I could not refrain from prefacing- the selections with a declara- 
 tion that the handwriting was on the wall, and nothing- but a complete and 
 radical alteration of our system of government, could avert the punishment 
 justly merited b}^ our misuse of the great charge committed to us. 
 
 The ijrimar}^ reason of this misuse I believe to be the false and wicked 
 assertion, that " we won India by the sword, and must keep it by the 
 sword." There is another aphorism, much older and of much higher authority, 
 which Ave should do Avell to think on — " They that take the sword shall perish 
 by the sword." AVe did not conquer India by violence : we came as peaceful 
 traders, and spent long- years in that capacity ; and during* that time we 
 succeeded in impressing- on the minds of the natives a lively conviction of 
 our energj", ability, and integrit}'. When the crisis came — as come it did, 
 without our knowledo-e and o-reatly to our discomfiture — countiuo--houses were 
 turned into barracks, bales of piece-goods helped to make bai-ricades, clerks 
 and writers were metamorphosed into military leaders, and, while themselves 
 but learners, drilled the natives round them into a state of discipline before 
 unknown. 
 
 Thus was formed the nucleus of that army on which we have leaned as 
 if that, and that alone, had been the means of our obtaining- dominion in 
 India. For the perfect org-anisatiou of that mighty force, Avhich lately 
 numbered 300,000 men, we laboured with unwearied patience ; and to this 
 g-rand object we sacrificed every other. So long- as the Sepo3'S were duly 
 cared for, the condition of the mass of the people was a matter of com- 
 parative indifference. It was not the Great Ruler of the Universe, whose 
 inscrutable decrees had placed this vast tract of heathendom in the hands 
 of a people who professed to serve Him and Him only ; rejecting- every 
 tradition of men 5 rel3'ing- only on the mediation of His Sou ; resting for 
 guidance only on His written word ; asking only the interpretation of His 
 Holy Spirit ; — not so ! The Anglo-Indian dominion had nothing whatever to 
 do with any such religious speculations. We were not bound to set before the 
 people the example of the faith which we aflb(;t to believe the very leaven of 
 the earth. Until the last few years we did not view it even as a case of 
 stewardship. We were not even called upon to exert our energy for developing
 
 INTEODUCTIOIf. 11 
 
 the pliysical resources of (Iio country, and lunelioratiiio^ the coiulition of the 
 mass of tlu! people. jVud wliy? Because free Britons, in the niidilh! of tlie 
 nineteenth century, have seen fit to assume the position of military despots, 
 drownin;^- the conviction that India was a God-given trust, in the viigMie 
 notion of its being- "an empire of opinion;" and then sinking', by an easy 
 transition, from rationalism into the more jjopular notion of sheer force — "an 
 empire of the sword," held I)y the migdit of our own strong- arm. 
 
 Scepticism and cowardice lie at the root of our present disasters: delibe- 
 rately have we chosen the fear of man, which blinds and enervates, rather 
 than the fear of God, Avhich enlightens and streng-thens. With infatuated 
 credulity we have nursed in our bosom the serpent that has stung- us to 
 the quick. Tolerance is, indeed, an essentially Christian quality; but who 
 shall dare assume that praise for the Christianity which was nmde in tlifr 
 persons of high Protestant (1) officials, to bow its head before the licentious 
 ])roflig-ac3^ of the Mussulmans, and the heathen abominations and disg-usting" 
 im])urities of the modern Brahminical priesthood, and to witness, in silence, 
 the spiritual enslavement and pliysical deg-radation of the mass? 
 
 We thoug-ht, perhaps, both Mussulmans and Brahmins too enervated by 
 their respective org-ies to be dangerous as enemies. This but proves our 
 utter ig-norance of the Oriental character, especially as developed in the ' 
 Mohammedans. Let the reader glance over the history of their founder 
 (and I have striven to sketch it in a subsequent pag-e, in faithfulness, and not 
 Avith the pen of a caricaturist), he will see in the False Prophet the type of 
 sensuality, big-otry, ambition, g-rounded and rooted in the fiercest fanaticism; 
 and that type has been perpetually reproduced, and will continue to be so 
 until Mohanmiedanism shall be swept from the foee of the earth. 
 
 How soon that may be, none can prophes}' ; but the g-eneral rising- now 
 taking- place among- the Mussulmans in Africa and Syria, as well as in India, 
 are pointed at by many observers as preceding- nnd indicating the death-throes 
 of this once powerful, but already deeplv sunken race. 
 
 For us, if we would hope to conquer, it must be by turning- to the Lord 
 of Hosts, as a nation, in deep repentance and humility: then only may we 
 Justly look for present help, and anticipate for the future that gift in which 
 we have been so 'nmentably deficient — " a rig-ht judg-ment in all things." 
 Thus favoured, we shall not shrink from the responsibilities of an evang-elized 
 nation ; but shall understand, that there is no surer way of obtaining- 
 respect in the eyes of the quick-witted Hindoos, than by a consistent 
 adherence to our religious professions. The means commend themselves to 
 every unprejudiced person really versed in Indian affairs; and, assuredly, none
 
 12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 other will be blessed of God. AVe cannot hope to pass off indifference for 
 tolerance : the Mohammedans see through the flimsy disg-uise, and bid the 
 heathen throw off the ig-nominious yoke of Kafirs (infidels.) Christianity 
 the}' reverence, and dread to see lis manifest any tokens of it. "Well they may; 
 for nothing- else will cover our head in the day of battle. That day has come. 
 May we now have g-race to control the fearful passions provoked by the most 
 horrible outrag'es ; and may the memory of our own shortcomings towards 
 Godj enable us, if He gives the victory, to use it mercifull3\ Let us not 
 forg-et, that the innocent blood spilt in the last few weeks, cannot blot out the 
 memory of the debt which England owes to India.* The Parliament of 
 Britain now must dictate the course to be followed in a matter of vital 
 importance to the nation whose opinions it represents. The portion of the 
 British public impressed with sound and practical relig-ious views, is, happily, 
 hirg-er and more influential than would appear to superficial observers. The 
 fact is indicated in the increase of missionary enterprise, the extension of 
 education, and, indirectlj',. in the prog-ress of public improvements, and the 
 initiation of reformatory measures. The faulty judicial system, the partial 
 and vexatious land-tenurcj the defective monetary circulation of India, have 
 come under discussion ; and if, as God in mex'cy g-rant, Britain is permitted 
 to retain the brightest jewel in her crown — the most valuable of hei 
 transmarine possessions — it is ferventl}^ to be desired that we may apply 
 ourselves dilig-ently to remed}'- all deficiencies, to repair, as far as possible, 
 past neglects, and provide ag-ainst future emerg-encies. 
 
 The details of the present terrible episode will be g'iven fully in subsequent 
 pag-es ; day by day that close seems approaching, with the record of which 
 the Author hopes to be enabled to terminate this Work. 
 
 * The pecuniary debt is wlioUy on the side of England. The cost, alilie of civil and military government, including 
 the payment of the royal troops, has been entirely defrayed from the Indian revenues : so, if we succeed, must be the 
 expenses of the present insurrection. The money remittances to England from the three Presidencies average five 
 milhon sterling for the last sixty years. There is scarcely a country in the United Kingdom but lias had the value of 
 its landed property enhanced by the investments of fortunes, the fruit of civil or military services or of commercial 
 success in Hindoostan. Again, how many British statesmen and commanders have had their genius elicited and 
 educated in India. A noble field has been annually opened for the youth of Britain, and an expansive tone given to 
 society by t!ie constant discussion of great subjects. 
 
 The merchant and the manufacturer can best estimate the importance of a large, increasing, and lucrative marltet, 
 free from high or hostile tariffs ; and the advantage of an almost unlimited command of commodities, the regular obtain- 
 ment of whicli is essential to the steady employment of their operations. Nor must it be forgotten, that Indian 
 Imports and Exports, to the amount of tliirty million sterling, now furnisli profitable employment to the best class of 
 mercantile shipping.
 
 : S ^ if Si's 
 
 m 
 
 i&nrts of l^e potrng. 
 
 The first mutiny fat Berhampore\.. 
 Mutiny and massacre at Meerut,.... 
 
 Kevolt and massacre at Delhi, 
 
 Tlie Mogul empire pruclaimed, 
 
 Mutiny and massacre at Lucknow,. 
 
 Cawnpore invested by Nana Sahib,. 
 
 >' Surrender of the garrison 
 
 -Feb. 25 
 -May 10 
 . " 11 
 . " 12 
 . '• 31 
 .June 6 
 .. " 26 
 . " 27 
 ■July 16 
 ., " 17 
 
 » The second " 
 
 If Relieved by Gen.llavclocl 
 
 g SS 2 
 
 
 ) CO <^ 
 
 J = 
 
 -> *!
 
 ..-v-Vl 
 
 )^^^^,ry;v 
 
 (Ebtnis of the Ruling. 
 
 
 IJclh! invOHted Ijv Oen. Barnard,... 
 
 ..June 
 
 H 
 
 " The HrHt aKHauU, 
 
 ..Sopt 
 
 14 
 
 " The city taken, 
 
 .. " 
 
 20 
 
 Caiitiiri! of till; KIni! .if Delhi 
 
 .. " 
 
 21 
 
 Death (if hlH HotiH and KratidHOn 
 
 "Lucknow InveBted hy Nana Hahlb.. 
 
 .. " 
 
 21 
 
 ..Auk 
 
 4 
 
 .. rolieveabyGeu. llavolo<:k,..8ept 
 
 2S
 
 T II E 
 
 INDIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARLY HISTORY, JIVTTIOI.OGICAL AND TRADITIONAL— PERSIAN AND OTHER INVA- 
 SIONS— GHKKIC EXPEDITION AND CONQUESTS OE AM'.XANDER- PI.UNDICKING 
 INCURSIONS OE iMAHMOOn THE GHUZNIVEDE — MOHAMMEDAN CONCiUESTS, 
 DOMINION, AND DOWNFALL— RISE AND PROGRESS OF liRITISH POWER AND 
 SUPREMACY. 
 
 Ancient History, to the time of Alex- 
 ander. — India or Iliiuloostiiu, with its noble 
 rivers, diversified climate, jiroductive soil, 
 and extensive coast-line, oli'cred advantages 
 for colonization, which were availed of at a 
 very early period in the history of the 
 hnman race. Of its iirst inliabitants we know 
 little, beyond their being, as it is generally 
 believed, still represented by various bar- 
 barous tribes who yet inhabit the mountains 
 and forests, and follow rude religious prac- 
 tices that are no part of the primitive Hin- 
 doo system. By whom or at what time 
 these \icre subdued or expelled there is no 
 ground to rest anything more than a sur- 
 mise; and of the many that have been, or 
 might be, hazarded on this difficult but in- 
 teresting subject, perhaps not the least I'ea- 
 sonable is the supposition based on the varied 
 craniological development, and distinct lan- 
 guages of the existing Hindoo race — that 
 thcj' were originally composed of numerous 
 migrating hordes who, at intervals, poured 
 iu from the wild Mongolian steppes and 
 Turkoraanian ranges, from the forests of 
 Scythia, the arid shores of the Caspian, and 
 the sunburnt plains of Mesopotamia ; from 
 the plateaux of Persia, the deserts of Arabia, 
 and even from the fertile valley of the Nile, 
 allured by the extraordinary fertility of this 
 most favoured portion of the Asiatic con- 
 tinent, or driven from their native land by 
 tyranny or want. Time and eircumstances 
 gradually fused the heterogeneous mass into 
 something like homogeneity; the first step to 
 which was probalil}' made by the introduc- 
 tion, in a rude form, of that village system 
 which so nu^rkedly characterises India when 
 viewed as a whole, and which, under the 
 scourge of sanguinary wars, and the heavy 
 o 
 
 exactions of native or foreign rulers, lias 
 ever been the mainstay of the people. The 
 invaders, if such they were, probably brought 
 with them the elements of civilisation; and 
 the peaceful pursuits of pastoral and agri- 
 cidtural life would necessitate a certain 
 amount of concentration, as no single man 
 or family could dwell alone in a country 
 whose dense jungle required combined la- 
 bour, both to clear it for use and guard it 
 from wild beasts. All this, however, relates 
 to a period concerning which we possess no 
 liistorical record whatever — in which must 
 have originated what may be termed Brah- 
 ininical Hiudooism, whose rise and early 
 progress is shrouded in dense obscurity. 
 From the internal evidence afforded by the 
 system itself, so far as we arc acqiuiinted 
 with it during its early purity, it would seem 
 to have been framed by a snudl confederacy 
 of persons, whose knowledge, both religions 
 and secular, Ijcing far in advance of their 
 age, had enabled them to draw up rules for 
 the guidance of their countrymen, both as 
 regarded their duty to God and their fel- 
 lows. Fully aware, as it would appear, of 
 the great fact, that human institutions have 
 strength and permanence only when based 
 on a religious principle, they set forth their 
 own scheme as the direct ordination of the 
 "Self-Existent One," the "Great First 
 Cause," whose attributes they described in a 
 tone of solemn grandeur not uubefittiug their 
 high theme ; and to enforce their precepts 
 and heighten their influence, made much use 
 of the rude lyrics extant among the people, 
 to which they added others. These were com- 
 piled under the name of the Yedas (a word 
 derived from a Sanscrit root, signifying to 
 know), by one ^'yasa, who lived iu the four-
 
 14 
 
 CODE OF MENU— NINTH CENTURY, B.C. 
 
 teenth century before the Christian era. 
 In describing the religious creed of the 
 Hindoos, and commenting on the opinions 
 entertained respecting the comparative an- 
 tiquity of Brahminism and Boodhism, the 
 most ancient sacred writings of each of 
 these great sects will be noticed ; but here 
 it is only necessary to remark, that the 
 Vedas bear incontestable evidence of having 
 been written at difierent periods, some being 
 in very rugged Sanscrit, others, though an- 
 tiquated, coming within the pale of that 
 language in the polished form in which Sir 
 William Jones found it, when he declared it 
 to be " of a wonderful structure, more per- 
 fect than the Greek, more copious than the 
 Latin, and more exquisitely refined than 
 either."* One only of the Vedas, the Soma 
 Veda, has yet been translated into English. 
 The translator. Dr. Stephenson, of Bombay, 
 leans to the opinion of its having been com- 
 posed out of India, but brought there by the 
 Brahmins from some northern country at 
 a very remote period. Another authority, 
 after a careful examination of the same book, 
 has arrived at a directly opposite conclusion. f 
 Be this as it may, there are expressions in 
 the Vedas which prove that the majority of 
 the detached pieces of difl'erent kinds of 
 poetic composition which they comprise, 
 were written in a country where maritime 
 commerce was highly esteemed, where a sa- 
 crificial ritual had already been fixed, and 
 mythological legends abounded. The fre- 
 quent reference to war and to chariots in- 
 dicate, moreovei', the previous establishment 
 of sepai'ate states, and the cultivation of 
 military art. 
 
 The first comprehensive view of the state 
 of society among the Hindoos is aflbrded by 
 the code of laws which bears the name of 
 Menu, and is supposed, but not on very 
 convincing data, to have been compiled in 
 or about the ninth century, b.c.J Whe- 
 ther Menu himself were a real person- 
 age or no is an open question, and one of 
 little importance, since his appearance is 
 merely dramatic, like that of the speakers 
 
 • Astatic liasearches, vol. i., p. 422. 
 
 T Arthur's Miasio7i to the Mysore, p. 441. 
 
 X Sir W. Jones supposed the Code to have been 
 compiled about 300 years after the Vedas {As. It., 
 vol. vii., p. 283) ; but Klphinstone fixes the date at 
 some time about half-way between Alexander, in the 
 fourth century, li.c, and the Vedas in the four- 
 teenth. (Vol. i., p. 430.) 
 
 § Cast, the common woi-d, is not Indian, but Vm'^- 
 lish ; and is given in Jolinson's Dictionary as derived 
 from the Spanish or Portuguese, casta, a breed. In 
 
 in the dialogues of Plato or of Cicero. No 
 hint is given as to the real compiler, nor is 
 there any clue to the ancient commentator 
 Calluca, whose endeavours to gloss over and 
 explain away some doctrines of Menu, seems 
 to indicate that opinion had already begun 
 to change, even in his day ; while many suc- 
 ceeding commentators, and some of very 
 ancient date, speak of the rules of Menu as 
 applicable to the good ages only, and not 
 extending to their time. 
 
 The chief feature in the code is its di- 
 vision of the people into four classes or 
 casts ;§ namely, the Brahmins or sacer- 
 dotal ; the Cshatriya or military ; the Vai- 
 syas or industrial ; and the Soodras|| or ser- 
 vile. The three first classes were termed the 
 " twice-born," their youths being admitted, 
 at certain ages, by a solemn ceremony, to 
 participate in the religious and social privi- 
 leges of their elders ; but the fourth and low- 
 est cast was rigidly excluded from all these. 
 The degradation of the Soodras has given 
 rise to the idea of their being the people 
 whom the superior classes had conquered ; 
 and similar inferences may be drawn from 
 the fact that, while the " twice-born" were all 
 strictly forbidden, under any circumstances, 
 to leave, what, for want of a better term, 
 may be styled Hindoostan Proper ; the 
 Soodra, distressed for the means of sub- 
 sistence, might go where he would. It ap- 
 pears, however, from the code, that there 
 were still cities governed by Soodra kings, 
 in which Brahmins were advised not to re- 
 side. From this it seems probable that the 
 independent Soodra towns were situated in 
 such of the small territories into which 
 Hindoostan was divided as yet retained their 
 freedom, while the whole of the tracts south 
 of the Vindya mountains remained un- 
 touched by the invaders, and unpenetrated 
 by their religion. Ou the other hand, it is 
 remarkable that neither the code of Menu, 
 nor the more ancient Vedas, so far as we 
 ara at present acquainted with their con- 
 tents, ever allude to any prior residence, or 
 to a knowledge of more than the name of 
 
 Sir W. Jones' Translation of Menu, the word em- 
 ployed is " class :" the Brahmins constantly use the 
 Sanscrit term as signifying a species. 
 
 \\ Tliere are few things more perplexing in the 
 study of Indian history than the various modes of 
 s])elling proper names and other words, which have 
 resulted from the difficulty of re|iresenting them in 
 the characters of our alphabet. In tlie present work, 
 tiie author has deemed it advisable to adopt that 
 best known and most easily read, in preference to 
 what might have been more eriticallv correct.
 
 HINDOO CHRONOLOGY. SOLAR AND LUNAR DYNASTIES. 
 
 15 
 
 any country out of India. Even mytho- 
 logy goes no farther than tlic Himalaya 
 mountains for the location of tlio gods. 
 Witli regard to the condition of the Sooth'as, 
 it appears to have hccn in many points 
 similar, hut in some decidedly prefcrahle, 
 to that of the helot, the slave, or the serf of 
 the Greek, the Roman, and the feudal sys- 
 tems, excepting only its stern prohibition of 
 any share in the ordinances of religion. But 
 this might have originated in the probable 
 circumstance of the conquered people having 
 a distinct creed of their own, to prevent the 
 spreading of which among their discii)les, 
 the Brahmins* (in whom, Elphinstone has 
 well said, the common interests of their class, 
 mingled, probably, with much pure zeal for 
 their niouotheistic faith, was deeply rooted) 
 united religion and rank so closely in their 
 able scheme, that to break through, or even 
 in minor observances to deviate from the 
 strict rules of duty laid down for the guidance 
 of the several regenerate classes, was to forfeit 
 position, and literally to incur the penalty of 
 a civil death, far passing excommunication 
 in severity, and to place themselves under a 
 ban which wearisome penance could alone 
 remove. One passion — and it would seem 
 only one — was strong enough to break down 
 the barriers of cast. A mixed race sprang up, 
 who were gradually formed into classes, and 
 divided and subdivided, until the result is 
 now seen in an almost countless number of 
 small communities. In subsequent sections, 
 in describing manners, customs, laws, and 
 government, it will be necessaiy to show 
 what these were in the days of Menu, atul 
 the changes which graduallj' took place up 
 to the period of English dominion ; but at 
 present wo are more immediately concerned 
 with that difficult sidijeet, the chronological 
 succession of events in Hindoo history. 
 
 Oriental research has, as yet, revealed to 
 us but one Hindoo work that can be strictly 
 considered historical, the Annals of Caxh- 
 mere, ably ti'anslated by Professor Wilson, 
 which refers chiefly to a limited territory on 
 the extreme northern frontier of India, and 
 contains little more than incidental men- 
 tion of Hindoostau and the Dcccau. There 
 is, besides, an evident and not unnatural 
 desire on the part of the native writer to 
 aggrandize the rulers of Cashmere at the 
 
 • Elphinstone suggests a doubt " whether the 
 conquerors were a foreign peop'.e or a local tribe, 
 like the Dorians in Greece; or whether, indeed, they 
 were not merely a portion of one of the native states 
 (a religious sect, for instance,) which had outstripped 
 
 expense of the neighbouring princes, which 
 gives an impression of onc-sidcdncss to a 
 production possessed, notwithstanding, of 
 much value aiul interest. The student is, 
 therefore, compelled to fall back upon the 
 wide field, as yc't but very partially explored, 
 presented in tlie sacred books, the legislative 
 records, and the two great epic poems. The 
 knowledge obtainable from these sources is, 
 in too many cases, rendered comparatively 
 useless, l)y the misleading chronology taught 
 by the Brahmins, apparently as a means of 
 sustaining the claim of their nation to a fa- 
 bulous antiquity. The periods employed in 
 the computation of time arc equally strange 
 and imsatisfactory, and arc rendered pe- 
 culiarly puzzling by the astronomical data 
 on which they arc partially founded. A 
 complete revolution of the nodes and ap- 
 sides, which they suppose to be performed 
 in 4,.320,000,006 years, forms a calpa, or 
 day of Brahma. In this are included four- 
 teen manwantaras, or periods, each contain- 
 ing seventy-one maha yugas, or great ages, 
 which again comprise, respectively, four 
 yugas, or ages, of unequal length. These 
 last bear some resemblance to the golden, 
 silver, brazen, and iron ages of the Greeks, 
 and are alone considered by the Brahmins 
 as marking the periods of human history 
 since the creation of the existing world, 
 which they believe to liave occurred about 
 four million years ago. The first, or satya 
 yuga, lasted 1,728,000 years, through the 
 whole of which a king named Satyavrata, 
 otherwise called Vaivaswata, lived and 
 reigned. This monarch is described as 
 having escaped with his family from an uni- 
 versal deluge, which destroyed the rest of 
 the world. From him descended two royal 
 lines, one of which, under the designation 
 of Soorya, the children of the sun, reigned 
 at Ayodhya orOude; the other, Chandra, 
 or the children of the moon, at Pratisht'hana 
 or Vitora, in the tract between the Jumna 
 and Ganges, through the 1,296,000 years of 
 the second, or trcta yuga ; the 8f) 1,000 years 
 of the third, or dwapar yuga ; and the first 
 1,000 years of the present, or eali yuga, at 
 which time both the solar and lunar races 
 became extinct; as also a distinct cotempo- 
 rary race, the descendants of .Tarasandha,who 
 began to reign in Magadha or Behar, at the 
 
 their fellow citizens in knowledge, and appropriated 
 all the advantages of the society to themselves." — 
 Jlhtnrii iif India, vol. i., p. 90. 
 
 t It is evident that in the time of Menu there were 
 no slaves attached to the soil.
 
 IG RESIDENCE OF EARLY HINDOO PRINCES AND BRAHMINS. 
 
 commencement of the call yuj^a. I'he last 
 reigning; prince of the Jarasaudha family was 
 slain by his prime minister, who placed his 
 own son, Pradyota, on the throne. Fifteen 
 of the usurping race enjoyed the sovereignty 
 to the time of Nauda, who, in extreme old 
 age (after a reign, it is said, of 100 years), 
 was murdered by a Brahman, by whom a 
 man of the Maurya race, named Chandra- 
 Gupta, was placed on the vacant throne.* 
 
 The genealogies of the two parallel lines 
 of the sun and moon are derived from the 
 sacred writings called the Puranas.f Sir 
 AYilliam Jones framed his list from the Bha- 
 gavat Parana; Captain Wilford subsequently 
 collated his genealogical table of the great 
 Hindoo dynasties from the Vishnu and 
 other Puranas;J and, if critical research 
 should eventually succeed in enabling us to 
 correct the errors of Indian chronology, 
 much information may be obtained by 
 means of those lists respecting the early 
 rulers. Wanting this clue, the student will 
 find abundant material for theory, but the 
 historian little that he dares make his own ; 
 for the narratives given in the Piiranas 
 abound in discrepancies regarding time and 
 place, and are so blended with myths and 
 allegories, that it is next to impossible, at 
 present, to separate truth from fiction, until 
 the period of the^Maha Bh.arat or Great War.§ 
 
 The scene of the adventures of the first 
 princes, and the residence of the most fa- 
 mous sages, appears to be uniformly placed, 
 both in the Purauas, and the far older in- 
 
 • Accordiiiff to Mill (vol. i., p. 160) ; but Elphin- 
 stone states Chandra Gupta to have been ninth in 
 succession from Nanda. — Vol. i., p. 261. 
 
 t Tiiere are eighteen Puranas, which are considered 
 to have been composed between the eighth and six- 
 teenth centuries, A.D. ; but several of the_ authors 
 ap])ear to have made use of much more ancient MS. 
 histories to interweave among their own. 
 
 X The lines of the Sun and Moon, and the Magadha 
 dynasty, are given at length by Colonel Tod, in the 
 first volume of his vaKuible and voluminous work 
 the Annals of Rajaslhan. They were extracted 
 from the Puranas by a body of pundits, and differ 
 more or less in various parts from those published 
 by Sir W. Jones, Mr. Bentley, and Colonel Wilford. 
 Tod's view of the vexed question of early Hindoo 
 records may be understood from his careful enume- 
 ration of various traditions which all " appear to 
 point to one spot, and to one individual, in the early 
 history of maidund, when the Hindoo and Greek ap- 
 proach a common focus, for there is little doubt that 
 Adnath, Adiswara, Osiris, IJaghes, Bacchus, Menu, 
 >Ien(:s, designate the patriarch of mankind, Noah" 
 (vol. i., p. 22). The solar and lunar lines he con- 
 fciders to have been established 2,2.10 ye.irs, B.C., 
 about a century and a half after the flood, the former 
 bv Ichswaca the .son of Vaivaswawo Menu, the latter 
 
 stitutes of Menu, in a tract called Bramha- 
 verta, because of its sanctity, situated be- 
 tween the rivers Seraswati (Sersooty) and 
 Drishadwati (Caggar), 100 miles to the nortli- 
 west of Delhi ; and about 65 miles long by 20 
 to 40 broad. || Probably the next territory ac- 
 quired lay between that above-mentioned 
 and the Jumna, and iucluded North Behar, 
 this country being mentioned in the second 
 place under the honoured name of Brahmar- 
 shi, while Brahmins born within its boun- 
 daries were pronounced suitable teachers of 
 the several usages of men.^ At Oude, in 
 the centre of Brahmarshi, the Puranas, (in 
 which the preceding early stages are not 
 noticed,) fix the origin of the solar and lunar 
 races, from one or other of which all the 
 royal families of ancient India were de- 
 scended. Some fifty to seventy generations 
 of the solar race, who, in the absence of re- 
 liable information, appear little better than 
 myths, bring down the Purana narrative to 
 Rama, the ruler of a powerful kingdom in 
 Hindoostan, and the hero of the oldest Hindu 
 epic — the Ramayana. The chief incident is 
 the carrying off of Sita, the queen of Rama, 
 by Ravana, the king of the island of Lanka, 
 or Ceylon. Rama leads an army into the 
 Decean, penetrates to Ceylon, and, with the 
 assistance of a strange people allegorized as 
 an army of monkeys, led by Hooniman, their 
 king, gains a complete victory over the ra- 
 visher, and recovers his wife, who vindicates 
 her fidelity by successfully passing the or- 
 deal of fire. According to the system of 
 
 by Boodha, who married Ichswatoo's sister Ella, 
 asserted to be the earth personified — Boodha him- 
 self being " the parent and first emigrant of the 
 Indu [Sanscrit for the moon] race, from Saca Dwipa 
 or Scythia to Hindust'han" (p. 45). In another 
 place Tod describes Boodha as the great progenitor 
 of the Tartars, Chinese, and Hindus, " Boodha 
 (Mercury), the son of Indu (the moon), [a male 
 deity] became the patriarchal and spiritual leader, 
 as Fo in China ; Woden and Teutates of the tribes 
 migrating to Europe. Hence it follows that the 
 religion of Boodha must be coeval with the existence 
 of these nations ; that it was brought into India 
 Proper by them, and guided them until the schism 
 of Crishna and the Sooryas, worshippers of Bal, in 
 time depressed them, when the Boodha religion was 
 modified into the present mild form, the Jain" 
 (p. 58). 
 
 § See Prinsep's Thcful 7'nhles, Professor Wilson's 
 edition of the I'ishnu Purona, Sir W^. Jones and 
 Colonel Wilford's articles in Asiatic Jicscarches, 
 vols. ii. and v., and Dr. 11. Buchanan's Hindoo 
 Oencahirjics. 
 
 \\ Menu, book ii., v. 17, 18: 'Wilson, preface to 
 Vishnu Purann, p.lxvii. 
 
 ^ Menu, book ii., v. 10, 20; Elphinstonc, vol. i., 
 p. 388.
 
 NATIVE PRINCES MENTION KD IN THE RAMAYANA. 
 
 17 
 
 deifying great men after their decease, whieli 
 gradually erept into Brahuiinism, Rama, 
 upon Ills death, was honoured as a f;od, aiul 
 Ids iniafjc worship])pd, his natural form heiu;; 
 declared to have been an i^iearnatiou (the 
 seventh) of Vishnu, one of the three persons, 
 or prinei|)l('s, of the Hindoo 'J'riuity. 
 
 A remarkable passage occurs in the Uaina- 
 yana, in wliieli mention is made of certain 
 forcifin princes,who were invited by Dasaratha 
 (the father of Kama) to be present at the As- 
 wamedha* or solemn sacrifice of a horse about 
 to be ofl'ered up by the aged monarch, to 
 proein'C from the gods the bli^ssing of male 
 posterity. The names mentioned are the 
 " sovereign of Kasi or Benares, the rajahs 
 of Magadha or Behar, of Sindu and Su- 
 rashta (Sinde and Surat), of Unga and 
 Savira (of which one is conjectured to mean 
 Ava, the other some district situated on the 
 Persian frontier), and, in fine, the princes of 
 the south or the Deccan. lleeren, who 
 cites the above passage from the Ram'ayana, 
 adds — " they are represented as the friends, 
 and some of them also as the relations of 
 Dasaratha, by no means however as his 
 vassals. It is therefore evident that the 
 author of the most ancient Hindoo epic 
 poem considered India to be divided into a 
 number of separate and independent princi- 
 palities. "t This opinion, however, is not 
 founded en indisputable grouiuls, for many 
 of his auxiliaries appear to have stood to 
 Dasaratha in the relation of viceroys, or at 
 least inferior chieftains. The antiquity of 
 the poem is unquestioned ; the author, Val- 
 miki, is said to have been cotemporary 
 with the event he has so ably commemo- 
 rated, i but we have no means of fixing the 
 date of either poem or poet except as some- 
 where between that of the Vedas and the 
 Maha Bharat, since king Dasaratha is de- 
 scribed as deeply versed in the precepts of 
 
 • Aswa is thouglit to be the etymon of Asia, 
 niedlia signifies " to ivill." 
 
 t llceren's Historical Jiesearchcs, Oxford Transla- 
 tion; 1833: vol. iii., \).2'.n. 
 
 I "llama preceded Crishna: but as their histo- 
 irians, Valmika and Vyasa, who wrote the events 
 tliey witnessed [this point is, however, questioned], 
 were cotemporaries, it could not liave been by many 
 years."- -(Tod's Annals of Rnjasihaii, vol. i., p. 457. 
 
 § The origin of the I'andon family is involved in 
 fable, invented, evidently, to cover some great dis- 
 grace. According to tradition, Pandoo, whose capi- 
 tal was at Hastinapoora, being childless, his queen, 
 by a charm, enticed the deities from their spheres, 
 and became the mother of Yoodishtra, IJhima, Ar- 
 jooua (the famous archer), Nycula, and Sidcva. On 
 the death of Pandoo, Yoodishtra, with the aid of 
 tl;o priesthood, was declared king, although the illc- 
 
 the Vedas and Vcdangas, while on the 
 other hand an epitome of the Ramayana is 
 given in the Maha ]iharat. After Rama, 
 sixty princes of his race ruled in succession 
 over his dominions, but as no more mention 
 is made of Ayodha ((Jiule) it is possible that 
 the kitigdoni (which was at one time callc'd 
 Coshala) may have merged in another; and 
 that the capital wa.s transferred from Oude 
 to Canouj. The heroic poem, entitled the 
 " Maha Bharat" or Great War, afibrds an 
 account of many historical events, in the 
 details of a contest between the lines of 
 Pandoo§ a]id of Curoo, two branches of 
 the reigning lunar race for the territory of 
 Hastinapoora, supposed to be a ])hice on 
 the Ganges, north-east of Delhi, which still 
 bears the ancient name.|| The rivals are 
 supported by numerous allies, and some 
 from very remote parts. The enumeration 
 of them appears to aftbrd evidence similar 
 to that deducible from the above cited pas- 
 sage of the Ramayana, that there were many 
 distinct states in India among which a con- 
 siderable degree of intercourse and connec- 
 tion was maintained. Not only are princes 
 from the Deccan and the Indus mentioned, 
 as taking part in the struggle, but auxilia- 
 ries are likewise included belonging to na- 
 tions beyond the Indus, especially the 
 Yavans, a name which most orientalists 
 consider to apply exclusively to the Greeks. ^f 
 The Pandoos are eventually conquerors, but 
 are represented as having paid so dearly for 
 their victory, in the loss of their friends and 
 the destruction of their armies, that the 
 chief survivors quitted their country, and 
 are supposed to have perished among the 
 snows of the Himalaya.** The hero of the 
 poem is Crishna, the great ally of the Pan- 
 doos, who was deified after his death as 
 having been an incarnation of Vishnu, or 
 even Vishnu himself. He was born of the 
 
 gitiniacy of himself and his brothers was asserted by 
 Dnryodhanu, the nephew of the deceased sovereign, 
 who, as the representative of the elder branch, re- 
 tained his title as head of the Curoos. For the whole 
 story of the Maha Bharat, and it is a very interesting 
 one, see the Asiatic liiscarc/ics, and the comments 
 of Tod in the early part of his Amtals of Rajasthan. 
 
 II Kljihinstone, vol. i., p. 390. 
 
 5[ Tiie Greeks, or lonians, are descended from 
 Javan, or Yavan, the seventh from Jai)het. — (Tod's 
 liajasthah, vol. i., p. 51. 
 
 •• Tod surmises that they did not perish thus, but 
 migrated into the Peloponnesus, and founded the 
 colony of the Heraclida>, stated by Volney to have 
 been formed there 1078 years, H.e. See the reason 
 for this conjecture, based chiefly on the supposition 
 of the Pandoos i>eing the descendants of the liidian 
 Hercules, pp. ■iS, 51.
 
 18 MAGADHA ICINGS TO CHANDRA GUPTA, OR SANDRACOTTUS, 
 
 royal family of Mattra on the Jumna, but 
 brought up by a herdsman in the neigh- 
 bourhood, who eonccaled him from the tyrant 
 who sought to slay him. This phase of his 
 life is a very favourite one with the Hindoos, 
 and he is worshipped in an infant form by 
 an extensive sect, as also under the figure 
 of a beautiful youth, in commemoration of 
 the time he spent among the " gopis" or 
 milkmaids, dancing, sporting, playing on 
 the pipe, and captivating the hearts alike of 
 rural maidens and princesses. Among the 
 numerous exploits of his more mature age 
 was the recovery of his usurped inheritance, 
 whence, being driven by foreign foes, he 
 removed to Dwarika, in Guzerat, where he 
 founded a principality. He soon however 
 became again involved in civil discord, and, 
 according to Tod, was slain by one of the 
 aboriginal tribes of Bheels. The Maha 
 Bharat describes the sons of Crislina as 
 finally returning to the neighbourhood of 
 the Jumna. The war is supposed to have 
 taken place in the fourteenth century, b.c, 
 about 200 years before the siege of Troy, 
 and the famous and lengthy poem in which 
 it is commemorated is, as before stated, attri- 
 buted to Vyasa, the collector of the Vedas. 
 
 The princes who succeeded the Pandoos, 
 are variously stated at from twenty-nine to 
 sixty- four in number; they appear to have 
 transferred the seat of their government to 
 Delhi ; but little beyond a name is recorded 
 of any of them. The kings of INIagadha 
 or Behar (the line mentioned as cotem- 
 porary with the latter portion of the dy- 
 nasties of the sun and moon), play a more 
 conspicuous part in the Purana records ; 
 they afford a connected chain from the war 
 of the INIaha Bharat to the fifth century after 
 Christ, and present an appearance of proba- 
 bility, besides receiving striking confirma- 
 tions from various quarters. Tlicy arc fre- 
 quently referred to in inscriptions sculptured 
 on stone, or engraved on copper plates, 
 conveying grants of land, or charters of 
 privileges and immunities, which are very 
 numerous, and not only contain the date 
 of the grant, and the name of the prince 
 by whom they were conferred, but in most 
 cases enumerate, also, certain of his pre- 
 decessors. 
 
 The first of the Magadha kings, Jara- 
 sandha, is mentioned in the Maha Bharat 
 as the head of a number of petty princes. 
 The ruling monarch at the conclusion of 
 the war was Sahadcva ; the tliirty-fifth in suc- 
 cession from him was Ajata Satru; and in 
 
 his reign, according to high authority,* 
 Sakya, or Gotama, the founder of the 
 Boodha religion flourished, and died about 
 550, B.C. This date, if reliable, does good 
 service by fixing the era of Satru ; but 
 other eminent writers consider Boodhism 
 of much earlier origin ; and some as coeval 
 with, or even older than Brahminism.f 
 The sixth in succession from Satru was 
 Nanda, who, unlike his long line of regal 
 ancestors of the Cshatriya, or military class, 
 was born of a Soodra mother ; his ninth suc- 
 cessor, who bore his name, was murdered 
 by Chandra Gupta, J a man of low birth 
 who iisurpcd the throne. This Chandra 
 Gupta has been, after much research, identi- 
 fied with Sandracottus, the cotemporary 
 of Alexander the Great, and thus a link had 
 been obtained wherewith to connect India 
 with European history, and also with that 
 of other Asiatic nations. The foregoing 
 particulars have been given on strictly In- 
 dian authority, for although much extrane- 
 ous information may be obtained from early 
 foreign writers it is difficult to ascertain 
 how to separate truth from fiction. § Ac- 
 cording to Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and 
 Cicero, the first Indian conqueror was 
 Bacchus or Dionysus, afterwards deified, 
 who led an army out of Greece, subdued 
 India, taught the inhabitants the use of 
 wine, and built the city of Nysa. The Egyp- 
 tians, who spared no pains to fortify their 
 claim to the highest antiquity and earliest 
 civilization, and never scrupled to appro- 
 priate the great deeds of the heroes of 
 other countries, as having been performed by 
 their own rulers, maintained that Osiris, 
 their conqueror, having first added Ethi- 
 opia to his dominions, marched thence to 
 India through Arabia, taught the use of 
 wine, and built the city of Nysa. Both 
 these stories evidently refer to the same 
 person ; namely, the Indian prince Vaisva- 
 wata Menu; whom Tod, the pains-taking 
 but wildly theoretical Maurice, and other 
 writers affirm to have been no other than 
 the patriarch Noah. Be this as it may, 
 one of the most valuable of ancient writers, 
 Diodorus the Sicilian, declares, on the 
 authority of Indian tradition, that Bacchus 
 (Vaisvawata Menu) belonged to their own 
 nation, was a lawgiver, built many stately 
 * EIpliiiiRtnne, vol. i., pp. 209,201. 
 t See note to page 14. 
 
 i Chanilra Gupta signifies "protected by tlip moon." 
 § .lustin stales that the Scythians conqiiercd a 
 great part of Asia, and penetrated to Egypt l,r>00 
 years before Ninus, first king of Assyria.
 
 INDIAN INVASIONS.— SEMIRAMIS, SESOSTRIS, HERCULES, & CYRUS. 1!) 
 
 cities, instituted divine worship, and erected 
 everywhere courts of justice. 
 
 Tlic alleged invasions of Semiramis,* Sc- 
 sostris,t IlcreuleSjf and Cyrus, are all denied 
 by Arrian, except tliat attributed to Her- 
 cules. Strabo disjiutcs even that, adding; that 
 the Persians liired inerceiiarics from India 
 but never invaded it.§ The whole question 
 respecting the nature of the alleged con- 
 nection c-vistiug between India and Persia, 
 is one which scarcely admits a satisfactory 
 explanation. Before the time of Cyrus the 
 Great (the son of King Carabyses, the con- 
 queror of Babylon and the Shepherd whose 
 coming to perform the pleasure of the om- 
 nipotent God of the Hebrews, was foretold 
 by Isaiah) ||, Persia was no more than an 
 
 • The Assvrian invasion, acoordinp; to the chrono- 
 logy of Capellus, took place about 1970, a.m. It was 
 planned by Semiramis, the widow of Ninus, who, 
 after consolidating her husband's Bactrian conquests, 
 resolved to attempt the subjugation of India, being 
 led tliereto by the reported fruitfulncss of the soil 
 and the riclies of its inliabitants. She spent tliree 
 years in assembling an immense army, drawn from 
 all the provinces of her extensive empire, and caused 
 the sliipwrights of Phoenicia, Syria, and Cyprus, to 
 send to the frontier 2,000 shijjs or large barks, in 
 pieces, so that they might be carried thence to the 
 Indus, and there put in array against the naval force 
 of the Indians. All things being ready, Semiramis 
 niarohed from Bactria (Balk) with an army, which it 
 has been well said, " the Greek historians have, by 
 tlieir relations, rendered less wonderful than incre- 
 dible j" for they describe it as having consisted of 
 3,000,000 foot, 000,000 horse, 100,000 war chariots, 
 and 100,000 camels, a portion of the latter being 
 made to resemble elephants — by means of a frame- 
 work being covered with the skins of oxen ; this 
 device being employed to delude the Indians into 
 the belief of the invaders being superior to them 
 even in this respect. Stabrobates, the king of tlie 
 countries bordering the Indus, on receiving intelli- 
 gence of the intended invasion, assembled his troops, 
 augmented the number of his elephants, caused 
 ■4,000 bo.ats to be built of cane (which is not subject to 
 rot, or to be eaten by worms, evils known to be very 
 prevalent at the pre.sent day), to occupy the Indus ; 
 and headed his army on the eastern bank, in readi- 
 ness to su))port them. The attacking fleet being 
 victorious, Stabrobates abandoned his position, leav- 
 ing the enemy a free passage ; and Semiramis, mak- 
 ing a bridge of boats, crossed over with her whole 
 force. The counterfeit elephants, which play an 
 important part in the narrative, were marched in 
 front, and at first created great alarm ; but the 
 deception being revealed by some deserters from the 
 camp, the Indians recovered tlieir spirits. A fierce 
 contest ensued, in which the Assyrians had at first 
 the advantage, but were eventually totally over- 
 thrown, and Semiramis fled, accompanied by a very 
 slender retinue, and escaped with great difficulty to 
 lier own dominions. Such is the tale related by 
 Diodonis Siculus ; and, however little to be relied on 
 in many respects, it may at least be cited in testi- 
 mony of the reputation for wealth and civilization 
 
 inconsiderable kingdom, uftcrwards compre- 
 hended in a single province, retaining the 
 ancient name of Pars ; but the conquests of 
 the youthful general, on behalf of his uncle 
 and I'atiier-in-law, Cyaxares, King of Media, 
 whom he succeeded, enabled him to unite 
 the thrones of Persia and Media, as well as 
 to sway neighbouring and distant states, to 
 an extent which it is at present not easy to 
 deline, though it was amply sufficient to 
 form what was termed the Persian empire, 
 557, B. c. His eastern frontier certainly 
 touched the verge of India ; but whether it 
 encroached yet farther, is a matter of doubt, 
 and has been so for centuries. Nor is it 
 even an established point wdierc India itself 
 terminated ; for although Elphinstouc and 
 
 enjoyed by India at a very early period. With regard 
 to Semiramis, recent discoveries of ruins and de- 
 ciphering of inscriptions have placed her e.xistence 
 as an historical personage Ijeyond a doubt. 
 
 t The invasion of Sesostris, king of Egypt, A.sr. 
 3023, is alleged to have been as successful as that of 
 Semiramis had proved disastrous. Desu-ing to render 
 his subjects a commercial peo])le, he fitted out a fleet 
 of -100 ships in the Arabian Gulf, or Ked Sea (being 
 the inventor, it is alleged, of ships of war), by means 
 of which all the countries stretching along the Ery- 
 threan or Arabian Sea tolndia were subjugated. Mean- 
 while he led his army through Asia, and being every- 
 where victorious, crossed the Ganges and advanced 
 to the Indian Ocean. He spent nine years in this 
 expedition, but exacted no other tokens of submis- 
 sion from the conquered nations than the sending 
 annually of presents to Egypt. Perhaps this story, 
 recorded by Diodorus Siculus, and quoted by Harris 
 and by Robertson (who discredits it), in his Histo- 
 rical Disquisition coiiccrnint/ Ancient India, ]). 6, 
 may have originated in the eflbrts of Sesostris for the 
 extension of commerce ; but the success of his plans, 
 whether pursued by warlike or [jcaceful means, could 
 have been at best but short-lived, since, after his 
 death the Egyptians relapsed into their preWous 
 anti-maritime habits ; and centuries elapsed before 
 their direct trade with India became of importance. 
 
 t The Greek accounts of Hercules having been in 
 India is tliought to have arisen from the fact of 
 there having been a native prince of that name, who, 
 according to the Hindoo traditions cited by Diodorus 
 Siculus (wlio wrote -14, B.C.), was after his death 
 honoured as a god, having in life excelled all mere 
 men in strength and courage ; cleared both the sea 
 and land of monsters and wild beasts; founded many 
 cities, the most famous of which was Palibotbra, 
 where he built a stately palace strongly fortified, and 
 rendered impregnable by being surrounded by deep 
 trenches, into which he let an adjacent river. Whea 
 liis numerous sons were grown up, he divided India 
 equally among them ; and they reigned long and 
 happily, but never engaged in any foreign expe- 
 ditions, or sent forth colonies into distant countries, 
 being content with the resources of theh own fertile 
 doMiains. 
 
 § Arrian's Indica: Strabo, lib. sv. ; Elphinstone, 
 vol. i., p. 440. 
 ■ « Isaiah ; chap, xliv., v. 28.
 
 20 DARIUS CODOMANUS OF PERSIA PHILIP OF MACEDON— b.c. 337. 
 
 other writers follow Strabo in declaring the 
 Indus, from the mountains to the sea, to 
 have formed its western limit, other autho- 
 rities eonsider the territory of the Hindoos 
 to have stretched far beyond. Colonel Wil- 
 ford adduces a verse in their Sacred Writ- 
 ings, which prohibits the three ujoper, or 
 " twice-born" classes, from crossing the In- 
 dus, but says that they were at liberty to 
 pass to the other side, by going round its 
 source.* Amid so many difficulties and con- 
 tradictory statements, it is only possible to 
 note the points which seem most reasonable 
 and best authenticated. 
 
 Darius, the son of Hystaspes, was raised 
 to the throne of Persia, b.c. 521, by the 
 seven nobles who conspired against Gomates, 
 the Magian, by whom it had been usurped 
 after the death of Cambyses, the son and 
 successor of Cyrus, whose daughter Atossa 
 he afterwards married. Desiring to know 
 the termination of the Indus, and the state 
 of the adjacent countries, with a view to 
 their conquest, Darius built a fleet at Cas- 
 patyrus, in the territory of Pactyica on that 
 river, which he entrusted to a skilful Greek 
 mariner named Scylax, who fulfilled his in- 
 structions by sailing down the whole length 
 of the Indus, thence coasting to the straits of 
 Bab-el-iMandeb, and ascending the Arabian 
 gulf to the port at its northern extremity. 
 The account given by Scylax of the fertility, 
 high cultivation, and dense population of 
 the country through which his route lay, 
 incited Darius at once to attempt its acquisi- 
 tion. By the aid of the Tyriaus, who were 
 intimately acquainted with the navigation, 
 he brought a numerous force on the coast, 
 while he himself headed a laud attack. 
 According to Dr. Robertson, he subjugated 
 " the districts watered by the Indus ;'t while 
 Colonel Chesney speaks of his conquests as 
 limited to the " Indian territory westward 
 of the Indus. J" Both appear to rely exclu- 
 sively on the testimony of Herodotus, who 
 states that " the Indians" consented to pay 
 an annual tribute of 360 Euboean talents of 
 
 • Asiatic liacarches, vol. v!., p. 58.5. 
 
 t Jh. Kobertson's Historical JUisrjuisifinn, p. 12. 
 
 j Colonel Chesney's Siirvei/ of the liicers Tigris 
 and Euphrates. London: 1850; vol. ii., p. 180. 
 
 § Herodotus, lib. iii. and iv. 
 
 II During tlio reign of Artaxerxes, the third son of 
 Xerxes (llie Aliasuerus of the book of Esther), Ctesias, 
 the king's physician, and the author of a voluminous 
 history of the Assyrian, Babylonian, and I'ersian 
 empires, wrote a book on India, founded upon the 
 accounts he obtained from the Persians. His works 
 are not now exUuit^ though various extracts are to be 
 
 gold, or a talent a day — the Persian year 
 being then considered to comprise only 360 
 days. The sum wotild appear to be over- 
 stated ; for a single talent, at the lowest 
 computation, was equal to £3,000 English 
 money ; and even, though India may have 
 then deserved its high reputation as a gold- 
 producing region, this tax would have been 
 very onerous. It is, however, certain, that 
 at this time the force of Persian gold was 
 known and feared by neighbouring states, 
 and had a powerful share in enabling the 
 successors of Darius to keep together the 
 chief part of the widely-scattered dominions, 
 which he displayed great ability in even par- 
 tially consolidating and dividing into satra- 
 pies, or governments ; of these his Indian 
 possessions formed the twentieth and last.§ 
 Xerxes, the son and successor of Darius, 
 had a body of Indian troops in his service ; 
 but he discouraged maritime intercourse, 
 considering traffic by land more desirable ; 
 and indeed he and his successors are said to 
 have adopted the Babylonian policy of pre- 
 venting invasions by sea, by blocking up the 
 navigation of some of the chief rivers, in- 
 stead of guarding the coast with an efficient 
 naval force. 
 
 We find but few traces of India || during 
 the remaining reigns of the Persian mo- 
 narchs, until the time of their Last ruler, 
 Darius Codomanus, who succeeded to the 
 sway of a disorganized territory, consisting 
 of numerous provinces, or rather kingdoms, 
 differing in religion, languages, laws, cus- 
 toms, and interests ; and bound together by 
 no tic of a permanent character. A power- 
 ful enemy was at hand, in the neighbouring 
 kingdom of Macedon, which had sprung into 
 importance almost as rapidly as Persia, and 
 in a similar manner, having been raised by 
 the talents of a single individual. Philip had 
 acceded to the government of an ordinary 
 state, weakened by war and dissension ; but 
 taking full advantage of the comiiianding 
 geographical position ot the country, and 
 the warlike spirit of its hardy sons, he ren- 
 
 found in different autliors. They are all unfavour- 
 ably commented on, especially that on India, by se- 
 veral Greek writers, who pronounce them fabulous. 
 Plutarch, Aristotle, and even Strabo, notwithstand- 
 ing tlieir severe censures, have, however, not scrupled 
 to borrow from the jiages of Ctesias such statements 
 as ai)i)eared to them probable ; and Diodorus, as 
 well as Herodotus and Athenseus, are said to have 
 drawn largely from the same source. Xenophon, 
 w)io was ]ieisonally acquainted with (.'tcsias, speaks 
 of him with great respect, though differing from many 
 of his opinions.
 
 ALEXANDER CROSSES THE HELLESPONT TO IxNVADE ASIA. 21 
 
 dered it the centre of arts and civilization, 
 second only to Persia in power, and supe- 
 rior even to Persia in inflnenee, on account 
 of the state of corruption aiul excessive 
 luxury into which that enipire liad fallen. 
 
 The free (Jrci'iaii repui)!ies, weakened hy 
 strife and division, became for the most part 
 subject to Macedonia, whose ancient consti- 
 tution — a limited monarchy, which it was 
 the interest of the community at large to 
 maintain — proved a source of strength alike 
 in olfensive and defensive warfare. Still 
 TMaeedonia appears to have been in some 
 sort triljutary to Persia; and it was pos- 
 sibly a (lis[)ute on this point which had led 
 Philip to form the hostile intentions he was 
 preparing to carry out, and which Arses, 
 King of Persia, was occupied in endeavour- 
 ing to prevent, when both were suddenly 
 arrested in the midst of their schemes; 
 Pliilip, who had escaped so many dangers 
 in the l):ittle-field, being stabbed in his own 
 jialace during the bridal festivities of his 
 daughter Cleopatra, by Pausanias,* a Mace- 
 donian youth of rank ; and Arses was poi- 
 soned about the same time. 
 
 The tender age of Alexander was for- 
 gotten in the enthusiasm raised by his 
 manly and powerful eloquence, lie assured 
 the assembled Macedonians, previous to the 
 funeral obsequies of his father, that though 
 the name was changed they would find the 
 king remained ; — and he kept his word, 
 elevating none of his personal friends, but 
 continuing the able statesmen and generals 
 in the positions in which he found them. 
 By extraordinary address, this youth (for 
 
 * The motive of Pausanias is variously stated as 
 having been the instigation of the Persian monarch 
 (in which liglit Alexander chose to view it) ; a desire 
 to revenge a personal insult; or otherwise, from un- 
 governable ])t\ssion for Olympias, the mother of Alex- 
 an<ler. — Sir John Malcolm's Ilistiirii of Persia, vol. 
 i., J). 54. Justin attributes the deed to tlie incitomc'nt 
 of the vindictive Olympias, who, immediately after 
 her husband's assassination, caused his youngest 
 wife and child to be pui to a cruel death. 
 
 t Historians agree in describing Darius as amiable 
 and equitable. 'I'he tale related by tlie Persian au- 
 thor, Zeenut-ul-Tuarikh, concerning his message to 
 Alexander, is therefore inconsistent with his cha- 
 racter. According to this writer, Philip had agreed 
 to furnish an annual subsidy of 1,000 eggs of pure 
 gold. The Persian envoy, sent to demand the tri- 
 bute from his successor, received the jeering reply 
 that " the birds that laid the eggs had flown to the 
 other world." Parius thercujion despatched an am- 
 bassador, with a bat and ball, as a fit amusement for 
 the youthful monarcli, and a bag of very small seed, 
 called gunjud, as an emblem of the innumerable 
 Persian army. Alexander taking the bat, said — 
 " This is my power with which I will strike your 
 E 
 
 he was but twenty years old (succeeded in 
 stifling the disturbances which followed the 
 catastrophe at home, and in establishing his 
 aseendaney as elii('f, i)y the free choice of the 
 majority of the Grecian republics, notwith- 
 sttuiding the \inremitting exertions of De- 
 mosthenes and his ])arty. 
 
 Once firmly seated on the throne, having 
 brought the Illyrian war to a rapid and suc- 
 eessfid conclusion and captured Tiiebes, 
 Alexander made ready for a hazardous con- 
 test with his |)owerful compeer Darius, the 
 successor of Arses ; who, previous to his ac- 
 cession to the throne of Persia, had been 
 distinguished for the judicious government 
 of a large tract of country of which he 
 had been satrap (viceroy). Although averse 
 to war,t he had nevertheless distinguished 
 himself in the conduct of military j)ro- 
 cecdings with hostile nations ; and he lost 
 no time in preparing for the threatened 
 invasion. In the spring of the year 331', 
 B.C., Alexander, with very limited resources 
 in his possession, but with the riches of the 
 East in prospect, crossed the Hellespont at 
 the head of a confederated J arniv, variously 
 estimated at 30,()()() to 13,000 iuiautry, and 
 5, 000 cavalry ; and after a severe contest, 
 defeated a Persian army 110,000 strong, 
 who disputed with him the passage of the 
 river Granicus, near Zelia, in Bithynia. 
 
 In eastern warfare the first victory is of 
 incalculable importance — for the satraps and 
 inferior governors are ever ready to transfer 
 their allegiance to the conqueror, consider- 
 ing that he could be such only by the will 
 of God, to which they are bound to submit. 
 
 sovereign's dominion ; and this fowl," pointing to 
 one which had been brought at his command, and 
 rapidly devoured the grain, " shows what a mere 
 morsel his army will prove to mine." Then, giving 
 the ambassador a wild melon, he desired him to tell 
 Darius what he had heard and seen, and to give him 
 that fruit, the taste of which might indicate the 
 bitter lot that awaited him. — Malcolm's Persia, 
 vol. i., ]). 55. 
 
 X Tlie Grecian republics, excepting Lacedcmonia, 
 were favourable to Alexander's proposition of an 
 Asiatic expedition ; and his own hopes of success 
 rested upon the jealousy and dissension which he 
 knew existed among the numerous satraps or vice- 
 roys of Damascus, over whom the supreme authority 
 of " the king of kings," as the Persian monarch was 
 granddoquently styled, sat lightly enough. The zeal 
 of his officers, to whom rewards, almost princely, 
 were held out in the event of success, and the admir- 
 able discipline of his troops, would, he trusted, pre- 
 vail over the opposing force, and probably cause the 
 defection of tlie bands of Greek mercenaries employed 
 against him, as well as gain the suffrages of the Greek 
 settlements in Asia, whose release from Persian rule 
 was one of his avowed objects.
 
 22 
 
 BATTLE OF ISSUS, IN CILTCIA— b.c. 333. 
 
 The consequence of this brilliant opening 
 must have exceeded the ho])cs even of the 
 Maeedonian, who conducted himself with 
 singular moderation — treating the people 
 everywhere as subjects, not enemies ; exact- 
 ing from them no additional tribute to that 
 previously claimed by Darius ; and strictly 
 forbidding pillage or massacre. H;'.ving ob- 
 tained the " sinews of war" in the treasury 
 of the Persian monarchs at Sardis, through 
 the treachery of Mithrenes, the governor, 
 Alexander proceeded on his brilliant career, 
 tnitil he became master of the whole of 
 Lesser Asia. The possession of Cilicia was 
 the next point necessary to his purpose, as 
 it comprised the most practicable route be- 
 tween Greater and Lesser Asia, as well as 
 the communication with Syria by land and 
 with Greece by sea. The pro\'ince was 
 gained without difficulty ; and Alexander 
 (when recovered from a dangerous fever, 
 which for a time cheeked his impetuous 
 career) employed himself in securing his 
 position, while Darius was straining every 
 nerve to form an army, which should deci- 
 sively defeat his adversary and re-establish 
 the tottering fabric of the Persian empire. 
 According to Arrian, he increased his Greek 
 mercenaries to 30,000, to whom were joined 
 about 60,000 Asiatics, called Cardacs, trained 
 like the Greeks for close fight, and the 
 middle and light-armed made up a total 
 (including the followers) of 600,000, of 
 whom perhaps i:;0,000 to 200,000 were 
 fighting men. Darius crossed the Euphrates, 
 and with his immense force covered the 
 plains of Cilicia. 
 
 After a fierce struggle between the Mace- 
 donian phalanx* and the Persian -Greeks, 
 the powerful monarchs met face to face : 
 Darius, in the centre of the line, in a strik- 
 ing costume, and seated on a splendid 
 chariot drawn by four horses abreast, had 
 been from the first a special object of attack : 
 Sabaces, the satrap of Egypt, and many 
 illustrious Persians, perished by his side, 
 
 * The fiimous Macedonian ov quadruple phalanx, 
 as it was sometimes called, to mark its division into 
 four parts, consisted of a hody of 18,000 men, each 
 defended hy helmet, breast-plate, greaves, and th'> 
 large shield called the aspis, and armed with a long 
 sword and with the famous sarlssa, a spear measur- 
 ing four-and-twenty feet. The ordinary depth of 
 the phalanx was sixteen ranks, the best soldiers 
 being placed in the foremost and hindmost ranks, 
 which formed as it were the framework of an engine 
 ■whose efiicicncy depended on its com])nctness and 
 uniformity of movement. — Rev. Connop (now Bishop) 
 ThirlwallsWreeco, vol.vi., p. 147, 
 
 until his wounded horses became so un- 
 governable ainong the heaps of slain, by 
 which they were hemmed in, that the mo- 
 narch was with difficulty resetted from the 
 melee, by the valour of his brother Oxathres, 
 and placed in another chariot, in which he 
 fled, hotly but imsuccessfully pursued by 
 Alexander, who had himself been slightly 
 injured in the thigh. f 
 
 Tlie loss of the Persians is stated by 
 Arrian at 100,000, including 10,000 horse; 
 the most valuable part of the baggage had 
 been conveyed to Damascus, but was soon 
 after captured by Parmenio, Alexander's 
 ablest general, through the treachery of its 
 governor. J Meanwhile the family of Da- 
 rius — his mother, wife,§ and children — fell 
 into the hands of the conqtieror, who showed 
 them much personal kindness ; but when 
 earnestly solicited to release them at the 
 price of any ransom he might name, haugh- 
 tily replied, that he would listen to that 
 request only if asked in person, and on con- 
 dition of being addressed as king of Asia, 
 and lord of all once possessed by Darius. 
 The insulted monarch had no resource but 
 once more to prepare for war, which he had 
 still ample opportunities of doing with a fair 
 prospect of success, for the troops of the 
 eastern satrapies, including some of the most 
 warlike in his dominions, were on their way 
 towards Babylon, and a few months might 
 again see him at the head of a more nu- 
 merous and more powerful host than that 
 defeated at Issus, and Alexander might yet 
 meet the fate of the younger Cyrus. Nearly 
 two years elapsed before the kingly rivals 
 again met. Meanwhile the conqueror 
 pursued his meteor-like cotirse, astonishing 
 the world by his unequalled daring, yet 
 consolidating his successes as he proceeded, 
 by the consummate and thoroughly con- 
 sistent policy with which he used all things 
 as instruments of his great designs ; dili- 
 gently and ably promoting the material wel- 
 fare of stibjccts (made such by the sword), 
 
 t Arrian, lib. ii., cap. xii. 
 
 j A loyal subject, moved with indignation, slew 
 the traitor, and laid his head at the foot of his injured 
 master. 
 
 § Statira, the beautiful and beloved wife of Darius, 
 died soon afterwards in childbirth, and Alexander 
 caused her to be interred with every mark of honour; 
 his conduct towards her throughout, so ditfcrent 
 from the usual licentious cruelty of Asiatic con- I 
 qiu'rors, excited a feeling of lively gratitude in the ' 
 iireast of her ill-fated husband, who never forgot 
 this one redeeming feature in the conduct of his un 
 relenting opponent.
 
 TYRE, JERUSALEM AND EGYPT SUBDUED, b.c. 832-1. 
 
 28 
 
 humouriiif? jncjudicc, flattoriug national 
 vanity, rcwaidiiif^ individual service with 
 unbounded nuiniliccuce, but at tlie same 
 time violatin;; in every action the recog- 
 nised rights of men, and showing himself 
 throughout utterly unscrupulous as to the 
 amount of sufl'criug he iullictud, whether in 
 subduing patriots to his will, or inflicting 
 signal vengeance on those who, from the 
 purest motives, ventured to oppose hiui. 
 The island-city of Tyre, after a seven mouths' 
 siege, was conquered by him, through the 
 unconscious fullilment of a 'scripture pro- 
 phecy, in joining the island to the main, by 
 a causeway 80O yards in length. The Ty- 
 rians defended themselves to the last with 
 unfaltering determination ; and, probably to 
 check all thoughts of capitulation, executed 
 their Macedonian prisoners and east them 
 into the sea in the sight of the besiegers, 
 who, when their hour of triumph arrived, 
 made this cruel act the excuse for the most 
 unmitigated ferocity. With the exception 
 of the king and some of the principal peojile, 
 all were involved iu a fearful doom ; 8,000 
 perished in the first slaughter, 2,000 pri- 
 soners were crucified by order of Alex- 
 ander, and 30,000 (including a number of 
 foreign residents) were sold into slavery.* 
 I Gaza was next subdued : the citizens, to 
 the last man, died in its defence, and their 
 ■women and children were sold as slaves. 
 Alexander then ruarched upon Jerusalem, 
 ■whose high priest Jaddua, had excited his 
 ■wrath by refusing to violate the fidelity due 
 to the Persian monarch in furnishing the 
 invader with a supply of troojis and pro- 
 visions during the siege of Tyre. The 
 Chaldeans and Phoinicians — ancient ene- 
 mies of the Jews — accompanied the con- 
 queror, buoyed up with the hope of sharing 
 in the anticipated plunder, but they were 
 witnesses of a very different result. Wheu 
 the array approached the Holy City, the 
 High Priest, attended by the priests and 
 Levites in their sacerdotal vestments, fol- 
 lowed by a multitude of the inhabitants, 
 decked in ■white feast-day robes, came out 
 to meet Alexander, who, recognising, as he 
 afterwards declared, iu Jaddua, a figure 
 shown to him in a dream at Dios, struck 
 ■with pious awe, ■went up to the temple as a 
 worshipper, and sacrificed according to the 
 
 • Arriun. Curtius, howovei-, states ihat ij.OOO 
 persons were rescued by the Sidonians. 
 
 t Tliey probably showed him Daniel, chaps. 7 & 8. 
 
 X Whiston's Juscphus, book xi., chap. viii. 
 
 § The ajiproacli to the harbour of .\lexandria was 
 
 Jewish ritual. The priests informed him of 
 his position as the fulfillor of the prophecy 
 of Daniel, t than which nothing coulcl be 
 more gratifying, either to the ambitious 
 designs or superstitious tendencies of Alex- 
 ander, who took his departure, after luuking 
 munificent offerings, and bestowing extra- 
 ordinary privileges on the Jewish nation. J 
 
 In January, oIJl, ihc Greeks penetrated 
 into Egypt ; and the people, whose reli- 
 gious prejudices had beeu cruelly insulted 
 by their Persian masters, welcomed the 
 approach of the conciliating conqueror, 
 whose late worship of the God of Israel did 
 not hinder him from sacrificing to their 
 monstrous idols — even to Apis. Sailing 
 down the western or Canobic arm of the 
 Nile, he proceeded to found the greatest of 
 the many noble cities which bore his name, 
 on a sitc§ which he saw would render it an 
 emporium for the commerce of the eastern 
 and western world ; it was colonised w ith a 
 mixed population of Greeks and Romans — 
 the abolition of the alienating prejudices of 
 race being a marked feature in his mighty 
 plan for the establishment of an universal 
 empire. 
 
 After imitating the exploits attributed by 
 Greek legends to his famous predecessors, 
 Hercules and Perseus, In-aving the bare rocks 
 and burning sands of the Libyan desert, and 
 questioning the oracle of the temple of 
 Ammon, erected in its famed Oasis, he re- 
 turned to Memphis, completed the an-ange- 
 ments needful for the peaceable government 
 of Egypt, and proceeded to Tyre, the ap- 
 pointed rendezvous of his fleet and army, to 
 prepare for a final contest wifh Darius. In 
 the autumn of the same year (331) he 
 crossed the Euphrates, advanced at fidl 
 speed towards the Tigris, where he had 
 expected to meet the hostile force, but 
 being disappointed, rested a few days on 
 the left bank, and then, continuing his 
 march, came up with Darius, whom he 
 found encamped in one of the wide plains 
 between the Tigris and the moimtains of 
 Kurdistan, at a village named Gaugamcla 
 (the camel's or di'omedary's house), about 
 twenty miles from the town of Arbcla, 
 which gave its name to the battle. To the 
 last, Darius had endeavoured to make peace 
 with Alexander, oflcring him the hand ot 
 
 dangerous; for this reason the famous beacon tower, 
 reckoned among the seven wonders of the world, was 
 built by the first Ptolemy, on a rock near the eastern 
 point of the island of I'hai'os, and threw a light to a 
 (lisUmcc, it is said, of nearly forty miles.
 
 24 
 
 BxiTTLE OF ARBELA, 351, b.c— DEATH OP DARIUS. 
 
 liis daughter, with a dower of 30,000 talents I 
 in gold, and intimating even willingness to 
 divide the empire ; indeed it was probably 
 the hope of some such compromise being 
 effected that induced him to allow the 
 Greeks to cross the Euphrates and Tigris 
 unmolested. The numbers of the respective 
 armies would seem to liavc warranted him 
 in the expectation of being able to dictate 
 rather than solicit peace ; but his munificent 
 terms were not the less unhesitatingly re- 
 jected by the invader, though Parmenio and 
 the Council urged tlieir acceptance. Accord- 
 ing to Arrian, Alexander's force amounted 
 to no more than 40,000 foot, and 7,000 
 horse; but this is evidently exclusive of the 
 Asiatic levies, which there is reason to be- 
 lieve he had raised. The Persian army has 
 been variously stated by Curtius, Diodorus 
 Siculus, and others, at from 200,000 to 
 W0,000 infantry, and from 40,000 to 200,000 
 horse, besides the Indian contingent of 200 
 war chariots and fifteen elephants, ranged in 
 the centre of the mighty host, near the per- 
 son of the monarch. During the weary night 
 preceding the combat, Darius passed along 
 the line by torch-light, cheering his soldiers, 
 all of whom were, by a mistaken policy, 
 kept continuously under arms, from momen- 
 tary fear of a surprise. The dreaded attempt 
 is said to have been actually suggested bj' 
 Parmenio to his sovereign after the latter 
 had retired to his tent, but rejected on the 
 ground that it would be alike ignoble and 
 impolitic to steal a victory, instead of gain- 
 ing it by a fair trial of strength. In the 
 morning the battle commenced, and was 
 long and stoutly contested; the Indo-Scy- 
 thian troops being, we are expressly told by 
 Arrian, among the flower of the Persian 
 army, and figliting valiantly to the death. 
 The strife became very intricate, hostile 
 bodies intermingled witli each other in fierce 
 combat, and the issue seemed to promise 
 little short of annihilation to both parties, 
 when a circumstance, slight in itself, turned 
 the scale. A dart flung by Alexander, who 
 was on horseback, killed the charioteer of 
 Darius ; and the confusion tluis occasioned 
 gave rise to the general belief that the king 
 himself was slain. A complete [lauic en- 
 sued ; the Persians fied in irremedialjle con- 
 fusion, followed by Alexander — who was, 
 however, obliged to renounce the pursuit 
 and return to rescue Parmenio, who com- 
 manded his loft wing, from the critical 
 position in which he had been placed by the 
 resistless onset of the INIassagctian horse. 
 
 There is no credible statement of the amount 
 of life sacrificed on this eventful day; for 
 that of Arrian, which records the loss of the 
 Persians at 40,000, and the Greeks at 100, 
 can scarcely be entertained. This contest 
 scaled the downfall of one powerful empire, 
 and crowned the conqueror with the fallen 
 diadem, although the escape of Darius was 
 still felt as affording serious cause for anxiety. 
 After allowing his army a brief revel 
 among the luxuries of Babylon, and drain- 
 ing the treasury of Susa of its vast stores of 
 unwrought ingots and golden darics, Alex- 
 ander proceeded to Persepolis, and though 
 he met with no resistance, suffered the 
 stately city to be plundered by his soldiers, 
 excepting oniy its magnificent palace, (which 
 he afterwards set on fire with his own hand,)* 
 and the citadel, which ancient writers 
 agree in statitig to have contained the pro- 
 digious sum of 120,000 talents, or more than 
 £27,000,000 sterling. t Four months elapsed 
 before he resumed the pursuit of Darius, 
 who had meanwhile gathered together a 
 small force, and intended to take refuge in 
 the Bactrian satrapy of Bessus ; but this dis- 
 loyal servant, considering his master's for- 
 tunes desperate, conspired with the satraps 
 of Arachosia and Aria either to kill or to 
 deliver him to the Greeks, according as 
 might best serve their private purpose — the 
 securing independent possession of their 
 satrapies. Alexander, after marching rapidly 
 through Media, had reached a mountain 
 pass called the Caspian Gates, before intelli- 
 gence arrived of the plot; he exclaimed bitterly 
 against the treachei-y to which his own am- 
 bition had subjected the royal fugitive, and 
 pressed eagerly onwards to his rescue. The 
 conspirators fled before him, and Darius re- 
 solutely refusing to accompany them, was 
 left mortally wounded in his chariot, where 
 his lifeless body was found by Alexander, who 
 buried it with regal honours, provided for 
 the maintenance of Sisygambis (his mother), 
 married his daughter Statira, took charge of 
 the education of his other children, and 
 declared his determination of punishing the 
 assassins. Artabazus, the faithful and long- 
 tried adherent of Darius, then ninety-five 
 years of age, he took into his own service, 
 and evinced his res[)cct for his fidelity by 
 unremitting kindness to him and to his sons. 
 
 * .\t tlie siifjn-estion, it is siiid, of 'I'lmis, an Athe- 
 nian cn\ii't.i'saii, made to liim wlion I'.patod with wino. 
 Both I'lntarcli and Arrian record his immediate -ind 
 undisguised rcj^ret for the deed. 
 
 t Qiiintiis Cnrtius, lil). v., cap. 5 ; Diodorus Sicu- 
 lus, lib. xvii., cap. 18 ; Iiislin, lil). xi., cap, 11.
 
 GREEKS CROSS THE PAROPAMISUS, AND CAPTURE BACTRTA, 320,8.0. 25 
 
 Bessus finding himself disappointed in his 
 hopes now braved the worst, by Ijoklly as- 
 suming the tiara, and the title ol Artaxcrxca 
 King of Asia, in defiance of the pretensions 
 of Alexander, who wished to be coiisi(h'red 
 as the avenger and rif^htfid siiecessor rather 
 tlian the eoniiiieror of Darius, and to receive 
 even from his ]\Iaee(h)iiian sul)jeets the spe- 
 cies of adoration offered by the Persians to 
 their king, as a preliminary to tlic divine 
 honours, to which an oraelc had declared 
 him entitled. The Macedonians viewed 
 these pretensions with undisguised aver- 
 sion, and several of his bravest subjects, 
 including I'hilotas and his father Parmenio, 
 the beloved general of Philip,* became, 
 under different pretences, victims to their 
 opposition to this glaring impiety. f Bar- 
 zaentes, one of the confederates of Bessus, 
 took refuge among the Indians on the bor- 
 der of his eastern satrapy of Arachosia, but 
 was delivered up by them to Alexander, who 
 caused him to be put to death ; Sartabar- 
 zaues, another of the traitors (and a double- 
 dyed one, for he had voluntarily sworn alle- 
 giance to the conqueror), was slain in 
 battle, and the arch conspirator Bessus 
 alone remained. He had consulted his 
 personal safety by fleeing across the vast 
 mountain barrier of India, a part of which 
 is there called the Paropamisus,J trust- 
 ing that the natural difficulties of the coun- 
 try would greatly impede, if not entirely 
 block up, the pursuit of a hostile force. He 
 probably little knew the zeal with which, 
 from very childhood, Alexander had striven 
 for accurate geographical knowledge, eagerly 
 questioning the ambassadors of his father's 
 court as to the routes they had traversed, or 
 heard of, so as to give the wisest of them 
 some partial insight into the schemes even 
 then passing through his brain. On arriving 
 at the root of the chain, he was probably 
 well acquainted with its general direction, 
 as well as the defiles by which it might be 
 traversed, especially since, during his so- 
 journ in Phceuicia, he had had abundant 
 opportunity of ascertaining the nature of 
 
 • It is recorded by Plutarch, that Philip ohee said 
 the Athenians were lucky to be able to fir.d ten gen- 
 erals every year ; he, in the course of many years, 
 had only found one, Parmenio. 
 
 t The famous quarrel in which, during; a carousal, 
 Alexander slew his tried friend t'leitas, who liad pre- 
 served liis life in battle at the risk of his own, arose 
 from the same cause; as did also tlie execution of 
 Callisthenes, though on the avowed charge of having 
 incited a conspiracy among the royal pages. 
 
 t This range (according to Alasson) is distinct 
 from the true Indian Caucasus, or Hindoo Koosh; — 
 
 the trade with India, and the means by 
 which it was carried on, by land as well as by 
 sea. At the foot of the pass by which he 
 intended crossing, Alexander founded an- 
 other Alexandria (ad f^ancasum), where he 
 planted a colony of M;iecdoiiian veterans; 
 then, undeterred by the severity of the yet 
 unexpired winter, he avoided the dangerous 
 period of the melting snows, by commenc- 
 ing his mountain march, which lasted fifteen 
 days, and was rendered arduous and hai'as- 
 sing, not oidy from the natural causes of 
 cold and fatigue, but also by scarcity of pro- 
 visions. Bessus had laid waste the whole 
 country between the lower valleys on the 
 northern side, and the left bank of the 
 Oxus, before he passed over with his troops, 
 after which he burned the boats which had 
 conveyed them. Alexander having captured 
 the town and fortress of Aorni, and IJaetra 
 the chief city of Baetria (supposed to be the 
 modern Balk), committed the eliarge of the 
 newly-acquired territory to the venerable 
 Artabazus ; then dismissing some of the 
 more infirm, or least willing, of the Mace- 
 donian troops and Thcssalian volunteers, he 
 proceeded across a strip of the great desert, 
 which stretches from the Caspian to the 
 high table-land, containing the .sources of 
 the Oxus and Jaxartes. On arriving at the 
 former river, no boats or building materials 
 could be procured, and the breadth was little 
 less than 800 yards ; but even this obstacle 
 was overcome, and the whole of the troops 
 transported safely over on skins stuffed with 
 straw. The passage being aecorapjislied 
 after six days' labotir, the Greeks pushed 
 across the desert in a northerly direction, ] 
 but were met by envoys from two of the 
 chief followers of Bessus, who fell a victim 
 to the same treachery he had practised to- 
 wards Darius ; and being delivered up by 
 his followers, Spitamenes and others, sutlcrcd 
 a cruel and ignotninious death. ^ The ob- 
 tainmcnt of the avowed object of the expe- 
 dition did not put a stop to Alexander's 
 progress. According to Plutarch it was 
 about this period that he first entertained 
 
 the name is derived from " par" and " pam," signify- 
 ing hill and Jhit — the region around consisting of 
 flat-topped hills. 
 
 § He was publicly stripped and scourged, his nose 
 and cars were cut off, and (according to Curlius and 
 Diodorus) he was eventually surrendered to Oxa- 
 thres and other kinsmen of Darius to he executed; 
 but by some accounts he is represented as having 
 been, by order of Alexander himself, torn limb from 
 limb, by means of two trees, to which he was bound, 
 being first bent and then sufi"ered to spring back. — See 
 Langhorne'sPlutarch,ij/(So/'.,Jfca:o«rf<'>-,vol.i¥.,p. 186.
 
 20 COUNTRY OF TAXILAS, AND SITE OF ITS ANCIENT CAPITAL. 
 
 the idea of followiug up his conquests by 
 that of India. He had now reached a de- 
 lightful region of great beauty and exuberant 
 fertility, whose pastures afforded him fresh 
 horses to supply the loss sustained in march- 
 ing through mountains and deserts ; thence 
 he advanced to the capital of Sogdiana, 
 called Maracanda, since known as Samar- 
 cand, in whose citadel lie placed a Greek 
 garrison. Still proceeding northwards, he 
 founded another Alexandria on the Jaxartes, 
 and was involved in some sharp contests 
 with the Asiatic Scythians, in one of which 
 a body of Macedonian horse were surprised 
 and slain, and in another he was himself 
 wounded. After repressing disturbances 
 among the Sogdians, on whom he wreaked 
 a cruel vengeance for what he thought fit to 
 call rebelUon to his self-constituted autho- 
 rity, he proceeded at the close of 329 to 
 take up his winter quarters at Bactria or 
 Zariaspa. For the next twelve months he 
 found ample employment in stifling the 
 efforts for indej)endeuce of the Scythians, 
 Sogdians, and the Bactrians, incited by 
 Spitamenes, the most active and determined 
 enemy he had yet encountered in Asia. 
 This chief's motive appears to have been 
 dissatisfaction at receiving less reward than 
 he had expected for the surrender of Bessus. 
 ; By a remarkable retributiou he was in turn 
 I betrayed by his own troops, who, desirous 
 
 I • Taxila must have been a large and splendid 
 city, but its site is still a matter of dispute. Schlosser 
 places it at Attock, and Kennell at or near tlie same 
 place. On the route leading thence to Lahore, are 
 the ruins of a very ancient town of unknown name 
 and origin, which is also supposed to have been 
 Taxila. Abundance of Greek and Bactrian coins 
 have been found in the numerous ruins and cupolas 
 or topes which are scattered over the plain on which 
 the present small village of Manikyala stands. One 
 of these topes or tumuli (examined in 1833-34, by 
 Mons. Court, an engineer officer tlien in the service 
 of Kunjeet Sing) was 80 feet high, with a circum- 
 ference of 320 feet, solidly built of well-dressed 
 quarried stones, some of huge size, cemented with 
 lime ; while a range of small columns, the capitals 
 ornamented with rams' heads, surrounded the base. 
 The Hindoos resort to the sjjot to offer up the first 
 cuttings of the hair of their male children, a custom 
 said to liave been prevalent in ancient Greece. There 
 are about fifteen smaller topes near the jirincipal 
 one ; and, indeed, similar t\miuli abound in different 
 parts of Affghanistan, at Cabool, Jcllalabail, in the 
 Khyljer hills, ^^ic. They are generally constructed 
 of sandstone, and of a nummulitic limestone (full of 
 shell impressions), such as is found in the ]'"gy])tian 
 pyramids. In one of the topes, which had a height 
 of sixty or seventy feet, a cell was discovered at ten 
 feet from tlie ground-level, whose four sides corre- 
 sponded witli tlii^ cardinal points; it was constructed 
 in a solid manner, and covered with a massive slab 
 
 dangerous 
 
 of conciliating their powerful foe, cut off the 
 head of their leader, and offered it as their 
 own propitiation. Several of his confede- 
 rates still lived and took refuge in the 
 mountainous region about the tipper valleys 
 of the Oxus, with other chiefs who perse- 
 vered in the struggle for liberty. They 
 were not, however, of sufficient importance 
 to detain Alexander any longer in the coun- 
 tries where he had already spent nearly two 
 years, and which had been subdued only with 
 much difficulty and large expenditure of 
 blood and treasure, as well as by diplomacy; 
 for example, by his marriage with Roxaua, 
 the daughter of Oxyartes, an influential 
 Bactrian chief, he converted a 
 enemy to a firm friend. 
 
 Greek Invasio.v of India. — In the spring 
 of 327, Alexander prepared to attempt the 
 conquest of the almost unknown countries 
 bordering and beyond the Indus. The pres- 
 tige of his success, and the generosity with 
 which he treated all who submitted to his 
 sway, induced a native ruler to send a friendly 
 embassy before the armyn^uitted Sogdiana. 
 The name of this prince was recorded by 
 the Greeks (who are unfortunately prover- 
 bial for the manner in which they distorted 
 foreign words to suit their own pronuncia- 
 tion) as Omphis, or Mophis ; but he was 
 commonly called Taxiles, from Taxila,* the 
 capital of his country, which lay between 
 
 containing inscriptions, some resembling the writings 
 of the Rajpoots of the Himalaya, others the Ethio- 
 pian character. In the centre was a copper urn or 
 cylinder, encircled by eight copper medals, (some 
 apparently of the Winged-cap Sassanian dynasty,) 
 with a wrapper of white linen tightly adhering to the 
 surface, which fell into shreds on being exposed to 
 the air. The copper enclosed a silver urn, the in- 
 tervening space being filled with a moist paste, 
 devoid of smell, of the colour of raw umber, in which 
 lay a thread of cotton gathered up into a knot. The 
 silver, from age, had become quite brittle, and crum- 
 bled into bits between the fingers, as the metals found 
 at Nineveh have since done. Within the silver ves- 
 sel was a much smaller golden one, and seven silver 
 medals with Latin characters. The gold cylinder 
 contained four small, worn, golden coins of the 
 Gra-co-Scythian, or Gra»co-Indian type, but of a far 
 inferior fabrication to the silver ones; there were 
 also two precious stones and fovir ])erforated pearls 
 (which had been pendants of ear-rings), fragments 
 of a vitreous nature, and small transparent yellow 
 substances, willi decayed organic matter. The country 
 around, as ])rovcd by the quantity of ruins of old 
 iiouscs, must have once been verv populous. Whether 
 these topes or mounds served for royal mausolea, or 
 lioodhistical shrines, or botli, is doubtful : they were 
 possibly the consecrated tombs of kings or of per- 
 sons of distinction. Some curious coincidences are 
 observable between the ancient monuments and the 
 sepulchral tumuli or harrows discovered in Kssex
 
 ALEXANDER'S CAMPAIGN IN AFFGU/VNISTAN, 3i37, n.c. 
 
 27 
 
 the upper Indus ami the Ilydaspcs (Behiit 
 or Jholum), the vrestcrmost of the five great 
 vributarifs, from whieh the whole eastern 
 basin of the Indus, down to tlieir confluence, 
 is called the Punjaub (five rivers). 
 
 From Bactria and So^diana, as also from 
 ilio ncighbourini; Scythian hordes, auxil- 
 iaries were raised to the amount of 70,()()() 
 pel sons, of whom 80,000 were youths, levied 
 to servo at once as hostages and soldiers. 
 Altogctl-.er tlic Greek force (exclusive of a 
 corps of 10,000 infantry and 15,000 cavalry 
 left in Bactria, nndcr the command of the 
 satrap Amyntas) consisted of 120,000 foot 
 and 15,000 horse. After crossing the Para- 
 pamisau chain, in ten davs, (apjiarently by a 
 riifi'crcnt route to that which had been taken 
 in the winter of 329,) through a pass de- 
 scribed by Arrian as " high, narro'.v, and 
 short,'' the troops reached Alexandria ad 
 Ca\icas\>m, and from thence proceeded to a 
 town named Nysa,* which would appear to 
 have been the same city alleged to have been 
 founded by the Indian Raeehus, or Dionysus. 
 The inhabitaiits are said to have dexterously 
 turned Alexander's claim to be considered 
 as a son of Jupiter to advantage by entreat- 
 ing him to spare and protect the city 
 founded by his " celestial brother ;" and as 
 an e\'i(lenec of the truth of their statement, 
 they pointed to the abundance of vines, wild 
 and imcnltivatcd, growing in their valleys, 
 and to the ivj' and laurel first planted by 
 the hand of Bacchus, of which the Mace- 
 donians had, until then, seen none since they 
 left Greece. Alexander offered sacrifices in 
 honour of his divine predecessor, and per- 
 mitted Nysa, which is described as an aris- 
 toeratical republic under a discreet ruler 
 named Acuphis, to retain its libcrtj' and 
 laws.f On proceeding to the banks of the 
 river Copheues, he was met at liis own re- 
 quest by Taxiles, and several chiefs from the 
 
 and other parts of Englaiul, which contained, like 
 those of the Punjaub, various bronze urns, enclosing 
 fragments of burnt bones, coins, glass, and even a 
 similar brown or light yellov.- liquid or paste. Virgil, 
 also, in the JEiivid {\i., 215), describes the Roman 
 custom of burning the dead; milk, wine, blood, and 
 other mtincra, supposed to be grateful to the de- 
 ceased, were poured on or mingled with the ashes, 
 and money was usually added to defray the fee of 
 Charon for ferrying the departed spirit across the Styx. 
 • The locality of tlie different towns and rivers 
 mentioned bv Alexander's historians, is much con- 
 tested by modern geographers. The site of Nysa is 
 pointed out by M. Court, at Ashnagur (whose sub- 
 urbs are scattered over with vast ruins of unknown 
 d&te) ; that of Alexandria ad Caucasum is variously 
 placed at Ghuznee and at a place called Siggan ; 
 1 while the Cophfiies is supposed to denote cither tlie 
 
 region west of the Indus ; they brought him 
 presents, and promised to gratify his desire 
 for trained elephants, by the gift of all they 
 possessed, which, however, amounted only 
 to five-and-twenty. The army was then 
 divided ; one ])ortion, under IIej)ha;stion and 
 Perdiceas, took the direct road to the Indus, 
 with orders there to prepare a bridge of 
 boats for the passage of the main body, 
 whieh Alexander conducted by a more nor- 
 thern route over difficult mountain paths, 
 to meet the hardy and warlike tribes, men- 
 tioned by Arrian under the names of the 
 Aspii, tlie Thrynei, and the Arsjei. In a 
 contest with the iidiabitants of one of the 
 towns, he was wounded, and tlie Greeks in 
 their rage (having carried the double walls,) 
 g.ivc no quarter, but slaughtered all without 
 distinction, and reduced the place to ashes. 
 The whole of this campaign in the high 
 laiuls of Affghanistan was marked by de- 
 termined bravery on the part of the moun- 
 taineers, and sanguinary cruelty on that of 
 the invader, who had no other plan for sub- 
 duing a people, who desired — not generosity 
 but justice, not to be well governed after 
 his fashion, but to remain independent after 
 their own. In the country of the unoffend- 
 ing Assaccncs]: he behaved with especial 
 barbarity. Having encamped before their 
 capital, ]\razagu, he made three determined 
 attacks with battering-engines on different 
 days, during whieh he was wounded in the 
 leg and arm ; the result of a fourth assault 
 was yet doubtful, when the Affghan chief 
 was slain, and the garrison were suffered to 
 capitulate on the condition that 7,000 mer- 
 cenaries from the Punjaub, who had been 
 engaged ii\ tlie service of the deceased 
 leader, should join the Greek army. They 
 accordingly marched out and encamped on 
 a hill for the night, but evinced so much 
 reluctance at the thouglit of fighting against 
 
 river formedby the confluence of the Cahonl with the 
 PeiitlJsher, or else the eastern branch of the Sel- 
 muuil, now known as the Tarnuck. The reader 
 desirous of understanding the grounds upon which 
 these and other opposite opinions rest, will find them 
 fully discussed by the highest Indian authorities, 
 in the jiages of the various yVsiatic journals, and in 
 the works of Rennell, Vincent, Elphinstone, Vigne, 
 Burnes, Chesney, Masson, Long, &c. 
 
 t Recorded by Arrian, Quintus Curtius, and Plu- 
 tarch in his Life of AUxander. 
 
 J Arrian says they had been subject to the Assy- 
 rians, then to the Medes, and subsequently to the 
 Persians. The Orita; are described by the .'lanit; 
 a-.Uhority, as a nation whose country extended along 
 the sea-coast for about 150 miles; and who wore the 
 dress and arms of the other Indians, but differed 
 from them in language and manners.
 
 28 
 
 AORNUS CAPTURED— THE INDUS CROSSED. 
 
 their countrymen, that Alexander, suspect- 
 ing them of an intention to desert, caused 
 them to be suddenly surrounded and cut to 
 pieces. He then set at nought the capitu- 
 lation by storming the defenceless city. 
 The strongholds of Ora and Bazira vrere 
 next reduced, the inhabitants of the latter 
 place fled to a hill-fort on the right bank of 
 the Indus, whose name seems to have been 
 lost by the Greeks in that of Aornus,* a 
 term indicative of its extraordinary height, 
 above the flight of a bird. Here Hercules 
 ■was said to have been defeated, and Alex- 
 ander, desirous of excelling the exploits of 
 even fabled heroes, and of proving himself 
 not to be deterred by natural difficulties, pro- 
 ceeded to the attack ; passing, it •would ap- 
 pear, through the district of Peucelaotis, 
 and taking possession of the chief city, 
 Peucela, whose ruler, Astes, had fallen in 
 the thirty days' siege of the force under 
 Hephsestion and Perdiccas on their march 
 eastward. Aornus he captured by forming 
 a mound across a hollow of no great depth, 
 but of considerable width, which separated 
 a neighbouring hill from the pyramidieal 
 rock itself; thus a vantage-ground was gained 
 to the surprise and terror of the besieged, 
 
 * Aornus was probably a general name for a 
 stockaded mountain, such as that already mentioned 
 in Bactria, and most likely Hellenized from the 
 Sanscrit Awara, or Awarana, an enclosure. Its 
 position is considered by some authorities to have 
 been a little distance above Attock,wlule others con- 
 sider it to be found at Peshawer, in front of the 
 Khyber Pass, and reconcile this opinion with the 
 statement of Arrian and Strabo, that the Indus flowed 
 at the base of Aornus, by declaring that these writers 
 evidentlv deemed the Cabool river the true Indus. 
 
 T It seems to have been during his stay at Taxilu 
 that Alexander had fij-st tlie opportunity of gratifying 
 his curiosity respecting the doctrine and practice of 
 the Hindoo ascetics called gymnosophists by the 
 Greeks. At Corinth, struck by the imperturbable 
 stoicism of a man, who had nothing to ask, but that 
 he should stand from betwixt him and the sun, he is 
 reported to have exclaimed, that were he not Alex- 
 ander he would wish to be Diogenes. In India he 
 must have witnessed a far more interesting spectacle. 
 The Greek philosopher had no higher object in his 
 dogged abstinence from the comforts of civilized life 
 than to place himself beyond the reach of wliat, in 
 his blindness, he called chance or fortune ; but the 
 Brahmins sought, by self-inflicted tortures, and un- 
 ceasing exposure to the severe influences of their 
 burning sky, to win by slow degrees a release from 
 mortality, and absorption into the Divine essence. 
 Alexander was utilitarian in all his views; it might 
 therefore be sujiposed lie could Iiave little sympathy 
 with men w lioni lie might have considered as visionary 
 enlhusiasts.buthewas also extremely superstitious: his 
 great intellect groped in darkness, unenlightened by 
 any rav of revealed truth, which could show him the 
 fundamental error of striving to found a univer- 
 Ba), or at least an Asiatic cmjiire, liy means of uii- 
 
 who endeavoured to escape at night-fall, 
 but were pursued with great slaughter into 
 the plains beneath. The accounts given by 
 Arrian of the next steps of Alexander's pro- 
 gress are scarcely reconcileable with those of 
 Diodorus and Curtius ; btit it appears that 
 he was compelled to return to the moun- 
 tains to suppress insurrection, and that the 
 people fled before him. He despatched his 
 generals, Nearchus and Antiochus, to scour 
 the country towards the north-west, while 
 he himself opened a road, which no army 
 had ever before trodden, to the banks of the 
 Indus, and on his way captured some of the 
 fugitives, who, among other information, 
 told him that their elephants had been left 
 in the thickets on the west side of the river. 
 These animals having been obtained by the 
 aid of native hunters, vessels were con- 
 structed, in which the force dropped down 
 the stream to the bridge prepared for them 
 by Hephfestion and Perdiccas, with the 
 assistance of Taxiles, who came out with his 
 army and elephants to meet Alexander on 
 his arrival at the eastern shore of the Indus, 
 and conducted him with much pomp to his 
 capital.-|- Taxiles appears to have been very 
 desirous to obtain the assistance of the 
 
 limited conquests, gained at a terrible cost of blood, 
 tears, and moral degradation. Still he was no mere 
 conqueror; it was not simply a selfish ambition that 
 prom])ted him — far less any brutal, or rather demonia- 
 cal, love of fighting. He ever strove to conciliate 
 strange nations, by respecting their religious obser- j 
 vances, as the best means of retaining permanent 
 dominion over them ; and it was probably a high 
 political motive which rendered him solicitous to 
 converse with the Brahmins (or rather Yogees), 
 fifteen of whom were congregated in a grove near 
 the city. The eldest and most honoured, called by 
 the Greeks, Dandamis, refused either to visit or 
 write to Alexander, declared (according to Strabo) 
 to a total disbelief of his alleged Divine origin, 
 and expressed equal indifference to persuasions or 
 threats ; gifts he needed not, and he added, 
 alluding to the Hindoo doctrine of metem])- 
 sychosis — " If he should put me to death, he will 
 only release my soul from this old deere])it body, 
 which will then pass into a freer and purer state ; so 
 that I shall suffer nothing by the change." One of 
 the Yogees, named Sphines, called Calanus by the 
 Greeks was, however, prevailed upon to go to Alex- 
 ander, who, being much pleased witli his discourse, 
 carried him with him throughout his expedition, and 
 even back to Persia. Calanus was there attacked 
 with illness ; and considering it as a summons from 
 above, being then seventy-three years of age, pre- 
 pared to terminate his life. Alexander having vainly 
 laboured to dissuade him, caused a magnificent 
 funeral ])ile to be raised, which Calanus, though 
 weak with pain and illness, ascended with unfalter- 
 ing resolution, singing hymns of ])rayer and praise. 
 He then calmly com])osed his limlis, and without 
 moving, was consumed in tlie sight of the king and the 
 whole army.^( (Vi/f Arrian, Strabo, and Plutarch.)
 
 PROGRESS FROM THE INDUS TO THE IIYDASPES OK JUKLL.M. 29 
 
 Greeks in carrying on war with a neighbour- 
 ing and powcri'ul ])rincc, whose proper name 
 has not deseended to us, but only that of 
 Ills i'atnily, I'orus.* Alexander sent a pe- 
 r(!niplory summons, rc'(iuiriiig tribute and 
 allegianee, to whieii the Indian prince replied 
 that he would come to the borders ot' his 
 kingdom to meet the invader, but it should 
 be in arms. His kinsman, a neighbouring 
 ruler of the same name, whether from 
 jealousy or induced by the munifieent pre- 
 sents made to Taxiles, despatched an em- 
 bassy with od'ers of submission. It is 
 jjrobable that Taxiles received an enlarge- 
 ment of his territory by the annexation of 
 some of the newly-coni(uered districts on 
 the west of the Indus; but the price paid by 
 him was nothing less than the loss of liberty, 
 since a Greek satrap was appointed for this 
 part of India, and a Greek garrison stationed 
 in his chief city. With forces strengthened 
 by 5,000 Indian recruits, led by Taxiles, 
 Alexander resumed his march in the middle 
 of the year 326 ; for so it would uppcar from 
 the statement of Aristobulus, that he expe- 
 rienced the eommencement of the summer 
 rains, which are not known to fall in the 
 Punjaub before June or July. Ou his road 
 to the Hydaspes he was intcnaipted, in a 
 defile through which his road lay, by a 
 nephew of Porus named Spittacus, or Spi- 
 taces, with a body of troops. These he soon 
 dispersed, and arrived without further oppo- 
 sition on the right bank of the river, where 
 he beheld the hostile army drawn up on the 
 opposite side, the intervening stream being 
 deep, rapid, and, at the time he reached it, 
 probably little less than a mile broad. Al- 
 though well provided with boats, rafts, and 
 floats, Alexander was too prudent to attempt 
 forcing a passage in the face of an equal if 
 not superior enemy, and had therefore re- 
 course to stratagem to disarm the vigilance 
 of his antagonist. After making excursions 
 in various directions, as if uncertain where 
 to attempt crossing, he ordered magazines 
 of provisions to be formed, as if for a long 
 
 * Tod says that Porus was a corruption of Pocru, 
 the patronymic of a branch of the royal Lunar race 
 (liii/ast'han, vol. i.) ; and Kennell states that the pre- 
 aeccssor of the prince in question reigned in Cauoge 
 or Canouj, on the Ganges, which, according to Fe- 
 rishta, was then the capital of all Hindoostan (Me- 
 moir of a 3Iap of Jlinilouatati, \>. 51). 
 
 t The precise spots at which the army encamped 
 upon the Hydaspes, and crossed it, are not ascer- 
 tained. Strabo points out that Alexander marched 
 as near as possible to tiie mountains, and this useful 
 indication is considered by Masson to establish 
 his having followed the high road from Attock to 
 
 sojourn, and gave out that he intended 
 awaiting the termination of the monsoon, 
 which it is probable he would liave rcullv 
 done but for intelligence that auxiliari(!s 
 were on their way to strengthen the enemy. 
 Night after night, bodies of cavalry rode 
 noisily up or down the right bank, and 
 Porus repeatedly drew up his elephants and 
 proceeded towards the quarter whence the 
 clamour arose ; until, wearied by false alarms, 
 he paid no attention to the movements 
 upon the opposite shore. Alexander having 
 selected a spot a day's march distance above 
 the eamp,t wliere the river made a westerly 
 bend, and a thickly-wooded island divided 
 the stream, left a strong division at the first 
 station with orders to remain there until the 
 elephants should be withdrawn from their 
 menacing position, in which case they were to 
 attempt the passage forthwith. The same 
 command was given at the series of posts 
 (horse and foot), stationed between the 
 camp and the place of embarkation. Here 
 preparations w'ere made, under cover of the 
 wood which clothed the projecting bank of 
 the river, the din of axes and hammers, 
 which might otherwise have attracted atten- 
 tion, (notwithstanding the feints previously 
 resorted to) being overpowered by pealing 
 thunder and torrents of rain, that lasted 
 through the night hours, but ceased at day- 
 break. Alexander set out, accompanied by 
 Perdiccas, Lysimachus, and Scleucus, with 
 the flower of the jNIaeedonian cavalry, and 
 the Baetrian, Sogdian, and Scythian aux- 
 iliaries. In passing the wooded island before 
 mentioned, they were first seen by the In- 
 dians, who immediately gave the alarm. 
 The invaders landed, on what they thought 
 to be the river bank, but really on another 
 island, separated from the main by a channel 
 swollen by floods into a formidable stream, 
 which however proved fordable, and the 
 whole division was, after some delay, landed, 
 and drawn up in order of battle. The cav- 
 alry numbered about 5,000, the infantry 
 probably nearly 20,000. Porus, perceiving 
 
 Jhclum, which probably was then as now the most 
 nortlierly of tlie Punjaub routes, and the one almost 
 e.\clusively practicable during tlie monsoons. Con- 
 sequently Porus took up his position on the eastern 
 bank of the Jhelum at the point to which he knew 
 Alexander must come, that is near the present vil- 
 lage of that name, in whose locality, the sites of 
 NiciPt and Bucephala, (though on ditl'erent sides of 
 the river) must be sought for. Pennell places the 
 encampment opposite where the fortress of Rotas 
 afterwards stood; and Vincent (who supposes the 
 wooded island passed by Alexander to have been 
 Jamad) about twenty-eight miles below Kolas.
 
 30 BATTLE BETWEEN ALEXANDER AND THE INDIAN KING PORUS. 
 
 that Alexander's tent remained in its place, 
 and that the main body were apparently 
 still at the encampment, regarded his actual 
 approach as a stratagem to tempt him 
 from an advantageous position, and merely 
 sent forward his son or brother Hages with 
 2,000 horse and 120 war chariots, whom 
 Alexander charged fiercely, with the whole 
 of his cavalry. Hages and some 400 of his 
 followers were slain, and the chariots, which 
 had been with great difficulty brought over 
 ground turned into a swamp by the rains, 
 were all captured. Porus, on learning this 
 disastrous commencement, left a part of his 
 elephants to contest the passage of the 
 Greeks stationed under Craterus at the en- 
 campment, and advanced to the decisive con- 
 flict, with a force (according to Arrian) of 
 30,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry, and 300 cha- 
 riots. Beyond the swampy ground, near the 
 river, lay an open sandy tract, affording firm 
 footing, and here he awaited Alexander's 
 approach ; his 200 elephants, bearing huge 
 wooden towers, filled with armed men, being 
 drawn up in front of the line, at intervals of 
 a hundred feet, occupied with infantry ; while 
 one-half of the cavalry was posted at each 
 flank, and the chariots (each containing 
 six armed men) in front of them. After 
 a long and quick march, Alexander arrived 
 in sight with his cavalry, and lialtcd to allow 
 time for the foot to join him. Observing 
 the disposition of the enemy, he instantly 
 apprehended the necessity of depriving Porus 
 of the advantage he must obtain from the 
 almost invincible strength of the elephants 
 and chariots when brought to bear in a 
 direct attack, as well as the superior num- 
 bers of the opposing infantry, by a skilful use 
 of the mounted troops, in which his strength 
 lay. An attack on the enemy's left wing, 
 would, he foresaw, dvavf the cavalry into 
 action for its protection. Therefore, ordering 
 the horse-bowmen to advance, lie followed 
 up tlic slight disorder caused by their arrows, 
 by charging with the rest of the cavalry ; 
 while the Indian horse from the right being 
 brought up, as foreseen, Ccenus, in accord- 
 ance with previous orders, charged them in 
 the rear, and the Macedonian phalanx ad- 
 vanced to take advantage of the confusion 
 that ensued. Tiio engagement became very 
 complex; the clepliauts hemmed in and 
 maddened by wounds, turned their fury in- 
 discriminately against friend and foe, until 
 many were killed, and the rest, spent with 
 pain and toil, ceased to be formidal)lc. 
 Another general charge of liorsc and foot 
 
 was made by the Greeks ; the troops of 
 Porus were completely routed, and fled, pur- 
 sued by Craterus and the division from the 
 right bank, who, having by this time effected 
 their passage, engaged with ardour in the san- 
 guinary chase. As is usual with Alexander's 
 historians,* his loss is stated at an extremely 
 small, and that of the enemy, at a proportion- 
 ably large amount. The more moderate 
 statement of Diodorus Siculus, gives the 
 number of the slain on the side of Porus, at 
 12,000, including two of his sons and great 
 part of liis chief officers, besides 9,000 
 taken prisoners. The loss of the Macedo- 
 nians is given at less than 1,000. Porus 
 himself, mounted on an elephant, to the last 
 directed the movements of his forces ; and, 
 although wounded in the shoulder, (his body 
 was defended by a corslet of curious work- 
 manship which was proof against all mis- 
 siles,) would not retire until his troops were 
 hopelessly dispersed ; then he turned his 
 elephant for flight, but, being a conspicuous 
 object, was speedily captured, and carried, 
 while senseless from loss of blood, into the 
 conqueror's presence. Alexander, who had 
 observed his gallant bearing during a con- 
 flict of seven or eight hours' duration, asked 
 him how he desired to be treated, but could 
 obtain no other answer than "as a king;" 
 and, on observing that " this a king must 
 do for his own sake," Porus replied that, 
 " nevertheless in that all was included." The 
 quick perception of character, which was one 
 of Alexander's distinguishing and most ser- 
 viceable qualities, taught him that Porus 
 might prove a valuable and trustworthy 
 auxiliary. He reinstated him in royal dignity, 
 added considerably to his dominions, and 
 brought about a reconciliation, in form at 
 least, with Taxiles. On the Hydaspes or 
 Jhelum, the conqueror founded two cities ; 
 one near the field of battle, named Nicsea, 
 and another near his landing-place, named 
 Bueephala, in honour of liis famous horse, 
 which, having accompanied him thus far, 
 sank from fatigue, wounds, and old age, 
 in the hour of victory. Craterus was left to 
 superintend the building of these cities ; and 
 the main body were allowed a mouth's rest, 
 probably chiefly on account of the continu- 
 ance of tlic lieavy rains. Alexander himself, 
 with a select division of horse and foot, pur- 
 sued his aggressive marcii through the rich 
 and populous valleys on the north of the 
 
 * The details recorded hy Arrian, Diodorus Sicu- 
 lus, QuinUis Curlius, and Plutarch, vary consido- 
 rably, hut the general tenor is the same.
 
 REFUSAL OF GREEK ARMY TO MARCH TO THE GANGES. 
 
 31 
 
 territory of Poms, to the river Aecsincs or 
 (CliciKib,)* rccciviuf^, iiccordiiiff to the Greek 
 liistoriaiia, tlic subiriissiion of thirty-seven 
 cities — none coiit;iiiiiii<; less than 5,000 in- 
 lifihitauts, — all of which he amiexed to tlic 
 kinj;(loiii of I'orus. Tlic younfjcr Porus, 
 called the coward, fled from his dominious, 
 from the fear that the favour siliown to his 
 kinsman portended his ruin, and took re- 
 fuge at the court of Nanda, the reigning 
 monareli of the Pi-aehii or Prasii — who 
 swayed nearly the whole of Eastern India. 
 Ani()isarcs, the king or chief of a tribe of 
 mountaineers, and Doxareus, another native 
 rajah or prince are mentioned by Arrian, as 
 tendering their allegiance; the former sent 
 a present of forty elephants. After crossing 
 the Uijdraoles [Ilavee), Alexander traversed 
 the country of the Cathreans to attack San- 
 gala, a city of great strength and impor- 
 tance, which seems to have occupied nearly 
 the same site as the modern capital of the 
 Sikh monarchy, Lahore, on a branch of the 
 Ravee, near the edge of a small lake.f The 
 Cathaeans or Cathcri, (supposed, by Sanscrit 
 scholars, to be a corruption of Cshatra, a 
 mixed race, sprung from females of the 
 warrior class, and men of inferior cast,) J had 
 confederated with the IMalli and Sudracjc, 
 or OxydracPE, that is, the people of Moultau 
 and Outeli. On approaching Sangala, the 
 Greeks found the Cathteans entrenched on 
 an isolated hill, behind a triple barrier of 
 waggons. YUcxander, at the head of the 
 phalanx, forced the three lines, and car- 
 ried the place by storm ; but with the loss 
 of 1,200 killed and wounded. This vigorous 
 resistance was revenged by sanguinary car- 
 nage — 17,000 of the Cathasans were slain, 
 70,000 made prisoners, and Sangala razed 
 to the ground. Despatching Porus (who had 
 arrived during the siege with about 5,000 
 men) to place garrisons in the Cathasan 
 towns, Alexander continued to advance to 
 the south-cast, received the submission of 
 two princes, called by the Greeks Sopithes§ 
 and Phcgelus, and arrived at the banks of 
 the Hypliasis [Bcyuh), just above its junc- 
 tion with the Hesudrus [Sutlej). The limit 
 of his eastern progress was at length 
 reached, for, even under his leadership, 
 the weary and home-siek army would pro- 
 ceed no farther. He could Lave given 
 
 * Alexander called it Acesines ; the ancient native 
 name was Chandrabaglia — the moon's gift. 
 
 t Burnes, vol. i., p. 156.- — Masson does not con- 
 sider the Sangala of Arrian to have denoted the 
 Indian city of Sagala, whose site is now indicated by 
 that of Lahore, but places it at Hareepah. 
 
 them, at best, but unsatisfactory grounds of 
 encouragement to continue their course. 
 The narrow boundaries assigned by the geo- 
 graphers of the day to India, and the eastern 
 side of the earth, were manifestly incorrect; 
 the ocean wliieh he had been taught to be- 
 lieve was separated by no very vast distance 
 from the banks of the Indus, liad receded, 
 as he advanced to an immeasurable dis- 
 tance ; and he had learned that beyond the 
 Ilydaspcs a desert, more extensive than any 
 yet encountered, parted the plains of the 
 Punjaub from the region watered by the 
 tributaries of the Ganges — a river superior 
 to the Indus, having on its banks the capi- 
 tal of a great monarchy, that of the Prasii 
 and Gangaridse, whose king could bring 
 into the field 200,000 foot, 20,000 horse, 
 and several thousand elephants. The king 
 himself is however represented to have been 
 looked upon as an upstart and a usurper; 
 and Alexander might probably have hoped 
 to be enabled to carry out his object, by 
 similar divisions among the natives to those 
 which had materially aided him in his par- 
 tial conquest of the Punjaub. The very 
 dangers and difficulties of tiie attempt were 
 but incitements to one whose object was 
 universal empire — to be attained at the 
 hazard of life itself, which he unhesitatingly 
 imperilled in every battle. With passionate 
 eloquence he reminded the Macedonians 
 that the Ilydraotes had already become the 
 limit of their empire, which extended west- 
 ward to the ^Egean Sea, and northward to 
 the river Jaxartes ; and he urged them to 
 cross the Ilyphasis ; then, having added the 
 rest of Asia to their empire, to descend the 
 Ganges, and sail round Africa to the pillars 
 of Hercules. — (Arrian, lib. v., cap. 25.) 
 
 Finding this appeal without eflect, or at 
 least overborne by the recollection of the 
 fatigues and privations undergone during 
 the preceding campaign in the rainy season, 
 Alexander angrily declared that he should 
 proceed, attended only by those who de- 
 sired to accompany him ; the rest might 
 return home, and say that they had forsa- 
 ken their king in the midst of enemies. 
 The silence and deep gloom which pervaded 
 the camp at length convinced Alexander 
 that no considerable portion of the army 
 could be prevailed upon to cross the Hy- 
 
 X Masson dissents, believing them to have been 
 the Catti, a nomadic Scythian tribe. 
 
 § According to .Arrian, Sopithcs submitted in the 
 descent of the fleet from IJucephala, whence three 
 days' journey brought Alexander to the territory of 
 this prince, where Strabo says there were famous salt
 
 32 
 
 DESCENT OF THE INDUS COMMENCED BY ALEXAMDER. 
 
 pliasis. He found either a pretext or a 
 reason for yielding to the general wish, in 
 the unfavourable auspices which attended 
 the sacrifices offered for the purpose of con- 
 sulting the gods respecting his future ad- 
 vance; and, after erectiag twelve colossal 
 towers or altars, in token of liis gratitude 
 for having been brought thus far safe and 
 victorious, and reviving, by horse-races and 
 gymnastic exercises, the drooping spirits of 
 his troops, he conferred on Forus the gov- 
 ernment of the country towards the Hypha- 
 sis,* and commenced retracing his steps. 
 At the Aeesines he found the city which 
 Hei^haestion had been ordered to build, ready 
 to receive a colony, and there he left the 
 disabled mercenaries, and as many natives 
 of the neighbouring districts, as were willing 
 to join them. At the Hydaspes, he re- 
 paired the injuries caused by floods to 
 Nicrea and Bucephala, and was reinforced 
 from Greece by 6,000 horse and 7,000 in- 
 fautry.t The fleet, (comprising 2,000 ves- 
 sels of various kinds, whereof eighty were 
 war galleys, which part of the army had 
 been employed all the summer in construct- 
 ing, while the rest, wanted for transport and 
 provisions, had probably been seized from 
 the people of the counti-y,) was completed 
 and manned, and the command entrusted 
 to Nearchus. Having divided his army into 
 four corps, of which the main body, with 
 about 200 elephants, were to advance along 
 the eastern bank, Alexander himself em- 
 barked, and proceeded without impediment 
 to the confluence of the Hydaspes and 
 Aeesines, where, owing to the narrow chan- 
 nel and high banks between which the 
 united rivers were then pent np, rapid and 
 strong eddies were formed, which so asto- 
 nished the sailors as to deprive them of the 
 self-command necessary to fulfil the instruc- 
 tions previously given by the Indian pilots. 
 Several of the long galleys were much shat- 
 tered, two sank with tlie greater part of 
 their crews, but the shorter and rounder 
 vessels sustained no injury. J A headland 
 on the right bank aftbrded shelter to the fleet, 
 which Alcxaiuler left to undergo the neces- 
 sary repairs, while he proceeded on an inland 
 expedition to the westward against the Secvi 
 or Saivas, a people evidently thus named 
 from their worship of the second member of 
 
 the Brahminical Triad, whose symbol they 
 marked upon their cattle. Then, crossing 
 the river, he marched eastward against the 
 Malli and Sudraese, the latter of v/hom ap- 
 pear from their designation to have been 
 derived from the Soodra caste, while among 
 the former the Brahmins decidedly pre- 
 dominated. They did not intermarry, and 
 had little or no fricndh' intercourse. The 
 sudden danger which threatened their inde- 
 pendence had driven them to a partial junc- 
 tion, and their aggregate forces are stated 
 at the lowest at 80,000 foot, 10,000 horse, 
 and 700 chariots, but want of unanimity in 
 the choice of a leader had prevented their 
 combination. The Malli especially seem to 
 have relied confidently on the strength of 
 their fortified towns, and on the natural 
 advantages of their peninsula, which was 
 protected to the north by a desert of con- 
 siderable extent. As it was on this side 
 that they might be expected to feel most 
 secure, Alexander struck across the desert 
 into the heart of the country with a division 
 of light troops, while two separate corps, un- 
 der Hephajstion and Ptolemy, traversed it in 
 other directions to intercept the fugitives he 
 might drive before him. By marching day 
 and night, with a very short intermission, 
 he appeared early on the second morning 
 before one of the strongholds, in which, as 
 likely to be last attacked, many of the 
 natives had taken refuge. A great number 
 were surprised unarmed without the walls, 
 many were put to the sword, the rest fled 
 into the town, which, notwithstanding a 
 gallant defence, was speedily stormed, and 
 the people massacred without distinction. 
 The inhabitants of the neighbouring villages 
 forsook them, and some fled to the Hy- 
 draotes, pursued in a forced night march by 
 Alexander, who, on coming np to the ford, 
 made considerable slaughter among those 
 who had not yet crossed, and then, plunging 
 in the stream, pursued the fugitives on the 
 opposite side. IManj^ took refuge in an- 
 other fortified town, which is described by 
 the Greeks as if inhabited by Brahmins 
 only, and these are mentioned as a different 
 race from the Malli, who fled to them for 
 shelter. Here the most determined resis- 
 tance was ofl'ered ; when the besieged could 
 no longer defend their walls against the 
 
 mines ; — tins seems to refer to the Salt range of 
 Pindi Waden Khan. 
 
 • According to Arvian (lib. vi., cap. 2), by the 
 final arrangement of the affairs of the northern Pun- 
 jaub, Porus gained a fresh addition of territory, 
 
 and became lord of (in all) seven nations and 2,000 
 cities. 
 
 t Quintus Ciirtius, lib. ix., cap. fi. 
 
 X The chief obstructions appear to have been worn 
 away, for the passage is no longer formidable.
 
 CONTESTS WITH THE MALLI— ALEXANDER WOUNDED. 
 
 33 
 
 superior skill of tlic assailants, they re- 
 trciitcfl to tilt; citadel, and tliis beinf; 
 stormed, set fire to their houses; and almost 
 all, to the number of 5,000, perished l\^\\t- 
 in^^, or in the llamcs. The last memorable 
 contest with the MalJi, occurred in the 
 taking of their capital, wliieh Burncs con- 
 siders to be represented by Moultan, but 
 llenncll supposes to have been at Tolumba, 
 nearer the Ilydraotes. Ilavin;^ dispersed the 
 hostile army drawn u]) on the hif^h and 
 steep banks of this river, Alexander en- 
 circled the town with his cavahy, and the 
 next morninr; commenced the attack on two 
 sides. The besieged retreated to the citadel, 
 j'.nd the king and his troops, cutting their 
 way with the hatchet through a postern, 
 arrived at the foot of tlic wall. Here 
 Alexander eagerly called for scaling lad- 
 ders, but these, from the supposition that 
 all resistance was over, had been mostly left 
 behind. Two or three were liowever 
 brought; seizing the first, Alexander fixed it 
 himself, mounted and gained the top of the 
 wall, which it seems was narrow and with- 
 out battlements. The soldiers, alarmed for 
 his safety, crowded after him with such im- 
 patience that the ladders broke with their 
 ■weight, and Alexander, in his splendid 
 armour, with but three companions, stood a 
 mark for the enemy's missiles from the 
 nearest towers and the adjacent parts of the 
 fortress. The JIaccdouians beneath, en- 
 treated him to throw himself into their 
 arms. He liesitated a moment, but to turn 
 his back upon his foes, even under such cir- 
 cumstances as these, was a step he could 
 not bring himself to take ; and, probably 
 remembering that his guards would dare a 
 thousand deaths for his rescue, he lea])t 
 down into the citadel, and alighting on his 
 feet, took his stand against the wall, shel- 
 tered also by the trunk and spreading 
 boughs of a tree. Here he defended him- 
 self, until joined by his three associates, one 
 of whom (Abreas) speedily received a mortal 
 wound from an arrow, in the face. Almost 
 immediately afterwards another arrow 
 pierced Alexander's corslet, lodging deep in 
 the right breast ; and, after a short struggle, 
 fainting through loss of blood, he sank upon 
 his shield. His remaining companions, 
 Peucestes and Leonnatus, though both 
 wounded, stood over him until they were 
 
 * It must be remembered that cities, so called, are 
 very easily founded in the east. For this purpose 
 a fort or castle, and walls of brick or mud, marking 
 out the limits of " the Pettah" or town suffice for a 
 
 joined by their friends, who, by various ex- 
 pedients, (such as driving pegs into the clay 
 walls,) had climbed the top, and forced a 
 gate from the inside, through whieli num- 
 bers jiourcd in, carried off their king, and 
 in thrir fury slaughtered every man, woman, 
 and child without exception. For some 
 time the conqueror lay in his tent, reduced 
 to the last extremity by the great loss of 
 blood which followed the extraction of the 
 Ijarbed steel, while deep anxiety prevailed 
 in the camp — inspired jjartiy by true affec- 
 tion, and partly by fear fur themselves, in 
 the event of the death of the only man they 
 believed capable of leading them back safely 
 through the strange lamls they had traversed 
 as victors. At length Alexander rallied ; 
 during liis tedious convalescence, such of 
 the jNIalli and Sudracaj as had remained in 
 arms, tendered submission. The envoys 
 consisted of above 100 of their chief men ; 
 they were persons of lofty stature and bear- 
 ing, all rode in chariots, were clad in linen 
 robes embroidered with purple and gold, 
 and bore magnificent presents. According 
 to Curtius, a tribute of the same amount as 
 they had previously paid the Arachosians 
 was imposed upon them ; and a thousand of 
 their bravest warriors were demanded as 
 hostages, or, if they were willing, to serve 
 in the Greek array. These were immedi- 
 ately sent, together with 500 chariots as a 
 free gift, and, among other rarities, several 
 tamed lions and tigers. Alexander, pleased 
 with their readiness, accepted the chariots 
 and sent back the hostages. At the eon- 
 flucnee of the Aeesincs with the Indus, he 
 ordered a city,* with docks and arsenals, to 
 be constructed ; and sailed down the latter 
 river to the chief place of a people, called, 
 by the Greeks, Sudraca^ or Sogdi. Here 
 he planted a colony; changed the name to 
 Alexandria, built an arsenal, refitted a part 
 of liis fleet, and, proceeding southward, en- 
 tered the rich and fertile territories of a 
 powerful ruler, whose real name has been 
 apparently perverted into that of ^lusi- 
 canus. This prince proffered allegiance, 
 which Alexander accepted, but ordered a 
 fortress to be built in his capital, which was 
 occupied by a ^Macedonian garrison ; thence, 
 marching to the westward, he advanced 
 against a chief, spoken of under the name 
 of Oxyeanus, or Porticanus, who was con- 
 commencement, and population snon follows, brouglit 
 either by compulsion or attracted by the natural ad- 
 vantages of the site, to erect there the mud hovels 
 which form their ordinarj- dwellings.
 
 34 
 
 EXPLORATION OF THE MOUTH OF THE INDUS— b.c. 335. 
 
 sidered to have held himself suspiciously 
 aloof, and stormed two of his cities — in one 
 of which, Oxycanus was himself taken or 
 slain ; upon this all the other towns sub- 
 mitted without resistance. In the adjacent 
 high-lands, a chief, called Sambus, whose 
 territory is now known as Siude, fled from 
 his capital (according to Arrian) at the ap- 
 proach of the invader ; who took possession 
 of his elephants and treasure, and proceeded 
 to capture a town which ventured to oppose 
 him, at the instigation of some Brahmins, 
 whom he slew. The same influence, during 
 Alexander's absence, had been exerted in 
 the court of Musicauus, and he revolted, in 
 an evil hour, for himself and his country : 
 Being taken prisoner he was crucified 
 with the leading Brahmins, and the chief 
 towns razed to the ground, or subjected to 
 the stern surveillance of foreign garrisons. 
 The submission of the king of Pattala, 
 named or entitled Moeris, Avhose rule ex- 
 tended over the Delta of the Indus, com- 
 pleted Alexander's command of that river. 
 At Pattala, (thought to be now represented 
 either by Tatta or Allore,) he immediately 
 prepared to fortify a citadel, form a harbour, 
 and build docks sufficient for a large fleet, 
 and likewise to dig wells in the neighbouring 
 districts, where there was great scarcity of 
 water, to render the country habitable, and 
 suitable for the passage of troops or tra- 
 vellers. According to a modern writei', 
 (Droysen,) Alexander's object in so doing 
 was nothing less than to facilitate the com- 
 munication between Pattala and the east of 
 India, and to open it for caravans from the 
 countries on the Ganges and from the Dec- 
 can; but even supposing him to have obtained 
 sufficient geographical knowledge for the 
 formation of this plan, he had no present 
 means of executing it, and must have con- 
 tented himself meanwhile in surveying the 
 mouths and delta of the Indus, and taking 
 measures for the establishment of com- 
 mercial intercourse with the West. With a 
 squadron of fast sailing galleys he prepared 
 to explore the western brancJi of the river 
 to the sea ; but the voyage proved disastrous, 
 the native pilots brought from Pattala made 
 their escape, and on tlie second day a 
 violent gale meeting a rapid current of the 
 Indus, caused a swell in wliich most of tlic 
 galleys were severely injured and many 
 went to pieces. While the shipwrights were 
 engaged in repairing this misfortune a few 
 light troops were sent up the country in 
 search of pilots, who being obtained, con- 
 
 ducted Alexander safely almost to the mouth, 
 when the wind blew so hard from the sea, 
 that he took refuge in a canal {nullah) pointed 
 out by them. Here the Macedonians, first 
 beheld the phenomenon called the "'Bore," 
 and witnessed with extreme consternation 
 the sudden rush of a vast volume of water 
 from the ocean up the river-channel, with 
 such violence as to shatter the galleys not 
 previously firmly imbedded in the mud. 
 After ajrain refitting, the fleet was moored 
 at an island named Cilluta, but Alexander, 
 with the best sailors, proceeded to another 
 isle, which lay beyond in the ocean. Here 
 he offered sacrifices to various deities ; then, 
 putting out in the open sea, to satisfy him- 
 self that no land lay within view to the 
 southward, he celebrated different rites in 
 honour of the sea-god Neptune, whose pro- 
 per realm he had now entered. The victims, 
 and the golden vessels in which the libations 
 had been offered, having been thrown into 
 the deep, he rejoined the squadron, and re- 
 turned by the same arm of the Indus to 
 Pattala. 
 
 The navigation of the rivers ha,d employed 
 about nine months ; and nearly four appear 
 to have been spent in and near Pattala. It 
 was toward the end of August 325 b.c.,* 
 when the preparations were completed for 
 the departure of the fleet and army from 
 the Indus ; the former, under Nearchus the 
 Cretan, being destined to undertake a voy- 
 age of discovery to the Persian Gulf; the 
 latter, under Alexander, to march along the 
 coast — an enterprise of little less danger, in 
 which, according to tradition, the armies of 
 Semiramis and Cyrus had perished almost 
 to a man. Of the real difficulties of the 
 route Alexander had probably but a vague 
 conception, but he was incited to encounter 
 them, by a desire to provide for the exigen- 
 cies of the fleet, and to explore and consoli- 
 date a portion of the empire which he had 
 hitherto at most but nominally subjected. 
 The force of either armament is not re- 
 corded. On invading India it would ap- 
 pear the army liad consisted of 120,000 
 men, and while there had received rein- 
 forcements ; allowing therefore for the 
 numbers lost or left behind in garrisons 
 and colonics, and for the division previously 
 sent from Pattala under Crateriis, (through 
 Arachosia to Carmania,) probably, at least 
 
 * ]1r. Vincent in bis Voyarjc of Nearchus, vol. 
 i. 1). 180, fixes the time of dcpai-turc at a year 
 earlier, but I have preferred followinp; Thirlwall's 
 reading or rather correction of Arrian's clu'onology.
 
 HOMEWARD ROUTES OF ALEXANDER AND NEARCHUS. 
 
 35 
 
 50,000 remained under the immediate com- 
 mand of the king. Respecting tlie squadron 
 under Nearclius, wo liavc no other guide 
 than the list of the thirty-three galleys hc- 
 forc referred to as c([uipi)cd on tlic Ilydas- 
 pes ; many of these were fitted out hy in- 
 dividuals at tlieir own cost, for it would 
 appear that at that period the finances of 
 their leader were at a very low ebb, pro- 
 bably owing to the unbounded munificence 
 with which he lavished upon his friends 
 what lic had accpiircd by the sword. Sonic 
 weeks had yet to elapse before the trade- 
 winds would set in from the north-east, and 
 so become favourable to the voyage. The 
 departure of the army was not however de- 
 layed on this account, and Alexander set 
 out on his return to the West, leaving the 
 admiral and fleet to follow at leisure. Ilis 
 route need be here but briefly noticed. 
 Crossing the chain of mountains which 
 descends west of the Indus from the I'aro- 
 pamisus to the sea, he entered a region sur- 
 rounded on three sides by lofty ranges, tra- 
 versed by a river called the Arabius, [Poor- 
 allee or river of Sonmeamj,) which separated 
 the territory of two independent tribes — the 
 Arabitre and Oritsc, the former of whom 
 fled to tl'.c adjacent desert, but the latter, 
 who were more civilised and their lands 
 better cultivated, offered a formidable resist- 
 ance, fighting desperately with poisoned 
 arrows. Their country was however overrun 
 by the cavalry ; and, in what seems to have 
 been the largest of the villages in which 
 they lived, named Rambacia, Alexander 
 planted a colony. Thence advancing 
 through a difficult pass in the western 
 mountains, he arrived at about the begin- 
 ning of October in the wild barren region 
 of Gedrosia, the southern ]Mekran ; tlie 
 whole coast of which as far as Cape Jask, 
 is called by the Greeks, the land of the 
 Ichthyophagi or Fish-eaters. The heat, 
 though beginning to subside, was still ex- 
 cessive ; the troops generally moved during 
 the night, but often at daybreak were 
 obliged to prolong their weary march 
 under a burning sun, until they should 
 reach the next watering-place. Yet their 
 road seems to have seldom diverged more 
 than two or three days' journey from the sea 
 — being frequently within sight of it — with- 
 out crossing any part of the Great Sandy 
 Desert, bounded by the mountains of 
 southern Mckran ; except perhaps for a 
 short distance near the confines of Gedrosia 
 and Carmania (Kerman). In the latter 
 
 fruitful* and well-watered province, Alex- 
 ander was soon after his arrival joined by 
 Craterus and his division, and all anxiety 
 respecting Nearehus was subsequently dis- 
 pelled by tidings tliat the admiral had 
 landed on the coast within five days' march 
 of the camp. lie had been compelled by 
 the hostility of the natives at Pattala, to 
 start before the proper season had arrived ; 
 and, though he waited four-aud-twenty days 
 on the Arabite coast, three of his vessels 
 were afterwards lost in the adverse monsoon. 
 On the coast of the Oritjcf lie met Leonnatus, 
 who had been left in Rambacia to furnish 
 him with a ten days' supply of corn, and 
 who had been meanwhile engaged in a 
 sharp conflict with the natives. Nearehus 
 does not appear to have lighted on any of 
 the magazines stored at various points by 
 Alexander for his use ; but, after manifold 
 hardships and perils from the dangers of 
 an unknown sea, the barrenness of the 
 coast, the hostility of the people, and the 
 despondency of his own crews, he at length 
 with the aid of a Gedrosian pilot reached 
 the mouth of the Persian Gulf, and 
 eventually lauded near the mouth of the 
 river Anainis [Ibrahim), not far to the west 
 of the island of Ormuz. These happy events 
 were celebrated by a solemn festival and 
 triumphal procession — enlivened, as usual, 
 by gymnastic games, musical and poetical 
 contests, which probably gave rise to the 
 idea of the march through Carmania having 
 been one continued Bacchanalian revel. 
 The king urged Nearehus to allow some 
 other officer to conduct the fleet to the 
 mouth of the Tigris and not expose himself 
 to further danger and fatigue : but he would 
 not consent to let another complete his glo- 
 rious expedition, and rejoined the squadron 
 with orders to meet Alexander at Susa. As 
 it was winter the main body of the army 
 proceeded thither along the Persian Gulf 
 where the climate was mild, and Alexander 
 with some light troops and cavalry took the 
 upper road through Persepolis. At Susa 
 we take leave of this great man ; his career 
 so far as India was concerned was quite 
 ended, indeed life itself was fast ebbing 
 away. In the spring of 323 B.C., in the 
 second year after his return to Babylon, 
 while planning a fresh capital for his Asiatic 
 empire, he caught a fever in the Mesopo- 
 tamian marshes, and this disorder being in- 
 creased by one of the drinking matches 
 • Strabo says the gi-apes hung in clusters threo 
 feet long. ' t See note to page 27.
 
 36 
 
 DEATH OF ALEXANDER, b.c 323.— STATE OF THE HINDOOS. 
 
 which disgraced his court, abruptly termi- 
 nated an eventful career at thirty-two years 
 of age, the solace of his last days being to 
 hear Nearchus relate " the story of his 
 voyage, and all that was most observa- 
 ble with respect to the ocean."* The long 
 and sanguinary contests which ensued 
 among his generals, — commencing while his 
 body lay unembalmed and ending not until 
 the majority of those disputants themselves, 
 as well as all of his kin, (including his half- 
 brother and successor Arridffius, his wives 
 Statira and Roxaua, his posthumous son 
 Alexander, and his beloved though wicked 
 and intriguing mother Olympias,) had fallen 
 victims to the treacherous plots formed by 
 the majority of them against each other — 
 have no place in these pages. The history 
 and triumphs of Alexander have been nar- 
 rated at some length, for the sake of show- 
 ing the manner in which he was led on, 
 first by the pursuit of Darius, and after- 
 wards of Bessus, to Bactria and to the 
 verge of ludia. His progress is no mere 
 matter of antiquarian research,t but exer- 
 cises an important bearing on the political 
 question of the present time, respecting the 
 possible advance of an European army 
 through central Asia to the Indus, or via 
 Syria, the Euphrates, and the Persian Gulf, 
 to the shores of the Indian Ocean ; a sub- 
 ject which will be discussed when examining 
 the motives of the British incursions iuto 
 Afghanistan, in 1839-10. 
 
 In the history of the civilized world, the 
 epoch of Alexander would ever be memora- 
 ble were it only for his exploits in India, 
 
 • Langhonie's Translation uf PlutarcKs Life of 
 AlexiintJer, p. 218. 
 
 t It may be here well to observe, that in the fore- 
 j^oing brief sketch of Alexander's march, written for 
 f^eneral readers, no attempt has been made to enter 
 upon the discussion of the disputed localities at 
 which he conquered or founded cities. One such 
 point would involve as much space as can here be 
 devoted to the whole march — at least, if the varying; 
 opinions of the several authorities ancient and 
 modern, were to be fairly and fully stated. I have, 
 therefore (with some slight exceptions), merely given 
 the probal)le sites, leaving the reader to prosecute 
 further inquiries in the pages of the oriental scholars 
 already rc))eatedly named. It is greatly to be re- 
 gretted that the works of none of the primary his- 
 torians have descended to us, save some fragments 
 preserved by their successors. Of these last, Arrian, 
 who wrote in the early part of the second century 
 B.C., is recognized as the most trustworthy, though 
 his bald outline contrasts forcibly with the more 
 liighly-coloured pictures of Quintus Curtius, who 
 seems to have followed Alexander's campaigns with 
 much diligence, ijtrabo also is a most valuable 
 authority on this as on other geographical questions. 
 
 since by them this great country was first 
 placed as it were within reach, and some 
 firm ground afforded to European geogra- 
 phers whereon to set foot in future investi- 
 gations. The Greek historians though often 
 contradictory, and censurable in many re- 
 spects, have yet recorded much valuable 
 information respecting the Indians (as they 
 term the Hindoos), the accuracy of which is 
 attested by the ancient records revealed to 
 us by the labours of oriental students, and 
 further by the striking resemblance which 
 their descriptions bear, even after the lapse 
 of two thousand years, to the existing cha- 
 racteristics of the inhabitants of the coun- 
 tries then visited. Thus Arrian, whose 
 account of Ancient India is unquestionably 
 the most to be relied on of any now extant, 
 notices among other points the slender 
 form of the Hindoos, the classes or sects 
 into which they were divided, and the pro- 
 hibition of intermarriage, widow burning,} 
 perpetuation of trades in families, vegetable 
 diet, faces streaked with colours, men wear- 
 ing earrings, veils covering the head and 
 shoulders, parti-coloured shoes, umbrellas 
 carried only over principal personages, cot- 
 ton manufactures of great fineness and 
 whiteness, two-handed swords, and other 
 matters. The people appear to have been 
 extraordinarily numerous, and to have made 
 considerable progress in the arts of civilised 
 life. Their bravery was strikingly manifest ; 
 and it is remarkable, that notwithstanding 
 the numbers recorded as having fallen in 
 their engagement with Alexander, are as 
 usual incredibly greater on their side than 
 
 Yet the loss of the writings of Barton or Biton the 
 authorised recorder of the marches, is irreparable, 
 (especially when we consider the importance attached 
 by Alexander to accurate geographical information) 
 as also those of the iirst Ptolemy, and of Apol- 
 lodorus the famed historian of Bactria. No conclu- 
 sive opinion can be formed regarding the knowledge 
 possessed by the Hindoos of this invasion, until we 
 are belter acquainted with the records still stored up 
 and hidden from us in various places. Thus, the 
 literary treasures of the libraries of Patan (a city in 
 Kajpootana) of Jcssulmer (a town north-west ol 
 Joudpore) Cambay, and the Thibetian monasteries 
 remain to be explored, as also many other valuable 
 MS. collections, including those of the travelling 
 Jain and Boodhist bishops. According to Tod and 
 other writers, Alexander is known in India under 
 the name of Escander JJ/mlcaniein (two-horned), in 
 allusion to his dominions in what they considered 
 tlic eastern and western extremities of the earth. 
 The rajahs of (Jhiltoor are also said to boast of de- 
 scent from the sovereign termed Porus who opposed 
 the Macedonian conqueror. 
 
 X In the country of Taxile.s, but only however as 
 an exceptional instance.
 
 INTERCOURSE BETWEEN SELEUCUS AND CHANDRA GUPTA. 37 
 
 his ; yet he lost a larger proportion of troops 
 in battle with tliciii tliaii had i)reviously 
 fallen in the Persian war. The odlce of the 
 husbandniau was invariably held sacred 
 among the Hindoos, he was never dis- 
 tnrbed in his labours, and to root up or 
 wilfully injure growing crops was a breach 
 of a recognised natural law no native prince 
 would have ventured to commit. On the 
 whole the impression of the Irulian eharae- 
 ter left on tlu; mind of the Greeks was de- 
 cidedly favourable; the people were described 
 as sober, moderate, peaceable, singularly 
 truthful, averse to slavery in any form, and 
 attached to liberal municipal institutions. 
 
 The productions of India had by tedious 
 routes (which it will be necessary to |)oint 
 out in a subsecpicnt section, when depicting 
 the present state of their commerce), long 
 found a ready market in Europe. The de- 
 sire for them now increased tenfold. The 
 foresight of Alexander was fully vindicated 
 by the rapidity with which the Egyptian 
 Alexandria began, under the first Ptolemy, 
 to receive and pour forth its full tide of 
 wealth ; and Pabylon also became a great 
 emporium. His characteristic policy* in 
 freeing the Euphrates and Tigris from the 
 physical impediments to navigation placed 
 by a weak restrictive government, shattered 
 the fetters which had long bound the enter- 
 prising spirit of trade in these countries, 
 and enabled it to find vent in the passage 
 opened up with India, both by sea and laud. 
 
 The cities or military stations placed 
 near the Indus soon languished, for the 
 Europeans left there by the king, on hear- 
 ing of his death hastened to escape from 
 what they had from the first considered no 
 better than hopeless exile. Eut commerce 
 had received a [lowerful stimulus, and cotton 
 and silk manufactures, ivory, gems richly 
 set, costly gums, pepper and cinnamon, 
 dyes and drugs, were poured rapidly into 
 Europe in return for the precious metals,t 
 which entered India in coins of many forms 
 (now vainly sought for by antiquarians), and 
 were there melted down to be shaped into 
 idols, or to deck unhallowed shrines, and be 
 thus stored up to an incalculable extent, to 
 gorge eventually the avarice of the ruthless 
 iMussulmans of a later age. 
 
 • Alexander's conquests were intended, as has 
 been repeatedly stated, as a means of carryinir out 
 liU vast commercial schemes. Ho hoped out of war 
 to bring peace ; and one of his favourite plans to 
 promote this ultimate object was, the founding of 
 several new cities in Asia and in Europe, the former 
 to be peopled with Europeans, and the latter with 
 
 TnK GiiEEK TO THE ]MonAMMi:i)A\ Inva- 
 sions. — The king of the Prasii (as the 
 (Jreeks termed the Prachi or East) at the 
 time of Alexander's camiiaign in the Pun- 
 jaub, was the last Nanda, who, as has been 
 shown, both Greek and Hindoo writers agree 
 in describing as of low birth. He was slain 
 by his successor, Chandra Gujita, or San- 
 dracottus, about 310, n.c, who appears to 
 have spent a short time when a youth in the 
 Macedonian camp, whence he fled to avoid 
 the wrath of Alexander, which he liad roused 
 in some unexplained manner. Chandra 
 Gupta was king when Selcueus, to whom 
 in the division of power Syria and the 
 Hactrian and Indian satraprics had fallen, 
 proceeded to claim the sovereignty, though 
 at first under the name of the governorship of 
 these territories. He marched in person to 
 reduce the local authorities to obedience, 
 ami flushed with victory proceeded at the 
 head of a considerable force to India, b.c. 
 303. The brief and conflicting accounts of 
 his progress which have descended to us, 
 indicate that he advaticed even to the 
 Ganges, but was deterred from warlike pro- 
 ceedings, either by the necessity of turning 
 back with his strength unimpaired to defend 
 another portion of his dominions attacked 
 by Antigonus, or else by the formidable 
 array drawn out against him by Chandra 
 Gupta, who had previously greatly extended 
 and consolidated his kingdom. The result 
 appears to have been that Selcueus made 
 over to the Hindoo sovereign, not only all the 
 country conquered by Alexander eastward 
 of the Indus, but also that to the westward 
 as far as the river Arabius ; while Chandra 
 Gupta on his part acknowledged this con- 
 cession by a present of 500 war chariots. 
 How far Porus and Taxiles, or their succes- 
 sors, were constdted in this proceeding, or 
 how they acted, is not stated ; but in tlieir 
 conduct immediately after the king's death, 
 they showed themselves faithful and much at- 
 tached to the Greeks. A family connection is 
 alleged to have been formed between Selcueus 
 and Chandra Gupta, by the marriage of a 
 daughter of the former with the latter, (who 
 being a Soodra might mai'ry as he pleased ;) 
 and it is certain that friendly intercourse ex- 
 isted between them, an ambassador named 
 Asiatics, so that " by intermarriages and exchange of 
 good offices the inhabitants of those two great con- 
 tinents might be gradually moulded into a similarity 
 of sentiments, and become attached to each other 
 with mutual afTcction." — (Diod. Sic, lib. xviii., c. 4.) 
 
 t I'liny, writing in the first century of the Chris- 
 tian era, complains that Konie was exhausted by a
 
 38 
 
 EECENTLY DECIPHERED EDICTS OF ASOCA. 
 
 Megastbeues having been sent to PaUbotbra, 
 the capital of the Prasii, where he resided 
 many years. It is further stated that the 
 Hindoo mouavch had Greek mercenaries in 
 his service, and placed Greek governors in 
 some of his provinces ; that daring his reign 
 the foreigners were much resjjectedj but 
 afterwards brought general odium upon 
 their nation throughout Western India by 
 their treacherous and cruel rapacity. Their 
 language must have spread and taken root in 
 the laud — for according to Masson, one of our 
 best authorities on this head, " there is suf- 
 ficient testimony that the Greek language 
 was studied and well known by the fashion- 
 able and higher classes during the first and 
 second centuries of the Christian Era.'' 
 The embassy of Dimachus to the son and 
 successor of Chandra Gupta (called AUitro- 
 chidas by the Greek writers), is tlie last 
 transaction recorded between Syrian and 
 Indian monarchs, until the lapse of about 
 80 years, when Autiochus tlie Great, after 
 the close of his war with the revolted pro- 
 vinces of Bactria and Parthia, entered India, 
 and made peace with a king named Sophra- 
 gaseuus (supposed to be Asoca), after exact- 
 ing from him elephants and money. 
 
 The descriptions given by Megasthenes,* 
 who had the best means of judging correctly 
 on the subjects of which he wrote, are cal- 
 culated to convey a high opinion of the 
 wealtli and power of the kingdom generally, 
 but especially of Palibotlira.t Yet, ac- 
 cording to this writer, India comprised no 
 less than 118 independent states; but this 
 however he only gives on hearsay, and, sup- 
 posing the number to be unexaggerated, we 
 cannot tell how small the territories may have 
 been which tliis eniuucration included. 
 
 drain equal to £400,000 per annum, required for the 
 purchase of hixuries — the produce of India, Seres, 
 and Arabia ; and Robertson, writing in 1791, says — 
 " India, from the age of Pliny to the present time, 
 has been always considered and execrated as a gulf 
 which swallows up the wealth of every other country, 
 that flows incessantly towaids it, and from which it 
 never returns." — (Ilixtorical Dixquisitinn, p. 20;i.) 
 Since the commencement of the jjresent century, the 
 golden current has changed its course, and flowed 
 with increasing volume from Ilindoostan to Britain, 
 not, however, by the channel of commerce merely, 
 but of compul;iory tribute, to an extent and in a 
 manner which will be subsequently shown. 
 
 • Megasthenes wrote many works, of which only 
 scattered fragments have been preserved. His dis- 
 position to exaggerate, and undue love of the mar- 
 vellous, were urged as reasons for this neglect; but 
 it is to be doubted whether the critics were always 
 competent judges of what they rejected. As it is, 
 enougli remains to testify, in connection with exist- 
 
 The Soodra successors of Chandra Gupta 
 certainly exceeded him in power — and in the 
 hyperbolical language of the Puranas, are 
 said to have brought the " whole earth under 
 one umbrella." J Asoca, the greatest of that 
 line, exercised command over the states 
 to the north of the Nerbudda river; and 
 the edicts § graven on columns at remote 
 points prove not merely the extent of his 
 dominions but also the civilized character 
 of his government, since they include orders 
 for the establishment of hospitals and dis- 
 pensaries throughout his empire, as well as 
 for planting trees and digging wells along 
 the public highways. Aud this too was 
 to be done, not only in Asoca's own pro- 
 vinces, but also in others occupied by " the 
 faithful," (meaning the Boodhists, of whom 
 this king was the great patron) , " even 
 as far as Tambapanui ; (Taprobane, or 
 Ceylon,)" and "moreover within the do- 
 minions of Antiochus the Greek [Antiochia 
 Youa Raja] of which Antiochus's generals 
 are the rulers." An edict found on a rock, 
 and from its shattered state only partially 
 legible, expresses exultation at the ex- 
 tension of the doctrines of Asoca (?) 
 Pryadarsi (especially with regard to sparing 
 the life of animals, which however is not a 
 Boodhist tenet) in foreign countries ; and 
 contains a fragment translated thus : — 
 " and the Greek king besides, by whom the 
 chapta (?) kings Turamayo, Gongakena, and 
 Maga."|| Turamayo was considered by the 
 late Mr. James Prinsep to denote Ptolemy 
 Pliiladelphus, who had a brother named 
 Magas, married to a daughter of Antiochus 
 I., which would establish that the Antiochus 
 referred to in the edict previously quoted, 
 was either the first or the second of that 
 
 ing Hindoo records, ruins, and inscriptions, that the 
 writer was a keen observer, and a valuable witness, 
 although occasionally led into the narration of 
 fables, or at least gross exaggerations. 
 
 t Palibothra was described by Megasthenes as 
 being eight miles long, and one and-a-half broad, 
 defended by a deep ditch, and a high rampart, with 
 o70 towers and 64 gates. Its site is placed by Ilen- 
 nell at I'atna, by D'Anville at Allahabad, and by 
 Wilford at Uaj-mehal. 
 
 X Wilson's Hindoo 'Tlieatre, vol. iii., p. 14. 
 
 § Similar mandates are inscribed on a rock on 
 Girnar, a mountain in Guzerat; and on a rock at 
 Dhauli in Cuttaek on the ojjposite side of India. 
 They were' deciphered by Mr. 1 rinsep, and are writ- 
 ten in I'ali, the dialect in which the sacred books 
 of the Boodhists are composed. 
 
 II At Kupur di Gliari, the entire edict exists in 
 the Arian language, tlie word translated by Prinsep 
 " Chapta" is there " chatare," _/(/«;•, Gongakena reads 
 Antukiina and Maga, Mdka, — Mussoii.
 
 INTE RCOURSE BETWEEN INDIA AND CHIN A— FIFTH CENTURY. :\d 
 
 name ; that is, either the son or grandson 
 of Seleucus. It is remarkable that Asoca, 
 in his youth, was governor of" Oojcin or 
 Malwa, which must therefore have been 
 possessed by his father. The reigning 
 family was succeeded by three other Soodra 
 dynasties, the last of whieli, the Andras, 
 acceded to power about the beginning of 
 our era; and, according to two Puranas, 
 terminated in Puliraat or Pulomarehish, 
 A.D. 436. By a curious coincidence, the 
 Chinese annals* translated by De Guigncs, 
 notice in a.d. 408, the arrival of ambassa- 
 dors from the Indian prince, Yuc-gnai, King 
 of Kia-])i-li, evidently Capili (the birth-place 
 of Boodha or, according to Colonel Sykes, 
 the seventh Boodha, Sakya-muni), which 
 the Chinese have put for all Magadha. 
 Yue-gnai again bears some resemblance to 
 Yaj-nasri, or Yajna, the king actually on 
 the throne of the Andras at the period re- 
 ferred to. A confused enumeration of 
 dynasties succeed, with little attempt at 
 historical order, from which a foreign in- 
 vasion, followed by a long period of disorder, 
 has been inferred, though perhaps not on 
 sufficient grounds. At length, after an 
 interval of several centuries, Magadha is 
 spoken of as subject to the Gupta kings of 
 Canouj, and from that period is no more 
 distinctly noticed ; but its fame has been 
 preserved, from its having been, as before 
 mentioned, the birth-place of Boodha, and 
 from its language (Magadhi, or Pali) being 
 
 * CIn-fc\-llian, a Chinese Boodliist priest, visited 
 India at the bep;inning of the fifth century, on a pil- 
 grimage to the chief seats of the religion of Boodlia, 
 where he spent six years. His travels have been 
 translated from the Chinese by M. Renmsat. The 
 Boodhistical religion, according to his account, had 
 then suH'cred a serious and irreparable decline at 
 Mathura and in the eastern districts of Hindoostan ; 
 and the Brahminical faith was in the ascendant. 
 Tenijiles and towers of past ages still existed, but 
 the population had disappeared, and the country was 
 in many such places a wilderness. Bajagriha, the 
 abode of Jarasamlha, the first of the Magadha kings, 
 and the ancient capital, tlicn exhibited the ruins of 
 a large city, of which traces were still visible to Dr. 
 Buchanan, in 1807-1814. The palace of Asoca, or 
 A-yu,at Palali-pootra.or Kusuma-pura, built of stone, 
 was entire when seen by I'VUian, and presented 
 such superior specimens of sculpture and engraving, 
 that thev were ascribed to superhuman architects — 
 genii, who laboured for the patron of Fo. The 
 city of Ni-li, built in tlic neighbourhood by Asoca, 
 was embellished by a handsome column, surmounted 
 by a lion. Other columns, with lion capitals, were 
 seen in different places. Central India is spoken of 
 as under the government of one king; the cities and 
 to'viTis large, the people rich, charitable, and just in 
 their actions, but given to discussion. In the month 
 of Jlay (the birth-day of Sakya-muni) four-wheeled 
 
 employed in the writings of that extensively 
 diffused religion, as well as in those of the 
 Jains. The claim of universal monarchy in 
 India, is found advanced in records and 
 inscriptions, not only l)y princes of the 
 Magadha dynasty, but also by those of 
 Cashmere, of Dellii, Canouj, Bcng.al, Mahva, 
 Guzerat, and other places; but the evidence 
 cited in favour of their respective claims, is 
 ])retty generally deemed insufficient, and is 
 frequently contradictory. To attempt re- 
 ducing the histories of these kingdoms and 
 their pretensions into form, would be a 
 long and tedious task ; which, even if suc- 
 cessfully accomplished, could have little 
 interest for the general reader, for at best, 
 it would be but like arranging the scattered 
 fragments of a child's puzzle, of which the 
 chief pieces are wanting. At a futui'e but 
 perhaps not distant day, the patient and able 
 research already so successfully directed to 
 the study of oriental literature, may enable 
 us to decide upon many points now involved 
 in numberless difficulties and to draw a 
 correct picture of India, vathout the dan- 
 ger, at present inevitable, of gi\nng undue 
 prominence to events of minor interest, 
 and omitting altogether many important 
 features. Before passing entirely from the 
 subject of the condition of India between 
 the time of Alexander and the oVIohammedan 
 era, it is, however, necessary to add a few 
 remarks on the chief kingdoms of Hindoostan 
 and the Deecan, so as to afford the reader 
 
 cars were drawn about the streets ; they had each 
 a building of five stages which looked like a tower, 
 were ornamented with gold, silver, coloured glass, 
 and embroidery, and hung with carpets and white 
 felt, adorned with painted figures of the celestial 
 divinities ; on the summits were a figure of Boodha. 
 This was a season of great festivity, the streets were 
 filled with iieoide who flocked in from the neigh- 
 bouring country; there were theatrical representa- 
 tions, fe.its of the athletrc, concerts of music and 
 nightly illuminations; hospit.als were opened for the 
 sick, cripples, and orphans, who were solaced and 
 relieved by the representatives of the diflerent 
 chiefs. At Magadha the priest sat himself down in 
 a monastery for three yea)-s to study the sacred lan- 
 guage and copy the MSS. Bengal then carried on 
 extensive maritime traffic with the south-west regions 
 and other places. Fa Hian took a passage in a large 
 trading ship to Ceylon, which he reached (during the 
 north-west monsoon) in fourteen days; thence he 
 sailed for Java in a Hindoo ship, with 200 people, 
 provisioned for ninety days. Altogether the travels 
 of this intelligent Chinese abound in curious infor- 
 mation ; they corroborate the accounts of cities, and 
 of tlie manners and customs of their inhabitants, 
 given by native writers, and j)rove the Hindoos were 
 then merchants, and even navigators on a consider- 
 able scale. — (.Abstracted from twtes on Ancient India. 
 By Colonel Svkes. London, 1841 ; p. G to 76.)
 
 40 
 
 KINGDOMS OF INDIA DURING THE DARK AGES. 
 
 some slight clue to their relative impor- 
 tance, antiquity, and position.* 
 
 That of Bengal is mentioned in the 
 Maha Bharat, and the Ayeen Akbery con- 
 tinues the succession through five dynasties 
 up to the Mohammedan conquest. These 
 lists are to some extent supported by the 
 inscriptions found in various places, which 
 among other matters refer to a series of 
 princes with names ending in Pala, who 
 reigned apparently from the ninth to the 
 latter part of the eleventh century, and are 
 asserted to have ruled all India from the 
 Himalaya to Cape Comorin, and from the 
 Brahmapootra to and even beyond the 
 Indus. They are also asserted to have sub- 
 dued Tibet. The dynasty of Pala was suc- 
 ceeded by one whose names ended in Sena, 
 and this last was subverted by the Moham- 
 medans about A.D. 1203. 
 
 The kingdom of Malwa is far less ancient 
 than those already mentioned. Its famous 
 monarch, Yicramaditya, is the Haroun al 
 Raschid of Hindoo tales, of which a great 
 number have been collated by the inde- 
 fatigable zeal of Colonel Wilford. He is 
 said to have passed the early part of his life 
 among holy men in austere seclusion, and 
 even when arrived at regal power, to have 
 eschewed all pomp, using utensils of earth 
 rather than of gold, and sleeping on a mat 
 instead of a bed. There is reason to believe 
 that this hero of romance was really a pow- 
 erful monarch and conqueror, who ruled a 
 civilised and prosperous country, extended his 
 sway over the Deccan and even over Cabool, 
 and was a distinguished patron of literature. 
 Oojein became populous on account of the 
 great image of JNIaha-Cali, or Time, which 
 he erected there ; but he himself worshipped 
 only one invisible God. He was slain, 56 B.C., 
 in old age, in battle with Salivahana, aprinceof 
 the Deccan, who will be subsequently referred 
 to; and his death formed the commencement 
 of an era, which is still current among the 
 
 * The autliorities mainly relied on being the valu- 
 able summary contained in Elphinstone's India,yo\. i., 
 pp. 388 to i'Z^) ; tlie Ayccn Akhcry : Brigg's transla- 
 tion of Ferislita ; Todd's Kajast'han : and Grant 
 L)uft''.s History of the Muhndtas. 
 
 f Vincent's translation of the Periphls, p. 111. 
 
 \ Malcolm's Persia, vol. i., p. 112. — "The coun- 
 tries beyond the Oxus, as far as Ferghana, all those 
 to the Indus, some provinces of India, and the linest 
 districts of Arabia, acknowledged the sway of the 
 mighty monarch of I't-rsia." Sir John adds that 
 the emperors of China and India sent presciits, the 
 description of which reads more like a chapter from 
 the Arabian Niyhls than the page of even a I'ersiau 
 historian. Among the gifts of the first potentate 
 
 countries northward of the Nerbudda. It 
 is of Yicramaditya that the traditions of uni- 
 versal empire are most common in India. A 
 long period of anarchy ensued in Malwa 
 upon this abrupt conclusion of his able gov- 
 ernment. The next epoch is that of the re- 
 nowned Rajah Bhoja ; whose reign of forty 
 years terminated about the end of the 
 eleventh century. His grandson was taken 
 prisoner, and his country conquered by the 
 Rajah of Guzerat ; but Malwa soon reco- 
 vered its independence, which was finally 
 destroyed by the Mohammedans, a.d. 1231. 
 In Guzerat, from its having been the re- 
 sidence of Crishna, and other circumstances, 
 an early principality would appear to have 
 existed ; and the whole is spoken of as un- 
 der one dominion, by a Greek writer of the 
 second century. f Colonel Tod mentions 
 another principality, founded at Ballabi, in 
 the peninsula of Guzerat, in the middle of the 
 second century, b.c, by an emigrant of the 
 Solar race, which reigned in Oiide. This 
 dynasty was expelled in SSI', by an army of 
 barbarians, variously conjectured to have 
 been Parthians, Persians of the Sassanian 
 dynasty, and Indo-Bactrians. The second 
 supposition is probably correct, as Sir John 
 jMalcolm asserts on the authority of various 
 Persian writers, that Nousheerwan, who 
 reigned at or about this period, carried his 
 victorious arms into India ; but that the tri- 
 bute, which was the fruit of his conquest, 
 was after his death no longer paid to his 
 degenerate sou and successor. J Another 
 Rajpoot tribe, called the Chauras, succeeded 
 to the rule of Guzerat, and finally estab- 
 lished their capital in a.d. 746, at Anhal- 
 wara, now Pattan. Failing Chaura, in a.d. 
 931, through the death of the last rajah 
 without male issue, the succession devolved 
 on his son-in-law, a prince of the Rajpoot 
 tribe of Salonka ; whose family were chiefs 
 of Callian, in the Deccan, above the Ghauts. 
 The kingdom was absorbed by the Mussul- 
 
 was the image of a panther, the body covered with 
 pearls, and the eyes formed of rubies ; a wonderful 
 robe, the border of which was of celestial blue, while 
 the centre was occu])icd by a representation of the 
 king himself, clothed in his royal robes, and sur- 
 rounded by his attendants; and lastly, enclosed in 
 the same golden box as the robe was a female 
 figure, the beauty of the face veiled by long tresses, 
 and " overpowering as a flash of day during a dark 
 night." The Indian offerings were a thousand 
 pounds' weight of aloe-wood, a vase filled with pearls, 
 and formed of one precious stone, on which was 
 engraven the figures of a maiden seven bands in 
 height, and of a lion ; and a carpet made ol a ser- 
 pent's skin, delicately fine and exquisitely tinted.
 
 CANOUJ, CASHMERE, DELHI, BENARES, SINDE, THE PUNJAUB. 41 
 
 man conquests of 1297. Canovj, in early 
 times, was called Pancliala, and seems to 
 have been a long but narrow territory, ex- 
 tending on the east of Nepaiil (wliieh it iu- 
 chulcd) ; and on the west, along the C'lnun- 
 1ml and Bunnass as far as Ajmcer. Notwith- 
 standing the noliec it has attracted as one 
 of the most ancient, wealthy, and magnifi- 
 cent places in India, its early history is very 
 little known.* Its wars with the neighbour- 
 ing state of Delhi contributed to accelerate 
 the ruin of Hindoo independence ; and it 
 was conquered by the JSIussulnmns in 1193. 
 Cashmere is asserted, by its historians, to have 
 c.\isted 2,()00 years b.c. Its last monarch 
 was subdued by j\Iahniood, a.d. 101,'). Its an- 
 nals, as before stated, have been written care- 
 fully and at length ; and placed within reach 
 of the British public by Professor Wilson. 
 
 Delhi is first named in the I\Iaha Bharat; 
 it was governed by a Rajpoot line, whose 
 last prince was dethroned, a.d. 1050, by an 
 ancestor of the Prithwi Rajah, conquered 
 by the Mussulmans, a.d. 1192. 
 
 The earliest mention of Benares is found 
 in the same poem ; and its independence 
 terminated contemporaneously with that of 
 Delhi. Mith'di existed in Rama's time, and 
 was the capital of his father-in-law, Sita. 
 It was famous for a school of law, and gave 
 its name to one of the chief Indian lan- 
 guages. Gour, named in the ]\Iaha Bharat, 
 seems to have lasted up to about a.d. 1231. 
 
 Sinde, referred to in the same record, was 
 independent in the time of Alexander (325 
 B.C.); and was finally conquered by the Mo- 
 hammedans. Mewar, Jessulmer, and Jeipur, 
 founded respectively in a.d. 720, 731, and 
 967, still exist as distinct states. Ajmeer is 
 traced back by Tod, for seven generations 
 before a.d. 695 ; it fell at the same time as 
 Delhi. The Punjaub can hardly be spoken 
 of as a distinct kingdom, since it appears to 
 have been generally broken up into various 
 small states ; but from a very remote time 
 a great city is thought to have existed near 
 LahorCjt though under a different name. 
 
 Our insight into the history of the Deccan 
 commences, for the most part, at a much 
 later date than that of Hindoostan. The 
 five distinct languages — Tamul, Canai'csc, 
 Telugn, Mahratta, and Urya, are considered 
 to denote an equal number of early na- 
 tional divisions, the first-mentioned indicating 
 
 • The Pala dynasty at Canouj are tliought to have 
 displaced as paramount rulers in India, the Gupta 
 dynasty of Prayaga and Delhi. Pray.-.ga or Allah.i- 
 bad, the ancient Gupta capital, contains a column 
 
 the most ancient, viz., the country.of Dravira, 
 which occupied the extreme south of the 
 peninsula; the earliest cohjnists from Hin- 
 doostan having traversed the bleak plateaux 
 of the upjjcr Deccan, and settled down on the 
 fruitful plains of the Carnatic and Tanjore. 
 The kingdom of Pundya was formed aijout 
 the fifth century. In the time of the " Pe- 
 riplus" it comprcheuded a part of the 
 Malabar coast; but it was usually nounded 
 by the Ghauts to the westward, and occupied 
 only the territory now known as the dis- 
 tricts of Madura and Tiuivelly. The seat of 
 government was at INIadura, in Ptolemy's 
 time, and remained there until about a cen- 
 tury ago. The last prince was conquered by 
 the nabob of Arcot, in 1736. The neighbour- 
 ing kingdom of Chola was at one time of 
 considerable extent, its princes haWng, it is 
 supposed, about the middle of the eighth 
 century, possessed large portions of Carnata 
 and Tclingana. Their sway was greatly 
 diminished in the twelfth century, being re- 
 duced to the limits of the Dravira country. 
 Chola lost its separate existence about the 
 end of the seventeenth century. The capital 
 was, for the most part, at Conjeveram, west 
 of jMadras. Chera comprehended Travan- 
 core, part of INIalabar, and Coimbatore, and 
 seems to h.ave existed about the commeuce- 
 menccment of our era. It was subverted in 
 the tenth century, and its lands portioned 
 among the surrounding states. 
 
 Kerala included Malabar and Carnara. 
 About the first or second century of the 
 Christian era a colony of Brahmins from 
 Hindoostan settled here, divided the country 
 into sixtj'-four districts, and governed it by 
 means of a general assembly of their cast ; 
 renting allotments to men of the inferior 
 classes. The executive government was 
 held by a Brahmin elected every three years, 
 and assisted by a cotineil of four of the same 
 tribe ; but in the course of time, a chief of 
 the military class was appointed. The 
 northern di^^sion appears to have been 
 ruled by a dynasty of its own till the twelfth 
 century, when it was overturned by the Be- 
 lala rajahs; and subsequently became stib- 
 ject to the rajahs of Vijayanagar. 
 
 The Concan, in early times, was a wild 
 forest tract (as great part of it still remains), 
 thinly inhabited by ]\lahrattas. 
 
 Cantata seems to have been originally 
 
 with an inscription of Samadras Gupta's, which has 
 been translated by Mr. Prinsep. 
 
 t A\'hen the Pala princes held Canouj, members 
 of the family ndcd at Lahore, and thence extended
 
 42 ANCIENT DIVISIONS OF THE DECCAN, CARNATA, ORISSA, &c. 
 
 divided between tte Pandya and Chera 
 princes and those of Carnara (tlie nortliern 
 half of Kerala). It was afterwards par- 
 titioned among many petty princes, until 
 the middle of the 11th century, when one 
 considerable dynasty arose — the family of 
 Belala — who were, or pretended to be, Raj- 
 poots* of the Yadoo branch, and whose 
 power at one time extended over the whole 
 of Carnata, together with Malabar, the 
 Tamul country, and part of Telingana. 
 They were subverted by the JMussulmans 
 about A.D. 1310. The eastern part of Te- 
 lingana appears to have been, from the be- 
 ginning of the ninth to nearly the end of the 
 eleventh century, in the hands of an obscure 
 dynasty known by the name of Yadava. A 
 Rajpoot family of the Chalukya tribe reigned 
 at Callian, on the borders of Carnata and 
 Maharashta. They are traced by inscrip- 
 tions, from the tenth to the end of the twelfth 
 century ; are supposed to have possessed the 
 whole of Maharashta to the Nerbudda,t 
 and even to have been superior lords of the 
 west of Teliugana.J The last king was 
 deposed by his minister, who was in turn 
 assassinated by some fanatics of the Lingayet 
 sect, which was then rising into notice, and 
 the kingdom fell into the hands of the Ya- 
 doos of Deogiri (Doiilatabad). Another 
 branch of the Cbalukya tribe ruled over 
 Calinga, the eastern portion of Telingana, 
 which extends along the sea from Dravira 
 to Orissa. The dynasty perhaps begau 
 about the tenth century, and certainly lasted 
 through the whole of the twelfth and thir- 
 teenth ; it was greatly reduced by the Gana- 
 pati kings of Andra, and finally subverted 
 by the rajahs of Cuttack. 
 
 Andra is the name of all the inland part 
 of the Telingana country, the capital being 
 at Varangul, about eighty miles north-east 
 of Hyderabad. Its kings, Vicrama and Sali- 
 vahana, alleged to have been connected with 
 the Andra race in Magadha, are among 
 the earliest mentioned. After them, ac- 
 cording to local records, the Chola rajahs 
 succeeded ; then a race called Yavaus,§ who 
 reigned from 515, a.d., till 953 ; next came 
 the family of Ganapati, who attained great 
 
 their sway to Cabool, where they remained up to the 
 time of Sultan Mahmood, the then rajah being named 
 J aya I'ala. — Masson. 
 
 • " Some of the Hindoos assert that the tribes of 
 Brahmin and Ksholry [Cshatriya] existed from time 
 immemorial, hut that the Itajpoots are a modern 
 tribe, only known since the beginning of the Kulyoog 
 [Cnli Yuga, a.m. 321>5.] Tiie rajahs, not satisfied 
 with their married wives, had frequently children by 
 
 power about the end of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, and are even affirmed to have possessed 
 the whole of the peninsula south of the 
 Godavery. In 1332 the capital was taken 
 by a Mohammedan army from Delhi, and 
 the state merged at length in the Mussul- 
 man kingdom of Golconda. 
 
 The history of Orissa, like all others in 
 the Deccan, begins with princes mentioned 
 in the Maha Bharat, describes in a very con- 
 fused manner the successive occupation of 
 the country by Vicramaditya and Sali- 
 vahana, and the repeated invasions of Ya- 
 vans from Delhi, from a country called Babul 
 (supposed to mean Persia), from Cashmere 
 and from Sinde, between the sixth century 
 before, and the fourth after, Christ. The 
 last invasion was from the sea, and in it the 
 Yavans were successful, and kept possession 
 of Orissa for 146 years, being expelled, a.d. 
 473, by Yayati Kesari. This point is thought 
 to be the first established, for the traditions 
 regarding the Yavans cannot be satisfactorily 
 explained. The natives suppose them to 
 have been jNIussulmans, but the first Arab 
 invasion was not till the seventh century 
 after Christ. Others apply the story to 
 Seleucus, or to the Bactrian Greeks ; while 
 Masson suggests the possibility of the people 
 of Yava or Java being meant. The Kesari 
 family lasted till a. d. 1131, when their 
 capital was taken by a prince of the house 
 of Ganga Vansa ; his heirs were supplanted 
 by a Rajpoot dynasty, of the Sun or Surya 
 race. The government having fallen into 
 confusion about 1550, was seized on by a 
 Telingu chief, and ultimately annexed to the 
 ilogul empire by Akber, in 1578. The 
 greatest internal prosperity and improve- 
 ment seems to have been enjoyed towards 
 tlie end of the twelfth century ; but during 
 several years before and after that date, the 
 people of Orissa claim to have made exten- 
 sive conquests, especially to the south. In 
 the middle of the fifteenth century the gov- 
 ernment of Orissa sent armies as far as 
 Conjeveram, near Madras ; and about the 
 same time their rajali advanced to the neigh- 
 bourhood of Bidr to assist the Hindoo princes 
 of those parts against the Mohammedans. 
 
 their female slaves, who, nlthough not legitimate 
 successors to the throne, were styled Itajpoots, or 
 the children of the rajahs." — (Briggs' Translation 
 (if Fen's/ltd. — Introduction, p. Ixiii.). 
 
 t J'ide Mr. Walter Elliot's contribiitions to Joiir- 
 niil of the lioijol Asiatic Sociclij, vol. iv., p. 1. 
 
 J Wilson, Iidi-od.to Mach-cmie jxipers, p. exxix. 
 
 § The country north of I'eshawer was anciently 
 called Yava, perhaps these Yavans came thence.
 
 ANCIENT STATE OF MAHAHASHTA OR MAHRATTA COUNTRY, 43 
 
 Maharushta or tlic Muhrcdla cmmlry, 
 thougli situated on tlic frontier of tlic 
 Dcccaii, and of great size, if we may jnd^^c 
 from the wide extent over wliicli tlic lan- 
 guage bearing tliat name is spoken, is only 
 vaguely noticed in early records. After tlic 
 legends regarding Rama, whose retreat was 
 near the source of tlic Godavery, the first 
 fact mentioned is the existence of Tagara, 
 which was frequented by Egyptian mer- 
 chants 250 years b.c. It is alluded to in 
 inscriptions, as a celebrated ])laec in the 
 twelfth century, and is still well known by 
 name. It is mentioned bj'' the author of 
 the " Periplus,"* but in such a manner as to 
 certify little more respecting its site than 
 that it lay about 100 miles to the eastward 
 of Paitan, on the (jodavery. Grant Duff 
 supposes it to have been somewhat to the 
 north-east of the modern town of Bheer.f 
 It is said to have been a very great city, and 
 one of the two principal marts of Dachana- 
 bades, a country so called from Dachan, 
 which in the " Periplus" is stated to be the 
 native word for south. The other mart was 
 named Plithana.;]: Tagara, wherever situated, 
 became the capital of a line of kings of the 
 Rajpoot family of Silar. The reign of their 
 most famous monarch, Salivahana, gave rise 
 to a new era, commencing a.d. 77. He is 
 stated to have been the son of a potter, and 
 to have headed an insurrection which over- 
 turned the existing government (whatever 
 it might have been), and removed the capital 
 to Prutcsthan or Paitan, on the Godavery. 
 Prom this period nothing is known of the 
 history of Maharashta (except by the in- 
 scriptions of the petty princes of Callian 
 and Pernala) till the beginning of the twelfth 
 century : a family of Yadoos then became 
 rajahs of Deogiri, and continued to reign 
 until 1317, when the country, which had been 
 previously invaded by the ]\Iohammedaus 
 from Delhi, was finally subjugated. About 
 this time the Mussulman writers begin to 
 mention the Mahrattas by name ; before 
 they had been noticed only as inhabitants 
 of the Deccan. Our information regard- 
 
 • The "Periplus [dcsenplion] of the Erythrcan 
 Sea," is the title of a GrceK work, issued in 153.3, 
 from the printing-])ress of Froben, at Basle. It eon- 
 tains the best account extant of the commerce car- 
 ried on from the Erythrcan or Ked Sea and the coast 
 of Africa, to the East Indies, during the time that 
 Egypt was a Roman province. l)i'. Vincent, the 
 learned Uean r-' Westminster, who, in 1800, wrote 
 an elaborate treatise, in two vols., -Ito., to elucidate 
 a translation of the '' Periplus," says — " 1 have never 
 been able to discover from what manuscript the 
 work was first edited;" neither could he ascertain 
 
 ing their early attainments so utterly fails 
 to elucidate the trstiinony which the famous 
 cave temples of Ellora and elsewhere, bear to 
 the capabilities and numbers of the people 
 by whom such mighty works were planned 
 and executed, that, notwithstanding tiie use- 
 ful labours of their historian (Grant Duff), we 
 may believe there is yet much to be learned 
 respecting them, probably a very interesting 
 portion of their existence as a nation. Re- 
 cently they have played a prominent but deso- 
 lating and destructive part, which has drawn 
 from the pen of a modern writer a denunci- 
 ation of "those southern Goths, the Mah- 
 rattas." — (Tod's Rajast'han. Introduction.) 
 Concerning the social condition of the 
 inhabitants of Ilindoostan and the Deccan 
 during these dark middle ages, we have 
 certainly not sufKeient data on which to 
 found any general conclusions, except those 
 which may be deduced from the edicts of 
 such exemplary monarchs as Asoca — unhap- 
 pily rare in all countries — and other col- 
 lateral evidence. Our present information 
 divides itself into two classes ; and comes 
 cither through the channel of jjoctry, that 
 is, of history travestied into fable ; or else 
 tlirough the medium of Brahmin or Bood- 
 hist priests : it must consequently he well 
 searched and sifted before it can be relied 
 on as unbiassed by political motive or sec- 
 tarian prejudice. But search and sift as 
 we may, little light is thrown on the condi- 
 tion of the people, nor probably ever will be, 
 at least in the sense given to that phrase in 
 the present era of European and Americau 
 civilization. The states noticed in the fore- 
 going sketch would each one of them afibrd 
 matter for a volume, full of wars, usurpa- 
 tions, change of dynasty, and, above all, ex- 
 tension of dominion ; all this resting on local 
 records, and reading on smoothly enough; 
 but much of it entirely incompatible with 
 the equally cherished traditions of neigh- 
 bouring states. The code of ]Meuu is per- 
 haps an exception to this censure, but the 
 uncertainty attached to the epoch at which 
 it was written, and the extent to which its 
 
 the name of the author, generally supposed to be 
 Arrian the historian, but who, in his opinion, must 
 have lived a cefttury before. There is internal evi- 
 dence, according to the Dean, that the writer was a 
 Greek, a merchant of Alexandria, and that he ac- 
 tually made a voyage on board the fleet from Egypt 
 as far as the Oiilf of Cambay, if not to Ceylon. — 
 {Sec Vincent, vol. ii.) 
 
 t Iliston/ of the Mahraltas, vol. i., p. 25. 
 
 I Elphinstone conjectures Plithana to be a mis- 
 take of the Greek copyist for Paithana or Paitan. 
 The word occurs but once in the " Periplus."
 
 44 EARLY CIVILIZATION, RELIGION AND LAWS OF THE HINDOOS. 
 
 institutes were ever observed, greatly im- , 
 pairs its value. The first objection applies ■ 
 also to the Ramayana and Maha Bharat. 
 
 Thus much perhaps may be reasonably 
 inferred, from the concurrent testimony of 
 Hindoo and foreign records, of inscriptions, 
 and much incidental evidence of various 
 kinds — that, at a period long antecedent to 
 the Christian era, and while the natives of 
 Britain were nude, nomadic savages, the 
 people of India had attained a high position 
 in arts, science, literature, and commerce, 
 and lived under the hereditary rule of their 
 own kings or rajahs ; the evils attendant on 
 the otherwise irresponsible power of a patri- 
 archal and despotic ruler being probably 
 counterbalanced by the respective rights of 
 the chiefs of the sacred, and of the warrior 
 casts, but still more by the municipal insti- 
 tutions which seem to have been general 
 throughout the country. In many smaller 
 states the government appears to have been 
 a sort of oligarchical republic. The manners 
 and customs of the Hindoos, the influence 
 of cast, and the changes gradually brought 
 about by ]\Iussuhnan and British conquerors, 
 will, if space permit, be specially though 
 briefly narrated in another section. Between 
 the time of Menu and the Mohammedan 
 epoch, the religious and social habits of the 
 people had sadly deteriorated. Their belief 
 in an omnipresent or "all-pervasive" God 
 had gradually been warped bj' perverted but 
 plausible reasoning, into a belief that be- 
 cause God was in everything, therefore any- 
 thing might be worshipped, not simply as His 
 representative, but actually as Himself. Be- 
 ginning probably with those glorious natural 
 objects of the Sabajan heresy, the sun, moon, 
 and stars, they had at length become so de- 
 graded as to fall down before images of wood 
 and stone, and had lost sight almost wholly 
 of their original doctrine of an indivisible 
 triad, by ignoring Brahma (the creating prin- 
 ciple) and according to Vishnu (the preserv- 
 ing) or Saiva (the destroying),* a paramount 
 place in the pantheon of hero-gods, sacred 
 animals, and grotesque, or often (to Euro- 
 pean eyes) immodest figures, which gradually 
 arose, and swallowed up in Ijic darkness 
 of heathenism the rays of light which pos- 
 sibly slioue upon the earliest of the Hindoo 
 race in the ])atriarchal age. Their rvliyiuus 
 observances involved a tedious and a!nu)st 
 
 * These are mythologically reijreseiited as liaving 
 wives, namely, Seraswati or Devi, Ijakshmi or lilia- 
 vani, and Parvali or Durga, eonsidercfi metaphysi- 
 cally as the active powers_ which develop the prin- 
 ciple represented by each member of the triad. 
 
 impracticable ritual, with abstinence from 
 many things which in the christian dispen- 
 sations are treated as harmless — but the 
 character of Brahmin and also of Boodhist 
 teaching, generally distinct, was alike in 
 being, with some great and glaring excep- 
 tions, merciful and even comparatively moral. 
 The laios of the Hindoos, especially for 
 civil judicature, have been eulogized by Sir 
 W. Jones, Munro, and other authorities, 
 though severely criticised by Mill, who on 
 this subject was prejudiced, and ia fact pos- 
 sessed but a small part of the information 
 since revealed. The equal partitionment of 
 property, and the consequent disability of 
 willing away land or money, has been much 
 canvassed as to its effect in preventing the 
 accumulation or improvement of possessions. 
 It undoubtedly stimulated the dedication of 
 large sums to religious, charitable, or public 
 purposes ; to the building of temples, of 
 ' choultries or houses of refreshment for tra- 
 vellers,' and to the formation of tanks and 
 canals — most necessary works in a land where 
 such means, under Providence, can alone 
 prevent hundreds, nay thousands, not only of 
 cattle, but of human beings, from perishing 
 by the maddening pangs of thirst, or in the 
 more prolonged agonies of hunger, when the 
 parched earth, gaping in deep chasms, plainly 
 bids man, if he would be sustained by her 
 increase, use the energy and ability with 
 which God has blessed him, to supply as 
 best he can, the want of kindly dew and 
 rain, to renew her strength and fertility. 
 
 The position of ivomen was decidedly supe- 
 rior to that of the weaker sex in almost any 
 other ancient nation, with regard to the 
 hereditary laws of property : they were, if 
 unmarried, to receive portions out of their 
 brothers' allotments. Menu ordains that 
 whoever accosts a woman shall do so by the 
 title of " sister," and that way must be 
 made for her, even as for the aged, for a 
 priest, for a prince, or a bridegroom ; and in 
 his text on the laws of hospitality he enjoins 
 that " pregnant women, brides and damsels, 
 shall have food before all the otlier guests." 
 The seclusion and ignorance to which females 
 are now subjected had their origin in the 
 like Mohammedan custom. Formerly they 
 were taught to read and write, they were 
 the ornament and deliglit of the social circle ; 
 ami historic or traditionary annals abound in 
 records of their virtuous anJ noble deeds. 
 Suttee or widow-burning ; infanticide ; the 
 carrying out of the sick, when deemed past 
 recovery ; suicide under the same or dificreut
 
 ASTRONOMY, GEOMETllY, ALGEBRA, AND CHRONOLOGY. 4r. 
 
 circumstances, including immolation be- 
 neath the car of Jufjgcrnaut and self- 
 inflicted tortures arc almost entirely inno- 
 vations whicli gradually crept in : Jugger- 
 naut especially — being of quite modern date. 
 
 Tlie extent of scientific knowledge ae(]iiired 
 by the Hindoos and the date of its attain- 
 ment, is a source of endless discussion ; yet 
 the subject is too im])ortaiit to be wholly 
 liassed over, even in this intermediate stage 
 of their history. 
 
 In astronomy, much merit is assigned tliem 
 by Cassini, ]5ailly, and Playfair, who assert 
 that a considerable degree of progress 
 had been made 3,000 years before the 
 Christian era, as evidenced by observa- 
 tions still extant. La riaec, De Lam- 
 brc, and others dispute the authenticity 
 of these observations, but all agree in ad- 
 mitting a great antiquity. Mr. Bentley, who 
 has examined the calculations very minutely, 
 and is one of the most strenuous opponents 
 of the claims of the Hindoos, pronounces 
 their division of the Ecliptic into twenty- 
 seven lunar mansions, to have been made 
 B.C. 1412. Mr. Elphinstone is of opinion 
 that the Indian observations could not have 
 commenced at a later period than the fif- 
 teenth century, B.C., or one or two ectituries 
 before the first mention of astronomy in 
 Greece. In the fifth century the Brahmins 
 discussed the diurnal revolution of the 
 : earth on its axis, and they were more eor- 
 \ rect than Ptolemy in their notions regard- 
 ing the precession of the Equinoxes. 
 
 In an Indian work (the Surya Sidhanta) 
 to which the date of the fifth or sixth century 
 is generally assigned, a system of trigono- 
 metry is laid down which involves theorems 
 that were not known in Europe until the 
 sixteenth century. Geometry was probably 
 studied long previous to the date of the above 
 book, as exemplified in the demonstrations 
 of various properties of triangles, the pro- 
 
 * " Mr. Colcbrooke has fully established that 
 algebra had attained the highest pcrl'eetion it ever 
 reached in India before it was known to the 
 Arabians, and, indeed, before the first dawn of the 
 culture of the sciences among that people." — (El- 
 phinstone, vol. i., p. 250). 
 
 t The Samaritan is the most ancient of the orien- 
 tal versions of the Scriptures, but its exact age is 
 unascertained; it contains only the Pentateuch. 
 
 I The anonymous writer of a Key to the Chrono- 
 logy nf the IliiiiJoox, whose opinions are set forth in 
 2 vols. Svo., printed at Cambridge in 1820 j under- 
 takes to convince his readers that "the Hindoo 
 dates correspond with the Hebrew texts of our 
 Scriptures, and that they date the Lotos or creation 
 6,817 years from the present time, which is only six 
 
 portion of the radius to the circumference 
 of the circle, and other problems. The in- 
 vention of decimal iwlation is ascribed to 
 the Hindoos, who, even in algebra, so early 
 as the sixth century,* under a celebrated 
 teacher, (firahma (jupta,) excelled all their 
 cotemporaries, not merely in propounding 
 problems, but in its application to astrono- 
 mical investigations and geometrical demon- 
 strations. Their chronology has long been a 
 stumbling-block (see p. 15), but it is never- 
 theless considered by several critical in- 
 quirers to admit of satisfactory explanation 
 ijy means of astronomical and arithmetical 
 calculations. Megasthencs expressly declares 
 that the Indians and the .lews were the only 
 nations possessed of a rational chronology, 
 and that they agreed. Mr. JMasson remarks, 
 on this statement, — "when I look at the 
 enormous sums given of millions of years 
 elapsed during the three first yugas, and 
 ask how can they be reconciled with the 
 dictum of [Mcgastlienes, I call to mind a 
 verse somewhere in Menu, which tells us 
 that a year of a mortal is but a day with 
 the gods, and conceit that these large num- 
 bers have been calculated on some such 
 base as there suggested — just as in the 
 Hebrew Prophets, Daniel, &c., periods are ex- 
 pressed by days, weeks, &c. — only in these, 
 multiplication is needful, and with the Hin- 
 doos divisio.i." In the private letter from 
 which I have ventured to quote the preced- 
 ing passage, INIr. Masson adds, that by the 
 use of the multiple 360 and the divisor 
 nine (the sacred number of the Tartars and 
 other nations), the Hindoo statement can 
 be made to agree with that found in one 
 (? the Samai-itanf version) of the Scriptures 
 within a single year. J And he considers 
 that the system of Indian chronology was 
 framed in some manner intelligible to the 
 initiated, § by whom the sacred writings were 
 solely, or at least particularly, intended to 
 
 years from the true period, according to the best 
 calculations we have, and only two years according 
 to the vulgar • era of Clu-ist', a.m. ' 4004." In an 
 elaborate disquisition he contends that the com- 
 Jiiencement of the fourth historical age, Call ynya, 
 "is correctly placed at n.c. 3182;" the three pre- 
 vious ages "contain a period of 900 years only;" 
 and by adding 900 years to the current year of the 
 fourth, or Cali age, we get the true epoch of creation, 
 according to all oriental chronology." The ycnr of 
 the world is com])uted by the Greek church at B.C. 
 5509; by the Abyssinian church, 5492; by the Jews, 
 ."5760. The Bible chronology gives it as 4004 B.C. 
 
 § It is stated in the " Key " that some European 
 suggested to Sir W. Jones an explanation by cutting 
 the ciphers off the numerals.
 
 4G 
 
 GEOGRAPHY, MEDICINE, LANGUAGES, AND LITERATURE. 
 
 be read, the Bralimins in this respect differ- 
 ing essentially from the Boodhists. 
 
 In geography they had, as a nation, made 
 little progress, and though unquestionably 
 engaged in traffic more or less direct with 
 the nations of Europe, Asia, and Africa, pro- 
 bably entered, at the utmost, only as indivi- 
 duals on the carrying trade beyond their 
 own coast, and gave little thought to the 
 position or affairs of other countries ; and 
 this accords with the metaphysical, rather 
 than practical, turn of their minds. There 
 is, however, a passage in Menu •which 
 shows that marine insurance was practised 
 his time ; and various writings, poems, plays, 
 and tales written during different periods 
 from the first to the twelfth century, detail 
 adventures at sea, in which Indian sailors 
 and ships are immediately concerned. 
 That the Hindoos established colonies in 
 Java and other places there is reason to 
 believe, though -we cannot tell at what time, 
 or under what circumstances. Bryant, who 
 contends that Chaldea was the parent coun- 
 try of the Hindoos, asserts, in his Analysis of 
 Ancient Mythology , that these people were 
 found in Colchis, in Mesopotamia, and even 
 in Thrace. Recently they have been met with 
 in Arabia, Armenia, and Astracan. 
 
 In medicine they had not merely studied 
 the virtues of simples, but had also attained 
 considerable skill in chemistry, and knew 
 how to prepare (for the most part in modes 
 peculiar to themselves) sulphuric, nitric, and 
 muriatic acid ; oxides of copper, iron, lead 
 (of which they had both the red oxide and 
 litharge) tin, and zinc; the sulphurets of 
 copper, zinc, and iron, and carbonates of 
 lead and iron. They employed minerals 
 internally, giving both mercury, arsenic, and 
 arsenious acid ; cinnabar was used for fumi- 
 gations, to produce safe and speedy saliva- 
 tion. They also practised inoculation for 
 small-pox. Their surgery is still more re- 
 markable, from their ignorance oi anatomy — 
 dissection or even the touch of dead bodies, 
 being deemed the extreme of pollution — yet 
 they cut for the stone, couched for cataract, 
 and performed other delicate operations;* 
 and their early works enumerate no less 
 than 127 sorts of surgical instruments, which, 
 however, were probably always rude. 
 
 Of the languages and Hlerainre of India, 
 it would be impossiljlc to convey any idea 
 in few words, without appearing to assume 
 a dogmatic attitude on the many difficult 
 
 • Vide Dr. Koyle's Essay on the A7itiquity of the 
 Indian Materia Mcdica. 
 
 questions involved therein. The transla- 
 tions of Sir William Jones from the Sanscrit, 
 of Sacontala, a pastoral drama of great anti- 
 quity, and other poems, together with the 
 Hindoo Theatre of Professor Wilson, enable 
 English readers to form their own opinions 
 of the degree of dramatic excellence very 
 early attained in India. Portions of the 
 Ramayana, of the Maha Bharat, and the 
 whole of the Sama Veda have also been 
 translated; the fourth, or Antharva Veda, 
 (whose authenticity is disputed), being still 
 sedulously withheld by the Brahmins, and 
 denounced as a " Black Book," teaching as- 
 trology and witchcraft. The six Angras 
 or Shastras, are supposed to have been 
 written by inspiration to elucidate the sub- 
 lime mysteries contained in the Vedas. They 
 treat of theology and ritual observances ; of 
 grammar, metre, astronomy, logic, law, 
 the art of government, medicine, archery, 
 the use of arms, music, dancing, and the 
 drama. AVith the eighteen Puranas we are 
 not immediately concerned, for two reasons. 
 They must be subsequently referred to as ex- 
 planatory of the present (would to God that 
 we could say the past) idolatrous polytheism 
 of the Hindoos ; and moreover in the opinion 
 of Professor Wilson, none of them assumed 
 their existing state until the time of Sankara 
 Acharya, the great Saiva reformer, who 
 flourished aljout tlie eighth or ninth cen- 
 tury, and consequently, subsequent to the 
 period of which we are now treating: Wilson 
 traces several of them to the twelfth, four- 
 teenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries of 
 our era. The Puranas have been already 
 frequently quoted, because they comprise 
 the genealogies of various dynasties, especi- 
 ally of the solar and lunar races ; which 
 are valuable, although sometimes misleading, 
 being evidently a compilation of fragments 
 obtained from family records. Many 
 historical documents probably yet remain 
 uninjured, hidden away from the desolating 
 torch of the soldiers of the Crescent, who 
 generally did their utmost to destroy the 
 writings of an idolatrous people, at least 
 any that might appear connected with 
 their creed, which all were more or less. 
 Doubtless much valuable data has thus ut- 
 terly perished; and the loss is now irreparable. 
 The remark made by the people of Rajast'han 
 to Colonel Tod, when he complained of 
 the numerous deficiencies in their annals, 
 was suilicient explanation and apology. 
 "When our princes," said they, "were in 
 exile, driven from hold to hold, and com-
 
 ARCHITECTURE, FETES, POLICE SYSTEM, AND COINAGE. 47 
 
 pcllcd to flwc'll ill tlie clefts of tlio inoiiii- 
 tniris, often (loiil)tfiil wlictlicr tlioy would 
 not be obliLjcd to abandon tlic very meal 
 prcijarint; for tlicni — was that a time to 
 think of historical records ?"* 
 
 In the lighter department of literature 
 they excel ; and, indeed, in talcs and fables 
 appear to have set the example to the rest 
 of mankind, since to them may be traced 
 the subjects of the most popular Oriental 
 and even European fictions. t 
 
 Their music is said to have been syste- 
 matic and refined, but it has since greatly de- 
 teriorated: jmintiiig was probably always at a 
 low ebb, unless l)cautifully illustrated manu- 
 scripts may form an exception — in which, 
 however, the figures are the worst executed 
 portion of the ornaments. Their ancient 
 sculpture often presents spirited and some- 
 times exceedingly graceful groups ; but is 
 generally rendered unpleasing, not only by 
 the grotesque and many-limbed forms of the 
 gods and goddesses, but also by their igno- 
 rance of anatomy, and inattention, even as 
 copyists, to the symmetrical arrangement of 
 the limbs and muscles, and to the mainte- 
 nance of proportion between dilferent figures. 
 
 Architecture early became a favourite and 
 practicalstudy,J butvaried greatly in different 
 parts of India {vide section on topography). 
 It is said that the arch was not understood 
 before the Mussulman era, but this seems to 
 be contradicted by the age of some speci- 
 mens which still exist. Tanks or reservoirs 
 for irrigation or for bathing were made on a 
 scale of great extent and magnificenee, and 
 also wells of considerable depth and breadth, 
 the more ancient of which were square and 
 surrounded by galleries, with a broad flight of 
 steps from top to bottom. Their triumphal 
 columns and massive gateways and pagodas 
 take rank among the finest specimens of 
 the architecture of any nation. 
 
 Their manufactures and commerce have 
 been noticed sufficiently for the present 
 purpose : their mode of agriculture was so 
 nearly what it is at present, that that sub- 
 ject, together with their rights in the land 
 and the revenue system generally, may be best 
 deferred for examination to a future chapter. 
 
 Chariots were drawn in war by horses, 
 but ou a march by oxen and sometimes by 
 camels. Elephant chai'iots were also kept as 
 a piece of extraordinary magnificence, used 
 
 • UnJasfJuin, vol. i. p. ix. 
 
 t J'i(/u 2'riinsiiciii}ns of lite Boi/a! Asiatic Socieli/, 
 vol. i. p. 16G, oil Ihe Indian origin of European 
 fdblts. 
 
 in their famous festivals, when well appointed 
 troops marched in procession ; and thrones, 
 tables, goblets, lavcrs, set with precious stones, 
 and robes of exquisite colours richly em- 
 broidered with gold, were borne along in state. 
 Tame lions and panthers formed part of the 
 show which birds, remarkable for gorgeous 
 plumage or sweet song, were made to enliven; 
 being conveyed on trees transported on large 
 waggons. In short, a Hindoo fete in the 
 ancient days, was a thing that even a Parisian 
 of the time of the second Buonaparte might 
 sigh for — always excepting fireworks, for it 
 does not appear that they had any knowledge 
 of gunpowder, although in war they arc said 
 to have used arrows tipped with some com- 
 bustible or explosive compound. 
 
 The police system ^Mcgasthcncs declared 
 to be excellent; royal roads are spoken of by 
 Strabo, in one place, and mile-stones in ano- 
 ther. § The dress, as described by Arrian,|| 
 was precisely the two wrappers of cotton 
 cloth, still worn by the people of Bengal and 
 by strict Brahmins everywhere. 
 
 It is asserted that no Indian coinage 
 existed prior to the introduction of that of 
 the Greeks or Bactrians. This, if proved, 
 would be no criterion of barbarism : the 
 Chinese, at the present day, have no gold or 
 silver pieces — their only coin being a small 
 alloyed copper "cash," of which about a 
 thousand are equal to one Spanish dollar. 
 All sales have for ages been regulated by 
 bars or blocks of the precious metals, with a 
 stamped attestation of their respective purity; 
 and it is possible that in ancient times a 
 similar course was pursued in India. There 
 arc however passages in a Sanscrit play 
 and in the penal code of the Hindoos which 
 refer, not only to the standard, but to the 
 fabric and stamp of coin, and to the punish- 
 ments due to the fabricators and falsifiers of 
 the public monies. Small flat pieces of silver, 
 square, round, or oblong, weighing from forty- 
 eight to fifty grains, with a rude punch, symbo- 
 lical of a sun, moon, or star, or a nondescript 
 figure, of an unknown age, have been found 
 in considerable quantities in various localities. 
 
 Hindoo gold and silver coins, tolerably 
 well executed, have been discovered at 
 Beghram, Cutch, Benares, and other places 
 appertaining to the Balhara dynasty ; which 
 is thought to have ruled the country from 
 Oojcin to the Indus, 375 years posterior to the 
 
 \ Essay on Ilimloo Architecture by Ram K&Z, 
 published by tlio Oriental Translation Fund. 
 § Strabo, Lib. xv., pp. -174 — 194, ed. 1587. 
 i{ Intlica, cap. xvi.
 
 i8 
 
 KINGDOMS OF BACTRIA, ARIA, AND PARTHIA. 
 
 Vicramaditya era. Coins of tlie Chandra 
 Gupta dynasty have been collected from the 
 ruins of Behat near the Doab Canal, and at 
 Canouj ; others, of a Jain or Boodhistical 
 type, have been procured at Rajast'han and 
 at Hurdwar on the Gauges. 
 
 Recent investigations* have brought to 
 light no inconsiderable quantity of Indo- 
 Scythian and Sassanian coins, which gradu- 
 ally mixed with and at length merged into 
 a distinct Hindoo type. This, with modifi- 
 cations, lasted to the time of the Moham- 
 medan conquerors. A very curious Eng- 
 lish collection of Hindoo silver monies con- 
 nects two dynasties ; indeed, there are not 
 many links wanting to form an entire series 
 of Greek, Bactriau, ' NysDeau,t Sassanian, 
 Indo-Scythian, and HindooJ (Giizerat, Raj- 
 poot, Canouj, or Rahtore, &c.) coins, from 
 the time of Alexander to that of the Moslems 
 in the eleventh century. The Roman coins 
 discovered in India extend in antiquity 
 through a period of more than 1,000 years, 
 from the Augustan age down to the decline 
 of the Lower empire ; those generally found 
 are of the smaller denominations, consistuig 
 of the common currency of the eastern parts 
 of the empire : many of the copper coins 
 are of Egyptian fabrication. 
 
 Badria, Aria, and Parthia. — The two 
 first-named countries, comprising the terri- 
 tory lying on either side of the Hindoo 
 Koosh, between the Oxus and Indus Rivers, 
 are on the high road of Asiatic conquest, 
 and have been the battle-field of every tribe 
 and nation that has risen to dominion in the 
 East. Parthia has been always intimately 
 connected with them, and the three have 
 iointly and severally exercised an influence 
 in India, the extent and nature of which is 
 still but imperfectly understood. 
 
 Recent discoveries of coins (above re- 
 ferred to) have confirmed and augmented 
 the information bequeathed by ancient 
 
 * Sec Ariitna Antiqiin, a tlcsci-iptivc account of 
 the antiquities and coins of Afglianistan, with a 
 memoir of the huildings, called topes, by C. Masson, 
 Esq. Edited by Prof. Wilson, 4to, 1841. Also the 
 expositions of J. I'rinsep in the Jonriuildf the. Jlctiffal 
 Asiatic Sucicti/ ; and II. T. Piinsep's Hist, llesults. 
 
 t The features of tlie sovereigns of the various 
 dynasties stamped on these coins are quite distinct, 
 and they are generally well executed. The Nysscan 
 have a fillet or diadem round tlio head; reverse, a 
 horseman ; tlie Indo-Scythian av. erect figure of Her- 
 cules resting on his club : the Sassanian, a fire altar 
 on the reverse. The legends are generally in (ircek, 
 or in Pehlevi, a language which was contemporary 
 with the Parsi (of Per.sia), and the Zend (of Aledia), 
 five or six hundred years, B.C. It was used in 
 
 authors, and thrown a new light on the 
 connection which existed with the kingdom 
 of Baetria — that is, of the country watered 
 by the Oxus and its tributaries, and sepa- 
 rated from Hindoostan by the range of 
 mountains whence the Oxus and Indus 
 derive their respective sources. It has been 
 already stated, that after the first contest for 
 the partition of the vast empire of Alexander, 
 all his eastern conquests, including Hyrca- 
 nia, Parthia, Baetria, Aria,§ &c., were ap- 
 propriated by Seleucus. Baetria remaine I 
 subject to his descendants, until civil wars 
 and the impending revolt of the Parthians 
 induced Diodotus, or Theodotus, the satrap 
 or governor of the province, to assert his 
 independence and become the first king, 
 about 250, or, according to Bayer, 255, B.C. 
 Parthia also successfully revolted from the 
 sway of the Seleucidse, under Arsaces,l| who, 
 according to Strabo, was by birth a Bac- 
 trian, but is called by other writers a Da- 
 hian, that is, a native of Sogdiana :^ who- 
 ever he was, he appears to have used Greek 
 only on his coins and in his public letters 
 and correspondence. 
 
 Baetria itself, however, cannot be sup- 
 posed to have been colonised by any great 
 body of Greeks, but probably received many 
 of the partially-disciplined recruits raised 
 by Alexander during the later part of his 
 progress. Even the Greeks, by intermar- 
 riage with Persian, and doubtless with In- 
 dian wives, would soon lose their distinctive 
 character; and after the establishment of 
 Parthian power, the immigration of adven- 
 turers from Greece, and, indeed, all commu- 
 nication with that country would cease. This 
 accounts for the total silence of Greek 
 authors respecting the termination of the 
 Bactrian kingdom. Its limits, during the 
 most flourishing period, included some parts 
 of India. Strabo quotes an ancient author, 
 who asserts that the Bactriaus possessed 
 
 the region round Assyria, and probably in Assyria 
 itself, — but together with the Zend h.as been a dead 
 language for more than two thousand yeai's. 
 
 I The ancient Hindoo coins have various devices — 
 a horseman, a horse, an elephant, a lion, a bull, an 
 antelope, a goat, the Sankh, or sacred shell, or the 
 hieroglyphic called Swastika. 
 
 § Aria is the territory of which Herat is the 
 capital. Ariana (Eeran) is the general name for the 
 country east of Persia and Media to the Indus. 
 
 II Sogdiana designates the mountains wliich feed 
 the Jaxarles and divide tliat river from the O.xus. 
 
 ^f Arsaccs was the title of Partliiun princes. The 
 Parthians were the Saca; of Asia, and Saca-dwipa 
 (the coiintry of the Saca;') lay about tlio fountains of 
 of the Oxus. — Condcr's Modern 'I'racellei: (^Jndia.)
 
 BACTRIA OVERRUN BY SCYTHIAN HORDES.— b.c, 125, 
 
 49 
 
 " the most conspicuous part of Ariana" 
 (Kliorasan), and coii(|ii(rc(l more nations in 
 India than even Alexander. In this last 
 achicvonicnt the principal actors were Mc- 
 nandcr, Appollodotus, and Demetrius, who 
 arc mentioned together by Straho ; but their 
 date and the limits of their sway are not 
 clearly stated. Demetrius is a puzxlc, or 
 rather the site of his kingdom, for he once 
 had one, and was a conqueror besides. Two 
 or three of his coins have been found in 
 Cabool, not snflicicnt to establish the fact of 
 his rule tlicre, but rather the reverse ; two 
 or three others — of silver — have been 
 brought from Bokhara. Appollodotus and 
 Menaudcr * certainly ruled over Cabool, 
 their copper coins being found in such 
 numbers, and so constantly, as to prove 
 they were once a currency there ; but then, 
 as regards Appollodotus, Cabool is held to 
 have been merely a province, his capital 
 being established elsewhere, to be looked 
 for, perhaps, where his copper money was 
 circular instead of square, as at Cabool, and 
 such circular coins are discovered more 
 eastward in the Punjaub, and even at 
 Muttra (the old Mcthora), on the Jumna. 
 Masson strongly suspects the kingdom of 
 Appollodotus and Menaudcr to have been 
 rather Indian than Bactrian ; and Professor 
 Lassen supposes three kingdoms to have 
 existed besides that of Bactria, of which the 
 eastern, under IMcnandcr and Appollodotus, 
 comprehended the Punjaub and the valley 
 of the Indus, with Cabool ana Arachosia, or 
 Candahar, added in times of prosperity. The 
 western kingdom, he places conjecturally at 
 Ileerat and in Seestau, and the third would 
 include the Paropamisau region, which, 
 however, Prinsep inclines to attribute to 
 Bactria. t Unfortunately, no information 
 has been obtained to prove how far north 
 or west of Cabool the currencies of the 
 aforesaid kings spread, otherwise the limits 
 of their rule might have been partially 
 traced in those directions. The Greeks, 
 under Menaudcr, made extensive conquests, 
 subduing the Seres and Shauni to the north 
 and north-east of India ; crossing the Hy- 
 panis (IIyphasis,orBcyah), and proceeding as 
 iar as the Isamus to the south-eastward ; and 
 
 * "Whether Appollodotus succeeded or preceded 
 Menander is uncertain, Ijut an opinion may be raised 
 that althougii always mentioned first, he really fol- 
 lowed Menander, because his circular coins so closely 
 resemble in style and i'abric tliose of Azcs (in Bac- 
 tro-Pali, Aya) that it is evident the one currency 
 followed the other, in the I'unjaiib and to the east, 
 but not in Cabool, where that of Ilermias prevailed. 
 
 on the south-westward reducing Pattalenc, 
 that is, the country about Tatta, forming 
 the Delta of the Indus. All the interme- 
 diate territory ap])cars, from the statement 
 of Strabo, to have been vanquished; and we 
 might form a tolcraljly satisfactory conclu- 
 sion as to its extent, but for doubts suggested 
 of the meaning of the word I.iamus. This 
 is by some considered to denote the Jumna 
 Uiver, by others the Himalaya Mountains 
 {sometimes called Imaus), and, thirdly, with 
 perhaps better reason, tlic Isamutti River, 
 which falls into the Ilooghly, a western 
 branch of the Ganges. 
 
 BaclriaProper, as established by Diodotus, 
 appears to have continued through his suc- 
 cessors Diodotus II., Euthydemus, Eucra- 
 tides, and his successor (supposed by De 
 Guigncs and Bayer to have been his son 
 and murderer, Eucratidcs II., but by Mas- 
 son, Ilelioclcs), until about 125 years B.C., 
 when, (according to Chinese records, quoted 
 by Dc Guigncs) a great movement which 
 took place in Central or Eastern Tartary 
 impelled across the Jaxartes (Sir) an irre- 
 sistible torrent of Scythian hordes. Tliis 
 statement is corroborated by the testimony 
 of Strabo, who gives the names of the four 
 principal tribes by whom the overthrow of 
 the Greek kingdom was eflFected. From 
 these names they would appear to have been 
 composed of a mixture of Gct;e or Goths, 
 Dahi or Dacians, Sakarauli or Sakas, and 
 Tochari, perhaps, but not certainly, Turks. 
 All seized portions of Bactria ; and after 
 some time the Geta; subdued the others, 
 and advanced upon India. Crossing the 
 Hindoo Koosh, they dispossessed the suc- 
 cessor of HermiaSj if not the old king him- 
 self ; and their presence is very clearly 
 indicated by tliose coins bearing the name 
 of that king, with the prefix Su. Soon after 
 the coinage was varied ; busts probably in- 
 tended to represent their own kings or chiefs 
 were introduced, and Bactro-Pali legends oa 
 the revei-sc, much diflering from the Greek 
 ones encircling the busts — the latter, indeed, 
 becoming unintelligible. The Getaj, more- 
 over, we arc assured, retained power in the 
 countries bordering on the Indus for foirr 
 ccntiu'ics — liable, necessarily, to vicissitudes. 
 
 For this remark, as well as other information inter- 
 woven in the text conveying a brief sketch of Bac- 
 trian affairs, 1 am indebted to the kindness of Mr. 
 Charles Masson. 
 
 t Because of the bilingual as well as pure Greek 
 coins of Ileliocles and Antimaehus, kings of Bactria. 
 — llistoricat Results dedueible from recent discoverits 
 in AfghunUtan, by H. Prinsep. Esq., p. 66.
 
 50 
 
 PERSIA AND CENTRAL INDIA SUBDUED BY THE CALIPHS. 
 
 but stili maintaining themselves until finally j 
 overcome by the Huns. The Partbians ' 
 benefited by the occasion of attacking Eu- 
 cratides, and deprived him of two satrapies ; 
 but although certain coins bearing a national 
 tinge, with an attempted imitation of the 
 names and titles of Heliocles are fouud 
 in Cabool, there is little other e\ddence 
 of Pai-thian rule there — while in the Pun- 
 jaub, immediately on the banks of the 
 Indus, there is more. It is not impro- 
 bable, that they contested the possession of 
 Cabool with the Getse, but were unsuccess- 
 ful, and directed their attention rather to 
 Sinde, and thence ascended the Indus ; but 
 it may be doubted if these Parthians were 
 those established in Persia — although of the 
 same or kindred race — they may have been 
 Dalia;. Though weakened and disorgan- 
 ised, Bactria cannot have been entirely 
 overwhelmed by Scythian or Parthian in- 
 cm-sions, that is not in the time of Eucra- 
 tides or Heliocles, since Horace, 120 years 
 later, deemed it of sufficient importance to 
 engage the attention of Augustus. Its final 
 disruption by Parthian agency must have 
 been of considerably later date. 
 
 The fortunes of Partkia likewise under- 
 went considerable vicissitudes. Arsaces pos- 
 sessed only Parthia and Hyrcania, the 
 nucleus of his sovereignty being the colo- 
 nies planted by Alexander eighty years be- 
 fore. His immediate successors were brave 
 and valiant, and their empire at one time ex- 
 tended from the Euphrates to the Jaxartes ; 
 but whether it included or received tribute 
 from the ancient soil of the Hindoos is little 
 better than matter of conjecture.* The 
 sceptre of Persia continued to be wielded by 
 this line until a.d. 235, when Ardeshur 
 Babakun, or Artaxerxes, a distinguished 
 ofificer of the Parthian army — having been 
 slighted by the reigning monarch, Arsaces- 
 Artabanus — revolted, and after three severe 
 battles, conquered and slew Artabanus, and 
 
 established his own dynasty, the Sassanian, 
 being crowned at Balkh, where his last vic- 
 tory was gained. Thus closed the Greco- 
 Parthian dominion in central Asia, after a 
 continuance of very nearly 500 years ; and 
 the same date marks the end of the tran- 
 sition of Parthia back from Hellenism to an 
 entirely Asiatic sovereignty and condition of 
 society. The system of government had 
 been always purely Asiatic ; that is, by sub- 
 ordinate satraps or viceroys invested with 
 full and absolute authority over the person 
 and property of the people committed to their 
 charge. Alexander had experienced the evils 
 of thus forming an Impmum in imperio 
 in every province, in the misconduct of 
 several satraps during his absence in the 
 Indian campaign ; and, had he lived, would 
 probably have introduced a sounder system j 
 but his successors had neither the ability to 
 plan, nor perhaps opportunity to execute, 
 any such radical change in their respective 
 governments. They lacked, moreover, the 
 prestige of their great master's name and 
 character, which had alone enabled him to 
 check the ambition or rapacity of his vice- 
 gerents, by the exercise of an arbitrary power 
 of removal. After his death, the method 
 generally adopted of controlling, removing, 
 or punishing a military satrap, was to turn 
 against him the arms of a rival neighbour. 
 The result was, of course, the origin of a 
 number of irresponsible despots. Keeping 
 this in mind, it is the less surprising that 
 Parthian coins should be found, asserting 
 independence and bearing arrogant titles, 
 in Afghanistan, since these may indicate 
 nothing but the temporary successes or pre- 
 tensions of various petty satraps. f The 
 most celebrated of the later Sassanian kings 
 was Chosroes, who reigned from 531 to 571 ; 
 his grandson was deposed in 628, and after a 
 few years of tumult and distraction, Persia 
 fell under the power of the Caliphs, by whom 
 it has ever since been ruled. 
 
 • Mithridates II., who reigned in the early part 
 of the century before the Christian era, and whose 
 death was followed by an interregnum of civil war, 
 or doubtful sovereignty, in Parthia, was the first of 
 the Arsacida! who adopted the title of " Great King of 
 Kings," which is believed to be of Indian origin, and 
 was probably assumed after the acquisition of coun- 
 tries bordering on India. — Prinsep's llislorical lie- 
 sults, p. 07. 
 
 t I 'idc I'rinsep's Iliatorical Results, for much in- 
 teresting discussion regarding Bactrian coins, espe- 
 cially tlie opinions of Wilson, Masson, and Lassen ; 
 al«o regarding the newly-deciphered language gene- 
 rally used in writing, when Greek became quite 
 extinct, called .\rian, Arianian, Bactrian, and Ca- 
 
 boolian, according to tiie supposed locality of its 
 native use. Mr. James Prinsep, (whose laborious 
 investigations had before been mainly instrumental 
 in restoring the language of the ancient Indian kings 
 who made treaties with Antiochus and Selcucus,) 
 while examining coins with bilingual inscriptions, 
 used the names given in Greek on one side, te find 
 out those of Uie unknown language on the other. He 
 thus obtained a key to the alpliabet, and deciphered 
 words which proved to be Pracrit (the vernacular 
 form of Sanscrit), written semitically from right to 
 left. There are still, however, some inscri])tions in 
 the Allan characters upon rocks and on tlie relics 
 of topes and tumuli, remaining to reward further 
 research.
 
 ElSli OF MOHAMMEDANISM IN ARABIA— SEVENTH CENTURY. 51 
 
 MolIAMMRDAN TO BlUTISIT Epocii. — In tlio 
 bcgiiiniiif^ of the scvciilli century, when tlie 
 Christian cliureli was torn by dissensions and 
 perplexed by heresies, and Mhen IIk; greater 
 part of the inhabitants of Asia andof Afriea 
 were sunk in Ijarbarism, enfeebled by sen- 
 suality, or enslaved liv idolatry, there arose 
 on the shores of the l{ed Sea, a Power, at 
 once religious and militant, which ra])idly 
 attained and has since continued to exeieisc 
 an extraordinary inllucnce on the coiulition 
 of one-third of the liuman race. 
 
 Arabia is considered by oriental writers 
 to have been originally colonised l)y the pos- 
 terity of Shcni and Ham, the former having 
 followed pastoral, the latter agricultural pur- 
 suits ; to these were subsequently added a 
 mixed race — the descendants of Abraham, 
 through Tshmael, the son of Ilagar tlin l)ond- 
 wonian.* The posterity of Ham, through 
 Cash and Nimrod, his son and grandson, 
 brought with them from Mesopotamia one 
 of the most ancient languages (supposed to 
 be the Himyaritie, still spoken in j)arts of 
 the country), and the creed of the Patriarchs, 
 or at least a ])ortiou of it ; that is, the exist- 
 ence of one Ood, the Creator and Governor 
 of the world, and the doctrine of the resur- 
 rection of the dead, of future rewards and 
 punishments. A sense of sin and unwor- 
 thiness probaldy induced " the adoration of 
 heavenly spirits as mediators between man 
 and one immutable Holy Being ; and to 
 these they raised temples and altars for 
 sacrifices and supplications, to which were 
 subsequently added fastings."t The sun 
 and moon next became tlie objects of wor- 
 ship, at first probably as symbols ; next 
 followed the seven planets, tlie twelve signs 
 of the zodiac, and the twenty-four constella- 
 tions. Almost every tribe had its ])eculiar 
 idol, dead men were worshipped, and also 
 angels or genii ; some even denied all kinds 
 of revelation, having sunk into the lowest 
 depths of idolatry ; but the descendants of 
 Shcm passed from pure Theism iiito Sabaj- 
 ism, or a belief in the peopling of the 
 heavenly bodies with superior intelligences, 
 by whom the lives and actions of men were 
 regulated. The immigration of a few Jewish 
 and Christian tribes bad introduced among 
 the more thoughtful, purer notions both of 
 faith and practice ; but tbese had made 
 little progress among the mass of the people, 
 
 * Istunael is said to li.ivc married the daughter of 
 Mozauz or Modhaugh, the sovereign of Hijaz. — (See 
 tabular genealogies of these three tribes in Colonel 
 Chesney's work on the Euphrates and Tigris, vol. i.) 
 
 who, as regarded their political and social 
 state, were still, as they had been for ages, 
 to a great extent isolated by ])ovcrty and 
 by geographical position, from the rest of 
 the w(jrld. Their country, consisting of 
 some mountain tracts and rich oases, sepa- 
 rated or surrounded by a sandy desert, has 
 been aptly compared to the coasts and 
 islands of a sea. J The desert was thinly 
 scattered with small camps of predatory 
 horsemen, who ])itclied their tents \vhcrever 
 a well of water could be found ; and aided 
 by the much-enduring camel, overspread ex- 
 tensive regions, to the great peril and anx- 
 iety of peaceful travellers. Tiic settled in- 
 habitants, though more civilized, were 
 scarcely less simple in their habits; the 
 various tribes formed distinct communities, 
 between whom there could be little commu- 
 nication except by rapid journeys on horse- 
 i)aclc or tedious marches, in the present 
 caravanseray fashion. Each tribe acknow- 
 ledged as its chief the representative of their 
 common ancestor; but probably little check 
 was ever imposed upon the liberty of indi- 
 viduals, save in rare cases, when the general 
 interest imperatively demanded such inter- 
 ference. The physical features of the land 
 and its scanty agricultural resources helped 
 to foster the hardy and self-reliant character 
 of its sons, who, unconnected by the strong 
 ties of religious or commercial fellowship, 
 and never compelled to unite against a 
 foreign foe, found vent in the innumerable 
 feuds which constantly spring up between 
 independent tribes and families, for the 
 warlike and roving instincts which seem so 
 inseparably bound up with tlic wiry, lithe- 
 some, sui)ple frame, and the fiery, yet ima- 
 ginative and sensuous temperament, of the 
 Arab. 
 
 Such a people, united for a common pur- 
 pose under a common leader, might, it was 
 evident, accomplish extraordinary results; 
 and purpose and leader were presented to 
 them in the person of a man, whose fame as 
 a subjug.ator may be mentioned in the same 
 page with that of Alexander the Great, and 
 who, as a lawgiver, takes much higher rank — 
 higher, that is, in the sense of hanng used 
 and abused powers never entrusted to the 
 iMaccdouian. INIohammed the False Pro- 
 phet, was, beyond all doubt, intimately 
 acquainted with both the Jewish and Chris- 
 
 The sons of Ilani, Cush, Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan 
 peopled parts of AVcstern .\sia, as well as .Vfrica. 
 
 t £cchell,iisis, Chrnn. Orien., App., c. 6, p. 148. 
 
 X Elphinstone, vol. i., p. 488.
 
 53 
 
 MOHAMMED, THE FALSE PROPHET. 
 
 tian scriptures, lie recognised the mighty 
 truths they contained, and the sharp wea- 
 pons those truths would afford, wielded 
 against idolatry. Incited by strangely- 
 Ijlendcd motives of ambition and fanaticism, 
 he boldly defied the curse pronounced on 
 those most impious of all deceivers, who 
 shall dare to add unto, or take away from, the 
 revealed word of God. {Revelation, ch. xxii. 
 V. 18, 19.) 
 
 It is necessary to know something of his 
 private life, before we can understand the 
 steps by which an unknown enthusiast sprang 
 suddenly into importance; and, gathering 
 together with marvellous skill and energy 
 the scattered tribes, formed them into a 
 nation, prohibited retaliation without the 
 previous sanction of a trial and a sentence, 
 and in short, induced them to abandon intes- 
 tine strife and combine in a religious crusade. 
 Mohammed was born a.d. 5G9, at Jilecca, one 
 of the oldest cities in the world, and belonged 
 to the head family of the tribe of Koreish, 
 who were the hereditary guardians of the 
 great temple of Caaba, which is built round 
 a well, supposed to be that miraculously 
 pointed out to Hagar to save the life of 
 Ishmael. Tradition declares the temple 
 itself, or at least the first temple whicli 
 existed on this site, to have been vouchsafed 
 in answer to the prayer of Adam, who im- 
 plored that he might be permitted to have a 
 sanctuary like that in which lie liad wor- 
 shipped in Eden. The prayer was granted, 
 and in curtains of light a model of the para- 
 disaical temple was let down, precisely beneath 
 the spot where the original had stood. On 
 this model Seth built a temple, which was 
 swept away by the deluge, but rebuilt l)y 
 Abraham and Isaac. The worship offered in 
 the Caaba was at the beginning of the sixth 
 century idolatrous, the chief objects being 
 Abraham and Ishraacl, to whose images, 
 each holding a bunch of arrows, such as the 
 Arabs use for divining, regular worsliip was 
 offered. Thus Abraham, the divinely-com- 
 missioned witness against idolatry, became 
 in process of time the object of the very 
 crime he had so zealously condemned. With 
 him and his son there appear to have been 
 in all 3G0 gods, the number having pro- 
 bably reference to the days of the Persian 
 year. 
 
 The chief command of the Caaba and of 
 the city were vested in the same person, and 
 to this double office of priest and eliief JMo- 
 liammcd was presumptive heir, when the 
 death of his father Abdullah before his 
 
 grandfather, cut him off from the succession, 
 and threw him a destitute orphan on the care 
 of his uncle, Abu Taleb, who taught liim the 
 business of a merchant, and carried him on 
 long trading journeys into Syria, thus giving 
 him early insight into foreign countries and 
 creeds. When but fourteen, jMohanimed 
 entered into a rancorous war that had broken 
 out among the tribes, and greatly dis- 
 tinguished himself for courage and abilit}\ 
 Till twenty-five he remained in the service 
 of his uncle, and then married Kadijah, the 
 richly-endowed widow of a merchant of 
 Mecca. Thus raised to independence, he 
 was enabled to pursue tlie objects most con- 
 genial to his own mind ; Imt the nature of 
 his occupations for many years is unknown. 
 Some suppose him to have employed that 
 long interval in the study of various manu- 
 scripts, although throughout his life he con- 
 stantly affirmed liimself unable to read or 
 write* a single word. It is very possible that, 
 by the aid of a retentive memory, he might 
 have obtained orally a great part, or even the 
 whole, of the information he possessed, espe- 
 cially with regard to the unity of God, by 
 intercourse with a cousin of his wife's, named 
 Warka ben Naufel, who was skilled in Jewish 
 learning, and is said to have translated the 
 Scriptures from Hebrew into Arabic. He 
 withdrew himself at length from all society, 
 and spent long periods in complete solitude 
 in the cave of ilara, near his native city, 
 giving free scope to meditations, which 
 brought him to the verge if not actually into 
 the abyss of insanit}', and opened a door for 
 fancied visions and every species of mental 
 delusion. At length, when about forty years 
 of age, he declared his alleged mission to his 
 wife, and afterwards to a few of his family; 
 and, some three or four years after, publicly 
 announced himself as " the last and greatest 
 of the prophets." He is represented as having 
 been a man of middle size, singularly mus- 
 cular, with a very large head, prominent 
 forehead, eyebrows nearly meeting, but di- 
 vided by a vein, whicli in times of excite- 
 ment throbbed violently, black flashing eyes, 
 aquiline nose, full and florid cheeks, large 
 mouth, and small teeth of the most exquisite 
 whiteness ; glossy black hair fell over his 
 shoulders, and a full beard flowed down upon 
 his chest. His countenance is alleged to 
 have been beautiful in the extreme, and to 
 
 • Pci'liaps tlie strongest presumption against the 
 trutli of tliis assertion, is the cirevimstance of his 
 calling for a pen that he might write, while delirious, 
 during his last illness. Tiie ret^uesl was refused.
 
 THE IIEJIRA OR FLIGHT FROM MECCA— a.d. 622. 
 
 53 
 
 Iiavo a<l(l(Ml not !i little to tliocfl'i'ct produced 
 l)y his iusiiiuatiuf; address and coiisiniiiiiatc 
 cloquoiiee upon the impressionahie natures 
 of his oounti-ynien.* The creed he first taught 
 was simply this : — " There is no God but 
 God, and Mohammed is his prophet;" find 
 all who received and repeated this compre- 
 hensive formnla were styled "true believers." 
 The Koran he declared to be a perfect book, 
 already written in lieavcn, but communicated 
 to him in portions only, through the medium 
 of the angel Gabriel. This provision cna!)led 
 him to disseminate his doctrines gradually, to 
 observe tlio manner in which they were 
 received, and to modify and even change 
 them at successive periods ; but, at the same 
 time, the very facility of obviating imme- 
 diate diflicultics, led to many discrepancies 
 and contradictions in his pretended revela- 
 tions. In spite, however, of much extrava- 
 gance, of the wildest dreams related as if 
 sober realities, and, worse than all, of the 
 glaring impiety of pleading the Divine com- 
 mand as a reason for intolerance and immo- 
 rality, many chapters of the Koran are still 
 remarkable as compositions. f They stamp 
 their author as far superior to any existing 
 writer of his country, and even exhibit him 
 in the light of a reformer — for his religion 
 was founded on the sublime theology of the 
 Old Testament, and his morality, faulty 
 indeed in comparison with the Christian 
 code, was yet far purer than that then 
 general in Arabia, for it must be remem- 
 bered that INIohammed represented himself 
 as privileged to break through at pleasure 
 the very rules he most strenuously enforced 
 on others. The Koran abounds in ad- 
 monitions to spiritual and moral exccUenec, 
 enunciates the necessary laws and directions 
 for the guidance of Alohammcdans, and 
 especially enjoins the worship and reverence 
 of the only true God, and resignation to his 
 will. In the course of its 111 chapters, 
 Adam, Noah, !Moses, Joseph, David, Solo- 
 mon, and other patriarchs, prophets, and 
 kings, are referred to by name, the facts 
 being evidently derived fi'om the Jewish 
 Scriptures, the fictions in which they are 
 enveloped, from tradition, or more fre- 
 quently from the teeming brain of the im- 
 
 * Foi- a graphic and condensed account of the im- 
 postor and liis early proceedinjjs, see a publislied 
 lecture on Mohammcdiinism, by the Rev. W. Arthur. 
 Major Price's comj)cndious Mttlnnnmcdan History is 
 an excellent book of reference, as well as of agree- 
 able reading. 
 
 t " The style of the Koran," says its able trans- 
 lator, Mr. Sale, " is generally beautiful and fluent. 
 
 postor. It seems almost profanati(jn to 
 mention the sacred name of the Great 
 !{cdeciuer in connection with the lying 
 tales of the False Prophet. Suffice it to 
 say that Ilis divine mission is recognised iu 
 the Koran, but His divinity denied. 
 
 For ten years after the first public an- 
 nouncement of his alleged calling, IMoham- 
 med continued to play the part of a zealous 
 and enduring missionary, sufi'cring liimself 
 " to be abused, to be spit upon, to have 
 dust thrown upon liim, and to be dragged 
 out of the temple by his own turban fastened 
 to his neck."j Persecution had its nsual 
 cfl'cct of drawing its object into notice ; liis 
 doctrines gradually took root, until, upon the 
 death of his uncle and protector, Abu Talcb, 
 the rulers of Mecca determined on his 
 destruction. lie lost his faithful wife and 
 earliest convert, Kadijab, about the same 
 time, and a comiilete change came over him. 
 
 At Medina, 270 miles from ]\Ieeca, his 
 doctrines had been favourably received, and 
 a deputation from that city invited him 
 to become its governor. lie gladly fled 
 thither, escaping, by stratagem, from a con- 
 spiracy formed in jNIccca, leaving his young 
 cousin Ali lying on his bed, covered with his 
 well-known green robe. The Ilejira or flight 
 forms the era from which !Mohammedans 
 date ; it occurred a.d. 622. On his arrival 
 at !Mediua, whither all his converts followed 
 him, he was immediately made governor. 
 j\Iany Jews and Christians then resided 
 there, the latter he rather favoured, but the 
 former as a nation incurred his bitter enmity, 
 by indignantly rejecting his overtures to 
 become proselytes, or to aid in making 
 Jerusalem the head-quarters of the new 
 creed. Once established at ]\Icdina he built 
 a mosque, threw ofi' his submissive attitude, 
 and declared his intention of having recourse 
 to arms in his own defence, and also for 
 the conversion or extermination of infidels. 
 He strengthened his cause by several mar- 
 riages, and subsequently added to the num- 
 ber, as policy or inclination prompted, until 
 he had fifteen, or as some say, twenty- 
 one so-called legitimate wives — other men 
 being allowed four at the utmost. The true 
 secret of his success probably lay in the 
 
 cispecially where it imitates the prophetic manner 
 and scripture phrases : it is concise and often obscure, 
 adorned with bold figures after the Eastern taste, 
 and in many places, especially where the majesty 
 and attributes of God are described, sublime and 
 magniticcnt." — (Preliminnrtj Discourse, )). 44.) 
 
 X Tiirikhi Tahari ; quoted by Col. Kennedy, in 
 the Sombcuj Literary 2'ransactions, vol. iii.
 
 54 
 
 DEATH OF MOHAMMED, a.d. 732.— HIS SUCCESSORS. 
 
 force of his grand doctrine of the unity and 
 omnipotence of God, as contrasted with 
 idolatry. This he declared was to be in- 
 sisted upon everywhere, at the cost of life 
 itself, which it was meritorious to lavish 
 freely, whether that of believers in spreading 
 the right faith, or of infidels to lessen their 
 number. The enthusiastic Arabs were 
 easily induced to unite as fellow-workers 
 in an enterprize they believed enjoined by 
 the direct command of God, and eagerly 
 dared the fiercest contest in the battle-field, 
 intoxicated by the lying words which as- 
 serted that " the sword is the key of heaven 
 and of hell; a drop of blood shed in the 
 cause of God, or a night spent under arms, 
 is of more avail than two months of fasting 
 or prayer. "Whoever falls in battle, his sins 
 ai'e forgiven at the day of judgment ; his 
 wounds shall be resplendent as vermillion 
 and odoriferous as musk ; the loss of his 
 limbs shall be supplied by the wings of 
 angels and cherubims."* 
 
 The first contest, which took jilace at Beder 
 between 300 of the Mohammedans and 900 
 of the Koreish tribe, terminated in favour 
 of the new sect, and laid the foundation of 
 a great military empire, of sucli rapid 
 growth, that when in the tenth year of the 
 Hejira, and the sixty-third of his age, 
 Mohammed lay writhing in the last strug- 
 gles of the long agony of four years' 
 duration, which followed the eating of the 
 poisoned dish prepared by the persecuted 
 Jews of Chaibar — not only was all Arabia 
 united under his swav, but the king of Persia, 
 the emperor of Rome, and the king of 
 Ethiopia had been called upon to acknow- 
 ledge his divine mission and receive the 
 Koran : the dominions of the emperor (Hera- 
 clius) had indeed been actually invaded by a 
 successful expedition into Syria. Yet this 
 was but the nucleus of the singular power 
 exercised by his successors, for instead of 
 falling to pieces like a snow-ball in the 
 contest for its possession, as might have 
 been expected, since Mohammed, like Alex- 
 ander, left no undoubted heir, the reins of 
 government were placed by his followers in 
 the hand of Abubekir, one of the earliest of 
 the so-called " true believers," in spite of 
 the opposition of AH, the cousin and son-in- 
 law of Mohammed, who had expected to be 
 
 * Tl'.e Decline and Fall of the liomitn Empire, 
 contains a detailed account of llie rise and progress 
 of the Moslem empire, wiltten with all the power 
 and caustic irony peculiar to Gibbon. 
 
 t That is, civil and spiritual ruler, or high-pontiff. 
 
 chosen caliph and iraaum.f Abubekir, 
 fearing the revival of the domestic feuds of 
 tribes or clans, forthwith proclaimed anew 
 throughout the Arabian peninsula the 
 favourite and convenient doctrine of the 
 False Prophet, that fighting for religion 
 was the most acceptable service which man 
 could render to his Maker, and declared his 
 intention of sending an army for the com- 
 plete subjugation of Syria. The life and 
 rule of Abubekir terminated in two years. 
 In accordance with his desire, Omar, a 
 noble citizen of Mecca, acceded to the 
 supreme authority, with the title of 
 " commander of the faithful." Under his 
 vigorous rule the Arabs invaded Persia and 
 utterly destroyed the second or Parthian 
 empire, gained complete possession of Syria, 
 after defeating 40,000 Greeks in a severe 
 contest on the Yermuk, a river running 
 into the lake of Tiberias, and, as a crowning 
 triumph, compelled the surrender of Jerusa- 
 lem, for which, as the " city of the pro- 
 phets," Mohammed had always professed 
 high veneration. 
 
 Egypt was over-run by Khaled, a general 
 whose victories had procured from Moham- 
 med the title of " the sword of God," and 
 Alexandria was speedily added to the bril- 
 liant roll of Mussulman conquests. The 
 great abilities, united to extreme simplicity 
 and purity of life, which distinguished 
 Omar, doubtless contributed to the spread 
 of the doctrines and temporal sway of the 
 people he governed. At the expiration of 
 ten years he was slain while praying in the 
 mosque, by a Persian, whose rage was ex- 
 cited by being obliged to pay two pieces of 
 silver daily, as a penalty for refusing to 
 abjure his faith — the alternatives oft'ered by 
 the Mohamrnedans, being "the Koran, 
 tribute, or the sword." The large majority 
 of the conquered chose the first, especially 
 in Persia, wliere a lifeless form of govern- 
 ment and a fantastic and superstitious creed, 
 needed but a slight shock to hasten the pro- 
 gress of decay, and crumble into dust, to be 
 moulded anew and receive vital energy, iu 
 greater or less degree, according to the will 
 and ability of the first dominant power 
 which might be l)rought to bear upon it. 
 The doctrine of the unity and omnipotence 
 of God was received by the Persians as a 
 mighty truth, divinely revealed to man, as 
 it really was, notwithstanding the false and 
 distorted medium through which it reached 
 them, and it must liave peculiarly commended 
 itself to all who had seriously considered the
 
 FORTUNES OF THE AEAB EMPIRE— a.d. 644 to 1258. 
 
 ba 
 
 suhjent of rclij;ioii, l)y frrciiif; thciri from 
 tlic cntlu'iilinc-iit of a f'owar'Jly iuid (U-^riulin^ 
 system, wliicli taiiglit men to seek the aid 
 or deprecate tlie wrath of bein};s who added 
 to superliuman influence the worst viecs of 
 fallen creatures. 
 
 Otlinian succeeded Omar, but (|uiekly 
 displeased his jjenerals, and at the close of 
 a turbulent reign of twelve years, was 
 besieged in his own house, and after a long 
 defence, murdered with the Koran on his 
 knee. Ali was at length elected caliph, not- 
 withstanding the rivalry of Mauwiyah, the 
 lieutenant of Syria, but assassinated within 
 five years in Persia, while entering a mosque 
 for evening worship. His son and successor 
 Hassan, was defeated by Mauwiyah and 
 abdicated in his favour. The new caliph, 
 the founder of the dynasty of the Onimiades, 
 extended the dominion of the Arabs to the 
 Atlantic, having subjugated all Roman or 
 Northern Afi'iea. 
 
 In A.I). 713, Spain was subdued, and the 
 Mussulmans continued to advance until 
 they had reached the heart of France, but 
 were met on the Loire, in 732, between 
 Poitiers and Tours, by Charles ]\Iartel, and 
 utterly routed. 
 
 The last caliph of the dynasty of the 
 Ommiades (JNIcrwan) was slain in a sedition 
 raised by the descendants of Abl)as, JMoham- 
 med's uncle. The second priuec of this 
 dynasty built the city of Bagdad and re- 
 moved the seat of -government thither ; the 
 fifth was the famous Haroun al Raschid. 
 Under the Abbassides learning flourished and 
 the original simplicity of the court gave way 
 to luxury and magnificence, but the coherent 
 strength of the now vast empire was on the 
 decline, and a gradual but sure progress of 
 dismemberment eomuienced. In Spain, a 
 branch of the Ommiades maintained an 
 independent sway ; Khorassan and Trans- 
 oxiana b<, amc virtually independent, and in 
 Egypt, deSecnrlants of Fatima, (daughter of 
 Mohammed and wife to Ali,) established a 
 distinct caliphate. The fortunes of these 
 new powers will be noticed when connected 
 with India, as also those of the Seljuk tribe, 
 whose barbarities at Jerusalem (under the 
 
 • Islam, dei'ived from an Arabic root, signifies "the 
 true faith," Moslem or Mussulman a believer therein. 
 
 t Mohammed Kasim, surnamed Ferishta, resided 
 at the court cf Ibrahim Adil Sliah II., at Beejapoor, 
 about the close of the sixteenth century, and, sus- 
 tained by royal patronage and assistance in collecting 
 authorities, wrote a history of the rise of the Moham- 
 medan power in India till the year \C>\'2, which has 
 been ably translated from tlie original Persian by 
 
 dreaded name of Saracens) provoked the 
 nations of (yliristcndoin to attempt the rescue 
 of the Holy Ijatid ; but the struggle carried on 
 there for nearly three centuries, never imme- 
 diately affected the centre of the Moham- 
 medan empire, which continued at Bagdad 
 for about 500 years. ]\Iustassem was caliph 
 when Hulaku, a descendant of the cele- 
 brated Jengis Khan, besieged and captured 
 Hagdad. The cruel victor, after mocking 
 his wretched prisoner with vain hopes until 
 he had obtained his hidden treasures, ex- 
 posed him for seme days to the lingering 
 torments of .starvation, and then, under the 
 pretence of unwillingness to shed his blood, 
 caused him to be wrapped in coarse camlet, 
 and rolled about on the ground until he 
 expired. Thus perished the last of the 
 Abbassides, a.d. 12.58. In the city alone, 
 800,000 persons, or according to some au- 
 thorities, a much greater number were slain, 
 so that the Tigris was dyed with gore. 
 
 Indo-Arabic Conquests. — In .\.n. 0G4, a 
 large force marched from Meru to Cabool, 
 and made converts of upwards of 12,000 
 persons. At the same time, Mohalib, (after- 
 wards an eminent commander in Persia and 
 Arabia,) proceeded thence with a detach- 
 ment in the direction of India, penetrated to 
 Moultan, and having ])lundcred the country, 
 triumphantly rejoined the army at Khoras- 
 san, bringing with him many captives, who 
 were compelled to declare themselves converts 
 to the Moslem*crced. No further attempt is 
 recorded as having been made on the north 
 of India during the continuance of the Arab 
 rule, but the prince of Cabool appears to 
 have been rendered tributary, if not subject 
 to the caliphs, since his revolt is mentioned 
 by Ferishta,t as the occasion of a new in- 
 vasion of his territories eighteen years later. 
 The Arabs at this period met with an unex- 
 pected check : they were drawn into a de- 
 file, defeated, and compelled to surrender, 
 and to purchase their freedom by an ample 
 ransom. One old contemporary of Moham- 
 med is said to have disdained all compro- 
 mise, and to have fallen by the swords of 
 the infidels. This disgrace was immediately 
 revenged by the Arab governor of Seestau, 
 
 Colonel Briggs. A considerable portion of it had 
 been jireviously rendered into English by Colonel 
 Dow, but the value of his work is lessened by mis- 
 translations, and also by being largely interspersed 
 with reticctions and facts collated from other sources, 
 which, though often interesting and important in 
 themselves, are so closely interwoven with the text 
 as to leave the reader in doubt regarding the portion 
 , which actually rests on the testimony of Ferishta.
 
 56 
 
 AEAB INVASIONS OF WESTERN INDIA— a.d. 699 to 710. 
 
 and yet more completely by Abdureliman, 
 governor of Khorassan, who in a.d. 699, led 
 a. powerful army in person against the city, 
 and reduced the greater part of the country 
 to subjection. A quarrel with Hejaj, the 
 governor of Bassora, led Abdurehman into 
 rebellion against the reigning caliph (Abdel- 
 melck, one of the Ommiades), whereupon 
 he formed an alliance with his former 
 enemy, the prince of Cabool, in whose 
 dominions he was compelled to take re- 
 fuge, and at length, to avoid being given up 
 to his enemies, committed suicide.* 
 
 The nation to which this prince of Cabool 
 belonged is rendered doubtful by the posi- 
 tion of his capital at a corner where the 
 countries of the Paropamisau Indians, the 
 Afghans, the Persians, and the Tartars are 
 closely adjoining each other. Elphinstoue 
 supposes him to have been a Persian, and 
 considei's it very improbable that he could 
 have been an Afghan, as Cabool is never 
 known to have been possessed by a tribe of 
 that nation. 
 
 At this period the northern portion of 
 the tract included in the branches of the 
 Hindoo Coosh, and now inhabited by 
 the Eimaks and Ilazarehs, was known by 
 the name of the mountains of Glior, and 
 probably occupied by Afghans, as also the 
 middle part, all of which seems to have been 
 included in the mountains of Solimau.t The 
 southern portion,' known by the name of the 
 mountains of Mekran, were inhabited by 
 Beloochees as at present ; and the other 
 ridges connected with the same range as 
 those of Ghor, but situated to the east of the 
 range of Imaus and Soliman; were probably 
 tenanted by Indians, descendants of the 
 Paropamisadse. Ferishta seems to have been 
 led by their traditions to believe the Af- 
 ghansf to have been converted to Moham- 
 medanism in the life-time of its originator, 
 and represents them as invading the terri- 
 tory of the Hindoos as early as a.h. 63, and 
 
 • Kholasat al AlMar, and tlie Tarihhi Tahari, 
 ([uoted by Price (vol. i., pp. 45j — 4G3). 
 
 t Elphinsloiie, vol. i., 4'J6. I am informed by Mr. 
 Masson, on the authority of Mirza Sami, the minister 
 of Dost Mohammed, who corrected the mistake made 
 by Sir A. Burnes on the subject in his presence, that 
 the term Hindoo Coosh is esi)ccially given to the high 
 peak of the range to wliicli it belongs, immediately 
 overhanging Ghosband, although it is applied, in 
 ordinary parlance, to some extent of the range 
 stretching east or north-east. 
 
 X Ferishta records, on the anthority of tlie Mutla- 
 ool-Anwar, a work .supposed to be no longer extant, 
 but which !ie describes as written l)y a respectal)le 
 author, that the Afghans are Copts of the race of the 
 
 as afterwards continually eng.iged in hos- 
 tilities with the Rajah of Lahore, until, in 
 conjunction with the Gukkurs (a people on 
 the hills east of the Indus), they obtained 
 from him a cession of territory, secretly 
 engaging in return to protect him from the 
 attacks of other Mussulmans. It was owing 
 to this compact that the princes of the house 
 of Samani never invaded the north of India, 
 but confined their predatory incursions to 
 Sinde. Ferishta further mentions that the 
 Afghans gave an asylum to the remains of 
 the Arabs who were driven out of Sinde in 
 the secoiad century of the Hejira. § 
 
 This account is on the whole sufficiently 
 probable. The Afghans may have willingly 
 received the Koran 1| long before their subju- 
 gation by Sultan Mahmood. On the sub- 
 ject of their early religion, Mohammedan 
 historians afibrd no light, owing to their not 
 distinguishing denominations of infidels. 
 Arab descents on Sinde by sea are men- 
 tioned as early as the caliphate of Omar, but 
 they were probably piratical expeditions, 
 undertaken for the purpose of carrying off 
 the women of the country, whose beauty 
 seems to have been much esteemed in Ara- 
 bia. Several detachments were also sent 
 through the south of IMekran (the Gedrosia 
 of Alexander), during the reigns of the early 
 caliphs, but all failed owing to the impracti- 
 cable character of this barren region. 
 
 At length, in the reign of the caiipt 
 Walid, an Arab ship laden with slave-girls 
 and rarities from Sinde having been seized 
 at Dival or Dcwal, a sea-port connected 
 with Sinde (supposed to be the site of the 
 modern Kurrachee), the rajah, named Dahir 
 by the Mussulmans, was called on for resti- 
 tution. The capital of this prince was at 
 Alor, near Bukkur, and he possessed Moul- 
 tan and all Siude, with, perhaps, the adjoin- 
 ing plain of the Indus, as far as the moun- 
 tains at Calabagh. His territory was por- 
 tioned out among his relations, probably 
 
 Pharaohs, many of whom, after the overthrow of the 
 infidel monarch and his host in the Ked Sea, became 
 converts to tlie true faith; but others, stubborn and 
 self-willed, continued obstinate, and, leaving their 
 country, came to India and settled in tlie Soliman 
 Mountains under the name of Afghans. (Briggs' 
 Ferisht<i,\o\. i., p. G.) The jieople themselves claim 
 descent from Afghaun, grandson of Saul, kiiigof Israel. 
 
 § A quarter of the Balla llissar, or citadel of Ca- 
 bool, retains the name of Arabah, and its occupants 
 are of Araliie descent. 
 
 II 'i'he Tartar nations, China, the Malay country 
 and tlie Asiatic islands, afford evidence of the jiropa- 
 gation of the religion of the Mussulmans, iaae- 
 pendeiit of their arms.
 
 \ 
 
 <
 
 \ 
 
 / 
 
 9
 
 CAPTURE OP THE FORT OF ALOR BY CASIM— a.d. 711. 
 
 57 
 
 Rii tl>e feudal tenure still common amoiip; 
 tlie Rajpoots. Diiliir refused conipliunee 
 with tlio demand of Waiid^ on t!ic j^round 
 that Dcwal was not suliject to his .-uithority ; 
 the excuse was deemed uusatisfactorj', and 
 a body of 1,000 infantry and iJOO horse 
 were dcspatciicd to Sindc; but this inade- 
 quate force pcrislicd like its predecessors 
 on the road. Ilejaj, the Ijcforc-mcntioned 
 governor of Bassora, prei)arcd a regular army 
 of G/)()0 men at Shiraz, and entrusted the 
 command to his sou-in-law, Mohammed 
 Casim, then only twenty years of age. By 
 him the troops were safely conducted to the 
 walls of Dewal, a.ii. 'J2 (a.d. 711). Casim, 
 being provided with catapultas and other 
 engines, commenced operations by attacking 
 a celebrated pagoda without the city, sur- 
 rounded by a high enclosure of hewn stone, 
 and occupied, in addition to the numerous 
 Brahmin inhabitants, by a strong gai-rison 
 of Rajpoots. The Arab leader having 
 learned that the safety of the place was 
 believed to be connected with that of the 
 sacred standard displayed on the tower of 
 the temple, directed his engines against this 
 object, and having succeeded in bringing it to 
 the ground, the dismay of the besieged soon 
 terminated in surrender. The town was like- 
 wise taken, and a rich booty obtained. The 
 Brahmins rejected the proposed test of con- 
 version- — circumcision : all above the age of 
 seventeen were put to death, and tlie re- 
 mainder, with the women, reduced to slavery. 
 Brahmanabad, NcronKow (now Hyderabad), 
 Schwan, and Salem* were in turn reduced, 
 and Casim, strengthened by a reinforcement 
 of 2,000 horse from Persia, continued to 
 advance, notnithstauding the op])Osition of 
 a powerful force under the rajah's eldest 
 son, until he reached the neighbourhood of 
 Alor or Abhor, where he was confronted by 
 the r.ajah himself, at the head of 40,000 men. 
 The disproportion of numbers rendered 
 retreat or advance equally hazardous for the 
 invader, who prudently ensconced his small 
 forcet in a strong position, and awaited the 
 attack of the Hindoos, anxiously watching 
 for any error or disaster which might create 
 
 • Thesile of lirahriKinabad is supposed by Burnes 
 to be marked by the ruins close to the modern town 
 of Tatta (Travels, vol. iii., p. 31), but Captain 
 M'Murdo {li. A. S. Journal, No. I., p. 28), thinks it 
 must have been situated on the other side of the pre- 
 sent course of the Indus, nnicli farther to the north- 
 east. Sehwan still retains its ancient name. The 
 site of Salem is doubtful. 
 
 + It is stated in a work, abstracted from the family 
 aimals of Mawab Bahawal Khan, and translated and 
 
 disorder among their unwieldy ranks. Such 
 a circumstance occurred at an early period 
 of the engagement. A najjtha fire-ball 
 struck the rajah's elephant, and the terrified 
 anitnal becoming absolutely ungovernable, 
 rushed from the field of battle and plunged 
 into the adjacent river ludiis. Duhir, al- 
 thotigh severely wounded by an arrow, 
 mounted his war-horse and returned imme- 
 diately to the scene of action, Ijut the dis- 
 appearance of the leader had produced its 
 usual effect on an Asiatic army; the fortune 
 of the day was already decided ; and the 
 brave rajah, after vainly attempting to rally 
 his panie-strickcn forces, plunged into the 
 midst of the Arab cavalry, and, with a small 
 baud of trusty followers, fell covered with 
 wounds. His son fled to Brahmanabad, but 
 his widow collected the remains of tlic 
 routed army and successfully defciuled the 
 city, until famine within the walls proved a 
 more powerful enemy than the sword with- 
 out. Inflamed by her cxann)lc, a body of Raj- 
 poots resolved to devote themselves and their 
 families to death, after the manner of their 
 tribe. When all hope of deliverance had fled, 
 they bathed, and with other ceremonies took 
 leave of each other and the world; the women 
 and children were then sacrificed on a fune- 
 real pile, and the men, headed by the widow 
 of Dahir, flung open the gates of the for- 
 tress, and all perished in an attack on the 
 Mohammedan camp. The city was then car- 
 ried by storm, those who remained in arras 
 were slaughtered, and their families reduced 
 to bondage. 
 
 A last desperate stand was made at Ash- 
 candr.a, after which Moultan seems to have 
 fallen without resistance, and every part of 
 the dominions of the ill-fated DahirJ was 
 gradually subjected. Each city was called 
 upon to embrace the religion of Mohammed 
 or to pay tribute; in default of both, an 
 assault was commenced, and unless saved by 
 timely capitulation, the fighting men were 
 put to death and their families sold for 
 slaves. Four cities held otit to the last 
 extremity; and in two of them the number 
 of soldiers who were refused quarter is esti- 
 
 published by Shahamet Ali (a native gentleman in 
 the service of the British government), under the 
 title of.the Ilistonj of Bahawalpur (London, 1818), 
 that a Brahmin of great abilitv forsook his master, 
 the rajah, previous to the final conflict, and afforded 
 great assistance to Casim; if so, he was probably 
 accompanied by other deserters. 
 
 \ In the history of Sinde, translated by the late 
 Captain I'ostans, it is asserted that Dahir ruled 
 Cabool, as weU as Sinde, and coins have been found
 
 58 
 
 EXTINCTION OP ARAB POWER IN INDIA. 
 
 mated at 6,000 each. The merchants, arti- 
 zans, and such like were exempt from moles- 
 tation, beyond what must have been insepa- 
 rably connected with the storming of a town. 
 "When the payment of tribute was agreed 
 to, the sovereign retained his territory, sim- 
 nly becoming amenable to the usual rela- 
 tions of a tributary prince, and the people 
 retained all their former privileges, including 
 the free exercise of their religion. 
 
 Casim himself, notwithstanding his ex- 
 treme youth, seems to have united to mili- 
 tary talents of the first order, discretion and 
 ability to keep by conciliatory measures what 
 he had gained by violence.* Several Hindoo 
 princes were induced to join him during the 
 wai", and at its conclusion he re-appointed 
 the Hindoo prime minister of Daliir to his 
 previous office, on the express ground that 
 he was best qualified to protect old rights, 
 and maintain established institutions. 
 
 The conquest and occupation of Sinde 
 being completed, the victor organised an 
 army on a large scale, f By some writers 
 he is alleged to have accomplished a trium- 
 phant march to Canouj on the Ganges, estab- 
 lishing a Mohammedan garrison in every 
 large town on his route, when a sudden blow 
 from a most unexpected source terminated at 
 once his projects and his life. Among the 
 females captured at Sinde were the two 
 daughters of the ill-fated rajah, who, from 
 their beauty and high rank, were deemed 
 worthy to grace the seraglio of the Com- 
 mander of the Faithful. There they re- 
 mained until the year of the Hejira 96 
 (a.d. 714), when Walid became enamoured 
 of the elder sister, who vehemently declared 
 herself unworthy of his notice, having been 
 dishonoured l^y Casim befoi'e being sent 
 from her own country. The enraged caliph, 
 in the first headlong impulse of passion, 
 wrote with his own hand an order to Casim, 
 that he should cause liimself to be sewn up 
 in a raw hide and thus embrace the fate 
 which he deserved. The faithful subject 
 literally obeyed this tyraTuiical mandate, 
 and his body was sent to Damascus. The 
 caliph showed it to the princess, as evidence 
 of the fate which attended those who dared 
 insult the "deputy of the prophet," upon 
 which she cxultiugly declared that his ill- 
 fated servant was wholly innocent of the 
 crime attributed to him, and had fallen a 
 
 with Nagai'i legends, whicli Mr.Masson reads as refer- 
 ring to Sri ])alur, but Professor Wilson, to Sri Malic. 
 * A Persian MS., the Tarikhi Hind o Smd, pre- 
 served in the India House, is tlie source whence most 
 
 ^ictim to her successful stratagem, planned 
 to revenge the death of her father, mother, 
 brother, and countrymen. This strange and 
 romantic incident is recorded with little 
 variation by Mohammedan historians, and 
 it is perfectly consistent with the determined 
 character of the Hindoo women, where the 
 objects of their affections are concerned, and 
 also with the pure and unhesitating self- 
 devotion repeatedly evinced by the servants 
 of the caliphs. J 
 
 The conquests of Casim were made over 
 to his successor Temim, whose family pos- 
 sessed them for about thirty-six years, that 
 is, until the downfall of the house of Ommia, 
 A.D. 750, when the Mussulmans were ex- 
 pelled by the Rajpoot tribe of Sumera, and 
 their territories restored to the Hindoos, 
 who retained possession for nearly 500 years. 
 Part of the expelled Ai'abs found refuge, 
 (as before stated) among the Afghans. 
 
 Such is the account given by Elphinstone, 
 on the authority of Ferishta and the Ayeen 
 Akbery — but in the History of Bahawa/pur, 
 since published, it is asserted that on the ex- 
 pulsion of the Ommia dynasty and the ac- 
 cession of Abul Abbas, governors were sent 
 out by him to Sinde and the Punjaub. But 
 little resistance was made, and the Abbas 
 house continued in the enjoyment of their 
 Indian acquisitions without molestation, 
 until the caliphate of Kader-Bellah, that is, 
 for a period of 286 lunar years, at the ex- 
 piration of which the formidable enemy of 
 Hindoo independence, Mahmood of Ghuz- 
 nce, appeared on the stage. 
 
 These statements are quite contradictory; 
 but whatever degree of influence or authority 
 the Arabs may have retained after the check 
 given by the death of their leader, Casim, 
 it is certain that neither their power nor 
 their creed spread, but rather diminished 
 from that moment. The passive courage of 
 the Hindoos generally, as well as the more 
 active bravery of the Rajpoots, associated 
 especially with a devoted attachment to a 
 religion closely interwoven with their laws 
 and customs — opposed great obstacles to in- 
 vaders, even more desirous of converting 
 than of conquering them. Besides this, 
 the great change whicli took place in the 
 spirit of the Mohammedan rulers, rendered 
 their antagonism far less dangerous. The 
 rude soldiers of Arabia, who had raised the 
 
 accounts of Casim's military transactions are derived. 
 
 t About ij(),0()0 Molianimedans are said to have 
 collected around his standard on this occasion. 
 
 t Briggs' Ferishta, vol. iv., p. 410.
 
 EISE OF THE KINGDOM OF GHUZNEE. 
 
 60 
 
 wild war cry of Islam, passed away ; ancccod- 
 ing generations (iiUul their plaee, reared less 
 hardily, wliilc their chiefs in an absorbing 
 desire for luxury and magiiilieencc at 
 home, cared little for the dear-bought 
 triumphs of victory and the glory of their 
 standard abroad. Omar set out to join his 
 army at Jerusalem, (in compliance witli the 
 stipulation of the ('iiristians that he should 
 personally receive the surrender of the holy 
 place), with his arms and provisions on the 
 same camel with himself; and Otiiman ex- 
 tinguished his lamp, when he had finished 
 the necessary labours of the day, that the 
 public oil might not be expended on his 
 enjoyments. Al Malidi, within a century 
 from the last-named ruler, loaded 500 
 camels with ice and snow; and the profusion 
 of one day of the Abbassides would have de- 
 frayed all the expenses of the four first 
 caliphs. Thus it was left to other Mus- 
 sulman nations, and to dynasties formed 
 during the gradual dismemberment of the 
 great Arab empire, to estabUsh permanent 
 dominion in India. 
 
 House of Ghuznee* — To i;nderstand the 
 origin of this powerful family, it is necessary 
 to retrace our steps, and briefly notice the 
 country from whence they came. 
 
 After the conquest of Persia, the Oxus 
 became the northern Arab frontier : on the 
 opposite side lay a tract of country (bounded 
 ou the north by the Jaxartes, on the west 
 by the Caspian Sea, and on the east by 
 Mount Imaus,) to which they gave the 
 name of Mawer ul Nahr, literally Beyond 
 the River, but commonly translated Trans- 
 oxania. It comprised much desert ground, 
 intermingled with tracts of remarkable fer- 
 tility, and was occupied partly by settled in- 
 habitants, who were chiefly Persians, and 
 partly by nomadic and pastoral tribes, com- 
 prehended under the vague and general 
 name of Tartars. f To which of the three 
 great nations, commonly included iu Euro- 
 pean writings under this head, the people of 
 Transoxania belonged at this period, whether 
 Turks, IMoguls, or IManchoos, is still unde- 
 termined ; but the first-named people are 
 generally supposed to have formed the bulk 
 of the wandering and also a section of the 
 
 * Ghiizneo, otherwise spelt Ghizni and Ghazni. 
 
 t Tod, rcriiring to De Guignes, says — the Heong- 
 nou and the ()u-houn. the Turks and Moguls, were 
 called " Tatar," from Tatan, the name of the country 
 from the banks of the Irtish, along the mountains of 
 Altai, to the shores of the Yellow Sea. l)e Guignes 
 invariably maintains Ilcong-nou to be but another 
 name for the Turks, among whom he places Attila 
 
 ])ermancnt population. It was more than 
 half a century after the subjugation of 
 Persia and five years before the occupation of 
 Sinde, that the Araijs crossed the Oxus 
 under Catiba, governor of Khorassan, and 
 after eight years spent in a contest, with 
 varying success, Transoxiana was subjected 
 to the sway of the cali|)li.s, a.d. 71.3. In 
 HOG, a revolt occurred, which the son and 
 successor of Ilaroun al llasehid, Mamoon, 
 was enabled to quell, aiul afterwards by 
 residing in Khorassan, to retain authority 
 over that province. Ikit on the removal of 
 the court to Bagdad, Taher, who had been 
 the principal instrument of Mamoon's eleva- 
 tion to the caliphate, to the detriment of 
 his brother Ameen, established indepen- 
 dent authority in Khorassan and Trans- 
 oxiana, which were never again united to 
 the rapidly decaying empire. 
 
 The family of Taher were deposed after 
 about fifty years' rule, by the Sofarides, 
 whose founder Yacub ben Leith, a brazier 
 of Seestan, commenced by raising a revolt 
 in his native province, afterwards over- 
 ran Persia,J and died while marching to 
 attack the caliph iu Bagdad. At the ex- 
 piration of forty years, the Samanis, a family 
 of distinction, whose members had held gov- 
 ernments under !Mamoou while he resided in 
 Khorassan, and afterwards under the Taher- 
 ites, superseded the Sofarides and took pos- 
 session of their territory, nominally in behalf 
 of the caliph, but rcallj' without any refer- 
 ence to his authority. It was in the reign 
 of Abdelmelek, the fifth prince of this 
 dynasty, that Aluptugeen, the founder of 
 the kingdom of Gliuzuee, rose into impor- 
 tance. He was of Turkish descent, and had 
 been a slave, but his royal master recognising 
 his ability, had appointed him to various 
 oilices of trust, and at length to the govern- 
 ment of Khorassan. On the death of his 
 patron, a deputation was sent to consult 
 Aluptugeen respecting the choice of a suc- 
 cessor from the royal family, and having 
 given his suflVage against Mansoor the 
 presumptive heir, on account of his extreme 
 youth, he ineuiTcd the ill-will of this prince, 
 (wliohadmeantime been raised to thethrone,) 
 was deprived of his office, and but for the 
 
 and the majority of his army, whose hideous physi- 
 ognomy anil savage manners lent a fearful prestige 
 to their desolating marches. Another division of the 
 same branch of the Heong-nou had previously settled 
 among the Persians in Transoxiana, and acquired 
 the name of the White Huns, from their changed 
 complexion. — (Hisloirc gincrale dcs Jliins.) 
 
 J He likewise subjugated Cabool. — {Mr. Thomas.)
 
 60 
 
 DEFEAT OP JEIPAL, RAJAH OF LAHORE— a.d. 978. 
 
 fidelity of a trusty band of adherents, aided 
 by his own militarj' skill, would have lost 
 liberty, if not life. At Ghuznee, in the 
 heart of the Soliman mountains, the fugi- 
 tive found safety, aceomp.anied by 3,000 dis- 
 ciplined slaves {Maineluks) . Here he was 
 probably joined by soldiers who had served 
 under him, as well as by the hill Afghans, 
 who, even though they might not acknow- 
 ledge his authority, would be readily in- 
 dueed by wages to enter his service. In his 
 flight Aluptugcen was attended by a faith- 
 ful slave named Subuktugeen, brought by a 
 merchant from Turkistan to Bokhara.* 
 Following the example of his early bene- 
 factor, he had fostered the abilities of the 
 youth until, on the establishment of a king- 
 dom in Ghuznee, he rewarded the service 
 of his adherent, both as a counsellor and 
 general, by the titles of Ameer-ool-Omra 
 (chief of the nobles) and Vakeel-i-Mootluk 
 (representative). He is even said to have 
 named him as his successor, but authorities 
 differ on this point, some stating that Subuk- 
 tugeen acceded immediately to the throne 
 on the demise of Aluptugcen, a.d. 975; 
 others, that he was chosen, on the death of 
 that monarch's son and successor, two years 
 later, by general consent of the chiefs, and 
 then married the daughter of his patron. 
 Having been recognised by the caliph ]\Ian- 
 soor as governor of Ghuznee, he had, con- 
 sequently, nothing to dread from that quar- 
 ter, but was speedily called upon to make 
 preparations against Jeipal [Jaya Pahi), 
 rajah of Laliore, who, alarmed by the 
 growing power of a jMohammedan ruler 
 so near his frontier, and already harassed by 
 frequent incursions, determined in turn to 
 become the assailant. At the head of a 
 large army he crossed the Indus, marched 
 to Laghman at the mouth of the valley 
 which extends from Peshawer to Cabool, 
 and was there met by Subuktugeen. Some 
 skirmishes ensued, but a general engage- 
 ment was prevented by a terrible tempest of 
 thunder, wind, and hail, in which some 
 thousands of both armies were said to have 
 perished. This disaster was attributed to 
 supernatural causes ;t rmd the Hindoos, 
 less accustomed than their hardy foes to the 
 
 • He is alleged to h.ive been lineally descended 
 from Yezdijerd, the last of the Persian monnrchs, 
 who wlien flying from his enemies during the cali- 
 phate of Othnian, was murdered while sleeping at 
 a water-mill near the town of Meru. ]lis family 
 lieing left in 'J'urkistan formed connections among 
 the ])CO])lc, and his descendants became Turks. 
 
 t I'rincc Mahmood learning that in the camp of 
 
 extreme vicissitudes of climate, and probably 
 more superstitious, proposed terms of peace, 
 to which Subuktugeen, notwithstanding the 
 opposition of his warlike son Mahmood, 
 then a mere boy, at length consented, on 
 representation being made to him of the 
 determined courage of the Hindoos, espe- 
 cially the Rajpoots, when driven to the last 
 extremity. Jeipal surrendered fifty ele- 
 phants, and engaged to pay a large sum of 
 money, but on regaining the shelter of his 
 own dominions, fear gave way to resent- 
 ment, and, forfeiting his pledge, he impri- 
 soned the messengers sent to demand its 
 redemption. Hostilities re-eommenced ; the 
 rajahs of Delhi, Ajmeer, Calinjar, and 
 Canouj,J made common cause with their 
 countrymen ; and when the rival forces 
 again met in Laghman, the Ghuznee sove- 
 reign, baring ascended a height to ascertaia 
 the disposition of the enemy, "beheld the 
 whole plain covered with an almost count- 
 less host, comprising 100,000 horse and a 
 prodigious number of foot soldiers. Un- 
 daunted by the prospect, and considering 
 himself " as a wolf about to attack a flock of 
 sheei)," Subuktugeen divided his troops 
 into squadrons of 500 men each, and di- 
 rected them to attack successively one par- 
 ticular point of the dense line of the enemy, 
 which would thus be continually compelled 
 to encounter fresh troops. The manoeuvre 
 succeeded in occasioning some disorder, 
 which was the signal for a general assault ; 
 the Hindoos gave way, and were driven with 
 dreadful slaughter beyond the Indus, up to 
 which point Subuktugeen at once took pos- 
 session, levied heavy contributions in addi- 
 tion to the plunder found in the camp, and 
 left an officer, supported by 10,000 horse, as 
 governor of Peshawer. The Afghans and 
 Khiljis (a distinct Tartar tribe) tendered 
 allegiance, and furnished useful recruits. 
 He then employed himself in consolidating 
 his own dominions, which now extended on 
 the west beyond Caudahar, until an appeal 
 for help from his nominal sovereign Noah 
 (the seventh of the Samanis) against the 
 inroads of the Iloeike Tartars, who then 
 possessed all Tartary as far cast as China, 
 induced him again to have recourse to arms. 
 
 Jeipal was a spring, into which, if a mixture of or- 
 dure were thrown, a fearful storm would arise, 
 caused this to be done and the predicted result im- 
 mediately followed. — (i'6'ris/(<o.) The fact of there 
 being near Laghman, a spot subject to tempests of 
 extraordinary severity, renders this tale interesting. 
 
 J These princes were all of the I'ala family, and 
 consequently related to the rajah of Lahore.
 
 ACCESSION OP MAHMOOD OF GHUZNEE— a.d. 998. 
 
 CI 
 
 So efficient was tlic assistiincc rendered, tliat 
 Noah, reinstated in liia autliority, recognised 
 the right of Subuktugcen over all his acqui- 
 sitions, and conferred the government of 
 Khorassan on Malnnood, with the title of 
 Syf-ood-Dowla (Sword of the State). This 
 arrangement was almost immediately dis- 
 turljed by the death of the two chief parties, 
 and the changes aud dissensions whicli arose 
 in their dominions. 
 
 Mahmood, being absent at the time of his 
 father's demise, was supplanted in liis claim 
 to the succession by his brotlier Ismael, 
 whom, after defeating in a pitched battle, 
 he captured and imprisoned for the rest of 
 his life, mitigating however the severity of 
 the sentence by every indulgence consistent 
 with such a situation. During the seven 
 months spent in establishing himself in 
 Ghuznec, events occurred in Bokhara very 
 detrimental to liis interests. The new king, 
 Mansoor II., fell into the power of the old 
 enemies of his family, and by the influence 
 of Elik Khan the Tartar sovereign, was 
 compelled to receive Faik, one of his most 
 turbulent and rebellious nobles, as his 
 prime minister or rather master. The ap- 
 plication of Mahmood to be continued in 
 the government of Khorassan was abruptly 
 rejected, and soon afterwards some court 
 intrigues led to the unhappy ISIansoor's 
 being dethroned and blinded, whereupon 
 Abdulmclck was elected his successor as the 
 instrument of Faik, a.d. 999. On this, 
 Mahmood ordered the name of the Samanis 
 to be omitted in the public prayers; took 
 possession of Khorassan in his own behalf; 
 and having received an investiture from the 
 reigning cali[)h (the dispenser of powers 
 which he himself no longer enjoyed) pro- 
 claimed the indepeudeuee of his sway. He 
 is henceforth commonly termed Sultan, an 
 old Arabic word signifying king, but this 
 title is not found upon his coins.* He ne.\t 
 made peace with, and married the daughter 
 of Elik Khan, who had secured his share in 
 the spoil of a falling dynasty by seizing on 
 Transoxiana, and had thus put an end to 
 the dominion of the Samanis after it had 
 lasted 120 years. Mahmood was now little 
 more than thirty years of age. The vigour 
 and ambition of his mind were in accord- 
 ance with his athletic and well-proportioned 
 
 • Sultan, first stamped by the Seljuk, Toghral Beg, 
 was assumed in Ghuznee some fifteen years later 
 by Ibrahim, a.d. lOGO. (Thomas, on G/iazni Coins.) 
 
 t Alexander was reproached by his mother for 
 placing his friends on a level with princes, by his 
 
 frame, but, gi-eedy of personal distinction 
 of every kind, he considered the mens sana \ 
 in corpora sano insufficient compensation 
 for an ordinary stature, and features dis- 
 figured with the small po.ic in a manner, 
 which at least in his youth, lie Ijitterly re- 
 gretted, as calculated to mar the efl'ect of 
 the splendid j)ageants in which he delighted 
 to form the cliicf object. For Mahmood, 
 famous warrior as ho afterwards and liad 
 indeed already proved himself, could not as 
 a legislator bear comparison with his vaunted 
 teacher Mohammed, and was very far from 
 uniting the comprehensive ability of the 
 statesman to the sword of the conqueror, 
 like his mighty predecessor in India, Alex- 
 ander; who, heedless of the externals of 
 royalt}', lavished gold and jewels upon his 
 followers until his own coffers were empty,t 
 and — superior to the vanity which led his 
 successors to stamp their resemblance on 
 coins and images, cared so little for this 
 species of notoriety, that of his kingly form 
 no popular notion remains, save that con- 
 nected with the keen intelligence of the 
 eye, and the peculiar carriage of the head, 
 dwelt on by cotemporaries as his peculiar 
 characteristics. 
 
 The vice of covctousness, in the indul- 
 gence of which Mahmood's intense selfish- 
 ness found constant gratification, gradually 
 swallowed up the higher qualities of his 
 intellect, as well as the better feelings of his 
 heart. It had probably been early stimu- 
 lated by the rich booty captured during his 
 father's war with Jeipal, and by reports of 
 the immense stores of wealth heaped around 
 idolatrous shrines, which it was the duty of 
 every " true believer" to pillage and destroy. 
 The unsettled state of the surrounding na- 
 tions offered a wide scope for his ambition, 
 but Indian conquest appears to have been 
 his paramount desire. Having therefore, as 
 before stated, entered into a friendly alli- 
 ance with Elik Khan aud m.ade arrange- 
 ments for the government of his own domi- 
 nions, he proceeded with 10,000 chosen 
 horse to invade India, a.d. 1001. Near 
 Peshawcr he was met by his father's old 
 antagonist, the rajah of Lahore, whom, after 
 totally defeating, he made prisoner. From 
 thence the conqueror pursued his victorious 
 march beyond the Sutlej, to the fort of Ea- 
 
 unhoundcd generosity. Mahmood when dying or- 
 dered his treasures to be spread out before him, and 
 shed bitter tears at the thought of parting with 
 them, but distributed no portion among the faithful 
 adherents who had assisted him in their acquisition.
 
 62 MAHMOOD'S EARLY EXPEDITIONS TO INDIA— a.d. 1001—1005. 
 
 tinda,* which he stormed, and then returned ' 
 to Ghuzuee with the rich spoils of the camp 
 and country, including sixteen necklaces, one 
 of which, belonging to Jeipal, was valued at 
 180,000 dihnars,t or £81,000. 
 
 In the ensuing spring the Hindoo pri- 
 soners were released on payment of a hea^y 
 ransom, but the Afghan chiefs who had 
 joined them were put to death. Jeipal him- 
 self returned to his kingdom, and having 
 made over his authority to his son Auung 
 Pal, bravely met the fate a mistaken creed 
 assigned as a duty to a sovereign twice con- 
 quered by a foreign foe; and mounting a 
 pyre which he had caused to be prepared, 
 set it on fire and perished in the flames. 
 Anung Pal (Ananda Pala) appears to have 
 at first endeavoured to fulfil his father's 
 engagement, but the rajah of Bhatia,J a 
 dependency of Lahore, on the eastern side 
 of Moultau, refused to furnish his quota of 
 the stipulated tribute, upon which the sultan 
 proceeded in person to enforce it (a.u. 1004), 
 and drove the offending rajah, first from a 
 well-defended iutrenchment, and then from 
 a strong fortress, until the fugitive, in des- 
 pair, finding himself pursued even among the 
 thickets of the Indus, where he had hoped 
 for refuge, and being at the point of cap- 
 ture, turned his sword against his own 
 breast : the majority of his remaining ad- 
 herents perished in vainly endeavouring to 
 avenge his death. 
 
 After annexing Bhatia and its dependen- 
 cies the conqueror departed, bearing away 
 as usual much booty of various kinds, in- 
 cluding 280 elephants and many captives. 
 
 A third expedition into India was soon 
 
 * Situated in an almost inaccessible tract inhab- 
 ited by the Bhattis or Shepherds. Though sur- 
 rounded by a sort of desert, the rajah resided here, 
 alternately with his capital Lahore, probably as a 
 measure of security. Bird's History of Gujarat, 
 from the Persian of Ali IMohammed Khan. 
 
 f Valuing the dihiiar at nine shillings. 
 
 j Site disputed, generally considered to be the 
 present Bhulneer. 
 
 § Brigg's Perislda, vol. i. p. 40, This expression 
 probably alludes to a supposed falling into hetero- 
 doxy rather than paganism. Sects and dissensions 
 liad early arisen among the Mohammedans, and in- 
 creased until they amounted to seventy-three, the 
 niimber said to have been foretold by Mohammed. 
 These may be classed under two heads. The be- 
 lievers, generally deemed orthodox, are included 
 under the term Sonnites (or traditi(niists), because they 
 acknowledge the authority of the Sonna, a collection 
 of moral traditions of the sayings and actions of tlieir 
 founder, whicli is a sort of sup])lemcnt to the Koran, 
 answering in name and design to the IMishna of the 
 Jews. The Sonnites regard the Koran as uncreated 
 and eternal, in opposition to the Motazalites (or sepa- 
 
 undertaken against the Afghan ruler of 
 Moultan, Abul Futteh Lodi, the grandson 
 of the chief who had joined Subuktugeen 
 after his first victory over the Hindoos. 
 Abul, although educated as a Mussulman, 
 had " abandoned the tenets of the faithful,"^ 
 and what Mahmood considered of more im- 
 portance, thrown off his political allegiance, 
 and entered into a close alliance with Auung 
 Pal, who, on learning the approach of their 
 joint foe, advanced to intercept him, but 
 was defeated near Peshawer, pursued to 
 Sodra (near Vizirabad) on the Chenab, and 
 compelled to take refuge in Cashmere. 
 Moultan was then besieged, but at the end 
 of seven days a compromise was effected, the 
 revolting chief promising implicit obedi- 
 ence for the future and the payment of an 
 annual tribute of 20,000 golden dirhems;|| 
 terms which Mahmood was only too glad to 
 grant, having received intelligence of a for- 
 midable invasion of his dominions by the 
 armies of Elik Khan. The ties of relation- 
 ship had not sufficed to prevent the en- 
 croaching Tartar from endeavouring to take 
 advantage of the unprotected state in which 
 his son-in-law had left his home possessions, 
 while intent on aggressive incursions abroad. 
 Hoping to acquire Khorassan without diffi- 
 culty, he despatched one force to Herat 
 and another to Balkh to take possession. 
 But he had formed too low an estimate of 
 the energy of the opponent he had wantonly 
 provoked. Committing the charge of his 
 acquisitions on the Indus to Sewuk Pal, a 
 Hindoo who had embraced Mohammedanism, 
 Mahmood immediately proceeded by long 
 and rapid marches to Ghuznee, and thence to 
 
 ratists) and others, who maintain such an assertion 
 to be rank infidelity ; and some caliphs of the Abbas 
 family (Motassem and Wathek) endeavoured to sup- 
 press it by punishing its advocates with whipping, im- 
 prisonment, and even death. An account of the 
 numerous false prophets who sjirang up, in imitation 
 of the arch-deceiver himself, is ably given in the in- 
 troduction to Sale's Koran ; among them figures 
 Mokanna, the veiled prophet, the hero of Moore's 
 most popular production. The Sheiahs, a term sig 
 nifying sectaries or adherents in general, is pecu- 
 liarly applied to the followers of Ali, who hold him 
 to have been the rightful Caliph and Iniaimi, or high 
 ])onliff, (by virtue of his birth, of his marriage witli 
 Fatima, and of his having been the first independent 
 person who recognised the mission of Mohammed,) and 
 consider the supreme authority both tempoi-al and spi- 
 ritual inalienably vested in his descendants. Tlie Per- 
 sians are mostlySheiahs; theTurks gcnerailycome un- 
 derthehead of Sonnites, and those, like many less con- 
 spicuous sects, are in direct oiipo'iition to each otlier. 
 II The value of the silver dirhem is about five- 
 pence ; that of the golden one. Colonel Briggs states, 
 is not estimated in any work he has examined.
 
 HOSTILITIES IN MOULTAN AND THE PUNJAUB— a.d. 1008. 
 
 C'-i 
 
 Balkh, whence the intruders Hod, as did the 
 troops at Herat, before the force detached 
 for their expulsion. 
 
 Elik Klian, alarmed at the turn of affairs, 
 applied for assistance to Kadr Khan of 
 Khoten, who marched to join liim with 
 .50,000 men. Thus strcni;thciicd he crossed 
 the Oxus and was met near iiaikh by Mah- 
 mood, who had employed even more than 
 wonted skill in the arrangement of his re- 
 sources. Not the least of these was a body 
 of 500 elephants, captured at various times 
 from the ilindoos, the mere sight of which 
 would, he rightly conjectured, check the 
 fury of the Tartar charge, and probably suc- 
 ceed in breaking their line : but being well 
 aware that failing in this, these timid and 
 unwieldy, though sagacious and gentle crea- 
 tures, would, as he had often witnessed, 
 becoming alarmed and injured, rush back 
 furiously on their masters, he stationed them 
 at intervals among the troops, leaving free 
 way for their retreat in the event of a re- 
 pulse. This forethought, however, proved 
 needless. IJoth armies advanced with im- 
 petuosity to the charge, and Elik Khan, 
 attended by his guards, attacked the centre 
 of the army of Mahmood, who, perceiving 
 his intention, leaped from his horse, and 
 after (as was his wont, on the eve of any 
 great struggle) prostrating himself on the 
 ground and invoking the aid of the Al- 
 mighty, — mounted an elephant and ad- 
 vanced to meet his assailant. The well- 
 trained animal seizing the standard-bearer 
 of the enemy in his trunk, tossed him aloft, 
 to the dismay of his companions. The 
 Ghuznevides urged on the other elephants 
 and pressed forward themselves to support 
 their leader ; the Tartars were driven off 
 the field with prodigious slaughter, and Elik 
 Khan escaped across the Oxus with a few 
 attendants, having received a severe lesson 
 not again to meddle with the dominions of 
 his warlike relative. But for the inele- 
 
 • On the third night of the pursuit a violent storm 
 of wind and snow occurred. The army remained 
 unsheltered, but the royal tents had with much 
 ditRculty been pitched and heated by stoves, so that 
 many of the courtiers began to throw off their upper 
 garments. One of them came in shivering with cold, 
 wliich ^I.ibmood perceiving, addressed him with — 
 " Go, Dilchuk, and tell Winter that he may burst 
 his cheeks with blustering — here we defy his power." 
 Dilcliuk went out, and returning, declared that he 
 had delivered his message, and the surly season 
 replied, that though he might fail to touch royalty 
 or its immediate retainers, yet he would so evince 
 his power over tlie army that in the morning the 
 sultan might be compelled to saddle his own horse. 
 
 mcney of the season, it being the winter of 
 lOOG, he might have fared still worse; for 
 Mahmood, after two days' pursuit, was 
 not without great rcluetanec compelled to 
 return to his capital by the intense cold, 
 from which some hundreds of his men and 
 horses perished.* 
 
 Meanwhile Sewuk Pal, the renegade 
 Hindoo governor, had relapsed into ido- 
 latry and cxiJcUcd all the ofliecrs appointed 
 by Mahmood, who, marching to India, de- 
 tached a body of cavalry in advance, by 
 whom the offender was surprised and cap- 
 tured. His sentence was a heavy fine and 
 imprisonment for lifc.f 
 
 In the spring of 1008, the Sultan as- 
 sembled a lai'gc army and set out on his 
 fourth Indian expedition, on the plea of 
 revenging the opposition he had received 
 during the hostilities in Moultan from 
 Anung Pal, who, on becoming aware of his 
 danger, sent ambassadors to the Hindoo 
 princes on all sides, urging them to unite 
 for the protection of their religion and in- 
 dependence. The appeal was successful ; 
 the rajahs of Oojein, Gwalior, Calinjar, 
 Canouj, Delhi, and Aj nicer entered into a 
 confederacy, and collecting their forces, ad- 
 vanced into the Punjaub with an army, 
 whose magnitude so astonished jMahmood, 
 that instead of displaying his usual alacrity 
 to meet danger, he halted in the presence 
 of the enemj', took up a position near 
 Peshawer, and remained forty days in a de- 
 fensive attitude. It must have seemed to 
 him as if the whole male population of 
 Hindoostan had come, en masse, to obstruct 
 his progress, and to die, if necessary, in the 
 attempt. Their numbers and enthusiasm 
 daily increased, contributions constantly 
 arrived from the women of distant parts, 
 who sold their jewels and melted down their 
 ornaments to provide ample resources for the 
 defence of their country, and the Gukkurs 
 and other warlike troops rallying round the 
 
 AVilh all his faults, Mahmood seems to have been 
 neither irascible nor tyrannical in his bearing to- 
 wards those about him. The reproof thus wittily 
 conveyed is said to have induced him to renounce 
 the idea of further advance, but the distressing 
 scenes of death and suffering manifested by the dawn 
 of the following day must have sufficed to afford 
 reason for retreat. — (Briggs' Ferishta, vol. i., p. 44.) 
 
 t In the text I have followed the example of 
 Elphinstone in adopting the statement of Ferishta ; 
 but Mr. Bird asserts, on the authority of older Per- 
 sian writers, that there was no such person as Sewuk 
 Pal, and that the mistake arose from placing the 
 expedition to Moultan before, instead of after, the 
 war with Elik Khan. — {Jlislort/ of Gujarat, p. 23.)
 
 64 DEFEAT OF CONFEDERATED HINDOO EAJAHS— a.d. 1008— '10. 
 
 popular standard, encompassed the Moham- 
 medans, who were compelled to intrench 
 their camp. Mahmood perceiving the in- 
 creasing danger, strove to profit by the 
 strength of his defences, and sent out a 
 body of 6,000 archers to provoke an attack. 
 The success of this stratagem had vrell nigh 
 proved fatal to the schemer, for the hardy 
 Gukkurs having repulsed the archers, pur- 
 sued them so closely, that in spite of the 
 sultan's personal efibrts, a numerous body 
 of these mountaineers, bare-headed and 
 bare-footed, variously and strangely armed, 
 passed the entrenchments on both flanks, 
 and throwing themselves among the cavalry 
 with irresistible fury, proceeded to cut 
 down and maim both horse and rider, until 
 in a very short space of time between 3,000 
 and 4,000 Mohammedans were slain. The 
 assailants however, after the first onset, 
 were checked and cut oft' as they advanced, 
 till, on a sudden the elephant on which the 
 Hindoo leader rode becoming unruly * 
 turned and fied, and his followers thinking 
 themselves deserted, gave way, and were 
 easily routed. Mahmood immediately de- 
 spatched 10,000 men in pursuit of the re- 
 treating army, of whom nearly twice as many 
 were slain before they could reach a place 
 of safety. Then, without allowing the scat- 
 tered hosts time to reassemble, he followed 
 them into the Punjaub, and on their eflectual 
 dispersion, found himself at liberty to give 
 free scope to his plundering propensities in 
 the rifling of the fort of Bheem (now Nagar- 
 cot), a fortified temple on a steep mountain 
 connected with the lower range of the 
 Pliraalaya. This edifice was considered to 
 derive peculiar sanctity from a burning foun- 
 tain or natural flame, which issued fi'om the 
 ground within its precincts, and was en- 
 riched by princely ofl'erings, besides being 
 the depository of the wealth of the neigh- 
 bourhood ; so that, according to Ferishta, 
 such an arnount of treasure was never col- 
 lected by any prince on earth. It would seem 
 incredible that a place of the first import- 
 ance should be left unguarded, but its 
 
 * In various copies of Fcrishtn, the cause of the 
 elephant's alarm is ascribed to guns and muskets. 
 As no Persian or Arabic history speaks of gunpowder 
 before tlie time assigned to its Kuropcan invention, 
 A.D. 1317, Briggs, by a slight change of the diacrital 
 points in the manuscripts, renders it — " naptha balls 
 and arrows." Klphinstone deems the expression 
 an anachronism of the author ; but as there is every 
 reason to believe that this ex))losivc material \yas 
 then used in China, it seems just possible that it 
 might have been obtained from thence. 
 
 garrison having been drawn off during the 
 late eflbrt to free Ilindoostan from her per- 
 secutor, the rapidity of his movements had 
 cut oft" any chance of reinforcement ; and 
 when, after having laid waste the surround- 
 ing eovmtry with fire and sword, he ap- 
 proached the walls, no opposition was at- 
 tempted by the defenceless priests, who glad- 
 ly capitulated on the condition of their lives 
 being spared. Entering the temple with 
 the chief officers of his court and household, 
 Mahmood gazed in delighted amazement at 
 the vast stores garnered up therein. Gold 
 and silver, wrought and unwrought, in dih- j 
 nars, plate and ingots; pearls, corals, dia- 
 monds, rubies and various other jewels,t 
 accumulated since the time of Rajah 
 Bbeema, in the heroic ages, became the 
 prize of the royal maratider, who returned 
 with his booty to Ghuznee, and in a 
 triumphal festival held during three days 
 on a spacious plain, displayed on golden 
 thrones and tables manufactured from his 
 Indian spoils, the richest and rarest of his 
 acquisitions. Sumptuous banquets were 
 provided for the spectators, alms liberally 
 distributed among the poor, and magnificent 
 presents bestowed on persons of distinction ; 
 all this display being at once very gratifying to 
 the sitltan's love of magnificence, and well 
 calculated to contribute to his popularity, 
 and the maintenance of internal tranquillity 
 during his frequent absence. 
 
 In A.D. 1010, Mahmood proceeded against 
 the strong country of Ghor, in the moun- 
 tains east of Herat. The inhabitants were 
 Afghans, and had been converted and sub- 
 dued by the caliphs in the commencement 
 of the second century of the Hejira. Their 
 chief, Mohammed Soor, strongly posted, and 
 at the head of 10,000 men, repelled the 
 attacks of his assailant from early morning 
 till noon, but was eventually tempted from 
 his secure position, by the pretended dis- 
 orderly retreat of the Ghuznevides, in pur- 
 suit of whom the Ghorians sallied forth, but 
 were speedily made aware of the trap into 
 which they had fallen, by the sudden halt 
 
 f There are said to have been 700,000 golden 
 dihnars, 700 mauns of gold and silver plate, 200 
 mauns of pure gold in ingots, 2,000 mauns of un- 
 wrought silver, and 20 mauns of jewels. There are 
 several kinds of maun ; the smallest, that of Arabia, 
 is two pounds; the most common, that of Tabriz, 
 eleven pounds ; and that of India, eighty pounds. 
 Taking the smallest weiglit, we liave 1,100 1b. of 
 gold and silver plate, 4001b. of golden ingots, 
 4,000 lb. of silver bullion, and 40 lb. weight of 
 jewels. — (liriggs' Ferishta, vol. i., p. 48.)
 
 and fierce onset of the foe, by whom they 
 were compctcly defeated. Their eliicf being 
 taken prisoner, swallowed some poison, 
 whieh he always kept about him in a rin;,', 
 and died in a few hours. His eonntry was 
 annexed to the dominions of Ghuziiee, but 
 it is worthy of note tliat by his descendants 
 the conquering dynasty was at length utterly 
 overthrown. 
 
 Two years afterwards, the mountainoiis 
 country of Jnrjistan,* adjoining Clhor, was 
 reduced, and another attack made upon 
 Moultan, whieh had revolted. In the words 
 of Ferishta, who, as a Mussulman historian, 
 chooses very gentle phrases in wliieli to ex- 
 press the sanguinary deeds of fellow-believers, 
 " a number of the infidel inhabitants were 
 cut ofi"," and Abul Futteh Lodi brought 
 to Ghuznec as a captive, and doomed to 
 languish in the gloomy fort of Ghooruk for 
 life. In the following year, 1011, Mahmood 
 undertook an expedition of unusual length 
 to Tancsur (thirty miles west of Delhi). He 
 was met by the urgent entreaties of the Hin- 
 doos that he would spare the temple, whieh 
 they held in great veneration, and accept a 
 ransom, but he replied, " the Koran declared 
 that the extent to which the followers of 
 the prophet exerted themselves for the sub- 
 version of idolatry would be the measure of 
 their reward in heaven, — it therefore be- 
 hoved him, by Divine assistance, to root out 
 the worship of idols from the face of all 
 India." Proceeding forthwith to Tancsur, 
 before its defenders had time to assemble, 
 he plundered the temple, destroyed the 
 idols, sacked the town, and carried away 
 200,000 captives and much treasure, so that 
 throughout the camp " no soldier was with- 
 out wealth or many slaves. "f 
 
 Two predatory incursions into Cashmere 
 Avere next attempted, the second of which 
 proved disastrous from the difficulties of a 
 march commenced when the season was too 
 far advanced.} A brief interval of repose 
 for India followed, during which ]\Iahmood 
 took advantage of the disturbed state of the 
 affairs of Elik Khan's successor in Tartary 
 to acquire possession of Ti'ansoxiana, and 
 extend his dominion to the Caspian Sea. 
 From this period his Indian exploits were 
 on a grander scale, and he seems to have 
 united a much stronger desire for the per- 
 
 * Mistaken bj' D'llcrbclot and others for Georgia. 
 t Briggs' FcrisJifa, vol. i. p. 53. 
 I Stewart's Histnnj of Bcittial, pp. 10, 11. 
 § Mahmood writing to Ghuznec declared that 
 Muttra contained a thousand edifices "as firm as the 
 
 mancnt possession of conquered territories, 
 to his zeal for the destruction of idols, and 
 the appropriation of their spoils. Asscm- 
 l)ling an army of 100,000 horse and 20,000 
 foot, drawn more especially from his newly- 
 acquired dominions, lie made judicious ar- 
 rangements for the home government dur- 
 ing his absence, placed his two sons in 
 important governments aided by trusty 
 counsellors, and then commenced carrying 
 out the jjlans which, after much careful in- 
 vestigation, he had devised for the prosecu- 
 tion of a three months' march to the Gan''es, 
 across seven great rivers, in an unexplored 
 country. Leaving Peshawer in the spring 
 of 1017, he passed near the confines of 
 Cashmere, and being joined by the prince 
 whom he had established there, proceeded 
 on his way, keeping close to the mountains 
 until he had crossed the Jumna. Then 
 turning south, and driving all opposition 
 before them, the Mussulmans presented 
 themselves unexpectedly before the walls of 
 Canouj ; a city, says Ferishta, " whieh raised 
 its head to the skies, and, in strength and 
 beauty, might' boast of being unrivalled." 
 The r.'ijah, taken by surprise, made no 
 attempt at defence, but came out with his 
 family and surrendered himself to !Mah- 
 mood, who, on this occasion, (either from a 
 motive of policy, or possibly actuated by 
 one of the kindly impulses in which his 
 nature, though warped by bigotry and ava- 
 rice, was by no means deficient,) showed 
 unusual clemency, and after three days' 
 tarry, left the stately city uninjured. 
 
 Other places and their rulers were less 
 fortunate — many were bravely defended. At 
 Mahawan, near Muttra, terms had been 
 entered into, when an accidental quarrel 
 among the troops led to the massacre of the 
 Hindoos, whose leader, conceiving himself 
 betrayed, destroyed his wife and family, and 
 then committed suicide. ]\[uttra§ itself, the 
 famous scat of the Hindoo religion, was 
 completely devastated by the excesses of the 
 troops during a twenty days' halt, the hor- 
 rors of a conflagration being added to the 
 ordinary sufferings of the people of a sacked 
 city. Idols of gold and silver, with eyes of 
 rubies, and adorned with sapphires and pre- 
 cious stones, were demolished, melted down, 
 and packed on camels ; destined perhaps to 
 
 faitli of the faithful," mostly of niarhlc, besides in- 
 nuinrralde temples, and considered that many mil- 
 lions of dihnars must have been expended on the 
 citv> the fellow to whieh could not be constructed 
 under two centuries. — [Ferishta, vol. i. p. 58.)
 
 66 
 
 TklAHMOOD AND FERDOUSI, THE PERSIAN POET. 
 
 excite scarcely less censurable feelings in 
 the breasts of tlicir new possessors, tban 
 formerly as the unballowed mediums, or too 
 often the actual objects, of Hindoo worship. 
 The temples -were however left standing, 
 either on account of the excessive, and, in 
 one sense at least, unprofitable labour ne- 
 cessary to their destruction, or else for the 
 sake of their extraordinary beauty. The fort 
 of Munj was taken after a siege of twenty- 
 five days, its Rajpoot defenders at length 
 ending the long struggle by rushing through 
 the breaches on the enemy, springing from 
 the works, or meeting death in the flames 
 of their own houses, with their wives and 
 children ; so that not one remained to be 
 enslaved. 
 
 Various other towns were reduced and 
 much country laid waste, before the vic- 
 torious army leaving the beautiful plains of 
 ill-fated, because idolatrous, Hindoostan 
 steeped in blood and tears, returned to their 
 homes in triumph, carrying with them many 
 prisoners.* New tastes had been acquired to- 
 gether with the means for their gratification, 
 and incited by the recollection of the stately 
 structures they had ruthlessly despoiled, 
 the rough soldiers so lately accustomed to 
 make the saddle their seat by day, their 
 pillow by night, now, following the example 
 of their king, employed the wealth, labour, 
 and talents of their wretched captives, in 
 rearing palaces for their private abodes as 
 well as public buildings for the adornment 
 of the capital, which soon became orna- 
 mented with mosques, porches, fountains, 
 aqueductS; and reservoirs beyond any city 
 then existing. Mahmood himself erected a 
 magnificent mosque of marble and granite, 
 called " the Celestial Bride," which was in 
 that age the wonder of the East; and founded 
 a university, supplied with an extensive and 
 valuable library, and a museum of natural 
 curiosities. To the maintenance of this 
 establishment he appropriated a large sum 
 of money, and formed a permanent fund for 
 the support of the students and the salaries 
 of q\ialificd instructors. He also set aside 
 a sum nearly equal to £10,000 a-ycar, for 
 pensions to learned men — and through this 
 munificence his court became as celebrated 
 through Asia for its brilliant literary circle, 
 as was afterwards that of the Medici in 
 
 * Ferifihta's confused account of their route is dis- 
 cussed in Bird's llislury of Oiijaral, p. 31. 
 
 t The rulin<; dynasty was Turltish, but Malimood 
 was the illegitimate son of a Persian mother, and in 
 language and manners identified with that nation. 
 
 Europe. The liberality thus evinced con- 
 trasted strongly with his usual parsimony, 
 and it was well directed, for it did much to 
 secure for him the present and posthumous 
 fame which he ardently desired. Large re- 
 wards were offered for the production of an 
 historical poem which should embody the 
 achievements of ancient Persianf heroes ; 
 and the author who commenced the work 
 (Dakiki) having been assassinated when he 
 had finished about a thousand couplets, the 
 continuation was entrusted to the celebrated 
 Ferdousi, who performed his task with such 
 ability that, although so obsolete as to re- 
 quire a glossary, it is still the most popular 
 of all books among his coimtrymen.J The 
 sultan was delighted with the poem ; but 
 when, after thirty years' labour, it was at 
 length concluded, his characteristic failing 
 prevailed over justice, and the proffered 
 reward was so disproportioned to the expec- 
 tations held out, that the disappointed Fer- 
 dousi indignantly rejected it, and withdrew 
 to his native city of Tus, whence he launched 
 a bitter satire at IMahmood, who on mature 
 reflection evinced no ordinary amount of 
 magnanimity by passing over the satire 
 (which is still extant), and remitting for the 
 epic, what even its author must have con- 
 sidered, a princely remuneration. But it 
 came too late ; the treasure entered one 
 door of Ferdousi's house as his bier was 
 borne out of another. His daughter proudly 
 rejected the untimely gift, but was eventu- 
 ally prevailed upon by Mahmood to accept 
 it, as a means of procuring an abundant 
 supply of water for the city where her 
 father had been born, and to which he 
 had been always much attached. 
 
 In 10.22, the sultan was roused from the 
 unusual quiet in which he had remained for 
 five years, by advices from India that a con- 
 federacy had been formed against the rajah 
 of Canouj by the neighbouring princes to 
 avenge his alliance with the enemy of his 
 country. Mahmood immediately marched 
 to his relief, but on arriving found that the 
 unfortunate prince had been defeated and 
 slain by the rajah of Calinjar, against whom 
 the Mohammedan arms were directed, but 
 without any remarkable result. § This cam- 
 paign is however memorable as marking the 
 establishment of the first permanent garri- 
 
 \ The Shah Namah or Book of Kiiu/s. 
 
 § In tlie kin};dom of Gluiznce at this time, many 
 soldiers and magistrates were Arabs by descent, but a 
 great ])ortion of the court and army wore Turks, and 
 the rest, with almost all the people, were Persians.
 
 LAHORE OCCUPIED BY MAIIMOOD-SOMNAUTH TAKEN— a.d. 1024. 07 
 
 sou on tlic cast of llic Indus; for tlic new 
 rjyah of Lahore (Anung i'al's successor) 
 liaving ventured to 6i)[)0sc the invader, was 
 driven from his country, whicli was despoiled 
 and annexed to Giiuznec. In 1024, Mali- 
 niood ])crformed, if not tlie f^rcatcst, at 
 least the most famous of his Indian ex[)loits. 
 At the head of an immense army, swollen 
 by a crowd of volunteers from beyond the 
 Oxus, and attended by 20,000 camels bear- 
 ing supplies, he set off, nerved to encounter 
 a long march, partly through hostile terri- 
 tories and partly through a desert 350 
 miles broad, of loose sand or hard clay, 
 almost entirely without water or forage. 
 Having overcome these obstacles he sud- 
 denly appeared before Aj nicer to the con- 
 sternation of the rajah and inhabitants, who 
 fled, leaving the Mussulmans to ravage the 
 country and pursue their desolating course, 
 to Anhalwara, the capital of Guzcrat, whose 
 rajah, also taken by surprise, was con- 
 strained to abandon it precipitately, and 
 leave the way clear for the invaders to the 
 great object of their hopes, the famous 
 temple of Somnauth, the richest and most 
 frequented place of worship in the country.* 
 It stood at the southern extremity of Guzc- 
 rat, on a peninsula connected with the 
 main land by a fortified isthmus, the battle- 
 ments of which were guarded at every point 
 by armed men ; who, on witnessing the ap- 
 proach of the Moslems, loudly asserted, in 
 the name of their object of worship, that this 
 great force had been drawn together only to 
 be utterly destroyed as a retribution for the 
 desecrated shrines of India. 
 
 Nothing deterred, ]\Iahmood brought for- 
 ward his archers, who commenced mounting 
 the walls with their accustomed war-cry, 
 " Alia hu Akbur !" (God is supreme !), but 
 the Rajpoots having prostrated themselves 
 before the idol, hurried to the defence and 
 drove back the enemy with heavy loss. 
 The next day brought a more signal repulse, 
 and on the third the neighbouring princes 
 presented themselves in order of battle. In 
 the furious conflict which ensued victory 
 was doubtful, when the arrival of the rajah 
 of Anhalwara with a strong reinforcement 
 
 • For its maintcnancp, the revenues of 2,000 vil- 
 lages had been granted by different princes ; 2,000 
 priests, 500 dancing-women, and 300 musicians offi- 
 ciated in its ceremonies, atwliicli 200,000 to 300,000 
 votaries used to attend during tlie eclipses. The 
 chain supporting a bell wliicli tlie worshippers struck 
 during prayer weighed 200 mauns of gold, and the 
 idol itself was 'Jaily washed witli water brought from 
 the Ganges, a distance of 1,000 miles. 
 
 brought the invaders to the verge of de- 
 feat. IMahinood, leaping from his horse, 
 prostrated himself, invoking Divine aid ; 
 then, remounting and taking a Circas- 
 sian general by the hand, he advanced 
 against the foe, loudly cheering the troops 
 who had so often fought and conquered with 
 him, and who now, excited to renewed exer- 
 tion, rushed forward with unlooked-for im- 
 petuosity, broke through the opposing line, 
 and in a single charge laid 5,000 Hindoos 
 dead or dying at their feet. The rout be- 
 came general; the garrison of Somnauth 
 beheld it with dismay, and renouncing all 
 hopes of further defence broke up, and, to 
 the number of 4,000, made their way to 
 their boats, some of which were intercepted, 
 and sunk by the enemy, 
 
 Mahmood then entered the temple, ac- 
 companied by his sons and chief nobles, and 
 gazed with astonishment on the stately 
 edifice. The spacious roof was supported by 
 fifty-six pillars, curiously carved and set 
 with j)recious stones, and illuminated (the 
 light of heaven being excluded) by a lamp 
 suspended by a golden chain, whose flame, re- 
 flected from the numerous gems, shed bright 
 gleams around. The idol itself stood in the 
 centre, and was of stone, five yards in height, 
 two of which were sunk in the ground. Ac- 
 cording to Ferishta, it is a well authenti- 
 cated fact that INIahmood was entreated by 
 a crowd of Brahmins to accept a costly 
 ransom and spare the object of their venera- 
 tion, but after some hesitation, he exclaimed 
 that were he to consent, his name would go 
 down to posterity as an idol-seller instead of 
 destroyer, he therefore struck the face of 
 the image with his mace, and his example 
 being followed by his companions, the figure, 
 which was hollow, burst open and exposed 
 to view a store of diamonds and other 
 jewels, far surpassing in value the sum 
 oft'ered for its preservation. f Altogether, 
 the treasure taken is said to have exceeded 
 that acquired on any former occasion, 
 Mahmood next captured Gundaba, a fort 
 supposed to be protected by the sea, bj' en- 
 tering the water at the head of his troops 
 diu-ing a low tide. He appears to have passed 
 
 t Hesides this idol, we are told there were some 
 thousands of smaller ones, wrought in gold and 
 silver, and of various shapes and dimensions ; but no 
 description is given of the especial object of worship, 
 a simple cylinder of stone, the well-known emblem 
 of Saiva or Siva, from whose designation Sama Ka- 
 tha, J.ord of tlie 3Ioon, the temple derives its name. 
 The famous sandal-wood gates carried by Mahmood 
 to Ghuznee will be subsequently alluded to.
 
 68 MAHMOOD'S THIRTEENTH EXPEDITION TO INDIA— a.d. 1025.- 
 
 tlie rainy season at Anlialwara, with wliose 
 mild climate, beauty, and fertility he was so 
 much delighted, as to entertain thoughts of 
 transferring the seat of govei'umeut thither, 
 at least for some years, and making it a 
 point of departure for further conquests. 
 Among his projects, was that of the forma- 
 tion of a fleet for maritime invasions ; the 
 pearls of Ceylon and the gold mines of the 
 Malayan peninsula offering cogent reasons 
 for the subjugation of these countries. 
 
 These schemes his counsellors earnestly 
 and successfully opposed, and as the rajah 
 of Anhalwara still kept aloof and refused 
 submission, Mahmood selected a new ruler, 
 a man of royal descent, who, though living 
 the life of an anchorite, was not proof 
 against the attractions of a throne, thougli 
 clogged with the liumiliating conditions of 
 subjection and tribute to a foreign foe.* 
 The homeward route of the Mussulmans 
 was fraught with toil and suffering — the 
 M'ay by which they had come was occupied 
 by a strong force under the rajah of Ajmeer 
 and the rightful, though fugitive prince 
 of Anhalwara. Mahmood, with an army 
 already wasted by the casualities of war 
 and climate, did not care to risk a conflict, 
 the effect of which, even though successful, 
 would still further thin the ranks and di- 
 minish the energy of those who had after- 
 wards a long and weary march to encounter, 
 besides risking the rich booty with which 
 they were encumbered. He therefore avoided 
 further hostilities, by returning a different 
 road, through the sands to the east of Sinde. 
 The hot season was advanced when the 
 troops started, and their suflerings for want 
 of water and forage increased, until they 
 
 • The conclusion of the new rajah's history afTords 
 a remarkable instance of retributive justice, even 
 allowing for oriental embellishment. Fearing the 
 rivalry of a relation, he prayed Mahmood to deliver 
 him into his custody, promising to spare his life, 
 and kept his pledge by causing a cell to be dug under 
 his own throne, in which his victim was to linger out 
 the remainder of his existence. A sudden revolution 
 occurred, which is said to have been occasioned by a 
 vulture having flown upon the rajah while lying 
 asleep under a tree with his face covered with a red 
 handlicrchief, and totally bliiided him by fixing its 
 talons into his eyes ; thus rendering him, by the laws 
 of his country, incapable of reigning. Tlie position 
 of the parties was immediately reversed, tlie cruel 
 schemer being forthwith removed to the dun- 
 geon which he had himself [irepared ; thus, says 
 I''erishta, fulfilling the Scripture, in which it is 
 written — " lie who digs a pit for his brother, shall 
 himself fall therein." — (Hriggg, vol. i., p. 80.) 
 
 t It is surprising that the passage along the Indus 
 should not have been chosen by Mahmood, who 
 must have been acquainted with it, both from the 
 
 readied a climax in three days of in- 
 tense agony, during which they wandered 
 through the worst partr of the desert, wil- 
 fully misled, it is said, by their guides, who 
 after severe torture, were brought to confess 
 themselves disguised priests of Somnauth. 
 Many of the soldiers perished miserably, 
 some died raving mad, and when at length 
 they came upon a pool of water, it was received 
 with inexpressible transport as a miraculous 
 interposition of Providence in their favour. 
 
 Eventually they reached Moultan, and 
 from thence proceeded to Ghuznee,t but 
 before the expiration of the year, their rest- 
 less leader was once more in arms to avenge 
 the molestation offered by a body of Juts,J 
 in the Jund mountains, to his forces during 
 their march to Somnauth. Foreseeing the 
 expedient to which the Juts would have re- 
 course, he was provided with an extensive 
 flotilla ; and when they took refuge in the 
 islands of the Indus, hoping to elude pur- 
 suit by repeatedly shifting their position, he 
 pursued them so pertinaciously that though 
 not without a desperate defence, the men 
 were mostly destroyed and the women and 
 children enslaved. 
 
 Thus terminated Mahmood's thirteenth, 
 and last expedition to India. Hostilities 
 were then directed against the Turki tribe 
 of Seljuk,§ whose growing power he had 
 incautiously favoured, until they became too 
 unruly to be restrained by his local repre- 
 sentatives ; nor were they without difficulty 
 compelled to respect his immediate autho- 
 rity. The next act was the seizure of 
 Persian Irak (extending from the frontier 
 of Khorassan, westward to the mountains 
 of Koordistan, beyond Hamadan). This he 
 
 account of Mohammed Casim's proceedings and 
 from the neighbourhood of the Afghans. Elphin- 
 stone, in commenting upon this circumstance, sug- 
 gests the existence of jihysical obstacles now re- 
 moved, adding, that the Munn of ViUch, now a hard 
 desert in the dry season, and a salt marsh in the 
 rains, was, doubtless, formerly a part of the sea ; and 
 remarks, that the changes which have taken place 
 under our own eyes prepare us to believe that still 
 greater may have occurred in the 800 years that ha've 
 elapsed since the fall of Somnauth. (Vol. i., p. 558.) 
 
 X Probably a Tartar horde of the Geta; stock, 
 widely disseminated over India, and, according to 
 Tod, called by their ancient name of //Vs in the Pun- 
 jaub, Jats on the Jumna and Ganges, and Juts on the 
 Indus and in Saurashtra. 
 
 § The tribe is supposed to have originated in n 
 chief who held a liigh station under one of the great 
 Tartar princes, but having incurred the disjjleasure 
 of his sovereign was driven into exile, and his sons 
 and adherents became subject to Mahmood in Trans- 
 oxiana, fre(iuently however, carrying on wars and 
 incursions on their own account.
 
 DEATH OF MAHMOOD— A.D. 1030— HIS SUCCESSORS. 
 
 Gi) 
 
 eccoraplislicd by takiiif; advantaojc of the 
 disturbances which oceiirred in the rcif^n of 
 one of the representatives of a brancli of tlie 
 family of Buya, called also the J)(Mleniites ; 
 the person of the prince being trcaelicrously 
 seized in tlie Moslem camp. The resistance 
 of the people of Ispahan and Cazvin was 
 cruelly revenged by the massacre of several 
 thousands in each city. 
 
 The ordinary excuse of zeal for the glory 
 of Islam — that is to say, the bigotry which 
 has sometimes really prompted cruel aggres- 
 sions, but has far more frequently been 
 assumed as a mask to cover ambition or 
 rapacity, cannot in this case be urged in 
 palliation of these grasping and sanguinary 
 transactions, probably the worst, as they 
 were the last, of the life of ]\Iahmood. Re- 
 turning triumphant to (Jhuzuec, he was 
 attacked by a disease which soon completely 
 prostrated liis extraordinary physical and 
 mental energies, and of which he died, after 
 a reign of thirty-tliree years. During pa- 
 roxysms of excruciating agony, he might well 
 have envied even the wretched slaves whom 
 liis marauding incursions had made so cheap 
 that purchasers could not be found for them 
 at ten dirhems (about 4s. 7d.) a head. At 
 such moments his hundred measures of 
 jewels * could aSbrd but poor consolation ; 
 even the delusive doctrine of the Koran con- 
 demned alike the means by which they had 
 been acquired, and the master-passion whose 
 strength was never manifested more forcibly 
 than in tlie closing scenes of his eventful 
 career. "When taking a sorrowful leave of 
 his great possessions, the dying Sultan per- 
 haps thought bitterly of a sentiment some of 
 the numerous poets of his court might have 
 rhymed, though scarcely so sweetly as our 
 own Southcy : 
 
 " In heaven ambition cannot dwell, 
 Nor avarice in the vaults of hell — " 
 
 He had ample reason to regret leaving a 
 world in which lie liad— with reverence for 
 the sacred text be it spoken, " laid up much 
 treasure for many years ;" nor is it probable 
 that he could look for reward or even pardon 
 in another, on the ground of faithful service 
 to the cause of Islam. 
 
 Notwithstanding his character for bigotry, 
 and frequent and public invocations of Divine 
 assistance, a careful review of Mahmood's 
 
 * Hearing of the wealth of the Samani princes, 
 who had accumulated jewels enough to fill seven 
 measures, he exclaimed exultingly, that he possessed 
 BufRcicnt to fill an hundred. 
 
 t On this point, see Elphinstone, vol. i., p. 569. 
 
 actions renders it more tlian d(jubtful whe- 
 ther all these were not liollow pretences to 
 raise the eiitliiisiasm of his more truthful 
 followers who, it must be borne in mind, 
 had been accustomed from the earliest 
 times to prayer before battle, and tlianks- 
 giving in the hour of victory. If he were 
 really a scepticf regarding the creed which 
 he made the pretext for destroying or en- 
 slaving niiolfcnding inuititudes, his condition 
 was wretched indeed ; but if he did actually 
 believe it an imiicrativc duty to increase 
 the numbers of " the faithful," at all costs, 
 then at least his conduct, with tlie exception 
 of some few memorable instances, was very 
 unaccountalilc ; for, besides liis ajiathy in 
 not endeavouring to establish ^loslem colo- 
 nies in India, schools, or other means of 
 instruction, it ajipears that he never liesi- 
 tatcd to exercise perfect tolerance whenever 
 it suited his views. The rajah of Canouj, 
 for instance (his only ally), was an uncon- 
 verted Hindoo; he appointed a strict de- 
 votee to the throne of Guzerat ; employed a 
 large body of native cavalry, without regard 
 to their religion, and contrary to orthodox 
 ^Mohammedanism — circumstances which 
 would testify liberality of feeling, but for 
 their manifest inconsistency with other 
 parts of his conduct, for which excessive 
 zeal is urged in apology. 
 
 The house of Ghuznee reached its culmi- 
 nating point in the person of ^Mahmood's 
 tiu-bulcnt son, jNIasaud, who, liaving deposed 
 and blinded his brother Mohammed, after 
 five months' rule, mounted the throne, and 
 completed the remaining conquest of Persia, 
 except the province of Pars. He made 
 three expeditions into India, during which 
 he captured Sersooty on the Sutlcj, quelled 
 a rebellion at Lahore, and stationed a garri- 
 son in Soupat, near Delhi. In the mean- 
 wliile the Scljuks completely defeated his 
 general, and compelled ]Masaud, on his 
 return, to march against them in person. 
 After two years of indecisive operations a 
 battle took place near ^Meru, in which the 
 Ghuzncvides were totally routed. The sul- 
 tan returned to Ghuznee, but finding it 
 hopeless to restore order there, determined 
 to withdraw to India. All respect for his 
 authority was however destroyed, and soon 
 after crossing the Indus, the remnant of his 
 forces mutinied against him, and placed the 
 injured Mohammed on the throne, a.d. 
 1010. This prince being rendered incapa- 
 ble by blindness of conducting the govern- 
 ment, transferred the administration to his 
 
 I
 
 TERMINATION OF THE HOUSE OF GHUZNEE— a.d. 1J60. 
 
 sou Alimed, one of whose first acts was to 
 put his uucle the deposed king to death. 
 15ut the sins of this family, committed on 
 the plea of just retaliation, did not end here. 
 IModood, the son of Masaud, on hearing of 
 his father's murder, quitted Balkh, where 
 he had been engaged in watching the pro- 
 ceedings of the Seljuks, and with a small 
 body of troops made his way from Ghuznee 
 to Lahore. At Futtehahad, in the valley of 
 Laghman, he was met by ^Mohammed with 
 Ahmed and other relatives, who after a 
 fierce contest were defeated, taken prisoners, 
 and all put to death by the conqueror, with 
 the exception of Prince Abdool, a son of ]\Io- 
 hammed's, who was spared for the sake of 
 kindness shown to Masaud during his capti- 
 vity. Modood had not yet removed all domes- 
 tie foes — the opposition of his own brother, 
 ]\Iadood, was still to be overcome, and it 
 threatened to be troublesome, this prince 
 having obtained possession of Lahore and 
 its dependencies. The armies of the rival 
 brothers were marshalled for action when 
 the dispute for superiority was suddenly 
 terminated by the deatli of Madood and his 
 vizier (prime minister) apparently by poison. 
 The forces then coalesced under Modood, 
 who contrived not only to occupy Ghuznee, 
 but to recover Transoxiana, which he was 
 perhaps enabled to do the more readily from 
 having espoused the daughter of a Seljuk 
 chief. But while thus successful in the 
 west, the rajah of Delhi recovered the terri- 
 tory seized by Masaud beyond the Sutlej ; 
 and elated by this first success, pushed his 
 forces to the very gates of Nagarcot. Volun- 
 teers crowded into thePunjaub, and entered 
 with such ardour into the enterprise that 
 the temple-fortress, despite its strong posi 
 tion and garrison, became again their own. 
 The Moslems driven thence took refuge in 
 Lahore, and after a seven months' siege, 
 durinjg-sj'hich no succour arrived from Ghuz- 
 nee, were well nigh reduced to despair, when 
 swearing to stand by each other to the last 
 they rushed out upon the enemy, and by 
 one determined effort induced the Hindoos 
 to disperse, and raise the siege. Modood 
 died A.D. 1019. one of his last acts of trea- 
 chery being to render Ghor tributary and 
 in some sort dependent ou himself, by per- 
 fidiously murdering the prince whom he had 
 promised to assist in recovering possession 
 of the throne. The speedy decline of the 
 house of Ghuznee from this period would be 
 of little interest but for its important bear- 
 ing on the fortunes of Hindoostan, nor does 
 
 it seem necessary to follow in detail the 
 tedious and distasteful accounts of con- 
 spiracies and assassinations which too gene- 
 rally form the staple of oriental historians, 
 the progress and condition of the people 
 being rarely even alluded to. Suffice it to 
 say, that the second successor of Modood 
 succeeded in recovering Nagarcot from the 
 Hindoos, but being compelled to oppose the 
 sedition of a chief named Toghral in Seestan, 
 marched to attack the rebels, leaving the 
 bulk of his army in India. His force proved 
 unequal to the task, and he was compelled 
 to shut himself up iu Ghuznee, where he 
 was seized and put to death with nine princes 
 of the blood-royal. Toghral seized upon the 
 vacant throne, but was assassinated within 
 forty days; and the army, having by this 
 time returned from India, resolved upon 
 continuing the crown in the family of the 
 founder of the kingdom. Three princes of 
 his lineage were discovered imprisoned iu a 
 distant fort, aud their claims being nearly 
 equal were decided by lot. The chance fell 
 on Farokhzad, whose brother and successor 
 Ibrahim, celebrated for sanctity, captured 
 several cities on the Sutlej. In the follow- 
 ing reign (that of Masaud II.) the royal 
 residence began to be transferred to Lahore 
 (about A.D. 1100.) 
 
 Behram, a prince of great literary renown, 
 acceded to the throne in 1118, but after 
 thirty years of peace and prosperity, com- 
 mitted an act of cruel injustice, which led to 
 his own ruin aud the extiuctionof his dynasty. 
 Having had a difference with his son-in- 
 law, the prince of Ghor, he caused him to 
 be put to death ; and after a long contest 
 with the brother of his victim, succeeded in 
 defeating and slaying him also, under cir- 
 cumstances of aggravated barbarity. Ala- 
 oo-deen Soor, indignant at the fate of his 
 murdered brothers, entered the territories 
 of their destroyer at the head of a small but 
 determined force, compelled him to fly for 
 his life, and seizing on Ghuznee, devoted 
 the magnificent city, and its miserable in- 
 habitants, for three (or some say nine days) 
 to the desolating effects of flame, slaughter, 
 and pillage. The superb monuments of its 
 kings were utterly demolished, except those 
 of Malimood, Masaud, and Ibrahim. Beli- 
 ram strove to take refuge in India, but died 
 on his way, worn out liy fatigue and disap- 
 pointment. His son Khosru continued the 
 retreat to liahore, and there established 
 himself, A.D. 1152. The next king, Khosru 
 Malik, the last of the race of Subuktugecn
 
 INDIAN CONQUESTS OF THE HOUSE OF GHOR— a.d. 1202. 
 
 71 
 
 reigned in t.riininiiHity for twoiity-sovcn 
 years, and was then doi'(;atcd and taken 
 prisoner, with his family, and eventually 
 slain by the Ghor prinees, from whom his 
 house thus received the final blow, in return 
 for a long series of injuries and aggressions. 
 
 House (if Ghor. — Shahab-oo-decn, the 
 conquGror of Malik, on taking possession of 
 Lahore, was snpjiorted by an army drawn 
 from all (he warlike provinces between the 
 Indus and Oxus, and accustomed to contend 
 ■with the Seljnks and the northern hordes of 
 Tartary. ]?eing at liberty to direct his ex- 
 elusive attention to India, he probably ex- 
 pected to subjugate extensive territories 
 with ease and ra[)idity, owing to the peace- 
 ful character of the people, the more so as 
 their chief rulers were at variance with one 
 another. Of the existing kingdoms the 
 greatest •were those of Delhi, held by the 
 elan of Tomara; Ajmcer, by that of Chou- 
 han; Canouj by the Rahtorcs, and Guzerat 
 by the Baghilas, who had supplanted the 
 Chalukas. The Tomara chief dying with- 
 out male issue, adopted his grandson 
 Prithwi rajah of Ajmcer, who thus acceded 
 to the double authority, greatly to the mor- 
 tification of the rajah of Canouj, another 
 grandson of the deceased ruler's. 
 
 These internal differences did not how- 
 ever prevent very determined resistance 
 being offered to a foreign foe, though it 
 probably marred the effect which might 
 have resulted from a more united plan of 
 defence. None of the Hindoo principalities 
 fell without a severe struggle, and some 
 were never entirely subdued, owing chiefly 
 to the essentially warlike habits, and pecu- 
 liar social position of the Kajpoots, whose 
 almost feudal system of government, led 
 them to contest the ground, not so much in 
 a single great action, as inch by inch, each 
 man fighting for his own chief, and his own 
 hearth and home. The origin of this still 
 powerful and interesting class has been 
 alluded to (see p. 42), and will be more par- 
 ticularly mentioned in commenting on the 
 characteristics of the Hindoo population. 
 Here it may bo observed, that had their prac- 
 tical ability and energy in time of peace kept 
 pace with their chivalrous enthusiasm and 
 unswerving resolution under the stimulus of 
 war, India might have spurned the hateful 
 yoke of the Sloslems. But the constant 
 use of pernicious drugs, seconding only too 
 efVeetually the enervating tendencies of an 
 eastern clime, brought indolence and sen- 
 suality in their train, and while rendering 
 
 their victims daily more infatuated with the 
 varied forms of idolatry, which rapidly multi- 
 plied, to the extinction of more sjiiritual 
 aspirations — induced also inertion and list- 
 lessncss with regard to material dangers, 
 until the hour for preparation was passed, and 
 no alternatives remained save death, slavery, 
 or apostacy. Then indeed they kept the 
 foe at bay with the courage of the lion, 
 and braved their fate with more than Spar- 
 tan fortitude. Thus Shahab-oo-deen and 
 his successors found their task long and 
 tedious, and repeatedly contested the pos- 
 session of the same ground. The first 
 attack was directed against Prithwi rajah, 
 and took place at Tirouri, between Tancsur 
 and Kurnaul, on the great plain where most 
 of the eouff icts for paramount ])Ower in India, 
 have been decided. The Hindoos succeeded 
 in outflanking and completely routing the 
 Mussulmans, who charged after their usual 
 method with successive bodies of cavalry. 
 Shahab himself was dangerously wounded, 
 and after a pursuit of forty miles escaped 
 with difficulty to Lahore, where, having col- 
 lected the wreck of his array, he crossed the 
 Indus, and after visiting his brother at Ghor, 
 settled at Ghuznee. 
 
 Two years later (1193) having reernited a 
 fresh force he again encountered Prithwi 
 rajah, whom he overcame by the dangerous 
 stratagem, so frequently recorded in Moham- 
 medan annals, of a pretended flight. The 
 immense Hindoo army followed in headlong 
 pursuit, when a body of Afghan horse 
 12,000 strong, suddenly wheeled round and 
 charged upon them with terrible effect; 
 the viceroy of Delhi and many chiefs were 
 slain on the field, and the brave rajah liim- 
 self being captured, was put to death in cold 
 blood by his merciless opponent, who soon 
 afterwards, having taken Ajmcer, massacred 
 some thousands of its inhabitants, reserving 
 the rest for slavery. In 1191, Jaya Chan- 
 dra, the rajah of Canouj, was defeated and 
 slain on the Jumna;* Canouj and Benares 
 were taken by Shahab, whose power was 
 thus extended into Bchar. In the follow- 
 ing year Gwalior, in Bundelcund, and several 
 other strong positions there, as also in Ko- 
 hilcund, were successively seized, and the 
 invader pursued his conquering career until 
 the death of his brother placed him on the 
 throne of Ghor, a.d. 1202. His four years' 
 
 • The body was recognised by the false teeth, or 
 according to' other writers, by the golden studs re- 
 quired to fix thfc natural ones into tlieir sockets, on 
 account of extreme age.
 
 72 
 
 SLAVE-KINGS OP DELHI— 1206 to 1288. 
 
 reign was full of vicissitudes. A report of 
 his death during a war with the king of 
 Kharizm,* occasioned the defection of seve- 
 ral of his western tributaries^ and the wild 
 tribe of the Gukkurs issued from their 
 mountains in the north of the Punjaub, 
 took Lahore, and devastated the whole pro- 
 vince. Kootb-oo-dcen, originally a Turki 
 slave, but raised by Shahab to the govern- 
 ment of his Indian possessions, remained 
 faithful to his patron, aided him in recover- 
 ing the Punjaub, and induced the Gukkurs 
 to embrace Islamism. Shahab was, however, 
 slain in his camp on the Indus by a band of 
 these mountaineers, who, stimulated by the 
 desire of revenge, having lost relations in the 
 late war, swam across the river at midnight, 
 and entered the royal camp unopposed. f 
 He left no son; and, although his nephew 
 Mahmood was proclaimed throughout the 
 whole of his uncle's dominions, yet these 
 broke up without a struggle into separate 
 states. The deceased monarch had care- 
 fully trained several Turki slaves, of whom 
 three were in possession of extensive govern- 
 ments at the time of his death. The most 
 noted, Kootb-oo-deen, was invested by Mah- 
 mood with the insignia of royalty, a.d. 1206, 
 and thus commenced the line, named from 
 the seat of government, the Slave-kings of 
 Delhi. The whole of Hindoostan Proper 
 (of course excluding the Deccan), except 
 Malwa and some contiguous districts, had 
 now been subjugated in a greater or less 
 degree ; Sinde and Bengal were in rapid 
 course of reduction, but in Guzerat little 
 dominion had been acquired beyond that 
 connected with the possession of the capital, 
 which was for a short time retained. Thus 
 <in Indian empire was established, of which 
 the Indus formed the western boundary, 
 though before this epoch there seems reason 
 to believe that " India," in the common accp- 
 tation of the term, had a far wider extent. 
 
 Altamsh acceded in 1211 j he was of a 
 noble family, but had been sold as a slave by 
 liis envious brothers. During his reign the 
 whole face of Asia was changed by a terrible 
 scourge. Jcngis Khan, originally a petty 
 chief among the Moguls, having subdued 
 the three nations of Tartary and swelled 
 
 • Kharizm, the Chorasmia of tlio .incicnts, a city 
 which gives its name to the province, became in- 
 denendent under Atziz, the revolting; governor of a 
 Seljuk Siillan, by the aid of the Kliitans, a Tartar 
 tribe. 'J'he Kliarizm kings conquered Ghor, and 
 were overtlirown by Jcngis Khan. 
 
 t By another account, the death of Sliahab is at- 
 tributed to one of tlie Fedeyan or zealots of Almo- 
 
 his bands with their united hordes, swept 
 like a desolating torrent over the Moham- 
 medan kingdoms. Altamsh, by politic con- 
 duct, succeeded in shielding most of his ter- 
 ritories from the fury of Jengis and his 
 myriads ; but Sinde and Moultan, imder the 
 dominion of a refractory Moslem governor, 
 did not escape so easily. In the former place, 
 10,000 prisoners were massacred ou account 
 of a scarcity of provisions in the Mogul camp. 
 Altamsh employed the last six years of 
 his life in completing the conquest of Hin- 
 doostan Proper, that is, in bringing the 
 principalities into partial dependence, in 
 which state they continued during the 
 whole period of Tartar and subsequently of 
 Mogul supremacy, the degree of subjection 
 varying greatly with the character of the 
 reigning prince, and being occasionally in- 
 terrupted by isolated attempts at freedom 
 on the part of native rulers. The caliph of 
 Bagdad formally recognized the new king- 
 dom, in which, during the general subver- 
 sion of Mohammedan governments, no less 
 than fifteen sovereign princes (of Ghor, Kha- 
 rizm, Bagdad, &e.,) took refuge at one time, 
 during the reign of Bulbun or Balin (1206 
 to 1286). The only monarch of this line 
 claiming especial notice is the Sultana 
 Rezia, who, Ferishta writes, " was endowed 
 with every princely virtue, and those who 
 scrutinise her actions most severely will find 
 'm. her no fault but that she was a woman." 
 So great was the confidence of her father 
 Altamsh in her practical ability, that during 
 his campaigns he left Rczia in charge of the 
 home authority in preference to his sons. 
 Her administration when raised to the 
 throne (after the deposition of her brother, 
 a weak and incompetent prince) is repre- 
 sented as unexceptionable; but the faction by 
 whom her accession had been opposed raised 
 a rebellion, on the pretext of the undue 
 partiality evinced to an Abyssinian slave 
 who had been elevated to the rank of Ameer- 
 ul-omra. The sultana marched for its sup- 
 pression, but the army mutinied and delivered 
 up their sovereign to the hostile leader, a 
 Turki chief, who, becoming enaiuourcd of his 
 captive, married her and proceeded to assert 
 her rights against his former confederates. 
 
 wut (Eti;/lc's nest), a famous fortress in the Kohistan, 
 tenanted by a cruel and powerful set of fanatics, who 
 for more than a century and-a-half were the dread of 
 orthodox Moliammedans ; the calipli on his tlirone 
 and llie dervise in liis cell, alil<e falling victims to the 
 knives of these midnight assassins, wlio were at length 
 extir])ated by Ilulaku Khan. Their chief was termed 
 the Sheikli-uI-Jubbul, or OCd Man of tho Mnunlain.
 
 HOUSE OF KIIILJI— A.D. 1288.— ALA-00-DEEN. 
 
 After two severe conflicts, both llczia and 
 her !nis!)and were taken and put to death 
 in cold blood, a.d. 12.'5!*. 'I'lie short reij^ns 
 of the two succccdinpf kings both ended in 
 deposition and murder ; that of the latter is 
 meu\orable for a INIogul incursion throuf;h 
 'J'ibct into ]3cngal, the only one recorded 
 from that quarter during the period of 
 authentic history ; on the north-western 
 frontier they were frc(|uent and destructive. 
 The assassination of Kei Koi)ad (a cruel and 
 dissolute monarch) in 1288, paved the way 
 for a new dynasty. 
 
 House of K It'll ji. — .Telal-oo-dcen was placed 
 on the throne by his tribe, the (Khilji*) 
 ■when seventy years of age, in spite of his 
 own reluctance. At the end of his reign 
 the Dccean was invaded by his nephew, 
 Ala-oo-dccn, who, diverting the attention 
 of the Hindoo princes by a pretence of 
 having quarrelled with his uncle and being 
 about to join the Hindoo ruler of llaja- 
 mundri, succeeded in marching at the head 
 of a chosen body of 8,000 horse to 
 Deogiri (Doulatabad), a distance of 700 
 miles, great part of it through the moun- 
 tains and forests of the Yindya range. 
 Deogiri, the capital of Ramdco, rajah of 
 Maharashta, once reached was taken with- 
 out difllcult}', as Ilamdeo, utterly unpre- 
 pared for an assault, had no means of de- 
 fending it, but retired to a hill-fort with a 
 body of 3,000 or 4,000 citizens and domes- 
 tics. The town was pillaged and the mei'- 
 chants tortured to make them surrender 
 their treasures. The fortress might have 
 held out successfully, but that in the hurry 
 of victualling the garrison sacks of salt had 
 been taken in mistake for grain. The rajah 
 was consequently obliged to make the best 
 terms he could, which involved the payment 
 of gold and jewels to an immense amount, 
 and the cession of Elikpoor and its depen- 
 dencies. Ala-oo-dccn returned in triumph 
 through Candcish into jNIalwa, but his am- 
 bition, stimulated by the success of his late 
 nnjust proceedings, prompted the seizure of 
 the throne of India. For this end, he 
 scrupled not at the commission of a crime, 
 heinous in itself to the highest degree, and 
 aggravated, if possible, by the circumstances 
 under which it was perpetrated. 
 
 The counsellors of the aged monarch had 
 emphatically warned him of the crafty and 
 unscrupulous character of his nephew, but 
 
 • A tribe of Tartar descent long settled among 
 t(ie Afghans, with whom tlieir name is almost in- 
 variably found associated. 
 
 could not shake his faith in one whom he 
 had reared from infancy. He therefore 
 crossed the Ganges with very few att('iidants 
 to meet and welcome the conqueror; whom he 
 was fondly embracing at the moment when 
 the heartless ingrate, by a preconcerted .sig- 
 nal, summoned the assassins posted for the 
 purpose, who, coming forward, stabbed the 
 king to the heart, and fastening his head 
 upon a spear, carried it througli the city. 
 The two sons of the rajah he inveigled into 
 his power, and caused to be jjut to death, 
 lie then strove, by lavish gifts and [jrofusion 
 in shows and festivals, to reconcile the people 
 to his usurpation. Public granaries were 
 constructed, prices fixed for all commodities, 
 importation encouraged by loans to mer- 
 chants, and exportation prohibited ; the 
 origin of these measures being a desire to 
 reduce the pay of the troops and the con- 
 sequent necessity of diminishing the expence 
 of living. Although, during liis prolonged 
 administration, Ala-oo-deen showed himself 
 ignorant and capricious, as well as cruel 
 and arbitrary; though his arrogance and 
 covetousness constantly increased, yet his 
 twenty years' reign left the country in a far 
 better condition than it had been imder the 
 sway of his kind but weak predecessor : so 
 true it is that in despotic governments, one 
 vigorous tyrant, whose will is the law of all, 
 generally occasions less suffering than the 
 feeble though gentle sovereign, who, inca- 
 pable of swaying an undivided sceptre, shares 
 his power with a crowd of petty despots, by 
 whose harassing exactions the strength and 
 wealth of the nation is gradually frittered 
 away. Several IMogul invasions from Trans- 
 oxiana (the last for many years) were re- 
 pelled by Ala ; the most serious occurred 
 A.D. 129t), and was attended with great suf- 
 fering to the people of Delhi. A fierce con- 
 test took place between armies of extraordi- 
 nary magnitude, and was gained chiefly by 
 the valour of the INIoslcm general, Zafar 
 Khan, who, having become an object of 
 jealousy to his treacherous master, was pur- 
 posely left unsupported. Perceiving his 
 situation, the flying foe turned back and 
 cut him and his small detachment to pieces, 
 after a resistance worthy of his character. 
 The Mogul chiefs taken at this and other 
 times were trampled to death by elephants, 
 and the men butchered in cold blood, to the 
 number of 9,000 in a single instance. Fear- 
 ing, perhaps, the spirit of vengeance to which 
 such ferocity might give rise, Ala suddenly- 
 discharged the whole of the Mogul converts
 
 74 
 
 HOUSE OF TOGHLAK— A.D. 1321. 
 
 from his service, a violent and imprudent 
 measure, for -which, though habitually tur- 
 bulent, they appear to have given no imme- 
 diate cause. Driven to despair, some of them 
 entered into a conspiracy to assassinate the 
 king, who, detecting the plot, caused the 
 whole, to the number of 15,000, to be mas- 
 sacred, and their families sold into slavery. 
 
 Very extensive conquests were made in 
 the Deccan by the Moslems under the 
 leadership of Cafur, a slave and eunuch, 
 I taken in the capture of Guzerat, but pro- 
 moted by Ala to high command. Maha- 
 rashta and Carnata were subjugated, the 
 princes who still retained their dominions 
 being compelled to pay tribute, while the suc- 
 cessor of Ramdeo (the rajah of Deogiri, pre- 
 viously conquered) having refused to do so, 
 was put to death. The spirit of the Hin- 
 doos was however yet far from being com- 
 pletely bowed under the oMussulman yoke. 
 Guzerat revolted; Chittore (a celebrated hill- 
 fort in Mewar) was recovered by Rana 
 (prince) Hamir ; and Harpal or Hari Pala 
 (son-in-law to Ramdeo) raised an extensive 
 insurrection in the Deccan, and expelled 
 many of the foreign garrisons. 
 
 These ill-tidings coming one upon an- 
 other, produced in the mind of Ala-oo-deen 
 transports of rage, which a constitution 
 weakened by habitual intempei'ance and un- 
 ceasing anxiety could ill bear. Conspiracies 
 and insurrections, real and imaginary, em- 
 bittered every hour of his life; and the well- 
 nigh successful attempt of his nephew 
 prince Soliman, to seize the throne by a plot 
 similar in its perfidy to his own, inspired 
 constant suspicions of domestic treachery. 
 The only being in whom he trusted, Cafur, 
 his victorious general, proved to he a hypo- 
 crite, designing and ambitious as himself; 
 who, after alienating from his master the 
 chief nobility, induced him, by innumerable 
 artifices, to imprison the unoffending queen 
 and her children, and then hastened his 
 decease by poison. 
 
 Under the alleged authority of a forged 
 will, (by which Ala bequeathed the throne to 
 an infant son, and appointed Cafur regent,) 
 the traitor assumed the reins of government, 
 caused the eyes of the captive princes to be 
 put out, and sent assassins to dispatch a 
 third named Mobarik. The plot failed ; 
 Cafur was liimsclf murdered by the royal 
 guard ; and Mobarik succeeded to the throne, 
 A.D. 1317, after blinding liis infant brother, 
 who was immured in a hill-fort for life. 
 Under a government where the extirpation 
 
 of possible rivals was deemed a matter of 
 expediency (that lying word so often used in 
 diplomacy to make wrong seem right, or at 
 least disguise its full wickedness), even such 
 barbarity as this might create little aversion, 
 but to provide against any such feeling, 
 while yet unsettled on the throne, Mobarik 
 set free all prisoners, to the amount of 
 17,000, restored the lands confiscated by his 
 father, removed his oppressive taxes, and abo- 
 lished all restrictions on trade and property. 
 He then marched to the Deccan and captured 
 Harpal, who was inhumanly sentenced to 
 be flayed alive. A converted Hindoo slave, 
 styled Khosru Khan, was made vizier ; by 
 him Malabar was conquered, and this service 
 so won upon Mobarik, that confiding the 
 whole administration to his favourite, he 
 commenced a course of the most odious and 
 degrading debauchery. A continual suc- 
 cession of disturbances and rebellions fol- 
 lowed, attended with all the pernicious ex- 
 citement of cruel tortui-es and executions; 
 but the king, like his wretched father, was 
 doomed to receive his death-blow, not at 
 the hands of his indignant and cruelly in- 
 jured subjects, but from the serpent whom 
 he had cherished in his bosom. Khosru 
 occupied the palace with his creatures, filled 
 the capital with Hindoo troops of his own 
 caste, and then, the web being woven, 
 murdered his infatuated victim and seized 
 the vacant throne. After completely extii'- 
 pating the house of Lodi, the usin-per strove 
 to gain over the ameers or nobles, and 
 some of them consented to take ofliee under 
 him. Others refused, and joined Toghlak, 
 governor of the Punjaiib, who marched to 
 Delhi, and after the defeat and death of 
 Khosru, was proclaimed king, a.d. 1321. 
 
 House of Toghlak.- — The new ruler (the 
 son of a Turki slave by an Indian mother) 
 proved a blessing to the people by whom 
 he had been chosen. Order was restored 
 to the internal administration, and the 
 threatened invasion of the Moguls on the 
 north-west checked by a line of defences 
 formed along the Afghan frontier; Telingana 
 was conquered, as also Dacca ; Tirhoot (for- 
 merly Mithila) reduced, and the rajah taken 
 prisoner by Toghlak, who, when returning 
 victorious to his capital, a.d. 1325, was 
 crushed to death, with five other persons, by 
 the fall of a wooden pavilion, erected to re- 
 ceive him by his son and successor, to whom a 
 treacherous design is attributed. Moham- 
 med Toghlak, on whose reputation the 
 stigma of parricide is thus allixcd, was re-
 
 TYRANNICAL AND DESOLATING RULE OF MOHAMMED TOGHLAK. 75 
 
 markablc for great talents, often wickedly, 
 and soiiictiaic.s so wildly usi'd, as to render 
 his sanity a doubt fid qiicstiou. In ]an>;ua;^es, 
 logie, Greek pliilosoiiliy, matheniaties and 
 inedieine, his attainments were extraordi- 
 nary; in war lie was brave and active ; in 
 domestic life devout, abstinent and moral. 
 Notwithstanding all this, he proved one of 
 the worstkings underwhose seourgcludia has 
 ever bled antl sud'cred. When released from 
 tlie fear of invasion on the [lart of the Moguls, 
 whoso absence was obtained by an enormous 
 bribe — he completed the reduction of the 
 Decoan ; and tlien gave the I'cin to his 
 ambitious but ill-digested schemes, by as- 
 sembling an army (comprising, according to 
 Eerishta, 370,000 horse), intended for the 
 conquest of Persia, but which, after it had 
 consumed his treasures, broke up for want 
 of ])ay, carrying pillage and disorganization 
 m every quarter. Next followed an at- 
 tempt upon China. For this 100,000 men 
 were sent through the Himalaya Mountains, 
 and having with loss and difficulty efl'ccted 
 a passage, were met on the enemy's frontier 
 by a powerful force, with whom fatigue and 
 want of provisions rendered the invaders 
 unable to cope. The approach of the wet 
 season compelled a speedy retreat, which 
 the pursuit of the Chinese, the difficulties of 
 the route, famine and heavy rains, made so 
 disastrous, that at the end of fifteen days, 
 scarcely a man survived to tell the tale, and 
 many of those left behind in garrisons dui'ing 
 the advance of the ill-fated force, were put 
 to death by the unreasoning rage of the 
 disappointed king. An endeavour to fill the 
 royal treasury, by substituting paper, for 
 copper, tokens,* utterly failed in its object, 
 from the known insolvency of the govern- 
 ment, and it seriously injured trade and 
 impoverished the people; who, no longer 
 able to endure the increasing pressure of 
 taxation, deserted the towns and tied to the 
 woods, in some places maintaining them- 
 selves by rapine. The infuriated despot 
 ordered out his army, as if for a great hunt, 
 surrounded an extensive tract of country, as 
 is usual in an Indian chase, and then com- 
 manded the circle to close and slaughter all 
 within it (mostly inoftensive peasants), like 
 wild beasts. More than once was this hor- 
 rible performance repeated; and on a sub- 
 
 • AVith regard to coinage, it may be remarked that 
 at the time of Cal'\u''s invasion, there was, according 
 to Ferishta, no silver coinage in the Carnatic ; and 
 colonel Briggs remarks that the same was true, to a 
 certain e.\tent, till very lately, the common coin 
 
 sequent occasion, its atrocities were paral- 
 leled by a general massacre of the inhahi- 
 taiits of the great city of Canouj. Famine, 
 induced by cruelty and misgoverument, 
 bnjuglit to a climax the miseries of the nation, 
 and various attempts were made to break 
 the fetters of such unbearable oppression. 
 Mohammed's own nephew took up arms in 
 IMalwa, but was defeated and flayed alive; 
 the governor of the Punjaub next rebelled, 
 and he also was subdued and slain. 
 
 ]]cngal, and soon afterwards the Carnatic, 
 revolted under ISIoslcm governors, and were 
 never again subdued ; Carnata and Telin- 
 gana combined suceesfully under native 
 rajahs for the recovery of their indepen- 
 dence ; and lesser struggles took place in 
 every quarter. The Amccrf Judeeda, or 
 new nobles (the name given to the Mogul 
 chiefs and their descendants, who, having 
 invaded India, had embraced Islaniism and 
 the service of the kings of Delhi at the same 
 time), became seditious in the Deecan; and 
 in Malwa, seventy of them were treacherously 
 massacred by the new governor, a man of 
 low origin, desirous to show his zeal — upon 
 which the officers of the same nation iu 
 Guzcrat, prevailed on the rest of the troops 
 to join them iu insurrection. Mohammed 
 in person advanced for its suppression, and 
 ravaged his own province as if it had been 
 that of an enemy, devoting the rich towns 
 of Cambay and Surat to plunder. With 
 equal vigour he proceeded to quell a general 
 rebellion in the Deecan ; but no sooner was 
 seeming quiet restored in one place by a 
 costly effusion of blood, than new distur- 
 bances broke out in another. The king, 
 wearied out with marching and counter- 
 marching, fell a victim to a fever, caused, it 
 is said, by a surfeit of fish, but more pro.< 
 bably by political anxiety, added to the 
 habitual tumult of his own ungovernable 
 passions. He died at Tatta, whither he liad 
 proceeded in ptirsuit of some fugitives from 
 Guzcrat, who had taken refuge with the 
 Ilajpoot princes of Sinde. The only marvel 
 is, that he should have been permitted to 
 reign twenty-seven years, and yet escape the 
 common fate of Asiatic tyrants — poison or 
 the sword. Few could ever have provoked 
 such an cud more pertinaciously than 
 Mohammed Toghlak, who, iu spite of his 
 
 being the pagoda : there was also another gold coin 
 called afanam, in value about equal to a sixpence. 
 
 t Ameer, Emir or Mir alike signify noble, com- 
 mander, chief. Thus, Ameer-ool-omra, means head 
 of the nobles, or commander-in-chiefl
 
 76 FEROZE TOGHLAK AND HIS SUCCESSORS— a.d. 1351 to 1394. 
 
 intellectual gifts and personal bravery, 
 alternately excited emotions of horror and 
 contempt in the breasts of his subjects, 
 evincing alike in his extensive projects or 
 less disastrous follies, the same utter reck- 
 lessness with regard to tlieir lives and pro- 
 perties. Thus — desiring to transfer the 
 capital from the magnificent city of Delhi 
 to Deogiri, as being a more central position, 
 he proceeded to attempt the execution of this 
 design, by ordering all the inhabitants of the 
 former, to remove at once to the latter place, 
 to which he gave the name of Doulatabad, 
 and there built the massive fort still existing. 
 After this the people were twice permitted to 
 return to Delhi, and twice compelled, on pain 
 of death, to leave it : these movements being 
 all, more or less, attended with the horrors 
 of famine, occasioning the death of thou- 
 sands, and rain and distress to many more. 
 As an instance of his minor freaks, may be 
 noticed that of having a stately mausoleum 
 erected over a carious tooth, extracted dur- 
 ing his campaign in the Carnatic, and this 
 too at a time when his troops, ravaged by 
 pestilence and decimated by civil war, found 
 full employment in heaping a little earth 
 over their fallen comrades. In the early 
 pai't of this reign, the Mohammedan em- 
 pire east of the Indus, was more extensive 
 than at any other period ; but the provinces 
 lost during its continuance were not all 
 regained till the time of Aurungzebe, and 
 the royal authority received a shock which 
 the iron grasp of the ]\Iogul dynasty alone 
 sufficed to counterbalance. 
 
 Feroze Toghlak succeeded to the throne, 
 in the absence of direct heirs, chietly by the 
 influence of the Hindoo chiefs, and after 
 some disturbances raised by the INIogul 
 mercenaries. His reign stands out in 
 pleasing contrast, not only to tliat of his 
 predecessor, but to despotic rulers in general, 
 llejecting the pursuit of what is commonly 
 called glory, he recognised the independence 
 of Bengal and the Deccan, and without 
 seeking to extend the empire by the 
 sword, employed himself in its consolidation 
 and improvement. The diminution of capi- 
 tal punishments, the abolition of torture and 
 nmtilation, the removal of numerous vexa- 
 tious taxes, alterations in the collection 
 of tlie revenue, the abrogation of lluctuating 
 and precarious imposts — all spoke the earnest 
 solicitude of the ruler for the welfare of the 
 people, llcservoirs and canals for irrigation, 
 mosques, colleges, caravanserais, hosj)itals, 
 public baths, bridges, and many other edifices 
 
 were erected, and the revenues of certain 
 lands assigned for their maintenance. The 
 chief of these works still remains a noble 
 monument to the memory of its founder — 
 viz., a canal extending from the point 
 where the Jumna leaves the mountains by 
 Kurnaul to Hansi and Hissar. It reaches 
 to the river Gagar, and was formerly con- 
 nected with the Sutlej. A portion, extend- 
 ing about 200 miles, has been restored by 
 the British government, and will be described 
 in the topographical section. 
 
 Feroze long retained his energies ; but in 
 his eighty-seventh year, increasing infirmities 
 compelled him to abdicate in favour of his 
 eldest son, Nasir-oo-deen, a.d. 1385. This 
 prince was displaced in little more than a 
 year by two of his cousins, who having 
 secured the person of the old king, proclaimed 
 his grandson, Glieias-oo-deen, sovereign ; 
 soon after which event, Feroze died, aged 
 ninety. Gheias, in five months, was de- 
 posed and murdered by the kinsmen who 
 had placed him on the throne. His suc- 
 cessor, Abu-bekir, was displaced by the pre- 
 viously exiled monarch, Nasir-oo-deen, after 
 a long and severe contest, during which 
 Delhi repeatedly changed hands. The 
 Hindoos took an active part in the struggle, 
 and the household troops, who were all 
 foreigners, having shown particular hostility 
 to the conqueror, were banished the city, 
 none being permitted to remain if incapable 
 of pronouncing a certain letter peculiar to 
 the languages of Hindoostan. The rule 
 of Nasir was weak and inefficient, and 
 that of his son, Mahmood, who acceded to 
 power in 1394, while yet a minor, em- 
 barrassed yet more the public affairs. 
 Mozuffer Khan, the governor of Guzerat 
 began to act as an irresponsible ruler; 
 while Malwa and the little province of Can- 
 dcish permanently threw oft' the yoke, and 
 remained independent principalities until 
 the time of Akber. The vizier of Mahmood, 
 with peculiar disloyalty, seized on the pro- 
 vince of Juanpoor and founded a kingdom. 
 The remaining territories were torn with the 
 dissensions of jarring factions, and each party 
 was occupied with its own quarrels, when the 
 fierce onslaught of a foreign foe involved all 
 in a common calamity. 
 
 Ameer Timur, better known as Timur Beg 
 (chief or couunaudcr) or as Tamerlane, has 
 been designated " the fire-brand of the uni- 
 verse," " the apostle of desolation," and by 
 various otheropprobrious epithets, all of which 
 his own autobiography, if its authenticity may
 
 INVASION OF INDIA BY TIMUR OR TAMERLANE— a.d. 1398. 77 
 
 be trusted, proves to have hccu (nWy merited.* 
 He claimed a remote descent from tlie same 
 stoek as Jcnf;;is Kliau, whom he ia many 
 points rcscml)lcd; for, tliouf^h born near 
 Samarcand, iu a eompiirativelj' civilized 
 country, and a zealous iMussulmau by pro- 
 fession, Timur was as barbarous iu his war- 
 fare, and as short-sighted (though more 
 treacherous and wily) in his policy as the 
 ferocious Mogul. IJoth were unprincipled 
 marauders, who overran countries and 
 slaughtered unoffending myriads, for plun- 
 der; but the latter, while everywhere carry- 
 ing anarchy, famine, and pestilence in his 
 train, and sparing neither nation nor creed, 
 invariably asserted zeal for Islam as the 
 main spring of his actions, and by a strange 
 mixture of superstition and egotism, seems 
 to have succeeded in deceiving himself at 
 least, as to the true character and conse- 
 quences of his career. Tlie Seyeds or legi- 
 timate descendants of "his holiness the 
 prophet" (through Ali and Fatinia), were 
 the exclusive objects of his protection, and 
 their exemption from a personal share in the 
 horrors of war, he considered, or pretended 
 to consider, a certain means of absolution for 
 a life spent in unceasing aggression on the 
 individual and collective rights of the rest of 
 mankind. Having united the hordes of 
 Tartary in the same manner, though not to 
 the same extent as Jengis had done, Timur, 
 after conquering Persia and Transoxiana, 
 ravaged Tartary, Georgia, and Mesopotamia, 
 with parts of Russia and Siberia. Candahar, 
 Ghuznee, and Cabool, to the frontiers of 
 Hindoostan, were also subjugated and placed 
 under the government of Peir ]\Ioliammed, 
 the grandson of Timui-, who eiideavoiu'cd to 
 extend his dominions to the south-east by 
 an attack on the Afghans in the Soliman 
 mountains; which proving successful, the 
 invader eventually proceeded to cross the 
 Indus and occupy the city of Ouch, whence 
 he marched to invest iMoultan. The place 
 was bravely defended, and Peir lay for six 
 months before its walls. INIeanwhile Timur, 
 learning the doubtful state of affairs, re- 
 nounced his intention of invading the more 
 distant provinces of the Chinese empire, and 
 conducted his forces to India, a.i>. 1.'398, 
 
 • Vide Mulfuzat Timuri (pvintesl at the cost of 
 the Oriental Translation Fund). Originally written 
 in Turki, a language as distinct from the modern 
 Turkish as Saxon from English ; translated into Per- 
 sian hy Abu Talib llussyny, and thence into our 
 tongue by Major Stewart. These memoirs afford 
 strong internal evidence of having been actually dic- 
 M 
 
 being, lie alleged, stimulated thereto by 
 accounts of the gross idolatry still suffered 
 to extend its influence throughout the 
 countries swayed by Moslem rulers. Fol- 
 lowing the usual route to Cabool, he marched 
 by Ilaryuband liunnoo to Dinkot, a place 
 on the Indus to the south of the Salt range, 
 whose exact position is not known. After 
 crossing the river, by a bridge of rafts and 
 reeds, he advanced to the Ilydaspes, and I 
 marched down its banks, ravaging the 
 country as he passed, as far as Toolumba, 
 where a heavy contribution proved insufli- 
 cicnt to save the city from pillage, or the 
 peojilc from massacre. 
 
 Moultan had by this time been taken by 
 blockade, famine having conquered where 
 external force had utterly failed ; and Peir, 
 leaving a garrison there, joined his grand- 
 father on the Sutlcj. At the head of a detach- 
 ment of 11,000 chosen horse, Timur took 
 possession of Adjudin, where the few remain- 
 ing inhabitants threw themselves upon his 
 mercy, and being chiefly Seyeds, were spared 
 and shielded from the excesses of the sol- 
 diery — a very rare case, for although the 
 promise of similar forbearance was often 
 obtained from the fierce invader, it was 
 almost invariably violated ; whether from 
 inability or disinclination to restrain his tur- 
 bulent associates matters little, since it 
 scarcely affects the degree of guilt involved 
 in giving, or rather selling an immunity 
 which, from one cause or another, he well 
 knew, would not be preserved. His deso- 
 lating career in Hindoostan may be briefly 
 told ; for the terrible details of pillage and 
 slaughter recur again and again, until the 
 mind, sickening with an unbroken chain of 
 similar scenes, has the sense of their atrocity 
 almost dulled by the monotonous repetition. 
 At Bhutnecr, the country people who had 
 taken refuge under the walls were mas- 
 sacred ; in spite of their capitulation, the 
 inhabitants shared the same fate, and the 
 town was burned. Thence Timur's detach- 
 ment marched to join the main force, 
 slaying the people of every place traversed, 
 as far as Samaua, where the towns being 
 absolutely deserted, the swords of these mur- 
 derers had some rest, but only suiiieient to 
 
 tated by Timur; to quote the words of an able critic, 
 any doubt on the subject " would be removed by 
 the unconscious simplicity with which he [Timur] 
 relates his own inti'igucs and perfidy ; taking credit 
 for an excess of goodness and sincerity which the 
 boldest flatterer would not have ventured to ascribe 
 to him.'' — (Elphinstone's India, vol. ii., p. 79.)
 
 78 CRUELTIES OF TIMUR— GOVERNMENT OP THE SEYEDS— a.d. 1412. 
 
 prepare them for renewed exertion, since, ou 
 reaching Delhi, all prisoners above fifteen 
 years of age were put to death, from the 
 fear of their taking part with their couutry- 
 meu. The number was doubtless very great, 
 even after making large deductions from the 
 accounts of Mussulman writers, who state it 
 at 100,000. Upon the defeat of the Indian 
 army, the reigning prince of Delhi, Mahmood 
 Toghlak, fled to Guzerat, and the city was 
 surrendered under a solemn assurance of 
 protection. Tamerlane was proclaimed em- 
 peror of India, and while engaged in cele- 
 brating a triumphal feast, his ferocious 
 hordes, laughing to scorn the dearly-bought 
 promise of their leader, commenced their 
 usual course of rapine and plunder, upon 
 which the Hindoos, driven to desperation 
 by witnessing the disgrace of their wives 
 and daughters, shut the gates, sacrificed the 
 women and children, and rushed out to 
 slay and be slain. The whole Mogul army 
 poured into the town, and a general massacre 
 followed, until several streets were rendered 
 impassable by heaps of slain. At length the 
 wretched inhabitants, stnpified by the over- 
 powering number and barbarity of the foe, 
 flung down their arms, and " submitted 
 themselves like sheep to slaughter ; in some 
 instances permitting one man to drive a 
 hundred of them prisoners before him." 
 
 Delhi yielded an enormous booty in gold, 
 silver, and jewels, especially rubies and dia- 
 monds ; the historian* above quoted, de- 
 clares that the amount stated by his autho- 
 rities so far exceeds belief, that he refrains 
 from the mention — neither does he give the 
 number of men and women, of all ranks, 
 dragged into slavery ; but it must have been 
 immense. Among them were many masons 
 and other artificers, competent to the con- 
 struction of a mosque, similar to the noble 
 edifice of white marble built by Feroze, on 
 the Jumna : in which the sanguinary Timur, 
 on the eve of departure from the blasted city, 
 had the audacity to ofl'er up public thanks 
 for the wrongs he had been permitted to 
 inflict. 
 
 Merut next fell beneath the same terrible 
 
 * Briggs' Fcrhhtn, vol. i., p. '194. For the career 
 of Timur, see Elphinstone's able summary — India, 
 vol. i., pp. 75 to 80 ; Price's 3Iiihtiinmcdun History, 
 vol. iii., pp. 2153, 213 ; and Keniiell's 3Icmoir of' a 
 Map nf llinddostan, pp. 110, 121. 
 
 t In Catron's Miiyni I^nipire, (a work pviblished in 
 1709, and allef;ed to be fbinuled on data collected by 
 a Venetian named Manouchi, wlio acted as physician 
 to Aurungzebe,) the troops of Timur are represented 
 as commenting severely on the person of their leader, 
 
 scourge : the walls were thrown down by 
 mines, and every soul put to the sword. 
 The invaders then crossed the Ganges, and 
 proceeded up its banks to near Hurdwar, 
 where the river leaves the mountains. 
 Several minor contests took place with bodies 
 of the Hindoos in the skirts of the hills, 
 in which Timur, although suS'ering from 
 illness, and burdened with the weight of 
 more than seventy years, took his full share 
 of danger and fatigue, never scrupling to 
 hazard his own personf equally with that of 
 the meanest individual of his force. From 
 Jammu or Jummoo, north of Lahore, he 
 turned south, and reverting to the route by 
 which he had entered India, took his final 
 departure, having occasioned, during the 
 short space of five months, an almost in- 
 credible amount of ruin and bloodshed. 
 
 For many weeks Delhi i-emained un- 
 governed and nearly uninhabited. A chief 
 named Ecbal at length obtained possession, 
 but being slain on an expedition to Moultan, 
 the authority reverted to Mahmood, who, 
 having returned from Guzerat, had taken 
 refuge at Canouj, then held by the king of 
 Juanpoor. IMalimood died, a.d. I'il2. His 
 successor, Doulat Khan Lodi, at the expi- 
 ration of fifteen months, was expelled by 
 Khizer Khan, the governor of the Punjaub. 
 
 The Seyeds. — The new ruler, though born 
 in India, was descended from Mohammed, 
 and for this cause found favour with Timur, 
 to whom he complained of having had the 
 governorship of a portion of the Punjaub 
 unjustly taken from him, and was thereupon 
 appointed to the undivided rule of the 
 whole. He affected to recognize his patron 
 as emperor, and did not assume the title or 
 style of royalty on taking possession of the 
 government, which now comprised little be- 
 yond Delhi and the adjacent territory. The 
 Punjaub was temporarily re-annexed by 
 him, but the eastern portion, with the coun- 
 tr}' about Sirhind, revolted and severed 
 itself from Delhi, despite the opposition of 
 Khizer, who made spirited eflbrts to main- 
 tain and extend his authority. Tribute was 
 levied from the llahtores in Roliilcuud, and 
 
 incited by a strong dread of Rana (the title signify- 
 ing prince being mistaken for tlie name), whose do- 
 minions are described as " almost situate in the midst 
 of Hindoostan," and whose Rajpoot soldiers had the 
 reputation of being invincible. " Have we not," said 
 they [the Tartars], one to another, " served this hair- 
 brained cripple long enough, who, to the loss of a leg, 
 has now, in this last battle, added the loss of an 
 arm." They are, however, induced to persevere, 
 and complete victory is the result. ([). I'i.)
 
 from otlirr Hiiuloos near Owalior, Imt flic- 
 war witli tlu; kiii^ of (iuzcrat, Uu)iii;Ii -dili- 
 gently ])rosocuto(l, liad no important result, 
 and tliat state retained its indepondcnce, as 
 did also the permanent monareliies in tlic 
 Dceean, topjctlicr with ]\fal\va, ]5engal, Juan- 
 poor (comi)rcheii(liiif^ Oiulo and Canoiij), 
 and the }>'overnments of Samana, 15iana, and 
 Cal|)cc (in Unndclciind). Kliizcr died in 
 1421 — his three Seycd sueeessors were en- 
 gaged in struggles, first, with the Mogul 
 ruler of Cabool (Shah Rokh, the sou of 
 Timur), who oceasionally took part with 
 the Gukkurs in ravaging the I'linjaub; and 
 afterwards with the kings of Juanpoor and 
 Malwa. Under the sway of the last Seycd 
 ruler, Ala-oo-dccn, the territory apjicrtain- 
 ing to Delhi had become so reduced as in 
 one direction to extend for only twelve 
 miles from the capital, and in another 
 scarcely a mile. Moultan, among other 
 places, had become independent, but Bada- 
 yoon beyond the Ganges being still jios- 
 sesscd by Ala, he removed to that place, 
 and having abdicated in favour of Bchlol 
 Khan Lodi, who forthwith assumed the 
 title of king, a.d. 1450, he was suftered to 
 remain unmolested in Badayoon for the 
 remaining twenty-eight years of his life. 
 
 Jloi/se of Lodi. — The grandfather of Bch- 
 lol Lodi had been governor of jNloultan 
 under Ferozc Toghlak, the great patron of 
 the Afghans, and his fatiicr and uncles held 
 commands under the Scyeds. Their wealth 
 and power as military chieftains, together 
 with the calumnies of a disaffected relation, 
 at length excited the jealousy of the then 
 sultan (Mohammed Seycd), by whom the 
 Lodis were driven into the hills, where they 
 sueecssfully resisted his authority. Bchlol 
 found means to occupy, first Sirhind, then 
 the whole of the Punjaub, and eventually (by 
 a treacherous use of the influence of 
 Hameed the vizier or prime minister of his 
 predecessor Ala), gained possession of Delhi, 
 to which the Punjaub became thus re:-au- 
 nexed, as also Juanpoor, after a contest 
 carried on with little intermission for 
 twenty-seven years. By this last acquisi- 
 tion, together with others of less import- 
 ance, the dominions of Bchlol were extended, 
 until, at his death in 1488, they reached 
 from the Jumna to the Himalaya mountains 
 as far east as Benares, besides a tract on 
 the west of the Jumna stretching to Bun- 
 delcund. The next king, Seeander Lodi, 
 regained Bchar as far as the frontiers of 
 Bengal, and increased his territories in the 
 
 direction of Bundelcund. Sccander was a 
 just and merciful prince, a poet, and a 
 niuni(irent jiatron of letters. The single 
 reproach on his character, one rarely brought 
 forward against the Moslem sovereigns of 
 India, is that of bigotry, evinced in the de- 
 struction of idolatrous temples in the towns 
 and forts captured from the Hindoos, and 
 in the jjrohibition of pilgrimages and cere- 
 monial bathings on certain festivals at places 
 situate on the sacred streams within his 
 dominions. His conduct in this respect was 
 at least in accordance with the teaching of 
 the Koran, and greater tolerance would have 
 been contrary to his views of duty. The 
 zeal of Sccander is once, and only once, al- 
 leged to have prompted an act of cruelty, 
 namely, the execution of a Brahmin who 
 had sedulously propagated the doctrine that 
 " all religions, if sincerely practised, were 
 equally acceptable to God." Ibrahim Lodi, 
 the sou and successor of Seeander, early 
 offended his family and clansmen, by de- 
 claring that a king should acknowledge no 
 such relationship, but shoidd place all the 
 subjects of the state on the same footing. 
 The Af;ghan chiefs whom his father and 
 grandfather had suffered to sit in their pre- 
 sence, were henceforth commanded to stand 
 in front of the throne with folded arms. 
 The proud Lodi tribe enraged by the 
 contumelious treatment they received, re- 
 solved to leave Ibrahim in possession of 
 Delhi, and to raise his brother Julal Khan 
 to the throne of Juanpoor. After a twelve- 
 month's contest, Julal was taken prisoner 
 and put to death by Ibrahim, who impri- 
 soned the remainder of his brothers, and 
 endeavoured by violence and treachery, to 
 keep under the disaffected and rebellious 
 spirit which his arrogance and distrust per- 
 petually excited among his nobles. At 
 length the whole of the eastern part of his 
 dominions was formed into a separate state 
 under Deria Khan Lohani, whose son after- 
 wards took the title of king. Doulat Klian 
 Lodi, the governor of the Punjaub, dreading 
 the fate of other viceroys, revolted and in- 
 voked the aid of a neighbouring potentate 
 who had already evinced his desire to take 
 advantage of the distracted state of India by 
 marauding incursions into the Punjaub. 
 The celebrated Baber — sixth in descent 
 ' through his paternal ancestors from Timur 
 ' the Tartar or rather Turk, and connected 
 through his mother with Jengis Khan the 
 Mogul — acceded, at twelve years of age, by 
 i the death of his father to the throne of Fer-
 
 80 
 
 BABER— HIS EARLY HISTORY AND INDIAN INVASION. 
 
 ghana,* (a.d. 1494), which, nothwithstancl- 
 ing his extreme youth, he struggled long 
 and ably to retain, against his own relatives, 
 and the' Uzbeks,t who were then founding 
 the dominion which they still possess in 
 Transoxiana. 
 
 In the defence of his rightful inheritance 
 Baber appears to have been at first svicccss- 
 ful, but the death of his uncle, the king of 
 Samarcand, and the confusion which ensued, 
 induced him to attempt the conquest of 
 that city, and after more than one failure, 
 this boy of fifteen became master of the 
 famous capital of Timur. He had however 
 bartered the substance of power for the 
 shadow. The resources of Samarcand, 
 already drained by war, afforded little as- 
 sistance in the payment of the army, dis- 
 affection ensued, which spread to the troops 
 left in Ferghana, and Baber prostrated for 
 a time by dangerous sickness, arose stripped 
 alike of the territory towhichhe had rightfully 
 succeeded, and that acquired by the sword. 
 After various attempts, both on Samarcand 
 and Ferghana, Baber succeeded in regain- 
 ing his native kingdom, but being again 
 induced to leave it by the hope of securing 
 the former place also, he finally lost both, 
 and after several years of trial and vicissi- 
 tude, was betrayed by some Uzbeks whom 
 he had tempted to foi-sake their ally Tambol 
 (his own rebel general), into the hands of 
 this powerful enemy. Escaping from cap- 
 tivity, Baber, accompanied by his mother, 
 bade a last farewell to Ferghana, with all 
 the bitter feelings of an exile, aggravated by 
 his own peculiar trials, and carrying witli 
 him fond recollections of that beautiful laud 
 which were never obliterated by the excite- 
 ment of the brilliant career that awaited liim 
 beyond the range of the Hindoo Koosh.J 
 The princely adventurer was well received in 
 Bactria, and the Moguls flocked round his 
 standard, until his small force of 200 or 300 
 men (many of them only armed with clubs) 
 had become the nucleus of a regular and 
 well-equipped army. At this time the des- 
 cendants of Timur had been expelled from 
 Cabool, which was occupied by the IVIogul or 
 Turki family of Arghoon, who had been for 
 some time in possession of Candahar. Baber 
 invaded Cabool, and found little difficulty in 
 
 • A small l)ut rich and beautiful country situated 
 on the upper course of the river Sirr or Jaxartes. 
 
 t The Uzbeks (so called from one of their khans 
 or sovereigns) were what the fjeologists would call 
 " a conglomerate" of tribes of Turki, Mogul, and pro- 
 bably of Fennic origin, the former greatly prepon- 
 
 securiug the sceptre, which he swayed for 
 twenty-two years before his conquest of 
 India, and then bequeathed to heirs of his 
 own lineage, by whom it was enjoyed until 
 the end of the seventeenth century. His 
 long reign was spent in contests with in- 
 ternal and external foes. The rebellion of 
 his brother, Jehangeer, and the attempts of 
 two of his cousins to regain the sovereignty 
 for this branch of the family of Timur, were 
 with difficulty subdued. The victor freely 
 forgave his brother, and spared the lives of 
 his other relatives, thus evincing a clemency 
 very unusual in an oriental despot, and the 
 more to be admired since his power, and even 
 existence, were repeatedly in jeopardy, and 
 only rescued from destruction by the great 
 skill aud courage with which he never failed 
 to govern and animate his troops. The 
 conquest of Candahar and expeditions into 
 the mountains of the Afghans and Hazarehs, 
 occupied the first years of his sway in Cabool. 
 In all these journeyings great perils and 
 hardships were endured, and once he nearly 
 perished in the snow during a winter march 
 to Herat, undertaken to secure the co-opera- 
 tion of the members of the Timur house 
 then ruling there, against the Uzbeks. "With 
 these old and determiiaed enemies, Baber 
 had many severe contests, until, happily for 
 him, their leader Sheibani Khan, went to 
 war with Shah Ismael Saffavi, king of Persia, 
 and was defeated and slain in 1510. By 
 this event the tide of Tartar conquest was 
 turned, and Baber, aided by the Persian 
 monarch, occupied Bactria and made im- 
 portant conquests in Transoxiana, but these 
 were wrested back again by the Uzbeks, by 
 whom his army was completely routed, a.d. 
 1514. 
 
 Baber now turned his attention to India, 
 and after an invasion of the Punjaub, already- 
 alluded to, but attended with no important 
 result, gladly accepted the invitation of its 
 rebellious governor, Doulat Khan Lodi, to 
 return under the pretext of claiming this 
 part' of the inheritance of Timur. Some of 
 the Afghan chiefs remained loyal, drove out 
 Doulat Khan, and opposed the assumption 
 of the foreign usurper, but were totally 
 overpowered, and Lahore itself reduced to 
 ashes. Debalpoor was next stormed, and 
 
 derating. Tliey had before been settled on the 
 Jaik, and had possessed a largo tract in Siberia. 
 
 { Vide J\[('»tiiii-s of Baber, written by himself in 
 Turki, translated by Dr. Leyden and Mr. Erskine; 
 sec also Mr. Caldecott's Life of liaher: I'rice, and 
 the FcrislUas' of both liriggs and i)ow.
 
 BABER GAINS THE BATTLE OF PANIPUT— a.d. 1526. 
 
 81 
 
 the garrison put to tlio sword. 15;il)('r jiiir- 
 siind his coiuiiu'riiip; course to Sirliinii, wlicii 
 a quarrel witli Doulat Klian, who fled to the 
 hills, oblif^cd him to retrace his steps, leaving 
 Debalpoor in chargcof Ala-oo-dcen,a brother 
 of king Ibrahim, who, having escaped from 
 captivity, had joined the invader. Doulat 
 Khan was chcek(nl by one of Baber's generals, 
 hut Baber himself, I'ully oceujiied in defend- 
 ing l?alkb (the capital of iJaetria) against the 
 Tljibcks, deputed to Ala-oo-decn the charge 
 of advancing upon Delhi, which he did, and 
 the insurgents being increased to 40,000 
 by the disalfcction ])rcvalent among the 
 king's troops, defeated the latter in an 
 eugagemcnt under the walls of the city. To- 
 wards the close of the year 1525, Baber, 
 having settled Balkh, and finally subdued 
 Doulat Khan who was compelled to sur- 
 render his hill fort and library of valuable 
 boohs — rather a singular possession for an 
 Afghan chief of the sixteenth century — 
 proceeded from Ropur on the Sutlej, above 
 Lodiana, and from thence nearly by the 
 direct road to Delhi. At Paniput, he learned 
 the advance of Ibrahim at the head of an 
 army, which, by his own account, numbered 
 100,000 men, with 1,000 elephants. One 
 quarter that amount, midcr an able and 
 popular leader, might have sufficed to in- 
 spire the opposing force, of but 12,000 men, 
 with despondency ; but even if the numbers 
 are correctly stated, the characters of the 
 respective leaders render the result easy to 
 be conjectured. Baber took up a position, 
 linked his guns together with ropes of twisted 
 leather, and lined them with infantry, 
 strengthening Lis flanks by field-works of 
 earth and foscincs. Ibrahim, on first ap- 
 proaching the enemy, seemed inclined to 
 stand on the defensive likewise ; but, chang- 
 ing his mind, after a few days' skirmishing, 
 led out his army to a general engagement. 
 
 • This coin is only about tenpence or elevenpence 
 in value, yet the total sum must have been very great. 
 
 t The terms Turk, Ttirtar, and Mogul afford in- 
 exhaustible food for controversy to scholars versed 
 in oriental learning ; and to convey in few words 
 anything like a clear idea of the different meanings 
 severally attaclied to them, is utterly impracticable. 
 For the sake of readers unversed in such discus- 
 sions, it may however be useful to remark that Tar- 
 tary is the general term now applied by Europeans 
 to the extensive but little-known country whence, 
 under the name of Scythia, barbarian hordes have 
 from very early times issued forth to desolate the 
 fairest portions of Asia and even Europe. Of these 
 a passing mention has been made in noticing the 
 events of the second century of our era (p. 49); 
 tlie Tochari, named by Strabo as one of the four chief 
 ti-ibes by whom the Greek kingdom of Bactria was 
 
 AVhilc attempting to storm the hostile front, 
 tlu; Hanks and rear of the assailants were at- 
 tacked by the right and left wings of Baber, 
 whose advance, showering flights of arrows, 
 was seconded by an occasional discharge of 
 cannon. After a protracted struggle, Baber, 
 perceiving the success of his counter-move- 
 ment, ordered his centre forward, and com- 
 pleted the rout of the Indian army. Ibrahim 
 was killed, and his force having been nearly 
 surrounded in the contest, which lasted from 
 sunrise till noon, suffered prodigious loss, 
 15,000 being left dead on the field, of whom 
 a third part lay in one spot around their 
 king, while their total loss in the battle and 
 pursuit was reported at 10,000. Baber 
 mentions especially that his guns were dis- 
 charged many timc.i with edieiency, these 
 engines of destruction having at this period 
 (1526) attained neither in Asia or Europe 
 their present terrible pre-eminence ainong 
 the weapons of war. Delhi surrendered, 
 and Baber advanced to occupy Agra, the 
 late royal residence, where his first act was 
 to distribute the spoil among his adherents, 
 in a manner which procured for him the 
 nick-name of " the Calender," in allusion to 
 a religious order whose rules forbade them 
 to make provision for the morrow. To his 
 son Humayun was given a diamond of ines- 
 timable value, and a shahrukri* to every 
 man, woman, and child in the country of 
 Cabool. 
 
 House of Timur. — The conqueror assumed 
 the supreme authority in India, and became 
 the founder of what is universally called the 
 Mogul empire. Yet Baber, although con- 
 nected through his mother with the royal 
 race of the ^loguls, jiever names that people 
 in his writings but with undisguised aver- 
 sion, and always makes mention of himself 
 as a Turk,t and the representative of Timur, 
 whose barbarous massacres he too frequently 
 
 overthrown, being supposed to signify the Turks. 
 Timur, in liis Memoirs (p. 27.) and a Persian author 
 quoted by Price in his Muhaiiunetlan History, ascribe 
 the origin of the Khans or sovereigns of the wide- 
 spread Tartar nations to Turk, the son of Japhet, 
 the son ofXoah. Thegreat grandson of Turk, Alonjah 
 Khan (during whose reign the people forsook the 
 worship of the living God and became idolators), 
 had twin sons named Tartar or Tatar, and Mogul or 
 Mongol, and the quarrels of their immediate de- 
 scendants gave rise to the inextinguishable animosi- 
 ties which have ever since prevailed among their 
 respective tribes. Mogul is said to be derived from 
 Mungawul, signifying abject or simple-hearted. 
 Tartar, according to the traveller Carpini, a.d. 1246, 
 was the term app^ed to the Su or Water Mongols, 
 one of four chief tribes then inhabiting Central Tar- 
 tary, from the name of a river which ran through
 
 82 CHARACTER OF BABER, FOUNDER OF THE MOGUL EMPIRE. 
 
 imitated wherever the slightest resistance 
 was offered ; probably desiring by this fero- 
 city to inspire a degree of terror not war- 
 ranted by his limited force. Yet Baber was 
 in domestic life kind and affectionate ; his 
 Memoirs offer repeated evidence of feelings 
 uncliilled by ambition and grandeur, of sen- 
 sibility to the beauties of nature and art 
 retaining its freshness amid the declining 
 years of pampered royalty, and of a temper 
 whose sweetness remained to the last un- 
 marred, even by the thorny pillow of an 
 usurper, or the excesses into which his 
 social temperament helped to draw him. 
 " It is a rehef," says Mr. Erskine, "in the 
 midst of the pompous coldness of Asiatic 
 history, to find a king who can weep for 
 days, and tell us that he wept for the com- 
 panion of his boyhood." And Mr. Elphin- 
 stone, when citing this remark, adds — " He 
 [Baber] speaks with as much interest of his 
 mother and female relations as if he had 
 never quitted their fire-side, and his friends 
 make almost as great a figure in the per- 
 sonal part of his narrative as he does him- 
 self. He repeats their sayings, records their 
 accidents and illnesses, and sometimes jokes 
 on their eccentricities." Yet this same indi- 
 vidual, in many points so estimable, never- 
 theless deserved the degrading surname of 
 Baber [the Tiger), which has superseded his 
 more flattering designsitions,* for in his cha- 
 racterofconquerorevenlie couldseldom afford 
 to be merciful and still more rarely to be just. 
 To return to the narrative — the occupa- 
 tion of Agra was far from carrying with it 
 the conquest of the kingdom, and before 
 that could be accomplished Baber had three 
 
 their territory (Hakluyt, vol. i., p. 30), wliile Gmelin 
 (Decoiivertes Rtisses, vol. iii., p. 209) gives the deriva- 
 tion of the -n-ord from tatanoi, to collect, used in a 
 reproachful sense to denote robbery, and declares 
 that the Moguls and Calmucks, who are doubtless 
 closely allied, have not the shadow of a tradition 
 which favours the ideaof their having ever composed 
 one nation with the Tartars (meaning Turks). De 
 Guignes, on the contrary, recognizes only the Eastern 
 and Western Tartars — the first the Manchoos, the se- 
 cond Turks and Moguls, whom he looked upon as one 
 race, the hatter descended from the former. His 
 authority, though usually of much weight, is in this 
 respect diminislied by the mistakes committed in 
 confounding distinct races, and likewise in the indis- 
 tinct geography of Tartary — defects scarcely to be 
 avoided even by writers of the present day on this 
 dark and difficult subject. Tlio tribes now inhabiting 
 Tartary arc very numerous and various: language is 
 the chief, if not the only guide by which Europeans 
 have been enabled to class them under the heads of 
 — lit, Manchoos, who extend over the region called 
 Mantchouria, stretching from the Eastern Ocean 
 along the north of China, and whose influence is 
 
 distinct obstacles to overcome ; namely, the 
 opposition offered by the Moslem viceroys, 
 who had revolted in the time of Ibrahim, 
 as well as by Afghan and Fermuli chiefs, at- 
 tached to the late government; secondly, the 
 deep aversion of the Hindoos, evinced by 
 the abandonment of the villages near the spot 
 where the army was encamped, and the con- 
 seqtient diSieulty of procuring grain or 
 forage. In the third place, the troops them- 
 selves became disafl'ected, and the weather 
 being unusually sultry and oppressive, so 
 aggravated the sufferiitgs necessarily expe- 
 rienced by natives of cold countries during 
 an Indian summer, that at length all ranks 
 united in demanding to be led back to 
 Cabool. Baber declared his unalterable 
 determination of remaining in India, but 
 gave to all who chose permission to return. 
 The majority decided to stay and share his 
 fortttnes, but a part persisting in tlieir former 
 desire, were dismissed with honour under 
 the authority of Khaja Khilau, who was ap- 
 pointed to a government beyond the Indus. 
 This arrangement produced a change of feel- 
 ing throughout the kingdom, and dissipated 
 the general idea that Baber would depart 
 as Tiraur had done. Some governors vo- 
 luntarily tendered submission, detachments 
 were sent to reduce others, and in the course 
 of four months, not only had the country 
 held by Sultan Ibrahim been secured, but 
 all the revolted provinces ever possessed by 
 the house of Lodi, including the former 
 kingdom of Juanpoor, were conquered by 
 Prince Humayun. The supremacy of Baber 
 being thus established over the Moslems, his 
 arms were next directed against the Hindoos. 
 
 confined chiefly to that country, where at the present 
 moment (1853) a severe struggle is taking place for 
 their extirpation ; 2nd, Moguls, who occupy the cen- 
 tral portion (Mongolia) between the other two ; 3rd, 
 Tartars Of Turks, (of Toorkistan,) whose boundary is 
 the MuzTagh (ice mountains), theBelutTagh (dark or 
 cloudy mountains), Hindoo Koosh, &c. The Turki 
 is the language of the Tartars as distinguished from 
 that of the Moguls, but whether these two differ 
 essentially or only as very different dialects of the 
 same tongue is perhaps yet to be decided (Erskine's 
 Halx-r, p. xxi.) Whatever may be the barrier be- 
 tween the Turks and Moguls, it is certainly a great 
 one and of ancient origin. In appearance the con- 
 trast is most striking between the sliort, square, and 
 athletic though disproportioncd body, bullet-shaped 
 head, small angular eyes, scanty beard and eyebrows, 
 high cheek-bones, flat nose, and large cars of a 
 Mogul or Calmuck, and the comely form of a Turk, 
 whose well-known Caucasian features and (lowing 
 beard in many points resemble those of a European, 
 the exception being the contraction of the eyes. 
 
 • His original name was Zehir-oo-decn (protector 
 of the faith) Mohammed (greatly Jiraised).
 
 STRUGGLES OP HINDOO PRINCES FOR INDEPENDENCE, 
 
 83 
 
 Saiif^a, tlio Rajpoot prince of Mcwar 
 (sixth in succussiou from Ilaniccr Siiijr, the 
 recoverei' of Clicetore or Cliittoor in l.'JKi), 
 had immediately before the arrival of Hahcr 
 been cngafTcd iu hostilities with Mahmood, 
 king of Mahva, whom he had defeated and 
 taken prisoner. The king of Delhi was 
 likewise the enemy of Sanga, wlio opened 
 a friendly communieation with J5abcr while 
 marching against ]i)rahini, but on finding 
 him establislied on the vacated throne, 
 transferred his enmity to the new ruler, and 
 proceeded to combine against him with 
 the Lodi chiefs (previously defeated by llu- 
 mayun) and Hasan Khan, rajah of Mcwat, 
 a hillv tract cxtcndinjr towards the river 
 Chumbul, from within twenty-five miles of 
 Delhi, and including the jjctty state now 
 called Maeheri or Aiwa. The first move- 
 ments of the Hindoos were_ successful ; the 
 garrison of Biana (within fifty miles of Agra) 
 were driven with loss into their fort, and 
 communieation cut off between them and 
 the capital. Baber marched forward with 
 all his forces, and at Sikri, about twenty 
 miles from Agra, found himself in the vici- 
 nity of the enemy, by whom his advanced 
 guard was immediately attacked, and though 
 supported by the main body, was defeated 
 with heavy loss. The assailants, instead of 
 following up the victory, withdrew to their 
 encampments, and thus gave Baber time to 
 fortify his position, and revive, by his own 
 indomitable encrg}', the di'oopiug spirits of 
 the troops. This was no easy task ; for the 
 Indian auxiliaries began to desert or give 
 way to hopeless despondency, and the feel- 
 ing spread throughout all ranks, being deep- 
 ened by the unlucky arrival of a celebrated 
 astrologer from Cabool, who announced, 
 from the aspect of Mars, the incntable de- 
 feat of the ^loslem army, which was drawn 
 up in an opposite direction to that planet. 
 Baber cared little for soothsaying, but fully 
 recognised the perils of his position, and, 
 by his own account, repented of his sins, 
 forswore wine, gave away his gold and silver 
 drinking-vessels to the poor, and remitted 
 the stamp-tax on all Moslems (that is, the re- 
 venue collected by means of a stamp or mark 
 affixed on all imported articles). Assembling 
 all the officers, from the highest to the lowest, 
 he addressed them in glowing terms — not, 
 however, in the usual inflated style regard- 
 ing the rewards, temporal and eternal, 
 awaiting the champions of Islam, but ap- 
 pealing almost exclusively to their sense of 
 honour, and setting the chance of military 
 
 glory, in plain terms, against the risk of 
 (leaLh. With one accord they swore on the 
 Koran to conquer or to die, and liabcr de- 
 termined to bring matters to an immediate 
 crisis, a step rendered the more expedient 
 by the daily accounts of fresh disturbances 
 in the provinces. A desperate battle en- 
 sued ; rajali Sanga was defeated, and escaped 
 with dilliculty; Hasan Khan and many 
 otiier chiefs were slain. The mistaken astro- 
 loger ventured to congratulate Baber upon 
 his victory, but received in return a sharp 
 lecture for perversity, conceit, and mischief- 
 making, with a command to quit the royal 
 dominions, accompanied, liowever, by a libe- 
 ral present iu acknowledgment of long ser- 
 vice, faithful though not discreet. 
 
 Mewat was next reduced and settled. 
 In the beginning of the following year 
 (1528) Chandcri, on the borders of Bun- 
 delcnnd and Malwa, was attacked. It was 
 held by Medni Rai, a Rajpoot chief, who 
 had escaped from the late battle, and des- 
 perately but vainly defended by the Raj- 
 poots, who, on perceiving the troops of 
 Baber mounting their works, slew their 
 women, rushed forth naked, drove the enemy 
 before them, leaped from the ramparts, and 
 continued to fight with unabated fury until 
 all had found the death they sought: 200 or 
 300 had remained to defend Medni Rai's 
 house, who for the most part slew one 
 another sooner than fall into the hands of the 
 enemy. An Afghan insurrection occurred 
 simultaneously with this siege. The latter 
 was no sooner ended than Baber marched 
 to the Ganges, where the Afghans were 
 drawn up, tiirew a bridge over the river 
 under cover of artillery, and compelled the 
 insurgents to disperse and take refuge in 
 the dominions of the king of Bengal. It 
 was probably on this occasion that he re- 
 duced South Behar, which was subsequently 
 seized by the Lodi prince. Sultan ^lahmood, 
 wdio being once more forced to fly, all that 
 country south of the Ganges reverted to 
 Baber; but North Behar remained in 
 the possession of the king of Bengal, 
 with whom a treaty of peace was formed. 
 The health of Baber now began to fail, 
 and its decline was hastened by circum- 
 stances connected with the dangerous ill- 
 ness of Humayun. The physicians had 
 declared the condition of that prince to be 
 beyond the help of their art, upon which 
 the fond father resolved to devote his own 
 life to the preservation of his son's, in con- 
 formity with a superstition still prevalent in
 
 84 
 
 REMARKABLE DEATH OF BARER— a.d, 1530.— HUMAYUN, 
 
 the East. His friends, who do not seem to 
 nave in the least doubted the efficacy of the 
 measure, entreated him to forbear for the 
 sake of the millions whom he ruled, ■ but 
 without effect. After the customary for- 
 mula of walking three times round the 
 couch of the prince, Baber spent some 
 moments in earnest prayer to God, and 
 then, impressed witb a conviction of the 
 fulfilment of the desired sacrifice, exclaimed, 
 " I have borne it away ! I have borne it 
 away I" All historians agree that Huma- 
 yun began from that time to recover, and 
 Baber to sink rapidly, which latter result 
 may be readily believed. Calling together 
 his sons and ministers, he enjoined con- 
 cord among them all, and affection among 
 his children, and soon afterwards expired 
 at Agra, a.d. 1530, and was buried in 
 Cabool, at a spot selected by himself, and 
 still marked by a small mosque of marble, 
 above which rises a hill, from whence a 
 noble prospect is obtained. Though he 
 did not attain to the age of fifty years, 
 Baber had, in one sense, lived many lives, 
 from the incessant activity of both mind 
 and body.* On his last journey, when his 
 constitution was evidently giving way, he 
 rode in two days from Calpee to Agra 
 (160 miles), without any particular motive 
 for despatch, and swam twice across the 
 Ganges, as he mentions having done every 
 other river he traversed. Besides the neces- 
 sary business of the kingdom, the intervals 
 of peace were occupied by planning aque- 
 ducts, reservoirs, and other improvements, 
 and in the introduction of new fruits and 
 other productions of remote countries, "i'et 
 he found time to indite many elegant 
 Pei'siau poems, and compositions in Tuj-ki, 
 which entitled him to distinction among 
 the writers of his age and country. His 
 contemporaries were, in England, Henry 
 VII. and VIII. ; in France, Charles VIII., 
 Louis XII. , and Francis I. ; in Germany, 
 Maximilian and Charles V. ; in Spain, Fer- 
 dinaiul and Isabella, and Charles. Thus 
 the career of Baber formed part of a me- 
 morable epoch, of which the great events 
 were — the discovery of America by Co- 
 lumbus ; of the passage to India, via the 
 Cape of Good Hope, by Vasco di Gama; 
 
 * Towards the close of his life, Baber observed lliat 
 since his eleveiitli year he had never kept the annual 
 fast of the Kamzan twice in any one ])lacc — a strong 
 proof of the roving, warlike disposition which brought 
 him to India. And it should be remembered that, in 
 spite of many attractive qualities, Baber comes under 
 the same condemnation, for lawless usurpation and 
 
 the increase of the power of France by the 
 annexation of the great fiefs to the crown, 
 and of Spain by the union of its kingdoms 
 under Charles ; the destruction of the em- 
 pire of Constantinople ; the influence of the 
 art of printing ; and the rise and progress of 
 the Protestant reformation. (Luther and 
 Baber were born in the same year.) 
 
 Baber left three sous besides Ilumayun, 
 but as he made no declaration in their 
 favour he jirobably intended the empire to 
 descend undivided to the child for whose life 
 he had evinced such tender solicitude. Of tlie 
 three younger brothers, one named Kamran 
 was governor of Cabool and Candahar, and 
 being firmly seated there, appeared disposed 
 to maintain his position if necessary by a 
 degree of force with which Humayuu could 
 ill cope, since to assemble an army for action 
 in Cabool would necessitate the evacuation 
 of the lately-acquired and disaffected pro- 
 vinces. Kamran was therefore recognized as 
 the independent ruler of his previous govern- 
 ment, to which was added the Punjaub and 
 the country on the Indus. The other 
 brothers, named Hindal aud Askeri, were 
 appointed to the sway of Sambal and Mewat. 
 By the cession to Kamran, Humayun was 
 deprived of the trusty and warlike retainers 
 who had long been the hereditary subjects 
 of his family, and left to govern new con- 
 quests, unsupported by the resources which 
 had materially contributed to their acquisi- 
 tion. At first, by the aid of the veteran 
 army of his father, he succeeded in putting 
 down the Afghan insurrections, which were 
 among the early disturbances of his reign, 
 and came to terms with his future rival, 
 Sheer Khan (an influential Afghan, claiming 
 descent from the kings of Ghor), wlio sub- 
 mitted on condition of being suffered to 
 retain the hill-fort of Cliuuar, near Benares. 
 His next struggles were with Bahadur Shah, 
 king of Guzerat, one of the most powerful 
 of the states formed out of the fragments of 
 the empire of Delhi, and which had been 
 recently increased in size aud influence by 
 the annexation of Malwa, and the vassalship 
 or fiefdom promised by tlie princes of Can- 
 deish, Berar, and Ahmednugger. Bahadur 
 had taken under his protection Ala-oo-dcen, 
 the brother of Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, who had 
 
 bloodshed, as his ferocious ancestors, Jengis and 
 Timur. Nor is his private character free from heavy 
 reproach. Drinking he eventually renounced ; per- 
 severed in the use of into.'iicating confections; but po- 
 lygamy, with other vices not to be named, lie refers to 
 with as little regret as to the " erection of minarets 
 of human lieads," and other common incidents cf war.
 
 POUTUGUESE ASSIST BAHADUR AGAINST IIUMAYUN. 
 
 8iJ 
 
 played so conspicuous a part durin;^ that 
 monarch's disastrous rci^n, and lie assisted 
 him with troops and money to assemble a 
 force for the attack of Agra, a.d. 153 k 
 The attempt failed, for the army was as 
 speedily dispersed as it had been collected, 
 and Tatar Khan, the son of Ala, fell bravely 
 fighting at the head of a division which had 
 remained faithful amid the general deser- 
 tion, llumayun jirocccdcd against 15ahadur, 
 who was engaged in besieging ('hittoor or 
 Chectorc, then held by the Rana of ]\Icwar, 
 but was induced, (by the remonstrances of 
 ]5ali:ulur against the impiety of molesting a 
 Mussulman jirincc while engaged in war 
 with infidels, or else by his own dihitory 
 habits), to retard his march until the place 
 was taken, and the besieger prepared to 
 receive him in an intrenched camp at 
 Mandesor, rendered formidable by artillery, 
 commanded by a Constantinopolitau Turk, 
 and partly served by Portuguese prisoners.* 
 These advantages were however wholly neu- 
 tralized by the enemy's success in cutting oft' 
 the supplies, and thus making the position 
 untenable, upon which Bahadur blew up his 
 guns, and, leaving the army to disperse as 
 the}' chose, fled by night almost unattended 
 to the sea-port of Cam.bay, whither he was 
 followed by Humaynn, who reached that 
 town on the evening of the day on which the 
 fugitive had departed for a more secure place 
 
 ' In the Memoirs of Iliimai/iin, written by .Toiiher 
 the owor-bearer, (a faithful servant who attended that 
 monarch during his adversity, and was eventually re- 
 warded by a treasurership in Lahore) and translated 
 by Major Stewart, it is asserted that Bahadur had 
 entered into a treaty with the Portuguese, (estab- 
 lished at Surat some time before), and had by their 
 assistance raised a force of G,000 Abyssinians or 
 negroes. Price, on the authority of Abu Fazil, states, 
 that Bahadur had sent a deputation to Diu to 
 solicit the aid of tlie Portuguese viceroy, or captain- 
 general of the possessions of that nation on the 
 western side of India, requesting his assistance in 
 waging war against the liousc ot Tinnir. The Por- 
 tuguese commander accordingly assembled at Diu a 
 considerable body of troops, and a powerful naval 
 armament, in readiness to meet Bahadur, en whose 
 arrival, it is said, some cause of suspicion, not satis- 
 factorily explained, induced the European chief, in- 
 stead of coming to meet his ally, to remain on board 
 ship on pretence of illness. Bahadur, with a degree 
 of conlidence which seems to indicate the whole 
 aflair to have originated, not in a misunderstanding, 
 but in systematic treachery on the part of the Por- 
 tuguese, put himself on board a galley to visit the 
 alleged invalid ; but had no sooner reached the 
 admiral's vessel, than, perceiving the deceit practised 
 upon him, he endeavoured to return to the shore. 
 The Portuguese liad however resolved on first ob- 
 taining from him the cession of certain ports at 
 Guzerat, and endeavoured to detain him by fair 
 N 
 
 of refuge at Diu, in the remotest part of 
 the peninsula of (iuzcrat. "While the pur- 
 suers were encamped at Cambay, a night 
 attack was made; by the Coolis, a forest-tribe, 
 still famous for similar cxjiloits in this j)art 
 of India, with such silence and wariness, that 
 the royal tent itself was plundered, and the 
 baggage and books carried off — among the 
 latter was a copy of the Hhlory of Timur, 
 illustrated with jjaintings. llumayun, in un- 
 just retaliation for the conduct of these 
 mountaineers, gave up the town to plunder, 
 and then (piitting the peninsula, proceeded 
 to occuiiy the settled part of Guzerat. The 
 hill fort of Champancir, he surprised by a 
 stratagem, having, with 300 chosen men, 
 scaled the walls in the night by means of 
 iron s])ikcs, fixed iu an almost perpendicular 
 rock ; the daring besiegers, including the 
 king, ascending separately during an attack 
 made on one of the gates by the army.f 
 
 Shortly after this success, and before suf- 
 ficient time could elapse for the consolidation 
 of his new conquests, llumayun was re- 
 called to Agra by intelligence of the pro- 
 ceedings of Sheer Khan, who had made 
 himself master of Beliar, including the strong 
 fortress of Rolitas, J and v.as successfully pro- 
 secuting the invasion of Bengal. The mea- 
 sures of this usurper had been laid with 
 much skill and circumspection, his hope 
 being, by the union of the Afghans, to 
 
 words, entreating a moment's delay while they 
 brought a present in token of profound respect; but 
 Bahadur desired that the present might be sent 
 after him and persisted in making for the ship's 
 side. The Portuguese Cazi (probably the fiscal) non- 
 interposed and forbade his departure, upon which 
 the Sultan in a paroxysm of indignation drew his 
 scimitar, elovc him in twain, and succeeded in gain- 
 ing his own galley, which was speedily hemmed in 
 by the enemy's fleet. .■\n unequal conflict ensued, 
 and liahadur, perceiving the inevitable result, sprang 
 into the sea, and is generally supposed to have been 
 drowned. The date of this event, a.d. 1o.37, is pre- 
 served in the Persian characters comprised in the 
 sentence, " Feringuian Bahadur Kosh," — Fortuguete 
 butchers of the hero. — (Price, vol iii. p. 751). 
 
 t After its capture the stronghold was vainlv 
 searched for the treasure it was believed to contain j 
 one officer alone knew the secret, which it was pro- 
 posed to draw from him by torture, but to this 
 llum.ayun refused to consent, and directed that wine 
 and good cheer should be tried instead. The ex- 
 pedient proved successful, and the officer willingly 
 revealed the existence of a large amount of gold and 
 silver at the bottom of the reservoir, which was at 
 once apparent on the water being drawn off. 
 
 J Rohtas was taken by treachery from a Hindoo 
 rajah. Sheer Khan, having besought an asylum for 
 his family, introduced two armed soldiers in each of 
 the covered litters supposed to contain women, and 
 then easily overcame the unsuspecting garrison.
 
 86 SHEER KHAN AND AFGHANS ATTEMPT TO EXPEL MOGULS. 
 
 drive the Moguls out of the country, and 
 re-establish a Patau dynasty.* To retard 
 the advance of Humayun he had strongly 
 garrisoned the famous fortress of Chunar, 
 which stands on a rock close to the Ganges, 
 on what may be termed a detached portion 
 of the Vindya mountains. As Humayun 
 marched along the river, and conveyed his 
 guns and stores by its waters, he was com- 
 pelled to commence hostilities with the siege 
 of this fort. By a cruel stratagemf infor- 
 mation was acquired regarding the state of 
 the defences, and attempts were made to 
 mine the accessible portions of the walls on 
 the land side, and by floating batteries to 
 bear upon the face fronting the river. — These 
 failed, but the garrison, after several months' 
 resistance, were starved into surrender, and 
 the light hands of all the gunners, to the 
 number of 300, cut off, without the consent 
 of Humayun, by his chief engineer Rumi 
 Khan, who soon afterwards, through the 
 malice of rival courtiers, perished by poison. 
 At the defile of Sicragali, a detachment of 
 the imperial army, sent to take possession, 
 were attacked and repulsed with con- 
 siderable loss by the son of Sheer Khan, 
 who then rejoined his father in the hills, 
 leaving the pass unobstructed, having fol- 
 lowed out the well-devised policy of im- 
 peding Humayun as far as possible without 
 hazarding any decisive conflict. During the 
 protracted siege of Chunar, Mahmood had 
 been defeated and Gour reduced by Sheer 
 Khan, who having removed the captured trea- 
 sures to the before-mentioned fort of Rohtas, 
 whither he had previously assembled his 
 family, now left Gour undefended. Hu- 
 mayun took possession, but gained little ad- 
 vantage thereby, for the rains had attained 
 their climax, the Delta of the Ganges was 
 one vast sheet of water, and in the country 
 beyond the reach of inundation every brook 
 and channel had become an impassable flood. 
 It was impossible to carry on operations in 
 Bengal, and extremely difficult to commu- 
 nicate witli upper Iiulia. Several months 
 of forced inactivity elapsed, rendered doubly 
 wearisome by the moist and sultry climate. 
 The sickly season that followed the heavy 
 rains thinned the ranks of the soldiers, and 
 depressed their spirits so greatly that when 
 
 ' According to Ferishla, the proper country of the 
 Affjlians is called lloli, and extends along the 
 Indus ; but, subsequent to the introduction of Islam, 
 having settled at Patna on the Ganges, they gra- 
 dually acquired the appellation of Patans. 
 
 t Kunii Khan (originally a Turki slave named 
 Soglirauk, but promoted for his ability, and thus 
 
 the roads became again traversible they 
 began to desert in numbers — Prince Hindal, 
 who had been left in North Behar, setting 
 the example. Meanwhile Sheer Khan issued 
 from his retreat, seized Behar and Benares, 
 recovered Chunar, laid siege to Juanpoor, 
 and pushed his forces up the Ganges as far 
 as Canouj. Humayun once more found his 
 communication with the capital intercepted, 
 and leaving a detachment which he could 
 but ill spare to guard Gour, he reluctantly 
 set out to return to Agra with the remainder 
 of his diminished army, but was intercepted 
 between Patna and Benares by Sheer, who 
 had raised the siege of Juanpoor and ad- 
 vanced by forced marches for this purpose. 
 Instead of at once attacking the troops of 
 his rival while suffering from fatigue, Hu- 
 mayun suffered many valuable hours to 
 elapse, and the next morning found Sheer 
 (who had now assumed the title of Shah or 
 king) so skilfully intrenched that he could 
 neither be passed nor attacked with any 
 prospect of success. Humayun therefore, in 
 turn, fortified his position and began to col- 
 lect boats, with a view of forming a bridge 
 across the Ganges, and then pursuing his 
 way along the opposite bank. Sheer Shah 
 suffered this work to proceed for two months, 
 but when it approached completion, he at- 
 tacked Humayun about day-break in three 
 colums, and completely surprised the camp. 
 Humayitn attempted to rally his troops, but 
 with little effect, and after recei\'ing a wound 
 in the arm was prevailed on by three of his 
 favourite officers to seek safety in flighty and 
 plunge at once into the Ganges. J Here his 
 career had nearly terminated, for before 
 reaching the opposite bank his horse sunk 
 from exhaustion, but the royal rider was saved 
 by the exertions of a poor man opportunely 
 crossing at the time with a leathern bag or 
 water-skin inflated like a bladder. Thus 
 rescued, Humayun, accompanied by a very 
 small i-etinue, fled to Calpce, and thence to 
 Agra, (a.d. 1539.) Almost the whole army 
 had been slain or drowned, and the queen, 
 who having been early surrouiided it had 
 been the object of his last exertion to re- 
 lease, remained in the hands of the enemy, 
 but was treated with great delicacy and con- 
 sideration. By some accounts. Sheer Shah 
 
 entitled by the Guzerat princes), severely flogged a 
 7ie(jn> slave, and sent him to play the part of a deserter 
 in the fort. The Afghans received him kindly, and 
 suffered him to examine their works, which having 
 done, he returned to his intriguing master. 
 
 X The three olKcers returned to the battle and 
 nobly perished in attempting to rescue the queen.
 
 WANDERINGS IN THE DESERT OF THE EXILED HUMAYUN. 87 
 
 is said to have (gained this important victory 
 by treachery, haviiij^ l)roken au armistice, 
 whicli from his cliaractcr is very probaljje — 
 but hy otliers it is asserted that he never 
 promised to suspend liostilities, but only 
 contrived to dehidc liis adversary into so 
 doing by delusive negotiations and other 
 pretexts, which war is too generally supposed 
 to justify and even necessitate. On reach- 
 ing Agra, Ilumayua found Hindal in open 
 rebellion, and Kaniran preparing to take 
 a similar course, but his sudden arrival 
 forced them to come to terms, and the three 
 brothers, after spending eight or nine months 
 in preparation, assemldcd a fresh army to 
 attack Sheer Shah. Kamran remained to 
 guard Agra while Humayun crossed the 
 Ganges near Canouj by means of a bridge 
 of boats, at the head of 9{),()()0 cavalry, with 
 kettle-drums beating and trumpets sounding. 
 A general action ensued (a.d. 1540), tlie 
 imperial troops were again utterly routed 
 and driven into the Ganges, and Humayun 
 himself escaped with extreme difficulty. 
 After exchanging his wounded liorse for 
 an elephant, he crossed tlie stream, and was 
 drawn up the steep bank by two fugitive 
 soldiers, wlio having reached the shore in 
 safety, twisted their turbans togetlier, and 
 threw the ends to his assistance. After this 
 discomfiture, Humayun, with Hindal and 
 Askeri, took refuge in Laliore, where Kam- 
 ran had previously retreated, but this prince, 
 having made peace with the conqueror by 
 the cession of the Punjaub, retired to C'abool, 
 leaviiig his unfortunate brother to provide 
 as best he could fur his own safety. The 
 succeeding adventures of the royal wanderer 
 would form a fitting pendant to those of the 
 Englisli Stuarts, from the instnnces of un- 
 wavering loyalty, connected with his hair- 
 breadth escapes — while his character as a 
 Mussulman, though far from faultless, will 
 yet well bear comparison with that of the pro- 
 fessedly Christian but licentious Charles, or 
 even of the " bonnie Prince," for whom Scot- 
 tish chivalry and misfortune have combined 
 to win a place in the page of history, which 
 would probably have been very differently 
 filled had the Young Pretender been des- 
 
 * These names, like almost all Eastern appellaticns, 
 have each a distinct signification. Thus, Humayun, 
 means nics/ncwiis ; Kamran, successful ; Hindal, In- 
 dian, and .\skeri, borti in the camp. 
 
 t At one time they .ire stated to have travelled 
 twenty-seven liours without finding water, and at 
 the expiration of that time, liaving at length come 
 vpou a well and rivulet, Ifununun alighted, and 
 alter prostrating himself hi gratitude to the Al- 
 
 tined to become a crowned king instead of 
 dying in exile. 
 
 After the desertion of Kamran, which 
 was followed by that of Hindal and Askeri, 
 Humayun* sought tooljtaiu the recognition 
 of his authority in Sindc, then ruled by 
 Hussyn,thelicadof thcArghoonfamily — but 
 alter a year and-a-half wasted in alternate 
 negotiations and hostilities, he found his 
 funds exhausted, and the adventurers who 
 had rallied round his standard dispersed, 
 just as Hussy u approached to venture a de- 
 cisive conflict. During the [)revious inter- 
 val, Humayun, then about tliree-aud-thirty 
 years of age, had married a beautiful girl of 
 fourteen, with whom he had become ena- 
 moured at an entertainment prepared for 
 him in the apartments of the mother of 
 I'rinec Hindal. Carrying with him his 
 young bride Hameida, he fled to Ouch, and 
 thence proceeded to ask the protection of 
 Maldeo, rajah of Marwar, but on reaching 
 .loudpoor, after a toilsome journey over the 
 desert, during which he lost many of his 
 followers from thirst and fatigue.-f a uew 
 disapijointment awaited him in the discovery 
 of the unfriendly disposition of the rajah. 
 The royal fugitive, again driven to seek com- 
 parative safety amid the dreary sands, now 
 led liis little band towards Amercot, a fort 
 in the desert, not far from the Indus. In 
 this route they experienced yet greater trials 
 than during the one previously taken. Be- 
 fore quitting the inhabited country, the vil- 
 lagers repelled all approaches to their wells, 
 which were to them precious possessions, 
 and it was not without a conflict and blood- 
 shed that the travellers were enabled to 
 slake their burning thirst. After leaving 
 btdiind the last traces of human culture, their 
 obstacles and difficulties increased ten-fold 
 until, one morning, when faint and weary 
 with a long night march, Humayun, who 
 had remained behind with the females and 
 servants, while the few chiefs marched on at 
 some distance in front, perceived the ap- 
 proach of a considerable body of horse, 
 under the command of the son of Jlaldeo, 
 and pr(-pared to meet a fate similar to that 
 of the Imaum Hussyu and his ill-fated com- 
 
 mighty, ordered all the water-bags to be filled, and 
 sent back on his own horses for the use of those 
 who had fallen exhausted by the way, adding at the ' 
 same time a melancholy but needful command, for 
 the burial of " all the persons wlio had died from 
 thirst." A very unpleasing anecdote is however re- 
 lated by Jouher, of Humayun's having taken ad- 
 vantage of the thirst of a Mogul merchant who had 
 lent him money, to oblige him to cancel the debt.
 
 88 
 
 REIGN OF SHEER SHAH THE AFGHAN— a.d. ]540 to 1544- 
 
 panions.* The valour of Sheikh Ali Beg, 1 
 one of Humayun's bravest aud most faith- 
 ful followers, appears to have warded off the 
 imuiediate danger, and soon afterwards the 
 Hiudoo leader, bearing in his hand a white 
 flag, approached the party, and having re- 
 presented that they had ^vilfuUy done wrong 
 in killing kine in a Hindoo country, and 
 likewise in entering his father's territory 
 without leave, supplied them with water for 
 their immediate relief, and then permitted 
 them to proceed without further molestation. 
 Several weary marches, with intense suflfer- 
 iug from thirst, further diminished the small 
 but faithful band, before Humayun with 
 seven mounted hcrsemeu reached Amercot, 
 where the llanaf (Pursaud) welcomed the 
 dethroned monarch with most courteous 
 and generous hospitality. The remainder of 
 the fugitives found refuge within the walls of 
 the fortress on the same daj^, and thankful 
 indeed must Hameida have been to quit 
 her horse, and find at length an interval of 
 rest. Pursaud ofiered to assist Humayun 
 in a fresh endeavour to establish himself in 
 Siiide, placing at his service 2,000 horsemen 
 of his own tribe (Rajpoots), and 5,000 cav- 
 alry belonging to his allies. These auxili- 
 aries, or a portion of them, were gladly 
 accepted, and Humayun, accompanied by 
 the Rana, with about 100 Moguls, whom 
 he had himself succeeded in assembling, 
 roarclied towards Tatta. Hameida remained 
 at Amercot, and on the follov.ing day gave 
 birth to the celebrated Akber (a.d. 15-12). 
 The joyful intelligence was immediately for- 
 warded to Humayun, who unable to practise 
 the munificence customary in the East on 
 these occasions, called for " a china plate," 
 and breaking a pod of musk, distributed it 
 among the chiefs who came to otfer their 
 congratulations, saying — " this is all the 
 present I can afford to make you on the 
 birth of my son, whose fame will I trust be 
 one day expanded all over the world, as the 
 perfume of the musk now fills this apart- 
 ment." Joon or Jiun (a place not marked 
 on the maps, but supposed to have been 
 situated on a branch of the Indus, half-way 
 between Tatta and Amercot, was captured 
 
 • Til the desprt of Kerbela, A.D. G80, Ilussyn, the 
 son of Ali and J'alima, with seventy-three persons of 
 his family, including his infant child, were cruelly 
 massacred. Several heroic yoiiths, liis sons and ne- 
 phews, perished singly in defending; the venerated 
 person of the Imaum ; who after a protracted defence 
 at length sunk, mutilated of an arm and covered 
 with wounds, of which thirty-six were counted on 
 his dead body, hcfore it was finally crushed by 
 
 after an action with the officer in charge, 
 and though harassed by the troops of the 
 Arghoons, Humayun's party held their 
 ground, and were strengthened by the neigh- 
 bouring princes until they amounted to 
 about 15,000 horse. Hameida and the in- 
 fant prince (by this time about six weeks 
 old) joined the camp, and all seemed pros- 
 pering, when Rana Pursaud received an 
 afi'ront from a jMogul, and was so dissatis- 
 fied by Humayun's conduct in the matter, 
 that he indignantly quitted Joon, with all 
 his followers and friends. Humayun, thus 
 rendered too weak to contest with Hussyu 
 Arghoon, proceeded to Candahar, but was 
 compelled by his turbulent brothers to 
 escape to Seestan witli Hameida, and thence 
 to seek refuge in Persia, the infant Akber 
 falling into the hands of his uncle Mirza 
 Askeri, who showed more kindness on the 
 occasion than might have been expected. 
 
 Afijhan tribe of Soor. — Sheer Shahf as- 
 sumed, as has been shov/n, the title of king in 
 15-10, and took possession of all Humayun's 
 territories. After commencing the famous 
 fort of Rohtas on the Hydaspes, on which he 
 expended an enormous sum of money, and 
 named after that in Behar, he returned to 
 Agra, and there found employment in sub- 
 duing the revolt of his own governor of 
 Bengal. He conquered Malwa in the course 
 of the year 1543, and soon afterwards re- 
 duced the fort of Raiseen, held by a Hindoo 
 chief. The garrison surrendered on terms, 
 but after they had left the fort, the capitula- 
 tion was declared void on some quibbling 
 legal pretext, and the Hindoos were attacked 
 and cut to pieces after a brave resistance. 
 Barbarous as the Mohammedans too often 
 showed themselves in India, yet treachery 
 such as this can hardly be paralleled, save in 
 the career of Timur. In 1 5 14, Sheer marched 
 into Marwar, which was desperately defended 
 by rajah Maldeo, who, though able to collect 
 only 50,000 men wherewith to oppose his 
 adversary's powerful army, estimated at 
 80,000, aud probably well-provided with 
 artillery, appears to have at first succeeded 
 in overawing the invader, aided by the na- 
 tural obstacles offered by the steriUty of his 
 
 twenty horsemen, and then left to be devoured by 
 wild beasts. Tlie unfortunate females were thrown 
 across "lie backs of camels and afterwards stripped 
 and jiublicly exposed — all these atrocities being com- 
 mitted by Mohammedans. (I'ricc, vol. i. p. -IIO.) 
 
 + The patronymic of the princes of Mewar. 
 
 I His name was changed from Pureed, to Sheer 
 Khan, or Lion-knlijlit, from his slaying a wild beast 
 while hunting with the king of JBerar.
 
 SHEER SHAH KILLED, a.d. 1545— SELIM SHAH, a.d. 1553. 
 
 89 
 
 territory and the want of water in many 
 parts oi' it. At length Sheer Shah, always 
 a cmiuiuf; schemer, contrived to sow divi- 
 sion in the liostiie camp by tlie common 
 expedient of letters written on piir])()se to be 
 intercepted. The rajah's suspicions were 
 raised against some of liis chiefs, and he 
 commenced a retreat. One of the suspected 
 leaders, indignant at the imputation, deter- 
 mined, in the true Rajpoot spirit, to give 
 incontestable proof of its injustice, and (piit- 
 ting the army at the head of his own tribe 
 fell with sucli impct\iousity on the enemy, 
 that Sheer Shah with difficulty and severe 
 loss succeeded iu repelling the assailants. 
 He was, however, eventually victor here, as 
 also at Chittore; hut at Calinjer, to which 
 he laid siege, a striking retribution awaited 
 him. The rajah, warned by the breach of 
 faith committed at Raisccn, refused to enter 
 into any terms with his perfidious foe, and 
 Sheer, while superintending the batteries, 
 was so scorched by the explosion of a maga- 
 zine struck by the rebound of a shell, that 
 he expired in a few hours, but continued to 
 direct the operations of the siege during his 
 mortal agonies, his last words being an ex- 
 clamation of pleasure at learning that the 
 place was taken. 
 
 This ambitious, cruel, and vindictive man, 
 nevertheless evinced considerable ability in 
 civil government, and, happily for the sub- 
 jects of his usurped authority, seems to 
 have recognised the promotion of their wel- 
 fare as liis best means of security. He 
 caused a high road to be constructed, ex- 
 tending from Bengal to the western Kohtas, 
 near the Indus, a distance of about 3,000 
 miles, with caravanserais at every stage, all 
 furnished with provisions for the poor, and 
 attendance of proper easts for Hindoos as 
 well as Alussulmans. An Imaum (priest) 
 and jMuezzin (crier to call to prayers) were 
 placed at the numerous mosques erected on 
 the route ; wells were dug at distances of a 
 mile and-a-half, and the whole way planted 
 with fruit-trees for refreshment and shade. 
 Sheer Shah wasburied in a stately mausoleum 
 still standing at Sahseram, placed in the 
 centre of an artificial piece of water, a mile 
 in eircumfereucc, which is faced by walls of 
 cut stone, with flights of steps descending to 
 the water. Previous to his death, his eldest 
 son had been the recognised heir to the 
 throne, hut being a prince of feeble charac- 
 ter was supplanted by his brother, who 
 reigned for nine years, under the title of 
 Sclim Shah. On his decease, a.d. 1553, 
 
 his son, a boy of twelve years old, was mur- 
 dered by his uncle, who seized the throne > 
 under the name of Mohammed Adili,* but 
 was prevented from using the powers of a 
 ruler by natural incapacity, increased by 
 habits of the most odious debauchery. His 
 extravagance speedily emptied the royal cof- 
 fers, upon which he resumed the governments 
 and jiighiresf of the nobles and bestowed 
 them on the lowest of his creatures. The 
 liroud Afghans, stung even more by the in- 
 sulting bearing of their unworthy ruler than 
 by the injuries they suffered at his hand, fled 
 in numbers, and raised the standard of revolt 
 at Chunar. LMeanwhile, the person of the 
 king was protected and his authority upheld 
 by the exertions of Hemu, his chief minis- 
 ter, a Hindoo of mean appearance and low 
 origin, who had formerly belonged to the 
 very lowest class of small shopkeepers, as a 
 retailer of salt, but who had been gradually 
 raised to power by the late king, and now 
 displayed a degree of zeal and ability, 
 which would have honoured a better cause. 
 From some weakness or physical defect 
 Hemu was unable to sit on horseback, but 
 he directed all military operations, and 
 fought with unfailing intrepidity from his 
 litter mounted on an elephant. Not the 
 least extraordinary part of his history is the 
 manner in which he succeeded in recon- 
 ciling such of the haughty Afghans and un- 
 ruly Moguls as still remained with Adili, to 
 his authority ; this he appears to have done 
 chiefly by the munificence with which he 
 distributed whatever treasure or revenue 
 came into his hands — for his objects and 
 motives, though scarcely indicated in the 
 contemptuous and calumnious mention made 
 of "this swarthy upstart" by Mussulman 
 historians, unquestionably soared far above 
 the mere accumulation of wealth. Delhi 
 and Agra were seized on by Ibrahim Soor, 
 a member of the reigning family, who at- 
 tempted to assume the supreme authority 
 under the name of Ibrahim III., but was 
 opposed by Hemu, and also by Seeander 
 Soor, another relative of Adili's, who caused 
 himself to be proclaimed king in the Pun- 
 jaub. Ibrahim was defeated first by Seean- 
 der and then by Hemu. The adventurous 
 minister next marched towards Bengal, to 
 
 • This wretch, known before his usurpation as 
 Moobariz Khan, is alleged to have dragged the 
 prince from his mother's ai'ms, that mother being his 
 own sister and tried friend. {Fcrislita, vol. ii. p. 142.) 
 
 t The revenues of certain lands granted by the 
 king, sometimes in perpetuity but generally revo- 
 cable at pleasure, and on military tenure.
 
 90 HUMAYUN AND SHAH TAHMASP, KING OF PERSIA— a.d. 1545. 
 
 oppose the goveruoi", Mohammed Soor, vrho 
 had assumed the rank of an iadependeiit 
 ruler. Hemu was asfaiu victorious, this 
 new adversary being defeated and slain ; but 
 struggles in other quarters still continued, 
 and a more formidable foe than any yet 
 dealt with, arose in the person of the de- 
 throned Humayun, who had gradually re- 
 established himself in the Punjaub, where 
 Secander, who had occupied Agra and Delhi 
 on the defeat of Ibrahim, now marched for 
 his expulsion. Before narrating the success 
 of Humayun and Akber, and the fate of 
 Ibrahim and of Hemu and Adili, it is neces- 
 sary to revert to previous events and sketch 
 the chain of circumstances which ended in 
 the restoration of the exiled monarch. 
 
 House of Tinner restored. — Humayun en- 
 tered Persia in much uncertainty regarding 
 the reception he should receive from Shah 
 Tahmasp, the son and successor of Shah 
 Ismael, the first of the Safl'avi or Sophi 
 kings. Though both were zealous Moham- 
 medans, they belonged to distinct sects, 
 characterised by a degree of mutual ani- 
 mosity, for which the difference of opinion 
 existing between them on doctrinal points 
 far less than those which divide the churches 
 of England and Rome, is quite insufficient 
 to account. — (.See note to p. 6.2). Shah 
 Tahmasp was a strenuous advocate of the 
 Sheiah doctrine, which had been widely 
 disseminated through Persia by the instru- 
 mentality of his ancestors, dervises much 
 famed for sanctity, while Humayun was a 
 Sonnite, and this was doubtless one cause 
 of the want of cordiality which marked the 
 private intercourse of the two monarchs, 
 whose connexion was really, on both sides, 
 an interested one. At first Humayun seems 
 to have been inclined to put in practice his 
 cherished desire of ceasing, at least for a 
 time, the weary struggle for power, in which 
 he had been so long engaged, and proceeding 
 on a pilgrimage to Mecca, but his faithful 
 j followers urgently dissuaded him from this 
 project, pleading the disastrous results it 
 would have on the fortunes of Akber. The 
 reception met with in Persia successfully 
 seconded their arguments — the governors of 
 each province received him with regal hon- 
 ours, the people came out to bid him wel- 
 come, and palaces were prepared for his 
 
 " The cap which Humayun so reluctantly assumod 
 was that called 'J'nji llyilcr, in honour of Hydcr, tlie 
 father of Shah Ismael, by whom it was first adopted. 
 It consisted of a tiara of crinison silk, richly or- 
 namented with gold and jewels, of a high conical 
 
 accommodation at Cazvin and elsewhere. 
 But the splendour with which the Persian 
 despot thought proper to gild the fallen 
 majesty of his unfortunate compeer, was un- 
 accompanied by a single ray of true sym- 
 pathy ; for many months Humayun was 
 not suffered to appear before the Shah, and 
 his brave-hearted envoy, Beliram Beg, was 
 harshly treated for refusing to wear the 
 peculiar-shaped cap,* from which the Per- 
 sians have acquired the title of Kuzilbash 
 [Red-heads), in allusion to its colour, and 
 which was expressly designed for a sectarian 
 symbol. Behram urged that he was the 
 servant of another prince, and not at liberty 
 to act without orders. He persisted in de- 
 clining to assume this badge, unawed by 
 the displeasure of Tahmasp, who strove to 
 intimidate the refractory ambassador, by 
 the summary execution of some prisoners 
 brought before him for the purpose. This 
 incident was a sufficiently significant prelude 
 to the long-delayed interview, during which 
 Tahmasp afleeted to receive Humayun as 
 his equal, but in reality took ungenerous 
 advantage of his defenceless position, by 
 compelling him, by means of threats affect- 
 ing life itself, to assume the obnoxious 
 cap. Nor even after this concession could 
 Tahmasp resist taunting his guest with 
 having, during his prosperity, when prac- 
 tising the favourite Arabian form of divina- 
 tion by arrows, to discover the destiny of 
 reigning princes, placed the name of the 
 king of Persia in a rank inferior to his own. 
 Humayun frankly acknowledged that he 
 had done so, and gently urged in justifica- 
 tion his hereditary rank as Padshahf or 
 Emperor of India, whereupon Tahmasp 
 broke out into violent and unjust invective 
 against the arrogance which had rendered 
 him a fugitive, and thrown his female rela- 
 tives and infant heir into the hands of his 
 enemies. 
 
 Notwithstanding the humiliations suffered 
 in private from what he justly termed "the 
 meanness of this Persian monarch," Hu- 
 mayun continued to r(;ceive every outward 
 mark of unbounded munificence in the fes- 
 tivals prepared in his honour, especially the 
 military diversion of great circular hunts, so 
 famous in the annals of Tinmr. All the 
 expenses thus incurred are however said to 
 
 shu])e and divided into twelve segments, in honour 
 of the twelve Imaunis, from whom tlie reigning family 
 claimed descent. 
 
 t This title was exclusively assumed by the dy- 
 nasty of the Great Mogul.
 
 IIUMAYUN CONQUERS CABOOL AND CANDAHAR. 
 
 91 
 
 have been ropriid two-fold by tbc j^ift of ,i 
 few ricli goms. which the cxiU'd iiion;irch liad 
 brought with him from Uindoostaii. One 
 of these was a diamond, which the jewnllcrs 
 of Tahmasp declared to be above all price, 
 it was perhaps that obtained at Agra, and 
 there estimated in a somewhat indefinite 
 manner as cqnal in value " to the purchase 
 of a day's subsistence for one-half the in- 
 habitants of the terrestrial globe." Behram 
 Beg, the bearer of tliis costly offering, was 
 dignified by the title of Khan, and another 
 oHiccr with that of Sultan, but it was not 
 ■without far heavier sacrifices that the as- 
 sistance, from the first promised to their 
 sovereign, was at length aflbrdcd. He was 
 compelled to sign a paper, the contents of 
 wbich, though not precisely stated, involved 
 a pledge, in the event of success in regaining 
 the sceptre of Baber, to cede to Persia the 
 province or kingdom of Candahar, and like- 
 wise to introduce among the Mussulmans of 
 India the profession of the Sheiahs in oppo- 
 sition to that of the Sonnites. Orders were 
 then given for the assemblage of 14,000 
 horse in Scestan, under the command of 
 Murad Mirza, the son of Tahmasp, and after 
 some more bickering the monarchs parted, 
 and ITumayun proceeded again to try his 
 fortune in war, liis private forces amounting 
 only to about 700 men. At this period 
 (1545) Sheer Shah was still alive, Kamran 
 swayed Cabool, and his younger brothers, 
 after the settlement of their private quar- 
 rels, received appointments under him ; 
 Hindal being governor of Ghu/.nee, and 
 Askeri of Candahar, which latter place was 
 attacked by llumayuu and captured after a 
 siege of five months. Askeri was taken and 
 kept in close captivity for the next three 
 years. The fort and treasures were made 
 over to the Persians, on which the greater 
 part of them returned home, leaving a gar- 
 rison under ^lurad ]\Iirza. According to 
 Abul Fazil^' the conduct of the Persians to 
 the inhabitants was so cruelly oppressive as 
 to justify Humayun, on the sudden death of 
 Mm-ad, in treacherously seizing the fortress ; 
 his troops obtaining entrance thereto on the 
 
 * Abul Fazil, the famous minister of Akber, re- 
 corded the leading events of the reigns of this 
 Boveieign and his fatliev in an heroic poem com- 
 prising 110,000 couplets, from which Ferishta has 
 borrowed largely. AUhoufjh a man of extraordinary 
 ability, he was, unfortunately for the students of his- 
 tory, an accomplished courtier and professed rheto- 
 rician, delighting in the cumbrous and inflated style 
 still in vogue in India. His account of important 
 events is therefore often unsatislaclory, and, unless 
 
 plausible pretext of placing Askeri in charge 
 of the Persian governor. Some of the gar- 
 rison ofiercd resistance on discovering what 
 was really intended, but their opposition 
 was soon silenced in death, and the re- 
 mainder were suffered to return to Persia. 
 From Candahar, Humayun marched to 
 Cabnol, of which he took jjossession without 
 a struggle, for Kamran, finding himself de- 
 serted by Hindal and many other chiefs 
 who had gone over to the now successful 
 brother, had sought refuge in Sinde. With 
 Cabool, Humayun recovered Akber, then 
 between two and three years of age, but 
 both the city and the young prince were 
 subsequently re-captured by Kamran, who 
 long held his groimd against all attempts 
 for his expulsion. Prisoners taken during 
 this siege were slain in cold blood by the 
 assailants, and treated with yet greater bar- 
 barity by Kamran, who threatened, if the 
 firing were not discontinued, to expose 
 Akber on the walls. Eventually, being un- 
 able to continue the contest, he escaped by 
 night, and by the aid of the Uzbeks again 
 made head against his brother for about 
 eighteen months, but was, at the expira- 
 tion of that time, compelled to surrender. 
 Humayun behaved on this occasion very 
 nobly, treated Kamran with great kindness, 
 released Askeri, and, accompanied by Hindal, 
 sat down with them at a feast. The four 
 brothers having eaten saltf together, seemed 
 for the time entirely reconciled, but during 
 Humayun's subsequent absence in Trans- 
 oxiana, the conquest of which he had resolved 
 on attempting, Kamran once more rebelled, 
 and after many vicissitudes, (during which 
 Cabool and the young prince were again 
 lost and won, and Hindal fell in the cause 
 of Humayun,) was finally betrayed by the 
 sultan of the Gukkurs, with whom he had 
 taken refuge, into the hands of his much- 
 injured brother. Some chiefs, whose wives 
 and children had beeti savagely disgraced and 
 mtu'dcrcd by order of Kamran during the 
 siege of Cabool in 1 547, now loudly urged 
 that his life should pay the forfeit of his 
 crimes. This Humayun steadfastly refused, 
 
 carefully weighed, misleading ; but, notwithstanding 
 their defect*, his works (the Aider Kumoh and 
 Ayecn Akhcry) afford information not to be ob- 
 tained elsewhere. 
 
 t In the east it is regarded as peculiarly infa- 
 moiis for either the giver or receiver of the lowest 
 description of hospitality, to practice hostility against 
 one another. Thus, salt, which forms an ingredient 
 of the most sumptuous or humble meal has become 
 a type and pledge of good faith.
 
 93 
 
 CHARACTER ATs^D DEATH OF HUMAYUN— a.d. 1555. 
 
 but consented to allow him to be blinded, 
 the barbarous method commonly resorted 
 to in the East, to crush ambitious pretenders 
 to that uneasy seat — the throne of a despot. 
 The cruel operation was usually performed 
 by means of a searing instrument, called a 
 fire-pencil, held against the visual nerve 
 until it was annihilated, or by means of an- 
 timony ; but in this case, perhaps from the 
 fact of several state prisoners condemned 
 in late reigns to a similar fate having 
 escaped its completion — a lancet ■vyas em- 
 ployed, and after many wounds had been 
 inflicted, without drawing a groan, lemon- 
 juice and salt were at last squeezed into the 
 sightless orbs of the wretched sufferer, who 
 then exclaimed in uncontrollable agony — " O 
 Lord my God ! whatever sins I have com- 
 mitted have been amply punished in this 
 world, have compassion on me in the next." 
 Humayun shortly afterwards went to visit 
 his unhappy brother, and wept long and 
 bitterly while Kamran confessed the justice 
 of his punishment, and asked leave to per- 
 form a pilgrimage to Mecca. This he was 
 suffered to do, and died in that place in 
 1557. Askeri, who had likewise returned to 
 the course of rebellion after having repeat- 
 edly abjured it, had been previously cap- 
 tured, but was only punished by imprison- 
 ment, from which he also was released, for 
 the purpose of proceeding to Mecca, and 
 died on his way thither. Thus delivered 
 from the difficulties in which the turbulence 
 and disunion of his brothers had involved 
 him during so long a period, Humayun 
 began to take advantage of the unsettled 
 state in which the death of Selim Shah and 
 the misgovernment of his successor had 
 involved the territories conquered by Baber, 
 which had gradually, as has been shown, 
 been parted by various usurpations into five 
 distinct states, whose rulers were at variance 
 with one another. In January, 1555, he 
 started from Cabool with 15,000 horse, 
 obtained possession of Lahore, and sub- 
 sequently engaged Secander, who being 
 defeated fled to the mountains near the 
 Himalaya, leaving Humayun to occupy 
 Delhi and Agra. The portion of his original 
 dominions thus at length regained, after 
 sixteen years of strife and banishment, had 
 been enjoyed by Humayun less than six 
 months, when an accident occurred which 
 produced fatal results. The monarch had 
 ascended the terrace at the top of his library 
 to enjoy the cool evening air, and give orders 
 respecting the attendance of astronomers to 
 
 note the rising of Venus, which was to be 
 the signal for the announcement of a general 
 promotion among the nobility and officers. 
 While preparing to descend the steep and 
 highly-polished stairs, protected only by an 
 ornamental parapet a foot high, a muezzin 
 or crier announced the hour of prayer from 
 the minarets of the adjoining mosque, where 
 the people being assembled had just offered 
 the monarch the usual kornesh or saluta- 
 tion. Humayun, intending to repeat the 
 customary formula, attempted to seat him- 
 self on the spot, but his foot becom.ing en- 
 tangled in the folds of his robe, he fell head- 
 long down the steps, receiving a contusion 
 on the right temple, of which he died, aged 
 somewhat less than forty-nine years. 
 
 Historians agree in according him high 
 rank as a benevolent, forgiving, and munifi- 
 cent prince, intrepid in the hour of danger, 
 patient in adversity, moderate in prosper- 
 ity, and skilled in literature, mathematics, 
 geography, astronomy, and the mechanical 
 sciences. These varied gifts, united to a 
 naturally easy temper, pleasing person, and 
 courteous demeanour, rendered his society 
 so delightful that Baber used often to de- 
 clare Humayun to be without an equal as a 
 companion. Procrastination and indecision 
 were his characteristic failings ; these may be 
 easily traced to the frequent and intoxicat- 
 ing use of opium, a vice whose degrading 
 influences were heightened by the peculiar 
 defects of his religious creed. Perhaps no 
 single character, when carefully weighed 
 would afford an inquirer into the effects of 
 Mohammedanism on individuals more strik- 
 ing evidence than that of Humayun. His 
 conduct repeatedly affords evidence of the 
 want of a steady principle of action, direct- 
 ing even the passing thoughts of the mind, 
 and marking with a broad line the differ- 
 ence between right and M'rong. Notwith- 
 standing the false notions of expediency 
 which led him to commit, or at least sanc- 
 tion, crimes from which a naturally gentle 
 and easy disjjosition must have revolted, 
 col. Dow has said that " had he been a 
 worse man he would have been a greater 
 monarch." The remark sounds strangely, 
 but it is to be hoped that young students of 
 history will not forget that all Christendom 
 concurs in invoking the same just, mer- 
 ciful and omnipotent Ruler to give wisdom 
 to senators and prosperity to nations — there- 
 fore any description of greatness, inconsis- 
 tent with the goodness inculcated in the 
 Gospel, ought simply to excite abhorrence
 
 BAHMANI KINGDOM OF THE DECCAN— FOUNDED a.d. 1347. 98 
 
 and reprobation. Most assuredly the man 
 wlio, in !ui uiiiij^litcous cause, has made mo- 
 thers cliihiless, and vidowed hajipy wives, dc- 
 sohited eultivatcd lands and spread famine and 
 pcstilcnee in his train, has attained in the 
 sight of his Creator a prc-cinincncc in crime 
 little in accordance with the idea conmionly 
 attached to the word greatness. Some ray of 
 light, breaking through the dense clouds in 
 which the teaching of tlie False Projjhct had 
 involved the purposes and residts of war, 
 beamed on the mind of Ilumayun, when not 
 many days before his death he prayed, "Lord, 
 ennoble me with the knowledge of thy truth;" 
 and described himself as " sorely aillicted by 
 the perplexities of a troubled mind." The 
 faith of Islam and its innumeral)le obser- 
 vances had thus utterly failed to enlighten 
 or sustain even a follower, so diligent in 
 their observance, that a sentiment of deep 
 reverence had all his life long preserved him 
 from so much as uttering the name of his 
 Creator with unwashcn hands.* 
 
 A new epoch is formed by the reign of 
 Akber, since by liim India was consolidated 
 into one formidable empire, by the absorp- 
 tion of the various small kingdoms which 
 had sprung up during the reign of Moham- 
 med Toghlak, as also by the annexation of 
 numerous Hindoo principalities, which Ak- 
 ber obtained far less by force than by the 
 favours and distinctions which he invariably 
 bestowed on the native rulers so soon as 
 they consented to recognize his supremacy, 
 without regard to their religious opinions. 
 Before proceeding further, the origin and 
 condition of these states must be shown, as 
 the reader may probably need this know- 
 ledge for subsequent reference. 
 
 The Bahmani kingdom of the Deccan was 
 founded by an Afghan, born in the lowest 
 condition at Delhi, and servant to a Brah- 
 min astrologer, named Gungoo, much fa- 
 voured by IMohammed Toghlak. In con- 
 sideration of his good conduct, Gungoo gave 
 Hussun a pair of oxen, and permitted him 
 to till a piece of land for his own sustenance. 
 Wliile ploughing, Hussun discovered a cop- 
 per casket filled with ancient gold coins, 
 which he carried to his master, who, in re- 
 turn, used his utmost influence at court, and 
 
 * Price, from Ahul Fazil, vol. iii., p. 944. 
 
 t The Khoihah is the public prayer for the reign- 
 ing king; Sicca the royal right of stamping coin. 
 
 X By the Caniatic is here meant the country where 
 the Canarese language prevails, south of a line drawn 
 between Colapoor and Beder. It must be remem- 
 bered that this tx-act continued, up to the lime of 
 o 
 
 succeeded in rewarding the lioneslyof Hus- 
 sun by ol)taining for him an a|)pointment 
 and jaghire in tlic Deccan, umkr the gov- 
 ernor of Doulataljad. Some time after- 
 wards, the ollicers of the Deccan, by refusing 
 to surrender some fugitive chiefs from 
 Guzcrat, incurred the displeasure of Mo- 
 hammed Toghlak, and fearing to fall into 
 the hands of this cruel des[)ot, broke into 
 opeii rcljcllion. On the cstidjlishmcnt of 
 their independence Ilussim was chosen as 
 king, A.D. 1.'317, and the capital fixed at Cul- 
 barga, whence it was subsequently removed 
 to Beder or Bidr. Hussun, on assuming 
 the regal honours of the mosque and mint,t 
 took the name of Ala-oo-dcen, adding 
 thereto Gungoo Bahmani (Brahmin), in 
 honour of his early benefactor, whom he 
 sent for and made treasurer ; and the suc- 
 ceeding princes of the Deccan followed this 
 example by generally committing to Brah- 
 mins the charge of the revenues. Notwith- 
 standing the close connection between the 
 first Bahmani king and his Hindoo patron, 
 his son and successor, Mohammed I., proved 
 a sanguinary foe to that people. " It is 
 computed," says Fcrishta, "that in his 
 reigu [of seventeen years] nearly 500,000 
 unbelievers fell by the swords of Islam, by 
 which the population of the Carnatic was so 
 reduced that it did not recover for several 
 ages. "J This destruction was accomplished 
 by indiscriminate slaughter, without regard 
 to sex or age, a proceeding at length stopped 
 by the remonstrances of the Hindoo ambas- 
 sadors, who urged that since the princes of 
 the Deccan and of the Carnatic might long 
 remain neighbours, it was advisable that a 
 treaty shoidd be made, binding both parties 
 to refrain from taking the life of the help- 
 less and unarmed. From this time, it is 
 asserted, that the conquered were no longer 
 slain in cold blood during the hostilities 
 carried on by the Bahmauis against the 
 neighbouring states, and especially the new 
 monarchy of Beejanuggur, throughout the 
 whole period of their existence, excepting the 
 reign of jMahmood Shah I., who, for nearly 
 twenty years (a.d. 1378 to 1397), by rectitude 
 and discretion, preserved his subjects alike 
 from foreign and domestic strife. § Although 
 in these conflicts many thousand Moham- 
 
 the Mohammedan writer to be devastated by almost 
 incessant wars. 
 
 § The proceedings of Mahmood Shah I. occupy but 
 a few pages in Ferishta's history, far less than are 
 often given to the details of a single campaign, but 
 quite enough is said to make the reader solicitous to 
 learn more respecting this tiuly great and gifted mo-
 
 94 
 
 MAHMOOD SHAH I. AND HAFIZ, THE POET OF SHIRAZ. 
 
 medans, in the fantastic and fanatical lan- 
 guage of their historians, " tasted the sher- 
 bet of martyrdom,'^ they were on the whole 
 gainers. In 1421, Ahmed Shall took per- 
 manent possession of Warangol, and com- 
 pelled the rajah of Teliugana to relinquish 
 liis ancient capital. In 1471, Mohammed II. 
 concluded a struggle of more than forty 
 years' duration, in which much life and trea- 
 sure had been wasted, by the partial con- 
 quest of the Concan,* and in 1477 completed 
 the subjugation of Rajahmundry and Masu- 
 lipatara. Notwithstanding these successes, 
 Mohammed was rendered infamous, even in 
 the eyes of his fellovr-believers, by the 
 slaughter of some Brahmins whom he 
 found officiating in an idolatrous temple at 
 Condapilli, and to this ungrateful outrage 
 on the Order, by whom his ancestor had 
 been first brought to notice, was popularly 
 attributed the downfall of the Bahmaui 
 dynasty. Soon after this, the king, while 
 flushed with wine, was induced, by a forged 
 letter, to sanction the immediate execution 
 of his faithful minister, Mahmood Gawan, 
 then in the seventy-eighth year of his age. 
 
 narch. AVe are told that he was " naturally of a 
 disposition wise, merciful, and just, and his judg- 
 ment in all affairs of state was usually correct." 
 • • * " During his reign no disturbances occurred 
 in the kingdom, nor did any relaxation take place in 
 the energy of the government." The praise is coldly 
 given, but in the present day the character of a 
 ruler in whom firmness and mildness were so ad- 
 mirably balanced will be regarded in a very different 
 light to that in v.'hich it was likely to be viewed by 
 a Mohammedan,who regarded the title of Ghiizi (the 
 holy warrior), bestowed _on the blood-thirsty Mo- 
 hammed, as the most desirable of distinctions. In- 
 deed the virtues of Mahmood Shah I. savouied little 
 of the morality of the Koran. He had but one wife, 
 wore plain white robes, and was equally simple and 
 unpi-etending in all his habits. As a youth he is said 
 to have delighted in gaudy attire, but on acceding 
 to the throne he declared that he looked upon kings 
 as only trustees of the state, and thenceforth ob- 
 served in his personal expenses remarkable modera- 
 tion. A famine occurring during his reign, he 
 employed 10,000 bullocks, at his private expense, in 
 going to and from Malwa and Guzerat for grain, 
 which was distributed to the people at a cheap rate. 
 He established orphan schools at the cities of Cul- 
 barga, Bcder, Cand'har, Elikpoor, Uoulalabad, and in 
 several other great towns, with ample foundations 
 for their support, apportioned stijjends to the ex- 
 pounders of the Scrijjlures, and gave monthly charity 
 to the blind throughout his dominions. The fame of 
 liis learning and munificence is said to have reached 
 the ears of Hafiz, the poet of Shiraz, who resolved to 
 visit the IX'ccan. An assurance of an honourable 
 reception was sent by the king, accompanied by a 
 present, which, according to Ferishta, the poet dis- 
 tributed among his relations and creditors, and then 
 J)ut himself on board one of tlie royal vessels whicli 
 ind arrived at Ormus. but the anchor was scarcely 
 
 By so doing, he sealed the fate of his house, 
 whose power was speedily absorbed in the 
 whirlpool of strife raised by the two factions 
 into which the troops had become divided. 
 The first consisted of Mogul converts, to 
 whom were gradually added Persians and 
 Turks, Georgians, Circassians, Calmucks, 
 and other Tartars, who were for the most 
 part of the Sheiah sect ; the second, or native 
 troops, called Deccanies, were Sonnites, and 
 were always joined by the Abyssinian mer- 
 cenaries, who came in numbers by the sea- 
 ports on the western coast. f 
 
 The late minister was a Sonnite, and 
 although just aitd kind to both sects, this 
 circumstance afforded a pretext to Nizam- 
 ul-Moolk Behri, the son of a converted 
 Hindoo, and the leader of the opposite 
 party, for gratifying his ambition. Having 
 succeeded in procuring the death of Gawan, 
 he obtained also his much-coveted office, 
 through the fears of the king, who, on learn- 
 ing the base plot by which he had been de- 
 ceived, openly bewailed his rash credulity, 
 but made no attempt to bring the con- 
 spirators to justice. A low fever, brought 
 
 weighed before a heavy gale arose, and the ship was 
 compelled to return to port. Hafiz had suffered so 
 much during the storm that he insisted on being put 
 ashore, sending to Mahmood Shah a copy of verses, 
 in which he trankly confessed the reason of his 
 change of mind — 
 
 " The glare of gems confused my sight, 
 The ocean's roar I ne'er had heard." 
 
 Unhappily, the line of.Bahmani presents an instance 
 of a monarch exactly opposite to ^lahmood Shah I. 
 Humayun the Cruel was one of those monsters, who 
 seem possessed by a demoniac desire to cause and 
 witness suffering. His own brother he ordered to be 
 devoured by a tiger, before his eyes; and the tor- 
 tures inflicted by his command, and in his presence, 
 were often too shocking to be narrated. On one 
 occasion, after an unsuccessful rebellion, 7,000 per- 
 sons, including unoffending females and servants, ; 
 perished by such agonizing deaths as hewing to 
 pieces with hatchets, and fiaying in cauldrons of 
 scalding oil or boiling water. After reigning three 
 years this tyrant, during a fit of intoxication, was 
 assassinated by his own servants. — Briggs' Ferishia. 
 
 * The sufferings of the Moslems in the Concan 
 are very graphically told by Ferishta, who describes 
 their " wandering tln-ough gloomy defiles, where the 
 very grass was tough and sharp as the I'angs of ser- 
 pents, and the air fetid as the breath of dragons. 
 Beath dwelt in the waters, poison impregnated the 
 breeze." On one occasion, having halted at night, in 
 a spot so rugged as to prevent two tents being pitched 
 side by side, no less than 7,000 of the invaders were 
 surprised and put to death by the Hindoos, the fierce 
 gust* of wind rushing through the trees, preventing 
 the cries of the first sufferers being heard by their 
 companions. — Briggs' Fcriahta, vol. ii., p. 430. 
 
 t The influx of Arabians a])pears to have been very 
 small, but it is difficult to conjecture the reason.
 
 EXTINCTION OP BAHMANI KINGS OF THE DECCAN— a.d. 1549, 95 
 
 on by griof and romorso, was aggravated by 
 intoxication, and ho expired in strong con- 
 vulsions, crying out tliat (iawan was tearing 
 liim to pieces. Tlic date of bis deatli, 
 A.D. 1482, is recorded in tlie Persian cbarac- 
 ters (applied niiraerically) whieli express "the 
 ruiu of the Deecan." Mahniood Sliah II. 
 next ascended the tlironc. IJoing Init twelve 
 years old and of limited al)ility, he naturally 
 became a mere pujjpet in the hands of the 
 grasping uobles, who, though for a time 
 disposed to co-operate for their own advan- 
 tage, soon broke out into new hostilities. 
 Behri, for some years, maintained his as- 
 cendancy over the young king, and Ynsuf 
 Adil Shah, the leader of the foreign party, 
 ■withdrew to his government of Beejapoor, 
 wliicli be formed into an independent 
 state. Behri, when old and defenceless, 
 was strangled at the instigation of the king, 
 who then gave himself up to every species 
 of excess, leaving tlie public afl'airs in the 
 bauds of the leaders of the foreign party. 
 The Deccanies and Abyssinians conspired 
 for bis destruction, and having surprised 
 the palace during one of the ordinary scenes 
 of midnight revelry, would have succeeded 
 in their object, but for the loyalty of some 
 balf-dozea of liis body-guard, who, though 
 unarmed, threw themselves between him 
 and the assassins, and by the sacrifice of 
 their own lives, enabled the king to escape 
 to the terrace of the royal tower, where he 
 was joined by the foreign troops. Mabmood, 
 mounting bis throne at sunrise on the fol- 
 lowing day, gave orders that the bouses of 
 the Deccanies should be broken open, the 
 inhabitants slain without distinction, and 
 their property seized by the triumphant 
 Moguls,* who gladly gave vent to the savage 
 fury which they had nursed for years ; and 
 all the horrors of a successful siege, height- 
 ened by the envenomed bitterness of intes- 
 tine broils, raged for three days through 
 the stately city of Bcder. Strife and cruelty 
 naturally brought licentiousness and dis- 
 order in their train. " The people, follow- 
 ing the example of their prince, attended to 
 nothing but dissipation : reverend sages 
 pawned their very garments at the wine- 
 cellars, and holy teachers, quitting their 
 colleges, retired to taverns and presided 
 over the wine-flask. "t The governors of 
 frostier provinces took advantage of this 
 
 * This term must be here uiulcrstood in the loose 
 sense in wliicli it was tlicn used, as synonymous with 
 the wliole foreign or Slieiah party. 
 
 t Briggs' Ferishta, vol. ii., p. 535. 
 
 state of affairs, each one to claim as bis 
 own the tcri'itories entrusted to iii:i cliarge. 
 Ahmodnuggur, (ir)lfonda and Berar became 
 distinct principabtics, mitil at length there 
 remained to the nominal lung of the Decean 
 no more than the province of Telingaiia and 
 the districts adjacent to Beder. Even there 
 he had no real sway, being wholly in the 
 1 lands of Kasim Barecd, wlio had assumed 
 tlic reins of government after the failure 
 of the Dcccani ])lot, and in revenge for 
 Malimood's attempts to get rid of him, as 
 he had previously done of Behri, by the 
 hand of an assassin, ruled bim so tyranically, 
 as to forbid him " even to satisfy bis thirst, 
 without jiermission." On the death of 
 Kasim, his son. Ameer Bareed,succecded bim 
 in the oilice of Vakeel, J and after regaining 
 the person of the king, who liad in vain 
 endeavoured to assert his rights, confined him 
 closely, until bis death, in 1518, terminated 
 a nominal reign of tbii-ty-seven years. The 
 two years' equally nominal sway of Ahmed, 
 the son and successor of Mahmood, being 
 ended by his decease. Ameer Barecd raised 
 to the throne a prince entitled Ala-oo- 
 dccn II., who, rejecting all allurements to 
 the excesses by which the energies of his 
 predecessors bad been destroyed, attempted 
 to out-mana2uvre the wary minister, but 
 having failed in an attempt to seize his per- 
 son, was himself made prisoner and put to 
 death. His successor, also a sou of Mab- 
 mood Shah II., met with a similar fate ; for 
 Ameer Bareed having conceived a passion 
 for his wife, caused bim to be poisoned, 
 married the queen, and bestowed the empty 
 title of Shah on another Balimani prince, 
 who, having subsequently incurred his dis- 
 pleasure, by making a private and unsueees- 
 ful appeal to Baber, the new emperor of 
 India, then fully engaged in hostilities with 
 the kings of Malwa and Guzerat, was so 
 harshly treated, that, escaping from his 
 palace-prison, he took refuge at Abmed- 
 nuggur, and there resided till his death. 
 Thus ended the Habmani line. Bareed 
 Shah ascended the throne of Beder, and 
 founded a dynasty, which reigned over the 
 fifth of the kingdoms (Beejapoor, Ahmed- 
 nuggur, Golconda, and Berar), formed from 
 that called the Decean, but not with geo- 
 graphical accuracy, since Hindoo states, in- 
 dependent and even antagonistic, existed ia 
 
 i ThcVakoil or llcpresentative was then the first 
 person in the kingdom, liis business being to issue aU 
 orders from the royai closet to the vizier and other 
 executive officers. — (Dovi's Hindoostan, Yol. i.p. 202.)
 
 96 
 
 ADIL SHAPI DYNASTY AT BEEJAPOOR— a.d. 1489. 
 
 various parts of the territory commonly 
 compreliended in that term. During the 
 above period* of two centuries, relations of 
 a domestic character had gradually arisen be- 
 tween the Moslems and Hindoos. Feroze 
 Shahj who began to reign in 1397, made 
 it an article of a peace with the rajah of 
 Leejanuggur, that he should give him his 
 daughter in marriage. This stipulation 
 perhaps contributed to the blending of the 
 two people, though it originated in the 
 ungoverned passions of a king, who re- 
 ceived into his harem 300 females in one 
 day, being convinced, by the reasoning of 
 the Sheiahs, that this proceeding was in 
 perfect accordance with the spirit of the 
 Koran, against whose doctrines his sole 
 offences are said to have been an addiction 
 to wine and music. These foibles would 
 weigh lightly enough in the judgment of a 
 Mussulman against a king who earned the 
 coveted name of Ghazi, by the unbounded 
 zeal for Islam evinced during " four and 
 twenty glorious campaigns, by the success of 
 which he greatly enlarged his dominions." 
 In reality, the religious feelings of both 
 Moslems and Hindoos had deteriorated, and 
 the conscientious scruples of the former 
 people became frequently little better than 
 a superstitious regard to certain forms. 
 
 Thus the very men, who, for the sake 
 of gain, entered the service of the rajah of 
 Beejanuggui', to fight against their fellow- 
 believers, cavilled at the idea of making the 
 obeisance required as a pledge of fealty to 
 an idolater, but gladly availed themselves of 
 the miserable pretext of liaviug a Koran 
 placed before the throne aud bending there- 
 to, it being understood that the rajah would 
 appropriate the homage as offered to his per- 
 son, and in return, assign lands for the sup- 
 port of his new auxiliaries, and build a mos- 
 que at his capital for their encouragement. 
 
 The early Bahmani kings lived in great 
 pomp. Mohammed Shah I. had 3,000 
 elephants, a favourite evidence of regal 
 splendour. t He obtained from the rajah of 
 Telingana a throne six cubits long by two 
 broad, of ebony, covered with plates of pure 
 gold and inlaid with gems, to which ad- 
 ditions were made in successive reigns, until 
 the whole attained the value of a erore of 
 
 * Fcrishta makes some remarkable statements re- 
 spectiii},' the use of artillery in the Deceiiii. For in- 
 stance, he assorts, that in 13'JS, (22 years after tluir 
 alleged employment by ICdward III. at Cvc^sy) ;iOO 
 f;un carrin'jcs were among the spoil captured from the 
 Jtajah of IJeejanuggur; and the Moslems, by the aid 
 of Turks and Kuropeans, are said to have used artil- 
 
 hoons (£4,000,000 sterling), when it was 
 broken up by Mahmood Shah II., who 
 took it to pieces to make vases and goblets. 
 Some terrible famines are recorded at inter- 
 vals, occasioned, according to Ferishta, by 
 the absence of the periodical rains, but 
 more likely I}y the slaughter aud oppressive 
 exactions of the Mohammedans. During 
 one of these visitations, about a.d. 1474, no 
 grain was sown in Telingana, Maharashtra, 
 and throughout the Bahmani dominions for 
 two years, and on the third, scarcely any 
 farmers remained to cultivate the land, 
 having for the most part perished or emi- 
 grated to Malwa and Guzerat. 
 
 Adil Shah dynasty at Beejapoor. — The first 
 king of this line, Yusuf Adil Shah, reigned 
 from A.D. 1489 to 1510. A romantic story 
 is related of his royal descent. He is said to 
 have been a son of the Ottoman emperor 
 Amurath, at whose death he escaped destruc- 
 tion by the contrivance of his mother, wlio 
 had him conveyed to Persia, from whence, 
 at the age of sixteen, he was compelled to 
 fly, by the suspicions entertained regarding 
 his birth, was captured, and sold at the 
 Bahmani court as a Georgian slave. He 
 rose, according to the course of Mameluk 
 adventurers, until he became the governor of 
 Beejapoor, and then, by one of the acts of 
 flagrant disloyalty so common at the period, 
 took the first opportunity of declaring him- 
 self an irresponsible prince. From that time 
 he was occupied in hostilities with Kasim 
 Bareed of Beder, and other neighbouring 
 chiefs, who were also endeavouring to form 
 independent principalities; but his most 
 formidable foe was the Hindoo rajah of Bee- 
 januggur. With the new rulers of Ahmed- 
 uuggur and Berar, Yusuf entered into a 
 sort of partition treaty, by which he recog- 
 nised them in their unlawful seizures, and 
 they him in the possession of the country 
 bouiuled by the Bccuia and Kishna rivers 
 on the cast, the Tumbuddra river on the 
 south, the sea from near Goa to near Bora- 
 bay on the west, aiul perhaps the Nccra 
 river on the north. 
 
 Ibrahim Adil Siiah, the fourth king, a.d. 
 1535, formed an alliance with Bhoj Tirmul, 
 (who had obtained the throne of Beejanuggur 
 by the nuirdcr of its young occupant, his 
 
 lery for the first time in the following campaign. 
 There can be little doubt that guns were common in 
 India before the arrival of the I'ortuguese in Hi)8. 
 t The king in return signed a treaty pledging his 
 successors to forbear further encroachment on the 
 territory of the Telingana rajahs, which, as might bo 
 expected, did not prevent its entire seizure.
 
 EXTINCTION OF HINDOO MONARCHY OP BEEJANUGGUR— a.d. 1565. 97 
 
 own nopliow), against IlivmaRajali, the rcpfcnt 
 and biotlicr-iu-lavv of tlio lato sovereign. 
 Ibraliim sent an army to the assistance of 
 Bhoj Tirmul, who, in return, paid (k)wn 
 fifty hicks of liobns* (£2,000,000 sterling), 
 and promised to aeknowh'dgc liiinsclf tribu- 
 tary. No sooner had the foreign troops 
 quitted Becjapoor, than Rama Rajah, Ijreak- 
 ing, it is alk'gc'd, a promise of aUegiance 
 which had hecn extorted from him, surprised 
 tlic city. Bhoj Tirmui, mad with rage and 
 despair, shut himself up in the palaec, 
 blinded all the royal clcpliants and horses, 
 collected together, in one glittering heap, 
 the diamonds, rubies, emeralds, pearls, and 
 other gems, amassed during many ages, and 
 caused them to be crushed to powder be- 
 tween mill-stones ; then, fixing a sword-blade 
 into a pillar of his apartment, rushed upon 
 it just as the jialace- gates \vcre opened to 
 his enemies. Rama Rajah became the un- 
 disputed master of Bccjanuggur, and Ibra- 
 him, after having received from his prede- 
 cessor so large a bribe to take the field 
 against him, now stooped to the humiliation 
 of soliciting, with a costly present, the aid 
 of Rama against a brave chief, Scif Eiu- 
 ool-Moolk, driven into rebellion by his own 
 suspicious tyratmy. The required assistance 
 was sent midcr the guidance of Vcnkatadri, 
 the Rajah's brother. Ibrahim died soon 
 after, of a complication of disorders brought 
 on by the most abandoned conduct, having 
 first caused several physicians to be be- 
 headed or trodden to death by elephants 
 for failing to cure him, upon which the rest 
 fled for their lives, leaving him to pci'ish 
 unheeded. His successor, Ali,t entered 
 into a new alliance with Rama Rajah, and 
 the two monarchs having, at the request of 
 the former, united their forces, jointly in- 
 vaded the territory of Nizam Shah, and, 
 says Fcrishta, " laid it waste so thoroughly, 
 that from Purenda to Jooncre, and from 
 Ahmednuggur to Douhuabad, not a vestige 
 of population was left." Ali at length be- 
 came " scandalised by the behaviour of his 
 Hindoo allies," and alarmed at the growing 
 strength and haughtiness of Rama; there- 
 fore, after receiving the full benefit of his 
 power, while continuing every outward 
 
 • The honn varies in value from 3j to 4 rupees — • 
 eight sliiliings sterling may be taken as the average. 
 
 \ This monarch (whose death by the hand of a 
 eunuch shamefully insulted by him, has rendered his 
 name infamous) greatly improved the capital by con- 
 structing the city wall and the aqueducts which stili 
 convey water through every street. Mention is 
 made of his receiving tribute from several petty 
 
 mark of fri(nidship, he made a secret league 
 with his late enemy, Nizam Shah, and with 
 the kings of Beder and Goleonda, " to crush 
 the common enemy of Islam." A decisive 
 battle took place on the Kishna, near Tali- 
 cot, the Hindoos commencing the attack by 
 vast flights of rockets and rapid discharges 
 of artillery. A general engagement fol- 
 lowed, in which, after great numbers had 
 been slain on both sides, the Moslems were 
 victorious, aided by the treachery of two 
 Mohammedan chiefs in the pay of the rajah. 
 Rama, although seventy years of age, gave 
 orders from his elephant throughout, but 
 was at last captured, and brought into the 
 presence of Nizam Shah, by whose orders 
 liis head was struck ofl" and stuck upon a 
 pole. It is no small proof, either of the 
 barbarity of the conquerors or the dread 
 which tlieir victim must have inspired, that 
 the head of the brave old man should have 
 been annually exhibited at Ahmednuggur 
 for more than two centuries and a half, 
 covered with oil and red pigment, by the 
 descendants of his executioners, while a sculp- 
 tured representation of it was made to serve 
 as the opening of one of the sewers of 
 the citadel of Beejapoor. 
 
 Thus ended the monarchy of Bccjanuggur, 
 which at that time comprehended the greater 
 part of the south of India. The city of that 
 name was destroyed, and is now uninhabited; 
 the country fell into the hands of the tri- 
 butary chiefs and officers, since so ' well 
 known as zemindars or poligars; but the 
 confederate kings were prevented by their 
 mutual jealousies from gaining any great 
 addition of territory, the balance of power 
 being pretty evenly maintained among them, 
 until all were overwhelmed by Akber. Veu- 
 katadri, the brother of the late rajah, re- 
 moved his residence further cast, and finally 
 settled at Chandragiri, seventy miles north- 
 west of j\Iadras, at which last place his 
 descendant first granted a settlement to the 
 English, A.D. IGIO. The wars between the 
 Adil Shah dynastj' and the Portuguese set- 
 tlers are very slightly mentioned by the 
 native historians; they state little more than 
 that Goa was lost under Yusuf, retaken by 
 that king, lost again under his son Ismael 
 
 principalities, the government of which was heredi- 
 tarily vested in females, who ruled with the title of 
 Ranies, their husbands having no power in the state. 
 Colonel Briggs remarks upon this statement of Fe- 
 rishta, that " the gynecocracy of the Ranies of Mala- 
 bar and C'anara socms to have suffered no alteration 
 from the period alluded to, to the present day." — Note 
 to Fcrishta, vol. iii. p. HO.
 
 98 NIZAM SHAH DYNASTY AT AHMEDNUGGUR— POUNDED a.d. 1490, 
 
 (alluding to tlie second capture by Albu- 
 querquCj iu 1510), and attacked simulta- 
 neously -with Choul, in 1570, by the kings 
 of Beejapoor and Abmeduuggur, who were 
 both repulsed. 
 
 The reigns of the early Beejapoor kings 
 were marked by fierce sectarian strife, for 
 Yusuf had imbibed in Persia a strong at- 
 tachment to the Sheiah doctrines and cere- 
 monial, which he endeavom-ed to introduce 
 in his dominions, but was compelled to re- 
 nounce the attempt by the displeasure of 
 his subjects and the combination formed 
 against him by all the other Mohammedan 
 sovereigns. The same division prevailed 
 among the troops as that pre\'iously de- 
 scribed as existing under the Bahmaui 
 dynasty, and according to the opinion of 
 the king or his chief ministers, the Dec- 
 canies (including Hindoos), or the foreigners, 
 were uppermost. After the extinction of 
 their native rulers, the Hindoos formed the 
 chief part of the infantry of most of the 
 Moslem governments, and appear to have 
 been well paid* and entirely relied upon. 
 Yusuf is said to have given a command of 
 12,000 infantry to a Mahratta chief,t and 
 Ismael raised " a vast number" of Mahratta 
 cavalry, under the name of Bergies, who, 
 for an annual subsidy, engaged to appear 
 fully equipped whenever their services were 
 required. Ibrahim, the fovirth king, caused 
 the public accounts to be kept in the Mah- 
 ratta language instead of the Persian, a very 
 politic and almost necessary measure, since 
 the village accountants and the revenue and 
 finance oSicers were for the most part Hin- 
 doos. Ibrahim II., who acceded to the throne 
 of Beejapoor, a.d. 1579, was cotemporary 
 with Akber, and will be again mentioned. 
 
 Nizam Shah dynasty at Ahmedtmgyur. — 
 Ahmed, the first of these kings, began to 
 reign a.d. 1490, having, as before stated, 
 on the assassination of his father, Nizam-ool- 
 IMoolk Behri, assumed the title of Shah, and 
 made Ahmednuggur his capital. Not only 
 tolerance, but great favour was shown to the 
 Hindoos by this monarch and his successor, 
 Boorlian, who appointed a Brahmin, named 
 Kawar Scin, Pcslnva or prime minister, and 
 had every reason to rejoice in the selection. 
 
 * Briggs gives a table (vol. ii. p. 504) Rhowing 
 how much more liberally Indian lroo])S v-tre ]>aid by 
 Mohanimetlan sovereigns in HVOthanby the Krilish 
 in 1828 (the date at wliich he wrote). 
 
 t Duff's Uistnry (if the Muhr<Utas,so\. i. p. 81 , 
 X The chivalious Hajpoot probably intended to 
 waive the perlornianoe oi' this gallinj^ act, for when 
 Hussun entered his teiit, he rose and took liim by 
 
 In. fact, these kings appear to have been 
 proud of their Brahminical descent, and 
 frequent wars took place between them and 
 the Berar sovereigns, for the possession of 
 the village of Patree, situate just within the 
 Berar territory, where the ancestors of the 
 Nizam Shah family had held the office of 
 coolcurny or hereditary village accountant. 
 It was, however, by the orders of Hussun, 
 the third king of this dynasty, that Rama 
 Rajah was beheaded, iu revenge for the 
 humiliations previously suffered from his 
 brave foe, to whom he had been compelled to 
 sue for peace, by paying the Hindoo a visit, 
 and receiving a pan (aromatic leaf) from 
 his hand, which, thus given, implies the 
 superiority of the donor, and is equivalent 
 to the English custom of kissing hands ; but, 
 when presented in a silver or gold box, 
 or on a salvei'. denotes equality. J Hussun 
 died shortly after, from the consequences 
 of vmbounded dissipation. His successor, 
 Murtczza, appears to have become insane, 
 and growing suspicious of his son, Meeran 
 Hussun, the heir apparent, endeavoured to 
 destroy him, by setting fire to the couch on 
 which he lay sleeping. Meeran escaped, suc- 
 cessfully rebelled, and seized the person of 
 liis father, who, although ill of a mortal 
 disease, he confined in a bath-room, and 
 suffocated with hot air. Eerishta, who was 
 at the time on guard at the palace, relates 
 this horrible tale, adding, as the reason of his 
 life being spared during the general massacre 
 of the few who remained faithful to the king, 
 '■ the Prince fortunately knew me, and re- 
 flecting that we had been school-fellows, and 
 brought up together, ordered my life to 
 be spared. "§ Meeran Hussun retained the 
 throne less than a year, but during that period 
 he inflicted great misery, frequently riding 
 through the streets in fits of intoxication, ac- 
 companied by a partj"^ of abandoned courtiers, 
 and putting to death persons guilty of no 
 crime. Fifteen princesof the royal family were 
 massacred in oite day, in order to establish 
 an authority obtained by parricide, at the 
 instigation of the vizier, Mirza Khan, who, 
 at length terrified by the menaces of the 
 king during his drunken revels, deposed and 
 slew him. A speedy retribution attended 
 
 the hand, but the insolent Mussulman called for a 
 basin and ewer as if polluted by the touch of ]{ama, 
 who exclaimed in his own laufjuaije, " If he were not 
 my guost, I would cut off his hands and hang them 
 round liis neck." After this interview the rajah and 
 las' troops arc accused of treating their Mohamme- 
 dan foes and even friends with great indignity. 
 § Briggs' Ferishta vol. iii. p. 269.
 
 CHAND BEEBY, HEROINE OF AHMfeDNUGGUR, MURDERED, a.d. 1599. 99 
 
 this wretcli, for in the stru^slc wiiich en- 
 sued Ijctwcoii the Dccciinics and the Moguls, 
 he was hewn to pieees hy tlic fbrnicr, 
 and his liniljs affixed on diU'ereiit puldic 
 buiidinp;s. In the space of seven days, 
 nearly 1,000 foreigners were slain, and tiu'ir 
 eflfects confiscated ; some few escaped with 
 their lives, through the protection of Deccani 
 or Abyssinian olliccrs, and these, among 
 whom was li'erishta, for the most part, ob- 
 tained service under the king of Bcejapoor. 
 The remaining reigns of this line present 
 no very striking features, excepting the gal- 
 lant struggles made by Chand Beeby {thu 
 Lady Chand) as regent on behalf of her 
 infant nejihcw, after the death of lier 
 bix)ther, Ibrahim, slain in battle with the 
 king of Bcejapoor. An attempt was made 
 to seize the throne in the name of a boy 
 called Ahmed, under a shallow pretence of his 
 being a son of the late king. Chand Beeby 
 evinced equal valour and discretion during 
 this trying period,* and her efforts were 
 temporarily successful. Ahmed, the young 
 pretender, was confessed to be not lineally 
 descended from the royal family, and was 
 provided with an estate by Ibrahim Adil 
 Shah, at Bcejapoor, while Bahadur was pro- 
 claimed king, his aunt continuing regent 
 until the siege of Ahmednuggur by the son 
 of Akber. Then, hopeless of offering a suc- 
 cessful defence, in consequence of the fac- 
 tions which divided the troops, she called a 
 council of war, and proposed to negotiate, on 
 favourable terms, the evacuation of the fort. 
 The ungrateful Deccanies, to whom her sug- 
 gestion had been purposely misrepresented 
 by an intriguing eunuch, rushed into her 
 apartments and put her to death. The place 
 was shortly after taken by storm, and little 
 or no quarter given. The unfortunate king 
 was sent to Akber, who confined him in the 
 fortress of Gwalior, a.d. 1591), but was pre- 
 vented from gaining possession of his do- 
 minions by the determination of an Abys- 
 sinian officer, Malek Amber, (who founded 
 the city afterwards called Auruugabad,) to 
 
 • On one occasion when closely besieged, after 
 having succeeded in destroying two out of iive mines 
 carried under the bastions at -Vhmednuggur, by her- 
 self labouring all night at tlie head of the garrison, 
 a third was sprung at day-break, which killed many 
 of the counter-miners, and threw down several yards 
 of the waH. The principal orticcrs concluding ail 
 now lost, prepared for flight, but Chand Beeby, clad 
 in armour, with a veil on her face and a naked sword 
 in her hand rushed to defend the breach, and while 
 the Mogul storming-party waited the explosion of 
 the other mines, found time to bring guns to bear 
 
 retain the sovereignty on behalf of his ncwly- 
 elcetcd nominal muster , and the Adil Shah 
 dynasty was not extinguished until the time 
 of .lehangccr. At its greatest extent the king- 
 dom of Ahmednuggur comprehended all that 
 is now called the Subah of Aurungabad, and 
 the west of that of Bcrar, with a portion of 
 the sea-coast of the Concan. It must have 
 been a formidable power, for it appears that 
 in one campaign ujjwards of (500 of its guns 
 were seized by the rival state of Bcejapoor, 
 including the cannon still preserved at the 
 latter place, and famous as one of the 
 largest pieces of brass ordnance in the 
 world. t Duelling (an infrequent crime 
 in Asia) was introduced in the reign of 
 Ahmed, who, being himself an expert swords- 
 man, encouraged the assemblage of young 
 men at the palace for the purpose of dis- 
 playing their skill, till at length a day sel- 
 dom passed without one or two persons 
 being killed. The king then endeavoured 
 to discourage the practice, but it spread far 
 and wide among the ^lohammcdans of the 
 Dcccan. Even learned divines and philoso- 
 phers shared the infatuation, and Ferishta 
 records an instance which lie witnessed in 
 the streets of Bcejapoor, of a dispute 
 arising regarding some trifling matter, and 
 terminating in a few minutes in the death 
 or mortal injury of six persons of high 
 standing, of whom five were grey-headed 
 men. The spread of this destructive and 
 contagious vice was, of course, fostered by 
 the rancorous sectarian-spirit between the 
 Sonnites and Sheiahs — the native and fo- 
 reign factions. 
 
 The Kootb Shah dynasty at Golr.onda was 
 founded, about A.n. 1512, by a Turcoman 
 soldier, named Kooli Kootb, who came from 
 llamadan, in Persia, in quest of military 
 service, entered the guards of the Bahmani 
 king, was promoted, and, on the dissolution 
 of the monarchy, held sway over Telin- 
 gana, which he retained, making Golconda 
 his capital. He was a zealous Sheiah, and 
 introduced this profession into his dominions. 
 
 upon it, so that on the enemy's advance they were re- 
 ceived with repeated volleys, until, when compelled to 
 renounce the attack by the darkness of night, " the 
 ditch WMS nearly filled with dead carcases." Daring 
 the succeeding hours Chand Beeby (on whom the 
 name of Chand Sultana was now bestowed) super- 
 intended unceasingly the repairs of the breach, wliich 
 by the morning's dawn was built up to the height oi 
 seven or eight feet. At length, reinforcsmentsbeing 
 on their way, the siege was raised. ■ 
 
 t Weighs 40 tons, is 4 ft. 8 in. in diameter at the 
 muzzle, and only 15 ft. long. Calibre, 2 ft. 4 in.
 
 100 KOOTB SHAH DYNASTY AT GOLCOND A— ESTABLISHED a.d. 1512. 
 
 At the close of a long reign he left a terri- 
 toiy extending from the Godavery river to 
 beyond that of the Kishna, and from tlie 
 sea (Bay of Bengal) to a line drawn west of 
 Hyderabad, about 78° E. long. The chief 
 part of his dominions were wrested from the 
 Warangol family, and other Hindoo chiefs 
 of Teliugaua, over whom, together with the 
 Rajah of Orissa, he gained a great victory at 
 Condapilli. . 
 
 It has been stated in a previous page, on 
 the authority of Ferishta, that the Bahmani 
 line abided by the oath of Mohammed 
 Shah I., not to slay prisoners or the un- 
 armed in cold blood, but if this dynasty 
 really redeemed its pledge, the rulers of 
 the subsequent Deccani kingdoms reverted 
 to the barbarities which tlieir predecessors 
 had abjured, and were far more treacherous 
 and sanguinary. Tims Sultan Kooli Kootb 
 Shahhaving repeatedly, but in vain, attempted 
 to storm the strong hill-fort of Nulgonda, 
 at length sent a flag of truce to the com- 
 mandant, liajah Hari Chandra, promising 
 to withdraw the troops if lie would consent 
 to become tributary to Golcouda, but threat- 
 ening, in the event of refusal, to procure 
 reinforcements, destroy the neighbouring 
 towns, devastate the country, and thus 
 reduce the place by cutting off its supplies, 
 in which case he would not spare the life 
 even of an infant in the garrison. Tiie 
 Rajah having consented, the king.remarked 
 that as Nulgonda was the only hill-fort 
 which had successfully resisted him, he 
 should like to see it, and therefore desired 
 to be allowed to enter with a few attendants. 
 The request being granted, Kooli, having 
 instructed his body-guard, (whom, to disarm 
 suspicion, he had left in the town below,) 
 how to act ascended the hill with four 
 chosen soldiers in complete armour. On 
 entering the gate-way he drew his sword 
 and cut down one sentinel, while his com- 
 panions, attacking the others, held posses- 
 sion until tlieir comrades came rushing to 
 tlieir assistance, and the whole army soon 
 poured into the fortt-css. " Neither man, 
 woman, or child was spared on this occa- 
 sion. The Rajah, on being made prisoner, 
 was confined in an iron cage, and eventually 
 put to death." Such are the words in which 
 the Mohammedan historian concludes the 
 account of this abominable transaction.* 
 
 * Se", Brigejs' Appendix to Ilislory of Kings of 
 Oolcondn, translated from the Persian of a contem- 
 porary of Ferishla's, vol iii. p. 3"1. f Idem, p. 431. 
 
 1 1'lip Hindoos still call it Bhaguuggur. 
 
 The author of it was eventually the victim 
 of domestic treachery, being assassinated in 
 his ninetieth year, a.d. 154.3, at the insti- 
 gation of his sou, Jamsheed, who, hav- 
 ing put out the eyes of his elder brother, 
 the heir apparent, ascended the throne. 
 Wars were carried on with their Moslem 
 rivals in a spii'it less perfidious perhaps, but 
 scarcely less ferocious. Thus it is recorded 
 that Ibrahim Kootb Shah, when at war 
 with All Adil Shah, detached a force of 
 4,000 horse and 10,000 foot to make nightly 
 attacks on the enemy. " The Munewar 
 infantry were eminently successful in all 
 directions, and at all hours, bringing nightlj^ 
 betv.'eeu 300 and 400 noses and ears from 
 the enemy's lines; and they received for 
 each nose a boon, and for each car a purtab 
 [star pagoda.] ]\Ieanwhile, the king, by 
 whose orders these atrocities were being 
 committed, " had ordered pavilions to be 
 pitched on the bastions [of Golcouda], and 
 adorned them with rich brocades and silks 
 from China, and with velvets of European 
 manufacture, giving himself up to the grati- 
 fication of listening to the enchanting 
 vocal and instrumental music of heart-al- 
 luring damsels and fairy-faced virgins."t 
 Truly it is as reasonable to expect the shrill 
 cry of human suflering to pierce " the dull 
 cold ear of death," as to touch a heart turned 
 into stone by sensuality. 
 
 Mohammed Kooli, the fifth of the Kootb 
 Shah kings, began to reign a.d. 1580. He 
 removed the seat of government to a neigh- 
 bouring site, where he built a magnificent 
 city called Bhagnuggur, J in honour of Bhag- 
 muttee, his favourite mistress, a public 
 singer, for whom 1,000 cavalry were assigned 
 as an escort. After her death the name was 
 changed to Hyderabad. In this reign fierce 
 struggles took place between the Deccanies 
 and the Moguls, as the foreigners of what- 
 ever denomination came to be called. The 
 disorderly conduct of some of the latter 
 caused tlie issuing of a proclamation com- 
 manding all aliens, whether Patans, Per- 
 sians, Arabs, Tartars or others, who had no 
 fixed employment, to quit Hyderabad. The 
 Deccanies construing this order into a per- 
 mission to plunder their old foes at pleasure, 
 deserted their occupations and hastened to 
 rifle the warehouses of the wcalthymerchants, 
 of whom many were killed in defending 
 their property. The riots grew to an alarm- 
 ing height, but the king was sleeping, and 
 none of the servants dared disturb the royal 
 slumbers, until one of the ministers had
 
 INDEPENDENT STATES OP BERAR, BEDER, AND GTJZERAT. 101 
 
 tlic coiira<?(; to hi'ciik opon tlin door, and liav- 
 ing with f:;rcat dilliculty aroused tlio inonarcli, 
 bade liiiii observe from tlic palacc-wiiidowa 
 tlie state of the city. The measures ailopted 
 were in tlie true spirit of oriental dcs])otism. 
 The cutwal (eliicf magistrate) thrnui^li wliosc 
 rc])reseiitations the seutcnec; of banislimeut 
 liad been procured, was directed to put an 
 immediate stop to the disturljanecs, on peril 
 of beiuf^ trodden to dcatli by elephants. 
 Many of the rioters were executed, " and by 
 way of satisfying tlie minds of the people, 
 several minor police-officers, who liad been 
 most active, were beheaded or hanired, or 
 flayed alive, while others were maimed by 
 the loss of limbs, and exhibited throui^h the 
 city in this mutilated state as examples."* 
 
 The Imad Shah dynasty of Berar was 
 founded about 1481, by the descendant of a 
 Hindoo of Canara, captured when a child, 
 and educated as a IMussuluian, by the gover- 
 nor of Berar. This small kingdom extended 
 from the Injadri hills to the Godavcry, and 
 bordered Ahmcdnuggur and Candcish on 
 the west. Very little is known of its his- 
 tory, except from its wars with neighbouring 
 states. Boorhan, the fourth and last of his 
 line, ascended the throne while yet a child, 
 about the year 15G0. Tlie regent, Tufal 
 Khan, imprisoned the young king and 
 seized the crown, relying upon the protec- 
 tion of Murtezza Nizam Shah of Ahmcd- 
 nuggur, who, false to both parties, having 
 obtained possession of Boorhan and his 
 rebellious minister, caused them to be put 
 to death, and annexed Berar to his own 
 dominions, a.d. 1573. 
 
 The Barced Shah Dynasty at Beder, com- 
 menced in 1198. The territories of these 
 kings were small and ill-defined, and the 
 period of their extinction uncertain. Ameer 
 II. was reigning in 1609, when Ferishta 
 closed that part of liis history. Having 
 thus shown the fate of the five ^Mohammedan 
 principalities formed from tlic ruins of the 
 Bahmani kingdom, it becomes necessary to 
 sketch the leading characteristics of the other 
 states which succeeded in establishing their 
 independence of Delhi during the feeble 
 reign of ^Mahmood Toglilak, of which the 
 chief were Guzerat, ^lalwa and Candeish. 
 
 The kings of Guzerat ruled the territory 
 still called by this name; bounded on the 
 north and north-east by a hilly tract con- 
 necting the Aravulli mountains with the 
 Vindya chain, and on the south by the sea, 
 which nearly surrounds a part of it, forming 
 * Briggs' Ferishta, vol. iii., p. 47S. 
 P 
 
 a peninsula then termed Siirashtra, now 
 Katiwar. The founder of the dynasty was 
 Mozufler, the son of a Rajpoot, wlio liad 
 embraced Islamism, and become conspi- 
 cuous for his enmity to all who still held tiic 
 creed which he had renounced. The king 
 of Delhi having been informed that the 
 existing governor of Guzerat was endea- 
 vouring to establish himself as an indepen- 
 dent ruler by gaining the affections of the 
 Hindoos, sent Mozuffcr Khan to supersede 
 him ; which, after some opposition on the 
 part of the Hindoos, he succeeded in doing, 
 and l)y the permission of the Delhi monarch 
 assumed the white umbrella or canopy, and 
 the scarlet pavilion, considered as exclusive 
 appurtenances of royalty. When he took the 
 title of Shah docs not appear, but his reign 
 really commenced with his government, 
 A.D. 1391. At first his sway extended over 
 only a portion of the fertile [)huii, about sixty 
 miles in depth, which stretches along the 
 sea. On the north-west were the indepen- 
 dent rajahs of Jhalor and Sirohi, from 
 whom he occasionally levied tribute, as also 
 from the llajpoot prince of Idur, in the 
 western part of the hills, while the rugged 
 forest tracts were generally rctaine(l by 
 the mountain tribes of Bliecls and Coolies ; 
 among whom some Rajpoot chiefs, mostly 
 connected with 3Icwa)', had also founded 
 petty principalities. The peninsula was in 
 the hands of nine or ten Hindoo tribes, who 
 probably paid tribute so long as a power 
 existed capable of its enforcement. All the.se 
 small states preserved their existence under 
 the kings of Guzerat, the ]\[ognl emperors, 
 aud during many j-ears of British ascen- 
 dancy. Of the plain which formed the Guze- 
 rat kingdom at the accession of Mozufter, the 
 eastern portion belonged to an independent 
 rajah, who resided in the hill-fort of Cham- 
 paneer, and their dominions stretched along 
 the sea to the south-east, so as to include 
 the city of Surat, and some further country 
 in the same direction. 
 
 It would occupy space which could be ill- 
 spared to narrate in detail the varying for- 
 tunes of this dynasty in their wars with 
 jMalwa, their Hindoo neighbours, and the 
 Rajpoot kingdom of iMewar, from the acces- 
 sion of ]\rozutlcr I. to that of the puppet 
 set up by a faction under the title of Mo- 
 zufter III., in A.D. loiJI, when the kingdom 
 was partitioned among the conspirators. 
 One striking characteristic in their incessant 
 strife with the Hindoos, was the cruel bigotry 
 which marked their conduct, far exceed-
 
 102 MOSLEM KINGS OF GUZERAT— WARS WITH THE HINDOOS. 
 
 ing tliat displayed by the Delhi usurpers. 
 It may be perhaps that the proceedings of 
 the latter sovereigns are purposely placed 
 in the least unfavour.able light, but this 
 scarcely accounts for the difference, since, 
 in both cases, the annals are furnished solely 
 by Mohammedan pens. Ferishta, although his 
 history bears internal evidence of the honesty 
 and ability of the writer, was yet compelled 
 to depend in great measure on the compila- 
 tions of his fellow-believers ; and his igno- 
 rance of the language of the Hindoos would 
 greatly hinder his obtaining information 
 from whatever records they might possess, 
 even if the inveterate prejudices of his creed 
 had not taught him to shun with contempt 
 and aversion the thought of gaining infor- 
 mation from so defiled a source. 
 
 In 1402 the port of Din was seized by 
 Mozuffer I. from the Rajah of Idur, who 
 had been driven from his capital, and forced 
 to take refuge tliere. We are told that " it 
 opened its gates without offering any resis- 
 tance. The garrison was, however, nearly 
 all cut to pieces, while the Ray, with the 
 rest of the members of the court, were trod 
 to death by elephants." The next king, 
 Ahmed Shah, a.d. 1412, though a zealous 
 
 • Bird's Gujarat, p. 191. 
 
 t Signifying, in tlie Guzerat language, two forts. 
 
 X According to Ferishta nearly 1,900 years had 
 elapsed since this fortress had come into tlie pos- 
 session of the rajali, who lield it when Mahmood 
 first marched against it in 1469 ; and wliose title, 
 Mandulik, here used by Ferishta for the first time, 
 implies petty chieftain, a term originally applied to 
 officers of some greater state, but often retained by 
 rulers who had acquired or inherited an independent 
 sway. A body of Kajpoots occupying an important 
 defile were surprised by Mahmood. The troo])s tlien 
 passed on unopposed, till on reaching the foot of the 
 hill they were met by the rajah, who, being defeated 
 and severely wounded, sooner than sustain a siege 
 purchased a cessation of hostilities by the payment 
 of a large amount in jewels ami in .specie. In the 
 following year, " the king, who only wanted some 
 excuse to invade Girnar a second time, urged as a 
 complaint against the rajah, his habit of assuming 
 the ensigns of royalty." On this ])lca, in itself a gross 
 insult to the high-born Hindoo, forty thousand horse 
 were sent to exact from him a heavy fine, which 
 having obtained, Mahmood distributed in one night, 
 amongst a set of female dancers ; and at the latter 
 end of the same year appeared in person before 
 Girnar. "The rajah declared his willingness to pay 
 any sum of money he could produce, to protect his 
 subjects from the oppression and horrors of war." 
 Mahmood would enter into no terms, but sat down 
 before the place, starved the garrison into sub- 
 jection, and succeeded in acquiring possession. The 
 expelled rajali, it is said, from conviction, but more 
 probably to save his life, embraced IsUiniism, a faith 
 against which the covetousness and fraud practisctl 
 towards him by its professors were sufficient to liave 
 
 Mussulman very diligent in destroying 
 temples and building mosqaes, yet showed 
 more favour to the natives than his prede- 
 cessor had done, and Hindoo names appear 
 among those of the government officers 
 and nobility — an innov.ation which had 
 long been opposed. Ahmed built the forti- 
 fied town of Ahmednuggur, as a check on 
 the Rajah of Idur (the successor of the 
 prince slain by Mozuffer), and founded 
 Ahmedabad, thenceforth his capital, and 
 still one of the principal cities in India. 
 This king introduced the practice of paying 
 the soldiers one-half in money, and the 
 other by a grant of land, with a view of 
 inducing them to take an interest in the 
 cultivation and protection of the province.* 
 Mahmood Shah I. reigned for fifty-two years 
 (1459 to loll), and warred alike with 
 Moslems and with the Indian and European 
 idolaters, the latter term being used to 
 designate the Portuguese. He obtained the 
 surname of Begarra,t by the reduction of 
 Girnar or JunagharJ and of Champaneer — ■ 
 two hill-forts, situated the one on the west, 
 and the other on the east, of his dominions, 
 and both until that time deemed impreg- 
 nable. § His maritime exploits were re- 
 inspired a deep-rooted prejudice. — (Briggs' J^ens/jto, 
 vol. iv. p. 00.) 
 
 § Champaneer was not captured till 1483. The 
 rajah, Beni Ray, sent ambassadors cfi'erirg two ele- 
 phant-loads of gold to procure the departure of 
 .Mahmood, who had arrived at the head of a power- 
 ful force; but, finding all endeavours at conciliation 
 useless, he sallied forth, and after many attempts 
 succeeded in compelling the invader to raise the 
 siege, and then led his troops to attack him. In the 
 sanguinary battle which followed, the fiower of the 
 Hindoo force was slain, but a coinpact body of 
 12,000 men retreated in order to the fort. Jlahmood 
 continued to construct trenches and mines, and 
 caused a mosque to be built in the lines, in order to 
 convince his troops of his determination not to be 
 wearied out by the prolonged defence, but no de- 
 cided advantage was gained until it was discovered 
 that the Kajpoots left the place every morning 
 through a sally-port to ])erlbrni their ablutions. 
 Watching their opportunity, a chosen band waited 
 close to the walls at day-break, and succeeded in 
 rushing into the place, while another party, under 
 Malek F.iaz, (the famous admiral who engaged the 
 Portuguese Heet, off Choul,) escaladed the western 
 wall, where a breach had been newly made, and got 
 possession of the main gate. The Kajpoots finding 
 the king rejected all terms of surrender, burned their 
 wives and children on a funeral pile, together with 
 their costliest efiects, and then, having bathed, 
 perished on the swords of their cruel foes, who like- 
 wise suffered severely. Beni Kay and his prime 
 minister, crippled by wounds, were captured, and 
 brought into the presence of Mahmood, who, on 
 asking the former why he had held out so long 
 against an overwhelming force, was reminded of the
 
 MAIIMOOD BEGARRA OF GTJZERAT— BAHADUR SHAH. 
 
 103 
 
 markablc. He took tlio islands of Jegat and 
 Beet, tlicii, as now, ncsts of pirates ; dos- 
 patchcd a soa and land force against IJombay ; 
 and sent a large fleet of vessels, mounting 
 guns, under Eiaz, to co-operate with the 
 twelve ships equipped by the Manieluk 
 Sultan of I'^gypt, for the purpose of attacking 
 the Portuguese squadron in the harbour of 
 Choul, south of Bombay. , In the first action 
 the combined forces were successful, but 
 were subsequently defeated near Diu, and 
 the Manieluk portion annihilated. Fleets 
 were, however, still despatched by the 
 INFameluks to the Indian seas, and the 
 Turks, after their conquest of Egypt, con- 
 tinued the practice, with a view to ojjcn the 
 navigation of the Red Sea and the Persian 
 Gulf, but apparently without entertaining 
 any idea of forming settlements in India. 
 
 Mahmood Begarra attained an unenviable 
 European celebrity by the luarvellous ac- 
 counts of travellers, wiio described his per- 
 sonal appearance as terrific; and declared his 
 system to have been so impregnated with the 
 mortal poisons, on which he habitually fed, 
 that although he had by some means or 
 other contrived to neutralize their effect on 
 his own vital powers, he had only, after 
 chewing betel, to breathe upon any courtier 
 who had offended him, aiul death infallil)ly 
 ensued. If a lly settled on him, it instantly 
 dropped lifeless.* 
 
 Bahadur Shah, a. d. 1526, (before men- 
 tioned as the opponent of Humayun,) with 
 the aid of Rana Rattan Sing, made war 
 upon ]\Iahmood, king of Malwa, who had 
 intrigued against them both. Mahmood 
 was captured and put to death, and Malwa 
 
 hereditary right by which the territory had been 
 held, and tlie long line of noble ancestors through 
 which his name with lionour had descended. Tliis 
 fearless reply for the moment raised a feeling of ad- 
 miration in the selfish victor, and he ordered Beni 
 Ray and his faithful companion to be treated with 
 respect and attention. On recovering from their 
 wounds, they botli persisted in refusing to abjure 
 tlieir religion, and were therefore confined scparatelv, 
 and treated harshly, which, as might have been fore- 
 seen, only served to coniirm their previous determi- 
 nation. "At length the king, at the instigation of 
 some holy men about his person, ordered them to be 
 put to death." — (Hriggs' Ferishta, vol. iv., p. 70.) 
 
 * Bartcma and ISurbosa (Uamusio, vol. i., pp. 
 117 — 296.) Mahmood Hegarra is the original of 
 Butler's Prince of Cambaij, whose — 
 
 " ■ ■ daily food 
 
 Is asp, and basilisk and toad." 
 
 t The king feared to storm the fort, knowing that 
 in the seraglio were many Mohammedan females, 
 who would, in the event of his success, be burnt 
 
 aime.xed to Guzerat. Raiseen, a strong hill- 
 fort, Bliilsa and other places in the west of 
 Malwa together with Oojein, remained in 
 tlie possession of Silhuddi; a Rajpoot who 
 had risen under IMahmood to power, but 
 whose son, Bopat Bai, was in the service of 
 Bahadur, by whose invitation Silhuddi came 
 to visit the royal camp. Tie was treacher- 
 ously seized, aiul Oojein taken by surprise. 
 Raiseen held out under his brother Lokmun, 
 but was at length reduced, both Silhuddi 
 and Lokmun being slain at its capture. f 
 
 In his dealings with the Portuguese, Ba- 
 hadur was less fortunate. Having entered 
 into negotiations witii them for their aid, 
 and among other things conceded in return 
 permission for the erection of a factory at 
 Surat, he found them surrounding the 
 building with a wall and, in effect, render- 
 ing it a strong fortification. This seems to 
 have first roused suspicions, and treachery is 
 alleged to have been meditated by both 
 l)arties. The result has been already stated, 
 J'lahadur perished in an afi'ray which arose 
 ou his visiting the ship where Nuno de 
 Cunha, the Portuguese viceroy, had allured 
 him on the plea of sickness, a.d. 1537. J 
 
 The fort of Surat is said l)y Ferishta to 
 have been completed during the reign of 
 Mahmood III. (1538 to 1553), but the Per- 
 sian characters inserted over the old gate — 
 " Against the bosom and lives, the ambition 
 and rapacity of tiie Portuguese, be this fabric an 
 effectual bulwark," when numerically viewed, 
 give ISoO as the date of its erection. § This 
 king was assassinated by his chaplain, named 
 Boorhan, whose revenge he had excited, by 
 sentencing him, for some offence not re- 
 alive with their llajpoot companions, for whom, of 
 course, as infidels, no compassion could possibly be 
 entertained. Silhuddi consented to abjure his creed, 
 and M'as sent to escort the females of his family from 
 the fort, but on arriving there, his wife (the d.vjghter 
 of Rana Sanga) bitterly reproached him and hia 
 brother for their conduct, and, setting fire to a pile 
 with which she had caused the apartments of the 
 fi'males to be surrounded, sprang into the flames, 
 and all, to the number of 700, perished. Silhuddi 
 and Lokmun, with a hundred of their blood-relations, 
 rushed out, and met death on the Moslem swords. 
 
 X One account of this transaction has been given 
 at p. 85. I have since read the Portuguese and 
 Mussulman statements, collated by General Briggs 
 {Ferishta, vol. iv., p. 132). in which each party 
 endeavours to throw the blame ujjon the other, but j 
 there is little difference in the leading facts of tJie 
 case, except that Bahadur, after jumping, into the ' 
 sea, is asserted to have been first stunned by a blow 
 with an oar, and then dispatched with a halbert. 
 
 § Price would place it six years earlier. — Jlnko- 
 medan History, vol. iii., p. 726.
 
 104 
 
 KINGS OF MALWA— A.D. 1401 to 1513. 
 
 corded, to be built up in a mud wall with 
 his head exposed, and left to starve. Life 
 was nearly extinct when Mahmood passed 
 the spot, and noticing the attempt of the 
 wretched captive to bend his head in saluta- 
 tion, inspired with compassion, had him 
 released and attended by the royal phy- 
 sician until he recovered. But soon after 
 this Boorhau again fell into disgrace, and, 
 fearing, pei'liaps, to be rc-immured, or stimu- 
 lated by ambition to attempt to seize the 
 throne, persuaded his nephew, Dowlut, to 
 take the opportunity afforded by his office 
 of fumigating the long hair of the king, to 
 assassinate him while he slept. This being 
 done, Boorhan, by the aid of a corps called, 
 from their qualification for enlistment, " the 
 tiger-killers," succeeded in destroying seve- 
 ral of the leading nobility by sending for them 
 separately, but was at length, when intoxi- 
 cated with success, slain by the vengeful 
 swords of the survivors. A supposititious 
 child* was next set up by a party under the 
 name of Ahmed II., but assassinated a.d. 
 15G1. The last and merely nominal king 
 abdicated in favour of Akber, a.d. 1572. 
 
 Kings of Mahva. — This state became iu- 
 dependent in 1101, under Dilawur Ghori, 
 whose successor founded the capital, Mandu, 
 on a rich table-land, thirty-seven miles in 
 circumference. Wars with IMohammedan 
 kingdoms, especially the neighbouring one 
 of Guzerat, with the Hindoo rajahs of Chit- 
 tore or Mewar, and several minor principali- 
 ties, together with the usual instances of 
 treachery and intrigue in the court and 
 camp, and besotted sensuality in the harem, 
 form the staple of the history of this dynasty. 
 Mohammed Ghori, the third king, was poi- 
 soned at the instigation of his minister and 
 brother-in-law, who ascended the throne in 
 1435, by the name of Sultan Mahmood 
 Khilji. lie reigned thirty-sis years, of 
 which scarcely one was suffered to pass 
 without a campaign, " so that his tent be- 
 came his home, and his resting-place the 
 field of battle. "t A famous fort in Kum- 
 ulnere was taken by storm after a severe 
 struggle, and its defenders compelled to 
 chew the calcined parts of a large marble 
 idol,:j: representing, according to Ferishta, a 
 ram (? a bull), as they were in the habit of 
 doing ehunam or lime between betel leaves, 
 
 • Muhmood left no lineal heir ; fearing to risk the 
 chance of rebellious cliiltlren, of wliich fre([iieiit in- 
 staiicea occur in Moliamnicdan liistory, he avoided 
 the commission of infanticide by the perpetration of 
 a yet more heinous crime. 
 
 that they might be said to have eaten their 
 gods. Many Rajpoots were slain, probably 
 in consequence of their refusal to obey this 
 command of their imperious conqueror. 
 Some years after, IMahraood received a sig- 
 nal defeat from Koorabho Sing, the rajah of 
 Chittore, who erected, in commemoratiou of 
 his vietorj', a superb column, still in ex- 
 istence, which Tod states to have cost nearly 
 a million sterling. § Mahmood unsuccess- 
 fully besieged Delhi and Bedcr. His in- 
 ternal administration would seem to have 
 been more gentle than could have been ex- 
 pected, for we are told that his subjects, 
 Hindoos as well as Moslems, " were happy, 
 and maintained a friendly intercourse with 
 one another." He took vigorous measures 
 for the suppression of robbery, and further 
 promoted the safety of travellers, and indeed 
 of the people generally, by obliging the 
 STOveruors of the different districts to send 
 out parties for the destruction of wild beasts, 
 proclaiming that if after a period of two 
 years a human being should be seized by 
 them, he would hold the governor responsi- 
 ble. For many years after his death wild 
 beasts were scarce throughout the kingdom. 
 Now the vicinity of the once famous city of 
 Mandu, overgrown by forest trees, has again 
 become the favourite haunt of tigers, who, 
 in some instances, within the memory of the 
 present generation, have been known to carry 
 off troopers riding in the ranks of their 
 regiments. The next king, Gheias-oo-deen 
 Khilji, A.D. 1482, was only remarkable for 
 the extent of his seraglio, which contained 
 15,000 women, including 500 Turki females 
 who stood clad in men's clothes, with bows 
 and arrows, on his right hand; while 500 
 Abyssinian females kept guard with fire-arms 
 on his left. He reigned thirty-three years, 
 and became at last idiotic ; his two sons 
 meanwhile quarrelled about the succession, 
 tmtil the elder gaining the ascendancy slew 
 the younger with all his family, and having, 
 it is alleged, accelerated his father's death 
 by poison, mounted the vacant throtie a.d. 
 1500. This wretch died of a fever brought 
 on by his own excesses, having first driven 
 his sons into rebellion by suspicious and ty- 
 rannical conduct. One of these, Mahmood 
 Khilji II., established himself on the throne, 
 A.D. 1512, mainly through the assistance 
 
 t Ferishta, vol. iv., p. 234. 
 
 % The temple was lilled with wood, and being set 
 on fire, cohl water was thrown on the images, causing 
 them to break. 
 
 § Annals of Jlajasfhan, vol. ii., p. 7G2.
 
 MAHMOOD II. LAST KING OF MALWA, KILLED a.d. 1531— CANDEISII. 105 
 
 of Mcdni Riiy, a llaj[)oot cliief, :vli() joincil 
 liim at thu coinincnccmcat of the stru'';'le 
 witli a coi>si(lerablo body of his tril)c, and 
 whose zealous and alilc services rendered 
 liini so popidar with tlic king, as to excite 
 the hatred and jealousy of the Mussulmans, 
 ('onspiracics were formed, and after rc[)eatcd 
 failures Mulnnood was at Icngtli insj)ircd 
 with sufficient distrust to consent to dis- 
 charj^c all the llajpoots liolding odiees at 
 court, excepting only the obnoxious minister, 
 and to declare that no Hindoo could be 
 permitted to retain Moliammedan females 
 in his seraglio. Mcdni llay pleaded ear- 
 nestly the tried services of his countrymen, 
 but the weak and ungrateful king, though 
 soothed for the time, was subsequently in- 
 duced to sanction an attcm])t on the part of 
 his Moslem body-guard of 200 men to way- 
 lay and murder ]\Icdui Ray, and a brave 
 Rajpoot oilicer, called Salivahan, who had 
 evinced much anger at the late unjust and 
 humiliating proceedings. The latter was 
 slain; the former, though covered with 
 wounds, escaped to his own house, while a 
 body of Rajpoots rushed to the palace, but 
 being repulsed by the king in person, re- 
 turned to the house of the minister, and 
 entreated him to be their head. Mcdni 
 Ray refused, persuaded them to disperse 
 peaceably, ajul sent word to the king that if 
 he thought his life necessary to the good of 
 the state, he was ready to lose it, sooner 
 than lead an army against his acknowledged 
 sovereign. Mahmood was little affected by 
 a degree of magnanimity quite beyond his 
 comprehension, and fearing some treachery 
 similar to that of which he had given the 
 example, fled by night from the fort of 
 ^[andu, accompanied by his favourite mis- 
 tress and the master of the horse, and did 
 not draw rein till he reached the frontier of 
 Guzcrat. Though frequently at war with 
 one another, the i\Ioslcm intruders were 
 always read}' to coalesce against a Hindoo 
 foe ; the king of Guzerat, therefore, sup- 
 ported ]\Ialimood, and accompanied him at 
 the head of a large army to ]\Iandu, which 
 was taken by assault after a close siege of 
 several months, and 19,000 Rajpoots slain. 
 Medni Ray was, however, not among them, 
 having previously joined liana Sanga at 
 
 • General Briggs here takes occasion to note tlie 
 contrast between the generosity usually evinced by 
 the Hindoos to the Moslems, and " tlie sordid, cruel, 
 and bigotted conduct of the latter. It seldom hap- 
 pened that a Hindoo prince, taken in battle, was not 
 instantly beheaded ; and life was never spared but 
 nith the sacrifice of a daughter delivered up to a 
 
 Cliittorc, from whence he retired to Chan- 
 dcri, of which place he was probably here- 
 ditary chief. Mahmood proceeded thither, 
 and found that Rana Sanga had previously 
 marched with his whole force to the support 
 of jNIcdni Ray. In the conflict which ensued, 
 ]\Iahmood was defeated, and after evincing, 
 in an extraordinary manner, the physical 
 daring that invarialjly distinguished him iu 
 battle, contrasting strangely with his exces- 
 sive moral cowardice in time of peace, was 
 unhorsed and taken prisoner, weltering ia 
 liis blood. Rana Sanga caused him to be 
 brought to his own tent, dressed his wounds, 
 attended on him personally, and, after his 
 recovery, sent him back to IMandu with an 
 escort of 1,000 horse* This chivalrous 
 proceeding was returned by the most glar- 
 ing ingratitude, for its object did not scruple 
 to take advantage of the confusion which 
 ensued on the death of his benefactor, to 
 attack his son. Rattan Sing, the new ruler 
 of Chittore. Rattan Sing ajiplicd for aid to 
 Bahadur Shah, of Guzerat, who had also had 
 reason to complain of the selfish rapacity of 
 the king of Malwa. Mahmood, unable to 
 withstand their combination, was defeated 
 in his capital and captured by Bahadur 
 Shah, who caused him to be coniincd in the 
 fortress of Champanccr, where he was put 
 to death, with his seven sons, and Malwa 
 annexed to Guzerat, a.d. 1531. 
 
 Khans of Cnndeish. — This small princi- 
 pality, separated by forests from Guzerat, 
 comprised merely the lower part of the 
 valley of the Taptee, the upper being in- 
 cluded in Berar. Its first ruler, jNIalek 
 Rajah, tclaimed descent from the Caliph 
 Omar, and died a.d. 1390. His son, IMalek 
 Naseer, received from the king of Guzerat 
 the title of khan, and founded the city of 
 Boorhanpoor, near the strong hill-fort of 
 Aseer,J which he had obtained by treachery 
 from its rightful occupant, a Hindoo, of 
 peaceable disposition, from whom he liad 
 received many personal favours. He gained 
 possession by the same artifice used in the 
 capture of Rohtas, viz., by entreating the 
 unsuspecting chief to receive and shelter 
 the inmates of his harem during a war in. 
 which he pretended to be about engaging, 
 and then introducing soldiers iu the doolies 
 
 sort of honourable prostitution, or by the pajTnentof 
 vast sums of money and jewels." — (Vol. iv., p. 264.) 
 
 t Why he was named R,-ijah does not appear. 
 
 % This hill-fort, like many others in India, seems 
 to bear witness to the pastoral pursuits of its early 
 possessor, Aseer being considered to be a cc>':ruption 
 of Asa .\hcer, or Asa the cow-herd. — {Idem, p. 286.)
 
 106 RAJPOOT STATES, MEWAR, MARWAR, BIKANEER, JESSULMER, &c. 
 
 01' palanquins, who sprang out and mur- 
 dered Asa, with his whole family. 
 
 Numerous stone embankments for irriga- 
 tion and other works now in ruins and 
 buried in woods, indicate that Candeish 
 mnst have once attained a high state of 
 prosperity, but many of these are probably 
 referrible to the previous period of Hiadoo 
 independence. Aseer or Aseerghur was 
 taken by Akber, and Candeish re-annexed 
 to Delhi in 1599. 
 
 The Rajpoot States. — Of these a very 
 cursory notice must suffice, because our 
 present information concerning them, al- 
 though voluminous,* is too fragmentary to 
 afford materials for the condensed chrono- 
 logical summary which can be framed with 
 comparative ease and satisfaction from the 
 more precise statements of Mohammedan 
 writers respecting their own kingdoms. At 
 the time of the invasion of Mahmood of 
 Ghuznee, the Rajpoots were in possession of 
 all the governments of India, nor did they 
 resign their power without long and fierce 
 struggles ; indeed some have never been 
 entirely subjugated, but up to the present 
 time hold the position of feudatory chiefs 
 (see pp. 7, 8). The table-land in the centre 
 of Hindoostan, and the sandy tract stretch- 
 ing west from it to the Indus, formed the 
 nucleus of Rajpoot independence; and the 
 more broken and inaccessible tiie country, 
 the better was it suited for the partly feudal, 
 partly clannish, mode of government and 
 warfare, adopted by its sons, from whom, 
 though subsidies might be exacted, and 
 forts captured by the Delhi monarchy during 
 strong and aggressive reigns, tribute would 
 be refused and positions regained the first 
 opportunity. Thus Rintumbor, Gwalior, and 
 Calinjei-, were constantly changing hands ; 
 while Ajmeer and Malwa were early captured 
 and easily retained, from tlieir situation on the 
 open part of the table-land, terminating in a 
 slope of broken ground towards the Jumna. 
 At the time of the accession of Akber 
 the chief Rajpoot state was that of Mewar, 
 held by the descendant of the brave Rana 
 Sanga of Oudipoor, whose family and tribe 
 are said to have been descended from Rama, 
 and consequently to have derived their 
 origin from Oudc, whence they removed to 
 Guzerat, and ultimately settled at Chittorc, 
 al)0ut the eighth century of our era. There 
 they maintained themselves, notwithstand- 
 ing the accessible nature of the country — a 
 
 • Vide the late Colonel Tod's extensive and valu- 
 able work on liajast'han. 
 
 sure retreat being ever, in case of defeat, 
 afforded by the Aravulli mountains and the 
 hills and forests connected with them, which 
 form the northern boundary of Guzerat. 
 Marwar, the next state in importance, was 
 possessed by that portion of the Rahtores, 
 who at the taking of Canouj, a.d. 1194., had 
 quitted the neigbourhood of the Ganges, 
 and, under two grandsons of their last king, 
 established themselves in the desert in- 
 termingled with fertile tracts, between the 
 table-land and the Indus. They soon be- 
 came paramount over the old inhabitants of 
 the race of Jats, and over some small Raj- 
 poot tribes who had preceded them as 
 colonists ; and farmed an extensive and 
 powerful principality. A younger branch of 
 the Canouj family founded the separate state 
 of Bikaneer, on another part of the same 
 desert, a.d. 1459, while the western portion 
 was occupied by the Bhattees, under the rajah 
 of Jessulmer. The rajalis of Amber or Jey~ 
 poor were ancient feudatories of Ajmeer, 
 and probably remained in submission to the 
 Mohammedans after the conquest of that 
 kingdom. The rajahs of the tribe of Hara, 
 who give their name to Haraiiti, were, in 
 some sort, feudatories of the ranas of 
 Oudipoor, and shortly before the accession 
 of Akber, captured the famous fort of Rin- j 
 tumbor from the governor, who had held it 
 for the Afghan kings. There were besides 
 several petty states, such as the Chouhans 
 of Parker, the Sodras of Amercot and 
 others, situated in the extreme west of the 
 desert, bejond the reach of Mussulman in- 
 vaders ; and those of Sirohi, J/ialor, &e., 
 which, lying in the fertile tract beneath the 
 Aravulli mountains, and on one road from 
 Ajmeer to Guzerat, were liable to constant 
 exactions. On the eastern slope of the 
 table-land, Merut, Gwalior, Narioar, Panna, 
 Oorcha, Chuitderi, and other places in Bun- 
 delcund, were mostly held by old Rajpoot 
 families, tributary to Delhi at the time of the 
 death of Humayun. 
 
 Bengal was separated from Delhi, a.d. 
 1338, by the exertions of a soldier, who, 
 having risen from the ranks, at length slew 
 his master (the governor appointed by Mo- 
 hammed Toghlak), and proclaimed himself 
 au inde|)cudeut sovereign, l)ut was in less 
 than tlnee years displaced by another 
 usurper as ambitious as himself, who, within 
 two years more, was in turn assassinated. 
 Frequent changes of dynasty, with few im- 
 portant events, occupy the remaining period 
 to the accession of the last king, Daood 
 
 ■KAJ
 
 ACCESSION OP AKBER— A.n. 1556. 
 
 107 
 
 (Dnvid), in ir»73; amoiijj llio most intorcst- 
 iuf? is tlio f()r<'i!)!o occnjjiitioii of lliu tliroiin 
 by llajiih Kaiis, a Hindoo zcmindarj* whose 
 son and successor voluntarily embraced the 
 Moliammedan I'aitli, declaring, however, his 
 willin;;ncss to withdraw his ijrctcnsions in 
 I'avour of iiis brother, if the chiefs desired it. 
 At one time liengal seems to have conipre- 
 liendcd North liehar. It included Sunder- 
 gong (Dacca). Jugnuggur (Tiijperah) was 
 tributary ; Assam occasionally plundered. 
 Cuttack and the adjoining parts were cap- 
 tured just before the extinction of the state. 
 Bengal was then, as now, remarkable for 
 the luxury of its inhabitants, whose wealthy 
 citizens vied with one another in their dis- 
 play of gold plate. Sheer Shah conquered 
 Bengal in 1539 : after liis death it was 
 seized by the Afghan successors of the gov- 
 ernor appointed from Delhi. 
 
 Juanpuor stretched along the Ganges 
 from Canouj, on the north-west, to the 
 frontier between Bengal and Soutli Behar 
 on tiie south-east. Khaja Jchan, the vizier 
 at the time of Mahmood Toghlak's acces- 
 sion, occvipicd this government during the 
 king's minority, and proclaimed its inde- 
 pendence, A. D. 1394, which he and his suc- 
 cessors maintained until its re-anncxation 
 to Delhi, in 1476. It "was again separated 
 after the death of Sheer Shab, and eventually 
 conquered by Akbcr early in his reign. 
 
 Siiide. — Little is known of the history of 
 this principality beyond that vihich has been 
 already incidentally mentioned (p. 58). The 
 ruling Rajpoot family appear to have become 
 converts to Islam about 13G5. They were 
 displaced by the Arghoons, who held it at 
 the period at which we have now arrived. 
 
 Moullan revolted during the confusion 
 ■wliieli followed the invasion of Timur, and 
 was ruled by an Afghan dynasty named 
 Langa, until the early part of the sixteenth 
 century, when the Arghoons of Sinde gained 
 possession ; but were, in their turn, expelled 
 by Prince Kamrau, and Moultan was thence- 
 forth attached to Delhi. The other pro- 
 vinces which had become independent at 
 the same time (with the exception of the 
 Punjaub, to which Secander Soor maintained 
 his claim), were all in the hands of adherents 
 of the Afghan government. The petty states 
 under the Himalaya Mountains, from Casli- 
 
 * This term was oi'iginally applied to the heredi- 
 tary Hindoo chiefs who had become more or less 
 subject to Moslem rule — it was sometimes extended 
 by the proud invaders to independent princes, like 
 those of Oudipoor and Joudpoor, whom they affected 
 to treat as subordinate to their government ; but it 
 
 mere inclusive, to the Bay of Bengal, were 
 independent under sovereigns of their own; 
 there were besides many mountain and 
 forest tribes throughout India whose almost 
 inaccessible retreats had preserved them 
 from subjugation to the Moslem yokc.f 
 
 Rciyn of Al;ber. — When the death of 
 Ilumayuu took place, Akbcr was absent 
 in the Punjaub M'itli Behram Khan, and 
 the fear of attempts being made to seize 
 the throne before the heir apparent could 
 have time to repair to the metropolis, in- 
 duced such of the ministers as were on the 
 spot, to conceal the fatal event from the 
 public, by causing one of the ^Mullahs, or 
 religious attendants of the court, to imper- 
 sonate the deceased monarch, and receive 
 from that part of the palace which over- 
 looked the river Jumna, the salutations of 
 the populace. At length, however, the truth 
 transpired, but the consternation which en- 
 sued was temporarily calmed by the exer- 
 tions of the nobles, one of whom read the 
 Kliotbah in the name of Akbcr — a )n'oceed- 
 ing equivalent to proclaiming him king. 
 
 Akber was little more than thirteen years 
 of age, and by his own desire, as well as iu 
 accordance with the wishes of his best ad- 
 visers, Behram Khan continued to hold 
 the same position to his now crowned pupil 
 as that in which Ilumayuu had previously 
 placed him — being dignified with the appel- 
 lation of Khan Baba (the king's father), and 
 invested with irresponsible sway. It was a 
 critical epoch for the House of Timur. Se- 
 veral eager competitors watched an oppor- 
 tunity to snatch the sceptre from the youtliful 
 descendant of the foreign usurper, but in 
 vain, for the stern and skilful soldier who 
 had helped the father to regain it remained 
 to guard it for the son, and that son had 
 repeatedly evinced a degree of discretion 
 beyond bis years, and was learning to curb 
 his own daring spirit and passion for glory, 
 and to take large and statesmanlike views 
 of the duties of civil government, which 
 made some amends for his rapacity as a 
 conqueror, and enabled him to consolidate 
 by policy what he won by the sword. 
 
 The first contest for supremacy was waged 
 with Hemu, who headed an army in the 
 name of Sultan Adili, for the double pur- 
 is only in comparatively modern times that it has 
 been used to denote persons holding assignments of 
 the government revenue, as well as district and vil- 
 lage oflicirs. 
 
 t Elphinstone, vol. ii. pp. 166 — 251; Price's Mo- 
 hammeduu Ilistory, vol. iii., p. 847.
 
 lOS 
 
 BATTLE OF PANIPUT AND DEATH OF HEMU— a.d. 155G. 
 
 pose of expelling the Moguls and reducing 
 Secander Soor, who, though driven to take 
 refuge in the viciuitj' of the northern moun- 
 tains, still maintained his pretensions to be 
 king of Delhi and the Punjaub, in which 
 latter place Akber and Behram Khan re- 
 mained after their late victory, occupied in 
 arranging the new government. ]\Iean- 
 vrhile, Hemu, having captured both Delhi 
 and Agra, prepared to march to Lahore, 
 where the tidings of his successes and ap- 
 proach created so much alarm that the 
 general opinion in the camp was in favour 
 of a retreat to Cabool, but Behram Khan's 
 determination prevailed over more timid 
 counsels, and the rival forces met at Pani- 
 put, where, after a desperate battle, the 
 Mogvds triumphed. The elephants, on 
 whose number Hemu placed great depend- 
 ence, became ungovernable and threw their 
 own ranks into confusion, but Hemu, from 
 his howdah, at the head of 4,000 horse, 
 continued the action, until an arrow pierced 
 his eye, and he sank back for the moment 
 in extreme agony. His troops believing 
 the wound mortal, gave way, but raising 
 himself again, and plucking out the barbed 
 weapon, together with the eye itself, Hemu 
 endeavoured to force a path through the 
 enemy's i-anks, but was captured through the 
 treachery of his elephant-driver, and brought 
 before Akber, who was desired by Behram 
 Khan to slay the infidel and thus earn the 
 title of Ghazi.* Akber so far complied as 
 to touch with his sword the head of his 
 brave and almost expiring foe, and then 
 burst into tears, upon which Behram Khan, 
 in whose stern breast no sentiment akin to 
 llajpoot chivalry ever found place, drew his 
 own sabre and beheaded him with a stroke. 
 With Hemu, Adili lost all liope of recover- 
 ing his dominions, but he continued to reign 
 
 * This epithet, variously translated as " Holy "War- 
 rior," "Champion of the Faith," or "Victorious in a 
 ]£oly War," is one of those expressions which can 
 scarcely be faithfully rendered in another tongue to 
 readers iin])erfectly acquainted witli the circum- 
 stances of its origin and use. From it arose the 
 •word Gazette — first employed to designate the official 
 announcement in eastern Kurope of victory, in what 
 the combatants called religious warfare; but since 
 applied to governmental publications of all kinds. 
 With regard to translations of Persian, Sanscrit or 
 other terms, and their orthogra])hy, I would again 
 deprecate the criticism of oriental scholars, and plead 
 the difficulty of presenting them, with any chance of 
 correct pronunciation, without adopting a system of 
 accentuation, wliich might possibly deter readers 
 of the very class, whose .sympatliies I am most de- 
 firous of enlisting, the young and tlie unlearned. 
 I have followed Tod, Dow, and others in avoiding 
 
 some time longer until he ^as killed in a 
 battle with a new pretender in Bengal. 
 Akber took possession of Delhi and Agra; 
 succeeded in effecting the pacification of the 
 Punjaub ; acquired Ajmeer without a battle ; 
 and early in the fourth year of his reign 
 had driven the Afghans out of Lucknow 
 and the country on tlie Ganges as far east 
 as Juanpoor. Notwithstanding these tri- 
 umphs, the happiness of the victor was em- 
 bittered by the harsh and arbitrary conduct 
 of the Khaii Baba, who attempted to en- 
 force in a luxurious and refined court the 
 same rigid discipline by which he had main- 
 tained subordination in an army of adven- 
 turers. The nobles were offended by his 
 haughty and distrustful conduct, and even 
 Akber had grave reasons for considering 
 himself treated in a manner, which his 
 position as king, together with his deep 
 and lively interest in all state affairs, ren- 
 dered unwarrantable. Thus, Behram took 
 advantage of Akber's absence on a hawk- 
 ing party, to put to death Tardi Beg, an 
 old noble, who had been one of Baber's 
 favourite companions, had accompanied 
 Plumayun in all his wanderings, and had 
 first read the Khotbah in the name of his 
 successor. The ostensible reason,t was the 
 hasty evacuation of Delhi, where Tardi Beg 
 was governor, before the troops of Hemu ; 
 an oftence that in the eyes of the warlike 
 and inflexible minister, would have fully 
 justified the sentence, which he might 
 have desired to spare his young sovereign 
 the pain of pronouncing. However this 
 may have been, Behram is accusedj of hav- 
 ing, on subsequent occasions, behaved very 
 tyrannically to all who seemed inclined to 
 seek power and influence, except through 
 the channel of his fitvour. One nobleman 
 of high standing, having incurred his dis- 
 
 the wearisome repetition of the long titles assumed 
 by Mohammedan sovereigns, by occasionally giving, 
 in the event of oft-recumng mention, only tlie first 
 word, thus — Ala-oo-deen (glory of the faith) is some- 
 times adverted to as Ala only. An able and kindly 
 critic, lieutenant-general Briggs, has pointed out the 
 erroneous impression this practice may produce ; 
 and it therefore seems hest to state at once the de- 
 sire for brevity by which it was prompted. 
 
 t Jealousjfof his influence was the supposed cause. 
 
 I Tlie chief authority on this portion, and indeed 
 regariling nearly the whole of Akber's reign, is 
 Abul Fiizil, whose evident unfairness and prejudice 
 in all matters involving the character of his royal 
 master, (to whose revision all his writings were sub- 
 ject), renders it difficult to form a satisfactory judg- 
 ment of the circumstances wliich led to the rupture 
 between Akber and Behram Khan, and the disgrace 
 and death of tlie latter.
 
 13EIIRAM KHAN ASSASSINATED.— MALWA CONQUERED— a.d. 15G0. J 09 
 
 pleasure, was put to dcatli on some slight 
 charge, and Pcir Mohammed Khau, the 
 king's private tutor, to whom he was much 
 attached, narrowly cscapeil the same fate. 
 Ak!)cr, hcf'ore he was eighteen, resolved to 
 reign without control, and having concerted 
 a plan with those about luui, took occasion, 
 when on a hunting jiarty, to make an un- 
 expected journey to Delhi, whence he issued 
 a proclamation, forbidding obedience to any 
 orders not sanctioned by his authority. 
 IJehram scut two envoys of distinction, with 
 assurances of subuussion, but Akbcr refused 
 to sec tliem, and ordered their imprison- 
 ment. After this, the disgraced minister 
 seems to have had some intention of attempt- 
 ing to establish an independent principality 
 in Malwa, but subsequently set oil' for Gu- 
 zcrat with the professed object of embarking 
 from thence for Mecca. As he lingered 
 long, a formal notice of dismissal arrived from 
 Agra, commanding him to proceed on his 
 pilgrimage forthwith. Having resigned his 
 standards, kettle-drums, and other ensigns 
 of authority, Behram continued his route in 
 a private character, until, irritated by some 
 further proceedings of Akber, he changed 
 his mind, and attempted an invasion of the 
 Punjaub. There, as elsewhere, the people 
 were disposed to rally round the young 
 king; Behram was defeated, and eventually 
 driven to a surrender. Akber received him 
 with much kindness, seated him on his 
 right hand, and offered him the alternatives 
 of an important government, a high position 
 at court, or an honourable dismissal to 
 Mecca. This last proposition seems to 
 indicate that the foregoing ones were 
 merely complimentary, and Behram pro- 
 bably so understood them, since he chose 
 the pilgrimage, for which he had previously 
 
 • Amon<^ those was Asuf Khan, an olTicer who oh- 
 tained ])L'rnussion IVom .\kbfr, A.D. lj(i.3, to invade 
 a .small independent kingdom called Gurra Mundela, 
 then under the government of a regent or queen-mother 
 named Durgavati, equally celebrated for her beauty 
 and good sense. On the approach of the Moham- 
 medans she led her forces in person against them 
 mounted on an elephant, but after a sharp contest 
 being disabled by an arrow-wound in the eye, her 
 troops disheartened, gave w.ay, upon which, fear- 
 ing to fall into the hands of the victors, she snatched 
 a dagger from the girdle of the elephant-driver and 
 stabbed herself. The chief place was then taken by 
 storm, and the infant rajah trodden to death in the 
 confusion. One thousand elei)hants, 100 jars of gold 
 coins, numerous jewels, and images of gold and 
 silver were seized by Asuf Khan, who sent to Akber 
 only a very small portion of the spoil, and then went 
 Into rebellion, but was afterwards compelled to sue 
 for pardon. The whole transaction was aggression, 
 Q 
 
 evinced little inclination, and proceeded to 
 Guzcrat, where, while preparing for em- 
 barkation, he was assassinated (a.d. 1501), 
 by an Afghan, whose father he liad killed 
 in battle during the reign of lliunayun. 
 
 Akber, now left to his own resources, 
 soon found that other oflicers were likely to 
 prove less overbearing ])erhaps than his old 
 governor, but more inclined to take advan- 
 tage of his youth for their ownadvanccmcnt.^ 
 Always abundantly self-reliant, he checked 
 such attempts with a firm hand. Adam 
 Khan, an Uzbek odicer, having defeated 
 Baz ]5ahadur,t the Afghan ruler of jNIahva, 
 showed some disposition to retain the pro- 
 vince for himself, upon which Akbcr marched 
 immediately to the camp, and conferred the 
 government on his old tutor, Peir ilohain- 
 med Khan, whose conduct in this position, 
 went far to vindicate the previotis harshness 
 displayed towards him by Behram. After 
 massacring the inhabitants of two cities, of 
 which he had obtained possession, he was at 
 length defeated and drowned. Baz Bahadur 
 recovered INIalwa, of which he was again 
 deprived by the victorious !Mogul, whose 
 service he subsequently entej'cd. 
 
 The successive steps of Akber's career 
 can only be briefly sketched. The seven years 
 following the disgrace of Behram were 
 mainly cmploj'cd in a severe struggle with 
 the military aristocracy, and in repelling 
 the pretensions advanced on behalf of the 
 young prince Hakim, who, although an in- 
 fant at the time of his father, Humaytui's 
 death, had been left in the nominal govern- 
 ment of Cabool ; but, being expelled thenec 
 by his relation, Mirza Soliman, of Badak- 
 sliau, attempted to invade the Punjaub, 
 but was driven out (1566), and subsequently 
 returned to Cabool, of which country he 
 
 robbery, and murder from first to last, and the guilt 
 rests as much on the head of Akber, who sanctioned 
 tlie crime and shared the booty, as upon Asuf Khan, 
 the actual ptrjjetrator. (liriggs'i-'em/iid.vol. ii.p. 128.) 
 t The Hindoo mistress of Baz Bahadur, cele- 
 brated equally for her beauty and poetic talent, fell 
 into the hands of Adam Khan, and unable to strive 
 against his importunity and threatened violence, ap- 
 pointed an hour to receive him, and then arrayed in 
 costly robes, fragrant with the sweetest perfumes, 
 lay down on a conch covered with a mantle. On 
 the Khan's approach her attendants strove to rouse 
 her, but she iiad taken ;)oison and was already dead. 
 (Khnji Khan, quoted by Elphinstone, vol. ii. p. 263.) 
 Her persecutor did not long survive her, for having 
 quarrelled with the vizier of Akbcr he stabbed him 
 while at prayers, and was, by order of the king, (who 
 was sleei)ing in an inner room, and rushed in, 
 awakened by the uproar) immediately thrown from 
 a lofty terrace-parapet, where he had sought refuge.
 
 no GUZERAT ANNEXED— A.D. 1572.— AKBER'S HINDOO MARRIAGES. 
 
 long retained undisturbed possession. The 
 MirzaSj (namely, the four sons and three 
 nephews of Sultan IMirza, a prince of the 
 house of Tamerlane, who had come to India 
 with Baber, but rebelled against Humayun, 
 who pardoned and gave him the govern- 
 ment of Sambal) revolted, and were com- 
 pelled to fly to Guzerat, where they endea- 
 voured to take advantage of the disturbed 
 state of affairs, but were strenuously opposed 
 by Etimad Khan, the Hindoo minister, or 
 rather master, of the pageant king, Mozuffer 
 III. Sooner than suffer the sceptre to be 
 seized by the Mirzas, Etimad prompted its 
 formal surrender to Akber, a.d. 1572, vi^ho 
 having personally received it, proceeded to 
 besiege Surat, where these princes had taken 
 refuge. Before the place could be invested 
 they departed with a light detachment, in- 
 tending to join their main body in the north 
 of Guzerat. Akber ordered 1,000 men to 
 follow him, and set out in pursuit with 
 such rash haste, that he found himself in 
 front of the enemy with a party which, 
 after waiting to allow some stragglers to 
 come up, numbered only 150 men. He 
 nevertheless commenced the attack, but 
 being repulsed, took shelter in a lane formed 
 by strong hedges of cactus, where not more 
 than three horsemen could advance abreast. 
 Here he was hard pressed and separated 
 from his men, but saved by the gallantry of 
 Rajah Bhagwandas of Amber, and his ne- 
 phew and adopted son. Rajah Maun Sing, 
 both officers of high rank in the imperial 
 army. Soorjun Ray, Rajah of Rintumbor, 
 is also mentioned as having evinced great 
 bravery; and the fact of the king's being 
 immediately surrounded by Hindoo chiefs 
 on such an occasion, sufficiently proves the 
 degree to which he had conciliated, and the 
 trust which he reposed in them. The 
 Mirzas succeeded iu effecting the junction 
 which Akber had risked so much to pre- 
 vent, but were afterwards dispersed, and 
 met with various adventures, terminating 
 in violent deaths by the hands of Delhi 
 officers. Though eager to put down any 
 infringement of his own real or assumed 
 rights, Akber utterly disregarded those of 
 others ; the establishment of unquestioned 
 supremacy over all India being the object 
 which he pi'oposed from the ])cginning. 
 With this view he never scrupled to fo- 
 ment strife, watching craftily an opportu- 
 nity of turning to his own advantage the 
 dissensions which rendered weak and effete 
 the various independent governments, both 
 
 foreign and native. Under his banner, Hin- 
 doo fought against Hindoo — Moslem against 
 ]\Ioslem ; aud each against the other. Over 
 the fiery Rajpoots his personal influence 
 became unbounded. Skilfully availing him- 
 self of their foibles, and studious needlessly 
 to avoid clashing with their feudal obser- 
 vances and associations, he won from them 
 voluntary concessions which force had long 
 failed to extort. As early as 1651 he had 
 sent a strong force against Maldeo, Rajah of 
 Marwar, actuated perhaps by the recollec- 
 tion of the sufferings of his parents when 
 refused protection shortly before his birth 
 (p. 87), and captured the strong fortress 
 of Meerta. Nagore was also taken; and 
 both these strong-holds were conferred by 
 Akber on the representative of the younger 
 branch of the family, Ray Sing of Bika- 
 neer. In 1569, Rao Maldeo succumbed to 
 necessity ; and, in conformity with the times, 
 sent his second son with gifts to Akber, 
 then at Ajmeer, which had become an in- 
 tegral part of the monarchy; but the dis- 
 dainful bearing of " the desert king" so 
 displeased Akber, that he presented Ray 
 Sing with a firmdn (imperial mandate) for 
 the possession of Joudpoor itself, and the 
 old Rao had to stand a siege in his capital, 
 and after brave but fruitless resistance, was 
 compelled to yield homage. His son and 
 successor, well known as Moota (the fat) 
 Rajah, gave a pi'incess of his family in mar- 
 riage to Akber (a great concession, not to 
 say degradation, in the sight of a Rajpoot, 
 even though the issue of this union would 
 take equal rank with other princes of 
 the imperial house) and, in return, re- 
 ceived all the possessions previously wrested 
 from Marwar, except Ajmeer, besides seve- 
 ral rich districts in Malwa.* Rajah Bhar- 
 mul, of Amber, likewise gave the king a 
 daughter to wif'c,t and enrolled himself and 
 his son, Bhagwandas, among the royal vas- 
 sals, holding his country as a fief of the 
 empire ; and he also received honours and 
 emoluments, in the shape most agreeable to 
 a Rajpoot — increase of territory. In fact, 
 every chief who submitted to Akber, found 
 his personal possessions increased in conse- 
 quence. One state, however, still main- 
 tained its independence, and could neither 
 be flattered, bribed, or forced into alliance 
 with the foreigner; it even dared to rc- 
 
 • Tod says four provinces (Godwar, Oojein, De- 
 balpoor, and Budnawar) yielding; £200,000 of annual 
 revenue were given for the hand of Jod Bae. 
 
 t Mother to Selim, Akber a successor.
 
 AKBER CONQUERS AND DESPOILS CHITTORE— a.d. 1568. 
 
 ill 
 
 nouiioc iiitcrmaiTiaf((! with every house by 
 whicli sueh dispfracc had I)ccu sustained. 
 Against Mewar, Akber therefore turned liis 
 arms, so soon as the disalleetinn of the 
 Usbck nobles and other rebelHons nearer 
 Delhi had been put down. The liana, Oodi 
 Sing, unlike his brave father, Sanga, was a 
 man of feeble eharacter, quite unfit to head 
 the f^allaiit chiefs who rallied round him. 
 On learning the approach of his formidable 
 foe, he retreated from (Miittorc to the hilly 
 and woody country north of Guzerat, leav- 
 ing a strong garrison midcr Jei Mai, a 
 chief of great courage and ability. The 
 place, though previously twice taken, was 
 still regarded by the Rajpoots of Mcwar as 
 a sort of sanctuary of their monarchy. The 
 operations of the siege were conducted with 
 great care, and seem to have closely resem- 
 bled those adopted in modern Europe. Two 
 mines were sunk, and fire set to the train ; 
 one of them exploded, and the storming 
 party crowded up the breach, but while so 
 doing, the second explosion occurred, and 
 destroyed man}'' of the assailants, upon 
 which the rest fled in confusion. The pre- 
 vious labours were re-commcuecd ; con- 
 siderable advantage liad been gained, and 
 the northern defences destroyed, when Ak- 
 ber, one night, in visiting the trenches, per- 
 ceived Jei Mai on the works, superintending 
 some repairs by torch-light. Taking delibe- 
 I'ate aim, he shot him through the head, and 
 the garrison, appalled by the death of their 
 able leader, abandoned the breaches, and 
 withdrew to the interior of the fort. There 
 they assumed the saffron-coloured robes, ate 
 the last " beera" or pan together, and per- 
 formed the other ceremonies incidental to 
 their intended self-sacrifice. After witness- 
 ing the terrible rite of the Johur, in which 
 the women, gathering round the body of 
 Jei Mai, found refuge in the flames from 
 
 * Alcber's conduct on tliis occasion has also left an 
 indelible stain on liis character as a patron of the 
 arts, for the stately temples and [jalaces of Cliittore 
 were defaced and des])oiled with the most ruthless 
 barbarity. lie showed, however, his sense of the 
 bravery of his fallen foes by erect inj^ at one of the 
 chief sates of Delhi two sjreat elephants of stone, 
 (described by Bernier in 1663), each with their rider, 
 one rejjresentini^f Jei Jhil, the other Pntta. The 
 latter, the youthful head of the .Tugawut clan, 
 perished in the defence of the city, following the 
 example of his widowed motlier, who, arming her 
 son's young bride with a lanoe, with her descended 
 the rock and both fell fighting side by side. The 
 Z!;i((c«, (Brahmanical cords taken from the necks of the 
 Uujpoots), are said to have amounted to seventy-four 
 min's and a-half ; and still, in memory of this terrible 
 destruction, the bankers of llajast'han mark this 
 
 liollutioti or captivity; the men, to the num- 
 l)('r of 8,000, ran to the ramparts, and were 
 tliere slain by tin; Moslems wdio had mounted 
 unopposed. " Akber entered Chittorc,when/' 
 says Tod, " 'm,m() of its inhabitants be- 
 came victims to the ambitious thirst of con- 
 quest of this (juardian of mankind." * 
 
 Notwithstanding the loss of his capital 
 and many of his bravest warriors, the Rana 
 remained independent in his fastnesses in 
 the Aravulli; raised a small palace, around 
 which edifices soon clustered, and formed 
 the nucleus of the city of Oudipoor, which 
 eventually became the capital of Mewar. 
 He died shortly afterwards, a.d. 1572. Hi's 
 successor, Pertap, was in all respects his 
 opposite. Brave, persevering, and devoted 
 to the cause of Rajpoot independence, the 
 recovery of Cliittore was his watchword. 
 Till this should be accomplished, he inter- 
 flieted to himself and his successors every 
 article of luxury — exchanged golden dishes 
 for vessels made of leaves, and soft couches • 
 for straw pallets; and, in sign of mourning, 
 commanded all his followers to leave their 
 beards unshaven.f Sueh an adversary was 
 not likely to be undervalued by the politic 
 Akber, who succeeded in arraying against 
 the patriot his kindred in faith as well as in 
 blood, including even his own brother, Sa- 
 gurji, who received, as the price of his trea- 
 chery, the ancient capital of his race. The 
 odds against Pertap were fearful : drivea 
 from his strongholds of Komulmecr and 
 Gogunda, he nevertheless withstood, for 
 more than a quarter of a century, the com- 
 bined efforts of the empire, often flying 
 from rock to rock, feeding his wife and 
 family from the fruits of his native hills, 
 and rearing, amid the haunts of savage 
 beasts, his young son, Urara, the heir to 
 his prowess and his struggles. J In 1576, 
 a desperate battle occurred at the pass or 
 
 tilde, or accursed number on their seals, thereby in- 
 voking " the sin of the slaughter of Chittore" on nny 
 one who sho.uld dare to violate this mysterious but re- 
 vered safeguard. (Aniuih ofRajast'han, vol. i. p. 327. 
 
 t The descendants of Pertap, though unfaithful 
 to the spirit of this vow, still adhere to the letter, 
 by placing leaves under their gold or silver plate, 
 and straw beneath their couches, while their beards 
 remain unshorn. {Idem, p. 333). 
 
 X Colonel Tod's narrative of the life of this noble 
 Kajpcot is full of incidents of thrilling interest. So 
 hot was the pursuit of the Mogul myrmidons that 
 " five meals have been prepared and aliandoned for 
 want of the opportunity to eat them," ar.J his family 
 were repeatedly on the eve of capture. On one of 
 these occasions they were saved by the faithful 
 Bheels of Cavah, who carried them in baskets and con- 
 cealed them in the tin mines of Jawura, where they
 
 n2 
 
 WAH WITH PERTAP.— SETTLEMENT OF BENGAL— 1593. 
 
 plain of Huldigliat, -where Pertap had taken 
 up a strong position v.ith 22,000 Rajpoots, 
 wliiie above, on tlie neighbouring cliffs and 
 pinnacles, his trusty auxiliaries, the abori- 
 ginal Bhecls, stood posted, armed with 
 bows and arrows, and huge stones ready to 
 roll upon the enemy. But all efforts proved 
 vain against the overpowering Mogul force, 
 headed by Selim, the heir of Akber, with its 
 numerous field-artillery and a dromedary 
 corps mouuting swivels. Of the stalwart 
 Rajpoots who rallied round the royal in- 
 signia,* ever seen in the hottest part of the 
 action, 8,000 only survived it. Pertap him- 
 self, after reccivmg several severe wounds, 
 was saved with difficulty, by a noble act of 
 self-devotion. One of his chiefs piarah), 
 seizing the " golden sun," made his way to an 
 intricate position, and thus drew upon him- 
 self and his vassals the brunt of the battle, 
 while his prince, forced from the field, lived 
 to renew the struggle, and to honour the 
 memory of his brave deliverer by conferring 
 on his descendants distinctions whose value 
 a Rajpoot alone could fully appreciate. f 
 Another generous sacrifice eventually en- 
 abled the i\Iewar prince, when almost driven 
 into the abandonment of his native kingdom, 
 to cope successfully with the Mogul force. 
 Bliama Sah, his minister, whose ancestors 
 had for ages held this office, placed at his dis- 
 posal their accumulated resources ; and thus 
 fui-nished with the sinews of wax-, Pertap 
 renewed the contest. The chivalrous cle- 
 mency which habitually distinguishes the 
 Rajpoot was, for once, merged in a sense of 
 the desperate nature of his position. Komul- 
 meer and thirty-two posts were taken by 
 surprise, and the troops slain without mercy. 
 To use the words of the native annalist, 
 " Pertap made a desert of Mewar ; he made 
 an offering to the sword of whatever dwelt 
 in the plains :"{ and in one campaign, re- 
 covered his hereditary dominions, except 
 Chittore, Ajmeer, and IMandelgurh. 
 
 Akbcr, occupied by new fields of con- 
 quest, suffered Pertap to retain his territory 
 unmolested; but the mind of the Hindoo 
 prince could know no rest while, from the 
 summit of the pass to Oudipoor (where, in 
 accordance with his vow, he inhabited a 
 lowly hut) might be seen the stately battlc- 
 
 guardod and fed them. Kolts and b.irs are still pre- 
 servpil in the trees about Jawiira to which the cradles 
 of the royal children cf Mtnvar were suspended. 
 
 * The cjiri)if/i, or chief insignia of royalty in Mewar, 
 is a sun of gold in the centere of a disc of bbck 
 ostrich feathers or felt, about three feel in diameter. 
 
 + Such as beai-ing the title of ]iaj (royal), the pri- 
 
 ments of Chittore, whose re-capture, he 
 felt, was not for him. A spirit ill at ease, 
 accelerated the decay of a frame scarred by 
 repeated wounds, and worn out with hard- 
 ships and fatigue. His sun went down at 
 noon ; but he died (a.d. 1597) as he had lived, 
 an unflinching patriot, enjoining on Umra 
 and his subjects to eschew luxury, and seek, 
 first and last, the independence of Mewar. 
 
 The manner in which this dying com- 
 mand was fulfilled belongs to the succeedins 
 reign. We now return to the proceedings 
 of Akber, who, in 1575, headed an army for 
 the subjugation of Bengal. The Afghan 
 ruler, Daood Khan, a weak, dissipated 
 prince, retired before the imperial forces 
 from Behar to Bengal Proper, upon which 
 Akber returned to Agra, leaving his lieute- 
 nants to pursue the conquest, which proved 
 a more difficult task than was expected. 
 The chief commanders were Rajah Todar 
 ]\Ial, the celebrated minister of finance, and 
 Rajah Maun Sing, and their efforts were at 
 length successful. Daood was defeated and 
 slain ; and the mutinous attempts of various 
 Mogul officers to seize the jaghircs of the 
 conquered chiefs for their private benefit, 
 were, after many struggles, put down. The 
 last endeavour of any importance, on the 
 part of the Afghans, to recover the pro- 
 vince, terminated in defeat in 1592, and 
 being followed up by concessions of terri- 
 tory to the leading chiefs, the final settle- 
 ment of Bengal was concluded, after fifteen 
 years of strife and misery. While his gene- 
 rals were thus engaged, Akbcr was himself 
 occupied in renewed hostilities with Mirza 
 Hakim, who, after having remained long 
 undisturbed in Cabool, again invaded the 
 Punjaub, and assaulted the governor, J\Iaun 
 Sing, in Lahore. The king having raised 
 the siege, drove his brother to the moun- 
 tains and occupied Cabool ; but that gov- 
 ernment was restored on the submission of 
 the prince, who retained it until his death 
 in 1585. Tiie vicinity of Abdullah, Khan 
 of the Uzbeks, who had recently seized 
 Badakshan from JNIirza Soliman, probably 
 induced Akbcr, on learning the demise of 
 Hakim, to proceed immcdiatclj' to the strong 
 fort of Attock, which he had previously 
 erected on the principal ferry of the Indus. 
 
 vilegc of enjoying " the right band of the Mewat 
 princes," &c., to which territorial advantages were 
 also added by the grateful Pertap. 
 
 f All bis loyal subjects had previously followed 
 him to the mountains, destroying whatever property 
 they could neither conceal nor carry away. (Annah 
 oj linjusl'htin, vol. i. p. 1317.)
 
 CAPTURE OF CASHMERE, SINDE AND CANDAHAR— a'.d. 1586 to 1594. 113 
 
 AUlioii-^li Hadiiksliau li;ul been the iincieiit 
 possession of liis family, Akber was far too 
 politic to stir up a qiiai'rel \\ ith so fonnidaljle 
 a foe as its present occupant, while, in an- 
 other quarter, opportunity invited tlic exer- 
 cise of more profitable and less dangerous, 
 though utterly unprovoked aj;gression. Near 
 at hand, nestled in the very centre of the 
 Himalaya, al)ove the heated plains, below 
 the snowy heights, lay tlic lovely valley of 
 Cashmere, verdant with perpetvial spring. 
 From the age of fable till the beginning of 
 tiio fourtecntli century, this small kingdom 
 had been ruled by a succession of Hindoo 
 princes, interrupted, it wouhl appear, by a 
 Tartar dynasty.* It thca fell into the hands 
 of a Moliammedan adventurer, and was 
 held by princes of that religion until I'lHG, 
 when the distractions prevailing among the 
 reigning family induced Akber to brave 
 tiic dillicidt and dangerous passes by which 
 alone this terrestrial paradise could be ap- 
 proached, and send an army, under Shah 
 llokli J\Iirza, son of JMirza Soliman (who 
 had entered his service when driven out of 
 Badakshan), and Uhagwandas, of Jcypoor, 
 for its conquest. These chiefs, Avith ditli- 
 culty, penetrated through the snow by an 
 unguarded pass^ but their supplies being 
 exhausted, were glad to enter into a treaty 
 with the king, Yusuf Shah, by which the su- 
 premacy of the enqieror was acknowledged, 
 but his practical interference with the pro- 
 vince forbidden. Yusuf, relying ou the good 
 faith and generosity of Akber, accompanied 
 the troops on their return to the court of 
 that monarch, who, considering the pledge 
 giveri on his behalf an inconvenient one, de- 
 tained his guest, and dispatched a frcsli force 
 for the occupation of Cashmere. Yacub, 
 the son of the captive, assembled the troops, 
 and prepared to defend the pass; but the 
 prevailing dissensions had extended so 
 widely among the soldiery, that part went 
 over to the invaders, and the prince deemed 
 it best to fall back with the rest on Scri- 
 nuggur, where strife and rebellion were also 
 at work. Driven thence to the hills, he con- 
 tinued the struggle for two years, but was 
 at last captured and sent to Delhi, where 
 both he and his father were induced by 
 
 * Professor 11. 11. AVilson considers it to have ex- 
 isted either under the n.inie of Caspapyrus or Abi- 
 sarus as early as the days of Herodotus and Alex- 
 ander. — IHssdi/ on the liaj Tarimji, or Ilhuloo Jlis- 
 '•^'y of Cashmere — Asiatic Jieseiirchcs, voh xv. p. 
 82. This work was executed by four different per- 
 sons, the first of whom wrote in 1118, but frequent 
 and precise references are made to earlier writers. 
 
 Akber to enter his service, and accept 
 large jaghircs in IJehar. From this time, 
 (Cashmere became the favourite summer re- 
 treat of the Mogul rulers. 
 
 The imperial arms were no.vt directed 
 against the Knsofzeis and other Afghan 
 tribes inhabiting the liilly countries round 
 the plain of Peshawcr, among whom a pow- 
 erful party had been established by Bayczeed, 
 a false prophet, who founded a sect, self- 
 styled ]{oushcnia, or the enlightened, and 
 declared his folloners justified in seizing on 
 the lands and property of all who refused 
 to believe in his divine mission. The im- 
 postor was defeated and slain, but his sons 
 bore about his bones in an ark, and the 
 youngest, .Telala, became formidable from 
 his energy and ambition, and succeeded in 
 gaining repeated advantages over the Delhi 
 troops, many of whom perished, including 
 Rajah Beer Bal, one of Akber's favourite 
 generals. In IGOO, .Telalu obtained posses- 
 sion of the city of Ghu/.nee, but was even- 
 tually expelled and slain. The religious 
 war was continued by his successors during 
 the two next reigns (those of Jehangcer and 
 Shah Jehan) ; and when the errors of the 
 Iloushcnias became exploded, the Eusofzeis, 
 who had long renounced their doctrines, 
 continued to maintain hostilities with the 
 house of Timur, and afterwards with the 
 kings of Persia and Cabool, preserving 
 throughout their turbulent independence 
 undiminished. 
 
 Sinde was captured in 1593, its ruler, on 
 submission, being, according to the policy of 
 Akl}er, enrolled among the nobles of the 
 empire ; and Candahar, which had been 
 seized by Shah Tahmasp soon after the 
 death of Ilumayun, was recovered without a 
 blow, in 159 1, owing to the disorders which 
 marked the early part of the reign of his 
 successor. Shah Abbas. By this last acqui- 
 sition, Akber completed the possession of 
 his hereditary kingdom beyond the Indus 
 (the war with the Afghans being confined 
 to the mountains) at nearly the same period 
 at which he concluded the conquest of Ilin- 
 doostan Proper. Excepting only Oudipoor 
 and its gallant rana, with his immediate re- 
 tainers, the other Rajpoot states of any im- 
 
 The facts and dates become consistent as they approach 
 A.D. GOO, and from that period to the termination of 
 the history, with the conquest of the kingdom by 
 Alcber, the chronology is accurate. Much interest- 
 ing matter occurs incidentally, regarding Buddhism 
 and Brahminism, (the former having been very early 
 introduced into Cashmere), and also respecting the 
 ancient worsiiip of the Xagas or Snake Gods.
 
 114 DECCAN INVADED— 1596.— CANDEISH AND AHMEDNUGGUR TAKEN. 
 
 portance all acknowledged Mogul supre- ' 
 macy, and their chiefs had become changed 
 from jealous tributaries to active auxiliaries, i 
 The Deccau now became the theatre for 
 Akber's aggression, to -which its perturbed 
 condition oflercd every facility. After two 
 years spent there by his son Morad, and 
 otiier generals, during which time Ahmed- 
 nuggur being besieged was nobly defended 
 by the Sultana Chand, Akber proceeded in 
 person to the scene of action, where Berar 
 had already been surrendered on behalf of 
 the king of Ahmednuggur. The conquest 
 of Candeish was completed by the reduction 
 of the strong fortress of Aseergluir,* in 
 1599, and Prince Danial made viceroy of 
 the new provinces, with ]\Iirza Khan (the 
 son of Behram, who had received the title of 
 Khan Khanan, formerly bestowed by Hu- 
 mayun on his ill-fated father) as his confi- 
 dential adviser. Prince Danial took to wife 
 the daughter of Ibrahim II., of Beejapoor, 
 who, like the neighbouring king of Gol- 
 conda, had deprecated, by presents and 
 embassies, the anger of the powerful Mogul 
 for having sided against his generals in the 
 contest with Ahmednuggur .f These endea- 
 vours would probably have proved fruitless, 
 as many similar ones had done, but for the 
 hurried and compulsory return of Akber to 
 Hindoostan, owing to the misconduct of 
 his eldest son and acknowledged heir. 
 Selim was now above thirty years of age, 
 and not deficient in natural ability ; but his 
 intellccb had been impaired and his heart 
 depraved by the excessive use of wine and 
 opium. Taking possession of Allahabad, he 
 made himself master of Oude and Behar, 
 seized npon treasure amounting to thirty 
 lacs of rupees (£.300,000), and assumed 
 the title of king. These pretensions were 
 speedily withdrawn on the appearance of Ak- 
 ber, who behaved with extreme moderation ; 
 but his ungrateful son, while expressing sub- 
 mission and fidelity, took an opportunity of 
 revenging his own supposed injuries, and 
 inflicting a severe blow on the feelings of his 
 father, by instigating the assassination of 
 Abul Fazil, whom he both feared and hated. 
 Au ambuscade was laid near Gwalior by 
 
 * Willi this fortress, ten years' provisions and count- 
 less treasures fell into the hands of the conqueror, 
 ■wlio was supposed lo have em])loyed magical arts. 
 
 t Tlie chief of tiinde is said to have employed I'or- 
 tuf^ueao officers in his defence against Akber, and to 
 have had 200 natives dressed as Kuropeans, wlio 
 were consequently the earliest se/wi/s. lie had also 
 a fort defended by iin Arab (garrison, " tlie first in- 
 stance," says Mr. Elphinslone, "in whioh 1 have 
 
 Nursing Deo Rajah of Oorcha, and Abul 
 Fazil, after a brave defence, was slain with 
 most of his attendants, a.d. 1603. Akber was 
 greatly distressed by the loss of his friend and 
 counsellor. He spent two days without food 
 or sleep, and sent a force against Nursing 
 Deo, with orders to seize his innocent family, 
 ravage his country, and exercise other un- 
 warrantable severities; but the intended vic- 
 tim succeeded in eluding pursuit, and wag 
 subsequently raised to high honour on the 
 accession of Selim to the throne. 
 
 Akber would not publicly recognise his 
 son's share in the crime; J but, on the con- 
 trary, conferred on him the pri-\dlege of 
 using the royal ornaments, and other marks 
 of the highest distinction. But all in vain. 
 Selim became daily more brutal and de- 
 bauched, until at last, the public quarrels 
 between him and his son, Khosru (himself 
 a violent-tempered youth) grew to such a 
 height, that Khosru's mother (the sister of 
 Maun Sing), in a moment of grief and 
 despair, swallowed poison ; after which, her 
 husband became so cruel and irascible, that 
 Akber thought it necessary to place him 
 under temporary restraint. He was no 
 sooner released than his jealousy of his son 
 (who he believed, and probably not without 
 reason, desired to supplant him in the suc- 
 cession to the throne) occasioned new scenes 
 of disorder. Meanwhile Khosru himself 
 was, beyond measure, envious of his younger 
 brother, Khoorum (Shah Jehan), wlio was 
 equally a favourite with both his father and 
 grandfather. "While affairs at home were 
 in this unsatisfactory state intelligence ar- 
 rived of the decease of prince Danial. 
 Morad had died some years before; now this 
 other son, Selim's only remaining brother, 
 was taken from Akber, under circumstances 
 calculated to embitter the bereavement. In- 
 temperance had laid fast hold on its victim, 
 and thou;;U so surrounded by the faithful 
 servants of his father as to be imable openly 
 to gratify its solicitations, he found means 
 to have liquor secretly conveyed to him in 
 the barrel of a fowling-piece, and by unre- 
 strained indulgence soon terminated his 
 existence at the age of thirty (April 1G05.) 
 
 observed any mention of that description cf merce- 
 naries afterwards so much esteemed." Vol. ii. p. 2!)7.) 
 t Selim, in his Miimoirs, openly ackno\vledge.s the 
 crime and vindicates it on the plea of Abul l''azirs 
 having induced his father to disbelieve in the Koran. 
 For tills reason, he says, " 1 employed the man who 
 killed Aliul Fazil and brought his head to me; and 
 for tills it was that 1 in':uvred my father's deep dis- 
 pleasure." — Price's Metnuirs nf Juhniijwiir, p. a3.
 
 CHARACTER AND RELIGIOUS OPINIONS OF AKBER. 
 
 115 
 
 I 
 
 Alas for Akl)cr ! he was now about sixty- 
 tlu'ce, and had probably anticipatnd tliiit an 
 old age of peace and honour niif^ht crown a 
 youth of vifii.ssitudo and daring advcnturn, 
 and a maidiood of brilliant success. His 
 foes were cither silent in tlic grave, or had 
 been won by politic liberality to a chcci'ful 
 acknowledgment of his supremacy; and the 
 able system of civil government framed by 
 the aid of the gifted brothers, Abul Fazil 
 and Feizi,* and founded on a careful con- 
 sideration of the customs and opinions of 
 the Hindoos, had won from the mass of the 
 people a degree of cordial and grateful sup- 
 
 * Their f'atlier, a learned man, named JItjbarik, 
 was expelled from Iiis situation as collcfje-tiitor at 
 Asrra for latitudinariun if not atheistical opinions, 
 which his sons, though. professin<; Moslems, evidently 
 shared. Feizi dilif|;ently ap])lied himself to the 
 study of Sanscrit, as did several of the most distin- 
 guished men of Akber's court, tlirougli which a taste 
 for literature was widely dilfused. Feizi was pre- 
 sented to Akber in tlie twell"th year of his reign, and 
 introduced Abul Fazil six years later, and they 
 jointly became the intimate friends and confidants of 
 their sovereitjn, who survived them lioth. An ac- 
 count of the death of Feizi has been recorded by a 
 jersonal friend but a zealous Mussulman (Abdul 
 Ivader), and therefore it may bo higljly coloured, 
 but, according to him, tliis celebrated scholar died 
 blaspheminj;, with distorted features and blackened 
 lips, but of what malady does not appear. — (Elphin- 
 stone, vol. ii., ]>. ^20.) 
 
 t " The religion of Akber," says Mr. Elphinstone, 
 (who, by the aid of a manuscript translation of the 
 Akbcrnamch., has obtained information otherwise 
 accessible only to oriental scholars,) " was pure 
 deism. • • * His fundamental doctrine was, that 
 there were no prophets ; his appeal on all occasions 
 was to Iiuman reason." — (Vol. ii., p. 322.) This 
 free-thinking did not however interfere with his 
 alleged right as " head of the church, [? what 
 church] to decide all disputes among its members," 
 nor prevent him from introducing a new confession 
 of faith, declaring that " there was no God but God, 
 and Akber icas his cahpli." — (p. .'324.) The practices 
 of spiritual instructors of diH'erent denominations he 
 did not scruple to adopt, and Abul Fazil, who wrote 
 under his immediate supervision, makes rc|)eated 
 mention of the supernatural endowments which he 
 habitually and publicly exercised, and of the " nu- 
 merous miracles which he performed." Among the 
 many superstitious modes used in seeking '• success 
 in business, restoration of health, birth of a son," 
 &c., a favourite method adopted "by men of all 
 nations and ranks," was to "invocate his majesty," 
 to whom, on the obtainment of th.eir wishes, thev 
 brought the olferings which they bad vowed. "Not 
 a day passes," says Abul Fazil, " but people bring 
 cups of water to the palace, beseeching him to 
 breathe upon them. He who is privy to the secret.s 
 of heaven reads the decrees of ftite, and if tidings of 
 hope are received, takes the water from the supjjli- 
 cant, places it in the sun's rays, and then having 
 bestowed upon it his auspicious breath, returns it. 
 Also many, whose diseases are deemed incurable, 
 intreat him to breathe upon them, and are thereb', 
 restored to health." — {Ayeen Akbery, vol. i., p, 665.) 
 
 port which none of the " Great Moguls" 
 before or after Akber ever acquired or even 
 strove for. A total disbeliever in revealed 
 religion, t he had found no difficulty in sanc- 
 tioning the free exercise of all creeds, and 
 in humouring national vanity, or courting 
 sectarian prejudice whenever it suited his 
 object, and it was always his object to be 
 popular. To the Brahmin, the Buddhist, the 
 Parsce,J the Jew and the Roman catholic,§ 
 the emperor listened with courteous defer 
 euce; and his legislative ability, personal 
 daring, and suavity of manner, won golden 
 opinions from multitudes who cared not to 
 Had Akber lived in the middle of the nineteenth 
 century he would have taken a peculiar interest in 
 mesmerism, spirit-rapi)ing, and table-turning. 
 
 t To the customs of this sect Akber practically in- 
 clined more tlian to any other, his stated times of 
 worship being day -break, noon, and midnight. " His 
 majesty," Abul Fazil adds, " has also a great venera- 
 tion for fire in general, and for lamps, since they arc 
 to bo accounted rays of the greater light." — Glad- 
 win's Ai/vi-n Akhery, vol. i., p. IGO.) 
 
 § Akber appears to have played u])on the credu- 
 lity of the priests sent from Goa in a manner which 
 they have described with much naivete, though no 
 Protestant can read their account without pain and 
 indignation at the thought of the pure and life- 
 giving faith of tlie meek and lowly Redeemer being 
 presented to the imperial sceptic, under a form so little 
 likely to win res])ectful attention. He had expressed 
 a wish to see their chapel, which they dressed up for 
 the occasion with every kind of ornament tliey could 
 borrow from the Hindoos or any other quarter, and 
 Akber declared himself dazzled with the result, and 
 exclaimed that " no other religion could produce 
 such brilliant proofs of its divinity;" a speech which, 
 considering the enormous wealth in gold and gems 
 he must have heard of, if not witnessed, in tho idola- 
 trous temples of Hindoostan, wovild seem little better 
 than a cutting sarcasm. He had on a previous oc- 
 casion prostrated himself before a representation of 
 the crucifixion, " but his chief emotion was excited 
 on viewing a finely-painted and ornamented image 
 of the Virgin. He gazed on it long in admiration, 
 and declared that she appeared indeed the Queen of 
 Heaven seated on her throne." The friars began to 
 entertain great hopes of his conversion, but soon 
 found that he persisted in " holding himself forth as 
 an object of worship ; and though exceedingly 
 tolerant as to other modes of faith, never would 
 admit of any encroachments on his own divinity." 
 One of his courtiers suffered it to transpire that the 
 sole aim of the monarch in listening to the mis- 
 sionaries was " curiosity and amusement," and this 
 was confirmed soon afterwards by Akber's gravely 
 proposing to them, as a means of deciding between 
 their assertions and tliose of the Mohammedans, that 
 a famous Mullah should leap into a furnace with the 
 Koran in his hand, followed by one of the friars 
 bearing a Bible. He promised thai the Mullah 
 should leap in first, hinting that he would not at all 
 regret to see him fall a s.acrifice to his presumption ; 
 but the friars refused the ordeal, and not feelinff 
 " much at ease in the Mogul court, soon solicited 
 and obtained permission to return to Goa.'' — (Mur- 
 ray's Account of Discoveries, vol. ii., p. 92.)
 
 116 
 
 DEATH OF THE EMPEROR AKBER— a.d. 1605. 
 
 search out the selfishness which was tlie 
 hidden main-spring of every project, wliethcr 
 ostensibly for the promotion of external 
 aggression or internal prosperity. But now 
 the season for rest had arrived, and he might 
 hope to enjoy the wide-spread dominion 
 and almost incalculable wealth, which a 
 clever head and a sharp sword had combined 
 to viin. His strongly-built and handsome 
 frame* had escaped almost unscathed from 
 the dangers and fatigues of the battle-field, 
 the toilsome march, the onslaught of wild 
 beasts, and the weapon of the assassin. All 
 had failed to dispirit or unnerve him, and 
 the conduct of an intricate campaign, or the 
 pressure of civil government (a far more dif- 
 ficult undertaking for one who had to make 
 laws as well as superintend their execution), 
 never absorbed the time and energy neces- 
 sary to the active part which he loved to 
 bear in mental or bodilj^ exercises of all de- 
 scriptions, from philosophical discussions to 
 elephant and tiger hunts, animal fights, 
 feats of jugglers, and other strangely varied 
 diversions. Though in youth given to iu- 
 ulgence in the luxuries of the table, in later 
 life he became sober and abstemious, re- 
 fraining from animal food on particular 
 days, amounting altogether to nearly a 
 quarter of the year. There is, however, 
 reason to believe that, like his father and 
 grandfather, he was addicted to the inordi- 
 nate use of opium,t an insidious vice which 
 would partially account for the criminal 
 
 * "My father," says Jehangeer, "was tall in sta- 
 ture, of a ruddy, or wheateii, or init-brown com- 
 plexion ; his eyes and eyebrows dark, the latter 
 running across into each other. Handsome in his 
 e.\terior he had the strength of a lion, which was 
 indicated by the extraordinary breadth of his chest 
 and the length of his arms." A black mole on his 
 nose was jjronounced by ])hysiognomists a sure 
 prognostication of extraordinary good fortune. — 
 (Price's Mumoirs of Julianrjucir, p. 40.) 
 
 f Ferishta mentions that Akber was taken dan- 
 gerously ill about 1582, " and as his majesty had 
 ado]>ted the habit of eating o])ium as llumayun his 
 father had done before him, people became appre- 
 hensive on his account." — (Vol. li., p. 253.) 
 
 I Abul Fazil states that to the Noroza, or ninth 
 day of each month, .\kber gave the name of Kluis- 
 roz, or day of diversion, and caused a female market 
 or sort of royal fair, to be held and frequented by 
 the ladies of the harem and others of distinction, 
 going himself in disguise to learn the value of dif- 
 ferent kinds of merchandize, and what was thought 
 of the government and its executive odlcers. — 
 {^Ayeen Akbertj, vol. i., p. 22R.) Tod attributes the 
 presence of Akber to a dill'ercnt and most disgrace- 
 ful motive, and says, that however incredible it may 
 S'^eni, that so keen-sighted a statesman should have 
 risked his power and popularity by introducing an 
 immoral festival of Kcytliic origin, peculiarly oji- 
 
 excesses in another respect attributed to 
 him by Hindoo authorities,! and wliich, 
 however notorious, would unquestionably 
 have been passed over in silence by so ful- 
 some a panegyrist and determined a partisan 
 as Abtd Fazil. Regarding the cause of his 
 death, Hindoo records likewise cast a dark 
 cloud, § to which Mr. Elphinstone makes no 
 allusion, but simply notes the total loss of 
 appetite and prostration of strength which 
 were the chief symptoms of the fatal disease. 
 In truth, the disgraceful nature of his recent 
 domestic afflictions, and the cabals and 
 struggles respecting the succession, (which 
 raged so fiercely that liis only son was with 
 difficulty induced to attend his dying bed,) 
 were alone sufficient to bring a proud and 
 sensitive spirit with sorrow to the grave. 
 
 Akber expired in October, 1605, hav- 
 ing been for nearly the whole forty-nine 
 years of his reign a cotemporary ruler with 
 Elizabeth of England, whose enterprise liad 
 prepared an embassy (sent by her successor) 
 to solicit from him the promotion of the 
 peaceful pursuits of commerce between their 
 subjects. How little could these mighty 
 ones of the earth have foreseen that the 
 sceptre of Akber would eventually fall from 
 the feeble grasp of his weak and vicious 
 descendants, into the hands of the struggling 
 community of traders, for whose protection 
 an imperial firman was at first so humbly 
 solicited. These marvellous changes teach 
 great lessons. May we but profit by them. 
 
 posed to the sensitive honour of the Rajpoots, " yet 
 there is nevertheless not a shadow of doubt that 
 many of the noblest of the race were dishonoured on 
 the Noroza," and one of the highest in the court 
 (Pirtlii Raj) was only preserved from being of the 
 number by the courage and virtue of his wife, a 
 princess of Mewar, who, having become separated 
 from her companions, found herself alone with 
 Akber, in return to whose solicitations she " drew a 
 poinard from her corset, and held it to his breast, 
 dictating and making him repeat, an oath of renun- 
 ciation of such infamy to all her race." The wife of 
 Ray Sing is said to have been less fortunate or less 
 virtuous. — [Annuh of Itdjast'hun, vol. i., p. 345.) 
 
 § "The Boondi records," says Tod, -'are well 
 worthy of belief, as diaries of events were kept by 
 her princes, who were of the first importance in this 
 and the succeeding reigns." They expressly state 
 that a desire to be rid of the gieatRiijah l\laun Sing 
 of Joypoor, to whom he was so much indebted, and 
 whom lie did not dare openly attack, induced Akber 
 to prepare a miinJUit (intoxicating confection), part of 
 which he poisoned — but presenting by mistake the 
 innocuous portion to tlie Rajah, he took the other 
 himself, and thus perished in his own snare. Maun 
 Sing had excited the displeasm-c of both Akber and 
 Selim, by seconding the pretensions of his nephew, 
 Khosru to the throne. Old Kuronean writers at- 
 tribute the death of Akber to a similar cause.
 
 fr= 
 

 
 IMPROVED llEVENUE SYSTEM ADOPTED IJY AKP.KR. 
 
 117 
 
 At the period of Akbcr's death the em- 
 pire was (livi(l(!(l into fifteen suhahs or pro- 
 vinces, iianu'ly, Ailalialnid, Af^ra, Oude, 
 Ajmccr, (iuzcrat, l$ch;ir, Benf^al, Delhi, 
 Cabool, Lahore, Moultan, Malwa, Berar, 
 Candcish, and Ahmednuf^gur. Each had 
 its own viceroy [sepah sillar),* who exercised 
 complete control, civil and niililary, snbjcct 
 to the instructions of the king. Under him 
 were the revcnnc fnnctionaries, and also the 
 foiijilam, or military commanders, whose 
 authority extended alike over the regular 
 troops and local soldiery or militia within 
 their districts. Justice was administered 
 by a court composed of an officer named 
 meer adel (lord justice) and a cazi. The 
 ])oliee of considerable towns was under an 
 ollieer called the cii/wa/ ; in smaller places, 
 under the revenue olRccr ; and in villages, 
 under the internal authorities. f 
 
 The revenue system, by which Akbcr 
 gained so much celebrity, had, in fact, been 
 partially introduced during the brief reign 
 of Sheer Shah. Its objects were — First, to 
 obtain a correct measurement of the land, 
 by the establishment of a uniform standard, 
 to supersede the differing measures formerly 
 employed even by public officers; and by 
 the appointment of fit persons, provided 
 with im])roved instruments of mensuration, 
 to furnish accounts of all cultivable lands 
 within the empire. Second, the land was 
 divided into three classes, according to its 
 fertility; the amount of each sort of produce 
 that a begah| would yield was ascertained, 
 the average of the three was assumed as the 
 produce of a begah, and one-third of that 
 produce foi'med the government demand. 
 But any cultivator wlio thought the amount 
 claimed too high might insist on an actual 
 
 * This title wa.s subsequently c]ianged to siihah- 
 ilar, and an additional financial oHicer introduced, 
 named the ilcwaii, who was subordinate to the su- 
 balidar, but appointed by the king. 
 
 t The general tone of the instructions given to these 
 functionaries appears as just and benevolent as could 
 M-ell be expected under a desjiotisni ; the question 
 is, how far they were carried out in the right spirit. 
 There are, however, some enactments which reflect 
 little credit on the law-giver, such as the following : 
 " Let him (the cutwal) see that l)utchers, those who 
 wash dead bodies, and others who perform unclean 
 ofKces, have their dwelling separate from other men, 
 who should avoid the society of such stony-hearted, 
 dark-miuded wretches. ^Vhosoevcr drinketh out of 
 the same cup with an executioner, let one of his hands 
 be cut off; or if he ealetli out of his kettle, deprive 
 him of one of his fingers." — Gladwin's Ayeen Akhery. 
 
 X An Indian measure, much above half-an-acre. 
 
 § The ancient riders of Ilindoostan, Abul Fazil 
 admits, claimed but one-sixth. — -Vol. i., p. 278. 
 K 
 
 mea.surement and division of the crop. 
 
 Tliird, the produce was to be converted into 
 a money [jaynu'ut, taken on an average of 
 the preceding nineteen years; but, as in 
 the previous case, every husbandman was 
 allowed to pay in kind if he thought the 
 rate in specie fixed too high. All i)articu- 
 lars respecting the classification and revenue 
 of the land were annually recorded in the 
 village registers; and as at the period of the 
 introduetion of this system Akbcr abolished 
 a vast number of vexatious taxes and fees to 
 oflicers, the pressure on individuals is said 
 to have been lightened, though the profit to 
 the state was increased. It sliould, however, 
 be remembered that Akbcr claimed one- 
 third of the produce, and Sheer Shah had 
 professed to take but one-fourth. § The 
 farming of any branch of the revenue was not 
 allowed, and the collectors were instructed 
 to deal directly with individual cultivators, 
 and not rely implicitly on the headman and 
 accountant of the village. 
 
 The chief agent in these reforms was 
 llnjah Todar I\Iul, whose zealous observance 
 of the fasts aud other requirements of the 
 Brahrainical religion, doubtless angmrnted 
 his influence among his own nation. Thus, 
 whether in military proceedings or civil 
 government, Akbcr always gladly availed 
 himself of the abilities of the IIindoo.s, of 
 wliose character he unquestionably formed 
 a very high estimate, || and whose good will 
 (notwithstanding the aggression on which 
 his interference was grounded) he greatly 
 conciliated by three important edicts, which 
 involved concessions to human rights, of a 
 description rarely made byoricntal despots, to 
 whose notions of government by the sword 
 all freedom is essentially opposed. lu loGl, 
 
 ll .\bul Fazil, who may be taken as a fair expo- 
 nent of the feelings of his royal master (in the for- 
 tieth year of whose reign he wrote), thus e.xprcsses 
 himself on this point : — " Summarily the Hindoos 
 are religious, affable, courteous to strangers, cheer- 
 ful, enamoured of knowledge, fond of inflicting 
 austerities u])on themselves, lovers of justice, given 
 to retirement, able in business, grateful, admirers of 
 truth, and of unbounded fidelity in all their deal- 
 ings. Their character shines brightest in adversity." 
 He adds his conviction, from frequent discourses 
 with learned Brahmins, that they " one and all be- 
 lieve in the unity of the Godhead ; and although 
 they hold images in high veneration, yet they are by 
 no means idolaters," which latter assertion may be 
 doubted as applied to the lower and less-informed 
 professors of any religion which inculcates or suffers 
 the "high veneration" of images. Lastly, he says, 
 " they have no slaves among them," a remark to 
 which we may have occasion to revert in a subse- 
 quent section. — Ayeen Akbery, vol. ii., pp. 294-'5. 
 
 .1
 
 118 
 
 CAPITATION-TAX ON INFIDELS ABOLISHED BY AKBER. 
 
 a prohibition was issued against the making 
 slaves of pei'sons captured in war ; an infa- 
 mous practice, whicli had gained such a 
 height that not only the innocent wives and 
 children of garrisons taken by storm were 
 sold into slavery, but even the peaceable 
 inhabitants of a hostile country were seized 
 for the same purpose. In 1563, the jezia or 
 capitation-tax on infidels was abolished ; and 
 about the same time all taxes on pilgrims 
 were removed, because, " although the tax 
 fell on a vain superstition, yet, as all modes 
 of worship were designed for one Great 
 Being, it was wrong to throw an obstacle 
 in the way of the devout, and to cut them 
 off from their mode of intercourse with their 
 Maker." [Akber Namah, MS. translation.) 
 
 The condition of the royal slaves* was 
 ameliorated by Akber ; but it does not ap- 
 pear that he made any attempt to restore 
 liberty even to those from whom it had been 
 ravished by the glaring injustice above de- 
 scribed. Nor would any effort of a purely 
 just and benevolent tendency have been 
 consistent with the character of one whose 
 ambition filled the mountain fortresses of 
 Hiudoostan with captives,t and who scru- 
 pled not to form minarets of human heads,J 
 or give orders for the complete extermina- 
 tion of a flying foe.§ 
 
 In the regidation of the ai-my great 
 alterations were made : the troops, where- 
 ever it was practicable, were paid in cash 
 from the treasury, instead of by jaghires and 
 assignments on the revenue ; and the tricks 
 played at the musters by means of servants 
 
 * The king (says Abul Fazil) disliking the word 
 slave, desired that of chelah (signifying one who re- 
 lies upon another) to be applied in its place. " Of 
 these unfortunate men there are several kinds: 1st. 
 Those who are considered as common slaves, being 
 infidels taken in battle ; and they are bought and 
 sold. 2nd. Those who of themselves submit to bon- 
 dage. 3rd. The children born of slaves. 4th. A 
 thief who becomes the slave of the owner of the 
 stolen goods. 5th, He who is sold for the fjrice of 
 blood. The daily pay of a chelah is from one dam 
 to one rupee ; they are formed into divisions, and 
 committed to the cave of skilful persons, to be 
 instructed in various arts and occupations." — Glad- 
 win's Aijccn Akhcrij, vol. i., p. 209. 
 
 t Among the prisoners who perished by violence 
 in the fort of Gwalior, was tlic only son of the un- 
 happy Kamran. The reason docs not a])pear; but the 
 execution is stated by Price, on the authority of Abul 
 Fazil, as commanded by Akber some time after the 
 death of K^iran ; and Ferishta (also apparently 
 quoting the ytkhornamch) says that liehram Khan 
 was accused of intending to intrigue with the un- 
 fortunate prince; a very unlikely supposition, con- 
 sidering the enmity wliich he had ever dis])laycd to- 
 wards his father.- — Dow'a HindonsUin, vol. ii., p. 32-1. 
 
 and camp-followers, motmted for the day on 
 borrowed horses, prevented, by written de- 
 scriptions of every man's person, and the 
 marking of each horse. But the organiza- 
 tion of the army was never very complete. 
 The king named the munsubdars\\ or officers, 
 as he thought fit, commanders of from 10 
 to 10,000 men; hut these numbers, in all 
 but the lowest classes, were merely nominal, 
 and only served to fix the rank and pay of 
 the holders, whose actual force, often not a 
 tenth of their figure on paper, when mustered, 
 was paid from the treasury. Each munsub- 
 dar was obliged to keep half as many infan- 
 try as horsemen ; and of the infantry, one- 
 fourth were required to be matchlockmen, 
 the rest might be archers. There were also 
 a distinct body of horsemen, called ahdis 
 (single men), whose pay depended upon 
 their merits, but was always much higher 
 than that of the ordinary cavalry. Into every 
 branch of the imperial arrangements, domes- 
 tic as well as public, the most careful me- 
 thod was introduced — the mint, treasury, 
 and armoury — the harem, with its 5,000^ in- 
 habitants — the kitchens,** baths, perfume 
 offices, fruiteries, and flower-gardens, alike 
 manifested the order-loving mind of their 
 rtder. The department which he appears to 
 have superintended with especial pleasure, 
 was that comprising the various descriptions of 
 animals, whether belonging to the class pecu- 
 liarly adapted for the use and benefit of 
 man, or to that of the savage beasts who 
 played a leading part in the barbarous fights 
 and shows which formed the chief popular 
 
 \ Bird's Gujarat, p. 338. 
 
 § " What with the examples made during the 
 reign of my father," writes Jehangeer, "and subse- 
 quently during my own, there is scarcely a province 
 in the empire in which, cither in battle, or by the 
 sword of the executioner, 500,000 or 600,000 human 
 beings have not fallen victims to [what he terms] 
 their fatal disposition to discontent and turbulence." 
 — (p. 128.) Allowing the narrator to have had, as 
 was doubtless the case, the larger share in this 
 wholesale destruction, and supposing the numbers to 
 be overstated, there yet remains ample evidence to 
 indicate a terrible waste of human life on the part of 
 both monarchs. 
 
 II None but the king's sons were munsubdars of 
 more than 5,000 ; and this latter class, according to 
 the At/cen Akhcrij, comprised only thirty persons. 
 
 *\ Kach of wliom had an apartment and a monthly 
 stipend, " equal to her merit," of from two to 1,610 
 rupees, that is, from four shillings to £1()I. 
 
 •* The emperor took but one meal a-day, for 
 which there being no fixed time, tlie cooks were 
 ordered to keep 100 dishes always in readiness to 
 set on table at an hour's notice. " What is reqviired 
 for the harem," adds Abul Fnzil witli sly sarcasm, 
 " is goinif forward from morning till night."
 
 WEALTH OF AKBER AND OTHER GREAT MOGULS. 
 
 113 
 
 diversions of the age. The elephants,* dro- 
 medaries, and camels; horses and mules; 
 oxen, hun'alocs, rhinoocroscs, and tame deer; 
 lions, tif^crs, and |)anthcrs; huntinr^-lcopards, 
 hounds, and liawiis ; — received as much at- 
 tention as it' their roj'al master liad been a 
 vctcrinaiy surgeon : wliilc, in tlic matter of 
 tame partridges and pigeons, no schoolboy 
 could have been a greater adept than the 
 mighty monarch, Akber Padshah. f 
 
 Tiie town of Futtelipoor Silcri, near Agra, 
 built and fortified by Akber, although now 
 deserted, jircscnts ample evidence of having 
 been a place, botli in magnificence and 
 architectural beauty, adapted for the abode 
 of one of the wealthiest sovereigns the world 
 ever knew. Respecting tlie amount of the 
 treasures seized from Moslem and Hindoo 
 palaces and temples, we have no reliable in- 
 formation.]: Jehangeer asserts, that of the 
 paraphernalia and rcrpiisitcs for grandeur, 
 accumulated by Akber, " whether in trea- 
 sure ors[)lendid furniture of any description, 
 the invincible Tiniur, who subdued the 
 world, and from whom my father was eighth 
 in descent, did not possess one-tenth." He 
 adds, that Akber, desirous to ascertain the 
 contents of the treasury at Agra, had 400 
 pairs of scales kept at work, day and night, 
 weighing gold and jewels only. At the ex- 
 piration oi Jive months the work was still far 
 from being concluded ; the emperor, from 
 some cause or other, not choosing to have it 
 
 * According to Abul Fazil, Akber had between 
 5,000 and 6,(100 elcpbants, of wliom 101 were kept 
 for liis own riding. He deliglited in the exercise; 
 and, even when in their most excited state, would 
 place his foot on the tusk of one of these enormous 
 creatures, and mount in an instant ; or spring upon 
 its back, IVcmi a wall, as it rushed furiously ]iast. 
 A fine elephant cost a lac of rujiees (£10,000), had 
 five men and a boy aUotted for its service, and a 
 stated daily allowance of rice, sugar, milk, ghoe, &c., 
 besides 300 sugar-canes per diem, during the season. 
 Every ten eh-phaiits were su])crintended by an offi- 
 cer, whose duty it was to rejjort daily to the emperor 
 their exact condition — whether they ate less food 
 than usual, or were in any way indisposed. 
 
 t On a jo\irney or march, the court was never 
 accompanied by less than 20,000 pigeons, with bear- 
 ers carrying their houses. Of the quality of these 
 birds, Abul Fazil remarks, his majesty had discovered 
 " infallible criterions," such as twisting their feet, 
 slitting their eyelids, or opening their nostrils. 
 
 J In Mandelsloe's travels (Harris's J "oyni/es, vol. iii., 
 p. 702), an inventory is given of the treasure in 
 jewels, bullion, coin, and other property belonging 
 to Akber at the time of his death, which that ti-a- 
 veller states to have been furnished him by " very 
 knowing and worthy persons," in the reign of Shah 
 Jehan, whom he describes as possessing " eight large 
 vaults filled with gold, silver, and precious stones, 
 the value of which is inestimable." The items are 
 
 continued, had the treasures safely secured, 
 and was content to be the master of " un- 
 told gold." In this astoimding statement 
 there would seem to be cither some great 
 mistake on the part of the eopyist,^ or gross 
 exaggeration on that of the royal autobio- 
 graplier. Tlie latter is jiroliably in faidt; 
 for although he fretpicntly criminates him- 
 self by confessing the commission of crimes 
 which other writers would scarcely have 
 ventured to attribute to him (the murder of 
 Abul Fazil, for instance), yet his credulity 
 and tendency to " high colouring," render 
 much sifting necessary before receiving his 
 assertions, and greatly enhance the value 
 of coiToborative evidence. European tra- 
 vellers go far to establish the probability of 
 otlierwise incredible statements regarding 
 the enormous wealth of the Great Moguls, 
 by their descriptions of the magnificence of 
 the court, and also of the steady influx of 
 gold and silver still annually received in 
 return for silk, cotton, spices, and various 
 products, for which coin or bullion was the 
 chief exchange, other commodities or manu- 
 factures being taken only in comparatively 
 small quantities. 
 
 Reign of Jehangeer. — The bier of Akber 
 was carried through the palace-gates of 
 Agra by Selim and his three sons, Khosru, 
 Khoorum, and Parvacz, and borne thence 
 to its stately mausoleum II at Sceundra (three 
 miles distant), by the princes and chief 
 
 interesting — in certain sorts of money coined by the 
 express order of Akber, in another description, 
 called Akber rupees, and in " payses [pice], sixty 
 whereof make a crown," — total value = 109,173,333 
 crowns, or about £50,000,000 sterling. In jewels, 
 30,026,026 crowns; " statues of gold, of divers crea- 
 tures," 9,503,370 e. ; gold plate, dishes, cups, and 
 household-stuff, 5,866,895 c. ; porcelain and other 
 earthen vessels, 1,255,873 c. ; brocades — gold and 
 silver stuffs, silks and muslins, 7,654,989 c. ; tents, 
 hangings, and tapestries, 4,902,772 c. ; twenty-four 
 thousand manuscripts, richly bound, 3,231,865 c. ; 
 artillery and ammunition, 4,287,985 c; small arms, 
 swords, bucklers, pikes,bows,arrows, &c., 3,777,752 c.; 
 saddles, bridles, and other gold and silver accoutre- 
 ments, 1,262,824 c.; coverings for elephants and 
 horses, embroidered with gold, silver, and pearls, 
 2,500,000 c.; woollen cloths, 251,626 c.; brass and 
 copper utensils, 25,612 c. ; making a total (coin in- 
 cluded) of 274,113,793 c., or £68,528,448 sterling. 
 
 § The Persian copy of Jehangeer's Metnoirs, trans- 
 lated by M.ijor Price, was unfortunately imperfect; 
 that from which Mr. Gladwin has borrowed largely, 
 is considered less defective. 
 
 II This superb structure, begun by Akber, was 
 finished by his successor, who declared ttie total cost to 
 have beeii about £1,800,000. The amiable mother 
 of Akber, Hamcida, afterwards termed Miriam Me- 
 kani, had been buried only two years before in IIu- 
 mayun's tomb at Delhi.
 
 120 
 
 ACCESSION OF THE EMPEROR JEHANGEER, a.d. 1605. 
 
 nobles. Owing to the exertions made by 
 the Late sovereign on his death-bed to pre- 
 vent the threatened outbreak of domestic 
 rivalry, and to the successful negotiations 
 entered into with Rajah Maun Sing, and 
 other leading persons, Selim was proclaimed 
 emperor unopposed. With undisguised de- 
 light he mounted the jewelled throne, on 
 which such enormous sums had been 
 lavished, and placed on his brows the twelve- 
 pointed crown.* The chief ameers were 
 summoned from the different provinces to 
 attend the gorgeous and prolonged cere- 
 monial; for forty days and nights the nukm-a, 
 or great state-drum, sounded triumphantly ; 
 odoriferous gums were kept burning in 
 censers of rare workmanship, and immense 
 candles of camphorated wax, in branches of 
 gold and silver, illumined the hours of 
 darkness. 
 
 Considering " universal conquest the pe- 
 culiar vocation of sovereign princes," the 
 new emperor, in the coinage struck upon 
 his accession, assumed the title of Jehan- 
 geer (conqueror of the world), and ex- 
 pressed a hope so to acquit himself as to 
 justify the assumption of this high-sounding 
 epithet. His early measuresf were of a more 
 pacific and benevolent tendency than might 
 have been expected either from this com- 
 mencement, or his general character. He 
 confirmed most of his father's old servants 
 in their offices ; issued orders remitting 
 some vexatious duties which existed, not- 
 
 * The crown and throne, those favourite symbols 
 of power, with which eastern kings have ever de- 
 lighted to dazzle the eyes of their subjects, were of 
 extraordinary magnificence and beauty. The for- 
 mer — made by the order of Akber, in the fashion of 
 that worn by the Persian kings — had twelve points, 
 each surmounted by a diamond of the purest water, 
 while the central point terminated in a single pearl 
 of extraordinary size ; the whole (including many 
 valuable rubies) being estimated at a cost equivalent 
 to £2,070,000 sterling. The throne, so constructed 
 as to be easily taken to pieces and put together again, 
 was ascended by silver stejis, on the top of which 
 four silver lions supported a canopy of jnire gold, 
 the whole adorned with jewels, to an amount, which 
 Price translates, as equal to £,'30,000,000 sterling. 
 
 f One of these, most creditable to Jchangeer, in- 
 volves a terrible revelation of existing evils. He 
 ordered the governor of Bengal to take decided mea- 
 sures for abolishing the infamous practice, long used 
 in Silhet and other dcjicndencies of Bengal, of com- 
 pelling the people to sell their children, or else 
 emasculate and deliver them up to the governors of 
 those province.s in satisfaction for their rents, — by 
 which means some thousand eunuchs had been made 
 yearly. — Gladwin's Jdiangccr, p. 101. 
 
 X Sir Thomas Roe was occasionally admitted to 
 the evening entertainments, when the Great Mogul, 
 mated on a low throne, threw off all restraint, and, 
 
 withstanding the recent reformatory mea- 
 sures ; and desiring to give access to all 
 classes of people who might choose to ap- 
 peal to him personally, caused a gold chain 
 to be hung between a stone pillar near the 
 Jumna and the walls of the citadel of Agra, 
 communicating with a string of little bells 
 suspended in his private apartments ; so that 
 the suitor, by following the chain, would be 
 enabled to announce his presence to the 
 emperor without anj' intermediary. For 
 this invention, Jehangeer takes great credit, 
 and also for the interdict placed by him on 
 the use of wine, and the regulations for 
 that of opium ; but as his own habits of 
 nightly intoxication were notorious,]: the 
 severe punishment with which he visited all 
 other offenders against the laws of strict 
 temperance, gives little evidence of the 
 rigid justice so repeatedly put forward in 
 his autobiography, § as his leading principle 
 of action. Among his first proceedings, 
 was the release of all prisoners throughout 
 the empire. " From the fortress of Gwalior 
 alone," he says, "there were set at liberty no 
 less than 7,000 individuals, some of whom 
 had been in confinement for forty years. 
 Of the number discharged altogether on this 
 occasion, some conception may be formed, 
 when it is mentioned, that within the limits 
 of Hindoostan there are not less than 2,400 
 fortresses, of name and strength, exclusive 
 of those in the kingdom of Bengal, which 
 surpass all reckoning." — {Memoirs, p. 10.) 
 
 together with most of his companions, drank himself 
 into a state of maudlin intoxication. A courtier 
 once indiscreetly alluded, in public, to a debauch of 
 the previous night, upon which Jehangeer affected 
 surprise, inquired what other persons had shared in 
 this breach of the law, and ordered those named to 
 be so severely bastinadoed that one of them died. 
 In his Memoirs, he makes no secret of his habitual 
 excesses, but says his usual allowance once reached 
 twenty cups of spirits a-day, and that if he was a 
 single hour without his beverage, his hands began to 
 shake, and he was unable to sit at rest. After coming 
 to the throne, he took for some time but five cups 
 (little more than a quart), diluted with wine, and only 
 after niglit-fall. Of opium, his daily dose, at forty- 
 six years of age, was eight ruttecs, orsixty-four grains. 
 § This Autobiography resembles that of Timor in 
 the manner in which the royal narrator boldly 
 alleges good motives for his worst deeds, and after 
 describing the torments and cruel deaths inflicted 
 by him on thousands of unhappy beings, dwells, 
 almost in the same page, on his own compassionate 
 and loving nature, giving, as exanqilcs, tlie letting 
 free of birds, deluded by tlie skilfid murmuring of 
 the C'aslimcrians into captivity; his regret for tlie 
 death, by drowning, of a little boy who used to guide 
 his ek'iihant, and similar circumstances. In spite of 
 its defects, the book is botli valualile and interest- 
 ing, as throwing much light on the customs and
 
 HISTORY OF NOUR MAHAL, AFTERWARDS NOUR J KUAN. 121 
 
 Jcliangecr was not lonj^ permitted to en- 
 joy in peace liis vast iiilicritancc.* The 
 ])artial reconciliation between liiin and 
 Prince Kliosru was little more tlian a t(;m- 
 porary cessation of hostilities, marked by 
 distrnst and tyranny on tlie one side — sul- 
 Icniiess and disaHeetion on the other. At 
 Icngtii, some four months after his accession, 
 the emperor was aroused at midnif^ht with 
 the tidings that his son had fled to Delhi, 
 with a few attendants. A detachment was 
 immediately sent in pui'snit, and .Jehan<^eer 
 followed in the morninsi; with all the force 
 he could collect; but notwithstandiuf^ these 
 prompt measures, Khosru succeeded in as- 
 sembling upwards of ](),()(K) men (who sub- 
 sisted by plunder), and obtained possession 
 of Lahore. He was, however, defeated in 
 a contest with a detachment of the royal 
 troops ; taken prisoner in a boat, which ran 
 aground in the Hydaspcs; and in lessthan 
 a month, the wliole rebellion was com- 
 pletely quashed. When brought in chains 
 of gold into the presence of his father, 
 Khosru, in reply to the reproaches and 
 questions addressed to him, refused to 
 criminate his advisers or abettors, entreating 
 tliat his life might be deemed a suificicnt 
 penalty for the ollences he had instigated. 
 Jehangccr, always ready to take advantage 
 of any plausible pretext for the exercise of 
 his barbarous and cruel disposition, spared 
 his sou's lifc,t but wreaked an ample ven- 
 geance, by compelling liim to witness the 
 agonies of his friends ami adherents. Some 
 were sewn up in raw hides and exposed to 
 a burning sun, to die in lingering tortures 
 of several days' duration ; others flayed alive ; 
 while no less than 700 were impaled in a 
 line leading from the gate of Lahore, and 
 so long as any of these unfortunates eon- 
 opinions of the age, and on the demonologv, alche- 
 my, and various superstitions in which Jcliangecr 
 was as firm a believer as his royal compeer, James I., 
 of ]Cnf;'land, wliom lie resembled in another point, 
 namely, strong dislike to tobacco (then newly in- 
 troduced by the Portuguese), against which he also 
 issued a " counterblast," in the shape of a decree, 
 forbidding its use in Hindoostan, as Shah Abbas 
 had jireviously done throughout Persia. 
 
 • Besides the treasure accumulated by his father, 
 
 I he received the property (amounting, in jewels alone, 
 
 I to £4,500,000,) which Danial liad contrived to amass 
 
 I in the Deccan, in great measure by open violence, 
 
 or, as Jehangeer mildly phrases it, by compelling 
 
 people to sell to him elephants and other ])voperty, 
 
 and sometimes omitting to pay for tlicm. The ;iOO 
 
 ladies of the prince's harem were likewise sent to the 
 
 emperor; who, being somewhat puzzled how to dis- 
 
 [ pose of so large an addition to his family, gave them 
 
 to underitand that Uiey were, one and all, free to 
 
 tinned to breathe, the prince was brought 
 daily to the spot, in mock state, mounted 
 on an elephant ami preceded by a mace- 
 bearer, who called out to him to receive the 
 salutations of his servants. Khosru passed 
 three days and nights without tasting food, 
 and long remained a prey to the deepest 
 melanclioly. At the expiration of a year, 
 Jehangeer seemed disposed to lighten his 
 captivity by suffering his chains to be 
 struck off, but a conspiracy for his release 
 being subsequently detected (or invented by 
 the partisans of Prince Khoorum), he was 
 confined as closely as before. 
 
 In 1(507, an army was despatched, tmder 
 Mcdiabet Khan (son of Sagurji, the recreant 
 brother of Pertap), against Umra, Rana of 
 Oudipoor, and another under the Khan Kha- 
 nan, into the Deccan ; l)ut both were unsuc- 
 cessful, and the hitter especially received re- 
 peated defeats from Malek Amber, who retook 
 Alimedutiggur; and uniting to his talents 
 for war no less ability for civil government, 
 introduced a new revenue system into the 
 Deccan, and obtained there equal celebrity 
 to that acquired by Rajah Todar ]\Iul in 
 Hindoostan. 
 
 During these proceedings, Jehangeer was 
 j)rivately oecujiicd in the criminal intrigues 
 which resulted in his marriage with the 
 celebrated Nour Jclian. This clever, but un- 
 principled woman, was the daughter of a 
 Persian adveuturcr.J who having succeeded 
 in gaining admittance to the service of 
 Akber, rose to a position of trust and 
 honour. His wife frequently visited the 
 royal harem with her young daughter, 
 whose attractions speedily captivated the 
 heir-apparent. Akber being made aware of 
 what was passing, had Nonr Jehan bestowed 
 in marriage on Sheer Afghan, a young 
 
 bestow themselves and their dowries on any of the 
 nobles who might desire them in marria.ge. 
 
 t There is a passa^'o in tlie Memairs which indi- 
 cates pretty clearly that Jehangeer would have felt 
 little scruple in following " the distinguished exam- 
 ])le" given by "the house of Othman, who, for the 
 stability of their royal authority, of all their sons, 
 preserve but one, considering it expedient to destroy 
 all the rest." — (p. 60.) 
 
 X Gheias was a man well born, hut reduced to 
 poverty, and driven to seek subsistence by emigrating 
 with his wife and children to India. Directly after 
 reaching Candahar, Xour Jehan was born ; and, being 
 worn down with fatigue and want, the miserable 
 parents exposed the infant on a spot by which the 
 caravan was to pass. Tlie expedient succeeded : a 
 rich merchant saw and took compassion on the child, 
 relieved the distress of its parents, and, perceiving 
 the father and eldest son to be persons of education 
 and ability, procured for them suitable employment.
 
 123 
 
 NOUR MAHAL MADE EMPRESS, a.d. 1611. 
 
 Persian, distinguished for his bravery, to 
 Trhom he gave a jaghire in Bengal, wliither 
 he proceeded, accompanied by his young 
 bride. But the matter did not end here; 
 for Jehangeer, about a year after liis ac- 
 cession, took occasion to intimate to Kootb- 
 oo-deen, the viceroy of Bengal (his foster- 
 brother), hia desire to obtain possession of 
 the cbject of his unhallowed passion. En- 
 deavours were made to sound Sheer Afghan 
 on the subject ; but tlie high-spirited chief, 
 at the first intimation of the designs enter- 
 tained .igainst his honour, threw up his com- 
 mand, and left off wearing arms, as a sign 
 that he was no longer in the king's service. 
 After this, repeated attempts were made to 
 assassinate him, until at length, at a com- 
 pulsory interview with Kootb-oo-decn, per- 
 ceiving himself entrapped, he resolved to 
 sell his life dearly — slew the viceroy and 
 several other officers, and at last fell him- 
 self, covered with wounds. Nour Jehan 
 was seized and sent to court, but, either 
 from some temporary aversion on her part 
 to the murderer of her husband, or (for the 
 tale is differently told) from some equally 
 short-lived compunction on bis, she was 
 allowed to remain in the seraglio inmoticed 
 for above four years. The passion of the 
 emperor at length reviving, he made her his 
 ■wife ; bestowed on her, by an imperial edict, 
 the title of empress ; and styled her first, 
 Nour ]\Iahal [tlie Ugld of the harem), and 
 afterwards Nour Jehan [the light of the 
 world.) Her influence became unbounded : 
 beginning by a feminine desire for splendid 
 jewels,* she soon manifested her capacity 
 for coveting and exercising arbitrary do- 
 minion, and eviuced as much energy and 
 ambition, and as little principle as could be 
 
 * Jt'hangeer states that he assigned for her dowry 
 an amount equal to £7,200,000 sterling, " which 
 sum she requested as indispensable for the purchase 
 of jewels, and I granted it without a murmur." — 
 (p. 271.) He also gave her a pearl necklace, com- 
 prising forty beads, each one of great worth. These 
 statements must, of course, be taken 'jiinnltim v.tleut, 
 and are only cited to enable the reader to form some 
 idea of the numerous and costly jewels worn at the 
 period: the accumulation of which had been for ages 
 the favourite employment of the Hindoo princes, 
 from whom they had been plundered. In evidence of 
 the excessive desire for splendid jewels, may be no- 
 ticed the testimony of Sir Thomas Jloe's chaplain — 
 that one of the cou)-tiers purchased from a merchant a 
 large pear-sha])ed pearl, which he had brought with 
 him from England, for the sum of £1,200. 
 
 t 'J'he Itajpoots have been fortunate in having had 
 Tod for a chronicler ; but they still need a Walter 
 Scott to pop\darize their deeds of love and war in 
 the eyes of thos,-; who care not to look on truth un- 
 mixed with fiction. Yet Rajpoot annals, even in the 
 
 paralleled in many (so called) "great men." 
 Honours never before enjoyed by the consort 
 of any Indian potentate were lavished upon 
 her, even to the conjunction of her name 
 on the coin with that of Jehangeer; her 
 father, Jlirza Gheias, w-as made prime minis- 
 ter ; her brother, Asuf Khan, placed in 
 a high station ; and, on every affair in which 
 she took an interest, her will was law. 
 
 The legislative ability of Mirza Gheias 
 produced beneficial effects in public affairs ; 
 and his modest, yet manly bearing, con- 
 ciliated the nobility, who soon learned to 
 appreciate the value of the control wliich he 
 exercised over the ill-regulated mind of the 
 emperor. Nour Jehan found employment 
 in superintending the construction of pub- 
 lic edifices and gardens ; and by skilftil 
 management, increased the magnificence of 
 the court and lessened the expenditure. 
 The mode of preparing the famous otto of 
 roses is generally attributed, in India, cither 
 to her or to her mother. 
 
 Soon after this marriage, the disturbances 
 in Bengal, which had prevailed throughout 
 the previous years of Jehangeer's reign, 
 were brought to a close a.d. 1612. Malek 
 Amber's Mahratta-like mode of warfare 
 proved increasingly successful in the Deccan, 
 and the imperial forces were decidedly 
 worsted ; but in Mewar, Prince Khoorum, 
 at the head of 20,000 men, obtained the 
 submission of Rana Urara Sing, who, after 
 sustaining seventeen pitched battles, was at 
 length compelled to bow to the jMoguls " the 
 crimson banner" which, for more than 800 
 years, had waved in proud independence 
 over the heads of the Gehlotes. Prince 
 Khoorum (the son of a Rajpootni) evinced 
 affectionate respect towards his brave foe;t 
 
 sober page of the historian, are fraught with romance 
 and chivalry. Take one instance. During the war 
 with Jehangeer, an opportunity occurred to recover 
 some frontier lands in the plains, and Unira, with all 
 his chiefs, assembled for the purpose. Two rival 
 cl.ms (whose feuds largely contributed to the ruin of 
 Mewar) disputed the privilege of forming the hcrole 
 or vanguard, and the sword would have decided the 
 question but for the tact of the prince, who exclaimed, 
 " The heroic to the clan that first enters Ontala." 
 Ontala was a frontier fortress, about eighteen miles 
 cast of Oudipoor, situated on rising ground, with a 
 stream liowing beneath its massy walls, round towers 
 at intervals, and but one gate. Some hours before 
 day-break the clans moved off to the attack ; the Suk- 
 tawuts ai-rived first, and made directly for the gate- 
 way ; the Chondawuts, less skilled in topography, 
 traversed a swamj), which retarded them ; but they 
 brought ladders, and, on arriving, tlieir chief at once 
 conmienced the escalade. A ball struck him l)ack 
 lifeless among his vassals. Meanwhile, the Sukta- 
 wuts were also checked; for the elephant on which
 
 SUBJUGATION OF OUDirOOR, a.d. ini I.— EMBASSY OF IlOii. 123 
 
 and JehatiRCcr himself, delighted at having 
 obtained, by means of the valour of his 
 favourite son, the iiomairc of a prince whose 
 ancestors, intrenched iu tiicir mountain 
 stronghoUls, "had never beheld a king of 
 Ilindoostan, or made submission to any 
 one," sent to the rana a friendly firman, 
 with tlic " imjiress of his five lingers," and 
 desired Klioorum, " liy any means by which 
 it coukl be brought al)out, to treat this il- 
 lustrious one according to his own heart's 
 wishes."* The personal attendance of Umra 
 at the !Mogul court was excused, and a simi- 
 lar exemiition extended to the future reign- 
 ing sovereigns of ]\Icwar, the heir-a])parcnt 
 being received as their representative. Prince 
 Kurrun, the son and successor of Urara, was 
 most honourably welcomed by Jehangeer, 
 who placed him on his right hand, above 
 every other noble, and declared that ''his 
 countenance carried the impression of his 
 illustrious extraction. "t Nour Jehan like- 
 wise loaded him witli gifts and dignities ; 
 but the prince, feeling his newly-forged 
 chains none the lighter for the flowers with 
 which they were wreathed, still remained 
 sad and humiliated, tliough courteous in his 
 bearing. Umra was yet furtiier from being 
 reconciled to become a fief-holder of the em- 
 pire. To receive the imperial firman outside 
 his capital was the only concession demanded 
 from him, in return for which Klioorum 
 oflered to withdraw every Moslem from 
 Mewar. But he could not be brought to 
 submit to the humiliation ; therefore, assem- 
 bling the chiefs, he made the tecka (the 
 
 their leader rode, and or. whose strength he depended 
 to force the gate, was dctt?rred from approaching Ijy 
 its projecting spikes. His men were falling thick 
 about him, when a shout from the rival clan in- 
 spired a des])eratc resolve. Springing to tlie ground, 
 he covered the spikes with his own body, and baile 
 the driver, on pain of instant death, propel the ele- 
 phant against him. The gates gave way, and over 
 the dead body of their chief the clan rushed on to 
 the combat, and, fighting with resistless energy, 
 slaughtered the Moguls, ami planted on the castle tlie 
 standard of Mewar. liut the heroic was not for them j 
 for the next in rank and kin, and heir to the Chonda- 
 wut leader, had caught the lifeless body as it fell, and, 
 true to his title (the mad chief of Deogurh), wrapped 
 it in his scarf, slung it on his back, and, scaling the 
 wall, cleared the way with his lance, until ho was 
 able to tling his burden over the parapet, shouting — 
 " the heroic to the Chondawuts ! we are first in !" 
 
 * Colonel Tod mentions having seen the identical 
 firman in the rana of Oudipoor's archives. The 
 hand being immersed in a compost of sandal-wood, 
 is applied to the paper, to which the impression of 
 the palm and five fingers is thus clearly, and even 
 lastingly allixed. — liiijast'han, vol. i., p. '3(52. 
 
 t liajast'han, vol. i., p. 304. Tod had probably a 
 
 ancient symbol of sovereignty) on his son'.s 
 forehead, and forthwitii quitted the capital, 
 and secluded himself in a neighbouring 
 palace, on the borders of a lake. Tlic stately 
 form of Umra, " the tallest and strongest of 
 the princes of JMcwar," never again crossed 
 the thresludd until it was borne, as dust and 
 ashes, to be deposited in the se[)ulclirc of 
 his fathers; but Prince Klioorum visited 
 him, as a friend, in his retirement, and, in 
 after years, had abundant reason to rejoice 
 in the sympathy which he had manifested 
 towards the Kaj|Kiot princes of Oudipoor. 
 
 In 1G15, Sir Thomas Roe arrived at court, 
 then held at Ajnieer, as ambassador from 
 James I. Ilis journey from Surat, by Boor- 
 hanpoor and Cliittore, lay through the Dec- 
 can, where war was raging ; and the rana's 
 country, where it had just ceased ; yet he 
 met with no obstruction or cause for alarm, 
 except from mountaineers, who took advan- 
 tage of the disturbed state of the times to 
 molest travellers. The emperor received 
 him favourably, notwithstaiidiiig the oppo- 
 sition and intrigues of the Portuguese Jesuits, 
 and the contrast afforded by the unpretend- 
 ing character of his prescntsj and retinue 
 to the magnificent ceremonial which he 
 daily witnessed, and in which he was per- 
 mitted to take part without iierforraing the 
 humiliating prostration which Jehangeer, 
 like Akber, demanded from those who ap- 
 proached him, despite the belief of all zea- 
 lous ^lohammedans, that such homagp could 
 be fitly ofl^ered to the Deity aloiiB. 
 
 The greatest displays took place on the 
 
 more perfect copy of Jehangccr's Jfciiioirs than that 
 translated by Price, as he cites passages not to be 
 found in the English version. 
 
 J; The most acceptable of these seems to have been 
 a eoacli, a mode of conveyance then newly used in 
 Jvigland. Jehangeer had it taken to pieces by na- 
 tive workmen, who, having built another with more 
 costly materials, reconstructed the pattern-one, sub- 
 stituting double-gilt silver nails for the originals of 
 brass, and a lining of silver brocade in.stead of 
 Chinese velvet. Some pictures, likewise, proved 
 suitable gifts; and one of them was so accurately 
 copied by native artists, that Iloe being shown the 
 original and five copies by candle-light, could not, 
 without some difficulty, distinguish that which he 
 had brought from England. Once, being much 
 pressed for some offering wherewith to gratify Jehan- 
 geer's insatiable covetousness, he presented to him a 
 book of maps {JItraitor's Cosmography), with which 
 the emperor was at first excessively delighted ; but, 
 on examination, finding the independent kingdoms 
 there delineated somewhat too numerous to accord 
 with his grandiloquent title, he returned the '-olume, 
 saying that he should not like to deprive the ambas- 
 sador of so great a treasure. — A Votjage to East 
 India, by Sir Thomas Roe's Chaplain. London, 166d.
 
 134 WAR WITH MALEK AMBER.— DEATH OF KHOSRU, 1621. 
 
 emperor's birth-day, when there was a gene- 
 ral fair and many processions and ceremo- 
 nies, among which the most striking was 
 the weighing of tlie royal person twelve 
 times, in golden scales, against gold, silver, 
 perfumes, and otlier substances, which were 
 afterwards distributed among the spectators. 
 The festivities lasted several days, during 
 which time the king's usual place was in a 
 sumptuous tent, shaded by rich awnings, 
 while the ground, for the space of at least 
 two acres, was spread with silken carpets 
 and hangings, embroidered with gold, pearl, 
 and precious stones. The nobility had simi- 
 lar pavilions, where they received visits from 
 each other, and sometimes from the sove- 
 reign. But beneath the veil of splendour 
 and outward decorum, all was hollow and 
 unsound. The administration of the coun- 
 try was rapidly declining ; the governments 
 were farmed, and the governors exacting 
 and tyrannical ; though, occasionally, an ap- 
 peal from some injured person brought upon 
 the oppressor the vengeance of the empe- 
 ror, from which neither ability nor station 
 could purchase immunity. The highest offi- 
 cials were open to corruption ; and Roe, 
 finding the treaty he was sent to negotiate 
 remained unaccomplished after two years' 
 tarry, deemed it expedient to bribe Asuf 
 Khan with a valuable pearl, after which lie 
 soon succeeded in procuring for tlie English 
 a partial liberty of trade ; and then joy- 
 fully took his leave. The military spirit of 
 the Moslems had already evaporated in an 
 atmosphere of sloth and sensuality ; and the 
 Rajpoots, Patans, and Beloochees v/ere 
 spoken of by cotemporary writers (Terry, 
 Hawkins, R,oe) as the only brave soldiers to 
 be found, The language of the court was 
 Persian, but all classes spoke Hindoostani. 
 In the royal family, the succession was a 
 matter of jealous discussion : Khosru was 
 considered to have forfeited his prior claim 
 by rebellion ; and Parvaez, the next in age, 
 
 * Jeliangeer established liimsclf at Ajmeer, in 
 1613, in readiness to support liis son in his opera- 
 tions against the Rana of Oudipoor, and had held 
 his court there ever since. He now iirocecded to 
 take up his residence at Mandu, in Mahva, for the 
 simiUir reason of being nearer [to the seat of war. 
 Sir Thomas Roe was permitted to fallow in the suite 
 of the court. He describes the royal progress as 
 resembling a triumphal procession on a scale of 
 extreme magnificence. Jehangcel' himself, before 
 entering /(/s coach, showed himself to the people, 
 literally laden with jewels — from his rich turban, 
 with its plume of heron feathers, whence " on one 
 side hung a I'ubie unset, as biggo as a walnut, on 
 the other side a diamond as great, in the middle an 
 
 being far inferior in ability to his younger 
 brother, Khoorum, would, it was expected, 
 be set aside to make way for the latter 
 prince, who had married a niece of Nour 
 Jehan, and was supported in his pretensions 
 by her all-powerful influence. 
 
 In 1616, a great expedition was sent to 
 the Deccan, of which the command was 
 given to Khoorum, together with the title 
 by which he was thenceforth known, of 
 Shah Jehan (king of the world) .* He suc- 
 ceeded in regaining /Yhmeduuggur and 
 other places, captured by Malek Amber, 
 who was compelled to make submission on 
 the part of his nominal sovereign, Nizam 
 Shah; but, in 1621, renewed the war. Shah 
 Jehan was again dispatched to the Deccan ; 
 but, from some rising distrust, refused to 
 march unless his unhappy brother. Prince 
 Khosru (who, by the earnest mediation of 
 Parvaez, had had his chains struck oft', and 
 some measure of liberty allowed him) were 
 entrusted to his custody. This desire was 
 complied with, and Khoorum proceeded to 
 attack INIalek Amber, whom he at length 
 brought to risk a general action. The 
 result was very favourable to the Moguls, 
 who granted peace on condition of a further 
 cession of land and a considerable sum of 
 money. Soon after this success, Jehangeer 
 was prostrated by a dangerous attack of 
 asthma. At this critical juncture. Prince 
 Khosru died suddenly, and his rival brother, 
 to whose charge lie had been entrusted, 
 was accused of having incited his assassina- 
 tion. Hovrever caused, it is remarkable 
 that this event, which seemed especially cal- 
 culated to strengthen the pretensions of 
 Shah Jehan to the succession, proved to be 
 only the commencement of a long series of 
 dangers and disasters. The emperor par- 
 tially recovered, and ever after manifested 
 distrust and aversion to his previously fa- 
 vourite child. He evidently sliared the 
 suspicions generally entertained regarding 
 
 emerald like a heart, much bigger," down to his " em- 
 l)roidered buskins with pearle, the toes sharpe and 
 tin-ning up." Immediately after the king rode Nour 
 Jehan, also in an Knglisii carriage. The Leskar, or 
 imperial camp, was admiralily arranged, and occu- 
 pied a circumtorence of at least twenty miles ; looking 
 down from it from a height, it resembled a beautiful 
 city of many-coloured tents; that of the emperor in 
 the centre, with its gilded globes and pinnacles, 
 forming a sort of castle, from wliciice diverged nu- 
 merous streets, laid out wilhout tlie least disorder, 
 since every one, whether noble or shop-keeper, knew 
 the precise spot on which he must place himsell' by 
 its distance from, and situation with regard to, the 
 royal pavilion. — (Murray's Discoveries, vol. ii. p. 153.)
 
 SHAH JEHAN REBELS, 1623.— MOHABET SEIZES EMPEROR, 1G20. 
 
 Khosru's fato ; besides wliicli, the empress 
 having recently alliaiiecd licr (laupjlilcr* by 
 Sheer Afgliaii, to Prince Sbchriar (.lehan- 
 gccr's youngest son), attaclicd licrsclf to 
 liis interests, foreseeing that, in the event 
 of his accession to the tlirone, she miglit 
 continue to exercise a degree of power, 
 whicli, nndcr the sway of his more able and 
 determined brother, was not to be expected. 
 
 With a view of removing Shah .lehan 
 from the scene of his power and triumphs, 
 lie was directed to attempt the recovery of 
 Candahar from the Persians, by whom it 
 had been recently seized. The prince, per- 
 ceiving the object of tliis command, delayed 
 CompHance on one pretext or another, until 
 discussions arose, whieli issued in liis break- 
 ing out into open rebellion, a.d. 1023. The 
 crisis was frauglit witli danger to all par- 
 tics. The father of Nour Jehan, on whom 
 both she and the emperor liad implicitly 
 relied, was dead ; Asuf Khan, though he 
 seemed to move like a puppet according 
 to her will, naturally leant towards his 
 son-in-law ; Parvaez, though a brave sol- 
 dier, needed as a general an able coun- 
 sellor by his side ; nor. does Shehriar seem 
 to have been calculated to take the lead in 
 this fierce and prolonged feud.f At length 
 Nour Jchan cast her eyes on Mohabet Khan, 
 the most rising general of the time, but, 
 heretofore, the especial opponent of her 
 brother, Asuf Khan. To him, jointly with 
 Parvaez, was entrusted the conduct of hos- 
 tilities against Shah Jehan, who retreated 
 to Boorhanpoor, but was driven from thence 
 to Bengal, of whicli province, together with 
 Behai', he gained possession, but was expelled, 
 and obliged to seek refuge in the Deccan, 
 where he was welcomed and supported by 
 his former foe, Malek Amber. At the ex- 
 piration of two years he proffered his sub- 
 mission, and surrendered to Jehangcer the 
 forts of Rohtas in Behar, and Aseerghur in 
 the Deccan, together with his two sons 
 (Dara and Aurungzebe), but he himself 
 took refuge with the Rajpoots of ]\Icwar.| 
 
 Scarcely was this storm allayed, before a 
 still more alarming one burst over the head 
 of the emperor, provoked by his violent 
 temper, and also by the domineering and 
 suspicious conduct of Nour Jehan. The 
 growing popularity of Mohabet Khan had, 
 
 * DellaValle states, that Nour Jehan had previously 
 desired to marry her daughter to Khosru, offering, on 
 tliat condition, to obtain liis release ; but lie steadily 
 refused, from strong aflection to the wife he hail 
 already married, and who, after vainly urging him to 
 comply with the proffered terms, continued as hcre- 
 S 
 
 it would a[)i)ear, excited jealousy, and he 
 was summoned to answer, in person, various 
 charges of oppression and embezzlement 
 adduced against him (luring the time of his 
 occupation of Bengal. He set out for court, 
 attended by a body of r),000 Rajpoot.s, 
 whom he had contrived to attach to his 
 service. Before his arrival, Jehangcer, 
 learning that he had ventured to betroth 
 his daughter without the customary form of 
 asking the royal sanction, sent for the Ijridc- 
 grooni, a young nobleman named Berkhor- 
 dar, caused him to be stripped naked, and 
 beaten with thorns in his own presence ; 
 seized on the dowry he had received from 
 Mohabet, and sequestrated all his other 
 property. On approaching the camp, ^Mo- 
 habet was informed of what occurred, and 
 also that the emperor would not see him; 
 upon which he resolved, while the means 
 reinained at his command, to make a bold 
 stroke for life and liberty. Jehangcer was 
 at this time preparing to cross the Ilydaspes, 
 by a bridge of boats, on his way to (^"abool ; 
 the troops had passed, and he intended to 
 follow at leisure, when Mohabet, by a sudden 
 attack, just before day-break, gained posses- 
 sion of the bridge, and surprised the royal 
 tent, where the emperor, scarcely recovered 
 from the effects of the last night's debauch, 
 was awakened by the rush of armed men. 
 Mohabet pretended to have been driven to 
 this extremity by the enemies who had 
 poisoned the mind of his master against 
 him, and Jehangcer, after the first burst of 
 rage, thought it best to conciliate his captor 
 by affecting to believe this statement, and 
 agreed to accompany him, in public, under 
 the guardianship of a body of Rajpoots. 
 Nour Jehan, on learning that the emperor 
 had been carried to tlie tents of Mohabet 
 Khan, put on a disguise, and succeeded in 
 reaching the royal camp on the opposite 
 side of the river, where she set on foot im- 
 mediate preparations for a forcible rescue. 
 Jehangcer, afraid of what might happen to 
 himself in the confusion, sent a messenger 
 with his signet, to desire that no attack 
 might be made ; but she treated the mes- 
 sage as a trick of Mohabet Khan's, and, at 
 the head of the army, began to ford the 
 river, the bridge having been, in the interim, 
 burned by the Rajpoots. Rockets, balls, 
 
 tofore the patient companion of his long and sad 
 captivity. — (London trcnstatwn (i/"1665, p. .'50.) 
 
 t According to Gladwin, this war " so deluged the 
 empire with blood, lliat tliere was liardly a family 
 but shared in the calamity."— ifi/irfonsteH, vol. i. p. 45. 
 
 \ Shah Jehan was warmly befriended in Oudi-
 
 126 NOUR JEHAN RESTORES THE EMPEROR TO LIBERTY, 1627. 
 
 and arrows were discharged upon the troops, 
 as they strove to make good their passage 
 over a dangerous shoal, full of pools, with 
 deep water on either side ; and, on setting 
 foot on the heach, they were fiercely opposed 
 by the Rajpoots, who drove them back into 
 the water, sword in hand. The ford became 
 choked with horses and elephants, and a 
 frightful sacrifice of life ensued. The em- 
 press* was among those who succeeded in 
 effecting a landing, and at once became the 
 special object of attack. The elephant on 
 which she rode was speedily surrounded, 
 the guards cut to pieces, and, among the 
 balls and arrows which fell thick round her 
 howdah, one wounded the infant daughter 
 of Shehriar, who was seated in her lap, and 
 another killed her driver. The elephant 
 having received a severe cut on the proboscis, 
 dashed into the river, and was carried along 
 by the current ; but, after several plunges, 
 swam out, and safely reached the shore, 
 where Nour Jehan was quickly surrounded 
 by her attendants, who found her engaged 
 in extracting the arrow, and binding up the 
 wound of the terrified infant. The repulse 
 was complete ; for, although a portion of 
 the royalists, vmder an oflicer named Fedai 
 Khan, had, during the confusion of the 
 battle, entered the enemy's camp at an 
 unsuspected point, and penetrated so far 
 that their balls and arrows fell within the 
 tent where Jehangeer was seated, they were 
 compelled to retire by the general defeat, 
 and Fedai Khan, having lost most of his 
 men, and being himself wounded, imme- 
 diately took refuge in the neighbouring 
 fort of Rohtas, of which he was governor. 
 
 Nour Jehan, peixeiving the hopelessness 
 of attempting the forcible rescue of her 
 husband, determined to join him in his 
 captivity ; and her brother, with other 
 leaders, were eventually obliged to surrender 
 themselves to Mohabet Khan, who appeared 
 to be eompleteh' triimiphant, but whose 
 position, nevertheless, demanded great cir- 
 cumspection, lie had from the first affected 
 to treat Jehangeer with much ceremonious 
 deference ; and the captive monarch, tutored 
 by Nour Jehan, pretended to be completely 
 reconciled to his position, and glad to be 
 relieved from the thraldom of Asnf Khan. 
 He even carried his duplicity so far as to 
 
 poor, whoro a sumptuous edifice was raised for liis 
 use, adorned witli a lofty dome crowied with a cre- 
 scent; tlie interior richly decorated with mosaic in 
 onyx, cornelian, jasper and apjates, rich Turkey car- 
 pets, &c. ; and that nothing of state mij^ht be want- 
 ing to the royal refugee, a throne was sculptured 
 
 warn Mohabet of the ambition and discon- 
 tent of the empress, and acted his part so 
 cleverly, as completely to deceive his gaoler. 
 Meanwhile the army advanced to Cabool, 
 and the Afghans in the neighbourhood 
 showed every disposition to take part with 
 the emperor, while the dissensions among 
 the troops gave full employment to their 
 general. Nour Jehan was too able an intri- 
 guante not to take advantage of such favour- 
 able circumstances. She employed agents 
 to enlist fit men in scattered points at a 
 distance, whence some were to straggle into 
 the camp, as if in quest of service; while 
 others were to remain at their positions, 
 and await further orders. Jehangeer next 
 suggested a muster of the troops of all the 
 jaghiredars, of wliora the empress formed 
 an important member, holding large estates, 
 and having been made a munsubdar of 
 30,000; commanders of that rank being, 
 it will be remembered, only expected or 
 even suffered to maintain a much smaller 
 number. When summoned to produce her 
 contingent, she expressed indignation at 
 being placed on the level of an ordinary 
 subject ; but, on pretence of desiring to 
 produce a respectable muster, increased her 
 previous force, by gradually receiving the 
 recruits from the country. Mohabet Khan 
 began to suspect some plot, but suftered 
 himself to be persuaded by Jehangeer to 
 avoid personal risk, by forbearing to accom- 
 pany him to the muster of Nour Jehan's 
 contingent. The emperor advanced alone 
 to the review, and had no sooner got to 
 the centre of the line, than the troops closed 
 in on him, cut ofl" the Rajpoot horse, by 
 whom he was guarded, and, being speedily 
 joined by their confederates, placed his 
 person beyond the reach of recapture. Mo- 
 habet Khan, perceiving himself completely 
 duped, withdrew to a distance with his 
 troops, and, after some attempts at negotia- 
 tion, came to an open rtiptnre, and entered 
 into alliance with Shah Jehan. This prince 
 had endeavoured to take advantage of his fa- 
 ther's captivity to renew hostilities, by march- 
 ing from the Deeean to Ajmeer at the head of 
 little more than 1,000 men; but the death of 
 his chief adherent. Rajah Kishen Sing, de- 
 prived him of at least half his followers, and 
 he was compelled to fly across the desert to 
 
 from a single block of serpentine, su])ported by 
 quadriform female caryatidse ; in the court a little 
 chapel was erected to the Moslem-Saint, Madar. 
 
 * Nour Jehan was a true Amazon : Jehangeer re- 
 cords with much pride her having, on a hunting jiarty, 
 killed four tigers with a matchlock from her elephant.
 
 CIIARACTEll AND DEATH OP JEHANGEEll, a.u. 1G27. 
 
 127 
 
 Sinde. Thence he purposed proceeding to 
 Persia, but, hcnvj; dehiycd by sickness, re- 
 luaincd there until afl'airs took a more pro- 
 niisiiijj; turn. Parvucz died ut Boorliaupoor, 
 according to the general aeeount, f)f'('pilc;])sy, 
 i brought on by excessive drinking, thougii 
 Tod asserts him to have been slain at the 
 instigation of tShah Jehan, who proceeded 
 to the Deccan, where he was joined by 
 Mohabet Khan. 
 
 Jehangeer, shortly after his restoration 
 to liberty, quitted Cal)ool for his residence at 
 Lahore, and from thence set oil' on his 
 ainiual visit to " the blooming sali'ron 
 meads" of Cashmere. ]3ut the autumn 
 was unusually cold, aiul the clear pure air 
 of the lovely valley proved too keen for the 
 broken constitution of the emperor. A 
 severe attack of asthma came on, and an 
 attempt was made to carry him back to the 
 warmer clinuite of Lahore. The motion and 
 passage of the mountains increased the com- 
 plaint, and before a third of the journey 
 was accomplished he expired, in the sixty- 
 sixth year of his age. 
 
 His character was full of contradictions. 
 Though cruel and rapacious, he yet, in many 
 ways, evinced a sort of paternal interest in 
 the welfare of his subjects, and a desire for 
 the impartial administration of justice be- 
 tween rich and poor — Moslem and Hindoo. 
 He occasionally quitted the palace, and went 
 abroad on nocturnal expeditions, mingling 
 freely with the lower classes, without any 
 fear of assassination, although his person, 
 from his daily appearance in public, must 
 have been well known. His easy and 
 familiar manners rendered him popular, 
 notwithstanding the frightful torments in- 
 flicted on real or alleged criminals by his 
 express orders. ]\Iany of his proceedings 
 favour the idea that be had inherited from 
 his mother a taint of madness, which his 
 excesses in wine and opium sometimes 
 brought into action. He was probably as 
 complete a deist as his father, but super- 
 stition had laid much heavier chains on bis 
 weak and wayward mind ; and some of the 
 tales gravely recorded by him might find 
 a fit place in the Arabian Niffhii'. Un- 
 fortunately, his autobiography ceases about 
 the middle of his reign. Long before its 
 conclusion, the whole tone and spirit changes; 
 and instead of e.\ulting over his immense 
 possessions, the royal writer dwells bitterly 
 on the unceasing anxiety attendant on 
 sovereign power, declaring that the jewels 
 formerly coveted had become worthless in 
 
 his sight, and that satiety had utterly ex- 
 tinguished the delight he had once taken 
 in contemplating the graces of youth and 
 beauty. Like a far wiser monarch — even 
 Solomon — he had discovered that all was 
 vanity and vexation of spirit, but knew not, 
 or cared not to search out the antidote. 
 
 With Jehangeer all the schemes of Nour 
 Jehan perished. On her attempting to as- 
 sert the claims of the absent Shehriar, her 
 own In-other, probablj' weary of the tyranny 
 to which he had been so long subjected, 
 placed her under restraint; but, on being 
 ri'leascd, she was treated with respect, and 
 allowed a yearly stipend of a quarter of a 
 million sterling. Throughout her widow- 
 hood she lived very quietly; abstained from 
 all entertainments; wore no colour but white; 
 and at lier death, in 164G, was buried in a 
 tomb she had herself erected, close to that 
 of tlie em|)eror, at Lahore. 
 
 llvi(jn of Shah Jehan. — On the death of 
 Jehangeer, Asuf Khan immediately sent a 
 messenger to fetch his son-in-law, whose 
 cause he had resolved to support, although 
 (according to Dow), by the will of the late 
 cmperoi-, the throne had been expressly be- 
 queathed to Shehriar. Pending the arrival 
 of Shah Jehan, the vizier, desirous to sanc- 
 tion his oviu proceedings by the semblance 
 of legal authority, released Prince Dawir, 
 the son of Khosru, from prison, and pro- 
 claimed him king. Shehriar, who had been 
 at Lahore some weeks, on learning his 
 father's death, seized the royal treasure, 
 took command of the troops — whose favour 
 he gaiued by extravagant largesses — and 
 set free the two sons of Prince Dauial from 
 the species of honourable captivity in which 
 they had been detained by Jehangeer ever 
 since their father's death, in accordance 
 with the cruel policy of oriental despotism. 
 The confederate princes were defeated and 
 captured by Asuf Klian. ^Meanwhile, the 
 Rajpoot allies of Siiah Jehan, delighted at 
 the prospect of his rising fortunes, sent aa 
 escort to Surat to accompany him thence to 
 Oudipoor, and there, within the hospitable 
 walls which had sheltered him in exile, the 
 now triumphant prince was first formally 
 hailed Emperor of Iliudoostau. Il;ina Kur- 
 run did not live to witness the joyful re- 
 turn of the wanderer ; he had died shortly 
 before Jehangeer: his brother, llajah Bheem, 
 with many noble chiefs, had fallen in the 
 cause ; but their representative, Juggut Sing, 
 received from the new emperor, on his de- 
 parture, a ruby of inestimable value, the
 
 128 ACCESSION OF STIAH JEHAN— DOOM OF HIS KINDRED, ad. 1G28. 
 
 restoration of five alienated provinces, and 
 a most welcome permission to reconstruct 
 the fortifications of Cliittore. Other emotions 
 besides those of gratitude were, however, at 
 work within the breast of Shah Jehan. Re- 
 solved, by any means, to grasp the imperial 
 sceptre, he sent to Asuf Khan a mandate for 
 the execution of the puppet he had placed 
 upon the throne, also of his brother Sheh- 
 riar, the two sons of Danial, and another 
 prince, the son of Khosru. The tyrannical 
 command was obeyed.* Shah Jehan was 
 proclaimed king at Agra, January, 1G28, 
 and not a male of the house of Timur re- 
 mained to cause him present or future 
 anxiety, save only his four sons, whose strife 
 and rebellion were destined, by retributive 
 justice, to scourge his crimes, to snatch the 
 sceptre from his feeble hands, and immure 
 him for long years the captive of a son, 
 who, like himself, scrupled not to wade to a 
 throne through the blood of near kindred. 
 
 But this is anticipating events ; for Shah 
 Jehau's reign lasted thirty years before its 
 miserable termination. His first acts were 
 evidently designed to obliterate from the 
 public mind, and probably from his own, 
 the means by vvhich he had endeavoui-ed to 
 consolidate his authority. Following, to a 
 limited extent, the example of his father, lie 
 opened the doors of the fortress of Gwalior 
 to all state- prisoners, some of whom had 
 been in confinement during the whole of the 
 preceding reign — a measure which did more 
 to procure him popularitj^ than the magnifi- 
 cence of his festivals or the costly structures 
 which he delighted in erecting. From these 
 pursuits he was soon diverted by local dis- 
 turbances. • The Uzbeks invaded Cabool, but 
 were driven out by Mohabet Khan. The 
 Mogul arms were next directed against 
 Narsing Deo, of Bundelcuud (the destroyer 
 of Abul Fazil), and the rajah, after long resis- 
 tance, was eventually brought to submission. 
 
 As Shah Jehan considered it the bounden 
 duty of every great prince to leave to his 
 posterity a larger territorial sway than that 
 which he had himself inherited,t it is not 
 
 • According to Dow, all the five princes were 
 murdered; but IClphinstone (on the authority of 
 Olcarius, Amhussadors Trarch, ]). 100) states that 
 Dawir found means to escape to Persia, where he 
 was seen by the Holsteiii ambassadors, in 1G8S. The 
 conduct of Sliah Jelian on this occasion strongly 
 favours the general belief of Iiis hnving instigated 
 the assassination of his brother, Khosru, (see p. 124.) 
 Mr. Elphinstone jjarlially defends him, by remark- 
 ing, " that we ought not readily to believe tliat a li(e 
 not sullied by any other crinu^ could be stained by 
 one of so deep a dye'' (vol. ii. p. .'!C8.) liut, in a 
 
 surprising that abundant reason was soon ' ' 
 found for invading the Deccan. At this 
 period, the three remaining governments 
 held by INIoslems — Ahmeduuggur, Beeja- 
 poor, and Golconda, liad nearly recovered 
 their ancient limits. Khan Jehan Lodi, an 
 Afghan officer of rank, being left with undi- 
 vided authority over the Moguls after the 
 death of Prince Parvaez, had deemed it 
 necessary or expedient, during the troubled 
 state of afl'airs occasioned by the disputes 
 regarding the succession, and the proceed- 
 ings of IMohabet Khan, to surrender the re- 
 maining portion of Shah Jehan's conquests 
 in the Deccan to the son of JNIalek Amber, 
 who had succeeded his father in the Nizam 
 Shahi government : but the fort of Alimcd- 
 nuggur was still held by a Mogul garrison, 
 who refused to obey Khan Jehan Lodi's 
 command. When Shah Jehan set out to 
 ascend the throne. Khan Jehan refused to 
 join him. On learning the defeat and 
 death of Shehriar and Dawir, he profl'ered 
 allegiance, and was confirmed in his gov- 
 ernment by the new emperor, but soon re- 
 moved thence to Malwa, Mohabet Khan 
 taking his place in the Deccan. Having co- 
 operated in the reduction of Narsing Deo, 
 Khan Jehan was invited to court, whitlicr 
 he proceeded with his tvvo sons, relying for 
 safety both on the assurances given to him 
 individually, and on the edict of indemnity 
 proclaimed to all who had opposed the 
 accession of the reigning sovereign. The 
 usher of the court evinced a marked dis- 
 respect towards him — or so at least the 
 proud Afghan considered — but the cere- 
 monies of presentation were passed without 
 any positive disturbance. His son, Azmut, 
 a lad of sixteen, with all his father's 
 high spirit and less discretion, was next in- 
 troduced ; and he, considering that he 
 had been kept too long prostrate, sprang 
 up before the signal was given. The usher 
 struck him on the head with his rod ; tlic 
 youth aimed a blow in return ; upon which 
 a general confusion ensued, and Kiian 
 Jehan, with his sons, rushed from the palace 
 subsequent page, he expressly states, that Shehriar 
 " was afterwards put to deatli with the sons of 
 Danial, by order of Shah Jehan " (vol. ii. p. 3SS.) 
 He does not adopt Dow's statement of the bequeath- 
 ing of the throne by Jehangeer to Shehriar; and, 
 consequently, regards that prince and his nepliews 
 as having forfeited their lives by rebellion against 
 the lawful authority of Shah Jehan, the eldest sur- 
 viving son. By Moliammedan law, the children of 
 Danial were cut oft' from the succession by the death 
 of tlieir fallier, before their grandfather. 
 
 f Dow's Ilistoty (if JlimluosUui, vol. iii. ]>. 107.
 
 KUAN JEIIAN LODI— HIS HISTORY AND FATE, a.i,. 1G30. 129 
 
 to tlicir own lioiisc, iuul tlicrc shut thcra- 
 sclvcs up witliin the stroiij? stone walls, with 
 about 300 (lcj)ciulcnts. The emperor, not 
 caring to order a siege so near his own 
 abode, endeavoured to entice tlie rofraetory 
 jioble 1)3' fair words ; but, not venturing to 
 put faith in them, Khan .Ichan asseinldcd 
 his troops by night, and marched out 
 of Agra, >vith his kettle-drums beating.* 
 "Within two hours a strong detachment was 
 sent in pursuit, and came up with the fugi- 
 tives at the river Chunibul. A desperate 
 encounter took place, especially between 
 the Afghans and a body of Rajpoots, who 
 dismounted and charged with lances, accord- 
 ing to their national custom. Azmut was 
 slain, after first killing with an arrow the 
 Mogul usher, who had struck him at court; 
 and Khan Jchan, being wounded in an 
 encounter with Rajah Pirthi Sing, ))lungcd 
 into the stream, and succeeded in gaining 
 the opposite bank, from ivhenee, though 
 hotly pursued by a nnu'h superior force, he 
 made his way through Bundelcund into the 
 wild and woody country of Gondwana, 
 where he opened a friendlv communication 
 with the king of Ahmcdnuggur. 
 
 Towards the close of 1020, Shah Jehan 
 marched to Roorhanpoor, at the head of a 
 powerful armament, and sent on three de- 
 tachments (estimated by Khali Khan at 
 50,000 men each), to march into Ahmcd- 
 nuggur. Khan Jehan and his friends could 
 make no head against this overwhelming 
 force. The kings of Golconda and Beeja- 
 poor, as long as possible, kept aloof from 
 the coiiilict, and Mortczza Nizam Shah, of 
 Aliniednuggur, was himself obliged to seek 
 protection in his forts. Khan Jehan was at 
 length driven from the Deccan, and hunted 
 from place to place. Being overtaken in 
 Bundelcund, he made a desperate stand, and 
 when defeated endeavoured to force his way 
 into the hill-fort of Caliiijer, but was rei)ulsed 
 with the loss of his last remaining son, and 
 
 * The account given by lC!])lunstone and Dow, on 
 the authority of native writers, differs greatly. Ac- 
 cording to the former. Khan Jeliau was accompanied 
 in his flight by his women on elephants, and by 
 twelve of his sons. Dow alleges a fearful tragedy 
 to have been previously enacted. Thinking it hope- 
 less to attempt carrying away the inmates of liis 
 harem, and dishonourable to abandon them to the 
 lust of his foes, Klian Jehan knew not what to 
 do ; when the women, learning his perplexity, took 
 the desperate resolve of destroying themselves, and 
 thus removing all im))cdiments to his escape. They 
 did so, and their shrieks and groans reached the ears 
 of Khan Jehan, who, after hastily jjcrforming the 
 rites of sepulture, assembled his foUoners in the 
 
 finally overtaken at a pool, where he had 
 stopped from exhaustion. The few brave 
 adherents who still followed him, he en- 
 treated to seek safety in (light, but they (to 
 the number of about thirty) refused to for- 
 sake tlieir brave leader, and were, with him, 
 cut to pieces after a desperate struggle with 
 the Rajpoots. The head of the uidiappy 
 chief was fi.xed on a ])ikc, and carried in 
 triumph, as a most acceptable gift, to Shall 
 Jehan, a.d. 1030. 
 
 The hostilities against Ahmcdnuggur did 
 not end with the life of the iierson whose 
 conduct had formed the pretext for them, 
 but were prosecuted in the ferocious spirit 
 befitting an invader, who declared war to be 
 an evil which compassion contributed to 
 render permanent. t Time passed on; fire 
 and the sword were freely used to ravage 
 the country and dishearten its defenders ; 
 drought, famine, and pestilence, to a fright- 
 ftil extent, lent their aid, but still, in 103o, 
 repeated murderous campaigns were found 
 to have left the Deecan as far as ever from 
 being subdued to the imperial yoke. J 
 
 At one time, indeed, affairs had seemed 
 more promising, owing to the internal feuds 
 which wasted the strength of Ahmednuggur. 
 ^lortezza Nizam Shah (the king set up by 
 Malek Amber) being, on the death of the 
 vizier, inclined to act for himself, threw the 
 eldest son of his patron, Futteh Khan, into 
 prison ; but, being pressed by foes without, 
 and faction within, was soon glad to release 
 him and place him in his father's position. 
 jMohammed Adil Shah of Beejapoor, who 
 had looked on from neutral ground, and 
 left the neighbouring kingdom to maintain 
 single-handed the contest with the iloguls, 
 became alarmed at the probable consequence 
 of the ruin of a monarchy, which, though 
 at all times a rival, and often an inimical 
 state, had nevertheless long formed a valu- 
 able bulwark against iuvasion from Hin- 
 doostan. lie now, therefore, declared war 
 
 court-yard, threw open the gates and rushed out, 
 maddened by rage and despair. — (Vol. iii., p. 133.) • 
 
 t Dow's Histiiri/ iif Himloijslan, vol. iii., p. 168. 
 
 J Azuf Klian " trod down tlie scanty harvest in the 
 Deccan, and ravaged with fire and sword the king- 
 dom of Beejapoor." — (Dow, vol. iii., p. 151.) The 
 Hindoos, in desp.air, abandoned all attempts at culti- 
 vation, and prostrated tliemselves in crowds before 
 the shrine of their gods, upon wliich, Shah Jehan issued 
 an edict for breaking down their idols, and demo- 
 lishing the temples. Many Brahmins were mas- 
 sacred; but the resistance offered was so determined, 
 that the emperor was compelled to relinquish this 
 species of persecution, and to adopt more gentle 
 means of inducing them to till the ground.
 
 130 
 
 SHAH JEHAN SUBJUGATES AHMEDNUGGUK a.d. 1637. 
 
 against Shah Jehan; but tlie effect of the 
 divcrsioa intended to be created by this 
 step, in favour of Mortezza Nizam Shah, 
 failed in its eflect, through the machina- 
 tions of Futteh Khan, who, treacherously 
 employing the power newly entrusted to 
 him, to the ruin, instead of the protection of 
 his royal master, caused him to be put to 
 death, with his chief adherents. He then 
 took the government into his own hands, and 
 sent Ji large contribution, or rather bribe, 
 to the Moguls, with ofl'ers of submission, 
 and an open profession that the infant he 
 had placed on the throne would hold his 
 dignity in subordination to the emperor. 
 Shah Jehan doubtless considered it as 
 necessary, in the contingencies of war, to 
 overlook perfidy and uphold its perpetrators, 
 as to set aside the pleadings of compassion ; 
 and this is not to be wondered at ; for jus- 
 tice and mercy, rightly understood — 
 " Ai'e twin-born sisters ; and so mix theii' eyes, 
 As if )ou sever one, the otlier dies." 
 
 Futteh Khan's proposals were immediately 
 accepted ; but having no intention of ful- 
 filling his promise to any further extent 
 than that which his own nari'ow views of 
 expediency might dictate, he no sooner saw 
 the whole jNIogul force directed against 
 Beejapoor, than he violated his engage- 
 ments, and being consequently attacked by 
 the Moguls, ouce more made common cause 
 with the king of Beejapoor. 
 
 Shah Jehan returned to Agra iu 1632, 
 after having ineftectualiy besieged Mo- 
 hammed Adil Shah in liis capital, leaving 
 Mohabet Khan in command. The opera- 
 tions under that general led to Futteh 
 Khan's being shut up in the fort of Uou- 
 latabad, where he was besieged, and at 
 length forced or induced to surrender. Not- 
 withstanding all his treachery, he was re- 
 ceived into the Mogul army,* while the un- 
 happy child, whom he had styled king, was 
 sent to languish in the lately emptied fort 
 of Gwalior. Ahmednuggur was, however, 
 not yet conquered. Shahjce Bhonslay, an 
 officer who hud played a conspicuous pari 
 in the recent war, and whose family were 
 afterwards the founders of the Mahratta 
 power, asserted the rights of a new claimant 
 
 * lie afterwards became mad, and died from the 
 effects of an old wound in the Iiead. 
 
 t In 103-i and Ki.'JG, a portion of the troops on tlie 
 eastern frontier completed the settlement of Little 
 Thibet; another detachment was defeated, and almost 
 destroyed, in an attemjit to conquer Srinaj;ar in 
 1G3-1 ; and u third, after subduing the petty sUitc of 
 Cutch 13ehar from Bengal, in 1637, was compelled 
 
 to the throne, and gradually conquered all 
 the districts of that kingdom, from the sea 
 to the capital. 
 
 The king of Beejapoor, after the capture 
 of Doulatabad, made overtures of negotia- 
 tion, but these being unfavourably received, 
 continued to defend himself bravely, until 
 Mohabet Khan, having vainly invested Pu- 
 rinda, was compelled to fall back upon Boor- 
 hanpoor, and to desist from aggressive opera- 
 tions. On learning the ill success of his 
 deputies, Shah Jehan resolved to take the 
 field in person, and dividing his troops 
 as before, sent them first into Ahmednug- 
 gur to attack Sahjee: having driven him from 
 the open country, they proceeded to assault 
 Beejapoor. Adil Shah was, however, a bold 
 and determined prince ; he laid waste the 
 country for twenty miles around, destroyed 
 every particle of food or forage, choked the 
 wells, drained the reservoirs, and rendered 
 it impossible for any army to invest the 
 city. Peace was at length granted, the 
 king of Beejapoor agreeing to pay £200,000 
 a-year to Shah Jehan, who conferred upon 
 him, in return, a share of the Nizam Shahi 
 dominions. Shahjee held out for some time 
 longer, but at length submitted, gave up 
 the person of the pretended king, and 
 entered into the service of Adil Shah, by 
 the permission of the emperor. The king 
 of Golconda had not ventured to contest 
 Shah Jehan's claim to supremacy and tri- 
 bute, which he had recognised at the com- 
 mencement of this expedition, and the em- 
 peror returned in triumph, the kingdom of 
 Ahmednuggur being now extinguished. 
 
 "While these prolonged hostilities were 
 carried on in the Deccan, coittests of less 
 magnitude Avere taking place in Little 
 Thibet, Hooghly, Cutch Behar, and else- 
 where. t During his rebellion. Shah Jehan 
 had applied to the Portuguese at Hooghly 
 for aid, and had received a refusal (couched, 
 it is alleged, in terras of reproach for his 
 undutiful conduct), which he only waited 
 a convenient opportunity to revenge. His 
 late wife, J jMuintaz i\Iahal, daughter to Asuf 
 Kliau, had also conceived an especial dis- 
 like to "the European idolaters," on account 
 of the images before which they worshipped. 
 
 to retire by the unhealthiness of the climate. — 
 (lilphinstone, vol. ii., ]). 401.) 
 
 J This lady died in 1G31. She had been married 
 twenty years, and had borne nearly as many children. 
 Shah Jehan erected to her memory a structure of 
 extraordinary beauty and magnificence (called, by a 
 corruption of her name, Taj Mahal), which forms 
 one of the most interesting monuments of Agra.
 
 CANDAIIAR FINALLY REGAINED BY PERSIA, a.o. ir,17. 
 
 131 
 
 Tliese circumstances lent weight to a repre- 
 sentation which arrived from the f^ovcrnor 
 of Benf^al, comi)lainiiig of the insolent and 
 aggressive conduct of the Portngncse,* and 
 he received from the emperor tiic laconic 
 command — " expel these idolaters from my 
 dominions." 1 looghly was carried b_v storm, 
 after a siege of three months and a-lialf, in- 
 volving a terrible destruction of life on the 
 side of the Portuguese, whose (leet (including 
 sixty-four large vessels) was almost entirely 
 destroyed. The principal ship, in which about 
 2,000 men, women, and children had taken 
 refuge, with all tlicir treasure,was blown up by 
 its captain, sooner than yield to the jMoguls; 
 and the example was followed in many other 
 vessels. From the prisoners, 500 young per- 
 sons, of both sexes, were selected, with some 
 of the priests, and sent to Agra; the girls 
 were distributed among the harems of the 
 emperor and chief nobles, and the boys 
 circumcised. The Jesuits and other friars 
 were vainly threatened with severe punish- 
 ment if they persisted in rejecting the 
 Koran ; but, after some months' confine- 
 ment, were liberated and sent to Goa. The 
 pictures and images, which had excited the 
 displeasure of the queen, were all destroyed, 
 and Iloogldy became the roval port of Ben- 
 gal, a.d. 'l033. 
 
 In 1(!37, the Persian governor of Can- 
 dahar, incited by the tyranny of his sove- 
 reign, surrendered this important frontier 
 post to Shah Jehan, who appointed him to 
 various high positions (including, at diftei-- 
 ent times, the governments of Cashmere 
 and Cabool), and made him leader of several 
 important expeditions, the iJrst of which 
 was the invasion of Balkh and Badakshan, 
 in 1614'. The pretext for hostilities was 
 Shall Jehan's desire to assert the dormant 
 rights of his family ; the inducement, the 
 revolt of the son of the reigning Uzbek sove- 
 reign, Nazir INEohammed, and the conse- 
 quent unfitness of the state to resist foreign 
 invasion. After a large expenditure of 
 blood and treasure, and the display of extra- 
 ordinary valour on the part of a body of 
 14,000 Rajpoots, commanded by Ilajali 
 Juggut Siugjt v.'ho encountered the hardships 
 of the rigorous climate as unshrinkingly as 
 the fierce onsets of the Uzbeks, Balkh was 
 
 • Among other accusations, tlie governor asserted, 
 that the Portuguese were in the habit of kidnapping 
 or purchasing ch.ildren, and sending them as shivcs 
 to other parts of India. — (Stewart's Jicnr/n!, p. 240.) 
 
 t Elphinstone, vol. ii., p. 402. This chief would 
 appear to have been the son of Mokund Sing, llajah 
 of Kotah, a branch of the Oudipoor family. 
 
 at length captured. In this war the princes 
 IMorad and Auriingzebc were both em- 
 l)loycd ; and Shah Jehan twice repaired to 
 Cal)ool, to support their efforts. But all 
 endeavours to restore order into the con- 
 (juercd territory were rendered ineffectual 
 by the marauding incursions of Uzbeks 
 from tiie other side of tlie Oxns, hearled 
 by Abdool Aziz, the i)rinee whose turbu- 
 lence had stimnhited the Mogul invasion. 
 Shah Jehan, despairing of being able to 
 keep what it had cost so much to gain, 
 re-instated Nazir ^rohammed on his throne, 
 on condition of receiving a small annual tri- 
 bute ; and after restoring the places of which 
 he had got possession, left him to maintain 
 the contest against his rebellious son as best 
 he might. t 
 
 In 1G17, Candahar was taken by Shah 
 Abbas IL in person. In 1619 and 1002, 
 it was invested by Aurungzebe; and, in 
 1G.J.3, by Dara Slieko, the acknowledged 
 heir to tlie throne — Shah Jehan, on each 
 occasion, accompanying the army as far 
 as Cabool. Dara made a fierce and de- 
 termined attack ; for the jealousy already 
 springing up between the royal brothers, 
 rciulcrcd him especially desirous to con- 
 quer where Aiu-ungzcbe had been twice 
 defeated. Besides natural means, he had 
 rccoin'se to magicians and astrologers, 
 who promised great things, but could not 
 prevent the failure of his last desperate 
 assault, in which, though the troops at one 
 time gained the summit of the rampart, 
 they were eventually repulsed, and Dara 
 com])cllcd to raise the siege, after losing 
 the flower of his army in its prosecution. 
 No after-endeavour was made by the iloguls 
 to recover Candahar, of which they had 
 held but precarious possession since its first 
 conquest by Baber. 
 
 Two years of nearly undisturbed tran- 
 quillity followed, during which. Shah Jehan 
 liaving completed a revenue survey of his 
 Deccani dominions, gave orders for the 
 adoption of the systetn of assessment and 
 collection, introduced by Todar jMuI, iu 
 Bengal. This period is likewise memorable 
 for the death of Saad Ullali Khan, who had 
 succeeded Asuf Khan§ as vizier. In him 
 Shah Jehan lost a wise and upright minister, 
 
 X Upon this war, according to Dow, i:ix million 
 were exjiended out of the im])erial treasury, besides 
 
 estates granted to the value of one million more. I 
 
 § Asuf Khan died in 1641, leaving several chil- | 
 
 dren ; but as the emperor loved money, and might ' 
 
 possibly avail himself of the law which constituted . 
 
 the sovereign heir to all his officers, the prudent vizier i
 
 132 WAR WITH BEEJAPOOR AND GOLCONDA, a.d. 1655—1657. 
 
 whose ability had made amends for the de- 
 creasing energy consequent on the criminal 
 excesses in which the emperor liad indulged 
 after the death of his favourite wife. 
 
 Towards the close of 1655, a pretext was 
 found for renewing the war in the Deccan. 
 Abdullah Kootb Shah, of Golconda, had 
 taken for his chief minister, Meer Jumla, 
 originally a Persian adventurer; who had 
 gradually acquired great wealth as a diamond 
 merchant. During the absence of this 
 officer, in command of an army in the 
 eastern part of the kingdom, his son, Mo- 
 hammed Ameen, a dissolute and violent 
 young man, seated himself on the musnud, in 
 a fit of intoxication; for which offence he was 
 severely reprimanded, and forbidden to ap- 
 pear in the presence of the sultan. iSIeer 
 Jumla, either from distrust of his sovereign, 
 or, as is more probable, from some pre- 
 vious understanding with Aurungzebe, to 
 whom he was personally known, took oc- 
 casion to solicit the assistance of that 
 pi'ince. Such conduct was inexcusably dis- 
 loyal ; for it does not appear that either the 
 life or liberty of the oft'ender were in danger ; 
 and Abdullah, by the regular payment of 
 the stipidated tribute since the last pacifica- 
 tion, had left no plea for INIogul interference. 
 Nevertheless, Shah Jehan was induced to 
 send to the sultan a peremptory order for the 
 discharge of both father and son, for whom 
 the same envoy bore commissions in the 
 imperial service as munsubdars, respectively 
 of 5,000 and 2,000 horse. Before the ar- 
 rival of the ambassador, Abdullah having 
 learned his approach and mission, threw 
 Mohammed Ameen into prison, and confis- 
 cated the property of his father. Shah 
 Jehan then authorised Aurungzebe to carry 
 his command into effect by force of arms, 
 which the wily prince proceeded to do 
 after his own treacherous and manoeuvring 
 fashion, by despatching a chosen force, 
 under pretence of escorting his son, Sultan 
 Mohammed, to Bengal,* there to espouse 
 his cousin, the daughter of Prince Shuja, 
 the viceroy of that province. Abdullah 
 Shah was preparing an entertainment for 
 the reception of the supposed bridegroom, 
 when he suddenly advanced as an enemy, 
 and took the sultan so entirely by surprise, 
 that he had only time to fly to the neigh- 
 thought it best to distribute <a certain portion of his 
 wealth, amounting to £375,000, amontj his chil- 
 dren and servants, leaving the remainder (nearly 
 £4,000,000 stg.) to his grandson, Dara bheko. J lis 
 landed estates, of course, reverted to the crown. 
 
 bouring hill- fort of Golconda, while Hydera- 
 bad fell into the hanrls of the ]\Ioguls, and 
 was plundered andhalf-burued before the sol- 
 diery could be brought into order. Abdullah 
 Shah released i\Iohammcd Ameen, restored 
 the confiscated property, and did all in his 
 power to enter into an accommodation on 
 reasonable terms, but Aurungzebe persisted 
 in investing Golconda, and Meer Jumla 
 drew near with re-inforcemeuts, in readiness 
 to turn his unfortunate master's troops 
 against himself. 
 
 After repeated unsuccessful attempts to 
 obtain aid from Beejapoor, and to raise the 
 siege by force, Abdullah Shah was com- 
 pelled to submit to the severe terms im- 
 posed upon him of giving his daughter in 
 marriage to Sultan ^Mohammed, with a 
 large dowry in land and money, and paying 
 a crore of rupees (£1,000,000 sterling) as 
 the first instalment of a yearly tribute ; in 
 which, however, a considerable remission 
 was afterwards made by Shah Jehan. 
 
 When these matters were settled, the king- 
 dom of Beej apoor was invaded by Aurungzebe 
 on a plea as hollow as that used for the attack 
 on Golconda. Mohammed Adil Shah died 
 in November, 1656, and was succeeded by 
 his son Ali, a youth of nineteen. A large 
 portion of the Beejapoor army was employed 
 at a distance, in wars with the petty Hindoo 
 princes of the Carnatic; and Aurungzebe, 
 having obtained his father's approval of his 
 nefarious project, asserted the right of the 
 emperor to decide upon the succession, 
 denied that the minor was the real issue 
 of the late sovereign, advanced upon the 
 capital, and by sudden and treacherousf pro- 
 ceedings, left the new king no resource but 
 to sue for peace on any terms. Even this 
 overture was rejected by Aurungzebe, who 
 would probably have speedily obtained com- 
 plete possession of the kingdom, had not 
 his attention been suddenly diverted by the 
 startling intelligence, that his father's dis- 
 graceful indulgences had brought on an 
 attack of paralysis and strangury, which 
 threatened to terminate fatally. 
 
 At this time, the children of Shah Jehan, by 
 Mumtaz Mahal, were six in number. Dara 
 Shcko, the eldest, then in his forty-second 
 year, was a high-spirited prince, dignified iu 
 his manners, and generous to his adherents, 
 
 * In the road from Aurungahad to Bengal, a cir- 
 cuit is made to avoid the forests of Gondwana, and 
 thus the jirince was enabled to come within a short 
 distance of Hyderabad, without creating suspicion. 
 
 t He succeeded in corrupting All's prime minister.
 
 CHARACTERS OF THE CHILDREN OF SHAH JEHAN. 
 
 J 33 
 
 but obstinate in the extreme, and impatient 
 of lulvico, even from counsellors on whose 
 judgment and ability he niiglit bo expected 
 to phiee most reliance. Slnija was brave, 
 and not devoid of capacitj*, tjut given up to 
 wine and pleasure. Auruii<^zebc, the third 
 biothcr, was a man of extraoi'dinary ability. 
 His talents for war and intrigue bad been 
 repeatedly manifested, and Dara appears to 
 have fully appreciated the depth of am- 
 bitious resolve', whieli lay liidden beneath 
 the veil of extreme humility of deportment 
 and an affected indifference to all worldly 
 distinction.* 
 
 Zeal for the religion of Mohammed was 
 the ostensible motive of Aurungzebe's con- 
 duct through life ; how far felt or how far 
 feigned, can scarcely be decided, owing to 
 the profound and habitual dissimulation 
 which marked his whole career. A creed 
 to be unceasingly promulgated by any and 
 every means, was, in cither case, a con- 
 venient political weapon ; and Anrungzebe 
 used it skilfully and without scruple. Frugal 
 and abstemious almost to asceticism, he 
 seemed resolved to follow in the steps of the 
 early cabphs, and drew the attention of the 
 more zealous Moslems, by bis studious ful- 
 filment of every ordinance, until he became 
 looked up to as the champion of Islam, in 
 contradistinction to Dara, who openly pro- 
 fessed many of the tenets of Akber, and 
 had written a book to reconcile the Hindoo 
 and Mohammedan doctrines. Shuja, the 
 viceroy of Bengal, was unpopular with the 
 orthodox party, ou account of his attach- 
 ment to the Persian sect of the Sheiabs. 
 Morad, the youngest prince, the governor 
 of Guzerat, was brave and generous, but 
 presumptuous and self-willed, with little 
 intellect, and addicted to sensual gratifica- 
 tions. Padshah Uegum, the elder of the 
 two daughters, was richly endowed with 
 beauty and talent. She exercised un- 
 bounded influence over her father, and was a 
 great support to her favourite brother Dara. 
 Roushcnara, the younger princess, though 
 less gifted with personal or mental attrac- 
 tions, possessed considerable aptitude for in- 
 trigue ; and having made common cause with 
 Aurungzebe, served him materially, by for- 
 warding reliable information respecting the 
 state of affairs at court at critical periods. 
 
 • Ont' of our best authorities for this period is 
 Bernier, an intelligent French traveller, who having 
 been reduced to a state of penury "by various ad- 
 ventures -with robbers, and by ihc heavy expenses 
 incurred on a journey of nenr seven weeks from 
 T 
 
 Dara endeavoured to keep the illness of 
 the empeior a profoutul secret until tlie 
 crisis shoidd be past, by intercepting eor- 
 respondence and detaining liavellers lilccly 
 to spread the news throughout the pro- 
 vinces; but all in vain : the absent i)riiiees 
 soon learned wliat had occurred, and at 
 once ]irepared to struggle for life and em- 
 ])ire. Shuja assembled the troops of Bengal, 
 and marched forthwith into Bchar, on his 
 way to the capital. Morad seized tlie 
 money in the district treasuries of Guzerat, 
 and laid siege to Surat, where there was 
 a governor independent of his authority. 
 Aiuungzebc ])reparcd his forces, but made 
 no open declaration of war, until orders 
 came from Dara, in the name of the em- 
 peror, directing !Meer Junila and other 
 commanders to quit liis standard. This 
 injunction carried considerable weight in 
 the case of the above-named general. On 
 joining the Mogids, he had been appointed 
 to the highest ofiices at court, but through 
 the solicitations of Dara, was sent back to 
 the Deccau. His family remained at Agra : 
 he therefore feared the consequences of 
 disobeying the imperial mandate. The 
 subtlety of Aurungzebe soon suggested an 
 expedient. j\Iccr Jumla was seized with 
 pretended violence, and i)bieed in the fort 
 of Dotdatabad, while his chief officers con- 
 tinued secretly to obey his commands. 
 Dara and Shuja, Aurungzebe knew, might 
 be safely left to fight out their own quarrel; 
 in !Morad, he calculated, with reason, upon 
 finding a useful tool, as well as an easy 
 dupe. He addressed him a letter in the 
 most adulatory strain, proffering his zealous 
 co-operation against the infidel Dara, and de- 
 claring, that after aiding his worthy brother 
 to mount the throne, he should renounce 
 the world, and devote his life to praying fijr 
 his welfare in the holy retirement of Mecca, 
 ^lorad, completely deceived, joyftdly ac- 
 cepted the offer, aiul Aurungzebe marched 
 to join him in Mahva, whither Eajab Jes- 
 wtuit Sing had been already scut to onpose 
 them ; but he, from sheer fool-h;u-(lincss, 
 is alleged to have permitted the junction of 
 the princes. ^Meanwhile, Shah Jehan had 
 sufliciently recovered to resume the general 
 control of the government. The tender solici- 
 tude of Dara, during his illness, had rendered 
 
 Surat to Agra and Delhi," was glad to accept a 
 salary from Shah Jehan in the capacity of physician, 
 and also from Banechmur.d Khan, a distinguished 
 noble of the Mogul court to which Bernier was at- 
 tached for eight vears.
 
 134. FIERCE STRUGGLE FOR EMPIRE BETWEEN THE FOUR PRINCES. 
 
 this son more dear to him than ever, and he 
 resented with energy the misconduct of the 
 other princes. To Shuja he wrote, com- 
 manding him in imperative terms to return 
 iiiimediately to his government; but instead 
 of obeying, the pi'ince affected to consider 
 the order dictated by Dara, and continued 
 his progress until he encountered Solimau 
 Sheko, the son of Dara, in the neighbour- 
 liood of Benares, by vphom he was defeated 
 and compelled to retreat into Bengal. This 
 battle occurred at the close of 1657 : in the 
 spring of the following year, a fierce conflict 
 took place between the forces of the con- 
 federate princes and Rajah Jeswunt Sing, 
 who had encamped on the river Sipra, near 
 Oojein. The Rajpoots fought bravely, but 
 were ill-supported, for most of the Moguls 
 deserted to the enemy. The rajah retired 
 in disorder to his own country, and Morad, 
 whose gallantry had been very conspicuous 
 throughout the sanguinary conflict, which 
 had lasted from morning to sunset, was 
 hailed as sole victor, Aurungzebe still 
 acting in conformity with the solemn oath 
 of fidehty and allegiance he had voluntarily 
 taken at tlieir first meeting. Shah Jehan 
 now determined to take the field in person 
 agaiust his turbulent sons. Had he per- 
 severed in this resolve, much bloodshed 
 would probably have been spared, as the 
 soldiers of the rebel camp were known to 
 be well-disposed towards him personally, 
 and would doubtless have rallied round his 
 standard. But Dara did not comprehend 
 the extent of the danger ; regard for his 
 father's infirm state, united perhaps to a 
 more selfish desire of keeping the authority 
 in his own hands, rendered him averse to 
 this proposition, and Shah Jehan reluctantly 
 gave way. Confident in his superior num- 
 bers, Dara refused even to wait for Soliman, 
 then on his victorious march from Benares 
 with the flower of the troops, and proceeded 
 single-handed to meet the advancing foe.* 
 
 The hostile armies came in sight of each 
 other at Samaghar, one march from Agra, 
 in the beginning of June, 1658. The battle 
 which ensued was long and bloody, the 
 three brothers fighting with desperation. 
 Morad was attacked by 3,000 Uzbek 
 archers, who showered their arrows upon his 
 howdah until they resembled the bristling 
 quills of a porcupine, and the frightened 
 elephant would have rushed from the field, 
 
 • Khafi Khan states the imperial force at above 
 70,000 horse, with inimmorablo elephants and f;iins. 
 (Elphinstone, vol. ii., p. 4Si.) Bernier, at 100,000 
 
 had he not ordered its feet to be chained, 
 thus (although wounded in several places) 
 cutting off his own power of retreat. 
 Aurungzebe saw his brother's danger, but 
 was fully occupied in opposing Dara, who 
 having, by a third fierce charge of cavalry, 
 broken through the guns chained together 
 in front of the enemy's line, now carried all 
 before him, and, though again cheeked, 
 would probably have eventually prevailed, 
 had not a rocket struck the elephant on 
 which he rode, whUe pressing forward and 
 cheering on his troops by voice and action. 
 The terrified animal became perfectly un- 
 governable. Dara threw himself from its 
 l)ack and sprang upon a horse ; but an at- 
 tendant, while fastening on his quiver, was 
 killed by a shot. The momentary con- 
 fusion which occurred among those imme- 
 diately around him, added to the eft'cct of 
 his previous disappearance from the view of 
 the more distant troops, occasioned a gene- 
 ral panic. With him the sole object of the 
 war was supposed to have perished ; and the 
 confederate princes perceiving their advan- 
 tage, pressed forward and drove the now 
 disordered foe, including Dara himself, be- 
 fore them, in irremediable disorder. Rajah 
 Chutter-sal, of Boondi, with his vassals, 
 formed the vanguard of the unfortunate 
 prince, and made a devoted but unavailing 
 eftbrt to stem the torrent. The rajah, 
 himself, clad in saffron robes, with a ehaplet 
 of pearls on his head, was true to these 
 ensigns of victory or death. Leaping from 
 the back of his wounded elephant, which he 
 could not restrain from joining in the general 
 flight, he mounted his horse, and forming 
 his men in a dense mass, led them to attack 
 Morad, against whom he was about hurling 
 his lance, when a cannon-ball laid him 
 dead at his feet. The brave band were 
 soon hemmed in, and the heads of every 
 Ilara clan, including six princes of the 
 blood-royal of Boondi, perished, maintain- 
 ing inviolate their oath of allegiance to 
 Shah Jehan When the issue of the day 
 was evident, Aurungzebe fell on his knees 
 and retttrned thanks for the victory granted 
 to Morad, whom he saluted, and afl'ectiug 
 lively emotion at the sight of his wounds, 
 wiped the blood from his face, and warmly 
 congratulated him on the accjuisition of a 
 kingdom. Wliile this hypocritical scene 
 was being enacted, the uuhappy Dara pur- 
 horse, 20,000 foot, and SO ])ieces of cannon. He 
 reckons ihe opposing; army as not exceeding " 40,000 
 men of all arm:!." — (lirock's Trdnslctiun, yol.i., p. 50.)
 
 DEPOSITION OF SHAH JEHAN— CHARACTER OF HIS REIGN. i3r, 
 
 sued his flight to Agra, with about 2,000 
 men, most of tliom wouudcd ; and fueling 
 ashamed to present liiniself before the in- 
 dulgont fiitlicr, whose counsels ho had dis- 
 ' regarded, proceeded to Delhi, <ieeompanicd 
 by liis wife and two children, and was sub- 
 seciiu'iitly joined by 5, ()()() liorsc, sent by 
 Sliah Jelian to his assistance. Three days 
 after the battle, Aurungzebe encamped be- 
 fore the walls of Agra, took immediate pos- 
 session of the city, but did not attempt to 
 enter by force tlic royaL residence, content- 
 ing himself for some days longer by sending 
 messages to his father, pleading the neces- 
 sity of the case, and rc(pu;sting to be for- 
 gi\'cn and adniiUed to his presence. It is 
 probable that he really desired to conciliate 
 the aged monarch, and would have pre- 
 ferred carrying on the government in his 
 name, at least until all rivalry should be 
 completely crushed ; but Shah Jehan re- 
 sented his protestations of filial affection as 
 an additional insult, and did not swerve 
 from his attachment to Dara. Aurungzebe, 
 therefoi'e, sent his son, Mohammed Sultan* 
 to take possession of the citadel, and pre- 
 vent all communication between the em- 
 peror and every one beyond its walls. This 
 appears to have been done without ditliculty; 
 for there is no record of a single cifort being 
 made to assert the rights of the monarch, 
 who remained in a sort of honourable cap- 
 tivity, until his death, seven years after, aged 
 seventy-four. During the long reign thus 
 abruptly closed, the internal administration 
 of ati'airs had been conducted with more 
 rectitude and ability than, perhaps, under 
 
 * The cireumstanccs connected with this intcrest- 
 inf; period nre diti'erenlly tohl. Accnnliiir; to ]icr- 
 nicr (whose account Dow appears to have followed), 
 Sliah Jehan was tempted to encounter Aurung2el)e 
 with his own weapon?, and hopin-j to secure his per- 
 son, consented to listen to his excuses. The wily 
 prince affected extreme deh'glit at tliis concession, 
 but alleged, that allhounh lie liad perfect confidence 
 in his father's good I'aitli, lie dreaded the intrigues 
 of his elder sister, and dared not trust tlie garrison, 
 unless ho were permitted to introduce, for his 
 protection, some troops under his son, Mohammed 
 Sultan. Shah Jehan, desirous to get him within 
 reach at all hazards, consented, relying for aid on his 
 daughter, who posted some strong Tartar women 
 belonging to the harem in readiness to seize the 
 prince. Moliammed was suffered to take possession 
 of the citadel in anticipatio!i of the arrival of Au- 
 rungzebe, when intelligence came that he had sud- 
 denly ordered his cavalcade to cliange their course, 
 and was gone to offer up his prayers at the tomb of 
 Akber. Shah Jehan, enraged beyond measure, 
 asked Mohammed what he had come for, if not to 
 guard his father. The curt reply was, " to take 
 charge of the citadel.'' The insulted monarch pointed 
 
 any other Mogul ruler. Kliah Khan (the 
 best historian of those times) asserts, that 
 although Akber was pre-eminent as a con- 
 queror and a law-giver, yet, in territorial 
 and financial arrangements, he could bear 
 no comjiarison with his grandson. Although 
 a staunch Mussulman, Shah Jehan was 
 warmly attached to the Iliiuloos, who, as 
 we have seen, had spent their best blood 
 freely in his behalf, and his foreign wars did 
 not interrupt the tranquillity which pre- 
 vailed, almost without interruption, through- 
 out his dominions. Wealth, both public 
 and private, increased in a remarkable de- 
 gree, and the annual revenue is supposed to 
 have exceeded thirty-two million sterling. 
 A new city was built at Delhi, t on a regular 
 plan, far surpassing the old one in magnifi- 
 cence ; and the imjierial establishments, re- ! 
 tinuc, and appurtenances^ all exceeded in 
 pomp those of previous reigns. Yet, not- 
 withstanding the costly wars in which he 
 engaged, the maintenance of a large regu- 
 lar army (including 200,000 horse), and 
 the erection of many splendid structures, 
 Shah Jehan left a treasure estimated at 
 twenty-four million sterling, besides vast ac- 
 cumulations in wrought gold and silver, and 
 in jewels. 
 
 After deposing his father, the next step 
 of Aurungzebe was to get rid of Morad, 
 whom he continued to delude, by submissive 
 behaviour and unremitting attentions, till 
 they had marched from Agra in pursuit of 
 Dara. 'J'aking advantage of Morad's ad- 
 diction to pleasure, Aurungzebe invited him 
 to supper, and, waving his own scruples (if 
 
 to the imperial crown which was suspended above | 
 his bead, and taking tlic Koran in his hand, swore 
 that if Jlohammed would release him, he would 
 make him emperor, to the exclusion of all his own 
 sons. The prince, from policy or principle, refused 
 the offer, and quitted the presence of his grandfather 
 — little dreaming how soon a stronger temptation 
 would lead liini to take the course from which he 
 now turned. — (Hernier, vol. i., p. 72.) Khafi Khan, 
 wliose father was an actor in the turbulent scenes of 
 this period, makes no nient'on of this plot and coun- 
 ter-plot. — (Eii)liinstone, vol. ii., p. 427.) 
 
 t Tarcrin'cr's Travels in various parts of the em- 
 pire ; Mandelsloe's in Guzerat ; Graaf and Bruton's 
 (Miirrai/s Asiatic Discoi-eries) in Bengal, Behar 
 and Orissa ; afford forcible evidence of the gran- 
 deur of the Indian cities of this period, including 
 those situated in remote provinces; and also to the 
 richly-cultivated state of the surrounding country. 
 
 \ The famous throne, of which the chief orna- ' 
 nient was a peacock, with its tail spread, represented 
 in its natural colours by various gems, was con- 
 structed for Shah Jehan : and a vine was commenced, 
 with haves and fruit of precious stones, whose rays 
 were reflected from mirrors set in large pearls. i
 
 136 
 
 AURUNGZEBE PROCLAIMED EMPEROR, AUGUST, 1658. 
 
 he really had any), induced him, by the 
 two-fold temptation of wine and feminine 
 seductions, to separate himself from his 
 companions, some of whom appear to have 
 warned him against placing such implicit 
 trust in his brother's professions. While 
 stretched on a couch, sleeping off the stupor 
 of intoxication, Morad was seized, fettered, 
 and sent off, before day-break, on an elephant, 
 to Selimghui', a portion of the citadel of 
 Delhi, while three other elephants were dis- 
 patched with similar escorts, in different 
 directions, to mislead people as to the actual 
 place of confinement, which was afterwards 
 changed to Gwalior, the Bastille of Hindoo- 
 stan. The frankness and bravery of the 
 imfortunate prince had rendered him popu- 
 lar with the army, but the suddenness of his 
 seizure seems to have paralysed every effort 
 on his behalf. His chief adherents were 
 brought into the presence of Aurungzebe, 
 who, after receiving their oaths of allegiance, 
 proceeded to Delhi, where he caused him- 
 self to be proclaimed emperor, and assumed 
 the title of Alumgeer (the Conqueror of 
 the Universe), by which he is designated in 
 local histories and documents. 
 
 The Beiffii of Aurunc/zebe had lasted a 
 twelvemonth before his name was stamped 
 on the coin, or the ceremonial of coronation 
 performed. More pressing affairs claimed 
 his whole attention during the interim. At 
 the time of the fatal battle, Soliman, a brave 
 prince of five-aud-twenty, was marching to 
 the aid of his father, llajah Jey Sing, of 
 Amber, wlio, like most of the Rajpoot lead- 
 ers, had taken part with the lawful heir, 
 was associated with the prince in the com- 
 mand ; but the promises of the usurper, 
 under whom he had served in Balkh, tempted 
 him to abandon Solimau on a very flimsy 
 pretext, as did also another general, named 
 Dileer Khan. Deprived of the strength of 
 his army, and scarcely able to retain any 
 authority over the remainder, the prince 
 endeavoured to avoid an encounter with the 
 troops of Aurungzebe by taking the road 
 under the mountains to join Dara ; but being 
 intercepted near Ilurdwai', his soldiers lost 
 lieart, and all, except 500 horse, deserted. 
 "With this remnant Soliman proceeded to 
 Sireemiggur, near Kumaon, where anew trial 
 awaited him. The rajah refused to admit 
 liim, unless lie would first distniss his faith- 
 ful followers; and to this proposition he was 
 ultimatelj' compelled to submit, after making 
 an unavailing attempt to return to the fort 
 of Allahabad, in which more than luilf of 
 
 his little band perished. On entering the fort 
 of Sireenuggur, with five or six attendants, 
 he was courteouslj' received, but soon found 
 himself, in effect, a prisoner. 
 
 Meanwhile, Aurungzebe continued, in 
 person, to pursue Dara. Having, during 
 the early part of his flight, procured some 
 troops at Delhi, the prince marched thence 
 to Lahore, and finding a large sum of money 
 in the royal treasury, began to raise an 
 army. Shah Jehan had written urgently 
 in his favour to the^viceroy of Cabool, Mo- 
 habet Khan (son of the great general), and 
 Dara, had he proceeded thither, would pro- 
 bably have found valuable auxiliaries in the 
 troops of the province, or, in case of need, 
 a ready refuge among the Afghan tribes, 
 and an easy exit to the territories of the 
 Uzbeks or the Persians. These views, even 
 if entertained, were disconcerted by the 
 prompt measures of Aurungzebe ; and Dara, 
 unable to resist the force by which he was 
 threatened, left Lahore with three or four 
 thousand men, on his way to Sinde. The 
 emperor followed him nearly to Moultan; 
 but before reaching that city he learned 
 that Shuja was marching in force from 
 Bengal ; therefore, sending a detachment to 
 follow Dara, he hastened to Delhi, and from 
 thence set out to arrest the progress of the 
 advancing army, comprising 25,000 horse 
 and a numerous train of artillery. The bi'o- 
 thers met at Cujwa, thirty miles north of 
 Allahabad, and drew up their forces, neither 
 caring to begin the conflict. On this occa- 
 sion, Aurungzebe was nearly worsted by 
 arts similar to those he himself delighted to 
 employ. Rajah Jeswunt Sing, after his im- 
 suceessful efforts in favour of Dara, had 
 received a message from the victor, with 
 assurances of pardon, and a command to 
 join the army then forming against Shuja. 
 He feigned obedience, but it would appeal 
 only for the sake of watching an opportunity 
 to serve the cause of the rightful heir, and 
 his angry feelings were increased by the 
 withholding of the rank to which he con- 
 sidered himself entitled. Having commu- 
 nicated his intentions to Shuja, Jeswunt 
 Sing, one morning before day-break, attacked 
 the rear-ward of the imperial camp with 
 his Rahtore cavaliers; and, during the 
 onset made shortly afterwards by the 
 prince's army in front, the rajah deliberately 
 loaded his camels with plunder, and marched 
 ofl' to Agra, leaving the brothers to a con- 
 test which he heartily wished might involve 
 the destruction of both. Notwithstanding
 
 DEFEAT AND FLIGHT OF DARA SIIEKO— a.d. 1059. 
 
 187 
 
 this inauspicious commencement, the self- 
 possession and valour of Aurungzcbc f^ained 
 the day. The battle began l)y a cannonade, 
 followed by a close action, in which he was 
 repeatedly in imminent danger; but the 
 centre of Shuja's troops was at length 
 broken, and they fled, leaving 1 I I ]neees of 
 cannon and many elephants on the field. 
 Mohammed Sultan and Meer .Tumla (whoso 
 mock imprisonment had ceased so soon as 
 liis family were set free by the flight of 
 Dara) were sent with a strong force to 
 Bengal, while the emperor proceeded to 
 Agra. The governor of this city, Shaista 
 Khan, had just been relieved from great 
 alarm; for the triumphant ajiproaeh of .Ics- 
 wunt Sing, added to discouraging reports 
 from the field of battle, and various signs of 
 popular feeling in favour of Shah Jehan, 
 had so perplexed him that he woidd have 
 swallowed poison, but for the tinuiy inter- 
 position of his wife. Had Jeswunt at once 
 attacked the citadel, the garrison would 
 probably have surrendered, and the aged 
 monarch been set at liberty ; but the attempt 
 was fraught with hazard; for besides the 
 danger of shutting up his troops within the 
 precincts of the capital, it would prevent his 
 forming a junction with Dara, whom he had 
 instructed to hasten to the scene of action. 
 Aurungzebe, on returning to Agra, had 
 consequently the satisfaction of learning that 
 Jcsw\uit had departed to his own territories 
 in Marwar, whither he sent 10,000 men to 
 seize his person aiul reclaim the spoils now 
 safely housed within the castle of Joda. 
 Eut this open hostility was soon changed 
 for a policy more congenial to the character 
 of the wily monarch. The aSairs of Dara 
 had taken an unlooked-for turn, — after 
 being compelled, by the desertion of his fol- 
 lowers and the death of his carriage-eattle, 
 to relincpiish his designs upon Sindc, the 
 fugitive had, through the loyalty of the 
 governor of (luzerat (Shah Nawaz Khan, 
 father-in-law to both Aurungzebe and 
 Morad), obtained possession of the whole 
 province, including Surat and Baroaeh. 
 The territories of Jeswunt Sing extended 
 from Guzerat to Ajmeer: to prevent his 
 forming the projected coalition with Dara, 
 was, therefore, of the highest importance to 
 
 * On the fourth day, Dara was met by Bernier, 
 who was on his way to Delhi, unconscious of passing 
 CTcnts. The suhana had been wounded, and tliere 
 was no physician among the little band. The pro- 
 fession of the traveller being discovered, he was 
 obliged to join Dara, and would have been taken on 
 to Sinde, but that neither threats nor entreaties 
 
 Aurungzebe, who, laying aside his plans of 
 vengeance for a more convenient season, 
 instead of soldiers and musketry, sent the 
 rajah a letter in his own hand-writing, full 
 of (lattery and blandishments, conceding 
 the rank and oiliee, the withholding of which 
 liMil previously been a cause of irritation. 
 This i)olitie couduet, added to the delay of 
 Dara, made Jeswunt falter in his resolve, 
 and by the mediation of Jey Sing, Aurung- 
 zebe succeeded in jiersuading him to rely 
 on his good faith, and keep aloof from a 
 cause which could only end in the' ruin of 
 its object and all connected with him. 
 Dara, disappointed of the expected co-opera- 
 tion, fortified a commanding position on the 
 hills near Ajmeer, and there awaited the 
 approach of his brother. Three days' can- 
 nonading was followed by a general assault, 
 in which, after the lat)sc of manj' liours, 
 Sli-ih Nawaz fell just as a party of tlic im- 
 perial troo))s mounted the ramparts. The 
 prince fled precipitately, attended by the 
 females of his family and a small body of 
 horse, and reached the neighbourhood of 
 Ahmedabad, after eight days* aiul nights of 
 almost incessant marching, rendered nearly 
 intolerable by the heat and dust of a scorch- 
 ing season, to which were latterly added the 
 merciless attacks of the hill Coolies, who 
 stripped or massacred every man separated 
 from his companions. When within a march 
 of Ahmedabad, Dara was informed that the 
 gates were shut against him, and lie must 
 seek shelter elsewhere. Amid tears and 
 lamentations the weary cavalcade resumed 
 its toilsome progress ; and after much loss 
 of life in tlie desert, through hunger, thirst, 
 and fatigue, at length reached the small 
 territory of Joon, on the eastern frontier of 
 Sinde. The chief of Joon,t apparently an 
 Afghan, had been twice condemned to death 
 for murder and treason, but saved from the 
 vengeance of Shah Jehan by the interces- 
 sion of Dara, who now relied tipon his gra- 
 titude, notwitlistanding the warnings and 
 entreaties of his adherents. Dara's wife (the 
 daughter of Prince Parvaez), who liad been 
 wounded in <^he late battle, and was fast 
 sinking under suffering and fatigue, im- 
 plored him to leave her, and prosecute with- 
 out delay his journey to Persia. But the 
 
 could procure a single horse, ox, or camel for his 
 use. Having beheld the hapless prince and his 
 family depart, Bernier, after a week's detention, suc- 
 ceeded in persuading the Coolies, " bya grand displav 
 of professional skill," to attach a bullock to his car- 
 riage and conduct him to -Vhniedabad. (Vol. i. p. 106.) 
 t Called Jilion Khan in Brock's Bernier.
 
 138 FATE OF DARA— REBELLION OF MOHAMMED SULTAN, 16G0. 
 
 prince could not be prevailed upon to for- 
 sake his faithful companion in the trying 
 hour of death, and after she had expired in 
 his arms, he sent a portion of his small 
 force, with two confidential servants, to at- 
 tend her remains to Lahoi'e. When the 
 pei'iod of mourning permitted, he set out 
 towards the Indus, accompanied by a bro- 
 ther of the chief of Joon and a body of 
 troops, under pretence of escorting him to 
 the frontier ; but suddenly, the signal being 
 given, J)ara and his son, Seper Sheko, were 
 seized and carried prisoners to Aurungzebe, 
 who was then engaged in celebrating the 
 anniversary of his accession. Loaded with 
 chains, habited in coarse and dirty raiment, 
 and mounted on a sorry elephant without 
 housings, the royal captives were conducted 
 through the most populous streets of the 
 capital, amid the tears and groans of the 
 people. No attempt at a rescue was made ; 
 but the next day the chief of Joon being 
 recognised on his way to court, was nearly 
 torn to pieces by the populace.* The leader 
 of the tumult was executed ; and shortly 
 after, a mock consultation having been held 
 by the chief counsellors and lawyers, Dara 
 was pronounced worthy of death as an 
 apostate Mohammedan. Aurungzebe gave 
 his consent with affected reluctance, and 
 selected a personal enemy of his brother's 
 to carry the sentence into effect. When 
 the assassins entered the prison, Dara and 
 his son were occupied in preparing some 
 lentils, the only food they would touch for 
 fear of poison. Seizing a small kitchen 
 knife, the sole weapon in his possession, 
 Dara defended himself to the last; but 
 being overwhelmed by numbers, was thrown 
 down and decapitated. His body was ex- 
 hibited to the populace on an elephant, and 
 his head carried to Aurungzebe, who, having 
 satisfied himself of its identity by washing 
 the blood from the distorted features, af^- 
 fected to weep, and directed its interment 
 in the tomb of Humayuu. Seper Sheko 
 was sent to the dreary fortress of Gwalior, 
 
 * Wlien returning to his own country, ladon with 
 the price of blood, he was waylaid and assassinated. 
 
 t J)ow asserts (hut without giving his authority, 
 who is evidently neither IChafi Khan nor I3crnier) 
 that Aurungzelje wrote a letter to his son, as if in 
 answer to an a])poal for forgiveness, and caused it to 
 fall into the hands of Shuja, who, tlicreupon, dis- 
 missed his son-in-law and daughter from the camp, 
 not crediting their protestations of innocence. 
 
 I ISernier, vol. i., ]>. 124. Accordnig to Dow, 
 Shuja and his son, after bravely defending the moun- 
 tain passes while endeavouring to make good their 
 retreat to Pegu, were overpowered by means of 
 
 whose gates soon afterwards opened to re- 
 ceive no less a person than Mohammed 
 Sultan, the eldest son and acknowledged 
 heir of Aurungzebe. 
 
 This prince had been betrothed to his 
 cousin, the daughter of Shuja, but the mar- 
 riage was broken oft" by the outburst of 
 civil war. Seeing the critical position of 
 her father, the princess addressed a com- 
 munication to Mohammed, reminding him 
 of their engagement; this appeal, added to his 
 restless disposition and jealousy of Meer 
 Jumla, who was associated with him in the 
 command of the army, induced him to go 
 over to his uncle, a step which he probably 
 thought would be followed by the majority 
 of the imperial army. Any such movement 
 was prevented by the zeal and influence of 
 Meer Jumla, and hostilities were recom- 
 menced at the conclusion of the rainy sea- 
 son. Shuja received his nephew with honour, 
 and gave him his daughter in marriage ; 
 but either from the machinations of Aurung- 
 zebe,! or some other cause not satisfactorily 
 explained, distrust sprang up between them, 
 aiul the prince again deserted his party, and 
 threw himself upon the mercy of his father, 
 who immediately sent him to Gwalior. 
 After a series of unsuccessful struggles, Shuja 
 retreated to Dacca, and being hotly pursued I 
 by Meer Jumla, fled, with a few attendants, 
 to Arracan. The remainder of his history is 
 very imperfectly known. A difterence is 
 said to have arisen between him and the 
 rajah, whose avarice was rotised by the 
 sight of the wealth of the prince, and, on one 
 pretext or another, he was prevented from 
 hiring vessels in which to proceed to ]\Iokha, 
 en route for Mecca. Shuja, irritated by this 
 treatment, entered into a plot with the 
 ]\Iussulmans of the country to overturn the 
 existing government ; but, being detected, 
 was seized by the rajah's emissaries, and 
 put to death. Of his wife and family, no 
 certain particulars were ever made public 
 in Ilindoostan ; but it is probable they all 
 perished by violence about the same time. J 
 
 stones hurled upon them from the adjoining rocks. 
 Shuja was drowned (the doom of royal ''riminals in 
 Arracan) in sight of his wife and daughters, who, in 
 despair, liung themselves headlong into tiie river, 
 but were rescued and carried to the palace. Of 
 tliese four \inhappy ladies, three perished by their 
 own hands ; the fourth was married to the rajuh, 
 but did not long survive her sufferings and disgrace. 
 The elder son of Shuja and his infant hrolhor were 
 both put to dealli. Sliah .Ichan, on learning the 
 ni'.dancholy iiUelligenco, exclaimed, ".Mas! could not 
 tlie rajali of Arracan leave one son to Shuja to ri'venge 
 his grandfather ?" — ( Uindoostan, vol. iii. p. 3i)().)
 
 MURDER OF MORAD AND HIS SON, SOLIMAN, AND SEPER SlIEKO. 1.39 
 
 At the conimencement of IGGl, Auruug- 
 zoho obtained possession of the person of 
 Dara's eldest son, Soliman; the Rajah of 
 Sirc'Cinif;},nif, after prolonged negotiations, 
 liaviiig l)ecn at length persuaded, by the 
 arguments of Jcy Sing, to deliver up the 
 prinee to the imperial ollicers. lie was 
 paraded through the city on an elephant, 
 and then brought into tiie presence of his 
 uncle in golden fetters. Bernier, who was 
 present, describes his manly bearing as hav- 
 ing afl'ected many of the courtiers to tears ; 
 and when he implored that his life might be 
 taken at once, rather than that his strength 
 and reason should bo undermined by the 
 hateful opium draught* (which he evidently 
 believed to be the common fate of captive 
 princes), even Aurungzebe seemed touched 
 with compassion, and assured him of safety 
 and good treatment. 
 
 It is not likely that this pledge was re- 
 deemed ; for Soliman, together with his bro- 
 ther, Seper Shcko, and the young souof Mo- 
 rad, all died in Gwalior within a short space 
 of time, while the emperor's own sou, Mo- 
 hammed, lived several years, and was even- 
 tually restored to comparative freedom. The 
 doom of IMorad was less easily decided ; for 
 it was necessary to Aurungzebe's views that 
 liis death should be well known; and the 
 convenient method of poisoning him in 
 prison might leave a doubt regarding his 
 fate on the public mind, which, iu the event 
 of a political crisis, would be eagerly seized 
 by agitators or pretenders. The prince was 
 popular, despite (or probably on account of) 
 his misfortunes : he had endeavoured to es- 
 cape by means of a rope let down from the 
 battlements ;t and Aurungzebe felt that 
 there was no time to lose in compassing his 
 destruction. The son of a man who had 
 been arbitrarily put to death by the prince, 
 while viceroy of Guzerat, was incited to 
 complain against him as a murderer; and, 
 after the formality of a trial and sentence, 
 the List act of this family tragedy closed 
 with the execution of Prince Morad, in 
 prison. The three brothers of Aurungzebe 
 and their brave sons had now all fallen vic- 
 tims to his ambition and their own, goaded on 
 by the hateful policy which too often leaves to 
 eastern princes little choice beyond a throne 
 or a grave. Their aged parent, by a terrible rc- 
 
 * Bcniier calls it pousta, and says it was simply a 
 sti'onn; iiirusiou of ])op]iy-ht'ails, wliicli the iiilendcil 
 victims were compelled to drink daily until tliey be- 
 came torpid and senseless, and so died. 
 
 t Khafi Khan, quoted by F.lphinslonc, vol. il., 
 p. 451. It is to be regretted that no complete 
 
 tribution, sickened with horror as the tidings 
 of one catastrophe after another slowly 
 readied him within tlie walls of his jjalace- 
 l)rison. He execrated the name of the son 
 whose crimes had thus cast liis own into the 
 shade, and would not sudor his presence. 
 Aurungzebe made repeated overtures of 
 reconciliation by affecting to seek his advice 
 on various affairs of state, and ventured to 
 ])rolfer two requests — the first on behalf of 
 his third son, Prince Akber, for the hand of 
 the daughter of Dara, then under the pro- 
 tection of her aunt Jehanara ; the second, 
 for some of the jewels retained by Shah 
 .Tehan, for the decoration of the throne. 
 The deposed monarch indignantly rejected 
 both demands, declaring that his grand- 
 daughter should never, with his consent, be 
 thus degraded; and the maiden, on her part, 
 avowed her puri)osc of self-destruction, 
 should force be attempted to ally her with 
 the son of her father's murderer. With 
 regard to the jewels, Shah Jehan sterulv 
 bade his son make wisdom and equity the 
 ornaments of his throne, and use no impor- 
 tunity to obtain the coveted gems, since the 
 hammers were iu readiness which should, iu 
 tiuit case, crush them to powder. Aurungzebe 
 prudently gave way, and his father, gratified 
 l)y this submission, and by the ample pi-o- 
 vision made for his expenditure, afterwards 
 sent him various articles more especially 
 eonueeted with the insignia of royalty. 
 
 The early measures of the new emperor 
 were well calculated to obliterate from the 
 minds of his subjects the monstrous iniqui- 
 ties above detailed. In the Deccan he had 
 gained a high character for justice as well 
 as austerity ; and on grasping the reins of 
 government, he evinced a determination to 
 make the welfare of the people his leading 
 object. In marching to battle against Dara, 
 Aurungzebe had streiuiously restrained his 
 soldiers from plundering the countries 
 through which they passed, and had evcu 
 given compensation for the damage unavoid- 
 ably occasioned. During a terrible famine 
 which prevailed over different parts of 
 India, resulting from the combined effects 
 of drought and civil war, he made great 
 exertions for the relief of the wretched suf- 
 ferers, by remitting the taxes, and spending 
 large sums from the treasury in the pur- 
 translation has been made of the works of this 
 author, whose real name was Mohammed Hashcra 
 Khan. He was brought up in the service of Aurunj^- 
 zebe, by whom both he and his father (al<o an his- 
 torian) were employed iu various important military 
 and diplomatic positions.
 
 140 
 
 DANGEROUS ILLNESS OF AURUNGZEBE, 1663. 
 
 chase and conveyance of grain, from Bengal 
 and the Punjaub, to the chief seats of dis- 
 tress. This calamity having passed over, 
 the emperor found leism'e to plan the exten- 
 sion of his dominions, resting the justifica- 
 tion, alike of past and future aggression, on 
 the duty of propagating the Koran by all 
 and every means. One quality, essential to 
 the character of a statesman, or even a suc- 
 cessful general, he wanted — namely, confi- 
 dence in his fellow-men. It was the fitting 
 curse of this arch-hypocrite, that suspicion 
 should lie like the canker-worm at the root 
 of his best-laid plans, occasioning the haras- 
 sing distrust, or at least the want of cordial 
 support to which the reverses of his generals 
 may be for the most part attributed. 
 
 Towards the end of 1601, a successful ex- 
 pedition was despatched against the Rajah of 
 Bikanccr ; and early in the following year, 
 Meer Jumla, whose talents were at once the 
 dread and admiration of his distrustful mas- 
 ter, was sent to attempt the subjugation of 
 Assam. Having obtained possession of the 
 capital, the victor boastfully declared his 
 intention of pursuing his conquests, and 
 opening the way to China. The rainy sea- 
 son brought with it a change of affairs. 
 The rich plains on either side the Burram- 
 pootra were flooded ; the cavalry could not 
 march or even forage ; and when the floods 
 subsided, a pestilence broke out among the 
 troops, so^ that Meer Jumla was glad to 
 make terms with the rajah, renounce his 
 magnificent projects, and withdraw his 
 army. Before reaching Dacca he expired 
 (January 7, 1063), stung by disappoint- 
 ment, and worn down l)y the fatigues which, 
 despite the burden of advanced age, he had 
 shared in common with the humblest sol- 
 dier. His son, Mohammed Ameen, was im- 
 mediately raised to the rank enjoyed by the 
 deceased. Aurungzebe himself had recently 
 received a forcible warning of the precarious 
 tenure by which emperors and peasants 
 alike hold, not merely worldly possessions, 
 but life itself. A dangerous attack of fever 
 completely prostrated him, and his tongue 
 became so palsied as to deprive him almost 
 entirely of the power of speech. Intrigues 
 regarding the succession arose immediately; 
 but Aurungzebe clung to ))olitical even more 
 tenaciously than to jdiysical existence, and 
 during the crisis of his disorder, caused him- 
 self to be carried into the diurnal asscmlily 
 of the nobles. Some days after, wlicn scarcely 
 recovered from a swoon (so long and deep 
 
 sent for Rajah Jey Sing, and two or three 
 other chief omrahs, to convince them that 
 he lived ; and in their presence, being still 
 unable to articulate, wrote an order for the 
 great seal, which had been ])laced in the 
 charge of the Princess Roushenara, enclosed 
 in a bag, and impressed with the signet which 
 had remained fastened to his arm. These 
 manifestations of a strong will triumphing 
 over bodily weakness, inspired fear and ad- 
 miration in the beholders, and had the de- 
 sired efl^ect of preventing any plots for the 
 rescue of Shah Jehan, or conspiracies for 
 less worthy ends. When convalescent, 
 Aurungzebe sought repose and change of 
 scene in Cashmere, little thinking of the 
 fierce and prolonged strife about to burst 
 forth in the Decean, mainly in consequence 
 of his own insidious policy. By gradually 
 undermining the strength of the two re- 
 maining Mohammedan kingdoms of the 
 south, he had anticipated their reduction to 
 a state of enfceblcment and disorganisation, 
 which must render them an easy conquest 
 so soon as he should find leisure to take the 
 field in person at the head of an extensive 
 and powerful army. Meanwhile, he cared 
 not to trust Jey Sing, Jeswunt Sing, Di- 
 leer Khan, or any other general, much 
 less his own son, Mauzim, with a sufficient 
 force for the reduction of these kingdoms, 
 lest he should furnish weapons against him- 
 self: the troops placed under their com- 
 mand were, therefore, skilfully calculated as 
 sufficient to maintain a distressing and desul- 
 tory warfare, but nothing more. The im- 
 perial schemer had not a suspicion that in 
 thus, as it were, drawing the claws of the 
 Moslem rulers of Beejapoor and Golconda, 
 he could possibly be serving the interest of 
 a third party, as intriguing and hardly less 
 bigottcd than himself, though in a precisely 
 opposite direction. 
 
 Rise of JSlahratta poiuer. — It will be re- 
 membered, that in sketching the ancient 
 condition of India, the Mahrattas have been 
 mentioned as inhabiting the territory lying 
 between the range of mountains which 
 stretches along the south of the Nerbndda, 
 parallel to the Vindya chain; and a line 
 drawn from Goa, on the sea-coast, through 
 Bcdcr to Chanda on the Wurda ; that river 
 being the eastern, and the sea the western 
 boundary. This singular country will be 
 described in a subsequent section, as also its 
 inhabitants, of whom it is liere only neces- 
 sary to remark, that the soldiery were small 
 
 that his death was generally reported), he sturdy men, active and persevering, posses
 
 RISE OF THE MAHRATTA POWER.— BIRTH OP SEVAJEE, 1G27. 141 
 
 siiifj notliiii;; of tlio diivalrous sentiments or 
 dif^nilied heiiriiiRof the Jiaj[)0()ts, l)ut a f^reat 
 deal more worklly -vvisdoni. The cliiefs, in 
 the time of tlic Cireat I^To^nls, were tlic 
 representatives of families who liad for {gene- 
 rations filled the old Hindoo ollices of heads 
 of villap;es, or functionaries of districts, 
 under tlie names of patels, desmookhs, &c., 
 and had often been employed as partisans 
 under tlie governments of Alimednii;ji;er and 
 Beejapoor. They were nearly all Soodras, 
 of the same caste with their people, but 
 some claimed to have Rajpoot blood in their 
 veins. Though our present knowledge does 
 not sliow that the Mahrattas formed at any 
 time an united conimonwcalth, their strongly 
 marked eharacteristics indieate a broad line 
 of demarcation between tlicm and the people 
 of Carnara and Telingana, and also between 
 the lower orders of Iliudoostau ; although 
 the difference in this latter case is less 
 striking. Mussulman writers, proverbially 
 slow to recognise dili'ercnces among infidels, 
 scarcely notice the Mahrattas by this dis- 
 tinctive appellation until the beginning of 
 the seventeenth century ; although the sur- 
 names of chiefs, uieutioued at earlier periods, 
 prove their having belonged to that race. 
 In the time of Malck Amber they first 
 emerge into notice ; and, under his govern- 
 ment, the noblest of them, Lookjce* Jadu 
 Rao, held a jaghire for the support of 10,000 
 men. Among his dependants was ^lalojee 
 Bhoslay, a man of inferior rank, who, by a 
 singular chain of circumstauces,t obtained 
 Jeejee Bye, the daughter of Jadu, in mar- 
 riage for his son Shahjee, a.d. 1G04 ; aud the 
 issue of this union was two chiklren, of 
 whom the younger was the famous Sevajee. 
 Shahjee has i)ceu mentioned as an important 
 actor in the concluding events of the Ahraed- 
 nuggur state. He was subsequently em- 
 ployed by the king of Beejapoor on con- 
 quests to the southward, <iud obtained a 
 considerable jaghire in the INIysore country, 
 including the towns of Sera and Bangalore, 
 in addition to that he had previously pos- 
 sessed, of which the chief place was Poona. 
 
 • Jee is the Mahratta adjunct of res])ect, equiva- 
 lent to our Mr. Bijc, signiiies lady. — (Grant Uuff 's 
 History of the Jliiln-alfas, vol. i., p. 121.) 
 
 t When Shalijce was about five years old, ho was 
 taken by ■ bis father to the house of Jadu Ilao, 
 wbere a large number of Hindoos of all castes had 
 assembled to celebrate a relie^ious festival. Pleased 
 willi the boy's bearing, Jadu merrily asked his 
 daughter, a pretty child of three years' old, whether 
 slie would lake her play-fellow for a husband ; and 
 the little maiden, by throwing at him some of the 
 V 
 
 Tlirce years after the birth of Sevajee (in 
 lf)27), a disagreement arose between his 
 parents, on account of a second marriage 
 i)eing contracted by Shahjee, who took his 
 elder son with him to the Mysore, leaving 
 the younger with his mother at Poona. 
 
 As all Mahratta chiefs were wholly illite- 
 rate, they usually retained a number of 
 Brahmins in their service, styled Carcoons, 
 or clerks, who were necessarily entrusted 
 with their most private affairs. One of 
 this class, Dadajee Koncdco, a man of talent 
 and integrity, was left by Shahjee in charge 
 of the Poona jaghire ; and from him and his 
 mother, Sevajee imbibed a deep and bitter 
 hatred against the Mohammedans. The ex- 
 ploits of the heroes of the Ramayana and iSIa- 
 habarat,with other wild and fantastic legends, 
 were the boy's delight ; he performed with 
 earnest zeal the numerous observiinces en- 
 joined by his creed, and anxiously waited the 
 time when he should be old enough and strong 
 enough to assert the rights and dignity of 
 the insulted gods of his country. These 
 feelings, in part, supplied the want of a 
 more enlightened and exalted patriotism ; 
 and they afforded to Sevajee an object and 
 a rallying point, of which, in after years, 
 he learned the value. Like the mail-clad 
 barons of old England, Shahjee deemed all 
 book-learning undignified, if not degrading 
 drudgery ; and his son could never So much 
 as write his name. In horsemanship, and the 
 use of warlike weapons, he was unrivalled. 
 
 Poona is situated at the junction of the 
 hilly country with the plains ; hence Sevajee, 
 in the hunting parties and military exercises, 
 which formed his chief occupations, con- 
 stantly associated with the soldiery in his 
 father's service, and the plundering high- 
 landers of the neighbouring Ghauts. The 
 B heels and Coolies, to the north of Poona 
 — the llamoosees to the south — viewed with 
 admiration the young chief, to whom every 
 glen and defile of their mountain recesses 
 were well known; but his earliest adherents 
 were the i\Iahrattas, called Mawulecs, from 
 the appellation of the valleys which they 
 
 red colour at hand, in accordance with the usages 
 of the festival, seemed to express assent. To the 
 astonislmient of all present, Malojce instantly started 
 up, and desired the company to bear witness that 
 Jeejee Bye and Shahjee were affianced. Jadu was 
 exceedingly indignant at the advantage t-iken of 
 him ; but Malojee persisted in his claim, and being 
 an active partisan, rose gradually in the service of 
 the state of Ahmednuggur, and by the intercession 
 of the king himself, eventually obtained the fulfil- 
 ment of his long-cherished desii-e.
 
 142 
 
 EARLY PROCEEDINGS AND PROGRESS OF SEVAJEE. 
 
 inhabited immediately to the west of Poona. 
 Before he was sixteen, Sevajee began to 
 talii of becoming an independent poligar, to 
 the serious alarm of Dadajee, who endea- 
 voured to wean him from his lawless asso- 
 ciates by confiding much of the affairs of 
 the jaghire to his superiutendencej and tried 
 earnestly to convince him that a much more 
 brilliant destiny might be expected to await 
 him, as a steady adherent of the Ahmed- 
 imggur government, than as a rebel. But 
 the twig was already bent, and would grow 
 onlj' in one direction ; and, in spite of the 
 popularity gained by the courteous and 
 winning manner of Sevajee among the 
 respectable Mahrattas in the neighbour- 
 hood, it was whispered that he was a sharer 
 iu the profits of several extensive gang-rob- 
 beries committed in the Concan. 
 
 The hill-forts possessed by Beejapoor, like 
 most others under Moslem rule, were much 
 neglected. Being remote and unhealthy, 
 they were sometimes occupied by a single 
 foreign commander, with a small garrison of 
 ill-paid local troops ; or, in other cases, left 
 in charge of the nearest desmookh, or other 
 revenue-officer. Our adventurer saw the 
 opportunity afforded by this state of things 
 for his plans of gradual and insidious aggres- 
 sion ; and by some means, not precisely 
 known, succeeded in getting possession of 
 Torna, a hill-fortress, twenty miles S.W. of 
 Poona, A.D. 1646. lie immediately sent 
 ambassadors to Beejapoor, representing his 
 conduct in the most favourable light, and, by 
 dint of arguments and bribery, was suffered 
 to retain possession unmolested for several 
 years, until it became known that he had 
 built a stronghold on a neighbouring hill, 
 by the aid of a golden treasure supposed to 
 have been miraculously discovered to him, 
 among some ruins at Torna, by the goddess 
 Bhavani. A serious remonstrance was ad- 
 dressed to Shalijee, who wrote in strong 
 terms to Dadajee and his son, reminding 
 them of the danger to which he was exjiosed 
 by their encroachments, and bidding them 
 desist from all such attempts. Dadajee 
 once more essayed to change the settled 
 purpose of his young master; but soon after- 
 wards, when about to expire, worn out with 
 age and anxiety, he bestowed on him a part- 
 ing benediction ; and instead of further dis- 
 suasion, bade him protect Brahmins, kinc 
 and cultivators, preserve the temples of the 
 Hindoos from violation, and — follow the for- 
 tune which lay before him. 
 
 These injunctions were obeyed to the 
 
 letter. Under pretence of the poverty of 
 the country and its increasing expenditure, 
 Sevajee withheld the revenue from his father, 
 and proceeded step by step, by manoeuvring 
 and bribery, to gain fort after fort ; until 
 at length, as before stated (p. 130), he had 
 gained possession of the whole tract between 
 the Ckakuu and the Neera, without blood- 
 shed or any disturbance. " The manner in 
 which he established himself," says Grant 
 Duff, "watching and crouching like the 
 wily tiger of his own mountain valleys, 
 until he had stolen into a situation from 
 whence he could at once spring upon his 
 prey, accounts both for the difficulty found 
 iu tracing his early rise, and the astonishing 
 rapidity with which he extended his power 
 when his progress had attracted notice, and 
 longer concealment was impossible." In 
 1648, Sevajee thought fit to throw down the 
 gauntlet of open rebellion, by attacking and 
 pillaging a convoy of royal treasure on the 
 road to Calliau ; and the news had scarcely 
 reached Beejapoor, before it was followed 
 by tidings, that five of the principal hill- 
 forts in the Ghauts, and subsequently 
 Callian, and the whole of the northern 
 Concan, were in the occupation, of the same 
 insidious foe. 
 
 Shahjee was seized and brought before 
 Mohammed Adil Shah, who, heedless of 
 his assurances that his son was acting in 
 his defiance, as much as in that of their 
 mutual sovereign, imprisoned him iu a 
 stone dungeon, of which he caused the 
 door to be walled up, declaring, that if the 
 insurrection continued beyond a certain 
 time, the remaining aperture should be 
 likewise closed. Sevajee was extremely 
 alarmed by this menace, and is alleged to 
 have been only dissuaded from submission 
 by the arguments of his wife, who urged 
 that his father's liberty might more pro- 
 bably be wrung by necessity from the king 
 of Beejapoor, than obtained by blind re- 
 liance on the promises of a power so noto- 
 riously treacherous. He therefore main- 
 tained his position, and made overtures to 
 Shah Jehan, who received his application 
 the more favourably, as the wily Mahratta, 
 anxious to leave himself a resource in the 
 event of being hard pressed by his own 
 government, had carefully avoided inroads 
 on ]\Iogul territory. It was ])robably by 
 the intercession of the emperor that Shahjee 
 was released from his dungeon ; i)ut four 
 years elapsed before he was permitted to 
 leave Beejapoor : at the expiration of which
 
 ASSASSINATION OF AFZOOL KUAN BY SEVA.TEE— a.d. ICr,'.). 143 
 
 time his presence in the Carnatic became 
 necessary to the interests of the govern- 
 mctit, on account of an extensive insurrec- 
 tion, in which his clclcst son had l)cen slain. 
 The restoration of Slialijce to his ja^jliirc 
 was th(! si^^Mial for the renewal of S(^vajce's 
 phms of ajLiiirandiscrarnt. Durinj; the pre- 
 vious interval, ho had delayed (Miti'i-iu}; the 
 imperial service, by preferring an hcrcxlitary 
 claim to certain dues on land in the Jooncre 
 and Ahniednuggur districts, which he aftceted 
 to desire to sec settled before ]n*oeccding 
 to Delhi. Ills first step, on resuming open 
 hostilities against the .I5ecjapoor state, was 
 to seize the hilly country south of Poona, 
 whose rajah, having refused to co-operate 
 with him, he had allowed to be removed by 
 assassination. The arrival of Aurungzebe 
 in the Deccan, in 1655, somewhat discon- 
 certed Sevajee, who at first addressed the 
 prince as his suzerain; but, on seeing him 
 engaged in war with (iolconda, thought to 
 prolit by the general confusion, and, for the 
 first time, invaded the Mogul dominious. 
 He surprised and plundered the town of 
 Jooncre; but a similar attempt upon Ahmed- 
 nugger proved less successful : and, alarmed 
 by the rapid conquests of the imperial 
 troops, Sevajee sought, by excuses and pro- 
 mises, to obtain forgiveness for his recent 
 proceedings. At this crisis the illness of 
 Shah Jehan suddenly called off Aurung- 
 zebe to Delhi ; and the Mahratta chief, 
 taking advantage of his departure, imme- 
 diately renewed his attacks on Becjapoor, 
 where the king had been succeeded by his 
 son, a minor. A lai'ge army was despatched, 
 (a.d. 105!)), under the command of a noble, 
 named Afzool Khan, who, at his public 
 audience of leave, boastfully declared that 
 he would bring back the insigviificant rebel, 
 and cast him in chains under the footstool 
 of the throne. Sevajee was informed of the 
 vaunt of his opponent, with whose character 
 he was acquainted, and concerted his mea- 
 sures accordingly. On the approach of the 
 hostile force, he took up his residence in the 
 hill-fort of Pcrtabghur, and sent offers of 
 submission, couched in the humblest terms, 
 to Afzool Khan, who deputed a Brahmin, 
 high in his confidence, to complete the 
 negotiation. This man, Sevajee, during a 
 private interview by night, contrived to win 
 over to his cause, which he affirmed to be 
 that of the Hindoos and the Hindoo faith. 
 By their joint artifice, the haughty Moslem 
 was persuaded that Sevajee's excessive alarm 
 could only be overcome by his personal 
 
 assurances of mediation at the court of 
 Becjapoor, and he readily consented to leave 
 the army and advance to meet the repentant 
 rebel. In compliance with the suggcstioa 
 of the treacherous Brahmin, the 1,500 men, 
 who had escorted their general to within a 
 few hundred yards of the fort, were forbidden 
 to proceed furtiier, for fear of exciting the 
 apprehensions of Sevajee. Accompanied by 
 a single armed attendant, Afzool Khan ad- 
 vanced to the appointed place of meeting, 
 and, descending from his palanquin, entered 
 the open bungalow ])rcpar('d for liis recep- 
 tion, where, clad in thin white robes, with a 
 straight sword in his hand, he impatiently 
 awaited the arrival of Sevajee, whose figure 
 (unju-ctending, from its diminutive size, and 
 rendered ungainly by the extreme length of 
 the arms) was seen descending the heights 
 with slow and hesitating steps. His only 
 follower carried two swords in his waist- 
 band, a common circumstance among the 
 i\Iahrattas ; but Sevajee himself was seem- 
 ingly unprovided with any offensive or de- 
 fensive weapon, although secretly prepared 
 for deadly strife. The convenient axiom 
 for evil-doers — that the end justifies the 
 means — had induced the Mahratta chief to 
 proceed on this occasion as if about to at- 
 tempt an act of heroic self-devotion, instead 
 of a treacherous assassination. After per- 
 forming, with earnest solemnity, his morning 
 devotions, he laid his head at the feet of his 
 mother (Jeejee Bye), and having received 
 her blessing, arose and equipped himself in 
 a suit of chain armour, over which he placed 
 his turban and a cotton tunic. His right 
 sleeve concealed a crooked dagger, named 
 from its form a " beeehwa," or scorpion, and 
 his Icft-haiul held a small steel instrument, 
 called a " wagnuck," or tiger-claw, on ac- 
 count of its three crooked blades, which are 
 easily hidden by half-closed fingers. Thus 
 ]n'ovided, Sevajee apjiroaehcd the khan, and, 
 at the moment of the embrace, struck the 
 wagnuck into his body ; then, instantly fol- 
 lowing up the blow, dispatched him with his 
 dagger. The attendant of Afzool refused 
 quarter, and fell vainly endeavouring to 
 avenge his ill-fated master. The blast of a 
 horn and the firing of five guns announced 
 the unhallowed triumph of Sevajee to the 
 jMawulees. They rushed from the diflcrent 
 wooded recesses, where they had been posted, 
 upon the Becjapoor troops, who, suddenly 
 roused from fancied securitv, were slaujrh- 
 tered or dispersed almost without resistance. 
 Numbers were driven bv hunger into a sur-
 
 144 EXPLOITS OP SE\' A JEE— PLUNDER OF SURAT— a.d. 1664. 
 
 render, after long wandering in the neigh- 
 bouring wilds, and all were humanely re- 
 ceived by Sevajee, who, throughout his 
 s remarkable for gentle 
 
 whole career, 
 
 treatment of prisoners, always excepting 
 such as were suspected of concealing trea- 
 sure, in which case, like the Great Moguls, 
 he resorted to torture without stint or 
 scruple. 
 
 By this violent deed, Sevajee gained pos- 
 session of the whole train of equipment 
 which had been sent against him, and many 
 of the Mahrattas were induced to enlist in 
 his service ; but the most distinguished 
 captive of that nation having steadily refused 
 to renounce his allegiance, was honourably 
 dismissed with costly presents. From tlris 
 period, up to the close of 1662, Sevajee was 
 engaged in hostilities with the king of 
 Beejapoor, who took the field against him 
 in person ; but, after recovering much terri- 
 tory, was compelled to turn his chief atten- 
 tion to a revolt in the Carnatic, upon which 
 the Mahratta chief regained his former con- 
 quests, with usury, and succeeded, through 
 Shahjee's mediation, in obtaining a peace, by 
 which he was recognised as master of the 
 whole coast-line of the Concan for 250 
 miles (between Goa and Callian). and ex- 
 tending above the Ghauts for more than 
 150 miles from the north of Poena to the 
 south of Merieh on the Kistna. The ex- 
 treme breadth of this territory did not 
 exceed 100 miles. The hardiness and pre- 
 datory habits of his soldiery, enabled Sevajee 
 to support an army of 7,000 horse and 
 50,000 foot (a much larger force than the 
 size of his country would seem to warrant), 
 and he soon prepared to take advantage of 
 his truce with Beejapoor, by extending his 
 dominion at the expense of the Moguls. 
 
 To put an end to these aggressions, Shaista 
 Khan (viceroy of the Deccan, and the empe- 
 ror's maternal uncle) marched from Aurun- 
 gabad, drove the marauding force from the 
 field, captured Poena and Chakun, and 
 took up his position at the former place, 
 within twelve miles of Singhur, the hill-fort 
 to which Sevajee had retired. The house 
 occupied by the viceroy had been originally 
 built by Dadajce for .Tec-jec Bye, and her son 
 resolved to take advantage of his perfect 
 acquaintance with its every iidct and outlet, 
 by surprising the intruder, notwithstand- 
 ing his well-planned precautions. Leaving 
 Singhur one evening after dark, and posting 
 small bodies of infantry on the road to sup- 
 port him, Scvajcc, attended by twenty -five 
 
 Mawulees, proceeded to the town, into which 
 he gained admission by joining a marriagt: 
 procession, planned for the purpose. By 
 the aid of a few pickaxes, the party suc- 
 ceeded in entermg the mansion, but not 
 without awakening some of the women of 
 the family, who gave the alarm. Shaista 
 Khan escaped from the window of his bed- 
 chambei', having first received a sword- 
 cut, which severed two of his fingers, while 
 letting himself down into the court below. 
 His son, and most of his attendants, were 
 cut to pieces in a moment, after which 
 Sevajee retreated with all speed, and as- 
 cended Singhur amid a blaze of torches, in 
 full view of the INIogul camp. 
 
 On the following morning, a body of the 
 enemy's horse came galloping towards the 
 fort, but were driven off in confusion ; and 
 on this occasion the Mahrattas, for the first 
 time, pursued the IMogul cavalry. Shaista 
 Khan, blinded by grief and mortification, 
 instead of taking active measures against 
 Sevajee, accused Jeswunt Sing (who had not 
 long before arrived with re-inforcements) of 
 treachery ; and the dissensions of the leaders 
 crippled the movements of the army, until 
 Aurungzebe removed Shaista Khan to 
 Bengal, and sent Prince jNIauzim to com- 
 mand in conjunction with the rajah. 
 
 After a feeble attempt to invest Singhur, 
 Jeswunt retired to Aurungabad ; and Seva- 
 jee, glad to be released from the necessity of 
 standing on the defensive, having spread 
 several false reports of his intentions, set off 
 with 4,000 horse, surprised the rich and 
 defenceless city of Surat, and, after six days 
 of systematic plunder, leisurely proceeded to 
 Raighur, a newly-erected fort in the Con- 
 can, which became thenceforth the seat of 
 his government. The booty acquired at 
 Surat was very considerable, and would 
 have been greater, but for the determined 
 defence made at the English and Dutch 
 
 factories, where some of the native chiefs 
 had taken refuge. The English, especially, 
 gained much favour with Aurungzebe, who 
 granted them a perpetual exemption from a 
 portion of the customs exacted from the 
 traders of other nations at Surat.* 
 
 At Raighur, Sevajee learned the death of 
 Shahjee, who, although of a great age, con- 
 
 * It soomod necessary to notice this circumstance 
 here ; l)ut the jirogress of I'hiropean power, vmtil 
 the chise of the reign of Aurnngzelie, so little affected 
 the general state of India, that I have thought it 
 best, for the sake of clearness, to reserve an account 
 of it for a brief separate sketch.
 
 SEVAJEE ENTRAPPED BY AURUNGZEBE-ESCAPES IN A BASKET. 14j 
 
 tinned to pursue liis fiivouritc diversion of 
 hunting, until lie was killed by a fall from 
 his liorsc, a.d. KiflL lie liad restored his 
 jagliire to perfect order, and extended his 
 dominions to the southward, with the tacit 
 permission of the kinii; of Jk'cjapoor, until 
 tliey comprehended the country near !Ma- 
 dras, and the princii)ality of Tanjore. Scva- 
 jce now assumed the title of rajah, struck 
 coins in his own name, and carried on hos- 
 tilities alternately against the Beejapoor and 
 imperial authorities. He collected a fleet, 
 took many Mogul ships, and exacted ran- 
 soms from all the rich pilgrims proceeding 
 therein towards !Meeca. On one occasion 
 he embarked with a force of 1,000 men, in 
 eighty-seven vessels, and made an unex- 
 pected descent on the wealthy town of 
 Barcclore, about 130 miles below Goa, plun- 
 dered all the adjacent territory, and returned 
 in triumph to liis mountain capital. Ills 
 homeward voyage was, however, prolonged 
 for many days by adverse winds, which, with 
 several other unfavourable circumstances, 
 were interpreted as indications of the displea- 
 sure of the goddess Bhavani, at this the only 
 naval enterprise in which Sevajee ever in per- 
 son engaged. Alarming intelligence awaited 
 his return. Aiu'ungzelje at length resolved 
 to punish the sacrilegious conduct of "the 
 mountain rat," as he eontem[)tuously styled 
 the Mahratta chief; had sent a powerful force 
 against him under Jey Sing and Dileer Khan, 
 with orders, after hissidijugation, to proceed 
 against Beejapoor. Sevajee, for once taken 
 by surprise (in consequence of the neglect or 
 treachery of one of his own commanders), 
 held out for some time, and then opened a 
 negotiation with Jey Sing, who assured him, 
 " on the honour of a Rajpoot," of safety, 
 and even favour, on the part of the em- 
 peror, in return for entire submission and 
 co-operation. This guarantee, even Sevajee 
 decnu^l sullieient ; and he proceeded, with a 
 few attendants, to the IMogul eamp, aiul 
 agreed to deliver up twenty of tlic forts 
 which he possessed, together with the terri- 
 tories attached thereto. Raighur and eleven 
 others, with the dependent country, he was 
 to hold as a jaghirc from Aurungzebe, in 
 whose service his son, Sumbajce — a boy, 
 seven years old — was to receive the rank of 
 a munsubdar of 5,000; and, probably in 
 lieu of the alleged hereditary claims which 
 he had so pertinaciously asserted, Sevajee 
 stipulated for certain assignments (Chout 
 and Surdeshmooki) on the revenue of eiuh 
 district under Beejapoor; an arrangement 
 
 which laid the foundation of the ill-defmcd 
 claims of the IVIahraltas in after-times. 
 
 No mention is made of this condition in 
 the letter written ])y Aurungzebe to Sevajee, 
 in which he distinctly confirmed every other 
 article of the treaty ; nor in the .subsequent 
 communications, in which lie highly com- 
 mended the conduct of Sevajee and his 
 10,000 followers during the invasion of 
 Beejapoor by Jey Sing, and invited him to 
 court, with a promise of returning at plea- 
 sure to the Dcecan. 
 
 The wily Mahratta was, in this instance, 
 dujied by the equally wily ]\Iogul, and, at 
 tiie termination of the campaign, set off for 
 Delhi, accompanied by his son, and escorted 
 by 1,500 men. Aurungzebe thought his foe 
 secure within his grasp ; and instead of act- 
 ing as Akber would have done, by surpassing 
 in courtesy and generosity the expectations 
 he had raised, and binding to him the now 
 suijmissive chief by the ties of self-interest, 
 at least, if not of gratitude, — he broke every 
 pledge, received him with marked disre- 
 spect, and caused him to be placed among 
 the commanders of the third rank, in the very 
 position promised to his child. Overpowered 
 by rage and mortification, Sevajee sank to 
 the ground in a swoon, and, on recovering 
 his senses, bitterly reproached Ram Sing 
 with the breach of his father Jey Sing's 
 plighted faith ; and then, declaring that life 
 was valueless to him without honour, abruptly 
 quitted the imperial presence. 
 
 Aurun<;;zel)e, astounded by this unex- 
 pected display of vehemence, refused again 
 to receive the Mahratta, who requested per- 
 mission to return to the Deccan, but, not 
 obtaining it, affected to be quite east down, 
 and begged that his followers at least might 
 be suffered to depart, as the air and water of 
 Delhi injured their health. This solicita- 
 tion was gladly complied with, and Sevajee 
 seemed completely at the mercy of his foes. 
 But Ram Sing, feeling his father's honour 
 compromised by the conduct of Aurungzebe, 
 connived at the escape of the captive, who, 
 having taken to his bed on pretence of sick- 
 ness, caused himself and his son to be con- 
 veyed by night out of the house ayd city in 
 two large hampers, which the guards suf- 
 fered to pass without examination, having 
 been purposely accustomed to see similar 
 baskets sent to and fro, filled with sweet- 
 meats, flowers, &c., as presents to the Brah- 
 mins and physicians. His couch was occupied 
 by a servant, and his flight remained undis- 
 covered till a late hour on the following
 
 146 SEVAJEE FIRST LEVIES "CHOUT," 1670— HIS CIVIL POLICY. 
 
 day. In the meantime, Sevajee repaired to 
 an obscure spot, where a swift liorse had 
 been posted in readiness, and rode off with 
 his son behind him. At Muttra he shaved 
 off his hair and whiskers, assumed the dis- 
 guise of a Gosacn, or Hindoo religious men- 
 dicant, and leaving Sumbajee under the 
 charge of a Brahmin, pursued his journey 
 by the most obscure and circuitous roads, 
 arriving at Raighur in December, 1GG6, after 
 an absence of nine months. Tidings of his 
 recovered liberty reached the Deeean long 
 before his arrival ; and the English factors at 
 Carwar, in the Concan, wrote, September 
 29th — " If it be true that Sevajee has es- 
 caped, Aurungzebe will quickly hear of him 
 to his sorrow." 
 
 Shah Jehan died about this time, and his 
 favourite child, Padshah Begum, or Jeha- 
 nara, was formally reconciled to her brother, 
 whose fortunes were then in the zenith of 
 prosperity. Tranquillity prevailed through- 
 out his territories, the limits of which had 
 been extended by the acquisition of Little 
 Thibet, to the north, and Chittagong, on the 
 eastern shore of the Bay of Bengal. Some 
 questions of etiquette had arisen with Shah 
 Abbas II., of Persia, which threatened to 
 involve a war with India, and preparations 
 were being made, but set aside in conse- 
 quence of the death of the Shah. The sole 
 drawback on the general success of the 
 empire was the ill-fortune of its army at 
 Beejapoor, where the king had resorted to 
 the old plan of defence, by reducing the 
 surrounding country to a desert. JeySing, 
 after investing the capital, was compelled to 
 withdraw with loss to Aurungabad. Being 
 soon after recalled, he died on the road to 
 Delhi, having (according to Tod) been poi- 
 soned by his second son, at the instigation 
 of Aurungzebe, who promised that he should 
 succeed to the raj (or kingdom) of Mewar, 
 to the prejudice of his elder brother. Ram 
 Sing ; but, when the crime was committed, 
 withheld the promised reward, giving the 
 parricide only the district of Kaniali,* and 
 offering no opposition to the claims of the 
 rightful heir. Jeswunt Sing was now asso- 
 ciated in command of the troops with Prince 
 jMauzim and Dilccr Khan — an arrangement 
 which proved very advantageous to Sevajee ; 
 for Jeswunt exercised great asccndancv over 
 the mind of tlie prince, and was secretly 
 better disposed towards the Hindoos than 
 to the gcjvcrntncnt he served. J5y his 
 mediation a treaty w.as concluded, a. d. I()G7, 
 
 • Jnnals 11/ liajasi'/iun, vol. ii., p. 356. 
 
 on highly favourable terms for Sevajee, to 
 whom a considerable portion of territory 
 was restored, a new jaghire granted in 
 Berar, and his title of rajah recognised. 
 Aurungzebe confirmed these extraordinary 
 concessions in the hope of deluding Sevajee 
 again into his power : with this view the 
 Mogul leaders were enjoined to keep up a 
 constant intercourse with him, and even 
 directed to feign disaffection to their own 
 government, and a disposition to enter into 
 a separate alliance with the Mahrattas. 
 The emperor long patiently waited the result 
 of his scheme ; but at length discovering or 
 suspecting the truth — namely, that his in- 
 tended victim had turned his weapons 
 against himself, by conciliating both the 
 prince and rajah by bribes and gifts — he 
 renewed hostilities by giving orders for an 
 open attempt to seize his person, a.d. 1670. 
 During the preceding prolonged truce, Se- 
 vajee, after obtaining from Beejapoor and 
 Golconda the promise of an annual tribute, 
 had laid aside his sword, and diligently 
 employed himself in giving a regular form 
 to his government. His great and varied 
 talents were never displayed in a more 
 forcible light than when exerted in domestic 
 administration ; and his rules were rigo- 
 rously enforced, whether framed to check 
 oppression of the cultivatorsfor fraud against 
 the government. In the arrangement of 
 the army, the most careful attention to 
 method and economy was manifest. Both 
 troops and officers received high pay, but 
 were obliged to give up their plunder of 
 every description to the state, or to retain it 
 at a fixed price. 
 
 The trump of war again sounded in the 
 cars of the miserable inhabitants of the 
 Dcccan. Sevajee recovered Singhur near 
 Poona, plundered Surat anew, carried his 
 ravages over Candeish, and levied the famous 
 "chout," which, Hke the black mail of Scot- 
 tish border warfare, exempted from plunder 
 tlie districts in which it was regularly paid. 
 He equipped a powerful fleet, and resumed 
 his attacks on the Abyssinians of Jinjecra, 
 which induced them to seek the protection 
 of the IMoguls. Tliese successes were, in 
 great measure, attributable to the inadequacy 
 of the opposing force. Aurungzebe at length 
 convinced of tliis, sent 40,000 men, under 
 Mohabct Khan, to the scene of action, but 
 quite independent of the authority of Prince 
 
 t Sevajee's assessments were made 011 the actual 
 state of the crop, of which he is aHcocd to have 
 taken two-fifths.— (Dufi's Muhratlas, vol. i., p. 'J31.)
 
 AFGHAN WAR.— HINDOO INSURRECTION.— INFIDEL TAX REVIVED. 147 
 
 Mauzim, wliosc fidelity lie doubted, and 
 
 willi whom he left Dilcc'i- Kliaii, but recalled 
 .7(^s\vuiit Siiij;. 'J'lie CDiisccjiU'iico of this 
 divided coiniiiand was the total d(;f<;ac of 
 I 20,()0{) Mounds, A.I). 1072, in a field-action 
 with the Maiirattas. IMan/.im and iMoha- 
 l)(;t wore recalled, and Khan .lelian liahadur, 
 the viceroy of (iuzerat, sent to take their 
 place ; but active hostilities were soon 
 dropped by mutual consent, the energies of 
 botli Auruiii;zebe ami Sevajec* being fully 
 employed in other quarters. 
 
 The emperor's attention was drawn ofF by 
 the inereasin'^ importance of a war which 
 had been goiuji on for some time with the 
 north-eastern Afi;hans, iueliulini^ the I'^usof- 
 zies. In 1G70, an array under Amcen Khan, 
 the governor of ('abool, had been totally 
 destroyed ; and, about the same time, a king- 
 was set up by the Afghans, who is repre- 
 sented by European writers as an impostor, 
 assuming to be the murdered Prince Shuja; 
 but is desciibivj, by Indian authorities, as 
 an Afghan chief. In 1()7.3, the emperor 
 proceeded to direct, in person, the military 
 operations of "iis troops, accompanied by his 
 son, Mohammed Sultan, who was now re- 
 leased from prison ; but, at the close of two 
 years of unsatisfactory eifort, he returned to 
 Delhi, and a very imperfect settlement was 
 afterwards arranged with the Afghans. 
 
 In 1676, an insurrection of an extr.a- 
 ordinary character broke out near the 
 capital, originating in the disorderly con- 
 duct of some soldiers of the police, who 
 liad mobbed and beaten a Hindoo devotee of 
 the sect of (piietists, called Sadhs or Satna- 
 niis, in consccpience of a quarrel between 
 liim and one of their comrades. The Sat- 
 namis came to the rescue, several lives were 
 lost, and the afl'ray increased until the 
 numbers of both pailies became conside- 
 rable. The devotees took possession of the 
 town of Naruol, and maintained it, defeating 
 two separate detachments sent against them 
 from Delhi. The idea gained ground that 
 theyw'ere endowed with supernatural powers; 
 that swords woidd not cut, nor bullets pierce 
 tlicm, while their weapons de.alt death at 
 every blow. From standing on the defen- 
 sive, they took an aggressive part, and were 
 joined by several of the neighbouring zemin- 
 
 • Sevajee is said to have given a large sum of 
 money to Khan Jehan, ]iart iirivatcly, and part pub- 
 licly; the Mogul styled the hitter, tribute; but the 
 Hindoo called it " oil-cake given to his milch cow." 
 
 ■f The three eldest sons of Jeswunt Sing had 
 perished : two, it is alleged, in consequence of the 
 inclement climate of C'abool. The third, a youth of 
 
 dars. The growinf^ belief in their invinci- 
 bility seemed likely to justify its assertion; 
 for no troops could be induced to face tlutrri; 
 and, on learning tlieir ap])roach to Delhi, 
 Aurungzebe found it necessary to order his 
 tents to be prepared to take the field, and, 
 with his own hand, wrote extracts from the 
 Koran, to be fastened to tiie standards as a 
 protection against enchantment. The royal 
 force made a stand, and the insurgents 
 were defeated and dispersed with great loss. 
 But the previous success had tempted many 
 of the Hindoo inhabitants of Ajraeer and 
 Agra to take up arms, and it was with 
 (lidlculty that order coidd be restored in 
 these provinces. Instead of the conciliatory 
 measures which were imperatively needed, 
 Aurungzebe, chafed by recent occurrences, 
 took the only step necessary for the com- 
 plete alienation of the minds of his Hindoo 
 subjects, by reviving the jezia (capitation tax 
 on infidels) abolished by Akbcr. In vain 
 the populace assembled in crowds round the 
 palace ; no notice was taken of their tears 
 and complaints. Determined that their 
 appeal should be no longer ignored, they 
 intercepted the emperor on his way in pro- 
 cession to the mosque ; but the stern com- 
 mand was given to force a path, and many 
 of the suppliants were trampled under the 
 feet of the horses and elephants. The tax 
 was submitted to without further demur, but 
 the good-w^ill of the Hindoos was gone for 
 ever : in the Deecan every one of them 
 became at heart a partisan of the Mahrattas ; 
 and the little fanning needed to blow into a 
 flame the long-smouldering discontent of the 
 Rajpoots was given within a few mouths of 
 the imposition of the hated jezia. 
 
 Rajah Jeswunt Sing died at Cabool, and 
 his widow immediately set out for India, 
 without waiting the permission of Aurung- 
 zebe, who made this insubordination a pre- 
 text for endeavouring to seize her two infant 
 sons.f By the ingenuity of Durga Das, 
 the Hindoo leader, the rani and her chil- 
 dren were enabled to escape to Marwar, over 
 which principality the elder of the boys, 
 Ajeet Sing, lived to enjoy a long reign, and 
 became a formidable enemy to the Great 
 Mogul. J Ram Sing, of Jeypoor or Amber, 
 remained faithful to the master who had so 
 
 great premise, expired suddenly at Delhi in extreme 
 torture, owing to a jioisoned robe of honour bestowed 
 on him by the perfidious emperor. — (Sajast'kan.) 
 
 * .-Vnother female and i^o infants were captured 
 by Aurungzebe, the Rajpoots sacrificing their lives 
 freely, as if the supposititious family had been really 
 the widow and orphans of the deceased rajah.
 
 148 DEATH OF SEVAJEE, 1G80— HIS LATEST ACQUISITIONS. 
 
 little deserved such loyalty ; but Raj Sing,* 
 the rana of Oudipoor, entered heartily into 
 the cause of tlie children of Jeswunt Sing, 
 and refused to agree to the jezia. A long 
 and tedious contest commenced with the 
 year 1679, and was carried on by Aurung- 
 zebe in a spirit of the most barbarous 
 intolerance. His orders to the two princes, 
 Mauzim and Akber, were " to make the 
 enemy feel all the evils of war in their 
 utmost severity ;"t and the Rajpoots, having 
 at length caught something of the intolerant 
 spirit of their foes, plundered the mosques, 
 burned the Koran, and insulted the ^looUahs. 
 A strange turn was given to affairs by the 
 conduct of Prince Akber, then only twenty- 
 three, who was induced to join the Rajpoots, 
 on condition of being proclaimed emperor, 
 in lieu of his father. This rebellious attempt 
 proved unsuccessful; and after being deserted 
 by every Mohammedan follower, Akber 
 resolved to take refuge with the Mahrat- 
 tas, and, under the escort of Durga Das 
 and 500 Rajpoots, arrived safely in tlie Con- 
 can, A.D. 1G81. Great changes had taken 
 place in the affairs of the Deccan since the 
 withdrawal of the flower of the Mogul troops 
 to the north-eastern frontier, in 1672. Se- 
 vajee ha^dng turned his arms against Beeja- 
 poor, had, in the course of the year 1673, 
 become master of the whole of the southern 
 Concan (excepting the points held by the 
 English, Abyssinians, and Portuguese), and 
 of a tract above the Ghauts, extending to 
 the east beyond the upper course of the 
 Kistna. In 1675 lie crossed the Nerbudda, 
 and began to invade the Mogul territory. 
 In the next four years he formed separate 
 alliances with the kings of Golconda and 
 Beejapoor against the Moguls, now under 
 the command of Dileer Khan ; and, in return 
 for his co-operation, received valuable ces- 
 sions of territory, including the jaghire 
 in Mysore, which had been suffered to de- 
 scend to his half-brother, Yenkajee. 
 
 ' About this time Aurungzebe had .sent a body of 
 2,000 horse to escort to his court a princess of 
 lloopnagurh, a younger branch of the Marwar 
 house, whom he demanded in marriage. The 
 maiden, indignant at the thought of wedding tlie 
 enemy of her race, sent a message to Raj Sing by 
 her ])receptor (the family priest), entreating him to 
 come to her rescue. " Is the swan," she asked, " to 
 be the mate of the stork ; a llajpootni, pure in l)lood, 
 to be wife to the monkey-faced barbarian ?" 'J"hc 
 rana accepted the challenge, appeared suddenly be- 
 fore lloopnagurh, cut o(f the imperial guard, and 
 carried away the princess in triumph to Oudipoor. 
 
 t Klphinstono, vol. ii., p. 498. Tlie same para- 
 graph slate.s, " their orders were to em])loy part of 
 
 One singular feature in this period of the 
 history of Sevajee, is the flight of Sumba- 
 jee, the elder of his two sons, who had been 
 imprisoned in a hill-fort for. attempting to 
 violate the wife of a Brahmin. This young 
 man, of his father's better qualities, seems to 
 have only inherited personal daring. He 
 succeeded in making his escape, and took 
 refuge with Dileer Khan, who welcomed 
 him gladly, but on learning that Aurung- 
 zebe was treacherously disposed, connived at 
 his quitting the imperial camp. Sumbajee 
 then threw himself upon the mercy of his 
 father, who sent him back to the fort of 
 Panalla. From thence he was speedily re- 
 leased by an unexpected event. Sevajee, 
 shortly after dictating a letter to Venkajce, 
 in which he bade him " arouse and be 
 doing," for the present was the time for 
 great deeds, was seized with a painful swell- 
 ing in the knee-joint, which threw him into 
 a fever, and in a few days cut short his 
 extraordinary career, in the fifty-third year 
 of his age, a.d. 1680. 
 
 The emperor expected, that deprived of 
 their leader, the Mahrattas would sink into 
 insignificance. But he was mistaken. Se- 
 vajee well knew the character of his coun- 
 trymen, and had carefully used that know- 
 ledge in laying down rules for their govern- 
 ment. The Brahminieal creed could not 
 be used as a weapon of persecution, but 
 its mingled tolerance and exclusiveness 
 made it a powerful instrument for concen- 
 trating the religious feelings of the Hindoos, 
 and directing their full force against the 
 cruel and bigotted oppression commanded 
 by the Koran, and practised by Aurungzebe. 
 Sevajee made it his mainstay, scarcely less 
 when the boy-chief of a band of half-naked 
 and superstitious mountaineers, than when 
 these had become the nucleus of a powerful 
 army, and he the crowned king of a state 
 (under Providence) of his own creation, with 
 yearly-increasing territory and revenue. It is 
 
 their troops to cut off all supplies from the fugitives in 
 the hills ; and with the rest to lay waste the country, 
 burn and destroy the villages, cut down the fruit- 
 trees, and carry njf the women ami children" of 
 course as slaves, or for the services of the harem 
 and its degraded eunuch guards. This barbarity 
 contrasts with the practice of the Hindoos, whether 
 Itajpoot or Mahratta. Sevajee himself decreed, that 
 " cows, cultivators, and women were never to be 
 molested ; nor were any but rich Mohammedans, or 
 Hindoos in their service, who could pay a ransom, to 
 be made prisoners" (IJiiff, vol. i., p. 2:50) ; and El- 
 ])hinstone remarks, that " his enemies bear witness to 
 his anxiety to mitigate the evils of it [war] by humane 
 regulations, which were strictly enforced."
 
 CHARACTER OF SEVAJEE. AURUNGZEBE MARCHES TO THE DECCAN. 149 
 
 not wonderful that the nicmory of the 
 man wliosc wcll-fligcstcd plans "raised 
 the desjiiscd Iliiuloos to sovereignty, and 
 brouj;ht about their own aceomplislnncnt, 
 when tlic hand that had framed them 
 was low in the dust," shouhl be grate- 
 fully rcmeml)cred by his eountrymcn ; but 
 it allbrds melaneiioly evidence of the dark- 
 ness of heathenism to be told, that the 
 murder of Afzool Khan is spoken of as a 
 " commendable exploit," and its perpetrator 
 " as an incarnation of the Ucity setting an 
 example of wisdom, fortitude, and piety."* 
 
 Impartial judges admit that Sevajee pos- 
 sessed qualities whicli, in an unenlightened 
 Hindoo, may be termed admirable. Pre- 
 pared for every emergency, peril eould not 
 daunt, nor success intoxicate him. Frugal 
 even to parsimony in his habits, courteous and 
 endearing in manner though passionate in 
 disposition, he continued to the last to move 
 freely about among the people, inspiring 
 them with his own spirit of determined op- 
 position to tlie Mohammedans. Intent on 
 following every turn and winding of Aurung- 
 zebe's snake-like polic}^, he also practised 
 treacherous wiles ; but the use of tliese un- 
 worthy weapons did not detract from his 
 personal courage. To have seen him charge, 
 was the favourite boast of the troops en- 
 gaged in the Deccani wars ; and his famous 
 sword (a Genoa blade of the finest temper, 
 named after his tutelary goddess, Bhavani) 
 was preserved and regarded with nothing 
 short of idolatrous veneration. 
 
 On the death of Sevajee, one of his sur- 
 viving widows burned herself with his body. 
 The other, Soyera Bye, endeavoured to place 
 her son. Rajah Ram, a boy of ten years old, 
 on the throue, to the exclusion of Sumbajce, 
 whose mother had died during his infancy. 
 The attempt failed, and Sumbajce was pro- 
 claimed king. He caused Soyera Bye to 
 be put to a painful and lingering death ; 
 imprisoned her son; threw the leading 
 Brahmin ministers into irons ; and slew 
 such of his other enemies <is were not pro- 
 tected by the sanctity of their caste. Prince 
 
 • Hidory of the. Mahratlas, vol. i., p. 297. The 
 above account of Sevajee is almost exclusively de- 
 rived from the able and interesting narrative of 
 Grant Uuflf, whose labour of love has rendered him 
 as eminently the historian of the Mahrattas, as Colo- 
 nel Tod of the Rajpoots. 
 
 t Bileer Khan died in this year. He was, perhaps, 
 the ablest oflicer in the service of Aurun^jzcbe, whose 
 battles he fought for six-and-twenty years ; but he, 
 like Jey Sing and Jcswunt Sing, found, in the sus- 
 picion and neglect of his crafty master, fit punish- 
 
 Akber reached the Dcccau in June, IG8], 
 and was honourably received by Sumiiajee, 
 wlio acknowledged him as empeior, but 
 showed no intention of sup|)orling his pre- 
 tensions; devoting such time as he could 
 spare from diinkiug and debauehery to mak- 
 ing war Ujjon the Abyssiuians of Jinjcera 
 and the Portuguese. The vast treasure 
 accumulated by his father was soon dis- 
 sipated ; the people were harassed by op- 
 pressive taxes; and the troops, being left 
 in arrears of pay, began to apjjropriate the 
 plunder taken on exi)cditions for their own 
 use, and to degenerate from comparatively 
 regular bands into hordes of rapacious aud 
 destructive freebooters. 
 
 Such was the state of things when Au- 
 rungzebe, in 1083, arrived at the head of the 
 whole force of the emi)irc. Sumbajce awoke 
 from his stupor; and ably seconded by his 
 father's trained troops, cut off the greater 
 part of the army sent under Prince Mau- 
 zim to overrun the Concan, in lG81;f and, 
 in the following year, retaliated this inva- 
 sion by taking advantage of the march of 
 the emperor against Ahmednuggur, to 
 sack and burn the great city of Boorhan- 
 poor. In Kj'Sti, the IMoguls being again 
 drawn off to the south, Sumbajce made 
 another bold inroad into the territory in 
 their rear, and plundered Baroaeh with the 
 adjacent part of Guzerat. About this time 
 he entered into a defensive alliance with 
 the king of Goleonda, which Aurungzebe 
 resenting, sent an army against that state, 
 then weakened by internal dissension. Its 
 sovereign, Abool Hussun, though indolent 
 and voluptuous, was popular, and his go- 
 vernment and finances were ably managed 
 by Maduna Pnnt, an active and upright 
 Brahmin, in whom he placed full con- 
 fidence, thereby exciting the discontent of 
 the Mussulmans, especially of Ibrahim 
 Khan, the commander-in-chief, who, on 
 the approach of the imperial force, under 
 Prince iSIauzim, deserted to him with the 
 greater part of the army. The obnoxious 
 minister was murdered; the king fled to 
 
 mcnt for treachery to the brave and unfortunate 
 ])ara. The emperor confiscated the property of the 
 deceased, and being disappointed in its value, vainly 
 strove to extort, by torture, from his secretary, a 
 confession of the manner in which the supposed sur- 
 plus had been employed. The relatives of Bileer 
 Khan were not, however, more unfortunate than 
 those of Khan Jehan Bahadur, foster-brother to the 
 emperor, who visited his death-bed, but appropriated 
 his property, giving the usual order to seek for hid- 
 den deposits, and recover all out-standing debts. 
 
 .1
 
 150 BEEJAPOOR AND GOLCONDA ANNEXED TO THE EMPIRE— 1686-'7. 
 
 the hill-fort of Golcouda ; and Hyderabad 
 was captured and plundered for three days 
 by the Mogul soldiery, notwithstanding the 
 efforts of the prince to check this breach of 
 discipline, which his suspicious father attri- 
 buted to his connivance, as a means of em- 
 bezzlement for ambitious purposes. 
 
 By a large pecuniary payment, Abool 
 Hussun purchased a brief respite from 
 Aurungzebe, who then moved in person 
 against Beejapoor. The army of this mo- 
 narchy had been so reduced by prolonged 
 warfare, that the city, although surrounded 
 by walls six miles in circumference, was 
 soon completely invested. The Patau gar- 
 rison seemed determined to perish sword in 
 hand, and were therefore suffered to capitu- 
 late after a practicable breach had been 
 made, through which Aurungzebe entered 
 the place on a portable throne. The state 
 was extinguished, a.d. 1686; and Beeja- 
 poor, after attaining a grandeur quite dis- 
 proportioned to the extent of the kingdom 
 of which it formed the capital, sunk rapidly 
 iuto the deserted condition in which it now 
 stands. The young king, after three years' 
 close imprisonment in the ^logul camp, 
 perished suddenly, it is said by violence, 
 the fears of his imperial gaoler harving been 
 raised by a popular commotion in his favour. 
 
 Golconda, the last independent Moham- 
 medan state, was next destroyed, after a 
 duration of 175 years. Abool Hussun strove 
 by costly gifts to deprecate the ambition 
 of Aurungzebe, who, while receiving these 
 offerings, was secretly occupied in in- 
 trigues with the ministers and troops of the 
 unhappy king; and at length, his plans 
 being matured, denounced him as a pro- 
 tector of infidels, and laid siege to Gol- 
 conda. Roused by this treachery, Abool 
 Hussun, though deserted on all sides, de- 
 fended the fort for seven months, but was 
 eventually betrayed into the hands of his 
 merciless foe, by whom he was sent to end 
 his days in the fortress of Doulatabad. 
 His fate and treatment awakened the com- 
 passion of Prince ^lauzim, whose media- 
 tion he solicited; and the prince, touched 
 by the dignity and resignation with which 
 the monarch bore his misfortunes, or rather 
 injuries, made an earnest appeal in his 
 favour. The result was his own imprison- 
 
 • In all tlie«e countries Aurungzebe acquired little 
 more than s military oroupition. " The districts were 
 farmed tn the Dejinookh nnd other zemindnn, and 
 were governed by military leaders, who received 
 twenty-five per cent for the expense of collecting; 
 
 ment for nearly seven years, after which he 1 
 was released and sent as governor to CabooL 
 All the territories which had been acquired 
 by Beejapoor and Golconda were annexed 
 to the empire, as well as many of Sevajee's 
 conquests; Yenkajee was deprived of the 
 Mysore jaghire, and confined to Tanjore; 
 and Surabajee seemed to have sunk into 
 a state of inertia, and become heedless of 
 passing events. Prince Akber, dreading to 
 fall into his father's hands, fled to Persia, 
 where he remained till his death, about 
 eighteen years afterwards. 
 
 Aurungzebe had now reached the culmi- 
 nating point of success; neither humanity 
 nor policy had stayed his covetous grasp: 
 he stood alone, the sole Moslem ruler in 
 India — the despotic master of an unwieldy 
 empire, over which the seeds of disorgani- 
 sation and dissolution were sown broadcast. 
 In Hindoostan, the finest provinces were, for 
 the most part, entrusted to the care of in- 
 competent and needy governors, chosen 
 purposely from the lower ranks of the co- 
 bility. These men oppressed the peopiC 
 and neglected the troops — evils which 
 Aurungzebe preferred to the risk of being 
 supplanted by more able and influential 
 officers. His policy in the Deccan was 
 equally selfish and short-sighted. In the 
 governments of Beejapoor and Golconda, he 
 might have found valuable auxiliaries in 
 keeping under the power of the !Mahrattas ; 
 but, by their destruction, he threw down 
 the chief barrier to lawless incursions, set- 
 ting aside constituted authorities without 
 supplying any eSicient substitute.* Of the 
 disbanded armies, the Patans and foreign 
 mercenaries probably obtained service under 
 the emperor ; the remainder joined Sumba- 
 jee, or plundered on their own account; and 
 amid the general anarchy and distress, the 
 new-bom feeling of religious opposition 
 rapidly gained ground. Notwithstanding 
 the inefficiency of their rajah, the ^lah- 
 ratta chiefs exerted themselves individually 
 against the invader, and their energies were 
 rather stimulated than enfeebled by the un- 
 expected capture of Sumbajee, with his mi- 
 nister and favourite companion, a Brahmin 
 named Kaloosha, who were surprised by a 
 body of Moguls during a revel at a favourite 
 pleasure-house in the Concan. It was sug- 
 
 anJ sent up the balance, after paying their troops, to 
 the emperor; unless, as often hap[>ened, assignments 
 were made for n period of year.'! on fixed districts for 
 the paj-ment of other chiefs." — (Elphinstone's Hii- 
 tory of India, vol. iL, p. 6'J2.)
 
 SUMBAJEE EXECUTED, 1689.— MOGUL AND MAHRAri'A TROOPS. 151 
 
 gestcd, tliut Sutiibajcc iiii;^lit liu used as a, 
 tool to oljtaia possession of the Maliratta 
 8troiij;liol(ls ; and witli this view, he was 
 ofl'cred hfc on condition of beconiin}; a 
 Mussulman, ihit misfortune had awakened 
 in liim a sense of degradation, and the only 
 reply was a sarcastic messaf^c to Aurun^zehe, 
 and an invective on the False Prophet, for 
 which (jfl'cnce a cruel punishment was de- 
 creed. Ilis eyes were destroyed by a red- 
 hot iron, his tongue cut out, and he was at 
 last beheaded in the camp bazaar, together 
 with Kaloosha, A.D. 1689. 
 
 Sumbajee had neither deserved nor ob- 
 tained the confidence of his subjects; but 
 they were deeply mortified by his ignominious 
 fate. The chiefs assembled at Raighur, 
 acknowledged the infant son of the deceased 
 as his successor, and nominated his uncle, 
 Rajah Ram, regent. Raighur was invested 
 by a Mogul force, and taken in 1690, after 
 a siege of several months, through the 
 treachery of a Mawulee leader. The young 
 rajah and his mother fell into the hands of 
 Aurungzcbe, who treated them with un- 
 usual kindness.* Rajah Ram remaining at 
 liberty, proceeded to the distant fortress of 
 Jinjee, in the Carnatie, and assumed the 
 sovereignty. He did not attempt more than 
 the general direction of aft'aiis, sending two 
 able leaders to create a diversion in his own 
 country, and leaving independent com- 
 manders to carry on desultory operations 
 against the Moguls, with whom a tedious 
 and harassing struggle commenced, in which 
 the advantage lay on the side of the ap- 
 parently weaker party. 
 
 Yet Aurungzebe was indefatigable. Al- 
 though far advanced in years, he superin- 
 tended every hostile operation, and besieged 
 in person the chief places. t His immense 
 armies were marshalled forth in splendid 
 array. The nobles went to battle in quilted 
 cotton tunics, covered with chain or plate 
 armour, and rode on chargers, whose huge 
 
 • Befjuni Sahib, the emperor's daughter, evinced 
 unremiltinj; kindness to both mother and child 
 during their h)ng cajjtivity. The boy, being miicli 
 with her, attracted the notice of Aurungzebe, who 
 jestingly applied to him the nick-name of Sahoo or 
 Shao, a word signifying the opposite of thief, robber, 
 and similar terms, by which he habitually designated 
 Sumbajee and Sevajee. — (Duff's Mahrattas, vol. i.) 
 
 t The traveller, Gemelli Carreri, who saw Aurung- 
 zebe at Beejapoor, in 1695, describes him as slender 
 and of low stature, with a smiling aspect, bright 
 eyes, a long nose, and a beard whose silvery white- 
 ness contrasted with an olive-coloured skin. His 
 I dress was of plain white muslin, with one large 
 I emerald in the turban. Ue stood amid his omrahs 
 
 saddles, housings of cloth or velvet, satin 
 streamers, bells, cliains, and other ornaments 
 of gold and silver, with the frequent ad- 
 dition of pairs of the bushy ox-tails of Tibet 
 iianging down on either side, were better 
 adapted for a triumphal procession, than 
 for warfare with mountaineers in tiicir own 
 country. The common soldiers imitated 
 tiicir superiors in their cumijcrsome attire, 
 and likewise in sloth and efl'euiiuaey : the 
 result was a total relaxation of discipline. 
 The Mahrattas, on the contrary, were 
 mounted on horses, small, strong, and active 
 as themselves, with a pad for a saddle, and 
 a black blanket folded over it for nightly 
 covering during their expeditions, when 
 each man sle|)t on the ground, with his 
 spear stuck by him, and his bridle tied to 
 his arm, ready for any emergency. A led 
 horse, with bags to contain the expected 
 plunder, formed the remainder of their 
 camp ccjuipage. Their common food was a 
 cake of millet, with jierhajis an onion ; their 
 dress, a small turban, a fold of which was 
 frequently passed under tlic chin, J a quilted 
 cotton tunic, tight drawers descending to 
 the knee, and a scarf or sash rolled round 
 the waist. Some carried a sword and shield; 
 a certain proportion were armed with match- 
 locks, or bow and arrows ; but the prevailing 
 weapon was a bamboo spear, thirteen or 
 fourteen feet long, which they wielded with 
 extraordinary skill. Thus armed and habited, 
 they wisely adhered to the desultory war- 
 fare which could alone be successfully 
 waged against the heavily-attired legions of 
 the Mogul. § Then, as now, their only 
 name for a victory was, " to plunder tlie 
 enemy," this being, in their eyes, the chief 
 object as well as sole irrefragable evidence 
 and measure of conquest. 
 
 Fort after fort was captured by the im- 
 perial army ; but the ISIahrattas meanwhile 
 issued from their lurking-places and over- 
 spread the newly-acquired territories, as 
 
 leaning on a stafi' or crozier (like those used by the 
 fakeers); received petitions, read them without spec- 
 tacles, and endorsed them with his own hand. In 
 youth, savs Manouchi, he was pale even to ghastliness. 
 
 \ Tlie Mahratia description of a very fierce-look- 
 ing person, includes a turban tied beneath the 
 chin, and mustachios "as thick as my arm." Their 
 national flag, swallow-tailed and of a deep orange 
 colour, is emblematic of the followers of Mahdeo. 
 
 § The Mawulees weie famous for sword-in-hand 
 combat; the Hetkurees (Concan mountaineers) 
 used a species of firelock, and excelled as marks- 
 men : both parties could, with case, scale rocks and 
 mount precipices, wliieh the Moguls would have 
 found certain dcstructioa in attempting.
 
 152 DISTRESS AND HUMILIATION OF MOGUL ARMY— 1700 to 1707. 
 
 well as Berar, Candelsh, and Malwa. De- 
 tachments were sent against them in various 
 directions, but to little avail ; for, on per- 
 ceiving their approach, the wily mountai- 
 neers dispersed at once, without attempting to 
 stand a charge ; and after leading the Moguls 
 a weary, and generally fruitless chase, were 
 themselves ready to follow the retreating 
 track of their disheartened pursuers, and 
 take advantage of any opening or confusion 
 in the ranks, occasioned by accident or 
 exhaustion. Fighting such foes was like 
 beating the air, and even worse ; for while 
 their number and power were rapidlj' in- 
 creasing by the alliance of the zemindars 
 of the countries which they overran, the 
 troops of Aurungzebe, thinned by long and 
 sanguinary sieges, required frequent recruit- 
 ment from Hindoostan, whence also supplies 
 of money had to be drawn. 
 
 Rajah Ram died a.d. 1700, and was suc- 
 ceeded by his infant son, Sivajee, under the 
 regency of Tara Bye, mother of the young 
 rajah. This change had little effect on the 
 war. Aurungzebe went on taking forts, 
 until, by the close of the next five years, all 
 the principal Mahratta strongholds had 
 fallen before him ; but then the tide turned, 
 and the rapidly-multiplying foe themselves 
 became besiegers, and regained many for- 
 tresses, at the same time intercepting sevei-al 
 convoys, and thus depriving the emperor of 
 the means of paying his army.* No writer 
 has delineated the condition of the agricul- 
 tural population of the Deccan ; but their 
 sufferings from these prolonged and deso- 
 lating wars must have been frightful. From 
 them the circle of distress spread gradually 
 but surely, until scarcity of food began to be 
 felt even in the imperial camp, and was aggra- 
 vated by the devastating effects of heavy 
 rains. On one occasion, a sudden flood of 
 the Beema inundated the imperial canton- 
 ment during the night, and caused the de- 
 struction of 12,000 persons, with horses, 
 cattle, and stores beyond calculation. 
 
 The contempt with which the Moguls 
 once regarded the Mahrattas had long given 
 place to dread ; while the Mahrattas, on 
 their part, began to see the emptiness of 
 tlie pomp which surrounded the Great 
 Mogul, and mocked the Mussulmans, by 
 pretending to ejaculate devout aspirations 
 for the prolonged life of their best patron, 
 
 • Among the many letters extant, written by Au- 
 rungzebe, are 8C'V<'ral addressed to ZiilfiUar Klian, 
 desiring hirn to search for hidden treasures, and 
 hunt out any that may have fallen into the hands 
 
 Aurungzebe. The news from Ilindoostau 
 was of an increasingly-disheartening cha- 
 racter; the Rajpoots were, for the most part, 
 in open hostility, and their example had been 
 followed by the Jats (a Hindoo people of 
 the Soodra class), near Agra : against these, 
 as also against a body of Sikhs at Muttra, 
 it had been necessary to send a force under 
 a prince of the blood. Zulfikar Khan, the 
 chief Mogul general, being treated with 
 irritating distrust by his sovereign, seems to 
 have grown dilatory and indifferent, if, in- 
 deed, the dark clouds which were gathering 
 over the political horizon did not induce 
 him, like other nobles, designedly to tem- 
 porize with the foe. The princes — now fa- 
 voured, now disgraced — turned pale when 
 summoned to the presence of their father ;t 
 while he, remembering the fate of Shah 
 Jehan, trembled yet more at the semblance 
 of overstrained humility than at open insu- 
 bordination. 
 
 At length overtures of peace were made 
 to the Mahrattas, and Aurungzebe was 
 brought to consent to the liberation of 
 Shao, the son of Sumbajee, and to the pay- 
 ment of ten per cent, of the whole revenues 
 of the six soubahs of the Deccan (as Sur- 
 deshmooki), on condition of the maintenance 
 of a body of horse to keep order; but the 
 negotiation was broken otf by the exorbi- 
 tant demands and overbearing conduct of 
 the Mahrattas. Disgusted and unhappy, 
 with dispirited troops and exhausted cattle, 
 the aged emperor retreated from Beejapoor 
 to Ahmeduuggur, harassed all the way by 
 the enemy, who succeeded in dispersing 
 and destroying a portion of the grand army; 
 and, had they chosen to hazard a general 
 attack, would probably have captured the 
 person of their inveterate foe. That no 
 such attempt was made is a subject of fer- 
 vent exultation with Mussulman writers. 
 Aurungzebe gained Ahmednugger in safety; 
 and, when pitching his camp on the same 
 spot whence it had marched in so much 
 pomp and power twenty years before, he 
 sorrowfully remarked, that his campaigns 
 were ended — his last earthly journey com- 
 pleted. He had now entered the fiftieth 
 year of his reign, and the eighty-ninth of his 
 age; but the extreme temperance and regu- 
 larity which characterised his physical ex- 
 istence, had ijreserved his faculties in an 
 
 of individuals, that means may be afforded to 
 silence " the infernal foot-sohliers," who were crouk- 
 inj; like the tenants of an invaded rookery. 
 
 t Khafi Khan. — ( Vide Elphinstone,vol. ii. p.S-Jl.)
 
 DEATH OF AURUNGZEBE, 1707— STATE OF THE EMPIRE. 
 
 158 
 
 extraordinary (legrco of perfection.* Yet to 
 hitn, freedom from the imbecility frequently 
 attendant on extreme a^^c was rather a 
 curse than a blessing. The few sands still 
 remaining in his measure of life would, he 
 feared, be rudely shaken by the ambition of 
 his heirs, and, to avoid this danger, he made 
 a last exertion of power by sending away 
 his favourite son, Kaumbuksh, to J5cejapoor, 
 and preventing Mauzim (then in Cabool) or 
 Azlm (in Guzerat) from coming to Alimcd- 
 nuggur. His own children could not be 
 trusted to minister to their aged father, 
 although, in this awful period, he seems to 
 have had a newly-awakened yearning for 
 human sympathy. Death was fast ap- 
 proaching ; and what provision had he made 
 for the stability of the empire, the welfare 
 of the people, the salvation of his own soul ? 
 After his decease, which took place in Feb- 
 ruary, 1707, a willf was found beneath his 
 pillow, decreeing the division of the empire 
 among his sons : but he probably foresaw 
 the little attention which would be paid to 
 it, and might reasonably have adopted the 
 saying of another crooked politician, "Aprcs 
 
 * Xhafi Khnn says, " none of his five senses were 
 nt all impaired, except his hearing in a small degree ; 
 b>it not so that others could perceive it." Auruiig- 
 zebe possessed, in perfection, what Lytton Buhver, 
 following a French proverb, calls the twin secrets for 
 wearing well — '• a bad heai't and a good digestion." 
 
 ■f A previous will contained directions for his 
 funeral, the expense of which was to be defrayed 
 by a sum, equal to ten shillings, saved from the price 
 of caps which he had made and sold : 805 rupees, 
 gained by copying the Koran, were to be distributed 
 among the poor. (Elphinstone's India, \o\. ii., p..551.) 
 
 + These remarkable and well-authenticated letters 
 contain many characteristic and interesting pas- 
 sages : for instance, " the camp and followers, help- 
 less and alarmed, are like myself — full of affliction, 
 restless as the quicksilver. The complaints of the 
 unpaid troojjs are as before. • • • 'phe fever 
 has left me; but nothing of me remains but skin 
 and bone. My back is bent with weakness ; my 
 feet have lost the power of motion. • • • xhe 
 Begum [his daughter] appears afflicted ; but God is 
 the only judge of hearts." To Kaumbuksh he says, 
 " Odiporee, your mother, was a partner in my ill- 
 ness, and wishes to accompany me in death; but 
 everything has its appointed time."— (Scott's History 
 of the iJeccan, vol. i., pp. S and 9.) According to 
 Tod, this lady was a princess, not of Oudipoor, but 
 of Kishenghur, a minor division of Joudpoor. 
 
 § As in the Deccan, so also throughout Hindoos- 
 tan, we can only form an idea of the condition of the 
 tnais of the people by an incidental remark, scattered 
 here and there, amid many weary pages filled with 
 details of invasion and slaughter, pomp and intrigue. 
 The Mussulman writers were usually pensioners of 
 the monarch, whose deeds they chronicled; the Hin- 
 doo annalists were the bards of the leading families, 
 of which they formed important and cherished mem. 
 b»ra. Neither the one nor the other could be ex- 
 
 moi Ic di'liif/e." His subjects — at least the 
 Mussulinun portion — lie commends to the 
 care of his sons, in his farewell letters, as a 
 charge committed to them by CJod himself; 
 and then ])roceeds to give vent, in discon- 
 nected sentences, to tlie terrible ap|)rehcn- 
 sions before which his spirit shrank in dis- 
 may. " Wherever I h)ok," writes the dying 
 emperor, " I see nothing but the Deity. I 
 know nothing of myself — what I am — and 
 for what 1 am destined. The instant which 
 passed in power hath left only sorrow be- 
 hind it. I have not been the guardian and 
 protector of the empire," he adds, in the same 
 tone of remorse rather than repentance. 
 * * * "I have committed many crimes ; and 
 know not with what punishments I may be 
 seized. The agonies of death come upon me 
 fast. Farewell ! farewell ! farewell \"X 
 
 It has been shown that, during the latter 
 part of the reign of Aurungzebe, the empire 
 was manifestly losing its coherent power. 
 After his death, strife, luxury, and corrup- 
 tion in the court ; disorganization in the 
 camp, and discontent among the people j§ 
 
 pected to rise above the class of mere annalists. 
 To have given a true and lively picture of the actual 
 state of the Indian population under Moslem rule, 
 would have tasked to the utmost the intellect of a 
 philosopher, the zeal of a philanthropist, the courage 
 of a martyr. And to whom should an historian, 
 thus tichly gifted, have addressed himself? Would 
 either the degraded Hindoo or the sensual Moham- 
 medan have cared to trace " the practical operation 
 of a despotic government, and rigorous and san- 
 guinary laws, or the effect, upon the great body of 
 the nation, of these injurious influences and agen- 
 cies." — (Preface to Elliot's Biblioyniphiciil Index of 
 Ilistoriiins of Mohammedan India.) No; for to 
 Christianity alone belongs the high prerogative of 
 teaching men to appreciate justly their rights, duties, 
 and responsibilities. Even with her teaching, the 
 lesson is one which nations are slow to learn. Con- 
 cerning the reign of Aurungzebe, we know less than 
 of many of his predecessors ; because he not only 
 left no autobiography behind him, but even, for a 
 considerable number of years, forbade the ordinary 
 chronicling of events. Of the wretchedness pre- 
 vailing among the people, and the indignation with 
 which the imposition of the jezia was generally re- 
 garded, a forcible representation is given in a letter, 
 addressed by Raj Sing of Oudi|)oor (wrongly attributed 
 by Orme to Jeswunl Sing of Marwar) to .\urungzebe, 
 in which he reminds him of the prosperity atten- 
 dant on the mild conduct of .Vkber, Jehangeer, and 
 Shah Jchan towards the Hindoos, and points out 
 the opposite results of the present harsh measures, 
 in the alienation of much territory, and the devasta- 
 tion and rapine which universally prevailed. " Your 
 subjects," he says, " are trampled under foot, and 
 every province of your empire is impoverished; de- 
 population spreads, and difiiculties accumulate. • • • 
 The soldiery are murmuring ; the merchants com- 
 plaining ; the Mohammedans discontented ; the Hin-
 
 151. CONTESTED SUCCESSION— REIGN OP BAHADUR SHAH, 1707. 
 
 fostered by the imposition of the jezia and 
 excessive imposts upou land, grew apace, aud 
 the power of the great Moguls crumbled into 
 ruins, its decay being hastened by the rapid 
 increase of the Mahratta nation; the struggles 
 of the Rajpoots for independence ; the irrup- 
 tion of the Sikhs ; and the desolating inva- 
 sion of the Persian monarch. Nadir Shah. 
 The career of the successors of Aurungzebe 
 need be but briefly narrated, since their 
 reigns are not of suflicieut interest to occupy 
 space which can be ill-spared from more 
 important matters ; beside which, the leading 
 events of the eighteenth century will again 
 come into notice in sketching the marvellous 
 rise of the English from humble traders to 
 lords paramount of India. 
 
 Bahadur Shah* — Prince ^lauzim, the 
 rightful heir to the throne, on receiving 
 tidings of his father's decease, assumed the 
 crown at Cabool with the title of Bahadur 
 Shah, and offered to confirm to his brothers 
 the territorial possessions bequeathed to them 
 by Aurungzebe: viz., to Azim — Agra, with all 
 the country to the south aud south-west ; to 
 Kaumbuksh — Beejapoorand Golconda. The 
 generous and upright character of Bahadur 
 Shah warranted belief in his good faith ; but 
 Azim, who, on the death of the emperor, had 
 hastened to the camp, from which he was 
 not far distant, and caused himself to be 
 proclaimed sovereign of the whole empire, 
 could not be prevailed upou to retract this 
 unwarrantable pretension. 
 
 Despite the exhausted state of the king- 
 dom, very large armies were assembled on 
 both sides, and a sanguinary contest took 
 place to the south of Agra, in which Prince 
 Azim and his two grown-up sons were slain. 
 The third, a child, was taken by the soldier 
 who decapitated his father, as he lay sense- 
 less in his howdah, and carried into the 
 presence of the emperor, together with the 
 bloody trophy of victory, the head of Azim. 
 Bahadur Shah burst into tears, and strove 
 
 doos destitute ; and multitudes of people, wretched 
 even to the want of their nightly meal, are beating 
 their heads throughout the day in want and destitu- 
 tion. How can the dignity of the sovereign be pre- 
 served who employs his power in exacting tribute 
 from a ])eo|>!e thus miserably reduced P" — (Ornie's 
 Jlistoricid Frui/ments rtf l/ia Jiliu/iil F.iiiplre, ]). 252.) 
 Aurungzebe's persecution of his Hindoo subjects 
 consisted in pecuniary exactions and systematic dis- 
 couragement: they were exchulod from office, llieir 
 fairs and festivals forbidden, anil even some of their 
 temples destroyed; but bodily suffering was rarely, if 
 ever, inflicted from mere bigotry; and capital punish- 
 ments, for any offence whatever, were infrequent. 
 
 to pacify the weeping boy with caresses, 
 promising to treat him as one of his own 
 children, a pledge he faithfully redeemed, in 
 spite of the jealous insinuations of his own 
 sons. In this important battle the valour 
 and ability of Monaim Khan, who had been 
 Bahadur Shah's chief officer in Cabool, were 
 very conspicuous. Concealing his own dan- 
 gerous aud painful wounds, he remained on 
 the field till late at night to restore order 
 aud prevent plunder; and then, perfectly 
 exhausted, was lifted from his elephant, and 
 carried into the presence of the emperor, by 
 whom he was appointed vizier. Zulfikar 
 Khan and his father, Assud Khan, who had 
 at first taken part with Prince Azim, quitted 
 his camp, disgusted by his arrogance, before 
 the late engagement, of which they had 
 remained spectators. On presenting them- 
 selves with fettered hands before the emperor, 
 they were gladly welcomed, and appointed to 
 high positions. 
 
 Prince Kaumbuksh, a vain and flighty young 
 man, persisted in refusing to acknowledge the 
 supremacy of his elder brother, who, after 
 rejjeated attempts at negotiation, which were 
 rejected with scorn and defiance, marched 
 against him to the Deccan, and was again 
 victor in a battle near Hyderabad. Kaum- 
 buksh died of his wounds the same day ; his 
 children fell into the hands of their uncle, 
 by whom they were treated as kindly as 
 their orphan cousin. t The next important 
 event was a truce with the Mahrattas, among 
 whom internal dissensions had arisen, owing 
 to the release of Shao (by Priuce Azim, 
 immediately after his father's death), and 
 the disputed succession between him aud the 
 son of Tara Bye, whose claims, although an 
 idiot, were actively upheld by his ambitious 
 mother. The ascendancy of Shao was 
 recognised by the Mogul government, aud 
 the chout, or fourth, of the revenues of tlie 
 Deccan conceded to him. The Rajpoots 
 were likewise permitted to make peace on 
 very favourable terms. The territory cap- 
 
 * Sometimes entitled Alum Shah Bahadur. 
 
 I Eradut Khan, one of the many i-ebellious nobles, 
 who, after the defeat of Azim, were freely jjardoned, 
 says, that the sons of the fallen princes were always 
 permitted to appear fully armed before the em- 
 peror, to accompany him dailv in the chase, and 
 share in all his diversions. Seventeen princes — 
 his sons, grandsons, and nephews, sat round his 
 throne : the royal captives of lieejapoor and Gol- 
 conda were likewise suffered to take their place im- 
 mediately behind the royal princes ; and a crowd 
 of the high nol)iIity daily thronged " tlie platform 
 between the silver rails." — (Scott's Deccan, vol. ii., 
 p. 49.)
 
 ORIGIN OF THE SIKHS— BAHADUR SHAH DIES, a.d. 1712. 
 
 turcd from the raiia of Oudi])oor was restored, 
 and he became af^aiii indoiiendcnt in all l)nt 
 name. Ajeet Sing, the rajah of Marwar, 
 and Jey S'm^, of Jeypoor, appear to have 
 obtained nearly siniilai' advantajics, but rather 
 from necessity tiiaii {^ood-will, since the em- 
 peror was aljoiit to advance ai^'ainst thcni, 
 when his jittcntion was diverted by intelli- 
 gence of the capture of Sirhind by the 
 Sikhs. These people, from an inoffensive, 
 religious sect, founded about the end of the 
 fifteenth century by a Hindoo named 
 Nannk,* had been changed by iiorsccntinii 
 into fanatical vi'arriors. When driven from 
 the neighbourhood of Lahore, whicli had 
 been tlicir original scat, they took refuge in 
 the northern mountains, a.d. ]GO(J, and 
 there remained for nearly seventy years, 
 until the accession of Guru Govind, the 
 tenth spiritual chief from Nanuk. This 
 leader conceived the idea of forming the 
 Sikhs into a religions and military common- 
 wealth. To increase their numbers, he 
 abolished all distinction of caste, and all 
 prohibitions i-egarding food or drink, except 
 the slaughter of kine, which was strictly 
 forbidden. Hindoo idols and Brahmins were 
 to be respected, but the usual forms of 
 worship were set aside. All converts were 
 admitted to a perfect equality, and were 
 expected to take a vow to fight for the 
 cause, always to carry steel in some part of 
 the person, to wear blue clothes, allow the 
 head and beard to grow, and neither clip nor 
 remove the hair on any part of the body. 
 
 The Sikhs fought desperately, but were 
 too few in number to accomplish the plans 
 of resistance and revenge planned by Guru 
 Govind, who, after beholding his strong- 
 holds taken, his mother and children mas- 
 sacred, his followers slain, mutilated, or 
 dispersed, was himself assassinated by a 
 private enemy. To his spiritual authority, 
 as Guru, no successor was appointed. The 
 temporal command of the infuriated Sikhs 
 was assumed by a Hindoo ascetic, named 
 Bandu, under whose leadership they overran 
 the east of the Punjaub, and, true to their 
 
 • The beauty of Nanuk, \Yhcn a mere boy, attracted 
 the attention of a learned and wealthy Seyed, who 
 caused him to be educated and instructed in tlie 
 doctrines of Islam. As he grew up, Nanuk extended 
 his rs'adins. collected maxims alike from the Koran 
 and the Yedas, and endeavoured to unite Moham- 
 medan anil Hindoo doctrines on the basis of the 
 unity of God. Converts flocked around him, takin;:; 
 the name of Sikhs {the insfnirtcd), and giving to 
 their preceptor the name and authority of Guru 
 (spiriltial cAiV/'.) The doctrines of the sect were 
 
 vengeful motto of unceasing enmity to 
 the Mohammedans, not only destroyed the 
 mosques and slaughtered the moollahs, but 
 massacred the population of whole towns, 
 sparing neither age nor sex, and even dis- 
 interring the i)o(lies of the dead, and ex- 
 posing them as food for carrion. The chief 
 scat of these atrocities was Sirhind, which 
 they occupied after defeating the governor 
 in a pitched battle : they subsequently retired 
 to the country on the upper course of the 
 Sutlej, whence they made marauding in- 
 cursions, extending to the neighbourhood of 
 Lahore on the one side, and of Delhi on the 
 other. 
 
 Bahadur Shah marched against them in 
 1711, and soon obliged them to take refuge 
 in the hills, where they long continued to 
 struggle against the imperial force. Bandu 
 was at last shut up in a fort, which was 
 strictly blockaded ; but the Sikhs continued 
 the defence until large numbers perished of 
 hunger, and then made a desperate sally, 
 upon which the enemy took possession of 
 the fort without further resistance ; but 
 Bandu escaped through the self-devotion 
 of one of his followers, hy whom he was 
 personated. t 
 
 After this success, the emperor took his 
 departure ; but the Sikhs had received onlv 
 a temporary cheek ; and their power was 
 again in the ascendant, when Bahadur Shah 
 expired suddenly at Lahore (not without 
 suspicion of poison), in the seventy-first 
 (lunar) year of his age, and the fifth of his 
 reign, a.d. 1712. 
 
 Jehandar Shah. — On the death of the 
 emperor, a deadly conflict commenced be- 
 tween his four sons, in which three perished 
 — the eldest ascending the throne, notwith- 
 standing his well-known incapacity, by the 
 aid of Zulfikar Khan, who had taken part 
 with him from atnbitious motives, hoping to 
 govern absolutely under the name of vizier. 
 All the princes of the blood, whose persons 
 were within reach, were slain, to secure the 
 authority of the new ruler. But this iniquity 
 only servedto heighten the hatred and disgust 
 
 gradually embodied in sacred volumes called GnuUlis, 
 and the Sikhs silently increased ; until, in 1606, the 
 Moslem government took offence at their leading 
 tenet — that the form of worship otTered to the Deity 
 was immaterial — and put to death their existing 
 cliicf, whereupon the Sikhs took up arms under his 
 .son, H>u- Govind. — (II. T. Prinsep's 1SV/./1 I'mcer.) 
 
 t Though struck by the generosity of the impostor, 
 Bahadur is said to h.ive nevertheless sent him pri- 
 soner, in an iron cage, to Delhi, an net singularly at 
 v.iriancc with his compassionate nature.
 
 156 SEYED BEOTHERS DEPOSE AND SLAY JEIIANDAR SHAH, a.d. 1713. 
 
 excited by tlie pride and tyranny of Zulfikar 
 Khan, and the vices and follies of his impe- 
 rial froUgi, who lavished honours upon his 
 favourite mistress (originally a public dancer), 
 and promoted her relations, although, like 
 herself, of a most discreditable class, to the 
 highest dignities in the state. Dissatisfac- 
 tion prevailed throughout the court, when 
 tidings arrived that Feroksheer (the son of 
 one of the fallen princes whom Jehandar 
 had vainly striven to get into his power) 
 had prevailed upon two Seyed* brothers, 
 the governors of Behar and Allahabad, to 
 espouse his cause ; and having, by their aid, 
 assembled an army, was now marching to- 
 wards Agra. Jehandar and Zulfikar met the 
 invaders, at the head of 70,000 men ; but, 
 being defeated, the emperor fled in disguise 
 to Delhi, and took refuge in the house of 
 Assud Khan. The treacherous old man 
 made him a prisoner, and persuaded Zulfikar 
 (who arrived soon after, with the remaining 
 troops) to make terms with the conqueror, 
 by the surrender of their unfortunate master. 
 The father and son then presented them- 
 selves to Feroksheer, with fettered hands, as 
 they had done to his grandfather, Bahadur 
 Shah, some six years before, but with a very 
 different result. Zulfikar and Jehandar 
 were strangled with a leathern thong, after 
 which their bodies were fastened to an ele- 
 phant, and dragged through the leading 
 thoroughfares of Delhi, followed by the 
 wretched Assud Khan, and all the female 
 members of his family, in covered carriages. 
 Thus ended the nine months' sway of Je- 
 handar Shah, A.D. 1713. 
 
 Feroksheer' s first act of sovereignty was 
 to appoint the Seyed brothers to the highest 
 offices in the empire — the elder, Abdullah 
 Khan, being made vizier ; the younger, 
 Hussein Ali, ameer ool omra, or com- 
 mander-in-chief. He next proceeded to 
 remove from his path, by the bow-string, 
 such of the old nobility as might be disposed 
 to combine against him ; and the same in- 
 
 • Lineal descendants of Mohammed. 
 
 t Tlio mother of Feroksheer had taken a leading 
 port in persuading the Seyed brotliers, for the sake 
 of her husband who liad befriended them, to uphold 
 her son ; and had sworn u])on the Koran, that if they 
 would do so, no ph)t should ever be formed against 
 them, of wlijch slio, if cognizant, would not give them 
 immediate information. Tliis pledge was conscien- 
 tiously redeemed, and her timely warning more than 
 once preserved their lives. — Vide Col. 15riggs' revised 
 translation of the Siyar-nl-MiiUikheria — (Manners of 
 the Moderns), a work comprising the history of the 
 greater jjan of the eighteentli century, written in a 
 very clear and interesting manner, by Mir Gholam 
 
 strument was freely used among the remain- 
 ing members of the royal family, including 
 even his own infant brothers. These cruel- 
 ties were sure indications of a suspicious 
 and cowardly nature ; and, as might be ex- 
 pected, his distrust was soon excited against 
 the very persons by whom he had been 
 raised to the throne. The consequence was, 
 that his whole reign was a continued, 
 though long-disguised struggle with the two 
 Seyeds, whose watchfulness and confidence 
 in each other rendered them eventually 
 victorious. t Feroksheer endeavoured to 
 weaken, by dividing them ; and, for this end, 
 sent Hussein against Ajeet Sing, of Marwar, 
 to whom a private intimation was for- 
 warded, that the emperor would be well- 
 pleased by the defeat and death of his own 
 general. The plot failed ; for the parties 
 immediately concerned wisely consulted 
 their mutual interest, by making a speedy 
 peace, and Hussein returned to court, bear- 
 ing with him the daughter of the rajah, to 
 be the bride of his ungrateful sovereign. 
 The nuptials were celebrated on a scale of 
 extraordinary magnificence ; but were no 
 sooner terminated, than Hussein Ali was 
 sent to the Deccan, ostensibly to prosecute 
 hostilities agaiust the Mahrattas. Daud 
 Khan Panni, an Afghan commander, re- 
 nowned for reckless courage, received orders 
 to join Hussein, and, under pretence of 
 co-operation, to take the first opportunity of 
 eflecting his destruction. But the agent 
 selected to carry this nefarious scheme into 
 execution was ill-chosen. Daud Khan, 
 though well-disposed to revenge the death 
 of his old patron, Zulfikar Khan, J would 
 not stoop to stab in the dark ; he therefore 
 set the Seyed at defiance, engaged him as 
 an open enemy, and, by the impetuosity of 
 his charge, had nearly triumphed, when a 
 ball pierced his brain, and at once changed 
 the fortune of the day. Hussein Ali pro- 
 ceeded to execute his commission against 
 the Mahrattas, without openly attributing 
 
 Hussein, a Delhi noble. Mr. St. George Tucker, late 
 chairman of the East India Company, who met him 
 repeatedly at Gya Behar, in 1786-'7, alludes to him 
 as " the finest specimen of a nobleman I had ever 
 seen." — (Tuclicr's lAfe and Correspondence, edited 
 by J. W. Kaye, vol. i., p. 40.) 
 
 \ Zulfikar Khan, on receiving the appointment of 
 viceroy of the Deccan, had been permitted to reside 
 at court, leaving ])aud Khan as his representative, 
 or, as it was then termed, naik stihtili-ihir, deputy 
 viceroj'. He was himself succeeded, in 1713, by 
 Cheen Kilich Khan (afterwards well-Unown under 
 the titles of Nizam-ool-Moolk and Asuf Jah), who 
 was in turn removed by Hussein Ali.
 
 DEFEAT OF SIKIIS— MASSACRE OF PRISONERS, a.d. 1715. 
 
 157 
 
 to the omporor the opposition which he had 
 encountered, and sent a strong detachment 
 against a chief named Dahuri, who had 
 established a line of fortified villages in 
 Candeish, and by his depredations on ciira- 
 vans, shut up tlie great road from llindoo- 
 stan and the Dcecan to Surat. While one 
 portion of the imperial troops was thus 
 employed, another was dispatched against 
 the Sikhs, who had renewed tb.cir ravages 
 with increased fury. Bandu was defeated, 
 captured, and put to death in a most barba- 
 rous manner, and a largo number of his 
 followers were slaughtered in cold blood.* 
 Tliose who remained at large were hunted 
 down like wild beasts, and a considerable 
 time elapsed before they became again for- 
 midable. In the Deccan the Moguls were 
 less successful : the Mahrattas practised 
 their usual tactics of evacuating assaulted 
 positions, and leading their foes, by the oft- 
 repeated expedient of a pretended flight, 
 among hilly and broken ground, where they 
 were easily separated and defeated in de- 
 tail, many being cut to pieces, and others 
 stripped of their horses, arms, and even 
 clothes. This inauspicious campaign was 
 at length brought to a discreditable con- 
 clusion ; for Hussein Ali, determined at 
 any cost to rejoin bis brother at Delhi, 
 made a treaty with llajali Shao, acknow- 
 ledging his claim to the whole of the tcrri- 
 torj" possessed by Sevajee, with the addition 
 of later conquests, and authorising not only 
 the levy of the chout, or fourth, over the 
 whole of the Deccan, but also of surdesh- 
 mooki,t or one-tenth of the remaining re- 
 venue. In return, Shao was to pay a tribute 
 of ten lacs of rupees; to furnish a coutiu- 
 
 • The majority were executed on the field of 
 battle J but 7-10 were sent to Delhi, and after being 
 paraded through llie streets on camels, were be- 
 headed on seven successive days, having firmly re- 
 jected the offer of life, on condition of belying their 
 religious opinions. liandu was exhibited in an iron 
 cage, clad in a robe of eloth-of-gold and a scarlet 
 turban : annmd him were tlie heads of his followers, 
 fixed on pikes ; and even a dead cat was st\ick up to 
 indicate the extirpation of everything belonging to 
 him. On his refusal to stab his own infant, the 
 child was slaughtered before his eyes, and its lieart 
 forced into liis mouth. The wretched father was then 
 torn to pieces witli hot irons, and died defying his 
 persecutors, and exulting in the belief that he had 
 been raised up to scourge the iniquity and oppres- 
 sion of the age. — (Scott's Tlistur;/ of the lieccini.) 
 
 t The Desmookh, literally chiff of the district, was 
 an hereditary officer under tlio llindoo government, 
 who received a portion of the revenue in money or 
 in kind ; " and," says General Briggs, " in the local 
 or modern appellations of Dessavi, Kat Gour, Na- 
 
 gent of 10,000 horse; to preserve the tran- 
 (|uillity of the country; and to be answerable 
 for any loss occasioned by depredations, 
 from whatever quarter. 
 
 As Shao was at this time engaged in 
 civil war, it was manifest that he could but 
 very imperfectly perform his part of this 
 extraordinary agreement, since a consider- 
 able portion of the country recognised as 
 his, was really in possession of the hostile 
 party. Feroksheer refused to ratify the 
 treaty ; but Hussein Ali gained his point, 
 by returning to Delhi, wliere his presence 
 was much needed by his brother, Abdullah 
 Khan. This noble, though a man of talent, 
 was indolent, atid devoted to the jileasnres of 
 the seraglio; he therefore delegated the 
 business of the vizierat almost wholly to 
 his deputy, a Hindoo named Iluttun Chand, 
 whose strict measures, arbitrary temper, and 
 zeal for the Brahminical faith, aggravated 
 the jealous feelings with which his adminis- 
 tration was regarded by the Mussulman 
 nobility. Of this state of affairs Feroksheer 
 endeavoured to take advantage, by forming 
 a combination of the chief persons to whom 
 the vizier was known to have given offence. 
 Among these were Jey Sing, of Jeypoor,J 
 Checn Kilieh Khan, and others of impor- 
 tance, who entered warmly into the matter; 
 but the irresolution and timidity of the 
 emperor, together with the continued pre- 
 ference which he evinced, even at this 
 critical period, for incapable and profligate 
 advisers, disgusted and disheartened the 
 nobles who were inclined to take part with 
 hiiB, and all except Jey Sing deserted his 
 cause, § and made their peace with the 
 vizier, from whom Cheen Kilieh Khan re- 
 
 tumkur, Naidu, Dessye, Desmookh, and Zemindar, 
 we recognise the same person, from Ceylon to Cash- 
 mere, to the present day." — (Note to Siyar-ut-Mutak- 
 herin, p. H6.) It was as compensation for an 
 hereditary claim of this description, purchased by 
 Shahjee, that his son Sevajee sti])ulated with Au- 
 rungzcbe for certain assignments on the Beejapoor 
 revenue as early as KJGG, — (Grant Dufl",vol. i., p. 497.) 
 
 I This cliiertain had been employed against the 
 Jats, wliom, after a long course of operations, he 
 had succeeded in reducing to extremities; when the 
 vizier opened a direct negotiation with them, in a 
 manner considered very derogatory to the honour 
 of the Kajpoot general. The cause of offence to 
 Cheen Kilieh Khan was his removal from the vice- 
 royalty of the Deccan to the petty government of 
 Moradubad. — (Elphinstone's InJiii, vol. ii., p. oSO.) 
 
 § 111 marching through Amber, Hussein Ali, to 
 punish the fidelity of Jey Sing to the emperor, 
 gave full scope to the rap,icity of the soldiery, who 
 ravaged tlie land and carried away many persons, of 
 both sexes, into captivity. — {Siijar-ul-Mutahherin.)
 
 158 SEYEDS MURDER FEROKSHEER AND CROWN MOHAMMED SHAH. 
 
 ccivcd large promises of increased rank and 
 influence, in return for co-operation against 
 Ferolfsheer, whose doom was now sealed by 
 the arrival of Hussein AH, at the head of an 
 army devoted to him, and strengthened by 
 10,000 Mahrattas. Hussein immediately 
 demanded the dismissal of Jey Sing to his 
 own principality. Feroksheer complied, and 
 strove to deprecate the vengeance of his 
 enemies by the most abject submission, 
 giving no encouragement to the few nobles 
 who were still inclined to take part with 
 him. All was gloom and uncertainty, when 
 the townspeople suddenly rose against the 
 Mahrattas, upon which the Seyeds, taking 
 advantage of the disturbance, marched into 
 the city, forcibly occupied the palace, and 
 wrung by torture, from the women of the 
 seraglio, a knowledge of the hiding-place of 
 the unhappy emperor, who was seized, flung 
 into a dark closet, and soon afterwards put 
 to death in a cruel and insulting manner. 
 The body was then buried in that general 
 receptacle for the murdered princes of the 
 house of Timur — the sepulchre of Hu- 
 mayun : but the people evinced an un- 
 looked-for degree of grief; and of the needy 
 multitude who followed the funeral proces- 
 sion, no one could be induced to accept the 
 money brought for distribution, or partake 
 of the victuals prepared in conformity to 
 custom. Three days afterwards a number 
 of poor persons assembled at the place where 
 the corpse had been washed and perfumed, 
 according to Mussulman rites, and having 
 distributed a large quantity of food, sent for 
 several readers of the Koran, with whom 
 they passed the whole night in tears and 
 lamentations, separating in the morning in 
 an orderly manner. 
 
 " Oh, wonderful God ! •" exclaims Khafi 
 Khan, in concluding the above narration, 
 " how did thy Divine justice manifest 
 itself in the several events of this revolu- 
 tion ! Feroksheer, in his days of power, 
 had strangled his own brothers, yet in their 
 tender years : he had murdered numbers of 
 innocent persons, and blinded others ; and 
 he was, therefore, destined to sufl'er all these 
 cruelties before he was permitted to die : 
 he was doomed to experience, from the 
 
 • Vide Sitjar-ul-Muliihliirin, vol. i., p. 193. From 
 usiiijj; sucli laiifjiiiigc i-('S])ecling two Seyeds, Khali 
 Khan was evidently a .Soiinite or iSiinni (sec note to 
 p. 0'2) ; and disputes between this sect and the 
 Sheiahs had risen to an alarmini; lieif,'ht dnring the 
 late reign, a violent att'ray having taken place be- 
 tween them in the capital. In Ahnredabad, a still 
 jnoie serious contest, in which many lives were lost, 
 
 hands of strangers, all those agonies which 
 others had sufi'ered at his. Nor did the two 
 brothers escape the day of retribution, or 
 go themselves unpunished : in a little time 
 they met with that same usage which they 
 had inflicted on others."* 
 
 During their remaining tenure of pros- 
 perity, the Seyeds exercised unlimited power. 
 Upon the deposition of Feroksheer, a sickly 
 prince of the blood-royal was brought forth 
 from the seraglio, and crowned under the 
 name of Rafi-ed-derjut. He died of con- 
 sumption in little more than three months, 
 and his younger brother, Rufi-ed-dowlah, 
 being set up in his stead, fell a victim to 
 the same disease in a still shorter period. 
 
 Mohammed Shah was the title bestowed 
 by "the king-makers" on Roshen-akhter, 
 grandson to Bahadur Shah, whom they 
 raised to the throne on the death of Rafi-ed- 
 dowlah. This prince, now in his eighteenth 
 year, had been educated, like his predeces- 
 sors, in enervating seclusion ; but he pos- 
 sessed an able counsellor in his mother, who 
 enjoined the most unhesitating acquiescence 
 with the will of his imperious protectors, 
 until the time should arrive when he might 
 safely defy their anger. The desired oppor- 
 tunity was not long in presenting itself. 
 The decease of the two pageant emperors 
 so soon after the murder of Feroksheer 
 (although really not the interest of the 
 Seyeds, but the reverse), had served to 
 deepen the distrust and dislike with which 
 they were generally regarded ;t and in Alla- 
 habad, Boondi, and the Punjaub, eflxirts 
 were made to take advantage of a govern- 
 ment which was daily becoming weaker. 
 In Cashmere, a furious contest took place 
 between the Hindoos and Mussidmaus, pro- 
 voked by the persecuting and insulting con- 
 duct of the latter, in which some thousand 
 lives and much property were destroyed 
 before the authorities could restore tran- 
 quillity. But the most important event of 
 this period was the revolt of Cheen Kilich 
 Khan, the governor of ^Talwa. This chief, 
 whose descendants were the famous NizamsJ - 
 of the Deccan, is better known by his titles 
 of Nizam-ool-I\loolk or Asuf Jah, by which 
 he will henceforth be indiscriminately 
 
 had occurred between the Hindoos and the Mussul- 
 mans, in which tlie governor (Daud Khan Panni) 
 took part witli the former. 
 
 t Jtiiji-cil-derjut was said to have been poisoned 
 for attempting to contravene the will of the Seyeds. 
 
 I Niaam-ool-Moolk, signifies rei/iilntor of'tlie state , 
 " tile Nizam," though scarcely a correct expression, is 
 commonly used by European writers to this day.
 
 MOHAMMED SIIAII TRIUMPHS OVER THE SEYKDS. 
 
 KjD 
 
 termed. His fiitlier, a Turk, had been a 
 favourite olficcr witli Auruw^'/.vhc, under 
 whom ho h;i(l himself served witli distinc- 
 tion. TiiC waywardness oi' Feroksheer had 
 induced him to take part with the Seycds, 
 from whom he received the government of 
 Mahva; but tlieir evident weakness tempted 
 his ambition, and induced him to levy 
 troops, and attempt the cstabhshment of an 
 independent power in tlic Dcccan. March- 
 ing to the Ncrbuchla, he obtained possession 
 of tlie fortress of Asecrgliur, by the simple 
 C.'cpedicnt of furnishing tlie garrison their 
 two years' arrears of pay ; the citadel of Boor- 
 hanpoor was acquired in a somewhat similar 
 manner; and many Dcecani ofiRcers, both 
 Mussulman and IVIahratta, joined the in- 
 vader. Two armies were dispatched against 
 him from ]\Ialwa and Aurungabad; but Asuf 
 Jah, knowing the impetuous character of 
 one of the commanders (Dilawur Khan), 
 drew him into an engagement before he 
 could be supported by his colleague. Alum 
 All (a nephew of the two Seycds) ; and both 
 forces were separately engaged and defeated, 
 with the loss of their respective leaders. 
 
 Much alarm was created at Delhi by the 
 tidings of these disasters ; and a violent 
 earthquake, which occurred about this time, 
 deepened the gloom of the political horizon. 
 The usurping brothers shared the general 
 feeling; and the young emperor, though 
 closely watched, began to form plans of de- 
 liverance from his wearisome tutelage, being 
 aided in this perilous enterprise by a noble- 
 man, named Mohammed Ameen Khan, 
 with whom he conversed in Turki, a lan- 
 guage unknown to the Indian Seyeds. A 
 party was secretly formed, in which the 
 second place was occupied by Sadut Khan, 
 originally a merchant of Khorasan, who had 
 risen to a military position, and eventually 
 became the progenitor of the kings of Oude. 
 These combinations wei-e not unsuspected 
 by the brothers, between whom it was at 
 length resolved that the younger, Hussein 
 AJi, should march against Asuf Jah, carry- 
 ing with him the emperor and certain no- 
 bles, leaving Abdullah at Delhi to watch 
 over their joint interests. Shortly after 
 
 • He appears to have been poisoned; but popu- 
 lar belief assi<;necl a diflercnt cause for his death. 
 An impostor, named Nemud, had established 
 himself at iJelhi, and promulgated a new scripture, 
 written in a language of his own invention, framed 
 from those spoken in ancient Persia, and had founded 
 a sect, of wiiidi tlie teachers were called Bekooks, 
 and tlie disciples, I'eraboods. TIk' iiilluence of tlie 
 new pretender increased. His proceedings induced 
 
 their separation, Hussein Ali was stabbed 
 in Ids ]);danqiiin while reading a petition 
 presenter! to him hyllic assassin (a (.'iilrnuek 
 of rank), who imincdiately i'l.ll under the 
 daggers of the attendants, a.d. 1720. Ab- 
 dullah, on learning his brother's death, set 
 up a new emperor, and hastily assembling a 
 large but ill-disciplined force, marched 
 against Mohammcil Shah, who had now 
 assumed the reins of govcrtiment. Chora- 
 man, chief or rajah of the .Tats (whose num- 
 ber and influence had thriven amid the 
 general disorganisation), joined the vizier, 
 while Jey Sing sent l^OOO men to reinforce 
 Mohammed, who was further strengthened 
 by some chiefs of the Rohilla Afghang, 
 a tribe now rapidly rising into importance. 
 The armies met between Delhi and Agra, a 
 cruel signal being given for the commence- 
 ment of the conflict. Ruttun ('hand hav- 
 ing been seized immediately after the murder 
 of Hussein Ali, was severely beaten and kept 
 in chains until the day dawned on which 
 the decisive encounter w.as to take place. 
 Then, when " the trumpets sounded and the 
 heralds had published three times, as usual, 
 that courage in war is safer than cowardice," 
 the prisoner was decapitated, and his body 
 fastened to the elephant on which Ma- 
 hommed Shah sat, in the centre of his 
 troops, throughout the whole of the ensuing 
 day and night, which the contest occupied. 
 Abdullah Khan was at length defeated and 
 made prisoner, having received several se- 
 vere wounds, of which he died in the course 
 of a few months. Mohammed Shah entered 
 Delhi in triumph : the empress-mother re- 
 ceived him at the entrance of the baram, 
 bearing a basin filled with gems and new 
 coins, which she poui*ed over his head, as a 
 " wavc-ofl'cring" of joy and thanksgiving. 
 The puppet-prince, crowned by Abdullah 
 Khan, was sent back to bis former seclusion, 
 happy in thus escaping punishment for the 
 part which he had been made to bear in the 
 late events. Mohammed Ameen Khan be- 
 came vizier, but had scarcely entered upon 
 the duties of his office, before he was taken 
 ill, and died, after a few hours of extreme 
 agony.* Asuf Jah was appointed as his 
 
 An-.een to issue orders for his apprehension ; but he- 
 fore they could be executed, the vizier was taken 
 ill, and his alarmed family, believinf; the wrath of 
 Xemud to be the cause of this sudden attack, en- 
 deavoured, by gifts and entreaties, to avert his ven- 
 geance ; but could obtain no other answer than — 
 that the arrow being shot, could not be recalled. 
 He was, nevertheless, left undisturbed, and died 
 about three years after. — (Sniur-ul-MtUakhcrin.)
 
 160 ASUF JAH (OR THE NIZAM) ESTABLISHED AT HYDERABAD, 1724. 
 
 successor,* it being hoped that his abilities 
 might prop up the falling monarchy. He 
 did not, however, choose to leave the Dec- 
 can until his arrangements with the Mah- 
 rattas should be placed on a satisfactory 
 footing. Meanwhile Mohammed was left to 
 make his own terms with Ajeet Sing, whom 
 he had offended by breaking his secret 
 pledge, that as the reward of the rajah's 
 neutrality, with regard to the Seyeds, he 
 should receive the government of Ajmeer, 
 in addition to that of Guzerat, which he 
 already possessed. But the hour of peril 
 having passed, its engagements were forgot- 
 ten ; not only was Ajmeer withheld, but 
 Ajeet Sing was removed from Guzerat, upon 
 which, assembling a birge army of Rajpoots, 
 he occupied Ajmeer, plundered Narnol, and 
 marched within fifty miles of Delhi, the 
 emperor being at length glad to compromise 
 the matter by confirming him in the posses- 
 sion of Ajmeer. Tliis happened at the close 
 of 1721 : in the beginning of the following 
 year, Asuf Jah arrived in Delhi, and beheld 
 with dismay the shameless dissipation which 
 prevailed tliere. Corruption and intrigue 
 were venial sins, if not necessary expedients, 
 in the sight of a diplomatist brouglit up at 
 the court of Aiirungzebe; but indolence and 
 sensuality were vices of a class which Asuf 
 Jah held in well-merited abhorrence. It 
 would seem as if the emperor had by this 
 time cast off the salutary influence of his 
 mother, since, among the circumstances 
 that excited the stern reprobation of the 
 vizier, was that of the roval signet beinar 
 entrusted to the care of a favourite mistress, 
 who accumulated a large fortune by means 
 of the petitions she was suffered to carry 
 within the seraglio. The dissolute com- 
 panions of the young monarch cordially 
 reciprocated the dislike of the minister, and, 
 from mimicking the antiquated dress and 
 formal manners of "the old Deccani ba- 
 boon," as they insolently termed him, soon 
 began to form serious conspiracies, which, 
 he perceiving, quitted Delhi on pretence of 
 a hunting excursion, and then sent in his 
 resignation of the vizierat. Returning to 
 the Deccan, he assumed the full powers of 
 an independent ruler ; still, however, afi'ect- 
 ing to recognise the supremacy of Moham- 
 med Shall, who, with equal duplicity, re- 
 turned this empty comiilinient, by conferring 
 on him tlic highest titles that could be held 
 by a subject; but, at the same time, sent 
 
 * AsiifJdh signiDes " in place and rank, as Asuf," 
 who is Bupijosed to have been Solomon's vizier. 
 
 secret orders to !Mubariz Khan, the local 
 governor of Hyderabad, to endeavour to 
 dispossess Asuf Jah, and assume tlie vice- 
 royalty of the Deccan. INIubariz perished 
 in the attempt ; and Asuf Jah, not to be out- 
 done in dissimulation, sent his head to the 
 emperor, with presents and congratulations 
 on the suppression of the rebellion. Then, 
 fixing his abode at Hyderabad, he strove to 
 secure himself against the aggression of 
 the Mahrattas, by various manoeuvres, alter- 
 nately endeavouring to direct their efforts 
 against the Delhi court, or fomenting their 
 own internal divisions. Considerable changes 
 had taken place since the reigu of Bahadur 
 Shah. The idiot son of Tara Bye died iu 
 1712, and a party set up the claims of 
 Sumba, a child of the younger widow of 
 Rajah Ram. In the struggle between the 
 cousins, Shao acquired the superiority by 
 the favour of the Moguls, and maintained 
 it through the abilities of his minister, 
 Balajee Wiswanath (the founder of the 
 Brahmin dynasty of Peishwas), who, shortly 
 before his death, iu 1720, obtained from 
 Mohammed Shah a ratification of the 
 treaty made with Hussein Ali Khan in 
 1717. Chout and surdeshmooki being 
 thus made legal claims, Balajee demanded, 
 on account of the former, one-fourth of the 
 standard assessment fixed by Todar Mul 
 and Malek Amber ; but, as of this only a 
 small portion could now be realised from 
 the exhausted country, the best that could 
 be done was to secure at least 25 per cent, 
 of the actual receipts. The latter claim, 
 styled the rajah's wutun, or inheritance, 
 it suited both the foreign and domestic 
 policy of the Mahrattas to keep undefined; 
 " but," says Grant Duff, " one system in 
 practice — that of exacting as much as they 
 could, was as simple as it was invariable."t 
 The revenue thus acquired was parcelled 
 out by Balajee in assignments on various 
 districts, and distributed among different 
 chiefs, in such a manner as to give each an 
 interest in the increase of the general stock, 
 while to none was allotted a compact pro- 
 perty calculated to tempt its holder into 
 forming plans of independence. This was 
 the general rule ; but some Mahrattas 
 were already landed proprietors, and others 
 were occasionally permitted to become so. 
 The complicated state of afl'aii's which natu- 
 rally resulted from the above arrangements, 
 rendered the illiterate chiefs more than ever 
 dependent on their carcoons, or Brahmin 
 + Jlislori/ of the Mahraltas, vol. i., p. 454.
 
 BAJEE RAO (PEISIIWA) AND ASUP JAH (NIZAM-OOL-MOOLK.) 161 
 
 clerks.* The power of tlie poislnvas grow willi 
 tluat of their euste ; and fVoin Ijeiii^ s(;r()iult 
 in the eounsels of th<^ rajah, they beeanie 
 paramount even over thcnr nominal master, 
 to which result, the talents and cncrfty of 15a- 
 jcc Rao, the son and successor of JJalajec, 
 greatly contributed. This remarkable man 
 imitcd to the enterprise and vif^our of a 
 Mahratta chiefj the polished manners and 
 address which frequently distinguish the 
 Brahmins of the Conean. lie saw clearly 
 that the predatory hordes, so useful in an 
 enemy's country, would prove ungovernable 
 at home; and, therefore, urged their imme- 
 diate employment in invading the northern 
 provinces. Shao hesitated : brought up in 
 a Mussulman seraglio, he had retained little 
 of the restless spirit of his countrymen ; but 
 when Bajce Rao pointed out the weakness 
 of the Mogul empire, adding, "now is our 
 time to drive strangers from the land of 
 the Hindoos — let us strike at the trunk of 
 the withering tree, the branches must fall 
 of themselves," the rajah, roused to enthu- 
 siasm by the prophecy that his standard 
 should fly from the Kistua to the Attock, 
 exclaimed — " You shall plant it on the 
 Himalaya, noble son of a worthy father. "§ 
 These ambitious projects were materially 
 forwarded by the disputes between the 
 emperor and Asuf Jah. The latter, while 
 vizier, had obtained possession of the go- 
 vernment of Guzerat; but was deprived of 
 it, as also of INIalwa, after his return to the 
 
 * " Bajee Rao," says Grant Duff, " had not leisure 
 to attend to detail or arrangement; the minute 
 divisions which were made of the revenues ceded by 
 tlie Moguls, served to provide hundreds of Brahmin 
 careoons with bread ; and every one interpreted tlie 
 amount of liis own or his master's claims to Surdesh- 
 mooki, Baptee, Mokassa, iS:c. ; rather according to his 
 power to enforce his demands, than his ability to 
 prove their justice." — (Vol. i., p. 5()S.) 
 
 t The prithee nidkee, or representative of the 
 rajah, took rank above the eight ministers or purd- 
 ha»s, of whom the ])[>ishwa was the chief; and Hajee 
 Rao long found a troublesome rival in Sreejiut Rao, 
 the prithee nidhee, whose influence with tlie rajah 
 frequently obliged the jieishwa to return to Sattara 
 while engaged in distant expeditions, lest his power 
 should be undermined through prolonged absence. 
 
 J During his first campaign against Bajee Rao, 
 the nizam, desiring to form an idea of the person 
 of his opponent, desired a famous painter in his 
 service to proceed to the hostile army, and take the 
 likeness of its leader, in whatever attitude he might 
 be first seen. The result was a sketch of the hand- 
 some figure of the peishwa, mounted, with the head 
 and heel-ropes of his horse in its feeding-bag, his 
 spear resting on his shoulder, and both hands em- 
 ployed in rubbing some ears of ripening grain (the 
 common ./()OH'n)-ee), which he ate as he rode. 
 
 § DufTs Muhratias, vol. i., p. 486. 
 
 neccan. In Guzerat, Hamecd Khan (Asuf's 
 uncle and dc|)uty) resisted the occupation 
 of the newly-appointed governor, .Sirbuhmd 
 Khan, and ciilled in the aid of the Mah- 
 rattas (,\.i). \72'>), giving, in return, the 
 cliout and surdeshmooki of the country 
 under him, which grant, Sirbuland Khan, 
 though victorious over Hamecd, was evcn- 
 tiuiUy obliged to confirm. || Bajee Rao, 
 about the same time, made incursions into 
 Malwa, entrusting the chief commands to 
 tlu! afterwards famous leaders, Puar, Holcar, 
 and Siudia.^[ 
 
 The nizam (Asuf Jah), beheld with 
 alarm the growing power of the peishwa, 
 which he strove to undermine in various 
 ways. But secret ])lots and ojicn hostility 
 alike failed ;** and fearing that the emjieror 
 might be disposed to revenge his insubordi- 
 nation, by transferring the viccroyalty to his 
 powerful foe, he changed his policy, and 
 made overtures to Bajee Rao, which pro- 
 duced the mutual good understanding neces- 
 sary to the immediate plans of both parties. 
 
 The presence of the peishwa was now 
 needed for the support of the Mahratta 
 interest in Guzerat, the court of Delhi 
 having refused to ratify the grant made by 
 Sirbuland Khan, who had been dismissed 
 from the government, and forcibly expelled 
 by his successor, Abhi Sing, rajah of Joud- 
 poor, the unnatural son of the brave Ajeet 
 Sing. ft Pilajce Guicowar (the ancestor of 
 the family still ruling iu Guzerat) repre- 
 
 II In 1729, he granted deeds, ceding ten per cent. 
 (surdeshmuoki) of the whole revenue, both on the 
 land and customs, with the exception of the port of 
 Surat and the district around it; together with one- 
 fourth (c/io»<) of the whole collections on the land and 
 customs, excepting Surat; and five per cent, on the 
 revenues of the city of Ahmedabad. — (Grant Duff's 
 Ilisturi/ of the Miihratttts, vol. i., p. 51-1.) 
 
 ^ Udajee Puar was a chief before his connection 
 with the ])eishwa. Mulhar Rao Holcar was a shep- 
 herd on the Neera, south of Voona ; and Sindia, 
 though of a respectable family, near Sattara, had 
 acted as a menial servant to Bajee Rao. 
 
 *• The nizam first affected to doubt whether the 
 money due from his revenues was to he paid to Shao 
 or Sumba ; but this question was decided by the 
 treaty which the latter was compelled to sign, ac- 
 cepting, in lieu of all other claims, a tract of country 
 round Kolapoor, hounded on the west by the sea. 
 Asuf Jah next allied himself with a powerful leader, 
 named Dhabari (the hereditary ecnaputee, or com- 
 mander-in-chief), who had mainly assisted in the esta- 
 blishment of Mahratta power in Guzerat, and viewed 
 with envy the paramount sway of Bajee Rao. 
 ])habari assembled an armv of 35,000 men, and 
 marched against the peishwa, by whom he was de- 
 feated and slain, a.d. 1731. 
 
 tt Ajeet Sing refusing to sanction the nefarious 
 schemes of the two Seyeds, they sent for bis son, and
 
 162 MAHRATTAS ADVANCE TO THE GATES OF DELHI -a.d. 1736. 
 
 sented the rights or claims of the INIahrattas ! 
 in that district; and Abhi Sing, finding him j 
 a formidable adversary, procured his removal 
 by assassination. This crime roused the in- 
 dignation of the countrymen of the deceased: 
 his sou and brotiier appeared in great force ; 
 the hill tribes of Bheels and Coolies flocked 
 round their standard ; and, beside throwing 
 the whole province into confusion, made a 
 sudden irruption into the hereditary domi- 
 nions of the Rajpoot governor, wlio, leaving 
 a very inefficient deputy in Guzerat, with- 
 drew to defend his own principality. In 
 Malwa, the fortune of the Moguls was 
 equally on the decline : Bajee Rao invaded 
 it in person in 173.2, and, taking advantage 
 of the hostility between Mohammed Khan 
 Bungush, the viceroy of Jlalwa and Allaha- 
 bad,* and the rajah of Bundelcund, whose 
 territory lay between those two provinces, 
 made common cause with the latter, and 
 succeeded in expelling the imperial governor. 
 The Bundelcund rajah, in return for this 
 co-operation, ceded tlic territory' of Jansi, 
 on the Jumna, to the peishwa, and, at his 
 death, bequeathed to him certain rights in 
 Bundelcund, which paved the way to the 
 occupation of the whole of that country 
 by the Mahrattas. Rajah Jey Sing II., of 
 Amber, was now made viceroy of Malwa. 
 This prince, so celebrated for munificence, 
 learning, and love of science,t does not 
 seem to have inherited the Rajpoot passion 
 for war. He considered it hopeless to 
 oppose the partition of the empire, and, 
 therefore, surrendered the province to the 
 peishwa (a.d. 1734), with the tacit con- 
 currence of Mohammed Shah, on whose 
 behalf it was still to be held. By this 
 conduct, Jey Sing is said, by his own coun- 
 trymen, " to have given the key of Hin- 
 doostan to the Southron ;" but it is certain 
 that he strove to curb the excesses of the 
 Mahrattas, whose power and influence con- 
 tinued to increase during the two following 
 
 informed liim that the deposilion and death of his 
 father were the only means of averting the desttruc- 
 tion of Marwar. ]?y the offer of the independent 
 sovereignty of NiiL.ire, Abhi Sing prevailed on liis 
 younger brotiier, Hukht Sing, to murder their 
 father, who was stabbed while sleeping. The mother 
 of these parricidal sons burnt herself with lier hus- 
 band's body ; and no less than eighty-four ])crsons 
 shared her fate ; for, says Tod, " so much was Ajeet 
 beloved, that even men devoted themselves on his 
 pyre." — {TinjdKl'litni, vol. i., p. 715.) 
 
 • Mohnnimrd Khan threw himself into a fort, and 
 was alnioHt driven to surrender at discretion, when 
 his wife sent her veil (the strongest ;ippeiil to Af'ghiiu 
 honour) to licr countrymen in lluhileund; and liy 
 
 years, at the expiration of which Bajee Rao, 
 after a short interval spent in arranging the 
 internal affairs of the Deccan, again took 
 up the negotiation, and demanded, as the 
 price of peace, a jaghire, comprising no- 
 thing less than the whole province of Malwa, 
 and all the country soutli of the Chumbul, 
 together with the holy cities of Muttra, 
 Allahabad, and Benares. As the Mah- 
 rattas, like many other diplomatists, inva- 
 riably began by demanding much more than 
 they expected to obtain, the emperor tried 
 to pacify them by minor concessions, in- 
 cluding atithority to levy tribute on the 
 Rajpoots, and to increase that already 
 legalised on the territories of Asnf Jah. 
 This permission had the doubtless desired 
 cflect oil the mind of the nizam. Be- 
 coming seriously alarmed by the rapid pro- 
 gress of his allies, he thought he had carried 
 his policy of weakening the Moguls too far, 
 and listened gladly to the solicitations of 
 Mohammed Shah, who, overlooking his 
 rebelliotis conduct, now earnestly desired his 
 assistance. The courtiers, likewise, chang- 
 ing their tone, began to reckon upon the 
 advice of the nizam as that of " an old 
 wolf who had seen much bad weather." 
 Asuf Jah was yet deliberating how to act, 
 when Bajee Rao marched towards the 
 capital, sending a detachment of light troops, 
 under Holcar, to ravage the country beyond 
 the Jumna. Sadut Khan, the governor of 
 Oude, advanced to the defence of the ad- 
 joining province ; and the check given by 
 this spirited proceeding was magnified into a 
 decided victory, the report of which occa- 
 sioned excessive rejoicing at Delhi, and so 
 galled Bajee Rao, that avoiding the army 
 sent out to meet him, he advanced at the 
 rate of forty miles daily, being resolved, as 
 he said, to prove to the emperor that he 
 had not been expelled from Hindoostan by 
 showing him flames and Mahrattas at the 
 gates of the capital. J As his object was, 
 
 means of the volunteers thus assembled, her husband 
 was rescued and escorted to Allj|iabad. (Scott, vol.ii.) 
 
 t This prince occupied the gadi, or cushion of 
 Amber, for forty-four years. When dismissed by 
 Fcroksheer [nee p. 158), he retired to his hereditary 
 dominions, devoting himself to the study of astronomy 
 and history. He built tlie city of Jeypoor ; erected 
 obsi-rvatories, furnished with instruments of his own 
 invention, at Delhi, Jeypoor. Oojein, ]ienares, and 
 Mat'hura, \\\nm a .scale of Asiatic grandeur; and 
 caused luirlid'n E/ciiieiits, the Trcclisrs im P!nin and 
 Sjihcriciil Tiiijniiiimidri/, and Xnjiirr tin the Oyiisir-uc- 
 liiiH and L'su of J.nijurilliins, to he translated into 
 Sanscrit. — {RajasCluw, vol. ii., p. 308.) 
 
 ] Duil't. Mohmllu.i. vol. i., u. 532.
 
 TAHMASP NADIR KOOLI, AFTERWARDS NADIR SHAH. 
 
 163 
 
 liowever, to intimidate rather than pro- 
 voke, he exerted every effort to prevent 
 the devastation of the suburbs by bis troops, 
 and, for this purpose, drew oft' to some 
 distance from the city. This movement 
 bein^ attributed to fear, induced tlie Moguls 
 to make a sally ; but they were driven back 
 with heavy loss. The approach of the im- 
 perial forces, and also of Sadut Khan, warned 
 Bajee Rao of the necessity of making good 
 his retreat to the Deccan, which the uizam 
 quitted some months later for Delhi, tempted 
 by the jiromise not only of the vizierat, but 
 also of the viccroyalty of Malwa and Guzerat, 
 provided he could expel the Mahrattas. 
 
 With an army of about 3 1',()00 men under 
 his personal command, supported by a fine 
 train of artillery aiul a reserve, the nizam 
 advanced to Seronje against his formidable 
 foes, while Bajee Rao crossed theNerbudda at 
 the head of a nominally-superior force. This 
 circumstance, added perhaps to reliance on 
 his artillery, led Asuf Jah, with character- 
 istic caution, to establish himself in a strong 
 position close to the fort of Bhopal, and 
 there await the enemy. But he ought to 
 have been better acquainted with Mahratta 
 tactics. Seldom formidable in pitched bat- 
 tles, they gladly avoided a decisive encounter, 
 and resorted to their usual plans of laying 
 waste the surrounding eountiy, intercepting 
 all communication, and attacking every de- 
 tachment that ventured beyond the lines. 
 Dispirited by watching aiul privation, many 
 of the nizam's troops were inclined to desert ; 
 but Bajee Rao gave them no encouragement, 
 well knowing, that so long as the blockade 
 could be secured, the greater the numbers 
 the greater their straits. After the lapse of 
 a month or six weeks, Asuf Jah, straitened 
 for supplies, and completely cut off from the 
 reserve force, attempted a retreat northward, 
 under cover of his powerful artillery, but 
 was so harassed by the ]\Iahrattas as to be 
 compelled to come to terms, and agree, on 
 condition of being suffered to pursue his 
 humiliating march unmolested, to give up 
 Malwa, with the complete sovereignty of all 
 the couuti-y from the Nerbudda to the Chum- 
 bul, solemnly engaging to use his best en- 
 
 * " I tried hai-d," says Bajee Rao, in a letter to 
 liis brother, " to get something from the nabob him- 
 self; but this I scarcely expected. I recollected his 
 unwillingness to part with money when I entered on 
 an agreement to assist him ;" alluding to their com- 
 pact six yeai-3 before. — (Duff, vol. i., p. 542.) 
 
 t The Wonderful being used as a title of the 
 Divinity. The fa'ther of Nadir Kooli belonged to 
 the Turki ti-ibe of Afshar, and earned his livelihood 
 
 dcavours to procure from the emperor a 
 confirmation of this cession, together with 
 a payment of fifty lacs of rupcfcs (.C500,00f)), 
 to defray the pcishwa's expenses.* Ba- 
 jee Rao proceeded to occupy the territory 
 tiuis ac(iuired ; but before the decision of the 
 emperor could be pronounced, an event oc- 
 curred whieb, for the time, threw into the 
 shade the internal dissension that mainly 
 contributed to bring upon unhappy Hiu- 
 doostan so terrible a visitation. 
 
 Invasion of Nadir Sliah. — The last men- 
 tion made of Persia was the circumstance 
 of the intended hostilities between Shah 
 Abbas II. and Aurungzebe being broken off 
 by the death of the former monarch in 1666. 
 Since then, great changes had occurred. 
 The Saffavi, or Sophi dynasty, after a dura- 
 tion of two centuries, had fallen into a state 
 of weakness and decay ; and Shah Hussein, 
 the last independent sovereign of that race, 
 was defeated and deposed by Mahmood, the 
 leader of the Afghan tribe of Ghiljcis, who 
 usurped the throne of Persia, a.d. 1722. 
 Two years (spent in the unsparing destruc- 
 tion of the wretched Persians, whose nume- 
 rical superiority was their worst crime in 
 the eyes of their barbarous conquerors) ter- 
 minated the career of Mahmood : he died 
 raving mad, and was succeeded by his 
 nephew, Ashruf. The new king resisted 
 successfully the assaults of the Russians 
 and Turks, who entered into a confederacy 
 for dismembering Persia, the western pro- 
 vinces of which were to be a[)propriated by 
 the Porte; the northern, as far as the Araxes, 
 by Peter the Great. The death of the czar 
 relieved Ashruf from these difBeulties ; but 
 a more formidable foe arose in the person 
 of Prince Tahmasp, the fugitive son of Shah 
 Hussein, whose claims were supported by a 
 frccbooting chief, already widely celebrated 
 as a daring and successful loader, under the 
 name of Nadir Kooli, slave to the Won- 
 derful.\ On entering the service of the 
 prince, this designation was exchanged for 
 that of Tahmasp Kooli Khan, the lord who 
 is slave to Talimasp ; but when, after some 
 severe struggles, the Afghans had been cx- 
 pclled,J this nominally-devoted adherent, 
 
 by making coats and caps of sheep-skins : his famous 
 son was born in Khorasan, in 1688. An uncle of 
 Nadir Kooli's, who appears to h.->Te been at the head 
 of a small branch of the Afshars, was governor of 
 the fort of Kelat; but, having qu.arrelled with his 
 turbulent nephew, fell a victim to his resentment. 
 Nadir Kooli slaying him with liis own hand. 
 
 X .Vshruf was murdered by a Beloochee chief, be- 
 tween Kermau and Candahar, in 1729.
 
 164 PERSIANS, UNDER NADIR SHAH, INVADE INDIA— a.d. 1738. 
 
 finding his master disposed to exercise the 
 prerogatives of roj-alty.fouud means to depose 
 him, and place his infant sou on the throne, 
 usurping the sole authority under the name 
 of regent. Repeated victories over the Turks, 
 ending in a treaty of peace with both Turkey 
 and Russia, rendered this soldier of fortune 
 so popular in Persia, that he felt the time 
 jiad arrived to give free rein to ambition. 
 The boy-king died opportunely at Ispahan ; 
 and Nadir, assembling the army and the 
 leading persons in the empire, to the num- 
 ber of 100,000, in the spacious plain of 
 Mogham, bade them choose a ruler. They 
 named him unanimously ; upon which he, 
 after a hypocritical declaration that he 
 looked upon the voice of the people as 
 the voice of God, and would therefore abide 
 by their decision, although it contravened 
 his own intention in calling them together, 
 accepted the crown, on condition of the 
 general renunciation of the Sheiah doc- 
 trine and the establishment of that of the 
 Sunnis, or Sonnites, throughout Persia. 
 This proviso was evidently designed for 
 the purpose of eradicating any lingering 
 regret from the public mind regarding the 
 Saffavis, who had ever been the champions 
 of the Sheiah sect : but it proved unsuc- 
 cessful ; for the people secretly adhered to 
 their former belief, and its prohibition, to- 
 gether with the strangling of the refractory 
 chief moollah, or high-priest, only served to 
 alienate them from their new ruler, who, 
 on mounting the throne (a.d. 1736), as- 
 sumed the title of Nadir Shah, the Won- 
 derful King. 
 
 Hostilities with the Ghiljeis, from whom 
 Candahar was captured after a close blockade 
 of nearly a twelvemonth, brought Nadir 
 Shah to the frontiers of the ]\Iogul empire. 
 He could not be ignorant of its weakness ; 
 and the prospect thus aiforded of lucrative 
 and congenial employment for the warlike 
 tribes who owned his sway, offered tempta- 
 tions not to be resisted. In such cases, 
 pretexts are seldom wanting ; nor were they 
 now. While besieging Candahar, Nadir 
 Shah had applied to the court of Delhi 
 for the seizure or expulsion of some Afghans 
 who had fled into the country near Ghuznce ; 
 a demand to which the indolent and effete 
 
 • Klian Dowran, and his supportors, treated the 
 account of tlie iiilrrccptt'd embassy from Cabool as a 
 report originated l)y Nizam-ool-Moolk and the 'I'urani 
 party at court, and jccringly declared, that the houses 
 of Delhi had very lofty roofs, from which the citizens 
 might see Nadir Shah and his troopers from afar 
 whenever they chose. — tiiyar-ul-Mutakherin, p. 411. 
 
 government, after a long interval, returned 
 an ambiguous answer, being, it would ap- 
 pear, at once unable to comply with the 
 request, and disinclined to acknowledge the 
 title of the Persian sovereign. Nadir Shah 
 advanced on Ghuznee and Cabool, and, from 
 the latter place, which he captured with 
 little difficulty, sent another messenger to 
 Delhi, who failed in fulfilling his embassy, 
 being cut off, with his escort, by the Afghans 
 at Jellalabad.* This circumstance was set 
 forth as warranting the invasion of India; 
 and after spending some months in settling 
 the affairs of the country round Cabool, 
 Nadir marched to the eastward in October, 
 1738.f Even these proceedings failed to 
 rouse the supine authorities at Delhi, or 
 teach the necessity of merging internal 
 strife in defensive operations against a com- 
 mon foe. They knew that Cabool was 
 taken, but believed, or tried to believe, 
 that the mountain tribes and guarded passes 
 between that city and Pcshawer would check 
 the further advance of the invading force, 
 althotigh, in fact, even this barrier had been 
 cast down by the peculation or misplaced 
 economy of Khan Dowran, the ameer-ul- 
 omra, who, by withholding the sum of twelve 
 lacs of rupees, formerly sent every year for 
 the payment of guards, had caused the break- 
 ing up of garrisons, until roads and defiles 
 being all unwatched, marauding Afghans or 
 invading Persians alike passed without ob- 
 struction. Its commencement being unop- 
 posed, the march of Nadir Shah was speedy 
 and terrible. Having sacked Jellalabad, he 
 passed through Pcshawer, crossed the Attock 
 in boats, and entered Moultan. The governor 
 of Lahoremade some show of opposition, over 
 which Nadir triumphed with little difficulty ; 
 and, in fact, met with no serious opposition 
 until, on approaching the Jumna, within 100 
 miles of Delhi, he found himself in the 
 neighbourhood of the whole Indian army. 
 
 Mohammed Shah, at length thoroughly 
 roused to a sense of the impending calamity, 
 strove to meet the danger it was now too 
 late to avert ; and, being joined by Asuf Jab, 
 moved to Kurnaul, wiiere he occupied a 
 fortified camp. Sadut Khan, the viceroy of 
 Oude, arrived to join his sovereign ; and 
 Nadir Shah, by attempting to intercept 
 
 t The number of his force is nowhere satisfac- 
 torily stated. ]'"rascr, in one place (Historij itf Nadir 
 Shall, p. 15.5), gives the total, including armed fol- 
 lowers, at 100, 000 J but, in a previous page, a more 
 distinct enumeration, made by a Persian news-writer 
 at the camp at Jellalaliad, only shows 64,500 fight- 
 ing-men and 4,000 followers.
 
 DELHI MASSACRE BY NADIR SHAH AND THE PERSIANS. 1G5 
 
 him, commenced hostilities, which issued in 
 a general engagement. In tliis battle it 
 would ajjpcar, that few (if any) lliijpoot 
 princes took part, no longer earing to shed 
 their hlood for a foreign dynasty, whose 
 ingratitude they hated, and whose weakness 
 they despised. Even in this emergency, 
 disunion prevailed in the Indian camp. 
 Asuf Jail, from some real or pretended mis- 
 conception, took no part in the action. 
 Khan Dowran, the eonimaiuler-in-chief, was 
 killed; Sadut Khan taken prisoner; and Mo- 
 hammed Shah, seeing his troops completely 
 routed, had no resource but to send Asuf 
 Jah to oflcr his submission, and repair him- 
 self, with a few attendants, to the Persian 
 camp. Nadir Shah, considering the allinity 
 between himself, as of Turcoman race, 
 (though the son of a cap-maker), and the 
 defeated monarch (a lineal descendant of 
 the liouse of Timur), received his unwil- 
 ling visitor with every demonstration of 
 respect, and would probably have accepted 
 a ransom, and spared Delhi, but for the 
 selfish intrigues of Sadut Khan and the 
 nizam. The accounts recorded of this 
 period differ materially;* but it is certain, 
 that after some time spent in apparently 
 fruitless negotiations. Nadir Shah marched 
 into Delhi, cstaljlishcd himself in the palace, 
 distributed his troops throughout the city, 
 and stationed detachments in different places 
 for the protection of the inhabitants. During 
 the first day strict discipline was maintained, 
 aTid all was quiet, though, probably, the 
 usurpers could as ill-disguise their exulta- 
 tion as the Ir.dians their hatred and disgust; 
 but on the second, a rumour spread of the 
 death of Nadir Shali,t and the citizens im- 
 mediately rising, slew all the Persians within 
 reach, to the number of 700, includiu2; some 
 of those who had been stationed for the 
 protection of private dwellings. The tumult 
 continued during the whole night : at day- 
 
 * According to the Si)/iir-u!-]fri(/a!;?iertn, Nadir 
 Shah, at an interviajv with Asuf Jali (procured by 
 the diplomacy of the captive, Sadut Khan), consented 
 to conclude a peace, and return to his own domi- 
 nions, on condition of receiving two crores of rupees 
 (£2,000,000 sterling), a piece of intelligence which 
 so delighted Mohammed Shah, that he instantly 
 conferred the ofiice of ameer-ul-omra on the suc- 
 cessful mediator. Sadut Khan, enraged by the suc- 
 cess of his rival, told Nadir Shah, that the ransom 
 he had consented to receive was absurdly insuffi- 
 cient— that he himself could afford to pay it from 
 his private fortune ; and, by these treacherous repre- 
 sentations, induced the invader to violate his pledge, 
 enter the city, and pillage it without mercy. 
 
 t This rumour is said to have been spread by the 
 
 break, Nadir Shah mounted his horse and 
 sallied forth, believing that his presence 
 would at once restore order by proving tlie 
 falsity of the current report. Flights of 
 stones, arrows, and (ire-arms from the houses, 
 soon undeceived him ; and one of his chiefs, 
 being killed at his side by a shot aimed at 
 himself, he ordered his troops to retaliate, 
 and not leave a soul alive wherever they 
 should discover the corpse of a Persian. 
 This command, which, of course, warranted 
 nothing less than a general massacre, was 
 eagerly obeyed : the soldiery entered the 
 houses, and gave free loose to those hateful 
 jiassions — eovctousness, lust, revenge; the 
 true "dogs of war." The streets of Delhi 
 streamed with blood ; many thoroughfares 
 became blocked up with carcasses ; flames 
 burst forth in various places, where the 
 wretched citizens, distracted by the thought 
 of beholding their wives and children in the 
 hands of the foe, had preferred sharing with 
 them a fiery death ; the shrieks and groans 
 of the dying and the dishonoured pierced 
 the air, overpowering at moments the fear- 
 ful imprecations, or yet more fiendish scof- 
 fing of their persecutors ; and from sunrise 
 to broad noon these horrid sights and sounds 
 continued unabated. Nadir Shah, it is 
 said, after issuing the murderous order, went 
 into the little mosque in the Great Bazaar, 
 near the centre of the city, and there re- 
 mained in gloomy silence until he was 
 aroused by the entrance of Alobammed 
 Shah, whose deep distress (for though weak 
 and sensual, he was compassionate and 
 gentle) obtained a command for the termi- 
 nation of the massacre. The prompt obe- 
 dience of the troops, is quoted by histo- 
 rians as a remarkable proof of discipline ; 
 but these tigers in human form must have 
 been weary of a slaughter, in which, ac- 
 cording to the lowest trustworthy statement, 
 30,000 human beings were put to the sword, j 
 
 proprietors of certain granaries, which nad been 
 forcibly opened, and the wheat sold at a low price. 
 
 I jS'ailir-tKiiiieh, translated from Persian into 
 French, by Sir W. Jones ( Works, vol. v.) Scott 
 st.ites the number at 8,000; but Mr. Elphinstone 
 naturally remarks, that it is incredible so small a re- 
 sult should have been produced by a detachment of 
 20,000 men, employed for many hours in unresisted 
 butchery (vol. ii.,p. 630.) Fra'ser,who among much 
 valuable authority, quotes the journal of a native 
 Indian, secretary' to Sirbuland Khan, writes— " of 
 the citizens (great and small), 120,000 were slaugh- 
 tered: others computed them at loO.OOO ;" adding, 
 in a note, "about 10,000 women threw themselves 
 into wells, some of whom were taken out alive, after 
 being there two or tluree days." — (cp. 185-187.) 
 
 J
 
 1G6 IMMENSE SUMS EXTORTED FROM PEOPLE OF DELHI— 1739. 
 
 The wretclied survivors seem to have wanted 
 energy even to perform the funeral obsequies 
 of the dead. " In several of the Hindoo 
 houses,'' says Fraser, " where one of a family 
 survived, he used to pile thirty or forty car- 
 casses a-top of one another, and burn them : 
 and so they did in the streets ; notwithstand- 
 ing which, there still remained so many, that 
 for a considerable time, there was no such 
 thing as passing any of those ways." After 
 some days, the stench arising from the mul- 
 titudes of unburied dead becoming intole- 
 rable, the bodies were dragged into the 
 river, thrown into pits, or else collected to- 
 gether in heaps, without distinction of Mus- 
 sulmaa or Hindoo, and burned with the 
 rubbish of the ruined houses, until all were 
 disposed of. 
 
 The sufFeriugs of the wretched people of 
 Delhi were not yet complete ; the rapacity 
 of Nadir afforded fresh cause for bloodshed- 
 ding, aggravated by cruel tortures. The 
 usurper sat on the imperial throne, receiv- 
 ing costly offerings from the humiliated 
 monarch and his degraded courtiers. He 
 now demanded, under the name of peishcush 
 (« gift), a sum stated at from twenty-five 
 to thirty million sterling,* exclusive of the 
 jewels, gold-plate set with gems, and other 
 articles already appropriated. How to pro- 
 vide this enormous ransom was a new diffi- 
 culty ; for Mohammed Shah was far from 
 inheriting the wealth of his ancestors. The 
 prolonged wars of Aurungzebe, and the con- 
 tinued struggles of his successors, had well 
 nigh emptied the treasury ; and the present 
 emperor had neither striven to replenish it 
 by legitimate methods, nor, to his credit, be 
 it recorded, by injustice or oppression. The 
 jezia had been formally abolished at the 
 commencement of his reign ; and he alone, 
 of all the Great Moguls, had steadily re- 
 fused to confiscate the property of deceased 
 
 * Siyar-ul-3IutaMieym ; on the authority of Haz- 
 veen, an eye-witness; and &coii's, Deccan,\-o\.\i., p.208. 
 
 t Dow's account of this period, though very in- 
 teresting, is not deemed reliable; the rumours in 
 circulation at the period, being too often suffered to 
 usurp the place of carefully-sifted facts. This want 
 of judgment is aggravated by the infrcquency with 
 which he gives authorities for particular stafements. 
 He describes Nadir Shah as having been invited to 
 Hindoostan by Asuf Jab and Sadut Khan, and after- 
 wards represents him as reproaching them for the 
 treachery, by which he had gained the battle of Kur- 
 naul, and sjiitting upon their beards. The nizani, see- 
 ing the fury of Sadut at tliis jiublic disgrace, proposed 
 that they should end their lives by poison, which 
 being agreed to, they returned to their respective 
 homes. Sadut, doubting the sincerity of liis wily 
 colleague, sent a messenger to his house to discover 
 
 nobles, leaving, not a small portion, as a 
 matter of favour, for the maintenance of 
 their families, but suffering the appropria- 
 tion of the whole as a matter of right. The 
 result was, that Mohammed Shah had com- 
 paratively little to lose : even the famous 
 peacock-throne, now seized by Nadir, had 
 been deprived of its most costly ornaments ; 
 and other portions of the imperial regalia 
 were proportionately diminished in value. 
 During the administration of the Seyeds, 
 large sums had been abstracted from the 
 treasury ; and even the gold and silver rails 
 of the hall of audience had been coined 
 into money. A large quantity of gold, 
 silver, and jewels was found in vaults, 
 sealed up long ago (probably by Shah 
 Jehan), and immense sums were levied from 
 the nobles. Neither the crafty nizam nor 
 his treacherous rival, Sadut Khan, were 
 exempted from furnishing their quota, the 
 former being compelled to disgorge treasure 
 exceeding in value a million and a-half 
 sterling ; the latter, above a million ; while 
 both were treated by the conqueror with un- 
 disguised contempt and distrust. Sadut 
 Khan died suddenly, whether from the 
 effects of disease, anger, or poison, is an 
 open question : the old nizam lived on, 
 waiting for the turn of the wheel des- 
 tined to restore to him that political power 
 which was the sole end and aim of his 
 existence. t The means of exacting the 
 required tribute grew severe in proportion 
 to the difficulty of its obtainment. The 
 property of the nobles, merchants — even of 
 the smallest tradesmen — was subjected to an 
 arbitrary assessment, which, being frequently 
 much above the actual value, impelled num- 
 bers of all ranks to commit suicide, as a 
 means of avoiding the disgrace and torture 
 likely to follow their inability to furnish tlie 
 amount required ;J while others perished 
 
 whether the oath had been carried into effect. Being 
 made aware of the pre.'ience of the spy, the nizam 
 swallowed an inno.\ious draught, and pretended to fail 
 down dead. The trick succeeded ; Sadut Khan took 
 poison, and died, leaving his rival to exult over his 
 wicked device. — (Hindoostan, vol. ii., p. 425.) 
 
 I The vakeel from Bengal, being ordered to send 
 for seven crore of rupees, said, " so much would fill a 
 string of waggons from Bengal to Delhi ; for which, 
 beingroughlyused,he went home, and murdered him- 
 self and family." (Fraser, p. 200.) The rough usage 
 here alluded to was probably a severe bastinadoing ; 
 since that punishment was frequently inflicted on 
 men of station and cliaracter, by the orders and in 
 the presence of Nadir Shah, whose partiality for this 
 species of discipline is strange enough, since, if the 
 authorities quoted by Fra.^er may be relied on, he had 
 been himself, in early youth, bastinadoed by the
 
 DErAIlTURE OY NADIR SIIAII FROM DELHI— APRIL, 1739. ir,7 
 
 under tliC tortures inflicted by the merce- 
 nary wrctclies to whom tlic power of extort- 
 in"^ the tribute was farmed, and who made 
 tlicir own ])ro(it, or wreaked tlieir private 
 revenue nnciicckcd, amid universal misery 
 and desolation. " It was before a general 
 massacre, but now the murder of individuals. 
 In every chamljcr and house was heard the 
 cry of afliietion. Sleep and rest forsook the 
 city." The pangs of hunger and sickness 
 were not long absent ; and " iio morning 
 passed that whole crowds, in every street 
 and lane, did not die." * The citizens vainly 
 strove to escape these multiplied calamities 
 by flight ; the roads were blocked up ; and 
 all such attempts punished by mutilation of 
 the ears or nose ; until at length — the dignity 
 of human nature subdued by terror — tlie 
 wretched sufferers slunk away into holes 
 and corners, and cowered down before their 
 oppressors like the frightened animals of the 
 desert. The Persian horsemen sallied forth 
 in dilTcrcnt directions, seeking provisions 
 and plunder; ravaging the fields, and killing 
 all who offered resistance ; but were occasion- 
 ally attacked by the .Tats, who had taken up 
 arms. Intelligence of what was passing at 
 Delhi had reached the Deecan : it was even 
 reported that 100,000 Persians were advanc- 
 ing to the southward. Eajec Rao, undis- 
 mayed, prepared to meet them, declaring, 
 that domestic quarrels and the war with the 
 Portuguese were to him as nought — there 
 was now but one enemy in Ilindoostan. 
 " Hindoos and Mussulmans," he said, " the 
 whole power of the Deccau must assemble ; 
 and I sliall spread our ]\Ialirattas from the 
 Nerbudda to the Chumbul." Nadir, how- 
 ever, does not appear to have had any inten- 
 tion of risking his rich booty by exposing it 
 to the chances of Mahratta ■warfare. He 
 contented himself with inveighing bitterly 
 against the insolence of the infidel " wretches 
 of Deecan," in venturing to demand tribute 
 from the dominions of a Mussulman emperor, 
 and the weakness of the government by which 
 it had been conceded ; and then, having 
 drained to the uttermost those very re- 
 sources on which the means of resisting 
 
 order of Shah Hussein, " until his toe-nails dropt off." 
 However, it is doubtless true, that in forming an 
 opinion regarding the use of the rod, it makes all the 
 ditferenee which end falls to our share. 
 
 * Scott's History iif the Deccau, vol. ii., p. 210. 
 This description is quoted from a journal kept by an 
 eye-witness, durin" this terrible epocii. The work 
 somewhat resembles Ue Foe's masterpiece — the 
 I'lague of London ; thougli the misery which it re- 
 cords is of a far more varied character. 
 
 similar extortion depended, he prepared to 
 quit the desolated city. IJefore departing, 
 he caused a marriage to be celebrated be- 
 tween his sou and a princess of the house 
 of Timur, with a degree of regal magnifi- 
 cence sadly at variance with the gloom and 
 desolation which prevailed throughout the 
 once stately capital. Seating Jlohammcd 
 Shah anew on his dishonoured throne (after 
 severing from the Mogul em[)ire the whole 
 of Sinde and Cabool, together with some 
 districts that had always been set apart for 
 the pay -of the garrisons of the latter pro- 
 vince), he jilaccd the crown upon his head, 
 and bade him keep strict watch over the 
 intrigues and corruption of his courtiers — 
 especially of Asiif Jah, who was too cunning 
 and ambitious for a subject. To this advice 
 he added an assurance, that in the event of 
 any cabals, an appeal from ^Mohammed 
 Shah would bring him to his assistance, 
 from Candahar, in forty days; and although 
 this speech would, at first sight, appear only 
 an additional insult, yet it is just possible, 
 that it was dictated by a sort of compas- 
 sionate feeling, which the misfortunes of 
 the delicately-nurtured, indolent, and easy- 
 tcmpcrcd monarch had awakened in the 
 breast of his victorious foe, whose mental 
 characteristics contrasted no less forcibly 
 than the extraordinary physical powers of 
 his stalwart frame,t with the handsome but 
 effeminate person and bearing of his victim. 
 To the principal Hindoo leaders, including 
 Jey Sing, Abhi Sing, Shao, and Bajce Rao, 
 Nadir Shah issued circular-letters, bidding 
 them " walk in the path of submission and 
 obedience to our dear brother ;" and threat- 
 ening, in the event of their rebellion, to 
 return and " blot them out of the pages of 
 the book of creation."} On the 14th of 
 April, 1 739, the invader quitted Delhi, after 
 a residence of fifty-eight days, bearing with 
 him plunder in coin, bullion, gold and 
 silver plate, brocades, and jewels (of which 
 he was inordinately fond) to an incalculable 
 extent. The money alone probably ex- 
 ceeded thirty million. § Numerous elephants 
 and camels were likewise carried away, as 
 
 t Frasci's description of a weather-beaten man, of 
 fifty-five — above six foot high, very robust, with large 
 bhick eyes and eyebrows — exactly coincides with the 
 full-length picture of Nadir Shah preserved in the 
 India-house. His voice was so strong, that he could, 
 without straining it, give orders to the troops at 
 above 100 yards' distance. — (Fraser, p. 227.) 
 
 I Scott's Deecan, vol. ii., p. 215. 
 
 § Scott, Fraser, and Hanway. The Nadir-nameh 
 states it at only 15 million : but this is not probable.
 
 1G8 
 
 REIGN OF MOHAMMED SHAH RESUMED. 
 
 also many hundreds of skilful workmen and 
 artificers. Exactions were levied in the 
 towns and villages through which the re- 
 treating army marched, until they reached 
 Cabool, where the mountaineers threatened 
 to attack them ; and Nadir, considering that 
 the soldiers had sufi'ered much from the 
 intense heat, and were heavily laden with 
 booty, thought it best to purchase forbear- 
 ance, and reached Herat in safety, where he 
 proudly displayed the spoils of Hindoostan.* 
 
 Iteign of Mohammed Shah resumed. — The 
 Persian invasion had plunged the court and 
 people of Delhi into a " slough of despond," 
 from which it was long before they sum- 
 moned sufficient resolution to attempt extri- 
 cating themselves. The state of public 
 affairs held forth uo promise that future 
 prosperity might make amends for past suf- 
 fering ; and the worst of all indications of 
 the decadence of the empire, was the readi- 
 ness with which the courtiers relapsed into 
 the habits of sensuality and intrigue, that 
 had rendered them imjiotent to resist the 
 power of a foreign foe ; while the lower 
 classcE, imitating their apathy, grew to re- 
 gard the brutal excesses of the Persian 
 soldiery, rather as a subject of coarse mer- 
 riment than deep humiliation; and, in 
 mimicking their dress and manners, gave 
 vent to feelings no less different from what 
 may be termed the natural dignity of un- 
 civilised man, than from the magnanimous 
 forgiveness of injuries, which is the very 
 crown of Christian virtue. 
 
 The influence of Asuf Jah was now su- 
 preme at Delhi. He was supported by the 
 vizier, Kamer-oo-deeu, with wliom he was 
 connected by intermarriage, and by a few 
 leading famiUes, who being, like himself, of 
 Turki descent, were called the Turani no- 
 bles. He was secretly opposed by a large 
 number of malcontents, among whom the 
 emperor was thought to be included; and thus 
 the counsels of government were again weak 
 and divided at a time when there was most 
 need of energy and union. On the depar- 
 ture of Nadir Shah, Bajee Rao sent a letter 
 
 • A portable tent was cnnstructed from tho spoils ; 
 the outside covered with scarlet broad cloth, and the 
 inside with violet-satin, on which birds and beasts, 
 trees and flowers, were depicted in i)recious stones. 
 On either side the peacock-throne a screen extended, 
 adorned with the tif,'nres of two anjjels, also repre- 
 sented in various-coloured fjeins. Kven tho tent- 
 poles were adorned with jewels, and the pins were of 
 massy gold. The wliole formed a load for seven 
 elephants. This gorgeous trophy was broken up by 
 Nadir Shah's nephew and successor, Adil Shah. — 
 
 to the emperor, expressive of submission 
 and obedience, together with a nuzur, or 
 oSering of 101 gold mohurs, and received in 
 return a splendid khillut,-\ accompanied by 
 assurances of general good-will, but not by 
 the expected sunnud, or grant of the go- 
 vernment of Malwa, an omission which the 
 peishwa naturally attributed to a breach of 
 faith on the part of the nizam. Had Bajee 
 Rao, on this, as on previous occasions, 
 chosen to advance to the gates of the capi- 
 tal, and there insist on the confirmation of 
 the agreement, he might have probably 
 done so with impunity, so far as the Moguls 
 were concerned; for Nadir Shah had 
 ravaged the only provinces which the Mah- 
 rattas had left intact ; the imperial army 
 was broken up, and the treasury completely 
 empty. But Bajee Rao was himself in a 
 critical position ; hostilities abroad, intrigue 
 at home, crippled his ambitious plans, and 
 surrounded him with debt and difficulty. 
 His foreign foes were the Abyssinians of 
 Jinjeera, and the turbulent sons of Kauhojee 
 Angria, of Kolabah, a powerful chief, whose 
 piracies (which he called levying chout on 
 the sea) had rendered him a formidable 
 enemy to the Portuguese and English. 
 
 After the death of Kauhojee, in 1728, a 
 contest ensued between his sons. Bajee 
 Rao took part with one of them, named 
 Mannajee, whom the Portuguese also at 
 first assisted ; but, being disappointed of the 
 expected reward, changed sides, and ap- 
 peared in arms against him. For this in- 
 constancy they paid dearly by the loss of 
 their possessions in Salsette, Bassein, and 
 the neighijouriug parts of the Concan ; and 
 hostilities were still being carried on, when 
 the tacit refusal of the Delhi government to 
 recognise his claims, induced the peishwa 
 to direct his chief attention to his old an- 
 tagonist, the nizam. Before recommencing 
 hostilities in this quarter, it was necessary to 
 provide against the coalition of the prithee 
 nidhee with other domestic foes (of whom 
 the chief was Rugojee Bhonslay, of Be- 
 rar,"]: and the next in importance, Dummajee 
 
 (Memoirs of Khojeh Ahdiilkurreem, a Cashmcrian of 
 distinction, in the service of Nadir Shah. Gladwin's 
 translation, Calcutta, 178S, p. 28.) 
 
 f A lihiUut comprises a complete dress, or sir-pa 
 (head to foot), with the addition of jewels, horse, 
 elephant, and arms. 
 
 } I'arsojec, the founder of the Bhonslay family, 
 from whom sprang the rajahs of Bcrar, being one of 
 the first to tender allegiance to Shao on his release 
 at the death of Aurungzebe, was promoted from the 
 rank of a private horseman to high position. Not-
 
 DEATH OF THE PEISIIWA, BAJEE RAO- 
 
 1710. 
 
 109 
 
 Guicowar, of Guzcrat), who, envying his 
 power, were plotting its overthrow, under 
 pretence of emancipating tlieir mutual sove- 
 reign. This (lidiculty IJajce llao met by 
 engaging the lliionslay chief in a remote 
 expedition into the Carnatic ; but another, 
 of a different character, remained Ijchiiid. 
 The vast army he had kept up, and the 
 necessity of giving high rates of pay, in 
 order to outbid the uizam, and secure the 
 best of the Dcecan soldiery, had iiuluccd 
 him to incur an expenditure whicli he had 
 no means of meeting.* The troops were in 
 arrears, and, consequently, clamorous and 
 inclined to mutiny. His financial arrange- 
 ments would apjiear to have been far inferior 
 to those of Sevajce ; and, as a nation, the 
 Mahrattas, from various causes, no longer 
 found war a profitable employment. Still, 
 Bajee Rao persisted in endeavouring to 
 carry out his ambitious designs, and taking 
 advantage of the absence of the nizam, sur- 
 rounded the camp of liis second son, Nasir 
 Jung, who had been left in charge of the 
 viceroyalty. The defence was carried on 
 with such unlooked-for vigour, that after 
 some months of active hostility, the peishwa 
 became convinced that his means were in- 
 adequate to the task he had undertaken, 
 and entered into an accommodation with 
 his young and energetic opponent. The 
 prudence of the general triumphed over the 
 rash valour of the soldier; yet it was a 
 moment when many in his position would 
 have been inclined to struggle on ; for it 
 would appear, that his retreat to court was 
 cut ofl' by the machinations which lie had 
 sought to circumvent by procuring the ab- 
 sence of llugojec Ehonslay. Addressing 
 his mahapooroosh, or spiritual adviser, he 
 
 withstanding the coincidence of his surname with that 
 of the rajah, they do not appear to have been related. 
 
 • The soucars, or bankers, to whom he ah'eady 
 owed a personal dc))t of many lacs of rupees, refused 
 to make any further advances; and he forcibly de- 
 scribes his embarrassments, by declaring — " 1 have 
 fallen into that hell of being beset by creditors ; and 
 to pacify soucars and sillidars (military commanders), 
 1 am falling at their feet till I have rubbed the skin 
 from my forehead" — a figurative expression, used in 
 allusion to the Hindoo custom of placing the fore- 
 head at the threshold of the temple, or at the feet 
 of the idol, in humble supplication. 
 
 I Ilistury of the Mtihriittas, vol. i,, p. 559. The 
 manner of his death does not apjiear. 
 
 I Bajee llao left three sons — Balajee Bajee Rao, 
 Rugonat Kao, or Kagoba (who was at one time 
 mucli connected with the English), and Shimislieer 
 Bahadur.to whom, though the illegitimate otfspringof 
 a Mohammedan woman, and brought up in that creed, 
 he bequeathed all his claims and possessions in Bun- 
 
 writes — "I am involved in difFicultics, in 
 debt, and in disa])pointmcnts, and like a 
 man ready to swallow poison : near the 
 rajah arc my enemies ; and should I at this 
 time go to Sattara, they will put their feet 
 on my breast. I should be thankful if I 
 could meet deatli."t After such an avowal, 
 there is something strange and startling in 
 the fact that J5ajcc Uao set ofl' suddenly, 
 with his army, towards Hindoostan, with 
 what object is not known, but only lived to 
 reach the Nerbudda, on whose banks he 
 expired in April, 1740. J 
 
 Rugojec ]51ionslay, although al)out be- 
 sieging Trichinopoly when he heard of the 
 death of his rival, instantly hastened to 
 Sattara ; but being obliged to leave the 
 greater part of his army behind him, had 
 no sufficient force to cope with Ralajee 
 Bajee Rao, who asserted his hereditary 
 claim to succeed to the office of his father; 
 neither was Dummajee Guicowar ready to 
 take the field. In this conjuncture, llugojce 
 proposed that Bappoojee Naik,^ a connec- 
 tion, but bitter foe (because a disappointed 
 creditor of the late peishwa's), should be ap- 
 pointed to the vacant position ; and very 
 large sums were offered to Shao, on condi- 
 tion of his seconding the arrangement. 
 
 These attempts failed ; and Balajee Bajee 
 Rao was formally appointed by the rajah. 
 Being answerable for his father's debts, 
 he was iiumediately assailed by Bappoojee 
 Naik with the harassing pertinacity fre- 
 quently exercised by Mahratta creditors. || 
 From this persecution, his own efforts, ably 
 seconded by the influence and credit of his 
 dewan (treasurer, or high steward), relieved 
 him; and, after more than a year spent in 
 internal arrangements, he prepared to resist 
 
 delcund. The names of the peishwas (first Balajee, 
 then Bajee, and now Balajee Bajee, combined) will, 
 it is to be feared, confuse the reader; but the allite- 
 ration is unavoidable. 
 
 § Brahmin soucars and money-changers assume 
 the appellation of Naik. 
 
 II A species of dunning, called tuquazu, is practised 
 as a trade. Several men, hire"d for the purpose, fol- 
 low the debtor wherever he goes, and establish 
 themselves at the door of his house, subsisting all 
 the while upon the food with which the invariable 
 custom of the country obliges him to supply them. 
 If humble petitions and insolent demands alike fail, 
 the creditor himself sometimes resorts to the last 
 expedient (as Bappoojee Naik did in the present 
 instance), by the practice of cllitirna — that is, by 
 taking up his position in person, as a dun, and ob- 
 serving a rigid fast, in which his unfortunate debtor 
 is compelled by that powerful agent, public opinion, 
 to imitate him, even at the hazard of starvationt 
 until he can induce him to raise the siege.
 
 170 ALI VERDI KHAN, OF BENGAL— WAR WITH MAHRATTAS, 1745. 
 
 the encroachments of inimical Mahratta 
 chiefs, and to demand the government of 
 Malwa from the Delhi court. 
 
 In the interim, no endeavour had been 
 made by the Mogul party in the Deccan to 
 take advantage of the dissensions in the 
 Mahratta state. The active viceroy, the 
 successful opponent of Bajee Rao, had been 
 fully occupied in rebellion against his ovra 
 father, the nizam, who, in 1741, marched into 
 the Deccan to oppose his refractory represen- 
 tative, and received, during his progress, a 
 personal visit from the new peishwa, together 
 with the assistance of a body of troops. 
 
 Rugojee Bhonslay, upon the failure of his 
 political schemes at Sattara, returned to the 
 Carnatic, and after the successful termination 
 of the campaign, by the surrender of Trichi- 
 nopoly and the capture of Chunda Sahib, 
 tlie soubahdar (or, according to the English 
 phrase, the nabob), he sent a force into Bengal 
 under his Brahmin minister, Bhaskur Punt. 
 
 At this period, the viceroyalty of Bengal 
 was possessed by Ali Verdi Khan (some- 
 times called Mohabet Jung.) This celebrated 
 individual was of Turki descent, and had 
 been promoted by Shuja Khan, the late 
 viceroy, to the subordinate government of 
 Behar. After his death, Ali Verdi turned 
 his arms against Serferaz Khan, the son and 
 successor of his late patron, slew him in 
 battle, and usurped the government, for 
 which he obtained an imperial firman by 
 dint of large bribes and hypocritical as- 
 surances of devoted submission. He made 
 a determined resistance to Bhaskur Punt ;* 
 but, alarmed by the advance of Rugojee in 
 person, he besought the emperor to assist 
 him in the defence of the province j and this 
 
 • All Verdi Khan was encamped at Midnapore, 
 when he heard of the approacli of' Bhaskur Punt, at 
 the head of 40,000 horse. He marched to Burdvvan, 
 and there strove to bring on a general engagement, 
 which the Mahrattas of course avoided, and ravaged 
 the environs with fire and sword, offering, however, 
 to evacuate the country on payment of ten lacs of 
 rupees. This Ali Verdi refused ; and resolving to 
 force his way to Moorshedabad, issued orders 
 that the heavy baggage and camp-followers should 
 remain at Burdwan. Instead of obeying, the peo])le, 
 terrified at the idea of being left to the mercy of the 
 enemy, persisted in accompanying the retreating 
 army ; and the result was, that on the first day's 
 march, the Mahrattas surrounded the line, and cap- 
 tured the chief part of the stores, artillery, and tents. 
 The sura ])n!viously demanded as the ]irice of peace 
 was offered, but rejected ; lihasUur Punt would now 
 accept nothing less than a crore of rujiees (a million 
 sterling), with the surrender of all the elephants. 
 Ali Verdi refused tliese degrading terms, and con- 
 tinued his retreat, for three days, through a flat 
 
 request resulted in an appeal for aid to the 
 peishwa, seconded by the long-withheld grant 
 of the viceroyalty of Malwa. 
 
 Such an invitation would have been at all 
 times welcome ; for the Mahrattas were in- 
 variably solicitous to find excuses for inter- 
 fering in the affairs of the various provinces 
 still more or less subject to Mogul rule, and 
 were ever labouring silently to increase their 
 influence. In the present instance, Balajee 
 Bajee was especially glad to be called in to 
 act as an auxiliary against his private foe, 
 and immediately marching by Allahabad 
 and Behar, he reached Moorshedabad in 
 time to protect it from Rugojee, who was 
 approaching from the south-west. After 
 receiving from Ali Verdi the payment of an 
 assignment granted to him by the court of 
 Delhi on the arrears of the revenue of 
 Bengal, the peishwa marched against the 
 invader, who retired before him, but was 
 overtaken, and suffered a rout and the loss 
 of his baggage befoj-e he was completely 
 driven out of the province, a.d. 1743. The 
 reprieve thus purchased for Bengal only 
 lasted about two years; for the peishwa, 
 who, in the name of his sovereign, Rajah 
 Shao, wielded the power of the head of a 
 confederacy of chiefs, rather than that of a 
 despotic ruler, found it necessary to come 
 to terms with Rugojee, by ceding to him the 
 right of levying tribute in all Bengal and 
 Behar, if not also in Allahabad and Oude. 
 Bhaskur Punt was again sent to invade 
 Bengal (1745), and proceeded with success, 
 imtil he suffered himself to be inveigled 
 into an interview with Ali Verdi Khan, by 
 whom he was treacherously murdered. Of 
 twenty-two principal ofBcers, only one (Ru- 
 
 country, amid heavy rains, constantly harassed by 
 the enemy, and greatly distressed for food and shelter. 
 On the fourth morning he reached Cutwa ; and al- 
 though the foe had been beforehand with him, by 
 setting on fiie the magazines of grain, enough 
 remained to afford means of subsistence to the 
 famishing soldiery until further supplies could be 
 procured. Yusuf Ali Khan, one of Ali Verdi's 
 generals, states, that the first day of the march, 
 he and seven nobles shared between them about one 
 pound's-weight of kichery (boiled rice, mixed with 
 pulse) ; the next, they had a few pieces of a sweet con- 
 fection ; the third, a small quantity of carrion, which, 
 while it was cooking, was eagerly watched by others, 
 who could not be refused a single mouthful. The 
 common soldiers strove to maintain life on the bark 
 of trees, leaves, grass, and ants. — (See Sii/ar-ul- 
 Mutakhcrit), done into English by a Frenchman, in 
 .'i vols. 4to.) This translation, though full of gallicisms, 
 is of great value to inquirers on Indian history ; since 
 the able labours of General Briggs, as yet, extend 
 only over the first part of the first volume.
 
 DISSENSIONS AND INTRIGUES OF THE DELHI COURT, ]7il to 1715. J 71 
 
 gojcc Guicowar) cscai)C(l, havirif; been left 
 in cliargo of tlic nanip, and by bini tbc army 
 was conducted back to I'.crar. No loni^ time 
 elapsed before an opportunity to revenge 
 this perfidious massacre arose, as a direct 
 consequence of the crime itself; for Mustapha 
 Klian, the leader of a Ijody of Aff^Iians who 
 had borne the chief part in it, (luarrclled 
 with Ali Verdi for witliholdiiif; the promised 
 reward — namely, the 5,'ovcrnm('nt of Beliar. 
 Both parties were well aware that assassina- 
 tion was an expedient likely enough to be 
 attempted, and soon came to open hostilities, 
 in which the Afghans supported their coun- 
 trymen, llugojee IMionslay took advantage 
 of this state of affairs to invade Orissa, where 
 he obtained possession of several districts, 
 and named 30,000,000 rupees as the sum 
 for which he would spare the remainder, and 
 quit the country. Before narrating the result 
 of these proceedings, which occupied several 
 years, it is necessary, for the sake of the 
 chronological succession of events, to return 
 to the court of Delhi. On tlie departure of 
 Asuf Jah for the Deecan, a.d. 1711, his place 
 at court was taken by his son, Ghazi-oo- 
 dcen, the son-in-law of the vizier, Kamer- 
 oo-deen. These two nobles, being closely 
 united by political and by domestic ties, re- 
 sisted successfully many intrigues and com- 
 binations; but they fought with the same 
 unholy weapons that were employed against 
 them. Treacherous and sanguinary deeds 
 became frequent, offering unmistakable evi- 
 dence of the weakness as well as wickedness 
 of those who bore sway, and indicating to 
 all accustomed to watch the decline of 
 national power, its rapidly-approaching dis- 
 solution. The only person who appears 
 to have profited by the bitter medicine of 
 adversity, was the emperor ; he became a 
 wiser and a better man : but long-continued 
 habits of case and indolence arc not to be 
 lightly broken ; and he gladly sought refuge 
 in the devotion of the closet, from the cares, 
 vexation, and intrigue which beset the 
 council-chamber. Nevertheless, " while he 
 lived, the royal name was respectable, and 
 his prudence sustained the tottering fabric 
 of the state from falling into total ruin ; but 
 he could not repair the unwieldy fabric."* 
 
 Of the various communities whose separate 
 existence was more or less fostered at the 
 expense of the empire, the only one against 
 which Mohammed Shah took the field in 
 person, after the dopartuvc of the Persians, 
 was that founded by the Rohillas, an Afghan 
 
 • Scott's History of the Deecan, vol. ii, p. 223. 
 
 colony, composed chiefly of Eusofzeis and 
 other north-east(;rn tribes, who had acquired 
 possession of the country cast of the Gan;;cs, 
 from Oudc to the mountains, and, under a 
 chief named Ali Mohammed, liad attained 
 to so much importance, as to be with diffi- 
 culty reduced to even temporary submission. 
 Turbulent and rebellious as subjects, they 
 were yet more dangerous as neighbours; and* 
 scarcely had tranquillity been partially re- 
 stored in the territory above designated, 
 before a formidable combination of Afghans, 
 in their own dominions, threatened India 
 with another desolating irruption. The chief 
 cause was an event which, above all others, 
 would have been least expected to contribute 
 to such a result — namely, the assassination 
 of Nadir Shah, the spoiler of Ilindoostan, 
 whose leading share in the expulsion of the 
 hated Afghan dynasty and victories over the 
 Turks, had gained him a degree of renown 
 which, despite his crimes, made him the 
 boast of his subjects. On returning to Per- 
 sia, he was received with the utmost enthu- 
 siasm ; and the troops whom he had trained 
 and led to conquest, gloried in the renown of 
 their successful leader. At first, it appeared 
 as if he were disposed to use his ill-gotten 
 wealth for the relief and improvement of his 
 kingdom ; but it soon became evident, that 
 the hardening influence of rapine and 
 slaughter had extinguished every better 
 impulse, fostered his evil passions, and 
 rendered the once enterprising adventurer 
 nothing better than a cruel and capricious 
 coward. Even his ability and energy in 
 war seemed to fail ; and his latest proceedings 
 against the Turks evinced little of his early- 
 skill. When this contest was terminated by 
 a treaty. Nadir Shah, no longer occupied by 
 external hostilities, gave free vent to his 
 fierce, savage, and dastardly nature, and 
 instead of the boast, became the terror and 
 execration of his country. All around him 
 trembled for fear of becoming the object of 
 suspicions which their slavish submission 
 served only to increase. Among other 
 atrocities, he accused his eldest son of having 
 incited an attempt to kill him by a shot, 
 which slightly wounded him while traversing 
 a forest in one of his campaigns ; and, 
 although there appeared no reason to thiuk 
 that the assassin was not one of the enemy, 
 the unhappy prince was blinded at the com- 
 mand of his still more unhappy father, who, 
 in a paroxysm of gloom and remorse, subse- 
 quently caused no less than fifty of his chief 
 nobles to be put to death, because they had
 
 172 NADIR SHAH MURDERED— KINGDOM OF CANDAHAR FOUNDED, 1747. 
 
 witnessed the execution of his wicked sen- 
 tence without one prayer for mercy* Covet- 
 ousness was one of the distinguishing vices 
 of his advancing age; and, instead of pursuing 
 his avowed intention of relieving the Per- 
 sians from the pressure of taxation by means 
 of his enormous private wealth, he became 
 extortionate and oppressive, as if ravaging a 
 conquered territory. Disaffection and re- 
 volts ensued, and aSbrded pretexts for 
 fresh cruelties. Whole cities were depopu- 
 lated; towers of heads raised to commemorate 
 their ruin : eyes were torn out ; tortures in- 
 flicted; and no man could count for a 
 moment on his exemption from death in 
 torments.f The mad fury of Nadir was 
 aggravated by his knowledge of the angry 
 feelings excited, at the time of his accession, 
 by the prohibition of the Shciah doctrines, 
 and the confiscation of the lands and stipends 
 of the priests, and his conviction that, after 
 all, the people generally, maintained the for- 
 bidden opinions. At length, he came to 
 regard every Persian as his enemy, and 
 entertained for his protection a band of 
 Uzbeg mercenaries, placing his entire confi- 
 dence on them and the Afghans, taidng a 
 delight in aggrandising these, his former 
 enemies, at the expense of his own country- 
 men. To such a height had his madness 
 attained, that he actually ordered the Afghan 
 chiefs to rise suddenly upon the Persian 
 guard, and seize the persons of the chief 
 nobles ; but the project being discovered, 
 the intended victims conspired in turn ; and 
 a body of them, including the captain of 
 Nadir's guard, and the chief of his own tribe 
 of Afshar, entered his tent at midnight, and 
 after a moment's involuntary pause — when 
 challenged by the deep voice at which they 
 had so often trembled — rushed upon the 
 king, who, being brought to the ground by 
 a sabre-stroke, begged for life, and attempted 
 
 • Elphinstone's India, vol. ii., p. 652. 
 
 t The sole exception is that afforded by his desire to 
 encourage commerce ; but even this was, for the most 
 part, only another incentive to despotic and harsli 
 measures. To foreign traders lie, however, extended 
 protection ; and Jonas Ilanway, the eminent mer- 
 chant, who visited his camp at a time when all Persia 
 was devastated by his exactions, obtained an order 
 that the property of which he had been plundt-red, 
 during a rebellion at Asterabad, should be restored, 
 or compensation given instead. 
 
 J Elphinstone, vol. ii., p. G53, on the authority of 
 Pire Bazin, a Jesuit, who acted as jihysician to Nadir 
 Shah during tlie last years of his life. Malcolm 
 states, that being suddenly aroused from sleej), the 
 king started u]), and had shiin two of the meaner 
 assassins before a blow from Salah Beg, the captain 
 of hiB guards, deprived him of life. 
 
 to rise, but soon expired beneath the repeated 
 blows of the conspirators. J 
 
 With the morning light, the rumour Oi 
 this sanguinary deed spread alarm and 
 amazement throughout the army. The 
 Afglians, under the command of a young 
 chief, named Ahmed Khan, the head of the 
 Abdalli tribe, were joined by the Uzbegs in 
 an effort made in the hope of being still in 
 time to rescue Nadir Shah ; but being re- 
 pulsed, and finding that the Shah was really 
 dead, they marched to Candahar, obtained 
 possession of that city, and captured a large 
 convoy of treasure on its way from Cabool 
 and Sinde to the Persian treasury. Ali, 
 the nephew of the murdered monarch, was 
 placed on the vacant throne under the name 
 of Adil Shah,§ and, during his short and 
 inglorious reign, had probably neither the 
 ability nor inclination to interfere with the 
 proceedings of Ahmed Khan, who, having 
 rapidly extended his influence over the 
 neighbouring tribes and countries, including 
 Balkh, Sinde, Cashmere, and other pre- 
 viously-conquered provinces, was, in the 
 course of a few mouths, formally declared 
 king of Candahar. In the plains and cities 
 he established absolute authority ; but the 
 Afghan tribes retained their internal govern- 
 ment : Beloochistan, Seestan, and some other 
 places remained under their native chiefs, 
 but owned allegiance and military service. 
 Without, however, waiting the settlement of 
 all the above-named countries, Ahmed Shah 
 directed his attention to India as a means 
 of employing his army and increasing his 
 pecuniary resources. The coronation fes- 
 tivities were scarcely concluded before he 
 marched to the eastward, and, having rapidly 
 subjugated all the territory as far as the 
 Indus, proceeded to invade the Punjaub. 
 The viceroy being in revolt, could claim no 
 aid from the Delhi government ; and Ahmed, 
 
 § To assuage the fears of the guilty chiefs by 
 whom he was raised to the throne, Adil Shah pub- 
 licly but falsely declared, that he had himself incited 
 the deed by which Persia had been relieved from the 
 curse of a despot, who delighted in blood. This 
 character was equally applicable to himself ; for he 
 slew the unfortunate blind prince, Reza Kooli, and 
 thirteen of Nadir's sons and grandsons, sparing only 
 Shah Kokh, a lad of fourteen, who was afterwards 
 ])rotected in his residence at Meshhed, by Ahmed 
 Shah, who possessed dependencies immediately to 
 the east of that city. All the assassins of Nadir did 
 not escape with impunity ; for the Afshar leader, 
 having incurred the displeasure of Adil Shah, was 
 delivered over to the vengeance of the female rela- 
 tives of the murdered monarch, by whom he was cut 
 to pieces. — (Malcolm's History of Persia, vol. ii., 
 p. 56.)
 
 ABDALLI OR DOORANI INVADERS DEFEATED AT SIRIIIND, 1748. 173 
 
 with little difficult}', triumphed over the 
 feeble opposition ofl'ered to liis usurpations, 
 and oceupied Ijiiliorc and other towns on 
 the road to the Sutlej. News of his approach 
 had reached the court, and Prince Ahmed, 
 the heir-apparent, with Kamcr-oo-deen, the 
 vizier, at tlie head of the Mo;;ul army, were 
 sent to arrest his progress.* Tliey had taken 
 possession of the fords of tlie Sutlej ; but the 
 Candahar king, despite the iid'erior number 
 of his troops, resolved to force a passage ; 
 and having succeeded in crossing at an 
 unguarded, because unfordablc part, left the 
 enemy in his rear, and advancing against 
 Sirhind, captured that place, together with 
 the baggage, stores, and guns deposited 
 therein. The Moguls, intimidated by tlie 
 rapidity of these movements, intrenched tlieir 
 camp, soon after which the vizier was shot 
 bj' a cannon-ball ; but the army continued 
 to repel the assaults of the Dooranis (as the 
 Abdallis were now termed), f and on the 
 tenth day succeeded in effecting their com- 
 plete defeat, obliging them to march oft' 
 homeward during the ensuing night. 
 
 Mohammed Shah expired within a month 
 of this victory (a.d. 1718), and his only son, 
 Ahmed, ascended the throne. For the first 
 time from the commencement of the Indian 
 annals of the house of Timur — in the be- 
 ginning of the loth centun' — the succession 
 was uncontested.! In truth, it was a woe- 
 ful heritage — little to be coveted by the 
 most ambitious pretender. 
 
 Ee'ign of Ahmed Shah. — The events of the 
 next eighteen years can scarcely be woven 
 into a connected narrative. The Great 
 Mogul is no longer the chief feature in the 
 picture ; his proceedings have ceased to 
 form the centre around which all other inci- 
 dents could be easily and naturally grouped ; 
 tlie governors of provinces, from simple ser- 
 vants of the crown, having become indepen- 
 dent powers, whose assistance their nominal 
 sovereign was glad to purchase, at any cost, 
 to ward ofl' a foreign foe. 
 
 After the battle of Sirhind, the victor sent 
 a governor to the Punjaub, believing that 
 
 * Elphinstonc states his force at 12,000 men; 
 Elliot's //((/?; lichmet at 15,000; but the Siijar-ul- 
 Mutakfierin at G7,000 horse. 
 
 f Uy the advice of a dervish, who had predicted 
 his future greatness, Ahmed assumed the title of 
 Donr-dmnan (the pearl of the age); and the Abdalli [ 
 tribe took the name of Dooraui. I 
 
 X The accession of Jehangeer can scarcely be ! 
 
 deemed an exception, since opposition was attempted 
 
 before the death of Akber ; and by Prince Ivhoorum ; 
 
 within four months after. I 
 
 9 . I 
 
 important province secured to the empire by 
 the reti'cat of the Afghan monarch ; but this 
 latter, on learning that the prince had been 
 recalled to Delhi, by the illness of his father, 
 turned back before he had reached the 
 Indus, and forced from the newly-appointed 
 viceroy an engagement to pay a permanent 
 tribufo. Aiimcd Shah, anxious to form 
 connections which should enable him to 
 provide against the incursions of his turbu- 
 lent ncighi)our, offered the " iidc-staiul of the 
 vizierat"§ to Asuf Jah, who had become 
 reconciled to his son, Nasir Jung, and wa^ 
 employed in consolidating his own power 
 over the territories in the Deccan, conquered 
 with so much dilliculty by the most powerful 
 of the house of Timur, and so easily snatched 
 from their feeble descendants. 'I'he nizam 
 declined the proffered office, on account of 
 his great age, and died, shortly after, at 
 Eoorhanpoor, in his ninety-sixth year.|| 
 
 Nasir Jung assumed his father's govern- 
 ment, and Sufdur Jung (sou and successor 
 of Sadut Khan) became vizier, on condition 
 of retaining likewise the vieeroyalty of 
 Oude. In the northern part of that pro- 
 vince, the Rohillas had again become for- 
 midable, and the efforts of the imperial 
 force were directed to their suppression. 
 Sufdur Jung acted in this matter with 
 shameless ingratitude,^ and his ill-dis- 
 ciplined troops sacked their own town 
 of Eara (famous for being peopled by 
 Seyeds), and massacred such of the inhabi- 
 tants as attempted resistance. The Ro- 
 hillas, though greatly inferior in number, 
 gained a complete victory; wounded the 
 vizier, set the imperial power at defiance, 
 and penetrated to Allahabad. In this emer- 
 gency, the common error was committed of 
 avoiding one danger by incurring another 
 involving greater, though less immediate 
 hazard. INIulhar Rao Holear, and Jciapa 
 Sindia, had been recently sent to ]\Ialwa by 
 the pcishwa : to them Sufdur Jung now 
 applied for aid; as also to Suraj ]Mul, rajah 
 of the Jats. AYith these auxiliaries, lie de- 
 feated the Rohillas, in a pitched battle ; 
 
 § An ornamented ink-stand, or rather ink-horn, is 
 the insignia of office worn by viziers. 
 
 li Or 104 lunar years, according to the Moham- 
 medan mode of computation ; their years consisting 
 of l.'i months — of 28 days 6 hours each. 
 
 % He induced Kaium Khan Bungush, the Afghan 
 governor of Furruekabad, to conduct the war against 
 his own countrymen. Kaium was slain in battle, 
 and his employer strove to dispossess the widow of 
 the chief part of her legitimate possessions, but with 
 no avail; for the people rose upon his representative,
 
 174. ROHILLA AFGHANS SUBDUED, 1751.— MAHRATTA AFFAIRS. 
 
 drove them into the lower hrauches of the 
 Himalaya, about the Kumaon range, which 
 forms their north-eastera boundary, and by 
 authorising the Mahrattas to levy the pro- 
 mised subsidy on the conquered territory, 
 soon recViced his foes to such straits for sub- 
 sistence, that they submitted on the sole 
 condition of receiving the assignment of a 
 fcT? villages for their chiefs. 
 
 In the Deccan many important changes 
 had occurred since 1745, when Rugojee 
 Bhouslay, taking advantage of the rebellion 
 of Mustapha Khan, had invaded Orissa. The 
 defeat of the Afghans, and the fall of their 
 leader, in an attempt to obtain possession of 
 Behar,relieved Ali Verdi from one dangerous 
 foe, and enabled him to direct his efforts to 
 the expulsion of the Mahrattas. In this un- 
 dertaking he was less successful ; driven off 
 at one point, they attacked another, fighting 
 ever in true Cossack* style, until Ali Verdi, 
 in 1751, weary of beholding his fertile plains 
 desolated by their incursions, and possibly 
 influenced by the craving for quiet, natural 
 to the old age of even men of war, bought 
 off the invaders by the cession of C attack 
 (the southern division of Orissa), and an en- 
 gagement for the annual payment of twelve 
 lacs of rupees, as the chout of Bengal and 
 Behar. This very inadequate sum, Rugo- 
 jee was doubtless induced to accept by the 
 necessity of returning to the Deccan, where 
 the renewal of internal strife among the 
 Mahrattas, and the quarrels and intrigues of 
 the sons of Asuf Jah, together with the am- 
 bitious projects of M. Bussy, the French 
 leader, warned every wandering chief to 
 guard his home interests. 
 
 The death of Shao, in 1750, gave the 
 expected signal for a struggle between the 
 peishwa and his rivals. The rajah was 
 childless, and had not complied with the 
 Hindoo custom of adopting an heir. His 
 wife, Sawatri Bye, an intriguing and ambi- 
 tious woman, had strongly urged the claims 
 of the nearest relative, the rajah of Kola- 
 poor ; but Shao, who, after remaining for 
 some years in a state of imbecility, had 
 shortly before his death recovered his 
 senses, rejected this candidate, because he 
 also was without offspring, and declared 
 that he had received a private intimation 
 
 and called in the Rohillas, against whom the vizier 
 took the tiold in person. — ^(Scott, vol. ii., p. 225.) 
 
 • The Malirattas have bonowed this term from 
 the Moguls, finding it perfectly applicable to their 
 favourite mode of warfare. 
 
 t Of the annual revenue, estimated at about 
 
 of the existence of a posthumous son of 
 Sevajee II., who had been concealed by 
 Tara Bye. The story sounded sufficiently 
 improbable : but the peishwa and Tara Bye 
 agreed in asserting its truth ; and the former 
 procured from the rajah an instrument, 
 transferring to him all the powers of the 
 government, on condition of his maintaiuing 
 the royal dignity in the house of Sevajee, 
 through its newly-discovered representative 
 and his descendants. Whether this docu- 
 ment was authentic or not, the peishwa 
 acted as if it had been so, by placing the 
 alleged grandson of Tara Bye on the throne, 
 with the title of Ram Raja, and by removing 
 all obstacles to his own supremacy either by 
 force, fraud, or bribery. The prithee nidhee 
 was seized and thrown into prison, and 
 Sawatri Bye goaded into performing suttee, 
 in accordance with her own declaration, 
 made before her husband's death, to dis- 
 guise her real designs. Rugojee Bhonslay, 
 who was anxious to prosecute his annual 
 incursions into Bengal — not having then 
 come to the above-mentioned agreement 
 with Ali Verdi — formally acknowledged the 
 succession of Ram Raja, receiving, in return, 
 a portion of the confiscated lands of the 
 prithee nidhee, and other concessions ; 
 while the good-will of Holcar and Sindia 
 was secured by assignments of almost the 
 entire revenue of Malwa.f Believing his path 
 now clear, Balajee Bajee left the rajah at 
 Sattai'a, under the control of Tara Bye, and 
 starting from Poona, to which place he 
 had before transferred his residence, and 
 which may be henceforth considered as the 
 Mahratta capital, proceeded to take part in 
 the civil war that had broken out between 
 the sons of the late nizam. He was speedily 
 recalled to Delhi by the machinations of 
 Tara Bye, who, having vainly endeavoured 
 to induce her weak and timid grandchild to 
 assert his independence, and set aside the 
 dominant influence of the peishwa, vehe- 
 mently declared, that she believed he was, 
 after all, no true descendant of Sevajee, but 
 a base-born Gonedulee,J having been 
 changed, at nurse, by the cottagers to 
 whose chvrge he had been confided ; then 
 throwing him into a damp, stoue duugcon, 
 with the coarsest grain doled out as food, 
 
 £1,500,000, £750,000 was allotted to Holcar; 
 £050,000 to Sindia; and £100,000 to Puar and 
 other chiefs. — (Duffs Mahriittas, vol. ii., p. 40.) 
 
 t The Gonoduleea are a low cast of musicians, in 
 the house of one of whcm Kajah Hani (according to 
 the statement of Tai-a Bye) had been first concealed.
 
 THE EMPEROR, AHMED SHAH, BLINDED AND DEPOSED— J 751. 175 
 
 the old virago assurncd the government in 
 her own name, and ealled in the assistanec 
 of Dummajoc (Juicowar, who had jjrcviously 
 refused to acknowledge the sueccssion of 
 Ram Rajali. Duniniajce was troaelieronsly 
 captuvcd by tlio poi.shwa at a jji'ctended 
 friendly interview, and his army com])lctcly 
 dis[)erscd. Tara Bye proved a moi'e trouble- 
 some opponent, being regarded by the people 
 as the rightfnl regent ; besides which, popular 
 superstition attributed to her the possession 
 of supernatural power ; but whether she was 
 a deo or a dijt — that is, a good or an evil 
 spirit — was a disputed point, though one on 
 which most persons, acquainted with her 
 character and history, would scarcely enter- 
 tain much doubt. 
 
 At Delhi, another revolution was impend- 
 ing. During the absence of the vizier in 
 Rohilcuud, the Doorani king had extorted 
 from the emperor the cession of the Runjaub ; 
 and this arrangement, though it would seem 
 to have been almost inevitable, the vizier 
 made the pretext for insult and reproach; 
 and soon after, vented his jealous spleen by 
 the assassination of Jaweed, a eunuch much 
 favoured by the emperor and his mother, at 
 a banquet to which the victim had been 
 purposely invited. Exasperated by this out- 
 rage, Aluned Shah turned to the amecr- 
 ool-omra for aid against the vizier. This 
 young man, named Shaab-00-decn,* was 
 grandson to Asuf Jah, and had inherited too 
 much of his ancestor's unprincipled am- 
 bition to hesitate taking any part that pro- 
 mised to gratify his dominant passion; he, 
 therefore, gladly sided with the emperor 
 against the very man whose patronage had 
 placed him in an influential position. -A 
 civil war ensued, determined not by one 
 great battle, but carried on for six months 
 in daily combats in the streets, during which 
 time the vizier being a Slieiah, and his oppo- 
 nent a Sunni, the war-cry of their respective 
 adherents was the test-word of either sect. 
 Becoming wearied of this vmprofitable con- 
 test, the rival ministers came to terras ; and 
 the unhappy monarch, betrayed by both, 
 made an effort to assert his independence ; 
 but being captured by the ^Mahratta auxili- 
 aries of his treacherous servants, under 
 Mulhar Rao, was delivered over into the 
 hands of the ameer-ool-omra, by whom he 
 was deposed and blinded, together with the 
 qneen his mother, a.d. 1754. 
 
 * \\a ;ilso bove his father's and grandfather's title 
 of Ghazi-00-deen ; but to avoid confusion, I have 
 adlicred to his original appellation. 
 
 yllumi/eer //.—Under this name a prince 
 of the blood was placed on the vacant throne 
 by Shaab-oo-dcen, who, upon the death of 
 the vizier, which liappcned about this 
 time (at Lueknow, the cajjital of Oude), took 
 upon himself the vacant olliee, and soon 
 afti-rwards marched towards Lahore, secretly 
 hoping to take advantage of the state of 
 affairs in the Punjaub. Upon the death 
 of the Mogul governor, whom Ahmed Shah 
 had continued in his ofKee after the cession, 
 his infant son had been appointed to the 
 vieeroyalty under the tutelage of his mother. 
 It so happened, that Shaab-00-dccn had been 
 allianced to the daughter of the late viceroy, 
 and he now approached on pretence of claim- 
 ing his bride. The marriage festivities were in 
 course of celebration, when a sudden attack 
 was made upon the town, and the governess 
 captured in her bed. While being conveyed 
 to the camp, she vehemently denounced the 
 treachery which had been practised, declar- 
 ing, that the vengeance of Ahmed Shah 
 would be swift and terrible. Her prediction 
 was verified: the Doorani king marched 
 rai)idly from Candahar, passed through the 
 I'unjanb without opposition, and advanced 
 upon Delhi to enforce his demand of pecu- 
 niary compensation. The culprit escaped 
 through the intercession of his mother-in- 
 law, whom he had contrived to conciliate; 
 but the devoted city was again given over 
 to pillage and slaughter, Ahmed Shah, if 
 willing, being quite unable to restrain the 
 excesses of his soldiery. A detachment 
 was sent into Bengal to levy a contribution, 
 and Ahmed proceeded in person to Agra, 
 against the Jats, with a similar object. The 
 troops enforced his exactions by the most 
 barbarous methods, and found, in bigotry, 
 an excuse and incentive for the indulgence 
 of their natural ferocity. The ancient and 
 vener.ated city of Muttra was surprised dur- 
 ing the celebration of a religious festival, and 
 the defenceless worshippers massacred with- 
 out distinction of sex or age. 
 
 Happily, the career of these destroyers 
 was stopped by the excessive heat, which 
 occasioned an alarming mortality among 
 them, and compelled Ahmed Shah to re- 
 nounce the siege of the citadel of Agra, 
 which was defended by a !Mogul governor, 
 and be content with the money already 
 levied. Before returning to liis own terri- 
 tories, he married a princess of the house 
 of Timur, and afhanccd another to his son, 
 afterwards Timur Shah. He also caused an 
 able and enterprising Rohilla chief, named
 
 176 
 
 ALUMGEER II. ASSASSINATED— NOVEMBER, 1759. 
 
 Nujeeb-oo-dowla, to be appointed ameer- 
 ool-omra at the especial request of the 
 emperor, who hoped to find in him a coun- 
 terpoise against his intriguing vizier. Tliis 
 scheme failed ; for Sliaab-oo-deen called in 
 the assistance of the IMahrattas, under 
 Ragoba (brother to the peishwa), who had 
 recently acquired notoriety by his proceed- 
 ings in Guzerat, and in levying contributions 
 on the Rajpoot states. Thus aided, the 
 vizier forcibly re-established his paramount 
 influence in Delhi, the prince, afterwards 
 Shah Alum, having first escaped to a place 
 of safety, and Nujeeb to his own country 
 about Seharunpoor, to the north of Delhi. 
 
 The ascendancy of his ally being se- 
 cured, Ragoba next turned his attention to 
 the Puujaub, where a turbulent chief, named 
 Adina Reg, whose whole career had been a 
 series of intrigues, was plotting the over- 
 throw of Ahmed Shah's sway by means of 
 the Sikhs, who, during the late disorders, 
 had again become considerable. Ragoba, 
 seeing in this disorganisation the promise 
 of an easy conquest, marched to Lahore 
 (May, 1758), and took possession of the 
 whole of the Punjaub, the Dooranis retiring 
 across the Indus without hazarding a battle. 
 The death of Adiua Beg threw the power 
 wholly into the hands of the Mahrattas, 
 who now began to talk unreservedly of 
 their plans for the obtainment of unques- 
 tioned supremac}'' over the whole of Hin- 
 doostan. These pretensions, though little 
 likely to be vigorously contested by the no- 
 minal emperor, were opposed to the interests 
 of various individuals, especially of Shuja- 
 oo-dowla, who had succeeded his father, 
 Sufdur Jung, in the government of Oude, 
 and who now joined his hereditary foes, 
 Nujeeb-oo-dowla and the Rohillas, against 
 the common enemy. Tlie first result of 
 this alliance was the invasion of Rohilcuiid 
 by the Mahrattas, and the destruction of 
 1,300 villages in little more than a month : 
 but Shnja marched fiom Luckuow to the 
 relief of his allies, and drove the invaders, 
 with heavy loss, across the Ganges, obliging 
 their leader, Duttajee Siudia, to conclude a 
 peace, which he did the more readily on 
 account of the reported approach of Ahmed 
 Shah from Cabool. 
 
 Tlie retaliation of tlie Afghan ruler for 
 the expulsion of his son from the Punjaub, 
 had been retarded by the attempt of Nadir 
 Khan, chief of the IJelooehees, to establish his 
 entire independence ; but this question was 
 no sooucr settled than Ahmed, for the fourth 
 
 time, invaded India (September, 1759), ad- 
 vancing by the southern road of Shikarpoor 
 to the Indus, and marching along its banks 
 to Peshawer, where he crossed the river and 
 entered the Punjaub. The IMahrattas oSered 
 no obstacle ; and he continued his progress 
 towards Delhi, avoiding the swollen rivers, 
 keeping near the northern hills until he 
 passed the Jumna, opposite Seherunpoor. 
 
 The approach of the Afghans greatly 
 alarmed the vizier, who, conscious of the 
 friendly feeling existing between Ahmed 
 Shall and the emperor, thought to remove 
 an obstacle from his path, and ensure a safe 
 tool, by causing the assassination of Alum- 
 geer II., and hurrying from the palace-prison 
 of Selimghur to the throne, another ill- 
 fated descendant of Aurungzebe. 
 
 Extinction of Mogul jioioer. — The title of 
 the prince brought forward by Shaab-oo- 
 deen was never recognised ; and the heir- 
 apparent (Shah Alum) being, happily for 
 himself, beyond the reach of his father's 
 murderer, the strange confederacy of Mo- 
 guls, Mahrattas, and Jats, against Doorani 
 and Rohilla Afghans, had no crowned leader 
 whose uncontested supremacy could afford a 
 bond of union to all concerned. 
 
 At this crisis, the question naturally arises 
 — where were the Rajpoots, and how occu- 
 pied, at an epoch so favourable for the 
 assertion of national independence and in- 
 dividual aggrandisement? Their eloquent 
 historian. Colonel Tod, candidly admits, that, 
 absorbed in civil strife, enfeebled by luxury, 
 degraded by intrigue — their position, in no 
 small degree, resembled that of the once 
 powerful dynasty, whose most distinguished 
 members they had opposed so bravely, or 
 served so loyally. Yet, even had Mewar 
 possessed a rana able and energetic as Pertap 
 or Umra — Marwar, a rajah like Jeswunt or 
 Ajeet; or Amber (Jcypoor), like Maun or 
 Jey Sing, it is still not probable that 
 Rajast'hau would have become the nucleus 
 of a Hindoo empire. The characteristics of 
 feudal confederacies arc, under any circum- 
 stances, scarcely consistent with compre- 
 hensive and enlightened patriotism ; and the 
 temporary allianecs between Rajpoot states, 
 formed in an hour of mutual peril, were 
 thrown aside as soon as their immediate 
 cause was removed. The spirit of clanship, 
 unrestrained by higher and holier princi- 
 ples, prompted in proud and ardent breasts 
 many deeds which, at the first glance, seem 
 grand and heroic, but when tried by the 
 standard of Christian law, severe in its sim-
 
 MAHRATTA POWER AT ITS ZENITH— a.d. 1759. 
 
 177 
 
 plicity, arc found to be fair-sccming fruit 
 rotten at the core. To raise tlie honour of 
 a chin — to liunililc a rival — to avcuf^o an 
 iiflVont — these wore olijccts to he gained at 
 any cost of hkjod or treasure, and without 
 regard to the ciiaiacter and true interest of 
 the state. It was hy taking advantage of the 
 opportunities thus offered, and hy becoming 
 partisans in disputed successions, tliat tlic 
 Mahrattas, as mucli by stratagem as by 
 force, were enahk'd to levy cliout over all 
 Rajast'han. 
 
 The Mahratta power was now at its 
 zenith. The whoh; territory, from the Indus 
 and Himalaya, on the north, to nearly the 
 extremity of the Peninsula, was either sub- 
 jugated or tributary. The authority of the 
 pcishwa had become absolute, Tara l?ye 
 having, though ungraciously enoiigh, been 
 compelled to cuter into terms of (>eaec. She 
 still, however, persisted in retaining the un- 
 fortunate Rajah Ram in rigorous confine- 
 ment, a measure which entirely coincided 
 with the views of the wily Brahmin, who 
 ensured its continuance by perpetually so- 
 liciting its revocation. The army, no longer 
 composed of predatory bands, now included 
 a large body of well-paid and well-mounted 
 cavalry, 10,000 infantry, and a train of artil- 
 lery. Nor were external signs of increasing 
 wealth and dominion wanting. The pomp 
 which had characterised the palmy days of the 
 Delhi court, together with much of the cere- 
 monial of Rajpoot states, was now observed 
 at Poena; and the pcishwa and inferior 
 ministers, possessing the comely forms and 
 courteous manners common among Conean 
 Erahmins, bore their ncw-tlcdged honours 
 with natural dignity. The case was very 
 different with the field-officers, who, by ex- 
 changing the rude but picturescpie garb and 
 homely manners of former days, for the 
 cumbersome attire and wearisome conven- 
 tionalities, in which they rather caricatured 
 than copied the INIoguls, not only rendered 
 themselves ridiculous, but really lost much 
 eflieiency in vain attempts to assume a 
 stateliness of demeanour in correspondence 
 with the cloth-of-gold uniforms in which 
 their short, sturdy, active, little bodies were 
 now encased. Their love of plunder had, 
 however, undergone no change : they even 
 seemed to have become more extortionate 
 
 • The Bhow, or brother, is a term commonly ap- 
 plu'd by the Malirattas to cousins German. 
 
 t Hagoba romained in the Doccan, havlnp; given 
 oiri-nce l)v his improvidence in previous campaigns. 
 
 4 The Jats (who, according to Tod, are " assuredly 
 
 in proportion to their growing passion for 
 ostentatious display. Their conduct, at this 
 epoch, brought its own punisliment; for, 
 although there were 30,000 Mahratta horse 
 in the licld, in two bodies, ;it some distance 
 from each other, when the Dooranis crossed 
 the Jumna, the coimtry people, exasperated 
 by their depredations, kept them in com- 
 plete ignorance of the movements of the 
 enemy. Ahmed Shah was consequently 
 CTuablcd to prevent their junction ; and, 
 coming suddenly on the body under l)ut- 
 tajee Siiidia, slew that chief and two-thirds 
 of his force, while the other division was 
 overtaken and almost destroyed by a de- 
 tachment which had made an extraordinary 
 march for that purpose. The news of this 
 inauspicious commencement of the war, 
 enraged init did not dispirit the ^lahrattas, 
 wiio prepared for a desperate and decisive 
 encounter. The command of the assembled 
 force was given to the peishwa's cousin, 
 Sewdasheo Rao Bhow, commonly called the 
 Bhow,* a brave soldier, but too violetit and 
 headstrong for a safe general, lie was ac- 
 companied by Wiswas Rao, the youthful 
 son and heir-apparent of the peishwa, 
 and by almost all the leading ^lahratta 
 chiefs. t The pressing necessity of uniting 
 to repel the common foe of the Hin- 
 doos, seems to have aroused even the Raj- 
 poots from their apathy, and induced them 
 to lay aside their private quarrels; for seve- 
 ral Rajpoot detachments were sent to join 
 the Mahratta force on its march from the 
 Dcccau, and Suraj IMul came to meet them 
 with 30,000 Jats. This experienced old 
 chief beheld with dismay the gorgeous ap- 
 pearance of the advancing cavalcade, and 
 earnestly entreated the Bhow to leave his 
 heavy baggage, infautrj', and guns, under 
 the protection of the strong forts in the Jat 
 territory, and practise the same tactics 
 which had so often proved successful; 
 urging, that if the war could only be pro- 
 tracted, the Dooranis, who had been already 
 many months in India, would probably be 
 constrained by the climate to withdraw to 
 their native mountains. This judicious 
 counsel, though seconded by the Mahratta 
 chiefs, was haughtily rejected by their com- 
 mander, who atlccted to despise the Jats; J 
 treated Suraj !Mul as a petty zemindar, 
 
 a mixture of the R.ijpoot and Yuti, Jit, or Jete races") 
 formed the chief part of tlie agricultural popula- 
 tion of Agra in the reign of Aiurungzebe, by whose 
 persecutions they were driven to rebel and elect 
 Choramun for their leader and rajah.
 
 178 FINAL STRUGGLE BET\\T;EN THE MAHRATTAS AND AFGHANS. 
 
 incapable of judging of politics on a large 
 scale ; and marched on, in defiance of all 
 counsel, with his whole force to Delhi, which 
 was held by a small garrison of Doorauis and 
 their partisans, Ghazi-oo-deen having sought 
 refuge in the Jat country. The citadel 
 yielded after a feeble defence. The Bhow 
 triumphantly entered the ill-fated capital; 
 defaced the palaces, tombs, and shrines, for 
 the sake of the rich ornaments which had 
 been spared by the Persians and Afghans ; 
 tore down the silver ceiling of the hall of 
 audience (which was coined into seventeen 
 lacs of rupees) ; seized the throne, and all 
 other royal ornaments ; and even talked of 
 proclaiming AYiswas Rao emperor of India. 
 Disgusted and alarmed by these rash and 
 grasping proceedings, Suraj Mul returned 
 to his own territory, and the Rajpoots like- 
 wise withdrew from the confederacy. Ahmed 
 Shah passed the rainy season on the fron- 
 tier of Oude, and during that time suc- 
 ceeded in procuring the co-operation of 
 Shuja-oo-dowla. He then marched rapidly 
 towards Delhi, and on reaching Cunjpoora, 
 on the Jumna, learned that the Doorani 
 garrison stationed there had been captured 
 by the enemy, and put to the sword. In a 
 paroxysm of rage, the Shah, thirsting for 
 revenge, crossed the river between fording 
 and swimming ; and this impetuous act, by 
 which many lives were sacrificed, so asto- 
 nished the Mahrattas, that they retired to 
 Paniput, and intrenched their camp. 
 
 The force of Ahmed Shah was computed 
 at less than 100,000 men ; that of his oppo- 
 nent at 300,000, including followers.* This 
 disparity prevented the invader from ven- 
 turing an attack, and induced him to en- 
 camp, and fortify his position. For three 
 montlis the hostile armies remained face to 
 face, without coming to any decisive en- 
 gagement. During that time the state of 
 affairs uuderwent a material change. The 
 Mahrattas at first endeavoured to provoke 
 an attack, by cutting off the supplies of the 
 Doorani camp; and with this object a chief, 
 named Govind Rao Bondela, was ordered to 
 collect troops on the lower course of the 
 Jumna, and spread over the country in the 
 
 * The IShow's force consisted of 5.3,000 cavah'y, in 
 regular pay, with at least 1.5,000 predatory Mahratta 
 horse, and lo,000 infantry ; of whom, 9,000 were 
 disciplined sepoys, under Ibraliim IClum CJardi, a 
 Mussulman deserter from the French service. He 
 had 200 Runs, witli numerous wall-jjieces, and a great 
 supply of rockets, which is a favourite weapon with 
 the Mahrattas. These troops, with their immediate 
 followers, made the numbers within his lines amount 
 
 Mahratta fashion. Govind Rao obeyed, and 
 levied 10,000, or 12,000 men, who proved 
 very successful plunderers, until their leader 
 was stirprised in a mango-grove and cut off, 
 with about a thousand followers, by a body 
 of horse, who had come upon them, after 
 performing a march of sixty miles. Other 
 disasters followed ; and, at length, all means 
 of forage being cut off, Ahmed Shah suc- 
 ceeded in establisliing a rigid blockade ; and 
 the resources of the towu of Paniput, which 
 was within the lines, being quite exhausted, 
 the pressure of want began to be severely felt ; 
 and, from clamouring for arrears of pay, the 
 Mahrattas now began to lack daily food. 
 Cooped up amidst the stench of a besieged 
 camp, among dead and dying animals, sur- 
 rounded by famished followers, the once 
 mighty host grew weaker daily ; and, to the 
 dispiriting influences of physical evils, the 
 knowledge of the dissensions between the 
 Bhow, Holcar, and minor chiefs, added 
 greatly. The position of Ahmed Shah was 
 one of considerable difficulty; but he rejected 
 the overtures of peace made through the 
 intervention of Shuja-oo-dowla, judging, 
 by the impatience and weariness of his own 
 troops, of the condition of the foe, and feel- 
 ing convinced that they would soon be 
 driven into quitting their intrenchments, as 
 the only alternative from starvation. Mean- 
 wliile he kept a vigilant guard, visiting his 
 posts, reconnoitring the enemy, and riding 
 fifty to sixty miles a-day. Among the last 
 efforts of the besieged, was the dispatch of a 
 party, with innumerable camp-followers, on 
 a midnight foraging expedition. The at- 
 tempt was discovered by the watchful picket 
 stationed by Ahmed Shah, and the defence- 
 less crowd were surrounded and slaughtered 
 in prodigious numbers. On this, the chiefs 
 and soldiers called upon the Bhow to put an 
 end to their sufferings and suspense, by 
 leading them to the attack. Tlie necessary 
 orders were given ; the last grain in store 
 distributed among the famishing troops ; 
 and, an hour before day-break, the Mah- 
 rattas quitted their intrenchments, marching 
 forth with the ends of their turbans loosened, 
 and their hands aud faces dyed with turmeric; 
 
 to .lOOjOOO men. Ahmed Shah had about 4,000 
 Afghans and Persians, 13,000 Indian horse, and a 
 force of Indian infantry, estimated at 38,000, of which 
 the part consisting of Kohilla Afghans would l;e very 
 elHcient ; but the great majority, the usual rabble 
 of Indian foot-soldiers. He had, also, about thirty 
 jjieces of cannon of difi'erent calibres, chiefly be- 
 loujjing to the Indian allies, and a number of 
 
 longi 
 wall- 
 
 pieces. (Elphinstone, vol. ii., p. G7!).)
 
 TERMINATION OF MOHAMMEDAN POWER IN INDIA. 
 
 170 
 
 tlicir gait and expressions bcspcakin;^ vic- 
 tims jji'epared for sacrifice, rather than war- 
 riors hopin;;; for contpicst. The sight of the 
 foe revived llicir courage; a fierce onsiaught 
 was made on tliC centre of tlie Alolianiniedaii 
 army; and a general encounter followed, 
 which lasted in nnabatcd violence until noon 
 — the field of action being one mass of dust 
 and confusion, the combatants fighting hand 
 to hand, and the shrieks and groans of the 
 dying drowned by the incessant "Allah!" 
 and "Dceu !" of the iMolianimedans, and the 
 "Hur! liur! Mahdeo!" of the Mahrattas. 
 Up to this period, victory seemed to incline 
 to the latter party ; but a reserve, sent for- 
 ward by Ahmed Shah, who, from his little 
 red tent, had eagerly w'atched the engage- 
 ment, decided the fortune of the day. The 
 Bhow and Wiswaswerc slain.* Ilolcar and 
 Dummajee Guieowar quitted the field; and 
 " all at once, as if by enchantment, the 
 whole Mahratta army turned their backs, 
 and fled at full speed." t 'I'hc victors pur- 
 sued them with the utmost fury, giving no 
 quarter, and slaying without mercy all who 
 fell into their hands. Men, women, and 
 children crowded into the town of Panipiit, 
 where they were blockaded for the night, 
 and the next morning divided into allot- 
 ments by their barbarous captors, the 
 women and children being taken for slaves, 
 tlic men ranged in lines, and prevented 
 from fainting by a few grains of parched 
 corn, and a little water poured into the 
 palms of their hands preparatory to their 
 decapitation ; after which, their heads were 
 piled around the doors of the tents, J as 
 fitting trophies of what men call "a glorious 
 victory." These atrocities Ahmed Shah 
 made no effort to restrain : but, on the 
 contrary, sanctioned by example the cold- 
 blooded massacre of the most distinguished 
 prisoners, among whom was Jaueojee Siudia, 
 
 * Tlie body of Wiswas Rao was brought to the 
 tent of the Shah, where the whole camp assembled 
 to look upon it, and admire the extraordinary beauty 
 which, strange to say, a violent death had not 
 marred. Yet the Afghans, untouched by pity, looked 
 upon the pale corpse only as an evidence of victory ; 
 and were, with difficulty, induced by Shuja-oo-dowla 
 to renounce the idea of having " it dried and stuffed, 
 to carry to Cabool.'' Concerning the fate of the 
 Bhow considerable uncertainty prevailed, although a 
 headless trunk was said to be recognised as his by a 
 scar on the back — certain marks in the hands and feet, 
 which seemed to bear evidence of the 1,400 prostra- 
 tions he made daily before the sun, and what the 
 astrologers term the Fiiddum Mutch, or fortunate 
 lines in his foot. 
 
 I- See narrative of Casi Rai, an officer in the ser- 
 vice of SSuja-oo-dowla. {Asiatic Jiesearches,y ol.iu.) 
 
 a youth about the age of Wiswaa Rao. 
 Ibrahim Khan was cruelly treated; and it 
 was even reported that his death had been 
 caused by the poison put into his wounds. 
 
 'J'his great overthrow was a blow from 
 which the asi)iring Mahrattas never wholly 
 recovered. In the course of the cam- 
 paign, 200,000 of them are alleged to have 
 [lerished, including nearly all their leading 
 chiefs. The disastrous intelligence reached 
 the Deccan through the medium of a letter 
 addressed to the soucars or bankers, who 
 generally contrive to obtain the earliest 
 tidings of all affairs affecting the money- 
 market. The letter-carrier was intercepted 
 by the peishwa while about to cross the 
 Nerbudda, on his way to Ilindoostan, and 
 its brief contents — " two pearls have been 
 dissolved ; twenty-seven gold niohurs have 
 been lost ; and, of the silver and copper, the 
 total cannot be east up" — revealed to him 
 the fate of his beloved son and cousin, of 
 the officers and army. The shock proved 
 fatal to a mind worn down with intrigue, 
 and a frame enfeebled by indolence and sen- 
 suality ; and the peishwa, retiring towards 
 Poena, died in a temple which he had erected 
 near that city. Notwithstanding the personal 
 faults of Balajce Bajee Rao, his political 
 sagacity, polished manners, and great ad- 
 dress, together with the honoured names 
 he bore, had rendered him popular, and his 
 death increased the gloom which overhung 
 the country. § 
 
 "\A'ith the battle of Paniput|| the Moham- 
 medan portion of the history of India natu- 
 rally closes. Ahmed Shah quitted Hindoo- 
 stan without attempting to profit by the fruits 
 of his victory; and Alum Shah, after endur- 
 ing many vicissitudes of fortune, ended his 
 days as a pensioner of the powerful company 
 whose proceedings will occupy the chief por- 
 tion of the following section. 
 
 I The Dooranis said, that " when they left their 
 own country, their mothers, wives, and sisters de- 
 sired, that whenever they should defeat the un- 
 believers, they would kill a few of them on their 
 account, that they also might possess a merit in the 
 sight of God."— (Cas! Sai.) 
 
 § Tara Rye did not long survive her old adversary, 
 the peishwa. She died, aged eighty-six, full of 
 exultation at the misfortunes which had overtaken 
 her foes. The rajah was then taken out of prison, 
 and suffered to reside at large in Sattara ; his origi- 
 n.-illy weak intellect, still further broken down by- 
 persecution, rendering such a procedure free from 
 any danger to the interests of Madhu Rao, the 
 youtliful son and successor of the late minister. 
 
 II I'aniput is in 29° 22' N., 76= 51' E. ; the town, 
 about four miles in circumference, was formerly sur- 
 rounded by a brick wall, of which a part still remains.
 
 180 INDO-MOHAMMEDAN DYNASTIES, FROM 1001 to 1760, a.d. 
 
 3Iohmnmedan Conquerors and Rulers of Tlindoostan. 
 
 House or 
 Dynasty. 
 
 House of 
 
 Ghuznce— 
 
 Subuktugecn 
 
 dynasty, 
 
 Ghor dynasty 
 
 Slave Kings 
 
 House of 
 Khiljii. 
 
 House of 
 Toghlak. 
 
 Lodi. 
 
 The Seyeds, 
 or Soids. 
 
 House of 
 Lodi. 
 
 Mogul 
 dynasty. 
 
 Afghan 
 dynasty. 
 
 Mosul 
 dynasty. 
 
 Name or Title. 
 
 Mahmood 
 Mohammed . 
 Masaud . . 
 .\hmed . . 
 Modood . . 
 Abul Hussun 
 .\bul Raschid 
 Toghral . . 
 Farokshad 
 Ibrahim . . 
 Masaud II. . 
 Arslan . . 
 
 Behram , . . 
 Khosni . . . 
 Khosru Malik . 
 Shahab-oo-deen 
 Kootb-oo-deen . 
 Aram .... 
 
 Altamsh 
 
 Ruku-oo-deen 
 
 Ilezia (Sultana) . . . . 
 Behram [Moiz-oo (h-cii). . 
 Masaud (Ala-on-decii) . . 
 Mahmood (Nastr-oo-dccn) . 
 Bulhun, or Balin .... 
 
 Kei Kobad 
 
 Jelal-oo-decn 
 
 Ala-oo-dccn 
 
 Mcibarik 
 
 Gheias-oo-deen . . . . 
 
 Mohammed {Juna) . . . 
 
 Feroze 
 
 Gheias-oo-deen 
 
 Abubekir 
 
 Nasir-oo-deen 
 
 Humayun 
 
 Mahmood Toghlak . . . 
 IJoulat Khan Lodi . . . 
 
 {Scyed Khizer Khan , . 
 Moiz-oo-deen, or Seyed \ 
 Mobarik J 
 Seyed Mohammed) . . 
 S 'wd Al-oi) decn .... 
 fBhtilol Lodi . . . . 
 
 < Sccander Lodi 
 
 [ Ibrahim LoJi ... 
 
 JBaber 
 
 I Humayun . . ... 
 
 Sheer Shah Soor .... 
 
 Selim Shah Soor .... 
 
 Feroze Soor 
 
 Mohammed Shah Soor Adili 
 
 Ibrahim III 
 
 Secander Soor 
 
 /Ilumayuu 
 
 Akber 
 
 Jehanpeor 
 
 Shah Jehan 
 
 Aurungzebe (AUimgeer) . 
 
 Bahadur Shah 
 
 Jehandar Shah .... 
 
 Ferokshere 
 
 Mohammed Shah .... 
 
 Ahmed Shah ....'. 
 
 Alumgecr II 
 
 \Alum Shah 
 
 Date. 
 
 1001 
 1030 
 1030 
 1010 
 1011 
 1019 
 1051 
 10o2 
 10.52 
 10.58 
 10S9 
 
 nil 
 
 HIS 
 1160 
 1167 
 1186 
 1200 
 1210 
 1211 
 1236 
 1236 
 1230 
 1241 
 1246 
 1266 
 1286 
 1288 
 1295 
 1317 
 1.321 
 
 1325 
 
 1.351 
 1388 
 1389 
 1.390 
 1390 
 1394 
 1412 
 1414 
 
 1421 
 
 1436 
 1444 
 14.50 
 1488 
 1517 
 1526 
 1530 
 1542 
 1545 
 1552 
 1.552 
 1.554 
 15.54 
 1555 
 15.56 
 1605 
 1627 
 16.58 
 1707 
 1712 
 1713 
 1719 
 1748 
 1754 
 1760 
 
 Capital. 
 
 Ghuznee . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Do. and Lahore 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 /Ghor, Ghuz-I 
 I nee, & Delhi / 
 
 Delhi . . . 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 .. Ditto . . 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 /Deoghiri, or 1 
 
 i^ Doulatabad ./ 
 
 Delhi . . . 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 Successor. 
 
 Death or Depositiou. 
 
 Delhi & Gwalior 
 Gwalior . . . 
 Chunar . . . 
 Delhi .... 
 Agra .... 
 Delhi .... 
 
 :> Delhi & Agra ■! 
 
 ^Delhi .... 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Son 
 
 Brother . . 
 Nephew 
 Son . . 
 Brother . 
 Uncle .... 
 No Relation . . 
 Prince of the Blood 
 Brother .... 
 
 Son 
 
 Son . . 
 Brother . 
 Son .... 
 Son 
 
 Conqueror . . 
 His slave & general 
 Son .... 
 Brother-in-law 
 Son .... 
 Sister . . . 
 Brother . . , 
 Son of Rxikn , 
 Grandson of Altamsh 
 His A^izier . . . 
 Son of Baldiara . 
 A Khilji Chief. . 
 Nephew .... 
 Son 
 
 Vizier . 
 Son . , 
 
 Nephew .... 
 
 Grandson . . . 
 
 Ditto of Feroze . 
 
 Son of Feroze . . 
 
 Son 
 
 Brother, a Minor . 
 No Relative 
 No Relative 
 Eldest Son . . 
 
 Son. . 
 
 Son ... . . 
 
 Conqueror . , . 
 
 Son 
 
 Son 
 
 Conqueror . . . 
 
 Son 
 
 Usurper . 
 
 Youngest Son , . 
 
 Son 
 
 Uncle .... 
 fDi'.ision of Domi-"! 
 \ nion / 
 
 Humayun . . . 
 
 Son 
 
 Son 
 
 Son 
 
 Fourth Son . 
 Son . . 
 
 Eldest Son . . . 
 Son of Azim-u-Shan 
 
 Nephew . . 
 
 Son . . . . 
 Prince of the Blood 
 
 Son 
 
 No successor . . 
 
 Natural death. 1030. 
 
 Deposed and blinded. 
 
 Deposed and murdered. 
 
 Murdered. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Deposed. 
 
 Murdered. 
 
 Assassinated. ' 
 
 Assassinated.' 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Murdered. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Imprisoned and murdered. 
 
 Assassinated. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Natur.al death. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Deposed after 7 mths. reign. 
 
 Imprisoned and murdered. 
 
 Imprisoned and 'murdered. 
 
 Imprisoned and murdered. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Assassinated. 
 
 Assassinated. 
 
 Poisoned. 
 
 Murdered. 
 
 Killed, supposed by his son. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Deposed and murdered. 
 
 Deposed. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Driven from Delhi by Tiir.ur 
 
 Expelled. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Murdered in a Mosque. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Abdicated. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Slain in battle at Paniput. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Driven into Persia. 
 
 Killed at a siege. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Assassinated in 3 days. 
 
 Expelled and slain. 
 
 Imprisoned and .slain. 
 
 Defeated in battle, and Hed 
 
 Killed by a full. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Deposed. 
 
 Natural death.. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Murdered 
 
 Deposed and slain. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Deposed and eyes put out. 
 
 Murdered. 
 
 Natural death. 
 
 Note. — Of the above 65 conciuerors and rulers, 24 were assassinated or poisoned ; 11 were deposed, driven from the throne, 
 or abdicated ; two were .slain in battle ; one killed by a fall ; and 27 were said to have died a natural death. Fifteen 
 princes of the Ghnznivcdc dynasty had an aver.ago duration of reign of 11 years ; 10 Slave kings of eight years ; three 
 KJiiljii of 10 years; eight Toijldak of 11 years; four Sei/eds of nine years; three Lodi of 25 years; two Mogul 
 of eight years; six Afyhan of two years; ami 12 Mogul of 17 years each. If the reign of Akber, which lasted for 
 49 years, and that of Aurungzebe, for 49 = 98, be deducted, the average duration of the remaining 10 princes' reigns 
 was only lOi years- The period of 751 years gives an average reign, to each prince, of exactly 11 years. These state- 
 ments must, however, be rei^'iirdcd rather as affording a general view of the Indo-Mohammodan Dynasties, than as 
 assertions of opinions on various disputed jioints respecting the death and exact date of accession of several potentates ; 
 for arcotmts of the minor Moliammcdan kingdoms see pp. 93 to 107. The Great Moguls alone assumed the title of 
 Padsha, or Emperor.
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 EUnOPKAN INTERCOURSE— KISE AND GROWTH OK HJtnTSII I'OWI'R. 
 
 iSoMH light is thrown on the communication 
 between the eastern and western hemis- 
 pheres by the scriptural account of the fre- 
 (picnt supplies of spices and other oriental 
 products obtained l)y Solomon from the sou- 
 thern parts of Asia, n.c. 1000. The PIke- 
 iiieians were even then supposed to have 
 lonn- been the chief carriers iTi the Indian 
 trade, by way of the lied Sea and the Per- 
 sian Gulf; but an overland intercourse ap- 
 pears to liavc been simultaneously main- 
 tained through Persia and Arabia. Of the 
 Asiatics themselves, and of their territories, 
 little was known in Europe until the inva- 
 sion of the Indian frontier by Alexander the 
 Great, b.c. 331. For nearly three centuries 
 after his death, the Indian traffic was chiclly 
 conducted by Egyptian and Arabian mer- 
 chants, by way of the Red Sea, the Nile, 
 and the Mediterranean ; the marts being 
 Berenice, Coptos, and Alexandria. There 
 were, besides, two other and far less fre- 
 fjucnted routes : the first lay through Persia 
 and the upper part of Arabia to the Syrian 
 cities, and stretched over a long and dreary 
 dcsei't tract, in which the only halting-place 
 was the famous Tadmor or Palmyra — the 
 city of palms — whose independence and 
 growing jirospcrity exciting the jealousy of 
 imperial Home, proved tlie occasion of its 
 destruction, notwithstanding the determined 
 cflbrts of its brave queen, Zenobia. AVith 
 Palmyra the overland traffic of the desert, 
 which had existed since the time of Abra- 
 ham, terminated ; but the other route, 
 across the rocky passes of the Hindoo 
 Koosh, is still in existence, and l)y this 
 means an inland trade is maintained between 
 India, Persia, and Russia {vid Bokhara.) 
 
 In the middle of the first century of the 
 Christian era a discovery was made by a 
 Greek, named Ilipp.alus, the commander of 
 an Egyptian East-Indiaman, of the steady 
 course of the monsoon, at fixed periods, in a 
 certain direction. The result of his observa- 
 tion and daring adventure was to reduce a 
 tedious voyage, of two months' duration, 
 witiiin the compass of a few days ; mariners 
 thenceforth steering from the mouth of the 
 Red Sea directly across the ocean to Nelcunda 
 (the site of which Dr. Vincent traces in the 
 
 modern Nclisurani), instead of following the 
 circuitous line of tlic Arabian and Persian 
 coasts. Here ])cppcr in great atjuiidancc, cot- 
 ton cloths, and exquisitely fine muslins, silk, 
 ivory, spikenard, pearls, (liamouds,amcthysts, 
 witii other [)rccious stones, and tortoiscshell, 
 awaited the arrival of the merchants, and 
 were largely exported, as also from Tyndis 
 and Musiris (Barceloro and Mangalore), and 
 other emporia on the 1 ndian coast, in exchange 
 for gold and silver, (in vessels and specie,) 
 clotli, coral, incense, glass, and a little wine. 
 The weakness and distraction of the Ro- 
 man empire checked this prolital)lc traffic, 
 and tlu; rise of ^lohammedan power subse- 
 quently cut oft' all direct communication 
 between Europe and India. The Arabians 
 then formed settlements on the eastern 
 coasts of the Deccau, and by their vessels, or 
 by iidand caravans, the rich productions of 
 India were sold to the Venetians or Genoese 
 on the shores of the ^Mediterranean or of the 
 Euxine. These merchant-princes, though 
 characterised by maritime enterprise, were 
 naturally little desirous of prosecuting dis- 
 coveries calculated to break up their mono- 
 poly, and transfer to other hands at least a 
 large proportion of the Indian trade. The 
 leading European states, engrossed by na- 
 tional or internal strife, were slow to recog- 
 nise the superiority of an extended commerce 
 as a means of even political greatness, over 
 the sanguinary warfare into which whole 
 kingdoms were repeatedly plunged to gratify 
 the ambition or malignity of a few persons — 
 often of a single individual. The short-lived 
 triumphs of the sword only paved the way 
 for new contests, envenomed by bitter recol- 
 lections ; and it followed inevitably, that all 
 peaceful interests — arts and sciences, me- 
 chanics, and agriculture — were neglected ia 
 the paramount necessity of finding means 
 to meet the heavy drain of blood and treasure 
 so wantonly incurred. The true principle of 
 trade — the greatest good of the greatest 
 number — was quite overlooked: the citizens 
 of a leading emporium forgot, in triumphing 
 over a defeated rival, that they were exulting 
 in the destruction of one of their own mar- 
 kets ; and were far from understanding the 
 more remote connexion which, in the absence
 
 182 FIRST EUROPEAN VOYAGE TO INDIA, 1498— VASCO DE GAMA. 
 
 of a holier principle of union, binds nation 
 to nation, forming of the whole a body-cor- 
 porate, through which the blood circulates 
 more or less freely according to the healthy 
 or diseased action of each and every member. 
 
 Portuguese Discovery and Dominion.* 
 — A new epoch commenced for Europe, 
 dating from the time when John I. and 
 Prince Henry — worthy representatives of 
 the royal house of Portugal — struck out for 
 themselves and their country a path to power 
 and renown, by becoming the patrons of 
 maritime discovery. Portugal was tlien, as 
 now, of limited extent and fertility : her 
 previous history afforded little scope for 
 boastful recollection, either while under the 
 sway of the Romans, as the province of 
 Lusitauia, or when, in the middle ages, she 
 lay crushed beneath the iron yoke of the 
 Moors, who, after having overrun nearly the 
 whole Peninsula, erected Portugal into a 
 kingdom, under the name of Algarve. But 
 the fiery furnace of adversity developed mar- 
 vellously the latent energies of the Portu- 
 guese. Religious zeal became the inspiring 
 theme with them, as it had formerly been 
 with their conquerors ; and, after a struggle 
 of many hundred years' duration, they, like 
 their Spanish neigtibours, succeeded in ex- 
 pelling from their shores the numerous, war- 
 like, and fanatical hordes united under the 
 banner of the crescent. 
 
 Acting on the false principle of their late 
 persecutors, — that hostilities against infidels 
 were meritorious in the sight of God, — the 
 Portuguese pursued the INIoors into Africa, 
 retaliating by every possible means the long 
 
 * The authorities for the Portuguese proceedings 
 are Lopez de Castanheda; Stevens' translation of 
 Faria y Sousa ; and the accounts given in Harris's 
 Voi/affes,thc World displaijed ; Murray's Discoveries ; 
 and other collections of travels by land and sea, in 
 which Juan de Barros and Osorio are largely quoted. 
 
 t Pp. 92 to 106. X Page 41. 
 
 § The origin of the zamorins, or Tamuri rajahs, is 
 discussed by Buchanan (vol. ii., p. 474) and Sousa 
 (vol. ii., p. 22.5.) In accordance with the custom of 
 the country, tho name of the individual then reigning 
 was withheld from tho Portuguese ; but their inter- 
 preter, a Moor of Tunis (long resident at Calicut), 
 described him " as a very good man, and of an hon- 
 ourable disposition." lie proved to be a person of 
 majestic presence and advanced age : dressed in fine 
 white calico, adorned with branches and flowers of 
 beaten gold, and rare gems(willnvhicl\ latter his whole 
 person was bedecked), he reclined on cushions of white 
 silk, wrought with gold, under a magnificent canopy. 
 A golden fountain of water stood beside him, and a 
 gold basin filled with betel and areca: the hall of 
 audience was richly carpeted, and hung with tapestry 
 of silk and gold. Dc Gama found some difliculty 
 
 series of outrage and thraldom to which they 
 had been subjected. The peculiar situation 
 of Portugal, and its long range of coast- 
 line, bordered l)y the yet unmeasured ex- 
 panse of the Atlantic, favoured maritime 
 enterprise ; and the exploration of the shores 
 of western, southern, and eastern Africa 
 was followed by the expedition of Vasco de 
 Gama, who, after crossing the Indian Ocean 
 (by the aid of a Hindoo pilot, obtained at 
 Melinda), succeeded in gaining the Malabar 
 coast, and landed at Calicut in May, 14y8. 
 The general condition of India at this 
 period has been shown in previous pages. ■): 
 Secander Soor sat on the throne of Delhi : 
 in the Deccan, the Mohammedan rulers 
 were Mohammed II., of the Bahmani 
 dynasty ; Yusuf Adil Shah, of Beejapoor ; 
 and Ahmed Nizam Shah, of Ahmednuggur, 
 The country visited by the Portuguese had 
 anciently formed the southern division of 
 the kingdom of Kerala; J but in the course 
 of the ninth century had revolted from its 
 prince (who had become a Mohammedan), 
 and been formed into many petty Hindoo 
 principalities. Of these, the chief was that 
 now governed by a ruler styled the zamorin, 
 or Tamuri rajah,^ to whom several lesser 
 rajalis seem to have been feudatory ; his 
 capital, called Calicut, had attained wealth 
 and celebrity as a commercial emporium. 
 By this prince the adventurers were well 
 received ; and notwithstanding some awk- 
 ward blunders, occasioned by their igno- 
 rance of the language, customs, and religion 
 of the country, II all went on favourably 
 until their proceedings excited the jealousy 
 of the Mohammedan traders, whom they 
 
 from the want of the costly presents with which all 
 diplomatic intercourse in the east begins and ends. 
 The zamorin desired an image of Mary, in gold, of 
 which he had heard : this was refused, on the plea 
 that it was only wood, gilt, but valuable " because it 
 had preserved them at sea" — an answer calculated to 
 confirm the assertion of the Moors, that these Euro- 
 peans, unlike the native Christians, were idolaters. 
 
 jl The Portuguese, acquainted by the accou nts of 
 Marco Polo and other travellers with the existence 
 of a Christian community en this coast, looked for 
 the signs of Christian or rather Romish worship; 
 and, filled with this idea, actually entered a splendid 
 ]iagoda with lofiy pillars of brass, and prostrated 
 themselves before an assemblage of strange and 
 grotesque forms, which they took for the Indian 
 ideal of the Madonna and saints. The strings of 
 beads worn by the ])riests, the water wii,h which the 
 company were sprinkled, the jiowdered sandal-wood, 
 and the peal of bells, could not, however, quell 
 the suspicions excited by the numerous arms and 
 singular accompaniments of many of the figures; 
 and one of the Portuguese started to his feet, ex- 
 claiming, " If these be devils, it is God I worship."
 
 rOKTUGUESE EXPEDITION UNDER ALVAREZ CABRAL-a.d. 1500. 183 
 
 termed the Moors,* settled in Calicut. These 
 merchants having:, through their factors, 
 received intelligence of the contests wliicii 
 had taken place, (hirinii the voyage, Ijctwccn 
 Vasco (Ic Gama and tint people of Mozam- 
 bique, Monibaa, Mclinda, and other places 
 on the coast of Africa, informed the zamorin 
 of the outrages that had been committed 
 on this and previous occasions, urging, 
 with sufficient reason, that people who, on 
 frivolous pretences, fired upon and destroyed 
 towns, carried off the inhabitants as slaves, 
 and scrupled not to extort information by 
 the most liarbarous tortures, w'crc more pro- 
 bably pirates than aml)assadors,t especially 
 as they came unprovided with any offer- 
 ing from their sovereign. Notwithstanding 
 these representations, the Portuguese were 
 suflered to make an advantageous disposition 
 of their cargo (of scarlet cloth^ brass, coral, 
 &c.) at Calicut; but a dispute subsequently 
 arising, the factor and secretary were made 
 prisoners. De Gama dissembled his alarm, 
 and continued to communicate with the 
 Indians as if nothing had occurred, until he 
 had succeeded in entrapping on board his 
 vessel a party, comprising six nairsj and 
 fifteen other persons of distinction. He 
 then demanded the release of his officers as 
 their ransom ; but when this condition was 
 complied with, forfeited his pledge by re- 
 taining possession of several of his captives. 
 Enraged by this dishonourable and insulting 
 conduct, the zamorin dispatched a squadron 
 of boats against the Portuguese, and suc- 
 ceeded in procuring the co-operation of 
 neighbouring powers; so that in a short 
 time every bay, creek, and river was filled 
 with boats, ready, at a given signal, to 
 attack the intruders. Such at least was 
 the intelligence, wrung by tortures of the 
 most cruel and disgusting description, from 
 a spy who came out from Goa. Dc Gama, 
 by the aid of favourable winds avoided the 
 encounter, steered homewards, and reached 
 
 * This designation seems frequently applied to 
 Arabian and African Mohammedans, in contradis- 
 tinction to Moguls and Patans. Sousa speaks of 
 them as "inhabiting from Choul to Cape Comorin." 
 
 t Prince Henry's characteristic motto, " Talent de 
 bien faire," was sadly misapi)licd by the Portuguese 
 commanders, who, almost without exception, treated 
 the natives of ncwly-discovcrcd territories with such 
 shameless cruelty, that their skill and courage fails 
 to disguise the fact, that they were little else than 
 pirates and robbers on an extensive scale ; — worse 
 than all, they were stealers of men; and thereby 
 guilty of a crime which could not and did not fail 
 to bring a curse upon their nation. In vain they 
 strove to strengthen themselves with forts and can- 
 
 thc Tagus in August, 1191), after an absence 
 of two years and two months; oid)' fifty-five 
 of tlie H)0|| men who liad accompanied him 
 on his perilous enccrprise, surviving to share 
 the honours of liis triumphant entry into 
 lisbon ; but of these, every individual re- 
 ceived rewards, together with tiie personal 
 commendation of King limanuel. 
 
 An armament, comprising thirteen ships 
 and 1,200 men, was immediately fitted out 
 and dis|)atchcd to take advantage of the 
 new discovery. The command was entrusted 
 to Alvarez Cabral, Dc Gama being excluded 
 on the plea of being spared the liazard, but 
 probably either on account of an opposite 
 interest having begun to prevail at court, or 
 because even his own report of his Indian 
 proceedings may have borne evidence that 
 the beneficial results of the skill and courage 
 which had enabled him to triumph over the 
 perils of uidinowu seas, were likely to be 
 neutralized Ijy his indiscreet and aggressive 
 conduct on shore. Cabral reached Calicut 
 in September, 1500, having, on his way, 
 discovered the coast of IJrazil, and lost four 
 of his ships in the frightful storms encoun- 
 tered in rounding the Cape of Good Hope, 
 Bartholomew Diaz being one of those who 
 perished in the seas he had first laid open 
 to European adventure. The captives car- 
 ried oft" by De Gama were restored by Cabral, - 
 and their representations of the honourable 
 treatment they had received in Portugal, 
 together with costly presents of vessels of 
 gold and silver of delicate workmanship, 
 and cloths ingeniously wrought, obtained 
 for the admiral a gracious reception, and 
 permission to establish a factory at Calicut. 
 Cabral endeavoured to ingratiate himself 
 still further by intercepting and driving into 
 the harbour or roadstead of Calicut a large 
 vessel, then passing from the neighbouring 
 jiort of Cochin, laden with a rich cargo, in- 
 cluding seven elephants, one of which the 
 zamorin had vainly endeavoured to pm-- 
 
 non — spreading the terror of their name over the 
 whole African sea-coast : their power has dwindled 
 away like a snow-ball in the sun ; and now only 
 enough remains to bear witness of lost dominion. 
 Five-and-twenly years ago, when serving in the 
 navy, I visited the great fortress of Mozambique, 
 where we landed the marines of our frigate to pre- 
 vent the governor-general (then newly-arrived Irom I 
 Lisbon) being massacred by a horde of savages. At j 
 Delagoa, Inhamban, Sofala, and other places, the | 
 Portuguese governor and officers were unwilling to 
 venture beyond the reach of the rusty cannon on ^ 
 the walls of their dilapidated forts. 
 
 I Military class of Malabai-, of the Soodra cast. 
 
 II According to Sousa. Castanheda says, 108.
 
 chase ; but this unscrupulous use of power 
 gave alarm rather than satisfaction, and 
 added weight to the arguments of the Moors, 
 regarding the danger of encouraging sucli 
 oflicious interlopers. The result was, that 
 the Portuguese, unable to effect any pur- 
 chases from the native merchants, in their 
 impatience construed a hasty expression, 
 dropped by the zamorin when wearied by 
 their solicitatious and complaints, into per- 
 mission to seize a Moorish cargo of rich 
 spices, on condition of the payment of an 
 equitable price. This outrage provoked the 
 resentment of both the Moors and the Hin- 
 doo inhabitants of Calicut. The newly- 
 erected factory was broken open, and out of 
 its seventy occupants, fifty-one were killed, 
 the remainder escaping only by leaping into 
 the sea, and swimming to their boats. Cabral 
 retaliated by the capture and destruction of 
 ten Moorish ships, seizing the cargoes, and 
 detaining the crews as prisoners. Then, 
 bringing his squadron as close as possible to 
 the sliore, he opened a furious discharge of 
 artillery upon the city, and having set it 
 on fire in several places, sailed southward to 
 Cochin, whose ruler, having rebelled against 
 the zamorin, gladly embraced the offer of 
 foreign commerce and alliance. Here an 
 abundant supply of pepper, the commodity 
 chiefly desired by the Europeans, was ob- 
 tained, and Cabral returned to Lisbon, 
 taking the opportunity of a favoui'able wind 
 to avoid a fleet of sixty sail, sent agaiust 
 him from Calicut. It was now manifest 
 that the aggressive policy of the Portuguese 
 could succeed oidy if powerfully supported ; 
 and Emanuel being desirous, in tlie words 
 of Faria y Sousa, " to carry out what the 
 apostle St. Thomas had begun," during 
 liis alleged visit to India, resolved, at all 
 hazards, to avail himself of the papal grant 
 to Portugal of all the eastern regions 
 discovered by her fleets, and tenanted by 
 infidels. He assembled a larger armament 
 than had yet been scut into the eastern 
 seas, and assuming the title of " Lord of 
 tlic navigation, conquest, and commerce of 
 Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia and India," dis- 
 patched Yasco de Gama to enforce his 
 authority. Tiie conduct of the envoy was 
 marked by the most savage cruelty' On 
 the coast of Arabia he met and captured a 
 large Moorish shij), seized its stores, shut up 
 the crew in the hold, and set it on fire. 
 Appearing before Calicut, he collected fifty 
 Indians from several captured vessels, and 
 in consequence of some delay which oc- 
 
 curred during a negotiation, opened by his 
 demand of compensation for the destruction 
 of the factory and its occupants, he took up 
 an hour-glass, and declared, that unless the 
 matter were settled before the sand had 
 passed througli, the prisoners should all be 
 massacred. This savage threat he fulfilled 
 to the letter, flinging on shore the lieads, 
 hands, and feet of the wretched victims. 
 After poui'iug a destructive fire on the city, 
 he proceeded to Cochin and Cananore, 
 cemented the Portuguese alliance with the 
 rulers of these territories, aud then returned 
 to Lisbon, leaving a squadron of five vessels 
 under his uncle, Yineente Sodre, to blockade 
 the Red Sea, exclude the hostile Moors 
 from any communication with the coast of 
 Malabar, and do what he could to protect 
 the allies of Portugal against the auger of 
 their liege lord, the zamorin. Instead of 
 following these iuj unctions, Sodre engaged 
 in piratical pursuits, and at length perished 
 in a violent storm. Triumpara, rajah of 
 Cochin, was left to make his own defence, 
 aud being driven from his capital, took refuge 
 in the isle of Yaipeen, whose natural strength 
 and sacred character would probably not 
 have sufficed to ensure him a safe asylum 
 but for the succour tliat arrived from Por- 
 tugal, one detacliment being sent under the 
 afterwards famous Alphouso Albuquerque, 
 another under his brother Francisco, and a 
 third under Antonio Saldauha. With their 
 assistance, Triumpara was replaced on his 
 throne, and peace concluded with Calicut, 
 but soon broken by the outrageous conduct 
 of the Portuguese. The Albuquerqucs, after 
 endeavouring to intimidate the zamorin into 
 a renewal of the violated treaty, set sail for 
 Europe,* leaving Duarte Pacheco witli four 
 vessels and a few hundred men to assist in 
 guarding their ally, the rajah of Cochin. 
 
 Tlie -struggle that ensued aflbrdcd the first 
 notable instance of the superiority of a small 
 force, strengtliened by European strategy 
 and discipline, over an unwicldly Indian 
 host, and may be said to have laid the 
 foundation of Portuguese power in India. 
 Pacheco was skilful and resolute : Trium- 
 para confided to him the sole direction of 
 the defence to be made against the advanc- 
 ing naval and military armament of the 
 zamorin ; aud the well-directed fire of his 
 little squadron enabled him to obtain a com- 
 plete triumph, which was greatly facilitated 
 
 • Alphonso reached Europe safely. Francisco, 
 wiUi tlie ships under his conirnand, is supposed to 
 have perished in a storm near Melinda, in Africa.
 
 ALMRIDA VICEROY— WAR WITH EGYPT AND GUZERAT— 1508, 185 
 
 by a destructive sickness that broke out 
 anioiif; tbe ciiciiiy, and compelled tlieir re- 
 treat to Calicut.* raclieco was, jiorliaps, the 
 ablest as well as the most humane and dis- 
 interested of the commanders of his nation 
 in India; for no other, not even Albuquer- 
 que, obtained such uniform success with 
 such inadequate means. It would have 
 been f^ood policy to have left him in the ])Osi- 
 tion he had so well idled ; instead of which, 
 ho was superseded by Lope Soarez. On re- 
 turning to Portugal, he was treated by 
 I'hiianncl with well-merited distinction; and 
 his disregard of his own interests, and zeal for 
 the public service, were rewarded by the ap- 
 pointment of governor of I'^l Mina, the chief 
 settlement ou the African coast ; but a 
 violent faction being there raised against 
 him, he was sent home in chains^ impri- 
 soned for years, and although at length 
 honourably acquitted, sufl'crcd to die in 
 poverty and neglect. 
 
 In 1505, Francisco de Almeida arrived off 
 Malabar, attended by a powerful fleet, and 
 dignified with the new and pompous title 
 of viceroy of India. A more formidable 
 opposition tlian any heretofore encountered 
 now awaited the Portuguese, in the combi- 
 nation formed against them by ]\Iahmood 
 Bcgarra, of Guzerat, with the JVFamcluk 
 sultan of Cairo, and the angry and disap- 
 pointed Venetians. The sultan, incensed by 
 the diminution of his revenues, by the shame- 
 ful piracies committed on his vessels, and by 
 the barbarous massacre of pilgrims ou their 
 way to Mecca (whose cause every zealous 
 ]\Tobammcdan identifies with his own), 
 equipped twelve large ships in the Red 
 Sea,t and placed them xuidcr an olficcr 
 named Alecr Ilocem, with orders for the 
 extirpation of the infidel invaders from the 
 whole face of the eastern seas. Malek 
 Eiaz, the viceroy of Diu, was sent by 
 Mahmood to join the !Mamcluks, with an 
 assemblage of vessels, inferior in size, but 
 greater in number ; and the combined force 
 fell upon the Portuguese squadron anchored 
 ofl' Choul with such cfl'ect, that the young 
 commander, Lorenzo, the only son of Al- 
 meida, seeing no prospect of successful re- 
 sistance, and his chief officers, like himself, 
 being wounded, resolved to take advantage 
 
 * Both floors and Hindoos were provided with 
 cannon before the arrival of tlie Portuguese, though 
 they do not appear to have been skilful in its use. 
 
 t The Venetians sent the timber from the forests 
 of Dahnatia, by way of Alexandria and the Nik-. 
 Venetian carpenters built the fleet, which was 
 
 of a favourable tide and proceed out to sea. 
 The movement was commenced at midniglit, 
 and went on favourably until the ship in 
 which Lorenzo sailed ran foul of some fish- 
 ing stakes. The enemy having discovered 
 the manoeuvre, pressed on in [jiirsuit, while 
 ' ineflectual attempts were made to free the 
 intercepted vessel. Lorenzo was entreated 
 j to enter a boat and escape to the fleet ; but 
 j he refused to forsake his companions, and 
 ] drawing them up in fighting order, resolved 
 I to hold out, if possible, until the advancing 
 tide should float them out to sea. Hostile 
 I ships, bristling with cannon, bore down on 
 I the devoted band, and destroyed tlieir last 
 hope by opening upon them a tremendous 
 fire. A ball in the thigh incapacitated 
 Lorenzo for movement; but he caused him- 
 self to be lashed to the mast, whence he 
 continued to direct and cheer his men till 
 another shot struck him on the breast, and 
 terminated at once his struggles and his 
 life.;]; The crew, though reduced from one 
 hundred to twenty men, and all wounded, 
 were still disposed to resist the boarding of 
 their vessel ; but Malek Eiaz. by gentleness 
 and promises of good treatment, prevailed 
 on them to surrender ; and by his aftcr- 
 eonduct, amply redeemed his pledge. In 
 truth, Eiaz appears to be almost the only 
 ]\Iohammcdan commander of his age and 
 country, who in any degree inherited the 
 chivalry which romance and even history 
 have associated with Saracen leaders in the 
 time of the Crusades. He addressed Al- 
 meida in terms of the most delicate con- 
 dolence, expressing earnest admiration of 
 the valour of his lost son; but the veteran 
 sternly replied, that he considered excel- 
 lence more to be desired than long life, and 
 saw no cause for lamentation in the glorious 
 death of one who was doubtless now enjoy- 
 ing the reward of his good conduct. This 
 semblance of resignation imposed no re- 
 straint upon the burning impatience with 
 which he prepared for vengeance. When 
 about to depart at the head of a fleet of 
 nineteen ships, an unexpected event de- 
 ranged his plans, and inflicted a blow which 
 he bore with far less dignity than he had 
 done his late bereavement. This was no- 
 thing less than his recall and superecssion 
 
 I Sousa says, his countrymen lost 140 men in this 
 engagement, and the enemy COO. Unfortunately, we 
 cannot check the Portuguese accounts by those of 
 their foes, because the Mohammedan historians of 
 the Decean have rarely thought fit to narrate their 
 contests with these " foreign idolaters," whom they 
 aft'ected to treat with contemptuous indifference.
 
 186 STORMING OF DIU— PORTUGUESE DEFEATED AT CALICUT— 1510. 
 
 by Alplionso Albuquerque, who arrived in 
 1506, bearing a commission as governor- 
 general of India.* Almeida positively re- 
 fused to resign his command until he should 
 have avenged his son's death by the de- 
 struction of the hostile fleet. Being sup- 
 ported in his disobedience to the royal man- 
 date by several leading officers, he refused 
 to allovr Albuquerque even to take part in 
 the intended expedition, and sailed oft' to 
 attack Dabul, a leading emporium, which 
 had zealously embraced the Egyptian cause. 
 The troops disembarked at Din, notwithstand- 
 ing the discharge of powerful batteries ; for 
 these, having rather a high range, passed 
 over the soldiers heads as they landed in 
 boats, without inflicting any injury. Once on 
 shore, a deadly conflict commenced with the 
 bodies of armed citizens who blocked up the 
 narrow passages to the town : these were 
 at length overpowered ; and by the orders 
 of the merciless victor, an indiscriminate 
 slaughter ensued. The streets streamed 
 with blood, and the distracted multitudes 
 fled to the caves of the neighbouring moun- 
 tains, finding that even buildings consecrated 
 to the service of the One Universal Lord 
 afforded no refuge from the lust and fury 
 of the savage men who dared to cast dis- 
 honour on the great name of the Redeemer, 
 by styling themselves disciples and propa- 
 gators of a faith whose very essence is peace 
 and love. This disgraceful scene had a suit- 
 able conclusion; for Almeida, unable to with- 
 draw his troops from their horrible employ- 
 ment, resorted to a violent method of re- 
 storing some degree of discipline, by causing 
 the town to be set on fire. The flames ex- 
 tended rapidly over the light timber roofs, 
 and after reducing the stately city to a pile 
 of smoking wood and ashes, reached the 
 harbour. The native shipping was de- 
 stroyed ; the Portuguese vessels with diffi- 
 culty escaped, and proceeded to the Gulf 
 of Cambay. Here Almeida attacked the 
 combined fleet, and gained a great but 
 costly victory. The Mameluk portion was 
 completely destroyed, and Malek Eiaz com- 
 pelled to sue for peace. Almeida stipulated 
 for the surrender of Mcer Hocem ; but Eiaz 
 indignantly refused to betray his ally, and 
 would offer no further concession as the 
 price of peace than the freedom of all 
 European captives. Having no power of 
 enforcing other terms, Almeida was com- 
 
 • The oflico of viceroy and governor-general Mas 
 the same, though the title differed. 
 
 t Vide liritish Possessions in Africa, vol. iii., p. 4. 
 
 pelled to accept these ; but unsoftened by 
 the kindness which the surviving compa- 
 nions of his son had received from their 
 brave captor, the Portuguese admiral filled 
 the measure of his barbarities by causing 
 his prisoners to be shut up in the prize 
 vessels and burnt with them. " Many," 
 says Faria y Sousa, "judged the indiappy 
 end of the viceroy and other gentlemen to 
 be a just punishment of that crime." If 
 so, it was not long delayed. On the return 
 of Almeida to Cochin, a contest seemed 
 alDout to commence with Albuquerque for 
 the possession of the supreme authority. 
 At this crisis, Ferdinand Coutinho, a noble- 
 man of high character, arrived in command 
 of fifteen ships and a large body of troops, 
 having been opportunely dispatched by Ema- 
 nuel, with powers to act in the very pro- 
 bable conjuncture which had actually arisen. 
 By his mediation, Almeida was induced to 
 resign the viceroyalty, and set sail for his 
 native country, which he never lived to 
 reach, — he, who had brought so many to 
 an untimely end, himself suffering a vio- 
 lent death at the hands of some Hottentots 
 at the Cape of Good Hope, of whose cattle 
 the Portuguese had attempted to take for- 
 cible possession. t 
 
 Albuquerque was now left to carry out 
 unchecked his ambitious schemes. He com- 
 menced by the assault of Calicut (January, 
 1510), in conjunction with Coutinho, who, 
 being about to return to Portugal, vehe- 
 mently urged his claim to be allowed to take 
 the lead on this occasion. As the city could 
 only be approached through narrow avenues, 
 amidst thick woods, in which the whole 
 army had not room to act, it was arranged 
 that the two commanders should advance, at 
 day-break on the following morning, in sepa- 
 rate divisions. That of Albuquerque took the 
 lead, and obtained possession of a fortified 
 palace (previously fixed upon as the first 
 object of assault) before the rival party 
 reached the spot. Coutinho, greatly annoyed 
 at being thus anticipated, reproached Albu- 
 querque with a breach of faith, and declaring 
 that he would not be again forestalled, made 
 his way through the streets of Calicut to the 
 chief palace, which lay on the other side of 
 the city, and formed a little town, enclosed 
 by a wall. Being the only regular fortifica- 
 tion in the place, it was defended by the 
 main strength of the army ; but Coutinho 
 succeeded in forcing open the gates, and ac- 
 (luircd possession of the whole enclosure. 
 Flushed with victory, he gave his men full
 
 ALBUQUERQUE CAPTURES GOA, 1510— MALACCA, 1511— ORMUZ, 1515. 187 
 
 license to plunder, and withdrew, to seek 
 rest and refreshment in the state apartments. 
 This ovcr-confidencn aflbrded the Hindoos 
 time to recover from their consternation ; 
 and a cry, nttcrcd by one of the cliief nairs, 
 passed from mouth to mouth, to tlie distance 
 of several miles, until .'J(),()00 armed men 
 had assembled, and in turn, surprised the 
 invaders. Albuquerque, who occupied the 
 city, vainly strove to maintain the commu- 
 nication with the fleet : he was hemmed in 
 with his troops in the narrow lanes and 
 avenues, and exposed to a continued shower 
 of arrows and stones, one of which felled 
 him to the ground. The soldiers set fire to 
 the adjacent buildings, and escaped to the 
 ships, bearing away their commander in a 
 . state of unconseiousness. Coutinho was less 
 fortunate. ^Vhen, after neglecting repeated 
 warnings, at last routed by the clash of arms 
 to the actual state of the case, lie sprang to 
 the liead of his troops, and fought with the 
 fury of desperation, striving not to retain 
 possession of the place — for that was mani- 
 festly impossible — but only to cut a path to 
 the shore. In this the majority of the com- 
 mon soldiers succeeded ; but Coutinho, with 
 Vasco Sylviera, and other nobles of distinc- 
 tion, were left dead on the field. Out of 
 1,600 Portuguese (according to Dc Barros), 
 eighty were killed, and 300 wounded. This 
 disastrous commencement, so far from 
 ehecking, only served to increase the desire 
 of All)uqucrque for territorial dominion, in 
 opposition to the policy previously pursued 
 by Almeida, who had considered that fac- 
 tories, guarded by a powerful fleet, would 
 better suit the purposes of commerce, and be 
 less likely to excite enmity. 
 
 Disappointed in the hope of gaining pos- 
 session of the capital of the zamorin, he 
 looked round for some other city which 
 might form the nucleus of a new empire ; 
 for as yet, notwithstanding their high- 
 sounding titles, the Portuguese had but a 
 precarious tenure, even of the land on 
 which their few forts and factories were 
 erected. A useful, though not creditable ally, 
 Timojee, a Hindoo pirate, directed his at- 
 tention to Goa, then comprehended in the 
 kingdom of Bccjapoor. The city was taken 
 by surprise in the early \)avt of 1510; re- 
 captured a few months later by Yusuf Adil 
 Shah, in person ; and finally conquered by 
 
 * Portuguese Asia, vol. i., p. 172. 
 
 t After making large allowance for t'ne barbarities 
 common to liis age and nation, Albuquerque seeras 
 to have been more than usually cruel in Iris punisli- 
 
 Albuquerque, at tiie close of the same year. 
 The contest was prolonged and sanguinary; 
 and the after-slaughter must have been ter- 
 rific, — since, according to Sousa, " not cue 
 ^l(jor was left alive in the island."* Tlie 
 Hindoos were treated very did'erently ; for 
 Albuquerque, with a politic view to the con- 
 solidation of his newly-acquired power, con- 
 firmed them in their possessions, and pro- 
 moted the intermarriage of their women 
 with the Portuguese by handsome dowries, 
 at the same time proving his confidence in 
 his new subjects, by employing them iu 
 both civil and military capacities. A large 
 quantit}' of cannon and military stores were 
 captured in Goa, and probably assisted in 
 furnishing the fortifications raised by him in 
 that city ; and also in fitting out an arma- i 
 mcnt, comprising 800 Portuguese and GOO 
 Indians, with which Albuquerque proceeded 
 to attack Malacca. This kingdom was then 
 of great importance, being what Singapore 
 is now — namely, the chief mart of the com- I 
 merce carried on between Hindoostan, China, ' 
 and the eastern islands. The inhabitants made 
 a vigorous resistance with cannon and floats 
 of wild-fire, and defended their streets by 
 mining with gunpowder; but they were 
 overpowered by the Portuguese, who gained 
 complete possession of the city, and im- 
 mediately began to erect a strong fort from 
 the ruins of the shattered palaces, and take 
 other measures for the permanent establish- 
 ment of their supremacj'. Negotiations 
 were opened with Siam, Java, and Sumatra; 
 and friendly embassies are even asserted 
 to have been dispatched from these countries 
 in return. The restless sword of Albu- 
 querque next found employment in the de- 
 fence of Goa, where tranquillity was no 
 sooner restored, than he resumed liis plans 
 of distant conquest; and after two unsuc- 
 cessful attempts upon Aden, assembled 
 1,500 European and 600 Asiatic troops, 
 in pursuit of the darling object of his am- 
 biti<m — the conquest of Ormuz, the famous 
 emporium of the Persian Gulf. This he ap- 
 pears to have accomplished with little ditli- 
 culty, by working upon the fears and weak- 
 ness of the sovereign, who folt quite in- 
 capable of combating a formidable force, led 
 by a commander whose ability was more 
 than equalled by his ruthless severity ;-|- 
 and Ormuz, notwithstanding the counter- 
 
 mcnts. Among many instances, may be cited that 
 of his sending Portuguese renegades back to their 
 country with their ears, noses, right-hands, and 
 lliumbs of the left hand cut off. His passions were
 
 188 ALBUQUERQUE'S RECALL AND DEATH— PORTUGUESE POWER— 1515. 
 
 intrigues of the Persiun ambassador, fell an 
 easy prize into the hands of the Portuguese. 
 Albuquerque, delighted with his success, 
 prepared to return to Goa, there to super- 
 intend the consolidation of the dominion he 
 had gained, and at the same time recruit 
 his own strength, after toils calculated to 
 increase the burden of advancing years. 
 These anticipations were suddenly dashed 
 to the ground by tidings which reached 
 him while sailing along the coast of Cambay. 
 He who had superseded Almeida, was now 
 himself to be ignominiously displaced by a 
 new governor — Lope Soarcz, who, to make 
 the blow more galling, was his personal and 
 bitter foe. There was no letter, nor any mark 
 of respect or sympathy from the king, and 
 no reason assigned for his removal ; probably 
 none existed beyond the malice of his foes, 
 in suggesting that the powerful viceroy 
 might not long continue a subject. New 
 officers were nominated to the chief vessels 
 and forts, selected from the party known 
 to be hostile to his interests ; and even men 
 whom he had sent home prisoners for 
 heinous crimes, returned with high appoint- 
 ments. The adherents of Albuquerque 
 rallied round him, and strove to induce him 
 to follow the example of many Asiatic 
 governors, by asserting his independence; but 
 lie rejected the temptation, declaring that 
 the only course now left him consistent with 
 bis honour, which through life had been his 
 first care, was to die. Then giving way to 
 profound melancholy, and refusing food or 
 medicine, he soon found the death he 
 ardently desired, expiring upon the bar of 
 Goa (which he had called his land of pro- 
 mise) in December, 1515, in the sixty-third 
 year of his age. While writhing under the 
 torment of a wounded spirit, he was pre- 
 vailed upon to address a few proud and 
 pathetic lines of farewell to his sovereign, 
 commending to his favour the son whom he 
 had left in Portugal. " As for the affairs of 
 India," he added, "they will speak for 
 themselves and me." This was no empty 
 boast ; for in five years, Albuquerque had 
 raised the maritime power of his nation in 
 the East, to a point which, in spite of many 
 
 unrestrained, after liis nephew, Antonio de Noronlia, 
 was slain in action; tliis youtli having, accordiiig 
 to Faria y Sousa, exercised a very salutary influence 
 over his tem])or through his afl'eclions. 
 
 • When on liis way to supersede Almeida, he at- 
 tacked Ormuz, and there committed great cruelties, 
 such as cutting off the hands, ears, and noses of ])er- 
 sons carrying provisions into the city. Being com- 
 pelled to raise the singe by the valour of Khojeh 
 
 changes and conflicts, it never far surpassed. 
 The prize thus acquired was little less 
 than the monopoly of commerce between 
 Europe and India, which was maintained 
 for upwards of a centurj'. Faria y Sousa, 
 indeed, boasts that the empire of his 
 countrymen stretched from the Cape of 
 Good Hope to the frontier of China, and 
 comprehended a coast 12,000 miles in ex- 
 tent ; but this simply signifies, that upon 
 this immense sea-line, they alone, of the 
 nations of Europe, had established factories. 
 Of these there were, in all, about thirty — 
 in some cases 1,000 miles apart ; and of the 
 surrounding country they rarely possessed 
 anything beyond that which their walls en- 
 circled. In India, Goa was the great seat 
 of their influence : they there obtained pos- 
 session of an area, extending, at a subse- 
 quent period, over above 1,000 square miles. 
 The town of Cochin may be said to have 
 been under their control, and probably also 
 that of Cananore ; but Ijoth these small states 
 continued to retain their native rajaha. 
 Peace had been concluded with Calient in 
 1513, and a fortified factory erected there : 
 they possibly, also, established a few insigni- 
 ficant trading depots on other parts of the 
 coast. Had the management of aflairs 
 continued to be entrusted to such men as 
 Albuquerque, it is probable that the strug- 
 gle, already commenced with the Moham- 
 medans by the seizure of Goa, would have 
 continued until the Portuguese had really 
 acquired extensive territorial sovereignty ; 
 but as it was, the high-sounding title of 
 the viceroy or governor-general of India, 
 was quite inconsistent with his actual 
 position as ruler of a few scattered settle- 
 ments, held at all times on a very precarious 
 tenure. 
 
 Lope Soarez, the new governor, presented 
 a strong contrast to his predecessor. Albu- 
 querque was a man of middle stature, with 
 a long white beard, which, for a character- 
 istic reason, had been suflcred to grow 
 until it reached his girdle, where he wore 
 it knotted.* When not clouded by fierce 
 and too frequent paroxysms of passion, his 
 countenance was pleasing, and his manner 
 
 Atar, the governor or regent for the young king, 
 the enraged Albuquerque swore, that his beard 
 should nevur be cut, until he should sit, for that 
 purpose, on the back of his adversary. The oppor- 
 tunity never apjicars to have arrived (for the name 
 of Khojeh Alar is not even mentioned in the account 
 of the eventual seizure of Goa) ; and Albu(iuerque 
 carried to his grave a mortifying n:emorial of the 
 folly of rash vows. — (Faria y klnusa, vol. i., p. 178.)
 
 VASCO DE GAMA DIES VICEROY OP INDIA— a.d. 1521 
 
 189 
 
 iViuik and courteous : to tlic native ])i-iiiees 
 espeeially lie maintained a respeetfid dv- 
 nicaiiour, wliicli rendered liim popular even 
 witli those wlio had little real cause for rc- 
 ■Jtardini; liiin with a friendly eye. Soarcz, 
 aeeordinji; to Faria y Sousa, " was a comely 
 man, with very red hair," and a haugiity 
 and repul.sive bearing. His covetous and 
 j^raspin;;; conduct set an example which was 
 sjieedily followed; and the whole l)ody of the 
 military bc{;;au to trade, or rather plun- 
 der, each one on his own account, with an 
 utter disro^^ard for tlie pul)lic service. The 
 main-sprinj; of the mischief was in Portuijal, 
 where, instead of sclectin;^' men of tried 
 ability and rectitiule, birth or patronage be- 
 came the first rc(piisitc for an office, in 
 which the formula of installation required 
 from the successful candidate a solemn as- 
 severation, that he had made no interest to 
 procure that employment. " How needless 
 the question \" exclaims Faria y Sousa, 
 " how false the oath I" Even if a good 
 governor were appointed by a happy acci- 
 dent, or in a mom<mt of urgent necessity, 
 lie could hope to effect little permanent re- 
 form ; for in the event of ^ his sending home 
 officers charged with the most outrageous 
 offences, they, if men of 'wealth, however 
 acquired, were sure of a favourable hearing 
 at court, and their representations would 
 probably succeed even in procuring the 
 downfall of their more righteous accuser. 
 
 It is quite unnecessary to follow in detail 
 the hostilities in which the Portuguese be- 
 came involved with the natives of every 
 place where they had established them- 
 selves, being, in some cases, completely 
 expelled; in others, barely tolerated : thus 
 fulfilling the prophecy of one of the despised 
 Hindoos, — that " whatever they gained as 
 courageous soldiers, they would lose as 
 covetous merchants ;"* and it might with 
 truth have been added, as persecuting 
 bigots: for the injunctions given to the 
 eight Franciscan friars attached to (."abral's 
 expedition, to " carry fire and the sword 
 into every country wliicii should refuse to 
 listen to their preachlng,"t 'were not neg- 
 lected by their successors. 
 
 The administration of Soarez, though 
 generally disastrous,^ was distinguished by 
 
 * Sousa adds, " Wlio was most Iwrbuvous — he tliat 
 said this, or they who did what he said ?" 
 
 t JDe Harms and luiriii tj Smtsc, vol. i. p. 53. 
 
 X The wrath excited by tiie piratical seizure of two 
 ships, caused the expulsion cl the I'oitugue.se from 
 lieuftal, where they wislied to establish factories. 
 
 § Surat (according to Sousa), when attacked in 1530, 
 2c 
 
 the erection of a fort and factory in the 
 territory of the king of Columbo, in Ceylon 
 (a.d. 1."j17), from whom, thoiigli he had 
 from the first traded amicably with them, 
 the Portuguese now exacted a yearly tribute 
 of l,'i()0 (juintals of cinnamon, twelve rings 
 of rubies and sapphires, and six elephants. 
 It is probable this payment could not be 
 enforced, as the fort itself was abandoned, 
 in l.")21', as not worth the keeping, by Vasco 
 do Gama, who was sent out as viceroy in 
 that year. His tenure of office lasted but 
 three months, being terminated by death on 
 Christmas Jive. Sousa describes De Gama as 
 a man of " middle size, somewhat gn^ss, and 
 of a ruddy comj)lexion ;" of a dauntless dis- 
 position; capable of enduring extraordinary 
 fatigue; prompt and resolute in the execu- 
 tion of justice. Even during his mortal 
 sickness the veteran discoverer zealously 
 exerted himself to put down piracy by sea 
 and peculation by land, preparatory to the 
 execution of greater designs; but the tem- 
 porary check given to long-permitted mal- 
 practices was soon over-stejiped; and the dis- 
 scnsious arising from the unbridled lust and 
 avarice of the Portuguese reached such a 
 height, that had the natives combined to- 
 gether against them, their total expulsion 
 would scera to have been very practicable. 
 The zamoiin succeeded in driving them 
 from Calicut, which they quitted after per- 
 forming the humiliating task of destroying 
 their own fortifications. 
 
 Nuno da Cuuha was sent out in 1529. 
 He was then forty-two years of age, tall, 
 and wcll-propoitioiicd, with a fair com- 
 plexion and black beard, but disfigured by 
 the loss of an eye. His rc[)Utation for jus- 
 tice and moderation, though probably de- 
 served, so far as his countrymen were con- 
 cerned, ill accords with the character of his 
 foreign policy ; for during his administra- 
 tion a scries of unprovoked outrages of the 
 most disgraceful character were committed 
 on the territories of neighbouring rulers. 
 Tlie coast of Guzcrat was ravaged in 1530; 
 towns and villages, including Surat,§ Da- 
 maun, and others of note, were plundered 
 and burned ; the adjacent land bereft of 
 every semblance of cultivation; and the 
 wretched inhabitants carried oft' as slaves. || 
 contained "ten tliousand families, mostly handicrafts, 
 and all of no courage :" it was taken almost with- 
 out resistance, ■' and nothing left in it that had life, 
 or was of value. Then the city, and some ships 
 that lay in the arsenal, were burnt." 
 
 II The result of a single incursion on the coast of 
 Diu was " the obtainment cf 4,000 slaves and an
 
 190 PORTUGUESE DEFEND DIU AGAINST SOLYMAN PASHA— 1538. 
 
 la the two following years an expedition 
 was carried out, which, though unsuccessful 
 in its main ohject — the taking of Din — re- 
 sulted in the capture of the strong island of 
 Beth, seven leagues distant : the whole of 
 the towns on the Maharashtra coast, from 
 Chicklee Tarapoor to Bassein, were burned, 
 and contributions levied from Tanua and 
 Bombay. The contest between Baliadur 
 Shall and the i\Ioguls, drove the former into 
 a compromise with his European foes, whose 
 assistance against the emperor, Humayun, 
 he purchased by granting the long-desired 
 permission to build a fort at Din,* and by 
 the cession of Bassein in perpetuity, with 
 authority to levy duties on the trade with 
 the Bed Sea. The circumstances connected 
 with the assassination of Bahadur by the 
 Portuguese have been already repeatedly 
 mentioned. f The immediate consequence 
 was their occupation of Diu, where they ob- 
 tained some treasure and an extraordinary 
 amount of cannon and military stores. 
 
 In September, 153S, a determined at- 
 tempt to I'ecover Diu was made by a force 
 levied in Guzerat, through the exertions of 
 a Moorish chief, named Kliojeh Zofar, and 
 supported by a squadron dispatched by the 
 Grand Seignior, under the command of Soly- 
 man Pasha, the governor of Cairo. The 
 small and sickly garrison of the fort de- 
 fended themselves with desperate valour; 
 and the women, incited by the enthusiasm 
 of Donna Isabella de Vega (the wife of the 
 governor), and others, bore their part in the 
 danger and fatigue, by taking upon them- 
 selves the task of repairing the works 
 shattered by the incessant fire of the 
 batteries. Attempts to carry the fortress 
 bj' storm were continued during two months, 
 and the besieged were well nigh exhausted, 
 only forty men remaining fit for duty, when, 
 to their joyful surprise, want of union in 
 the camp of the enemy, added probably to 
 ignorance of the straits to which they were 
 reduced, led Solymau to abandon the enter- 
 prise on the very eve of success. During his 
 way to Egypt he committed great cruelties 
 on the Portuguese whom he found at diffcr- 
 
 infinile booty." The fleet, as reviewed in 1531, con- 
 sisted of " above four hundred sail, many large, more 
 indifi'erent, and the greatest number small ; several 
 of Ihem were only sutlers, fitted out by the natives 
 for private gain," and manned by 3,G00 soldiers, 
 1,450 Portuguese .seamen, 2,000 Malabars and Cana- 
 rese, 8,000 slaves, and 5,000 seamen.- — (Sousa, vol. i. 
 p. 347.) Nuno is also deseril)ed as employing as 
 sailors " 1,000 Lascarincs of the country." 
 
 * Sousa relates a feat, performed on this occasion 
 by a Portuguese, named JJotcUo, who, hoping to 
 
 cut Arabian ports, putting 1-10 of tliem to 
 death, and causing their heads, ears, and 
 noses to be salted, and so preserved for the 
 gratification of the Grand Turk. This at 
 least is the story told by Sousa, who de- 
 parts from his usual moderation in describing 
 this formidable foe to his nation, represent- 
 ing him as ill-favoured, short and corpulent 
 — " more like a beast than a man." Al- 
 though eighty years of age, and unable to 
 rise without the assistance of four servants, 
 he obtained the command of the recent 
 expedition, by reason of the enormous 
 wealth gathered by oppression, which en- 
 abled him to furnish the shipping at his 
 own cost. At length a career of crime was 
 terminated by suicide, committed in a 
 paroxysm of envy and wounded pride. 
 
 The reason of succour not having been 
 dispatched from Goa to Diu, was the unset- 
 tled state of affairs occasioned by the recall 
 of Nuno da Cuuha, whose ten years' ad- 
 ministration was brought to a close as ab- 
 rupt and liumiliating as that of Albuquerque. 
 His aggressive policy is quite unjustifiable; 
 but as King John III. was little disposed to 
 be critical on that account, the perfect dis- 
 interestedness and energy of the governor 
 had merited honour rather than disgrace. 
 
 Like many other of the world's great 
 men, who have thought to serve their coun- 
 try at the expense of duty to God and the 
 common rights of mankind, Nitno discovered 
 his error too late : he fell sick, and died on 
 the voyage to Portugal, the body being com- 
 mitted to the deep, in compliance with the 
 command of the disappointed statesman, 
 that his ungrateful country should not have 
 his bones. 
 
 The next memorable epoch in Indo-Por- 
 tugucse annals, is formed by the adminis- 
 tration of Martin Alonzo de Sousa, which 
 commenced in 1512, and lasted about three 
 years, during which brief period, his fierce, 
 bigotted, and grasping conduct completely 
 neutralised the beneficial elfcct of the efforts 
 of his immediate predecessor, Stephen de 
 Gama.;]: War again commenced with the 
 neighbouring .rulers : cities were destroyed, 
 
 regam the favour of King John by being the first 
 to eomnumieate the welcome news, set out from 
 India with five Europeans and some slaves, in a 
 barque, Ifi feet long, 9 broad, and 4i deep. The 
 slaves mutinied, and were all slain ; the Kuropeans 
 held on their course without sailors or ])il()t, and 
 after enduring great luirdships, arrived at Lisbon. 
 
 t I'iile iireceding section, pp. .So — 103. 
 
 j Tlie son of Vasco held sway during two years. 
 In evidence of bis disinterestedness, it is said that 
 he left India 40,000 crowns poorer than ho entered it.
 
 PORTUGUESE WARFARE IN INDIA UNDER DE CASTBO— 1545. 191 
 
 toiicther with every living thing they con- 
 tained;* temples were despoiled, and cruelty 
 and corruption reiijned undisguised. Fran- 
 cois Xavier, one of tlie cariiesfc Jesuits, had 
 come to India with I)e Sousa. lie exerted 
 himself strenuously in representing the im- 
 policy of the course pursued, which, if not 
 cheeked, threatened to cause the downfall 
 of Portuguese power throughout Asia; hut 
 liis arguments appear to have l)een unheeded. 
 Ti)e king of (jnzerat, forced into a I'cuewal 
 of hostilities, co-operated with his old ally 
 Kliojeh Zofar, who again hesieged the fort 
 of Diu, A.i). 151-5. The hlocUade lasted 
 eight months, and was carried on after the 
 death of Khojeh Zofiir (whose head and 
 hand were carried away by a cannon-hall) 
 by his son, entitled Rumi Khan. Provi- 
 sions became so scarce, that nauseous vermin 
 were used for food ; while " a crow taken 
 upon the dead bodies was a dainty for the 
 siek, and sold for five crowns." The am- 
 munition was almost spent, and the soldiers 
 exhausted vith fatigue. The women dis- 
 played the same determination as on a pre- 
 vious occasion, and the ibrt was maintained 
 until the new governor, Don Juan de Castro, 
 arrived to its relief. On his way he cap- 
 tured several ships in the vicinity of Damaun, 
 and "cutting the ]\Ioors that were in them 
 in pieces, threw them into the mouths of 
 the rivers, that the tide carrying them up, 
 they might strike a terror in all that coast." 
 Ansote and other towns were destroyed, and 
 '■' the iincst women of the Brahmins and Ea- 
 nians slaughtered." In fact, these butchers 
 spared neither youth nor beauty, age nor 
 infirmity; the sanctity of east, nor the in- 
 nocence of childhood. After raising the 
 siege of the fort, the city of Diu became the 
 scene of a fierce conflict, in which, when 
 the Portuguese wavered, the favourite ex])e- 
 dieut was resorted to of holding up a cruci- 
 fix as an incitement to renewed exertion. 
 The sword was a favourite means of con- 
 version with Romish missionaries ; priestly 
 robes and warlike weapons Mcre quite compa- 
 tible ; and, on the present occasion, one Fra 
 Ai\tonio played a leading part. The result 
 is best told in the words of the historian 
 above quoted, and may serve to illustrate the 
 manner in which liostilitics were conducted 
 by his countrymen, under tlie personal 
 
 • The rani, or queen of a small raj or kingdom, 
 situated on the Canarcsc coast, having refused to pay 
 tribute to the I'ortuguuso, was punished by the de- 
 struction of her capital, Batccala. "The city," says 
 Faria y Sousa, "ran witl) the blood of all living 
 
 leadership of a governor whose administra- 
 tion is generally considered one of pecu- 
 liar [H'ospcn-ity M\d honour. An arm of the 
 desecrated symljol was shattered in the con- 
 test, upon whieii " the priest, calling upon 
 the men to revenge that sacrilege, they fell 
 on with such fury, that having done incre- 
 dible execution, they drove the enemy to 
 tiie city, who still gave way, facing us. The 
 first that entered tlie city with them was 
 Dun Juan, then Don Alvaro and Don 
 I'jiiianuel de Lima, and the governor, all 
 several w;iys, making the streets and houses 
 run with blood. The women esea|)ed not the 
 fate of the men, and children were slain at 
 their mothers' breasts, one stroke taking 
 away two lives. The first part of the booty 
 was precious stones, pearls, gold and silver; 
 other things, though of value, were slighted 
 as cumbersome. * * * Of the Portuguese, 
 100 were killed ; others say only thirty-four : 
 of the enemy, 5,000 [including Rumi Khan 
 and others of note.] Free plunder was 
 allowed. * * * There were taken many 
 colours, forty pieces of cannon of an extra- 
 ordinary bigness, which, with the lesser, made 
 up '200, and avast quantity of ammunition. "f 
 
 After this "glorious victory," thirty ships 
 were sent to devastate the Cambay coast : 
 the people fled in alarm from the burning 
 towns and villages, and took refuge in the 
 mountain eaves. The inhabitants of a city, 
 called Goga, while sleeping in imagined 
 security, a league distant from their ruined 
 homes, were surprised at night, and all put 
 to the sword. The cattle in the fields were 
 either killed or ham-strung. In the various 
 vessels captured along the coast of Bai'oach, 
 the same system of general massacre was 
 carried out; and the groves of palm-trees, 
 which afford, in many places, the sole article 
 of subsistence, were systematically destroyed. 
 
 The governor returned in triumph to 
 Goa, crowned with laurel, preceded by 
 Fra Antonio and his crucifix, and followed 
 bj' ()00 prisoners in chains, the royal stan- 
 dard of Cambay sweeping the ground. The 
 streets were hung and carpeted with silk, scat- 
 tered over with gold and silver leaves. The 
 ladies threw flowers at the feet of the con- 
 queror, and sprinkled sweet-scented waters 
 as he passed their windows. This ovation, 
 whether designed to gratify' individual vanity, 
 
 creatures before it was burnt ; then the country was 
 laid waste, and ail the woods cut down." — (Vol ii., 
 p. 74.) Other small ]Iindoo states are mentioned by 
 Sousa as personally defended by female sovereigns, 
 t Fitria y Sousa, vol. ii., pp. 110 to 113.
 
 192 
 
 PORTUGUESE PROCEEDINGS IN INDIA— 1546 to 1571. 
 
 or with the idea of making an impression on 
 the natives, was rendered tlie more un- 
 seemly by the faet, that Don Fernando, the 
 son of the governor, liad perislied during 
 the siege of Diu. Tlie sway of. De Castro 
 Lasted only from 1515 to 1548. Notwith- 
 standing his sanguinary proceedings, he 
 appears to have been solicitous for the inter- 
 ests of commerce, and perfectly disinterested; 
 for, instead of having amassed wealth, like 
 many other governors of equally short stand- 
 ing, he was so poor, that in his last illness 
 provision was made for him out of the public 
 revenue.* The cause of his death, at forty- 
 seven years of age, is said by Taria y Sousa 
 to liave been " grief for the miserable estate 
 to which India was reduced" — a statement 
 reconcilable with other accounts of this 
 period, only by supposing that amid seeming 
 prosperitjf, De Castro foresaw the end of an 
 oppressive and corrupt system. 
 
 The invasion of Sinde, in 155G, under the 
 administration of Francisco Barreto, is al- 
 leged to have been provoked by the fickleness 
 of its ruler, who first solicited and then re- 
 fused Portuguese co-operation, thus afford- 
 ing a prete.\t for his intended auxiliaries to 
 pillage his capital (Tatta), kill 8,000 persons, 
 and destroy by fire " to the value of above 
 two millions of gold," after loading their 
 vessels with one of the richest booties they 
 had ever taken in India. Eight days were 
 spent in ravaging the country on both sides 
 of the Indus, after which the fleet returned, 
 having, it would appear, scarcely lost a man. 
 The next exploit was the burning of Dabul 
 and the neisjhbouring villages, in reveuge 
 for the hostility of the king of Beejapoor. 
 
 Religious persecution, which seems to 
 have slumbered for a time, awoke with 
 renewed ferocity, and was directed rather 
 against what the Romish priests chose to 
 call heresy, than absolute paganism. An 
 account of the alleged mission of St. 
 Thomas the apostle, and of the Christian 
 church spoken of by Cosraas,t in the sixth 
 century, properly belongs to the section on 
 the religious condition of India. In this 
 place it is sullicicnt to say, that both on 
 the Malabar coast and in the kingdom of 
 Ethiopia — including the state whose ruler 
 attained such cxlruordinary celebrity under 
 the name of Prcster John — the Portuguese 
 found Christian communities who steadily 
 
 • lie died in tlie arms of Francois Xavier. " In 
 hi.i private cabinet was fonnd a bloody discipline 
 (? a KcourjTf) and three royals, which was all his Irea- 
 siiro." — { Fnrifi ;/ Snttsa, vol. ii., ]i. 120.) 
 
 refused to acknowledge the supremacy of 
 the pope ; rejected the use of images, to- 
 gether with all dogmas regarding transub- 
 stantiation, extreme unction, celibacy of 
 priests, &c., and asked for blessings, whe- 
 ther temporal or eternal, only in the name 
 of the one mediator, Jesus Christ. These 
 " ancient Christians," says Sousa, " dis- 
 turbed such as were converted from pa- 
 ganism " by Zavier and his fellow-labourers : 
 the Jews also proved a stumbling-block. 
 In 1544, Jerome Diaz, a Portuguese phy- 
 sician of Jewish extraction, was burnt for 
 heresy ; and probably many others of less 
 note shared his fate. In 1560, the first 
 archbishop of Goa was sent from Lisbon, 
 accompanied by the first inquisitors, for the 
 suppression of Jews and heretics. Through- 
 out the existence of this horrible tribunal, 
 crimes of the most fearful character were 
 perpetrated ; and in the minds alike of the 
 denounced schismatics and of pagans, a 
 deep loathing was excited against their per- 
 secutors. The overthrow of the Hindoo 
 kingdom of Beejanuggur, in 1564, by the 
 combined efforts of the four Mohammedan 
 Deccani states, left these latter at liberty to 
 turn their attention more fully towards their 
 European foes; and in 1571, a league was 
 formed against the Portuguese by the kings 
 of Beejapoor and Ahmednuggur. The za- 
 morin of Calicut likewise joined them ; but 
 from some distrust in his own mind, long 
 withheld his personal co-operation. Ali 
 Adil Shah besieged Goa, sustained great 
 loss, and after ten months was compelled 
 to withdraw without having accomplished 
 anything. Mortczza Nizam Shah sus- 
 tained a mortifying defeat at Choul, and 
 was glad to'make peace with the triumphant 
 Portuguese. The zamorin, though hist in 
 the field, had the best success, obtaining 
 the surrender of the fort Chale (a few miles 
 from Calicut) from Don George de Castro, 
 who, although eighty years of age, was 
 beheaded at Goa by orders from Portugal, 
 on the ground of having surrendered his 
 charge without sufficient reason. 
 
 A change was made in 1571 in the duties 
 of the governor, by the division of a\ithoriiy 
 over Portuguese affairs in Asia into three 
 parts : the first, that of India, being made 
 to comprise their possessions situated be- 
 tween Cape Guardafui and Ceylon ;J the 
 
 t Siu'named Iiidicophuxte.s, or the Indian voyager. 
 
 j The pi'ocoedhifjs of the I'ortu^iirse in Ceylon 
 arc jjiii-poscly oniiUcd here : they will be narrated in 
 the liislory of that island.
 
 THE "HOLY INQUISITION" IN INDIA, FROM inCO to IHIO. Jy3 
 
 second, styled Monomotapa, cxtciidiii^' (Vom 
 Cape Corric'iitcs to Guardafui; the tliird, or 
 Malacca, from I'cjfu to Cliiiia. The sway 
 of l*oi'tuf;al was now, liowcvcr, nearly ended ; 
 she had misused tlu^ trust eoinmittcd to her 
 eare, an<l was punished by tlie suspension of 
 her indcpcndenee, after niaintainiiij; it 500 
 years. King Sebastian fell in Afriea, in 
 1578, and about two years later, Philip II. 
 of Spain proeured the reannexation of Por- 
 tugal, to whieh he laid claim in right of his 
 mother, Isabella. In India, the change was 
 only froui bad to worse : the furnace of per- 
 secution was heated seven times hotter than 
 before. 'J'he Syrian Chiistians of JMalabar 
 were cruelly persecuted, their bishop seized j 
 and sent to Lisbon, and their churches pil- 
 laged ; their books, including ancient copies 
 of the Scriptures, bui'ued, while Archbishop 
 ]\Tenczes marched, singing a hymn, round the 
 llarnes (15!)!).) The Intjuisitiou increased in 
 power; and, perhaps, among all the impious 
 and hateful sacrifices oH'ered up by men 
 given over to dark delusions, never yet did 
 idolatrous pagan, or professed devil-worship- 
 per, pollute this fair earth by any crime of 
 so deep a dye as the hideous Auto da Fc, 
 usually celebrated on the first Sundays in 
 Advent.* Dellon, a French physician, who 
 languished two years in the dungeons of 
 (loa, has given a life-like picture of the 
 horrible ceremonials of which he was an 
 eye-witness; and describes his "extreme 
 joy" at learning that his sentence was not 
 to be burnt, but to he a galley-slave for five 
 years. t He speaks of himself as having heard 
 every morning, for many weeks, the shrieks 
 of unfortunate vietiuis inidergoing the qiicg- 
 iion ; and he judged that the number of pri- 
 soners must be very large, because the pro- 
 found silence which reigned within the walls 
 of the building, enabled him to count the 
 nundjcr of doors opened at the hours of 
 meals. At the appointed time, the captives 
 were assembled by their black-robed jailor.s, 
 and clothed in the san bcnilo, a garb of yellow 
 cloth, with the cross of St. Andrew before 
 and behind. The relapsed heretics were 
 dressed in the samarra, a grey robe, with 
 the portrait of the doomed wearer painted 
 u])on it, surrounded by burning torches, 
 flames, and demons ; and on their heads 
 were placed sugar-loaf-shaped caps, called 
 
 carrochas, on which devils and flames were 
 also depicted. The bell of the cathedral 
 began to ring a little before' sunrise, and 
 the gloomy procession conunenccd — men and 
 women iudiserimiuately mixed, walking with 
 bleeding feet over the sharp stones, and 
 eagerly gazed on by innumerable crowds 
 assembled from all parts of India to behold 
 this " act of faith" of a ICuropean nation. 
 Sentence was pronounced before tlie altar 
 in the church of St. Francis, the grand 
 impiisitor and his counsellors sitting on 
 one side, the viceroy and his court on the 
 other; and each victim received the final 
 intimation of his doom by a slight blow 
 upon the breast from the alcaide. Then 
 followed their immolation, the viceroy and 
 court still looking on while the prisoners 
 were hound to the stake in the midst of 
 the faggots, and hearing, as a periodical 
 occurrence, the shrieks antl groans of these 
 unha])py creatures. The vengeance of the 
 Inquisition ceased not even here : the day 
 after the execution, the portraits of the 
 murdered men werc carried to the church 
 of the Dominicans, and there kept in memory 
 of their fate; and the bones of such as had 
 died in prison, were likewise preserved in 
 small chests painted over with flames and 
 demons. J 
 
 These are dark deeds which none aspiring 
 to the pure and holy name of Christian can 
 record without a feeling of deep humiliation ; 
 but they may not be shrouded in oblivion, 
 since thc_v furnish abundant reason why the 
 mutilated gospel preached by Romi:<h priests 
 made so little permanent impression in 
 India; and, moreover, atl'ord enduring en- 
 dence that England, and every other pro- 
 testing nation, had solid grounds for seve- 
 rance from the polluted and rotten branch 
 which produced such fruit as " the holy In- 
 quisition." In Europe, as in Asia, a light 
 had been thrown on the true nature of the 
 iron yoke, with which an ambitious priest- 
 hood had dared to fetter nations in the 
 name of the Divine Master, whose precepts 
 their deeds of pride and cruelty so flagrantly 
 belied. The Reformation, faulty as were 
 some of the instruments concerned in its es- 
 tablishment, had yet taught men to look to 
 the written gospel for those laws of liberty 
 and love which nations and individuals are 
 
 • The portion of the p;ospel read on that daymen- ' disparagingly of the adoration of image,<!. He had 
 tions the last judsment ; and tlie Inquisition pre- also grievously offended by calling the inquisitors 
 tended, by the ceremony, to exhibit an emblem of fallible men, and tlie " holy office" n fearful tribunal 
 that awful event. — Wallace's,1/timoiV.<(;/'/H(/i'u,p.394. which France had acted wisely in rejecting. 
 
 ■j- Dellon was accused of heresy for having spoken ' % Hough's Christimtity in India, vol. i., chap, iv
 
 194 DECLINE OP PORTUGUESE POWER— ENIJ OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 alike bound to observe. Unhappily, this 
 great lesson was but imperfectly learned ; 
 for although withheld rights have ever 
 formed a popular theme, the responsibilities 
 those rights involve cannot be expected 
 to commend themselves, save to conscien- 
 tious and enlightened minds. Thus it proved 
 easier to renounce the dogmas of popery, 
 than to root out the vices it had fostered 
 or permitted ; and the very people who had 
 most cause for gratitude in being delivered 
 from the oppressive and arrogant dominion 
 of Spain, became themselves examples of 
 an equally selfish and short-sighted policy. 
 
 At this period there were many signs in the 
 commercial horizon, that neither papal bulls, 
 nor the more reasonable respect paid to the 
 claims of discovery and preoccupation, 
 could any longer preserve the monopoly of 
 the Indian trade to Spain and Portugal. 
 Several causes combined for its destruction. 
 The conquest and settlement of America 
 afforded full employment for the ambition 
 and ferocity of Philip II.; and his Asiatic 
 territories were left in the hands of rulers, 
 who, for the most part, thought of nothing 
 but the gratification of their own passions, 
 and the accumulation of wealth; — which 
 latter, by pillage of every description, and 
 by the shameless sale of all offices and posi- 
 tions, they usually contrived to do in the 
 period of two to three years,* which formed 
 the average duration of their tenure of office. 
 It may be readily imagined that the measures 
 of his predecessor were rarely carried out 
 by any governor; but all seem to have 
 agreed in conniving at the most notorious 
 infraction of the general rule which forbade 
 any Portuguese to traffic on his own account, 
 as an unpardonable infringement on the 
 exclusive rights of his sovereign. Corrup- 
 tion, mismanagement, and the growing 
 aversion of the natives, gradually diminished 
 the trade, until the average annual arrival 
 in Lisbon of ships from India was reduced I 
 from five to about three ; and the annual 
 value of the cargoes decreased in proportion 
 to about a million crowns. Thus, notwith- 
 
 • From the nrrival of Almeida in 1 50.5, to 1 filO (the 
 period at vv}iicli Soiisa terminates his history), there 
 were some fifty viceroys or governors, of wliom 
 a very large proportion (about op.e-thiril) died in 
 India or on their voyage home. 
 
 t Tlie possessions of Spain and Portugal, at this 
 time, were the forts of Dinl (on the Indus) and 
 of ])iu; a fortified factory at Damaun; the town 
 and castle of C'huul ; a factory at ])alnil; tlic city of 
 Uassein ; the island of North Salsette, and the town 
 ofTannaj the island of Bombay; the city and fort 
 
 standing the royal monopoly *)f spices, 
 Philip soon found that the expejise of main- 
 taining the various Indian governmentsf 
 exceeded the commercial profits : he there- 
 fore made over the exclusive privilege of 
 trading to India, in the year 1587, to a com- 
 pany of Portuguese merchants, on conside- 
 ration of a certain annual payment ; reserv- 
 ing, however, the appointment of governors, 
 the command of the army, and every de- 
 scription of territorial revenue and power. 
 This change in the state of affairs created 
 great excitement and dissatisfaction at Goa. 
 It was evident that the company, if able 
 and willing to enforce the rights bestowed 
 upon them, would reduce the profits of the 
 variotis officials to their legitimate bounds ; 
 and the very thought was intolerable to a 
 community who, " from the viceroy to the 
 private soldier, were all illicit traders, and 
 occasionally pirates. "J The general disorga- 
 nisation was increased,in 1594, by the arrival 
 of a papal bull and royal command for the 
 forcible conversion of infidels ; which was 
 in efl'eet, free leave and license to everj^ 
 member of the Romish communion to 
 torture and destroy all who diflered from 
 them on doctrinal points, and to pillage pa- 
 godas or churches, public or private dwel- 
 lings, at pleasure. Such a course of pro- 
 ceeding could scarcely fail to bring about 
 its own termination ; and the strong grasp 
 of tyranny and persecution, though more 
 fierce, was yet rapidly growing weaker, and 
 would probably have been shaken off by the 
 natives themselves, even in the absence of 
 the European rivals who now appeared on 
 the scene. England, under the fostering 
 care of Elizabeth, had already manifested 
 something of the energy which, under the 
 Divine blessing, was to secure to her the 
 supremacy of the ocean ; to extend her 
 sway over ancient and populous nations ; 
 and to lay the foundation of the greatest 
 colonial empire the world ever saw. This 
 puissance was still in the embryo, and Eng- 
 land a little kingdom with a limited trade, 
 when her soldiers and merchants began the 
 
 of Goa; and factories at Onorc, Barcelore, Mangalore, 
 Cananorc, Calicut, Cranganore, and Quiloa ; sta- 
 tions at Negapatam and St. Thomas, or Alcliapoor, 
 (on the Coromandel coast) ; and several commercial 
 ])osts in Bengal. They had also the port of Cochin ; 
 factories, or liberty to trade at I'cgn, Martaban, and 
 Junkseylon; held the strongly-fortified town of iNIa- 
 lacca, and had, moreover, established themselves at 
 several commanding points in the island of Ceylon. 
 (Bruce's Annals of Juist India Company, vol. i. p. 24.) 
 X Macpherson's Commerce with India, p. 32.
 
 I'lRST DUTCH VOYAGE TO TI[E INDIAN SEAS— 1595-'G. 
 
 103 
 
 striif;ii;]c with the comliiiiod forces of Spain 
 and l'ortnj;aI, in iilliuncc with a people wliose 
 iicwly-ae(iuii'e(l iiKlepeiulence had originated 
 in tlic reaction caused hy the corruption and 
 cruelty of the S[)anish government, reprc- 
 Kontcd by such men ns the Duke of Alva, 
 aud the bigotry of Rome, represented by 
 sucli institutions as the Inquisition.* 
 
 UisE OF IX'TCH Powisa. — It was only 
 in the year ]i'>7'.) that the Netherlanders 
 ventured to defy the power of I'liilij), and 
 formed themselves into a separate govern- 
 ment, whicli they did not establish witliout 
 a desperate and prolonged conflict, aided zea- 
 lously by Elizabeth. Their after-progress 
 was marvellous ; and before neighbouring 
 countries had well learned to recognise their 
 new position, the " poor distressed people 
 of Holland" had changed that designation 
 for the "High and ilighty States, the United 
 Provinces." The course that materially 
 aided their rapid advancement was forced 
 upon them by the arbitrary policy of Philip. 
 Having very little land, they had ever mainly 
 dei)cndcd for subsistence on fisheries, trade, 
 and navigation. While Portugal was a sepa- 
 rate kingdom they resorted thither for East 
 India produce, of which they became the 
 carriers to all the northern nations of 
 Europe ; aud after the annexation of that 
 kingdom to Spain, their ships continued to 
 sail to Lisbon under neutral colours, at 
 which the Portuguese gladly connived. 
 But Philip, hoping to lay the axe to the 
 root of the mercantile prosperity which 
 enabled his former subjects to sustain a 
 costly and sanguinary contest with his 
 mighty armies, compelled the Portuguese 
 to renounce this profitable intercourse, — 
 
 * Before the people rose against tlieir oppressors, 
 100,000 of them were judicially slavightered — the 
 men by fire and sword, and tlie women by being 
 buried alive. — (Grutii ^Lninil. Bclfj. pp. 15 — 17.) 
 
 t Along the shores of Norway, Kussia, and Tar- 
 tary, to Cliina, and thence into the Indian Ocean. 
 
 { The manner in wliich he acquired this know- 
 ledge is variously related : — by Savary, as obtained in 
 the Portuguese service; hy other authorities, during a 
 long imprisonment at Lisbon ; liaynal says for debt ; 
 Sallengre, in eonse(iuence of the suspicions excited 
 by his inquiries on commercial subjects. His free- 
 dom was procured by payment of a heavy fine, sub- 
 scribed on his behalf by Dutch merchants. (St-e 
 dilferent accounts, commrnted on in Maepherson's 
 Murapmn Commerce, icilh hidin, note to p. 45.) 
 
 § Two of the vessels were 400 tons burthen, car- 
 rying each eighty-four men, six large brass cannon, 
 fourteen lesser guns, four great " patereroes" and 
 eight little ones, with " muskers" and small guns in 
 proportion ; the third, of 200 tons, had fifty-nine 
 
 laid ati embargo on all Dutch ship.s, seized 
 the cargoes, imprisoned the merchants and 
 slii[)-masters, or delivered them over as 
 heretics ti) the temler mercies of the In- 
 fpiisitioii, and even forced tlie mariners and 
 others into his hated service. Tlie Dutch, 
 driven to desperation by an enemy from 
 whom they had all to fear and nothing to 
 hope, incited by the able counsel of Prince 
 iNIaurice, resolved to attcni])t procuring the 
 iu;eessary supplies of spi(.'cs direct from Asia. 
 With the double inducement of avoiding 
 the fleets which guarded the approach to the 
 Indian seas, and of finding a much shorter 
 route, the Dutch (following the example 
 of various English navigators) strove to 
 discover a north-ca.stcrn passage to India,t 
 and in the years 1.5!)l',-'5, and 'G, sent 
 three expeditions for this purpose. All 
 failed, and the last adventurers were com- 
 pelled to winter on the dreary shores 
 of Nova Zembla. In the meantime some 
 Dutch merchants, not caring to wait the 
 doubtful issue of these attempts, formed 
 themselves into a company, and resolved 
 to brave the o])position of Philip, by com- 
 mencing a private trade with India vid 
 the Cape of Good Hope. Four ships were 
 dispatched for this purpose, under the direc- 
 tion of Cornelius Houtman,J a Dutch mer- 
 chant or navigator, well acquainted with the 
 nature and conduct of the existing Indian 
 traffic; and the coast of Bantam (Java) was 
 reached without hindrance, save from the 
 elements. § Having obtained cargoes, jjartly 
 by purchase from the natives, but chiefly 
 by plunder from the Portuguese, lloutman 
 returned to the Texel, where, notwithstanding 
 the loss of one of the vessels — a very frequent 
 occurrence in those days, || — the safe arrival of 
 
 men, six large cannon, with lesser ones in proportion ; 
 the fourth, of thirty tons, with twenty-four men and 
 cannon: tlie whole carrying 219 mariners. The fleet 
 sailed from the Texel the 2nd of .\pril, 1.595 ; reached 
 Teneriffe on tlie 19th; St. Jago on the 26th ; crossed 
 the equator on the 14th of June; on the 2nd of 
 August doubled the Cape of Good Hope (seamen 
 in great distress with scurvy), and remained some 
 days on the coast : in September, October, and Xo- 
 vember, the ships were at different part-s of Mada- 
 gascar, and sailed thence on the 1st of December 
 towards Java, which was reached in the middle of 
 January, 1590; thus terminating the first Dutch voy- 
 age to the Indian seas. — (See Collection of Voyages 
 undertahcn hi/ Dutch East India Company. London 
 translation, 1808.) 
 
 II Linschoten says, th.it almost every year one or 
 two Portuguese East-Indiamen were lust. Faria 
 y Sousa gives an account of 95G vessels, which sailed 
 iVom Portugal for India, from 1412 (when Prince 
 Henry first attempted the discovery of a passage by
 
 196 
 
 UNION OP DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANIES— 1602. 
 
 the remainder was welcomed as an auspicious 
 commencement of the undertaking. Several 
 new companies were formed ; — the number 
 of ships annually increased,* and succeeded 
 in obtaining cargoes, notwithstanding the 
 opposition of the Portuguese, who strove, but 
 for the most part ineft'ectually, to prejudice 
 the natives against their rivals ; their own 
 proceedings having been so outrageous, that 
 any prospect of a check or counteraction 
 seemed rather to be courted than avoided. 
 In 1600, not five years after the first ex- 
 pedition under Houtman, forty vessels, of 
 from 400 to 600 tons, were fitted out by 
 the Dutch. Hitherto the Spanish monarch 
 had made no effort to intercept their fleet; 
 but in the following year he dispatched an 
 armament of thirty ships of war, by which 
 eight outward-bound vessels, under the 
 command of Spilbergen, were attacked near 
 the Cape Verd Islands. The skill and 
 bravery of the defendants enabled them 
 to offer effectual resistance, and they suc- 
 ceeded in making their way to India without 
 any serious loss. Philip did not again at- 
 tempt a naval contest, but made military 
 force the basis of his subsequent efforts for 
 their subjugation; prohibiting them, under 
 pain of corporal punishment, from trading 
 with the Spanish possessions, either in the 
 East or West Indies. These threats proved 
 only an incitement to more determined 
 efforts ; and it being evident that the com- 
 bination of the several Dutch companies 
 would tend to strengthen them against the 
 common foe, they were united, in 1602, by 
 the States-General, and received a charter 
 bestowing on them, for a term of twenty- 
 one years, the exclusive right of trade with 
 India, together with authority to commission 
 all functionaries, civil and military, to form 
 what establishments they pleased, and 
 make war or peace in all countries beyond 
 the Cape of Good Hope. From regard to 
 the claims of the proprietors of the minor 
 associations, the new company was divided 
 into six chambers or boards of management, 
 of which Amsterdam and ]\Tid(llel)urg wore 
 the chief, their share in the funds subscribed 
 being proportiunably represented by twenty- 
 sea) to 1640: of these, 150 were lost, ,incl with 
 them he estimates not less than 100,000 ])ersons — 
 a not improbable number, consicleiinjf tlie <;reat 
 size of many of the vessels, which carried 800 or 
 000 men. 
 
 * In 1598, two flccU, consisting of cir;ht vessels, 
 were sent by tlie Amsterdam mercliaots from the 
 Texel, and five from Kotterdam, which were followed 
 up by successive fleets in subsequent years, as the 
 
 five and twelve directors ; the remaining 
 chambers of Delft, Rotterdam, Hoorn, and 
 Eukhuysen having each seven directors : 
 making a total of sixty-five persons, with a 
 capital of 6,410,200 guilders, or (taking 
 the guilder at Is. 8d.) about £536,600. 
 The project was popular, and brought both 
 money and a valuable class of emigrants into 
 Holland, many opulent merchants of the 
 Spanish provinces in the Netherlands, and 
 of other places, removing with their effects 
 into the Dutch territory. No time was 
 lost in fitting out a fleet of fourteen large 
 ships, well manned, and furnished with 
 soldiers and the necessary military and 
 other stores requisite for the carrying out of 
 the aggressive policy henceforth to be adopted 
 against the national enemies, whom the 
 Dutch had previously shunned rather than 
 courted encountering in their foreign pos- 
 sessions. t The same power, whose co-opera- 
 tion had so materially contributed to the 
 success of their European struggles, now 
 came equally opportunely to their assistance 
 in Asia; for in this same year (1602) the 
 first ships of the first English East IndiaCom- 
 pany appeared in the Indian seas. It may 
 be useful to pause here, and briefly review 
 the circumstances that led to the formation 
 of a bod}', which, after long years of trial 
 and vicissitude, attained such unexampled 
 and strangely-constituted greatness. 
 
 Rise of English Power. — Before the 
 discovery of the passage by the Cape of 
 Good Hope, England, like other northern 
 European nations, had been supplied from 
 the Adriatic with Eastern products. A ship 
 of great bulk usually arrived every year 
 from Venice, laden with spice (chiefly 
 pepper) and some other Asiatic commodi- 
 ties, which the ti'aders necessarily sold at 
 high prices, owing to the circuitous route 
 they were compelled to traverse. This state 
 of things terminated with the close of the 
 fifteentli century, by reason of the successful 
 voyage of Vasco de Gama, which gave to 
 Portugal the monopoly of the Asiatic trade. 
 At that very time, the English, stimulated 
 by a strong desire for the extension of eom- 
 
 trade gave twenty to seventy-five per cent, of profit 
 on the adventures. — ( Voi/tu/fs tif Dutch Ciiiiipaiii/.) 
 
 t The Dutch at first resorted to Sumatra and 
 Java, wdiere the Portuguese do not appear to have 
 liad any considerable establishments. lloutman 
 formed a fiictory at Bantam in l.j!»j. 
 
 The spice trade was opened witli Amboyna, 
 Ternate, and llie Handas, in lj!)8 ; witli Sumatra and 
 China, in 15'JU; with Ceylon, in IGOO.
 
 TRADE UNDER HENRY VII. and VIII., and EDWARD VI. 
 
 197 
 
 mcrce, and likewise by curiosity r('j;;ir(Vui;^ 
 tlio far-fiuiiod ('oiiiitry, then c;iiic(l C'utiiay 
 ((Miiiiii), «'oro tliciiiselvcs attcniptiiiif the dis- 
 covery of a sca-jjassa^o to India; and in 
 ^Fay, 1497, two months before the departure 
 of Viisco, from Lisbon, an expedition com- 
 prising two ships fitted out by IFcury VII. 
 and some vessels frcij;htcd by tlie merchants 
 of Bristol, lei't I'^niiland, under the f;nidancc 
 of an cnterprisinf; Venetian navi<;ator, named 
 (Jiovanni (iavotta, (ukjUci', John Cabot. On 
 rcaehinf:; (17° 150' N. lat., Cal)ot was eoni|)ellcd, 
 by the mutinous conduct of his crew, to stand 
 to the southward ; and in the course of the 
 homeward voyage he fell in with Newfound- 
 land and the continent of North America. 
 Notwithstanding the dissensions which cha- 
 racterised the concluding portion of the reign 
 of Henry VII., and that of his son and suc- 
 cessor Henry Vlll., several commissions of 
 discovery were issued by them,* but were 
 attended with no important results. The 
 commerce with the Levant appears to have 
 commenced about the year VSW ;t in 1513, 
 a consul was stationed at Scio for its pro- 
 tection ; and in process of time, the Levant 
 or Turkey merchants came to be looked 
 upon as the true I'ast India traders. Fac- 
 tories were established by them at Alex- 
 andria, Aleppo, Damascus, and the different 
 
 • Kohei't Thome, anEnp;lisli merchant, havinp; dur- 
 ing a long residence at Seville acquired considerable 
 knowledge of the benefits derived by Portugal from 
 the Indian trade, memorialised llunry VIII. on tlie 
 subject, urging the advantages which England might 
 attain from the same source, and suggesting three 
 courses to be pursued ; — either by the north-east, 
 whicli he imagined would lead them to " the regions 
 of all the 'I'artarians that extend toward the mid- 
 day," and thence " to the land nf the Cliinas and the 
 land of Cathaio Orientall ;" from which, if they con- 
 tinued their navigation, they might " fall in with 
 Malacca" and return to England by the Cape of 
 Good Ho])e. The second course, to the north-west, 
 would lead them, he said, " by the back of the New- 
 found-land, whicli of late was discovered by your 
 grace's subjects," and piirsuing which they might re- 
 turn through the Straits of Magellan (discovered six 
 years before.) The tliird course lay over tlie Xorth 
 I'ole, after passing which he suggested that they 
 should " goe right toward the Pole Antarctike, and 
 then decline towards the lands and islands situated be- 
 tween the tropikes and \inder the equinoctiall ;" and 
 " without doubt they shall find there the richest 
 lands and islands of the world of gold, precious 
 stones, balmes, spices, and other things that we here 
 esteem most." — (llakluyt, vol. i., p. 23>j.) The con- 
 sequence of this memorial was the sending of two 
 vessels by private merchants in 1527, which re- 
 turned very shortly without success (llakluyt, 
 iii-, 167), and two by the king in the same year, of 
 which one was lost oif the north coast of Newfound- 
 land, and the other effected nothing. — (Purchas' 
 I'ilgrims, iii,, 809.) 
 
 2 D 
 
 pf)rts of Egypt and the Turkish doruinioiiM. 
 Tiieir growing importance did not however 
 extinguish, hut ratiier increased the general 
 desire for more direct communication with 
 India and China; and in 15 1-9, Sebastian 
 Cabot, the son of .John Cabot, who had ac- 
 com])anied his fatlier in the expedition of 
 1 197, and had since attempted the discovery 
 of the much-desired line of route, persuaded 
 a inunber of fjondon merchants to raise a 
 ca[)ital of ,1'(),0()() in shares of .t25 each, 
 for the ])rosccution of a new voyage of dis- 
 covery and trading adventure. The young 
 king Edward VL, to whose notice Sebastian 
 had been previously introduced by the pro- 
 tector Somerset, had bestowed on him an 
 annual pension of .C1G(>, and made him 
 grand pilot of England. He now gave every 
 encouragement to the infant association. 
 No time was lost in fitting out three vessels, 
 which were dispatched tinder the command 
 of Sir Hugh Willoughby, in May, 1553, 
 and furnished with " Letters Missive" from 
 King Edward to the sovereigns of northern 
 Europe, bcs])caking their protection for liis 
 subjects in their peaceful but ])erilous enter- 
 prise. J The court, then ;it (irecuwich, as- 
 sembled to witness the departure of the 
 little squadron : vast crowds of people lined 
 the shore ; and the roar of cannon, and the 
 
 t llakluyt states, that between 1511 and 15.34, 
 " divers tall ships of London, Southampton, and 
 Bristol had an ordinary and usual trade " to Sicilv, 
 Candia, Chios, and somewhiles to Cyprus; as also to 
 Tripoli and Beyrout, in Syria. The exports, as 
 proved by the ledgers of Locke, Bowyer, Gresham 
 and other merchants, were " fine kersies of divers 
 colours, coarse kersies, &c. ;" the imports, silks, 
 camlets, rhubarb, malmsey, muscatel, &c. Foreign 
 as well as iMiglish vessels were employed, "namely, 
 Candiots, Kaguseans, Genouezes, Venetian galliascs, 
 Spanish and Portugal! ships." (ii., 207.) 
 
 J The religious spirit in which the project was 
 conceived is forcibly evidenced bv the instructions 
 drawn up by Cabot, for what Fuller truly remarks 
 '• may be termed the first reformed fleet which had 
 English prayers and preaching therein." ( ll'ort/iies 
 of Enijland, Derhi/shiic, of which county AViUoughby 
 was a native.) Swearing and gambling were made 
 lumishable offences, and " morning and evening 
 I)raypr, with other common services appointed by 
 the king's majesty and laws of this realm to be read 
 and said in every ship daily by the minister in the 
 Admiral [Hag-ship], and the merchant, or some other 
 person learned in other ships; and the Bible or 
 paraphrases to be read devoutly and Christianly to 
 God's honour, and for his grace to be obtained, and 
 had by humble and hearty prayer of the navigants 
 accordingly." — (Hakluyt, i., 254.) This daily prayer 
 on board ship was long an acknowledged duty; and 
 in 15S0, in the directions of the Russian company, the 
 mariners are enjoined, as a matter of course, " to 
 observe good order in your daily service and pray 
 unto God ; so shall you prosper the better."
 
 198 EASTERN TRADE IN THE REIGNS OF MARY & ELIZABETH. 
 
 shouts of the mariners, filled the air : yet 
 the cereraouy seemed inauspicious ; for the 
 youthful monarch, on whom the eyes of 
 Protestant Ciiristendora waited hopefall_y, 
 and who felt so deep an interest in the 
 whole proceeding, lay prostrate in an ad- 
 vanced stage of that insidious disease, which 
 then as now, yearly robbed England of many 
 of her noblest sons and fairest daughters. 
 Sir Hugh, and the whole ship's company 
 of the Buona Ventura, were frozen to death 
 near Lapland ;* Captain Chaneelor, the 
 second iu command, reached a Russian port 
 (where Archangel was afterwards built), and 
 proceeded thence to Moscovy. The czar, 
 Ivau Vasilivich, received him with great 
 kindness, and furnished him with letters 
 to Edward YL, beariug proposals for the 
 establishment of commercial relations be- 
 tween the two countries. These were gladly 
 accepted by Mary, who had in the inte- 
 rim ascended the throne ; and a ratification 
 of the charter promised by Edward to the 
 company was granted by the queen and her 
 ill-chosen consort, in 1554.t Chaneelor was 
 again sent out in the following year with 
 agents and factors, and on his return, an 
 ambassador accompanied him to England, 
 in saving whose life in a storm off the 
 Scottish coast, Chaneelor lost his own. J 
 This is an exceptional instance of encourage- 
 ment given by the Crown to commercial 
 enterprise during this short and sanguinary 
 reign ; nor, indeed, could Mary, as tlie wife 
 of the bigotted Philip of Spain, herself a 
 stanch and unscrupulous adherent of the 
 Romish creed, be expected to patronize 
 
 * When the extreme cold ceased, the peasants of 
 the country found the body of Sir Hugh in his 
 cabin, seated as if in the act of writing his journal, 
 which, with his will, lay before him, and testified his 
 having been alive in January, 15.3-t. 
 
 t The Russian company, probably the first char- 
 tered joint-stock association on record, exists to the 
 present day — at least in name. 
 
 J The llussian ambassador, Osep Najjea, returned 
 to his own country in the last year of Mary's reign, 
 and was accompanied by Antliony .Tenkinson, who 
 represented the eomjiany, and was instructed to at- 
 tempt the extension of their trade through Russia to 
 Persia and liactria. By permission of tlie czar, Jen- 
 kinson quitted Moscow in April, 1558, and pro- 
 ceeded by Novogorod and the Volga river to Astra- 
 can, on the north of the Caspian : he then crossed 
 that sea, and on its southern shores joined a caravan 
 of Tartars, with wliich he travelled along the banks 
 of the Oxus to Hokliara, and having there ob- 
 tained much valiiable information for liis employers, 
 returned to Kngland (by Moscow) in lofiO. In tlie 
 following year. Queen Klizabeth dispatched him 
 with letters to the Suffavi or iSoplii, king of Persia 
 (Shah .\bbas I.), requesting his sanction for her sub- 
 
 any adventure likely to trench upon tlie 
 monopoly whicli the pope had assumed to 
 himself the power of bestowing on her 
 husband : the only cause for surprise is, 
 that her signature should ever have been 
 obtained to the charter of the Russian 
 company, though probably it was a con- 
 cession granted to the leading Protestant 
 nobles, whose support she had secured at 
 a critical moment by her promise (soon 
 shamelessly broken) of making no attempt 
 for the re-establishment of a dominant 
 priesthood in England. 
 
 It was reserved for her sister and succes- 
 sor Elizabeth, alike free from the trammels 
 of Rome and the alliance of Spain, to en- 
 courage and aid her subjects in that course 
 of maritime and commercial enterprise, 
 whose importance she so justly appreciated. 
 The early part of her reign abounded 
 with political and social difficulties; — foes 
 abroad, rebellion in Ireland, discord at 
 home, gave full and arduous employment 
 to the ministers, whose energy and ability 
 best evidenced the wisdom of the mistress 
 who selected and retained such servants. 
 The finances of the nation did not warrant 
 any large expenditure which should neces- 
 sitate the imposition of increased taxation 
 for an uncertain result : it was therefore 
 from private persons, either individually or 
 in societies, that commercial adventures 
 were to be expected. The Russian com- 
 pany renewed their efforts for the discovery 
 of a north-east passage, and records of seve- 
 ral voyages undertaken under their auspices 
 are still extant ; but it does not appear that 
 
 ject.s to open a trade in his dominions for the sale 
 of their goods, and the purchase of raw silk and 
 other commodities. The jealousy and intrigues of 
 some Turkish agents, who were then engaged in 
 concluding a treaty with the Shah at the fortified 
 city of Casvin (where the Persian court then was), 
 frustrated the mission of the English envoy, and 
 even endangered his life ; so that he was glad to 
 make his escape through the friendly interposition 
 of the king of Hyrcania, who furnished him with 
 credentials granting various commercial privileges 
 to such English as might desire to traffic in, or 
 traverse his dominions on the southern shore of the 
 Caspian. In loGO, another agent, named Arthur 
 Edwards, was sent to Persia, and succeeded in ob- 
 taining from the czar permission for Englishmen 
 to trade in his dominions with immunity from tolls 
 or customs on their merchandise, and protection for 
 their persons and property. In the same year the 
 Russian comjjany obtained from Elizabeth a cliarter 
 wilii additional privileges, in reward for their e.x- 
 plorationa in the Caspiait Sea, Armenia, Media, 
 ilyreania (Astrabad), and Persia, which it was 
 hoped might lead to the ultimate discovery of " the 
 country of Cathaia."— (Ilakluyt, i., 414— -JIO.)
 
 PIEST ENGLISH EXPEDITION TO INDIA— 1577 to 1596. 
 
 190 
 
 eitlicv queen or people cared to dcf\' the I 
 fleets of Spjiin 1)}' sailiiif; round tlic Cape 
 of Good Hope, until Sir I'^aiuHs Dialic, in} 
 1577, liaviiij; (ittcd out five sliips at Iiis own 
 expense, left lOuijland and sailed tliroufjh i 
 the straits of Magellan, into the south seas,* , 
 where lie acquired immense booty from the 
 Spaniards. The news rcaeliing l"]urope, a 
 stronji^ force was scut to intercept him, 
 but information of the dan<rer eiuibled him 
 to avoid it by chan<;ing his route, and after , 
 visiting Ternate (one of the ^lolueeas), [ 
 forming a treaty with the king, and takiTig 
 part iu some hostilities between the natives 
 and the Portuguese, Drake shipped a large 
 quantity of cloves, ami proceeded round the 
 Cape to England, where he arrived at the 
 close of ] 580, with a single shattered vessel, 
 having been the first of his nation to cir- 
 cnmuavigate the globe. 
 
 The Turkey Company, established by 
 charter in 1581, sent four representatives 
 to India, through Syria, Bagdad, and Ormuz, 
 whence they carried some cloths, tin, and 
 other goods to Goa, and proceeded to visit 
 Lahore, Agra, Bengal, Pegu, and ]\Ialaeca, 
 meeting everywhere with kindness from the 
 natives, and opposition from the Portuguese. 
 Of the envoys. Fitch alone returned to 
 England (in 1591);t Newberry died in the 
 Punjaub; Leades, a jeweller by profession, 
 entered the service of the Emperor Akbar; 
 and Storey became a moidc at Goa. In 158G, 
 Captain Cavendish commenced his voyage 
 round the globe, and on the way, scrupled 
 not to seize and plunder whenever he had 
 the opportunity, cither by sea or land. He 
 returned home in less than two years 
 flushed with success, and some years after 
 attempted a similar privateering expedition 
 (for it was little better), from which he 
 never returned, but died at .sea, worn out 
 by a succession of disasters. The voyages 
 of Drake and Cavendish had brought mat- 
 ters to a crisis : the Spanish government 
 complained of the infringement of their 
 exclusive rights of navigating the Indian 
 seas ;J to which Elizabeth replied — " It is as 
 lawful for my subjects to do this as the 
 Spaniards, since the sea aud air are common 
 
 * He anchored in a bay (supposed to be that now 
 called Port San Francisco) on the coast of Califor- 
 nia, and binding, took ])ossession of the country in the 
 name of Qiiccn Kliziiliutli, calling it " Nova Albion." 
 
 t Fitch pui)lislicd a narrative of liis adventures, 
 which greatly stiniuhitcd public curiosity on the 
 subj(>ct ; and this feeling was increased by the ac- 
 counts sent from India by an Englishn.an, named 
 Stevens, who had proceeded thither in a Portuguese 
 
 to all men." The defeat of the Bo-callcd 
 Invincible Armada, in 1588, rendered the 
 J'^nglish atul their brave (pieeu more than 
 ever unwilling to give place to the arrogant 
 pretensions of their foes; and in 1591, some 
 Loudon nierehants dispatched three vessels 
 to India by the Cajie of Good Hope, under 
 the command of Cajitains Raymond and 
 Lancaster. A contest with some Portu- 
 guese shi])S, though successful, eventnall}' 
 ruined the expedition by the delay it occa- 
 sioned ; one of the vessels was compelled to 
 put back in consequence of the sickness of 
 the crew and the dilKculties encountered iu 
 weathering the " Cape of Storms ;" — the 
 second, under llaymoiul, is supposed to 
 have perished ; — the third, under Lancaster, 
 reached Sumatra and Ceylon, and obtained a 
 cargo of pepper and other spiecrics, but 
 was subsequently lost in a storm at Mona, 
 one of the West India isles. The cajjtain 
 and the survivors of the ship's company were 
 rescued by a French vessel bound to San 
 Domingo, and reached Englaml iu May, 
 15'J4. In the meanwhile, mercantile enter- 
 prise had received a fresh stimtdus by the 
 capture of a Portuguese earrack, prol'anely 
 called Madre dc Bios, of 1,600 tons burden, 
 with thirty-six brass cannons mounted. 
 This vessel, the largest yet seen in Eng- 
 land, was taken by Sir John Burroughs, 
 after an obstinate contest near the Azores, 
 and brought into Dartmouth. The cargo, 
 consisting of spices, calicoes, silks, gold, 
 pearls, drugs, china-ware, &c., was valued 
 by the lowest estimate at £150,000. This 
 display of oriental wealth incited Sir Robert 
 Dudley and some other gentlemen to fit out 
 three ships, which sailed for China in 1596, 
 bearing royal credentials addressed to the 
 sovereign of that country, vouching for the 
 ]U'obity of the adventurers, and ottering the 
 fullest protection to such Chinese subjects as 
 might be disposed to open a trade in any 
 English port. This expedition proved even 
 more disastrous thau the preceding one. 
 After capturing three Portuguese vessels, 
 the English crews became so fearfully re- 
 duced by disease, that out of three ships' 
 companies, oidy foiu' men remained alive. 
 
 vessel from Lisbon. According to Camden, a Por- 
 tuguese earrack, captured by Drake off the Azores 
 in 1587, and brought to England, contained various 
 documents regarding the nature and value of the 
 India trade, which first inspired English merchants 
 wilh a desire to prosecute it on their own account. 
 
 X By the union of Spain and Portugal, the papal 
 grants of eastern and western discoveries centied 
 in one crown.
 
 200 
 
 ENGLISH EAST INDIA COMPANY INCORPORATED— 1600. 
 
 These unfortunates were cast on shore on a 
 small island near Puerto llicOj where three 
 of them were murdered by a party of Spa- 
 niards, for the sake of the treasure they h.ad 
 with tliem, and only one survived to divulge 
 the crime to the Spanish officers of justice, 
 soon after which he was poisoned by the 
 same robbers who had murdered his ship- 
 mates. The public enthusiasm was some- 
 what damped by the dense cloud which long 
 shrouded the calamitous issue of this expe- 
 dition ; but the successful adventures of the 
 Dutch {see p. 19G), and their grasping policy 
 in raising the price of pepper from three to 
 six and eight shillings per lb. (the cost in 
 India being two to three pence), induced the 
 merchants of London — headed by the lord 
 mayor and aldermen — to hold a meeting at 
 Fouuders'-hall, on the 22nd of September, 
 1599,* which resulted in the formation of a 
 company, for the purpose of setting on foot 
 a voyage to the East Indies.t The stock 
 embarked, then considered a large one, of 
 £30,133 6s. 8d., was divided into 101 shares 
 or adventures, the subscriptions of indi- 
 viduals varying from .€100 to £3,000. The 
 queen was ever zealous in promoting similar 
 projects^ but in this instance there was need 
 of deliberation. Elizabeth well knew the 
 
 value of peace to a trading nation, and de- 
 layed granting the chai-ter of incorporation 
 solicited by the company, until it should be 
 proved how far their interests could be pru- 
 dently consulted in the course of the friendly 
 negotiations newly opened by Spain through 
 the mediation of France. The treaty how- 
 
 ever soon fell to the ground, in Consequence 
 of a disputed question of precedency between 
 the English and Spanish commissioners at 
 Boulogne. The discussion of the East India 
 question was eagerly resumed both in the 
 city and at court ; and oil the last clay of 
 the IGth century, Elizabeth signed a charter 
 on behalf of about 220 gentlemen, mer- 
 chants, and other individuals of repute, con- 
 stituting them "one bodie-corporate and 
 politique indeed," by the name of " The 
 Governor and Company of Merchants of 
 London trading into the East Indies. "J 
 
 A petition was addressed to the Privy 
 Council for their sanction that "the voyage 
 might be proceeded upon without any hin- 
 drance, notwithstanding the treaty:" but 
 they " declined granting such a warrant, as 
 deeming it more beneficial for the general 
 state of merchandise to entertain a peace, than 
 that the same should be hindered by standing 
 with the Spanish commissioners for the main- 
 tenance of this trade, and thereby forego the 
 opportunity of concluding the peace."§ 
 
 It was a fitting conclusion for a century 
 of extraordinary progress, and also for a 
 reign, characterised throughout by measures 
 of unrivalled political sagacity. The ablest 
 sovereign (perhaps excepting Alfred) the 
 realm had ever known, was soon to be taken 
 away under very melancholy circumstances. 
 The death of Lord Burleigh, and the rebel- 
 lion of Essex, were trials which the failing 
 strength and over-taxed energies of the 
 queen could ill withstand ; and she died in 
 November, 1G03, a powerful and beloved 
 
 • At the commencement of this year a merchant, 
 named John Mildenhall, was dispatched (by way of 
 Constantinople) to the Great Mogul, to solicit, iu 
 the name of his sovereign, certain trading privileges 
 for his countrymen. Jle did not reach Agra till I 
 Uie year 1C03, and was there long delayed and put 
 to great expense by the machinations of the Jesuits 
 then I'csiding at the court of the Great Mogul, 
 aided by two Italian (probably Venetian) merchants ; 
 but he eventually succeeded in obtaining from Je- 
 hangeer the desired grant in 1006. 
 
 •}■ At a subsequent meeting, a committee of fifteen 
 persons was a))pointed to present a petition to the 
 lords of the Privy Council, setting fortli that, " stimu- 
 lated by tiie success which has attended the voyage 
 to the East Indies by tlie ])utch, and finding the 
 Dutch are i)rojecting another vojage, lor which they 
 have bought ships in England, llie merchants hav- 
 ing the same regard to the welfare of this iiingdom, 
 that the Dutcli have to tlieir commonwealth, luive 
 resolved upon making a voyage of adventure, and 
 for this purpose entreat lier Majesty will grant ■them 
 letters patent of incorporation, succession, iJcc, for 
 that the trade being so far remote from hence, can- 
 not be managed but by a joint and united stock." 
 
 JTliomas tJinith, alderman of London, andan active 
 
 member of the Turkey company, was declared first 
 governor. Among the other names mentioned in the 
 charter are those of George, Earl of Cumberland ; 
 Sirs — John Ilart, John Sjjencer, Edward Michel- 
 borne, Kichard Staper, and ten other citizens and 
 aldermen of London, and two hundred and six in- 
 dividuals of repute, who petitioned for the " royal 
 assent and license to be granted unto them, that 
 they, at their own adventures, costs, and charges, as 
 well as for the honour of this our realm of Eng- 
 land, as for the increase of our navigation and ad- 
 vancement of trade of merchandise within our said 
 realms and the dominions of the same, might set 
 forth one or more voyages, with convenient number of 
 shi])s and pinnaces, by way of tralllc and merchan- 
 dise to the East Indies and countries of Asia and 
 Africa, and to as many of the islands, ports and 
 cities, towns and places lliereabouts, as where trade 
 and trallic may by all likeliliood be discovered, es- 
 tablished or had, divers of which countries and 
 many of the islands, cities, and ports tliereof have 
 long since been discovered by others of (uir sub- 
 jects, all)eitnot frequented in trade of mercliandise." 
 ■ — (vScc quarto vol. of Couriers ijrtintcd to the Eaii 
 India Cinnpuny from lOOl, &.Q., jjp. 4, 5.) 
 % Milburn's OrienUd Vunniwicc, vol. i, p. 4.
 
 MARITIME L'OSITION Oi'' ENGLAND IN IGOO. 
 
 201 
 
 ruler, but a broken-hearted woman. As 
 yet tlie coninu'rcial and colonial entcri)ri(ses, 
 commenced under ber aiispiceK, liad ])ru- 
 duced no tangible results, so far as terri- 
 torial ag^'randisemeiit was eoncerned. I'-nj,'- 
 lisli mereliants bad, it is true, even tbcu be- 
 come " the lionoiirablc of the earth ;" and 
 Enp;Iish sbijjS bad compassed the world, 
 bearing their part manfully in the perilous 
 voyages of the age, in tbe iey straits of 
 Greenland and Labrador, uplifting the 
 national Hag on the sliores of Virginia and 
 Newfoundland,* amid tbe isles of the "West 
 Indies, t and the coasts of J?razil, Guiana, 
 and Peru. The straits of IMagellan, the 
 broad expanse of the Pacific and Indian 
 Oceans, bad mirrored that standard on their 
 waves ; and for a brief season it Inul floated 
 upon tbe Caspian Sea, and been carried along 
 tbe banks of the Oxus. In tbe ports and 
 marts of the Adriatic, tbe Archipelago, the 
 Levant, and the southern coasts of the Medi- 
 terranean, it became a familiar visitant, as it 
 bad long been to the traffickers of tbe Canary 
 Isles, and dwellers on the shores of Guinea 
 and 15cnin ■,% and lastly, pursuing its way to 
 tbe isles and continents of the East, it floated 
 hopefully past the Soutlieru Cajie of Africa.^ 
 The initiatory measures arc evertbose which 
 most severely task the weakness and sel- 
 fishness of human nature : energy, fore- 
 thought, patience — all these qualities, and 
 many more, are essential ingredients in the 
 characters of those who aspire to lay the 
 foundation of an edifice, which future gene- 
 rations must be left to bring to perfection. 
 In tbe history of the world, sucb " master 
 builders" are comparatively few : more com- 
 monly, we find men carrying on the struc- 
 ture of national progress with scarcely a 
 thought beyond their individual interests, 
 each one labouring for himself, like the coral 
 insects, who live and die miconseions of the 
 mighty results of their puny labours. Nor 
 is this blindness on the ])art of the majority 
 
 • No7-th American Possessions, vol. i., pp. 292-3. 
 
 t West Indian Possessions, vol. iv. (div. viii.), 
 p. 15. The Rev. James Anderson, in enumerating tlie 
 exploratory proceedings of England, truly remarks, 
 that " the foundations of her future greatness were 
 laid in the very efforts wliich had appeared so fruitless." 
 — {Ilistiinj of the Colonial C/nirvli, vol. i., p. 123.) 
 
 i Repeated efforts were made for the extension of 
 commerce with Africa. In 1572, a treaty between 
 England and Portugal provided for the better ad- 
 justment of the intercourse of their respective sub- 
 jects with the western sliores of Africa ; in lo8o, tlie 
 queen granted a jiatent to Robert, Earl of Leicester, 
 for the management of the trade with Barbary and 
 Morocco : and in 1 JSS, and 1002, some merchants 
 
 to be regretted, while the minority — those 
 on whom tbe steering of t)ie vessel of tbe 
 state iTiore or less evidently devolves — afford 
 .such constant illustrations of tbe fallible and 
 unsati.-sfactory ebaraeter of human policy. 
 Thus,evcuinattributingto]';iizabcth tbe pre- 
 eminence in i)atriotism and statesmansliip, 
 in zeal for religious truth and liberty ; — tbe 
 excellence ascribed i.s at best oidy compara- 
 tive, since her administration was deeply 
 stained by the besetting sin of civilised gov- 
 ernments — " clever diplomacy," or, in plain 
 words, that constant readiness to take 
 advantage of the weakness or ignorance of 
 other nations, which, among individuals, 
 would be stigmatised as grasping, overreach- 
 ing, and unjust, even by those who do not 
 profess to judge actions by any loftier 
 standard than the ordinary customs and 
 opinions of society. This admixture of un^ 
 worthy inotivcs is probably often the cause 
 of the failure of many wcU-deviscd schemes : 
 it may account, to some minds, for the career 
 of Elizabeth terminating when the projects 
 she had chciishcd were on the eve of deve- 
 lopment; when Englanil was about to enter 
 on a course of annually increasing territo- 
 rial, commercial, and maritime prosperity, 
 often, however, cheeked rather than encou- 
 raged, by tbe weakness, selfishness, or pre- 
 judice of her rulers. 
 
 The original charter bestowed on the East 
 India Company manifested a prudent regard 
 for the prevention of disputes with other 
 European powers, or with previously incor- 
 porated English companies, and reserved to 
 the Crown tbe power of accommodating tbe 
 Indian trade to the contingencies of foreign 
 politics, or of tbe trade carried on by its 
 subjects with neighbouring countries. The 
 charter was granted for fifteen years ; but if 
 the exclusive privileges thereby conferred 
 should be found disadvantageous to tbe 
 general interests of the country, it might be 
 revoked upon two years' notice : if, on the 
 
 of Exeter and Taunton were empowered to traffic 
 with Sierra Leone and tlic Gold Coast. In 1597, we 
 find the [indefatigable Elizabeth seeking commercial 
 privileges from " the most invincible and puissant 
 king of the Abassens (Abyssinians), the mightie 
 emperor of Ethiojiia, the higher and the lower." 
 
 § The Russian company desired, by an overland 
 trade, to connect the im])orts from Persia with those 
 from the Baltic ; the Levant company, which traded 
 with the Mediterranean ports, brought thence, among 
 its assortments, a proportion of Indian produce, the 
 value of which might be affected by the imports 
 brought into England or for the European market, 
 by the direct intercourse, though circuitous routes, 
 of the company. — (Bruce's Annals of E. I. Cy.)
 
 202 
 
 E. I. COMPANY'S FIRST FLEET SAILS FROM TORE AY— 1601. 
 
 contrary, the result should prove of public 
 benefit, new letters patent were to be granted 
 at the expiration of the first period, for other, 
 fifteen years.* With these needful limita- 
 tions, great encouragement was given to 
 the association ; notwitlistanding which, the 
 delay occasioned by the Spanish negotiation 
 had so far damped the enterprise of some of 
 the individual adventui'ers, that they refused 
 to pay their proffered subscriptions; and the 
 directors, acting under the charter (in which 
 no amount of capital was prescribed, as in 
 the case of modern documents of a similar 
 character), appear to have wanted power to 
 compel them to do so, or else to have 
 deemed its exercise imprudent. The conse- 
 quence was, the formation of a subordinate 
 association, eudued with authority to adven- 
 ture on their own account, providing the 
 funds, and either bearing tlie whole loss, or 
 reaping the whole profit of the voyage. A 
 new body of speculators was thus admitted, 
 
 ' Under the charter, the plan which they had 
 already adopted for the management of their affairs, 
 by a committee of twenty-four and a chairman, both 
 to be chosen annually, was confirmed and rendered 
 obligatory. The chief permissive clauses were as 
 follow : — the company were eni])Owered to make 
 bye-laws for the regulation of their business, and of 
 the people in their employment, whose offences they 
 might punish by imprisonment or fine ; — to export 
 goods for four voyages duty free, and duties after- 
 wards paid on goods lost at sea to be deducted from 
 dues payable on next shipment ; — six months' credit 
 to be allowed on custom dues of half imports, and 
 twelve months for the remainder, with free exporta- 
 tion for thirteen months (by English merchants in 
 English vessels) ; — liberty to transport Spanish and 
 other foreign silver coin and bullion to the value 
 of £30,000, of which £6,000 was to be coined at the 
 Tower, and the same sum in any subsequent voyage 
 during fifteen years, or the continuance of their 
 privileges, provided that within six months after 
 every voyage except the first, gold and silver equal 
 in value to the exported silver should be duly im- 
 ported, and entered at the ports of London, Dart- 
 mouth and Plymouth, where alone the bullion was 
 to be shipped. The monopoly of the company was 
 confirmed by a clause enacting, that interlopers in 
 the East India trade should be subject to the for- 
 feiture of their ships and cargoes, one-half to go to 
 the Crown, the other to the company, and to suffer 
 imprisonment and such other punishment as might 
 be decreed by the Crown, until they should have 
 signed a bond engaging, under a penalty of £1,000 
 at the least, " not to sail or traffic into any of the 
 said East Indies" without special license from the 
 company. Another clause affords evidence of the 
 condition of the state by guaranteeing, that " in anv 
 time of restraint," six good ships and as many pin- 
 naces, well-armed and manned with 500 English 
 sailors, should be permitted to depart " without any 
 stay or contradiction," unless tlie urgent necessities 
 of the kingdom, in the event of war, should require 
 their detention, in which case three months' notice 
 
 by whom £68,373 were subscribed, and five 
 vesselsf equipped, manned by 500 men, pro- 
 visioned for twenty months, at a cost of 
 £0,600, and furnished with bullion and 
 various staples and manufactures wherewith 
 to try the Indian market. The command 
 was entrusted to Captain James Lancaster, 
 who received from the queen general letters 
 of introduction addressed to the rulers of 
 the ports to which he might resort. The 
 fleet sailed from Torbay on April 22, 1601, 
 and proceeded direct to Acheen,J which 
 they reached on June 5, 1602 ; a voyage 
 now usually accomplished in ninety days. 
 
 Captain Lancaster, on his arrival, delivered 
 the queen's letter to the king or chief of 
 Acheen, who received him with much pomp 
 and courtesy, and accorded permission to 
 establish a factory, with free exports and 
 imports, protection to trade, power of be- 
 queathing property by will, and other privi- 
 leges of an independent community. But 
 
 would be given to the company. — (Charters of East 
 India Cunipani/, p. 21.) 
 
 i" The Z)rai/i>i>, Hcdnr, Axcension, Saxan, and 
 Gticst, of 600, 300, 2G0, 240, and 100 tons re- 
 spectively, the smallest serving as a victualler; the 
 others are described by Sir William Monson as 
 " four of the best merchant ships in the kingdom." 
 According to the same authority, there were not in 
 England, at this period, more than four vessels of 
 400 tons each. In 1580, the total number of ves- 
 sels in the navy was 150, of which only forty be- 
 longed to the Crown : a like number was employed 
 in trade with different countries, the average bur- 
 den being 150 tons. At the beginning of the six- 
 teenth century, it appears that wars with Spain, and 
 losses by ca])ture, had reduced both shi])])ing and sea- 
 men one-third. The small English squadron seemed 
 insufficient to enter on a traffic in which the Por- 
 tuguese had long been in the habit of employing 
 vessels of 1,200 to 1,500 tons burden : in its 
 equipment £30,771 were expended, the cargoes were 
 estimated at £28,742 in bullion, and £6,860 in 
 various goods, including iron and tin wrought and 
 unwrought, lead, eighty pieces of broad-cloth of all 
 colours, eighty pieces of Devonshire kersies, 100 
 pieces of Norwich stuffs, with various smaller articles, 
 including glass, quicksilver, Muscovy hides, and 
 other things intended as presents for different local 
 functionaries. Factors and supercargoes were nomi- 
 nated, and divided into four classes: all gave secu- 
 rity for fidelity and abstinence from ]irivate trade in 
 proportionate sums of £500 downwards. Three of the 
 ])rincipal factors were allowed £100 each as equip- 
 ment, and £200 for an " adventure ;" and four of 
 each of the other classes smaller sums. The salary 
 of each commander was £100, and £200 on credit 
 for an adventure. If th.e profits of the voyage 
 yielded two for one, they were to be allowed £500 ; 
 if three for one, £1,000; if four for one, £1,500; 
 and if five for one, £2,000. — (Bruce's Annals, vol. i., 
 p. 12!).) 
 
 I Situate on the N.W. extremity of the large 
 island of Sumatra, in 5' 3G' N. lat., 95' 26' E. long.
 
 RESULT OP E. I. COMPANY'S FIRST EXPEDITION— 1G03. 
 
 203 
 
 the croi) of pppper having failed in the pre- 
 ceding season, a snflieient qnantity couhl 
 not lie obtained in that port; and Lancaster, 
 impressed with a conviction of the influence 
 the |)eeuniary results of the first voyage 
 would have ui)oii the future prosecution of 
 the trade, concerted measures with the com- 
 nmuder of a Dutch shij), tiien at Aehccn, 
 for hostilities against their joint foe, the 
 Portuguese* A earraek of !)()() tons was 
 captured, and her cargo, consisting of cali- 
 coes and other Indian manufactures, having 
 been divided between the conquering ves- 
 sels, the Portuguese crew were left in pos- 
 session of their rilled ship, and the Dutch and 
 English commanders went their way. Lan- 
 caster proceeded to Bantam, in Java, where, 
 after delivering his credentials and presents, 
 he completed his lading with spices, and 
 leaving tlie remaining portion of his mer- 
 chandise for sale in charge of some agents, 
 sailed homewards, arriving off the Downs in 
 September, 1003. 
 
 The company awaited his return with ex- 
 treme anxiety, ihey delayed making pre- 
 parations for a fresh voyage until the result 
 of the first venture should appear, and per- 
 sisted in this resolve, notwithstanding the 
 representations of the privy council, and 
 even of the queen, who considered their 
 delay an infraction of the terms on which 
 the charter had been granted, and reminded 
 them of the energy and patriotism of the 
 Dutch, who annually formed tiieir equipments 
 and extended their commerce by unceas- 
 ing exertion. The safe return of the fleet, 
 
 * What authority Captain Lancaster possessed for 
 this proceeding does not appear, but it is probable 
 that he acted according to permission granted for a 
 similar conjuncture; because the queen, Ijeinf' unable 
 to retaliate the attack of the Armada on her own 
 behalf, by reason of the condition of the treasury, 
 permitted private adventurers to fit out expeditions 
 against the national foe both by sea and land. Such 
 was the sq\iadron of about 10() vessels, l.'jOO sailors, 
 and 11,000 soldiers, under Sir l'\ DraUe and Sir 
 John Norris, in 1589, which ravaged and ])lundered 
 the coasts of Spain and Portugal ; and that of several 
 shi|)S under the personal connnand of George Clif- 
 ford, Earl of Cumberland, in the same year, to the 
 Azores or Western Isles, where much booty was 
 obtained. Frora this period may be dated English 
 " privateering," which soon degenerated into " buc- 
 caneering •" and which James I. deserves much 
 praise for his endeavours to check. 
 
 t Elizabeth was dead, and London aillicted with 
 the plague ; everybody who could leave it, had taken 
 refuge in the country ; and in the general disorder it 
 was next to impossible to raise money either by 
 borrowing or bv sales of merchandise. 
 
 \ In loot. King James granted a license to Sir 
 Edward .Michelborne and others to trade with China 
 
 though at an inopi)ortune moment.t put an 
 end to all incertitude regarding the fi'asi- 
 bility of the projcctecl trade ; and notwith- 
 standing the dillienltics occasioned by the 
 encouragement given by the king to the at- 
 tempts of ju'ivate adventurers, in violation 
 of the fifteen years' monopoly promised by 
 the charter,J and the enmity of the I'ortu- 
 gnese, — to which the tacit and afterwards 
 open ojjpositioii of the Dutch was sooa 
 added, — the company continued to fit out 
 separate expeditions on the same terras as 
 the first, until the year 1C14, when the 
 twelfth was undertaken by a single sliip, 
 chiefly for the purpose of carrying out Sir 
 Robert Shirley, who had been sent as am> 
 bassador to the English sovereign by Shah 
 Abbas of Persia. The total capital expended 
 in these voyages was .t; lfj4-,281. ; of which 
 <£2G!3j216 had been invested in shipiiing 
 and stores, .£138,L27 in bullion, and .£;G2,111 
 ill merchandise. Notwithstanding losses 
 (including a disastrous expedition in 1G07, 
 in which both vessels perished), the general 
 result was prosperous, the total profit reach- 
 ing 138 per cent. ; but it must be remem- 
 bered that a period of six or seven years 
 and upwards elapsed before the proceeds of 
 a voyage could be finally adjusted, and that 
 the receipts included the profits of a ship- 
 builder and purveyor, or " ship's husband," 
 as well as of a merchant. 
 
 In 1G13, it was deemed advisable to re- 
 nounce all separate adventures, and continue 
 the trade on a joint-stock account ; this, 
 however, being itself an experiment, was 
 
 and various East Indian ports. The undertaking 
 was little better than a series of petty piracies, com- 
 mitted upon Chinese junks and small Indian ves- 
 sels encountered in cruising among the Asiatic 
 islands ; but is memorable as marking the appear- 
 ance of the interlopers or priratc traders, whose dis- 
 putes with the company afterwards ran so high. 
 This very Michelborne had been recommended by 
 the lord-treasurer for employment to the company; 
 but although then petitioning for a charter, the 
 directors rejected the ajiplication, and requested that 
 they might "be allowed to sort their business with 
 men of their own qualitye, lest the susjjicion of the 
 employment of gentlemen being taken hold of by 
 the generalitie, do dryve a great number of the ad- 
 venturers to withdraw'their contributions." — (Bruce's 
 Aiiiiah iif the Juast India Cumpam/. vol. i., p. 128.) 
 The same determined spirit was evinced on the pre- 
 sent occasion ; and they succeeded in obtaining an- 
 other charter in lOOi), in which, departing froni the 
 cautious policy of his predecessor, the king confirmed 
 the exclusive privileges of the company, not for a 
 limited term of years, but for ever, jjrovided how- 
 ever that the trade should prove beneficial to the 
 realm, otherwise the charter was to be annulled, oil 
 giving three years' notice. — (Idem, p. 157.)
 
 204 
 
 PROGRESS OP THE EAST INDIAN TRADE— 1613. 
 
 fixed for the term of ouly four years ; during 
 which time, the stipulated capital of £429,000 
 was to be paid up in equal annual propor- 
 tions. This union was generally beneficial 
 in its effects, by preventing the international 
 competition resulting from the clashing in- 
 terests of parties coucerued in the different 
 voyages, whether in the Indian market or 
 in England, where the imports were either 
 sold by public auction, or divided among the 
 adventurers in kind, as was best suited to 
 the interests of the leading persons in the 
 separate concerns ; and it often happened 
 that private accommodation was studied at 
 the expense of the general good. Besides 
 these inconveniences, it was necessary that 
 some specific line of policy should be adopted, 
 for the general direction of the trade and the 
 control and guidance of individual com- 
 manders; since it was evident that the 
 interested and impolitic conduct of one ex- 
 pedition might seriously imjiede the success 
 of subsequent voyages. 
 
 The proceedings of Sir Henry Middleton 
 will illus-tratc this. Up to 1G09, the inter- 
 course of the Entrlish had been exclusively 
 with Sumatra, Java, and Amboyna; an at- 
 tempt was then made to open a trade with 
 woollens, metals, and other British com- 
 modities, in barter for spices and drugs, in 
 the ports of the Red Sea, Cambay, and 
 Surat. At Aden and Mocha, they were 
 opposed by the Turks, and Middleton with 
 seventy men made prisoners. They suc- 
 ceeded in effecting their escape, and pro- 
 ceeded to Surat, where a forcible lauding 
 was effected, in defiance of the Portuguese, 
 who, however, induced the Moguls to prc- 
 
 • The company, finding themselves unable to 
 charter vessels of sufficient burden either in England 
 or elsewhere, formed a dockyard at Deptford ; and 
 in 1G09 launched, in the words of Sir William Mon- 
 son, "the goodliest and greatest ship [1,100 tons] 
 that was ever framed in this kingdom." King James, 
 with liis son (afterwards Charles I.), presided at the 
 launch, named the vessel tlie Trade's Increase, and 
 partook of a sumptuous banquet served on China- 
 ware, then considered a rare mark of eastern mag- 
 nificence. From this period may be dated the in- 
 crease of large ships; for the king about tliis time 
 caused a man-of-war to be constructed of ],400 tons 
 burden, carrying sixty-four gun.s, called the I'rince. 
 From IGOO to 1010 tiie company continued to ex- 
 ercise the now separate vocations of ship-builders, 
 purveyors, &c. In their yards at ])e])tford and 
 Blackwall, not only w^ere vessels constructed of 
 700, 800, 900, and in' one instance (the Rdijal James) 
 of 1,200 tons burden, but their masts, yards, an- 
 chors, sails, cordage, and entire outfit were ])rei)ared ; 
 the bread was l)aked, the meat salted and cashed, 
 and the various dei)ar'„mcnts which, by the ])resent 
 improved system, arc subdivided into many distinct 
 
 vent their attempts at commerce. About 
 this time, the envoy (Hawkins) dispatched 
 by the company to seek the imperial con- 
 firmation of the trading privileges promised 
 to Mildenhall, threw up his suit in despair, 
 and quitted Agra, after a residence of 
 more than two years. Middleton retui-ned 
 to the Red Sea, and there seized upon 
 several ]\Iogul ships (including one of 1,500 
 tons, fitted out by the mother of Jehangeer 
 for the use of pilgrims), and obliged them 
 to pay a ransom equivalent to his estimate 
 of the loss occasioned by the frustration 
 of his voyage. After lading two of his 
 vessels with pepper at Bantam, he prepared 
 to return homewards ; but his chief ship, 
 the newly-built Trade's Increase* over- 
 set in Bantam roads, and was totally des- 
 troyed ; which so affected her commander, 
 that he soon after died of vexation : the 
 voyap;e, nevertheless, afforded £121 percent, 
 profit on the capital employed. The un- 
 warrantable aggression committed in the 
 Red Sea had roused the indignation and 
 alarm of the emperor; but the discre- 
 tion of Captain Bestf was successfully 
 exerted in obtaining permission to trade, 
 through the intervention of the governor 
 of Ahmedabad, whose concessions were ra- 
 tified by an imperial firman, which arrived 
 in January, 161^, authorising the esta- 
 blishment of English factories at Surat, 
 Ahmedabad, Cambay, and Goga, with pro- 
 tection for life and property, on condition of 
 the payment of a custom duty of three-and- 
 a-half per cent. The Portuguese did not 
 quietly witness the progress of this arrange- 
 ment, but attacked the two vessels of Cap- 
 branches of labour, were then brought to a con- 
 siderable degree of perfection by the combined 
 efforts of skill and capital possessed by the East 
 India Company. As trade increased, ship-building 
 became a distinct and profitable business; and in 
 1640 and subsequent years, the company were 
 enabled to hire vessels at £20 to £2o ])er ton 
 freight, whereas their own cost £31 per ton : thence- 
 forth the commerce was carried on partly by their 
 own and partly by hired ships ; and evcr.tually the 
 dockyards were sold for private enterprise. 
 
 t Captain Best visited Acheen in Kilo, and as the 
 bearer of a royal letter, formed a new treaty with 
 its ruler, and obtained permission to establish a 
 factory at Tikoo or Ticoo (in Sumatra), on condition 
 of ]iaying seven per cent, import and export duty. 
 The monarch, who is represented as very fierce and 
 sanguinary, replied to the communication of tlie 
 Euglisli sovereign with a request, that he would 
 send him one of his countrywomen for a wife, pro- 
 mising to make her eldest son " king of all the 
 |)ep])er countries." No English lady ajipears to 
 have taken advantage .if this offer; ami whether 
 from disappointment or avarice, the king of Acheen
 
 FRENCH AND DANISH EAST INDIA ASSOCIATIONS— 1601-1612. 205 
 
 tain l?est, fit Swally, near Surat, with a 
 sinisulroii of four galleons, atul a miinher of 
 siiialler vessels without eauiiou, ititcii(l(;(l to 
 assist in boanlin;^', for whieh, however, they 
 fouiiil no opportunity, bein;^ driven oil' witli 
 considerable loss, after a struggle of more 
 than a month's duration.* 
 
 The chief events whieh marked tlio four 
 years' existence of the first joint-stock com- 
 pany, was the embassy of Sir Thomas Hoc,t 
 who suececded in obtaining from Jehan- 
 geer liberty of trade for his countrymen 
 throughout the empire; J tlic formation of 
 a treaty with the zaraoriu for the expulsion 
 of the Portuguese from Cochin, whieh when 
 conquered was to be ceded to tlic English ; 
 and lastly, liostilities with the Dutch, which 
 entailed losses and expense, whereby the 
 total jH'ofits of the four voyages were reduced 
 to eighty-seven per cent. This decreased 
 dividend did not, however, prevent a new 
 subscription being favourably received by 
 
 impeded the trade of the Kiiropcans by exactions ; 
 find at length, in Ki'il, expelled both the Dutch and 
 English factors ; but the intercourse was subse- 
 quently resumed and carried on at intervals. 
 
 * From 22nd of October to the 27th Xovcmber, 
 1812.— (AVilson's note on Mill's Iiiflin, vol. i., p. 29.) 
 
 + The mission of Sir Thomas Iloe to Jehangeer 
 has been already narrated (p. 123.) The incidents of 
 his journey from Surat to Ajmeer evidence a com- 
 parative state of order in the country traversed: 
 whereas, the adventures which befel Withington, 
 one of the conijiany's agents, who set out from Ah- 
 medabad to Laribunda, the port of Sinde, where 
 three English ships had arrived, afford a far less 
 favourable picture of the condition of the portion 
 of India through which his route of about oOO 
 miles lay. The caravan with which he travelled 
 was attacked in the night of the third stage, and 
 " the next day he met tlie Mogul's otiicer returning 
 ".vith 250 heads of the Coolies," whom Mr. Ormesneep- 
 ingly terms, "a nation of robliers;" and who in the 
 opinion of Jeliangeer seem to have merited nothing 
 less than extermination. Many days were spent in 
 crossing the desert, but no molestation occurred un- 
 til the peopled country was reached, and the cara- 
 van separated ; after which, Withington and his 
 sixteen companions (foiu' servants, two merchants 
 with tive servants, and five drivers to their ten 
 camels) hired an escort for tlie march to Gundaiwa, 
 which saved them from a band of robbers. Twice 
 afterwards they were attacked, and compelled to 
 purchase immunity from plunder by a small pre- 
 sent. They next reached the residence of a Haj- 
 poot chief, who had recently escaped from the hau<ls 
 of the Moguls, by whom he had been blinded. His 
 son agreed to escort Withington to Tatta, a distance 
 of only thirty miles, but fraught with danger ; and 
 it wotdd appear, from mere covetousness, acted in a 
 manner quite contrary to the usual fidelity of a 
 Hindoo, and especially of a Kajpoot guide, by trea- 
 cherously delivering over the travellers to a party 
 of marauders, who strangled the two Hindoo mer- 
 chants and their five servants ; and binding Withing- 
 ton and his attendants, marched them forty miles to 
 2 E 
 
 the public: dukes, carls, and knights, judges 
 and privy counsellors, countesses and ladies, 
 " widows and virgins," doctors of divinity 
 ami ])hysic, merchants and tradesmen, are 
 all classified in the list of the 1)51. indivi- 
 duids, by wliom a sum of no less than 
 .€1,629,01.0 (averaging £1,700 for each 
 person) was furnished in 1616 for a new 
 scries of ventures, comprising three distinct 
 voyages, to be undertaken in the four fol- 
 lowing years. Surat and Bantam were to 
 be the chief seats of trade, with factories 
 at Ceylon, Siam, Japan, Maceassar, and 
 Banda. A proposition had previously been 
 made l)y the Dutch for a union of trade with 
 the English, that common cause might be 
 made against the Spanish-Portuguese, and 
 a monopoly secured to the combined com- 
 panies. Tliis offer was repeated in 1G17, ou 
 the plea of the rivalry about to arise from 
 the formation of an East India association 
 in France§, and likewise in Denmark ;|| but 
 
 a mountain stronghold, whence they were sent to 
 Parker, and thence on to Kadenpore : their clothes 
 were stolen from them on the way, and they sub- 
 sisted by begging, until their wants were relieved 
 by the charity of a Banian, whom Withington had 
 known at Ahmedabad, wliich place he reached, " after 
 a distressful absence of 111 days." — (Orme's Origin 
 of the Eiu/lish l-2stahlishmen(, mid of the Comj>ant/'s 
 trade at Surat and Broach, p. 334.) 
 
 X Vide pp. 123-4. 
 
 § The French are said to have made an unsuccess- 
 ful endeavour to double the Cape of Good Hope as 
 early as 1503; in IGOl a small commercial associa- 
 tion was formed in Bretagne. Two vessels were fitted 
 out and dispatched to the East Indies : both were 
 wrecked amid the Maldive Arcliipelago near Cey- 
 lon ; and the commander, Pyrard de Laval, did not 
 return home for ten years. In Kilo, "The Molucca 
 Company" was formed, with exclusive privileges to 
 trade for twelve years. This new .source of compe- 
 tition alarmed the Dutch, and their constant hosti- 
 lity, together witli the alleged exactions of the king 
 of .'\cheen, obliged the French company to relin- 
 quish their enterprise. In 1610- "20, a French ship 
 was burnt at Bantam with a cargo valued at 500,000 
 crowns, " ajiparently by the Dutch." — (Macpherson's 
 Commerce, p. 25G.) Merchants of St. Malo and 
 Diejipe sent vessels to India at various times in 1622, 
 and the former had an agent settled at Bantam. 
 
 II -V Danisli company was formed at Copenhagen 
 in 1612, and six vessels (three belonging to the 
 king. Christian IV., and three to the company) were 
 sent out under a commander named Boschower, who 
 had formerly been in the service of the Dutch in 
 Ceylon, and had come to Europe with an appeal 
 from the natives against the cruelties of the Spanish- 
 Portuguese. Boschower first applied to the Dutch, 
 and conceiving himself neglected, proceeded to 
 Denmark, where he obtained ihe desired assistance, 
 and sailed for Ceylon, but died on the voyage. His 
 second in command became involved in disputes 
 with the rajah he came to befriend, and sailed f -r 
 Tanjore, where, bv means of presents and the pr.) 
 mise of a yearly tribute of £700, he obtained fro:n
 
 206 
 
 PROGRESS OF THE DUTCH IN THE EAST INDIES. 
 
 agaiu rejected.* To guard against the an- 
 tagonism of the Dutch, and likewise to 
 defeat the attempts of English interlopers, 
 who had taken both to trading and priva- 
 teering on their own account, it was deemed 
 necessary to send out a fleet of nine ships, of 
 which six were of considerable size, under 
 the command of Sir Thomas Dale, who was 
 commissioned by the king, and empowered 
 to seize the ships of illicit traders, and to 
 declare martial law in case of necessity. 
 Hostilities were seldom long intermitted : 
 even while the nations at home were in 
 alliance, their subjects in the Indies were 
 more or less openly at strife, unless indeed 
 their joint influence was needed against the 
 Portuguese, whose powers of aggression and 
 even defence were now, however, almost neu- 
 tralised by their disorganised condition. 
 
 The Lisbon company to whom the exclu- 
 sive claims of the Spanish crown had been 
 made over, was unable to furnish the stipu- 
 lated payments ; and the king, finding him- 
 self impoverished instead of enriched by his 
 Indian possessions, sent an order to Azevedo, 
 the viceroy, to make the government sup- 
 port itself, by selling every ofiice to the 
 highest bidder. This had already been done 
 to a great extent ; but the royal order for so 
 disgraceful a proceeding annihilated the 
 few remaining relics of a better system ; and 
 the Moors and Hindoos, instead of humbly 
 suing these former lords of the Indian seas 
 for a passport (which, even when obtained, 
 often failed to secure their vessels against 
 the rapacity of Portuguese cruisers), now in 
 turn became the assailants, thus materially 
 aiding the aggressive policy of the Dutch. 
 
 The English did not often come in con- 
 tact with the Portuguese, their head-quarters 
 
 the rajah a cession of territory, on which the settle- 
 ment of Tranquebar and the fortress of Dansburg 
 were established. By justice and kindness the Danes 
 acquired the goodwill cf the natives : their trade 
 extended to the Moluccas and China j they had fac- 
 tories at Bantam and on the Malabar coast; gained 
 possession of the Nicobar islands in the Bay of 
 Bengal (of which they could make nothing); and 
 built a neat town called Serampore, fifteen miles 
 above Calcutta, on the llooghly river. All these 
 stations were under the direction of Tanjorc ; and 
 matters went on favourably until the rajah became 
 involved in a long and sanguinary war, which pre- 
 venti'dtheDanesfromprocuringcargoes with any cer- 
 tainty, and proved an obstacle to their commerce 
 which all their economy and perseverance never 
 enabled them to surmount. — (Anderson's Coinmcrce.) 
 ' An attempt was likewise made for tlie establish- 
 ment of a Scottish Kast India Com])any, and a royal 
 patent granted in 1G18 to Sir James Cunningham, but 
 withdrawn in consequence of the interference of the 
 
 being at Surat; but about the time of their 
 establishment in that place, the Dutch at- 
 tempted to trade with the Malabar coasts, and 
 in 1603, made an ineft'ectual endeavour to 
 dislodge the Portuguese from Mozambique 
 and Goa ; opened a communication with 
 Ceylon ; succeeded in expelling them from 
 the islands of Amboyna and Tidore, and by 
 degrees engrossed the whole trade of the 
 Spice Islands; their large equipments and 
 considerable proportion of military force, 
 under able commanders, enabling them to 
 conquer the Moluccas and Bandas.f The 
 reinforcements of the Portuguese grew 
 scanty and insufficient ; their Spanish ruler 
 finding full employment for his forces in 
 maintaining the struggle in the Low Coun- 
 tries, and, at the same time, guarding his 
 dominions in the West Indies and South 
 America; the Dutch were therefore enabled 
 by degrees to fix factories at Pulicat, Masu- 
 lipatam, and Negapatam, on the Coroman- 
 del coast ; in Ceylon ; at Cranganore, Cana- 
 nore, and Cochin, in Malabar; and thence 
 pushed their commercial agencies to Bussora 
 and the shores of the Persian Gulf. The 
 Amsterdam company also formed establish- 
 ments in Sumatra and Java. 
 
 The twelve years' truce, entered tipon be- 
 tween Spain and Holland in 1609, checked 
 open hostility in the Indies; but the Dutch 
 covertly continued their opposition ; and in 
 1611, succeeded in opening a trade with the 
 islands of Japan, despite the exclusive pre- 
 tensions of the Spanish-Portuguese. The 
 growing naval strength of England justly 
 gave them more uneasiness than the decay- 
 ing power of a nation whose yoke they had 
 thrown off'; and they already found the 
 English, competitors for the spice trade, of 
 
 London company, who made compensation for the 
 expenses incurred. The king, in return for this con- 
 cession, and with a view of sustaining the Russian 
 company, which had long been in a precarious state, 
 prevailed on the East India Company to unite with 
 them in carrying on a joint trade, each party advanc- 
 ing £30,000 per annum during the continuance of 
 their respective charters ; but the experiment failing 
 after a trial of two seasons, the connexion was dis- 
 solved at the termination of the year 1G19 ; the loss 
 of the East India Company being estimated at 
 £40,000 — (Milburn's Oriental Commerce, p. 10.) 
 
 t Their traffic seems from the first to have been 
 always lucrative, though fluctuating. The dividends 
 to the sliareholders in each year, from KJOI to 1613 
 inclusive, were at the rate of 125, 5j, 75, 40, 20, 
 25, 50, and 37 per cent. Numerous strong squa- 
 drons were equipped: in H)13-'14, no less than 
 twenty-seven s'riips were dispatched to India. — 
 ( I'ot/nr/cs undertaken !>;/ Dutch East India Company : 
 published in London, 1703.)
 
 TREATY BETWEEN DUTCH AND ENGLISH COMPANIES— a.d. 1010. 207 
 
 which a complete monopoly was their especial 
 desire. The islands of I'olaroon and Rosen- 
 gin* were fortified hy the Enj^lish, with the 
 ])ormission of the natives, ahout the year 
 1017. This the Dutch resented, on the 
 gronnd that they were already possessed of 
 authority over the whole of tiu; Handas hy 
 reason of their occupation of the more im- 
 portant islands in the f^roup. They attacked 
 Pohiroon and were driven off, but seized two 
 English ships, and declared their intention 
 of retaining them until the liluglish should 
 consent to surrender all rights and claims 
 on Polaroon and the Spice Islands. Consi- 
 dering the general, though unjust, ideas 
 then entertained regarding the rights ob- 
 tained in newly-discovered countries by 
 priority of occupancy, without regard to the 
 will of the natives, the Dutch had some 
 plausible pretext for maintaining their claims 
 to the exclusive advantage of trade witii the 
 IMoluccas, as obtained by conquest from the 
 Spanish-Portuguese ; but with regard to the 
 settlement in Java, they could not urge that 
 plea, since they had at first welcomed the 
 arrival and alliance of the English, and made 
 no opposition to their establishment in that 
 island, now sanctioned by time. Their own 
 notions of the case are set forth in a memo- 
 rial addressed to King James in 1G18, 
 complaining of the encroachments of his 
 subjects, and praying him to restrain their 
 further aggressions : the London company, 
 on their part, vindicated their conduct, and 
 enumerated a long series of losses and 
 injuries entailed upon them by the jealous 
 enmity of the Dutch. The governments of 
 the respective companies resolved to make 
 an arrangement for the regulation of the 
 East India trade ; and after repeated confer- 
 ences, a treaty was signed in London, in 
 1619, by which amnesty for all past excesses 
 was decreed, and a mutual restitution of 
 ships and property. The pepper trade at 
 Java was to be equally divided. The Eng- 
 lish were to have a free trade at Pulieat on 
 the Coromandel coast, on paying half the 
 expenses of the garrison, and one-third of 
 the trade of the Moluccas and Pandas, 
 bearing an equal proportion of the garrison 
 expenses ; joint exertions to be made for the 
 reduction of the customs and duties claimed 
 
 * Two small islands in the Banda archipelago, 
 chiefly prodvicint; nutmegs and oilier spices. 
 
 t Btiniam, which attracted so much attention in 
 the early periods of European intercourse with the 
 East, is situated near the north-west point of Java 
 (lat. S" 52' J long. 106' 2), at the bottom of a large 
 
 by the native governments at different 
 ports; the trade of both the contracting 
 ])arties to be free to the extent of the speci- 
 fied fmuls respectively employed ; each com- 
 ])any to furnish ten ships, not to be used in the 
 European trade, but only for mutual defence, 
 and in carrying goods from one port of 
 India to another. Finally, a Council of 
 Defence, composed of four members on either 
 side, who were to preside each alternate 
 mouth, was established for the local super- 
 inteiulence of the treaty, which was to re- 
 main in force twenty years. 
 
 Some months before these arrangements 
 were conchuled, the fleet under Sir Tiiomas 
 Dale combined with tlie king of Bantamf 
 for the expulsion of the Dutch from Jaceatra ; 
 which being accomplished, tlic place was left 
 in the possession of its native owners ; but 
 shortly afterwards again seized from the 
 Javanese by their former conquerors, who 
 thereupon laid the foundation of a regidar 
 fortified city, on which was bestowed the an- 
 cient name of Holland, "Batavia," and which 
 became, and still remains, the seat of their 
 government and the centre of their trade. 
 
 The scheme of making the two companies 
 politically equal, and commercially unequal, 
 was soon found to be impracticable ; and 
 before the Council of Defence had been well 
 established in Jaceatra, the domineering 
 conduct of the Dutch clearly proved their 
 determination to take an unjust advantage 
 of their superior capital and fleet. Consi- 
 derable exertions were, however, made by 
 the English company, and ten large ships 
 sent out, with £G2,490 in money, .and 
 £28,508 in goods. Nine of these vessels 
 were detained in the East Indies ; but one 
 returned home freighted with a cargo which 
 realised £108,887 ; and had the Dutch acted 
 up to the spirit or letter of their agreement, 
 the returns would have been immense. 
 Instead of this, they gradually laid aside the 
 flimsy veil which they had at first cast over 
 their intentions, and at length ceased to at- 
 tempt disguising their continued determina- 
 tion to monopolise the spicc-tradc. In fram- 
 ing the treaty, no distinction had been made 
 between past and future expenses : the Eng- 
 lish intended only to bind themselves for the 
 future; the Dutch demanded from them a 
 
 bay, between the branches of a shallow river. A 
 factory, it will be remembered, had been formed 
 there by the English, under Captain Lancaster, ia 
 IGU'2, and this had been burned by the Dutch, who 
 had also attacked the palace of the king of Bantam, 
 with whom they were constantly at variance.
 
 208 ENGLISH AND PERSIANS EXPEL PORTUGUESE FROM ORMUZ— 1622. 
 
 share of the past, and carried themselves in ' 
 so overbearing a mauner, that the English 
 commissioners soon reported the worse than 
 uselessness of maintaining a connexion which 
 involved the company in a heavy outlay, 
 without adequate remuneration. In the 
 circle of which the ancient city of Surat* 
 was the centre, affairs were proceeding more 
 prosperously. A treaty of trade and friend- 
 ship had been concluded with Persia, in 
 1620, on very advantageous terms for the 
 English, to whom permission had been ac- 
 corded to build a fort at Jask ; but an 
 expedition sent there in the following year 
 found the port blockaded by a Portuguese 
 fleet, consisting of five large and fifteen 
 small vessels. The English having but two 
 ships, did not attempt to cope with so dis- 
 proportionate a force, but sailed back to 
 Surat, where, being joined by two other 
 vessels, they returned to Jask, and suc- 
 ceeded in forcing an entrance into the 
 harbour. The Portuguese retired to Ormuz,t 
 and after refitting, made a desperate attack 
 upon the English, who gained a decisive 
 victory over a much superior force. This 
 event produced a deep impression on the 
 minds of the Persians, who urged the victors 
 to unite with them for the expulsion of the 
 Portuguese from the island of Ormuz ; and, 
 although it was against the royal instruc- 
 
 * Surat, already repeatedly mentioned in connec- 
 tion witli the Moguls, Portuguese, and Mahrattas, 
 is the present capital of Guzerat, situated on the 
 bank of the Taptee river, about twenty miles above 
 its junction with the sea, in 21' 11' N. lat., 73' 7' E. 
 long. On the establishment of European intercourse 
 with India, different nations resorted thither, as it 
 had long been a commercial emporium, and was 
 deemed " one of the gates of Mecca," from the num- 
 ber of pilgrims who embarked there on their way to 
 visit tiie tomb of Mohammed. The Dutch did not 
 visit Surat until 1617, and then only by accident, being 
 shipwrecked off the coast, and kindly treated by tlie 
 English, who aided thum in disposing of their car- 
 goes at Surat, by which means they learned the im- 
 portance of this ancient emporium, of which they 
 were not slow to take advantage. 
 
 t Ormuz, six miles long by four miles broad, is 
 situated at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, in 2~r 
 12' N., witliin seven miles of the main land. AVhen 
 first visited by the Portuguese, under Albuquerque, 
 ir. 150S, it was a place of considerable trade; there 
 were then 30,000 men on the island, and in the 
 harbour 400 vessels, sixty of them of large size, and 
 having 2,.'i00 men on board. The place was caj)- 
 tured by the Portuguese in loH, and it remained 
 in their possession for 120 years, during which time 
 the fortifications were increased, noble mansions 
 built, and the town advanced in wealth and splen- 
 dour, until it grew to be regarded as the richest spot 
 in the world. Tlie share of the customs granted to 
 the English at Gombroon, soon resulted in the trans- 
 
 tions to attack the subjects of the king of 
 Spain, the previous provocation and the 
 urgent solicitation of the Shah was supposed 
 to justify a further breach of the peace. A 
 joint assault was made, and the town and 
 castle captured in 1G22, the English having 
 the chief conduct of affairs, and receiving in 
 return a proportion of the plunder, and a 
 grant of the moiety of the customs at the 
 port of Gombroon, j which was regularly paid 
 till about 1680, when the company, being 
 unable to keep the gulf free from pirates, 
 the Persian monarch withheld their dues. 
 Notwithstanding the favourable result of this 
 enterprise, the four representatives of the 
 English East India Company at Jaccatra, who 
 bore the title of " President and Council," 
 blamed the co-operation with the Persians 
 as a rash and ill-advised measure, because 
 the pepper§ investment had been lost, from 
 the company's vessels not arriving at Acheen 
 as expected; beside which the general interest 
 had suffered, from the shipping intended for 
 the Java and Sumatra trade being detained 
 by the factors at Sumatra. || Probably 
 the English members of the Council of De- 
 fence felt the necessity for the concentration 
 of their force as a guard against the Dutch ; 
 but for this the whole was far too little. The 
 expiration of the truce between Spain and 
 Holland, in 1621, gave the signal for the 
 
 fer of the trade to that port ; and in the hands of the 
 Persians, Ormuz degenerated into a heap of ruins. 
 
 J Gombroon lies nearly opposite to Oi'muz, in 
 27" 10' N. lat, 54° 45' E! long., on the mainland of 
 Persia. The English were ])crmitted to establish a 
 factory here in 1G13, and the Dutch in 1620. After 
 the expulsion of the Portuguese from Ormuz, many 
 Persian merchants removed to Gombroon, which 
 was then strongly fortified, and adorned with fine 
 structures. When the interests of the E. I. Cy. be- 
 came concentrated on the continent of India, their 
 distant factories were neglected. The French seized 
 Gombroon in 1759 : it was reoccupied by the English, 
 but eventually abandoned from its unhealthiness. 
 
 § The stress laid on pepper and other sjiices, as 
 primary articles in the East India trade, can only be 
 explained by remembering, that in those days (while 
 homcEopathy was unknown) both cordials and viands 
 were flavoured to a degree which, when the cost of 
 spices diminished, proved itself a fashion rather than 
 a want, by falling into comjiarative disuse. 
 
 II A share of the prize-money taken at Ormuz and 
 elsewhere was demanded by the king, in right of the 
 Crown, and by the Duke of Buckingham, as Lord 
 High .\ilmiral. The company admitted tlie former, 
 but denied the latter claim, upon which the duke 
 stopped at Tilbury the seven out-going ships for the 
 season, lS23-'4, and obtained £10,000 as a compro- 
 mise. The same sum was required by the king, but 
 there is no direct evidence tliat ho ever received it. 
 The total jiriKe-money was stated at 240,000 rials, 
 or £100,000.— (liruce's Annals vol. i., p. 212.)
 
 CRUELTIES OF THE DUTCH AT AMBOYNA— a.d. 1G23. 
 
 'M'.) 
 
 renewal of luulisguiscd liostility on the jkiiI; 
 of the Dutch towards the settknnetits of the 
 S[)aiiish-Portu<;ucsc ; and the hii'f^e arma- 
 iiionts their hicrative trade cnabh'd them to 
 e<iui|), rfudcrcd thorn strong; enough to brave 
 the vengeance l)()tli of their ancient foes and 
 of their allies the J'^n'^lish. Upon the plea 
 that there had been a prior ayireement with 
 the natives of the Bandas, who had placed 
 themselves under the sovereignty of the 
 States- General, the Dutch governor. Van 
 Coens, proceeded to the islands of I'olaroon, 
 Rosengin, and Lantorc, and took possession 
 of the factories, treating the few Englishmen 
 he found there with the most barbarous 
 cruelty, and executing great numbers of the 
 natives on pretence of a conspiracy. The 
 successor of Van Coens, Peter Carpenticr, 
 o|)enly asserted the right of sovereignty over 
 the countries in which the Dutch trade was 
 situated, and declared that the English had 
 oidy a title by the treaty as subordinate 
 traders. The English factory at Bantam 
 had been removed to Batavia on the faith 
 of the Dutch performance of their treaty ; 
 but they soou found their mistake, and de- 
 sired to return to ]5antain, where, by favour 
 of the king, their old ally, they doubted not 
 that ten ships of 800 tons might be annually 
 filled with pepper, provided the Javanese 
 were allowed to bring it in without obstruc- 
 tion;* but to this measure the Dutch would 
 not consent, lest the progress of their newly- 
 erected and neighbouring sovereignty at 
 Batavia should be thereby impeded. The 
 English had uo force wherewith to oppose 
 the tyranny of their pretended coadjutors, 
 
 * A frequent complaint urged against the Dutch, 
 in tlie AiDKils of the E. I. Cij. is, that they sought 
 '• to bear down the mcrcliaiits of every other country 
 by raising the price, so as to render the trade un- 
 productive to all olher nations." — (Bruce, vol. i., p. 
 2-'U.) But if the Uutcli company, by good manage- 
 ment of their funds, could afford to purchase pepper 
 from the natives at so high a pi-ice as tc " bear 
 down" all competition, the means employed would 
 seem perfectly h'gitimate. 
 
 t Amboyna, to the south of Ceram, is the largest 
 of the Clove Islands : Fort Victoria, the capital, lies 
 in ;i'42' S. hit., 128' 11' E. long. The Portuguese 
 discovered this island in 1511, and occupied it in 
 1564, in consequence of its valuable spices ; but 
 were driven out by the Dutch in 1GU7, who, as also 
 the English, formed factories here ; and by the 
 treaty of 1619, lioth nations were to occupy Am- 
 boyna in common. 
 
 X The factories at Siam and Potani,i were with- 
 drawn about the same time, also those in Japan, 
 upon which island the Dutch had been driven during 
 a storm in lliOO: and through the influence subse- 
 quently acquired by their English ])ilot, " old Wil- 
 liam Adams," over the mind of the emperor, had 
 
 but real foes ; and at length tired of remon- 
 strance, urged the company to use every 
 exertion to procure from the king the annul- 
 ment of a treaty, whose ambiguity enabled 
 the stronger party at will to opjircss the 
 weaker. The commercial efforts of the 
 factors stationed at Aniboynaf liad ])rovcd 
 equally unsatisfactory j they were therefore 
 ordered by the English president and coun- 
 cil to leave the station with their property 
 and come to Batavia. J It was at this crisis 
 that those barbarous proceedings were insti- 
 tuted which rendered the conduct of the 
 Dutch at Amboyna a synonymc for cruelty. 
 The local government, on the plea of 
 the formation of a plot for its expulsion, 
 seized ten Javanese about the middle of 
 February, 1()23, and by subjecting them to 
 excessive and repeated torture, extorted a 
 declaration that they had been parties in a 
 conspiracy which the English agent (Captain 
 Towerson), with thirteen of his countrymen 
 and one Portuguese sailor, had formed to 
 seize on the castle of Amboyna, and exter- 
 minate the Dutch. That such a conspiracy 
 should have been formed against an over- 
 powering force, by a few trading agents who 
 had no ambitious motives to prompt so daring 
 an attempt, is highly improbable ;§ but the 
 savage persecution of the Dutch governor 
 can hardly be accounted for, except by sup- 
 posing that he and his associates were hur- 
 ried on by a desire to revenge a supposed 
 wrong; or else, that having resolved to be 
 rid of their troublesome competitors, they 
 first brought forward an accusation invented 
 for the purpose, and then wrung from them, 
 
 obtained, in 1609, permission to send two ships 
 annually to the port of Firando. Adams, on learn- 
 ing the establishment of his countrymen at Bantam 
 (which the Dutch strove to conceal from him), sent 
 a letter to advise their opening intercourse with 
 Japan. In June, Kil.'j, the Clove, Captain Saris, 
 with a letter from King James I., and presents in 
 charge of a superintendent or factor, arrived. The 
 king or governor of Firando sent Captain Saris to 
 Jedo, the capital, where he was well received; a 
 friendly answer returned to the royal letter, and a 
 very liberal charter of privileges granted to the E. I. 
 Cy. The Dutch soon instituted hostilities against 
 the factory ; ]ilundcred the ships, wounded and killed 
 several of tlie English, and compelled the rest to liee 
 for their lives, which would probably have been sacri- 
 ficed as at Amboyna, but for the interference of the 
 Japanese, who, for several years after their departure, 
 guarded the deserted factories from plunder, in con- 
 stant expectation of their return. 
 
 § There were four strong forts, garrisoned by about 
 200 Dutchmen, with some 300 or 400 native troops ; 
 the English, in all, numbered about twenty men, in- 
 cluding a surgeon and tailor, who were among the 
 sufferers.
 
 210 EXECUTION OF CAPT. TOWERSON AND ENGLISH FACTORS— 1 623. 
 
 by intolerable anguisli, a confession of guilt, 
 tbe falsity of which none knew better than 
 those who extorted it. The motives remain a 
 mj'stery — as thoseof great public criraesoften 
 do ; the cause assigned being insufficient to 
 account for the fiend-like cruelty with which 
 Captain Towerson and his miserable com- 
 panions were by turn subjected (as the na- 
 tives had previously been) to the agonies 
 which, by the aid of those two powerful 
 agents, fire and water, the wicked invention 
 and pitiless will of man can inflict upon his ' 
 fellow.* By the Dutch code, as by the codes 
 of all the other continental nations of Europe, 
 evidence obtained by torture afforded suf- 
 ficient ground for legal condemnation : the ] 
 English, it was alleged, were living under 
 Dutch sovereignty, established before their 
 arrival in the island ; and on these grounds, 
 the whole of the accused were condemned 
 to death, and with four exceptions, beheaded 
 on the 27th of the same month in which 
 they were first seized — all of them pro- 
 testing, with their latest breath, their entire 
 innocence of the crime with which they were 
 charged. t Besides the above-named persons 
 who were reprieved, four others remained in 
 Amboyna, whose absence at the time of the 
 alleged conspiracy had procured their safety. 
 The survivors were sent for by the English 
 president and council to Batavia, so soon as 
 the terrible end of their companions was 
 known there, and gladly made their escape, 
 leaving their oppressors to seize the factories 
 and stores, and to commit all manner of 
 cruelties on the wretched Javanese, who 
 were shipped off in large numbers, as slaves, 
 to different islands. The English sufferers 
 were dispatched to London, where they ar- 
 rived in August, 1G24'. Their representations 
 of the horrible outrage committed in Am- 
 boyna, seconded by the protestations of in- 
 nocence, written in a Bible and other books 
 belonging to their unhappy countrymen, 
 were sedulously circulated, and the efl'ect 
 heightened by the exhibition of a picture, in 
 which the victims were represented upon the 
 rack, writhing in agony. The press teemed 
 with publications, enlarging upon the same 
 subject; and the tide of po|)ular feeling rose 
 80 high, that in default of ability to reach 
 the true criminals, it liad well nigh found 
 
 • These proceedinjjs nre narrated at lenfjth in 
 Hall's C'nicUien nf the Dutch in the East Indies, 
 8vo., London, 1712: they were continued during 
 several days, incliidinfj a Sunday, and are too hor- 
 rible for quotation : it must, therefore, sudice to say, 
 that each victim was placed on the rack, and com- 
 pelled to inhale water at every attempt to draw 
 
 vent on the heads of the unoflFending Dutch 
 residents in London, who urgently ap- ' 
 pealed to the Privy Council for protection, 
 and complained of the conduct of the East 
 India directors, whose proceedings, though 
 probably not uninfluenced by views of mis- 
 called policy, would yet be very excusable, 
 when viewed on the ground of indignation 
 at the unjust and cruel sufferings inflicted 
 on their servants. 
 
 A commission of inquiry was instituted 
 by the king; application made to the Dutch 
 government for signal reparation ; and an 
 order issued for intercepting and detaining 
 the Dutch East India fleets, till an accom- 
 modation should be arranged. The evasive 
 answer of the States was evidently framed 
 with a view of gaining time to let the fierce 
 but short-lived tumult of popular rage pass 
 away, before coming to any definite arrange- 
 ment. The only concession offered, deemed 
 worth accepting, was permission for the 
 English to retire from the Dutch settlements 
 without paying any duties; and even this 
 was accompanied by an unqualified assump- 
 tion of the sovereign and exclusive rights of 
 the Dutch over the Moluccas, Bandas, and 
 Amboyna, — the very point so long contested. 
 
 King James manifested considerable 
 energy on this occasion ; but his foreign 
 and domestic policy had acquired a reputa- 
 tion for weakness and vacillation, which 
 probably militated against the success of 
 the measures instituted in the last few 
 months of his reign, which terminated in 
 March, 1625. His ill-fated son succeeded 
 to a regal inheritance heavily burdened with 
 debt, war, and faction ; which required, at 
 least humanly speaking, the governance of 
 one gifted with a powerful and unprejudiced 
 intellect, and judgment wherewith to guide 
 the helm of state — -by that best rudder, the 
 power of distinguishing the cry of faction 
 from the desire of a nation. Had Charles I. 
 been thus endowed, even a turbulent par- 
 liament could not liave driven him to 
 alienate the affections of his subjects by the 
 expedients (irregular loans and ship-money) 
 to which he had recourse. As it was, the 
 failing power of the Crown diminished the 
 hope of redress entertained by the company, 
 and subjected them to danger from the 
 
 breath, until his body became inflated and he 
 swooned, was recovered, and the same horrible pro- 
 cess repeated. The fire was applied by means of 
 lighted candles, held to the elbows and other sensi- 
 tive parts of the body, and relit wlien extinguished 
 by the heavy sweat of a};ony. — (Pp. 18 to 32.) 
 t This fact rests on Dutch authority.
 
 ENGLISH DRIVEN BY DUTCH FROM SPICE ISLANDS TO INDIA. 211 
 
 fccliiip; afjainst monopolies, which was evi- 
 dently gaining fjrotmd in the House of ("orn- 
 mons, stimulated by the couiplaiiits of tlie 
 ])rivato traders, or interlopers, who pleaded 
 the severities exercised af^ainst them iu the 
 Indian seas. Tlie charter of the company 
 was the };ift of the Crown, from whicli they 
 had recently received a new and important 
 prerogative ; namely— authority to punish 
 their subjects abroad by common and 
 martial law :* nor does the sanction of par- 
 liament appear to have been deemed neces- 
 sary for the delegation of so important a 
 trust. But a change was rapidly taking | 
 place; and the company, alarmed for the 
 continuance of their monopoly, paid homage 
 to the rising sun, by presenting a memorial 
 to the Commons, in which they represented j 
 the national importanco of a traffic employ- 
 ing shipping of 10,000 tons burden, and 
 2,. 500 men ; and urged that the Dutch 
 should be pressed to make compensation 
 for past injuries, and discontinue their op- 
 pressive conduct in monopolising the spice- 
 trade, which was felt the more sensibly by 
 the English from the diiliculty they ex- 
 perienced iu opening a trade for woven 
 goods on the coast of Coromandel. The 
 precise condition of their finances at this 
 period is not recorded ; but it was certainly 
 far from being a prosperous one :t nor 
 could they foresee the issue of the efforts 
 which their expulsion from the Indian 
 islands compelled them to direct to the for- 
 mation of settlements on the great peninsula 
 itself. In the interim, many difficulties 
 were to be encountered. The company's 
 Persian trade languished under the caprice 
 and extortions of local magistrates. Their 
 agents, soou after the catastrophe at Am- 
 
 • Captain Hamilton asserts, tliat before tliis time 
 (1624), the servants of the company, liaving no 
 power to inflict capital punishment by the legal 
 mode of hanging, except for piracy, had recourse to 
 wliipping or starvation for the same end. It is very 
 possible, tliat in the general license and disorder 
 attendant on the formation, whether of factories or 
 colonies, by men suddenly removed beyond the 
 pale of conventional propriety, and unguided by a 
 deeply-rooted principle of duty, that many violent 
 deeds were committed in the profaned name of jus- 
 tice. Nevertheless, so serious and sweeping a charge 
 as the above, requires some stronger confirmation 
 than any adduced by Mr. Hamilton, who did not 
 enter India until si.xty years after the period of 
 which he writes so freely, and who, by his own 
 admission, lias recorded much hearsay information, 
 through the medium of wliat he describes as " a 
 weak and treacherous memory." The date of the 
 facts are in some measure a criterion how far they 
 may be relied on. His description of scenes, in which 
 
 boyna, had quitted Java and retired to 
 Lagundy, in the Straits of Sunda. In less 
 than a year, the extreme unliealthiness of 
 the island rendered them anxious to abandon 
 it; but of 2,">0 men, l.'JO were sick, and 
 they had not a crew sufficient to navigate a 
 ship to any of the English factories. In 
 this emergency the Dutch assisted them, by 
 aiding their return to Hatavia; and through 
 the steady friendship of the Faiu/rmi, or 
 king of Bantam, they obtained the re-estab- 
 lishment of their factory there, in 1629, 
 without opposition on the part of the Dutch, 
 who were then actively employed iu de- 
 fending Batavia against the Materam, or 
 emperor of Java, who unsuccessfully be- 
 sieged it with 80,000 men. 
 
 In lG28-'9, the station at Armcgaun, on 
 the Coromandel coast (established on a 
 piece of ground purchased from the Naiff, 
 or local chief, shortly before) was fortified ; 
 twelve pieces of cannon being mounted 
 round tlie factory, with a guard of twenty- 
 three factors and soldiers. The centre of 
 the company's trade was the presidency of 
 Surat, wiiere, however, they had to sustain 
 the commercial rivalry of the Dutch, whose 
 larger capital, and, according to Mill, 'more 
 economical management,! enabled them to 
 outbid the English, both iu purchase and 
 sale. The Spanish-Portuguese made an 
 effort to retain their vanishing power ; and 
 in 1630, the viceroy of Goa having received 
 a reinforcement from Europe of uiue ships 
 and 2,000 soldiers, projected the recovery of 
 Ormuz, and made unsuccessful overtures to 
 the Mogul governor of Surat to obtain the 
 exclusive trade. He then attacked five 
 English vessels as they entered the port of 
 Swally; but after a short, though indecisive 
 
 he had been an actor, bear the stamp of truthfulness : 
 though, so far as tlie company is concerned, thev are 
 often tinctured with prejudice; for the writer was 
 himself an "interloper." — (Vide Keic Account of the 
 J^aat IiiJies, or " Observations and Remarks of Cap- 
 tain Hamilton, made from the year 1GS8 to 1723.") 
 
 + In 1027, Sir Robert Shirley, before mentioned 
 as Persian ambassador, and one of the two brothers 
 who so strangely ingratiated themselves with Shah 
 Abbas, applied to the king and council to order the 
 E. I. Cy. to pay him £2,000 as compensation for his 
 exertions and services in procuring them a trade 
 with Persia. The directors denied the alleged ser- 
 vice, and moreover stated, that having " been obliged 
 to contract so large a debt as £200,000, their para- 
 mount duty was, in the first instance, to liquidate 
 this debt, that they might raise the price of the 
 stock, which had sunk so low as eighty per cent. — 
 (Bruce, vol. i., p. 272.) 
 
 I Mill's History of British India, edited by Pro- 
 fessor Horace Hayman Wilson, vol, i,, p. 64.
 
 212 
 
 COMIMENCEMENT OF TRADE WITH BENGAL— a.d. 1634. 
 
 action, followed by several ininor skirmishes, 
 and one great effort to destroy their fleet by 
 fire, the English gained the victory, and 
 succeeded in landing their cargoes. 
 
 In lG31-'2, a subscription, amounting to 
 i6l20,700, was opened for a third joint- 
 stock fund. Its results have not been very 
 accurately chronicled ;* neither if they had 
 would they afford matter of sufficient interest 
 to occupy space already so limited, that the 
 author is frequently compelled to ci'owd 
 into a note that which he would otherwise 
 have gladly woven into the text. 
 
 The Dutch were now the paramount 
 maritime power in India : tliey annually 
 sent from Holland thirty-four to forty-one 
 ships, receiving in return from twenty-five 
 to thirty-four rich cargoes ;t and the oc- 
 casional squadrons still dispatched by the 
 Spanish-Portuguese, opposed their formidable 
 enemy with even less success than did the 
 brave sailors who manned the " ventures" 
 of English, French, and Danish companies. 
 
 The revolution in Portugal, in 1640, by 
 which, in less than a week, that kingdom 
 regained its independence, had not its ex- 
 pected effect in restoring the national in- 
 fluence in India. The Dutch continued 
 their conquering course ; and having pre- 
 viously expelled the Portuguese from the 
 Spice Islands, and Formosa in the China 
 Seas, drove them from Malacca in 1640, 
 Japan in 1641, and terminated a long and 
 
 • The effect of the company's proceedings had 
 been for several years a subject of parliamentary 
 discussion; and some valuable statistics regarding 
 their early condition have come down to us in the 
 form of documents laid before the House. It appears 
 that from 1600 to 1G21 inclusive, 86 ships were sent 
 to India, of which 36 returned with cargoes, 9 were 
 lost, 3 worn out in trading from port to port, 11 
 captured by the Dutch, and 25 accounted for as 
 engaged in India or on their voyage home. During 
 this time, the exports had amounted to £613,681 in 
 bullion, and £319,211 in woollens, lead, iron, tin, 
 and other wares, making a total of £932,892, or 
 about £45,000 per annum : the imports realised 
 £2,004,600, the cost of lading having been 
 £375,288. Another paper, drawn up by order of 
 the Commons in 1625, states, that between March, 
 1G20, and March, 1623, 20 ships were equijiped, and 
 furnished with bullion to the amount of £205,710, 
 and goods worth £58,806; total, £264,516. The 
 imports during the same time, including raw silk 
 from China and I'ersia, and a sum of £80,000 paid 
 by the Dutch in accordance with the treaty of 1619, 
 realised £1,255,444, or on an average, £313,861 per 
 annum, and would have been much gi-eatcr but for 
 the hostilities with the Dutch. The principal objec- 
 tions urged on public grounds against the company 
 were, that the exportation of specie impoverished 
 the realm, and that the navigation of the southern 
 seas was dcsti'uctive both to the mariners. and vessels 
 
 severe struggle by expelling them from 
 Ceylon in 1656. The fortified stations on 
 the Malabar coast — Cochin, Cananore, Cran- 
 ganore, Coulan, and others of minor im- 
 portance, likewise changed hands ;| but the 
 Portuguese, on their side, had wherewith to 
 balance, at 1' ast in part, the success of their 
 opponents in the East Indies, by their own 
 acquisitions in South America (the Brazils) ; 
 and in 1661, a treaty was formed between 
 Portugal and Holland, on the basis of the 
 Uti posseditis — each party agreeing to be 
 content with their reciprocal losses and 
 advantages. 
 
 The English company, meanwhile, found 
 it difficult to- maintain even a feeble and 
 interrupted trade ; and the more so from 
 the unfaithful conduct of their own agents 
 at Surat.^-^ In 1634, permission was granted 
 by the emperor for trade with the province 
 of Bengal, with the restriction that the 
 English ships were to resort only to the 
 port of Piplee, in Orissa ; and in the fol- 
 lowing year, a friendly convention was 
 entered into with the Portuguese. This 
 latter arrangement becoming known in Eng- 
 land, excited hopes of extraordinary profit, 
 and induced a nuiuber of gentlemen, headed 
 by Sir William Courten, to form a new 
 association for trade with India. By the 
 intervention of Endymion Porter, a gentle- 
 man of the bed-chamber, Charles I. was 
 prevailed upon to sanction, and even to 
 
 employed. In reply to these charges it was urged, 
 that the company exported not English, but foreign 
 coin ; and that the quantity had always fallen far 
 short of the sum authorised by the charter, and was 
 expected to decrease yearly : with regard to the in- 
 jurious results alleged to be produced on the English 
 marine by the East India trade, the best answer was 
 its greatly increased inefficiency. — (Monson's Karal 
 Tracts in Churchill's Voi/atjcs — Bruce and Maepher- 
 son.) The pro's and con's of the question .as urged 
 by the political economists of that day are very 
 curious. What would have been their surprise, could 
 they have been forewarned of the wealth England 
 was to receive from India ; or been told that the 
 country whose currency could, they considered, ill 
 bear a yearlv drain of specie to the amount of 
 £30,000, would, in 1853, be found capable of ex- 
 porting £30,000,000. 
 
 t Macpherson's Commerce tvith India, p. 49. 
 
 } " When will you return to India?" said a Dutch 
 to a Portuguese officer, who was cm!)arking for 
 Europe after the surrender of a fortress to his .an- 
 tagonist. — " When your crimes are greater than 
 ours," was the instructive rcjily. — (Memoirs of India, 
 by H. G. Wallace: London, 1824, p. 198.) 
 
 § Instead of attending to the company's affairs, 
 the jH'esident and council carried on a private trade, 
 until, quarrelling among themselves, they betrayed 
 one another, and were obliged to solicit the leniency 
 of their far-distant employers. — (Bruce, i., 325.)
 
 FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENT FORMED AT MADRAS— a.d. 1640. 213 
 
 accept a sliaro in the proposed arlvcnturc. 
 Tlic preamble to the license, whieli was 
 {granted (or a teiiu of live jcars, alicf;es 
 that the lOast India Coni|)any had ne;;h'ctcd 
 to establish fortified factories or scats of 
 trade, to which the kinj^'s sulyects could re- 
 sort with safety ; tliat tlicy luvj broken tlie 
 conditions on which their, charter had been 
 granted ; and had generally accomplished 
 uothinj; for the good of the; nation, in pro- 
 portion to the great ])rivileL;('s they had 
 enjoyed, or even to the I'linds of which they 
 had disposed. Tlicse allegations, were they 
 true, could not jnstify the breach of faith now 
 committed : had the monopoly been clearly 
 proved injurious to the nation, nothing 
 beyond the stipulated three years' notice 
 .was necessary to its legal abrogation. Tlic 
 company remonstrated and jietitj^ncd with- 
 out success : and one Ca|)tain Weddel, who 
 had been previously engaged in their ser- 
 vice, proceeded to the East Indies with six 
 ships, and there occasioned the agents of 
 liis former employers great inconvenience, 
 both by interfering with their trade, and 
 by drawing n])on them the hostility of the 
 natives, who naturally suspected actual col- 
 lusion, hid beneath the apparent rivalry 
 of men of the same nation. In l()3~-'8, 
 several of Courten's ships returned with 
 cargoes, which produced an ample profit to 
 the association ; and a new license was con- 
 ceded, continuing their privileges for five 
 years. The old company, who had never 
 ceased complaining and petitioning against 
 the Dutch, had now a second source of 
 anxiety, to which a third was soon added ; 
 for the king, in his distress for funds where- 
 with to carry on the Scottish war, compelled 
 them to make over to him, on credit, the 
 whole of the pep|)er they had in store, and 
 then disposed of it at a reduced price for ready 
 money.* Lord Cottingtou and others bc- 
 
 * The kinp: boii<rlit 607,522 bags of pppper, at 
 2s. Irf. per lb.=£f),'i.28;i lis. 6d. : and sold it at 
 Is. 8f/. = £50,C2G ITs. U/.— (Bnice, vol. i., p. 371.) 
 
 t Tlie affairs of the third joint-stock were wound 
 up in l(i-iO, and the ori^'inal capital divided, with a 
 profit, in eleven years, of only tliirty-five per cent- — 
 little more than tliree |)er cent, per annum. In tlie 
 following year, £()7.5()() were subscrilied for a single 
 voyage; and in IC-llj, about £1(15,000 were raised 
 for a i'ourlh joint-slock. The attempts made, witli 
 this small sum, were very unfortunate : one ship, 
 valued at £.'35,(lOO, was wrecked; and another, with 
 a cargo wortli i'L'O.OOO, was carried into Bristol by 
 her commander (Captain Macknel), and delivered 
 over for the king's use, during the civil war in whicli 
 the nation was then involved. The company bor- 
 rowed money botli at home and abroad ; aiid, in 
 1040, their debts, in England, amounted to £122,000. 
 
 came sureties for tlie king, who, when they 
 were pressed for its reijaynient, exerted him- 
 self for their relief and tlic liipiidation of 
 the debt ; but his jjower soon ceased; and 
 what (if any) portion of their claim the com- 
 pany eventually recovered, is not known. 
 It was while matters were in their worst 
 state of distress and embarrassment at 
 home, that the hrst English stations des- 
 tined to prove of permanent importance 
 in India were formed. f The position of 
 Armegaun had been found inconvenient for 
 providing the " piece-goods "J wiiich con- 
 stituted the principal item of exportation 
 from the Cororaandel coast; the permission 
 of Sree Ranga Raya, the rajah of Chand- 
 ragiri,§ granted in 1610, for the establish- 
 ment of a settlement at Madras (sixty-six 
 miles south of Armegaun) was therefore 
 eag(M-ly embraced, and the erection of Fort 
 St. George immediately commenced by the 
 chief local agent, Mr. Day. The court, 
 or executive committee in London, deemed 
 the enterprise hazardous, and inclined to 
 its abandonment ; but by the advice of the 
 president and council of Surat, the de- 
 fences were continued, though on a very 
 limited scale. Madras remained subordi- 
 nate to the distant station of Bantam until 
 1633 ; but was then raised to a presidency. 
 Lest its importance should be over-rated, it 
 may be well to add, that the garrison of the 
 fort at this latter jieriod amounted (>nly to 
 twenty-six English soldiers, and, in 1634— '5, 
 was ordered to be diminished to a guard of 
 ten, and the civil establishment to two factors. 
 The settlement of a trading post at 
 Hooghly forms another early and impor- 
 tant link in the chain of circumstances, 
 that from slender beginnings, under a policy 
 of the most irregular and uncertain cha- 
 racter, has terminated in the formation of 
 that extraordinary power, called by some 
 
 Their effects are stated a.s follows : — " Quick stock at 
 Surat, £83,600; at Bantam, £60,731 ; in shipping 
 and stores, £31,180; and customs at Gombroon, 
 estimated at £5,000: forming a total of £180,511." 
 — (Milburn's Orientul Comineice, vol. i., p. 27.) 
 
 J The general term applied to the muslins and 
 wove-goods of India and China. 
 
 § A descendant of Venkatadri, brother of the 
 famous Kama llajah, the last sovereign of Beeja- 
 nuggur (sue p. 97.) In compliment to the naik, or 
 local governor, who first invited the English to 
 change their settlement, the new station was named 
 after liis father, Chenna-patam, and is still so called 
 by the natives, though Europeans use an abbreviation 
 of its previous designation — Madras-jiatani. The 
 territory granted extended five miles along-shore and 
 one mile inland. — (Hamilton's Gazetteer, and Orme's 
 Historical Fraiinuuts of the Mogul Empire, p. 229.)
 
 214 BOUGHTON OBTAINS TRADING PRIVILEGES FROM THE MOGUL. 
 
 an empire of chance, but really an empire 
 of Providence. Jehanara, the favourite 
 daughter of Shah Jehan, in retiring one 
 night from the imperial presence to her 
 own apartments, set her dress on fire in 
 passing one of the lamps which lit the 
 corridor, and fearful of calling for assis- 
 tance while the male guards of the palace 
 were within hearing, rushed into the harem 
 all on fire, and was fearfully burned before 
 the flames could be extinguished. The most 
 famous physicians were summoned from dif- 
 ferent parts of the empire, and the surgeons 
 of the Euglish East-Indiamen having ob- 
 tained considerable repute for cures per- 
 formed on some Mogul nobles, an express 
 was sent to Surat for one of them. Mr. 
 Gabriel Boughton was selected for the 
 important office, and having been instru- 
 mental in aiding the recovery of the 
 princess, was desired by Shah Jehan to 
 name his reward. With rare disinterested- 
 ness, Boughton asked exclusively for bene- 
 fits to the company he served ; and in return 
 for this and subsequent attendance on the 
 household of the emperor and Prince Shuja, 
 the governor of Bengal, he obtained a licence 
 for unlimited trade throughout the empire, 
 with freedom from custom-dues in all places 
 except Surat, and permission to erect fac- 
 tories, which was availed of by their es- 
 tablishment at several places, especially 
 Hooghly, from whence the Portuguese had 
 been expelled in 1633.* Authorities agree 
 with regard to the leading facts of the 
 above occurrences, with one important ex- 
 ception — the date, which is variously stated 
 as lG36,t 1610,t and lG51-'2. Bruce, the 
 careful annalist of the E. I. Cy., fixes the 
 latter period for the formation of the 
 Hooghly factory, but his notice of Bough- 
 ton is scanty and unsatisfactory, probably 
 from the character of the data on which it 
 was founded ; for the " cautious mercantile 
 silcnec"§ observed by the company extended 
 to their records; and while striving to make 
 the most of their claims upon the country 
 at large, and to represent at its highest 
 value the " dead stock" acquired in India, 
 in the shape of trading licences, forts, fac- 
 tories, &c., they were naturally by no means 
 
 • They had settled there subsequent to the termi- 
 nation of Faria y Snusa's history, in 1640: for an 
 account of thuir cxpulsinn by Shah .Jehan, see p. 131. 
 
 t Malcolm's I'dlilinul India, vol. i., p. 18. 
 
 \ Stewart states that iiouf;ht<in was sent to the 
 ini])erial camp, in the Deccan, in 10^)0 ; and that fac- 
 tories were established at Balasore and II()()f,'hly, in 
 1G40. — {^History of Benyal, p. 2J2.) Dow mentions 
 
 anxious to set forth the easy terms on which 
 some of their most important privileges 
 had been obtained. During the concluding 
 years of the reign of Charles I., they main- 
 tained a struggling and fitful commerce. 
 In 164'7-'8, when the king was a prisoner 
 in the Isle of Wight, and the power of the 
 parliament supreme, a new subscription was 
 set on foot, and strenuovts endeavours made 
 to induce members of the legislature to sub- 
 scribe, in the hope that the English, like 
 the Dutch company, might ensure the pro- 
 tection of the state, through the influence 
 of its chief counsellors. This project seems 
 to have failed; and in 1649-'50, attempts 
 to form another joint-stock were renewed, 
 and carried out by means of a junction with 
 Courten's association, now designated the 
 " Assada Merchants," in consequence of their 
 having formed a settlement on an island 
 called by that name, near Madagascar. 
 
 The establishment of the Commonwealth 
 changed the direction, but not the character 
 of the solicitations of the company. They 
 now appealed to Cromwell and his Council 
 for redress from the Dutch, and the renewal 
 of their charter. The first claim met with 
 immediate attention, and formed a leading 
 feature in the national grievances urged 
 against Holland. The famotis Navigation 
 Act, prohibiting the importation of any 
 foreign commodities, except in English 
 vessels, or those of the countries wherein 
 they were produced, though, under the pe- 
 culiar circumstances of the time, absolutely 
 requisite for the encouragement of the Bri- 
 tish navy, was felt bj' the Dutch as a measure 
 peculiarly levelled against the carrying trade, 
 so important to their national prosperity; 
 and ambassadors were sent to Cromwell to 
 solicit its repeal. The war which followed 
 his refusal, involved the feeble settlements of 
 the English in India in great danger, and 
 almost suspended their coasting-trade ; but 
 the success of their countrymen in Europe, 
 soon delivered them from this peril. Crom- 
 well reduced the Dutch to the necessity of 
 accepting peace on terms of his dictation ; 
 and a treaty was concluded at Westminster, 
 in 1654, in wliich a clause was inserted for 
 the appointment of a commission, composed 
 
 the accident of the princess as occurring in 1643, but 
 does not name Boughton. — (Hiniinostan, vol. iii., p. 
 190.) It apjicars that no hrnian was issued, but 
 only a " nishan," or order from I'rinee Shuja, with 
 warrants from the local governors; l)ut, in 1080, 
 Aurungzehe confirmed the grant of Sluih Jehan. 
 
 § Wxacv'f. Axnah of E. I. C!/.,fr<i>n IfiOO to Union 
 of London ami English Cos., in 1 707-'8, i., 420.
 
 CROMWELL COMPELS COMPENSATION FROM DUTCH E.l.Cv.— 1G5L 215 
 
 of four Dutch and four Eu^lisli members, 
 to examine into and dceido upon the 
 claims of their respective nations, and to 
 award punishment to all survivors concerned 
 in the perpetration of the cruelties at Am- 
 boyna, in l(i23.* Li the event of the eom- 
 niissioners heini; unai)le to come to a de- 
 cision, within a specified time, their differ- 
 cnees of oi)inion were to be submitted to 
 the arbitration of the Protestant Swiss 
 cantons. 
 
 The claims of both parties, as might be ex- 
 pected from the circumstances of the case, 
 bear evident marks of exaj;i;eration, thou><h 
 to what dcfrrce it would be diilicult to jud^'c. 
 The English company estimated their da- 
 mages, as ascertained bv a series of accounts 
 from 1 Gil to 1052, at .£2,095,991) 15*.; the 
 Dutch, at £2,919,801 13*. Gd. The award 
 of the commissioners set aside the balance 
 claimed by the latter, and allotted to the 
 English the sum of .L85,0O(), and £3,015 to 
 the heirs or executors of those who had 
 suffered at Amboyna. Polaroon was like- 
 wise to be ceded by the Dutch ; but they 
 long endeavoured to evade compliance with 
 this stipulation ; and when, after the lapse of 
 many years, the island was at length sur- 
 rendered, f the nutmeg plantations, wliieh 
 had constituted its chief value, were found 
 to have been all purposely destroyed. 
 
 The English company were not well 
 pleased with the amount adjudged to them, 
 and their dissatisfaction was greatly increased 
 by Cromwell's proposition to borrow the 
 £85,000 in question, until its distribution 
 should be arranged. The directors asserted 
 that the dili'crent stocks were £50,000 in 
 debt, and many of the proprietors in diffi- 
 cult circumstances;]; hut that they would 
 consent to spare £50,000, to be repaid by 
 instalments in eighteen months, provided 
 the remaining £35,000 were immediately 
 assigned them to relieve their more pressing 
 
 • It does not appear tliat this latter part of the 
 agreement was ever fulfilled. 
 
 + In 1065: 1)amni,an island near Banda, was occu- 
 pied by the Knglisli in the same year; but they were 
 driven out by a IJutch force, on the plea of a prior 
 right. The war between England and Holland gave 
 the Dutch an opportunity for regaining I'olaroon ; 
 and by the pacification of Breda in 1G67, the British 
 government tacitly surrendered both I'olaroon and 
 Damm, in consideration of more important objects 
 gained by that treaty. 
 
 X " At the same time," says Mill, " it is matter 
 of curious uncertainty who these directors were, 
 wliom they represented, by what set or sets of pro- 
 prietors they were chosen, or to whom they were 
 responsible." — (Vol. i., p. 861.) 
 
 liabilities, and make a dividend to the share- 
 holders. 
 
 The ap[)lication of the company for a 
 confirmation, under the republic, of the ex- 
 clusive privileges granted under the mo- 
 narchy, was not cfjually successful. It ia 
 not necessary to enter into the question of 
 whether the well-grounded aversion enter- 
 tained by the public towards the monopolies 
 of soap, wine, leather, salt, &c., bestowed 
 by the Crown on individuals, extended to 
 the charters granted for special purposes 
 to large associated bodies ; the fact remains, 
 that so far from obtaining a confirmation 
 of their jirivileges, the li. L (Jy., in 1054, 
 beheld with dismay their virtual abrogation 
 in the licences granted by Cromwell to sepa- 
 rate undertakings. The rivalry of discon- 
 nected traders was unimportant in compari- 
 son with that of the so-called ^Merchant Ad- 
 venturers, who were proprietors of the united 
 stock formed in 1019, and who now took their 
 chance, in common with other speculators. 
 By their exertions, four ships were equipped 
 for the Indian trade, under the management 
 of a committee. The news of these events 
 created great excitement in Holland ; and 
 instead of rejoicing over the downfall of an 
 old rival, the Dutch company appear to have 
 been filled with consternation, either fearing 
 that the example miglit lead to the destruc- 
 tion of their monopoly, or else that it would 
 open the door to more dangerous competi- 
 tion from the English at large. The experi- 
 ment of open trade with India was, however, 
 of too brief continuance to afford conclusive 
 evidence regarding the permanent effects 
 it was calculated to produce on British 
 eoramerec;§ for in 1057, the Protector and 
 Council of State decided upon the manage- 
 ment of a corporate body vested with exclu- 
 sive privileges, as the most efficacious method 
 of carrying on the Indian traffic. A new 
 charter was accorded, and a coalition effected 
 
 § Numerous pamphlets, published during the paper 
 war which raged towards the latter part of the seven- 
 teenth century, are still extant. On one side, it was 
 argued, that the chea|)nes8 and abundance of Indian 
 products (especially indigo and calico), which re- 
 sulted from the open trade, attested its beneficial 
 influence on the nation ; but the advocates of the 
 company, in reply, asserted that this was merely a 
 temporary excitement, sure to produce a reaction. 
 With regard to the adventurers themselves, it has 
 been alleged, that they were eminently successful ; 
 but Anderson remarks, " it is generally said that 
 even the interlopers, or separate traders, were 
 losers in the end;" and he adds, "so difficult i.s it 
 to come at the real truth where interest is nearly 
 concerned on botli sides." — (Vol. ii., p. 444.)
 
 216 
 
 BOMBAY CEDED BY PORTUGAL TO ENGLAND— a.d. 1661. 
 
 between the E. I. Cy. and the Merchant 
 Adventurers. By their united efforts a sub- 
 scription was raised, amounting to j£786,000, 
 and arrangements, ah'eady too long delayed, 
 entered into with the owners of the pre- 
 ceding funds ; all the forts, privileges, and 
 immunities obtained in India and Persia 
 being made over to the new association, in 
 full right, for the sum of £20,000, and the 
 ships or merchandise similarly transferred 
 at a valuation. Thus the directors had 
 hencefortii a single fund to manage, and a 
 single interest to pursue ; but, unfortunately 
 for them, the joint-stock was not as yet a 
 definite and invariable sum placed beyond 
 the power of resumption, the sharps only 
 transferable by purchase and sale in the 
 market. On the contrary, their capital was 
 variable and fluctuating, — formed by the 
 sums which, on the occasion of each voyage, 
 the individuals who were free of the com- 
 pany chose to pay into their hands, receiv- 
 ing credit for the amount in the company's 
 books, and proportional dividends on the 
 profits of the voyage. Of this stock, £500 
 entitled a proprietor to a vote in tlie general 
 courts ; and tlie shares were transferable 
 even to such as were not free of the com- 
 pany, on payment of an admission-fee of 
 £o. A defective system, and inadequate 
 resources, together with the hostility of the 
 Dutch, and the disturbed state of the Deccan 
 during the long reign of Aurungzebe, com- 
 bined to render the operations of the com- 
 pany in India languid and inconsiderable. 
 Yet, during this period of depression, several 
 events occurred which had an important 
 bearing on their after-history : in the words 
 of Robert Grant, " amidst the storms under 
 ■which it was bending, — if we may not rather 
 say from the very efl'ects of them, — the 
 British authority silently struck some deep 
 roots into the eastern continent."* 
 
 The death of Cromwell, and the restora- 
 tion of monarchy under Charles II., proved 
 fortunate events to the corporation ; for the 
 Protector, notwithstanding his decision in 
 their favour, had shown a continued inclina- 
 
 • S!ie(ch of the History nf the E. I. Cy., \,a^e 20. 
 
 t Shortly bcl'ore his deatli, Cromwell liceiiRcd a 
 Mr. ]{olt to export three mortars and 20,000 slielh, 
 to be disposed of to A\irun','7.cbe, then engaged in 
 rebellion against his father. The company directed 
 the Surat presidency to seize on these articles as 
 illicit; and the more efl'cctually to frustrate the 
 speculation, sent large quantities of ordnance, mor- 
 tars, shells, &c., desiring the dilferent presidencies to 
 dispose of them at the best price to eitlier of the four 
 rival princes who should first apply for them, pre- 
 serving meanwhile a strict neutrality. — (Bruce, i., ii'J.) 
 
 tion to sanction private adventure, at least 
 in exceptional cases ;t while the king evinced 
 no desire to question or infringe their exclu- 
 sive claims, but confirmed them in the 
 fullest manner in April, 1G61, and empow- 
 ered them to make peace or war with any 
 prince or people not Christians ; and to 
 seize unlicensed persons within their limits, 
 and send them to England. These two 
 privileges, added to the administration of 
 justice, consigned almost the wliole powers 
 of government over "all plantations, forts, 
 fortifications, factories, or colonies" already 
 or hereafter to be acquired by the company, 
 to the discretion of the directors and their 
 servants — not for a stated term, but in per- 
 petuitv, with, however, the usual condition 
 of termination after three year.s' notice, if 
 found injurious to the sovereign or the 
 public. J Two mouths after the renewal of 
 the charter, Charles married the Infanta 
 Catherine, and received, as a portion of her 
 dowry, a grant of the island of Bombay 
 from the crown of Portugal. The Earl of 
 Marlborough, with 500 troops, commanded 
 by Sir Abraham Shipman, were dispatched 
 to India on the king's behalf, to demand 
 possession of the island and its dependen- 
 cies (Salsette and Tanna.)§ The Portuguese 
 governor took advantage of the indefinite 
 wording of the treaty, and refused to deliver 
 over any territory beyond Bombay itself; 
 and even that he delayed to surrender till 
 further instructions, on the pretext that the 
 letters or patetit produced did not accord 
 with the usages of Portugal. The troops 
 were dying day by day, in consequence of 
 long confinement on board ship, and their 
 commander requested the president of Surat 
 (Sir George Oxenden), to make arrange- 
 ments for their reception, but was refused, 
 on the ground that such a proceeding 
 might excite the anger of the Mogul go- 
 vernment. In this emergency, the Earl of 
 Marlborough returned to England, and Sir 
 Abraham Shipman proceeded to the little 
 island of Anjediva, twelve leagues distant 
 from Goa, where, being cooped up in an 
 
 I A clause in this charter confirmed to the com- 
 pany the possession of St. Helena, which they had 
 taken possession of in 1051, as a convfnient station 
 for the refreshment of homeward-bound vessels, the 
 Dutch having previously abandoned it for the Cape 
 of Good Hope. Here, as in liombay, they were em- 
 powered to frame and execute laws " as near as might 
 be" conformable to the constitution of England; a 
 direction not sulliciciitly observed. 
 
 § He urged that the cession of these isles could 
 not have been intended, since it would lay the im- 
 portant station of liussein ojjcn to the English.
 
 BOMBAY TRANSFERRED FROM THE CROWN TO E. I. Cy.— 1GG8. 217 
 
 unhealthy position, and distressed for pro- 
 visions, lie oH'cred to cede the rights of the 
 Euj^lisli Crown to the rnprcscntativcs of the 
 conipany at Siirat. 'J'lic proposition was 
 rejected, for the two-fohl reason that it was 
 unautii()ns(>d, and that the presidency had 
 not a sulhcient force to ooeujiy and main- 
 tain the island. At length, after Sir Abra- 
 ham and the majority of the soldiers had 
 perished, the survivors, about 100 in num- 
 ber, were suffered to take possession of 
 Bombay, in Decem!)pr, \(]('>l,* on terms 
 prcscriljcd by the i'ortuguese. The govcrn- 
 mental expenses being found to exceed the 
 revenue of the island, it was transferred to 
 the E. I. Cy. in lGG8;t " to be held of the 
 king in free and eomnion socage, as of the 
 manor of East Greenwich, on the jjayracnt 
 of the annual rent of ten pounds in gold," 
 and with the place itself was conveyed 
 authority to exercise all jiolitical powers 
 necessary to its defence and government. | 
 
 Bombay, from its insular position, proved 
 a very important acquisition, especially to 
 the presidency of Surat, from which it was 
 situated within a sail of 200 miles, — a very 
 practicable distance considered with respect 
 to the extensive range of the Indo-British 
 establishments. The fortifications were dili- 
 gently enlarged and strengthened ; and in 
 about six years the ordnance of the garrison, 
 
 • Til is date is memorable for the first importation 
 of tea into Kngland by tlic E. I. Cy., a small quan- 
 tity beinjr brouglit as a present for the king. No 
 public order was i^iven for its purchase until 1667 ; 
 when the ardent at Bantam was desired "to send 
 home by these ships 100 lbs. wcis;lit of the best tey 
 that you can gett." — (Bruce, ii., 211.) This article 
 became the chief item in the trade with China, to 
 be described imder the head of Jlmiii-Koiti/. 
 
 + Probably it was intended thereby to recom- 
 pense the company for the annulment of their claims 
 to Pohiroon and Damm, mentioned in a previous 
 note; and also for the cession of their possessions on 
 the coast of Africa (obtained throuf;li their junction 
 with the Assada merchants), to the com]>any formed 
 by the Duke of York, for the hateful slave-trade. 
 
 J The question of the proprietorship of the land 
 at Bombay is nowhere very definitely stated as re- 
 gards tlie native owners. The Jesuits claimed con- 
 siderable portions, as a])pertainiii<; to their college 
 at Bundera, and vainly strove to establish their pre- 
 tensions by force. — (.-/«««/,■;, ii.. 214.) Authority was 
 subsequently given for the purchase of lands in the 
 vicinity of the fort to the extent of £l,oOO. A subse- 
 quent record states that the inhabitants had paid the 
 Kingof Portugal one-fourth of the jirofit of their lands 
 as a quit-rent, wliich President .^ungier commuted 
 for an annual sum of 20,000 xera]>hiiis, reserving to 
 the company the right of military service. — (iii., 105.) 
 
 § The sobriety and regularity of the German re- 
 cruits are particularly praised in the communications 
 of lG7G-'7, and a request made, that a proportion 
 should be annually embarked to supply the frequent 
 
 which, at tlic time of the cession, consisted 
 of twenty-one pieces of cannon, was aug- 
 mented to 100. J'lvery encouragement was 
 iiehl out, both to Euro|)ean and native 
 settlers. A remission of customs was pro- 
 claimed for five years, looms were provided, 
 bouses built, and a system of administration 
 framed with especial regard to liic opinions 
 and customs of tlie motley population, com- 
 prising English and Germaus,§ Hindoos, 
 Mobammedtms, and Parsecs. In I()7i5-'G, 
 the revenues were nearly doubled, liaving 
 increased from .tG,l!)0 (7."j,000 xcraphins) to 
 £12,037 sterling.— (Grant's Skelc/i, p. 87.) 
 Letters-patent were granted by Charles II., 
 in 1G7G, for the esttdjlisbment of a mint at 
 Bombay for the coinage of rupees and pice,|| 
 to pass current in all the de]iendencies of the 
 company. A system was adopted, about the 
 same time, for the general regulation of the 
 service on tlic principle of seniority ever 
 after maintained ; the gradations of ap- 
 prentices, writers, factors, merchants, and 
 senior merchants being then established. 
 
 The position of the company at this period 
 was a very critical one : in England, not- 
 withstanding the decided patronage of the 
 Crown, their severe treatment of interlopers 
 produced fierce altercations between the two 
 houses of parliament,^ and their pecuniary 
 involvements induced them to direct their 
 
 vacancies caused by the climate. A militia was 
 formed, and in l()72-'3, on an alarm from the Dutch, 
 the assistance of oOO K.ajpoots was requested. 
 
 II The rupee was then valued at about three shil- 
 lings : a pice, at a halfpenny. — (liruce's Annals.) 
 
 ^ A memorable in.stance of this strife occurred in 
 tlie case of a merchant, named Skinner, who applied 
 to go^•ernment for redress against tlie K. I. Cy., 
 for having seized his ship and merchandise in India, 
 in 16oS. Ilis complaint was referred by the king to 
 the Privy Council, and thence to the House of Peers, 
 by whom the directors were ordered to answer at 
 the bar the charge brought against them. They 
 refused to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Peers, 
 and appealed to the Commons against this infraction 
 of their chartered privileges. The Lords decreed 
 judgment, by awarding £5,000 damages to Skinner, 
 upon which the Commons pa.ssed some condemna- 
 tory resolutions regarding the Upper House, and 
 seizing the successful petitioner, sent him to the 
 Tower. The Lords, in reprisal for Skinner's incarce- 
 ration, ordered Sir Samuel Barnadiston and three 
 other leading members of the contumacious com- 
 pany into confinement, and declared their memorial 
 false and scandalous: while the Lower House in" 
 turn, resolved, that whoever should execute the sen- 
 tence of the Lords in favour of Skinner, would prove 
 himself a betrayer of the rights and liberties of the 
 Commons of England. To such a height did these 
 contentions proceed, that the king prorogued parlia- 
 ment seven limes on this account : and at length, in , 
 1670, wlien, after some intermission, the controversy 
 again revived, he sent for the members of both
 
 218 COLBERT FORMS FRENCH E. I. Or.— 1664.— PONDICHERRY. 
 
 servants in India to borrow the money 
 necessary for procuring investments or car- 
 goes for Europe, " without being limited 
 either in the amount, or the rate of inter- 
 est."* In the year 1673-'4, the president of 
 Surat stated that the Indian debts amounted 
 to £100,000, exclusive of the rapid accumu- 
 lation of them by the payment of high in- 
 terest ;t and for the liquidation of these 
 sums, the only source as yet available was 
 the balance of trade. Nor was it always 
 practicable to raise loans on any terms ; for 
 the native bankers and dealers, called Shroffs 
 and Banians, who look off the imports of 
 Eui-opean traders in large quantities, and 
 advanced money when the supply sent 
 out was insufficient to provide cargoes for 
 the expected shipping, were themselves con- 
 stantly exposed to the arbitrary exactions of 
 their own government, which they strove to 
 escape by calling in their capital, and bury- 
 ing it till better times enabled them to em- 
 ploy it with impunity. These difficulties 
 induced the president and council to urge 
 that money should be borrowed in England at 
 four per cent., rather than taken up in India 
 at double the cost, or, as frequently happened, 
 no funds being available to provide invest- 
 ments, the ships kept waiting for return 
 cargoes until the arrival of a fresh supply of 
 bullion. Territorial revenue began to be 
 looked to as the remedy for these evils, and 
 
 houses to Whitehall, and by personal persuasion, 
 induced them to erase from "their journals all their 
 voles, resolutions, and other acts relatinp; to the 
 subject. The company came off victors; for Skin- 
 ner, it would appear, never got any portion of the 
 compensation adjudged to him. — (Anderson, ii., 461.) 
 
 * Bruce's. -Inmils of E. I. C'l/., ii., 202. f If''^'", 3t2. 
 
 J The ministers of Louis XIV., Cardinal llichelieu 
 and the great Colbert, had directed their attention 
 to the commercial and naval interests of France. 
 Colbert, especially, laboured in this cause with extra- 
 ordinary zeal and success. In 1642, a settlement 
 was made in Madagascar, preparatory to the exten- 
 sion of French power in the Eastern seas ; but the 
 adventurers, through their wanton cruelty, became 
 involved in contests witli the brave natives (Mala- 
 gash), and notwitlistanding re])eated attempts, were 
 unable to secure a footing in this rich island. In 
 1664, Colbert formed an E. I. Cy. on the model of 
 that of Holland, with a very privileged charter for 
 fifty years, and a stock of i;(i2.5,flOO, partly raised by 
 loan. I'"our ships were sent to Madagascar; and in 
 1608 a factory was commenced at Surat, tlieu the 
 general resort of iMirnpean nations. Hut the French 
 Boon looked to ]]oliticaI rather tlian to commercial 
 prospects; and under the direction of an experienced 
 man, named C'aron (who, disgusted with the ill- 
 treatment received from the Dutch after long and 
 valuable service, had quitted their employ), sur- 
 veyed the coasts of India for an eli^;ible site 
 whereon to lay the foundation of French power. The 
 
 political influence courted as a means of 
 commercial prosperity. There was no esta- 
 blished power under whose protection foreign 
 traders could place themselves, and to whose 
 legitimate authority they coidd offer, in re- 
 turn, hearty and undivided allegiance. Their 
 earliest territorial suzerain, the rajah of 
 Chandragiri, had been overpowered by 
 Meer Jumla, the general of the King of 
 Golconda, about the year 1656, and Moham- 
 medan rule extended over the territory in 
 which INIadras was situated. The English 
 suffered no inconvenience from the change; 
 but were, on the contrary, especially favoured 
 by the usurping sovereign, who suffered their 
 money to pass current, and conferred ujjon 
 them several valuable privileges. They con- 
 tinued to pay him an annual quit-rent of 
 1,200 pagodas, until about 1687-'8, when his 
 power being considerably weakened by the 
 aggressions of Aurungzebe, they appear to 
 have taken advantage of some flimsy pretext 
 to withhold their tribute. By the Great 
 Mogul the English were likewise well 
 treated ; and had he possessed unquestioited 
 supremacy over the places in which their 
 trade was situated, their policy would have 
 been comparatively plain and easy, and their 
 difficulties would have consisted almost ex- 
 clusively in the rivalry of the Portuguese, 
 Dutch, and Danes, to which list the FreuchJ 
 had been recently added. But the rise of 
 
 fine harbour of Trincomalee, in Ceylon, was judi- 
 ciously selected, and taken possession of by a French 
 squadron, under La Haye : hostilities ensued between 
 the French and Dutch E. I. Companies ; but the 
 former losing many men by sicknciss, were soon ex- 
 pelled, and proceeded to the coast of Coromandel, 
 where tliey captured St. Thomas, or Meliapoor. The 
 Dutch co-operated with the King of Golconda, and 
 the French garrison being reduced to the extremity 
 of famine, were com])elled to surrender. Tlie sur- 
 vivors, under the guidance of a Mr. ISIartin, who, like 
 Caron, had previously been in the service of the 
 Dutcli com])any, ])urchased from tlie King of Beeja- 
 poor, a village upon the coast called I'ondicherry, 
 with a small adjacent territory, and there formed the 
 settlement eventually of so much importance. By 
 his prudent measures the place became rapidly 
 ))opulous, and being desirous to put it in a state of 
 defence during the disturbed state of the country, 
 he obtained permission for the erection of fortifica- 
 tions, notwithstanding the ojiposition of the Dutch, 
 who endeavoured to brilie the King of Beejajjoor 
 to withdraw his protection, and jjerniit them to ex- 
 )iel the new settlers; but the firm reply was, " The 
 French have fairly purchased the place j I shall not 
 be so unjust as to take it from th(>m." — (Macphcr- 
 son's Comnicrce tcitli India, p. 2(!().) The Beejapoor 
 monarchy was overthrown by Aurungzebe in 1686. 
 The Dutch overpowered the French garrison, and 
 drove them out in 16!):) ; then, desirous to secure their 
 conquest, immediately improved and strengthened the
 
 ENGLISH DEFEND SURAT AGAINST SEVAJEE— IGGl and 1C70. 219 
 
 thcMalirattas, under Scvajcc — a native power 
 )iii(!cr a native leader — jjreatly clianj^ed the 
 stale of all'airs. At first, the J'hii^lish were 
 disposed to follow the example of their im- 
 perial patron, and treat the new leader as a 
 mere marauder — a eaptaiu of l)anditti — 
 wliosc attempts at friendly communieation 
 were to be evaded, without however, unne- 
 cessarily provoking a foe whose anger and 
 alliajicc were both to be avoided. 
 
 When Scvajee advanced against Surat 
 in IGGI', the terror of his name had already 
 taken sueh deep root, that the governor 
 shut himself up in the castle, and the in- 
 haliitants fled from the city. The Dutch 
 and J'higlish remained in their factories ; and 
 the latter, calling in the ships' crews to their 
 aid, by courage and determination succeeded 
 in preserving their own property, and that 
 of their immediate neighbours, from pillage. 
 Aurungzcbe rewarded this service by a 
 firmauu, conceding one per cent, out of his 
 three per cent, custom duties, and a total 
 exemption from all transit charges. In 
 1G70, the place was again approached by 
 Sevajee. The French, who had established 
 a factory there, preserved it by paying a 
 contribution :* the Dutch station being 
 without the town, was not attacked : the 
 English, having transported the greater part 
 of their goods on board ship to Swally, 
 prepared to guard the remainder at all 
 hazards. The factory -was assailed, but suc- 
 cessfully defended by the English, though 
 several lives were lost, as well as some 
 property in detached warehouses. The 
 Mahrattas then threatened to set the factory 
 on fire ; but Sevajee was unwilling to pro- 
 ceed to extremities, being desirous to induce 
 them to return as traders to Ilajapoor, 
 ■which they had qiiittcd on account of his 
 exactions. A eoni|)limentary ju-esent offered 
 to Sevajee, was very gratifying to him. He 
 extended his hand to the English deputies, 
 with an assurance that he would do them no 
 wrong ; and on several subsequent occasions 
 negotiations were set on foot, which, how- 
 ever, the English endeavoured to evade 
 bringing to any definite conclusion, by 
 demanding compensation for the injuries re- 
 works : but their labour proved ill-bestoired ; for the 
 place was rostored to its rightful owners by the treaty 
 of Kyswick, in 1697. — (Ivavnal's E. nml II'. Iiirlicx.) 
 
 I • Wilson's note on Mill, vol. i., p. 99. Grant Duff 
 says, " the French purchased an iunominious neu- 
 tiality, by pcrmiitin}; tlic Mahrattas to pass through 
 
 I their factory to attack an unfortunate Tartar prince ' 
 wild was on his return IVom a pilgrimage to Mecca, i 
 and wliose property [including a vast treasure in j 
 
 ccived from the Mahrattas at Surat and 
 elsewhere. This stipidation was conceded 
 in in~t, and a treaty formed, by which 
 ]0,()()() jjagodas were promised to the 
 aggrieved jjarty, and the long-maintained 
 right deemed iidicrcnt in the sovereign over 
 all wrecks on the shores of his territory, re- 
 linquished in favour of English vessels. The 
 entlironement of Sevajee took place at this 
 time, and the envoy beheld with amazement 
 a portion of the magnificent ceremonial, 
 with its costly and eharaeteristic feature, — 
 the weighing of the person of the new 
 sovereign against gold coin to be distributed 
 among the Brahmins, as an act of reverence 
 to their order, aecom])anied by the per- 
 formance of many munificent acts of charity. t 
 The Mogul government watched with jealous 
 distrust this growing intercotirse, and the 
 J'Jnglish found great dillicidty in maintaining 
 a neutral position. In lG77-'8, the direc- 
 tors of the E. I. Cy., or, as they were then 
 termed, the Court of Committees, " recom- 
 mended temporising ex])cdients to their ser- 
 vants as the rule of their jiroceedings with 
 the Mogul, with Sevajee, and with the petty 
 rajahs," as the means of obtaining com- 
 pliance with the various firmauns and grants 
 already acquired ; and desired them to en- 
 deavour, by their conduct, to impress the 
 natives witli an opinion of their commercial 
 probity. " At the same time," says Bruce, 
 " they gave to President Aungier and his 
 council [at Surat] discretionary powers to 
 employ armed vessels to enforce the obser- 
 vance of treaties and grants : in this way 
 the court shifted from themselves the re- 
 sponsibility of commencing hostilities, that 
 they might be able, in any qnestioTis which 
 might arise between the king and the com- 
 pany, to refer such hostilities to the errors 
 of their servants."^ This writer is too inti- 
 mately acquainted with the company's pro- 
 ceedings, and too decidedly their champion, 
 to be accused of putting an unfair construc- 
 tion on any of their directions. It was 
 evidently necessary that considerable lati- 
 tude shoidd be given by masters so far re- 
 moved from the scene of action ; but subse- 
 quent events indicate that plans of tern- 
 gold, silver, and plate, a gold bed and other rich 
 furniture], became part of Sevajee's boasted spoils 
 on this occasion." — (Hifton/ of Mahrattaf:, i., 217.) 
 
 t Dr. Fryer mentions that he weighed about 
 10,000 pagodas, equal to about ten stone. The 
 titles assumed by Sevajee were. — the hcntl nrnament 
 of the Cshatn'i/a nice, his mii/estt/, the rajah Seca, 
 j)0''sessor or lord of the roi/al umbrella. 
 
 % Bruce's Annals of E. I. fi/., ii., -lOG-'".
 
 220 
 
 ENGLISH SOLDIERS MUTINY AT BOMBAY— a.d. 1683-'4. 
 
 torial aggrandisement, to be carried out by 
 force of arms, were already entertained. 
 
 The governmental expenses of Bombay 
 (civil and military) were found to be very 
 heavy ; and as a means of meeting them, 
 taxes were raised and salaries diminished ; 
 that of the deputy-governor, the second in 
 rank in the service, being reduced to £120 
 per annum. Great dissatisfaction was created 
 by these changes, especially by the diminu- 
 tion of the garrison; soon after which the 
 trade of the place was menaced by two 
 sterile isles in the neighbourhood (Henery 
 and Kenery) being taken possession of re- 
 spectively by Sevajee and his opponent, the 
 Siddee, or Abyssinian leader, wlio held the 
 position of admiral of the Mogul fleet.* 
 The English were obliged to conclude a 
 humiliating truce with both parties, and 
 thus purchase freedom from interruption 
 to their trade, until the abandonment of 
 these barren rocks relieved them from alarm 
 on that score. 
 
 The death of Sevajee, in 1680 ; the ap- 
 pointment of Mr. (afterwards Sir John) 
 Child as president of Surat, with a council 
 of eight members, in 1681 ; the erection of 
 an independent agency in Bengal, in 1682; 
 and the expulsion, in the same year, of the 
 English from Bantam, f were rapidly fol- 
 lowed by other importaut events. The system 
 of injudicious retrenchment attempted at 
 Madras and Surat, and persevered in at 
 Bombay, J ended in producing a revolt in 
 that island. Captain Keigwin, the com- 
 mander of the garrison, which comprised 
 150 English soldiers and 200 topasses 
 (natives), seized the deputy-governor, with 
 such of the council as adhered to him, as- 
 sembled the militia and inhabitants, and 
 being by them appointed governor of the 
 island, issued a proclamation declaring the 
 authority of the company to be annulled in 
 Bombay, and that of the Crown substituted 
 * Siddee, or Seedee, is a corruption of an Arabic 
 term, signifying a lord ; but in the common language 
 of the Decean, it came to be applied indiscriniiiiately 
 to all natives of Africa. The Siddees of Jiiijeera 
 took their name from a small fortified island in the 
 Concan, where a colony had been formed on a jug- 
 hire, granted, it ajjpears, in the first instance, to an 
 Abyssitiian oflicer, by the king of Ahmednuggur, on 
 condition of tiiv maintenance of a marine for the 
 protection of trade, and tlie conveyance of pilgrims 
 to the lU'd iSea. The hostility of Sevajee induced 
 the Siddee, or chief, to seek favour with Aurungzebe, 
 by whom he was made admiral of the Mogul fleet, 
 with an annual salary of four lacs of rupees (£40,0(10) 
 for convoying pilgrims to Judda and Mocha. The 
 emperor himself sent an annual donation to Mecca 
 of three lacs. — (Duff's 3Iahrattas, Bruce, and Orme.) 
 
 in its place. President Child had no force 
 wherewith to compel the submission of the 
 insurgents ; and his attempts at negotiation 
 were decidedly rejected, on the plea that 
 the measures which had led to the rebellion, 
 had originated solely in the selfish policy of 
 himself and his brother. Sir Josiah Child, 
 the chairman of the Court of Committees. 
 
 The king was appealed to by both parties ; 
 and in November, 1684, the island was de- 
 livered up by Keigwin to Sir Thomas Gran- 
 tham, as the representative of the Crown, oa 
 condition of a free pardon for himself and all 
 concerned. To prevent the recurrence of a 
 similar disturbance, the seat of government 
 was removed from Surat to Bombay ; and for 
 the suppression of the interlopers, who were 
 believed to have been intimately concerned 
 in the late revolt, admiralty jurisdiction was 
 established in India, by virtue of letters- 
 patent granted by James II., in 1686. Sir 
 John Child was appointed captain-general 
 and admiral of the forces of the E. I. Cy., 
 both by sea and land, in the northern parts 
 of India, from Cape Comorin to the Gulf of 
 Persia, and he was likewise entrusted with 
 supreme authority over all the settlements. 
 The weapons thus furnished were used with au 
 unhesitating determination, which has ren- 
 dered the conduct of the plenary representa- 
 tive of the powers delegated to the company 
 a subject of unqualified panegyric, and of 
 equally exaggerated blame. The truth pro- 
 bably lies between these extremes. The bro- 
 thers Child were men of considerable ability, 
 and deeply interested in the fortunes of the 
 company, whose afi'airs devolved chiefly on 
 their management. They were led, by a 
 very natural process, to contrast the flourish- 
 ing state of the Dutch trade with their own 
 depressed condition, and to seek for the 
 cause of the comparative, if not complete 
 exemption of the rival company from the 
 unlicensed competition of their countrymou, 
 t In 1(577, the principal agents at Bantam were 
 assassinated by some of the natives, on wliat ground, 
 or by what (if any) instigation, does not appear. The 
 company persevered, nevertheless, in endeavouring 
 to maintain commercial intercourse ; and friendly 
 embassies, accompanied by presents of tea on the 
 part of the King of Bantam, and of gun])owder on 
 the part of the Knglish sovereign, were cuiitinually 
 disjfatched, until a civil war. instigated by the Dutch, 
 terminated in the deposal of the old king by his son, 
 who, in oliedicnce to his domineering allies, expelled 
 the iMiglish from their factory in 1()82, and never 
 permitted their re-estahlishnient in liis territories. 
 
 I In l()82-'3, the Kuro]iean garrison, reduced to 
 at least 100 men, "were daily nuuinuring at the 
 price of provisions, which their i)ay could not afford." 
 — (Urucc's Annals (.•)' E. I. Cij., ii., 489.)
 
 E. I. Cy. commence hostilities against AURUNGZEBE-1G8G. 221 
 
 and from the dnlinqucncy of their servants. 
 Whether they cxaniiiicd and compared tlic 
 coinmereial (Ictails of the two assoeiations 
 does not ajipcar, nor whctlier tlioy made duo 
 allowanec for tlic lieavy drain occasioned l)y 
 tlic large sid)sidics, or, as the anti-monopo- 
 lists called them, hrihes, furnished to ("harles 
 II. and James II., not, liowever, for the jiri- 
 vate use of these nionarehs, since the monies 
 iu qiiestion are said to have hccn jiaid into 
 the cxelicquer for the publie service.* He 
 this as it may, the remedj^ for cxistinf;^ evils 
 constantly pnt forth by the company during 
 the administration of Sir .Tosiah (]hild, was 
 a close imitation of the policy of the success- 
 ful and unscrupulous Dutch, whose ag- 
 gressive conduct towards the natives had its 
 counterpart in the sanguinary decree for 
 the infliction of capital punishment on all 
 interlopers and deserters. Sir .losiali Cliild 
 certainly undei'stood the mind of the Eng- 
 lish publie at the -close of the seventeenth 
 century far too well to press the adoption of 
 such a law, -nhatever his own wishes on 
 the subject might have been. lie contented 
 himself with urging the suppression of pri- 
 vate trade by more gentle means, at the 
 same time advocating the attainment of in- 
 dependent pow'cr in India, by the enlarge- 
 ment and strenuous assertion of the authority 
 of the company over ]5ritish subjects within 
 the limits of their charter ; and, secondly, 
 of retaliativc, if not aggressive hostilities 
 against the Indian jirinces. The admiuis- 
 tration of Shaista Khan, as " Nabob,"! or 
 governor of Bengal, was alleged to have 
 been vexatious and oppressive in the ex- 
 treme; and amicable negotiations having 
 failed in procuring redress, it was thought 
 practicable to obtain better terms by force 
 of arms. Accordingly, the largest military 
 armamcntj ever yet assembled bj- the com- 
 pany, was dispatched to India, with orders 
 to gain possession of the city and territory 
 
 • Grant's SlefrJi of History of E. I. 0/.,pp. 105-'G. 
 
 t An En<;lish corruption of the Arabic word Naib 
 or tlic Persian Kmrnh (meaning deputy), applied to 
 the imperial soubahdars or governors. 
 
 t Ten armed vessels, from twelve to seventy guns, 
 and six companies of infantry, without captains, 
 whose ])laccs were to be sup])lied by tlic members of 
 council, in Bengal. In addition to this force, appli- 
 cation was made to the king for an entire company 
 of regular infantry, with their officers. 
 
 § Bruce, vol. ii., ]i. oSO. It was stated in 169t-'2, 
 that £100,000 had been spent in fortifying and im- 
 proving liombay, including the harbour, docks, &c. 
 
 i| The aldermen were to be justices of the peace, 
 and to wear thin scarlet gowns, and the burgesses 
 black silk gowns: a town-clerk and recorder were to 
 2 G 
 
 of Chittagong as a place of future scctirity, 
 and thence retali.atc upon the Nabob, and 
 even n[)on the Mogul himself, the injuries 
 and losses which had already been sustained. 
 ]$ombay was elevated to the rank of a 
 regency, after the example of the JJuteii at 
 Bataviaand (Jolumbo ; and orders were given 
 to increase the fortifications, and render the 
 island " as strong as art and money could 
 make it."§ Madras was formed into a cor- 
 poration, to consist of a mayor and ten 
 aldermen (of whom three were to be the 
 company's servants and seven natives), with 
 120 burgesses. II An offer was made by the 
 garrison of Fort St. George (Madras), to 
 aid the King of Golconda against the 
 Dutch, with wiiom he was then at war; and 
 in return, a firmaun was to be solicited to 
 coin rupees, together with the grant of St. 
 I'homas as an English possession. Thus 
 the company were desirous of attaining po- 
 litical influence in all directions; and their 
 A'iews were seconded with much energy by 
 Sir John Child, who, following the spirit of 
 the instructions cited in a previous page, 
 resolved to commence hostilities against 
 Anrungzebc, as if on his own responsibility ; 
 so that in the event of an unfavourable issue 
 to the expedition, an opportunity might he 
 provided of negotiating for the restoration of 
 former privileges and trade, upon the same 
 basis as they had stood previously to his 
 apparently unsanctioned proceedings. 
 
 By some casualty the whole force did not 
 arrive in the Ganges at the same time ; and 
 an insignificant quarrel between three Eng- 
 lish soldiers and the " peons," or native 
 police of the Nabob, brought on the contest 
 in an unexpected manner, in October, 1G86. 
 Hooghly was cannonaded by the fleet under 
 Captain Nicholson, and 500 houses were 
 burnt, upon which the foujdar, or military 
 governor, made overtures for peace; but 
 the demands of the English were so exces- 
 
 be appointed ; a sword and mace to be carried before 
 the mayor, and a silver oar before the judge-advo- 
 cates — ceremonieswhich musthave been very puzzling 
 to the native aldermen. Some difficulty occurred in 
 carrying this project into execution ; for although 
 the inh.ibitants soon recognised tlie beneficial effect 
 of the new measure, the mixed description of persons 
 considered projier for the court of aldermen could 
 not he obtained. No Armenian could be induced to 
 act; the Jews left the place; the Portuguese feared 
 their countrymen and the Inquisition too much to 
 accept office ; and the local authorities considered it 
 unsafe to " confide in the Moors or Mussulmen." — 
 (Bruce's Annals of the E. I. Ci/.. ii., 593 ; 659 : iii., 
 lU; 156.) With regard to tlie Hindoos, no objection 
 appears to have been raised either by or against them.
 
 222 ENGLISH COMPELLED TO SUE FOR PEACE WITH MOGUL— 1688. 
 
 sive, amounting to above sixty-six lacs of 
 rupees, or nearly £700,000, that they could 
 scarcely have expected compliance. On 
 the side of Surat considerable advantage 
 was at first gained by the capture of a num- 
 ber of Moorish vessels, richly freighted ;* 
 and also in Bengal, through the determined 
 conduct of Job Charnock, the company's 
 agent, by whom the Nabob's forces were 
 repulsed in repeated assaults, the fort of 
 Tanna stormed, the island of Injellee seized 
 and fortified, and the town of Balasore par- 
 : tially burned, with forty sail of the Mogul 
 fleet : the factories, however, at Patna and 
 Cossimbazar were taken and plundered by 
 the enemy, and the agents placed in irons. 
 At this period, Muchtar Khan was appointed 
 governor of Surat, and with him a sort of 
 provisional convention was entered into, 
 which was to be the basis of a treaty with 
 the Mogul. The court in London, over- 
 joyed at the prospect of such favourable 
 terms, voted Sir John Child a present of 
 1,000 guineas, — a very large sum ia propor- 
 tion to the moderate salaries then appor- 
 tioned to Anglo-Indian functionaries.f 
 
 The negotiation fell to the ground. Ac- 
 cording to the account given in the oflBcial 
 records, INluchtar Khan never intended to 
 carry it out, and only affected to entertain 
 the proposition as a means of gaining time 
 until the results of the contest of Aurungzebe 
 with Beejapoor and Golconda, and also with 
 Sumbajee, should be fully manifest. This 
 seems contradicted by the fact, that after 
 these two kingdoms fell into the power of 
 the Mogul, the English authorities of ISIadras 
 solicited and received from the conqueror a 
 confirmation of the privileges accorded to 
 them by the deposed monarch. In fact, 
 they followed the example of a neighbour- 
 ing Hindoo governor, who quietly remarked, 
 that " as the world turned round like a 
 wheel, he had beaten his drums and fired his 
 guns, for the victory of the mighty Aurung- 
 zebe over his old master." J Sir John Child 
 severely reprimanded the Madras agency for 
 "their conduct, as implying a doubt of the 
 ultimate issue of the struggle of their country- 
 men with the Mogul ; but since he had him- 
 self evinced pretty clearly a similar feeling, 
 by afl'cctiug to act on his private authority, 
 without the knowledge of his employers, it 
 is hard to censure the Madras agents for 
 
 * According to the writers of that day in the 
 interloping interest, the adv;intnge in question was 
 purchased at the expense of ;i llagrant breach of 
 faith ; but this allegation the company denied. 
 
 taking measures against their otherwise cer- 
 tain destruction or captivity. The annals 
 of this period are very confused : even Bruce, 
 more than once, alludes to their defective- 
 ness; but it appears, that in October, 1688, 
 Sir John Child, suspecting duplicity on the 
 part of the ]\Iogul governor, embarked at 
 Bombay, and appeared off Surat with a fleet 
 of seven ships, his intention being to deter 
 Muchtar Khan from any breach of the pro- 
 visional agreement. In this same month, 
 Captain Heath reached Bengal, in command 
 of a large armed ship, the Defence, attended 
 by a frigate, and bearing instructions from 
 the Court of Committees for the active prose- 
 cution of hostilities. His proceedings are 
 thus related by Bruce : — "Captain Heath, on 
 the 29th of November (contrary to the opi- 
 nion of the agent and council, and notwith- 
 standing a perwannah \ordei'] for peace with 
 the English had been received by the gover- 
 nor from the Nabob), attacked and took a bat- 
 teiy of thirty guns, and plundered the town 
 of Balasore. The English factory, on this 
 occasion, was burned by the governor ; and 
 the company's agents, who had been pre- 
 viously taken prisoners, were carried up the 
 country, where all subsequent efforts for 
 their release were unavailing." Under 
 these circumstances, it would seem unjust to 
 accuse the Moguls of breaking the armistice, 
 since it was not till the 26th of December 
 that Muchtar Khan seized and imprisoned 
 Mn Harris and Mr. Gladraan, ordered the 
 company's goods in Surat to be sold, de- 
 manded a contribution of five lacks of rupees, 
 and offered a large reward for the person of 
 Sir John Child — alive or dead. The island 
 of Bombay was attacked by the Siddee, the 
 greater part of it occupied by the enemy, and 
 the governor besieged in the town and castle. 
 Aurungzebe issued orders to expel the English 
 from his dominions. The factory at Masulipa- 
 tam was seized, as also that at Vizagapatam, 
 where the agent and four factors were slain. 
 The unequal contest could not, it was 
 evident, be prolonged without occasioning 
 the destruction of those by whose ambi- 
 tion and imprudence it had been provoked. 
 Solicitations for peace were presented, in 
 December, 1688, and received with a show 
 of indifference — rather afl'cctcd than real ; 
 for the imperial treasury, drained by con- 
 stant warfare, could ill bear the sub- 
 
 t Harris, the succeseor of Child as president of 
 Surat and governor of Jiombay, had only £300 
 a-year. The regency scheme was abandoned. 
 
 I Ormc's Historical Fragments of Mogul Emjiirc.
 
 TERRITORIAL VIEWS OF E. I. Cy. EXPRESSED IN 1689. 
 
 223 
 
 traction of any source of income. The 
 
 application of the Enf;lisli for tlie restora- ] 
 tion of commercial privileges, was cloiil)tlpss 
 the more wolcomo, for hciiii^ j)res(;utc(l iiiuler 
 circumstances wliicli eiialjlcd Aunuig/.ebc 
 to carry out the policy cviclciieed in his 
 dealings with the I'ortnguesc, of reducing 
 the pretensions of European maritime powers 
 trading to the Indies to a complete depen- 
 dence on his authority ; thus keeping down 
 attempts at politital influence while desirous 
 of promoting mercantile intercourse. lu 
 February, 1(589, a new firmaun was issued, 
 which declared tiiat "the English having 
 made a most humble and submissive petition 
 that the crimes they have done may be 
 pardoned ;" and having promised " to restore 
 the merchants' goods they had taken away 
 to the owners thereof, and walk by the ancient 
 customs of the port, and behave themselves 
 for the future no more in such a shamcfid 
 manner; therefore his majesty, according to 
 his daily favour to all the people of the world, 
 hath pardoned their faults, and mercifully 
 forgiven them." Out of his princely conde- 
 scension, the Great Mogul further agreed 
 to permit a present of 150,000 rupees to be 
 placed in the treasury of Surat. The firmaun 
 concludes with an express stipulation " that 
 Mr. Child, who did the disgrace, be turned 
 out and expelled." The translation of this 
 document is apparently faulty; but it suffices 
 to convey an idea of its tone anil tenor, and 
 fully bears out the declaration of Bruce, that 
 the result of all the projects of the company 
 to become an independent power in India, 
 was to reduce their agents to a more abject 
 position than any in which they had been 
 |)laced since the first establishment of an 
 English factory iu India.* 
 
 Sir John Child, who had provided in his 
 
 ! own person a scape-goat for the wrath of 
 the emperor, died at Bombay during the 
 progress of the negotiation, and the office of 
 president devolved on ]\Ir. Harris, then a 
 prisoner at Surat. On payment of the flue 
 
 [ and restoration of goods decreed in the 
 
 ' * Bruce, ii., G39-'10 ; GIO— 653. The firmaun con- 
 tains no reference to the privilege of coining money, 
 which liad h>iig lieen a point in dispute. 
 
 f " Dispatch from tlie Court of Committees in Ann. 
 Comp., l(iSU-''JO: written, there seems good reason 
 for helieving, by Cliild."— (Granfs S/iefc/i, p. 101.) 
 
 X In tlie instructions for the establishment of this 
 new settlement, s|)ecial encouragement is directed 
 to be given to Armenians, as also in Vizagapatam 
 and Madras. In the latter place, one quarter of the 
 town was to be allotted to them, with permission 
 "to build a church at their own cost," a duty sadly 
 neglected by the company. These Armenians were 
 
 firmaun, Mr. Harris and other English pri- 
 soners were immediately released from their 
 long confinement in irons; l>ut it was not 
 until the ;^2nd of June, 1090, that the Siddee, 
 by order of Aurungzebe, vacated his different 
 posts at Bombay (Mazagon, Mahim, and 
 Sion), after about a twelvemonth's occupa- 
 tion. On the same day, the accession of 
 William and Mary to the throne of Eng- 
 land was proclaimed in this island, as it had 
 been at Madras eight months before. Igno- 
 rant of the disasters attending their ambi- 
 tious projects, the court, in the instructions 
 addressed to their servants in 1G89, declare 
 — " The increase of our revenue is the sub- 
 ject of our care, as much as our trade : 'tis 
 that must maintain our force when twenty 
 accidents may interrupt our trade ; 'tis that 
 must make us a nation in India ; without 
 that we are but as a great number of inter- 
 lopers, united only by his Majesty's royal 
 charter, fit only to trade where nobody of 
 power thinks it their interest to prevent us ; 
 and upon this account it is, that the wise 
 Dutch, iu all their general advices which we 
 have seen, write ten paragrajihs concerning 
 their government, their civil and military 
 policy, warfare, and the increase of our 
 revenue, for one paragraph they write con- 
 cerning trade. "t Being chiefly concerned 
 in monopolising the spice -islands, the Dutch 
 appear to have followed their policy of terri- 
 torial aggrandisement far less strenuously 
 on the continent of India than at Ceylon, 
 Java, and throughout the Eastern Archi- 
 pelago, at Formosa (China), at the Cape 
 of Good Hope, at New York, Guyana, and 
 other widely-spread localities. 
 
 The disastrous issue of the recent expedi- 
 tion, compelled the English to adopt a more 
 deferential manner towards the native pow- 
 ers, but made no change in their ultimate 
 intentions. Shortly after the conclusion of 
 peace, the town andliarbourotTegnapatam,J 
 on the Coromandcl coast, a little to the south 
 of the French settlement of Pondicherry, 
 was obtained by purchase from Rajah Ram, 
 
 a Christian sect formed during the power of the 
 successors of Constantine. AVhen the countries they 
 inhabited were over-run by the Mohammedan arms, 
 they were forcibly transplanted by Shah Abl)as, and 
 other belligerent monarchs, into Persia, and dis- 
 persed anion" the stirrounding countries, where they 
 earned a livelihood as merchants and brokers. Some 
 of them made their way into India, and obtained a 
 character for successf;il trading, which rendered the 
 company desirous to employ them in vending English 
 woollens, and procuring fine muslins and other goods. 
 The project seems to have failed, the Armenians being 
 pre-engaged in the service of the Levant company.
 
 224 ENGLISH SETTLEMENT & FORT ESTABLISHED AT CALCUTTA— 1696. 
 
 the Mahratta sovereign, and the sanction of 
 the Mogul authorities of the Carnatic ob- 
 tained for its occupation. It was strength- 
 ened by a wall and bulwarks, and named 
 Fort St. David.* 
 
 About the same time a more important 
 acquisition was made in Bengal. During 
 the late hostilities, the agent and council at 
 Hooghly, fearing to continue in so exposed a 
 position, removed to Chuttanuttee, a village 
 about twenty-four miles lower down the 
 river, where they hoped to remain in security 
 under the protection of their ships. The 
 Nabob ordered them to return to Hooghly, 
 and forbade their building, with either stone 
 or brick, at Chuttanuttee ; but, on the paci- 
 fication with the court of Delhi, permission 
 was obtained for the establishment of a 
 factory there. Kepeated attempts were made 
 to obtain leave to fortify the new position, 
 and for a grant of jurisdiction over its in- 
 habitants, as also over those of the adjoining 
 villages of Calcutta and Govindpoor. Si- 
 milar applications were made by the Dutch 
 at Chiusura (about a mile southward of 
 Hooghly), and by the French at Chauderna- 
 gore (two miles lower down the river), but 
 without success ; for Aurungzebe never per- 
 mitted any foreigner to erect a single bastion 
 on Mogul territory, though he tolerated the 
 continuance (at Madras for instance) of such 
 European fortresses as his conquests over 
 Mohammedan or Hindoo princes drew within 
 the borders of the empire. At length, one 
 of those intestine divisions which have so 
 often placed India at the feet of strangers, 
 procured for the agencies before-named the 
 privilege long vainly solicited. Soobah 
 Sing, a petty Hindoo chief, being dissatisfied 
 with Rajah Kisheu Rama, of Bui-dwan (who 
 must have been either tributary to, or in the 
 service of, Aurungzebe), united with Rehim 
 Khan, an Afghan, then considered the head 
 of that clan remaining in Orissa, in an 
 attempt to overturn the government, in 
 1695-'6. The three European settlements 
 hired a number of native soldiery to guard 
 their property : the Dutch and French pro- 
 fessed themselves staunch aUies of the 
 
 * The precise period of the introduction of the 
 Dutch into liungal is not recorded ; but the French 
 established themselves about lG7(i, and the Danes in 
 the same year at Seranipore. — (Slewait's liciigal, 
 p. 34G.) 
 
 t Tanna, ten miles west of Calcutta, on the opposite 
 side of the river, was defended by an English frigate, 
 Bent at the request of the foujdar of Hooghly to 
 support the fort against the rebels, (/'alcutta, ac- 
 cording to Stewart (properly called Calicotta), takes 
 
 Mogul : the English endeavoured to pre- 
 serve a semblance of neutrality, but united 
 in requesting permission to fortify their fac- 
 tories against the attacks of the insurrec- 
 tionists. The Nabob directed them, in general 
 terms, to defend themselves, and they, taking 
 for granted what was not absolutely for- 
 bidden, laboured day and night in raising 
 walls with bastions round their stations. A 
 pitched battle between the insurgents and 
 Kishen Rama, terminated in the defeat 
 and death of the latter, and the capture 
 of his family. His beautiful daughter was 
 among the prisoners : Soobah Sing strove 
 to dishonour her ; but the attempt cost 
 him his life ; for the hapless girl, aware 
 of his intention, had concealed a sharp 
 knife in the folds of her dress; and when 
 he strove to seize her, she iuflieted upon 
 him a mortal wound, and then, with mis- 
 taken heroism, stabbed herself to the heart. 
 By this catastrophe, the rebel army fell 
 under the sole control of the Afghan chief, 
 who became master of Hooghly, Moor- 
 shedabad, and Rajmahal: the Dutch and 
 English factories, at the latter place, were 
 pillaged of considerable property. Chutta- 
 nuttee and the fort of Tannaf were unsuc- 
 cessfully attacked. But the general progress 
 of the rebels was almost unchecked ; and in 
 December, 1G9G, their force comprised 
 1:::,000 cavalry and 30,000 infantry: the 
 revenue of the country in their possession 
 was estimated at sixty lacs of rupees per 
 annum ; and Rehim Shah assumed the style 
 and dignity of a prince. The remissness of 
 the Nabob being deemed the chief cause of 
 the rapid spread of the insurrection. Prince 
 Azim (second son of Prince Mauzim)J was 
 sent at the head of theMogul army for its sup- 
 pression, and was at the same time appointed 
 to the government of the three provinces of 
 Bengal, Behar, and Orissa. The death of 
 Rehim Shah iu battle, in 1G98, and the 
 submission of the Afghans, was followed by 
 a general amnesty. The Europeans were 
 suffered to continue their lortitications ; and 
 iu 1098, the English, by the payment of a 
 considerable sum of money, obtained per- 
 
 its name from a temple dedicated to Caly, the 
 Hindoo goddess of Time. The territory purchased 
 from the zemindars in 1098, extended about three 
 miles along the Iluoijidij (or lihuijaiutlee), and one 
 mile inland. 
 
 I It was a part of the policy of the wily Aurung- 
 zebe, to bring forward his grandsons and place them 
 in positions of honour and emolument ; so that they 
 might be disposed, in any emergency, to side with 
 him rather than with their own fathers.
 
 E. I. Cy. confound private trade with piracy— a.d. 1092. 225 
 
 mission to purchase Chuttanuttee and the 
 adjoining villaj,'cs, witli authority to exercise 
 i'jstieiary ])o\vcr over tlic iuliahitaiits. The 
 designation of Calcutta came to be applied 
 to the whole, and the name of Fort William 
 was given to the defences in honour of the 
 English monarch. 
 
 Notwithstanding these clicering indica- 
 tions of progress in IJcngal, the general 
 condition of the E. I. Cy. at this period 
 was one of extreme political and financial 
 depression ; their diilieulties from private 
 trade and piracy being aggravated by the 
 national hostility of the French, and the 
 domestic rivalry. of a new association. The 
 death of Sir John Child made no change in 
 the policy pursued by his brother in England : 
 at his instigation, the Court of Committees 
 continued to wield, to the fullest extent, the 
 somewhat questionable authority conveyed 
 by their charters, which, although intended 
 to confer the privilege of exclusive trade, left 
 loopholes sufficient to encourage unauthorised 
 ventures on the part of speculators inclined 
 to balance ultimate risk, against the present 
 safety and prospect of gain afforded by the 
 M'ant of any power on the part of the com- 
 pany to seize vessels at the outset or on the 
 voyage, however evident the intention of 
 the equipment. The consequence was, that 
 although the court might occasionally bring 
 offenders before the King's Bench, and did, 
 at one time (1685-'6), threaten to prosecute 
 as many as forty-seven of the principal in- 
 terlopers, yet the brunt of the battle fell to 
 the share of their servants in India; and 
 they, if the evidence of Captain Hamilton* 
 may be trusted, shrank from the responsi- 
 
 • According to this writer, Mr. Vaux, the governor 
 of Bombay, who had obtained that position by favour 
 of Sir Josiali Child, in answering a communication 
 on the subject of interlopers, took occasion, while 
 thanking his patron for past benefits, to assert his 
 resolution to abide by the laws of his country. Sir 
 Josiah, in reply, " wrote roundly to Mr. Vau.\, that 
 he expected his orders to be his rules, and not the 
 laws of England, which were a heap of nonsense 
 compiled by a few ignorant country gentlemen, who 
 hardly knew how to make laws for the good govern- 
 ment of their own families, much less for the regu- 
 lating of companies and foreign commerce. I am 
 the more particular," adds Hamilton, " on this ac- 
 count, because I saw and copied both those letters in 
 anno, 1696, while Mr. Vaux and I were prisoners at 
 Sural, on account of Captain Evory's [.'Vvery] rob- 
 bing the Mogul's great ship, the Oiiiisiray" [Guj 
 Suwaee] — £<;»< Iiitlies, i., 233.) Considering the pre- 
 ponderance of country gentlemen in parliament at 
 this period, the satire is not without point; and Hamil- 
 ton's assertion regarding the letter is so clear and posi- 
 tive, that it can hardly be set aside without unwarrant- 
 able disparagement to the character of an intelligent 
 
 bility of carrying out tlie stringent orders 
 forwarded on this head, declaring that the 
 laws of ICngland were contrary to the mea- 
 sures proposed. Apart from the testimony 
 of any unfavourable witness, there arc indi- 
 cations, in the selected Annals of the E. I. 
 Cy., of a tendency to confound private and 
 unlicensed trade with piracy, t which pro- 
 bably conduced to the increase of the latter 
 disgraceful crime, while it aggravated the 
 hostility of the interloiiers, who must have 
 possessed considerable influence if they were, 
 as described in an official des[)ateh, " mal- 
 contents, quondam committee-men, and 
 adventurers, who have sold their stocks at 
 high rates, and want to buy in again at 
 low. "J The change in the government of 
 England paved the way for discussions re- 
 garding the validity of rights proceeding 
 from a grant of the Crown simply, or rights 
 proceeding from a grant founded on an act 
 of the legislature. The strong desire of the 
 nation for extended commerce with India 
 was manifested in the eagerness with which 
 one large class of persons recommended an 
 o[)cn trade ; while another united for the 
 formation of a new joint-stock association. 
 Petitions and remonstrances were on all 
 sides presented both to parliament and the 
 king ; and whde parliament passed repeated 
 resolutions in favour of the new company, 
 the king as often granted charters to the 
 old. The letters-patent of 1G93 confirmed 
 the monopoly of the latter, but only for a 
 period of twenty-one years ; terminated the 
 " permission trade," by prohibiting the 
 grant of licences to private ships ; decreed 
 the annual exportation of British manu- 
 
 though prejudiced writer. Such vague statements 
 as the following may be reasonably viewed with more 
 suspicion : — " The power of executing pirates is so 
 strangely sketched, that if any private trader is in- 
 jured by the tricks of a governor, and can find no 
 redress, if the injured person is so bold as to talk of 
 Ifx tulionis, he is infallibly declared a pirate." — p. 362. 
 
 t An illustration of this tendency may be found 
 in the records of 1691-'2. '• The court continued to 
 act towards their opponents (the interlopers) in the 
 same manner as they had done in the latter years 
 of the two preceding reigns, and granted commis- 
 sions to all their captains proceeding this season to 
 India, to seize the interlopers of every description, 
 and bring them to trial before the admiralty court 
 of Bombay, explaining that as they attributed all 
 the differences between the company and the Indian 
 powers to the interlopers, if they continued their 
 depredations on the subjects of the Mogul or King 
 of Persia, they were to be tried for tlieir lives as 
 pirates, and sentence of death passed, but execution 
 stayed till the king's pleasure should be known." — 
 (Aunals of E. I. Cy., vol. iii., p. 103.) 
 
 I Idem, p. 112.
 
 226 BRIBERY PRACTISED BYE. I. Cy.— DUKE OF LEEDS IMPEACHED, 1695. 
 
 factures, to the value of £100,000 ; and ' 
 directed the dividends to be paid, for the 
 future, exchisively in money. In defiance 
 of this charter, a vote of the House of Com- 
 mons declared it to be " the right of all 
 Englishmen to trade to the East Indies or 
 any part of the world, unless prohibited by 
 act of parliament."* This state of strife 
 and confusion reached its climax in 1695, 
 when it became known that a system of 
 direct bribery had been pursued towards 
 men in power. The Lower House, though 
 some of its leading members were deeply 
 implicated, came forward actively iu the 
 matter, and ordered the books of the com- 
 pany to be examined, from whence it ap- 
 peared, that previous to the Revolution the 
 annual expenditure iu " secret services" had 
 scarcely ever exceeded =61,200; but that 
 since that epoch it had gradually increased, 
 and iu the year 1693, whilst Sir Thomas 
 Cooke was governor, had amounted to up- 
 wards of .€80,000. Many persons of eminence 
 were involved in these nefarious transac- 
 tions with the most unprincipled schemers : 
 the Duke of Leeds, then lord president of 
 the council, vehemently defended the com- 
 pany, and was himself impeached by the 
 Commons, on the charge of having received 
 a bribe of £5,000; but the principal wit- 
 ness against him was sent out of the way ; 
 and it was not till nine days' after it had 
 been demanded by the Lords, that a pro- 
 clamation was issued to stop the fugitive. 
 The inquiry, at first urged on with all the 
 violence of party-spirit, soon languished ; 
 the rank and influence of a large number of 
 the persons directly or indirectly concerned, 
 opposed an insurmountable barrier to its 
 prosecution, and by the prorogation of par- 
 liament, though nominally only suspended, it 
 was actually abandoned. Sir Thomas Cooke 
 had been committed to the Tower for re- 
 
 * Brace's Annals of E. I. Ci/., iii., p. 142. 
 
 t Anderson's Origin nf Commerce, ii., 608. Tys- 
 sen, the deputy-governor, and other persons shared 
 the imprisonment of the governor, and probably also 
 received proportionate gratuities. Among them was 
 the notorious Sir Basil Firebrass, or Firebraco, wlio 
 had been recently bought off from the interloping 
 interest, and who played a leading part in 1701 in the 
 arrangements for the union of the two E. I. Com- 
 panies, and demanded in return a per centage equal 
 in value to £30,000, on a ])ortion of the joint stock. 
 
 \ The French East India trade appears to have 
 been from the first a losing concern. Notwithstanding 
 the pecuniary and political support of the government, 
 Colbert's company (according to the Abbe Haynal), 
 had often to subscribe for the payment of losses, 
 while their I'^uropcan rivals were dividing thirty per 
 cent, on mercantile ventures ; and in 1684, their ac- 
 
 fusing to disclose the names of the indi- 
 viduals v/ho had received bribes : his tempo- 
 rary confinement was compensated by a 
 present of .€12,000, bestowed upon him by 
 the Court of Committees " some years after 
 the bustle was over."t 
 
 The result of these proceedings was greatly 
 to degrade the company; nor could it be 
 otherwise, while any sense of honesty existed 
 in the public mind. Yet the weight of blame 
 rests unquestionably less heavily on those 
 who ofl'ered the bribes than on the sworn 
 guardians of the national interests, who, by 
 accepting them, showed themselves tainted 
 by that unholy covetousness which, under 
 a despotism, is the chief source of the per- 
 version of justice; and, among a free people, 
 must tend to destroy the very basis of aU 
 sound principle and impartial legislation. 
 
 In a pecuniary sense, these disbursements 
 were unwarrantable, being made at a time 
 when the funds of the association barely 
 sufficed to meet the necessary and legitimate 
 expenditure called for by the occupation 
 of new settlements, and the heavy losses 
 entailed by the hostility of the French, after 
 the declaration of war against that people 
 by England and Holland, in 1689. For 
 the next eight years sharp conflicts occurred 
 between the fleets of the rival nations, which 
 were happily terminated by the treaty of 
 Ryswick, 1697. In a commercial point of 
 view, the French inflicted more injury upon 
 themselves by their lavish and ill-directed 
 expenditure, than upon their old-established 
 opponents; J but the improvement in the 
 condition of their marine, through the ex- 
 ertions of the ministers of Louis XIA'^., 
 rendered their enmity peculiarly disastrous 
 to the mercantile shipping of their foes. 
 During the war, no less than 4,200 British 
 merchant-vessels were captured, including 
 manyEast-Indiamen, which were intercepted 
 
 counts being examined by commissioners appointed 
 by the king, it appeared that their sales, in twenty 
 years, amounted to no more than 9,100,000 livres, 
 and that three-quarters of their capital-stock were 
 totally lost. Assistance from the state again prop))ed 
 up the association, and a slight gleam of prosperity 
 followed; for in the years 1687 and 1001, two divi- 
 dends, each of fifteen j)er cent., were for the first 
 time paid from ])rofits. The war with England and 
 Holland was not beneficial in its general results; for 
 although the French Cy. made extensive captures, 
 their very success heljied to encourage the swarms 
 of privateers, which covered the seas and carried into 
 the ports of France a great number of English and 
 Dutch prizes with rich cargoes, to be sold at any 
 ])rice they would fetch. This proceeding caused a 
 glut in the market, and obliged the company to sell 
 their goods at unremunerative prices, or not at all.
 
 EUROPJiANS GUARANTEE AU11UNGZEJ3E AGAINST PIllACY— 1G98. 227 
 
 both on the Indian seas and on the middle 
 passage; an(l,o(rtlie coastof'Guhvay,in ]{>'.)'), 
 all tlio four liomcward-bouiul vessels of tiie 
 company were taken by a Ercneh fleet.* 
 
 In India, the wrath of the eni])eror had 
 been excited by the frequent piraeics coni- 
 niitted on the shipping of Mogul incrc!iants,t 
 and especially by the plunder of his own 
 vessel the Guj-Suwaee, while engaged in 
 conveying pilgrims to Mecca, in 1G95. 
 Aurnngzebe himself could not detest these 
 sacrilegious sea-robbers more heartily than 
 did the whole body of European traders ; 
 but they being at war with one another, 
 could make no united efl'ort for the sup- 
 pression of the common foe. The tide of 
 popular feeling among the Mohammedans 
 rose against the English agencies at Surat 
 and Swally with so much violence, that the 
 Mogul governor plaee<l the factors and 
 others, to the number of sixty-three persons, 
 in irons — not from any voluntary harshness 
 on his part, but as a necessary measure 
 to preserve their lives amid the tumult. 
 Large rewards were held out, both by the 
 government of England and by the E. I. 
 Cy., for the apprehension of the leading 
 offenders. A sum of .£1,000 was offered 
 for the person of Captain Avery ; but he 
 escaped, having proceeded to the Bahamas, 
 where his ship was sold and the crew dis- 
 
 • Although the merchantmen of the E. I. Cy., 
 at this iieriod, proved unable to cope with Freneli 
 ships-ol-thc-hne, and were even captured by tlie 
 desperate hardiliood of privateering adventure, they 
 were, nevertheless, by no means ill-provided with the 
 appliances of war. To encourage the building of ships 
 of above 550 tons burden, and capable of defence 
 against the pirates of Algiers, then termed the "Turk- 
 ish Rovers,' it was enacted by parliament, soon after 
 the restoration of Charles II., that for a certain num- 
 ber of years, whoever should build ships with three 
 decks, or with two decks and a-half, and a forecastle, 
 with a space of five feet between each deck, and 
 mounted with at least thirty cannon, should for tlie first 
 two voyages receive one-tenth part of all the customs 
 that were payable on their export and import lading. 
 — (Milburn's Oriental Commerce, i., Introduction, 
 XXXV.) A VhiiUcdtion of the E. I. Cy., generally 
 attributed to Sir Josiah Child, and published in 
 1677, states that they employed from thirty to thirty- 
 five ships of from 3()t) to GOO tons burden, carrying 
 from forty to seventy guns, which must of course 
 have been very light. — (Macpherson's Commerce 
 tvith Intlia, \Xi.) In an oflicial statement of their 
 afl'airs, published in 1C89, the company assert, that in 
 seven years tlioy had built sixteen ships of from 900 to 
 1,300 tons, and had in India or on the homeward 
 voyage eleven of their own, and four "permision 
 ships" (('. r., licensed by them) with cargoes worth 
 above £:ili(),00O, besides a fleet comprising four- 
 teen of their own and six. permission ships bound 
 for India, China, &:c., with cargoes worth £070,000. 
 
 persed ; several of them were, however, 
 seized and executed. Tlie English found 
 means of e.\trieating themselves from their 
 diflieultics, and prevailed upon Aurungzebe 
 to confide to them the task of convoying pil- 
 grim ves.scls to Mocha,! at a charge of 10,(X}0 
 ru[)ecs for a large, and ;iO,00() for a small 
 vessel. The good understanding thus re- 
 stored was soon destroyed by the daring 
 piraeics committed by a Captain Kidd and 
 others off Surat. § The emperor could no 
 longer be appeased with assurances that 
 sueii and such culprits had been executed in 
 dill'cront British colonies, or hung in chains 
 at Tilbury; and he declared, that since all 
 other means had failed to check these dis- 
 graceful proceedings, he would put an end 
 to European commerce with his subjects, 
 unless the English, French, and Dutch 
 would consent to sign a bond, engaging to 
 make good any future depredations com- 
 mitted by pirates on the Indian Seas — an 
 arrangement to which the European agents 
 were most reluctantly compelled to assent. 
 
 The list of difficulties which environed 
 the E. I. Cy., at this period, is still incom- 
 plete. While weighed down by pecuniary 
 involvements, and unable, for years together, 
 to pay a dividend, the project for a new 
 Scottish company was again brought for- 
 ward, and a very advantageous charter 
 
 t One of the negotiations between Aurungzebe 
 and the English factors, regarding piratical seizures, 
 is recorded by Khafi Khan, an author frequently 
 (|Uoted in the previous section on the Mohammedaii 
 portion of Indian history. He makes no mention of 
 the war which had previously taken place ; but says, 
 that in the year 1693, a shiji bound to Mecca, carrying 
 eighty guns and furnished with 100 muskets, was 
 attacked by an English vessel of small size. A gun 
 having burst in the Mogul ship, the enemy boarded, 
 and " although the Christians have no courage at 
 the sword, yet by bad management the vessel was 
 taken." Khafi Khan was sent by the viceroy of 
 Guzerat to demand redress at Bombay. He de- 
 scribes his reception as being conducted with great 
 dignity and good order, and with a con.siderable dis- 
 play of military power. He negotiated with elderly 
 gentlemen in rich clothes ; and .although they some- 
 times laughed more heartily than l)ecame so grave 
 an occasion, yet he seems to have been favourably 
 impressed with their sense and intelligence. The 
 English alleged that the king's ships had been 
 captured by pirate.*!, for whom tliey were not answer- 
 able, and explained their coining money in the n.ime 
 of their own sovereign (which was another complaint 
 .against them), by stating that they had to purchase 
 investments at ])laces where the money of the em- 
 peror woiild not pass. No definite result appears to 
 have attended this interview. — (Elphinstone, ii., 556.) 
 
 X Mocha and Judda are the seaports of Mecca. 
 
 § Captain Kidd and several of his associates, bein" 
 eventually captured, were executed at Tilb'iry Fort.
 
 228 
 
 HOSTILITY OF RIVAL ENGLISH E. I. COMPANIES— 1699. 
 
 granted to these adventurers, in 1698, with 
 authority to trade to the East as well as 
 West Indies, Africa, and America. This 
 enterprise — which issued iu the formation of 
 the ill-fated Daricn settlement — was soon 
 succeeded by another more directly hostile 
 to the E. I. Cy., and which was, in fact, a 
 complete triumph on the part of the inter- 
 loping interest. On the termination of the 
 French war, the government of England 
 looked around eagerly for means to liqui- 
 date the heavy expenses therebv incurred. 
 The E. I. Cy. offered a loan of .€700,000, at 
 four per cent, interest, provided their charter 
 should be confirmed, and the monopoly of 
 the Indian trade secui-ed to them by act of 
 parliament. Their opponents tried a similar 
 expedient, with more success, by proposing 
 to raise a sura of .€2,000,000 sterling, at 
 eight per cent., on condition of being 
 invested with exclusive privileges, and un- 
 fettered by any obligation to trade on a 
 joint-stock, except as they themselves might 
 afterwards desire. After much discussion, a 
 bill was passed by the legislature, by which 
 it was enacted that a loan of £2,000,000 
 should be raised, by subscription, for the 
 service of government. Natives and fo- 
 reigners, bodies politic and corporate, were 
 alike at liberty to contribute their quota 
 towards the total sum, which was to bear an 
 interest of eight per cent, per annum. In 
 return for this accommodation, letters-patent 
 were issued, incorporating an association, 
 called the General Society trading to the 
 East Indies.* The members were autho- 
 rised to adventure severally, to the amount of 
 their subscriptions : or, if they so desired, 
 might be formed into a joint-stock com- 
 pany. This new monopoly was to last until 
 1711 ; after that time, it was to terminate 
 •whenever the government chose, upon three 
 years' notice, the original capital of two 
 million having been iirst refunded to the 
 subscribers. The old company were treated 
 very summarily; the proviso of three years' 
 noticcf was, in their case, just so far regarded 
 as to ensure them leave to trade with India 
 
 • Mill, i., 141. Bruce says, the old association 
 were oblifred to assume the name of the Lonihn 
 compomj, in contradistinction to tlie new corporation, 
 wliich bore the more jxipular because national name 
 of the Eiu/U^h company (iii. 250); but these terms, 
 used only for a few years, wovild but confuse the 
 reader if interwoven in the tc.\t. 
 
 t 13ruce, iii. 207. The old company declare*! 
 their rivals " invaders of their rights, and authorised 
 interlopers only." The new association were yet 
 more violent in tlicir invectives; and "the charge of 
 piracy," says Mill, " became a general calumny witli 
 
 till 1701. With regard to both associations, 
 it was decreed that the private fortunes of 
 the adventurers should i)e responsible for 
 the liquidation of liabilities incurred in 
 their public capacity ; and if further divi- 
 dends were made by the old company before 
 the payment of their debts, the members who 
 accepted them were to be held responsible 
 for the sums thus unduly received. 
 
 This measure, like all others based on 
 injustice, produced much evil and little 
 good to any party. The conduct of the 
 government, in expecting a trading body to 
 traffic largely and profitably, after the ab- 
 straction of its entire capital, under the 
 name of a loan, was in itself as glaring an 
 absurdity as to have opened the veins of a 
 man in full health, and then, after leaving 
 him just blood enough to prolong a feeble 
 existence, to expect from his emaciated frame 
 vigorous and healthy action. As for the old 
 company, they determined to persevere under 
 all circumstances. The trade was too long- 
 established, and too valuable, to be re- 
 linquished easily ; and they vn'ote out to 
 their servants in India, that they had re- 
 solved to bear up against ill-fortune with "a 
 true Roman courage." Taking advantage 
 of the clause which permitted corporations 
 to hold stock in the new company, they 
 resolved to trade separately and in their 
 own name, after their three years of char- 
 tered privileges should have expired, and de- 
 voted the sum of £315,000 to this purpose ; 
 at the same time avowing their belief "that 
 a civil battle was to be fought" between 
 them and their adversaries; for that "two 
 E. I. Companies in England could no more 
 subsist without destroying each other, than 
 two kings at the same time regnant in the 
 same kingdom ; " adding, that " being 
 veterans, if their servants abroad would do 
 their duty, they did not doubt of the vic- 
 tory : that if the world laughed at the 
 pains the two companies took to ruin each 
 other, they could not help it, as they were 
 on good ground, and had a charter." 
 
 The world — at least the Indian portion of it 
 which all the different parties in India endeavoured 
 to blacken their competitors" (i. i:SO.) Sir Nicholas 
 Waite openly denounced the London company to the 
 Mogul as " tliieves and confederates with jiirates" 
 (Bruce, iii. .3.'J7) ; and even applied to the governor 
 of Surat to have llicir servants put in irons for an 
 insult wliich, he asserted, had been offered to the 
 ambassador of the King of England. Unfortunately, 
 a great deal of personal ill-feeling existed between 
 the representatives of the two societies, to which 
 much of the impolitic harshness of their measures 
 must be atlj'ibuted.
 
 AURUNGZEBE PERPLEXED BY RIVAL ENGLISH C0MPANIJiS-17Gl. 229 
 
 (lid not laugh, but was simply atnazpd by 
 tlic hostilities of two powerful tradiiif; bodies, 
 each jjiofessiii^' to act under the direct p;itroii- 
 nf;c of their iiiutual sovercij^ii. A\iruii;;zel)o 
 listened ineredidonsly to the reprcscntutions 
 of Sir William Noi'ris, who was dis|)!itclicd 
 to the Mogul court at the cost of the now 
 eomijany, but in the character of royal 
 ambassador. Norris is accused of having 
 conducted himself with unjustifiable vio- 
 lence towards the rival odicials ; and the 
 same conijilaint is ur^cd still more stroiif;ly 
 against Sir Nicholas Waitc, who had fornieily 
 acted as agent to the old company, but had 
 been dismissed their employ. The new cor- 
 poration in this, as in several other cases, 
 were glad to avail themselves of the local 
 knowledge possessed by the discarded ser- 
 vants of their opponents; and Waite was 
 appointed their rc|)rescntativc at Surat, with 
 the title of president ; to which that of con- 
 sul was superaddcnl by the king, as also 
 to the chief of the three projected pre- 
 sidencies at Ilooghly in Bengal, Masulipatani 
 on the Coromandel coast, and in the island 
 of Borneo. Each party maligned the other 
 to the ]\Iogul government, and lavished 
 large sums of money for the purpose of 
 gaining exclusive privileges. Prince Azira, 
 the governor of Bengal, received presents 
 from both sides — lfi,000 rupees from the 
 old company, and 1-1,000 from the new;* 
 but without understanding their ground 
 of diflercncc. The emperor, equally puzzled 
 by these proceedings, wrote privately to 
 Seyed Scdula, "an holy priest at Surat,"t 
 desiring him to search out which of the two 
 parties was really authorised by the Eng- 
 lish nation. The reply of the Seyed is not 
 
 * Stewart's Jliatniy of Jloif/al, 342. 
 
 t Bruce's Annnh of the E. I. Ct/., in., 4G6. 
 
 J Uernier, while serving Daneclmniiul Khan in the 
 capacity of physician, hcaid from the lips of this 
 nobleman the particulars of a singular interview 
 which he had just returned from witnessing between 
 Aurunezehc and his former tutor. The latter had 
 enjoyed for many years a jaghirc, bestowed upon 
 him by Shah Jehan. Upon the triumph of the 
 schemes of his ambitious jiiipil, the old man pre- 
 sented himself as a candidate tor ofiicc. Auningzcbe, 
 wearied by his imp/ortunity, dismissed him. declaring 
 that he owed him no gratitude for his ill-directed 
 labours and erroneous instruction. " You taught 
 me," he exclaimed, " that the whole of Frangistan 
 (Europe) was no more than some inconsiderable 
 island, of which the most powerful monarch was for- 
 merly the King of Portugal, then the King of Hol- 
 land, and afterwards the King of England. In re- 
 gard to the other sovereigns of Frangistan (such as 
 the King of France, and the King of Andalusia), you 
 told me they resembled our petty rajahs ; and that 
 tlie potentates of Ilindoostan eclipsed the glorv of all 
 
 2h 
 
 recorded ; probably it was indefinite and 
 tinimportant : but had the same (juestiori 
 been addressed to a I'^uropcaii versed in the 
 polities of the day, the answer might have 
 involved a revelation of (piitc a new order 
 of things to the mind of the despotic but 
 philosophical monarch. if What a text full 
 of strange doctrines would have been con- 
 tained in the fact jjlainly stated, that both 
 companies represented the will of different 
 sections of a free though monarchical 
 nation ; — that, iiulccd, " the whole of this 
 contest was only one division of the great 
 battle that agitated the state between the 
 tories aiul the whigs, of .whom the former 
 favoured the old company, and the latter 
 the ncw."§ 
 
 The fierce contention and excessive com- 
 petition of the rival associations, proved 
 almost ecjually injurious to both. The new 
 company, upon the first depression of their 
 stock in the market, had manifested an in- 
 clination to unite with the old body ; but 
 the latter held off, hoping to drive the enemy 
 outof the field; and they sticcecded in obtain- 
 ing an act of parliament continuing them as 
 a distinct corporation. The struggle, how- 
 ever, cost them dearly ; and their stock, in 
 these times of fluctuation and anxiety, varied 
 in value between 300 and 37 per cent.|| 
 The market was overladen, there being at 
 one time as many as sixty ships abroad in 
 India and returning, (jreat quantities of 
 Lulian- wrought silks, stuffs, and c.ilicoes 
 were imported, and from their low price, 
 worn by all classes. The silk-weavers of 
 London became extremely tumultuous ; and 
 in 1C97, attcm])ted to seize the treasure at 
 the East India-house.^ Order was restored 
 
 other kings." A profound and comprehensive know- i 
 ledge of the history of mankind ; familiarity with the I 
 origin of states, their progress and decline ; the 
 events, accidents, or errors, owing to which such 
 great changes and mighty revolutions have been 
 effected; — these were subjects which Aurungzebe pro- 
 nounced to be of more importance to a prince than 
 the ])ossession "of great skill in grammar, and such 
 knowledge as belongs to a doctor of the law," or 
 even juoficiency in the difficult Arabic language, I 
 which no one could hope to attain without " tin or , 
 twelve years of close application." This mighty 
 prince is certainly not the first who has lamented 
 the waste of the precious hours of youth " in the 
 dry, unprofitable, and never-ending task of learning 
 words :" yet. considering the im])ortance attached by | 
 Mussulmans to the power of reading the Koran in I 
 the original tongue, it seems strange that so zea- i 
 lous a believer should have expreseed himself thus 
 forcibl von that point.— (Brock's -B(rni>r,ii.,165-'(>-'7.) 
 
 § Grant's Skelrh nf History of E. I. Cij., 119. 
 
 II Anderson's Oritjin of Commerce, ii., ]). 43. 
 
 f Idem, C33. 
 
 I
 
 230 
 
 UNION OF RIVAL ENGLISH E. I. COMPANIES— 1708. 
 
 for the time ; but the discontents were ! 
 renewed by the augmented imports of the 
 years 1688-'9; and the loud complaints 
 from Spitalfields, Norwich, Canterbury, Co- 
 ventry, &c., of the detrimental effect on the 
 nation, occasioned by the numerous manu- 
 facturers thrown out of employ, and likewise 
 of the largely increased exportation of sil- 
 ver,* succeeded in procuring the enactment 
 of a law prohibiting the use in England or 
 sale, except for re-exportation, of silks 
 wrought, or calicoes printed in Persia, 
 China, or the East Indies, either for apparel 
 j or furniture, under a penalty of j6200, after 
 Michaelmas, 1701 ; and a duty of fifteen 
 per cent, was soon afterwards imposed upon 
 muslins. These regulations materially re- 
 duced the value of the Eastern trade; and 
 probably helped to accelerate the union of the 
 I two associations, — a measure strenuously 
 ! urged by King William, but not carried out 
 till after the accession of Anne. An in- 
 denture tripartite was entered into by the 
 ■ queen and the rival companies in 1702, by 
 j which it was agreed that a full and com- 
 ' plete union should take place at the termi- 
 : nation of the ensuing seven years, the in- 
 termediate time to be occupied in winding 
 up the separate concerns of each party. 
 The coalition took place before the lapse of 
 the stated interval, being hastened by the 
 alarm occasioned by the demand of go^rn- 
 ment for the subscription of a new loan of 
 £1,200,000, without interest. The com- 
 panies, knowing from the experience of the 
 past, the danger of the present crisis, dreaded 
 the formation of a fresh body of adven- 
 turers, or renewed discussions on the sub- 
 ject of open trade with India. They forth- 
 
 • From 1698 to 1703 inchisive, the silver ex- 
 ported from England to the East Indies amounted to 
 £3,171,405; the gold to £128,229: total, £3,299,634, 
 or, on an average, £549,939 per ann. The East 
 India goods re-exported from England from 1698 
 to 1702 inclusive, were estimated at the value of 
 £2.638,934, or, on an average, £507,787 per ann.— 
 (Macpherson's Commerce, i.. Introduction, p. xii.) 
 
 f To equalise the shares of the two companies, it 
 ■was agreed that the old, or London company, should 
 purchase at ])ar as much of the capital of the new 
 or English company lent to government, as, added 
 to the £315,000 which they had already subscribed, 
 should equalise their respective portions. The dead 
 stock of the London ciimi)any was estimated at 
 £330,000; that of the English company at £70,000: 
 therefore, the latter ])aid the former £130,000 to 
 place the shares of this part of the common estate 
 on the same basis. The assets or effects of the Lon- 
 don company, in India, fell short of their debts ; and 
 Lord Godolphin decreed that they should pay by 
 instalments to the United company the sum of 
 
 
 
 with laid aside all separate views, and 
 agreed to furnish jointly the amount re- 
 quired. Their differences were submitted 
 to the arbitration of Sidney, Earl of Go- 
 dolphin, then lord high treasurer of England; 
 and an act was passed, in 1708, consti- 
 tuting them one corporate body, under 
 the name of the United Company of Mer- 
 chants trading to the East Indies, with 
 continuance only until the year 1726, and 
 then " to cease and determine, on three 
 years' notice and repayment by government 
 of their capital stock of £3,200,000."t 
 
 While this matter was in progress of 
 arrangement, the long-expected death of the 
 aged emperor took place, and was imme- 
 diately followed by the fierce war of suc- 
 cession, with equal anxiety anticipated by 
 the native and European inhabitants of 
 Hindoostan. When the news reached Surat, 
 the English president (Sir John Gayer), 
 anxious to transmit the intelligence to the 
 company, yet fearful of plainly stating cir- 
 cumstances which, in a pohtical crisis, might 
 either by their truth or falsehood expose 
 the promulgator to danger, took a middle 
 course, by stating in an allegory easy to be 
 understood, " that the sun of this hemis- 
 phere had set, and that the star of the 
 second magnitude being under his meridian, 
 had taken his place ; but that it was feared 
 the star of the first magnitude, though 
 under a remoter meridian, would struggle 
 to exalt itself "I 
 
 The victory of Prince Mauzim (the star 
 of the first magnitude) over his brothers, 
 Azim and Kaumbuksh, and his elevation to 
 the throne, have been already related (see 
 p. 154) ; as also the rapid decay of the once 
 
 £96,615 : the English company, having their balance 
 on the right side of the account, were to receive 
 from the same fund the sum of £66,005. The debts 
 of both companies in Britain were ordained to be 
 discharged before March, 1709 ; and as those of the 
 London body amounted to nearly £400,000, the 
 directors were empowered to call upon their pro- 
 prietors, by three several instalments, for the means 
 of liquidation. The £1,200,000 now advanced to 
 government, without interest, being added to the 
 previous sum of £2,000,000, constituted a loan of 
 £3,200,000, yielding interest at the rate of five per 
 cent, on the whole. — (Bruce, iii., 635 — 639 ; 667 — 
 679.) To assist them in raising the required loan, the 
 comjiany were cmjiowcred to borrow, on bonds, to 
 the extent of £1,500,000 on their common seal, over 
 and above what they were legally authorised to do 
 before, and also to make calls of money from their 
 proprietors.— (CAarios of E. I. Ci/., pp. 243 — 367 j 
 .■\nderson, iii., 29.) — The company continued to beai' 
 the title now assumed until the year 1833. 
 J Bruce's Annals nf E. I. Ci/., iii., 616.
 
 El'l-'liCT OF EUllOPEAN INTERCOURSE ON INDIAN CHARACTER. 231 
 
 mighty fabric of Mogul power, which had 
 iiiiuli! pcrccptihie progress even before the 
 dcutli of Aurmigzcbe. 
 
 J?(!f()rc jjrocccdiiig to describe the growth 
 of J'liiglish ascciid.ancy, it may be need- 
 ful, for the sake of readers not conversant 
 with the sources from wliich the narrative of 
 European intercourse with India lias been 
 derived, to notice the grievous dearth of 
 native history, which has largely contributed 
 to render many ])ond("rous tomes publislied 
 on Anglo-Indian all'airs, almost as un- 
 readable as a Bluc-l?ook, or the ledger of a 
 commercial firm. The valuable work of 
 Bruce is professedly compiled from the 
 records of the E. I. Cy. ; but as he has very 
 judiciously thought lit to give an able, though 
 brief sketch of the general state of European 
 polities in sucoessive reigns, it would have 
 been no less pertinent to the subject to 
 have selected from the voluminous despatches 
 of the Indian presidencies, various interest- 
 ing illustrations of the condition and charac- 
 ter both of the Hindoo and Mohammedan 
 I population. Sucli knowledge is useful even 
 in a purely commercial point of view ; and 
 there is the greater cause for surprise that 
 it should have been neglected by this writer, 
 because in almost the only instance in which 
 he deviates from his general rule by relating 
 an affray with the Hindoos, occasioned by 
 an act of wanton aggression on the part of 
 the crews of two of the company's vessels, 
 he introduces it as " one of those untoward 
 
 • These vessels had gone from Surat to Carwar to 
 bring off the pepper, See. The crew of one of them 
 stole a cow and killed it, thus offending both the 
 rights and prejudices of the Hindoos ; being re- 
 sisted, tliey fired at and killed two native children of 
 rank. The factory was in danger of destruction, 
 and the agents of imprisonment ; but proceedings 
 were suspended by reason of tlie impending battle 
 between the Mahratta rajah Sunibajee, and Aurung- 
 zebe. Bruce adds, tliat the Malabar trade received 
 a severe check ; which would be the natural result of 
 such an aggression, as the produce was chiefly 
 procui'ed througli native merchants. — (ii., 545.) 
 
 t Aiitials, iii., 658-'9. Hamilton asserts, that a ter- 
 rible catastrophe occurred at liatecala about the year 
 1()70, in consequence of a bull-dog belonging to the 
 English factory having killed a cow consecrated to 
 a pagoda or temple. The iMiragcd priests, believing 
 the injury to have been intentional, raised a mob 
 and killed the whole of the English (eighteen iu 
 number) while engaged in a hunting party. — (i. 280.) 
 The same writer describes the neighbouring king- 
 dom of Canara as being generally governed by a 
 female sovereign; and lie adds, "the subjects of this 
 country observe the laws so well, that robbery or 
 murder arc hardly heard of among them ; and a 
 stranger may pass through the country without 
 being asked where he is going, or what business he 
 has."- — {Kcw Account of East Indies, i. 279.) 
 
 events which strongly mark the necessity of 
 attention to the rights, as well as to the 
 prejudices of the natives."* Nearly at the 
 dose of his third and last quarto volume, 
 he quotes the humiliating observation of 
 President Pitt (the grandfather of Lord 
 Chatham), that " when the Europeans first 
 settled in India, they were mightily admired 
 by the natives, believing they were as in- 
 nocent as themselves; but since, by their 
 example, they are grown very crafty and 
 cautious ; and no people better uiider.stand 
 their own interest : so that it was easier to 
 effect that in one year which you sha'nt do 
 now in a century; and the more obliging 
 your management, the more jealous thcv 
 are of you."t 
 
 This evidence of the effect of communica- 
 tion between nominally Christian nations and 
 a people still unenlightened by the teaching 
 of the Gospel, is unhappily confirmed by the 
 common testimony borne by impartial wit- 
 nesses regarding the state of various native 
 populations after their intercourse with Eu- 
 ropeans. The bigotry of liomish commu- 
 nities, and the indifference (masked under 
 the name of toleration) of Protestants, had 
 rendered the profession of Christianity in. 
 the mouth of the former a pretext for cruel 
 persecution, and in that of the latter little 
 better than an unmeaning sound; the 
 shameless immorality of Europeans in gene- 
 ral, giving cause for the Indians to doubt 
 whether they had really any religion at all.} 
 
 J The Dutch, from the first commencement of 
 their intercourse with the East Indies, made strenu- 
 ous efforts for the conversion of the natives of Java, 
 Formosa, Ceylon, and the Spice Islands generally, 
 by the establishment of missions and schools, and 
 the translation of the Scriptures ; but on the con- 
 tinent of India their stations were small and tem- 
 porary, and their spiritual labours partook of the 
 same character. The good and zealous minister, 
 Baldseus, visited the Dutch possessions of Tuticorin 
 and Negapatam on the Coromandel coast, in 1660, 
 and extended his visitation along the southern coast 
 of the continent as far as Coulan (Quilon.) He 
 describes the state of the I'arawar, or cast of fisher- 
 men ecmverted by Fiancis Xavier and other Romish 
 missionaries, as little else than a peculiar phase of | 
 idolatry, their religion consisting in the mere out- 
 ward acts of worshipping images, counting beads, i 
 and crossing themselves. The Danes, afterwards so 
 justly celebrated for their earnest and well-directed 
 labours in the missionary field, made no efforts of 
 this description until they had been eighty years in 
 India — that is, until ITOii-'/. Before that time the 
 impression they had endeavoured to make upon the 
 natives by the scrupulous integrity of their commer- 
 cial dealings, was greatly impaired by their irreligion 
 and immorality. — (Hough, iii., 181.) With regard 
 to the English, the description given by Ferishta, at 
 the commencement of the 17th century, was pro-
 
 232 FIRST ENGLISH CHURCH ERECTED IN INDIA, BY MASTERS— 1680. 
 
 The E. I. Cy. followed the example too 
 generally shown by the government of Eng- 
 land throughout the seventeentli century, 
 excepting, perhaps, during the Protectorate. 
 They contented themselves with sending 
 out a few chaplains, not always well selected ; 
 and made no provision for the establishment 
 of places of worship, consecrated to the 
 decent celebration of the observances of 
 their common faith. The first English 
 church in India was erected iu 1680, in 
 Fort St. George, Madras, for the use of 
 the factory, by the governor, Streynsham 
 Masters. This good and earnest man com- 
 pleted the building " without any aid or 
 countenance of the company in order 
 thereto."* Iu fact, the missionary spirit 
 intimately connected with the earliest colo- 
 nial aud commercial enterprises of the 
 nation had been swallowed up (at least for a 
 time) in the thirst for gain ; and this cir- 
 cumstance is in itself a sufficient reason 
 for the disastrous condition to which the 
 E. I. Cy. found themselves reduced. No 
 body of men, either in a private or public 
 capacity, ever yet (in popular phraseology) 
 " made their ledger their Bible" with im- 
 punity; and the punishment of an erring 
 community is usually more perceptible thau 
 that of an individual, for the evident reason 
 that the one has only a present existence, 
 ■while for the other there is a judgment to 
 come. We are all inclined to pass too 
 lightly over such facts as these : we do not 
 care to trace the workings of a superin- 
 tending Providence, checking by adversity, 
 or encouraging by prosperity, the every-day 
 concerns of a mercantile company ; never- 
 theless, the pith of the matter — -the true phi- 
 losophy of history — is in all cases the same. 
 The flagrant blunders made by men noted 
 for shrewdness and intrigue — the total failure 
 of their most cunningly-devised schemes, bear 
 daily witness amongst us of the fallibility of 
 human judgment: — would that they taught 
 
 bably regarded by his countrymen as a correct 
 account of the protcstant creed at its close ; so little 
 effort had been made to set forth, in its truth and 
 purity, the doctrines of the reformed faith. The 
 Portuguese Jesuits, who were long in attendance 
 on the court of Akber, were very likely to have 
 accused their rivals of participation in the Nestorian 
 heresy (which they had made the pretext for perse- 
 cuting the Syrian Cliristians on the Malabar coast) ; 
 otherwise it would be dilhcult to account for some 
 of the assertions of Ferishta. "The jiersuasion of 
 this nation," he writes, " is different I'roni that of 
 otlier Kurojjeans, particularly tlie Portuguese, with 
 whom they are in a state of constant wari'are. They 
 OBsert that Jesus was a mortal, and the prophet of 
 
 us also the wisdom of implicit reliance on re- 
 vealed truth, and of constant obedience to its 
 pure and consistent dictates ! 
 
 The century did not, however, close 
 without some promise of better things, at 
 least on the part of the English government ; 
 for the letters-patent of 1698 contain a 
 special proviso, binding the general company 
 to provide a chaplain on board every ship, 
 and for every garrison and superior factory, 
 in each of which a decent and convenient 
 place was to be set apart for divine service 
 only. These ministers were to learn Portu- 
 guese, and likewise the native language of 
 the country where they should reside, " the 
 better to enable them to instruct the Gentoos 
 that shall be servants or slaves of the said 
 company, or of their agents in the Protestant 
 religion. "t These provisions were, it is 
 evident, intended for the exclusive benefit 
 of British subjects. The duty of spreading 
 the Gospel among Indian populations was 
 one which England was slow to recognise. 
 Portugal, Spain, and France, Holland aud 
 Denmark, all took precedence of her iu this 
 great field; and it was not until after a 
 long and arduous struggle, that the advo- 
 cates of missionary exertion iu our land 
 succeeded in obtaining the sanction of go- 
 vernment for their attempts to place before 
 the people of India those divinely-revealed 
 truths, which must be either entirely disbe- 
 lieved, or else accepted as the only solid basis 
 whereon to establish that " public virtue" 
 which is as necessary to the true greatness 
 of a nation, as integrity to the character of 
 an individual. The progress of Christianity 
 in India belongs, however, to a distinct 
 section of this work ; and its history, so far 
 as England is concerned, is far subsequent 
 to the present period, of which the chief 
 interest lies in the succession of events im- 
 mediately preceding the struggle between 
 the French and English for political ascen- 
 dancy in Hiudoostau. 
 
 God ; that there is only one God, and that he is with- 
 out equal, and has no wife nor child, — according to 
 the belief of the Portuguese. The English have a 
 separate king, independent of the King of Portugal, 
 to whom they owe no allegiance ; but, on the con- 
 trary, these two people put each other to death 
 wheresoever they meet. At present, in consequence 
 of the interference of Jeluingeer Padshali, they are 
 at jieace with one another, though God only knows 
 how long they will consent to have factories in the 
 same town, and to live on terms of amity and friend- 
 ship with one another." — (lirigg's Firishln, iv., 541.) 
 
 • Hough's Chrisiidnilij in India, iii., ;i7T. 
 
 f Cluirtcrs, Treaties, and Giiiiits of E. I. Cy. 
 (English and Indian), from 1601 to 1772.
 
 INDIAN SETTLEMENTS OP THE DUTCH IN 1707. 
 
 233 
 
 iNDO-EunoPEAN Settlements in the 
 EioirrKHNTii Ckntuiiy. — The death of Au- 
 ruiij^zi'lje iiiui tlio junction of tlic two coin- 
 panii's, mark the coniincneorncnt of a new 
 C[)ocli ; before cntcrin;^ upon which it may be 
 useful to sketch the posit icni of the various 
 European nations whoso settlements and fac- 
 tories dotted the coast-line of the continent 
 of India. On the western side of the great 
 peninsula, the Portuguese still retained pos- 
 session of the city of (Joa; the fortresses of 
 Dainaun, Basscin, and Clioul ; and of J)iu 
 ill (luzerat;* but the prestige of their 
 power was gone for ever : by land, the 
 Dutch, the Mogul, the Mahrattas, and their 
 old foe the zamorin of Calicut, plundered 
 them without mercy ; and from the seaward 
 they were liarasscd by the restless and 
 vengeful hostility of the jMuseat Arabs,t 
 until the once haughty invaders were so 
 completely humbled, that the Englisli presi- 
 dent and council at Surat, during their 
 worst season of depression, could find no 
 stronger terms in which to describe their 
 own degradation, than by declaring that 
 they had become " as despicable as the 
 Portuguese in India, or the Jews in Spain. "| 
 
 The possessions of the Dutch were, for 
 the most part, conquests from thePortuguese. 
 Ou the Coromandel coast their chief settle- 
 ment was tliat of Negapatam : in Bengal, 
 
 * Gemelli, quoted by Anderson, ii., 644. — He 
 adds, that they had " the islands of Timor, Solor, 
 and Macao subject to China; and in Africa, An- 
 gola, Sena, Sofala, Mozambique, andMombas — many 
 in number, but of no great value." 
 
 f The Arabs e.xpcllcd the Portuguese from Muscat 
 about tlie middle of the 17th century, and main- 
 tained almost incessant warfare against tliem for the 
 next fifty years, but did not molest other European 
 traders till nearly the expiration of that period. In 
 1697, the Portuguese joined the King of Persia 
 against the Arabs, whereupon these latter divided 
 tlieir fleet into two squadrons ; sent one of them 
 to burn the Portuguese settlement at Mombas, 
 and employed the other in destroying the factory 
 at Mangalore. The Persian monarch oft'ered the 
 English the same privileges conceded to them at 
 Gombroon for co-operation in the eajiture of Ormuz, 
 if they would now assist him in attacking Muscat. 
 The company's troops and shipping were not in a 
 condition to comply with this request, as they were 
 otherwise inclined to do, and an evasive answer was 
 returned. The suspicions of the Arabs were pro- 
 bably aroused by the negotiation ; for they shortly 
 afterwards commenced hostilities against the Knglish, 
 which their improvement in naval tactics rendered 
 increasingly disastrous; until, in the year 170-l-'5, 
 we lind the court of the London company expressing 
 their determination, so soon as the war in Europe 
 should terminate, " to equip armed vessels to clear 
 the seas and to root out that nest of pirates, the 
 Muscat Arabs." — Annals, iii., 557. 
 
 X Brace's Annals of E. I. Cy., iii., 307. 
 
 they had posts or factories at Chinsura, 
 Ilooghly, Cossimbazar, Dacca, Patna, and 
 other places : in (iiizural, a station at Surat 
 of consi(kra!)le importance in a commercial 
 point of view; and (Icpendcnt posts at .\hme- 
 dai)ad,§ Agra,|| and J5aroach. Cochin, Craa- 
 ganore, (.oulan (Quilon), and Cananorc, oa 
 the Malabar coast, were clogged with heavy 
 military expenses, which greatly outweiglied 
 tlie [)rofits of the trade connected with 
 them. As many as a thousand soldiers 
 were, for some years, maintained hcre,1f 
 chiefly with the object of overawing the 
 Hindoo princes, wlio, though frequently con- 
 quered, had never been completely sub- 
 jugated cither by the Portuguese or the 
 Dutch; but on the contrary, were always 
 ready to take advantage of any symptom 
 of weakness on the part of their o|)pressors, 
 to put forth an unexpected amount of armed 
 hostility. The jMalabar pepper is considered 
 the finest in India ; and the Dutch, although 
 obliged to pay double the price for which 
 they could obtain abundant suiiplies in 
 liantam and Jambcc, made strong eflbrts to 
 monopolise the market, but without effect. 
 They stigmatised the sale of ])cppcr to other 
 nations as a contraband trade, and endea- 
 voured to blockade the ports of Malabar ; but 
 with so little efleet, that they could not even 
 prevent the natives from maintaining an open 
 
 § Founded in 1G20, and abandoned in 171G. 
 
 II Founded in 1618, and abandoned in 1744. 
 
 ^ A great trade was at this period carried on at 
 Surat by Moorish, Armenian, and Arabian mer- 
 chants, with Persia, Mocha, Acheen, and elsewhere. 
 The English, Dutch, and Ficnch had establishments 
 here, under the protection of tlie Moliammedan go- 
 vernment. Excellent ships, costly but extremely 
 durable, were built of teak; and one of the resident 
 mercliants (a wealthy and enterprising Moor) is said 
 to have possessed as many as fifteen or sixteen sail, 
 of from 100 to 500 tons burthen.— ('^ecoMH< of Trade 
 of India ; by Charles Lockyer : London, 1711.) The 
 Dutch factory here proved the most advantageous of 
 any formed by them in India, and continued ex- 
 tremely lucrative until Bombay usurped the place 
 of Surat, and the dominancy of' the English became 
 established. .Vdmiral Stavorinus writes from official 
 documents, that the Dutch company, in the ten 
 years ending 1608, gained, upon an average, a 
 sum of about £46,315 sterling, or about 850 per 
 cent, upon the liner spices; and on their other 
 goods a profit of £23,266, although only in the 
 proportion of about 59 per cent, on the prime 
 cost. Valentyn, an excellent authority, states the 
 gain of the Dutch at Surat, on various articles, as 
 follows : — Upon cloves, 665 ; nutmegs, 1,453 ; mace, 
 718; copper in bars, 128; ditto in plates, 31 ; ben- 
 zoin, 40; gumlac, 34; quicksilver, 27; and Vermil- 
 lion, 19 : and he adds, that the clear profit of the 
 head factory amounted yearly to between six and 
 seven tons of gold, or from £55,000 to £64,000 ster- 
 ling. (Quoted in Stavorinus' Voyages, iii., 112 — 114.)
 
 234 POSITION OF DANES, FEENCH, AND ENGLISH IN INDIA— 1707. 
 
 traffic with the notorious pirate Kidd. The 
 Dutch governor, writing in 1698, remarks 
 " that it is to be regretted the company 
 carried so much sail here in the beginning, 
 that they are now desirous of striking them, 
 in order to avoid being overset."* The 
 Dutch committed the common error of 
 putting forth pretensions unjust in them- 
 selves, and maintainable only by force. The 
 attempt failed, and the means employed 
 produced disastrous consequences. The re- 
 duction of the land establishments, and the 
 breaking up of the fleet heretofore sta- 
 tioned on the coast, accompanied by the 
 avowed determination of no longer obstruct- 
 ing the navigation, were tokens of weakness 
 which the native princes were not likely to 
 view in the light of voluntary concessions. 
 In 1701, war broke out with the zamorin, 
 or Tamuri rajah, the existing represen- 
 tative of a dynasty which had for two cen- 
 turies formed a bulwark to India against 
 the inroads of European powers in this 
 direction ; and hostilities were carried on at 
 the epoch at which we are now arrived. f 
 
 The efforts of the Danes, based on a 
 very slender commercial capital, had not 
 prospered. In 1689, Tranquebar, their only 
 settlement of importance, was nearly wrested 
 from them by their territorial sovereign, the 
 rajah of Taujore, in consequence of the in- 
 trigues of the Dutch ; and was preserved to 
 its rightful owners solely by the armed in- 
 terference of an English detachment sent 
 to their relief from Madras, after the siege 
 had lasted six months. 
 
 The French, as traders, were equally un- 
 fortunate with the Danes. The home manu- 
 facturers had become discontented on per- 
 ceiving the increasing use of gold and 
 silver brocades, and painted cottons. Like 
 their fellow-traders in England, they suc- 
 ceeded in procuring an edict (in 1687) for 
 
 • Stavorinus' Voyages, iii., 238. 
 
 t The Dutch had governments or factories in 
 i-'eylon, in Java (wliere stood tlie fine city of Batavia, 
 called by its owners the Queen of the Ea^t), in Ma- 
 lacca, Amboyna, lianda, Teniate, Bantam, Siam, 
 Macassar, Tonquin, Japan, Gombroon (in the Per- 
 sian Gulf), with chiefships at Ispahan and Bussora. 
 .\t Arracan, they ])urchased rice and slaves ; and they 
 liad also many temporary stations in different parts 
 of Asia, which it would li; needless to enumerate. 
 
 t Milburn's Commerce, i., 384. 
 
 § The I'RKsiDKNCY or BOMBAY held command 
 over the factories of Surat, Swally, and Baroach, of 
 ,\hmedabad, Agra, and Lucknow (from wliich three 
 last places the factors had been temporarily with- 
 ilrawn) : on the Malahar coast, they had tlie forts of 
 (Jarwar, Tellichcrry (established by permission of the 
 Hindoo rajah, about 1695), Anjcngo (with the 
 
 the immediate prohibition of this branch of 
 commerce ; and it was with considerable 
 difficulty that the company obtained per- 
 mission to dispose of their imports on hand, 
 or expected by the next ships. The sale of 
 piece-goods even to foreigners was forbidden, 
 on the supposition that those of France would 
 be purchased instead ; and a high duty was 
 laid on raw silk, then imported in consider- 
 able quantities. Under these discouraging 
 circumstances the trade languished ; and in 
 1693, received a fresh blow from the cap- 
 ture of Pondicherry (the chief French settle- 
 ment) by the Dutch. New walls were 
 raised, and the fortifications strengthened 
 by the victors ; but their labours proved ill- 
 directed ; for, upon the conclusion of the 
 peace in 1697, the place was decreed to be 
 restored to its former owners, with all its 
 additional defences, on payment of £5,000 
 to the Dutch government, for the expendi- 
 ture thus incurred. The French company 
 received orders from the king to take 
 measures to prevent the recapture of Pon- 
 dicherry, and frequent reinforcements were 
 sent there. The national treasury must 
 have furnished the funds ; for the finances of 
 the association were exhausted, and in 1708 
 they became absolutely bankrupt; but 
 Louis XIV., fearing that the trade to India 
 might otherwise entirely cease, staid all 
 prosecutions at law against them for debt, 
 and granted them permission to lease out 
 their privileges, upon the best terms they 
 could, to any private person who should be 
 able to adventure the necessary capital. 
 Arrangements were actually formed on this 
 basis with a M. Croizat, and afterwards 
 with some merchants of St. !Malo.J 
 
 The possessions of the English are 
 clearly set forth in the enumeration of "dead 
 stock," made by the two companies at the 
 time of their union. § The central points 
 
 sanction of the ranee or queen of Attinga, accorded 
 at the same time, jjrobably in both cases with a 
 view of procuring the aid of the Knglish against 
 the aggressions of the Dutch), and the factory of 
 Calicut. On the Coromandel coast, the company 
 had establishments at Jinjee and Orissa ; the fac- 
 tories depending on the Madras Phksidkncy, the 
 city, and Fort St. George, Fort St. David, Cudda- 
 lore, Porto Novo, Pettipolee, Masulipatam, Mada- 
 poUam, and Vizagapatam. The factories dependent 
 on the Presidency of Calcutta, or Fort Wil- 
 liam, were — Balasore, Cossimbazar, Dacca, Hooghly, 
 Malda, Rnjmahal, and Patna. The above forts and 
 factories, with their stores and ammunition, together 
 with the rents and customs arising therefrom, 
 and the firmauns by right of whicli they were en- 
 joyed, constituted the " dead stock" of the old or 
 London company on the Indian continent. Some
 
 MADRAS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 235 
 
 were then, as now, formed by tlie tliree 
 prcsidctunc's of noiiih.iy, Madras, and C"al- 
 cutta, the last of which was created in 1707. 
 They had at this time no dependence upon 
 one another; each was absohitc within its own 
 limits, and responsible only to the company 
 in England. The presidents were respec- 
 tively eommanders-in-ehief of the mili- 
 tary force maintained within the limits 
 of their jurisdiction. The numbers com- 
 prised in the several garrisons is not stated : 
 but they were composed partly of recruits 
 sent out from Euf;land ; partly of deserters 
 from pther European settlements in India; 
 and also (at least at Bombay and Sural) of 
 Topasses — a name applied to the offspring 
 of Portuguese and Indian parents, and also 
 given, though with little reason, to Hindoo 
 converts to the Romish church. Natives of 
 purely Indian descent — Rajpoots for in- 
 stance — were already, as has been noticed, 
 employed by the company in military ser- 
 vice, under the name of Sepoijft, a corrup- 
 tion of Sipahi (soldier.) As yet little de- 
 sire had been shown to discipline them 
 after the European custom. They used the 
 musket, but in other respects remained 
 armed and clothed according to the country 
 usage, with sword and target, turban, cabay 
 or vest, and long drawers. Otliccrs of their 
 own people held command over them, but 
 were eventually superseded by Englishmen. 
 Fort St. George (Madras), is described 
 by a contemporary writer as " a port of the 
 greatest consequence to the E. I. Cy., for its 
 strength, wealth, and great returns made 
 yearly in calicoes and muslins."* The citadel 
 or inner fort had four large bastions with 
 curtains, on which were mounted fifty-six 
 guns and a mortar ; the western, or main 
 guard, was kept by about thirty soldiers ; the 
 east by a corporal's guard of six. The Eng- 
 lisli town, or outer fort, was furnished with 
 " batteries, half-moons, and flankers, at 
 proper distances, whereon are about 150 
 
 of these posts had probably proved sources of ex- 
 penditure rather than gain ; Masulipatam, Pettipo- 
 lee, and Madapollam, for instance, are stated by 
 Bruce, in 169o-'6, to have involved a dead loss of 
 above £100,000.— (.-Imha/s of E. I. Cy., iii., 184.) 
 The London company's further ])ossessions were — ■ 
 the island of St. Helena : in Persia, a factory at 
 Gombroon, with the yearly rent of about £3,333, 
 still paid by the Persian monarch (see p. 208) ; and 
 trading posts at Shiraz and Ispahan. On the island 
 of Sumatra they had the settlements at York Fort, 
 Bencoolen, Indrapore, Priaman, Sillehar, Bencoolen 
 with dependent stations ; and also a factory at Ton- 
 quin. The dead stock of the new, or English com- 
 pany, for which they were to be allowed £70,000 in 
 
 guns and three mortars, mounted for de- 
 fence, Ijesidesthirty-twogunsmoreon the out- 
 works, with eigiit field-pieces." The garrison 
 comprised 250 Europeans, each paid at the 
 rate of ninety-one fanams, or.Cl 2s. 9rf. per 
 month ; and 200 tojjasses, at fifty or fifty- 
 two fanams a-month; with some twenty ex- 
 perienced European gunners, at 100 fanams 
 a-raontli. The captains received fourteen, 
 ensigns ten, Serjeants five pagodasf monthly ; 
 and corporals received the same salary 
 as the artillerymen. The chief gunner of 
 the inner fort had fourteen, and of the 
 outer works twelve pagodas. About 200 
 peons, or native police, were constantly re- 
 tained ; and the Portuguese portion of the 
 population were obliged to furnish a com- 
 pany or two of trained bands at their own 
 charge, on any disturbance. The Black City 
 — that is, tlie native town, situated outside 
 the fort to the northward — was encompassed 
 with a thick, high brick wall, and fortified 
 after the modern fashion. JIaqua Town, 
 where the MussulahJ boatmen live, lay to 
 the southward. The sway of the company 
 extended beyond these limits ; for they 
 owned several villages two or three miles 
 further in the country, such as Egmore, 
 New Town, and Old Garden, which they 
 rented out to merchants or farmers for 1,100 
 pagodas per annum. The " singular de- 
 corum observed by the free merchants, fac- 
 tors, servants, and other inhabitants," is 
 especially noticed by Lockyer, who adds, 
 that the excellent arrangements of ^ladras, 
 together with " good fortifications, plenty of 
 guns, and much ammunition, render it a 
 bugbear to the Moors, and a sanctuary to 
 the fortunate people living in it."§ 
 
 By this account, it is evident that a 
 blessing had attended the Christian labours 
 of Strcynsham Masters, llis church, as yet 
 the only building in India consecrated by 
 Englishmen to divine worship, is described 
 as a large and stately pile, adorned with 
 
 the united funds, consisted of factories at Surat, in the 
 Bay of Bengal, at Masulipatam, Madapollam, on the 
 island of Borneo, and on the island of Pulo Condore, 
 (coast of Cochin China), with the stores and ammuni- 
 tion belonging to each. — Vide the " Quinque Partite 
 Indenture," in charters of E. I. Cij., pp. 316 — 344. 
 
 * Account of the Trade of India, by Charles 
 Lockyer, pp. 3-'4 ; London, 1711. 
 
 t A gold coin varying in value at different times 
 from about nine to ten shillings. 
 
 \ Tlie planks of the large and flat-bottomed Mas- 
 suluh boats are sewn together with twine, which pre- 
 vents their starting even under the most violent 
 shocks. Their hire was then eighteen-pence a trip. 
 
 § Account of Trade, p. 15.
 
 236 PROTESTANT ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENT AT MADRAS. 
 
 curious carved worlc, with very large -vvin- 
 dows, and furnislied with a fine altar, organ, 
 and other appurtenances usual to the most 
 complete edifices of its kind, with the ex- 
 ception of bells, which had perhaps been 
 purposely omitted, on account of their in- 
 timate connexion with the superstitions of 
 the Braluniuical creed. Two ministers were 
 attaclied to the church, in which services 
 were performed twice a-day. On Sunday, 
 the customary rites were "most strictly 
 observed," and " country Protestants were 
 examined in the catechism." A school, 
 " held in a large room under the library," 
 was open to all children free of charge. 
 According to Lockyer, the ecclesiastical 
 establishment was altogether well conducted, 
 and deserved the high character it bore 
 among the people. Pious persons gave or 
 bequeathed considerable sums to " the 
 church," for cliaritable purposes ; and dying 
 parents chose its representatives as trustees 
 for their children,* a course of proceeding 
 calculated, it is true, to place dangerous 
 weapons of oppression in the hands of 
 a dominant priesthood; but which, in 
 the isolated and unpatronised condition 
 of the religious establishments at JMadras, 
 can hardly be viewed in any other light 
 than as evidence of the respect inspired by 
 devout and upright conduct. The project 
 for the formation of a municipal body had 
 
 • The church stock of unemployed money was lent 
 out at seven per cent, per ann. — (Lockyer, p. 18.) 
 
 t Lockyer mentions a Seagate custom of £5 per 
 cent., yielding 150,000 pagodas per ann. ; and a 
 choultry, or land custom of two-and-a-half per cent. 
 on cloth, provisions, and other goods brouglit in 
 from the country, yielding 4,000 pagodas. Anchor- 
 age and permit dues, licences for fishing, arrack and 
 wine, tobacco and beetle-nut farms, mintage, c&c, 
 furnished various sums ; but the total must have 
 fallen far short of the expectations expressed by the 
 company in lG91-'2 of drawing as much from Ma- 
 dras as the Dutch did from Batavia; namely, a yearly 
 income of £260,000.— (Bruce, iii., 110.) 
 
 % The governor had £200 a-year, with a gratuity 
 of £100: of the six councillors', the chief had £10() 
 per ann. ; the others in proportion, — £70, £50, and 
 £40 per ann. : six senior mercliants liad annual 
 salaries of £40; two junior merchants, £30: five 
 factors, £15: ten writers, £5: two chaplains, £100; 
 one surgeon, £30: two "essay masters," £120: one 
 judge, £100: andtlie attorney-general, fifty pagodas. 
 Married men received from five to ten pagodas per 
 month, as diet money, according to their quality; 
 inferior .servants, dining at the general table liad no 
 other allowance beyond thiir salaries than a very 
 trifling sum for washing, and oil for lam])s. — (Lock- 
 yer's Trade of India, p. 14.) The liigliest appoint- 
 ment at Bombay did not exceed £300 per ann. 
 
 § Tlie condition of several of tlie minor English 
 settlements at this period is well sketched by 
 
 been carried out, and a mayor and six alder- 
 men held a court twice a-week. 
 
 The total amount of revenue derived from 
 Madras does not appear tf the scale of 
 salaries was extremely nioderate,J and pro- 
 bably affords a fair specimen of that laid 
 down for the presidencies of Bombay and 
 Calcutta, to which Lockyer's interesting 
 sketches unfortunately do not extend. § Dis- 
 appointment and reverses liad by this time 
 greatly modified the ambitious views enter- 
 tained by the managers of the East India 
 trade. The belligerent and costly policy 
 introduced by Sir Josiah Child and his 
 brother, was succeeded by a directly oppo- 
 site system — to conciliate rather than to defy 
 and overawe the native princes, was the 
 order of the day; and to this end the 
 Indian officials were directed to carry on 
 their business " without the affectation of 
 pomp and grandeur, as merchants ouglit to 
 do." II The large sums spent by the rival 
 companies in outvying and thwarting each 
 other, constituted a departure from the gene- 
 ral rule — at least in the case of the older 
 body; btit upon their union, this unsatis- 
 factory expenditure ceased, and the leading 
 members of the new concern, who now, 
 under the name of the Court of Directors, 
 took the place of the Court of Committees,^ 
 enjoined upon their agents the most rigid 
 frugality, which they continued to enforce 
 
 Lockyer: — TeffnajMtain, or Fort St. David, he de- 
 scribes as " a port of great profit, as well for the 
 rents and income arising immediately thereon, as 
 for the great quantities of calicoes and muslins that 
 are brought thence for Europe. Mctchtepatam 
 IJifasulijtafnm'], Vizii/apatain, and Madapollam, are 
 factories continued for the sake of red-wood and the 
 cotton-manufactures, which are here in the greatest 
 perfection." — (p. 13.) The factory at Carwar, on 
 the Malabar coast, was provided with eight or nine 
 guns and twenty-six topasscs, " to defend it against 
 the insults of the country peo])le." — (p. 269.) The 
 native chief, or rajah, received custom dues of one 
 and-a-half per cent, on all goods imported by the 
 English. At Tcllichcrry, a small fort with a slight 
 guard was maintained to protect the trade in pepper 
 and cardamums, coir, cowries, and chanks from the 
 Maldives. At An/etu/n, the company possessed a 
 small fort with guns, and a garrison of forty " mon> 
 grel Portuguese," to protect the traffic (cliiefly pep- 
 ])er), and the " go-downs," or wareliouses. Business 
 was carried on by a cliief agent, assisted hy three or 
 four counsellors, and a surgeon was included in the 
 establishment. At Calinit, whovK there was con- 
 siderable trade, the r.nglisli factory was a large old 
 house without fortifications or guns, which the zamo- 
 rin, like the Mogul, would i)rob,>hly not have suffered 
 any foreigners to maintain within liis dominions. 
 
 II Brucc's Annals of E. I. C'l/., iii., 4o2. 
 
 ^ Conimittecs ; — in the sense of persons to whom 
 something is committed.
 
 SYSTEM OF E. I. Cy. IN THE EARLY PART OF ISth CENTURY. 237 
 
 so strictly, tluit in 1 72 !•, the outlay of about 
 .£l(K) in tlic purcliase of a chaise ami pair 
 of horses for the president at Calcutta, was 
 rcprohenilcd as an niuvarrantahlc procecd- 
 iui^. The (lircetora ordered the amount to 
 be refunded, remarking, that if their ser- 
 vants desired "such superduities" they 
 must pay for them.* It is certain that 
 the regular salaries given even to the 
 highest functionaries could have barely 
 covered the necessary expenses of Euro- 
 peans living in a tr()[)ieal climate. But 
 they had other sources of emolument more 
 or less legitimate. ]']ach einployi' was suf- 
 fered to prosecute an indepeudi-nt trallie, 
 which he had the best opportunity of doing, 
 as the coasting-trade and likewise the inter- 
 course with all eastern ports north of the 
 equator, except Toncpiin and Formosa, had 
 recentlyt been relinquished by the company 
 to their servants, or to Englishmen licensed 
 to reside in India as free merchants, by 
 which latter arrangement an independent 
 community was gradually formed. 
 
 Tlie plan of allowing officials to prosecute 
 business in two distinct capacities, was 
 fraught with evils for which the attendant 
 saving in the item of salaries could make 
 but poor amends. Convenience of situation 
 
 * Tliornton's Bn'lixh Einpii-e in India, i., 73. 
 
 f The commerce liad formerly been circuitous : the 
 E. I. Cy's ships went lirst to Sural and other northern 
 ports, and disposed of part of their English cargoes in 
 exehnnge for piece-goods and other commodities, 
 with which they sailed for the southern ports, wliere 
 these articles were in demand ; and procured instead 
 pepper, cloves, nutmegs, and various articles for the 
 European market. This tedious and expensive mode 
 of tralUc was abandoned towards the close of the 
 17th century; direct intercourse was established be- 
 tween London and the Indian ports, and the " coun- 
 try," or coasting-trade, disi)osed of as above related. 
 The mode of conducting the inland traffic had like- 
 wise undergone considerable change. " The sale of 
 the commodities imported from Europe," says Mill, 
 " was transacted in the simplest and easiest of all 
 possible ways; namely, by auction^the mode in 
 which they disposed of Indian goods in England. 
 At the beginning of this traflic, the English, as well 
 as other European adventurers, used to carry their 
 commodities to the inferior towns and markets, 
 transporting them in the hackeries [cars] of the 
 country ; and established factories and warehouses 
 where the goods were exposed to sale."^(iii., p. 12.) 
 During the confusion, however, which prevailed 
 while the em|)ire of the Moguls was in progress of dis- 
 solution, an order was issued forbidding persons in 
 the E. I. Cy.'s service, or under their jurisdiction, to 
 proceed far into the country without special permis- 
 sion ; and the care of distributing the goods inland, 
 and of introducing them to the consumers, was left 
 to native and other independent dealers. The col- 
 lection and custody of the goods which constituted 
 a European " investment," was a more complicated 
 2 I 
 
 for the affairs of each individual was the 
 first object to be desired, and as all power 
 of appointment (saving where the rule of 
 seniority applied) was lodged in the pre- 
 sident ami council jointly, they naturally 
 distributed among their own body the most 
 advantageous offices. The employment and 
 consequent absence of a member of council 
 as chief of an important factory, did not 
 disqualify him for retaining liis position 
 in the government j but it could scarcely 
 fail to detract from his efficiency, since few 
 men have sufficient energy, and fewer still 
 sufficient integrity, to perform at one time 
 the arduous duties of a judge, legislator, and 
 politician, and of the head of an extensive 
 commercial establishment in conjunction 
 with the business of a private merchant. 
 No doubt, in most cases, the last-named 
 interest would absorb the others, ami neglect 
 of the affairs of government would neces- 
 sarily follow : to this single cause many of 
 the defects observable in the management of 
 affairs in India, may probably be attributed. 
 Upon the union of the two companies, a 
 manifest preference was evinced to the 
 agents of the elder body, and especially to 
 Mr. Tliomas Pitt, J the president of Madras 
 before mentioned, whose ability and discre- 
 
 business, especially the purchase of the produce of 
 the loom. The extreme indigence of the weaving 
 class, and the consequent necessity of at all times 
 furnishing them with the materials of their work, or 
 the means of purchasing them, involved consider- 
 able advances of ca])ital and a large amount of 
 superintendence, compelling the employment of seve- 
 ral distinct sets of agents (banyans, gomashtahs 
 dullals, and pycars), who made their profit at the 
 expense both of the company and the weaver; the 
 latter, as the weaker party, being naturally the most 
 open to opi)ression. When the piece of calico or 
 muslin was finished, the gomashtiih, or broker, holds 
 a " kattah," — examined the work, fixed its price, and 
 [laid the workman, who, it is said, was often obliged 
 to accept fifteen or twenty, and often thirty or forty 
 per cent, less than the result of his labour would 
 have fetclicd in the market. — (Mill, iii., 15.) 
 
 J Another individual of the same family figures 
 in the history of East Indian affairs : first, as " Pitt 
 the interloper", then as "president and consul Pitt" in 
 the service of the new or English association ; and 
 lastly, as one of the highest othcials in the employ 
 of the united company, in which position he died in 
 1703, leaving behind him heavy personal debts and 
 a very questionable reputation as regarded his public 
 dealings. The oidy doubtful point which I have 
 met with regarding the character of his cousin, Mr. 
 Thomas Pitt, relates to the manner in which the 
 famous diamond, bearing his name, came into his 
 possession. Captain Hamilton avers, that the gem 
 was procured tlirough the intervention of a person 
 named Glover, who, seeing it at Arcot, prevailed 
 upon the proprietor to offer it for sale to the English 
 at Fort St. George, and he placed in his hands
 
 238 MR. PITT, GRANDFATHER OP LORD CHATHAM.— PITT DIAMOND. 
 
 tion had been evinced iu the late season of 
 disaster and embarrassment. When the coa- 
 lition of their employers iu England rendered 
 it of the first consequence that their repre- 
 sentatives in India should lay aside their 
 contentions, and, if possible, subdue the 
 ill-feeling raised by systematic hostility, Mr. 
 Pitt set a good example, by addressing a 
 communication to the English company, in 
 which he applied to himself " the great 
 saying of King William of blessed memory, 
 to the French king's plenipotentiary at 
 Ryswick, on concluding the peace, — 'twas my 
 fate, and not my choice, that made me your 
 enemy ; and since you and my masters are 
 united, it shall be my utmost endeavour to 
 purchase your good opinion, and deserve 
 your friendship."* 
 
 The treaty of Utrecht happily terminated 
 the long war with France, and England 
 enjoyed a season of commercial prosperit}', 
 of which the rapid growth of Liverpool, 
 Manchester, and Birmingham afford re- 
 markable evidence. t The company like- 
 wise prospered, and their imports rose in 
 value from £493,257 in 1708, to .€1,059,759 
 in 1730. The export branch of their trade 
 was far from exhibiting so favourable a 
 result;! but the rate of profit steadily 
 increased up to 1723; the dividends aug- 
 menting from five per cent, per annum to 
 the proprietors, upon £3,163,200 of capital, 
 until they reached ten per cent. ; they then 
 declined to eight per cent., at which annual 
 rate they continued until 1732, when they 
 were reduced to seven per cent., and re- 
 mained there until 1744, in which year 
 they returned to eight per cent. The in- 
 
 3,000 pagodas of his own as a guarantee that no 
 compulsion should be used to oblige him to sell 
 unless he were so inclined. The pledge was broken 
 by Mr. Pitt, and the money forfeited by Glover. — 
 (New Account of Euat Indies, i., 3G6.) The tale is 
 not very clearly told ; the seller, if a native, was pro- 
 bably rot the legitimate possessor of the diamond, i 
 because all stones, above a certain weight, found in 
 the mines, were claimed by the emperor. Tliis, 
 however, is no excuse for the conduct of Mr. Pitt, if 
 Hamilton's accusation be correct. The traffic in 
 jewels was, it should be stated, considered of much 
 importance, and had been alternately monopolised 
 by the company, and conceded to their servants as an 
 especial privilege. 
 
 • Annals of E. I. Cy., year 1702-'.3. 
 
 t Liverpool, which was not formed into a separate 
 parish till 16'J0, increased so rapidly, that in 1713, a 
 new parish with a church was erecti'd ; and its 
 e.\tent was doubled between Hi'JO and 1720. Man- 
 chester grew with equal rapidity, and was comptited, 
 in 1727, to contain no less than 50,(100 inhabitants; 
 and at tlie same period, the metal manufactories of 
 Birmingham, which thirty years before was little 
 
 terval between 1708 and 1745 is marked by 
 but few important events. In England the 
 company were employed at various times in 
 procuring decrees against interlopers,§ and 
 obtaining extensions of their exclusive pri- 
 vileges. The opposition of the free trade 
 party was very violent in 1730; and the 
 East India association obtained a renewal of 
 their charter only on condition of the pay- 
 ment of a premium of ,£200,000, and the 
 reduction of the interest of their capital lent 
 to government from five to four per cent. 
 The term now fixed was to terminate upon 
 three years' notice from March, 1766. 
 
 In India the servants of the company 
 watched ^with alarm the successive contests 
 for the throne, which took place between 
 the death of Aurungzebe and the accession 
 of his great-grandson, Feroksheer, in 1713. 
 i\Ioorshed Kooli Khan (sometimes called 
 Jaffier Khan), who had previously filled the 
 office of dewan, or comptroller of the revenues 
 in Bengal, was appointed subahdar, or viceroy 
 of that province, and subsequently obtaiued 
 a grant of Bahar and Orissa. The English 
 found his rule arbitrary and extortionate ; 
 and, in the hope of obtaining from the em- 
 peror a decree for especial protection and con- 
 cessions, persuaded the directors at home to 
 allow them to send an embassy to the Mogul 
 court. Two factors, selected for their intel- 
 ligence, were dispatched from Calcutta to 
 Delhi, with an Armenian merchant for their 
 interpreter ; and the report of the costly pre- 
 sents of which they were the bearers having 
 preceded them, the governors of the pro- 
 vinces through which their road lay were 
 ordered to show them every respect. || They 
 
 more than a village, are represented as giving main- 
 tenance to upwards of 30,000 individuals. — (Ander- 
 son's Oriijin of Commerce, iii., 143-'4.) To London 
 several new parishes had been added in a short 
 period. And from the year 1708 to 1730, the im- 
 ports of Great Britairt, according to the valuation 
 of the custom-house, had risen from £4,G98,(jG3 to 
 £7,780,019; and the e.\ports from £0,909,089, to 
 £11,974,135. — (Sir Charles Whitworth's Tables, part 
 i., p. 78.— Mill, iii., 25.) 
 
 j The exportation of 1708 was exceedingly small 
 compared with years immediately following : that of 
 1709, was £168,357; tliat of 1730, only £135,484. 
 
 § In 1718, the company were authorised, by act 
 of parliament, to seize all Uritish subjects found 
 trading within their limits, under the commission of 
 a foreign government, and to send tlicm to England, 
 subject to a penalty of £500 for each offence. 
 
 II They seem to have especially dreaded passing 
 through the country of the Jats, near Agra : in 
 communicating their ])rogress to the authorities at 
 Calcutta, the depiitalion relate having accomplished 
 this partof their journey, — "not meeting with much 
 trouble, except that once in the night, rogues canio
 
 MR. HAMILTON CURES THE EMPEROR FEROKSHEER— a.d. 1716. 239 
 
 reached tlio napital iiftor iouriieyiiiK tliiro 
 months : but tlie iiilhionce of ,\[ooi'sluul Kooli 
 Kiiaii, throufjli liis party, in tlic divided coun- 
 sels of the state, prevailed; and, notwitii- 
 standinff their oll'erin^s of f^old coin, a taljh;- 
 clock set with precious stones, a unicorn's 
 horn, a gold cscrutoirc, a map of the world, 
 japan, lacquered, earthen and cutlery ware, 
 with lookiiii^-glasses and red and yellow 
 broad elotli in abundauee, the ncsi^otiation 
 languished;* and FeroUsheer, engaged in pre- 
 paring for his nuptials with the daughter of 
 the IMarwar rajah, Ajcet Sing, would pro- 
 bably have paid no attention to their solici- 
 tations, had not the medical skill of one of 
 the party (a surgeon iu the company's ser- 
 vice) been offered at an opportune moment 
 for the cure o^ a malady from which he had 
 been long suffering. 
 
 Under the treatment of j\Ir. Hamilton 
 the emperor recovered; and the marriage, 
 which had been delayed on account of his 
 illness, was forthwith consummated. Fcrok- 
 sheer, of whom it has been said that " his 
 only quality was an ill-placed liberality ,"f 
 presented his physician with a magnificent 
 kidlltd {see p. IGS), .'),000 rupees in coin, 
 and models of all his surgical instruments 
 
 on our camp, hut being repulsed tliree limes, they 
 left us." — (Auher's liisc and I'rvr/rcss of British 
 Power in IitJia, i., 16.) 
 
 • Tlie value of the presents was about £30,000, 
 but Khojch Serliaud, the Armenian employed, had 
 given out their v.nhie at more tlian three times that 
 amount — a deception which could not fail to jjroduce 
 disappointment. 
 
 t Scott's History of the Deccaii, ii., 13o. 
 
 J The case of Broughton has been related. Ac- 
 cording to Orme, the medical skill engaged in the 
 service of the company was likewise instrumental in 
 gaining favour with Aurungzebe, about the time of 
 the first occupation of Calcutta — an English physician 
 being serviceable in administering relief to tiie em- 
 ])eror, when "sorely tormented with carbuncles," 
 which his own medical attendants rould not cure. — 
 (^Historical Frntjmnds of 3Iii(/nl Jiiii/)irc, p. 2iS4.) 
 
 § The company lost no o])portunity of strengthen- 
 ing and enforcing their authority over their country- 
 men in India. Independent traders, licensed or 
 unlicensed, were alike on sufferance; and in ad- 
 dressing their presidencies, the directors expressly 
 desire that care should bo taken to let even the 
 uncovenanted merchants know " that by the laws, no 
 subject of his majesty can stay in India without our 
 leave ; and therefore, as they are there only during 
 good behaviour, so you will let them continue no 
 longer than tliey deserve it." — Letter to Jiciujal, 1722. 
 
 'I According to European and Hindoo writers, the 
 sway of Moorshed Kooli Khan was marked by a 
 degree of barbarous and fiend-like cruelty, which 
 certainly formed no jjart of the character of .'Vurung- 
 zebe, who, though he never scrupled to make away 
 with the life of a human being if it suited his policy, 
 was nevertheless, as a ruler, decidedly opposed to j 
 
 ' in pure gold ; at the same time assuring him 
 I that any favour he might solicit should be 
 granted. .Again, the disinterestedness of a 
 medical ollieer of the company jjroved equal 
 to his skill,! and Hamilton requested the 
 emperor to concede to the embassy the 
 important privileges they had come to ask ; 
 namely: — 1st. " That a ' dustuck,' or pass- 
 port, signed by the president of Calcutta, 
 should excmi)t the goods it specified from 
 being stopjjcd or examined by the Mogul 
 government, under any pretence: 2ndly. 
 That the olliccrs of the mint at Moorshe- 
 dabud should at all times, when required, 
 allow three days in the week for the coinage 
 of the East India Company's money : 3rdly. 
 That all ])ersons, ichether Europeans or 
 nuiives,^ who might be indebted or account- 
 able to the company, should be delivered up 
 to the presidency at Calcutta on the first 
 demand : 4thly. That the English might 
 purchase the lordshij) of thirty-eight towns, 
 with the same immunities as Prince Azim 
 Ooshan had permitted them to buy with 
 Calcutta, Chuttanuttce, and Govindjioor." 
 
 The petition was granted, notwithstanding 
 the representations of the friends of Moor- 
 shed Kooli Khan, the viceroy of Bengal, II who 
 
 capital punishment or the infliction of tortures. Tlie 
 viceroy of Bengal, on the contrary, seems to have 
 used by preference such means of enforcing his 
 authority as were best calculated to strike terror into 
 the minds of all beneath his sway. He never placed 
 confidence in any man, but examined the state of his 
 exchequer daily. Any zemindar found reniisis in 
 payment, was put under arrest, guards were placed 
 to prevent liis eating and drinking till the deficiency 
 was supjilied, and spies watched over the guards to 
 inform if they were bribed, or negligent in their 
 duty. ^Vhen a district was in arrear, the delinquent 
 zemindar was tormented by every species of cruelty, 
 such as hanging up by the feet, bastin.idoing, ex- 
 posure to the sun in summer, and in winter frequent 
 sprinklings of the bare flesh with cold water. The 
 deputy dewan of the province, Seyed Rezah Khan, 
 whohadmarried the grand-daughterof the Nabob.'Mu 
 order to enforce payment of the revenues, ordered a 
 pond to be dug, which was filled with everything 
 disgusting, and the stench of which was so offensive, 
 as nearly to suflbcate whoever approached it" — to 
 this place the dewan, in derision of the Hindoos, 
 gave the designation of Bickoont (a term which 
 signifies their Paradise)—" and after the zemindars 
 had undergone the usual punishments, if their rent 
 was not forthcoming, he caused them to be drawn by 
 a rope tied under the arms through this infernal 
 pond. By such cruel and horrid methods, he ex- 
 torted from the unhappy zemindars everything they 
 possessed, and made them weary of their lives." 
 ^\'herever a robbery was committed, the foujedar 
 was compelled to find out the thief, or to recover the 
 property ; and the robber, when caught, w,is impaled 
 olive, or the body split in two, and hung upon trees 
 on the high road. The Mussulnian writers speak of
 
 240 IMPORTANT FIRMAUN GRANTED TO ENGLISH BY FEROKSHEER. 
 
 seems to have been constantly on the watch 
 to repress everj' indication of increasing 
 power on the part of either Europeans or 
 Hindoos. This lesson he had doubtless 
 learned from his early patron, Aurungzebe ; 
 and in practising it, together with other 
 maxims derived from the same school, he 
 earned the cordial detestation of the classes 
 whose views he steadily opposed, and the 
 unbounded admiration of Moguls and Mus- 
 sulmans as the champion of their political 
 supremacy and religious creed. The firmaun 
 (comprising thirty-four patents),* issued at 
 the intercession of Hamilton, f was impera- 
 tive, but the viceroy contrived to impede the 
 operation of its most important clauses. The 
 thirty-eight villages which the company had 
 obtained leave to purchase, would have given 
 them a district extending ten miles from 
 Calcutta on each side of the river Hooghly, 
 where a number of weavers, subject to their 
 own jurisdiction, might have been established. 
 This arrangement Moorshed Kooli Khan 
 circumvented by using his iuflueuce to deter 
 the holders of the land from consenting to 
 its sale. The privilege of granting dustucks 
 or passports, was at first exercised by the 
 president of Calcutta unchallenged, but the 
 extension of immunity from duties from the 
 goods of the company to those of their ser- 
 vants, soon had the effect of exempting not 
 only articles of foreign commerce, but also the 
 produce of the province itself, in its passage 
 by land from one district to another. This 
 the viceroy declared it his determination to 
 prevent, as a practice equally destructive to 
 his revenue and ruinous to the native traders, 
 on whom heavy duties were imposed ; and 
 Le commanded that the English dustucks 
 
 Moorshed Kooli Khan as severe in the extreme, but 
 equally impartial, showing favour to no one, and 
 always rewarding merit wherever he found it. His 
 jurisdiction certainly afforded room for praise as well 
 as cei;sure, were it only for his earnest efforts to ward 
 off the terrible calamity of famine, and prevent the 
 monopoly of grain. In private life, he was learned, 
 temperate, and self-denying; refrained wholly from 
 6])irituous liquors and intoxicating drugs ; despised 
 all the refinements of luxvu'y, whether in dress or 
 food; always kept constant to one lawful wife, and 
 would not suffer any strange women or eunuchs to 
 enter the apartments of liis seraglio. Kvery year he 
 Bent Korans of his own writing to Mecca, Medina, 
 and other holy places; and during the period of 
 twelve days, which include the anniversaries of the 
 birth and death of Mohammed, he feasted people of 
 all conditions, and caused a road tliree miles in 
 length to be illuminated with lamps, representing 
 verses of the Koran, mosques, trees, and other 
 figures. He also kept, with great state, another 
 favourite Moslem festival, in which the chief feature 
 is the Belting afloat of boats made of bamboo and 
 
 should be respected solely in the case of 
 goods imported by sea, or purchased for ex- 
 portation. The company remonstrated, but 
 in vain ; and their servants, checked in their 
 endeavours to grasp the inland trade, directed 
 their ardour to the maritime branch ; and 
 their superior skill soon induced the mer- 
 chants of the province. Moors, Armenians, 
 and Hindoos, to freight most of their exports 
 in English vessels. Within ten years from 
 the period of the embassy, the shipping of 
 the port of Calcutta increased to 10,000 tons. 
 The non-acquirement of the thirty-eight 
 villages apparently occasioned no great dis- 
 appointment to the company, who had 
 ah-eady adopted the wary and reluctant 
 tone they ever afterwards maintained regard- 
 ing the increase of their territory. When 
 aware of the sanction obtained by their 
 representatives, they bade them purchase 
 only so much of the lands in question as 
 were immediately contiguous to Calcutta, 
 remarking, that "when Jaffier Khan [Moor- 
 shed Kooli Khan] or any other governor, 
 finds you desire only half of what you might 
 insist on, he or they may be the easier to 
 give their consent, and not pick future quar- 
 rels ; for as our business is trade, it is not 
 political for us to be encumbered with much 
 territory." In a subsequent paragraph, the 
 directors speak of the benefit derivable from 
 the possession of a good dock ; and add, " if 
 ever we should be forced to the necessity of 
 it, our settlement there would enable us to 
 command the river; but this is not to be so 
 much as publicly hinted at, lest it alarm the 
 government." Again, in the same month 
 (Feb., 1 721) , they write to Bengal, "remember 
 we are not fond of much territory, especially 
 
 paper, ornamented with flags, lamps, &c., as a re- 
 ligious offering. — (Stewart's BciH/dl, pp. 378 — 411; 
 and 'SketcJie/i of Bei)</til — anonymous.) As a climax 
 to his oppressions in the eyes of the Hindoos, and 
 laudable zenl in those* of his fellow-believers, the 
 viceroy, in his old age, caused all the Brahminical 
 temples in Moorsbedabad to be pulled down to 
 furnish materials for his tomb. 
 
 * Other privileges of less im])nrtance than those 
 cited in the previous JJage, were comprised in these 
 patents, which long constituted the great charter of 
 the Knglish in India. Among them was a de- 
 cree tliat the annual payment of a fixed sum to the 
 goverrnnent of Sural should free the ICnglish trade at 
 that port from all duties and exactions; that three 
 villages contiguous to Madras, formerly granted and 
 afterwards resumed by the government of Arcot, 
 should be restored to tlic com])any ; and the island of 
 I)iu, or Divi, near Masulipatam, conceded to them on 
 payment of a fixed rent. — (Grant's S/;ilcli. |). I'lH.) 
 
 t Mr. Hamilton died in Calcutta, in 1717. His 
 tombstone was discovered about sixty years after, in 
 digging for the foundations of a new church.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE OSTEND E. I. Cv.— 171G to 172G. 
 
 241 
 
 if it lies at a distance from yon, or is not near 
 tlic watci'-sidc; nor, in(l(;c'(l,ofaii\', unless you 
 liavc a moral assurance it Mill eontiiliute 
 directly or in consequence to our benefit."* 
 In Indian afl'airs, as in tlie ordinary 
 course of all collective or individual enter- 
 prise, successes and rcvcrsest came at the 
 same period from dilTerent but equally 
 unexpected quarters. About the date of 
 tlic successful embassy, a new and ])o\verful 
 rival appeared ou trie stafje. In the year 
 1716, tlie fjovenior of tlie French settle- 
 ment at I'oudieherry, announced to the 
 British at Fort St. David, that there were 
 oft" the Malabar coast two 40-gun vessels 
 under the imperial colours. These ships 
 belonged to tlie Ostend East India Com- 
 pany, who were just eommeueing their 
 operations, but did not gain a regular char- 
 ter from their sovereign, the Emperor of 
 Austria, till four years afterwards. Dutch, 
 French, and English, immediately made 
 common cause against the intruders, who 
 had now to combiit the opposition every 
 nation had encountered from its j)redeccs- 
 sors in the field of Indian commerce since 
 the Portuguese first iutcrruiited the navi- 
 gation of the Arabs and Moors. In the 
 present case it was argued, that the con- 
 cession of a charter by the emperor to the 
 Ostend company, was a breach of faith to- 
 wards tlie English and Dutch, inasmuch as 
 
 all eoneem in the undertaking on the se- 
 verest penalties, — even, it is said, ou ])ain of 
 death. France and I'^nglaml ado()tcd the 
 same sellish policy, though tiiey did not 
 carry it out with ccpial asperity. Louis XV. 
 published a declaration denouncing various 
 forfeitures, and in nome cases, imprisonment 
 and exile on any of his pco])le wlio should 
 enter into the service of the Ostend associa- 
 tion, or hold shares in their stock. Similar 
 punishmc'tits were held forth by George I. 
 and his iiarlianient, to deter Bi'itish sut)jects 
 from taking part in the new adventure; and 
 one instance, at least, occurred of an Ostend 
 ship, homeward-bound and richly freighted, 
 being captured by a British privateer. All 
 this persecution did not deter the Nether- 
 landers from their object : it was to them as 
 a breathing time from ojijircssion ; and they 
 struggled with dctcrmiuation, and in a com- 
 mercial point of view, with success, against 
 their foes. Their charter was granted in 
 1723; in less than twenty-four hours their 
 subscription-books were filled up; and within 
 a month the shares were sold at a premium 
 of fifteen per cent. At a meeting of pro- 
 prietors in 172(), the remaining instalment 
 on the subscriptions, equal to a dividend of 
 thirty-three and one-third per cent., was 
 paid np from the gains of the trade. Thus 
 far, the emperor had persevered in uphold- 
 ing the company, and in granting them 
 it was by their united prowess that the ten ; commissions of reprisal, in which course 
 provinces of the Kcthcrlands, which re- : he had been confirmed by an article in the 
 maiued in allegiance to Spain during the , treaty of Vienna in 1725, by which Spain 
 war of independence, were transferred from guaranteed the continuance of the assoeia- 
 that kingdom to the crown of Austria. The tion. But this alliance was of brief dura- 
 Dutch insisted upon the continuance of the i tion, and only served to rouse the jealousy 
 restriction forcibly imposed by them on the of, other Eurojiean powers. It was i'ollowed 
 trade of these provinces while they consti- by a combination which resulted in the 
 tutcd a ])ortiou of the Spanish dominions ;' treaty of Hanover, between France, Eng- 
 and asserted that this prohibition was im- j land, Holland, and Denmark, by which 
 plied in the very terms of the barrier-treaty 
 
 from which the emperor derived his autho 
 rity. They seconded their arguments by 
 active hostile measures : seized the vessels 
 of the Ostend company, with their cargoes ; 
 and forbade the subjects of the states from 
 
 • Auber's liise and Pror/rcss, vol. i., 25. 
 
 + During the first half of the 18th century the 
 Eiijllish Kast India trade experienced some severe 
 checks in China and the eastern islands. It seemed 
 as if, iwlcus-viilois, they were to be driven to ex- 
 pend all their energies on the Indian peninsula. 
 Their factors were compelled, with great loss of 
 goods and stores, to quit Chusan, where they had 
 commenced a settlement, and a worse residt attended 
 their endeavours to establish themselves on Pulo 
 Condore, an island subject to the Cochin Chinese, 
 und at Banjar Massin, in Borneo. The British at 
 
 among other provisions, the coTitracting par- 
 ties mutually guaranteed their respective 
 commercial claims to the exclusion of the 
 Ostend company. J The emperor, deserted 
 by his only ally the King of Spain, could 
 not oppose this formidable confederacy with- 
 
 Pulo Condore were barbarously massacred by the 
 soldiery, in 1705, and nearly two years afterwards the 
 same fate overtook those at Banjar Massin, only a 
 few escaping with life. In Sumatra (at Bencoolen), a 
 severe and prolonged struggle took place: the natives 
 compelled the British to evacuate Fort Marlborough, 
 in 1718; but fearing to fall into the hands of the 
 Dutch, suffered the English to return and resettle 
 their factories, in 1721. — (Grant's Sketc/i.) 
 
 J The Ostend company, tliough not expresslv 
 named, are plainly alluded to in this treaty, to whicli 
 Prussia and Sweden were likewise parties.
 
 242 
 
 FORMATION OF THE SWEDISH E. I. Cy.— 1731. 
 
 out endangering the object he had most at 
 heart — namely, to secure the transmission 
 of liis crown to his daughter and only child, 
 Maria Theresa ; and he was reluctantly com- 
 pelled to sign a treaty, in 1727, by which 
 the Ostend company was suspended for 
 seven years; and before the expiration of 
 that term, he, by the treaty of Seville, 
 pledged himself to its complete dissolution. 
 
 The whole of these transactions, while 
 affording strong evidence of the value at- 
 tached to the Asiatic trade, certainly ex- 
 hibit the exclusive companies of the most 
 powerful European states of the period in 
 a very unpleasing light, as concurring, 
 in the open face of day, to crush the at- 
 tempt of a persecuted people to regain their 
 lost prosperity, and draw from the deep 
 fountain of foreign commerce their portion 
 of the invigorating streams by which other 
 countries had been long fertilised.* 
 
 At this time the commerce of Sweden had 
 recovered from the depression caused by the 
 wars of Charles XII. Brilliant victories 
 cannot neutralise the disastrous and exhaust- 
 iug effect of war on the energies of a people ; 
 and many Swedish citizens forsook their 
 native land for countries in which they could 
 hope to sow the seed and reap the harvest 
 of their labours unmolested. The restora- 
 tion of tranquillity gave the signal for the 
 return of those wanderers, who brought with 
 them in some cases comparative wealth, and 
 for the most part a spirit of enterprise yet 
 more beneficial to the state. 
 
 An opulent merchantof Stockholm, named 
 
 * The ten provinces, it will be remembered, which 
 remained under the possession of Spriin, were be- 
 stowed by Philip on his daughter and her husband, 
 the Archduke of Austria, with a stipulation in the 
 deed of conveyance prohibiting their subjects from 
 sailing to America or the I'3ast Indies. Vainly the 
 Netherlanders presented petition after petition to the 
 court of Madrid : they could olitain no redress. The 
 wealth and industry of the country took refuge in 
 Protestant lands, — in the congenial atmosphere of civil 
 and religious freedom. Cities, once the hives of indus- 
 try, were deserted ; and even Antwerp, lately the 
 commercial cajjital and emporium of Europe, was 
 reduced almost toa solitude; — its harbour abandoned 
 by shipping — its exchange by merchants. U])on the 
 death of Isabella, in 1098, the sovereignty reverted 
 to Spain; and the king was ))ersuaded to grant to the 
 Netherlands the liberty of trading to those ])arts of 
 the Indies settled by Portugal, then under his sway. 
 The revolt of the Portuguese in 1 0-10 was attended 
 with the resumption of such of their Indian posses- 
 sions as had not fallen into the power of the Dutch ; 
 and the hopes of the Netherlanders were again dis- 
 appointed. In in!)8, Carlos II., the last of the Aus- 
 trian kings of Spain, granted them permission to trade 
 with such parts of India and the coast of Guinea as 
 
 Koning, observed the temper of his country- 
 men, and connecting with it the number of 
 men possessed of capital and of commercial 
 and nautical knowledge turned adrift by the 
 destruction of the Ostend company, con- 
 sidered that a favourable opportunity had 
 arrived for the establishmeut of an East 
 India trade in Sweden. A company was 
 formed, and a royal charter granted in 1731, 
 empowering them to trade to all countries 
 between the Cape of Good Hope and Japan, 
 provided they refrained from entering havens 
 occupied by any European power without 
 permission. Gottenberg was to be the sole 
 port of outfit and arrival, and for the dis- 
 posal of the imports, wliich might be done 
 only by public sale. In all points regarding 
 duties the regulations were extremely liberal. 
 The direction was to be entrusted to native 
 or naturalised subjects of Sweden, and to 
 Protestants only. The Dutch opposed the 
 new association at the onset ; and the chief 
 of their two first vessels, f the Frederick, was 
 seized in the Straits of Sunda, and carried 
 into Batavia ; but the representations of the 
 Swedish minister procured its liberation, 
 and bothtlie States-General aud the company 
 disavowed having given any order for its 
 interception. The poverty and low com- 
 mercial reputation of Sweden, probably yet 
 more than the total absence of any pretext 
 for qtiestioning her right of intercourse with 
 other independent kingdoms, prevented any 
 systematic opposition being set up by the 
 leading European powers to this new candi- 
 date for eastern trade. The Swedes, from 
 
 were not preoccupied by Europeans ; but before they 
 could take advantage of this charter, the death of 
 their royal patron occurred, A.D. 1700, and was fol- 
 lowed by the long and sanguinary war of succession 
 which convulsed Europe for thirteen years. Atthe con- 
 clusion of peace they fell under the dominion of the 
 house of Austria; and the emperor, desirous of encou- 
 raging the commerce of his new subjects, but fearful 
 of provoking the enmity of the maritime powers (as 
 Eiigland and Holland were then termed), he at first, 
 as has been shown, could only be prevailed on to 
 sanction separate voyages, the success of which in- 
 cited the formation of a temporary association, which 
 was soon followed by that of the chartered company, 
 whose efforts were brought to an untimely ter- 
 mination in 1727. Among the accusations made 
 against the Ostend company was that of being most 
 determined smugglers, es])ecially of tea, which they 
 im|)orted largely iiito Great liritain. However, as 
 one wrong, though it cannot justify, is usually held 
 to palliate another (at least in the sight of human 
 tribunals), the Ostenders might well plead that ex- 
 cuse for their adoption of the sole means of retali- 
 ation in their power. 
 
 t The Fi-fderick and Ulncn ; named after the king 
 and queen of Sweden.
 
 EVENTS IN INDIA— 1725 to 1739. 
 
 243 
 
 tlio licginning;, traded almost entirely with 
 (Jliiiia,* and tea foniird at least fbur-fiflhs 
 of their exports, of wliieh a very stiiali part 
 was coiisiiiiied in Sweden, the remainder 
 bcinf; sold for ready-money to forei^'ners, 
 chielly for the purpose of lieing sniuf;f;led 
 into Great Britain — a practice wliich the 
 heavy duties levied upon this article greatly 
 cneouraf^ed. 
 
 'i'o return to the business of the three 
 presidencies. The death of the af;ed vice- 
 roy of l}en<;al. in \7'2'>, seems to have occa- 
 sioned fear and reijret, and the I'^iif^iish, after 
 so long complaining of his cruelty and ex- 
 tortion, now openly lamented his loss. Tiie 
 truth was, that jMoorshcd Kooli Khan, in 
 common with the Nizam Asuf Jali, and other 
 statesmen of Auriuinzche's stamp, had ini- 
 bil)ed from their imperial master habits of 
 nnflagging and methodical ap])lication to 
 the whole duties of their position, whether 
 civil or military, which raised them in a 
 remarkable manner above the sensual and 
 sluggish condition into which the Moguls 
 had sunk under the enfeebling induencc of 
 an eastern climate and unchecked luxury. f 
 Moreover, the English had other reasons for 
 viewing any change of this kind with an.xiety; 
 for the weakness of the present representa- 
 tive of the house of Timur, rendered it doubt- 
 ful whether the succession to the vieeroy- 
 alty might not prove a question to be 
 decided by force of arms. This fear was re- 
 moved by the uncontested ap|)ointmcnt of 
 Shuja Khan, the son-in-law of the deceased ; 
 but upon his death, in 1739, a struggle 
 ensued between his son, Serferaz Khan, and 
 his ungrateful but able dependent, the 
 famous AH Verdi Khan, who, after slaying 
 the heir of his patron in battle, usurped the 
 government, in which he contrived to estab- 
 lish himself. The piracies of the sons of 
 Kanhojee Angria,J a jMalabar chieftain, 
 about this period, sensibly afl'ectcd the ad- 
 vancement of the English trade, and injured 
 yet more deeply the failing strength of the 
 Portuguese. The invasion of Nadir Shah, 
 in 1739, was a shock which was felt through 
 the length and breadth of the Indian conti- 
 nent : it announced in language not to be 
 misunderstood the downfall of a on(;e mighty 
 
 * The supercargo of the FreiJerick, a Mr. Colin 
 Campbell, was invested with the character of ambas- 
 sador to the emperor of China, and some otlier eastern 
 princes.— ^(Macjjherson's CiDiiinirce, p. oOS.) 
 
 t 'I'he directors of tlio E. I. Cy. continuid extremely 
 desirous to prevent tlieir servants from acquiring 
 habits of indulirence wliicli might impair their useful- 
 ness; and in 1731 they addressed a serious remon- 
 
 cmpire, and was as the tocsin of war in the 
 ears of the gov('rnors of the various ])ro- 
 vinees, who, though still maintaining a 
 senihlancc of respect to their nominal master, 
 were really anxious only about one another's 
 intrigues, and the increasing power of the 
 Mahrattas. The incursions of this nation 
 into Bengal, and their demand of chout, or 
 a fourth of the total revenues, was resolutely 
 opposed by Ali ^'erdi Kiian; and, while 
 stiengtheniiig his own defences, he granted 
 permission to the English at Calcutta to 
 form a trench round the city to the extent 
 of seven miles (the company's bounds), still 
 known as the Mahratta ditch. 
 
 Meanwhile events were occurring in Eu- 
 rope destined to produce very imjjortant 
 coiise<iuenccs in India. On the death of the 
 emperor, Charles \'\., in the year 17 10, a 
 violent war, kindled by competition for the 
 imperial dignity, and for a share in the spoils 
 of Austria, commenced in Germany. In 
 this contest France and England (the latter 
 through her Hanoverian connexions) had 
 both engaged, and, in the eiul, had become 
 nearly, or rather altogether, principals. In 
 1711, the two governments exchanged decla- 
 rations of war, and before long their most 
 distant settlements experienced the devastat- 
 ing consequences of international strife. 
 
 No material changes had taken place in 
 the position of the European settlements 
 since the commencement of the century. A 
 single deviation from the exclusive policy 
 pursued by the sovereigns of Portugal oc- 
 curred in 1731, when the king granted per- 
 mission for a single ship to make a single 
 voyage to Surat and the coast of Coromandel, 
 and back to Portugal. A company was 
 formed for the purpose, but the experiment 
 being attended with little success, was not 
 repeated. 
 
 The Dutch continued to exercise a pro- 
 fitable, though (as far as India was con- 
 cerned) a diminishing trade. The war with 
 the zamoriu commenced in 1701, — was ter- 
 minated by a treaty of peace in 1710; but 
 again renewed in 1715, when the zaraorin 
 surprised the fort of Chittua, which had been 
 constructed in order to keep him in check. 
 This event was followed by the invasion of 
 
 strance to their Bengal agents, in the style of one 
 already quoted, on their extravagant way of living, 
 desiring them especially to eschew the "foppery of 
 having a .set of music at table, and a coach-and-six, 
 with guards and running footmen, as we are informed 
 is now practised, not only by the president, but by 
 some of inferior rank." 
 \ See page 1C8.
 
 244 DUTCH PROPOSAL TO KIDNAP INDIAN PRINCES— 1739. 
 
 his country by an array of fully 4,000 men 
 (Europeans and natives) ; and, in 1717, a 
 new treaty was concluded on terms, accord- 
 ing to Stavorinus, by no means advantageous 
 to tlie Dutch, "in comparison with what 
 might and ought to have been insisted on."* 
 The same authority states, that during the 
 continuance of hostilities " the English, or 
 rather their commandant at Tellicherry, had 
 assisted the zamorin with money, ammuni- 
 tion, and gunners." The evidence on which 
 this assertion is made does not appear. 
 Without any such auxiliary, the neighbour- 
 ing rajahs were probably quite strong enough 
 to compete with the Dutch, whose military 
 proceedings increased in cost as they de- 
 creased in efficiency. The " supreme gov- 
 ernment," as it was termed, at Batavia, 
 addressing the local authorities at Malabar, 
 in 1721, express astonishment at the re- 
 newed spirit of hostility towards the native 
 powers manifested by them, and also at 
 their extravagant expenditure. They added, 
 that " in case the zamorin thought fit to 
 attack the rajah of Cochin, who had so long 
 enjoyed the ])rotection of the company, they 
 should not take an active part in the quar- 
 rel." This direction was nothing less than 
 the ungrateful abandonment of a dynasty 
 which, from the time of the hostilities pro- 
 voked by the aggressions of the Portuguese 
 under Alvarez Cabral, in 1501, had sided 
 with the Europeans. The Cochin rajahs 
 had, it would seem, been little more than 
 tools in the hands of the Dutch, who now so 
 ungenerously abandoned them to their 
 incensed countrymen. The impolicy of this 
 proceeding, in a worldly sense, equalled its 
 injustice as a question of principle. The 
 
 zamorin and the rajah of Travancore ex- 
 tended their dominions by the diminution 
 of those of the chiefs dependent on the 
 Dutch ; until the Travancore prince, in 
 1739, by his repeated successes acquired a 
 reputation which rendered him respected 
 and feared throughout the Malabar coast. 
 His attachment to the English was another 
 argument against him with the Dutch offi- 
 cials; and one of them, Van ImhofF, who 
 came over from Ceylon, in 1739, to examine 
 into the state of affairs, represented that a 
 total reformation was absolutely necessary, 
 and could be effected only in two ways. 
 The first was, to follow the market price for 
 pepper ; the second, to enforce the con- 
 tracts into which the natives were said to 
 have entered, of traffic with the Dutch only, 
 by forcibly exacting penalties in case of 
 their non-performance, " or by surprising 
 and carrying off to Batavia one or other of 
 those princes, who showed themselves the 
 most refractory, which would create so much 
 terror among them, that it would not be 
 necessary to resort to the same expedient a 
 second time." This latter method M. Van 
 Imhoff concluded would be the best; nor 
 does it appear that any exception was taken 
 at the cruelty and injustice of the plan thus 
 suggested. t Happily for the Malabar rajahs, 
 and possibly still more happily for the 
 Dutch, no opportunity occurred for carrying 
 it into execution, and the Malabar officials 
 were compelled to adopt a more open mode 
 of warfare, which they did without even ask- 
 ing orders from Batavia on the subject, 
 though they were soon obliged to send there 
 for assistance, against the consequences of 
 an unprovoked attack made by them on the 
 
 * Stavorinus' Voj/nffes, vol. iii., p. 239. 
 
 t Other officials in the service of tlie Dutch E. I. 
 Cy. appear to have posses.sed and acted upon prin- 
 ciples of the same character displayed by M. Van 
 Imhoff. A terrible catastrophe occurred in Batavia, 
 in 1740. The identical accusation broujjlit forward 
 against the En<;lish at Amboyna, was here ur^cd 
 ajjainst the Chinese inhabitants, who, it was alleged, 
 had conspired to extirpate the Dutch, and were able 
 to muster 90,000 men. On this pretext a pitiless 
 massacre of the Chinese commenced, and the quarter 
 of the town occupied by them was burnt to ashes, 
 being set on fire, as was said, by themselves in de- 
 spair. The number of the Chinese slaughtered on 
 this occasion is estimated at from 12,000 to 30,000; 
 and the amount of ])lundcr taken from them was 
 enormous. No clear account of the origin of tlie 
 business ever api>can'd, to refute the statement of the 
 cuffering party, — that the conspiracy had been on the 
 sid(^ of the Dutch, who were heavily indebted to the 
 persons they accused. The governor himself shipped 
 property for Holland to an amount staled at half a 
 
 million sterling. No public trial took place ; but the 
 reason is evident from the fact, that two members of 
 the council, and the fiscal, were deprived of their 
 offices and put in prison, together with the gover- 
 nor, who remained there till the day of his death. 
 Although most anxious to hush up the matter, it was 
 deemed necessary to send an embassy to the Em- 
 peror of China, and explain away, as far as possible, 
 or at least palliate the fearful crimes committed, by 
 representing it as an act of justice, much fear being 
 excited that, on the ])ersons of the Dutch at CaiUon, 
 the cnijieror might find vent for tin- wrathful feelings 
 likely to \)e roused by the slaughter of his people. 
 The answer proved the Heedlessness of such anxiety; 
 the ambassador being informed tliut this paternal 
 sovereign " took no concern in the fate of unworthy 
 subjects, who had abandoned their native country, and 
 the tombs of their ancestors, to live under the domi- 
 nion of foreigners for the greed of gain ;'' a very 
 impolitic as well as unfeeling sentiment to proceed 
 from the mouth of the ruler of so densely populous 
 1 an empire. — (Macphcrson's Commerce.)
 
 DANTSir AND FRENCH E. I. COMPANIES— 1 714 to 1732. 
 
 215 
 
 rajah of Travancore. The Dutch company 
 could ill Ijcar this addition to the ijurthcii 
 already imposed l)j' the war in Macassar, — a 
 locality M'liich, as it had been the arena of 
 some of their most cruel aggressions, in 
 devastating the land, and carrying off the 
 inhabitants in large numbers as slaves, so it 
 became the scene of many of their greatest 
 calamities and embarrassments.* 
 
 The Danish East India Company had 
 endeavoured to take advantage of the sup- 
 pression of the Ostend society ; and their 
 king, Frederick IV., lent a willing car to argu- 
 ments similar to those which had been suc- 
 cessfully urged by Koning upon the Swedish 
 monarch, regarding the advantage of enlist- 
 ing in the service of Denmark the capital 
 and ability of the Ncthcrland merchants, 
 prohibited from trading under their own 
 flag. A charter was granted, in 1728, au- 
 thorising the opening of an additional sub- 
 scription-list for new members, and an India 
 House was established at Altona, a Danish 
 town adjacent to Hamburgh. The English 
 and Dutch companies remonstrated warmly 
 against this measure, as little less than tlie 
 reproduction of the Ostend association under 
 a fresh name. Their jealous opposition suc- 
 ceeded in procuring the abandonment of 
 the Hamburgh establishment ; but it raised, 
 in the minds of the Danes, a strong feeling 
 of the importance of the commerce so sharply 
 watched by rival societies, and induced a 
 large number of persons to take part in it. 
 
 • Their fjeneral trade continued, notwithstanding 
 these drawbacks, steadily lucrative. During the 
 first twenty-one years of their existence — that is, 
 from 1002 to IG'22 — the company divided thirty 
 million florins ; being more than quadruple the ori- 
 ginal stock. From llie year 1005 to 17l!8 the divi- 
 dends amounted to about twenty-two per cent, per 
 annum, sometimes paid in bank money, sometimes 
 in cloves. Tims, on the origin.il capital of £050,000, 
 eighteen million sterling were paid as dividends, be- 
 sides the necessary accnnuilation of property in terri- 
 tory, forts, ar.d ships. The price of the stock, between 
 1723 and ITGO, bore a ])remium varying from 320 
 to 650 per cent. The annual fleet dispatclied from 
 Holland was very large. F'rom the year 1720 to 
 1729, inclusive, the number amounted to 372 ves- 
 sels (giving an annual average of thirty-seven), with 
 crews comprising nearly 70,000 men. The dividends, 
 during the same period, averaged twenty-three per 
 cent. Various renewals of their charter had been 
 obtained, at different times, from the States-Gene- 
 ral, notwithstanding considerable opposition on the 
 part of the public, which was silenced, in the ears of 
 government, by the payment of large sums of money 
 on various occasions. In 1740, unusual difficulties 
 appear to have been met with, and the company 
 could only obtain a prolongation of their jirivileges 
 for a single year; nor was it until 1748 that they 
 succeeded in procuring the desired grant, which was 
 
 A new and very favourable charter, granted 
 to the company in 1732, for a term of forty 
 years, contains among its clauses two which 
 are interesting, even after the lapse of more 
 than a centiu-y. One was a ])roviso, "that 
 the strictest attention should be paid to the 
 morals of the people sent out to India in 
 the company's service" — a point which had 
 been heretofore sadly disregarded ; the 
 other threw a shield round the individual 
 interests of the proprietors, by enacting 
 that " no money should be lent or bor- 
 rowed without the consent of a general 
 meeting of the proprietors." t Tbe trade 
 carried on after this period, though never 
 very extensive, became decidedly prosperous, 
 and continued so during the remainder of 
 the eighteenth century. 
 
 FuANCE had advanced far more perceptibly 
 towards the close of the epoch now under 
 consideration. In 171 1, the E. I. Cy. again 
 applied for and obtained a renewal of their 
 charter. Exhausted funds, and a debt 
 amounting to 10,000,000 livres, seemed to 
 afford little pi-ospect of remunerative trade 
 during the ten years for which their exclu- 
 sive privileges were continued; but before 
 the expiration of that period, their separate 
 existence was merged in the extraordinary 
 association formed by the famous schemer, 
 John Law. J In the year 1720, England 
 and France exhibited to the world at large 
 the disgraceful spectacle of the governments 
 of two great nations struggling to shake off 
 
 then conceded for a term of twenty-seven years. — 
 (Milburn, JNIacpherson, and Stavorinus.) 
 
 t Macpherson's Commerce with India, p. 239. 
 
 X This remarkable man (the son of an Edinburgh 
 goldsmith), persuaded the Duke of Orleans, regent 
 of France, in 1716, to adopt liis plans of finance and 
 commerce as a means of honourably relieving the 
 government and nation from a debt of about 
 £90,000,000 sterling, (mainly caused by the lavish 
 expenditure of Louis XIV.,) in preference to the dis- 
 graceful alternative actually propounded of disavow- 
 ing the large quantity of depreciated paper-money, 
 which had tieen issued from the Parisian treasury. 
 The first step taken by Law was the formation 
 of a public Bank, with a capital of six million 
 livres, divided into 1,200 shares; its business to 
 be confined to receiving money on deposit, and 
 lending it at a moderate rate of interest on per- 
 sonal or proprietory security. The project became 
 immediately popular ; hoarded coin found its way 
 to the coffers of the Bank, the notes of which 
 became current throughout Europe : the West India 
 Company furnished £3,937,500; and the increased 
 circulating medium gave new energy to agricul- 
 ture, commerce, and the arts. During the excitement 
 which ensued. Law wielded unlimited power, and 
 his personal health became a matter of intense 
 anxiety and eager speculation. In 1617, he founded 
 the Mississippi company, with which was sub.se-
 
 246 
 
 PROJECTS OF LAW, THE SCOTTISH ADVENTUIIER~1720. 
 
 the involvements caused by war and lavish 
 expenditure, and to lessen their public debts 
 by sanctioning schemes which, being mani- 
 festly unjust in principle, could not fail to 
 prove injurious to the multitudes who, un- 
 accustomed, under any circumstances, to 
 examine into the truth of plausible state- 
 ments, would accept them without hesita- 
 tion when made current by the approbation 
 of the legislature, and thus cruelly misled, 
 rush headlong into ruin. The conduct of 
 the ministry and parliament of England, 
 though deeply blamable in regard to the 
 South Sea bubble, was far surpassed in dis- 
 honesty and infatuation by the proceedings 
 of the rulers of the French nation, in carry- 
 ing out the complication of incongruous pro- 
 jects called " Law's system." The " Royal 
 Bank" constituted the leading and absorb- 
 ing feature of the whole ; and of the nume- 
 rous societies whom their own credulity or 
 the manoeuvring of stock-jobbers had im- 
 pelled within the vortex, the East India 
 body alone appear to have survived the 
 general wreck. 
 
 This company arose strong in the " per- 
 petual and irrevocable"* privileges in- 
 herited from its defunct associates, and 
 secured in its pecuniary welfare by the ar- 
 bitrary measures enacted in 1721 for the 
 diminution of its shares, which benefited 
 the corporation by a method peculiar to 
 despotic governments — of annihilating the 
 property of their own subjects by a few 
 strokes of the pen, without so much as a 
 
 pretence of compensation. At the same 
 time, the nomination of directors was 
 claimed for the Crown, and likewise the 
 right of appointing one, two, or even three 
 commissioners, with considerable controlling 
 powers over the directors, with whom they 
 were constantly at variauce. Notwithstand- 
 ing this great drawback, the company pur- 
 sued their eastern trade with much energy. 
 Their Indian debts — the accumulation of a 
 long series of years — were paid off; and, on 
 the appointment of the able and upright 
 Orry as minister of finance, measures were 
 adopted for the improvement and defence of 
 the Indo-French settlements. Pondicherry, 
 after its surrender by the Dutch, in 1697, 
 had been restored to the superiutendence of 
 M. Martin. By his prudence and integrity 
 the basis of its prosperity was laid in the 
 confidence of the natives, who gladly settled 
 under his protection ; and in course of time 
 the village grew into a large and regular 
 city, containing 70,000 inhabitants, of whom 
 the European proportion continued, of 
 course, extremely small. The French had 
 also factories or comptoirs at Maho, not 
 far south from Tellicherry, on the Mala- 
 bar coast; and at Chandernagore, on the 
 Hooghly, in Bengal. Dumas, the governor- 
 general appointed by Orry, increased the 
 revenues of the company by obtaining per- 
 mission from the Mogul, in 1734, to coin 
 money in the fort of Pondicherry ; and the 
 rupees struck there yielded a profit of nearly 
 ,€20,000 per annum for several years. In 
 
 quently incorporated the C'unada, Cliina, Senegal, 
 St. Domingo, Guinea, and JEast India associations. 
 The united body became generally known as the 
 Compamj of the West — or sometimes of the Indies — 
 and had a capital stock of one hundred million 
 livres, it being the scheme of Mr. Law to pay the 
 holders of government paper with the stock (or shares) 
 of this company. All the nations of Europe became 
 infected with the mania of suddenly growing rich by 
 the issue of paper-money, and capitalists flocked by 
 thousands to Paris from every metropolis : the shares 
 bore a premium of 1,200 per cent., and the govern- 
 ment granted to the company variousprivileges, — such 
 as the sole vending of tobacco, the mint, and general 
 farming of all the revenues, in consideration of a loan 
 to the king of fifty million sterling towards the 
 liquidation of the ])ublic debt. Capital was nomi- 
 nally added by several expedients: gold was forbid- 
 den in trade; and the coin successively diminished in 
 value, until the peojile of France gladly brought 
 their specie to the Bank, and converted tlieir stock 
 in the public funds into shares of the company, by 
 which proceeding the national debt would, it was'sup- 
 posed, be paid oil'. 'I'he mania lasted about a twelve- 
 month, and then the bubble burst, in sjiite of every 
 endeavour to continue its inflation. A terrible panic 
 ensued, and was followed by a long season of indi- 
 
 vidual misery and general depression. Multitudes 
 of all classes awoke from their dream of wealth to 
 the realities of want, and the government reeled 
 under the shock which attended the downfall of its 
 splendid projects for re-establishing the public credit. 
 The " Sieur Law," comptroller-general of the finances 
 and inspector-general of the lloyal Bank, and all 
 its associate societies, disappeared from France, 
 and died in obscurity, without having acquired any 
 thing very considerable for himself, altliongh he had 
 it once in his power (so far as human judgment can 
 decide) to have become the richest subject in 
 Christendom. — (Anderson's Origin of Comnicree, 
 years 1716 to 1720. Macpherson's European Com- 
 merce with India, ]ip. 2(54 to 27G. .Tustamond's trans- 
 lation of the Abbe lljiynal's European Settlements in 
 the East and West Indies, vol. ii., pp. Gl to (i8.) 
 
 * Macpherson's Commerce, ]>. 'li'i'J. It is a trite 
 remark, but singularly apposite to the present case, 
 that governments are never so ready to concede un- 
 limited privileges as when their own authority stands 
 on a tottering and precarious footing. In examining 
 into all questions regarding the grant of exclusive 
 privileges, and their biaring in a national point of 
 viow.it is always important to understand clearly the 
 condition of the acting |)rinco or government at the 
 time of making such concessions.
 
 CHAllACTEll OF M. DE LA BOURDONNAIS— a.u. 1741. 
 
 247 
 
 1730 tlie French took fornible possession of 
 Kcirical, on the Coroniancicl coiist, wliicli 
 was confirincil to thcni hy a f;raiit from the 
 rajah of 'I'mijore. MciinwhiU', war was 
 being carried on between Dost Mi, the go- 
 vernor or nabob of Arcot, and the Mahrattas 
 under Ragojce Bhonslay, which terminated 
 in the defeat of the former. His family, and 
 several of bis subjects, took refuge in Poiidi- 
 cherry, whither Uagojee pursued them, and 
 threatened to besiege the place, unless tlicy 
 were surrendered. This Dumas positively 
 refused; and at length, after plundering far 
 and near, the Mahrattas accepted a small 
 subsidy, and retired from the field in April, 
 1741. Sufder AH, the son of the deceased 
 nabob, is alleged to have made a princely 
 return for the protection bestowed upon his 
 relatives, by ceding to Dumas personally 
 three districts, in value amounting to nearly 
 .£100,000 sterling per annum. The emperor 
 Mohammed is stated, by the same authority, 
 to have confirmed this grant, and further 
 to have sent Dumas a dress of honour, 
 bestowed on him the title of nabob (a 
 dignity never before conferred on a Euro- 
 pean) , and made him a Mtinsubdar of 1,500 — 
 that is, a commander entitled to the rank 
 and salary associated with the control of that 
 (often almost nominal) number of cavalry. 
 These distinctions were, it is added, trans- 
 ferred to his successor, the afterwards fa- 
 mous Dupleix.* 
 
 Another justly celebrated man was then 
 at the head of the presidency estabUshed by 
 the French in the Indian seas, which com- 
 prised the two islands of IMauritius and 
 Masearenhas, otherwise called Isles of 
 France or Cerne, and of Bourbon. M. de la 
 Bourdonnais was a native of St. Malo, and 
 had been at sea since the age of ten years. 
 In the course of his voyages he had the 
 opportunity of observing the advantages of 
 the coasting trade of India, in which he was 
 the first of his nation to embark. In a few 
 years he realised a considerable fortune, 
 and by sheer force cf character, acquired 
 much influence over those with wliom he 
 associated. A violent quarrel between the 
 crews of some Arabian and Portuguese 
 ships, iu the harbour of Mocha, vras ami- 
 
 * See Milburn's Oriental Commerce, i., 389. This 
 usu.iily correct writer possibly attributes to Dumas 
 honours conferred on or assumed by Duplei-K a few 
 years later. Dost Ali was himself an interhiper, un- 
 confirmed by the emperor or the viceroy of the 
 Deccan; and it is strMnjje that the extravasjant grant 
 made by his son should have received tlie imperial 
 sanction, even though bestowed in i-eward of opposi- 
 
 eably adjusted through his intervention ; and 
 th(! viceroy of (ioa, greatly relieved by tliis 
 termination of an ad'air which threatened 
 fatal eonseciuences, invited the successful 
 mediator to enter the service of Portugal, 
 gave him the title of agent for that power 
 on the coast of Coromandel, together with 
 tlie command of a royal ship, the rank of 
 Kidalgo, and enrolled him as a member of 
 the order of knighthood profanely termed 
 "of Christ." In this lionoural)le position 
 he remained for two years, and t\um, in 17.33, 
 returned to France, where his reputation for 
 ability and uprightness procured him the 
 a])pointment of governor -general of the 
 ^luuritius and Masearenhas, where he ar- 
 rived in 1735. His conduct here was truly 
 admirable. He found the people poor, ia- 
 dolcut, and itjnorant ; but by dint of un- 
 wearied application, and a capacity for 
 taking the initiative in everything connected 
 with the material welfare of the settlements 
 over which he had been chosen to preside, 
 he effected improvements whicli seemed, 
 says Raynal, "owing to enchantment. "t The 
 functions of governor, judge, surveyor, 
 engineer, architect, agricvdturist, were al- 
 ternately performed by this one man, who 
 could build a ship from the keel, construct 
 vehicles, and make roads ; break in bulls to 
 the yoke, or teach the method of cultivat- 
 ing wheat, rice, cassava, indigo, and the 
 sugar-cane. He established an hospital for 
 tlie sick, and notwithstanding his multi- 
 farious occupations, visited it regularly every 
 morning for a whole twelvemonth. Neither 
 his unwearied labours, nor the extraordinary 
 success with which they were attended, suf- 
 ficed to shield him from the shafts of ca- 
 lumny. Some ship-captains and other visi- 
 tants of the island, whom he checked in 
 their unreasonable demands, laid unfounded 
 charges against him before the directors, and 
 the high-spirited governor was consequently 
 exposed to treatment which induced him to 
 return to France, in 1 710, with the intention 
 of resigning his harassing and thankless 
 ofHce.J This Orry would not permit, but 
 induced him to return to the Isles, and en- 
 couraged liis plans for the extension of 
 French power ia the East, and of hostility 
 
 tion to the common foe of Mohammedans, the Mah- 
 rattas. 
 
 t European Settlements in E. ^- TT. Indies, ii., 75. 
 
 I Raynal states, that La Bourdonnais, being asked 
 how he had conducted his private afl'airs with more 
 alnlily tlian those of his employers, replied : " I ma- 
 naged mine according to my own judgment, and those 
 of the company according to tlicir directions."
 
 248 
 
 DUPLEIX— STATE OP INDIA— 174U to 1715. 
 
 against the English. La Bourdonnais could 
 not, however, procure adequate means for 
 the execution of his extensive projects; but 
 the force entrusted to him was usefully em- 
 ployed in raising the siege of Mahe, invested 
 by the Mahrattas in 1741, after which he again 
 occupied himself with the same energy as be- 
 fore in the details of his own government. 
 
 Dupleix, the French governor- general in 
 India, was perhaps equal to his colleague 
 in a certain description of ability, and pro- 
 bably superior to him in education and social 
 position (his father having been a farmer- 
 general of the revenues, and a director of 
 the East India Company) ; but in manliness 
 and integrity he was incomparably the in- 
 ferior. In 1 720, Dupleix was appointed first 
 member of the council at Pondicherry ; and 
 here he continued for ten years, carefully 
 studying the politics of the epoch, and ac- 
 cumulating property by engaging in the 
 commerce of the country, from which the 
 poverty of the servants of the French company 
 for the most part debarred them. In 1730 
 he was sent to superintend the settlement at 
 Chandernagore, which he found in a very 
 neglected condition. Under his rule a great 
 change took place, and the increase of wealth 
 and population was marked by the erection 
 of no less than 2,000 brick houses. A new 
 trading establishment was foi'med at Patna 
 through his exertions, and the French com- 
 merce in Bengal became an object of envy to 
 all other Europeans. These indubitable 
 proofs of legislative ability, aided probably 
 by the influence of family connexion at 
 home, procured for Dupleix the position of 
 governor-general. It would seem as if the 
 peculiar vices of his character had lain dor- 
 mant while he remained in a subordinate 
 position, but were called into action by the 
 possession of supreme authority over his 
 countrymen in India, checked only by re- 
 sponsibility to a distant and ill-informed body 
 of directors. Ambitious in the extreme, in- 
 ordinately vain, and no less restless and 
 intriguing, Dupleix, from this period, con- 
 stantly manifested a degree of littleness which 
 made his really remarkable talents a matter 
 of doubt in the sight of many who deemed 
 such opposite qualities incompatible. 
 
 It may be imagined that a man of this cha- 
 racter would neglect no opportunity of dis- 
 tinguishing himself and extending tiic power 
 of his nation at the expense of the English ; 
 but his appointment at Pondicherry had 
 been accompanied by such stringent com- 
 mands for a general diminution of outlay, 
 
 that he dared not commence hostilities, 
 but was compelled to content himself by 
 taking measures (in contravention to his 
 instructions) for placing Pondicherry in a 
 strongly defensible condition. 
 
 The state of the English Company at this 
 period has been sufBcientlj^ shown in pre- 
 ceding pages. They do not appear to have 
 numbered among their servants any leader 
 fltted by experience and ability to oppose 
 with success the generalship of La I?our- 
 donnais, or the wiles of Dupleix. Happily 
 for England, want of union in the councils 
 of the enemy, tended to diminish the dan- 
 ger of their hostile attempts. 
 
 Before proceeding to narrate the struggle 
 between the two nations, it is necessary to 
 pause and briefly notice the leading terri- 
 torial divisions of India at the epoch when 
 the Mogul yoke changed from an iron 
 chain to a rope of sand, and imperial vice- 
 roys or subahdars, nabobs or deputy go- 
 vernors, rajahs and ranas, naiks, wadeyars, 
 polygars, zemindars, and innumerable chiefs 
 of lesser note and diff"enng titles, strove 
 each one for the aggrandisement and in- 
 dependence of himself or his own family. 
 A similar summary has been given previous 
 to the invasion of India by the followers 
 of Mohammed (pp. 39 to 43); as also at 
 the epoch formed by the accession of Akber 
 in 1556 (pp. 93 to 107): it is now important 
 to note the origin and condition of several 
 newly-created principalities, and also the 
 changes which had taken place in the older 
 states, in the course of the intervening 
 period of nearly two centuries, for the sake 
 of affording a means of reference, the value 
 of which will be apparent when the narra- 
 tive of European progress brings into pro- 
 minent notice nabobs and rajahs taking 
 their titles from places as yet unheard of. 
 
 Indian States — 1740 to 1745. — The in- 
 vasion of Nadir Shah, in 1739 (as has been 
 shown in previous pages), left the Great Mo- 
 gul in the dismantled palace of his ances- 
 tors, with an exhausted treasury and an 
 empire diminished by the severance of Ca- 
 BooL, SiNDE, and Moultan. A few years 
 later, and another jewel was snatched from 
 the imperial crown. The lovely valley of 
 Cashmere, ever since its acquisition by 
 Akbcr, had been the favourite retreat of 
 successive monarclis from the intense sum- 
 mer-heats of Delhi or Agra. Here Jehan- 
 gccr had held many a Bacchanalian revel, 
 and spent long hours in dalliance with the 
 gifted but unprincipled Nour Mahal, watch-
 
 CASHMERE, OUDE, THE PUNJAUB, GUZERAT, RAJPOOTANA, &o. 249 
 
 ing her distilling the far-famed essence of 
 the rose, or listening to her magnificunt 
 projeets for the ei'ectiou of puhlie ediliccs, 
 mingled, too often, with unworthy schemes 
 of anihition or revenge. Here Sliah Jehaii 
 passed many bright summers before death 
 took away Taj Mahal, the wife whom he truly 
 loved, and before the (|uarr('ls and rebel- 
 lion of the children she had borne, brought 
 to him, in retribution for the unsparing 
 cruelty which had attended his accession 
 to the throne, an old age of sorrowful 
 captivity. Here Aurungzebe, proof alike 
 against the enervating influences of climate, 
 the charms of the seraglio, the seductions 
 of wine, or the intoxicating drugs which 
 had been the bane of his race, pondci'cd in 
 austere seclusion over the complicated web 
 he spent a life iu weaving, with the bitter 
 result of finding himself at last entangled 
 iu his own toils. Here, lastly, Mohammed 
 Shah came, in the first flush of regal gran- 
 deur, to forget, amid a crowd of giddy 
 courtiers, the heavy i-espousibilities of the 
 inheritance of despotic power which his 
 indolent, easy nature rendered pccuUarly 
 burdensome ; and here, too, he came in age, 
 and beholding the vessel of the state, com- 
 mitted by Providence to his guidance, 
 reduced almost to a wreck, by calamities 
 brought on by internal corruption, rather 
 than by external strife, he probably learnt 
 the causes of evils it was too late to remedy, 
 but which he encountered with a quiet dig- 
 nity and forbearance that served to keep 
 together some of the shattered remains of 
 imperial power. Cashmere was, however, 
 seized by Ahmed Shah Abdulli, and incor- 
 porated in the new kingdom of Candaliar ; 
 and the conqueror proceeded to invade the 
 PuNJAUB, and had even crossed the Sutlej, 
 when he was met by the Mogul army (under 
 his namesake the heir-apparent), completely 
 defeated, and driven back. This victory was 
 followed almost immediately by the death of 
 Mohammed Shah, and the accession of 
 Prince Ahmed. The period, however, of 
 •which we are treating commences with the 
 
 • The rise of the Mahrattas materially aided the 
 JatSibywithdiawingAurungzebefrom the neighbour- 
 hood of Agra ; but the statement of Grant Uutf, 
 that the plunder of the imperial army enabled them 
 to fortify Bhurtpoor, is contradicted by Elphinstone. 
 — {India, u., 5\i. 6Ve also Thornton's 7h</(oh Gtizit- 
 teer,\n four vols., London, lSo-1 — article, Bhurtpore.) 
 
 t See p. 171. — The founder of the Kohillas is 
 described by Duff as tlie son of a Hindoo Aheer, a 
 class of shepherds nearly similar to the Dhunyurs of 
 Maharashtra. An Afghan adopted him when a boy, 
 and gave him the name of AH Mohammed Kchilia. 
 
 departure of the Persian invaders (1739.) 
 The intrigues of viceroys and governors were 
 Sjicedily resumed when the first stunning 
 cH'cct of the late calamity had passed away. 
 In OuDK, Sadut Khan had been succeeded 
 by his nejihew and son-in-law, Suftlcr Jung. 
 Iti the PuNJAUii, the rebellion of the Mogul 
 viceroy soon produced renewed incursions 
 from the Ai^jhan border, and the province 
 of (iiiZKiiAT fell completely into the hands 
 of the Mahrattas. The three chief Rajpoot 
 states of Jkypook (Amber), Joudpoor (Mar- 
 war), and Oonii'ooii (Mewar), were still, to 
 some extent, tributary to the emperor. The 
 two last-named had been subjected to partial 
 devastation from the Mahrattas; but the 
 intimate connexion subsisting between Rajah 
 Jcy Sing and Bajee Rao, prevented such 
 aggressions in the districts of Jeypoor, at 
 the cost to the empire of the province of 
 Malwa. The Jat.s, established in the terri- 
 tory between Agra and Jeypoor, were 
 rapidly gaining ground ; aiul after the ^lah- 
 rattas crossed the Chunibul, they, for the 
 most part, maintained a friendly intercourse 
 with their fellow-marauders.* The princi- 
 pality afterwards known by the name of 
 KoiiiLLA, was in progress of establishment in 
 THE DoAB, little more than a hundred miles 
 to the southward of Delhi. t BENtiAL, Baiiab, 
 and OmssA were under the sway of Ali 
 ^ erdi Khan, but subject to the exactions of 
 the Mahrattas, to whom the whole of India 
 was rapidly becoming more or less tributary. 
 When one pretext failed, another could 
 easily be found by those who had the power 
 of enforcing their most unreasonable de- 
 mands. A district once overrun, was said to be 
 under tribute from usage, whilst chout and 
 surdeshmooki were extorted front the others 
 by virtue of letters patent. J Thus, oti various 
 pretences the Mahrattas, says Dull", "went 
 plundering and burning on the east and 
 on the west, from the Hooghly to the Bunass, 
 aiul from Madras to Delhi ;" while the 
 Europeans, in their profound ignorance of 
 native history, watched with amazement the 
 progress of a people whom they still called 
 
 His followers assumed the same designation ; and 
 from being the commander of a small party of 
 Afghan cavalry, in the service of the deputy-go- 
 vernors of Moradabad, he gradually obtained pos- 
 session of lands, and encroached by degrees, until 
 the force sent for his expulsion by the imperial 
 viceroy, proved in.sufficient for the purpose. 
 
 \ It docs not appear that any deed for collecting 
 general chout over the empire was ever granted by 
 Mohammed Shah : sums of money and convenient 
 assignments were the modes of payment. — (Grant 
 Hull's History of the Mahrattns, i., 457.)
 
 250 
 
 MAHARASHTRA AND THE SOUTH OF INDIA. 
 
 " the Sevajees," after their great leader, in- 
 stead of by their own distinctive appellation. 
 The centre of the difl'iisive power of the 
 Mahrattas was Maharashtra, the region 
 where their peculiar language was spoken. 
 The whole of this territory had, in 1.573, 
 during the reign of Akber, been subject to 
 the kings of Beejapoor and Ahmeduuggur, 
 ■with the exception of a part of Candeish 
 (which was held as an independent princi- 
 pality by the sultan of Boorhanpoor), of the 
 northern Concan belonging to Guzerat, and 
 the possessions of the Portuguese.* At that 
 period Golconda was the third important 
 Mohammedan state in the Deccan, Beder 
 (the seat of the Bahmani dynasty) and Berar 
 having been annexed to the dominions of 
 their more powerful neighbouring states, 
 which, as we have seen, were themselves in 
 turn extinguished by the encroachments of 
 Sevajee on the one side, and the levelling 
 policy of Aurungzebe on the other. The six 
 Mogul subahs or provinces of the DECCAN'f 
 ■were, in 1741, in so far as the Delhi emperor 
 was concerned, an independent government, 
 under the irresponsible rule of the old nizam, 
 Asuf Jah, who divided the revenues with 
 the Mahrattas ; the advantage being, as has 
 been shown, increasingly on their side. The 
 fixed possessions of the Mohammedans, for 
 many centuries after their first invasion of 
 the peninsula, did not extend south of the 
 Kistna ; and, indeed, the term of " the 
 Deccan," by writers of this religion, and 
 even by Wilks and other English authorities, 
 is commonly used to denote the countries 
 lying between the Nerbudda and Kistna; 
 the territory below the latter river being 
 distinguished as the south of India. It is 
 with this portion of the continent that we 
 
 * See pp. 43 and 140. Hindoo writers differ ma- 
 terially as to the extent of Maharashtra, which they 
 designate one of the five principal divisions of the 
 IJeccan. According to the Tiitica (one of the books 
 of the Joluah Shastra or IJtitdvu Astronoinii), Maha- 
 rashtra extends no farther than the C'handore range 
 of hills, where Kolwun, Buglann, and Candeish are 
 represented as its northern boundaries ; and all be- 
 yond those countries is indiscriminately termed 
 Vcndhiadree. Duff adds, " that the tract between 
 Cliandore and Eroor Manjera, on the Kistna, is 
 certainly the most decidedly Mahratta, and in it there 
 is the least variation in the language ; but follow- 
 ing the rule adverted to in its more extended sense, 
 Maharashtra is tliat space which is lioiinded on tlie 
 north by the Sautpoora [? Vindhya] mountains, and 
 extends from Naundnde, on the west, along those 
 mountains to the Wync Gunga, east of Nagpoor " — 
 (i., 3.) A waving line from Mahonr to Goa, with the 
 ocean on the westward, form the chief remaining 
 limits. Wilks states, that the Mahratta language 
 
 are more particularly concerned, from its 
 having been the scene of the first struggle 
 for supremacy between European powers. I 
 Previous to the battle of Talicot, in 1565, j 
 the whole of this territory was, more or less, ! 
 under the sway of the government of Beeja- 
 nuggur, or Vijeyanuggur ; but many dis- ! 
 tricts were held by families who ruled as tribu- j 
 taries or feudatories, with hereditary power. 1 
 The defeat and slaughter of the brave old 
 Rama Rajah, and the destruction of his 
 capital by the conjoined exertions of the 
 four Mohammedan sovereigns of the Deccan, 
 were not followed by any systematic attempts 
 for the annexation of Beejanuggur by the 
 conquerors to their own dominions, private 
 jealousies and international disputes pre- 
 venting any permanent arr.angement between I 
 them regarding the division of the spoil. 
 Venkatadri, the brother of the late rajah, 
 established himself at Penconda, about 140 
 miles south-east of the former capital, and 
 from thence the seat of government was 
 shortly afterwards transferred toChandragiri. 
 About the year 1597, a descendant of the 
 ancient Ray eels (as the rajahs of this dynasty 
 were called) ruled with some degree of { 
 magnificence at Chandragiri and Vellore, 
 where he still held at least nominal sway 
 over the governors or naiks of Jinjee, Tan- 
 jore, Madura, Chenuapatam, Seringapatam 
 (Mysoor), and Penconda; and in 1640, the 
 last representative of this ancient house, 
 Sree Ranga Raya, sanctioned the establish- 
 ment of the English at Chennapatam, or 
 Madras. About six years afterwards, he 
 was driven by the forces of Golconda from 
 his occasiotial places of residence and nominal 
 capitals at Chandragiri and Chinglcptit, and 
 compelled to take refuge with the chief 
 
 spreads from Beder to the north-west of Canara, 
 and of a line which, passing considerably to the 
 eastward of Dowlatabad, forms an irregular sweep 
 until it touches the Taptee, and follows the course 
 of that river to the western sea, on which the dis- 
 trict of Sedashegur, in North Canara, forms its south- 
 ern limit. In the gcogra])hical tables of the Hin- 
 doos, the name of Maharashtra — and by contraction, 
 Mahratta dasuni (or couiitri/) — seems to have been 
 more particularly a])propriated to the eastern por- 
 tion of this great region, including Jiaglana, part of 
 lierar, and Candeish : the western was known by its 
 ])r('senl luinie of Concan. — [Ilistoricdl Sl;ctches of 
 the Sniif'h fif Iiiilia, or Htxtorii of Mysmr, i., 5-0.) 
 
 t Isl. Candeish, capital liurhanpoor. 2nd. Auruti- 
 gabad, which com])riscd the territory formerly called 
 the state of Ahmednuggur, governed by the Nizam 
 Shahi dynasty. 3rd. IJeejapoor or Viziapoor, the 
 capital of the Adil Shahi dynasty. 4lh. lieder. 
 i'nh. Jierar. Gtli. Hyderabad, capital of the Gol- 
 conda or Kootb Shahi dynasty.
 
 ACCOUNT OF CARNATIC BALA GHAUT AND PAYEEN GIIAUT. 231 
 
 of Bcdnore or Nuggur (now included in 
 Mysoor.) Scr.-i, Bangalore, and Colar, with 
 the important fortrcsscsof Vellorcand Jinjcc, 
 were seized liy Bccjapoor, tlic ambitious 
 and sliort-siglited rulers of that kingdom 
 continuing, to their last gasp of ])owcr, to en- 
 deavour to increase a superstructure already 
 too extensive for its slender and tottering 
 base. Aurungzebe's great political error, in 
 destroying states it was his interest to uphold 
 in dependence upon him, brought both tlicm 
 and him a fitting reward for the ungovern- 
 able lust of concpiest. It levelled the only 
 barrier to the rapid spread of Hindoo power ; 
 and in a sliort period of years, the supre- 
 macy of the Mahratta state was acknow- 
 ledged, more or less decidedly, over all the 
 south of India ; and this, notwithstanding 
 the incongruities of its internal constitution 
 with its capitals of Sattara, where the rajahs 
 lived (kings in name, captives or pageants 
 in reality) ; and of Poona, where the peish- 
 was (ministers in name, sovereigns in reality) 
 held their now sumptuous courts and exer- 
 cised sway, cheeked however materially by 
 the private designs and unsleeping watch- 
 fulness of the Dhabaray family, llugojee 
 Bhonslay, and other noted lenders. With 
 these turbulent eiiieftains, the peishwas 
 were glad to compromise matters, by suftcr- 
 ing them to invade Guzerat, Bengal, and 
 other Mogul provinces on their own ac- 
 count ; the authority of the rajah being a 
 convenient pretence, occasionally resorted to 
 in confirmation of such arrangements, and 
 ■which, strange to say, still carried consider- 
 able weight in the minds of the people, it 
 being quite inconsistent with the character 
 of tlie Brahminical cast to govern, except 
 after the fashion of an English " lord-pro- 
 tector" or a Frencli cardinal. 
 
 The death of Bajec Rao, the famous antago- 
 nist of the nizam, in 1740, has been narrated 
 (p. 1(59), as also tlic events which attended 
 the accession to the peislnvaship of his sou 
 Balhijec Bajee Rao. It is not necessary to 
 enter further into the Mahratta history of 
 this period, save in so far as it is connected 
 with that of the various distinct principali- 
 ties now fast rising into importance beneath 
 the sway of native rulers or usurping go- 
 
 • nistonj of Mysoor, i. 8. 
 
 t SitiiaU'd on the western coast of the Indian 
 peninsula, lietwcen the Concan and Malabar (tbr- 
 merly named Kerala.) 
 
 I The great geographical feature of the south of 
 India is a central eminence of 3,000 to 5,000 feet in 
 height, above the level of the sea, separated by 
 abrupt declivities from tlie low fiat countries to the 
 
 vernors. Under the latter head may be 
 classed TooLAVA, tlic region (formerly jiart 
 of J)ravi(la) distinguished in liuropcan maps 
 as thcCAiiNATic — a tract, says Colonel \Vilks, 
 which " by a fatality unexampled in tlie 
 history of nations, neither is nor ever was 
 known by that name to the people of the 
 province, or of any part of India."* The 
 misnomer originated in the conquest of 
 To(jlava by the government of Canara 
 Propcr,t not long before the partition of 
 the dominions of that state between the 
 kings of Golconda and Bccjapoor. These 
 sovereigns, in dividing a country of whose 
 condition and history they were wholly 
 ignorant, were satisfied with the sweeping 
 designations of the Carnatic Bala Ghaut 
 and Payeen Ghaut (above and below the 
 Ghauts)! — appellations which were trans- 
 ferred with the dominion over the region 
 thus arbitrarily renamed — when all other 
 Mohammedan governments were swallowed 
 up in Mogul supremacy. In 1 70G, a chief 
 named Sadut OoUah Khan (through the influ- 
 ence of Baud Khan Panni,§ then viceroy of 
 the Dcecan), was appointed by the emperor 
 nabob of theCarnatic Bala Ghaut and Payeen 
 Ghaut, II and he continued to fill that position 
 after the death of his patron and the acces- 
 sion of the nizam. Sadut Oollah is supposed 
 to have fixed the seat of his government at 
 Arcot about the year 1716, no inscription 
 or authority (says Colonel Wilks) having been 
 discovered to prove the previous existence 
 of a capital on that site. He died in 1732, 
 leaving no issue male ; but through the pre- 
 cautious taken in behalf of his nephews and 
 adopted sons. Dost Ali and Bakir Ali, the 
 latter continued to be governor of Vellore, 
 while the former succeeded in establishing 
 himself as nabob of the Carnatic, despite the 
 opposition of the nizam, whose jealous in- 
 terference prevented his procin'ing an au- 
 thentic commission from Delhi. At the 
 period of his accession, the new nabob had 
 two sons ; the elder, Sufder Ali, had reached 
 manhood : he h?d also several daughters, 
 one of whom was married to a distant rela- 
 tive, the afterwards famous Chunda Sahib, 
 who first acquired notoriety by his treache- 
 rous acquisition of Trichinopoly. This little 
 
 east and west, which form a belt of small and un- 
 equal breadth between the hills and the ocean. This 
 central eminence is usually named the Bala Ghaut; 
 and the lower belt, the Payeen Ghaut — Ghaut sig- 
 nifying a mountain pass or break. 
 
 § See page 156. 
 
 II Called also the Carnatic Beejapoor Bala Ghaut, 
 and the Carnatic Hyderabad Payeen Ghaut.
 
 252 
 
 PRINCIPALITIES OF TANJORE AND MYSOOR— 1740 to 1745. 
 
 state, like the neighbouring principality of 
 Tunjore, although at times subject to the 
 exactions of the Mohamniedau rulers of 
 Beejapoor and Golcouda, had maintained its 
 independence from a remote date. The 
 death of the rajah, in 17o6, gave rise to dis- 
 putes concerning the succession. INIinakshi 
 Amman, the reigning queen, upheld the 
 cause of her adopted sou agaiust a rival 
 claimant, and was actively supported by 
 Cliunda Sahib. Grateful for his assistance, 
 and unsuspicious of any sinister motive, the 
 queen was induced to give her ally free 
 access to the citadel, and he abused her 
 confidence by taking possession of the 
 government in his own right, and im- 
 prisoning the ill-fated lady, who soon died 
 of grief. This unworthy conduct excited 
 strong dissatisfaction throughout the neigh- 
 bouring states. The nabob viewed with 
 alarm the ambitious and unscrupulous 
 temper of his son-in-law, and the nizara 
 was exceedingly annoyed by the growing 
 power of a family, whose members, though 
 disunited among themselves, would, he well 
 knew, at any time coalesce against him as 
 their common foe. The Hindoo princes 
 participated in the jealous feelings of the 
 uizam, and were likewise, it may be sup- 
 posed, moved with honest indignation at the 
 cruel treatment sustained by their fellow-so- 
 vereign. The result was, the invasion of the 
 Carnatic by a Mahratta army under Rugo- 
 jee Bhonslay, in 1740, and the defeat and 
 death of Dost Ali; followed, in 1741, by the 
 siege of Trichinopoly and the capture of 
 Chunda Sahib, who was carried prisoner to 
 Sattara. Sufder Ali, the new nabob, was 
 assassinated at the instigation of his cousin, 
 Murtczza Ali, the governor of Vellore ;* and 
 the murderer, after vainly endeavouring to 
 take advantage of his crime, by establishing 
 himself as ruler of tlie province, shut him- 
 self up in his own citadel. 
 
 The nizam having determined on quitting 
 Delhi, arrived at Arcot in 1743. He found 
 that the infant son of Sufder Ali had been 
 proclaimed nabob ; and the popular feeling 
 on the subject was so decided, that not 
 caring openly to dispute the hereditary suc- 
 cession tacitly established in the family of 
 Sadut Oollah, the wily politician aflectcd to 
 
 • Murtczza Ali is described by Orme as the model 
 of a cruel and suspicious tyrant : he " never moved, 
 not even in liis own palace, without being s\irrounded 
 by guards, nor ever ventured to taste anything that 
 was not brouglit to liim in a vessel to wliich his wile 
 had alKxed her scab" lie is stated to have procured 
 the assassination of his unsuspicious relative, by the 
 
 intend confirming the boy in oflice so soon 
 as he should arrive at years of discretion. 
 In the interim, he placed two of liis own 
 followers in the government. The first of 
 these, Khojeh Abdulla, died in a very short 
 space of time — it was supposed from the 
 effects of poison administered by his succes- 
 sor, Anwar-oo-deen : shortly afterwards, the 
 youthful expectant of the nabobship, who 
 had been very improperly committed by the 
 nizara to the care of this same person, so 
 notoriously unfit for such a charge, was 
 mortally stabbed at a public festival, by a 
 guard of Patan soldiers, under pretence of 
 revenging the non-payment of arrears due 
 to them by the father of their victim. 
 Anwar-oo-deen and Murtezza Ali were sus- 
 pected of having conspired for the com- 
 mission of this new crime — an opinion which 
 gained strength by the efi'orts each of them 
 made to cast the odium wholly on the 
 other. The nizam would not listen to the 
 accusations brought against Anwar-oo-deen 
 by the friends of the unfortunate family of 
 Sadut Oollah, but caused him to be formally 
 installed as nabob of the Carnatic, notwith- 
 standing the opposition of the people of the 
 province, who found in the arbitrary and par- 
 simonious administration of the new gover- 
 nor additional cause to remember the lenient 
 and liberal conduct of their former rulers. 
 It has been necessary to enter thus far into 
 the domestic history of the Carnatic, in 
 elucidation of its condition at the period 
 when this very Anwar-oo-deen became an 
 important personage in Indo-European 
 history. For the same reason, a few words 
 must be said regarding the native state of 
 Tanjore — a relic of the ancient Hindoo king- 
 dom of Madura — wliich, owing to domestic 
 dissensions, had fallen into the hands of a 
 Mahratta ruler. The sovereignty became 
 an object of contest to the grandsons of 
 Venkajee, the half-brother of Sevajee. One 
 of these, named Pcrtab Sing, the son of a 
 concubine, succeeded in gaining possession 
 of it, in 1741, to the exclusion of Syajee, 
 the legitimate heir of the late rajah. Syajcc, 
 someyears after, sought help from thcEnglish. 
 The Mysoor state, long a dependency of 
 the kingdom of Becjanuggur, was founded 
 under romantic circurastances,t by a youth 
 
 hand of a Patan officer wliom Sufder Ali Iiad deeply 
 injured by the seduction of his wife, and who availed 
 himsi'lf of the opportunity of wreaking a deadly 
 revenge by entering the tent of tlie nabob at midnight, 
 and stal)bing him while attempting to escape. — 
 {Mililunj Transactions, i., 4G — 'IH.) 
 
 t Two brothers left the court of Beejanuggur to
 
 SOUTH CANARA, MALABAR, TRAVANCORE, TANJORE, &c. 253 
 
 of tlio fiimoiis trilio of Ycdavii, wliinli Ijoiists 
 ainoii^ its ciiiiiicnt cliiiractcis, (Jrislnia (tlic 
 cc'lt'lji'iitcd Indian A[)oilo), one of tlio incar- 
 nations nf Vislinii. Tlic first cliicftain or 
 rajah of this family wliose (hitc is established, 
 succeeded to power in 1507, and was sur- 
 named Arbiral, or the six-fingered, from the 
 personal trait tluis described. A fort was 
 constructed or repaired in 1521', at Mahcsh 
 Asoor,* contracted to Mysoor ; but it was 
 not till after tlio battle of Talicot (forty 
 years later), that its petty cliieftains began 
 to assume any importance among tlic princes 
 of the south. In 1010 they acquired pos- 
 session of Scringapatam, which thenceforth 
 became the scat of government; and from 
 this period their territories increased rapidly, 
 and continued to do so, even after becoming 
 avowedly tributai-y both to the Mogul em- 
 peror and to the Alahratta rajah Shao. 
 
 South Canaua, Malabar, and Travan- 
 couE remain to be noticed, having as yet 
 escaped Mohammedan invasion. In the first 
 of tliese was situated the country of Bed- 
 NOBE, under the sway of a family, wlio from 
 a small establishment at Caladee, iu 1 199, had 
 gradually extended their limits to the sea- 
 coast of Onorc, and southward to the limits 
 of Malabar, over the dominions of the former 
 ranee of Garsopa, the " pepper queen" of 
 Portug\iese authors ; while, on the north, 
 they successfully ojiposed the further advance 
 of the forces of Bccjapoor along the sea- 
 coast. Sree Ranga Kaya, when expelled from 
 his last fortress, Chandragiri, took refuge 
 here ; and the Bcdnore rajah, formerly a 
 servant of his family, availed himself of the 
 pretence of re-establishing the royal house 
 of his liege lord, as a cloak for his own am- 
 bitious designs. The district belonging to 
 Sunibajec, the Mahratta chief of Kolapoor, 
 
 stck their fortunes, and having in tlie course of their 
 vanilerinfjs alighted near tlie border of a tank, be- 
 side the little fort of Iladana, a few miles from the 
 site of the present town of Mysoor. they ovcrlieard 
 some women, who had eome to fetch water, bewail- 
 ing the fate of tlie only daughter of their tradeijur 
 (if., lord of thirty-three villages), who was about to 
 be given iu marriage to a neighbouring cliief of in- 
 ferior cast, as the only means of preserving her 
 family from immediate hostilities, which, owing to 
 the mental derangement of the wadeyar, they were 
 quite unprepared to resist. The young knights- 
 errant oftered their services to rescue the aflbcted 
 damsel from the impending disgrace ; and after slay- 
 ing the bridegroom and his companions at the mar- 
 riage feast, marched, at the he.id of the men of 
 Hadann, upon liis territory of C'aragully, which hav- 
 ing captured, the conquerors returned in triumph to 
 Iladana; and one of them, Vijcya, married the lady, 
 nothing loth, and by the general voice of her people 
 2 L 
 
 formed tlie limits of I5cdiu)re on one side j 
 and to the southwards, lay the niountainoua 
 principality of Coouo, between the coast of 
 Malabar and Mysoor. Malabar itself brings 
 us to the familiar territory pf C'amcut, go- 
 verned by the zamorin or Tamuri rajah, 
 bounded to the southward by Cochin, on 
 the opposite side of wliicli, at the extreme end 
 of the Peninsula, was the state of Tanjore, 
 once an integral part of I^falabar, known ia 
 the records of the E. I. Cy. as the country 
 of the queen of Attinga,t by whose permis- 
 sion an English factory was formed at An- 
 jcngo, in 1694. Since then Ta'ijore had 
 become famous in tiie annals of the Dutch, 
 tlirougli the determined opposition of its 
 rajah to their encroacliments and oppression. 
 Besides the slates enumerated in tiie above 
 sketch, there were many others of less note; 
 such for instance as those formed by the 
 rajah of Soonda and the dessayc of Carwar, 
 (who ]iad taken part with the Portuguese in 
 tlieir late conflict with the Mahrattas) ; also 
 by the Patau chiefs of Kuu.noul, Kuupa, 
 and Savanoor, descendants of governors 
 under the dynasties of Becjapoor and Gol- 
 conda. The three last-named were closely 
 connected with some of the leading iMahratta 
 chieftains, and liad been for some time nearly 
 indejicndent. 
 
 Struggle for supremacy between Eng- 
 land AND France. — Allusion has been made 
 to the commercial crisis wliich convulsed 
 these nations in 1720, brought on by im- 
 prudence and the absence of sound principle 
 on the part of their respective governments. 
 A quarter of a century later we find them 
 exchanging declarations of war; and after 
 being, in the first instance, drawn into the 
 vortex as auxiliaries in the disputed Austrian 
 
 was elected wadeyar, first changing his creed from 
 that of a disciple of ^'ish^u to mjuiii/um or lini/tcunt I 
 — Hindoo terms, which will be liereafter explained. 
 
 * >hihesh Asoor, " the buffalo-headed monster," 
 whose overthro.w is the most noted exploit of Cali, 
 the consort of Siva. This goddess is still worshipped 
 under the name of C'hamoondee (the disconifiter of 
 enemies) on the hill of Mysoor, in a temple famed at 
 one period for human sacrifices. (Wilks'il/y.w/or, i. 34.) 
 
 t Jlamilton states, that from remote antiquity the 
 male ofl'sjiring of the tttmbiiretfies, or princesses of 
 .\ttinga, had inherited the sovereignty of Travan- 
 core, and continued to do so until the middle of the 
 eighteenth century, when the reigning " tamburetty" 
 was prevailed upon to transfer the authority to the 
 male line. The conquests made by the Tanjore ruler, 
 between 1740 and 11 5o, are attril)uted to the effi- 
 ciency of a body of troops disciplined after the Euro- 
 pean manner by Eustachius de Lanoy, a Flemish 
 officer. — (Halt India GateUeer, ii., G74.) 
 
 J
 
 254 ENGLAND AND FRANCE STRUGGLE FOR GENERAL SUPREMACY. 
 
 succession, becoming themselves fired with 
 the fierce excitement, they continued the 
 contest as principals, on one pretext or an- 
 other ; the actual end desired by either party 
 being the attainment of complete master}' in 
 all points, whether as regarded political as- 
 cendancy in Europe, transatlantic dominion, 
 trading monopolies, or maritime power. 
 In this unhallowed rivalry both kingdoms 
 lavished unsparingly life and treasure, deeply 
 injuring each others resources, and griev- 
 ously retarding their mutual growth in Chris- 
 tian civilisation and commercial prosperity. 
 Spain, then a great colonial and naval power, 
 sided with France, while England had to 
 withstand their united force, and, at the 
 same time, to bear vip against the disturb- 
 ances connected with the Hanoverian succes- 
 sion, and the long struggle which terminated 
 in the independence of the United States. 
 Sea and land witnessed the strife. In North 
 America — at Quebec, Louisberg, and on the 
 Mississippi; in the JVest Indies — at Marti- 
 nique, Guadaloupe, and the Caribbee Islands ; 
 in Africa— -dt Goree and Senegal; in the 
 Mediterranean and Atlantic — at Minorca and 
 Belleisle; and on the European continent, pro- 
 longed hostilities were waged : while in India 
 a contest commenced which lasted sixty years, 
 the prize there fought for being nothing less 
 than the establishment of a powerful Euro- 
 pean dominion in the very heart of Asia. 
 It is not to be supposed that the trading 
 societies who first gained a footing amid the 
 confusion of falling dynasties and usurping 
 chiefs, foresaw from the commencement of the 
 conflict the marvellous results with which their 
 operations were to be attended. With the ex- 
 ception, perhaps, of the brothers Child, none 
 of the officers of the old-established English 
 company had an}' desire for the acquisition 
 of sovereignty, nor had they the inducement 
 which might have been aff"orded by an insight 
 into the actual condition of India. The gene- 
 ral indifference manifested by the servants of 
 the various European companies towards the 
 attainment of Asiatic languages, long tended 
 to prevent their acquiring this knowledge, 
 even when the course of events plainly de- 
 monstrated its imi)ortauce. Moreover, the 
 English and French associations were both 
 poor, and extremely unwilling to enter upon 
 a costly warfare, respecting the issue of 
 which no reasonable conjecture could be 
 formed. The representatives of the latter 
 body became first ins])ircd witli an irrestrain- 
 able desire to take part in the .strife and in- 
 trigue by which they were surrounded ; and 
 
 the connection which subsisted between the 
 government and the French company, en- 
 abled La Bourdonuais and Dupleix to obtain, 
 through the influence of Orry the minister, a 
 sanction for their daring adventures, which 
 the partners of a purely mercantile association 
 would, if they could, have withheld. Even 
 had the two states in Europe continued at 
 peace, it was next to impossible that their 
 subjects in India should bear a share in the 
 disputes of neighbouring princes without 
 soon coming to open hostility with each 
 other; and the national declarations of war 
 brought matters to an immediate crisis. 
 
 The English were the first to receive 
 reinforcements from home. A squadron of 
 four vessels appeared off the coast of Coro- 
 mandel, in July, 1745, having previously 
 captured three richly-laden French vessels 
 on their voyage from China. The garrison of 
 Pondicherry contained only 436 Europeans, 
 and the fortifications were incomplete. 
 Dupleix, fearing that the place would be 
 taken before La Bourdonnais could answer 
 his appeal for succour, made earnest repre- 
 sentations to the nabob, Anwar-oo-deen, 
 and succeeded in inducing him to interfere 
 for the protection of Pondicherry, by threat- 
 ening to revenge upon Madras any injury 
 which should be inflicted upon French pos- 
 sessions within the limits of his government. 
 At the same time, the nabob declared his 
 intention of compelling the French, in the 
 event of their acquiring additional strength, 
 to abstain equally from ofl^ensive proceedings. 
 Mogul power had not yet lost its prestige : 
 that of England was still to be won ; conse- 
 quently the determined language of the 
 nabob intimidated the IMadras presidency, 
 and induced them to prevent the fleet from 
 attacking Pondicherry, and to confine their 
 operations to the sea. In the June of the 
 following year a French squadron arrived 
 in the Indian ocean, under the command of 
 La Bourdonnais, who had equipped the sliips 
 with great difficulty at the Mauritius; and 
 when afterwards disni-iutled by a hurricane, 
 had refitted them at Madagascar. An inde- 
 cisive action took place between the rival 
 fleets, after which the French commander 
 proceeded to Pondicherry, and there re- 
 quested a supply of cannon, wherewith to 
 attack Madras. The hearty co-operation of 
 Dupleix and his council was, at this mo- 
 ment, of the highest im])ortance ; but 
 jealousy of the renown which would atteiul 
 the success of the enterprise, induced 
 them to receive the solicitations of their
 
 MADRAS CAPTUKED J5Y THE FliENCH— IM'G. 
 
 255 
 
 colleague with haughty and insulting in- 
 difl'crcncc. La TJourcloniinis, already se- 
 verely tried by the misci-ablc uiilitucss of 
 the greater portion of his erews, consisting 
 of sailors for the first time at sea, and 
 soldiers who needed instruction how to fire 
 a musket — their inefficiency incrcasc<l by 
 sickness, by which he was himself almost 
 prostrated — had now to struggle against tlu; 
 aggravating tone adopted towards him by 
 those to whom he looked for aid and sym- 
 pathy. Under these circumstances, he be- 
 haved with singular discretion and forbcirr- 
 anee, and having at length ol)taincd a scanty 
 reinforcement of guns, set sail for Madras, 
 against which place he commenced opera- 
 tions on the 3rd of September, 171G.* 
 
 The fortifications of the city had been 
 neglected, owing to the financial embarrass- 
 ment of the E. I. Cy. There was little 
 ammunition in store, and the soldiers 
 were few, and of a very indifferent descrip- 
 tion. The total number of Europeans iu 
 the settlement did not exceed 300, and of 
 these about two-thirds were included in the 
 garrison. As might be expected, no very 
 determined resistance was offered. The 
 town was bombarded for several days, and 
 four or five of the inhabitants were killed by 
 the explosion of shells, after which a capitu- 
 lation was agreed upon, by virtue of which 
 the assailants entered Madras as victors, 
 witliout the loss of a single man, but on the 
 express condition that the settlement sliould 
 be restored on easy and honourable terms. 
 This arrangement was in strict accordance 
 with the instructions laid down I)y the 
 French directors, who expressly forbade 
 the extension of territory until their exist- 
 ing settlements should be more firmly esta- 
 blished, and ordered their servants, in the 
 event of capturing the possessions of any 
 foreign foe, to abide by the alternative of de- 
 struction or a ransom. The very day of 
 the surrender of Madras, a messenger, dis- 
 
 * The forces destined for the siege comprised 
 about 1,100 Europeans, 400 sepoys, and 400 Mada- 
 gascar blacks; 1,700 or 1,800 European mariners 
 remained to guard the ships. — (Orme, i., 67.) 
 
 f MUiturji Trunsactioiis, i., 7o. 
 
 X Fron thence La Bourdonnais returned to France 
 to vindicate himsell' from the complaints preferred by 
 the family of Dupitix, some of whom being inti- 
 mately connected with the E. I. Cy-, had warndy 
 espoused the quanel of their relative .igainst his 
 more worthy adversary. lie look his passage in a 
 ship belonging to Holland, which, in consequence of 
 the declaration of war, was forced into nn English 
 harbour. The distinguished passrngerwas recognised; 
 but his conduct at Madras procured him an honour- 
 
 patched for more expedition on a camel, 
 arrived at Pondichcrry with a letter from 
 Anwar-oo-dccn, expressing his great sur- 
 prise at the conduct of the French in at- 
 tacking ^Madras, and threatening to send an 
 army there if the siege were not immediately 
 raised. Dupleix I'eturned a deceitful an- 
 swer, promising that the town, if taken, 
 should be surrendered to the nabob, with 
 liberty to make favourable terms with the 
 English for the restitution of so valuable a 
 possession. Meanwhile, La Bourdonnais, 
 relying on his own commission, proceeded 
 to arrange the treaty of surrender without 
 regard to the remonstrances or threats of 
 Du])leix, who, notwithstanding the recent 
 assurance given by him to the nabob, now 
 insisted that Madras should be either re- 
 tained as a French settlement, or razed to 
 the ground. Three men-of-war arrived at 
 this period at Pondichcrry; and, thus in- 
 creased, says Orme, the French force " was 
 sufficient to have conquered the rest of 
 the British settlements in IIindoostan."f 
 La Bourdonnais had resolved on making the 
 attempt, but his plans were contravened by 
 Dupleix; and after much time liaving been 
 wasted in disputes regarding the evacuation 
 of IMadras, a storm came on which materially 
 injured the fleet, and compelled its brave com- 
 mander to return in haste, before the change 
 of the monsoon, to his own government at 
 the I\Iauritius,J without staying to complete 
 the shipment of the seized goods, which was 
 to be followed by the restoration of the 
 town. The machinations of Dupleix had 
 thus succeeded in thwarting the views he 
 ought to have promoted, and at the same 
 time in acquiring an important addition of 
 1,200 trained men, left behind in conse- 
 quence of the damage done to the squadron 
 by the late tempest : accessions of strength 
 were also received from other quarters, which 
 raised the number of European troops at 
 Pondicherry, in all, to about 3,000 men. 
 
 able reception ; and the proposition of an East India 
 director to become surety for him in person and 
 property, was declined by government, on the ground 
 that the word of La Bourdonnais was alone suffi- 
 cient. This circumstance may liavc served to soothe 
 the bitter trials which awaited his arrival in France. 
 He was thrown into the Bastile, and remained in that 
 terrible state prison for three years ; at the expira- 
 tion of which lime his published \ indication, sup- 
 ported by authentic documents, manifested not only 
 the injustice of the charges brought against him, but 
 also the ardour and ability of his services. Though 
 liberated, he appears to have obtained no redres.% and 
 did not long survive his acquittal, which took place 
 when he was about fifty-three years of age.
 
 25C) FRENCH UNSUCCESSFULLY ATTACK FORT ST. DAVID— 1746. 
 
 These additions were needed to combat 
 the force dispatched by Anwar-oo-deen for 
 the recapture of Madras, so soon as he per- 
 ceived the liollowness of the professions by 
 which he had been induced to violate his 
 pledge to the English, of compelling the 
 French to abstain from hostile proceedings 
 throughout the Carnatic. 
 
 An armj', commanded by the son of the 
 nabob, invested Madras, and made some 
 clumsy attempts to imitate the proceedings 
 which had proved successful in the jirevious 
 instance. The Frcuch encountered them 
 with a greatly inferior numerical force ; but 
 the skilful and rapid management of their 
 artillery, abundantly compensated for this 
 disproportion, and enabled them to acquire a 
 decisive victory. The event is memorable, 
 as marking the commencement of a new 
 phase of Indian historj'. The triumplis of 
 the Portuguese were, for the most part, two 
 centuries old : of late years Europeans had 
 bowed submissively before the footstool of 
 Mogul arrogance ; and the single attempt of 
 the English (in 1686) to obtain independent 
 power, had onl}' reduced them to a yet 
 more humiliating position. The utter in- 
 ability of unwieldy and ill-disciplined masses 
 to contend with compact bodies of well- 
 trained troops, was a fact which the French 
 had again brought to light, together with 
 another of equal importance — namely, the 
 facility with which natives might be enrolled 
 among the regular troops, and the reliance 
 to be placed upon them. Already there 
 were four or five disciplined companies at 
 Pondicherry; but the English had not yet 
 adopted a similar procedure. Dupleix fol- 
 lowed up the defeat of the nabob's force, 
 by declaring the treaty with the English 
 annulled, and giving orders for the seizure 
 of every article of property belonging to 
 the unfortunate inhabitants, excepting their 
 personal clothes, the movables of their 
 houses, and the jewels of the women — com- 
 mands which were executed with avaricious 
 exactness. The governor and leading persons 
 were carried prisoners to Pondicherry, and 
 tliere exhibited before the native public in a 
 species of triumi)h. 
 
 Fort St. David, twelve miles south of 
 Pondicherry, next became an object of am- 
 bition, and a body of 1,700 men, mostly 
 Europeans, was dispatched for the attack 
 of its garrison, which, including refugees 
 from Madras, comprehended no more than 
 200 Europeans and 100 Topasses. The un- 
 expected advance of a large force, sent by 
 
 Anwar-oo-deen to the relief of the fort, 
 took the French by surprise while resting 
 from a fatiguing march, and exulting in the 
 prospect of an easy prey. They retreated 
 at once, with the loss of twelve Europeans 
 killed and 120 wounded. An attempt was 
 next made upon the native town of Cuddalore, 
 which was situated about a mile from Fort St. 
 David, and inhabited by the principal Indian 
 merchants, and by many natives in the em- 
 ployment of the company. Five hundred 
 men were embarked in boats, with orders 
 to enter the river and attack the open quarter 
 of the town at daybreak. But on this, as 
 in the ease of the fleet of La Bourdonnais, 
 the turbulence of the elements preserved 
 the English from the assault of their 
 foes : the wind rose, and the raging surf 
 forbade the prosecution of the hostile enter- 
 prise. 
 
 Dupleix, finding that he could not expect 
 to eope successfully with the united strength 
 of the nabob and the English, directed 
 all his powers of intrigue and cajolery to 
 break off their alliance ; and at length suc- 
 ceeded, by exaggerated representations of 
 the accessions of force received and ex- 
 pected by the French, in inducing the vacil- 
 lating nabob to forsake the garrison of Fort 
 St. David, who were described as a con- 
 temptible handful of men, abandoned even 
 by their own countrymen to destruction. 
 The falsity of this last assertion was proved 
 at a critical moment; for just as a French 
 force had succeeded in overcoming the re- 
 sistance ofi'ered to their crossing the river, 
 and were marching on the apparently de- 
 voted town, an English fleet was seen ap- 
 proaching the roadstead, upon which the 
 assailants hastily recrossed the river and 
 returned to Pondicherry. 
 
 In January, 1718, Major Lawrence arrived 
 in India with authority over the whole of 
 the company's forces. In the following 
 year, the addition of a squadron dis- 
 ])atched under the command of Admiral 
 Boscawen,* rendered their fleet more for- 
 midable than any previouslj' assembled by 
 a single European power in India. Dupleix 
 trembled; the nabob would, he feared, again 
 change sides, so soon as the superior strength 
 of the enemy should be manifest, and the 
 French settlements be cut oil' from sujiplies 
 i)oth by sea and land. The English, on 
 their part, hurried on the operations of 
 
 * Coiisistiiij; of ten shijis of tlie royal navy, and 
 elm'cn bulonging to the coni|)any, carrying stores, 
 and troops to llic amonnl of 1,100 men.
 
 MADRAS RESTORED TO THE ENGLISH— 1748. 
 
 257 
 
 Boscawcn, nothing doubting l)y the capture 
 of Pondicherry, to rctuiiale tiic licavy sacri- 
 fice attcndaut on the loss of ]Madras.* 'I'lioir 
 exi)cctations were disappointed. Major Law- 
 rence was taken prisoner during the assault 
 of the little fort of Ariancopaug, two miles 
 to the south-west of Pondiehcrry ; and when, 
 after much valuable time spent in acquiring 
 and occupying this position, the admiral ad- 
 vanced u])oii the city, ignorance of the loca- 
 lity, disease in the camp, and probably also 
 the unfitness of the brave and active sea- 
 captaiu to direct the comjilicated proceed- 
 ings of a land attack, resulted in the raising 
 of the siege l)y the fiat of a council of war, 
 assembled thirty-one days after the opening 
 of the trenches. The rejoicings of Dupleix 
 at this unlooked-for triumph, were, as might 
 be expected, boastful in the extreme, lie 
 sent letters to the dilTercnt neighbouring 
 rulers, and even to the Great ]Mog\U him- 
 self, informing them of the formidable 
 assault which he had repulsed, and received 
 in return high compliments on his prowess 
 and on the military genius of his nation, which 
 was now generally regarded as far supci'ior 
 to that of the English. His schemes were, 
 however, contravened by a clause in the 
 treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in which the 
 French government agreed to restore Ma- 
 dras; and this stipulation was enforced, 
 notwithstanding the expense incurred by him 
 in strengthening a possession obtained by a 
 glaring breach of faith. On reoccupying 
 their ancient settlement, the English like- 
 wise established themselves at St. Thomas, 
 or Meliapoor, a town mostly inhabited by 
 the desceudants of the ancient Christians, 
 whom the imperious Portuguese archbishop 
 and viceroy ^lenezes had, with the aid of 
 "the Holy Inquisition," brought into com- 
 pulsory submission to the Komish pontiff. 
 Since then it had sunk into obscurity, and 
 would hardly have excited the notice of any 
 European power, had not its position with 
 regard to Madras, from which it was but 
 four miles distant, enabled the ever-intrigu- 
 ing Dupleix to gain from the Romish priests 
 much important information regarding the 
 state of that settlement. St. Thomas was 
 therefore occupied by the English, and the 
 obnoxious portion of the inhabitants ordered 
 to withdraw. 
 
 While these events were taking place in 
 the Madra.s presidency, that of Bombay, 
 
 * That event entailed a 'loss of £180,000 on the 
 company. — (Anber's British Power in India, i., 48.) 
 
 t Mill's liritish India, iii., 83, (edited by Milson.) 
 
 X At Surat, for instance, in addition to the fixed 
 
 and the inferior but independent one of 
 Calcutta, enjoyed tranrpiillity. Ali Verdi 
 Khan, the viceroy of Bengal, had con- 
 sistently maintained the determination at 
 first cxjiressed by Anwar-oo-dcen, in the 
 Carnatie, of compelling the hostile nations to 
 keep the peace in his dominions. At the 
 same time he exacted from both parties con- 
 tributions, in return for the protection which 
 he bestowed. The sums demanded from 
 the English are stated t as not exceeding 
 £100,0(K), which, considering the heavy ex- 
 penses incurred in rci)clling Mahratta in- 
 roads, cannot be deemed immoderate. 
 
 The restoration of peace between tlieir 
 respective governments left the servants of 
 the rival companies in India no pretence 
 for continuing hostilities on any national 
 ground. But extensive military prepara- 
 tions had been made : nothing but a casus 
 licUi was wanting; and it was not to be 
 supposed that the commanders of consider- 
 able bodies of troops, who, having been 
 levied, must be paid and fed, would wil- 
 lingly keep them in idleness for so slight 
 a reason. The quarrels of neighbouring 
 states afforded a ready pretext for armed 
 interference, and offered to both French 
 and English the immediate advantage of 
 remunerative employment for spare force, 
 together with the prospect of establishing 
 a degree of independent, if not paramount 
 authority, which might enable the factories 
 to withhold the large sums it had been 
 heretofore found necessary to pay to local 
 officials, iu order to secure the enjoyment 
 of the privileges conceded by imperial 
 firmauns.J Neither party showed much 
 anxiety about the character or claims of the 
 candidates under whose banners they took 
 post, the scarcely disguised motive being — 
 how best to serve themselves ami weaken 
 their rivals. Indeed, at this period, power 
 iu the Dcccau had so greatly fallen into the 
 hands of usurpers, that had the Europeans 
 really desired to support no pretensions 
 save such as were strictly legitimate, they 
 must have commenced by setting aside 
 almost the whole of the claimants who now 
 pressed upon their notice. But this ad- 
 mission cannot exculpate the English from 
 the heavy charge of indiscretion and vena- 
 lity — in first unsheathing the sword against 
 a sovereign with whom they had long cairied 
 on a friendly correspondence, and then sufler- 
 ciistom dues of 3j per cent., no less a sum than 
 l,3l!o,450 rupees are stated, in the record* of the 
 E. I. Company, as having been paid from IGGl to 
 1683, «iniply to facilitate business.
 
 258 
 
 CHARACTER AND EARLY EXPLOITS OP ROBERT CLIVE. 
 
 ing themselves to be bought off from the 
 cause they had unsuccessfully advocated. 
 The case was simply this : Syajee, the 
 es-rajah of Tanjore {see p. 25.2), craved their 
 assistance to regain the throne from which he 
 had been driven by his half-brother, Pertab 
 Sing. He declared that the people were well- 
 affected towards him, and promised, in the 
 event of success, to bestow upon the Eng'isli 
 the territory of Devicotta — a position ren- 
 dered valuable by its proximity to the mouth 
 of the river Coleroon, which was considered 
 to offer advantages, as a harbour, beyond any 
 other situation between Masulipatam and 
 Cape Comorin. His solicitations produced 
 two attempts for the invasion of Tanjore. 
 The first by Captain Cope, undertaken 
 with a view to the re-establishment of 
 Syajee, proved a complete failure. The 
 second, led by jNIajor Lawrence, succeeded in 
 the object for which it was expressly de- 
 signed — the capture cf Devicotta — owing, 
 under Providence, to the ingenuity and 
 dauntless bravery of a common ship's carpen- 
 ter* and — Lieutenant Robert Clivo. This 
 name, destined to stand first in a long line 
 of Anglo-Indian conquerors, v/as then borne 
 by a young man whose previous career 
 afforded small promise of usefulness, though 
 fraught with evidences of misdirected energy. 
 Some twelve years before the siege of Devi- 
 cotta, the inhabitants of Market-Drayton, 
 Shropshire, had viewed with terror the 
 exploits of the audacious son of a neigh- 
 bouring scjuire.f On one occasion they 
 beheld the daring boy climb the lofty 
 church steeple, and quietly take his scat 
 on a projecting stone spout near the summit, 
 fashioned in the form of a di-agon's head, 
 from whence he desired to obtain a smooth 
 stone, for the pleasure of flinging it to the 
 ground. At home the youth was noted for 
 an immoderate love of fighting, and for a 
 fierce and imperious temper; out of doors 
 he displayed the same propensitiesby form- 
 ing the idle lads of the town into a preda- 
 tory army, and extorting a tribute of pence 
 and trifling articles from the shopkeepers, 
 guaranteeing them, in return, from broken 
 
 • The fort of Devicotta was siluatud on a marshy 
 shore covered with wood, .niid surrounded by the 
 Tanjore army. The English b.itteries were erected 
 on the opposite side of the river, and after three 
 days' firing a breach was effected ; but before ad- 
 vantage could be taken of it, a broad and rapid 
 .stream had to be crossed in the face of the 
 enemy. This was done by means of a raft, sufBcient 
 to contain UK) nun, constructed by the carpenter, 
 John Moore. The last difficulty— how to get the raft 
 
 windows and the effects of other mis- 
 chievous tricks. The character of an ex- 
 ceedingly naughty boy accompanied Bob 
 Clive from scliool to school, including the 
 celebrated London seminary of the Mer- 
 chant Taylor's Company. One of his early 
 masters, it is said, had the sagacity to 
 prophesy that the self-willed, iron-nerved 
 child would, if he lived to be a man, and 
 had opportunity to exert his talents, make a 
 great figure in the world ; but this was an 
 exception to the general opinion formed of 
 his slender parts and headstrong temper; 
 and his family, seeing no good prospect for 
 him at home, procured for the lad, when in 
 his eighteenth year, a writership in the ser- 
 vice of the E. I. Company, and " shipped him 
 off, to make a fortune or to die of a fever."J 
 For some time after the arrival of Clive 
 at ]\Iadras, the former alternative appeared 
 highly improbable. The ship in which he 
 sailed was detained for nine months at the 
 Brazils, and the young writer expended all 
 his ready-money, but picked up, in return, 
 a knowledge of the Portuguese language, 
 which proved useful to him in after-life. 
 The salaries of the junior servants were 
 then barely suflicient for their maintenance. 
 Clive, who it may be readily imagined was 
 no economist, soon became involved in 
 debt ; and this circumstance, combined with 
 his isolated position and uncongenial em- 
 ployment (in superintending the taking of 
 stock, making advances to weavers, shipping 
 cargoes, and guarding the monopoly of his 
 employers against the encroachments of jsri- 
 vate traders), aggravated by the depressing 
 influence of a tropical climate, so affected 
 a mind unsupported by religious prin- 
 ciple, that the rash youth, in one of the 
 wayward, moody fits to which he was all his 
 life subject, made an ineffectual attempt 
 at self-destruction. A fellow-clerk entered 
 his room (in Writers'-buildings) imme- 
 diately after, and was requested to take up 
 a pistol which lay at hand, and fire it out 
 of the window. He did so ; and Clive 
 sprang up, exclaiming — " Well, I am re- 
 served for something; that pistol I have 
 
 across — he removed by swimming the stream by 
 night and fastening a rope to a tree, unperceived by 
 the foe, whose attcntiori was diverted from the spot 
 bv tlic well-directed manonivres of the artillery. The 
 troo])s were disembarked on the opposite bank. 
 
 t A landed proprietor, who practised the law, and 
 resided on a small estate which had been enjoyed 
 by his family since the twelfth century. 
 
 ' \ T. 1!. Macaulay's brilliant critique on Malcohn'a 
 Life of Lord Clkc!—(Vnticiil muf HisttiricalEaamju.)
 
 DKVICOTTA TAKEN.— INTRIGUES OF MADAME DUPLEIX. 259 
 
 twice snapped at my own head." * He was 
 reserved for many things which tlie workl 
 calls };rrat and f^lorioiis, and cvcri (by a 
 stranf;c pcrvirsiim of the term) licroio ; Ijut 
 his earthly career was not tiic less dcstiucd to 
 terminate by the very aet which he had 
 once been specially held back from accom- 
 plisliing. That aet even worldlings brand 
 with the name of moral cowardice ; while be- 
 lievers in revealed religion view it as the last 
 and dee[)est oU'enee man can commit against 
 i his Maker. In the case of Clivc, such 
 a tcrniiiiutiou of life was rendered pecu- 
 liarly remarkable by his previous frequent 
 and extraordinary escapes from perishing 
 by violence. 
 
 On the capture of Madras, in 1716, he, 
 with others, gave his parole on becoming a 
 prisoner of war, not to attempt escape ; but 
 the breach of faith committed by Dupleix 
 was considered by many of the captives to 
 justify their infraction of the pledge given 
 to M. de la Bourdonnais ; and Clive fled by 
 night to Fort St. David, disguised in dress 
 and comjilcxiou as a Mussulman. Con- 
 tinued hostilities afforded him an opportu- 
 nity of quitting the store-room for the camp ; 
 and Major Lawrence, perceiving the military 
 ability of the young aspirant, gave him an 
 ensign's commission, which, after the unsuc- 
 ecssful attack of Pondichcrry, in 1748, was 
 exchanged for that of a lieutenant. At Dc- 
 vicotta he was, at his own solicitation, 
 suflcred to lead a storming jjarty, consisting 
 of a platoon of thirty-four Europeans and a 
 body of sepoys. Of the Europeans only 
 four survived; but the determination of their 
 leader, and the orderly advance of the se- 
 poys, checked the opposition of the Tanjore 
 horse, and gave the signal for the advance of 
 Major Lawrence with his whole strength, 
 which was speedily followed by the capture 
 of the fort. 
 
 A treaty of peace was soon entered into 
 with the rajah, Pertab Sing, by which the 
 English were guaranteed in the possession 
 of Devieotta, with a territory of the annual 
 value of 9,000 pagodas, on condition of 
 their renouncing the cause of Syajee, and ' 
 guaranteeing to secure his person so as to [ 
 
 * Sir John Jralcohn states, that hi 1749, three 
 years after this event, Clive had a severe attack of 
 nervous fever, which rendered necessary " the con- 
 stant prcKcncc of an attendant j" and ho adds, that 
 even after his recovery, " the oppression on his spirits 
 frequently returned." — (Mfinoirs, i., pp. GO-TO.) 
 
 t Madame Dupleix is described in the Life of 
 Clivc as a Creole, born and educated in l!enga! ; but 
 her parentage is not stated. The Christian name 
 
 prevent any further attempts on the throne of 
 his brother — a service for which 4,000 rupees, 
 or about £]()0, were to be paid annually. 
 The i'higli.sh had been con)])i(;tcly misled 
 ))y the statements of Syajee respecting his 
 prospects of success; but still, this treatment 
 of a person whom they had been endea- 
 vouring to re-establish as a legitimate ruler, 
 was highly discreditable. It is even said, 
 that the unfortunate prince would have been 
 delivered into the hands of his enemies, but 
 for the lively remonstrances of Admiral Bos- 
 cawen. As it was, he found means to make 
 his escape, though not to recover his throne. 
 In the meantime the French were engaged 
 in transactions of more importance. They 
 had far higher objects in view than any 
 yet aimed at by the English, and their 
 plans were more dec])ly laid. Dupleix, by 
 means of his wif'e,t had obtained considerable 
 acquaiulance with the intrigues of various 
 Mussulman and Hindoo princes ; and this 
 knowledge had afforded him material assist- 
 ance on more than one occasion. The 
 disturbed state of the Carnatie now offered 
 a favourable opening for his ambition. The 
 protracted lilc of the old nizam was fast 
 approaching its termination ; and the nomi- 
 nal viceroyalty, but actual sovereignty, of 
 the Mogul provinces in the Deecan would, 
 it was easy to forsee, speedily become an 
 object of contest to his five sons. The 
 cause of Anwar-oo-deen, himself almost a 
 centenai'ian, would not therefore be likely 
 to meet with efficient support from his 
 legitimate superiors ; while among the people 
 a very strong desire existed for the restora- 
 tion of tiie family of Sadut Oollah. The 
 natural heir was the remaining son of Sufder 
 Ali, but his tender age forbade the idea of 
 placing him at the head of a confederacy 
 which needed a skilful and determined 
 leader. Murtezza Ali (governor of Vellore), 
 though wealthy and powerful, was deemed 
 too treacherous and too cowardly to be 
 trusted. The only relative possessed of 
 sufficient reputation, as a general, to direct 
 an attempt for the subversion of the power 
 of Anwar-oo-deen, was Chunda Sahib. 
 The utter absence of principle manifested 
 
 Jeanne, she converted into the Persian appella- 
 tion of Jan Besum (the princess Jtaiiiie.) Her 
 intimate acquaintance with the native languages, 
 joined to a talent for intrigue little inferior to that 
 of Dupleix hihiself, enabled her to establish a very 
 erticient system of "espionage." At the time of the 
 French capture of Madras, and the attempts on Fort 
 St. David by tlie English, the Indian interpreter 
 was found to have carried on a regular correspondence
 
 2G0 THE FRENCH SET UP CHUNDA SAHIB IN THE CARNATIC— 1748. 
 
 in his seizure of Tricliinopoly,* did not pre- 
 vent him from beinjc " esteemed the ablest 
 soldier that had of late years appeared in 
 the Carnatic/'t uniting in every military 
 enterprise, " the spirit of a volunteer with 
 the liberality of a prince."J On him Dupleis 
 had early fixed his eyes as a fit coadjutor; 
 and throughout his protracted imprison- 
 ment at Sattara, had contrived to keep up 
 an intimate connexion with him, through 
 the medium of his wife and family, who 
 had taken refuge in Pondicherry — Madame 
 Dupleix acting as interpreter ; and at the 
 same time corresponding, in the name of 
 her husband, with various chiefs likely to 
 prove useful in the coming struggle. At 
 length all things seemed ripe for the enter- 
 prise. Through the intervention of Dupleix, 
 the release of Chunda Sahib was effected in 
 the early part of the year 1748, bjr .means 
 of a ransom of . seven lacs' of rupees 
 (£70,000.) The nizam died shortly after ; 
 and notwithstanding the prior claims of his 
 numerous sons, another competitor for the 
 succession arose in the person of a grand- 
 son, the child of a favourite daughter. 
 With the young adventurer (generally known 
 by his title of Moozufler Jung),§ Chunda 
 Sahib hastened to form an alliance, and in- 
 duced him to commence operations in the 
 Carnatic. Dupleix assisted the confederates 
 with a body of 400 Europeans, 100 Kafirs, 
 and 1,800 sepoys; and French valour and 
 discipline mainly contributed to bring the 
 storming of Amboor (a fort fifty miles west of 
 Arcot) to a successful issue. Anwar-oo-deen 
 was slain atthe extraordinary age of 107 lunar 
 years ; his eldest son taken prisoner ; and 
 his second son, Mohammed Ali, with the 
 wreck of the army, escaped to Trichinopoly, of 
 which place he was governor. The victorious 
 leaders marched in triumph to Arcot, and 
 then to Pondicherry, from whence (after in- 
 creasing the limits and revenues of that set- 
 tlement by the grant of eighty-one villages) 
 they proceeded against Tanjore. It would 
 have been unquestionably better policy to 
 have advanced at once upon Trichinopoly; 
 
 with Madame Dupleix in the Malabar tongue. He 
 and a Hindoo accomplice were tried, found guilty, 
 and hanf,'ed. — (Malcolm's Clivc, i., 2t ; Orme's Mili- 
 turij Triutsactions, i., 88.) 
 
 • See p. 252. In addition to the facts already 
 stated, it may be noticed, as enhancing the perfidy of 
 Chunda Sahib, that one means adopted by him to set 
 aside any misgivings on lh(^ part of the ranee of 
 Trichino])oly, was by swearing tliat liis troops, if 
 secretly admitted within the citadel, sliould be em- 
 ployed solely for the confirmation of her authority. 
 
 but supplies of money were urgently needed, 
 and the known wealth of the rajah of Tan- 
 jore would, it was believed, compensate for 
 the delay. The Tanjorine proved more than 
 a match for his enemies in cunning, though 
 inferior to them in force. Although at 
 length compelled to pay a certain sura, 
 claimed as arrears of tribute to the Mogul 
 empire, and likewise in compensation for 
 the expenses incurred in attacking him, the 
 rajah continued to procrastinate in every 
 possible manner, — one day sending, as part of 
 the stipulated contribution, old and obsolete 
 coins, such as he knew required long and 
 tedious examiiiation ; another time, jewels 
 and precious stones, the value of which it 
 was still more difficult to determine. Chunda 
 Sahib saw the drift of these artifices; but the 
 want of funds induced him to bear with them 
 until the end of the year (1749) arrived, and 
 with it intelligence of the approach of a con- 
 siderable army under the command of Nazir 
 Jung,|| the second son of the late nizam. 
 
 The allies, struck with consternation, pre- 
 cipitately retreated to Pondicherry, harassed 
 by a body of Mahrattas. Dupleix exerted all 
 his energies to reanimate their spirits ; lent 
 them £50,000, and increased the French 
 contingent to 2,000 Europeans; but, doubt- 
 ing greatly the ultimate success of the cause 
 which he had so sedulously promoted, he 
 sought to be prepared for any turn of cir- 
 cumstances, by opening a secret communica- 
 tion with Nazir Jung. In this treacherous 
 attempt he failed, the prince having pre- 
 viously formed an alliance with the English.^ 
 
 On hearing of the defeat and death of 
 Anwar-oo-deen, Nazir Jung had marched 
 towards the Carnatic, where he was speedily 
 joined by Mohammed Ali, son of the late 
 nabob, and at the same time he sent to ask 
 assistance from the English at Fort St. 
 David. They were already filled with 
 alarm at the part taken by the French in 
 the recent hostilities, but possessed no 
 authority from the Court of Directors to 
 engage anew in the perils and expenses of 
 any military undertaking. The result of 
 
 This false oath he took on a false Koran — that is, on 
 a brick enveloped in one of the s])lcndid coverings 
 used by Mohammedans to wrap round the volume 
 they revere as divinely inspired. ^(Colonel AVilks' 
 Ilislot-y of Mijsoor, i., 250.) 
 
 f Orme's Militun/ Truiisaetioiis, i., 119. 
 
 i Wilks' Ilisturi/'of 3Iywor, i., 250. 
 
 § Virlorinns in U'df. \\ Tn'uiiip/iiiiit in War. 
 
 ^f Vide "Vindication," entitled Meiuni re pour Du- 
 pleix : also ]\Iriii(iire ronire JJiip/eix, puldished by the 
 directory of the l'"r. E. I. Cy.; quoted by Mill,iii., 105.
 
 NAZIR JUNG AND MOHAMMED ALI SUPPORTED BY ENGLISH— 1710. 201 
 
 the Tanjorc enterprise was not eacoiiraging; 
 the attempt to reinstate Syajee liad proved 
 a complete failure; ami Pertalj Siiij;, Ijy the 
 eessioii of Devieotta, had Ijouf^ht them olf, 
 as he might have done a body of Mahrattas, 
 — not so niueh from fear of their power, as 
 because lie expected a more daiif^erous as- 
 sault on the side of Chunda Sahib and the 
 Freneli. It was evidently no honest desire 
 for peace which dictated the miserable half 
 measures adopted l)y the Madras presidency. 
 Although Admiral Boscawen ofl'ered to re- 
 ipaiu if his presence should be formally de- 
 manded, he was sufl'cred to depart with the 
 fleet and troops. A force of 120 Europeans 
 was sent to Mohammed Ali; and the report 
 of the powerful army and extensive re- 
 sources* of Nazir Jung induced thcni to 
 send Major Lawrence, with GOO Europeans, 
 to fight under so promising a standard. The 
 rival armies, with their respective European 
 allies, approached within skirmishing dis- 
 tance of one another, and an engagement 
 seemed close at hand, when thirteen French 
 oflicers, discontented with the remuneration 
 they had received for the attack on Tanjore, 
 threw up their commissions; andM.d'Auteuil, 
 panic-struck by this mutinous conduct, re- 
 treated, with the remainder of the troops 
 under his command, to Pondicherry, accom- 
 panied by Chunda Sahib, while Moozufl'er 
 Jung.t having received the most solemn as- 
 surances of good treatment, threw himself 
 upon the mercy of his uncle, by whom be 
 was immediately placed in irons. 
 
 Nazir Jung, relieved from immediate 
 peril, took no thought for the future; but 
 at once resigned his whole time to the plea- 
 sures of the harem aud the chase. The only 
 
 * Nazir Jung was at Boorhanpoor, in command of 
 the army, at the time of the death of his father : this 
 circumstance favoured his attempt at becoming su- 
 bahdar of tlie Deccan, to the exclusion of his eldest 
 brotlier, Ghazi-oo-deen, who, he asserted, had freely 
 resigned his ))retensioMs, being satisfied with the im- 
 portant position he held in the court of Delhi — a 
 statement which was wholly false. Ghazi-oo-deen 
 w:as by no means inclined to make any such renuncia- 
 tion, and had in justice nothing to renounce, the 
 government of the southern provinces being still, at 
 least in form, an ajipointment in the gift of the em- 
 peror. Mohammed Ali"s claim to the government of 
 the Carnatic (urged, in the first instance, to tlie exclu- 
 sion of his elder brother, the only legitimate son of 
 Anwar-oo-deen) was based on the bare grounds that 
 Nizam-ool-Moolk had promised, and Xazir Jung 
 would confirm to him the possession of a patrimony 
 which had been in his family just five years. This 
 was the "rightful cause" maintained by English 
 valour in the field, and contended for, in many 
 volumes of political controversy, during a prolonged 
 paper warfare. The French, on their part, upheld 
 2 M 
 
 rival lie feared (Ghazi-oo-deen) was fully 
 
 employed in the intrigues of the Delhi court; 
 the other three brothers were held in close 
 eonfinenicnt at Arcot; and the indolent 
 prince, in the haughtiness of imaginary 
 security, treated with disdain the claims of 
 those who had joined him in the hour of 
 danger. The experience of past time might 
 have borne witness that iMogul rulers had 
 seldom offended their turbulent Patau fol- 
 lowers with impunity; yet Nazir Jung now 
 behaved towards his father's old oflicers (the 
 nabobs of Kudapa, Kurnoul, aud Savanoor) 
 as if they had been mere feudatories, who 
 as a matter of course had rallied around his 
 standard, instead of what they undoubtedly 
 were — adventurers who had hazarded their 
 lives for the chance of bettering their for- 
 tunes. The expectations of tlie English 
 were equally disappointed by the refusal of 
 a tract of territory near jMadras, the pro- 
 mised reward of their assistance ; and ^lajor 
 Lawrence quitted the camp in disgust. 
 Dupleix and Chunda Sahib soon learned the 
 state of afi'airs, and hastened to take ad- 
 vantage of it both by force and stratagem. 
 Masulipatam and the pagoda of Trivadi (fif- 
 teen miles west of Fort St. David) were cap- 
 tured ; the fort of Jinjee, deemed almost ia- 
 aecessible, was attacked by the famous 
 French commander Buss)', and the huge 
 insulated rock on which it stands, stormed 
 to the very summit. The boldness of the 
 attempt, aud especially its being commenced 
 at miduight, seems to have paralysed the 
 energies of its superstitious defenders; and 
 even the victors, in contemplating the natural 
 strength of the place, were astonished at 
 their success. Nazir Jung alarmed, entered 
 
 with all the zeal of self-interest, both with the sword 
 and the pen, the claims of the rival candidates. 
 The pretensions of Moozuffer Jung rested on the will 
 of his grandfather, which his adversaries declared to 
 be a forgery ; but if a veritable document, it was un- 
 lawful as regarded the emperor, and unjust in setting 
 aside the natural heirs. The sole plea urged by 
 Chunda Sahib, was the will of Moozuffer Jung that he 
 should be nabob. The fact was, neither English nor 
 French had any justification for interference in hostili- 
 ties which were mere trials of strength among bands of 
 Mohammedan usurpers; and the subsequent conduct 
 of both parties in setting up pageants, because it was 
 inexpedient for them to appear as principals, is 
 nothing more than an additional proof that politicians, 
 as a class, agree everywhere in receiving diplomacy 
 and duplicity as convertible terms, maintaining, how- 
 ever, as much as possible, the semblance of honesty 
 in deference to the feeling which our Creator seems 
 to have implanted in the mind of almost every com- 
 munity — that the public safety is intimately connected 
 w ith the integrity of those who bear rule. 
 
 t This name is sometimes mis-spelt Mirzapha.
 
 262 NAZIR JUNG ASSASSINATED, 1750— TRIUMPH OF DUPLEIX. 
 
 into negotiations with Dupleix. The French 
 deputies used their admission to his camp as 
 a means of treachei-ously intriguing with the 
 disaflfected nobles. Major Lawrence heard 
 of the conspiracy, and endeavoured to convey 
 a warning to the subahdar at a public au- 
 dience ; but the interpreter employed dared 
 not venture a declaration which might cost 
 him his life, and the important information 
 was withheld from fear of the vizier, who 
 was falsely reported to be involved in the plot. 
 The etiquette which prevented any direct 
 communication with the subahdar, either 
 verbally or by writing, is given as a sufficient 
 reason for no determined effort to that effect 
 having been made.* Nazir Jung continued, 
 to the last moment, utterly unsuspicious of 
 danger. He ratified the treaty with the 
 French, and sent it to Pondicherry. They 
 advanced against him from Jinjee the very 
 next day; and the prince, while manfully 
 striving to animate his troops to repel what 
 he termed " the mad attempt of a parcel of 
 drunken Europeans," t '"'^s shot through 
 the heart by the nabob of Kudapa. The 
 army learned the fate of their late ruler by 
 the sight of his head fixed on a pole, and 
 were with little difficulty induced to transfer 
 their services to his nephew Moozuffer Jung, 
 who now, released from captivity, became 
 the gaoler of his three uncles. Dupleix was 
 appointed governor of the Mogul possessions 
 on the coast of Coromandel, from the river 
 Kristna toCapeComorin,J andChunda Sahib 
 his deputy at Arcot. The installation of the 
 subahdar was performed at Pondicherry 
 with much pomp. Salutes were fired from 
 the batteries, and Te Deum sung in the 
 churches. Dupleix, dressed in the garb of a 
 Mussulman of the highest rank, entered the 
 city in the same palanquin with Moozuffer 
 Jung ; and, in the pageant which followed, 
 took precedence of every other noble. The 
 rank of a munsubdar of 7,000 horse was con- 
 ferred upon him, with permission to bear on 
 his banners the insignia of "the fish"§ — a dis- 
 tinction among the Moguls equivalent to the 
 coveted "blue ribbon" of the English court. 
 Honours and emoluments could be obtained 
 only by his intervention: the new ruler would 
 
 • Major Lawrence perhaps disbelieved the report, 
 otherwise his conduct was supine and neglectful. 
 
 t Orme's Military Transactions, i., 106. 
 
 I Masulipatam and its dependencies were ceded 
 to the French E. I. Cy., with other territories, valued 
 by them at £38,000 per ann., but, according to 
 Orme, the revenues were considerably overstated. 
 
 § The 3fahi, or figure of a (ish four feet long, in 
 topper-gilt, carried on the point of a spear. 
 
 not even peruse a petition, unless indorsed 
 by the hand of Dupleix. 
 
 The triumph of the ambitious Frenchman, 
 though brilliant, was soon disturbed. The 
 chiefs, by whose perfidy the revolution had 
 been accomplished, demanded the fulfilment 
 of the extravagant promises made to them 
 while the prince, now on the throne, lay 
 bound in fetters. Dupleix endeavoured to 
 bring about an arrangement; and, as an 
 incitement to moderation, affected to relin- 
 quish all claim to share in the treasure 
 seized upon the assassination of Nazir Jung, 
 notwithstanding which he received no less 
 than £200,000 in money, besides many va- 
 luable jewels. II The offers made to the tur- 
 bulent nobles were, however, so very large, 
 that if (as would appear) really accepted and 
 carried out, it is difficult to account for the 
 rapidity with which they again broke forth 
 into open revolt.^ After lulling all suspicions 
 by a semblance of contentment, accompanied 
 by oaths of allegiance sworn on the Koran, 
 the chiefs watched their opportunity ; and, 
 during the march of the army to Golconda, 
 suddenly took possession of an important 
 pass, and, supported by their numerous fol- 
 lowers, opposed the advancing force. The 
 steady fire of the French artillery soon cleared 
 the way; but Moozuffer Jung, furious at find- 
 ing himself menaced with the fate of his 
 uncle, by the same double-dyed traitors, 
 rushed upon the peril he had nearly escaped, 
 by distancing his attendants in a reckless 
 pursuit of the fugitive nabob of Kurnoul, 
 whom he overtook and challenged to single 
 combat. The elephants were driven close to 
 each other; and the sword of Moozuffer 
 Jung was uplifted to strike, when the javelin 
 of his opponent pierced his brain. A moment 
 later, and the victor was surrounded and cut 
 to pieces : one of his fellow-conspirators had 
 already perished in a similar manner; the 
 third quitted the field mortally wounded. 
 
 What were the French to do now for a 
 puppet adapted by circumstances for the part 
 of subahdar ? No time could be spared for 
 deliberation : a few hours, and the hetero- 
 geneous multitudes of which Indian armies 
 consist, would, under their respective leaders, 
 
 II Moozuffer Jung distributed £oO,000 among the 
 officers and men engaged at Jinjee, and paid an 
 equal sum into the treasury of the French company, 
 in compensation for the expenses of the war. 
 
 ^f Orme asserts, that besides various minor con- 
 cessions, the Patau nobles were promised by Dupleix 
 one-half the money found in the treasury of Nazir 
 Jung, which, in a subsequent page, is stated at two 
 million sterling. — {Military Transactions, i., lG0-'2.)
 
 FRENCH i'UVVJiil AT ITS llliKJHT IN INDIA— a.d. 1751. 
 
 263 
 
 after dividinpc the spoil of their late master, 
 clisiicrsc ill scarcli of a new paymaster ; and, 
 with them, would vaiiisli the advantages 
 gained by the murder of Nazir Jung. Bussy, 
 the eoniniandcr-in-ehief, was no less !)()!d 
 and ready-witted tiian the absent Duph'ix, 
 and his unlicsitating deeision exactly met the 
 circurastanees of the case. The three uncles 
 of the newly-deceased subahdar were in the 
 camp, having been carried about as prisoners 
 in the train of their nephew, lest some con- 
 spiracy should be formed in their favour if 
 separated from his immediate superintend- 
 ence. In other words, it was convenient to 
 keep within reach all persons whose dan- 
 gerous consanguinity to the reigning prince 
 might incite an attempt for the transfer of 
 the crown ; such an endeavour being best 
 frustrated by cutting off the head for which 
 the perilous distinction was designed. Moo- 
 zuffcr Jung left an infant son, whose claims 
 on the gratitude of the French were after- 
 wards recognised by Bussy,* though he set 
 aside the title of the boy to sovereignty, and 
 releasing the captive princes, proclaimed the 
 eldest, Salabut Jung, viceroy of the Decean. 
 The army acquiesced in the arrangement, and 
 proceeded quietly on the road to Goleonda. 
 Dupleix, on learning the late events, ad- 
 dressed the warmest congratulations to Sa- 
 labut Jung, who, besides confirming the ces- 
 sions of his predecessor, bestowed additional 
 advantages ou his new friends. 
 
 The English watched with amazement the 
 progress of the French, but without any 
 efforts at counteraction. From some unex- 
 plained cause. Major Lawrence, the com- 
 mander of the troops, on whose character 
 and experience the strongest reliance was 
 placed in all military affairs, returned to 
 England at the very time his services were 
 most likely to be needed. The Madras pre- 
 sidency desired peace at almost any sacrifice, 
 and united with Mohammed Ali in offering 
 to acknowledge Chunda Sahib nabob of all 
 the Caruatic, except Triehinopoly and its 
 dependencies. The French, borne ou the 
 tide of victory, rejected these overtures; and 
 the English, stung by the contemptuous 
 tone adopted towards them, combined with 
 Mohammed Ali to oppose their united foes. 
 The opening of the campaign was not merely 
 unfortunate, it was (in the words of Major 
 Lawrence) disgraceful : " a fatal spirit of 
 
 * The stronghold of Adoni, with its dependencies, 
 which had been the original jaghire of the father, 
 were given to the son, witli tlie addition of the terri- 
 tories formerly possessed by tlie treacherous nabobs 
 of Kurnoul and Kudapa. — (Orme, i., 249.) 
 
 division" prevailed among the officers, and 
 the Europeans fled before the force of 
 ('Inmda Sahib, near the fort of Voleouda. 
 while the native troops maintained the con- 
 llict. Driven from one position to another, 
 the English and their allies at length sought 
 shelter beneath the walls of Triehinopoly. 
 The enemy followed them without delay, 
 and took post on the opposite side of the 
 town, from whence they made some ineffectual 
 attempts for the reduction of the place. 
 
 The French had now reached the cul- 
 minating point of their power in India : the 
 English, their lowest state of depression ; 
 yet the latter were soon to ascend an emi- 
 nence, to which the position attained by 
 their rivals seemed but as a stepping-stone. 
 The young adventurer already noticed, was 
 selected by Providence as one of the chief 
 instruments in the commencement of this 
 mighty change. In the interval of peace 
 just ended, Clive had been appointed by his 
 steady friend, Major Lawrence, commissary 
 to the troops, with the rank of captain. 
 He was now five-and-twenty, in the full 
 strength and vigour of early manhood. The 
 present emergency called forth all his powers; 
 and, by earnestly representing the necessity 
 of some daring attempt to relieve Triehino- 
 poly, he succeeded in gaining the consent of 
 the Madras presidency to attack Arcot, as a 
 probable means of recalling Chunda Sahib to 
 his own capital. A little force, consisting 
 of eight officers (four of whom were factors 
 turned soldiers, like " special constables" for 
 the occasion), 200 Europeans and 300 sepoys, 
 sallied forth under the leadership of Clive. 
 The issue of this daring enterprise was 
 awaited by the English with intense anxiety. 
 It was no ordinary detachment, sent forth at 
 slight hazard to effect a diversion : the men 
 by whom it was undertaken were (at least in 
 a military point of view) the life-blood of 
 Fort St. David and ^Madras : in the event of 
 their being cut off, these settlements would 
 be left, the one with only 100, the other 
 with less than fifty defenders, against the 
 overwhelming strength of the Indo-French 
 potentate Dupleix, and his satellites. On 
 two previous occasions a fierce and sudden 
 tempest had been the destined means of 
 preserving the English from the hands of 
 their foes. The fieet, assembled by the un- 
 flasKiug zeal of La Bourdounais, shattered 
 and dispersed when beariug down, m the 
 pride of power, on the Coromaudel coast ; the 
 stealthy, midnight assault of Dupleix on Cud- 
 dalore arrested by the rising surf; — these dis-
 
 264 OCCUPATION AND DEFENCE OF AKCOT BY OLIVE— 1751. 
 
 pensations were now to be crowned by a third, 
 yet more remarkable in its consequences. 
 
 When Clive and his companions had ad- 
 vanced within about ten miles of Arcot, a 
 violent storm came on, through which they 
 continued their march with the habitual 
 bravery of European troops. The native 
 garrison, accustomed to regard with super- 
 stitious terror the turmoil of the elements, 
 learned with astonishment the continued 
 advance of their assailants ; and, on be- 
 holding them approach the gates of Arcot 
 amid pealing thunder, vivid flashes of light- 
 ning, and fast-falling rain, panic spread from 
 breast to breast: the fort was abandoned, 
 and the English, strong in the supposed 
 possession of supernatural courage, entered 
 it without a blow. The city had neither wails 
 nor defences, and no obstruction was offered 
 to the few hundi'ed men who passed on 
 as conquerors, gazed iipon with fear, admi- 
 ration, and respect, through streets crowded 
 by 100,000 spectators. They took posses- 
 sion of the citadel, in which was found a 
 large quantity of lead and gunpowder, with 
 eight pieces of cannon of small calibre. The 
 merchants had, for security, deposited there 
 effects to the value of £50,000; but tlicse 
 were punctually restored to the owners : and 
 "this judicious abstemiousness," adds Orme, 
 " conciliated many of the principal inhabit- 
 ants to the English interest. The fort was 
 inhabited by 3,000 or 4,000 persons, who, 
 at their own request, were permitted to re- 
 main in their dwellings." 
 
 There could be little doubt that \'igorous 
 attempts would be made by Chunda Sahib 
 to recover the city which had thus strangely 
 slid from his grasp. Clive instantly began 
 to collect provisions, to throw up works, and 
 to make preparations for sustaining a siege. 
 It was a discouraging task, even to a man 
 whose genius ever shone most brightly amid 
 danger and difficulty. The walls of the fort 
 were ruinous ; the ditches dry ; the ramparts 
 too narrowto admit the guns; the battlements 
 too low to protect tlie soldiers. The fugitive 
 garrison, ashamed of the manner in which 
 they had abandoned the place, assembled 
 together, and encarajjcd close to the town. 
 At dead of night Clive sallied out with 
 almost his entire force, attacked the camp, 
 slew great numbers, and returned to his 
 
 • Fifteen Kiiropcans perished in a subsequent 
 Bally apainst llie force of Keza Sahib : amongst these 
 ■was Lieutenant Trenwilh, who, pereeivinf; a sepoy 
 from a window taking aim at Clive, pulled liim aside 
 and was himself shot tlirough tlie body. 
 
 quarters, without having lost a single man.* 
 A more dangerous enemy soon appeared, 
 consisting of about 10,000 men, including 
 150 French from Pondicherry, under the 
 command of Reza Sahib, son of Chunda 
 Sahib. t The garrison had but a slight pros- 
 pect of maintaining its ground against so 
 formidable an armament ; and certainly the 
 retention of Arcot was little less marvellous 
 than its conquest, though accomplished by 
 wholly different means. In the first instance, 
 a scanty force took possession, without effort, 
 of a prize unexpectedly placed within their 
 reach ; in the latter ease, although reduced 
 by casualties to 324 in number, they 
 showed themselves determined to sacrifice 
 even life in its defence. For fifty days the 
 assault continued ; but the courage of the 
 besieged never faltered : they held together 
 as one man ; and at length, when food began 
 to fail, and was doled out in diminishing 
 portions, the sepoys, in their exceeding de- 
 votion to their suffering comrades, came in 
 a body to Clive, and entreated that all the 
 grain in store might be given to the Euro- 
 peans who required a nourishing diet, — they 
 could subsist on the water in which the rice 
 was boiled. J The reputation of the gallant 
 defence of Arcot proved the immediate cause 
 of its success. An ineffectual attempt at 
 succour, on the part of the Madras govern- 
 ment, was followed by the approach of 6,000 
 Mahrattas, under the famous leader Morari 
 Rao. These troops had been enlisted in the 
 service of Mohammed Ali, but, deeming his 
 cause hopeless, had remained inactive on the 
 frontiers of the Carnatic. As a last resource, 
 Clive managed to convey to them an earnest 
 appeal for succour, and received an imme- 
 diate reply from the chief, that, being at 
 length convinced the English could fight, he 
 would not lose a moment in attempting their 
 relief. This circumstance coming to the 
 ears of Reza Sahib, he forthwith dispatched 
 a flag of truce to the garrison, with ofters of 
 honourable terms of capitulation, and a large 
 sum of money to their commander, as the 
 alternative of the instant storming of the 
 fort and the slaughter of all its defenders. 
 Clive, in rejecting the whole proposition, 
 gave vent to his characteristic haughtiness, 
 by taunting Reza Sahib with the badness 
 of his cause, and the incfliciencyof his "rabble 
 
 t Orme calls this leader Itnjuh Sahib ; Wilks (a 
 miich better authority in a question of orthography), 
 linza. 
 
 I This water, called Cunjee, resembles very tliin
 
 CLIVE, SUIINAMED SABUT JUNO, THE DARING IN WAR. 2G5 
 
 force." Tlicn, liaving taken all possible mea- 
 sures to resist tlio expected attaek, lie lay 
 down exhausted with fatigue, but was soon 
 aroused by the loud u|)roar of oriental war- 
 fare in its most imi)osiiig form. 
 
 It was the llth of November — the period 
 allotted to the commemoration of the fearful 
 massacre on the plains of Kerbcla, in which 
 the iniauin Ilussyn, the grandchild of "the 
 prophet," with his whole family and fol- 
 lowers, suffered a cruel death at the hands 
 of his inveterate foes. The recurrence of 
 this solemn festival is usually the signal for 
 the renewal of tierce strife, cither by words 
 or blows, between the Sheiahs and the Son- 
 rites, or followers of the caliphs, by whom 
 AH and his children were superseded. The 
 Mohammedans engaged in the siege seem to 
 have been Sheiahs ; and in the absence of 
 any sectarian quarrels, they directed the 
 full force of the fanaticism roused by the 
 recollection of the tragic catastrophe of 
 Kcrbela, against the infidel contemners of 
 both imaunis and caliphs, and even of their 
 founder himself. Besides the well-known 
 dictum of the Koran — that all who fall 
 fighting against unbelievers offer thereby 
 a sacrifice (accepted, because completed) for 
 the sins of a whole life, and are at once re- 
 ceived into the highest heaven, escaping all 
 intermediate purgatories — a peculiar blessing 
 is supposed to rest on those who perish 
 in "holy" warfare during the period con- 
 secrated to the memory of the venerated 
 imaums.* Stimulating drugs were called 
 in to heighten the excitement of the dis- 
 courses addressed by the priests ; and in a 
 paroxysm of mctital and physical intoxica- 
 tion, the unwieldy host rushed furiously 
 against the gates of Arcot, driving before 
 them elephants with massive iron plates on 
 thir foreheads. The first shock of these 
 living battering-rams was a moment of im- 
 minent peril ; but the gates stood firm ; and 
 then, as in many previous instances, the 
 huge animals, maddened by the musket- 
 balls of the foe, became utterly ungovern- 
 able, and turning round, trampled down 
 hundreds of those who had brought forward 
 such dangerous auxiliaries, causing con- 
 
 • The other imavmi (Hassan) likewise fell a victim 
 to the macliinations of the calijih Mauwiyah. — 
 (See previous pages, 58 — ()'2.) 
 
 t Orme states, that hut few of these were Euro- 
 peans ; for most of the French troops were ohserved 
 drawn up and lookin;; on at a distance. — (i., 195.) 
 
 I The personal exertions of Clive were very great. 
 Perceiving the gunners taking ineffectual aim at a 
 body of the enemy, who were striving to cross on 
 
 fusion throughout their whole ranks. About 
 an hour elapsed, during which titnc three 
 desperate onsets were made, and deter- 
 minedly resisted ; the steady fire of the 
 garrison telling fearfully on the shrieking, 
 yelling mass beneath. The assailants thea 
 retiretl beyond the ])artially dry moat, with 
 the loss of about KM) men,t and requested 
 a short truce, that they might bury their 
 dead. The English gladly complied : they 
 must have needed rest ; for many of them 
 being previously disabled by wounds and 
 sickness, the labour of repulsing the foe had 
 fallen u])on eighty Europeans (oOicers in- 
 cluded) and 120 sejjoys; and these, besides 
 serving five pieces of cannon, had expended 
 12,000 musket cartridges during the attack, 
 the front ranks being kept constantly sup- 
 jilied with loaded guns by those behind 
 them. J The stipulated interval passed away; 
 the firing recommenced, and continued from 
 four in the afternoon until two in the morn- 
 ing, when it entirely ceased. The besieged 
 passed some anxious hours; even the four 
 or five men they had lost could be ill spared, 
 for they expected to find the foe in full force 
 at daybreak ; instead of which they beheld 
 the town abandoned, and joyfully took pos- 
 session of several guns and a large quantity 
 of ammunition left behind in the retreat. 
 
 The news of this extraordinary triumph 
 was received at ^Madras with the utmost 
 enthusiasm. Mohammed AH, who now as- 
 sumed the privilege once exclusively con- 
 fined to the reigning emperor, of bestowing 
 titles, called Clive — Sabut Jung (the daring 
 in war), a well-earned designation which the 
 young soldier bore ever after on his Persian 
 seal, and by which he became known 
 throughout India. 
 
 A reinforcement of 200 English soldiers 
 and 700 sepoys joined Clive a few hours 
 after the raising of the siege. Leaving a 
 small garrison at Arcot, he set forth in pvir- 
 suit of Rcza Sahib ; and having succeeded 
 in efl'ccting a junction with a Mahratta divi- 
 sion, overtook the enemy by forced marches, 
 and, after a shar|) action, gained a complete 
 victory. § The military chest of the defeated 
 general fell into the hands of the con- 
 
 a raft the water which filled a portion of the ditch, 
 he took the management of a piece of artillery him- 
 self, and, by three or four vigorous discharges, com- 
 pel'ed the abandonment of this attempt. 
 
 § A gallant exploit was performed on the part of 
 the enemy by a sepoy, who, beholding a beloved | 
 commander fall ir. the breach, crossed the ditch and 
 carried oflf the body, passing unscathed through thft 
 fire if at least forty muskets. — 'Orme, i., 194.)
 
 266 CITY AND COLUMN OP DUPLEIX LEVELLED BY CLIVE— 1752. 
 
 querors, 600 of his sepoys joined tteir ranks, 
 and the governor of the neighbouring fort 
 of Arnee consented to abandon the cause of 
 Chunda Sahib, and recognise the title of 
 Mohammed Ali. The great pagoda of Con- 
 jeveram, which had been seized and occu- 
 pied by the French during the siege of 
 Arcot, was regained after a slight struggle.* 
 Towards the close of the campaign of 1752, 
 Clive was recalled to Fort St. David. On 
 the march he arrived at the scene of the 
 assassination of Nazir Jung, the chosen site 
 of a new town, projected to commemorate 
 the successes of the French in the East. 
 Dupleix Futtehabad (the city of the victory 
 of Dupleix) was the name given to the place ; 
 and a stately quadrangular pillar, with in- 
 scriptions in various eastern languages, 
 recounted the short-lived triumph of the 
 ambitious builder. Clive and his followers 
 destroyed the newly-raised foundations, 
 levelled the column to the ground and went 
 their way in triumph, amid the wondering 
 natives, who had lately deemed the French 
 invincible. 
 
 Notwithstanding the brilliant exploits of 
 his allies, the position of Mohammed Ali 
 continued extremely precarious : many of 
 the strongholds of the province were in 
 hostile keeping; and the want of funds 
 wherewith to pay the army, daily threatened 
 to produce mutiny or desertion. Under 
 these circumstances he appealed to the gov- 
 ernment of Mysoor, and, by extravagant 
 promises in the event of success, prevailed 
 upon the regent to send supplies of money 
 and soldiers to Trichinopoly. The Mysoorean 
 
 * While reconnoitring the pagoda over a garden 
 wall, the companion of Clive, Lieutenant Bulkley, 
 was shot through the head close by his side. 
 
 + A memoir, drawn up by the French E. I. Cy., 
 in answer to one published by Dupleix, accuses him 
 of having more than once manifested a deficiency in 
 personal courage, and states that he accounted for 
 the care with which he kept beyond the range of a 
 musket-ball, by declaring that, " le bruit des armes 
 suspendait ses reflexions, et que le calnie seul con- 
 venait a son genie." — (Mill's Jirilish India, iii., 83.) 
 
 J Orme's Military Transaction!!, i., 220. 
 
 § Some difficulty arose regarding the appointment 
 of a junior captain to so important a command; but 
 this obstacle was removed by the express declaration 
 of Morari llao and the Mysooreans — that they would 
 take no part in the expedition if dispatched under 
 any other leader than the defender of Arcot. — (/</.) 
 
 || M. d'.\iitcuil was dispatched by Du]ileix with 
 supplies from I'ondicherry. Owing to a double mis- 
 take on the part of Clive and d'.\uteuil, the former 
 was led to believe that the information conveyed to 
 him regarding the French detachment wa.s incorrect; 
 the latter, being informed that the English com- 
 mander was absent in pursuit of him, thought to 
 
 troops were 14,000 strong; the Mahrattas, 
 under Morari Rao, numbered 6,000 more; 
 and the Tanjore rajah, who had previously 
 remained neutral, now sent 5,000 men to 
 join the allies. These accessions of strength 
 were soon followed by the arrival of Major 
 Lawrence (then newly returned from Eu- 
 rope), with Clive at his right hand, accom- 
 panied by 400 Europeans, 1,100 sepoys, 
 eight field-pieces, and a large quantity of 
 military stores. Preparations were imme- 
 diately made to take the field. Dupleix 
 became alarmed at the altered state of affairs. 
 As a military commander he had never at- 
 tained celebrity.t Bussy was absent in the 
 train of Salabut Jun.;- ; the remonstrances of 
 Chunda Sahib were unheeded; and the 
 entire force, although the Carnatic lay open 
 before them, took up a position in the forti- 
 fied pagoda of Seringham, on an island 
 formed by the branches of the Coleroon and 
 Cavery. All parties suffered severely from 
 the protracted duration of the war. The 
 mercantile affairs of the English company 
 were extremely distressed by the drain on 
 their finances; and Major Lawrence, believ- 
 ing it to be an emergency which justified 
 " risking the whole to gain the whole,"J 
 sanctioned the daring proposal of his young 
 subaltern — to divide their small force, and 
 remaining himself at the head of one portion 
 for the protection of Trichinopoly, dispatch 
 the othei', under the leadership of Clive, § to 
 cut off the communication between Sering- 
 ham and Pondicherry. Complete success 
 attended the measure. || Chunda Sahib be- 
 sought M. Law, the commander of the 
 
 take advantage of the slightly-defended British post. 
 With this view he sent eighty Europeans and 700 
 sepoys. The party included — to the sad disgrace of 
 our countrymen — forty English deserters, whose 
 familiar speech nearly procured the success of the 
 treacherous undertaking. The strangers, on pre- 
 tence of being a reinforcement come from Major Law- 
 rence, were sufl'ered to jiass the outworks witliout giv- 
 ing the pass-word. They proceeded quietly until they 
 reached an adjacent pagoda and choultry (place of 
 entertainment), where Clive lay sleeping, and there 
 answered the challenge of the sentinels by a dis- 
 charge of musketry. A ball shattered a box near 
 the couch of Clive, and killed a servant close beside 
 him. Springing to his feet he rushed out, and was 
 twice wounded without being recognised. A despe- 
 rate struggle ensued ; the English deserters fought 
 like wild i)easts at bay. Tlie pagoda was in posses- 
 sion of the French, and the attempt to regain it was 
 broken off until cannon could be obtained. Clive 
 advanced to the porch to offer terms : faint with loss 
 of blood, in a stooping jioslure he leant on two Ser- 
 jeants. The leader of the deserters (an Irish- 
 man) came forward, addressed Clive in opjjrobrious 
 language (apparently infuriated by some private
 
 ASSASSINATION OF CIIUNDA SAHIB— a.d.— 1752. 
 
 267 
 
 French forces, to make a determined effort 
 to shako oft" tlic toils fast closing round them; 
 but all in vain. Provisions bcj;an to fail, 
 and men to desert ; at length the personal 
 safety of the nabob becoming in evident 
 danger, and his constitution rapidly giving 
 way under the combined eft'ccts of age and 
 anxiety, attempts were made to secure his 
 escape by intriguing with his foes. Nego- 
 tiations were opened with Monajec, the com- 
 mander of the Tanjorc force, and a large 
 sum of money paid to him, in retm-n for 
 which he swore " on his sword and dagger" 
 to protect the unhappy noble, and convey 
 him mdiarmcd to the French settlement of 
 Karical. This adjuration a INIahratta rarely 
 violates; but Monajce did so in the present 
 instance. His motives are variously stated. 
 One eminent writer asserts, on native au- 
 thority, that he acted as the instrument of 
 Mohammed Ali :* Orme, that his treachery 
 originated in the disputes which took place 
 in the camp of the allies so soon as the 
 arrival of Cliuuda Sahib became known. 
 Fearing that his prize would be snatched 
 away, either by the English, the Mysooreans, 
 or the Mahrattas for their own ends, he 
 settled the dispute by causing the object of 
 it to be put to death. The event is still 
 regarded by Mohammedans as a rrraarkable 
 manifestation of divine vengeance; for, in 
 the very choultry where, si.xteen years be- 
 fore, Chunda Sahib, by a false oath, deceived 
 the ranee of Trichinopoly, he was now cruelly 
 murdered while lying prostrate on the 
 ground, broken down by sickness and dis- 
 appointment. f The head was sent to Tri- 
 chinopoly ; and Mohammed Ali, after gazing 
 for the first time on the face of his rival, 
 caused it to be exposed in barbarous triumph 
 on the walls of the city. The French at 
 Seringham J capitulated immediately after 
 
 quarrel), and taking a deliberate aim, fired his mus- 
 ket. Clive asserts that the ball killed both his sup- 
 porters, while he remained untouched. The French- 
 men disowned any share in the outrage, and surren- 
 dered ; the enemy's sepoys were cut to pieces by the 
 Mahratta allies of the Knglish. — {Life, IKi.) 
 
 » "Wilks' History of Mijsoor, i.. 284. f -^rf"". 285. 
 
 J Under M. Law, a nephew of the Scottish schemer. 
 
 § Yet, from fear of the designs of Nunjoraj and 
 Morari Rao, Major Lawrence afterwards suggested 
 to the presidency the seizure of their persons. 
 
 II " We wrote to the King of Mysoor that we were 
 merchants, allies to the circar (government), not 
 principals." — (Letter from Madras, Nov., 1752.) The 
 Presidency found it as convenient to disavow the 
 semblance, while grasping the reality, of power, as 
 did the nabob to profess fealty to the emperor : at 
 the same time it must be remembered, they were 
 wholly ignorant of the pledge given by their ally. 
 
 the above occurrence; and the Engli.sh, de- 
 sirous of continuing their successful career, 
 urged the nabob to proceed at once to .finjee. 
 He hesitated, procrastinated, and at length 
 confessed that the aid of the ]\Iysoor go- 
 vernment had been obtained by no less a 
 bribe than a signed and scaled agreement 
 for the cession of Triehinipoly and its de- 
 pendencies. Major Lawrence was bitterly 
 mortified at finding that the city to which, 
 at this period, an importance far above its 
 intrinsic value was attached, could not after 
 all be retained by the person with whose 
 interests those of his countrymen had become 
 identified, except by a flagrant breach of 
 faith which he honestly pronounced quite 
 unjustifiable. § The nabob would not see the 
 matter in this light; the Mysooreans, he 
 argued, never could expect the fulfilment of 
 such an unreasonable stipulation, especially 
 while the chief portion of the dominions 
 claimed by him as governor of the Camatic 
 still remained to be subdued : abundant re- 
 muneration should be made for their valuable 
 services ; but, as to surrendering Trichinopoly 
 that was out of the question ; for, after all, it 
 was not his to give, but only to hold in trust 
 for the Great IMogtd. This very convenient 
 after-thought did not satisfy the Mysooreans. 
 Both parties appealed to the Madras pre- 
 sidency, and received in return assurances 
 of extreme good-will, and recommendations 
 to settle the matter amicably with one an- 
 other. II !Morari Rao, the IMahratta chieftain, 
 took a leading part in the discussion which 
 followed, and received gifts on both sides; 
 but it soon became evident that his impartial 
 arbitration, if accepted, was likely to ter- 
 minate after the fashion of that of the 
 monkey in the fable, — the shells for his 
 clients, the oyster for himself;^ and at length, 
 after much time spent in altercation, the 
 
 % After the capture of Trichinopoly, in 1741, by 
 the Mahrattas, it remained under the charge of Morari 
 Kao, until its surrender to the nizam, in 1743. 
 Morari Kao, a few years later, maneiged to establish 
 himself in the Bala Ghaut district of Gooty, and be- 
 came the leader of a band of mercenaries. By careful 
 training and scrupulous exactitude in the stated 
 division of plunder, these men were maintained in 
 perfect order; and from having frequently encoun- 
 tered European troops, could be relied on even to 
 withstand the steady fire of artillery. Morari Rao '. 
 and his Mahrattas were, consequently, very important 
 auxiliaries, for whose services the English and French , 
 outbid one another. Wilks remarks, they were tiest \ 
 characterised by the Persian compound, Mujt-Khoor 
 (eating at other people's expense) : in the present 
 case they were acting as subsidiaries to the Jlysoor 
 force, in the immediate pay of Nunjeraj. — {Mysoor, 
 i., 252.)
 
 268 ENGLISH DEFEND TRICHINOPOLY AGAINST THE FRENCH— 1753. 
 
 nabob, glad of any pretext for gaining time, 
 promised to deliver up tlie fort in two 
 months. Nunjeraj (the Mysoor general) 
 seemingly assented to this arrangement ; but 
 so soon as Mohammed Ali and Major Law- 
 rence had marched off towards Jinjee, he 
 commenced intriguing with the English 
 garrison for the surrender of the place. The 
 attempt afforded the nabob a flimsy pretext 
 for avowing his determination to retain pos- 
 session. The result was an opeu breach with 
 the Mysooreans and Mahrattas. Dupleix, 
 aided as before by the knowledge and in- 
 fluence of his wife, entered into communica- 
 tion with the offended leaders, and exerted 
 every effort to form a powerful confederacy 
 against ^Mohammed Ali and his supporters. 
 The chief obstacle to his scheme arose from 
 a deficiency of funds and European troops. 
 The French company were much poorer 
 than the English body ; and their territorial 
 revenues formed the only available resource 
 for the support of the force at Pondicherry, 
 and that maintained by Bussy at Hyderabad : 
 little surplus remained for the costly opera- 
 tions planned by Dupleix ; but he supplied 
 all deficiencies by expending his own princely 
 fortune in the cause. The want of trust- 
 worthy soldiers was a more iiTemediable 
 defect. The officers sent to India were, for 
 the most part, mere boys, whose bravery 
 could not compensate for their utter igno- 
 rance of their profession ; the men were the 
 very refuse of the population.* 
 
 The attempt made by Major Lawrence 
 upon Jinjee failed ; but the English cam- 
 
 • Addressing the French minister, in 1753, Du- 
 pleix described the recruits sent him as " enfans, 
 decroteurs et bandits" • • • " ,1,1 ramassis de 
 la plus vile canaille ;" and he complained bitterly 
 that, with the exception of Bussy, he never had an 
 officer on vvnose ability he could place the smallest 
 reliance. — (Mill, edited by Wilson, iii., 130.) 
 
 t The English forces, under Lawrence, were for 
 the most part of a very efficient description ; but the 
 only detachment which could be spared on this occa- 
 sion consisted of 200 recruits, styled by Macaulay 
 " the worst and lowest wretches that the company's 
 crimps could pick up in the Hash houses of London," 
 together with oOO sejroys just levied. So utterly un- 
 disciplined were the new-made soldiers, that on at- 
 tacking Covclong, the death of one of them by a shot 
 from the fort was followed by the immediate flight 
 of his companions. On another occasion a sentinel 
 ■was found, some hours after an engagement, out 
 of harm's way at the bottom of a well. Clive, 
 nevertheless, succeeded in inspiring these unpromis- 
 ing auxiliaries with something of his own spirit; the 
 sepoys seconded him to the utmost. Covclong fell ; 
 a detachment sent to iLs relief was surprised by an 
 ambuscade, lOU of the enemy were killed by one fire, 
 300 taken prisoners, and the remainder pursued to the 
 
 paign of 1752 terminated favourably, with a. 
 victory gained near Bahoor, two miles from 
 Fort St. David, and the capture of the forts 
 of Covelong and Chingleput.t These last 
 exploits were performed by Clive, who then 
 returned to England for his health, carrying 
 with him a young bride, an independent 
 fortune, and a brilliant military reputation. J 
 
 Early in January, 1753, the rival armies 
 again took the field. No decisive action 
 occurred ; but in May, Trichinopoly was 
 again attacked, and continued, for more than 
 a twelvemonth, the scene of active hostility. 
 The assailants had not sufficient supe- 
 riority to overpower or starve out the gar- 
 rison, nor could the English compel them 
 to raise the siege. The introduction or 
 interception of supplies engaged the un- 
 wearied attention of both parties, and many 
 severe conflicts occurred, without any deci- 
 sive advantage being gained by either. 
 
 Meantime the mercantile associations in 
 Europe, and especially in France, grew 
 beyond measure impatient at the prolon- 
 gation of hostilities. Dupleix, foreseeing the 
 unbounded concessions into which the desire 
 for peace would hurry his employers, him- 
 self opened a negotiation with the Madras 
 government, where Mr. Saunders, an able 
 and cautious man, presided. The deputies 
 met at the neutral Dutch settlement of 
 Sadras.§ The question at issue — whether 
 jMohammed Ali should or should not be 
 acknowledged nabob of the Carnatic, after 
 being for four years contested with the 
 sword — was now to be weighed in the balance 
 
 gates of Chingleput. The fortress was besieged and 
 a breach made, upon which the French commandant 
 capitulated and retired with the garrison. 
 
 I Clive married the sister of Maskelyne, the emi- 
 nent mathematician, who long held the office of 
 Astronomer Koyal. The amount of the fortune, 
 acquired as prize-money, during the few years 
 which had elapsed since he arrived in Madras a 
 penniless youth, does not appear; but it is certain 
 that he had sufficient to reclaim, in his own name, 
 the family estate, and to extricate his father from 
 pecuniary embarrassment, beside what he lavished in 
 an extravagant mode of life. Dress, equipages, and 
 more than all, a contested election, followed by a 
 petition, left Clive, at the expiration of two years, the 
 choice between a very limited income or a return to 
 India. He took the latter course. The E. 1. Cy., on 
 his arrival in Kngland, had shown their sense of his 
 brilliant exploits by the gift of a sword set with 
 diamonds — a mark of honour which, through his in- 
 terference, was extended to his early patron and 
 stanch friend. Major Lawrence; and when Cliv«^8 
 brief holiday was over, they gladly welcomed him 
 back to Uieir service, and procured for him the rank 
 of lieut.-col. in the liritish army. — (Life, i., 131.) 
 
 § Forty-two miles south of Aladrus.
 
 TREATY BETWEEN FRENCH AND ENGLISH IN INDIA— a.». 1754. 269 
 
 of -justice. Duplcix, as the delegate of the 
 iiizam or subahdar of tlie Deccan, olainicd 
 tlic rij,'Iit of appoiiitincnt, wliicli ho had 
 at dillcrciit times attciiiptcd to hostow upon 
 Hcy.ii Saiiih and i\liu-tc7.7.a Ali (of Vcliorc) ; 
 the English continncd to iilcad tlic cause 
 of the candidate they had from the first 
 steadily supported : and both the one and 
 the other, ia the absence of any more 
 plausiljlc ))rctcxt, j-cvertcd to the stale plea 
 of iinpr rial authority. Patents and grants 
 were produced or talked of, vhioh were re- 
 spectively declared by the opposing ])arties 
 forgeries and mere pretences. After eleven 
 days' discussion, the proceedings broke off 
 with mutual crimination. Duplcix was cen- 
 sured (doubtless, with suflicicnt cause) as 
 haughty and overbearing : no arrangement, 
 it was asserted, would ever rcsnlt from dis- 
 cussions in which he was allowed to take 
 part. The French ministry were glad to 
 free themselves of any portion of the blame 
 attached to the ill success which had attended 
 the arras of the nation in the late contest, 
 and to hold the company and its servants 
 responsible for all failures. The bold and 
 warlike policy of Duplcix had been deemed 
 meritorious while successful : his brilliant 
 and gainful exploits were, at one time, the 
 theme of popular applause; but now, while 
 struggling with unflagging energy against 
 the tide of misfortune, his unbounded am- 
 bition and ovcrweeniug self-conceit over- 
 looked in prosperity, outweighed the re- 
 membrance of zeal, experience, and fidelity 
 in the minds of the French Directory, and 
 in August, 1754, a new governor-general, 
 J\I. Godheu, arrived at Pondicherry, with 
 authority to conclude a peace.* The Eng- 
 lish were permitted to retain the services of 
 Mr. Saunders and others, well versed in 
 local affairs, instead of being compelled to 
 trust to commissioners newly arrived from 
 
 * DiipU'ix immediately retiu'iicd to Franee. His 
 accounts witli tlio French company showed a dis- 
 bursement of nearly £400,000 beyond what lie liad 
 received durinjj tlie war. This claim was wholly 
 set aside, upon the plea that expenses had been in- 
 •curred witho\it suHicient authority. He commenced 
 a law-suit against the company for the recovery of 
 monies sjicnt in its behalf; but the royal authority 
 was exercised to put a summary stop to these pro- 
 ceedings ; and all the concession made to Dupleix 
 was the grant of letters of protection against the 
 prosecution of his creditors — which was nothing 
 better tlian atoning for one injustice by committing 
 another. The career of the proud governor — who had 
 comiJelled his own countrymen to kneel before him, 
 had threatened to reduce Madras to a more fishing 
 village, and of whom it had been boasted that his 
 2 N 
 
 Europe. The decision arrived at, though 
 apiiarently equally fair for both sides, in- 
 volved, on the part of the French, the 
 sacrifice of all they had been fighting for. 
 One clause of the treaty enacted, that all 
 intcrfcrcuee in the quarrels of native princes 
 should be relinquished; and thus tacitly 
 recognised I\Iohammcd Ali as nabob of 
 the Carnatie; another j)rovisot based tha 
 territorial arrangements of the two nations 
 on the principle of equality, and if fulfilled, 
 would entail the resignation of the valuable 
 provinces called the Northern Circars,{ 
 lately bestowed on ]}ussy by Salabut Jung. 
 This prince, it is true, was left subahdar of 
 the Deccan, but the English had never at- 
 tempted to oppose him. Indeed, the sudden 
 death (attributed to poison), § of (ihazi-oo- 
 deen, the eldest son of the old ni/,am, wheu 
 approaching at the head of a large army to 
 dispute the pretensions of his brother, had 
 left iSalabut Jung in the position of lineal 
 heir, now that the Deccani viceroyalty, like 
 that of Bengal, had come to be looketi upon 
 as an hereditary principality. 
 
 The treaty was infringed as soon as made. 
 The English proceeded to reduce to obedi- 
 ence to their nabob the districts of IMadura 
 and Tinuivclly. The French, under Bussy, 
 retained the circars, and continued to sup- 
 port Salabut Jung. In so doing, they un- 
 willingly contributed to relieve j\Iohammed 
 Ali from one of his great difficulties — the 
 blockade of Trichinopoly by theMysooreans. 
 
 Nunjcraj, justly repudiating the right of 
 the French to make peace on his behalf, 
 persisted in endeavouring to get possession 
 of the fort, until the rumoured approach of a 
 body of Mahrattas to levj' coutributious on 
 the Mysoor frontier, and the simultaneous 
 advance of Salabut Jung to demaiul tribute 
 in the name of the !Mogul, induced him 
 suddenly to march homewards, to the iufi- 
 
 nanio was mentioned with fear even in the palace of 
 ancient Delhi — terminated sadly enough in disputing 
 over the wreck of liis fortune, and soliciting au- 
 diences in the ante-chamber of hisjudges. Such at 
 least is the account given by A'oltaire, who adds em- 
 ])hatically, '• II en mourut bicnlot de chagrin." — 
 (/ViViN ilii Steele (le Louis Xli'., ch. xxxix.) 
 
 t " The two companies, English and French, shall 
 renounce for ever all Jloorish government and dig- 
 nity, and shall never interfere in any diflercnces that 
 arise between the princes of the country." — (First 
 article of Treaty, signed December, 1754.) 
 
 ■ t Xamely, Mustaphabad, EUore, Kajahmundri, and 
 Cliicacole (anciently Calinga); these additions made 
 the French masters of the sea-coast of Coromandel 
 and Orissa, in an uninterrupted line of 600 miles. 
 
 § Prepared by the mother of Nizam Ali.
 
 270 STATES OF SOUTHERN INDIA IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 
 
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 CIJAKACTER OF SURAJAII DOVVLAII— a.d. 175G. 
 
 271 
 
 nitc relief of the iisibob. While the treaty 
 was pcntlinp, a British squadron with rein- 
 forrcmoulH ha<l been sent to India, under 
 Admiral Walsou, and the decided supcrioiity 
 thus ^iven to the I'Jngiish probably accele- 
 rated the arrangement of all'airs. Their 
 services were now employed in the sup- 
 pression of the systematic piracy carried 
 on by the Angria family for nearly fifty 
 years on the ]\lalabar coast. Tiic pcishwa, 
 or chief minister of the ^lahralta state, 
 viewed them in the light of vcbelHous sub- 
 jects, and united with tiie JMigiisb for their 
 suppression. Karly in 1755, the fort of 
 Sevcrndroog, and the island of J3ancoot, 
 were taken by Commodore James ; and in 
 tlie following year, Watson, in co-operation 
 with Clive (then just returned from England 
 with the appointment of governor of Fort 
 St. David), captured Gheria, the principal 
 harbour and stronghold of the pirates. 
 The English and iMahrattas both coveted 
 this position : the tactics of the former 
 proved successful. Booty to the amount of 
 i6150,000 sterling was obtained, and its dis- 
 tribution occasioned disputes of a very dis- 
 creditable character between the sea and 
 land services. The partial biographer of 
 Clive endeavours to set forth his hero on 
 this, as on other occasions, as generous and 
 disinterested ; but few unprejudiced readers 
 will be ineliued to acquit him of fully 
 sharing, what Sir John Malcolm himself 
 describes as " that spirit of plunder, and 
 that passion for the rapid accumulation of 
 wealth, which actuated all raidvs." — (i. 135.) 
 
 The scene of Anglo-Indian polities is 
 about to change ; the hostilities on the 
 Coromandel coast serving but as the pre- 
 lude to the more important political trans- 
 actions of which the Calcutta presidency 
 became the centre. 
 
 War of Bengal. — Ali Verdi Khan, 
 subahdar or viceroy of the provinces of 
 Bengal, Behar, and Orissn, died in 1756. 
 Though in name a delegate of the INIogul 
 emperor, he had long been virtually inde- 
 pendent, and his power recognised as here- 
 ditary. In the absence of any nearer relative, 
 this important government devolved on his 
 grandson, Mirza !Mahmood, a prince better 
 known by his title of Snrajah Dowlah. 
 Ali Verdi had no sons : his three daiighters 
 married their cousins; and this youth, the 
 
 * Sii/ar 111 Mutaliherin, i., 646. 
 
 t The son of Molianiniei! Ali made this remark as 
 n re.nson for employing Hindoo officials in preferenre 
 to his feilow-believers, ■whom, he asserted, were like 
 
 offspring of one of these alliances, from his 
 cradle remarkable for extraordinary beauty, 
 became tlie object of excessive fondness on 
 the part of his grandfather. Unrestrained 
 indulgence took the place of careful train- 
 ing, and deepened the defects of a feeble in- 
 tellect and a capricious disposition. To the 
 vices incident to the enervating atmosphere 
 of a seraglio, he is said to have added a 
 tendency for society of the most degrading 
 character ; and as few of the courtiers- chose 
 to i-isk the displeasure of their future lord, 
 with little chance of any effectual inter- 
 ference on the part of their present ruler, 
 Snrajah Dowlah was suffered to carry on a 
 career of which even the annals of eastern 
 despotism afford few examples. A Mo- 
 hammedan writer emphatically declares, 
 that " he carried defilement wherever he 
 went,"* and became so generally detested, 
 that people, on meeting him by chance, 
 used to say, " God save us from him !"t I'he 
 accession to irresponsible power of a youth 
 of this character, could not fail to inspire a 
 general feeling of apprehension. The Eng- 
 lish had special cause for alarm, inasmuch 
 as the new ruler entertained strong preju- 
 dices in their disfavour. Some authorities 
 state that Ali Verdi Khan, shortly before 
 his death, had advised his destined successor 
 to put down the growing military power of 
 this nation; more probably he had urged 
 the pursuance of his own gainful and con- 
 ciliatory policy of exacting, at different 
 times and occasions, certain contributions 
 from all European settlements under his 
 sway, taking care, at the same time, not to 
 drive them into a coalition against his 
 authorit}', or by any exorbitant demand to 
 injure his permanent revenues by rendering 
 their commerce unremunerative. Policy of 
 this character was far beyond the compre- 
 hension of Snrajah Dowlah. The plodding 
 traders of Calcutta were, in his eyes, not as 
 in reality agents and factors of a far dis- 
 tant association, but men of enormous 
 private wealth, like the Hindoo souears or 
 bankers, whom one of his countrymen de- 
 clared resembled sponges, which gathered 
 all that came in their way, but returned all 
 at the first pressure. J This pressure the , 
 English were now to receive : a pretext was 
 easily found. The impending outbreak of 
 European war would, it was evident, lead 
 
 sieves — "much of what was poured in, went through." 
 —(Malcolm's i./t> of I.md Clive, i., 222.) 
 
 X The one wife of .Vli Verdi Xhan steadily befriended 
 the English.— (HohvcU's Historical Ecents, p. 176.)
 
 272 
 
 SURAJAH DOWLAH BESIEGES CALCUTTA— a.d. 1750. 
 
 to hostilities in India: tliey liad, therefore, 
 begun to take measures for the defence of 
 the presidency. Surajah Dovvlah, with 
 whom a previous misunderstanding had 
 occurred,* scut them an imperative order to 
 desist, and received in return a deprecatory 
 message, urging the necessity of talking 
 measures against Frencli invasion. Tlie 
 subahdar, remembering the neutraHty en- 
 forced by his grandfather, deemed the 
 excuse worse than the fauU ; and, althougli 
 actually on the march against a rebellious 
 relative, he abandoned tliis object, and 
 advanced immediately to the factory at Cos- 
 simbazar, which at once surrendered, the 
 few Europeaus there having no means of 
 offering any resistance. Tlie tidings were re- 
 ceived at Calcutta with dismay. The defen- 
 sive proceedings, which had attracted the 
 attention of the subahdar, must have been 
 very partial ; for the works, stores of ammu- 
 nition, and artillery were all utterly insuffi- 
 cient to sustain a protracted siege. The 
 garrison comprised 20 i men, and the militia, 
 formed of European aiid native inhabitants, 
 250 ;t but tlieir training had been so little 
 attended to, that when called out, scarcely 
 any among them " knew the right from the 
 wrong end of their muskets. "{ Assistance 
 was entreated from the neighbouring Dutch 
 settlement of Chinsura, but positively re- 
 fused; and, in the urgent necessity of the 
 case, the probability of impending warfare 
 with the French did not deter the presi- 
 dency from appealing to them for aid. The 
 reply was an insolent intimation that it 
 should be granted if the English would quit 
 Calcutta, and remove their garrison and 
 effects to Chandernagore ; that is, put them- 
 selves completely into the powei of their 
 patronising protectors. Tlie last resource 
 — an endeavour to purchase immunity froni 
 Surajah Dowlah — failed, and an attempt .at 
 resistance followed. The military officers 
 on the spot, of whom none ranked higher 
 than a captain, were notoriously incompe- 
 tent to direct a difhcult defence; the civil 
 authorities had neither energy nor presence 
 of mind to couutcrbalancc the defieieucics 
 of their colleagues. To abandon the fort 
 and retreat to shipboard was the common 
 
 • An uncle of Surajah Dowlah died governor of 
 Dacca. His hopeful nephew at once resolved on 
 plundering tlie widowed lieguni, or princess his aunt, 
 with whom he had loiif; been at open variance, 
 of the cnorinoiis fortune she was supjiosed to have 
 inherited, and sent orders for the ini])risonment of 
 the receivers and treasurers of the province : one of 
 these — a Hindoo, named Kishendass, supposed to have 
 
 opinion; and, under the circumstances, no 
 dishonour would have attended such a 
 course, if judiciously carried out. But the 
 thunder of the enemy without the walls, 
 was less inimical to the safety of the inha- 
 bitants than the coiifusion, riot, and insu- 
 bordination within, which, in the words of 
 
 a modern historian. 
 
 ■ made the closing 
 
 scene of the siege one of the most dis- 
 graceful in which Englishmen were ever 
 engaged."^ The intention of a general 
 escape was frustrated by the miserable 
 selfishness of those on whom it devolved to 
 make arrangements for the safety of the 
 whole. The men sent ofi" with the women 
 and children refused to return ; and soon 
 after the governor and commandant, with a 
 select body of cowards, seized the last boats 
 which remained at the wharf, and joined 
 the ships which, partaking of the general 
 panic, had dropped down the river. The 
 inhabitants, thus abandoned to the power 
 of a despot whose naturally cruel temper 
 they believed to be inflamed by a peculiar 
 hatred towards themselves, elected ^Ir. 
 Ilolwell (a member of council) as their 
 leader, and for two daj's continued the de- 
 fence of the place, in the hope that some 
 of the ships would return to their sta- 
 tions and answer the repeated calls for aid 
 made by means of fiery signals thrown up 
 from all parts of the town. Tiiese were in- 
 deed little needed, for the continued firing 
 of the enemy proclaimed aloud their in- 
 creasing danger. Orme, wlio has minutely 
 examined the details of this discreditable 
 business, declares, that " a single sloop, 
 with fifteen brave men on board, might, in 
 spite of all the cflorts of the enernj', have 
 come up, and, anchoring under tlic fort, 
 have carried away all" those who remained 
 to sutler a strange and terrible doom. No 
 stronger illustration can be found of the 
 manner in which selfishness and the greed 
 of gain corrupt and extinguish the gentler 
 instincts of humanity, and deprive men even 
 of pliysical courage, than this aflair. 
 
 ^Ir. Ilolwell strove, by throwing letters 
 over the wall, to obtain terms of capitula- 
 tion ; but in vain. An assault, in which 
 ninety-five of the garrison were killed or 
 
 accunnilated great wealth — escaped to Calcutta. Tl;e 
 subahdar sent to demand the fupjitive; but the mes- 
 senger entering tlie town in a sort of disguise, was 
 treated by the iiresidcnt as an im]iostor, and dis- 
 missed witli insult from the company's territory. 
 
 t Making iJ40 men, 171 being Kuropcans 
 
 J llolwell's /H(/m Tincts,m2. 
 
 § Thornton's British .India, i., 190.
 
 MASSACllE OF THE BLACK HOLE AT CALCUTTA— 175G. 
 
 273 
 
 woiiiulcd, was followed by direct insubordi- 
 ziatiou on tiic jjait of the remainder of the 
 coiiiiuoii soldiers. Theybrokeopcuthc stores, 
 and, all sense of duty lost in intoxieation, 
 rushed out of one paU; of the furt, intending 
 to escape to the river, just as the enemy 
 entered by another. The inhabitants sur- 
 rendered their arms, and the victors re- 
 frained from bloodshed. The subahdar, 
 notwithstanding his character for inhu- 
 manity, showed no signs of it on this occa- 
 sion, b\it took his seat in the chief apartment 
 of the factory, and received the grandilo- 
 quent addresses of his officers and atten- 
 dants with extreme elation ; all angry feel- 
 ings being merged in the emotions of grati- 
 fied vanity at the victory thus absurdly 
 overrated. The smallness of the sum found 
 in the treasvuy (r)(),0()() rupees) was a great 
 disappointment; but when Mr. llolwell was 
 carried into his presence with fettered hands, 
 they were immediately set free; and notwith- 
 standing some expressions of resentment at 
 the English for the defence of the fort, he 
 declared, upon the faith of a soldier, not a 
 hair of their heads should be touched. The 
 conference terminated aliout seven in the 
 evening. J\Ir. llolwell returned to his com- 
 panions in captivity, and the question arose 
 how they were to be secured for the night. 
 No suitable place could be found ; and while 
 the guards were searching about, the pri- 
 soners, relieved from fear by the nnexpcetcd 
 gentleness of Surajah Dowlah, stood in 
 groups, conversing togetb.cr, utterly unsus- 
 picious of their impending doom. The chief 
 oilieer returned and announced that the 
 only place of security he could fiiul was 
 the garrison prison. At this time (before 
 the jjhilantbropie labours of Howard) gaols, 
 even in England, were loathsome dens; that 
 of Calcutta was a cbambei', einbtecn feet long 
 by fourteen broad, lit ar.d ventilated by two 
 small windows, secured by iron bars, and 
 overhung by a veraudah. Even for a dozen 
 European malefactors this dungeon would 
 have been iusuflcrably close and narrow. 
 The prisoners of the svd)ahdar numbered 
 14G persons, including many English, whose 
 constitutions could scarcely sustain the 
 fierce heat of Bengal in this the summer 
 season, even with the aid of every mitigation 
 that art could invent or money purchase. 
 They derided the idea of being shut up 
 in the " Black Hole," us manifestly impos- 
 
 * The detaclimant on g\iard had lost many nien in 
 the sicfie, and the survivors were merciless. 
 
 t Mr. IlohvcU and Mr. Cooke, another of the 
 
 siblc. But the guards, hardened to the 
 sight of snfl'ei-ing, and habitually careless of 
 life, forced them all (including a half-cast 
 woman, who clung to her husliand) into the 
 cell at the point of the sword, and fa-^tcned 
 the door upon the helpless crowd. llolwell 
 strove, by bribes and entreaties, to persuade 
 an old man of some authority among the 
 guards, to procure their separation into two 
 places. He made some attempts, but re- 
 turned, declaring that the subahdar slept, 
 and none daicd disturb him to request the 
 ])crmission, without which no change could 
 be made in the disposition of the prisoners. 
 The scene which ensued perhaps admits of 
 but one comparison in horror — that one 
 is the hold of a slave-ship. Some few iiuli- 
 viduals retained consciousness; and after 
 hours of agony, surrounded by sights and 
 sounds of the most appalling description, 
 rendered up their souls tranquilly to their 
 Creator and llcdcemer, satisfied (we may 
 hope), even under so trying a dispensation, 
 that the dealings of Providence, though often 
 inscrutable, are ever wise and merciful. 
 Man, alas! often evinces little of cither 
 quality to his fellow-beings; and in this 
 instance, while the captives, maddened by 
 the double torment of heat and thirst, fought 
 with each other like furious beasts to ap- 
 proach the windows, or to obtain a share in 
 the pittance of water procured through the 
 intervention of the one compassionate sol- 
 dier, the other guards held lights to the 
 iron bars, and shouted with fiendish laughter 
 at the death-struggles of their victims.* 
 Towards daybreak the tumult began to 
 diminish ; shrieks and groans gave place to 
 a low fitful moaning ; a sickly, pestilential 
 vapour told the reason — the majority had 
 perished : corruption had commenced ; the 
 few who remained were sinking fast. The 
 fatal sleep of Surajah Dowlah at length 
 ceased ; the door was opened by his orders ; 
 the dead were piled up in heaps ; and twenty- 
 three ghastly figures (including the now 
 widowed woman before mentioned) stag- 
 gered one by one out of the charnel-Iiouse. 
 A pit was immediately dug, into which the 
 bodies of the murdered men, 1!J3 in number, 
 were promiscuously flung. 
 
 Ko shadow of regret seems to have been 
 evinced by the subahdar for this horrible 
 catastrophe. t The first flush of exultation 
 had passed away, and feelings of peeuniax-y 
 
 sufferers, gave a painfully interesting account of the 
 whole catastrophe before a committee of the House 
 of Commons. — {Pari. Papers. E. I. Cy., 1772.)
 
 274 TREATY BETWEEN ENGLISH AND SUKAJAH DOWLAH— 1757. 
 
 disappointment were now uppermost. Hol- 
 well, unable to walk, was carried into his pre- 
 sence, with some companions, and harshly 
 interrogated regarding the treasures of the 
 company. No satisfactory answer being ob- 
 tained, they were all lodged in miserable 
 sheds, fed on grain and water, and left to 
 pass as they might the crisis of the fever, in 
 which several who lived through the night 
 of the 20th June, 1756, perished. The release 
 of the survivors was eventuall}^ procui'ed by 
 the intercession of the grandmother of tlie 
 prince,* and a merchant named Omichund. 
 A Moorish garrison of 3,000 men was 
 placed in Fort William, and with reckless 
 impiety the name of Calcutta changed to 
 that of Alinagore (the port of God.) Surajah 
 Dowlah then, exacted from the Dutch a 
 tribute of £45,000, and £35,000 from the 
 French ; better terms being accorded to the 
 latter, in consideration of their having fur- 
 nished 200 chests of gunpowder to the army 
 while ou their march to Calcutta. 
 
 Tidings of the fall of the settlement and 
 the catastrophe of the Black Hole reached 
 Madras in August, and were received with a 
 general cry for vengeance. Even at such a 
 time the old jealousies between the land and 
 sea forces interposed to prevent immediate 
 action, and two months were spent in dis- 
 cussing how the command was to be divided, 
 and in what manner prizes were to be dis- 
 tributed. At the expiration of that time, 
 Olive find Watson sailed from Madras with 
 ten ships, having on board 900 European 
 troops and 1,500 sepoys. The fugitives 
 from Calcutta were found at Fulta, a town 
 some distance down the Ganges, and offen- 
 sive operations were commenced by the 
 attack of a fort called Budgc-Budge, situated 
 on the river banks between the places above 
 named. An unaccountable piece of care- 
 lessness on the part of Clive nearly occasioned 
 the failure of tlie enterprise. While the 
 ships cannonaded the fort, a ruimber of tlie 
 troops were to lay wait for the garrison, who 
 it was expected, would abandon the place ; 
 instead of which the ambuscade was itself 
 * The widow of Ali Verdi IChan, before mentionod. 
 \ Orme's Militani Transactiuna, ii., 12;5. Tlie 
 total loss of the English in this ailaii- does not ap- 
 pear. Ornic mentions thirteen men killed. Clive, 
 in a private letter to Mr. Pip;ot, remarks, that " our 
 los3 in the skirmish near ]iud<i;e-Bud<,'e was greater 
 than could well be spared if such skirmishes were 
 to be often repeated. — [Life, i., 153.) 
 
 X The attack was deferred on account of the 
 fatigue of the troops. A body of 2.J0 sailors were 
 landed in the evening, and refreshed themselves by 
 becoming extremely drunk. One of them, about 
 
 surprised by a body of the enemy while 
 resting on the march, having neglected 
 even the common precaution of stationing 
 sentinels to keep guard in the broad day- 
 light. The presence of mind of Clive, 
 aided probably by his reputation for good 
 fortune, enabled him to rally the soldiers 
 with rapidity, and advance with steadiness 
 and success against the irregular ranks o. 
 two or three thousand horse and foot who 
 had stealthily approached amid the thick 
 jungle. Monichund, governor of Calcutta, 
 led the attack, and on receiving a ball in his 
 turban, this commander, having "no courage, 
 but much circumspection.^'t turned his ele- 
 phant, and decamped with his entire force. 
 The fort was cannonaded by the ship (the 
 Kent) which first reached the spot, and a gene- 
 ral attack projected for the next morning, 
 but prevented by the silent evacuation of the 
 place. J The other posts on the Gauges were 
 abandoned at the approach of the English, 
 and Calcutta itself recaptured, after a siege 
 of two hours. The merchandise belong- 
 ing to the company remained, for the luost 
 part, untouched, having been reserved for 
 Surajah Dowlah; but the houses of indi- 
 viduals had been totally plundered. Hooghly 
 was next attacked, and a breach easily 
 eftected ; the troops mounted the rampart, 
 and tlie garrison took to flight, leaving in 
 the place a large amount of property. 
 
 Intelligence of the renewal of hostilities 
 between England and France, reached the 
 armament at this period. The French in 
 Bengal had a force of 300 Europeans and 
 a train of field-artillery. Their unioit with 
 Surajah Dowlah would give him an over- 
 powering degree of superiority; it was 
 therefore manifestly politic to take imme- 
 diate advantage of the desire for an accom- 
 modation with which the issue of the contest 
 had inspired him. 
 
 In February, 1757, a treaty was formed, 
 by which the stibahdar — or, as he is com- 
 monly called, the nabob — consented to re- 
 store to the English their former privileges; 
 to make compensation for the plunder of 
 
 dusk, straggled across the moat, scrambled up the 
 rampart, and, meeting with no opposition in the de- 
 serted citadel, hallooed loudly to the advanced guards 
 in the village that he had taken the place. Sepoys 
 were stationed round the walls. Others of the intoxi- 
 cated sailors coming up to share the triumph of their 
 comrade, mistook the sentinels for foes, and fired their 
 pistols. In the confusion an oiliccr was kilh;d. The 
 seamen, on rel\u-ning to their shii)s, were flogged for 
 misconduct : the man who had discovered the ilight 
 of the garrison did not escape ; upon which he swore 
 in great wrath never to take a fort again.
 
 CHANDERNAGORE CAPTURED FROil THE I'llENCII— 1757. 9.7^ 
 
 Calcutta; anrl to permit the creation of for- 
 tifications. Tills arraiigcmiiit was spcH'dily 
 followed by an alliance, ofl'cnsivc and de- 
 fensive, eagerly ratified by both parties. 
 The peace which followed was of short 
 duration. The English impatiently desired 
 to retaliate on the French their late con- 
 duct ; and demanded the consent, if not 
 the co-opciatioii of their new ally, which he 
 long refused, declaring with truth, that hav- 
 ing no cause of enmity to cither party, it 
 was alike a point of duty and interest to 
 prevent the outbreak of hostilities. Beneath 
 this ostensible reason, another existed in 
 his desire to preserve terms with the French 
 in the event of a rupture with the English. 
 The invasion and capture of Delhi liy 
 Ahmed Shah Abdalli, and the fear of an 
 advance upon Bengal, for a time banished 
 all other schemes. The nabob clung to his 
 European allies as an efficient defence ; but 
 a restless inquietude nevertheless possessed 
 him; for the ability to protect was accom- 
 panied by an equal power of destruction. 
 At length, the peremptory demand and 
 threats of Watson and Clive, backed by 
 the arrival of reinforcements, with well- 
 directed bribes to underlings, extorted from 
 him a reluctant permission to " act according 
 to the time and occasion."* This oracular 
 phrase was considered to implv consent to 
 the attack of Chandernagorc, which was im- 
 mediately proceeded with, notwithstanding 
 subsequent direct and repeated prohibitions. 
 The French conducted the defence with 
 gallantry ; but the combined force of the 
 land and sea divisions proved irresistible. 
 Admiral Watson evinced extraordinary sea- 
 manship in bringing two of his vessels (the 
 Kent and Tiger) abreast the fort ; and after 
 three hours' firing the besieged capitulated. 
 Chandernagorc, like Calcutta, comprised a 
 European and native town with a fort, and 
 stretched over territory which, commencing 
 at the southern limits of the Dutch settle- 
 ment of Chinsura, extended two miles along 
 the banks of the nver, and about one-and- 
 a-half inland. Clivc was delighted at the 
 conquest, considering it of more conse- 
 quence than would have been that of Pondi- 
 cherry itself, t which he hoped would follow. 
 To " induce the nabob to give up all the 
 French factories," and " drive them out, root 
 
 * Ormc's MUitary Transactions, ii., 140. 
 
 t Clive describes Chaiulernagore as "a most mag- 
 nificent and rich colony ; the garrison consisted of 
 more tlian iiOO Europeans and blacks, all carrying 
 arms: 3G0 aie prisoners, and nearly 100 have been 
 suflfered to give their parole, consisting of civil, mili- 
 
 and branch,"* — this and nothing less was 
 now attempted. But Surajah Dowlah was 
 never less inclined to so im|)olitic a prfice- 
 dure, than after tlie taking of Cliandcrnagore. 
 The exploits of the ships of war had filled 
 him with consternation: it is even asserted 
 that he had been made to believe they could 
 be brought up the Ganges close to his own 
 capital — an operation which he immediately 
 took measures to prevent, Ijy causing tlie , 
 mouth of the Cossimbazar river to be i 
 dammed up. § The idea of counterbalancing | 
 the power of the ICuglish by that of the 
 French, was a natural and judicious one; 
 but he had neither judgment nor self-reliance 
 for its execution. Old in dissipation, he was 
 young in years and in all useful experience. 
 Vicious habits, II and an ungovernable tongue, 
 had alienated from him the alfections of the 
 chosen friends and servants of his grand- 
 father; and they viewed with disgust the 
 contrast alTorded to the provident habits 
 and courteous bearing of their late ruler 
 by his profligate successor. Scarcely one 
 voice appears to have been raised up to warn 
 the unhappy youth of the growing disaffection 
 of his subjects. The haughty Mussulman 
 nobles were incensed by his insulting de- 
 meanour ; and the Hindoos had still stronger 
 grounds for estrangement. Under all Mo- 
 hammedan governments, the financial depart- 
 ments were almost solely entrusted to this 
 thrifty and calculating race. The Brahmini- 
 cal and mercantile classes were treated with 
 that solid respect, which those who wield the 
 sword usually pay to those who keep the 
 purse. By unwearied application and ex- 
 treme personal frugality, the seits or soucars 
 frequently accumulated immense wealth, 
 which they well knew how to employ, both 
 for purposes of augmentation and for 
 the csta!)lishment of political influence. 
 Their rulers lavished enormous sums on 
 wars and pageants ; and though sometimes 
 violent means were used to obtain stores of 
 hidden wealth, the more frequent course 
 adopted by princes to raise supplies was 
 through orders on the revenue, in the nego- 
 tiation of which the bankers contrived to 
 make a double profit. Ali Verdi Khan had 
 understood the value of these auxiliaries, 
 and the importance of conciliating their 
 confidence. Under his sway Hindoos filled 
 
 tary, and inhabitants. Nearly sixty while ladies are 
 rendered miserable by the loss of this place." — (Alal- 
 colm's Life of Clite, i., 196.) | Idrm., p. 196. 
 
 § Parker's Transactions in the East Indies, 57. 
 
 II He threatened Juggut Seit with circumcision, 
 the worst insult that could be offered to a Hindoo.
 
 276 ENGLISH JOIN MEER JAFFIER AGAINST SURAJAH DOWLAH— 175' 
 
 the higliest offices of the state. Ram Narrain, 
 the governor of Patna, ami Rajah Ram of 
 IMidnapoor, were the chief of the managers 
 and renters. Roydullubj the dewau or 
 minister of finance, was likewise a person 
 of great influence — the more so from his 
 intimate connection with Jiiggut Seit, the 
 representative of the wealthiest soucar, or 
 banking firm in India. This last, by means 
 of his extended transactions, possessed 
 equal influence at Lucknow,* Delhi, and at 
 INIoorshedabad. ]\Iost of these persons, with 
 the addition of IMonichund, the temporary 
 governor of Calcutta, Surajah Dowlah liad 
 offended in different waysjf and he especially 
 resented the sense evinced by the Hindoos 
 generally of the rising power of the English. 
 The result was a determination to subvert 
 his government. The chief conspirator was 
 the bukshee, or military commander of the 
 army, Meer Jaffier Khan, a soldier of for- 
 tune, promoted by Ali Verdi to the highest 
 military rank, and farther exalted by a 
 marriage with a member of the reigning 
 family. Omichund, a wealthy Hindoo, mer- 
 chant, long resident in Calcutta, and inti- 
 mately associated by commercial dealings 
 with the E. I. Cy., became the medium of 
 , conveying to the English ovei-tures to join 
 the plot. Clive at once advocated com- 
 pliance, on the ground that sufficient evi- 
 dence existed of the intention of the nabob 
 to join with the French for their destruction. 
 It certainly appears that a correspondence 
 was actually being carried on with Buss3', but 
 to little effect, since the precarious state of 
 politics at the court of Salabut Jung rendered 
 his continuance there of the first importance. 
 Still Clive argued that the conduct of the 
 nabob sufficed to release his countrymen 
 from their solemn pledge, and justified them 
 in entering into a plot with the treacherous 
 ministers ; and his strong will weighed down 
 the opposition offered in discussing the ques- 
 tion by a committee of the Calcutta presi- 
 dency. To ojipose the vacillating, cowardly 
 intrigues of Surajah Dowlah with fraud and 
 j)erjury, was decided to be a more promising 
 course than to remain in the narrow patli 
 
 • The capital of the viceroy of Oudc. 
 
 t The copy of a Icltci- found at Moorslicdabad, 
 after llie fatal battle of I'lasscy, addressed by the 
 nabob to Bussy, contains allusions to the seizure of 
 Chandernagore, and offered co-operalion against 
 "these disturbers of my country, l^ileer Jung lUi- 
 luulur, the valiunt in hutllo (AVatson), and Sabut 
 Jung (Clive), -whom bad fortune attend!" 
 
 } J'u/c Stewart's Ilis/ori/ of (lio Dicrini, ii., 408; 
 and the translation of the Siyar ul Miitakhcrin, pub- 
 lished at Calcutta in n.SO.— (i., 7JS-"J.) 
 
 of honest dealing. ]\Ieer Jaffier promised, 
 in the event of success, large donations to 
 the company, the army, navy, and com- 
 mittee. Clive declared Surajah Dowlah to 
 be " a villain,^' and Meer Jaffier " a man as 
 generally esteemed as tlie other was de- 
 tested."— (Malcolm's Life of Clive, i., 2G3.) 
 The conduct of the chief person on this 
 occasion, strongly supports the much-cri- 
 ticised opinion of Mill — that deception never 
 cost him a pang. Vague rumours of the 
 plot reached the nabob ; and Clive, to dispel 
 his suspicions, wrote to him " in terms so 
 affectionate, that they for a time lulled the 
 weak prince into perfect secu)'ity."J The 
 courier conveyed a second missive of the same 
 date, from the same hand, addressed to Mr. 
 Watts, the British resident at Moorshedabad 
 — in which, after referring to the " soothiug 
 letter" § above alluded to, Clive adds, "Tell 
 Meer Jaffier to fear nothing; that I will 
 join him with 5,000 men who never turned 
 their backs ; and that if he fails seizing him, 
 we shall be strong enough to drive him out 
 of the country. Assure him I will march 
 night and day, as long as I have a man left." || 
 The protestations of Clive gained force in the 
 mind of the deluded nabob, through a cir- 
 cumstance which occurred at this period. 
 Tlie jNIahrattas, wlio had long been en- 
 croaching on the fertile provinces of Bengal, 
 thought the unpopularity and known ineffi- 
 ciency of its present ruler afforded a favour- 
 able opportunity for an attempt at its com- 
 plete subjugation. The capture of Cossim- 
 bazar and Calcutta would, the peishwa Bal- 
 lajee Bajee Rao conceived, render the Eng- 
 lish willing to enter into a coalition against 
 the nabob, and the co-operation of the troops 
 in the invasion of Bengal was solicited ; the 
 compensation offered being the repayment of 
 double the amount of the losses sustained 
 from Surajah Dowlah, and the vesting of the 
 commerce of the Ganges exclusively in the 
 E. I. Cy. Some doubt was entertained as to 
 the authenticity of this communication. It 
 was even surmised to have been a trick on the 
 part of Surajah Dowlah ; and as the assistance 
 of the IMahrattas was by no means desirable 
 
 § The words of Macaulay, one of Mill's censurers. 
 
 II 'J'lie following is an extract from one of Admiral 
 AA'atson's letters to the nabob : — " Let us take' C'han- 
 dernagore," he writes, "and secure ourselves from 
 any ajiprehensions in that quarter, and then wc will 
 assist you with every man in our power, and go with 
 you even to Delhi, if you will. Have we sworn rcci- 
 ])rocaIly that the friends and enemies of the one 
 should be regarded as such by the other P and will 
 not God, the avenger of |ierjury, puiiisli us if wo do 
 not fulfil our oaths?" — (I'arker's Eont Indies, p. 78.)
 
 SIGNATURE OF WATSON FORGED BY ORDER OF CLIVE. 277 
 
 in the scheme already set on foot, the letter 
 was at once forwarded to the Dabob as ail'ord- 
 inpf, in either case, evidence of the ^ood faith 
 of his allies. It proved to be aiilliciitic ; 
 and all the efl'eet expected resulted from 
 its transmission. But the execution of a 
 plan in which many jarring interests were 
 concerned, necessarily involved numerous 
 dangers. At one moment a vioU^nt ([uarrel 
 between the nabob and Mccn- Jadier threat- 
 ened to occasion a premature disclosure of 
 the whole plot. This danger was averted by 
 a reeoneiliation, in which that " estimable 
 person," Meer Jaflier, swore upon the Koran 
 fidelity to his master, after having a few 
 days before, given a similar pledge to his 
 English confederates in the projected usur- 
 jnition. Clivc had his full share of what 
 Napoleon would have styled " dirty work" 
 to do in the business. ^Vjien all things 
 were arranged, Omiehund suddenly declared 
 himself dissatisfied with the amount of com- 
 pensation* allotted to him in the division of 
 the spoil planned by the conspirators. Ilis 
 services at this crisis were invaluable, and 
 his inilucnce with the nabob had repeatedly 
 been the means of concealing the plot. The 
 demand of thirty lacs of rupees (£350,000), 
 was accompanied bj' an intimation of the 
 danger of refusal. Whether Omiehund really 
 intended to risk the reward already agreed on, 
 together with his own life, by betraying a 
 transaction in which he had from the first 
 borne a leading part, may well be doubted; 
 but Clive took an easy method of terminating 
 the discussion by consenting to the exorbitant 
 stipulation. Ouiielmnd likewise insisted on 
 the agreement regarding himself being in- 
 
 * The position of Omiehund, with regard to the 
 Knglish, was jjeculiar. He had been connected with 
 them in the affairs of commerce about forty years, 
 and was looked upon as a person of great importance, 
 both on account of liis mercantile transactions, which 
 extended to all [jarts of Bengal and IJahar, and the 
 magnitude of bis private fortune. His liabitation is 
 described by Ornie as having been on a splendid 
 scale, and divided intovario\is departments, resembling 
 rather the abode of a ])rince than of a merchant. 
 Besides numerous domestic servants, he maintained 
 (as is frequent among eastern nobles) a retinue of 
 armed men in constant pay. When news of the ap- 
 proach of Surajah Dowlah reached Calcutta, the 
 local authorities, among other vague fears, suspecting 
 Omiehund of being in league with the enemy, seized 
 and imprisoned him. An attempt was made to cap- 
 ture the person of his brother-in-law, who had taken 
 refuge in the a])artments of the women ; but the 
 whole of Omichund's peons, to the number of 300, 
 rose in resistance, and the officer in command (a 
 Hindoo of high cast), fearing that some indignity 
 might be sustained by the females, set fire to the 
 harem, and killed no less than thirteen with his own 
 
 serted in the treaty between the English and 
 ]\lcer Jadicr. Clivc seemingly complied. 
 Two treaties were drawn up, one on white 
 paper, the other on red ; in the f(jrrner, 
 Oinichtnid's name was not mentioned; tiie 
 latter, which was to be shown to him, con- 
 tained the specified proviso. The honesty 
 of Admiral Wiitson had nearly defeated this 
 manrcuvre. lie positively refused to sign 
 the false treaty. Omiehund would at once 
 suspect some reason for this omission. Clive 
 removed the difliculty by causing a ^Ir. 
 Lushington to forge the important name. 
 
 Hostility to the nabob was now openly 
 professed. The English force marched 
 against him, sending forward a letter equi- 
 valent to a declaration of war. Surajah 
 Dowlah dispatched an appeal for aid to the 
 French, assembled his troops, and prepared 
 to encounter a foreigii foe, unsuspicious of 
 the treachery at work within his camp. The 
 courage of Meer Jaffier failed ; doubt and 
 fear, in the hour of danger, overpowered am- 
 bition : he hesitated ; and instead of imme- 
 diately coming over to Clive, at Cossimbazar, 
 with his division, as had been agreed upon, 
 he advanced with the nabob to Massy. 
 The position of the English became extremely 
 perilous : the strength of the enemy twenty 
 times outnumbered theirs. The ford of the 
 Ilooghly lay before them, easily crossed ; 
 but over which not one man might ever 
 be able to return. Clive called a council of 
 war for the first and last time in his whole 
 career, probably as a cloak for his own mis- 
 givings, since he voted first, and doubtless 
 influenced the majority in deciding that it 
 would be iiiiprudent to risk an advance. f This 
 
 hand, after which he stabbed himself, though (con- 
 trary to his intention) not mortally. This melancholy 
 catastrophe did not prevent Mr. IIolwcll from soli- 
 citing the intervention of Omiclumd to procure 
 terms of capitulation from Surajah Dowlah ; and 
 his conduct at this time totally removed the suspi- 
 cions previously entertained. On the capture of the 
 place, 400,000 lupees were plundered from his trea- 
 sury, and much valuable projjerty of different de- 
 scriptions seized ; but his person was set at liberty, 
 and a favourable disposition evinced towards liim by 
 the nabob, of which he took advantage to procure 
 the restoration of bis losses in money, and likewise 
 in soliciting the release of the survivors of tlve mas- 
 sacre, who were fed by his charity, and ifi great mea- 
 sure restored to liberty through, his entreaties. 
 
 t The following is a list of the ofBcers of this coun- 
 cil, and the way in which they voted : — Fur delay — 
 llobt. Clive; James Kirkpatrick; Archd. Grant; 
 Geo. Fred. Goupp ; .■\ndrew .■Vrmstrong; 'i'hos. Rum- 
 bold ; Christian Firkan ; John Corneillc ; H. Pop- 
 ham. For immediutc attack — Kyre Coote, G. .-Uex. 
 Grant; G. Muir; Chas. Palmer; Robt. Camjibell; 
 PeterCarstairsj W. Jennings. — {Li/eof Clwe,\.,'2oS.)
 
 278 BATTLE OF PLASSY, 1757— DEFEAT OF SURAJAH DOWLAII, 
 
 was an unusual opinion for "Sabut Jung" the 
 daring iu war, to form, and it was not a per- 
 manent one. Passing away from the meet- 
 ing, gloomy and dissatisfied, he paced aboxit 
 for an hour bencatli the shade of some trees, 
 and, convinced on reflection that the hesita- 
 tion of iMecr JafRer would give place to re- 
 awakened ambition, he resolved to reverse 
 the decision in which he had so lately con- 
 curred; and, returning to the camp, gave 
 orders to make ready for the passage of the 
 river.* The array crossed on the following 
 morning, and, at a little past midnight, took 
 up its position in a grove of mango treesf 
 near Plassy, within a mile of the wide-spread 
 camp of the enemy. 
 
 The souud of drums and cymbals kept 
 CHve waking all night ; and Surajah Dowlah, 
 overpowered by vague fears and gloomy ap- 
 prehensions, passed the remaining hours of 
 darkness in upbraiding and complaint. J At 
 sunrise his army, marshalled in battle array, 
 commenced moving towards the grove in 
 which the English were posted. The plain 
 seemed alive with multitudes of infantry, 
 supported by troops of cavalry, and bearing 
 with them fifty pieces of ordnance of great 
 size, drawn by long teams of white o.xen, 
 and propelled by elephants arrayed in scarlet 
 cloth and embroidery. Beside these, were 
 some smaller but more formidable guns, 
 under the direction of Frenchmen. § The 
 force to oppose this mighty host numbered, 
 in all, only 3,000 men, but of these nearly 
 1,000 were English. Conspicuous in the 
 ranks were the men of the 39th regiment, 
 who that day added to the inscriptions on 
 their colours the name of Plassy, and the 
 motto, Primus in India. Of hard fighting 
 there was but little; treachery supplied its 
 place. The action began by a distant can- 
 nonade, in which some of the few officers, 
 still true to a falling cause, perished by the 
 skilfully-directed fire of the "hat-wearers," 
 who, says Hussein Gholam Khan, " have no 
 equals in the art of firing their artillery and 
 musketry with both order and rapidity." || 
 Several hours were speut in this manner. 
 
 • This is the account given by Ornic, who proba- 
 bly heard the circumslances from C'live himself. 
 Scraftoii attributes the colonel's change of mind to a 
 letter received from Meer JafRer in tlie course of 
 tlie day.— {Iir/lectiuiia, p. 85.) 
 
 t KtguUirly jdanted groves or woods of tall fruit 
 trees are very common in India; that of Plassy was 
 a square of about two miles in circuit ; but it has 
 been neglected, and is now mncli diminished. 
 
 I The de.ipondency of the nabob, says Orme, in- 
 creased as tl'.e hour of danger approached. His 
 attendants, by some carelessness left his lent un- 
 
 At length Meer-meden. one of the two chief 
 leaders of the adverse force, was mortally 
 wounded by a cannon-ball. He was carried 
 to the tent of the prince, and expired while 
 explaining the arrangements he had made 
 for the battle. Driven to desperation by 
 witnessing the death of his faithful servant, 
 Surajah Dowlah summoned Meer JafSer to 
 his presence, and bade him revenge the 
 death of Meer-meden ; at the same time, 
 placing his own turban at the foot of his 
 treacherous relative — the most humiliating 
 supplication a Mohammedan prince could 
 ofl^br — he besought him to forget past differ- 
 ences, and to stand by the graudchild of 
 his benefactor (Ali Verdi Khan), now that 
 his life, his honour, and his throne, were all 
 at stake. Meer Jatfier replied to this appeal 
 by treacherously advising immediate retreat i 
 into the trenches ; and the fatal order was 
 issued, notwithstanding the earnest remon- 
 strance of the Hindoo general, Mohun Lall, 
 who predicted the utter confusion which 
 would ensue. Meer Jaffier had unsuccess- 
 fully endeavoured to convey a letter to 
 Clive, advising the imtnediate attack of the 
 nabob's camp; now, perceiving the fortune 
 of the day decided, he remained, as before, 
 stationary with his division of the arm}'', 
 amid the general retreat. Surajah Dowlah, 
 on witnessing the inaction of so large a part 
 of the force, comprehended at once his be- 
 trayal ; and on beholding the English ad- 
 vancing, mounted a camel and fled to Moor- 
 shedabad, accompanied by 2,000 horsemen. 
 In fact, no other course remained to one in- 
 capable of taking the lead in his own person ; 
 for to such an extent had division spread 
 throughout the Mohammedan troops, that 
 no officer, even if willing to fight for his 
 rightful master, could rely on the co-opera- 
 tion of any other commander. The little 
 band of Frenchmen alone strove to confront 
 the English, but were rapidly carried away 
 by the tide of fugitives. Of the vanquished, 
 500 were slain. The conquerors lost but 
 twenty-two killed and fifty wounded; they 
 gained not merely the usual spoils of war in 
 guarded, and a common person, either through igno- 
 rance, or witli a view to robbery, entered unperceived. 
 The iirincc, at length recognising tlie intruder, started 
 from the gloomy reflections in whieli lie had been 
 absorbed," and recalled his servants with the em- 
 ])liatic exclamation, — " Sure tlicy see me dead !" — 
 {Mililury Transuctions, i., 172.) 
 
 § Orme states tlic force of the enemy at 50,000 
 foot, 18,000 horse, and fifty pieces of cannon. 
 Clive says 35,000 foot, 15,000 liorse, and forty pieces 
 of cannon. — {^Letter to Secret Ciiiionitlecuf B. 1. Uy.) 
 
 II Siyar ul Ulutiihltcrin, i., 7G(i.
 
 FLIGHT OF SUllAJAH DOWLAII.— MEER JAFFIER MADE NABOB. 279 
 
 abundance — baggage and artillery-waggons, 
 cleiiliants and oxcn^ — but paramount autho- 
 rity over a conciiifred pioviiicc, larger and 
 more populous tliau tlicir native country. 
 
 'J'lu^ conduct of iMecr J.iliicr iiad been by 
 no means uucxccptionaljle, even in tlic sight 
 of his aocompbccs. lie liad played for a 
 heavy stalic with a faltering baud — a species 
 of cowardice for which Ciivc bad no sym- 
 pathy ; nevertheless, it was expedient to 
 overlook all minor occasions of quarrel at this 
 critical moment, and proclaim the traitor 
 subabdar of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa. 
 Meer Jutlicr marched to Moorshcdabad. 
 Surajab Dowlab learned his approach with 
 a degree of terror that prevented him from 
 forming any plan of defence : deserted on 
 all sides, be strove to conciliate the alienated 
 affections of the military commanders by 
 lavish gifts; and at length, after balancing 
 between the advice given by his counsellors 
 — to throw himself upon the mercy of the 
 English, or again try the fortune of war — be 
 renounced both attempts, and accompanied 
 by his consort, bis young daughter, and 
 several other females, quilted the palace 
 at dead of night, carrying with him a 
 number of cle])hants laden with gold, jewels, 
 and baggage of the most costly description.* 
 Had be ])rocecded fearlessly by laud in the 
 broad daylight, it is possible that many of the 
 local authorities would have rallied round 
 his standard ; but instead of taking a bold 
 course, he embarked in some ijoats for 
 Blassy, lioping to be able to efi'ect a junction 
 with a party of the French under ^I. Law, 
 who, at the time of the battle of Patna, was 
 actually marching to his assistance. This 
 proceeding removed all obstacles from the 
 path of Meer Jaffier, and his installation 
 was performed with as mncb pomp as cir- 
 cumstances would permit. At the last mo- 
 ment, cither from alTcctcd humility or a 
 misgiving as to the dangerous and trouble- 
 
 • Oime siiys tliat Surajah Dowlah esca])ed by 
 night from a window of the jialacc, accompanied only 
 by a favourite concubine and a eunuch ; but Gliolam 
 Hussein, wlio, besides his usual accuracy, may be ex- 
 pected to be well informed on the subject, makes the 
 statements ^iven in tlie text, and confirms them by 
 much incidental detail. —(Sii/ar ul Muiakhcrin, i., 7 ; 
 sec also Scott's Beiii/tii, u., 371.) 
 
 t The interpreter of Clive — a renegade Frenchman, 
 called Mustapha, who translated tlie Sii/m' ul Mu- 
 ttihhcrin — states in a note (i., 773), that the English 
 never suspected the existence of an inner treasury 
 said to contain eight crores (eight million sterling), 
 kept, in pursuance of a custom common in India, in 
 tlie zenana or women's apartments. In corrobora- 
 tion, various circumstances are adduced in the history 
 
 some nature of power treacherously usurped, 
 be hesitated and refused to take pos- 
 session of the sumptuously-adorned mus- 
 niid, or ])ilo of cushions, prepared for bini. 
 ('live, iiaving vainly tried persuasion, took 
 bis hand, and ])laeing him on the throne, 
 kept hiin down by the arm while he pre- 
 sented the customary homage — a uuzzur, or 
 offering of gold nioliurs, on a salver. The 
 act was sufficiently significative; thenceforth 
 the subahdars of Bengal existed in a degree 
 of dependence on the foreign rulers by 
 whom they were nominated, with which that 
 formerly paid to the most powerful of the 
 Great ^loguls bears no comparison. 
 
 This public eercmonial was followed by a 
 private meeting among the confederates to 
 divide the spoil. Whether the extravagance 
 of Surajah Dowlah, during bis fifteen months' 
 sway, had exhausted a treasury previously 
 drained by Mahratta wars and subsidies, or 
 whether IMcer Jaflicr and his countrymen 
 succeeded in outwitting their English asso- 
 ciates, and secretly possessed themselves of 
 the lion's sbare,t remains an open question ; 
 but it appears that the funds available, 
 amounted only to 150 lacs of rupees— a sum 
 far short of that which had been reckoned 
 upon in the arrangement previously made. 
 One large claim was repudiated in a very 
 summary manner. When j\Ieer Jaffier, and 
 the few persons immediately concerned in 
 the plot, adjourned to the bouse of Juggut 
 Seit, to settle the manner of carrying out 
 the treaty, Omiehund followed as a matter 
 of course. He bad no suspicion of the deceit 
 practised upon him; for "Clive, with dis- 
 simulation surpassing even the dissimulation 
 of Bengal, bad, up to that day, treated him 
 with undiminished kindness."| Not being 
 invited to take his scat on the carpet, Omi- 
 ehund, in some surprise, withdrew to the 
 lower part of the hall, and waited till he 
 should be summoned to join the conference.^ 
 
 of the individuals whom he assert-s to have been par 
 ticipanls in the secret, to prove their having derived 
 immense wealth from some hidden source. Among 
 others Mini Btgum, the favourite wife of Meer 
 Jaffier Khan, wlio survived him, possessed an im- 
 mense fortune, altliough her husband was constantly 
 involved in disturbances with the soldiery from real 
 or affected inability to discharge their arrears of pay. 
 
 \ Macaulay's Essay on Life of C/ife, ]i. 50. 
 
 § Admiral Watson was not of the party. He died 
 in the course of the year of a malignant fever which 
 prevailed on the coast. Captain lirereton, when 
 q<iestioned before ))arliamcnt regarding the deception 
 practised on Omiehund, bore witnes.s that the admi- 
 ral had stigmatised the conduct of Clive tis " dishon- 
 ourable and iniquitous." — (Pari. IJcports, iii., 151.)
 
 280 
 
 DECEPTION AND FATE OF OMICHUND— 1757. 
 
 The white treaty was produced and read ; 
 its various stipulations (including the utter 
 expulsion of the French from Bengal) were 
 confirmed, and the pecuniary claims of the 
 English met by tlie immediate payment of one- 
 halt' — two-thirds in money, and one-third 
 in plate and jewels; the other portion to be 
 discliarged in three equal annual payments.* 
 At length Omichund became uneasy at 
 the total disregard evinced of his presence. 
 On coming forward, he caught sight of the 
 document just read, and exclaimed — " There 
 must be some mistake; the general treaty was 
 on red paper !" Clive, wlio during his long 
 residence in India never acquired a know- 
 ledge of any Indian language, turned to 
 Mr. Scrafton, one of the servants of the 
 company, then acting as interpreter, and 
 said — " It is time to undeceive Omichund." 
 This was easily done ; the few words in 
 Hindostanee, " The red treaty' was a trick, 
 Omichund — you are to have nothing," were 
 soon spoken; but the bystanders could 
 scarcely have been prepared for the result. 
 The Hindoo was avaricious to the heart's 
 core ; and this sudden disappointment, aimed 
 at the tenderest point, and aggravated by 
 feelings of anger and humiliation, came like 
 the stroke of death. Tie swooned, and was 
 carried to his stately home, v/herc, after re- 
 maining many hours in a state of the deepest 
 gloom, he began to exhibit symptoms of 
 insanity. Some days after he visited Clive, 
 who, probably unwilling to recognise the 
 full extent of the ruin he had wrought, 
 strove to soothe the old man by promises 
 of procuring favourable terms with the 
 company regarding certain contracts which 
 
 * Clive, in a letter to the Secret Committee of the 
 Court of Directors, dated Moorshedabad, 26th July, 
 after jjiving some details of the battle, says — " The 
 substance of the treaty with the present nabob is as 
 follows: — 1st. Confirmation of the mint and all other 
 grants and privileges in the treaty with the late 
 nabob. 2ndly. An alliance, offensive and defensive, 
 against all enemies whatsoever. 3rdly. The ]'>ench 
 factories and effects to be delivered up, and they never 
 to be permitted to resettle in any of the provinces. 
 4thly. One hundred lacs (£1,000,000) to be paid to the 
 company in consideration of iheir losses at Calcutta, 
 and the exi)enses of the eamjiaign. TMhly. Fiftv lacs 
 (£500,000) to be given to the English' sufferers at 
 the loss of Calcutta. Glhly. Twenty lacs (£'JO0,00O) 
 to Gentoos, Moors, &c., black sufferers at the loss of 
 Calcutta. 7thly. Seven lacs (£70,000) to the Arme- 
 nian suiferers : these three last donations to be dis- 
 tributed at the pleasure of the admiral and gentle- 
 men of the council, including me. 8thly. Tlie en- 
 tire jiroperty of all lands within the Mahralta ditch, 
 which runs round Calcutta, to be vested in the com- 
 )Kuiy : also (JOO yards all round, without the said 
 ditch. Othly. The company to have the zemindary 
 
 he held from them ; and even spoke of him, 
 in an official despatch, as " a person capable 
 of rendering great services, and therefore 
 not wholly to be discarded."t This state- 
 ment is, however, quite incompatible with 
 the description of Ormc, who declares that 
 Omichund, after being carried a senseless 
 burthen from the house of Juggut Seit,J 
 never rallied, but sank from insanity to 
 idiocy. Contrary to the custom of the 
 aged in Ilindostan, and especially to his 
 former habits and strong reason, Omichund, 
 now an imbecile, went about decked in 
 gaudy clothing and costlj' jewels, until his 
 death, in the course of about eighteen 
 months, terminated the melancholy history. 
 Such a transaction can need no comment, 
 at least to those who believe that in all 
 cases, under all eircurastances, a crime is of 
 necessity a blunder. § In the present in- 
 stance there could be no second opinion on 
 the point, except as regarded the private 
 interests of the persons concerned in the 
 division of spoil found in the treasury of 
 the deposed prince. The commercial in- 
 tegrity of the English had laid the foun- 
 dation of the confidence reposed in them 
 by the natives, whether Mohammedan or 
 Hindoo : the alliance of Juggut Seit and 
 other wealthy bankers had been procured 
 chiefly by this means. Omichund, in his 
 endeavours to all.iy the suspicions of Sura- 
 jah Dowlah, liad declared that the English 
 were famous throughout the world for their 
 good faith, inasmuch that a man in Eng- 
 land, who, on any occasion, told a lie, was 
 utterly disgraced, and never after admitted 
 to the society of his former friends and ac- 
 
 of the country to the south of Calcutta, lying be- 
 tween the lake and the river, and reaching as far as Cui- 
 pee, they paying the customary rents jiaid by the for- 
 mer zemindars to the government. lOlhly. AVhenever 
 the assistance of the English troops shall be wanted, 
 their extraordinary charges to be paid by the nabob, 
 llthly. No forts to be erected by the government 
 on the river side, from Hooghly downwards." Clive 
 carefully avoided all mention of the separate treaties 
 for the payment of monies in which ho had the 
 chief share. — (See Note in ensuing page.) 
 
 t Life nf Clive, i., 289. 
 
 X The ainoimt of the reward received by Juggut 
 Seit does not appear. If at all in jnoportion to his 
 jn-evious wealth, it must have been very large. At 
 the time of the plunder of Moorshedahad by tlie Mah- 
 rnttas, in 1742, two million and a-lialf sterling in 
 Arcot ru])ecs were taken from tlie treasury of himself 
 and his brother; notwithstanding which they con- 
 tinued to grant bills at sight, of one crore each. 
 
 § " Using no arguments but such as Machiavelli 
 might have employed in his conferences with Jiorgia," 
 reninrks Maraulay, " Clivi' committed not merely a 
 crime but a blunder." — (JEssay, p. .jl.)
 
 ENORMOUS SUMS OBTAINED BY CLIVE IN BENGAL. 
 
 281 
 
 quaintanccs.* This invaluable prestige of 
 lioiicst fk'iiling was placed in imminent jeo- 
 pardy Ijy Clivc;; and years afterwards, rank 
 and wealth failed to preserve him from 
 learning, with anger and bitter humiliation, 
 that forgery and lying were viecs which, in 
 tlic sight of his countrymen at large, could 
 not be atoned for by the most brilliant suc- 
 cesses. With regard to the enormous sums 
 accepted, or, in other words, seized by Eng- 
 lish oilicials, both civil and military, from 
 the treasury of Bengal, tliat also seems to 
 resolve itself into a very simple question. 
 If, like Morari llao, they had been professed 
 leaders of mercenary troops, selling their 
 services to the highest bidder, there could 
 have been no doubt that, after their own 
 fashion of reasoning, they would have well 
 earned the stipulated reward. But Clivc 
 and his compeers were not masters, but 
 servants ; the troops under their command 
 were, like themselves, in the pay of the 
 nation or the company ; and it was unques- 
 tionably from the government or the Court 
 of Directors (to the latter of whom Clivc 
 repeatedly affirmed that he " owed every- 
 thing"), t and from them only, that rewards 
 shoultl have been received. 
 
 Years afterwards, when stcridy questioned 
 respecting the proceedings of this period, 
 Clive declared that on recollecting the heaps 
 of gold and silver coin piled up in masses, 
 crowned with rubies and diamonds, through 
 which he passed in the treasury of Moor- 
 slicdabad, he could not but view with sur- 
 prise his own moderation in only taking 
 (as it appeared):!: to the extent of twenty 
 to thirtv lacs of rupees — that is, between 
 £200,0t)0 and .£300,000. This "raodera- 
 tiou''§ was, however, of brief continuaucc; 
 for, some time afterwards, on the plea of desir- 
 ing means wherewith to maintain a I\Iogul 
 dignity conferred on him, he intimated to 
 Mcer Jaflier the propriety of its being 
 accompanied by a jaghirc (or estate for the 
 support of a military contingent.) |] In their 
 relative positions a hint was a command, and 
 the quit-rent paid by the E. I. Cy. for the 
 
 * Ornio's 3Iiltiarij Trinisuctions, ii., 137. 
 
 t Malcolm's /.//(• of Lord Clicc, i., IS'2. 
 . \ Clive cautiously alistaincd from any explicit 
 statement of the siuns acquired by liim on various 
 pretences; and his fellow-ollicials, as far as possible, 
 refrained from acknowledging the e.\tent of his ex- 
 tortions or their own, even when sharply cross- 
 examined before iiarliamcnt. 
 
 § In a letter addressed to Mr. Pisot, dated Au- 
 gust, 1757, Clive speaks of his "genteel compe- 
 tence," and " a possible reverse of fortune," as rea- 
 sons for desiring to leave Bengal. Mr. I'igut pro- 
 
 extensive lands hold by them to the south of 
 Caletitta, amounting to nearly ,£.'5(),000 
 sterling per annum, was forthwith ceded. 
 
 To return to the general narrative. Su- 
 rajah Dowlah and his female companions 
 reached Uaj Mahal on the third night after 
 leaving ]\loor»hedabad. I'lxhansted with fa- 
 tigue, and famishing with htinger, they 
 landed, took refuge in a deserted garden, 
 and began to prepare a mess of rice and 
 pulse (called kiehery), the common food of 
 the country. While engaged in this un- 
 wonted task, the fugitives were discovered 
 by a man of low condition, whose c;irs had 
 been cut oil' by order of Siirajah Dowlah 
 a twelvemonth before. Dissembling Ids 
 vengeful feelings, he affected compassion 
 and respect for the prince, and assisted in 
 the preparation of the meal, but secretly 
 sent word to the soldiers engaged in pursuit 
 where to find the object of their search. At 
 this very time. Law and his detaehinent were 
 within three hours' march of llaj Mahal; 
 but they were driven from place to place 
 by a party under ilajor Cootc, and even- 
 tually expelled from Bengal ; while Surajah 
 Dowlah was seized by the emissaries of ^leer 
 Jallier, laden with chains, treated w ith every 
 species of cruelty compatible with the pre- 
 servation of life, and dragged through ^loor- 
 shcdabad, to the presence of his successor. 
 It was noon ; but Meer Jailicr, though seated 
 on the musnud, had taken his daily dose of 
 bang, ^ and v,as incapable of giving instruc- 
 tions regarding the treatment of the prisoner. 
 His sou Mceran, a lad of about seventeen, 
 took upon himself to decide the question. 
 This mere boy, editeatcd in the harem, and 
 remarkably effeminate both iu dress and 
 speech, possessed a heart uo less callous to 
 the gentler feelings of humanity than that 
 of an old and unprincipled politician, hard- 
 ened in the world's ways. " Pity and com- 
 passion," he said, "spoilt business." It 
 scarcely needed the murmuring and dissen- 
 sion which pervaded the army, when the 
 capture and ignominious trcatiueut of their 
 late ruler became known, to decide his fate. 
 
 bably sympathised with him, for he himself accumu- 
 latetl a fortune of £400,000, chiefly (according to 
 Mr. M'atts) by lending money at high interest to the 
 nabob, the chiefs, and managers of provinces — a prac- 
 tice, says Sir John Malcolm, then too common to be 
 considered as in any way discreditable. — (ii., 251.) 
 
 II )"/'(/(' his own evidence before the House of 
 Commons. Such a solicitation was clearly opposed to 
 the duty of a servant of the E. I. Cy. and a Lieu- 
 tenant-colonel ill the British army. — (I'arl. Papers, 
 vol. iii., p. 154.) 
 
 % An intoxicating beverage, made from hemi).
 
 283 MURDER OF SURAJAH DOWLAH.— REJOICING AT CALCUTTA. 
 
 Meeran caused him to be confined in a small 
 chamber near hi:s own apartments, and then 
 summoning his personal friends, asked which 
 of them would serve the existing admin- 
 istration, by removing the only obstacle to 
 its permanency. One after another pe- 
 remptorily rejected the dastardly olBce ; at 
 length it was accepted by a man under pe- 
 culiar obligations to the parents of the des- 
 tined victim, in conjunction with a favourite 
 servant of Meeran's. On beholding the en- 
 trance of the assassins, Surajah Dowlali at 
 once guessed their purpose. " Tliey will uot 
 suffer me even to live in obscurity !" he ex- 
 claimed ; and then requested that water might 
 be provided for the performance of the puri- 
 fication commanded by the Koran before 
 death. A large vessel which stood at hand 
 was emptied rudely over him, and lie was 
 hewn down by repeated sabre strokes; "se- 
 veral of which fell," says the Mohammedan 
 historian, "on a face renowned all over Bengal 
 for regularity of feature and sweetness of 
 expression." The memory of a past deed of 
 violence came over the prince in this terrible 
 houi', and he died declaring, in allusion to an 
 officer whom he had tyraimieally caused to 
 be executed in the streets of Moor.sliedabad, 
 " Hussein Kooli, thou art avenged !" * 
 
 The morning after this event Meer Jaffier 
 visited Clive, and, in the words of the former, 
 " thought it necessary to palliate the matter 
 on motives of policy." Clive docs not ap- 
 pear to have deemed any excuse necessary ; 
 but tlie truth was, his own neglect had been 
 unjustifiable, in not taking precautionary 
 measures to guard at least the life of a ruler 
 deposed by a conspiracy in which the English 
 played the leading part. No eftbrt was made 
 to jH'otect even the female relatives t of the 
 murdered prince from cruel indignities at 
 the hands of Meer Jaifier and his son, and 
 his consort and infant daughter were robbed 
 of all the valuables about them, and sent 
 
 • The above account is, as before stated, chiefly 
 derived from the Siyar ul 3lutukherin. The author 
 is strongly prejudiced against Surajah Dowlah, to 
 whom he was distantly related, lie had been taken 
 Ijrisoner in an engagement between lliis jnince and 
 Shaocat Jung, a rival pretender to the viceroyally 
 of Bengal, who was slain during a fit of intoxica- 
 tion. The conduct of Surajah i)owlah on this oc- 
 casion, does not corroborate the statements made by 
 Orme and Stewart of his cruelty and violence, and 
 it is possible that these have been exaggerated ; but 
 unhappily, all the evidence comes from one -side. 
 
 t Surajah Dowlah was five-and-twenty at the time 
 of his assassination. Ilis mother, on beholding tlie 
 mangled remains dragged past licr windows, rushed 
 into tlie street, without veil or slippers, and clasped 
 the body in her arms, but was forced back with blows. 
 
 into confinement in. a manner calculated to 
 inflict indelible disgrace on Mohammedan 
 females of rank. 
 
 In Calcutta all was triumph and rejoicing. 
 Few stopped to think, amid the excitement 
 created by the tide of wealth fast pouring in, 
 of past calamities or future cares. It was a 
 momentous epoch ; the step once taken was 
 irrevocable; the company of traders had 
 assumed a new position — henceforth to be 
 rulers and lawgivers, with almost irrespon- 
 sible sway over a territory far larger and 
 more populous than their native land. It 
 may be doubted if the directors at home 
 gave much heed to these considerations ; 
 their representatives in India certainly did 
 not, each one being fully occupied in gather- 
 ing the largest possible share of the spoil. 
 The monies stipulated for in restitution of the 
 damage inflicted in Calcutta, with those de- 
 manded on behalf of the squadron, army, and 
 committee, amounted to £2,750,000, besides 
 donations to individuals. J The company re- 
 ceived property to tlie amount of £1,500,000, 
 and territorial revenues valued by Clive at 
 £100,000 a-year. A fleet of 100 boats, with 
 flags flying and music playing, bore to Fort 
 William £800,000 in coined silver alone, 
 besides plate and jewels, as the first instal- 
 ment of the promised reward. 
 
 Leaving the Bengal functionaries in the 
 enjoyment of wealth and influence, it is ne- 
 cessary to narrate the cotemporary proceed- 
 ings of tlie Madras presidency. 
 
 Affairs in the Caiinatic and Coroman- 
 DEL Coast. — Upon the breaking out of war 
 between Great Britain and France in 1756, 
 the French ministry resolved to strike an im- 
 portant blow in India. A powerful armament 
 was fitted out, and entrusted to the charge 
 of Count J^ally, an officer of Irish extraction, 
 who had shared the exile of James II., 
 and was no less noted for personal courage 
 than for strong feelings against England. 
 
 X The army and navy had £jOO,000 for their 
 share, Clive coming in, as commander-in-cliief, for 
 £20,000. As a member of tlie Secret Unmmittee, ho 
 received to the amount of £28,000, the others having 
 £2-1,000 each; besides which every one of them ob- 
 tained a special gift from Meer Jaffier: that of Clive 
 is variously stated at from £100,000 to £200,000. 
 The General Council (not of the coHimi'Med') received 
 £00,000. Among the individuals who profited 
 largely by what Clive termed the "generosity" of 
 Meer Jallier, was Mr. Drake, tlie runaway governor 
 of Calcutta. I.ushinglon (who forged the hand and 
 seal of Admiral Watson) had, Clive stated in reply 
 to parliamentary inquiry, " something very trifling, 
 — about ,00,000 rupees." — (Pari. Reports.) The di- 
 vision of the booty occasioned very serious disputes 
 between the army and the navy.
 
 EXPEDITION TO THE CARNATIC UNDER COUNT LALLY— 1758, 283 
 
 He was accompanied by his own rep;imcnt of 
 Irisli (1,080 stron;,0> ^Y ^f^y of the; royal 
 artillery, and a great number of oflicers of 
 distinction. Tlic court of Versailles looked 
 on the success of tlic expedition as a matter 
 of certainty, and directed the commencement 
 of operations by the sie^c of Fort St. David. 
 Their anticipated conquests were marred by 
 a remarkable series of disasters. The fleet 
 quitted Brest in May, 1757, and carried 
 with them the infection of a malignant fever 
 then raging in the port. No less than 300 
 persons died before reaching Rio Janeiro; 
 and from one cause or another delays arose, 
 which hindered tlic ships from reaching 
 Pondichcrry until the end of April, 1758. 
 There new difficulties occurred to obstruct 
 the path of Lally. He had been especially 
 directed to put down, at all hazards, the dis- 
 sension and venality wliich pi'cvailed among 
 the French ollicials, and to compel them to 
 make exertions forthe benefit of theiremploy- 
 crs, instead of the accumulation of private 
 fortunes. The task was at best an onerous 
 one, and Lally set about it with an uneom- 
 pi'omising zeal, wliich, under the circum- 
 stances, bordered on indiscretion. Perfectly 
 conversant with the technicalities of his pro- 
 fession, he was wilful and presumptuous: 
 his daring plans, if heartily seconded, might 
 have been crowned with brilliant success; as 
 it was, they met the same fate as those of La 
 Bourdonnais,w bile he was reserved for a doom 
 more terrible, and equally unmerited. Some 
 of his early measures were, however, attended 
 with success. The English beheld with 
 alarm the overpowering additions made to 
 the force of the rival nation; and when, after 
 a prolonged siege. Fort St. David capitulated, 
 serious apprehensions were entertained for 
 the safety of Madras. The want of funds 
 alone prevented Lally from making an im- 
 mediate attack. After vainly endeavouring 
 to raise sufficient supplies on credit, he re- 
 solved to direct to their attainment the next 
 operations of the war. The rajah of Tanjorc, 
 when hard pressed, in 1751, by the united 
 force of Chunda Sahib and Dupleix, had 
 given a bond for 5,()00,000 rupees, which 
 remained unredeemed at Pondichcrry. To 
 extort payment of this sum an expedition 
 was now undertaken against Tanjorc, and on 
 the march thither, many cruel acts of vio- 
 • At Kivaloor, the scat of a celebrated pagoda, 
 Lally, in the hope of findinc; hidden treasures, ran- 
 sacked the houses, diip; up the foundations, dras;ged 
 the tanks, and carried away the brass idols ; but to 
 very little purpose as far as booty was concerned. 
 Six Brahmins lingered about the violated shrines ; and 
 
 lence were committed.* The rajah, after 
 some resistance, ofl'crcd to compromise the 
 matter by tiic payment of a sum much infe- 
 rior to that required. The French com- 
 mander was willing to abate liis pecuniary 
 demand, provided lie should be supplied with 
 f)00 cattle for draught and provisions, which 
 were greatly needed for the troops. The 
 rajah refused, on the plea that his rehgion did 
 not sanction the surrender of kinc for the 
 unhallowed uses of Europeans. The impe- 
 tuous Lally had Ijcfore excited strong feelings 
 of aversion in the minds of the natives by 
 oljliging them to carry burthens for the army, 
 and other services which he enforced pro- 
 miscuously, without regard to the laws of 
 cast : he now treated the assertion of the 
 rajah as a mere pretext to gain time, similar 
 to those practised upon Chunda Sahib on a 
 previous occasion; therefore, making little 
 allowance for the invariable ])rolixities of 
 eastern negotiation, he declared that unless 
 an arrangement were forthwith agreed on, 
 the rajah and all his family should be 
 shipped as slaves to the Mauritius. The 
 Hindoos rarely indulge in intemperate lan- 
 guage ; and tlic Tanjorc prince, stung and 
 astonished by the outrage oilered him, re- 
 solved to perish sooner than succumb to his 
 insulting ibe. At his earnest request, an 
 English detachment was sent from Trichino- 
 poly to his assistance. Lally continued the 
 assault on Tanjorc, and had effected a 
 breach, when news arrived that the English 
 fleet, after an indecisive engagement with 
 that of France,t had anchored before Karieal, 
 from whence alone the besieging force could 
 derive supplies. Powder and provisions 
 were both nearly exhausted, and Lally, by 
 the almost unanimous opinion of a council 
 of war, withdrew from Tanjorc, and hastened 
 to Pondichcrry, with the intention of ntaking 
 a simultaneous attack by sea and land on 
 jMadras. Tliis project fell to the ground, 
 owing to the determination of the naval 
 commander to quit India immediately, which, 
 notwithstanding the urgent entreaties of the 
 local government and the army, he per- 
 sisted in doing, on the ground that the dis- 
 ablement of the ships, and the disease and 
 diminution of the crews, rendered it impera- 
 tively necessary to refit at the ^lauritius. 
 Lally thus weakened, directed his next eu- 
 Lally, suspecting that they were spies, caused them 
 all to be shot off from the muzzle of his cannon. — 
 (Wilks' Historij of Ml/soar, i., 397.) 
 
 t The English "suffered most in their shipping ; the 
 French in their men.— ( Vide Owen Cambridge's Ac- 
 count of the War in India, from 1750 to 1760, p. 123.)
 
 284 
 
 LALLY INEFFECTUALLY BESIEGES MADRAS— 1758-'59. 
 
 deavours against Arcot, and succeeded in 
 gaining possession of that place through the 
 artifices of Rcza Sahib (now dignified by the 
 French with the title of nabob), who opened 
 a correspondence with the governor placed 
 there by Mohammed Ali, and induced him 
 to make a pretended capitulation, and come 
 over with his troops to the service of the 
 enemy. About the time of entering Arcot, 
 Lally was joined by Bussy. This officer 
 had, by the exercise of extraordinary ability, 
 maintained his position in the court of 
 Salabut Jung, and dexterously threading 
 his way amid the intrigues of the IMohara- 
 medau courtiers, headed by the brothers of 
 the subahdar (Nizam Ali and Bassalut 
 Jung), had contrived, with very slender 
 means, to uphold the jiower of his country- 
 men in connexion with the ruler they had 
 nominated.* Lally did not, or would not, see 
 that the authority of the French at Hydera- 
 bad — that even the important possessions of 
 the Northern Circars, rested almost wholly 
 on the great personal influence of one man ; 
 and notwithstanding the arguments and 
 entreaties of Bussy and Salabut Jung, the 
 troops were recalled to Pondicherry. It 
 appears that Lally, having heard of the large 
 sums raised by Dupleix on his private credit, 
 hoped that Bussy might be able to do so 
 likewise; and he listened with mingled sur- 
 prise and disappointment to the averment of 
 the generous and high-principled officer, that 
 having never used his influence with the 
 subahdar as a means of amassing wealth, he 
 was altogether incapable of aftbrding any ma- 
 terial assistance in pecuniary affairs. The 
 government of Pondicherry declared them- 
 selves devoid of the means of maintaining the 
 army, upon which Count d'Estaigne and 
 other leading ofScers agreed in council, that it 
 was better to die by a musket-ball, under the 
 ramparts of Madras, than by hunger within 
 the walls of Pondicherry, and determined to 
 commence oflensive operations by endeavour- 
 ing to bombard the English settlement, shut 
 up the troops in Fort St. George, pillage the 
 Black Town, and lay waste the surrounding 
 country. The sum of 9f,000 rupees was 
 raised for the purpose, of which 60,000 were 
 contributed by Lally himself, and the re- 
 
 • A detailed aceount of liis proceedings occupies n 
 consiclerable part of Orme's iVi/ilun/ Triinsaciioii':. 
 _ t ><'o attempt was made to di lend tlie lilaek 
 Town ; but after its seizure by tlie Frcncli, tlic Kng- 
 lish perceiving tlie intemperance and disorder of tlie 
 hostile troops, strove to profit by the op])ortunity, 
 and sallied out 000 strong. They were, however, 
 driven back with the loss of 200 men and six officers. 
 
 mainder in smaller sums by members of ; 
 council and private individuals. The force j 
 thus sparely provided with the sinews of 
 war, consisted of 2,700 European, and 4,000 
 Indian troops. The English, apprised of 
 the intended hostilities, made active prepa- 
 rations for defence under the veteran general, 
 Lawrence, and their efforts were again 'fa- 
 voured by climatorial influences; for the 
 French expedition, though in readiness to 
 leave Pondicherry at the beginning of No- 
 vember, 17.58, was prevented by heav\' rains 
 from reaching Madras till the middle of 
 December, and this at a crisis when Lally 
 had not funds to secure the subsistence of 
 the troops for a single week. The spoil of 
 the Black Townf furnished means for the 
 erection of batteries, and the subsequent 
 arrival of a million livres from the IMauri- 
 tius, led to the conversion of the blockade 
 (which was at first alone intended) into a 
 siege ; but, either from prudential considera- 
 tions or disaflection,J the officers refused to 
 second the ardour of their commander; and 
 after nine weeks' tarry (during the last fort- 
 night of which the troops had subsisted 
 almost entirely upon some rice and butter 
 captured in two small vessels from Bengal), 
 the approach of an English fleet of six sail, 
 compelled the enemy to decamp by night 
 with all haste. The state of feeling at 
 Pondicherry may be easily conceived from 
 the assertion of Lally, that the disastrous 
 result of the expedition -was celebrated by 
 the citizens as a triuinj)h over its unpopular 
 commander. Their ill-founded rejoicings 
 were of brief continuance ; scofling was soon 
 merged in gloomy apprehensions, destined 
 to find a speedy realisation. The arrival of 
 an important accession to the English force, 
 under Colonel Coote, in October, 1759, 
 decided for the time the struggle between 
 France and England for supremacy in India. 
 AYandewash wa's speedily attacked and car- 
 ried. Lally, while marching to attempt its 
 recovery, was met and defeated. Bussy 
 placed himself at the head of a regiment, to 
 lead the men to the charge of the bayonet, 
 as the only riieans of saving the battle; had 
 his horse wounded under him, was aban- 
 doned by the troops, and taken prisoner. 
 
 } Orme says the former ; Lally, in liis Memoirs, 
 the latter: at the same lime he severely censures the 
 plots and whole conduct of the I'ondicherry govern- 
 ment, declaring, in an intercepted letter, that ho 
 " would rather go and command the Kafirs of Mada- 
 gascar, than remain in thi^ ^odoni ; whinh it is im- 
 possible but the fire of the English must destroy sooner 
 or later, even though that of licaven should not."
 
 FIRST APPEARANCE AND CAREER OF HYDER ALT. 
 
 285 
 
 L 
 
 Cliittnjiiit, Arcot, Doviootta, Karicul, Val- 
 doro, (Juildalorc, and otlior forts, were suc- 
 cessively raptured; and Ijy the Ijo^inniiif; 
 of May, 17G(), tlio I'^rencli troojis were con- 
 fined to tlic bounds of Poudiclicrry, and tlie 
 English, having received further reinforce- 
 ments, encamped within four rnilcs of the 
 town. Lally shrank from no amount of 
 danger or fatigue in his exertions to rally 
 the troops and subdue the pervading spirit 
 of mutiny and corruption. As the last 
 chance of upholding the national interest, 
 he resorted to the policy of Dupleix, and 
 looked round for some uative power as an 
 auxiliary. The individual on whom he 
 fixed was Ilyder Ali,* a soldier of fortune, 
 who had risen to the command of the 
 
 • The great-gramlfatlier of Ilyder AH was a reli- 
 gious peison, named Khelole, who migrated from the 
 Punjab and settled with liis two sons at the town of 
 Alund, 110 miles from Hyderabad. Here he erected 
 a small mosque by charitable contributions, and 
 also what is termed a fakeer's miikan — that is a house 
 for the fakeer, who attends, at the mosque and pro- 
 cures provisions for the use of the worshippers, by 
 this s|)eculation, lihelole raised some projjerty, but 
 not sufficient to support the families of his sons, who 
 left him and obtained employment at Sera as reve- 
 nue peons. One of these, named Mohammed AH, 
 left a son called Futteh, who having distinguished 
 himself for bravery, was promoted to be a Naik 
 or commander of twenty peons. From this position 
 he gradually rose to eminence, and married a lady of 
 a rank superior to his own. The circumstances at- 
 tending this union were altogether of a romantic 
 character. The father of the lady was robbed and 
 murdered near the borders of Bednore while travers- 
 ing the jjeninsula. His widow and two daughters 
 begged their way to Colar, where they were relieved 
 from further difficulty by Hyder Naik, who married 
 both the sisters in succession — a practice not for- 
 bidden by the Mohammedan law. Two .sons, of 
 whom the younger was the famous Ilyder Ali, were 
 born to the second wife, and they had respectively 
 attained the age of nine and seven years, when their 
 father was slain in upholding the cause of the Mo- 
 hammedan noble whom he served, against the pre- 
 tensions of a rival candidate for one of tlie minor Dec- 
 cani governments in 1728. The patron of Ryder 
 Naik was defeated and slain; the family of the latter 
 fell into the hands of the victor, and on pretence of 
 a balance due from the deceased to the revenues of 
 the province, a sum of money was extorted from his 
 heirs by cruel and ignominious tortm-es, applied to 
 both the lads, and even, Colonel Wilks supposes, to 
 the widow herself. Ilyder Ali waited thirty-two 
 years for an opportunity of revenge ; and then, as will 
 be shown in a subsequent page, grasped it with the 
 avidity of a man retaliating an injury of yesterday. 
 Meanwhile his mother, being permitted to depart 
 after having, in the words of her grandson, Tippoo 
 Sultan, "lost everything but her children and her 
 honour," sought refuge among her own kindred. 
 Through the inffuence of a maternal uncle, the 
 elder boy was received into tlie service of a Hindoo 
 officer of rank, and gradually rose to a respectable 
 position ; but Hyder Ali attained the age of twenty- 
 2p 
 
 Mysoor army. With him Tjally concluded 
 an agreement, by which Ilyder undertook 
 to furnish a certain quantity of bullocks for 
 the supply of I'ondieherrj', and to join the 
 l"'rench with 3,000 picked horse and 5,000 
 sepoys. In return he was to receive imme- 
 diate possession of the fort of Theagur — an 
 important station, about fifty miles from 
 Pondichcrry, situate near two of the prin- 
 cipal passes in the Carn;itic, with, it is alleged, 
 the promise even of Madura and 'J'innivellv, 
 in the event of the favourable termination of 
 the war. A detachment of the English 
 army, sent to interrupt the march of the 
 Mysoor troops, was defeated ; but, after 
 remaining in the vicinity of Pondichcrry 
 about a month, Hyder decamped one night 
 
 seven without entering on any profession, in utter 
 ignorance of the first elements of reading and writing, 
 al)sent from liome for weeks together on some secret 
 expedition of voluptuous riot, or passing, as was the 
 custom of his whole life, to the opposite extreme of 
 rigid abstinence and excessive exertion — wandering 
 in the woods in pursuit of wild beasts, himself hardly 
 less ferocious. At length he thought fit to join his 
 brother's corps as a volunteer on a special occasion, 
 and having attracted the attention of Nunjeraj by 
 his singular bravery and self-possession, he was at 
 once placed in command of some troops, and from 
 that time acquired jiowcr by rapid steps. The 
 authority of the Mysoor state then rested wholly in 
 the hands of Nunjeraj and his brother Dcoraj ; but 
 the death of the latter, and the incapacity of the 
 former, induced an attempt on the part of the rajah 
 to become a king in reality as well as name. Hyder 
 at one time sided with, at another against, the rajah, 
 his object in both cases being purely selfish. An 
 invasion of Mysoor by the Mahrattas, in 1759, con- 
 tributed to his aggrandisement, by giving scope for 
 the exercise of his warlike abilities ; but he played a 
 desperate game; for the queen-mother, perceiving 
 his daring tem|)er, dreaded to find her son released 
 from the hands of one usurper only to fall into worse 
 custody, and laid a scheme, in conjunction with a 
 Mahratta chief, for the destruction of Hyder Ali, 
 who was then engaged at a distance from court. 
 Hyder escaped with difficulty, and having travelled 
 ninety-eight miles in twenty hours (the first seventy- 
 five on the same horse), reached Bangalore, the fort 
 and district of which had been given him shortly 
 before as a personal jaghire, just in time to precede 
 the orders sent by the rajah to close the gates against 
 him. The strength of the Mahrattas was shattered 
 by the disastrous battle of Paniput, in 1760; the ex- 
 hausting strife of the European power m the Car- 
 natic precluded their interference ; and Hyder found 
 means to reduce his nominal master to the condi- 
 tion of a state pensioner, and then looked round for 
 further food for ambition. As an illustration of the 
 cruelty of his nature, it is related that when after 
 the successful termination of the rebellion, Kundee 
 Kao, the brave and faithful general of the r.ij!ih, was 
 surrendered to the conqueroi, with an earnest sup- 
 plication for kind treatment. Hyder replied, that he 
 would not only spare his life, but cherish him like a 
 paioquet; and the miserable captive was accordingly 
 confined in an iron cage, and fed on rice and milk.
 
 286 
 
 EXTINCTION OF FRENCH POWER IN INDIA— 1760. 
 
 with his whole force, on account of internal 
 proceedings which threatened the downfall 
 of his newly-usurped authority iu Mysoor. 
 The English, so soon as the rains had ceased, 
 actively besieged Pondicherry. Insubordina- 
 tion, dissension, and privation of every de- 
 scription * seconded their efforts within the 
 walls. Lally himself was sick and worn out 
 with vexation and fatigue. The garrison 
 surrendered at discretion in January, 1 760,t 
 and the council of Madras lost no time in 
 levelling its fortifications with the ground. J 
 
 The consequences predicted by Bussy, 
 from his compulsory abandonment of Salabut 
 Jung, had already ensued. An expedition 
 from Bengal, fitted out by the English against 
 the Northern Circars, had wrested from the 
 French these important possessions. Mahe 
 and its dependencies on the Malabar coast 
 had been likewise attacked, and reduced a 
 few months before the fall of Pondicherry. 
 Theagur capitulated after a feeble resistance ; 
 and the capture of the strong fort of Jinjee in 
 April, 1761, completed the triumph of the 
 English, and left the French without a single 
 military post in India. 
 
 The storm of popular indignation at this 
 disastrous state of affairs was artfully directed 
 upon the devoted head of Lally. On his 
 return to France the ministry, seconded by 
 the parliament of Paris, threw him into the 
 Bastille, and on various frivolous pretexts he 
 was condemned to die the death of a traitor 
 and a felon. Errors of judgment, arrogance, 
 and undue severity might with justice have 
 been ascribed to Lally ; but on the opposite 
 
 * When famine prevailed to an increasing extent 
 in Pondicherry, Lally strove to prolong the defence 
 by sending away the few remaining cavalry, at the 
 risk of capture by the English ; by returning all 
 prisoners under a promise not to serve again ; and 
 also by expelling the mass of the native inhabitants, 
 to the number of 1,400, without distinction of sex or 
 age. The wretched multitude wandered in families 
 and companies to various points, and sometimes 
 strove to force a path through the hosts of the 
 enemy, or back within the gates from which they had 
 been expelled, meeting on either side death from the 
 sword or the bullet. For eight days the outcasts 
 continued to traverse the circumscribed space be- 
 tween the fortitications and the English encamp- 
 ment, the scant-s])read roots of grass affording their 
 sole means of subsistence. At length the English 
 commander suffered the survivors to pass; and though 
 they had neither home nor friends in prospect, de- 
 liverance from sufferings more prolonged, if less in- 
 tense, than those endured in the hlack-Hole, was 
 hailed with rapturous gratitude. — (Ornie, ii., U'JO.) 
 An episode like this speaks volumes on the unjustifi- 
 able character of a war, between civilised and Chris- 
 tian nations, which is liable to subject heathen popu- 
 lations to calamities so direful and unprovoked. 
 
 side of the scale ought to have been placed un- 
 compromising fidelity to the nation and com- 
 pany he served, and perfect disinterestedness, 
 together with the uninterrupted exercise of 
 energy united to mihtary talents. It is re- 
 lated that he confidently anticipated a tri- 
 umphant issue to the proceedings instituted 
 against him, and was seated iu his dungeon 
 sketching a chart of the Coromandel coast, 
 when tidings of the fatal sentence arrived. 
 "Is this the reward of forty-five years of 
 faithful service "i" he exclaimed ; and snatch- 
 ing up a pair of compasses, strove to drive 
 them to his heart. The bystanders prevented 
 the fulfilment of this criminal attempt, and 
 left to the representatives of the French 
 nation the disgrace of perpetrating what 
 Voltaire boldly denounced as "a murder 
 committed with the sword of justice." A few 
 hours after his condemnation, Lally, then in 
 the sixty-fifth year of his age, was dragged 
 in a dirty dung-cart through the streets of 
 Paris to the scafl:bld, a gag being thrust in 
 his mouth to prevent any appeal to the sym- 
 pathies of the populace. 
 
 La Bourdonnais, Dupleix, and Lally, were 
 successive victims to the ingratitude of the 
 French company. Bussy was more fortu- 
 nate. Upon his capture by the English he 
 was immediately released on parole, greatly 
 to the dismay and disappointment of Mo- 
 hammed Ali, the nabob of the Carnatic. 
 He subsequently returned to France, and, 
 strengthened by an aristocratic marriage 
 (with the niece of the Due de Choiseuil), 
 lived to enjoy a high reputation and a con- 
 
 f The departure of Lally for Madras was marked 
 by a scene of a most discreditable character. The 
 French oiEcers raised a shout of derision, as their late 
 commander passed along the parade a worn and de- 
 jected prisoner, and would have proceeded to violence 
 but for the interference of his English escort. The 
 same reception awaited Dubois, the king's commis- 
 sary. He stopped and offered to answer any accu- 
 sation that might be brought forward, upon which a 
 man came forth from among the crowd and drew his 
 sword. Dubois did the same : he was of advanced 
 age, with the additional infirmity of defective sight; 
 and the second pass laid him dead at the feet of his 
 antagonist. The catastrophe was received with ap- 
 plause by the bystanders, and not one of them would 
 even assist the servant of the deceased in the re- 
 moval of the body. The unpopularity of Dubois 
 originated in his energetic protests against the dis- 
 order and venality of tlie local government. 
 
 J. A sharp dispute took place between the officers 
 of the crown and of the company. Colonel Coote 
 claimed Pondicherry for the nation ; Mr. Pigot on 
 behalf of his employers ; and the latter gentleman 
 being able to enforce his arguments by refusing to ad- 
 vance money for tlie payment of the troops, unless the 
 point was conceded, gained the day. — (Orme, i., 724.)
 
 AFFAIRS OF BENGAL PRESIDENCY, FROM 1757. 
 
 287 
 
 sidcrable fortune. The company itself was 
 soon extinguished,* and the power of the 
 nation in India became quite inconsiderable. 
 
 Al'KAUlS OF BeNOAL llESUMED I'llOM 1757. 
 
 — The first important danger whicli menaced 
 the duration of Mcer Jaflicr's usurped 
 authority, was the approach of tlie Sliah-zada 
 or heir-apparent to the throne of Delhi, who 
 having obtained from his father formal in- 
 vestiture as subahdar of Bengal, Bahar, 
 and Orissa, now advanced to assert his 
 claims by force of arms. The emperor 
 (Alumgecr 11.) was at this period completely 
 in the power of his intriguinj;- vizier, Siiaab 
 or Ghazi-oo-dcen (the grandson of the 
 famous nizam); and the prince had only 
 escaped the toils of the imperious minister 
 by cutting his way, sword in hand, witli 
 half-a-dozen followers, tlirough the body of 
 guards stationed to retain him a close 
 prisoner within his own palace. The spirit 
 manifested by this daring exploit did not 
 characterise his after career, for he proved 
 quite incapable of grappling with the many 
 difficulties which beset his path. The gov- 
 ernors or nabobs of Allahabad and Oude, 
 both virtually independent powers, sup- 
 ported his cause at the onset ; and the prince 
 further endeavoured to obtain the support 
 of the English by large promises. His offers 
 were declined, and active co-operation with 
 Meer Jaffier resolved on. The Shah-zada 
 and his adherents advanced to Patna ; hut 
 the treachery of the nabob of Oude, in 
 taking advantage of the privilege accorded 
 him of a safe place for his family, to seize 
 the fortress of Allahabad, compelled the ruler 
 of that province to march back for the pro- 
 tection or recovery of his own dominions. t 
 The result of their disunion was to bereave 
 the Shah-zada of friends and resources. In 
 this position he solicited a siun of money 
 from the English general in requital for the 
 abandonment of his pretensions in Bengal, 
 and £1,000 were forwarded to the im- 
 poverished descendant of a powerful dynasty. 
 Through the influence of Shaab-oo-deen, 
 
 * French ti-ade with India 'vas laid open in 1770; 
 but in 17S3 a new company was incorporated, and 
 lasted until 1790, when its tinal abolishment, at the 
 expiration of two years, was decreed by the National 
 Assembly. — (Macphcrson, pp. 275 — 284.) 
 
 f The Allahabad ruler, while marching homeward, 
 was met by M. Law with a French detachment, and 
 entreated to return to tlie Shah-zada and assist in 
 besieging Patna, which, it was urged, would occasion 
 but a very slight delay. The proposition was rejected ; 
 the nabob continued his march, but being eventually 
 persuaded by the rival sidiahdar to trust to his gen- 
 erosity, was made prisoner and put to death. 
 
 the emperor was compelled to sign a sttnnud 
 (edict or commission), transferring the empty 
 title of subahdar of Bengal to his second 
 son, and confirming Meer .TafTier in all real 
 power, under the name of his deputy. Ujion 
 this occasion Clive obtained the rank of a 
 lord of the empire, which afforded him a 
 pretext for extorting a jaghire amounting to 
 £30/)00 per annum ; although, at the very 
 time, the treasury of Bengal was almost ex- 
 hausted, and the soldiers of the province 
 clamorous for arrears of jjuy: and moreover, 
 so douhtftd a complexion had the alliance 
 between the English and ]\Iecr Jaffier already 
 assumed, that immediately afterthe departure 
 of the Shah-zada, the nabob was suspected of 
 intriguing with a foreign power for the expul- 
 sion of his well-bclovcd coadjutors. The 
 Bengal presidency learned with alarm the 
 approach of a great armament fitted out by 
 the Dutch at Batavia. Seven ships ascended 
 the Hooghly to within a few miles of Cal- 
 cutta, where 700 European and 800 Malay 
 soldiers disembarked, with the avowed in", 
 tention of marching thence to the Dutch 
 settlement of Chinsura. England and Hol- 
 land were at peace; but Clive, notwith- 
 standing the absence of any hostile mani- 
 festation on the part of the newly-arrived 
 force, obtained from the nabob a direct 
 contradiction to the encouragement he had 
 previously given, and a positive order for 
 the Dutch to leave the river. J An English 
 detachment was sent to intercept the march 
 of the troops to Chinsura, but the officer in 
 command (Colonel Forde) hesitated about 
 proceeding to extremities, and sent to head- 
 quarters for explicit instructions. Clive was 
 engaged at the card-table when the message 
 arrived. Tearing off a slip from the letter 
 just presented to him, he wrote in pencil : 
 " Dear Forde, — Fight 'em immediately, and 
 I'll send an order of council to-morrow." 
 Forde obeyed, and succeeded in completely 
 routing the enemy, so that of the 700 
 Europeans, not above fourteen reached 
 Chinsura, the rest being either taken pri- 
 
 I The dominant influence of Qive is illustrated by 
 an anecdote recorded in the Sii/nr til Miitakherin. 
 A fray having taken place between the soldiers of 
 Clive and those of one of the oldest and most at- 
 tached adherents of Meer Jaffier, the nabob re- 
 proached his officer for what had occurred, exclaim- 
 ing, " Have you yet to learn in what position heaven 
 has placed this Colonel Clive ?" The accused replied, 
 that so far from seeking a pretext of quarrel with 
 the colonel, he " never rose in the morning without 
 making three profound bows to his jackass ;" — a 
 speech which Scott {Ilixinn/ nf the Deccan, ii., 37G) 
 explains as meant in allusion to the nabob himself.
 
 288 
 
 DEFEAT OF DUTCH ARMAMENT IN BENGAL— 1759. 
 
 soners or slain. The attack upon the ships 
 was equally successful, the whole being cap- 
 tured. After this heavy blow, the Dutch, 
 to save their settlements in Bengal from 
 total destruction, made peace with their 
 powerful opponents by paying the expenses 
 of the war; while Clive, aware of the irre- 
 gularity of his proceedings,* facilitated the 
 termination of the dispute by the restora- 
 tion of the captured vessels in December, 
 1759. Early in tlie following year he re- 
 signed the government of Bengal, and sailed 
 for England. 
 
 It has been asserted that Clive never suf- 
 fered his personal interests to interfere with 
 those of his employers. Had this been the 
 truth, he would certainly not have quitted 
 India at so critical a period for the E. I. Cy. 
 as the year 1760. It was not age (for he 
 was yet but five-and-tliirty) nor failing 
 strength (for he declared himself " in excel- 
 lent health") that necessitated his departure ; 
 neither is it easy to find any less selfish 
 reasons than a desire to place and enjoy in 
 safety his immense wealth, leaving those at 
 whose expense it had been accumulated to 
 bear alone the brunt of the impending storm. 
 His opinion of Meer Jaffier was' avow- 
 edly changed; for though he continued 
 personally to address him as the most mu- 
 nificent of princes, yet in his semi-official 
 correspondence with his own countrymen, 
 the " generally esteemed" individual of two 
 years ago, becomes an " old man, whose days 
 of folly are without number." The English 
 in general attributed to the ruler of their 
 own nomination every vice previously al- 
 leged against Surajah Dovvlah. It was 
 urged, that whatever soldierly qualifications 
 he might have possessed in the days of Ali 
 Verdi Khan, had passed with the vigour of 
 youth, leaving him indolent and incapable ; 
 but easily carried away by unfounded sus- 
 picions to perpetrate, or at least sanction, 
 deeds of midnight assassination against in- 
 nocent and defenceless persons of either 
 sex.f A native authority! describes Mecr 
 Jaffier as taking a childish delight in sitting, 
 decked with costly jewels, on the musnud, 
 which he disgraced by habitual intoxication, 
 
 • He remarked, with regard to these transactions, 
 that " a public man may occasionally be called upon 
 to act with a halter round his nock." 
 
 t 'I'he infant brother or nephew of Surajah Dow- 
 lah, on the accession 4if Mecr Jafiier, is stated to have 
 been murdered by hcin;; pressed to death between 
 pieces of wood used in packing bales of shawls. 
 
 t Siyar ul Mutakherin, ii., 19. 
 
 § Clive calls him " a worthless young dog," and 
 
 as well as by profligacy of the most un- 
 seemly description. The English he feared 
 and hated, but lacked energy and ability to 
 offer any systematic opposition to their 
 encroachments. The leading Hindoos be- 
 came objects of aversion to him on account 
 of their intimate connexion with the power- 
 ful foreigners, and plots were laid for the 
 destruction of several individuals, with vary- 
 ing success. The chief instigator of these in- 
 trigues was Meeran, the heir-apparent, who, 
 in spite of the inexperience of youth and a 
 merciless disposition, possessed a degree of 
 energy and perseverance which, together 
 with strong filial afifectiou, rendered him the 
 chief support of his father's throne. § The 
 "chuta" (little or young) nabob and the Eng- 
 lish regarded one another with scarcely dis- 
 guised distrust. The Begum (or princess) , the 
 mother of Meeran, betrayed excessive anxiety 
 for the safety of her only son ; and although 
 her affectionate intercessions were treated 
 with contemptuous disdain by the servants 
 of the company, they were far from being 
 uncalled for; since it needed no extraordi- 
 nary foresight to anticipate that the ill-de- 
 fined claims, and especially the right of inter- 
 ference in every department of the native 
 government asserted by the English, must 
 end either in their assumption of all power, 
 in name as in reality, or, it was just possible, 
 in their total expulsion from the province. 
 
 Clive had quite made up his mind on the 
 matter ; and while receiving immense sums 
 from the nabob on the one hand, and the 
 wages of the E. I. Cy. on the other, he 
 addressed a letter from Calcutta, as early as 
 January, 1759, to Mr. Pitt, urging upon 
 him the necessity of affairs in Bengal being 
 viewed as a national question, and a sufli- 
 cient force sent forthwith " to open a way for 
 securing the subahship to ourselves." The 
 Mogul would, he added, willingly agree to 
 this arrangement in return for a pledge for 
 the payment of fifty lacs annually — a sum 
 which might be easily spared out of revenues 
 amounting to i;2,000,000 sterling; and as 
 to Meer JaflSer, there need be no scruple on 
 his account, since he, like all other Mussul- 
 mans, was so little influenced by gratitude, 
 
 asserts his belief that he would one day attempt the 
 overthrow of the nabob, blaming " the old fool" at 
 the same time severely for " putting too much power 
 in tlie hands of his nearest relations;" but there is 
 no evidence to warrant his assertion ; on the con- 
 trary, Gholam Hussein Khan, though strongly pre- 
 judiced against both father and son, gives repeated 
 evidence of the unbroken confidence which sub- 
 sisted between them. — {Life, ii., 10-1 ; Siijnr, ii., 86.)
 
 DEATH OF MEERAN, THE "CHUTA" NABOB, BY MGHTNING— 17G0. 289 
 
 as to be ready to break witb bis best frienfls 
 the rnomoiit it suited bis interests, while 
 Mccran w;is " so apparently the enemy of 
 the Euf^lisb, that it will be almost unsafe 
 trusting; bini witb the succession."* 
 
 This communication was forwarded to 
 Mr. Pitt by Mv. AValsh, the secretary of 
 Clive. In rclatinj; the discussion which fol- 
 lowed its presentation, Mr. Walsh writes, 
 that the al)le minister expressed bis views a 
 little darkly (or proi)al)ly very cautiously) 
 on the subject; mentioned that the com- 
 pany's charter would not expire for twenty 
 years ; and stated that it bad been recently 
 inquired into, whether the conquests in 
 I India i)elonn;cd:^ to the company or the 
 Crown, and the "Judges seemed to think to 
 the company; but, he added, "the company 
 were not proper to have it, nor the Crown, 
 for such a revenue would endanojer our liber- 
 ties ;'' tiiercfore Clive showed " good sense by 
 the suggested application of it to the public." 
 
 Here the question dropped for the time, 
 and Clive returned to England, apparently 
 before learning the result of bis memorial, 
 and at a time when events of the first im- 
 portance were taking placet 
 
 The Shah-zada, at the invitation of certain 
 influential nobles of Patna, bad already re- 
 newed hostilities, when Clive and Forde 
 quitted the country in February, 1760. In 
 the previous December an English detach- 
 ment, under Colonel Calliaud, bad been sent 
 from Calcutta to Moorsbedabad, and this 
 force, in conjunction witb 15,000 horse and 
 foot, under command of Mccran, marched in 
 the following month to oppose the Mogul 
 prince. Meanwhile the powerful king of the 
 Doorani Afghans was again on his way to 
 ravage Ilindoostan. Shaab-oo-deen, the 
 vizier of the pageant-emperor, Alumgcer II., 
 aware of the strangely-assorted friendship 
 ■which existed between his ill-used master and 
 Ahmed Shah, caused the former to be assassi- 
 nated, and seated another puppet on the 
 throne. The Shah-zada had entered Bahar, 
 ■when tidings of the tragical end of his father 
 
 * Life, ii. 120 — ll!2. The succession of Meeran had, 
 it should be borne in mind, been one of the primary 
 conditions made by Meer Jaffier with Clive. 
 
 t Mr. Scrafton, in a letter to Clive, .states that 
 Meeran, on one occasion, became so excited by the 
 partiality evinced towards a Hindoo s;overnor (Roy- 
 dullub) who was known to be disaHected to him, 
 that he declared, unless an exjiress guarantee of 
 safety should be given, he would leave Moorsbedabad 
 with those who were faithful to him, and, if necessary, 
 fight Ids way to the nabob, who was then at Patna. 
 Scrafton adds, that the " old Begum sent for Petrus 
 I the Armenian interpreter for the company), and fell a 
 
 reached the camp. He assumed the title of 
 Alum Shah, atul secured the alliance of Shuja 
 Dowlah, the nabob of Oude, by the pro- 
 mise of the vizierat; conferred on Nujecb-ad- 
 Dowlab (an able Rohilla chief, staunchly 
 attached to the imperial family) the dignity 
 of amecr-ool-omra;j and, witb the .issistance 
 of these leaders, assembled a considerable 
 force. An engagement took place near 
 Patna, between his troops and those of 
 Meeran and the English. The emperor was 
 defeated, and fled to Eahar, where he con- 
 tinued to maintain a feeble contest until the 
 campaign was abruptly concluded by the 
 death of one of the parties chictly concerned 
 in its results. A heavy storm commenced on i 
 the night of the 2nd of July, and Meeran, ' 
 the better to escape its violence, quitted bis 
 spacious tent for one of less size, lower, and 
 of greater strength. According to eastern 
 usage, a story-teller stationed himself beside 
 the prince, striving to soothe the unquiet 
 spirit to repose, while a domestic chafed his 
 limbs, with the same view of inducing sleep. 
 Fierce thunder-claps long continued to break 
 over the encampment, alternating with vivid 
 flashes of lightning. The fury of the elements 
 at last abated, and some attendants, whose 
 turn it was to keep guard, entered and be- 
 held with dismay the lifeless bodies of 
 Meeran and bis companions, all three having 
 perished by the same stroke. Colonel Cal- 
 liaud considered it impolitic to publish the 
 catastrophe, lest the consequence sbouJd be 
 the immediate dispersion of the army of the 
 deceased; he therefore, after certain neces- 
 sary precautions, caused the body to be 
 dressed, as if alive, and placed on an elephant; 
 marched to Patna with all possible expedi- 
 tion, and distributed the troops in winter 
 quarters. It is scarcely possible to avoid 
 attriljuting the fate of Meeran to an act of 
 Divine retribution, so cruel and bloodthirsty 
 had been bis brief career.^ The previous 
 month had added to the list of victims sacri- 
 ficed by his father and himself, two aged 
 princesses, the surviving daughters of Ali 
 
 blubbering, saying that she had but that son, and 
 could not .spare him." — (Malcolm's Life, i., 349.) I 
 
 X See previous section on Mogul empire, p. 177. ! 
 
 § Upon examination, five or six holes were found 
 on the back part of his head, and on his body streaks 
 like the marks of a whip. A scimitar which lay 
 on the pillow above his head had also holes in it, 
 and part of the point ■n'as melted. The tent pole ap- 
 peared as if rotted. Yet, notirithstanding these indi- 
 cations, a rumour arose that the death of Meeran had 
 been caused by the English ; and to this unfounded 
 accusation Burke alludes in his famous speech on 
 opening the charges against Warren Hastings. I 
 
 I
 
 290 
 
 VANSITTART APPOINTED GOVERNOR OF BENGAL— 1760. 
 
 Verdi Khan; and among Lis papers was found 
 a list of the names of persons whom he liad 
 resolved to cut off at the conclusion of the 
 campaign ; determined, as he said, " to rid 
 himself of the disloyal, and sit down in 
 repose with his friends." 
 
 The death of Meeran was a terrible blow 
 to his father. The slight barrier which 
 had heretofore in some measure kept down 
 the arrogance and extortion of the English 
 functionaries, and likewise the clamours of 
 the unpaid native troops being now removed, 
 the nabob was left alone to bear, in the weak- 
 ness of age and intellect, the results of his 
 unhallowed ambition. Clive, with others 
 who had largely benefited by sharing its first- 
 fruits, had gone to enjoy the wealth thus ac- 
 quired under the safeguard of a free con- 
 stitution ; and their successors would, it was 
 probable, be inclined to look to the expedient 
 of a new revolution as the best possible mea- 
 sure for their private interests, as well as 
 those of their employers. The excitement 
 attendant on the payment of the chief part 
 of the stipulated sums to the Bengal treasui-y, 
 had before this time given place to depression; 
 that is, so far as the public afl"airs of the com- 
 pany were concerned. Individuals had ac- 
 cumulated, and were still accumulating large 
 fortunes, to which, in a pecuniary sense, no 
 drawback was attached; but the general trade 
 was in a much less flourishing condition. 
 On being first acquainted with the extent of 
 money and territory ceded by Meer Jafiier, 
 (of which, it may be remarked, Clive gave a 
 very exaggerated account,) the directors sent 
 out word that no supplies would be sent ijy 
 them to India for several ensuing seasons, 
 as the Bengal treasury would, it was ex- 
 pected, be well able to supply the civil and 
 military exigences of the three presidencies, 
 to provide European investments, and even 
 to make provision for the China trade. This 
 was so far from being the case, that in less 
 than two years after the deposition of Meer 
 Jafficr, " it was found necessary to take up 
 money at interest, although large sums had 
 been received besides for bills upon the 
 Court of Directors." * The distress created 
 in England by these drafts was very great ; 
 and oven in the year 1 7.58, the holders were 
 ' with difficulty prevailed upon to grant fur- 
 ther time for their hquidation. 
 
 Tlic payment of the English troops en- 
 gaged in repelling the attempts of the Shah- 
 
 zada, presented an additional difiBculty. It 
 had been thought that the stipulated sum of 
 one lac of rupees (£10,000) per month, would 
 amply cover their expenditure; hut expe- 
 rience proved that amount insufficient to 
 provide for the exigences of the augmented 
 establishment thereby necessitated, even had 
 the money been regularly paid; instead of 
 which, the nabob was greatly in. arrears at 
 the time of dive's departure. 
 
 In fact, his own forces were so costly and 
 extensive, that it is alleged they were alone 
 sufficient to absorb the entire revenue. The 
 death of Meeran was quickly followed by 
 an alarming mutiny. The palace was sur- 
 rounded, the walls scaled, and Meer Jaffier 
 threatened with instant death unless the 
 claims of the really distressed troops were 
 liquidated. Meer Cossim, who had married 
 the only surviving legitimate child of the na- 
 bob, interfered for his protection, and brought 
 about an arrangement by the advance of 
 three lacs from his own treasury, and a pro- 
 mise of the balance due in a stated period. 
 
 Mr. Vansittart arrived to fill the position 
 of governor of Bengal in July, 1760. An 
 empty treasury ; a quarrelsome and dicta- 
 torial council ; unpaid and disorderly troops ; 
 the provision of an investment actually sus- 
 pended ; — these were some of the difficulties 
 which awaited him.f Mr. HolwcU, while in 
 the position of temporary governor, had 
 suggested to his fellow-officials, that the 
 cruelty and incapacity of Meer Jaffier justi- 
 fied his abandonment, and proposed that 
 they should change sides — accept the re- 
 iterated oifers of the emperor, and make 
 common cause with him. This project was 
 rejected ; but the necessity for some decisive 
 measure being pretty generally agreed upon, 
 it was at length resolved to offer Meer 
 Cossim Ali the limited degree of real power 
 still residing in the person of the nabob, on 
 condition of the title and a fixed income 
 being left with Meer Jaffier, and certain 
 additional concessions made to the English. 
 Mr. Vansittart acquiesced in the scheme 
 formed by Mr. Holwell and the select com- 
 mittee. One or two members of the general 
 council, when the intended change was first 
 hinted at, dissented on the ground that the 
 incapacity of Meer Jafficr was itself favour- 
 able to the interests of the company; but 
 the urgent need of fresh supplies of funds to 
 meet increased expenditure, conibincd pcr- 
 
 • Vansittarl's Narrative of Transaction/: in Scn- 
 yul, i., 22. The same authority states, that in 1700 the 
 military and other charges in Uengal amounted to 
 
 upwards of £200,000 per nnn.; while the net revenue 
 did not exceed £SO,00(l-(i). 97.) 
 
 + Vansittart's Letter to E. I. Proprietors, p. 13.
 
 MEEK JAFFIER SUPERSEDED BY MEER COSSIM— 1760. 
 
 291 
 
 haps with less easily avowed motives on the 
 part of certain iiiflucutial persons overpow- 
 ered this reasoning;, and a treaty was en- 
 tered into hy tlie f^ovornor and select com- 
 mittee with Mecr Cossim, by which he 
 agreed to assign to the Eiii^lish the revenues 
 of the three districts of IJurdwan, Midiia- 
 porc, and Chittagonp;, in discharge of the 
 balance due from his father-in-law. On 
 the night on which tlie articles were signed, 
 Meer Cossim tendered to Mr. Vansittart a 
 note for the payment of twenty lacs of 
 rupees to the five members of the select 
 committee. Considering the large sums ex- 
 torted from Meer Jafficr on a previous oc- 
 casion, it was only natural to expect some 
 similar instance of " munificence" in the 
 present case; thougli, from the impoverished 
 state of the revenues, the amoiuit must of 
 necessity be greatly inferior. The note was, 
 however, returned, and the governor and 
 eommittec, if they had not the self-denial 
 who/ly to reject the tempting offer, dis- 
 played at least a sufficient regard to de- 
 cor.im to refuse accepting any portion of 
 it, until Meer Cossim should be seated in 
 security on the musnud, and all the condi- 
 tvyns of tiie treaty fulfilled. In the meantime 
 they appear to have made no private agree- 
 ment wliatever ; but, in lieu of it, to have 
 asked a contribution of five lacs for the 
 company, which was immediately paid and 
 employed in aid of the operations then in 
 progress against the French at Pondicherry. 
 The deposition of Meer Jafficr was effected 
 Ivith so much ease, that on the evening of 
 .the day on which it took place, a stranger 
 entering Moorshedabad would scarcely have 
 suspected the revolution that had so recently 
 occurred. When first informed of his in- 
 tended snperccssion, the nabob manifested 
 an unexpected degree of energy — declared 
 that his son, !Mecran, had warned him what 
 would happen, and even threatened to 
 oppose force by force, and abide his fate. 
 But this was the mere eflervescence of im- 
 
 • Vansittart's Narrative, i., 100—138. 
 
 t Among the reasons stated by the governor and 
 committee for the deposition of Meer Jafficr, was a 
 massacre committed by his orders at Dacca in June, 
 17G0, in which the mother of Surajah Dowlah, his 
 aunt, his widow and daughter, and a boy adopted 
 into the family, were taken from prison at midnight 
 and drowned, together witli seventy persons of in- 
 ferior note. Such wholesale slaughter as this, if 
 actually perpetrated, would have cast into the shade 
 even the enormities which formed the steps to the 
 Mogul throne ; yet it does not seem that any official 
 inquiry was instituted in the matter. So hardened 
 do the minds of Europeans become by familiarity to 
 
 potent rage. The palace was surrounded by 
 English troops, and he possessed few, if any, 
 on whose fidelity reliance could be placed ; 
 besides which, so " general a disafl'cction 
 against his government, and detestation of 
 his person and principles, prevailed in tiie 
 country amongst all ranks and classes of 
 peo])le," that Mr. Vansittart declared, "it 
 would have been scarcely possible for the 
 old nabob to have saved himself from being 
 murdered, or the city from plunder, another 
 month."* 
 
 Scarcity alike of money and provisions 
 began to be painfully felt throughout 
 Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa. ]Moorshedabad, 
 once the seat of unparalleled abundance, 
 had become the abode of poverty-stricken 
 multitudes;' while Patna, exposed for two 
 years to the ravages of the imperial forces, 
 and threatened with renewed invasion, in- 
 stead of furnishing, as in times of peace, vast 
 stores of rice, was now almost a wildcr- 
 nesss. Amid this wide-spread mi.sery, the 
 man from whom aid was expected continued 
 to lavish sums extorted by oppression ou 
 favourites of the most unworthy character; 
 and pleasures (if they deserve that name) of 
 the most disreputable description. The 
 measure of bis iniquities was filled by the 
 sanction or direction given by him, in con- 
 jimction with jMeeran, for the midnight 
 assassination of Gassitee Begum and Amina 
 Begum, t which, in the case of the former 
 princess, was an act of peculiar ingratitude 
 as well as cruelty, since she had been ex- 
 tremely useful to him during the fifteen 
 months' sway of her nephew, Surajah Dowlah. 
 It must be remembered, that Colonel Clive 
 had viewed the assassination of that prince 
 with utter indiflerence ; and it is the less to 
 be wondered at that so sanguinary a com- 
 mencement having passed uncensurcd, ileej 
 Jafficr should have allowed his son to follow 
 out the same course until he was cut off as 
 one who, though unscathed by human laws, 
 yet " vengeance suffereth not to live." The 
 
 the worst features of despotism, that Messrs. Amyatt, 
 Ellis, and Smytli, the three dissenting members of 
 council, in their minute complaining of not having 
 been duly consulted regarding the recent measures 
 adopted by the select committee, positively palliate 
 the cliarges brought against Meer Jatfier as cruelties 
 whicli would ajjpear shocking to a civilised govern- 
 ment, but which were common to all despotic ones. 
 In fact, the transaction, infamous as it really wa.s, 
 had been greatly magnified; for in October, 1765, it 
 was officially stated by the government of Bengal, 
 that of the five principal victims named above, only two 
 had perished ; the rest had been kept in confinement, 
 and were subsequently set at liberty. (Thornton's
 
 ""^r 
 
 292 ADMINISTKATION OF MEER COSSIM IN BENGAL— 1760. 
 
 death of Meeran formed a new feature in 
 the compHeated question upon which Mr. 
 Vansittart was called upon to decide. The 
 prince was well known to have been the 
 chief counsellor and abettor of his father's 
 actions; and it may be doubted whether 
 Mr. Holwell's proposition (of abandoning 
 Meer Jaffier and surrendering the govern- 
 ment to the emperor) being wholly set aside, 
 it would not have been wiser to have avoided 
 the questionable expedient of a supercession, 
 by suffering the present nabob to continue to 
 occupy the musnud, but with a very limited 
 degree of authority. It was evident things 
 could not remain as they were ; the power 
 of the English was too great and too little — 
 altogether too undefined to be stationary ; 
 and though there is much reason to believe 
 that the course pursued in this diflicult 
 crisis was really prompted by an honest 
 desire for the good of all parties, yet, like 
 most temporising measures, the result was 
 total and disastrous failure. 
 
 The resignation forced upon Meer Jaffier 
 appears, under the circumstances, rather a 
 boon than a punishment. The first out- 
 burst of rage having subsided, he listened 
 calmly to the proposals made to him — 
 prudently rejected the ofler of continuing to 
 enjoy the empty semblance of power, while 
 the reality was to be vested in another 
 person ; and simply stipulated that he 
 should be suffered to proceed immediately 
 to Calcutta, and reside there under British 
 protection. It lias been alleged that his 
 ambitious son-in-law objected strongly to 
 such a procedure, and would have preferred 
 disposing of his predecessor after a more 
 summary fashion:* but be this as it may, 
 Meer Jaffier quitted Moorshedabad the very 
 
 British hidia, {., .387.) This does not free the English 
 authorities from blame regarding the fate of those 
 who really perished, and the hazard incurred by the 
 survivors, who were left at the cajirice of an apathetic 
 old man and a merciless youth. But so little con- 
 cern was manifested when human lives and not 
 trading monopolies were concerned, that Meeran, 
 being reproached by Scrafton (then British resident 
 at Moorshedabad) for the murder of one of the 
 female relatives of Ali Verdi Khan, did not take the 
 trouble of replying, as he truly miglit, that she was 
 alive, but asked, in the tone of a petulant boy who 
 thought he " might do what lie willed with his own," 
 " What, shall not I kill an old woman who goes about 
 in her dooly (litter) to stir up the jematdars (military 
 commanders) against my father?" The perceptions of 
 the Bengal public were, happily, not quite so ob- 
 tuse as those of their Mohammedan or European 
 rulers; and the murder of the princesses (with or 
 without their alleged companions of inferior rank) 
 was held to be so foul a crime, that the fiic of heaven. 
 
 evening of his deposition, bearing away, to 
 solace his retirement, about seventy of the 
 ladies of the harem, and " a reasonable 
 quantity of jewels." His only lawful wife 
 (the mother of Meeran) refused to accom- 
 pany him, and remained with her daughter 
 and Meer Cossim. Thus ends one important 
 though not very creditable page of Anglo- 
 Indian history in Bengal. 
 
 Administration of Meeu Cossim Ali. — 
 The question uppermost in the mind of every 
 member of the Bengal presidency, whether 
 friendly or adverse to the new nabob, was — ■ 
 how he would manage to fulfil the treaty 
 with the English, pay the sums claimed by 
 them, and liquidate the enormous arrears 
 due to his own clamorous troops ? Being 
 an able financier, a rigid economist ia per- 
 sonal expenditure, and a man of unwcirying 
 energy, Meer Cossim set about the Her- 
 culean task of freeing himself from pecu- 
 niary involvements, and restoring the pros- 
 perity of the country by measures which 
 soon inspired the English officials with the 
 notion that, so far as their personal interests 
 were concerned, the recent revolution mijht 
 prove as the exchange of King Log "or 
 King Stork. Strict accounts of income airL 
 expenditure were demanded from the local 
 governors, from the highest to the lowest ; 
 the retrospect was carried back even to the 
 time of Ali Verdi Khan ; and many who had 
 long since retired to enjoy, in comparative 
 obscurity, wealth gotten by more or less 
 questionable means, while basking in the 
 short-lived sunshine of court favour, were 
 now compelled to refund at least a portion 
 of their accumulations. In short, according 
 to Gholam Hussein, the advice of Sadi the 
 poet — " Why collectest thou not from every 
 
 which smote the perpetrator, was popularly believed 
 to have been called down by Amina Begum (the 
 mother of Surajah Dowlah), who in dying uttered the 
 vengeful wish, that the lightning might fall on the 
 murderer of herself, her child, and her sister. The im- 
 jjrecation is of fearful meaning in Bengal, where loss 
 of life during thunder-storms is of frequent occurrence; 
 and the tale ran, that the deaths of Meeran and his 
 victims were not, as stated in the text, a month 
 a])art, but simultaneous, the fatal orders being exe- 
 cuted at Dacca on the same niglit and hour that 
 Meeran perished, several hundred miles away. 
 {Sii/ar ul Mutakherin, ii., 133.) The translator 
 adds, in a note, that the imprecation of Amina 
 Begum was mi-ntioned in Moorshedabad full thirty 
 days before intelligence became public of the death 
 of .Meeran. 
 
 * This charge will be found in Holwell's Indian 
 Tracts, i)0 — 91 ; but in a subsequent Jinge it is denied 
 by Mr. llohvell, the person to whom the proposition 
 is stated to have been made. — {Idem, p. U4.)
 
 ADMINISTRATION OF MEER COSSIM IN BENGAL— 1761. 
 
 293 
 
 subject a grain of silver, that thou mayest 
 form a treasure?" — became the rule of 
 Mecr Cossiin ; and, in the short space of 
 eight months, he wrought a wonderful 
 change for the better, thougli at a cost of 
 personal exertion which he described by de- 
 claring, that he liad " scarce had leisure to 
 drink a little water, nor a minute's time to 
 eat or enjoy sleep."* 
 
 Such rigid supervision was sure to dis- 
 please those especially by whom it was most 
 needed ; and the camp of the Mogul be- 
 came in consequence the rallying ground of 
 many discontented zemindars and petty 
 rajahs who were not strong enough to 
 rebel in their own names. Early in 17G1 
 an engagement took place between the im- 
 perial forces and those of Meer Cossira and 
 the English under Major Carnae. The em- 
 peror was again defeated ; the small Erench 
 corps by which he had been supported quite 
 dispersed ; and its indefatigable leader, 
 M. Law, taken prisoner.f Immediately 
 after the battle, overtures of peace were 
 made by the victors, through the interven- 
 tion of a brave Hindoo general, whose name, 
 whatever it may have been, has been angli- 
 cised into Rajah Shitabroy. The proposi- 
 tion was gladly accepted ; Shah Alum pro- 
 ceeded to Patna, and there bestowed on 
 Meer Cossim the investiture of the govern- 
 ment of the three provinces, on condition 
 of the annual payment of twenty-four lacs 
 of rupees. J The English commander then 
 escorted the emperor some distance on his 
 road to join Sluija Dowlah, the nabob of 
 Oude. External hostility had scarcely been 
 removed from the path of Meer Cossira, be- 
 fore obstacles of a domestic character took 
 its place. Several Hindoo officials of high 
 rank persisted in evading his just demands 
 for a settlement of outstanding accounts, 
 and screened themselves from punishment, 
 
 * Vansiltarl's Karratifc, i., 214. 
 
 t After the fate of the day had been decided, 
 Law, though deserted by liis countrymen, refused to 
 quit the field ; and vexed to the soul by the utter 
 failure of his attempts to uphold the interests of the 
 French nation, sat down astride a gun, ready to fling 
 away his life, when an attemjit should be made to cap- 
 ture him. Major Carnae found him in this attitude, 
 accepted his surrender on parole without deliver- 
 ing up his sword, and subsequently, in common 
 with all the other British officers, treated the cap- 
 tive with marked consideration. Gholam Hussein 
 Khan highly extols this chivalrous behaviour, and 
 finds frequent occasion to applaud in the strongest 
 manner the military qualifications of the English ; 
 adding, that if they did but possess equal proficiency 
 .n the arts of government, and nuinil'ested as much 
 solicitude for the welfare of native communities 
 
 or even from inquiry, through the interven- 
 tion of the English. Ram Narrain, the 
 goTcrnor of Patna, afforded a remarkaljlc 
 exam])lc of this ill-judged partiality. He 
 had been placed in office by All Verdi 
 Khan, and was one of the few nobles whose 
 fidelity to Surajah Dowlah remained invio- 
 late. After the deposition and murder of 
 this prince, IMcer .lallier had urgently soli- 
 cited Clive to induce Ram Narrain to come 
 to Moorshedabad under the promise of Bri- 
 tish protection, in order, as the proposer of 
 this notable scheme did not hesitate to 
 avow, to obtain a convenient opportunity 
 for cutting oil' his head. The experience 
 of Clive in the art of writing "soothing" 
 letters to an intended victim, was, happily 
 for the national honour, not ^made use of 
 in the present ease ; on the contrary, the 
 ungenerous policy of maintaining a rival 
 party in the court of the nabob, induced 
 favourable terms to be made with Ram 
 Narrain, and he was confirmed in his gov- 
 ernment despite the opposition of his nomi- 
 nal master. 
 
 As might be expected under such cir- 
 cumstances, between constant warfare and 
 a disaffected ruler, the revenues of Patna 
 proved of little benefit to the exhausted 
 treasury of Moorshedabad. Ram Narrain 
 scarcely disguised the hatred and contempt 
 he felt for Meer Jaffier, and found no diffi- 
 culty in resisting or evading his demands; 
 but Meer Cossim was a man of a different 
 stamp ; and a fierce and prolonged dispute 
 took place between the nabob and the 
 governor — the former demanding the im- 
 mediate settlement of all arrears ; the latter, 
 on one pretence or other, refusing even to 
 render the accounts justly demanded from 
 him. The refractory subordinate relied on 
 the protection of the English, and long 
 continued to be upheld in his unwarrantable 
 
 in time of peace, as they did forethought in war, 
 then no nation in the world would be worthier of 
 command. "But," he adds, "such is the little regard 
 they show to the people of these kingdoms, and such 
 their apathy and indifference to their welfare, that 
 the natives under their dominion groan everywhere, 
 and are reduced to poverty and distress." — (Siyar ul 
 Mutaklierin, ii., 102.) 
 
 X Jleer Cossim, aware of the strong personal pre- 
 judice of Major Carnae towards himself, refused to 
 enter the imperial camp, lest some design against 
 him — such as it appears was actually entertained by 
 Carnae and Ellis (Vansittart's Karrative. ii., 399) — 
 should be put in practice. Therefore the investi- 
 ture was performed in the hall of the English fac- 
 tory, a platform being made of two dining-tables 
 covered with cloth, on which to enthrone the fallen. 
 majesty of the house of Timur.
 
 294, 
 
 DISGRACEFUL QUARRELS OF BENGAL OFFICIALS— 1763. 
 
 refusal to furnish any statement of his admin- 
 istration by the miUtary commanders then 
 stationed at Patna ; but at length the re- 
 presentations of Meer Cossim, regarding- 
 the violent conduct of Colonel Coote* and 
 Major Carnac, occasioned their recall, and 
 left Ram Narrain in the hands of the nabob, 
 by whom iiis person was seized and his effects 
 confiscated, on the charge of embezzlement. 
 
 The truth was, the whole affair had been 
 treated rather as a bone of contention among 
 the jarring members of the Bengal pre- 
 sidency, than as a question of justice. The 
 secret of their disunion appears to have been 
 sheer jealousy of the present offered by Meer 
 Cossim to the select committee previous to 
 his accession, which they refused receiving 
 until the claims of the company should be 
 satisfied, peace restored, and the long stand- 
 ing arrears of the native troops entirely liqui- 
 dated. f 
 
 These preliminaries having been fulfilled, 
 it was probably expected that Meer Cossim 
 would repeat his offer of the twenty lacs of 
 rupees to the individuals by whom it had 
 been temporarily rejected. The remaining 
 members of council (uot of the select commit- 
 tee) became extremely violent on the subject, 
 and instead of pleading, as they might have 
 reasonably done, against being excluded from 
 all share in a transaction which they had about 
 as much, or as little right to benefit by as 
 their colleagues, the tone adopted was one 
 of disinterested zeal for the interest of their 
 employers, in whose name it was insisted 
 the twenty lacs should be immediately de- 
 manded from Meer Cossim. This motion 
 
 • For instance, Meer Cossim complained that on 
 one occasion Colonel Coote, accompanied by thirty- 
 five European horsemen and 200 sepoys, entered his 
 tent in a great passion with a pistol in either hand, 
 crying out, "Where is the nabob?" and uttering "God 
 dammees !" Colonel Coote tacitly admitted the truth 
 of this statement, with the trivial exception that his 
 pistols were not cocked, as the nabob had declared. 
 — (Vansittart's Narrative, i., 238—244.) 
 
 t Soon after his accession, Meer Cossim took oc- 
 casion to present Mr. Vansittart witli a present of 
 25,000 rupees on the birth of a son — an ordinary 
 eastern compliment, which the governor accepted, 
 but immediately paid into the company's treasury. 
 
 \ A receipt in fu.l was given to Meer' Cossim in 
 March, 1762, from all pecuniary obligation to the Eng- 
 lish. A minute in council showed that he had paid 
 them twenty-six lacs of sicca rupees (valued at 
 2s. %\d. each), together with fifty-three lacs of cur- 
 rent rupees (2s. id. each), derived from the ceded 
 districts. Ho had likewise satisfied the claims both 
 of his own and his predecessor's troops. — (Narrative.) 
 
 § It appears, however, from the evidence given 
 before parliament, in 1772, by Colonel CalliauQ and 
 Mr. Sumner, that the twenty lacs were aciuaiiy paid 
 
 ■was brought forward by Mr. Amyatt, who, 
 as Governor Vansittart did not fail to remark, 
 had been of a different opinion some three 
 years before, or he would scarcely have 
 accepted a share in the golden harvest ob- 
 tained by the elevation of Meer Jaffier, with- 
 out exhibiting any such scrupulous regard to 
 the interests of the general body. The re- 
 sult of a subsequent nabob-making affair 
 proved that another stickler for the rights of 
 the company {^Ir. .Johnstone) was equally 
 willing, when practicable, to make a bargain 
 on his own account. The measure was, 
 however, carried by a majority of the entire 
 council, and a formal requisition to the above 
 effect made to Meer Cossim. The answer 
 was prompt and decisive. The nabob, after, 
 stating, " by the grace of God, that he had 
 fulfilled every article of the treaty,"J de- 
 clared, " I owe nobody a single rupee, nor 
 will I pay your demand." The sura intended 
 for the select committee had been, he said, 
 positively refused ; most of the gentlemen to 
 whom it was offered had left the country; and 
 as to the one or two still in India, " I do not 
 think," adds the nabob, " they will demand 
 it from me."§ The directors at home clearly 
 appreciated the motives of all concerned, 
 and expressed decided approbation of the 
 " spirited" refusal given to an unauthorised 
 encroachment. 
 
 But the fire of anger and distrust, far from 
 being extinguished by such well-merited 
 rebuffs, was fed by various concomitant 
 circumstances. An angry, if not insolent|| 
 memorial, dictated by Clive immediately 
 before sailing for England, and addressed by 
 
 by Meer Cossim, and received in the following pro- 
 portions : — the governor, five lacs (£50,000) ; Hol- 
 well, Sumner, Calliaud, and M'Gwire, in diminishing 
 portions, according to seniority. This makes the 
 select committee to have consisted of five persons; 
 but beside these, it appears there were others not 
 then present at Calcutta. The committee consisted 
 of the senior members of the council, and the coun- 
 cil itself varied in the number of members from six 
 to sixteen, according to the number of those absent 
 in their em])loyments as chiefs of factories, &c. 
 
 II One phrase declares that a recent communica- 
 tion from the directors was equally unworthy of the 
 parties by whom it was written, or those to whom it 
 was addressed, " in whatever relation considered — as 
 masters to servants, or gentlemen to gentlemen ;" 
 and it is added, significantly, that from the partiality 
 evinced to individuals, "private views may, it is much 
 to be feared, take the lead here from examples at 
 home, and no gentlemen hold your service longer, 
 nor exert themselves further in it, than tlicir own 
 exii/encies require." This remarkable specimen of 
 plain speaking boasts the signatures of Clive, Ilolwell, 
 Sumner, and .M'Gwire, all of whom were dismissed 
 the service, as al.so another councillor named Pleydell.
 
 INLAND TllADE, 1763— MONOPOLY BY SERVANTS OF E.I. CO. 295 
 
 the Berif^al officials to tlieir "honourable 
 masters," procured tlic dismissal of all ijy 
 whom it had been sifjiicd. 'I'liis measure fuilcd 
 in ))r()(luciii<; the iiitciidcd cd'oct; for of the 
 refractory members, the majority, like their 
 leader, iuid realistMJ iuimense fortunes i)y the 
 use of more or less disereditablemeans; others 
 paid the penalty of sharinj; the violence of 
 their predecessors by expulsion from the 
 company's service. Althouj^h subsequently 
 reinstated, their temporary absence left 
 the governor in a minority in council, 
 and vested the ])crsonaI opponents of the 
 nabob with overwhelming power. Mr. Van- 
 sittart, in rectitude of character, discretion, 
 and gentlemanly bearing, was infinitely su- 
 perior to his fellow-ofrieials; but he lacked 
 energy to control their unruly tempers, and 
 successfully oppose their selfish ends. It a])- 
 pears that, he and the other four gentlemen 
 associated with him (tliat is, all the members 
 of the select committee then in Bengal), did 
 eventually receive from Cossim Ali the much- 
 canvassed twenty lacs. This single draw- 
 back on a general reputation for disinterest- 
 edness, afl'orded an opening of which his ene- 
 mies well knew how to take advantage, and 
 every eflbrt made to check their illegitimate 
 gains was treated as an act of corrupt and 
 venal partiality towards the nabob. 
 
 We have already seen that in the time of 
 Moorshed Kooli Khan, the English officials 
 had striven to construe the firmauns granted 
 by the emperor Ferokshccr, as conferring 
 not only exemption from custom-dues on 
 all foreign commerce, but as including the 
 produce of the country, which they asserted 
 ought -to pass untaxed, if accompanied by 
 their dustucks or licenses, even from one 
 district to another. Now, as half the local 
 revenue was, by the system imiversally pur- 
 sued, obtained by innumerable petty dues 
 levied on merchandise, at frequent inter- 
 vals, in its passage from place to place, it 
 followed that such an unreasonable claim, 
 if granted, must prove highly injurious to 
 the income of the province, and ruinous to 
 tb.e native traders, who, fettered by taxation, 
 could not hope to compete with their 
 favoured rivals. The manifest injustice of 
 the demand procured its speedy, and for a 
 
 • Vansittart's !^\ir7-tii{re, ii., 153. 
 
 + Treaty with Surajah Dowlah; vide Scrafton's 
 Si'/lcctionf: mi the Oofcrnnwiit of Itidostan, p. 53. 
 
 I Vansittart's Narralire, ii., ll.'J. 
 
 § The existence and notoriety of these practices is 
 evidenced in a letter from the directors, dated April, 
 1760, in which it is asserted, that the chiefs of suiior- 
 dinate factories gained full twenty per cent, upon 
 
 time, complete abandonment. At a subse- 
 quent ])criod the directors (in a dispute witli 
 the Dutch regarding the right of the em- 
 peror to grant the I'jUglish merchants a mo- 
 nopoly for the sole ])urchasc of saltpetre, 
 notwithstanding tlie promise of free trade 
 conceded to their competitors) laid it down 
 as an axiom, that the design of all firmauns 
 granted to Europeans was to admit them 
 " to the same freedom of trading with the 
 IMogul's own subjects — surely not a better."* 
 In fact, the interests of the company were 
 in no manner concerned in the question of 
 inland traffic, because this had been entirely 
 resigned to their servants ; and every attempt 
 at encroachment made by them during the 
 strong administrations of Moorshed Kooli 
 and Ali Verdi Khan had been carefully 
 sujipresscd, until the latter ruler became 
 weakened by age, foreign wars, and domestic 
 sorrows. The previous efforts were recom- 
 menced and increased at the time of the ac- 
 cession of Surajah Dowlah — so much so, that 
 the articles signed by the English on the sur- 
 render of Cossimbazar in May, 1757, included 
 a specific promise to make good all that the 
 ^lohammedan government had suffered from 
 the abuse of dustucks. f This pledge was 
 far fiorn being redeemed, and the abuse 
 complained of rose to such an extent, despite 
 the repeated remonstrances of Meer Jafiier, 
 that not only every servant of the company, 
 together with their (jomastahs or native 
 agents, claimed complete immunity in carry- 
 ing on inland trade in salt, betel-nut, 
 tobacco, bamboos, dried fish, &c., but even 
 the Bengalee merchants found it expedient 
 to purchase the name of some member of 
 the presidency ; and by virtue of " dustucks" 
 thus obtained, could laugh at the revenue 
 officers, and compel the natives, on penalty 
 of flogging or imprisonment,^ to buy goods 
 at more, or sell them at considerably less, 
 than the market price. § 
 
 Had Mr. Vansittart been a man of more 
 determination, he might probably have 
 averted a new revolution ; but the compro- 
 mising character of his measures served only 
 to encourage his intractable associates. In 
 taking a firm stand on the justice of the 
 question, and insisting upon the proper pay- 
 goods supplied to private traders, often exclusive of 
 commission ; while tlie native merchants " apply to 
 our junior servants, and for valuahle considerations 
 receive their goods covered with our servants' 
 names : even a writer trades in this manner for many 
 thousands, when at the same time he has often not 
 real credit for an hundred rupees. For the truth of 
 these assertions we need only appeal to yourselves.'
 
 296 MEER COSSIM ALI PROCLAIMS FREE TRADE IN BENGAL— 1763. 
 
 meut of taxes necessary to the maintenance of 
 the country government, he would doubtless 
 have been supported by the directors, who, 
 unbiassed by self-interest, would then, as on 
 a subsequent occasion, have given an honest 
 decision on so plain a case. But Vansittart, 
 aware of the extreme anxiety of the nabob 
 to preserve peace with the English, hoped 
 to bring about an arrangement by offering, 
 on their behalf, the payment of nine per 
 cent, (a rate not a quarter the amount of 
 that exacted from native traders) upon the 
 prime cost of goods at the time of purchase, 
 after which no further duties should be 
 imposed. These terms were settled at a 
 private interview between the nabob and 
 the governor, and the latter departed highly 
 pleased at having brought about an amicable 
 adjustment. But he did not understand 
 the blinding influence of the factious and 
 grasping spirit of the men with whom he 
 had to deal. The members of council, ab- 
 sent in their capacities of chiefs of facto- 
 ries, were called together: even majors 
 Adams and Carnac, though empowered to 
 give a vote only in military affairs, were 
 suffered to come and join a discussion in 
 which they were unprofessionally, and not 
 very creditably, interested as traders ; and 
 the result was, the refusal of an overwhelm- 
 ing majority to ratify the pledge given by 
 their president. Warren Hastings, who 
 had lately been elevated to the council, 
 alone stood by Vansittart, and eloquently 
 pleaded the cause of justice, relating the 
 oppressions he had himself witnessed while 
 employed in an inferior capacity in different 
 factories, but with no beneficial result.* 
 
 Meer Cossim soon saw the state of the 
 case ; — a governor, williug^ but unable to pro- 
 tect him against the rapacity of subordinate 
 officials. He knew their vulnerable point; 
 and instead of wasting more time in fruitless 
 complaints, aimed a well-directed blow by 
 proclaiming free trade among his own sub- 
 jects for the ensuing two years. It was 
 clearly the most equitable and statesmanlike 
 measure that could have been adopted ; but 
 the council, in their unbridled wrath at 
 having the native traders placed on a level 
 with themselves, denounced it as a shame- 
 less infringement on the company's prero- 
 gative ; and, upon tliis flimsy pretext, sent 
 a deputation to the nabob, consisting of 
 
 • In the course of these discussions, Mr. Batson, 
 one of the council, struck Hastings a blow. The 
 Injured party, with true dignity, left to liis col- 
 leagues the charge of dealing with the offender. 
 
 Mr. Amyatt and ]\Ir. Hay, to demand its 
 immediate annulment. Meer Cossim re- 
 fused to discuss the subject, and, in com- 
 menting on the decision of the council — that 
 all disputes between English gomastahs 
 and his officers, should be referred to the 
 chiefs of the company's factories — he said 
 their justice consisted simply in this : — " they 
 abuse and beat my officers, and send them 
 away bound." Regarding the immediate 
 question at issue, he vindicated the aboli- 
 tion of customs on the plea of necessity, 
 the conduct of the English having utterly 
 prevented their realisation, and thus de- 
 prived him of one-half his revenues. The 
 remainder, he added, arose from laud-rents, 
 which were diminished by the abstraction 
 of half the country, and were required 
 to pay his standing army. Under these 
 circumstances he would be well pleased to 
 be relieved of his irksome task, and see some 
 other person placed in his stead as nabob. 
 This proposition was probably made in re- 
 ference to the projects already canvassed in 
 council (and of which he doubtless had 
 some knowledge) , for his supercession in the 
 event of the outbreak of hostilities. The 
 tone and bearing of Meer Cossim were, how- 
 ever, still on the whole so deprecating and 
 conciliatory, that no fear of the consequences 
 appears to have arisen in the minds of the 
 council to suggest the danger of driving 
 him to extremities. The governor explicitly 
 declares that, up to this period, the nabob 
 had not shown " any instance of a vicious or 
 a violent disposition ; he could not be taxed 
 with any act of cruelty to his own subjects, 
 nor treachery to us."t Of his troops a very 
 contemptible opinion had been formed ; 
 they were spoken of as " undisciplined 
 rabble," whom a single European detach- 
 ment could at once disperse : while Meer 
 Cossim himself was known to possess 
 neither taste nor talent as a military 
 leader ; and the chief warlike enterprise of 
 his administration (an invasion of Nepaul) 
 had proved a failure. But sufficient account 
 had not been made of the care with which 
 the native army had been gradually brought 
 to a state of unprecedented efficiency ; their 
 number being diminished by the payment 
 and dismissal of useless portions, while the 
 remainder were carefully trained, after the 
 European manner, by the aid of some mili- 
 tary adventurers who entered the service of 
 Meer Cossim. Among these the most cele- 
 brated was a man called by the natives 
 t Vansittart's Narrative, iii., 394. 
 
 _
 
 WAR BETWEEN MEER COSSIM AND THE ENGIJSII— 17G3. 297 
 
 Sumroo.* He was a German, Walter Rcine- 
 hard by name, and came to India as a ser- 
 geant iu the service of France. Military abili- 
 ties raised him to high favour with Meer 
 Cossim, and he l)ecamc the chief instigator 
 and instrument of the cruelties which dis- 
 graced the close of the struggle with the 
 presidency. The abuse of certain discre- 
 tionary powers vested in Mr. Ellis by the 
 council, despite the opposition of the gov- 
 ernor, precipitated matters. Patna was 
 seized by the English, and, to their surprise, 
 immediately regained by Meer Cossim. 
 Mr. Amyatt was at this time on his way 
 back to Calcutta; Mr. Hay being detained 
 as a hostage for the safety of some of the 
 native officials then imprisoned at Calcutta. 
 Orders were given for the capture of Mr. 
 Amyatt: he was intercepted, and, with several 
 of his companions, slain in the struggle 
 which ensued. The council closed all 
 avenues to reconciliation with Meer Cossim, 
 by the restoration of the man who, three 
 years before, had been pronounced utterly 
 unfit to reign. Suddenly annulling all that 
 had been said and done — setting aside the 
 imperial investiture, and everything else, 
 Meer Jaffier, without even the form of a 
 fresh treaty, was, by a strange turn of the 
 wheel of circumstances, again hurried to the 
 musnud from whence he had so lately been 
 ignorainiously expelled. 
 
 Vansittart, overpowered by bitter opposi- 
 tion, and sinking under ill-health, no longer 
 strove to stem the torrent. It was an emer- 
 gency in which he thought "justice must 
 give way to necessity ,"t and accordingly he 
 signed the proclamation inviting the people 
 of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa to rally round 
 the standard of Meer Jaifier; with other 
 documents, whose contents were wholly at 
 variance with his previous measures ; only 
 declaring that he would resign the govern- 
 ment so soon as ]\Ieer Cossim should be 
 subdued. This did not prove so easy a 
 task as had been expected. The ex-nabob 
 made a last effort at an accommodation bj' 
 a letter to the presidency, in which he 
 denied having given any order for the 
 destruction of Mr. Amyatt ; but, at the 
 same time, referred significantly to the 
 number of English captured at Patna, 
 plainly intimating that their fate depended 
 on the terms made with him. The threat 
 was little heeded. So perfect and uniform 
 
 * His nnm-th-yuerre of Summer was clmnged by 
 the Kreiicli soldiers into Sombre, on account of his 
 dark complexion, pronounced by the natives Sumroo. 
 
 had been his self-control, that not even the 
 governor or Mr. Hastings (the two Euro- 
 peans who had most intimately known him) 
 ever suspected the fierce passions which lay 
 hid beneath the veil of a singularly dignified 
 bearing and guarded language. No deci- 
 sive measure was therefore taken for tlie 
 rescue of the prisoners, but only letters 
 written, threatening unsparing vengeance in 
 the event of any injury being inflicted upon 
 them. These eommunicatious did but add 
 fuel to fire. Meer Cossim well knew the 
 stake for which he played — independent 
 sway over at least a part of Bengal, or a 
 violent death, with the possible alternative 
 of poverty and expatriation in the dominions 
 of his powerful neighbour, Shuja Dowlah. 
 The English took the field iu 1703, and 
 commenced operations by the successful 
 attack of the army stationed to protect 
 Moorshedabad. The city was captured; 
 and in the following mouth, the severest 
 conflict which the English had yet sustained 
 took place on the plain of Geriah. The 
 battle lasted four hours, and the enemy at 
 one period broke the line, seized two guns, 
 and attacked the 84th regiment front and 
 rear. But the steadiness of the troops pre- 
 vailed over the impetuosity of their assail- 
 ants, and eventuaUy procured a complete 
 victory. Meer Cossim was driven from 
 place to place; defeat and disgrace dogged 
 his steps ; and after sending his family and 
 treasures to the stronghold of Rhotas, he 
 commenced a series of executions at once, 
 to gratify his revenge and intimidate his 
 foes. Ram Narrain, with ten relatives, and 
 other native prisoners of note, were the first 
 victims after the battle of Geriah. A no 
 less disastrous engagement, in September, 
 near Oodwa, was followed by the execution 
 of the celebrated bankers, Juggut Seit and 
 his brother (or cousin), of whose persons 
 the nabob had some time before obtained 
 possession. Finally, the treacherous sur- 
 render of Monghyr, which he learned at 
 Patna, occasioned an order for the imme- 
 diate execution of all prisoners confined 
 I here, including fifty of the company's 
 servants, civil and military. Among the 
 number were Hay, Ellis, and Lushiugton 
 (the person before named as having counter- 
 feited the signature of Admiral Watson.) 
 Mr. Fullarton, a surgeon, iu virtue of a pro- 
 fession more peaceful than his praetice,|: 
 
 t Vansittart's Narrative, iii., 317. 
 I He is stated by Vansittart to have been mainly 
 instrumental in urging Mr. Amyatt, with whom he
 
 298 CAPTURE OF PATNA, 1763— EXPULSION OF MEER COSSIM. 
 
 L 
 
 formed the sole exception to this savage 
 massacre, which was perpetrated by Sumroo 
 and two companies of sepoys. On the ad- 
 vance of the English, Patna was abandoned 
 by its ruthless master; but the capture was 
 not effected until the middle of November, 
 after a prolonged and resolute defence. 
 Meer Cossim, unable to offer further re- 
 sistance, crossed the Caramnassa as a fugi- 
 tive, and threw himself upon the protection 
 of his ally, Shuja Dowlah, the nabob of Oude, 
 who, from the nominal vizier, had by this 
 time become the gaoler, of Shah Alum. 
 Early in the following year, an army was 
 assembled at Benares by Shuja Dowlah, 
 who, it appears, desired to make the claims 
 of his protege a pretext for obtaining pos- 
 session of the three provinces for himself. 
 The prospect of invasion was alarming- — 
 less from the strength of the enemy than 
 from the mutinous and disaffected condition 
 of the British force. From the moment 
 when a division of booty, to a hitherto un- 
 heard-of extent, commenced at the taking 
 of Geriah in 1756, a marked deterioration 
 had, as Clive truly observed, taken place in 
 their health and discipline. Large numbers 
 perished from sheer debauchery ; and the 
 survivors, imitating the civilians, were con- 
 stantly on the watch for some new source 
 of irregular gain. " A gratification to the 
 army" had been one of the articles canvassed 
 in council, as a point to be insisted on in 
 case of Meer Cossim's supercession ; but 
 war had come on them at the last so suddenly, 
 and had been attended with such an unex- 
 pected amo.uut of danger and expense, that in 
 the terms dictated to Meer Jaffier, after his 
 reinstatement on the musnud,the council had 
 scarcely leisure to do more than stipulate 
 for thirty lacs on behalf of the company ; 
 for the reiniposition of taxes on the oppressed 
 natives ; for their own total exemption, ex- 
 cept a duty of two-and-a-half per cent, upon 
 salt,* which, in their liberality, they ofl'ered 
 to pay as a gratuitous assistance to the 
 nabob ; and, lastly, for complete reimburse- 
 ment to individuals who might suffer loss by 
 the stoppage of tlie inland trade. It is easy 
 to understand who these individuals were, 
 but difficult to conceive to what an extent 
 a clause so indefinite as this might enable 
 them to carry their extortions. Even Meer 
 Jalfier seems to have had a notion that, in 
 had ureal influence, to adopt the policy which led to 
 80 melancholy a terniination.^ — {Nurrntive, i., 1()4.) 
 • Kveiuhis rate was never levied.— (CVirc, iii.,103.) 
 t ICvidence of Major Munro. — {First lieiiurt of 
 Parliamentury Cvnuniltee, 1772.) 
 
 return for these stipulations, he also might 
 put forward some peculiar claims; and he 
 now successfully urged, as a condition of re- 
 accepting the subahship, permission to em- 
 ploy, as one of his chief ministers, an intrigu- 
 ing Hindoo named Nuncomar, who was 
 actually in coufinement for having intrigued 
 against the English with Shuja Dowlah 
 and the French governor of Pondicherry. 
 In these arrangements, all idea of a gratuity 
 to the army was lost sight of; nor was any 
 forthcoming, as expected, after the expulsion 
 of Meer Cossim, although a specific pledge 
 to that effect had, it appears, been given 
 to the troops through Major Adams. t 
 
 Under such circumstances little vigour 
 was displayed in opposing the invading 
 troops, until, after ravaging Bahar, they 
 penetrated as far as Patna. Here, however, 
 they were defeated. The English soldiers 
 and sepoys — but especially the latter, on 
 whom the principal weight of the attack 
 fell — behaved with great steadiness and 
 gallantry ; and the vizier, perceiving that 
 his rude levies were quite unable to oppose 
 a disciplined European force, soon began to 
 evince an inclination for an amicable adjust- 
 ment of affairs. But the English would 
 make no terms that did not include the 
 surrender of the fugitive nabob and his 
 sanguinary instrument, Sumroo; and Shuja 
 Dowlah, on his part, looked for nothing 
 less than the surrender of the whole province 
 of Bahar : consequently the discussion pro- 
 duced no result ; and the tedious war dragged 
 on until the approach of the rainy season 
 compelled the vizier to conclude the cam- 
 paign by retreating with all speed to Oude. 
 
 The arrival of Major (afterwards Sir 
 Hector) Munro from Bombay, with Euro- 
 pean reinforcements, was the signal for an 
 outbreak of the dissatisfaction long at work 
 in the British army ; and a whole battalion 
 of sepoys, with their arms and accoutre- 
 ments, marched off to join the enemy. The 
 major detached a select body of troops in 
 pursuit. The fugitives were surprised by 
 night, while sleeping, and brought back as 
 prisoners. By the decree of a court-mar- 
 tial of their own countrymen, twenty-four 
 of the prisoners were condemned to die. 
 They were tied up, four at a time, to the 
 muzzle of as many guns, and blown away; 
 the first to suffer beiug some grenadiers, 
 who stepped forward and urged that, as 
 they had constantly been allowed precedence 
 in the hour of danger, so now it should be 
 granted them in death. The claim was
 
 BATTLE OF BUXAK, 17G4— STATE OF BENGAL. 
 
 299 
 
 tacitly admitted to be true, by being 
 granted, and the whole twenty-four were 
 executed, despite the earnest remonstrances 
 and even open ojjposition of tlieir comrades. 
 
 Military men have applauded this trans- 
 action as a piece of well-timed and necessary 
 severity; those who, like myself, question 
 both the lawfulness and expediency of capi- 
 tal punishments, and deem war and stand- 
 ing armies the reproach and not the glory 
 of Christian nations, will probably view 
 the whole afl'air in a difTcrent light. 
 
 Li tlie middle of September (1701) the 
 British troops again took the field, and having 
 crossed the Sone in spite of the opposition 
 of a corps of cavalry, advanced towards the 
 intrenched camp of the vizier at Buxar. A 
 sharp conflict took place, and lasted about 
 three hours; the enemy then began to give 
 way, and slowly retired ; but an immediate 
 pursuit being commenced, Shtija Dowlah 
 procured its abandonment, though at an 
 immense sacrifice of life,* by destroying a 
 bridge of boats upon a stream of water two 
 miles from the field of battle. The emperor 
 seized the opportunity of escaping from bis 
 tyrannical minister, pitched his tents Ijcside 
 those of the ll^nglish, and placed himself 
 under their protection. Renewed overtures 
 for peace, on the part of Sliuja Dowlah, were 
 again met by a demand for the surrender of 
 Meer Cossim and Sumroo. The former, 
 fearing to trust his life any longer in the 
 hands of one who had already taken advan- 
 tage of his defenceless position to obtain 
 possession of the chief part of the gold and 
 jewels which he had brought from Bengal, 
 now fled to the llohilla country, whither he 
 had fortunately caused some treasure to be 
 conveyed before the confiscation ordered by 
 his ungenerous ally, on pretence of paying 
 the troops. Sumroo, no less faithless than 
 cruel, had deserted him ; and, with a large 
 body of trained sepoys, had joined the force 
 of Shuja Dowlah before the battle of Buxar. 
 This piece of treachery nearly proved fatal 
 to its perpetrator ; for the vizier, anxious to 
 come to terms with the English, and yet to 
 avoid the infamy of delivering up the de- 
 serter, positively ofl'ered to procure his 
 assassination in presence of any two or 
 three witnesses chosen by ^Lajor Munro, 
 and evinced great surprise at the rejection 
 of this truly oriental proposal. It should 
 
 • Stated at 2,000 men drowned or otherwise lost ; 
 besides winch, 2,000 men were left dead on the field, 
 
 be remarked, however, in justice to Shuja 
 ]")owlali, that though willing to plunder 
 Meer Cossim to the last rupee, he could not 
 be induced to surrciulcr his person on any 
 terms; and even for the life and liberty of 
 tlie villain Sumroo, he would willingly have 
 paid a heavy ransom ; for it was not until 
 after the rejection of the offer of a sum of 
 filty-eight lacs, in lieu of delivering up the 
 fugitives, that he made the treacherous sug- 
 gestion above narrated regarding Sumroo. 
 Whether he really intended to carry it out, 
 or if, on the contrary, some other stratagem 
 was dcsi;^ned in the event of the plan being 
 apjiroved by the English, cannot be ascer- 
 tained. It is certain that his army was in 
 no condition to renew hostilities, and, in- 
 deed, never recovered the effects of the late 
 decisive engagement. 
 
 Meanwhile corruption, venality, and op- 
 pression reigned unchecked in Bengal. The 
 name of a nation, once highly honoured, 
 l)ecarae alike hateful in the ears of Musstil- 
 mans and Hindoos. f The approach of a 
 ])arty of English sepoys served as a signal 
 for the desertion of whole villages, and the 
 shopkeepers fled at the approach of the 
 palanquin of the passing traveller, fearing 
 that their goods might be seized for an 
 almost nominal value, and they themselves 
 abused and beaten for oficring a remon- 
 strance. The people at large were reduced 
 to a state of unprecedented misery ; the 
 ungenerous and impolitic advantage taken 
 of their weakness, having put it in the 
 ])ower of every marauder who chose to style 
 liiraself an English servant, to plunder and 
 tyrannise over them without control. The 
 effect, Warren Hastings plainly declared to 
 be, " not only to deprive them of their own 
 laws, but to refuse them even the benefit of 
 any." Had all this wrong proceeded from 
 the will of a single despot, there can be 
 little doubt he would have been speedily 
 removed by a combination of his own offi- 
 cers, or, as Mohammedan history affords so 
 many instances, been smitten to the earth 
 by a private individual, in vengeance for 
 some special injury. But the tyranny of a 
 far-distant association, dreadful and incom- 
 lirehensible beyond any bugbear ever painted 
 .t)y superstition, possessed this distinguishing 
 feature above all other despotisms — thatitwas 
 exercised through numerous distinct agencies, 
 
 + I7(/«ITasting's letter; — Karratwe, \i., IS. Clive 
 declares the oppressions prnctised had made " the 
 
 with 133 pieces of cannon. The loss of the English, j name of the English stink in the nostrils of a Gentoo 
 in killed and wounded, was 847. 1 or a Mussulman." — (Malcolm's Life, ii., 3S0.)
 
 300 MEER JAFFIER DIES, 1765— SUCCEEDED BY NUJEEM-AD-DOWLAH. 
 
 of which the hundred hands and arms of the 
 Hindoo idols could convey but a faint and 
 feeble image. 
 
 Oppression reached a climax under the 
 second administration of Meer JaiBer. He 
 had previously complained in forcible lan- 
 guage* of the injury done to the native 
 merchants, as well as to the provincial reve- 
 nues, by the abuse of the privileges conferred 
 by the firmaun ; but to this wrong he for- 
 mally assented when replaced on the musnud. 
 It soon, however, became manifest that it 
 mattered little what the terms of the agree- 
 ment had been; for he was regarded simply 
 as " a banker for the company's servants, 
 who could draw upon him as often, and to 
 as great an extent as they pleased."t The 
 clause for compensation to individuals proved, 
 as might have been foreseen, a handle for 
 excessive extortion. At the time of its in- 
 sertion the nabob had been assured that, 
 although it was impossible to specify the 
 particular amounts of claims, they would not 
 altogether exceed ten lacs ; notwithstanding 
 which, the demand was increased to twenty, 
 thirty, forty, and at last reached fifty-three 
 lacs. Seven-eighths of this sum, according to 
 the testimony of Mr. Scraftou, then an E. I. 
 director, "was for losses sustained (or said 
 to be sustained) in an illicit monopoly of the 
 necessaries of life, carried on against the 
 orders of the company, and to the utter ruin 
 of the India merchants." He adds, that " half 
 of this sum was soon extorted from the 
 nabob, though the company were at that 
 time sinking under the burden of the war, 
 and obliged to borrow great sums of money of 
 their servants at eight per cent, interest, and 
 even with that assistance could not carry on 
 both their war and their investment, but 
 sent their ships half loaded to Europe." J 
 The military establishment of the English 
 had by this time increased to 18,000 horse 
 and foot, and its ill-regulated expenditure 
 soon swallowed up the thirty lacs paid by 
 Meer Jaffier, as also the further sum of five 
 lacs a month, which he had agreed to furnish 
 during the continuance of the war. 
 
 Pressed on all sides by extortionate claims, 
 despised and brow-beaten by the very men 
 who had used him as an instrument for their 
 private ends, the nabob sank rapidly to an 
 unhonoured grave. His death in January, 
 
 • " The poor of my country," s.iiJ Meer JafBer, 
 " used to f;et their bread by tradinp; in salt, betel- 
 nut, and tobacco, which the En;;lish have now taken 
 to themselves ; by which my poor are starving, my 
 revenues ruined, and no advantage to the company." 
 
 1765, had been shortly preceded by the de- 
 parture of Governor Vansittart and Warren 
 Hastings for England ; and in the absence of 
 any restraining influence, the council were 
 left to conduct the profitable affair of en- 
 throning a new nabob after their own fashion. 
 The choice lay between the eldest illegiti- 
 mate son of Jaffier, Nujeem-ad-Dowlah, aged 
 twenty years, and the infant son of Meeran. 
 The claim of the emperor to appoint an 
 officer was considered far too inconvenient to 
 be acknowledged ; it would be easy to extort 
 his sanction when the selection was made. 
 Repeated offers had been made by him to 
 bestow on the English real power over the 
 revenues of Bengal, by vesting in them the 
 right of collection. This office, called the 
 dewannee, had been devised during the palmy 
 days of the empire§ as a means of prevent- 
 ing attempts at independence on the part of 
 the subahdar, the dewan being designed 
 to act as treasurer, appointed from, and ac- 
 countable to, the Delhi government, leaving 
 the subahdar to direct in all other matters. 
 This arrangement had been allowed to fall 
 into disuse ; for Ali Verdi Khan had usurped 
 the whole authority, both financial and ju- 
 dicial. Shah Alum must have been too well 
 acquainted with the state of aff'airs, to doubt 
 that the English, if they accepted the de- 
 wannee, would be sure to engross likewise all 
 real power vested in the subahdar; but he 
 expected in return a tribute, on the re- 
 gular payment of which dependence might 
 be placed. It did not, however, suit the 
 views of the representatives of the E. I. Cy. 
 to occupy a position which should render 
 them personally accountable for the revenues. 
 A nabob— i.e., a person from whom " pre- 
 sents" might be legally received — could not 
 be dispensed with. The child of Meeran was 
 old enough to understand the worth of sugar- 
 plums, but hardly of rupees ; and his claims 
 were set aside for those of Nujeem-ad-Dowlah. 
 The new nabob consented to everything de- 
 manded of him : agreed to entrust the mili- 
 tary defence of the country solely to the 
 English, and even to allow of the appoint- 
 ment, by the presidency, of a person who, 
 under the title of Naib Subah, should have 
 the entire management of the affairs of gov- 
 ernment. He eagerly advocated the nomi- 
 nation of Nuncomar to fill this important 
 
 — ( Vide Scrafton's Ohscrvations on Vansittart's Nar- 
 rative, printed in HIJO, pp. 38-'9.) 
 
 t Olive's speech, 1772 ; — -Almon's Debates, xiv. 
 
 I Scrafton's Ubservalinns, pp. 48-'9. 
 
 § See preceding section on Mogul Empire, p. 117.
 
 E. I. CO. INTERFERE TO CHECK THE AVARICE OF THEIR SERVANTS. 301 
 
 office, but in vain ; and the selection of an 
 experienced noble, named Moliamined Rcza 
 Klian, was perliaps the best tliat eould have 
 been made. The otlicr articles of the treaty 
 \vcr(! but the confirmation of previous ar- 
 raiiffomcnts ; and tlio whole affair wound np, 
 as usual, very much to the satisfaction of the 
 English officials concerned, among nine of 
 whom the sum of £139,357 vvas distributed, 
 besides gifts extorted from leading Indian 
 functionaries, in all of which the chief share 
 was monopolised by Mr. Johnstone, the dis- 
 senting member of council, who had so ve- 
 hemently deprecated the conduct of the se- 
 lect committee of 1760, in receiving the 
 largess of Meer Cossim. The money thus 
 acquired was not destined to be enjoyed 
 without a contest ; for the curb (so greatly 
 needed) was at length about to be placed on 
 the greediness of Bengal officials. 
 
 Ever since the deposition of Surajah Dow- 
 lah, the E. 1. Cy. had been spectators rather 
 than directors of the conduct of their servants 
 in Bengal. Clive had quitted their service 
 with bitterness in his heart and defiance on 
 his lips ; and the example of insubordination, 
 ambition, and covetousness given by him, 
 had been closely imitated by men who could 
 not appreciate the energy and perseverance 
 which enabled him to swim where they must 
 sink. The representations of Mr. Vansittart, 
 the massacre at Patna, and the sharp conttest 
 with Shuja Dowlah following that with 
 Meer Cossim, seriously alarmed the mass of 
 
 * Second Pari. Keport on E. I. Cy., 1772. 
 
 + An Irish peerage was, after lonj^ delay, obtained 
 by Clive, who took the title of Baron of Plassy : an 
 English one, by liis own account, might have been 
 purchased with ease {Life, ii., 189) j but then the 
 enormous wealth which was to maintain its possessor 
 on a level, in a pecuniary point of view, with the 
 high-born aristocracy of England, rested on a preca- 
 rious footing. Clive, notwithstanding his extraordi- 
 nary facility of attributing to himself every possible 
 perfection, never doubted that his position in societv 
 rested onhis "bags of money and bushelsof diamonds ' 
 (ii., 168), rather than on any mere personal qualifi- 
 cations ; and when urged to exert his influence in 
 the India House, soon after his return to England, 
 for some special purpose, in contravention to the 
 directors, he peremptorily refused, declaring, " my 
 future power, my future grandeur, all depend upon 
 the receipt of the jaghire ; and I should be a mad- 
 man to set at defiance those who at present show no 
 inclination to hurt mc." It must be remembered 
 that Clive, besides the jaghire, had avowedly realised 
 between three and four hundred thousand pounds 
 during his second sojourn in India — a circumstance 
 that greatly detracts from the efl'ect of the fiery indig- 
 nation with which, when the right was questioned of 
 Meer Jaffier to bestow, or his own to accept, the quit- 
 rent paid by the conipnny, he came forward to save 
 his " undoubted property from the worst of foes — 
 2 R 
 
 East India proprietors; — anxiety for their 
 own interests, and indignation at the wrongs 
 heaped on the natives in their name, for the 
 sole benefit of a few ungovernable servants, 
 conspired to rouse a strong feeling of the ne- 
 cessity of forthwith adopting measures cal- 
 culated to bring about a better state of things. 
 Stringent orders were dispatched in February, 
 17()4, forbidding the trade in salt, betel-nut, 
 tobacco, and all other articles whatsoever, 
 produced and consumed in the country;* 
 and in the following May it was directed that 
 new covenants should be executed by all the 
 company's servants (civil and military), bind- 
 ing them to " pay over to their employers 
 all presents received from the natives, which 
 should exceed 4,000 rupees in value." The 
 above orders, and the unsigned covenants, 
 were actually lying at Calcutta when the treaty 
 with the new nabob was made, and the sum 
 above stated extorted from him. Probably 
 the directors were not unprepared for dis- 
 obedience, evcii of this flagrant character. 
 The execution of orders so distasteful needed 
 to be enforced in no common manner; and 
 reasoning, it would seem, on the ground that 
 it was one of those cases in which " the chil- 
 dren of this world are wiser than the children 
 of light," it was suggested that Clive (now a 
 lord) was of all men the best fitted to root 
 up the poisonous tree he had planted. f 
 
 The inducement was not wanting; for 
 his jaghire had been called in question ; and 
 to ensure its continuance for the next ten 
 
 a combination of ungrateful directors" (ii., 229.) 
 " Having now," says Sir John Malcolm, " no choice 
 between bartering his independence to obtain secu- 
 rity for his fortune," Clive commenced hostilities 
 after the old fashion, sparing neither bold strokes in 
 the field, nor manceuvres in the closet. Upwards of 
 £100,000 were employed by him in securing support 
 by a means then commonly practised, but afterwards 
 prohibited — viz., that of split votes. He had, how- 
 ever, some powerful o])ponents, with the chair- 
 man, Mr. Suiivan, at their head. This gentleman 
 and Clive were at one period on intimate terms; but 
 according to the latter, their seeming good-fellow- 
 ship had been sheer hypocrisy, since, in reality, 
 they " all along behaved like shy cocks, though at 
 times outwardly expressing great regard and friend- 
 ship for one another." The issue of the conflict in 
 London was materially influenced by the critical 
 state of afl'airs in Calcutta. The court of proprietors 
 took up the matter in the most decided manner. 
 Clive availed himself of the excitement of the mo- 
 ment, and besides the confirmation of his jaghire for 
 ten years, obtained as a condition of bis acceptance 
 of the oflice of governor and commander-in-chief in 
 the Bengal Presidency, the expulsion of Mr. Suii- 
 van from the direction. The four persons associated 
 with him. under the name of a select committee — 
 Messrs. Sumrier, Sykes, Verelst, and General (late 
 Major) Carnac — were all subordinate to his will
 
 303 
 
 CLIVE'S SECOND ADMINISTRATION IN BENGAL— 17G5. 
 
 years to himself or his heirs, he agreed to 
 return to India for a very limited period — 
 sigued covenants to refrain from receiving 
 any presents by which he became pledged 
 from native princes ; and, invested with 
 almost despotic power, reached Calcutta in 
 May, 1765. Here he found matters in a 
 widely different condition to that which had 
 caused the E. I. Cy. so much well-founded 
 apprehension. Meer Cossim had been ex- 
 pelled ; the emperor had thrown himself 
 upon the English for protection ; and Shuja 
 Dowlah was so reduced as to be on the eve 
 of deprecating their wrath by a similar expe- 
 dient of placing his person at their mercy. 
 The majority of the reasons for which such 
 extraordinary powers had been vested in 
 Clive, in conjunction with a select committee 
 of four persons devoted to his will, had 
 therefore ceased to exist; but he persisted 
 in retaining these powers, and with suffi- 
 cient reason ; for the task he had to perform, 
 if conscientiously fulfilled, would have pro- 
 bably required their exercise. As it was, 
 he excited a general storm of rage, without 
 effecting any permanent good — at least so 
 far as the civil department of the presidency 
 was concerned. The general council, in all, 
 included sixteen persons ; though probably 
 not half that number assembled at ordinary 
 meetings. Among them was Mr. John- 
 stone, who had played so leading a part in 
 the transactions of the last few years. He 
 was a person possessed of advantages, in 
 regard both of ability and connexions, which 
 rendered him not ill calculated to do battle 
 with Clive ; and he scrupled not to retort 
 the severe censures cast upon himself and 
 his colleagues, by asserting that they had 
 only followed the example given by the 
 very man who now lamented, in the most 
 bombastic language, the " lost fame of the 
 
 the first-named had been ignominiously expelled 
 the company, for signing the violent letter quoted 
 at p. 294, biit subsequently reinstated. 
 
 • These sentiments Lord Clive accompanies with 
 an adjuration which too clearly illustrates the con- 
 dition of his mind regarding a I'uture state. " I do 
 declare," he writes, " by that Great Being who is the 
 searcher of all hearts, and to whom we must be 
 accountable if there must he an hereafter, that I am 
 come out witli a mind superior to all corruption." 
 Yet at this very time Clive scrujjled not to employ 
 his private knowledge of the state of affairs, and of 
 the increased value of stock likely to result from the 
 acceptance of the dewannee, to write home directions 
 in cipher (so that, if falling into strange hands, no otlier 
 person should benefit by the information), desiring 
 that every sliilling available, or that could be bor- 
 rowed in his name, should be invested in E. I. stock 
 " without loss of a minute." Mr. Kous (a director) 
 
 British nation," and declared himself to have 
 " come out with a mind superior to all cor- 
 ruption," and a fixed resolution to put 
 down the exercise of that unworthy prin- 
 ciple in others.* 
 
 The events of the next twenty months, 
 though of considerable importance, can be 
 but briefly narrated here. Immediately 
 upon his arrival, Lord Clive, and the two 
 members of the select committee who had 
 accompanied him from England, without 
 waiting for their destined colleagues, assumed 
 the exercise of the whole powers of govern- 
 ment, civil and military, after administering 
 to themselves and their secretaries an oath 
 of secrecy. Mr. Johnstone t made a despe- 
 rate resistance to the new order of things, 
 but was at length defeated and compelled to 
 quit the service. The other members, for 
 the most part, submitted, though with the 
 worst possible grace ; and the vacancies were 
 supplied by Madras ofiicials. The cove- 
 nants forbidding the acceptance of presents 
 were signed ; then followed the prohibition of 
 inland trade by the company's servants. This 
 was a more difficult point to carry. Clive 
 well knew that the salaries given by the 
 E. I. Cy. were quite insufficient to maintain 
 the political rank obtained by recent events. J 
 Poverty and power, side by side witli wealth 
 and weakness, would, as he himself declared, 
 offer to the stronger party temptations 
 " which flesh and blood could not resist." 
 With a full appreciation of this state of 
 affairs, it was a plain duty to press upon 
 the directors (as the clear-sighted and up- 
 right Sir Thomas Roe had done in the 
 early part of the preceding century) § the 
 necessity of allotting to each official aliberal 
 income, which should hold out to all a 
 reasonable prospect of obtaining a compe- 
 tency, by legitimate means, within such 
 
 and Mr. Walsh acted with promptitude, by proceed- 
 ing forthwith, though on a Sunday, to obtain the 
 key of the cipher, which it seems they very imper- 
 fectly understood.- — (See Thornton's India, i., 492.) 
 
 t Johnstone and hiscolleagues, wlien vainly pressed 
 to make over to the company the monies received 
 from iS'ujeem-ad-DowIah, replied, that when Clive 
 surrendered the money he liad obtained from the 
 father, tliey would yield in turn the gifts of the son. 
 
 X The salary of a councillor was only .t-oO ; the 
 rent of a very moderate house in Calcutta, £'2U0. 
 
 § " Absolutely jn-ohibit the private trade," said he, 
 " for your business will be better done. 1 know 
 this is harsli. Men profess they come not for bare 
 wages, liut you will take away this ])lea if you 
 give great wages, to their content; and then you 
 know what you part Ironi." No amount of legiti- 
 mate emolument will, however, assuage the thirst for 
 gain inherent in many clever, unprincipled men.
 
 ENGLISH ASSUME THE DEWANNEE OF BENGAL— 1765. 
 
 30;j 
 
 stated trnn of years as experience had 
 proved eoiild be home by an uvcraf:;c Euro- 
 pean eonstitutioii. But('live,instca(l of stren- 
 uously urgiuf^ a ])olicy so honest and straiglit- 
 forward as tliis, took npon himself to form a 
 fund for the senior olliccrs of the presidency, 
 from the governors downwards, by resolving, 
 after consultation only with Mr. Sumner 
 and Mr. Vorclst, that a monopoly should be 
 formed of the trade in salt, l)ctel-nut, and 
 tobacco, to be carried on for their exclusive 
 benefit, with the drawback of a duty to the 
 company estimated at .i,'l(")0,()()0 per aftuum. 
 Monopolies are odious things at best : this 
 one was of a peculiarly obnoxious and op- 
 pressive character ; and the directors wisely 
 and liberally commanded its immediate 
 abandonment. The arrangements of Clive 
 could not, however, be so lightly set aside ; 
 and they continued in operation until 1768. 
 With regard to Shuja Dowlali, it was 
 deemed expedient that he should be replaced 
 in the government of Oude, although a spe- 
 cific promise had been made that, on pay- 
 ment of fifty lacs of rupees for the expenses 
 of the war, real power over the dominions of 
 his tyrannical vizier should be given to the 
 emperor, in the event of the English being 
 triumphant. But this pledge, which had been 
 needlessly volunteered, was now violated ; 
 the vizier being deemed (and with reason) a 
 better protection against Mahratta and 
 Afghan invasion, on the north-western fron- 
 tier, than his gentle master. In another mat- 
 ter the claims of Shah Alum were treated in 
 an equally arbitrary manner. The arrange- 
 ments concluded with him by the Calcutta 
 government were now revised, or, in other 
 words, set aside by Clive. The emperor was 
 given to understand, that since it was in- 
 convenient to put him in possession of the 
 usurped dominions of Shuja Dowlah (com- 
 monly called the " nabob-vizier"), the dis- 
 tricts of Corah and Allahabad (yielding 
 jointly a revenue of twenty-eight lacs) must 
 suffice for a royal demesne; and, at the 
 same time, some large sums of money un- 
 questionably due from the company to the 
 indigent monarch, were withheld on the plea 
 of inability to pay them.* Shah Alum re- 
 monstrated warmly, but to no purpose : he 
 was compelled to cancel all past agreements, 
 and bestow on the company complete posses- 
 sion of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, under the 
 
 • Thirty lacs deficit of annual tribute, besides jag- 
 hires or lands in Ben^'al now witlulrawn, amount- 
 ing to five lacs and ii-half of rupees per ann. — (Mill.) 
 
 t Malcolm's Life of Lord Clive, iii., 125. 
 
 name of the " perpetual Dewannee," clogged 
 only by a yearly tribute of twenty-six lacs 
 of ru|)ecs. The formal confirmation of the 
 I'juglish in their various scattered settlements 
 throughout the nominal extent of the empire, 
 was likewise obtained ; nor was the jaghire 
 of Lord (Hive, with reversion to his em- 
 ployers, forgotten in the arrangement. As 
 a precautionary measure against the French 
 (who, by virtue of a recent European treaty, 
 had been reinstated in their Bengal settle- 
 ments, with the proviso of neither erecting 
 fortifications nor maintaining troops), it was 
 deemed expedient to obtain from the emperor 
 a free grant of the five Northern Cirears, 
 over which Nizam Ali, the brother and suc- 
 cessor (by usurpation and murder) of Sala- 
 but Jung, then exercised a very precari- 
 ous authority. In 1760, the Nizam (as 
 he is commonly called) had proffered these 
 Circars to the Madras government in re- 
 turn for co-operation against the Mahrattas 
 and Hyder Ali ; but his overtures were re- 
 jected, because the forces required could 
 not be spared. In 1766, an arrangement 
 was brought about by dint of no small 
 amount of bribery and intrigue, by which 
 four of the Circars were surrendered, and 
 the reversion of the fifth, or Guntoor Circar, 
 which was held by a brother of the Nizam, 
 Bassalut Jung, was promised to the com- 
 pany, on condition of the payment of a rent 
 of nine lacs of rupees, together with a most 
 imprudent pledge to furnish a body of troops 
 whenever the Nizam might require their 
 aid in the maintenance of his government. 
 The imperial firmaun, of which the chief 
 articles have been just recited, took away 
 the scanty remains of power vested by the 
 Bengal presidency in Nujeem-ad-Dowlah. 
 The weak and dissolute character of this 
 youth rendered him an easy tool; and when 
 informed by Clive that every species of 
 control was about to pass from him, and 
 that a stipend of fifty-three lacs would be 
 allotted for the family of Meer Jaffier, out 
 of which a certain sum would be placed at 
 his disposal, this worthy priuce uttered a 
 thankful ejaculation, adding, " I shall now 
 have as many dancing-girls as I please. "f 
 
 A leading feature in the second adminis- 
 tration of Clive remains to be noted — one 
 of the most important, as well as the most 
 interesting in his remarkable career. The 
 other " reforms" effected by him were no- 
 thing better than a change of evils ; but, in 
 checking the spirit of insubordination and 
 rapacity which pervaded the whole Anglo-
 
 304 
 
 STATE OF THE ANGLO-INDIAN ARMY IN 1765. 
 
 Indian army, he served both the company 
 and the state well and bravely. Clive was 
 essentially a military genius :* he scrupled 
 not to declare in after-times, that all he 
 had in the world had been acquired as the 
 leader of an army ; and when questioned re- 
 garding the very exceptionable trading regu- 
 lations instituted under his auspices, he de- 
 clared, with regard to an article under notice, 
 that " of cotton he knew no more than the 
 pope of Rome." He might have pleaded 
 equal ignorance of the state of the immense 
 native population of Bengal. But the con- 
 dition of the troops was a subject he would 
 naturally study con amore. Dissension, 
 luxury, and profligacy, attended with alarm- 
 ing mortality, had immediately resulted from 
 the large booty divided at Geriah under the 
 auspices of himself and Admiral Watson. 
 Since then excessive and extortionate gain, 
 under pretence of trading, had become the 
 predominant evil ; and the severity of Major 
 Muuro, though it might for a time check, 
 by the influence of terror, the insubordina- 
 tion of the sepoys, or even that of the Euro- 
 pean rank and tile, left untouched the root 
 of the evil — namely, the eagerness of the 
 officers in the pursuit of trade, at the ex- 
 pense of professional duty. Now, Clive was 
 the last person in the world to expect men to 
 be content with honourable poverty, when 
 they might acquire wealth without the cost 
 of toil, or the stigma of indelible disgrace 
 attached to certain heinous crimes ; and this 
 circumstance, together with not unnatural 
 partiality, induced him to take measures 
 for the introduction of a better system 
 among the military servants of the com- 
 pany, with far more gentleness than he 
 had evinced in dealing with the civilians. 
 The ofllcers were to be compelled to re- 
 nounce all trading pursuits : this was the 
 first reform to be carried out by Clive ; the 
 second was the final and uncompensated 
 withdrawal of an extra allowance, called 
 batta, given since an early period, but now 
 to be abolished, excepting at some par- 
 
 * In Chatham's words, " a heaven-born general." 
 t Previous to the capture of Calcutta by Surajah 
 Dowlah, the Benj^al establishment consisted of one 
 small company of artillery, about sixty European 
 infantry (including officers), and 300 Portuguese 
 half-caste, called topasses ; out of the above, three 
 captains, five lieutenants, and four ensigns perished 
 in the Black-Hole. On the recapture of Calcutta, a 
 battalion of sepoys was raised and officered from the 
 detachments which had been sent from Madras to the 
 relief of Fort William ; and others were subsequently 
 formed in like manner ; until, at Plassy, in 1757, the 
 British force comprised 3,000 sepoys. In 1 7G0 there 
 
 ticular stations where, on account of the 
 dearness of articles necessary to Euro- 
 peans, it was to be either wholly or par- 
 tially continued. The allowance originally 
 granted by the company had been doubled 
 by Meer Jaffier, who, at the instigation 
 of Clive, paid the additional sum out of 
 his own pocket, besides the regular ex- 
 pense of the English troops engaged in 
 his service, but ostensibly as a boon revo- 
 cable at pleasure. His successor, Meer 
 Cossim Ali, made over to the company the 
 districts of Burdwan, Midnapoor, and Chit- 
 tagong, in lieu of certain monthly payments ; 
 and although the revenues of these terri- 
 tories more than covered the cost of the 
 army, including the double batta, the direc- 
 tors, considering the large profits of their 
 servants and their own necessities, strin- 
 gently ordered the discontinuance of this 
 allowance. Their repeated injunctions, the 
 civil government, overawed by the mili- 
 tary, had never dared to enforce ; and even 
 Clive did not bring forward the question of 
 double batta until the restoration of peace 
 had enabled him to remodel the army by 
 forming it into regiments and brigades, with 
 an increased number of field-officers. f These 
 improvements were efiected without opposi- 
 tion, and the prohibition of officers receiving 
 perquisites, or engaging in certain branches 
 of trade, was compensated in Clive's plan by 
 allowing them a liberal share in the mono- 
 poly of salt, betel-nut, and tobacco. The 
 proportions to be received by the senior ser- 
 vants of the company, independent of their 
 fixed salaries, according to the lowest calcu- 
 lation, were £7,000 sterling per annum to a 
 councillor or colonel, £3,000 to a lieutenant- 
 colonel, £2,000 to a major or factor. Some 
 scanty amends for the shameless oppression 
 of taxing the natives thus heavily, was made 
 by placing the management of the trade in 
 their hands instead of under the guidance 
 of European agents ; but even this measure 
 was adopted from the purely selfish motive 
 of saving expense. J 
 
 were sixty European officers, viz. — nineteen captains, 
 twenty-six lieutenants, and fifteen ensigns. In 1765, 
 Clive found the amount raised to four companies of 
 artillery, a troop of hussars, about 1,200 regular 
 cavalry, twenty-four companies of Eurojiean infantry, 
 and nineteen battalions or regiments of sepoys— in 
 all, about 20,000 men — whom he divided into three 
 brigades, each comprising one European regiment, 
 one company of artillery, six regiments of sepoys, 
 and one troop of native cavalry. The brigades were 
 respectively stationed at Monghyr, Hankipoor (near 
 Patna),and Allahabad. — (Strachey's Ihiiyal Mutiiii/.) 
 I Even Clive admitted that by his arrangement the
 
 DOUBLE BATTA— MUTINY OP BENGAL OFFICERS— 1766. 305 
 
 As yet all had proceeded smoothly, so 
 far as the military were concerned, and 
 Clive, with his usual self-reliance, consider- 
 ing the time at length arrived when the 
 double batta might he safely abolished, with- 
 drew it at the close of the year 1 765. The 
 remonstrances of the officers were treated 
 as the idle complaints of disappointed men, 
 and several months passed without any 
 apprehension arising of serious consequences, 
 until towards the end of April a misunder- 
 standing among the parties concerned sud- 
 denly revealed the existence of a powerful 
 and organised combination,* formed by the 
 majority of the leading commanders, aided 
 and abetted by many influential civilians, 
 to compel the restoration of the extra al- 
 lowances. It was a great and formidable 
 emergency, but " Frangas non flecies" had 
 been ever the motto of Clive, and now, re- 
 jecting all temporising measures, or idea of 
 a compromise, he came forward with a deep 
 conviction of the danger with which the pre- 
 cedent of military dictation would be fraught, 
 and a firm resolve to subdue the mutiny or 
 perish in the attempt. And there was real 
 danger in the case ; for his imperious bearing, 
 combined with the unjiopular regulations he 
 came to enforce, had rendered him an object 
 of strong personal ill-feeling to many in- 
 dividuals of note ; yet, when told of threats 
 against his life, alleged to have been uttered 
 by one of the officers, he treated the report 
 as an unworthy calumny, declaring that the 
 mutineers were " Englishmen, not assassins." 
 The dauntless courage which had distin- 
 guished the youthful defender of Arcot again 
 found ample scope for exertion : it was no 
 longer the over-dressed baron of Plassy f — 
 the successful candidate for power and pelf — 
 
 price of salt Iiad been made too high for the natives, 
 and the profit to the moMO]iolists unreasonably large. 
 — (Malcohn's Life of Lord Clive, in., 259.) 
 
 •From the month of December, 1765, consulta- 
 tions had been held and committees formed un- 
 der the veil of Masonic lodges, and no less than 200 
 officers pledged themselves to resign their commis- 
 sions on Istof June, 1766, but agreed to proffer their 
 services for another fortnight, by the expiration of 
 which time it was expected tlie extensive defection 
 would compel Clive to consent to the restoration of 
 Ine double batta. In the event of capital punish- 
 ment being decreed by courts-martial, they swore to 
 firevent the execution of any comrade at the cost of 
 ife ; and each one signed a penalty bond of £500 
 not to re-accept his commission if oB'ered, unless 
 the object of the confederacy were gained. 
 
 ■)■ Like most biographers, Sir John Malcolm and 
 his coadjutors have endeavoured to set forth the 
 character of their hero in the most favourable light, 
 and by this means have drawn a picture which every 
 
 the head of the then generally detested class of 
 Anglo-Indian "nabobs," — but plain Robert 
 Clive, who now, in the full vigour of man- 
 hood, his heavy, overhanging brow express- 
 ing more forcibly than words a stern ^lur- 
 pose, set forth, not in the palanquin of the 
 governor, but, soldier-like, on horseback, to 
 face tlic disaH'cctcd troojjs. There were still 
 some few officers on whom reliance could be 
 [jhiced ; others were summoned from Madras 
 and Bombay : commissions were liberally 
 scattered throughout the ranks ; the services 
 of civilians were used to sujiply vacancies ; 
 and increase of pay, for a fixed period, was 
 promised to the common soldiers, whom the 
 officers, to their credit, had made no attempt 
 to corrupt. The danger was in some sort 
 increased by a threatened incursion of the 
 Mahrattas, under their chief minister, the 
 peishwa Mahdoo Rao ; yet, on the other 
 hand, this very circumstance aroused in the 
 breasts of many of the malcontents a feeling 
 of shame at the thought of deserting their 
 colours in the face of the foe. The JMonghyr 
 brigade, under Sir Robert Fletcher, was the 
 one in wliich the determination to resign had 
 been most general ; and Clive, after a long 
 harangue, perceiving indications of a dis- 
 position to resist his orders, took advantage 
 of the steady obedience of the sepoys, by 
 directing them to fire on the officers unless 
 they dispersed immediately. A general sub- 
 mission followed ; courts-martial were held, 
 and many of the delinquents cashiered : among 
 others Sir Robert Fletcher, the head of the 
 Monghyr brigade, who, although active in 
 subduing the confederacy, was found to have 
 been gravely implicated in its formation. 
 No blood was shed iu these proceedings, and 
 the result proved that such severity would 
 
 impartial reader must feel to be incomplete and one- 
 sided. The termination of the life of CHve by his 
 own hand is not even hinted at ; and there is much 
 reason to believe the same partiality to have chiefly 
 guided the selection of letters for publication. 
 Nevertliclcss, a very amusing one has crept in, ad- 
 dressed by Clive to his intimate friend and agent, Orme 
 the historian, filled with commissions as numerous 
 and minute in detail as any ever received by a London 
 lady of fashion from a country cousin. Among the 
 items, all of which were to be " the best and finest to 
 be got for love or money," were 200 shirts, with wrist- 
 bands and ruffles, worked to order. The dress of 
 Clive at the durbar (or Oriental levee) was a " fine 
 scarlet coat with handsome gold lace," which one of 
 his purveyors, Captain Latham, considered preferable 
 to " the common wear of velvet." The thick-set 
 figure of Clive, arrayed in a scarlet coat lined with 
 imrchment that the cloth might not tcrinhle, must 
 have presented a strange contrast to the graceful 
 forms and picturesque attire of the Indian nobles.
 
 306 
 
 MERCENARY CONDUCT OF LORD CLIVE— 1766. 
 
 have involved a needless sacrifice ; but the 
 merit of moderation docs not rest with Clive, 
 who declared that his endeavours were not 
 wanting to get several of the mutinous ring- 
 leaders shot ; but his efforts were neutralised 
 by some wholesome doubts in the minds of the 
 judges regarding the extent of the company's 
 authority. In the words of Sir John Mal- 
 colm " a misconstruction of the mutiny act 
 inclined the court-martial to viercij." It is 
 a singular ending to the affair, that Sir Robert 
 Fletcher, after this narrow escape, returned 
 to India as commander-in-chief for the 
 Madras presidency ; while one John Petrie, 
 sent home by Clive with a rope round his 
 neck, came back to Bengal with a high civil 
 appointment, through the influence of his 
 
 * The conduct of Clive, in respect to pecuniary 
 gain, during his second administration, is too im- 
 portant to be left unnoticed; yet the facts neces- 
 sary to place it in a clear light, can be ill given 
 within the compass of a note. It should be remem- 
 bered, that by his agreement with the E. I. body, the 
 famous jaghire was to be continued to him for ten 
 years, and provided he should survive that period, 
 was to become the property, not of Meer Jaffier, 
 but of the company. Nowjaghires, by the consti- 
 tution of the Mogul government, in which they 
 originated, were simply annuities, given for the most 
 part expressly for the support of a military contin- 
 gent. A jaghire was like an office of state, revo- 
 cable at pleasure : so far from being hereditary, an 
 omrah, or lord of the empire, could not even be- 
 queath his savings without special permission ; and 
 we have seen that the Great Moguls — Aurungzebe 
 for instance — never scrupled to exercise their claim 
 as heirs to a deceased noble, leaving to the bereaved 
 family a very limited maintenance as a matter of 
 favour. Clive had solicited this jaghire simply to 
 support his position as an omrah, and had no right 
 whatever to expect its continuance for the purpose of 
 building palaces and buying up rotten boroughs in 
 England. The company might therefore well ques- 
 tion the right of Meer Jaffier to bestow, or of their 
 powerful servant to accept, as a perpetual jaghire 
 the quit-rent paid by them for their territory in 
 Bengal. Bui the question was altogether a per- 
 plexed one, inasmuch as Meer Jaffiers claims were 
 wholly founded on the usurpation which had been 
 accomplished by English instrumentality. Sliah Alum 
 was the only person who could have rightfully de- 
 manded a quit-rent from the company when bestow- 
 ing on them the dewannee ; but the "truth was, that 
 every advantage was taken of his necessitous posi- 
 tion, regardless of the dictates of justice. The con- 
 firmation of the jaghire to Lord Clive, with rever- 
 sion to the company in perpetuity, was exacted from 
 the emperor; and in thus obtaining a boon for his 
 employers, Clive was far from being uninilucnced by 
 selfish motives; for, on coming to India, he was dis- 
 tinctly told that tlie strict observance of his pledge— 
 of refraining from every description of irregular gain 
 — should be acknowledged in a manner which must 
 satisfy the expeclalions even of a man who, after a 
 most extravagant course of expenditure, had still an 
 income of £40,000 a-year. Anrl when, on his return 
 to England, the term of the jaghire was extended 
 
 friends the Johnstones. Soon after this dis- 
 persion of one of the most dangerous storms 
 which ever menaced the power of the E. I. 
 Company, the health of Clive failed rapidly, 
 and though earnestly solicited to continue 
 at least another year, and apparently not 
 unwiUing to do so, bodily infirmity prevailed, 
 and he quitted Bengal for the third and last 
 time in January, 1767. Shortly before his 
 departure, the young nabob, Nujeem-ad- 
 Dowlah, died of fever, and his brother Svef- 
 ad-Dowlali was permitted to succeed him. In 
 a political point of view the change was of 
 less importance than would have been that of 
 the chief of a factory, but it was advantageous 
 to the company in a peoimiary sense, as afford- 
 ing an opportunity for reducing the stipend.* 
 
 for ten years, or, in other words, £300,000 were 
 guaranteed to him or his heirs, Clive had surely 
 reason to admit that " no man had ever been more 
 liberally rewarded." Nevertheless, his administra- 
 tion, even in a pecuniary point of view, had not been 
 blameless. On arriving in India, it appeared that 
 Meer Jafiier had bequeathed to Clive five lacs of 
 rupees, which were in the hands of Munnee Begum, 
 the mother of the reigning prince. Whether Meer 
 Jaffier really left this sum either from friendship to 
 Clive, or from a desire to propitiate him in favour of 
 his favourite concubine and children, or whether they 
 themselves offered a present in the only form in 
 which he could have any excuse for accepting it, is 
 not known ; but it was no one's interest to examine 
 into the affair, since Clive thought fit to set the 
 matter at rest by employing the money as a fund 
 greatly needed for the relief of the disabled officers 
 and soldiers of the Bengal establishment, with their 
 widows, and thus laid the foundation of the present 
 establishment at Poplar. Even, however, in this 
 case Clive took care of his personal interests, by 
 inserting a clause in the deed providing that in case 
 of the failure of his interest in the jaghire (then only 
 guaranteed for ten years, of which a considerable 
 portion had expired), the whole five lacs should 
 revert to him. He moreover contrived to make 
 the fund a weapon of political ])ower, by threatening 
 to exclude from it all persons whom he might think 
 "undeserving in any respect soever." — (iii., 43.) 
 With regard to the large sums of money avowedly 
 received by him during liis second administration, it 
 certainly appears that he did not apply them to the 
 increase of his fixed income, but systematically ap- 
 propriated the overplus of such gains to tlie benefit 
 of certain connections and friends (i.e., his mother-in- 
 law, Mr. Maskelyne ; his physician, Mr. Ingham ; 
 and a Mr. Strachey, his secretary), " as a reward," 
 he writes, in his grand-bashaw style, " for their ser- 
 vices and constant attention ujion my person," — 
 (iii., 136.) On his arrival in India he at once cm- 
 barked largely in the salt trade, and thereby realised 
 in nine months a profit, including interest, of forty- 
 five per cent. ; his share in tlie monopoly of salt, 
 established in defiance of the repeated orders of the 
 company, was also greatly beyiuul that of any indi- 
 vidual ; and it is certain he employed these and 
 other irrejiular gains for jiiirely private purposes. 
 Jtesides this, he sanctioned the unwarrantable con- 
 duct of many favoured officers in continuing to re-
 
 STATE OF ENGLISH SOCIETY IN BENGAL— 17G0 to 1770. 
 
 307 
 
 It is hardly necessary to remark that the 
 Bengal presidency did not assume a loftier 
 tone of feeling in questions regarding re- 
 ligion or morality under the ausjiices of 
 Lord Clive. The jjriestly odice was not 
 then deemed inconsistent with mcreaiitile 
 pursuits ; and the saving of souls gave 
 [ilaee to the engrossing cares of money- 
 making. As to the general state of society, 
 Clive's own account affords al)undant evi- 
 dence of the aptitude with which cadets and 
 writers, fresh fiom piiljlic schools, or, it may 
 be from the pure atmosphere of a quiet 
 home, plunged headlong into a career of 
 extravagance and notorious jirofligacy, of 
 which the least revolting description would 
 have made their mothers sicken with disgust. 
 One walk about Calcutta would, it appears, 
 suflice to show a stranger that the youngest 
 writers lived in splendid style, which Lord 
 Clive explains, by saying "that they ride upon 
 fine prancing Arabian horses, and in palan- 
 quins and cliaiscs; that they keep seraglios, 
 make entertainments, and treat with cham- 
 pagne and claret ;" — the certain result being, 
 to become over head and ears in debt to 
 the banyan, or native agent, who, for the 
 
 eeive presents after tliey had been required to sign 
 covenants enjoining their rejection. For instance, 
 his staunch adlierent, General Carnac, after his col- 
 leagues had executed the covenants, delayed a cer- 
 tain time, during which he received a present of 
 70,000 rupees from BuKvant bingh, the Hindoo 
 rajah of Benares, who joined the English against 
 Shuja Dowlah ; and he appears to have afterwards 
 obtained permission to appropriate a further sum of 
 two lacs of rnpe(5s, given by the emperor, whose un- 
 questioned poverty did not shield him from the 
 extortions of British officers. It has been urged that 
 Clive made atonement for the doubtful means by 
 which he acquired his wealth by its liberal distri- 
 bution ; and the act chielly insisted upon is the grant 
 of an annuity of £oOO a-year to General Lawrence, 
 when he left India enfeebled by asthmatic com- 
 plaints and the increasing infirmities of age, and 
 returned in honourable poverty to his native land. 
 Considering that Clive acknowledged that to the 
 patronage and instructions of Lawrence he owed all 
 ills early success, the extent of the allowance was no 
 very remarkable evidence of a munificent disposition. 
 The dowries of three or four thousand jiounds each 
 to his five sisters, with an injunction " to marry as 
 soon as possible, for they had no time to lose" (ii., 
 161), evince a strong desire to get them off his 
 hands. The princely estates purchased by him, in 
 various parts of the country, were undisguised mani- 
 festations of his ostentatious mode of life : among 
 them may be named the noble property of Claremont 
 (obtained from the Duchess of Kewcastle), Walcot, 
 Lord Chatham's former residence at Bath, and a house 
 in Berkeley-square. No description of expense was 
 spared to render these aristocratic dwellings fitting 
 exi)onents of tlie grandeur of the Indian niillioniiaire ; 
 and the smaller accessories of picture galleries and 
 
 sake of obtaining the cover afforded by the 
 bare name of a servant of the powerful 
 English company, supplied the youths with 
 immense sums of money, and committed 
 " such acts of violence and oppression as his 
 interest prompts him to."* It may be re- 
 membered that Cliv(! commenced his own 
 Indian career l)y getting into debt; and 
 there is reason to ijelicve that for all the 
 proceedings mentioned by him in the above 
 quotation, the company's servants might 
 have pleaded his lordship's conduct in ex- 
 tenuation of their owu.f 
 
 After the departure of Clive, a select 
 committee continued, by his advice, to pre- 
 side over the affairs of Bengal, the chair of 
 the governor being filled by IVIr. Verelst 
 until December, 1770. During the admin- 
 istration of this gentleman and his tempo- 
 rary successor, Mr. Carticr, no changes 
 were made in tlie system of the " double 
 government:" that is to say, of a sway 
 carried on in the name of a nabob, but in 
 reality by English officials. !Mill forcibly 
 describes the utter want of any efficient 
 system, or of well-known and gcuerallj' re- 
 cognised laws, which formed the prevailing 
 
 pleasure-grounds did not hinder Clive from carefully 
 following out his leading object — of obtaining parlia- 
 mentary influence. Six or seven members were 
 returned at his expense, and their efforts doubtless 
 did much to mitigate, though they coukl not wholly 
 avert, the storm which burst over his head in 1772. 
 The decision of the committee employed in examining 
 his past conduct pronounced, as was fitting, a sen- 
 tence of mingled praise and condemnation. He had 
 notoriously al)used the powers entrusted to him by 
 the nation and the company; but he had rendered 
 to both important services. Such a decision was 
 ill calculated to soothe the excited feelings of Clive, 
 who^e haughty nature had writhed under proceed- 
 ings in which he, the Baron of Plassy, had been 
 ■' examined like a sheep-stealer." The use of opium, 
 to which he had been from early youth addicted, 
 aggravated the disturbed state of his mini!, without 
 materially alleviating the sufferings of his ])hysical 
 frame; andhe died by his own handin Nov., 1774, hav- 
 ing newly entered his fiftieth year. — (Malcolm's Life.) 
 
 • Clive's speech on Kast Indian Judicature Bill, 
 March, 1722.— (Hansard's P:irl. Hist., 355.) 
 
 f The French translator of the Si)/ar ul Mntak- 
 hcrin (who was in the service of the Bengal presi- 
 dency and well acquainted with Clive, to whom he 
 occasionally acted as interpreter) explains a forcible 
 denunciation by Gliolam Hussein, of the conduct of 
 certain persons who were tempted by the devil to 
 bring disgrace on families, as an allusion to the 
 violation of all decorum committed by Meer JafEer, 
 in giving to Clive " ten handsome women out of his 
 seraglio — that is, out of Surajah Bowlah's." Had the 
 donation been conferred on a good Mussulman, in- 
 stead of a disbeliever in the Koran, the sin would, it 
 seems, have been thereby greatly diminished. — (Siyar 
 ul Mutakherm, i., 722.)
 
 308 INDIA IN THE MIDDLE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 feature of this period. The native tribunals 
 retained scarce the shadow of authority; the 
 trade of the country was almost ruined by 
 the oppressions committed on the people; and 
 the monopoly of the inland traffic in salt, 
 betel-nut, and tobacco, when at length un- 
 willingly relinquished by the English offi- 
 cials, did not prove the relief to the Bengalee 
 merchants that might have been expected, 
 owing to the heavy pressure of tj'ranny and 
 extortion to which they were subjected. In 
 fact, there were so many channels by which 
 the natives could be wronged and the com- 
 pany plundered, that closing up one or two 
 might change the direction of the flood, but 
 could not diminish its volume. Clive was 
 naturally unwilling to acknowledge how 
 much of the task for which he had been 
 munificently rewarded had been left unful- 
 filled; and it was not till after long and 
 bitter experience that the E. I. Cy. learned 
 to appreciate, at their proper value, his ex- 
 aggerated account of the revenues* obtained 
 through his aggressive policy. And here it 
 may be well to pause and consider for a 
 moment the nature of our position in 
 Bengal, and, indeed, in the whole of the 
 south of India. The insatiable ambition 
 of Aurungzebe had urged him onwards 
 ■without ceasing, until every Mohammedan 
 kingdom in the Deccanhad become absorbed 
 in the Mogul empire. The impolicy of this 
 procedure has been before remarked on. The 
 tottering base forbade the extension of an 
 already too weighty superstructure ; but the 
 emperor persevered to the last. Beejapoor 
 and Golconda fell before him, and the gov- 
 ernments established by their usurping dynas- 
 ties were swept ofl' by a conqueror who had 
 time to destroy institutions, but not to replace 
 them. The result was the rapid rise of the 
 many-headed Mahratta power, and the equally 
 rapid decay of Mogul supremacy, even 
 while Aurungzebe, his sons, grandsons, and 
 great-grandsons were all in arms together 
 for its support. The death of the emperor, 
 well nigh hunted down by the foes who 
 from despising he had learned to hate, 
 followed as it was by repeated wars of 
 
 • In addressing the House of Commons, in 1772, 
 Clive described iiengal as " a country containing fif- 
 teen millions of inl]al)itants, a revenue of £4,000,000, 
 and trade in proportion." The extreme distress then 
 existing he treated as a temporary effect of dissen- 
 sions in the company at home, and misgovcrnmeiit 
 in India, dating of course from his dciiarture; and 
 he spoke of the venality that prevailed, equally 
 among high and low, with a bold assumption of dis- 
 interestedness, declaring, " that in the richest country 
 
 succession and intestine feuds, reduced his 
 descendants, step by step, until their last 
 representative. Shah Alum, became nothing 
 better than the pageant of every successful 
 party. The disastrous battle of Paniput 
 (1761) left the Mahratta state thoroughly 
 unhinged, and, together with internal strife, 
 incapacitated its rulers for assuming that 
 dominant position in India under which 
 such men as Sevajee, Bajee Rao, or the first 
 peishwa, Maharashtra, would doubtless have 
 aspired. In fact, India in the middle of 
 the eighteenth century, resembled, in a poli- 
 tical point of view, a vast battle-field strewn 
 with the fragments of ruined states, and 
 affording on every side abundant evidence 
 of a prolonged and severe conflict, from 
 which even the victors had emerged irre- 
 trievably injured. In the Deccan this was 
 especially the case ; and the only relics of 
 legitimate power rested with a few small 
 Hindoo states (Tanjore, Mysoor, Coorg, 
 &c.), whose physical position or insignifi- 
 cance had enabled them to retain inde- 
 pendence amid the general crash of mon- 
 archies. The representatives of the E. I. Cy. 
 in India understood the state of aff'airs, but 
 very imperfectly : it appears that, in 1756, 
 they did not even clearly know who Ballajee 
 Bajee Rao (the actual ruler of the Mahratta 
 state) might be; but at the same time, they 
 had been too long anxious spectators of the 
 proceedings of Aurungzebe and his succes- 
 sors, to be ignorant of the thorouglily dis- 
 organised state of the empire. The suc- 
 cessful ruanceuvres of Dupleix and Bussy 
 must have sufficed to remove any lingering 
 doubt on the subject ; while the jealousy of 
 the two nations in Europe rendered it evi- 
 dent, that in the absence of a native power 
 (Mussulman or Hindoo) sufficiently strong 
 to compel their neutrality, a contest for 
 supremacy must, sooner or later, take place 
 between the French and English, especially 
 as the former had all along assumed poli- 
 tical pretensions ill at variance with the 
 peaceful pursuits of trade. Without enter- 
 ing on the difficult question of the general 
 proceedings of the English company, far 
 
 in the world, where the power of the English had 
 become absolute, where no inferior approached his 
 superior but with a present in his hand, where there 
 was not an officer commanding II. M. fleet, nor an 
 officer commanding H.M. army, nor a governor, nor 
 a member of council, nor any other perso'ii, civil or 
 military, in such a station as to have connection with 
 the country government who had not received pre- 
 sents, it was not to be expected the inferior officers 
 should be more scrupulous." — Almon's Dehales,llTl.
 
 FIRST PARLIAMENTARY INTERFERENCE WITH E. I. CY.— 1766 309 
 
 less attempting to vindicate tlic special ag- 
 gressions and tricliy ])olicy of Ciive and his 
 successors, it seems, nevertheless, of aljsolute 
 necessity to bear in mind tlie lio])eIess com- 
 plication of ad'airs througli which Anglo- 
 Indian statesmen had to grope their way at 
 this critical ])criod ; nor do I feel any incon- 
 sistency, aftiu- eni[)loying tlic best years of 
 my hfe in pleading — faintly and feebly, bnt 
 most earnestly — the rights of native British 
 subjects (made such by the sword), in avow- 
 ing, in the present instance, my conviction, 
 that having once taken a decided course by the 
 deposition of Surajah Dowlali, it would liave 
 bcini better to iiave assumed at once all power, 
 in name as in reality, over Bengal, and given 
 the natives the benefits they were entitled 
 to expect uiuler a Christian government, 
 instead of mocking their hopes by placing 
 on the musnud a Mussulman usurper of 
 infamous character, — dejiosiug, reinstating, 
 and after his death continuing the pretence 
 in the person of his illegitimate son. Such 
 an unworthy subterfuge could answer no 
 good purpose; it could deceive no one — 
 certainly not the European governments of 
 Spain, Portugal, Holland, and France ; 
 for they were severally experienced actors 
 in the theatre of oriental policy. The native 
 poiiulation knew, to their cost, that all real 
 authority was now vested in the English 
 presidency ; but its members were far too 
 eagerly employed in gathering up spoil for 
 themselves, to heed the cries of the poor in 
 Bengal, or the remonstrances of the com- 
 pany in England. The consequence was, 
 the "middle-men" reaped an abundant har- 
 vest, heedless of the ruinous etleets of their 
 negligence and venality alike on those they 
 served and those they governed. The direc- 
 tors in London, buoyed up by the represen- 
 tations of Clive, and the flattering promises 
 of their servants abroad, augmented their 
 dividends, fully expecting to find this step 
 justified by largely increasing remittances 
 from India. On the contrary, the auju'chy 
 which prevailed, and the additional expenses 
 of every department of government, with the 
 abuses that crept in,* swallowed up the di- 
 minishing revenues ; and though every ship 
 brought home individuals who had amassed 
 wealth as if by magic, yet heavy bills con- 
 tinued to be drawn on the company; the 
 * Clive, in allusion to the charges of contractors, 
 commissioners, engineers, &c., saitl — •'Kverynian now 
 who is permitted to make a bill, makes a fortune." 
 During his own administration, he found soldiers 
 cliarged for in the hos))ilal-list, whose funeral ex- 
 penses had been long paid. — [Life, iii., 137 — 288.) 
 2 S 
 
 bullion sent for the China trade was whollr, 
 or in ])art, appropriated ; and the invest- 
 ments continued to diminish alike in quantity 
 and quality. The British government had 
 before set forth a claim to control both 
 the revenues and territorial arrangements 
 of India. Tiie subject was warmly con- 
 tested in parliament; and in 17G7, a bill 
 passed obliging the E. I. Cy. to pay the 
 sum of X'100,00() per annum into the 
 public treasury,t during the five years for 
 which alone their exclusive privileges were 
 formally extended. In 17G9, a new term of 
 five years was granted, on the same con- 
 dition as that above stated, with the addi- 
 tional stipulation of annually exporting Bri- 
 tish manufactures to the amount of £300,000 
 and upwards. The directors, in the following 
 year (1770), declared a dividend at the rate 
 of twelve percent ; but this improvident pro- 
 cedure was taken in the face of a failing reve- 
 nue and an increasing debt. In the Carnatic, 
 the ill-advised pledge of co-operation with 
 the Nizam had brought the Madras presi- 
 dency in collision with Hyder Ali ; and in 
 Bengal, affairs grew more and more involved, 
 until the necessity for a change of policy 
 became evident to save the country from 
 ruin and the company from bankruptcy. 
 Mr. Vansittart (the ex-governor), ]\Ir. Scraf- 
 ton, and Colonel Forde, were sent out in 
 1769, to investigate and arrange the business 
 of the three presidencies : but this measure 
 proved of no effect ; for the Aurora frigate, 
 in which they sailed, after doubling the Cape 
 of Good Hope, was never more heard of, and 
 probably foundered at sea. 
 
 The loss of Mr. Vansittart was a new 
 disaster to the native population of Bengal, 
 since he well knew the ruinous condition to 
 which they had been reduced by the baneftd 
 influence of the monopolies so cruelly en- 
 forced by his countrymen ; and notwith- 
 standing the perverse proceedings of Clive, 
 and his adherents in the E. I. House in 
 associating with him as fellow-commis- 
 sioner his sworn foe, Luke Serafton, still 
 some comprehensive measure might have 
 been expected to have been devised by a 
 man generally considered kind-hearted, to 
 relieve the overwhelming miserj' in which 
 he would have found the native population 
 involved, had he been permitted to reach 
 t The E. I. Cy. themselves proposed to purchase 
 the extension of their privileges by suffering the 
 public to participate in the territorial acquisitions 
 gained with the aid of the army and navy. The 
 government interfered (ostensibly at least) to check 
 the simultaneous increase of debt and dividend.
 
 310 
 
 AWFUL FAMINE IN BENGAL— a.d. 1769-'70. 
 
 Calcutta in safety. The miseries of a land 
 long a prey to oppression and misgovern- 
 ment, had been brought to their climax by 
 drought. The rice crops of December, 
 1768, and August, 1769, were both scanty, 
 and the absence of the heavy periodical 
 rains, usual in October, produced an almost 
 total failure of the harvest earnestly desired 
 in the following December. The inferior 
 crops of grain and pulse ordinarily reaped 
 between February and April, were dried to 
 powder by the intense heat, and Bengal, for- 
 merly the granary of India, became the scene 
 of one of the most awful famines on record. 
 Not merely whole families, but even the 
 inhabitants of entire villages were swept off 
 by this devastating scourge.* The bark and 
 leaves of trees were eagerly devoured by 
 thousands of starving wretches, who there- 
 with strove — too often in vain — to appease 
 the gnawing pangs of hunger, happy if 
 their sufferings did not goad them to seek 
 relief by more unnatural and loathsome 
 means; for the last horrors that marked 
 the siege of the Holy City were not want- 
 ing here ; the child fed on its dead parent, 
 the mother on her offspring. The people 
 thronged the towns in the hope of obtaining 
 succour, the highways were strewed with the 
 corpses of those who had perished by the 
 ■way, and the streets of Moorshedabad and 
 Calcutta were blocked up with the dying 
 and the dead. Day after day the Hooghly 
 rolled down a pestilential freight of morta- 
 lity, depositing loathsome heaps near to the 
 porticoes and gardens of the English resi- 
 dents. For a time a set of persons were 
 regularly employed in removing the ra- 
 pidly accumulating masses from the public 
 thoroughfares ; but the melancholy office 
 proved fatal to all employed in it : exposure 
 to the effluvia was certain death ; and during 
 the worst period, dogs, vultures, and jackals 
 were the only scavengers. The hot, un- 
 ■wholesome air was filled with shrieks and 
 
 * The anonymous but well-informed author of 
 Unf/tish Transactions in the East Indies, published 
 at Cambridge in 1776, states, that the duty laid by 
 Clive on salt was thirty-five per cent. ; the previous 
 tax, even under the monopolies established by Mo- 
 hammedan nabobs, having been only two-and-a-half. 
 He adds, that the five gentlemen who signed resolu- 
 tions regarding trading monopolies in India, to levy 
 taxes upon necessaries of more than one-third their 
 value, instead of the fortieth penny with which they 
 •were before charged, were all, on their return to Kng- 
 land, chosen as members of parliament to co-operate 
 in arranging the national assessments. — (143.) 
 
 t Vide Sit/ar ul Mutiiklwrin, ii., 43H. Hamilton's 
 Gazetteer, \., 214. Macaulay's Vliic, 83. 
 
 lamentations, amidst which arose the voices 
 of tender and delicate women, nurtured in 
 all the refinements of oriental seclusion, 
 who now came forth unveiled, and on their 
 knees besought a handful of rice for them- 
 selves and their children. f 
 
 Large subscriptions were raised by the 
 presidency, the native government, and in- 
 dividuals of all ranks and countries. In 
 Moorshedabad alone, 7,000 persons were 
 fed daily for several months; and fearful 
 scenes, involving the destruction of large 
 numbers of the weak and the aged, took 
 place at these distributions, from the fierce 
 struggles of the famished multitudes. Of 
 the total amount of life destroyed by this 
 calamity, no trustworthy estimate has ever 
 been given. J Mr. Hastings — perhaps the 
 best authority — supposes Bengal and Bahar 
 to have lost no less than half their inhabit- 
 ants : other writers state the depopulation 
 at one-third ; and even the lowest calcula- 
 tions place the loss at three million of 
 human beings — or one-fifth the inhabitants 
 of the three provinces (including Orissa.) 
 
 The question of how far the Bengal au- 
 thorities were to blame for this calamity, was 
 warmly discussed in England. Their ac- 
 cusers went the length of attributing it 
 wholly to a monopoly of rice by them ; but 
 this was so far from being the case, that, 
 with the exception of the necessary measure 
 of storing a sufficient quantity (60,000 
 maunds) for the use of the army, all trading 
 in grain was strictly forbidden by an order 
 of council in September, 1769. If, as was 
 asserted, certain functionaries did — as is 
 very possible, in defiance of prohibitions, 
 enunciated but not enforced^ — make enor- 
 mous profits of hoards previously accumu- 
 lated, these were but exceptional cases ; and 
 it may be added (without any attempt to 
 exculpate those who, in the face of misery 
 so extreme, could bargain coolly for exorbi- 
 tant gains), that the reason for regret was 
 
 X Gleig's Life of Warren Hastings, i., 309. Mal- 
 colm's Clive, iii., 253. Grant's Sketch, 319. 
 
 § The author of Emjlish Transactions, recently 
 quoted, concurs with many writers of the period in as- 
 serting, that some of the company's agents, finding 
 themselves conveniently situated for llie collection 
 of rice in stores, did buy uj) large quantities, which 
 they so managed as to increase immensely the sell- 
 ing price to the people, for their ])rivate gain (p. 145); 
 and Di. Moodie, in his Transactions in India (pub- 
 lished anonymously in London in 1776, but of 
 which a co])y bearing his name, with many MS. ad- 
 ditions, is in the possession of the E. I. Cy.), men- 
 tions the case of a needy Knglish functionary at the 
 court of tlie naliob, who made £60.000 in a few months.
 
 DISTRESS OF BENGAL AGGRAVATED BY INSUFFICIENT CURRENCY. 311 
 
 not that some few persons had had the 
 
 forcthoui^ht to make jirovision Tor the day of 
 want, ijut that a policy of cvidciit necessity 
 should have beeu nef^lcctcd by the rulers of a 
 population mainly dciicndcnt for subsistence 
 on so precarious a staple as rice. The true 
 cause of complaint against the Bengal 
 presidency — and it is a heavy one — rests on 
 the systematic oppression and utter mis- 
 government which their own reeerds reveal 
 as having existed, despite the orders of the 
 directors in England. These again, deceived 
 by the gross exaggerations of Clive, looked 
 upon Bengal as a fountain fed by unseen 
 springs, from which wealth, to an immense 
 extent, might be perpetually drawn, without 
 the return of any considerable proportion to 
 the country from whence it was derived. 
 Clive, during his second administration, had 
 promised the company a net income from 
 Bengal of £2,000,000 per annum, exclusive 
 of all civil or military disbursements ; and 
 he declared in parliament, in 1772, that 
 India continued to yield " a clear produce 
 to the public, and io individuals, of between 
 two and three million sterling per annum."* 
 It is certain that the Bengal investment 
 of 1771, amounting in goods alone to 
 j£768,500, was " wholly purchased with the 
 revenues of the country, and without im- 
 porting a single ounce of silver"t — ^ f''ct 
 which abundantly confirms the declaration of 
 Hastings, — that the sufferings of the people, 
 during the famine, were increased by the 
 
 • Malcolm's Life of Clive, iii., 287. 
 
 t Verelst's State of Benyal, see ])p. 81 — 85. 
 
 J Gleift's Life of Warren Ilastint/s, i., 310. 
 
 § A cotemporary Knt;lish writer, nviewing the evi- 
 dence given before parliament in 1772, remarks, that 
 from 1757 to 1771, it is acknowledged or proved, 
 that the E. I. Cy. and their servants received be- 
 tween twenty-nine and tliirty millions sterling from 
 Indian princes and their subjects, besides a sum not 
 known, arising from trading monopolies. — (Pai'ker's 
 Eiidence, 281.) Of the amount above stated, the 
 company received neaily twenty-four million, and 
 their servants upwards of five-and-a-half as presents, 
 which were, however, but one form of what Clive 
 termed the " long track of frauds under the custo- 
 mary disguise of perquisites," which annually brought 
 lacs to junior servants whose salaries were mere 
 pittances. — [Life of Clire, iii., 81 ; Life of Iliistinijs, 
 i., 300.) No estimate could be formed of the for- 
 tunes thus accumulated, because the prohibition of 
 the directors to send rcmittunces home, exceeding a 
 certain limited amount, by bills drawn on tlieni in 
 England, led Clive and the whole body of officials 
 who, at a humble distance, followed in his footsteps, 
 to invest their wealtli in the purchase of diamonds. 
 or to transmit vast sums through the medium of the 
 Dutch and French comijanies, by which means these 
 inferior settlements had money in abundance, while 
 the investments at Calcutta were often procured by 
 
 violent measures adopted to keep up the 
 
 revenues, especially by an assessment termed 
 na-jay, " a tax (in a w{jrd) upon the survivors, 
 to make up the deficiencies of the dead."{ 
 Besides this, when the immense and abso- 
 lutely incalculable amount of specie ex- 
 ported, from the time of the deposition of 
 Surajah Dowlah to the epoch of the famine, 
 is considered in eoiiii(!xion with the notorious 
 deficiency of the circulating medium, and 
 the abuses and erroneous policy connected 
 with the coinage,^ it is easy to understand 
 how fearfully scarcity of money must have 
 aggravated the evils of failing harvests; and 
 how, when rice rose from a standard of 
 price (already permanently augmented 
 under British supremacy to four, six, and 
 even ten times the usual rate), it became of 
 little importance to the penniless multitudes 
 whether it might or might not be purchased 
 for a certain sum, when all they had in the 
 world fell short of the market value of a 
 single meal. In England, the rates of labour 
 are always more or less influenced h\ the 
 price of provisions ; but when the Bengal 
 merchants endeavoured to raise the manu- 
 facturing standard, their attempts were 
 soon forcibly pvit down by the local authori- 
 ties, who well knew that Indian goods, 
 purchased at a premium consistent eveu 
 with a Bengalee's humble notion of a " fair 
 day's wages for a fair day's work," would 
 not, when sold in the European markets, 
 indemnify the company for prime cost, for 
 
 loans, of which eight per cent, was the lowest interest 
 taken for a long series of years. Among the charges 
 brought against Clive, when examined before parlia- 
 ment in 1772, were frauds in the exchange and the 
 gold coinage. According to Ferishta, no silver coin 
 was used in India as late as a.D. 1311 ; and Colonel 
 Uriggs, in commenting on this passage, remarks, that 
 up to a very late period, the chief current coin in the 
 south of India was a small gold fanara, worth about 
 sixpence. — (i., 375.) Since then, however, gold hav- 
 ing been entirely superseded by silver, measures nere 
 instituted to bring the former again into circula- 
 tion ; and on the new coinage Clive received a heavy 
 per-cintage, as governor. The ill-fated bankers — 
 Juggut Seit and his brother — had introduced a tax 
 on the silver currency during the short reign of 
 Surajali Dowlah, which the English very improperly 
 adopted. It consisted in issuing coins called sicca 
 rupees, every year, at five limes their actual value, 
 and insisting on the revenues being paid in this coin 
 only, during the period of its arbitr.iry value — that 
 is, during the year of coinage. In three years it 
 sank to the actual value of the silver; but its pos- 
 sessor, on payment of three per cent., might have it 
 recointd into a new sicca rupee of the original exag- 
 gerated value. I'idc Dow"s account of this ingenious 
 method of yearly " robbing the public of three per 
 cent, upon the greater part of their current specie." 
 — {Uistunj of HindooUan, i., Introduction, p. cxlvii.)
 
 312 
 
 E. I. Cy. on the verge OF BANKRUPTCY IN 1772. 
 
 duties and other expenses, exclusive of the 
 profit, which is the originating motive of all 
 commercial associations. Now, it is a well- 
 known, fact, that many men who, in their 
 private capacity, would sooner face ruin than 
 inflict it on the innocent, will, as members 
 of a senate or corporation (under the influ- 
 ence of a vague notion of state-necessity or 
 the good of proprietors, whose interests it is 
 their acknowledged duty to consult), insti- 
 tute proceedings of a character utterly 
 opposed to the simple principles of action 
 which guide them in the daily intercourse 
 of domestic life. Flagrant wrong they 
 shrink from with unaffected disgust; but 
 still there are few men who do not, with 
 strange inconsistency, manifest by their 
 practice that public affairs require a constant 
 sacrifice of integrity to expediency, which 
 once admitted as justifiable in their private 
 career, must inevitably destroy the mutual 
 confidence which forms the basis of that 
 distinguishing national characteristic — an 
 English home. The ignorance of the E. I. 
 Cy. of the actual state of affairs (in great 
 measure the result of the newness of their 
 position), was doubtless the leading cause of 
 their suffering the continuance of many un- 
 questionably faulty practices, from the diffi- 
 culty of providing efficient substitutes. The 
 course of events was well fitted to teach 
 them the great lesson — that there is no 
 course so dangerous to rulers as a persis- 
 tance in tyranny and misgovernment. The 
 misery of the mass, aggravated by the 
 shameless extortions of English function- 
 aries, necessitated a large iucrcase of mili- 
 tary expenses :* taxes were litei'ally enforced 
 at the point of the bayonet ; " bur-jaut," or 
 the compulsory sale of articles at less than 
 their actual cost, became a notorious prac- 
 tice ; and, simultaneous with these iniquitous 
 proceedings in India, were the pecuniary 
 involvements of the company in London ; 
 and, what was yet more disgraceful, the 
 fierce strife between the proprietors and 
 directors, and again between both these and 
 his majesty's ministers. 
 
 "While the sums obtained from Meer 
 Jaffier and Cossim Ali were in process of 
 payment, the affairs of the company went 
 on smoothly enough : annual supplies were 
 furnished for the China trade, and likewise 
 for the Madras presidency (which was always 
 in difficulties, notwithstanding the various 
 
 * Dow asserts, that " seven entire battalions were 
 added to our military eslablishnieiit to enforce the 
 collections." — {Hindoostan, i., cxxxi.t.) 
 
 sums obtained from Mohammed Ali, the 
 nabob of Arcot), while five lacs or more were 
 yearly drawn by the Bombay presidency.f 
 The dividend of the E. I. Cy., from Christ- 
 mas, 17G6, to Midsummer, 1772, averaged 
 eleven per cent, per annum ; during the last- 
 named year it had reached twelve-and-a- 
 half per cent., and this notwithstanding the 
 stipulated payment to government of 
 £4^00,000, in return for the continuance of 
 the charter. Meantime the bonded debt of 
 Bengal increased from £612,628, in 1771, 
 to £1,700,000, in 1772 ; and the company, 
 though most unwillingly, were obliged to 
 throw themselves upon the mercy of the 
 ministry (of which the Duke of Grafton and 
 Lord North were at the head), and confess 
 their utter inability to furnish tlieir annual 
 quota ; and further, their necessity of soli- 
 citing from the Bank of England a loan of 
 above a million sterling to carry on the 
 coQimercial transactions of the ensuing 
 season. 
 
 The government, thus directly appealed 
 to, had ample grounds for instituting an in- 
 quiry into the condition of an association 
 which, notwithstanding its immense trading 
 and territorial revenues, had again become 
 reduced to the verge of bankruptcy. It 
 was argued, that the bitter complaints of 
 venality and mismanagement, freely recipro- 
 cated by the directors and the servants of 
 the company, were, on both sides, founded 
 in truth. Moreover, the representations 
 made on behalf of jMohammed Ali by his 
 agents, particularly Mr. (afterwards Sir 
 John) Maepherson, had considerai)le eS'ect, 
 not only generally in producing an un- 
 favourable opinion of the dealings of the 
 E. I. Cy. with Indian princes, but specially 
 by inducing the sending to Arcot of a royal 
 ambassador, Sir John Lindsay, and sub- 
 sequently of Sir Robert Harland, between 
 both of whom and the local government the 
 most open hostility existed. These pro- 
 ceedings have had too little permanent 
 efl'ect to need being detailed at length, but 
 they illustrate the state of feeling wiiich 
 led to the parliamentary investigations of 
 1772, and resulted in the first direct con- 
 nexion of the ministry with the management 
 of East Indian affairs, by the measure com- 
 monly known as the Regiiluiing Act of 1773. 
 A loan was granted to the company of 
 £] ,100,000 in exchequer bills,J and various 
 
 t Oriyinat Papers, sent from India and published 
 in Eniiland by Governor Viinsittart. — (ii., 74.) 
 J Tlie conditions of the loan were, that the sur-
 
 "REGULATING ACT" FOR INDIAN GOVERNMENT— 1773. 313 
 
 distinct provisions were iniulc to amend the 
 constitution of that body, both at home 
 and iil)roa(l, and to ameliorate tlie (condition 
 of the native pojndation newly broujilit 
 under their sway. A {governor -general 
 (Warrcu Hastings) was nominated to preside 
 over Bengal, and to some extent control the 
 presidencies of Madras, Bombay, and Bcn- 
 cooleu (in Sumatra) ; the number of coun- 
 sellors was reduced to four; and these, 
 together with tlic governor-general, were 
 appointed for five years :* the old Mayor's 
 Court at Calcutta was set aside, and a Su- 
 preme Court of judicature, composed of a 
 chief justice and three puisne judges (all 
 English barristers) established in its place, 
 and invested with civil, criminal, admiralty, 
 and ecclesiastical jurisdiction over all British 
 subjeetst resident in the three provinces 
 (Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa) ; but the gov- 
 ernor-general and members of council 
 were exempted, unless indicted for treason 
 or felony. Europeans were strictly for- 
 bidden to enter into the inland traffic in 
 salt, betel-nut, tobacco, and rice ; and the 
 governors, counsellors, judges, and revenue- 
 collectors, were rigidly prohibited all trade 
 whatever. Not only the covenanted ser- 
 vants of the company, but also the civil and 
 military officers of the crown, were for- 
 bidden to receive presents from the na- 
 tives; and the maximum of the legal rate 
 of interest in Bengal was fixed at twelve 
 per cent, per annum. Specific punishments 
 were affixed to the violation of the above 
 
 plus of the clear revenue of the company should be 
 paid half-yearly into the cxcliequer, till the liquida- 
 tion of the debt ; that in the interim, their annual 
 dividend should not exceed six per cent. ; and tliat 
 until the reduction of their total bond-debt to 
 £1,500,000, the dividend should not exceed seven 
 per cent.— (13 George III., c. G4.) Among the 
 alterations made by this enactment in the internal 
 arrangements of the association, was a decree for the 
 annual election of six directors for the term of four 
 yeart , the interval of a year to be then suffered to 
 elapse before the same |)erson could be again eligible ; 
 whereas the directors had been previously annually 
 chosen for a .--ingle year, at the close of which they 
 might lie at once re-elected. The qualification for a 
 vote was raised from £500 to £1,000 slock, and re- 
 gulations were framed to prevent the collusive 
 transfer of stock for electioneering purposes. 
 
 • The salary of the governor-general was fixed at 
 £25,000 per ann. ; the counsellors, £10,000 each ; 
 chief jiistice, £f<,000 ; p.iisne judges, £6,000 each ; to 
 be received in lieu of all fees or perquisites. 
 
 t Notwithstanding the absolute nullity of any 
 power in the youth on whom the title of nabob had 
 been last conferred, the natives of Bengal were not 
 yet viewed as British subjects ; and by the Hegtilal- 
 ing Act, could not be sued in the Supreme Court, 
 
 enactments, ou conviction before the Su- 
 preme Court. 
 
 The majority of these regulations were 
 of a nature which, from the political cha- 
 racter of the I'higlish constitution, could be 
 enforced against British subjects only by 
 the express authority of their national 
 rulers. t The privity of the Crown thus of 
 necessity established in the affairs of the 
 company, was further secured by a proviso, 
 that all financial and political advices trans- 
 mitted from Iiulia, should, within fourteen 
 days after their arrival, be cominunicated to 
 the administration by the Court of Direc- 
 tors ;§ and any ordinance of the governor- 
 general in council might be disallowed by 
 the Crown, provided its veto were pro- 
 nounced within two years after the enact- 
 ment of the obnoxious measure. 
 
 The state of Bengal, at the period at 
 which we have now arrived, has been suffi- 
 ciently shown in the foregoing pages. The 
 only events still unnoticed with regard to 
 the Calcutta Presidency, are the death 
 of the nabob, Syef-ad-Dowlah, of small-pox ; 
 the accession of his brother, Mobarik-ad- 
 Dowlah, a boy of ten years old ; and the 
 departure of Shah Alum from Allahabad 
 to take possession of his own capital of 
 Delhi. After the retreat of the Doorani 
 invader, the government of this city had 
 been assumed by Nujeeb-oo-Dowla (the 
 Rohilla chief frequently alluded to in pre- 
 vious pages), and, together with such autho- 
 rity, territorial and judicial, as yet remained 
 
 (except upon any contract in writing, where the object 
 in dispute exceeded 500 rupees in value), unless they 
 were themselves willing to abide by the decision of 
 that tribunal. This protective clause was set forth 
 only in the directions for civil proceedings, and (pro- 
 bably from inadvertence) not repealed in those which 
 regarded the penal court. The omission enabled the 
 chief justice to adjudge the celebrated Nuncomar to 
 death for forgery, at the suit of a native. 
 
 I The preamble to the act states it to have been 
 a necessary measure, because several powers and 
 authorities previously vested in the E. 1. body had 
 " been Ibund, by experience, not to have sufficient 
 force and efficacy to prevent various abuses which 
 have prevailed in the government and affairs of the 
 said company, as well at home as in India, to the 
 manifest injury of the public credit, and of the com- 
 mercial interests of the said company." 
 
 § The regulations and ordinances decreed by the 
 governor-general in council, were invalid unless 
 duly registered and published in the Supreme Court 
 of judicature. Appeals against any of them might 
 be laid before the king in council by any person in 
 India or in England, if lodged within sixty days 
 after the publication of the act complained of, either 
 at the Supreme Court or the E. 1. House, where 
 notices of all such measures were to be affixed.
 
 314 EMPEROR ENTERS DELHI UNDER MAHRATTA PROTECTION— 1771. 
 
 connected therewith, was exercised by him 
 in the name of the youna; prince, Jewan 
 Bukht, the eldest son of Shah Alum, who 
 had been left behind at the period of his 
 father's flight in 1758. The encroachments 
 of the Jat Rajah, Sooraj Mull, into whose 
 hands Agra had fallen after the battle of 
 Paniput, in 1761, resulted in a regular con- 
 flict between him and Nujeeb-oo-Dowla, 
 in 1764. The rajah was killed at the very 
 commencement of hostilities; and the en- 
 deavour of his son and successor, Jowher 
 Sing, to prosecute the war by the assistance 
 of the Mahratta chieftain, Mulhar Rao 
 Holcar, proved ineflectual. In 1769, the 
 peishwa's army crossed the Chumbul, and 
 after desolating Rajast'han and levying 
 arrears of chout from the Rajpoot princes, 
 they proceeded to overrun the country of 
 the Jats, which at this time extended from 
 Agra to the borders of Delhi on the north- 
 west, and near to Etawa on the south-east, 
 and aS'orded a revenue of nearly £250,000. 
 The Mahrattas gained a decided victory 
 near Bhurtpoor, and made peace with the 
 Jats on coudition of receiving a sum of 
 about £75,000. They then encamped for 
 the monsoon, intending at its expiration to 
 enter Rohilcund, and revenge on the leading 
 chiefs the part played by them in concert 
 with the Afghan victor at the bloody field 
 of Paniput. Nujeeb-oo-Dowla took advan- 
 tage of the interval to negotiate a treaty on 
 behalf of himself and the Rohillas in gene- 
 ral ; and his overtures were favourably re- 
 ceived, on account of the mutual need each 
 party had of the other to obtain an object 
 desirable in the sight of both, the withdrawal 
 of the emperor from the immediate influ- 
 ence of the English, and his re-establishment 
 in Delhi. The arrangement was marred 
 by the death of Nujceb-oo-Dowla, at the 
 close of 1770. His son, Zabita Khan, who 
 appears to have inherited the ambition, un- 
 checked by the loyalty or prudence of his 
 father, assumed the charge of affairs, and 
 showed no inclination to procure the return 
 of his liege lord. In the following year, 
 Rohilcund was overrun by the i^lahrattas; 
 the strong fortress of Etawa fell into their 
 hands j Delhi was seized by them, and 
 Zabita Khan fled to Scharunpoor, the 
 capital of his own patrimony in Rohilcund. 
 
 The prince, Jewan Bukht, was treated with 
 marked respect, and the emperor given to 
 understand, that if he did not think fit to 
 accept the repeated invitations made to him 
 to return to his capital, his son would be 
 formally placed ou the throne. In an evil 
 hour. Shah Alum yielded to a natural desire 
 of taking possession of the scanty remains 
 of imperial power which formed his ill- 
 omened inheritance. The darkest hour he 
 had hitherto encountered had aS'orded him 
 experience of the fidelity of a Mahratta 
 general ;* nor does there seem to have been 
 any sufficient reason for his anticipating the 
 mercenary and unprincipled conduct which 
 he eventually received at their hands, which, 
 however, never equalled in treachery the 
 proceedings of his professed friend and 
 nominal servant, but most grasping and re- 
 lentless foe, Shuja Dowlah, the cherished 
 ally of the English. In fact, the insidious 
 counsels and pecuniary aid furnished by this 
 notable schemer, were mainly instrumental 
 in resolving Shah Alum to quit Allahabad, 
 which he did after receiving from the Bengal 
 presidency a strong assurance " of the readi- 
 ness with which the company would receive 
 and protect him, should any reverse of for- 
 tuue compel him once more to return to his 
 provinces. "t The commander-in-chief (Sir 
 Robert Barker) and Shuja Dowlah attended 
 the royal march to the frontier of the Corah 
 district, and then took leave with every de- 
 monstration of respect and good-will ; the 
 latter declaring that nothing but the pre- 
 dominant influence of the Mahrattas at 
 court prevented his proceeding thither and 
 devoting himself to the performance of the 
 duties of the vizierat. Shah Alum reached 
 Delhi in December, 1771, and entered 
 its ancient gates amid the acclamations of 
 the populace. Happily, his enjoyment of 
 this gleam of prosperity was unmarred by a 
 knowledge of the almost unexampled mise- 
 ries which awaited him during the chief 
 part of the ensuing six-anil-twenty years. 
 Could but a passing glimpse of coming 
 sorrows have been foreshadowed to him, 
 the lowliest hut in Bengal would have 
 seemed a blessed refuge from the agonies 
 of mind and body he and his innocent 
 family were doomed to endure within the 
 statelv walls of their ancestral home. 
 
 • Etal llao .ay encamped on tlie banks of the his pledge, in sjiite of threats and bribes, by gnard- 
 .Tumna, wlien the emperor (tlien lieir-apparent) fled iiiR t-he prince for six months, and tlien escorting 
 from Delhi. He received the fugitive with the him to a place of safety.— (Friincldin's Wi«/j .J/»m.) 
 utmosi kindness. — swore on the holy waters of tl]e t Onicial Letter from Bengal, JJlst August, 1771. 
 Ganges not to betray him j and more tlian redeemed I Auber's JJritish I'lni-er in India, :., 287
 
 rUESIDENCIES OP BOMBAY AND MADRAS— 170]— 1774. 
 
 The Bombay Presidency, so far as its 
 finances were concorncd, ooiitinucd to be a 
 heavy tax on the .1"]. I. ('}'., the net revenue 
 not siiflieinf; to defray a tliird of its civil 
 and military expenditure.* 
 
 In the Maduas Puesidency, events had 
 taken place which the superior importance 
 and interest of Bcii<ral aflains liavc pre- 
 vented from Ijeing noticed in chronological 
 succession. Reference has been made to 
 the ill-feeling wliich sprang up between 
 the E. I. Cy. and Mohammed All (the 
 nabob of their own nomination.) The cause 
 was twofold — first, the English expected to 
 find the province, of which Arcot was the 
 capital, a mine of wealth, and hoped to 
 derive from the nabob, when firndy estab- 
 lished there, considerable pecuniary advan- 
 tage. They soon discovered their mistake 
 as to the amount of funds thus obtainable, 
 and still more with regard to the expendi- 
 ture of life and treasure to be incurred in 
 establishing the power of a man who, though 
 of very inferior capacity, was inordinately 
 ambitious, and yet distrustful — not perhaps 
 without cause — of the allies, by whose assis- 
 tance alone his present position could be 
 maintained, or his views of aggrandisement 
 carried out. The chief points in the long- 
 continued hostilities, undertaken by the 
 presidency to enforce his very questionable 
 claims to sovereignty or tribute, may be 
 briefly noted, nor can the painful admission in 
 justice be withheld — that many expeditions 
 dispatched under the auspices of Mr. (after- 
 wards Lord) Pigot, whatever their osten- 
 sible motive, were really prompted by a 
 desire to replenish a treasury exhausted by 
 military expenses, especially by the long 
 war with the French, which commenced 
 in 1716, and terminated with the reduction 
 of Pondicherry in 1761. The miseries of 
 the native population must have been too 
 great to admit of much increased exaction. 
 Since its first invasion by Aurungzebe,t the 
 Carnatic had been, almost without interrup- 
 tion, the scene of rapine and disorganisa- 
 tion; imperial agents, usurping nabobs, and 
 chout-collecting !Mahrattas had claimed 
 revenues, and exacted contributions, as each 
 
 • In the Heport nf Select Committee, June, ITS-l, 
 the net revenue of Bombay for the year ending April, 
 1774, is stated at £109,163; civil and militarv charges, 
 £347..387 : leaving a deficiency of £238.224. 
 
 t During the nineteen years preceding the death 
 of Aurungzebe, in 1707, his favourite general, Zul- 
 feccar Khan, was employed in the Carnatic in cease- 
 less and destructive hostilities ; and it is recorded 
 that nineteen actions were fought, and 3,000 miles 
 
 found opportunity ; and the commanders of 
 districts and forts maintained their often ill- 
 gotten authority, by resisting or complving 
 with the demands made upon them, accord- 
 ing to the urgently of the case. But the 
 great load of suffering fell ever on the 
 unarmed and inoffensive peasantry, whose 
 daily sustenance was to be procured by 
 daily work. This sud'ering was not of a cha- 
 racter {leculiar to the epoch now under 
 consideration : it would seem that, from 
 titne immemorial, the working classes of 
 Ilindoostan had practically experienced the 
 scourge of war ; for every one of the multi- 
 farious languages of the peninsula has a 
 word answering to the Canaresc term Wulsa, 
 which, happily, cannot be explained in any 
 European tongue without considerable cir- 
 cuudocution. The Wulsa denotes the entire 
 popidation of a district, who, upon the ap- 
 proach of a hostile army, habitually bury 
 their most cumbrous effects, quit their 
 beloved liomes, and all of them, even to the 
 child that can just walk alone, laden with 
 grain, dcjiart to seek shelter (if, happily, it 
 may be found) among some neigh l)ouring 
 community blessed with peace. More fre- 
 quently the pathless woods and barren hills 
 afford their sole refuge, until the withdrawal 
 of the enemy enables them to return to 
 cultivate anew the devastated fields." Such 
 exile must be always painful and anxious : 
 during its continuance the weak and aged 
 die of fatigue ; if long protracted, the strong 
 too often perish by the more dreadful pangs 
 of hunger. Colonel Wilks affirms, that the 
 Wulsa never departed on the approach of a 
 British army, when unaccompanied by In- 
 dian allies ;% but this is poor comfort re- 
 garding the measures taken on behalf of 
 Mohammed Ali, since there is no reason to 
 suppose his troops more scrupulous than 
 their fellows, or less feared by the unhappy 
 peasantry. The fort and district of Vellore 
 were captured for him, in 1761, from 
 iMurtezza Ali,§ with the assistance of the 
 English, after a tlirce months' siege; but 
 the treasure taken there ill repaid the cost 
 of the conquest. The latter part of 1763, and 
 nearly the whole of the following twelve- 
 marched by this officer in six months only. Famine 
 and pestilence — the direct consequences of prolonged 
 and systematic devastation — followed, and even ex- 
 ceeded in their ravages the scourge of war. The terri- 
 ble sufferings of the people, during this melancholy 
 period, are affectingly described in many of the me- 
 nioiis comprised in the valuable Mackenzie coliectioD. 
 
 \ Wilks' History of Mi/soor. i.. 309. 
 
 § Sec previous pages, especially Note ti P- 252.
 
 316 FATE OF MOHAMMED ESOOF, 1763— PROGRESS OF HYDER ALL 
 
 months, were tcaken up in a struggle with 
 Mohammed Esoof, a brave and skilful 
 officer, who liad long and faithfully served 
 the English as commandant of sepoys. He \ 
 had been placed in command of Madura, as 
 renter; but the unproductive condition of 
 the country rendered it, he declared, impos- 
 sible to pay the stipulated sum. The excuse 
 is believed to have been perfectly true ; 
 but it was treated as a mere cloak to cover 
 an incipient attempt at independence. An 
 army marched upon Madura, and Esoof, 
 fairly driven into resistance, commenced a 
 desperate contest, which occasioned heavy 
 loss of life on the side of the English, and 
 the expenditure of a million sterhng, before 
 hostilities terminated by the seizure and be- 
 trayal of his person into the hands of Mo- 
 hammed Ali, by whom he was condemned 
 to die the death of a rebel, and actually 
 executed as such. 
 
 His betrayer was a man named Marchand, 
 who had joined him among a body of French 
 troops sent to his aid by the Mahratta rajah 
 of Tanjore, from whom a heavy sum had re- 
 cently been extorted on the plea of arrears 
 of tribute due to the general government of 
 the Cariiatic. The acquisition of the Nor- 
 thern Circars, in 1766, and the treaty made 
 by Lord Ciive with Nizam Ali, has been 
 noticed, as also the impolicy of engaging to 
 hold a body of troops in readiness to do the 
 will of so belligerent and unscrupulous a 
 leader. It was not long before the fulfil- 
 ment of this pledge was insisted on, and the 
 immediate consequence proved the com- 
 mencement of a long and disastrous series of 
 wars with Hyder AU. Since his sudden 
 
 • The districts of Great and Little Balipoor were 
 included in the province of Sera : the former was held 
 as a jaghire by Abbas Ivooli Khan, the persecutor 
 of Hyder in childliood. Bassalut Jung wished to 
 exclude this territory from that over which he as- 
 sumed the right of investing Hyder with authority, — 
 (a right, says Wilks, which could only be inferred 
 from the act of granting) ; but the latter declared the 
 arrangement at an end, if any interference were 
 attempted with the gratification of his long-smoulder- 
 ing revenge. Abbas Kooli Khan fled to Madras, 
 leaving his family in the hands of his bitter foe; but 
 Hyder showed himself in a strangely favourable 
 light; for in remembrance of kindness bestowed on 
 him in childhood by the mother of the fugitive, he 
 treated the captives with lenity and iionour. This 
 conduct did not, however, embolden Abbas Kooli to 
 quit the protection of tlie English, or throw himself 
 on )iis mercy; and, some years later (in 17(19), when 
 Hyder presented himself at the pates of Madras, he 
 embarked in a crazy vessel, and did not venture to 
 land until the hostile forc2 had rcascended the 
 mountain-posses. — (Wilks' Mysoor, i., 410.) 
 
 t The last actual rajah of Bednore died in 17o5, 
 
 separation from the French, iu 1760, his 
 road to eminence had been short and san- 
 guinary. Force and fraud, used indif- 
 ferently, according to the nature of the 
 obstacle to be overcome, had raised Hyder 
 to the supreme authority in Mysoor; and a 
 skilful admixture of the same ingredients, 
 enabled him gradually to acquire possessioa 
 of many portions of Malabar and Canara, 
 until then exempt from Moslem usurpation. 
 The strife at one period existing between 
 Nizam Ali and his elder brother, Bassalut 
 Jung, induced the latter to make an attempt 
 at independence, in prosecution of which 
 he marched, in 1761, against Sera,* a pro- 
 vince seized by the Mahrattas, and separated 
 by them from the government of the Deccan, 
 of which it had previously formed a part. 
 The resources of Bassalut Jung proving 
 quite insufficient for the projected enter- 
 prise, he gladly entered into an arrange- 
 ment with Hyder Ali; and, on receiving 
 five lacs of rupees, made over his intention 
 of conquering Sera to that chief, on whom 
 he conferred the title of nabob, together 
 with the designation of Khan Bahadur — 
 " the heroic lord." Sera was speedily sub- 
 dued, and its reduction was followed, in 
 1763, by the seizure, on a most shameless 
 pretext, of Bednore,t a territory situated on 
 the loftiest crest of the Ghauts, 5,000 feet 
 above the level of the sea, abounding ia 
 magnificent forests, and fertilized by copious 
 rains, which produce harvests of remark- 
 able abundance. The sequestered position 
 of this little kingdom, had hitherto pre- 
 served it from Mohammedan invasion, and 
 enabled successive rulers to accumulate 
 
 leaving an adopted heir, of about seventeen years of 
 age, under the guardianship of his widow. The 
 youth animadverted with severity on the conduct of 
 the ranee, with regard to a person named N^imbeia, 
 and the result was his own assassination by a jetti 
 or athlete, who watched an opportunity to dislocate 
 his neck while employed in shampooing him in the 
 bath. The guilty ranee selected an infant to fill the 
 vacant thone ; but, about five years after, a pre- 
 tender started up, claiming to be the rightful heir, 
 and describing himself as liaving e«ra])td the in- 
 tended doom by means of a humane artifice practised 
 by the athlete. Hyder readily availed himself of 
 the prete.xt for invading Bednore, thougli he probably 
 never entertained the least belief of the truth of the 
 story ; and the whole army treated the adventurer 
 with the utmost derision, styling him the " llajah of 
 the resurrection." So soon as Bednore was cap- 
 tured, Hyder, setting aside all conditions or stipula- 
 tions ])reviously entered into, sent the ranee and her 
 parcnnour, with his own pi-(ili'(/i', to a common prison 
 in the hill-fort of Mudgherry, whence they were 
 lil)enited on the capture of tlie place by the Mahrattas 
 in 1707. The ratu'c died directly after her release.
 
 CONQUESTS OP IIYDER.— BEDNORE AND MALABAR— 17G3-'6. 317 
 
 imirli treasure. 'I'lio moiiiitiiin cipital 
 (oiglit miles in eiiTuinfereiiee) full an easy 
 prey to the Mysoorean cliief; "and the 
 booty realised niay," says (."olonel Wilks, 
 "without the risk of exaj,'i.'eration, be esti- 
 mated at twelve million sterliiif;, and was, 
 throiijch lite, iiabitually spoken of i)y llydcr 
 as tlic fonndatiou of all liis subsequent 
 greatness."* The subju'^ation of tlie coun- 
 try was not, however, accomplished without 
 imminent danj^er to the life of the invader.f 
 riyder now assumed the style of an inde- 
 pendent sovereign, and struck coins in his 
 own name. Having completed the neces- 
 sary arrangements for the occupation of the 
 lesser districts included in his new do- 
 minions (which comprehended two places 
 often named in the history of early Euro- 
 pean proceedings on this const, — Onore and 
 Mangalore), he next seized the neighbouring 
 territories of Soonda and Savanoor, and 
 then rapidly extended his northern frontier 
 almost to the banks of the Kistnah. Here, 
 at length, his daring encroachments vtcre 
 
 • Ilktory of M>/Mwr, i., 452. Mill says—" More 
 likt'ly it was not a tliiid of the sum" (iii., 4(i9) ; 
 but native testimonies and tlie re])Oits of the French 
 mercenaries in the service of Ilydcr, with other cir- 
 cumstances, tend to coniirm the o])inion of Wilks. 
 In a life of Ilyder Ali, written by the French leader 
 of his European troops, whose initials (M.M.D.L.T.) 
 are alone friven, it is stated that two heaps of gold, 
 coi[ied and in ingots, and of jewels, set and unset, 
 were piled up until they surpassed the height of a 
 man on horseback. They were then weighed with a 
 corn measure. Hyder gave a s>d)stanlial proof of 
 the extent of his ill-gotten booty, by bestowing on 
 every soldier in his service a gratuity equal to half a 
 year's ])ay. — (Jlistor;/ of Ai/der AH Khan, Knhoh 
 Bahoder; translated IVnm the French: Dublin, 1774.) 
 
 f The ministers of the late dynasty entered into 
 an extensive conspiracy for bis assassination and the 
 recovery of the capital. Some vague susjiicions in- 
 duced Ihder to cause inquiry to be made by his 
 most confidential civil servants. The persons so em- 
 jiloyed were, strangely enough, all concerned in the 
 plot. They performed I heir commission with ajipa- 
 rent zeal, and read the result to the dreaded despot 
 as he lay on a couch shivering witli ague. His keen 
 perceptions were nndimnied by bodily infirmity; but 
 afiVcting to be du])ed by the garbled statements 
 made by the commissioners, he detained tbem in 
 consultalion until he felt able to rise. Then, enter- 
 ing the durbar, or hall of audience, be examined and 
 cross-examined witnesses until the mystery was quite 
 unravelled. The commissioners were executed in his 
 presence, many unhappy nobles of Bednore arrested, 
 and, before the close of the dav, 300 of the leading 
 confedtrates were hanging at the difTerent public 
 ways of the city. Hyder, we are told, retired to rest 
 with perfect equanimity, and rose on the following 
 morning visibly benefited by the stimulating effect of 
 his late exertions. }'cnce of mind had. however, 
 tied from him ; and, notwithstanding the terrible 
 perfection which his inquisitorial and sanguinary 
 
 arrested by Mahdoo Rao, the young and 
 energetic Mahratta peishwa, wlio (taking 
 advantage of the accommodation with 
 Nizam Ali, wiiiedi had sucr-ecded the 
 partial destruction of Poonah by the latter in 
 I70.'5) crossed the Kistnah, in 17G1, with a 
 force greatly outnumbering that of Ilyder. 
 A prolonged contest ensued, in which the 
 advantage being greatly on the side of the 
 .Mahrattas, and the army of Ilyder ranch re- 
 duced, he procured the retreat of the peishwa, 
 in 170.5, t)y various territorial concessions, 
 in addition to the payment of thirty-two 
 lacs of rupees. ^Vhen relieved from this 
 formidable foe, he forthwith commenced pre- 
 parations for the conquest of Malabar, which 
 lie succeeded in eilecting after an irregular 
 war of some months' duration with the proud 
 and liberty-loving Nairs, or military east; 
 for the disunion of the various petty princi- 
 palities neutralised tlie effects of the valour 
 of their sulyects, and prevented any com- 
 bined resistance being offered. Cananore,J 
 Cochin, Karical — all fell, more or less coni- 
 
 police system subsequently attained, the dagger of 
 the bssass.n was an image never absent from hi; 
 sleeping or waking thoughts, save when banished by 
 the stupor of complete intoxication, which became 
 to him a nightly necessity. One of his most inti- 
 mate associates relates, that after having watched 
 over him during a short interval of convulsive sleep, 
 snatched m his tent during a campaign, Hyder ex- 
 claimed on awaking — " The state of a yogce (reli- 
 gious mendicant) is more delightful than my envied 
 monarchy: awake, they see no conspirators; asleep, 
 they dream of no assassins." — (Wilks'.l/i/soor, i., 143.) 
 X The Dutch possessions on the Malabar coast 
 had been materially lessened during the interval 
 between the last mention made of them in 1740 
 (p. 245), and the invasion of Hyder Ali in 176(). 
 The expensive trading pstablishment.s maintained 
 there proved a heavy drain on the finances of the 
 company, which Slavorinus, on the authority of 
 Governor Mossel, alleges to have been occasioned 
 by the continual disputes and wars in which the\ 
 had been engaged with the native princes, " and not 
 a little by the infidelity and peculation of the servants 
 who have been em]iIoyed here." Mossel declares, "it 
 would l.ave been well for the Dutch companv bad 
 the ocean swallowed up the coast of Malabar an 
 hundred years ago.' llnder these circumstances, the 
 best thing was to get rid of such unfortunate acqui- 
 sitions. Cranganore was sold to the rajah of Travan- 
 core ; and Cananore, in 1770, for the sum of 100,000 
 rupees, to a recently established potentate, styled bv 
 Stavorinus the Sultan of Angediva or Anchediva, a 
 little rocky isle, two miles from the coast of North 
 Canara. This chief belonged by birth to the mixed 
 class, the offspring of intercourse (after the Malabar 
 custom) between native women and Arabian immi- 
 grants: they bore the significant appellation cf 
 Moplih or Mfijii/lii (the children of their mothers) ; 
 but wi re mostly believers in the Koran. Ali Knjah, 
 the purchaser of Cananore. had risen by trade to 
 wealth, and thence to political importance : he took
 
 318 FATE OF THE ZAMORIN, 1766.— TIPPOO MENACES MADRAS— 1767. 
 
 pletely, into the power of Hyder ; and Maan 
 Veerara Raj, the Zamorin, or Tamuri ra- 
 jah of Calicut, disgusted by the faithlessness 
 of his unprincipled opponent, and terrified 
 by the cruel and humiliating tortui'es in- 
 flicted on his ministers to extort money, 
 set fire to the house in which he was con- 
 fined, and perished in the flames.* Shortly 
 after this event, Hyder was recalled to 
 Seringapatam by the alarming intelligence 
 that the English and Mohammed Ali 
 had united with the Nizam in a confede- 
 racy for the reduction of his dangerous 
 ascendancy. Hyder was a complete master 
 of every description of intrigue. He suc- 
 ceeded, by dint of bribery, in withdrawing 
 Nizam Ali from the alliance into which the 
 English had unwisely entered, and the very 
 corps which had accompanied the Nizam 
 into the dominions of Hyder, sustained in its 
 retreat an attack from, their united forces. f 
 Madras was imperilled by the unlooked-for 
 appearance of 5,000 horse, under the nomi- 
 nal command of Tippoo, the eldest son of 
 Hyder Ali, then a youth of seventeen. The 
 president And council were at their garden- 
 houses without the town ; and had the atten- 
 an early opportunity of propitiating the favour of 
 Hyder, at the expense of the high-born Hindoo 
 princes in his vicinity. When Stavorinus himself 
 visited India, in 177o-'8, the Dutch possessions on 
 the Malabar coast nominally extended a distance of 
 about thirty-two leagues ; but, excepting the little 
 island of Paponetty, and a few insignificant villages 
 on the shore, the company had " no other actual 
 property in the soil than in that upon which their 
 fortifications are constructed."- — (Stavorinus' Voyages, 
 iii., chapters xiii. and xiv.) 
 
 • Several of the personal attendants of the Zamo- 
 rin being accidentally excluded when the doors were 
 fastened, threw themselves into the flames, and 
 perished with their master. This catastrophe had 
 no efi'ect in softening the heart of Hyder, or inducing 
 him to show compassion to the ministers. The 
 Nairs, rendered desperate by his cruelty, rose against 
 him repeatedly, and were, if captured, either be- 
 headed or hanged, until the idea struck their perse- 
 cutor of preserving them to populate certain other 
 portions of his dominions. The experiment proved 
 fatal to the majority of the unhappy beings upon 
 whom it was tried : of 15,000 who were subjected to 
 this forced emigration, only 200 survived the fatigue 
 and hardships of the way and the change of climate, 
 which Indians in general — and particularly the na- 
 tives of Malabar — can ill hear under every possible 
 circumstance of alleviation. — (Wilks' il/y.iow, i.,477.) 
 t Kilher from generosity or policy, five English 
 companies, attached to the Nizam as a guard of 
 honour, were suffered by him to depart and join 
 the force under Colonel Smith three days before the 
 commencement of open hostilities by the new allies. 
 X Ilyder prevailed on the Nizam to give the order 
 to retreat, and was himself clearly perceived by the 
 English issuing directions for that purpose, in the 
 midst of a select hody of infantry, whose scarlet 
 
 tiou of the invaders been less absorbed in 
 the accumulation of plunder, they might 
 have seized as their prize the whole of these 
 functionaries, and dictated at leisure the 
 terms of general peace and individual ran- 
 som. But they delayed tmtil news arrived 
 of a decisive victory gained by Colonel Smith, 
 at Triucomalee,J over Hyder and Nizam 
 Ali, which being closely followed by other 
 advantages on the side of the English (in- 
 cluding the successful defence of Amboor),§ 
 brought the campaign to an end. Hyder re- 
 treated within his own frontier, and the Ni- 
 zam concluded a peace with the English in 
 February, 1768, by which he agreed to re- 
 ceive seven lacs per annum for six years, as 
 temporary tribute for the Circars, instead of 
 the perpetual subsidy of nine lacs per annum 
 previously promised. Hyder was himself 
 equally solicitous of forming a treaty with the 
 Madras presidency. He did not scruple to 
 avow his inability to oppose at once both 
 them and the ]\Iahrattas; and he candidly 
 avowed that disinclination to make common 
 cause with the latter people, was the leading 
 incentive to his repeated overtures for al- 
 liance with the English. His ofi'ers were, 
 dresses, with lances eighteen feet long, of bamboo, 
 strengthened by bands of polished silver, rendered 
 them no less picturesque in appearance than for- 
 midable in reality. The retreat was, for the moment, 
 delayed by a singular incident. Nizam Ali invari- 
 ably carried his favourite wives in his train, even to 
 the field of battle. On the present occasion, directions 
 were given to the drivers of the elephants on which 
 they were seated, to decamp forthwith, — an undigni- 
 fied procedure, which was firmly opposed by the fair 
 occupant of one of the howdahs. " This elephant," 
 she exclaimed, "has not been instructed so to turn; 
 he follows the imperial standard :" and though the 
 English shot fell thick around, the lady waited till 
 the standard passed. A considerable body of cavalry, 
 roused to action by the sense of shame inspired by 
 this feminine display of chivalry, made a partial 
 charge upon the enemy. — (Wilks' Mi/sonr, ii., 38.) 
 
 § The assault lasted twenty-six days, at the expi- 
 ration of which time, the besieged were relieved by 
 the approach of the British army. In honour of the 
 steady courage there manifested, the 1st battalion of 
 the 10th regiment bear "the rock of Amboor" on 
 their colours. Hyder had a narrow escape during this 
 enterprise; for while examining the fortifications, 
 under cover of a rock which sheltered him com- 
 pletely from the direct fire of the fort, a cannon-shot 
 rebounded from a neighbouring height, and cut in 
 two his only companion, leaving him unhurt. The 
 Mysoorcan court were, according to Colonel Wilks, 
 the most unscientific in all India; and being ignorant 
 of the simple principle by which a ball would rebound 
 amid the rocks which limited its iullucnce, until its 
 force was spent, they attributed the fate of Xhakee 
 Shah to a miracle of vengeance, wrought to punish his 
 recent offence of taking a false oath on a false Koran, 
 to aid Hyder in deceiving and entrapping his ancient 
 and much-injured ])atron, Nunjernj. — (Wilks.)
 
 IIYDEK DICTATES A PEACE TO THE ENGLISH AT MADRAS— 17G9. 319 
 
 however, haughtily rejected. Driven to despe- 
 ration, he ])ut fortii all liis powers, ravaged 
 the Carnatic, penetrated to Trichinopoly, 
 laid waste the provinces of Madura and 
 Tinncvclly, and finally, after drawing; the 
 English army, by a scries of artful niove- 
 meuts, to a considerable distance from 
 Madras, he selected a body of (),()00 cavalry, 
 marched 120 miles in three days, and sud- 
 denly appeared on the Mount of Saint 
 Thomas, in the immediate vicinity of the 
 ICnglish capital. The presidency were struck 
 with consternation. Tlie fort might un- 
 doubtedly have held out till the arrival of 
 the army under Colonel Smith, but the 
 open town with its riches, the adjacent 
 country, and the garden-houses of the offi- 
 cials, would have been ravaged and de- 
 stroyed ; moreover, the exhausted state of 
 the treasury afforded little encouragement 
 to maintain hostilities with a foe whose 
 peculiar tactics enabled him to procure abun- 
 dant supplies for his troops in a hostile 
 country, and to surround his enemies with 
 • Hyder, throughout his -whole career, displayed a 
 peculiarly teachable spirit in every proceeding rela- 
 tive to his grand object in life — the art of war. 
 Kunde Kao, a Brahmin, early instructed him in 
 Mahratta tactics ; and by tlieir joint endeavours a 
 system of plunder was organised, which Sevajee 
 himself might have admired. The Beder jieons 
 (described by Colonel "Wilks as " faithful thieves ") 
 and the Pindarries (a description of horse who re- 
 ceive no p.iy, but live on the devastation of the 
 enemy's country), were among the most effective of 
 Hyder's troops. The general arrangement seems 
 to have been, that the army, besides their dii'cct 
 pay, should receive one-half the booty realised ; the 
 renjainder to be appropriated by their leader ; and 
 the whole proceeding was conducted by a series of 
 checks, which rendered the embezzlement of spoil 
 almost impossible. Moveable property of every de- 
 scription, obtained either from enemies or (if ])rac- 
 ticable without exciting suspicion) by simple theft 
 from allies, was the object of these marauders; — -from 
 convoys of grain, cattle, or fire-arms, down to the 
 clothes, turtians, and earrings of travellers or vil- 
 lagers, whether men, women, or children. Kunde 
 Rao at length became disgusted by the uncontrolled 
 ambition and covetousness of Hydcr. Unwilling 
 to see the ancient Hindoo institutions of Myscor 
 swept off by an avowed disbeliever in all religion, 
 he went over to the side of the unfortunate rajah, and 
 was, as bcfoie stated, in the hour of defeat delivered 
 up to his fierce and relentless foe, who retained him 
 two J ears exposed in an iron cage in the most public 
 thoroughfare of Bangalore ; and even when death 
 at length released the wretched captive, left his 
 bones to whiten there in memory of his fate. (See 
 Wilks' Ilistorij of Mi/xoor, i., 43-1, the French Life 
 of AyiJer, and Dr. Moodie's Tntnsactions in India 
 from 1758 to 1783, for an account of this almost 
 tniexampied act of barbarity.) In his later cireer, 
 Hyder declared, that the English were his chief 
 tutors in military stratagems ; and for Colonel Smith 
 he expressed particular respect, calling him his pre- 
 
 dcvastation and scarcity in the heart of their 
 own domains.* A treaty was concluded 
 with him in April, 17()'J, of which the 
 principal eonditioasf were a mutual restora- 
 tion of conquests and a pledge of alliance, 
 defensive but not offensive. The distinction 
 involved in the latter proviso was, as might 
 have been foreseen, of little avail; for the 
 foes against whom Hyder especiall}' desired 
 the co-operation of the English troops, were 
 the Mahrattas, who periodically invaded his 
 territories ; and on the expected approach of 
 Mahdoo Rao, he urgently a[)pealed to the ])rc- 
 sidcney for the promised aid. which they 
 withheld on the plea of complicated political 
 relations, and thus excited, with too just 
 cause, the vindictive passions of their ally. 
 The military abilities of the pcishwa were 
 of no common order : and he approached 
 with the determination of materially circum- 
 scribing the power of a rival whose jiro- 
 eeedings and projects, after long under- 
 valuing, he began to appreciate correctly. 
 Seizing one by one the conquests^ of Hyder, 
 ceptor in the science of war, and having his picture 
 suspended in the palace of Seringapatam. 
 
 t Other clauses provided, that the company were 
 to be allowed to build a fort at Onore, and to have 
 the sole right of purchasing pepper in the dominions 
 of Hyder Ali; payment to be made to him in guns, 
 saltpetre, lead, gunpowder, and ready money. The 
 directors strongly reprobated the supply of offensive 
 implements to so dangerous a potentate, and likewise 
 the cannon afterwards sold to him, and the shipping 
 built by his orders, — remarking, that such a procedure 
 could not conduce to the welfare of the presidency, 
 although it might suit the views of individuals. 
 
 X The b.attle of Chercoolee, which occurred while 
 the Mysooreans were retreating to Seringapatam, 
 was attended by some incidents singularly illustra- 
 tive of the chiiracter of Hyder, who, though well able 
 to be courtly on occasion, was habitually fierce iu 
 his anger and coarse in his mirth, and in either case 
 ecpially unaccustomed to place any restraint on his 
 tongue or hand. When under the influence of in- 
 toxication, his natural ferocity occasionally broke out 
 in the most unbridled excesses; but he rarely dr-ank 
 deeply, except alone and at night. On the eve of 
 this disastrous battle, the alarms of war prevented 
 him from sleeping off the effects of his usual pota- 
 tion ; and in a state of stupid inebriety he sent re- 
 peated messages desiring the presence of Tippoo, 
 wh.ich owing to the darkness and confusion, were 
 not delivered until daybreak. When Tippoo at length 
 ajipeared, his father, in a paroxysm of rage, abused 
 him in the foulest language, and snatching a large 
 cane from the hand of an attendant, inflicted on the 
 heir-apparent a literally severe beating. Burning 
 with anger, and smarting with pain, the youth, when 
 suffered to retire, hastened to the head of his divi- 
 sion, and dashed his sword and turban on the ground, 
 exclaiming, " My father may light his own battle ; for 
 I swear by .'VUa'h and the Prophet, that I draw no 
 sword to-d.ay." Then throwing aside his outer gar- 
 ment of cloth of gold, he tied a coloured handker- 
 chief round his head, and assumed the guise of one
 
 520 STATE OF MYSOOIl, ]\rAHARASHTRA, AND HAJAST'HAN— 1772. 
 
 he raarclierl onward until the Mysoor state 
 shrank into narrower limits than it had 
 occupied under the native government at 
 the beginning of the century. The autho- 
 rity of the usurper tottered ; and the Hindoo 
 rajah, thinliing the conjuncture of affairs 
 favourable to the assertion of his claims, 
 strove to open a communication with the 
 !Mahratta general ; but tlie proceeding being 
 detected, the unhappy prince was imme- 
 diately strangled while in the bath. Still 
 Ilyder cared not, at this crisis, openly to 
 scat himself on the ivory throne of Mysoor : 
 double governments were in fashion through- 
 out India, and the brother of the late rajah 
 was proclaimed his successor. He did not 
 long survive this perilous distinction ; and 
 Hyder, with unblushing effrontery, affected 
 to choose from the children of the royal 
 lineage, for the next pageant, a boy of sense 
 and spirit — qualities which would necessarily 
 unfit him to be the tool of the deadly foe 
 of his family.* The retreat of the Mah- 
 rattas was secured on more favourable terms 
 than could have been expected, by reason 
 of the fast-failing health of the peishwa, 
 who, in the same year (1772), died of con- 
 sumption. He left no cliild, and his widow, 
 who had renounced the world. After the ensuing 
 complete victory of the Mahrattas, Tippoo was ad- 
 vised by his faithful friend, Seyed Mohammed (who 
 related the adventure to Colonel Wilks), to make his 
 way to Seringapatam as atravellinj^ mendicant; and 
 they contrived to reach the capital that niijht, to the 
 great relief of llyder, who believing his son lost, 
 had refused to enter the city, and was awaiting 
 further intelligence in a small mosque, probably un- 
 able to bring himself to encounter the burst of 
 anger and sorrow to which his wife, the mother of 
 'I'ippoo, who had great influence with him, would 
 give vent on learning the circumstances which he 
 knew, and the issue he feared. — {3Ii/soor, ii., 146.) 
 
 * Hyder assembled the children in the royal hall 
 of audience, which he had previously caused to be 
 strewn with fruits, sweetmeats, flowers, books, coin, 
 and toys of all description : each took what struck 
 his fancy ; one boy seized a brilliant little dagger, 
 and soon afterwards a lime with the unoccu|)ied 
 hand. "That is the rajah," said Hyder; "his first 
 care is military protection ; his second, to realise the 
 produce of his domininns." — (Idiin. ii., 163.) 
 
 t Ilistorij of the Shihrattan, ii., 237. The actual 
 revenue of the iMahratta state, at this period (in- 
 cluding the jaghires of Holcar, Sindia, Janojee 
 Bhonslay, and Dummajee Guicowar, together with 
 tribute, fees, fines, and extra revenue of every de- 
 scription), amounted toabout seven million sterling per 
 ann., including .\lahdoo Uao's personal estate, which 
 seldom exceeded i;:i(),i>()l) per ann. He was, how- 
 ever, jjossessed of twenty-four lacsof private property, 
 which he bequtall:ed to the slate, and which iiideed 
 was much needed. At the time of his accession, a 
 large outstanding debt existed ; and although at his 
 death, reckoning sums due, the value of stores and 
 other property, a nominal balance existed, yet the 
 
 to whom he had been devotedly attached, 
 burnt herself with his body. j\Iaharashtra 
 is described as having greatly improved 
 under his sway, and as being, in proportiou 
 to its fertility, probably more thriving than 
 any other part of India, notwithstandins the 
 inherent defects of its administrative system, 
 and the corruption which Madhoo Rao 
 restrained, but could not eradicate. His 
 death, says Grant Duff", " occasioned no 
 immediate commotion: like his own disease, 
 it was at first scarcely perceptible; but the 
 root which invigorated the already scathed 
 and wide-extending tree, was cut off from 
 the stem ; and the plains of Paniput were 
 not more fatal to the Mahratta empire, than 
 the early death of this excellent prince. "f 
 
 The above sketch illustrates, so far as the 
 limits of this work will permit, the position 
 of the three presidencies and of the leading 
 neighbouring states, at the period when great 
 and rapid changes were about to be effected 
 in the whole scope and tenor of Anglo- 
 Indian policy. The princes of Rajast'han were 
 engaged in holding their own against the 
 marauding Jats and Mahrattas, under Hol- 
 car and Sindia,J who, for their own ends, 
 thought fit to interfere in a disputed suc- 
 treasury itself was empty. The ordinary army of 
 the peishwa comprehended 50,000 good horse ; and 
 calculating the contingent which Guicowar and 
 Bhonslay were bound to furnish at from ten to fifteen 
 thousand, Holcar and Sindia's army at 30,000, and 
 allowing 0,000 for the Puars of Dhar, his total force 
 at command must have amounted to about 100,;,iOO 
 fine cavalry, exclusive of Pindanies. No wonder 
 that Hyder Ali should have been ever solicitous to 
 shun contact with, and form alliances against, such 
 a force under such a leader. By official records, it ap- 
 pears that of -149 officers under Mahdoo Rao, ninety- 
 three wrre Brahmins, eight Kajpoots, 30S Mahrattas, 
 and fo>iy Mohammedans. — [Idem., p. 270.) 
 
 J Holcar and Sindia both acquired valuable terri- 
 torial possessions (or rather the mortgage of them) 
 in !Mewar, which, like most of the llajpoot princi- 
 palities, was about this time a prey to internal 
 miseries, — its fields, mines, and looms all unworked, 
 and hordes of " pilfering Mahrattas, savage Kohillas, 
 and adventurous Franks" let loose to do their 
 wicked will in its once fruitful valleys. Oudipoor 
 had nearlv fallen before Sindia, but was bravely and 
 successfully defended by Umra Cliund, the chief min- 
 XfXcr of Bana Ursi, who, in 1770, succteded in com- 
 jielling Sindia to accept a ransom, and raise the 
 siege. This excellent minister fell a victim to court 
 intrigues; but hi-; death, says Tod, " yielded a flat- 
 tering comment on his life : he left not funds suffi- 
 cient to cover the funeral expenses, and is, and will 
 probably continue, the sole instance on record in 
 Indian history, of a minister having his obsequie.<i 
 (lelVaved by subscription among hi.' felloH-ci'izens." 
 They yet love m descant upon his virtues; and "an 
 act of vigour and inlegril) is still desigr)atid L'mra- 
 t7iii)u'(i- evincitig, that if virtue has few imitators in 
 this country, she is not without ardent admirers."
 
 BlllTll AND EARLY HISTORY OV WARREN HASTINGS— 1732 to 1772. 321 
 
 Cession to the throne of Anibur or Jeypoor. 
 Pretexts, more or less phiusible, were put 
 fortli by other Maliratta leaders tor the 
 same course of invasion and plunder. The 
 state of the Ruiiillas «ill be more partiou- 
 l.iriy mentioned in a subse(pient paj^e. The 
 far-distant Seiks had j:;radindlv inercased in 
 numl)er and power, and could now furnish 
 80,000 men fit to bear arras. They pos- 
 sessed all the fertile country of the Punjaub 
 between Sirliind and Attoe. 
 
 Administration' op Waiiukn Hastings. 
 — This eelebr.ited governor superseded Mr. 
 Cartier in the Uenj;al presidency in April, 
 1772. He had accompanied Mr. Vansittart 
 to England in 1764, and was at that time 
 in the enjoyment of a moderate indepen- 
 dence, and a reputation for ability and dis- 
 interestedness of no common order. Presi- 
 dents and counsellors, eominandcrs military 
 and naval — in a word, the whole body of 
 European oflieials, of any rank in the ser- 
 vice — are recorded as having received costly 
 presents from the native princes. In this list 
 the name of Warren IIastinf:;s is alone want- 
 ing; and as it is certain his position in the 
 court of Meer Cossiin must have afforded 
 more than average o])portunities for the 
 accumulation of wealth in a similar manner, 
 the exception tends to prove that the love 
 of money formed no part of his " sultan- 
 like and splendid character."* On the con- 
 
 * Bishop Heber's Journal (London, 1828), i., 330. 
 
 t The ]it'digi'ee of llie yoiinp; writer can, it is 
 nftirmed, be traced back to tlie fierce sea-king, long 
 the terror of both coasts of tlie British channel, 
 whose subjugation called forth nil the valour and 
 perseverance of the great Alfred ; and in tracing llie 
 ]iolitical career of the Indian governor, one is tempted 
 to think that not a few of tlie piratical propensities 
 of Hastings the Dane, were inherited by his remote 
 descendant. The more inunediate ancestors of 
 Warren Hastings were lords of the manor of Dav- 
 U'sford, in Worcestershire, and retained considerable 
 V calth up to the time of the civil war in which 
 King Charles I. lost his crown and life, and their 
 existing representative all his possessions, except 
 the old manor house, which being from povertv un- 
 able to retain, tliey sold in the following generation 
 to a Lonilon merchant. To regain the ancient home 
 of his family was the aspiration of Warren Hastings, 
 w hiie still a child of seven years old ; and the hojie 
 ■which first dawned on his mind as he lay on the 
 bank of the rivulet flowing through the lands of 
 Daylesford to join the Isis, never passed away, but 
 cheered him amid every phase of his chequered 
 career, from the time when he learned his dailv 
 tasks on the wooden bench of the village school, 
 or laboured at a higher deseriiition of study at the 
 next school to which he was sent, where he was well 
 taught, but so scantily fed, that he always attributed 
 to that circumstance his stunted growth and emaci- 
 ated appearance. From Newington Butts he was 
 
 trary, he was generous even to prodigality; 
 by which means, a brief sojourn in ICng- 
 land, Hurroundcd by family claims, reduced 
 his finances to a condition little above that 
 in which they had been fifteen yeais before; 
 when, through the influence of a distant 
 relative in the K. I. direction, the impo- 
 verished scion of a noble house bad been 
 dispatched, at the age of seventeen, as a 
 writer to Calcutta. f There, as we have seen, 
 he had risen from the lowest grade of office 
 to a seat at the council-board, aided by gen- 
 eral talent and ap|)lieatioii to business, but 
 especially by the then rare advantage of 
 acquaintance with the Persian language — the 
 medium through which official correspon- 
 dence in India was mainly conducted. The 
 evidence given by him during the inquiry 
 instituted by parliament in 17Gfi, regarding 
 the system of government adopted by the 
 E. I. Cy., aflbrded a fair opportunity for 
 the exposition of his views on a subject of 
 which he was well calculated, both by expe- 
 rience and ability, to form a correct opinion; 
 and altliougli the hostility of the Clive ])arty 
 in the India House, prevented — happily for 
 Hastings — his being suffered to accompany 
 his former chief, Mr. ^'ansittart, in the pro- 
 jected mission to Bengal, no objection was 
 made to his appointment to the station of 
 second in council at ^Madras, whither he 
 proceeded in 1769. Here his measures 
 
 transferred to Westminster school, where Churchill, 
 Colman, Lloyd, Cumberland, Cowper, anil Imjiey, were 
 fellow-students. flis comrades liked and admired 
 the even-tempered boy, who was the best of boatmen 
 and swimmers; and so high were his scholarlv ac- 
 quirements, that ujion the sudden death of the uncle, 
 who had ]>laced him at Westminster, Dr. NichoU, 
 then head-master, ottered to bear the expense of 
 sending his favourite pupil to Oxford. But the 
 distant relative on whom the responsibility of the 
 decision devolved, persisted in sending the youth to 
 India, and he was shipped oft' accordingly. Some 
 seven years after, when about four-and-l'.venty, he 
 married the widow of a military officer. She soon 
 fell a victim to the climate, leaving Hastings one 
 child, who was sent to England for health and edu- 
 cation. The death of this son. to whom he was 
 fondly attached, was the first intelligence received 
 by the bereaved father on hi.s arrival in 1764, and it 
 rendered him more than commonly indifferent to the 
 management of his pecuniary affairs. On leaving 
 India, the chief part of his savings remained vested 
 there, the high rate of interest being jirobably the 
 inducement ; but great advantages of this description 
 are usually of a precarious character, and Hastings 
 lost both principal and interest. This calamity did 
 not hinder him from providing liberally for an aunt, 
 for an only and beloved sister, like himself, the off- 
 sjiring of an early and ill starred marriage, and for 
 other pensioners, althougli his own Indian equip- 
 ment had to be purchased with borrowed money.
 
 322 
 
 STATE OF THE CIVIL SERVICE IN BENGAL— 1772. 
 
 were especially directed to improve the 
 investments on -which the dividends of the 
 company mainly depended, and these ex- 
 ertions were instrumental in procuring his 
 promotion to the station of governor of the 
 Bengal presidency.* 
 
 Affairs there had reached the last stage 
 of disorganisation. Seven years had elapsed, 
 since the acquisition of the dewannee, with- 
 out the establishment of any efficient system 
 for the government of the people, and the 
 result was the total absence of "justice or 
 law, or adequate protection to person or 
 property anywhere in Bengal, Bahar, and 
 Orissa, except at Calcutta; the boys of 
 the service being sovereigns of the coun- 
 try, under the unmeaning title of super- 
 visors, collectors of the revenue, adminis- 
 trators of justice, and rulers, heavy rulers, 
 of the people." These youths — whom 
 Hastings elsewhere describes as " most of 
 them the agents of their own banyans 
 (native managers), and they are devils" — 
 occupied more lucrative positions than the 
 governor himself, obtaining from one to 
 three lacs a-year; but they were a dan- 
 gerous class to meddle with, being " gene- 
 rally sons, cousins, or d'eves of directors."t 
 The new governor was not the man to risk 
 provoking a powerful opposition to his ad- 
 ministration by their recall, but contented 
 himself with some indirect and partial at- 
 tempts to retrench their power, and pave 
 the way for its gradual withdrawal. 
 
 Meanwhile, the measures dictated by the 
 Court of Directors were to be carried out, 
 and the task was one of much greater deli- 
 cacy and importance than persons imper- 
 fectly acquainted with the constitution of 
 Indian society could possibly conceive. The 
 company were extremely dissatisfied with 
 the amount of revenues levied by the native 
 officials, and were well disposed to attribute 
 
 * Among the fellow-passengers of Hastings, during 
 his voyage, was a German baron named Irahoff, who, 
 in the hope of finding remunerative employment as 
 a portrait painter, was proceeding to India, accom- 
 panied by liis wife, a very beautiful and accomplished 
 woman, a native of Archangel, and their children. 
 The result of some montlis of constant intercourse 
 between two persons of liigh intellectual acquire- 
 ments, and feelings stronger than their principles, 
 may he conjectured. Hastings was taken dangei-- 
 ously ill ; the lady nursed liini (according to tlie Kev. 
 Mr. Gleig) " with a sister's care ;" and before the 
 vessel reached Madras, it was arranged that a di- 
 vorce should be sued for in the Franconia courts 
 by the baroness, who, during the long years which 
 might and did elapse ])cndiiig tlie decision of the 
 judges, was to continue to live with the baron. This 
 arrangement was actually carried out: the Imhotfs 
 
 to their mismanagement and venality the 
 ruinous condition both of their own finances 
 and of the trade of the country. This frame 
 of mind procured a ready reception to the 
 charges brought before them through irre- 
 gular channels, by means of the long purse 
 and restless intrigues of Nuncomar, against 
 Mohammed Reza Khan, who, it was alleged, 
 had been guilty of extensive embezzlements 
 of revenue, and likewise of an illicit mono- 
 poly of rice during the recent famine. 
 Hastings was consequently directed to pttt 
 in immediate execution the resolve of the 
 company — " to stand forth as dewan, and to 
 take upon themselves the entire care of the 
 revenues;" and, likewise, to institute a 
 public examination into the conduct of the 
 ex-dewan. These instructions were ad- 
 dressed by the secret committee of the 
 company, not to the council, but privately 
 to the governor, and were received by him 
 in the evening of the tenth day after his 
 accession to office. On the following morn- 
 ing, orders were dispatched to Moorshedabad 
 for the seizure of Mohammed Reza Khan, 
 which was effected with the utmost secrecy in 
 the silence of midnight. The Mussulman, with 
 characteristic composure, upon being unex- 
 pectedly made a prisoner, attempted neither 
 resistance nor expostulation, but bent his 
 head and submitted to the will of God. It 
 was considered necessary by the presidency 
 to subject to a like arrest and examination 
 the brave Hindoo chief, Shitabroy, whose 
 distinguished services had been rewarded by 
 a similar appointment in Bahar to that 
 given to Mohammed Reza Khan in Bengal, 
 although the directors had given no order 
 on the sttbject, nor was any accusation what- 
 ever on record against him. The inquiry 
 into the conduct of these ex-officials and 
 their subordinates was delayed for some 
 months, on the plea of giving time for the 
 
 followed Hastings from Madras to Calcutta ; and 
 when the marriage was at length formally dis- 
 solved, the baron returned to his native country with 
 wealth to purchase and maintain the position of a 
 landed proprietor, leaving the governor-general of 
 Lulia to marry the divorced lady, and adopt her two 
 sons. Whether from ignorance of these facts, or a 
 politic desire to overlook the antecedents of the 
 union of a distinguished public servant, it appears 
 that Queen Charlotte welcomed Mrs. Hastings with 
 especial affability to a court remarkable for its high 
 standard of female character. It is but justice to 
 state, that Mr. and Mrs. Hastings remained devot- 
 edly attached to each other ; and that the affectionate 
 attentions of her son and daughter-in-law, 8ir Charles 
 and Lady Imliofi', were the solace of Hastings under 
 tlie many self-sought sorrows of his old age. 
 t Li/c of Warren ILisliiigs, pp. 147, 235, 269.
 
 HASTINGS' METHOD OP RAISING LAND REVENUE— 1772. 323 
 
 deposition of complaints. In the mean- 
 wliilo, tlio Khulsa, or f^nvcrninpiit revenue 
 est:il)lisliiiient, was transferred from Moor- 
 shedabad to Calcutta; the ollice of iiail)- 
 dewan was abolished botli for ]5engal and 
 Bahar; the British council formed into a 
 board of revenue ; and a native functionary 
 or assistant dewan, under the old lliiuloo 
 title of roy-royan,* appointed to act in the 
 Khalsa, to receive the accounts in the Benf^al 
 language, and make reports. The great ob- 
 stacle to an equitable and satisfactory ar- 
 rangement of the revenues, was the utter 
 ignorance of the law-makers regarding the 
 tenure of land ; but Hastings, influenced 
 by the necessity of a speedy decision, and 
 considering it better " to resolve without de- 
 bate, than to debate without resolving, "-|- cut 
 the Gordian knot by determining to let the 
 lands in farm for a period of iive years. | 
 In many instances, the hereditary Hindoo 
 rulers of districts had sunk into tlic con- 
 dition of tributaries, and in that character 
 had been forcibly included by their Moslem 
 concjucrors in the large class of zemindars 
 or middle-men, by whom the village autho- 
 rities of the old system of numerous inde- 
 pendent munieipahties were gradually sup- 
 planted in Bengal. By the present regula- 
 tions, when the zemindars, and other middle- 
 men of ancient standing, oflercd for the 
 lands, or rather land-rents, which they had 
 been accustomed to manage, terras which 
 ■were deemed reasonable, they were pre- 
 ferred ; when their proposals were considered 
 inadequate, a pension was allotted for their 
 subsistence, and the lands put up for sale — a 
 proceeding which, of necessity, involved the 
 repeated commission of glaring injustice and 
 impolicy ; for many men who had nothing to 
 lose were installed, to the expulsion of pre- 
 vious zemindars, who only ottered what they 
 could realise with case to their tenants (for 
 so these must be called, for want of a proper 
 term to express a false position) and remu- 
 neration to themselves. To the ryots, or 
 actual cultivators, leases or titles were given, 
 enumerating all the claims to which they 
 
 • The royroyan had before been the chief officer 
 under the naib-dcwan, having the immediate charge 
 of crown lands, and the superintendence of the ex- 
 chequer. — (Auber's British Poucr in India, i., 3G9.) 
 
 t GU'ig's Life of V'lirren Hasfiiiffx, i., ."01. 
 
 I Under Mohammed Keza Khan's management, 
 the system followed was the ruinous one introduced 
 by Mohammedan nabobs, of farming out the lands 
 annually. — (l)ow's llindoostan, vol. i., p. cxxxv.) 
 
 § No European was permitted, directly or indi- 
 rectly, to hold lands in any part of the country. 
 
 II Hulhed's Digest of Hindoo Laws was drawn up 
 
 were subject, and prohibiting, under penal- 
 tics, every additional exaction. 'I'licse ar- 
 rangements, however fair-seeming in theory, 
 were founded on incorrect premises, and 
 proved alike injurious to the interests of 
 the company and the welfare of the people. § 
 Regarding the administration of justice, 
 Hastings exerted himself with praiseworthy 
 zeal. Aware of the intention of the home 
 government to take this portion of Indian 
 att'airs under their especial consideration, 
 he feared, not without reason, that their 
 deliberations might issue in an endeavour to 
 transplant to India the complicated system 
 of jurisprudence long the acknowledged 
 and lamented curse of lawyer-ridden Eng- 
 land. In the hope of mitigating, if not 
 averting this evil, he caused digests of the 
 Hindoo and ^lohammedan codes to be pre- 
 pared under his supervision, and forwarded 
 them to Lord IMansfiehl and other legal 
 functionaries, with an earnest entreaty that 
 they might lie diligently studied ; and in 
 such changes as the altered state of affairs im- 
 mediately necessitated, he was careful, by 
 following the plain principles of experience 
 and common observation, to adapt all new 
 enactments to the manners and understand- 
 ing of the people, and the exigencies of the 
 country, adhering as closely as possible to 
 ancient usages and institutions. || 
 
 There was justice as well as policy in this 
 procedure ; and it is only to be regretted 
 that it was not carried out with sufficient 
 exactitude. All attempts to force a code of 
 laws, however excellent, tipon people un- 
 fitted by antecedent circumstances to receive 
 the boon, have proved abortive : a heathen 
 nation must be educated — aiul that often 
 very gradually- — iu the principles of truth 
 and justice brought to light by the Gospel, 
 before they can rightly appreciate the prac- 
 tical character of these virtues. The thief 
 will not cease to steal, the perjuror to for- 
 swear, or the corrupt judge abstain from 
 bribery at mere human bidding ; a stronger 
 lever is requisite to raise the tone of 
 society, and produce a radical change in its 
 
 in Sanscrit by certain pundits (Hindoo doctors 
 of law), translated from Sanscrit to Persian, and 
 thence to English. The Mohammedan code, such as 
 it is, has but one legitimate source — the Koran; 
 nevertheless, an immense mass had been written on 
 the subject, of which a digest called the Ihdcya, 
 filling four large folio volumes, was framed by order 
 of Aurungzebe ; and of this work a precis was now 
 executed under the supervision of llaslings. The 
 Brahmins would accept nothing for themselves but 
 bare subsistence dining their two years' labour. 
 Promises were made of endowments for their colleges,
 
 324 ACQUITTAL OF MOHAMMED REZA KHAN AND SHITABROY— 1773. 
 
 whole spirit, before public virtue could flourish 
 iu a moral atmosphere so deeply vitiated as 
 that of Bengal. After centuries of oppres- 
 sion and venality, the new rulers felt tliat 
 their safest policy was to commence a 
 course of gradual amelioration, rather than ! 
 of abrupt changes — abolishing only punish- 
 ments openly at variance with the common 
 dictates of humanity, such as torture and 
 mutilation. Stipendiary English magistrates 
 were appointed to act with native colleagues ; 
 civil and criminal tribunals were established 
 in each district, under the check of two 
 supreme courts of appeal — the Suddur De- 
 wannee Adawlut, and the Nizamut Suddur 
 Adawlut. In these arrangements one great 
 error was, however, committed, in over- 
 looking, or wilfully setting aside, the system 
 of punchayets, or Indian juries, which had, 
 from time immemorial, been the favourite 
 and almost unexceptionable method of de- 
 ciding civil disputes. 
 
 The immediate difficulties of the presi- 
 dency at this period were, how to raise funds 
 wherewith to provide the investments, which 
 were expected to be regularly furnished 
 from the revenues; and to obtain relief from 
 a bond-debt, varying from a crore* to a 
 crore and a-half of rupees, the interest of 
 which alone formed an item of ten lacs in 
 the yearlv disbursements. In a pecuniary 
 point of view, the cessation of the enormous 
 salary of nearly £100,000, paid to Moham- 
 med Reza Khan, was an advantage. He 
 had filled, during the preceding seven years, 
 tlie double office of naib-subah (properly 
 subahdar) and naib-dewan; that is to say, 
 he had been entrusted with the exercise of 
 all the higher powers of government, judi- 
 cial and financial (comprehended in the 
 nizamut), and likewise with the charge of 
 the education and management of the house- 
 hold affairs of Mubarik-ad-Dowlah ; the ex- 
 penditure of the yearly stipend of £320,000 
 having been entrusted exclusively to liim. 
 Hastings now resolved on reducing the na- 
 bob's allowance by one-half — a diminution 
 which, together with the stoppage of the sala- 
 
 but not jififoimed. — (llaxthii/s, iii,, 1.58.) ■* A 
 
 crore of rupees, accoidii {; to the existing standard, 
 anioiinted to imicli above a million sterlino;. 
 
 t Tbe charge of o])])ressing the people, and apply- 
 ing the most cruel coercion to delinquent renters, 
 was certainly not disproved. Dow, who was in Ben- 
 gal during the early part of the administration of 
 Mohammed Iteza Klian, declares tluit, on the plea of 
 their inability to fulfil their contracts being a ]>re- 
 tence, many of the zemindars were bound to stakes 
 and whipped with such unrelenting barbarity, tliat 
 "not a lew of theiu expired in agonies under the 
 
 ries of Mohammed Reza Khan and Sliita- 
 broy, effected, it is asserted, a clear yearly 
 saving of fifty-seven lacs of rupees, equiva- 
 lent, at the then rate of money, to be- 
 tween six and seven hundred thousand 
 pounds. The youth and inexperience of 
 Mubarik-ad-Dowlah rendered it necessary 
 to nominate a new superintendent for his 
 establishment ; and the selection made was 
 so strange, that it gave rise to much subse- 
 quent criticism, as to the real motive for 
 choosing a female, and yet setting aside t!ie 
 mother of the prince. Hastings thought fit 
 to appoint to the post of gouvernante Mun- 
 nee Begum — a person who, previous to her 
 entrance into the seraglio of Meer Jaffier, 
 had been a dancing-girl, but who was now 
 possessed of great wealth ; the ostensil)le 
 reason for the choice being " the awe" with 
 which she was regarded by the nabob, and 
 the improbability of her forming any plots 
 against the English riders. There were, of 
 necessity, many afl'airs wliich eastern customs 
 forbade to be transacted by a woman ; and 
 the coadjutor chosen for her was Rajah Goor- 
 dass, the son of Nuncomar, wlio, because he 
 inherited neither the ability nor the guile of 
 his father, would, Hastings alleged, prove a 
 safe instrument of conferring favour on the 
 latter, and inducing liim to make every 
 effort for the establishment of the guilt of 
 Mohammed Reza Khan. The Hindoo, 
 however, needed no incentive to stimulate 
 his deep-rooted animosity against his Mus- 
 sulman rival; yet, witli all his ingenuity, he 
 failed to establisli the justice of the charges 
 of embezzlement and monopolyf brought 
 against the ex-dewan, or to ])revent his 
 acquittal, after prolonged examination before 
 a committee, over which the governor pre- 
 sided. The innocence, and more than 
 that, the excellent conduct, of Shitabroy, 
 and the great exertions made by him to 
 mitigate the sufl^'erings of the people during 
 the famine, were clearly proved at an early 
 stage of the inquiry. A formal apokigy was 
 made for the restraint to which he had been 
 subjected ; and a sirpah, or costly state 
 
 lash i" and many of the ryots, reduced to despair, fled 
 the country. — (Iliinhmstdn, i., cxxxvi.) These state- 
 ments derive corroboration from the reasons given by 
 the directors for ordering the trial of the dewan. In 
 the same communication, allusion is made to the re- 
 peated accusations brought against the agents of 
 English ofllrials, " not barely for m<ino|)olising 
 
 . grain, but for compelling tlie jioor ryots to sell even 
 the seed requisite for the nc.\t harvest." — (Letter to 
 
 I liengal, 1771.) Si'e ])r. Moodie's Tinnnuctiuits in 
 India for important inlbrmation regarding the corj- 
 
 ; duct of Mohammed Keza Khan during the famine.
 
 DEATH OF SIIITABROY.— BREACH OK FAITH WITH EMI'E1U)R-I773. 325 
 
 dress, with jewels, and an elepliant riclily 
 cnparisoiKul, were jircsontod, to atlorii liis 
 tiiiuii])liant return to I'atna, to fill the odice 
 of roy-royan — tlic liif^iicst to which a native 
 functionary could, by tlie recent rcf^ulations, 
 t)c appointed. No small degree of humilia- 
 tion was therefore blended with thcHC marks 
 of retnrninpj favour, which, even if unalloyed, 
 would probably have arrived too late to 
 repair past wrongs. Above a twelvemonth's 
 detention in the uncongenial climate of 
 Calcutta, aggravated by the workings of a 
 proud spirit subjected to unmerited indig- 
 nity, inllictcd a mortal injury on the health 
 of the brave chief, who died shortly after his 
 acquittal. The appointment of roy-royan 
 was, in testimony of liis worth, transferred 
 to his son Callian Sing, to whom the 
 English, by the oddest assumption in the 
 world, thought fit "to confirm the title of 
 Maha Kajah."* But the recent changes, 
 notwithstanding the diminution of expendi- 
 ture with which they were attended, did 
 not furnish ready money to cover the cur- 
 rent outlay of the civil and military ser- 
 vices of the presidency, which had risen 
 to an enormous height ; much less to meet 
 the demands of the company at home. 
 Hastings was deeply impressed with the 
 exigencies of the case ; and although the 
 Court of Directors — however strongly they 
 urged the adoption of measures to procure 
 relief from the bond-debt by which their 
 movements were fettered — uniformly stated, 
 iu the most forcible language, their desire 
 for the merciful government of the people 
 over whom they had assumed sway, and 
 urged the adoption of an honest and straight- 
 forward policy on all occasions, yet their 
 representative, on looking round him, and 
 perceiving the difficulties attendant on the 
 strict fulfilment of the various duties en- 
 joined, thought it best, whatever else he 
 slighted, to obey the leading injunction of 
 getting money, comforting himself with the 
 belief that his employers would gladly re- 
 ceive the fruits of his success, without caring 
 to question the manner in which they had 
 
 * Letter from Bengal, Nov., ITV.'J. The ancient 
 title of Maha Kajah (the great king), borne by the 
 highest Indian jiotentatcs before tl)e Christian era, 
 was not, it appears, usurped by Hindoos in modern 
 times until th*- later Mogul emperors took upon tliom- 
 selves to confer titles, which their own usurpations 
 had rendered unmeaning, and which by Hindoo laws 
 could be olitained only by inheritance. Under the 
 Rnglisli, " Maha Kajahs'' became very frequent ; and 
 Nuncomar held this title, which descended to his 
 son Goordass. I have been unable to trace llie origin 
 of this celebrated man, or to find the authority upon 
 2u 
 
 been acquired. In this resolution he was, 
 no doubt, strengthened by the exceptional 
 instance in which, deviating from their 
 usual tone of instruction, they suggested 
 the policy of taking a shameful advantage 
 of tlie condition of the emperor, by with- 
 holding from him the annual subsidy of 
 about .C3()0,()()(), guaranteed by thcni in re- 
 turn for the perpetual grant of tlie dewan- 
 nee.t So flagrant an inconsistc'ncy was (piite 
 enough to inspire Warren Hastings with a 
 general distrust of the sincerity and good 
 faith of his employers, and to incite him 
 to grasp at immediate and unjust gains, 
 rather than frankly set forth the actual 
 position of affairs, and trust to the common 
 sense and humanity of the company to give 
 him time to develope the resources of the 
 country, invigorate its wasted trade, cheer the 
 drooping spirits of its industrious population; 
 and, by tliese legitimate means, together 
 with reformatory measures for the reduction 
 of the illicit gains of European officials, to 
 restore the commerce and revenue of Ben- 
 gal to a healthy and flourishing condition. 
 
 But such a course of conduct required 
 an amount of sturdy independence — or, better 
 far, of stanch religious principle — rarely 
 manifested by public men of any age or 
 country. Warren Hastings, gifted as he 
 was in many respects, had no pretensions of 
 this nature. A long series of years spent 
 in the company's service, had rendered 
 their interest a primary consideration with 
 him. Though lavish in his expenditure, he 
 had, as has been before shown, no avarice iu 
 his composition. " He was far too en- 
 lightened a man to look upon a great empire 
 merely as a buccaneer would look on a gal- 
 leon. "J The love of power and fame burned 
 strong within him ; and in taking possession 
 of the highest appointment iu the gift of the 
 E. I. Cy., he expressed his disgust at the 
 possibility of the government of Bengal 
 continiung " to be a mere chair for a trien- 
 nial succession of indigent adventurers to 
 sit and hatch private fortunes in;"§ and 
 urged the advisability of being entrusted 
 
 wliich Macaulay speaks of him as the " head of the 
 Brahmins of Beng.al." — {Essai/ on IlastinffS, 36.) 
 
 t As earlv as Nov., 1768, the select committee, in 
 a letter to "liengal. began to speculate on finding a 
 plea for breaking faith with the emperor ; remarking, 
 among other contingencies — "If he flings himself into 
 the hands of the Mahrattas, or any other power, we 
 arc disengaged from him ; and it may open a fair 
 opjiortunity of withholding the twenty-six lacs we 
 now iiay him."— (Thornton's lirilish India, ii., 37.) 
 
 X Macaulay's lEsscn/ on Warren Hastingt, p. 10. 
 
 § Gleig's Life of Haslinys, i., 377.
 
 326 HASTINGS SELLS ALLAHABAD AND COEAH TO VIZIER— 1773. 
 
 with sufficient authority to carry into execu- 
 tion, without check or hindrance, the ambi- 
 tious schemes ^vhich filled his mind, and to 
 the fulfilment of which he was ready to de- 
 vote his Hfe. The constitution of the presi- 
 dency was a subject of grave complaint with 
 him ; for, saving a certain pi'estige attached 
 to the chair, and the single privilege of a 
 casting vote, the governor had no superiority 
 over any other member of the board, except 
 the invidious description of exclusive au- 
 thority, occasionally conferred by private 
 communications, as in the case of Moham- 
 med Reza Khan. 
 
 A change was at hand, but by no means 
 such as Hastings desired ; in the mean- 
 while, during the continuance of the old 
 system, the majority of the councillors sided 
 with him, and enabled him to pursue his 
 own policy, despite the opposition and re- 
 monstrances oft'ered by the minority on 
 various occasions, especially with regard to 
 his summary method of dealing with the 
 emperor. The removal of this unfortunate 
 prince from the immediate sphere of British 
 protection, was assei-ted to be sufficient justi- 
 fication not only for the withdrawal of the 
 yearly subsidy (to wliich the faith of the 
 company liad been unconditionally pledged) ,* 
 but even for the repudiation of the arrears 
 which Shah Alum had been previously as- 
 sured were only temporarily kept back by 
 reason of the pecuniary difficulties occa- 
 sioned by the famine. Nor was tliis all : the 
 emperor, while at the mercy of the arrogant 
 Mahrattas, was compelled to sign sunnuds, 
 or grants, making over to them Allahabad 
 and Corah. The governor left by liim in 
 charge of these districts, knowing that the 
 order for their relinquishment had been 
 forcibly extorted, asked leave to place them 
 under British protection. Hastings agreed 
 with the Mogul officer in the impropriety of 
 obeying a mandate issued under compulsion ; 
 but that same mandate was not the less set 
 forth by him as conveying a formal renun- 
 ciation, on the part of Shah Alum, of these 
 districts, which were forthwith formally 
 
 • The very sunnuds which form the title-deeds 
 of the company, distinctly set forth the annual pay- 
 ment of twinty-six lacs to tlie emperor, Shall Aluiii, 
 as a first cliaige on the revenues of Benfjal. 
 
 t Col. Smith attested that, in 1768, Sliuja Dowlah 
 came to him, expressed his desire to possess Allaha- 
 bad and Corah, and " proH'ered four lacs of rupees 
 in ready money, and to swear secrecy on the Ko- 
 ran, if he would aid in its accomplishment." The 
 same officer bore witness, that the emperor sen- 
 sibly felt the conduct of the vizier, and had de- 
 clared, with emotion, that it seemed as if he " did 
 
 resumed in the name of the company ; and 
 as their distance from Calcutta rendered 
 them too expensive possessions to be re- 
 tained without an addition of military force 
 quite disproportioncd to the revenue deriv- 
 able therefrom, they were openly sold to 
 the man who had once before obtained them 
 by treachery and murder, and who (p. 
 287), after his defeat by the English, had 
 spared neither intrigue nor bribery for their 
 regainment. t It was an act quite unworthy 
 the representative of a great English asso- 
 ciation, to let the paltry sum of fifty lacs 
 induce him to sacrifice the last remnants of 
 dominion to wliich the unfortunate emperor 
 had been taught to look as a refuge from 
 the worst evils that could befall him, to 
 the ambition of his faithless and ungrateful 
 servant. Sir Robert Barker remonstrated 
 earnestly against this procedure, which was 
 arranged after repeated private conferences 
 at Benares, held between Shuja Dowlah 
 and Mr. Hastings, during nearly three 
 weeks of close intercourse. He declared 
 it to be a flagrant breach of the treaty 
 of Allahabad of 1765, by which the dewan- 
 uee of Bengal was granted to the com- 
 pany ; and said tliat the emperor might, and 
 probably would, if opportunity offered, 
 bestow the sunnuds on a rival nation. 
 Hastings treated the possibility with scorn ; 
 declaring, " the sword which gave us the 
 dominion of Bengal, must be the instrument 
 of its preservation :" if lost, he added — 
 " the next proprietor will derive his right 
 and possession from the same natural char- 
 ter." Even had the imperial grants been 
 worth no more than the parchment they 
 were written on, the company would have 
 been unjustifiable in withholding the pur- 
 chase-money they had pledged themselves to 
 give : but the truth was, the sunnuds had a 
 real, though not very definite value, of which 
 Hastings was fully aware, though he now chose 
 to ridicule them as much as liis predecessor 
 Clive had exaggerated their importance ; and 
 for precisely the same reason — of tempo- 
 rary expediency. t It is difficult for the 
 
 not wish him to have an habitation of his own on the 
 face of the earth." — (Aul)fr's India, i., 191-'2.) 
 
 J In 1784, when arj^uinp; in favour of aidinjr, in- 
 stead of oppressinf; tlie em])er(n', ]iastin<i;s writes, 
 that he demanded assistance from the Ivnglisli on tlie 
 right of f^ratitudc; assei'tiiig, " that wlieu the French 
 and llyder earnestly solicited his grants of the Car- 
 natic, and otl'ered large sums to obtain them, he 
 constantly and steadily refused them. We know, by 
 undoubted evidence, that this is true." These fir- 
 mauns had therefore a mnrlietiihlc value very different 
 to that of " waste pajier." — (Life, iii., 192.)
 
 TREATi' OF BENARES BETWEEN ENGLISH AND SIIUJA DOWLAH. 327 
 
 English reader to appreciate the feelin<;s 
 which, ill the iiiiiuls of tlic Indian po]mla- 
 tion, lent a pccnliar deforce of legality to 
 grants unquestionably issued by the Great 
 MoRid. The powerful and arrof;aiit ruler 
 of Oudc ventured not on assuming the 
 style of a sovereign : lu; knew the temper 
 of neighbouiing (;onimunitics, and possibly 
 of his subjects, too well to attempt this 
 innovation ; and his successor earnestly so- 
 licited, and at length with diinculty ob- 
 tained from Shah Alum the title of vizier, 
 or first subject of an empire which had little 
 more than nominal existence, while he was 
 himself undisputed master of an indepen- 
 dent state as large as Ireland. 
 
 Tiie sale of Allahabad and Corah was 
 only one portion of the treaty of Benares. 
 The counterpart was an arrangement for 
 the hire of the British force to Shuja Dow- 
 lah, in the novel and degrading character of 
 mercenary troops; and this, notwithstand- 
 ing the repeated orders of the directors to 
 refrain from all participation in aggressive 
 warfarcj and the recent (July, 1772) and 
 unanimous declaration of the council, when 
 called upon to assist their ally against the 
 invasions of the Mahrattas — " that no object 
 or consideration should tempt or compel 
 them to pass the political line which they 
 had laid down for their operations with the 
 vizier, which were to be defensive only;" 
 adding, that " not a single sepoy was to 
 pass the frontiers of his territories."* 
 
 The people against whom Hastings agreed 
 to co-operate, in violation alike of the 
 orders of his employers and the resolutions 
 of his colleagues, were the Rohilla rulers of 
 the country lying N.W. of Oudc and E. of 
 the Ganges. The establishment of this mili- 
 tary colony had been, as we have seen, 
 forcibly cftceted during the decline of the 
 empire, partly by the retention of lands as 
 hereditary property, which had been origi- 
 nally granted on the ordinary jaghire tenure, 
 but ciiictly by the aggressions of AH ]Mo- 
 haramed Khan,t the adventurous leader of 
 an ever-increasing body of Afghans, whose 
 title was avowedly that of the sword. Suc- 
 cessive rulers of the Oudc province — them- 
 selves usurpers of equally short standing — 
 had made various attempts to subdue Kohil- 
 
 • Auber's British Potcer in India, i., 385. 
 
 t All Mohammed is said to have been the son of 
 a Hindoo nlicer or shepherd, adopted in infancy by 
 a Rohilla chief, and treated in all respects as his own 
 child. — (■S/i/nc ul Mutakhcrin, iii., '!().) 
 
 ^ The possessions of Haflz KelimetKhan joined 
 the western limits of Oude, and were situated en- 
 
 cuiid, and annex it to their own dominions, 
 but without any permanent result. The 
 country was, at the present time, divided into 
 numerous petty principalities, under inde- 
 pendent chiefs or .sirdars, all of whom de- 
 rived their origin from the same stock, being 
 of one tribe— that of Ali Mohammed Khan. 
 Tiic very nature of their power rendered 
 tlieir union improbable for any other pur- 
 pose except temporary coalition against an 
 invading force; but in that event— if all 
 were true to the common cause — they could, 
 it was estimated, bring into the field" 80,000 
 efieetive horse and foot. Still it was less 
 their number than their bravery, dexterity 
 with the sword, and skill in the use of war- 
 rockets, that had heretofore enabled them 
 to hold their ground against the imperial 
 troops, the rulers of Oude, and their worst 
 foes — the ]\Iahrattas. Against the latter 
 they had fought with relentless fury on the 
 plains of Paniput; and though, for a time, the 
 prudence of Nujeeb-oo-Dowla had averted 
 the threatened vengeance, the danger was 
 delayed, not dissipated. The open hostility 
 displayed by his son, Zabita Khan, to Shah 
 Alum, and the evident preparations made bv 
 him for war at Seharunpoor, were followed 
 by the invasion of his territories by the 
 imperial troojis, under a brave commander 
 named Niijccb Khan, in conjunction with 
 the jNIahrattas ; but the latter contrived to 
 reap all the benefit of the enterprise. 
 
 Shuja Dowlah did not view without un- 
 easiness the prospect of the subjugation of 
 Rohilciind by the iNIahrattas. To have a 
 territory he had long coveted seized and 
 occupied by the most dangerous people all 
 India could furnish for neighbours, was a 
 calamity to be averted at any hazard ; and 
 he gladly entered into an alliance with the 
 Rohillas, in 1773, to which the English 
 became a party, to make common cause 
 against the invaders. The leading Rohilla 
 chief, Ilafiz Rehmet, whose territories formed 
 the western boundary of Oude,J though 
 compelled by dire necessity to consent to 
 co-operate with the nabob-vizier, as the sole 
 means of defence against an immediate and 
 overpowering foe, was so distrustful of his 
 ultimate designs, that he positively refused 
 to take the field against the Mahrattas until 
 
 tirely on the north side of the Ganges, except Etawa 
 and one or two straggling districts. Those of Zabita 
 Khan commenced on the Jumna, about fourteen miles 
 from ]Jelhi, and were bounded by Sirhind on the 
 west ; and those of Ahmed Khan Bungush, bordered 
 on the Corah country — Furruckabad being the 
 capital. — (Aubers India, vol. i., 189.)
 
 328 PROCEEDINGS OF HAFIZ REHMET, THE ROHILLA CHIEF— 1773. 
 
 assured by Sir Robert Barker, on the faith 
 of the English, that no ungenerous advan- 
 tage should be taken of his absence from 
 his own frontier by their mutual ally. This 
 temporary and precarious confederacy of 
 powers, strong only if heartily united, did 
 not prevent the hostile force from crossing 
 the Ganges and committing great ravages 
 in Rohilcund ; but their withdrawal was at 
 length purchased by a bond for forty lacs, 
 given by Hafiz Rehmet, on behalf of himself 
 and his fellow-chiefs, to Shuja Dowlah, who 
 became guarantee for the gradual payment 
 of the money to the Mahrattas. The suc- 
 ceeding events are very confusedly, and 
 even contradictorily, related by different 
 writers. The native, and apparently least 
 inconsistent version, is given in the narra- 
 tive of the son of Hafiz Rehmet, who states 
 that the Mahratta leaders, Holcar and 
 Sindia, subsequently negotiated with his 
 father to join them against Shuja Dowlah, 
 offering, as an inducement, to surrender to 
 him the bond given on his behalf, and a 
 share of such conquests as might be made 
 in Oude. The Rohilla chief, whom all autho- 
 rities concur in describing as of upright 
 and honourable character, refused to listen 
 to this proposition, and warned his ally 
 of the intended attack, which, however, the 
 Mahrattas were prevented by intestine strife 
 from carrying into execution. The ever- 
 treacherous and ungrateful vizier, relieved 
 from this danger, immediately demanded 
 the payment of the bond which he held 
 simply as a guarantee against loss, for the 
 benefit, not of the Mahrattas, but of him- 
 self and the English ; and he had the art to 
 persuade the latter people that the deed in 
 question had actually been drawn up for the 
 express purpose of providing for the ex- 
 penses incurred in resisting the common 
 foe. Hafiz Rehmet, however disgusted by 
 this shameless demand, was not in a con- 
 dition to offer effectual resistance, having 
 lost many of his bravest commanders in 
 the recent hostilities. He therefore for- 
 warded his own share of the required 
 sum, and entreated his fellow- chiefs to fol- 
 low his example ; but they refused to sub- 
 rait to such extortion ; and after many 
 ineffectual attempts at compromise, he 
 reluctantly prepared for the inevitable con- 
 flict, observing, " that as he must die 
 
 • Life of Ilnfiz Rehmet, English abridgment, 
 publishi'il by Oriental Translation Fund, ])p. 112 — 
 ll.'i. Also Sir Hubert liarkcr's evidence in 1781. 
 Thornton's ISnlisli Einjitrr in Jiidiii. ii., -1 1. 
 
 some time, he could not fall in a better 
 cause."* 
 
 Shuja Dowlah, notwithstanding the pains 
 he had taken to win over some of the minor 
 sirdars or governors, the indefensible cha- 
 racter of the country, and the vast numerical 
 superiority of his own troops, was little 
 disposed to confront, without extraneous 
 assistance, the small but hardy Afghan 
 bands, who were resolved to struggle, even 
 unto death, in defence of their hearths 
 and homes in the fair valleys of Rohilcund. 
 There were soldiers in India whose steady 
 disciplined valour might be depended upon 
 when fighting as hired mercenaries against 
 such combatants as these. A single English 
 battalion was to native armies as the steel 
 to the bamboo : with this addition they 
 became all-powerful; without it, the death 
 of a favourite leader, the outburst of a 
 thunder-storm, a few wounded and ungov- 
 ernable elephants, or a hundred other pos- 
 sible and probable contingencies, might 
 change in an instant the shout of victory 
 and the eager advance, into the yell of 
 defeat and the headlong flight, amidst which 
 even the commanders would lack presence 
 of mind to issue any better orders than the 
 very watchword of panic — chellao ! chellao ! 
 (get on ! get on !)-|- The deceitful represen- 
 tations made by Shuja Dowlah regarding 
 the reason for which he had been intrusted 
 with the Rohilla bond, was intended to give 
 the English a plausible pretext to aid him in 
 punishing an alleged breach of treaty. At 
 the same time, he was too well acquainted 
 with the wants and difSculties of the Cal- 
 cutta presidency, and with the character of 
 the governor, to feel any necessity for circum- 
 locution in intimating Lis desire of seizing 
 Rohilcund, and his readiness to pay a large 
 sum for the assistance of a British force in the 
 accomplishment of the projected usurpation. 
 Neither regard for the honour of his 
 nation, nor the dignity of his own position 
 as the representative of a great commercial 
 body, nor even for the private reputation 
 which he often declared " it had been the 
 study of his life to maintain unblemished," 
 withheld Hastings from receiving this pro- 
 position with favour, and even encouraging 
 it by dwelling on the advantages to be 
 derived by the projector from its execution. 
 The result was the insertion of a clause in 
 
 t Fide Colonel Wilks' graphic narrative of the 
 battles of Hyder Ali, especially of his defeat by the 
 Mahrattas at Chercoolee, and Hight to Seringapatum. 
 — (llisionj of Mijsour, ii., 1-M.)
 
 ENGLISH TROOPS IIIllKI) TO EXTIRPATE ROIIILLAS— J7n. 329 
 
 the treaty of Benares, by which the Jhij^lish 
 governor agreed to furnish trooi)3 to assist 
 the ruler of Oudc in "the reduction" or 
 cxi)ulsioii of their hitc aUics the Hoiiiihis, for 
 a gratuity of forty lacs of ru])crs, to he paid 
 when the " extermination" should he ooni- 
 pleted, the vizier to hear the whole charge 
 (computed at 210,000 rupees a month) of tlic 
 British force employed in the expedition.* 
 
 In the spring of 177I', the second of the 
 three brigades into which the Bengal army 
 was divided — viz., that of Allahabad, t joined 
 the forces of Shuja Dowlah, and the com- 
 bined troops entered the Kohilla country. 
 The English commander was possibly already 
 prejudiced against Hastings, on account of 
 the determination manifested by the latter 
 to keep the military under the complete 
 control of the civil authority ; but this cir- 
 cumstance was not needed to deepen the 
 natural disgust excited by being employed 
 in an undertaking deservedly stigmatised as 
 " infamous.^' Tiie conduct of the nabob- 
 vizier was, from first to last, as bad as 
 cruelty, cowardice, and rapacity could make 
 it. The Rohillas, astounded by the ap- 
 proach of English troops, anxiously strove to 
 make terras of peace ; but the demand of 
 tlie invader for tivo crore of rupees, evinced 
 his uncompromising resolve to proceed to 
 extremities. Hafiz Rehmet took post near 
 the city of Bareilly, with an army of 40,000 
 men. The English commenced the attack 
 by a cannonade of two hours and a-half, 
 the rapidity and persistanee of which de- 
 feated the frequent attempts of the enemy to 
 charge; at length, after Hafiz RclimctJ and 
 one of his sons, with several chiefs of note, 
 had been killed whilst rallying their dis- 
 pirited followers, the rest turned and ilcd. 
 Shuja Uowlah had heretofore remained a 
 
 * Hastings avowed himself " glad of any occasion 
 to employ the E. I. Cy's forces, which saves so much 
 of their jiay and expenses" (Life, i., oj9) ; and 
 regrets being unable to derive " some advantage from 
 the distractions of the Malu-atta state." — (i., 397.) 
 
 I Tlie Allaliabad brigade, established by Clive, 
 drew from Fort William no less than two million 
 sterling in P.ve years. The sum of 30,000 rupees per 
 month, paid according to agreement by Shuja \)m\- 
 lah, durmg that period, was scarcely felt as a relief, 
 for the officers in command contrived to reap the 
 chief benefit therefrom. — (Gleig's Life tf If'urreu 
 IListinys, i., Sii.) 
 
 J The old warrior, conspicuous from his long white 
 beard, stately bearing, and noble ch.irger, when all 
 was lost, was seen to gallop forward to perish (to 
 our shame) on English bayonets. — (Ilebcr, i., 431.) 
 
 § Warren Hastings remarked, that Colonel Cham- 
 pion had little reason to express indignation regard- 
 ing the destruction of the villages ; and he quoted a 
 
 quiet spectator of the fight, surrounded by 
 his cavalry and a large body of artillery; 
 but the fortune of the day being decided, 
 his troops made u[) for their j)ast inactivity 
 by pursuing, slaughtering, and pillaging the 
 fugitives ;ui(l the abandoned camp, " while 
 the company's troojis, in regular order in 
 their raidvs, most justly observed," (says 
 their commander), " we have tlie honour of 
 the day, and these banditti the profit." 
 Then followed a fearful destruction of vil- 
 lages, the whole country being overspread 
 with flames for three days after the battle. 
 Colonel Champion vainly besought Shuja 
 Dowlah to give orders lor the cessation of 
 these atrocities; and he also appealed to 
 Hastings^ to plead the cause of the unhappy 
 family of Ilafiz Rehmet; but the answer 
 was, that such interference would probably 
 aggravate the sufferings it was designed to 
 alleviate : and this rebuff was accompanied 
 by an intimation that it was the business of 
 Colonel Champion :o fight and not to diplo- 
 matise, and that it was especially incumbent 
 on him to refrain from any line of conduct 
 which should afford the nabob-vizier a pre- 
 text for refusing to pay the forty lacs — lite- 
 rally, the price of blood. 
 
 Thus sharply admonished, Colonel Cham- 
 pion was compelled to abide by the " great 
 political maxim," till then utterly disre- 
 garded in Anglo-Indian policy, — " that no 
 power which supports another as the mere 
 second in a war, has the smallest right to 
 assume a prominent place in the negotia- 
 tions which are to conclude that war."|| 
 
 Shuja Dowlah was therefore suflcred to 
 finish the aft'air entirely to his own satisfac- 
 tion ; which he did by following up the 
 slaughter of about 2,000 Rohillas on the 
 field of battle, with the expulsion of 18,000 
 
 letter written by this officer during the war with the 
 vizier, in 1764, in which he declared, that according 
 to his instructions he had been ravaging the enemy's 
 country, and had " destroyed upwards of 1,000 
 villages." This barbarous system was unhappily 
 employed, without scruple, by European commanders; 
 and Clive especially, as a favourite measure, sub- 
 sidised bands of Mahrattas for the express purpose 
 of spreading devastation round the French settle- 
 ments and encampivients. Orme's work contains 
 irrefragable testimony of the desolating ho.stilities of 
 even Europeans, practised at the expense of the 
 wretched peasantry, who beheld every art of a 
 boasted civilisation employed in strife and blood- 
 shed, and their fields not only ravaged by rival in- 
 vaders with fire and the sword, but even the mounds 
 reared with unwearied labour thrown down, and 
 the waters let loose to destroy the cultivations pre- 
 viously irrigated with unavailing toil. 
 I! Life of Hastings, i., 439.
 
 330 HASTINGS CAUSES CHILDREN OF ROBBERS TO BE SOLD AS SLAVES. 
 
 of their countrymen, wlio, with their wives 
 and children,* were driven forth to beg, 
 steal, or starve. The Hindoo peasantr_y, 
 who formed the mass of the population, 
 ■were unfavourably aflfected by the change. It 
 was at first attempted to show that they 
 had experienced a great benefit by being 
 delivered from the " grinding tyranny " of 
 the Rohillas ; but other and more trust- 
 worthy accounts, describe the case dificr- 
 ently, and assert that these people, unlike 
 their race in general, encouraged agricul- 
 ture, while in another point they shared the 
 Afghan characteristic— of freedom from any 
 passion for the accumulation of wealth. The 
 population over whom they had usurped 
 sway, being left in the undisturbed posses- 
 sion of their religion and customs, were 
 therefore probably better situated under 
 the immediate sway of these independent 
 chiefs, than beneath the delegated despotism 
 of the Mogul emperors.f Their expulsion 
 was, however, not quite complete; for one 
 chief, FyzooUa Khan, continued to resist 
 the power of the usurper, and took post 
 with the remains of the army on the skirts 
 of the mountains near Pattir Ghur. After 
 some ineft'ectual attempts to dislodge him, 
 the vizier found his own troops becoming so 
 discontented from arrears of pay, that he 
 was glad to bring hostilities to a close, by 
 entering into an agreement with Fyzoolla 
 Khan, who agreed to surrender half the 
 treasure which he had contrived to carry 
 off, on condition of receiving a grant of 
 Rampoor and certain dependent districts in 
 Rohilcund, yielding a revenue of above 
 £150,000 per annum. 
 
 This arrangement was, however, hurried 
 to a conclusion more by a consideration of 
 the failing health of the vizier, than even 
 from the discontent of the troops. The 
 cause of his rapid decline was ostensibly 
 attributed to a cancerous disease ; but the 
 Mussulman historian of these times alludes 
 to a current report — that it was the direct 
 conseciucnce of a wound inflicted by the 
 hand of the daughter of Hafiz Rehniet, who, 
 when the murderer of her father filled up 
 the measure of his crimes by an attempt to 
 dishonour her, stabbed him with a small 
 dagger she had concealed for the purpose. 
 The unhappy girl was immediately put to 
 
 • Stated by Colonel Champion at 100,000 souls. 
 
 t Hafiz Kehmet is said to have liein " an excel- 
 lent sovereign" (Heber, i., 434), anil Fyzoolla Klinn 
 "a liberal U\ml]ovd."—( Jtepurl on liohilcmid 1808.) 
 
 \ Siyar ul MtUakherin, iii., 208. 
 
 death ; but the wound she had inflicted, 
 though slight, proved mortal, the dagger hav- 
 ing been previously poisoned by her mother. 
 Such is the story told by Gholam Hussein 
 and his translator. The former denies, the 
 latter aflirms, its truth, and adduces certain 
 circumstances — such as the friendship of 
 the author for the sons of Hafiz Rehmet, 
 his alliance with the English, and other 
 causes, for a desire to pass slightingly over 
 so painful a matter, f This at least is cer- 
 tain, — that ShujaDowlah, immediately after 
 the accomplishment of his much-desired 
 object, the possession of Rohilcund, was 
 seized by mortal sickness, while yet strong 
 in the full energy of middle life ; that he 
 lingered through many months of intense 
 bodily anguish, and then died, leaving his 
 usurped dominions to a youth whose addic- 
 tion to the most hateful forms of sensuality 
 rendered him an object of genei-al contempt. 
 The Rohilla war was the last transaction 
 of importance which marked the career of 
 Hastings as governor under the old system. 
 Among the other measures of this epoch, 
 was one of a quite unexceptionable charac- 
 ter — the removal of a tax on marriage. He 
 likewise exerted himself vigorously for the 
 suppression of gangs of thieves and plun- 
 derers, who, under the name of decoits, 
 committed terrible ravages in Bengal. 
 Troops of scnassies, or religious mendicants, 
 (the pilgrim-gipsies of Hindoostan), did 
 great mischief under the cloak of fanatical 
 zeal. The truth was, that during the late 
 season of anarchy, crime of all descriptions 
 had been greatly augmented; and many 
 who had first laid violent hands on food, at 
 the instigation of ravening hunger, con- 
 tinued as a trade what they had yielded to 
 as a momentary temptation. The measures 
 adopted for suppressing gang-robbery were, 
 however, of a character so flagrantly uujust, 
 that no Christian governor could be justi- 
 fied in adopting, far less in initiating them. 
 Each convicted criminal was to be executed 
 in his native village, of which every member 
 was to pay a fine according to his substance; 
 aiul the family of the transgressor were to 
 become slaves of the state, to be disposed of 
 at the discretion of govci-nment. These 
 iniquitous regulations were enacted, not- 
 witlistanding the avowed knowledge of the 
 presidency, that the custom of selling slaves 
 was alike repugnant to the doctrines of the 
 Koran .and the Shastras. Moreover, it was 
 at this very time found necessary to take 
 measures to check the kidnapping of cliil-
 
 ARRIVAL OF COUNCILLORS APPOINTED UNDER NEW SYSTEM— 1774. 331 
 
 dreii, and carrying them out of the country 
 in Dutcli and Ercnch vessels, — a ]>racticc 
 \vhi(;h " liad fjrcatly increased since the 
 establishnacnt of the English govcrnnicnt."* 
 
 Haslhijjs Governor-general. — The great 
 change in the constitution of the Bengal 
 presidency, decreed by the llcgulating Act 
 of 1772-'3, was unwelcome intelli;;i'ncc to 
 the governor, who juslly considered the actual 
 though ill-defined supremacy vested in the 
 Calcutta prcsidcucy, with tlie liigh-sounding 
 but empty title given to its head, poor 
 compensation for liaving liis movements 
 fettered hy four coadjutors, eacli one scarcely 
 less ])owerful than himself. The erection 
 of a Supreme Couit of judicature, to be con- 
 ducted by Englishmen after tlie national 
 method, he knew to be an innovation likely 
 to produce considerable dissatisfaction in 
 the minds of tjie natives ; and the result 
 proved his surmise correct : but no small 
 part of the blanio-iittachcs to the individuals 
 of wliom it was composed, their ignorance 
 of the customs of the people they came to 
 judge being aggravated by a haughty indif- 
 ference to the deep-rooted and undcviat- 
 ing adherence to ceremonial observances 
 and the riglits of sex and caste, which form 
 so prominent a feature in the manners of 
 the whole native population, both Iliudoo 
 and Mohammedan. Hastings, indeed, con- 
 soled himself for the dangerous character of 
 the new legal courts, because the chief jus- 
 tice, Sir EHjah Impcy, his old schoolfellow 
 at Westminster, was the best man that 
 could have been chosen for tlie office "in all 
 England. "t Most authorities have formed 
 a very ditlevcnt estimate of the same person ; 
 and Maeaulay has not hesitated to declare, 
 that " no other such judge luis dishonoured 
 the English ermine since Jefl'eries drank 
 himself to death in the Tower." J 
 
 Towards the new councillors — General 
 Clavering, Colonel IMonsou, and ^Ir. (after- 
 wai'ds Sir Philip) Francis^ — Ilastiugs wasnot 
 favourably disposed. They knew this, and 
 came prepared to resent any semblance of 
 disrespect. The occasion ofl'ercd itself be- 
 fore they set foot in Calcutta : the salute 
 
 • lierenuc CimsnUaliiinn of Aiiril and May, 1774; 
 and ofiicial letters from Bengal of this date, quoted 
 in Auber's British Puicer in India, i., 432. 
 
 t Life of Hastings, i., 471. 
 
 I Essay on Warren Ilastinfja, p. 50. 
 
 § Pronounced very decidedly by Maeaulay to he 
 the author of the Letters of Junius. — [Idem, p. 30.) 
 The stronjiest argument on the other side, is the 
 Steady denial of Francis himself, which he reiterated 
 so late as 1817— that is, the year before his death, at 
 the advanced age of eighty-eight. 
 
 from Fort William consisted of seventeen, 
 
 instead of twenty-one, discharges ; and the 
 expected guard of honour did not await 
 their latiding. The governor-general under- 
 stood the ed'ect of these apparent trifles on 
 the minds of the natives of all ranks, and 
 liad calculated the degree of respect abso- 
 lutely necessary to be shown to his colleagues: 
 so, at least, tliey reasoned ; aiid within six 
 days after their arrival in October, 1774, 
 a struggle commenced, which rendered the 
 council-chamber of Calcutta a scene of 
 stormy debate for the space of four years. 
 
 Mr. Barwell, the fourth member nomi- 
 nated by the Regulating Act, was an ex- 
 ])crienced Indian ollicial. He had not always 
 been on good terms with Hastings ; but 
 he now steadily, though with little effect, 
 adhered to him against the uew-comcrs. 
 Hastings liimself possessed a remarkable 
 degree of self-control, || and rarely suffered 
 the violence of Clavering, the pertinacity of 
 Monson — or, worse than all, the sharp 
 tongue and ready pen of Francis — to drive 
 him from the 'vantage ground of equanimity, 
 or tempt him to lay aside the quiet tone of 
 guarded cynicism, to which the eloquent 
 enthusiasm of his earlier and purer life had 
 long since given place. 
 
 The J5cuarcs treaty and the Rohilla war 
 were the first subjects of discussion. On 
 the plea of keeping faith with the political 
 agent^ placed by him at the court of Shuja 
 Dowlah, Hastings refused to produce the 
 correspondence; and this circumstance, com- 
 bined with other manifestations of a desire 
 to crush or evade inquiry into matters in 
 which he was personally concerned, gave 
 rise to many grave imputations on his cha- 
 racter. The Rohilla war was deservedly 
 denounced by the majority as a shameful 
 expedient to raise money ; but, unhappily, 
 party feeling against Hastings alloyed their 
 zeal, and ensured defeat by its own violence. 
 In diplomacy, all three combined were no 
 match for him, as they soon learned with 
 bitter mortification. The clause in their in- 
 structions which directed examination to be 
 made into past oppressiops, was amjjle war- 
 II In the council-chamber at Calcutta hangs a por- 
 trait of Hastings, bearing the legend — " ?Iens a-qua in 
 arduis ;" and no better comment need be desired to 
 accompany the semblance of the pale face, slight 
 frame, singularly developed brow, penetrating eye, 
 and thin, firmly-closed lips of the man of whom 
 it has been said, " hatred itself could deny no 
 
 I title to glory — except virtue." — (Macaulay's £ssai/ 
 on IVarrcn JListings, p. 92.) 
 
 I 51 'J^'he ^Ir. Middleton mentioned under such sus- 
 
 I picious circumstances in the next page.
 
 332 SPECIFIC CHARGES OF PECULATION URGED AGAINST HASTINGS, 
 
 rant for the inquiries instituted by them 
 into various complaints urged by natives of 
 rank against the governor.* No doubt, 
 many of these were well founded ; for it is 
 not likely that a person, so indifferent to 
 the common rules of honesty and humanity 
 in all matters of foreign policy, would be scru- 
 pulously just in his internal arrangements. 
 But the most puzzling point in the quarrels 
 of this epoch, is the repeated accusation 
 brought against him of venality — urged with 
 a degree of vehemence which may be illus- 
 trated by a single extract from the official 
 records, in which the " gentlemen of the 
 majority" (as Hastings sarcastically called 
 them) complain, in plain terms, of the " for- 
 midable combination of reciprocal interest" 
 which he had established, " by acceptiug 
 unwarrantable advantages himself, and con- 
 niving at those which were received by the 
 company's servants."t To this heavy charge 
 is added : — " In the late proceedings of the 
 revenue board, there is no species of pecula- 
 tion from which the honourable governor- 
 general has thought it right to abstain."! 
 
 It has been before stated, that Hastings 
 was not avaricious — far from it : he had 
 neither taste nor taleut for the accumulation 
 of wealth, and appears to have habitually 
 mismanaged his pecuniary affairs. For that 
 very reason, the high salary attached to his 
 office proved insufficient to cover his ill- 
 regulated expenditure : and this circum- 
 stance may account for his having availed 
 himself of means to recruit his own ex- 
 chequer, closely resembling in character 
 those simultaneously employed by him on 
 behalf of the compaay. 
 
 Many specific accusations were urged 
 against him. Among others, the extra- 
 ordinary appointment of Munnee Begum 
 as guardian to the nabob, was novy distinctly 
 
 * Among these was the ranee of Burdwan, the 
 relict of the late rajah, Tiliook Chund, whose an- 
 cestors hud governed their rightful heritage as a 
 zemindarree during the whole period of jVIoliam- 
 niedan rule. The ranee complained that she had 
 been set aside from the government during the mi- 
 nority of her son, a boy of nine years old, to make 
 room for a corrupt agent. Another accusation 
 brought against Hastings was that of unduly favour- 
 ing his native steward, named Cantoo Baboo (a 
 former servant of Clive's), who had been not only 
 allowed to farm lands to the value of ,£15(),0()() per 
 annum, but also to hold two government contracts, 
 one in his own name, and the other in that of his 
 son, a boy of ten or twelve years of age, amounting 
 to u still higher sum. — (Dr. Hoodie's Transactions 
 in Jinlia, p. 211.) 
 
 t The majority steadily refused even the customary 
 presents or nuzzurs (of comparatively ismall value, 
 
 stated to have been purchased by her in the 
 first instance, and subsequently retained by 
 bribery ; and it was alleged in corroboration, 
 that in the examination of her receipts and 
 disbursements, a large sum remained unac- 
 counted for. She was placed under restraint, 
 and on being closely questioned as to the 
 cause of the defalcation, she pleaded having 
 given three lacs of rupees to the governor- 
 general and his immediate retainer, Mr. 
 Middleton.§ The receipt of this sum was 
 not denied ; but Hastings vindicated his 
 own share in the transaction, by asserting 
 that the lac-and-a-half taken by him had 
 been used as " entertainment money," to 
 cover the extraordinary outlay necessitated 
 by his visit to Moorshedabad, over and above 
 the charge of upwards of 30,000 rupees made 
 by him on the Calcutta treasury for travelling 
 expenses ; together with a large additional 
 sum for his companions and attendants. 
 
 This explanation is quite insufficient as re- 
 gards the exaggerated scale of expenditure 
 adopted by the governor-general during his 
 absence from Calcutta ; far less can it justify 
 so large a deduction from the income of the 
 nabob, immediately after his allowance had 
 been cut down to the lowest point. The 
 result of the investigation was the removal 
 of Munnee Begum from office, and her 
 supersession by Rajah Goordass, the son of 
 Nuncomar, by whom the accusation of col- 
 lusion between the begum and the governor 
 had been preferred. The appointment was 
 the act of the majority, conferred — not, of 
 course, for the sake of Goordass, who was 
 deemed incapable of doing much good or 
 harm — but as a strong mark of the feelings 
 entertained by them to his father ; although, 
 at this very time, as Hastings savagely de- 
 clared," the old gentleman was in gaol, and 
 in a fair way to be hanged." || 
 
 offered by the natives of rank), as a dangerous prac- 
 tice i and commented severely on the reasons adduced 
 by Hastings for receiving and paying them into the 
 company's treasury, and by Barwell for receiving and 
 retaining them. — (Lcttirfrom llenijiil, Oclo\K'r,\lli.) 
 
 I Coiisutlalioiis (if l!iiii/al Cnuncil, May, 1775. 
 
 § Of tlie lac-and-a-half of rupees (wliich, by the 
 existing standard, considerably exceeded £1 j,()00 in 
 value) no account was ever rendere<l, or defence set 
 tip, by Mr. Middleton.— (Mill's Imliti, iii., U3;3.) 
 
 II The concentrated bitterness of this expression 
 appears in a striking light when contrasted witV the 
 singular moderaliou of Hastings at the time of the 
 trial of Mohammed Keza Khan, on the charges of 
 wholesale plunder and sanguinary op])ression. He 
 then remarked on the little chance of ca])ital punish- 
 ment being inflicted, let the trial end how it would i 
 giving as a reason — " On ne pend pas des gens qui 
 ont un million dans leur poche." — {Life, i., 264.)
 
 NUNCOMAR HEARD IN COUNCIL AGAINST HASTINGS--177r.. 333 
 
 The means by which the most danp;orous 
 and (Iciully foe ever en<:ouiitcrc(l by Jlastiiif^s 
 was dashed to tlie ground at the very moment 
 when his hand was uplifted to strike, arc of 
 a nature which must ever leave some (Icgree 
 of uncertainty as to the degree of culpability 
 attributable to the chief actors.* 
 
 The antecedent circumstances require to 
 be rightly understood before any clear con- 
 ception can be formed on a matter wliieli 
 created no ordinary degree of interest in 
 the mind of the English public, and afforded 
 to Burke a fitting theme for some of the 
 most thrilling passages in his eloquent 
 speeches, in the long subsequent impeach- 
 ment of Hastings. It will be remembered 
 that Nuncomar, previous to his appointment 
 as naib-dewan to Meer Jaffier, had been 
 detained at Calcutta by order of the direc- 
 tors, on the ground of being a dangerous 
 intriguer, whose liberty might endanger the 
 safety of the state ; and this conclusion was 
 arrived at mainly through evidence brought 
 forward by Hastings, who conducted the 
 examination, and was known to entertain a 
 very unfavourable opinion of Nuncomar. 
 At the period of the trial of Mohammed 
 E.cza Khan, the governor-general took great 
 credit for the manner in which, notwith- 
 standing his private feelings, he had entered 
 freely into all the complaints brought for- 
 ward by the Brahmin e.x-dewan against his 
 Mussulman successor. He even showed 
 Nuncomar considerable personal attention 
 until the termination of the affair, when 
 the accusations not being established, 
 were pronounced malicious aiul libellous. 
 Nuncomar felt that he had been used as a 
 mere tool ; and, stung to the soul by the 
 disgrace in which his ambitious schemes 
 had terminated, he retired into temporary 
 obscurity, and eagerly waited an oppor- 
 tunity of revenge. 
 
 The dissensions which took place in the 
 council, speedily afforded the desired op- 
 portunity; and just four months after the 
 establishment of the new government, Nun- 
 comar presented a memorial to the council, 
 which contained a formal statement of 
 bribes, to a great extent, received by the 
 governor-general from jSEohammcd Reza 
 Khan, as the price of bringing the inquiry 
 into his conduct to a favourable termination. 
 Francis read the paper aloud : a stormy 
 
 • One of the most moderate and unprejudiced 
 authorities on this subject truly remarks, that 
 " opinions may, indeed, differ as to the extent of 
 Hastings' culpability ; but he must be a warm parti- 
 
 al tcrcation followed. Hastings, for once, 
 lost all temper ; called his accuser the basest 
 of mankind ; indignantly denied the right of 
 the councillors to sit in judgment on their 
 superior ; and, u])on the request of Nun- 
 comar to be heard in person being granted 
 by the m<ajority, he left the room, followed 
 by Harwell. General Clavering took the 
 vacant chair, — Nuncomar was called in, 
 and, in addition to the previous charges, he 
 alleged that two crore and a-half of ru- 
 pees had been paid by !Munnce Begum to 
 Hastings, and that he had himself pur- 
 chased his son's appointment, as her col- 
 league in office, with another crore. 
 
 Hastings felt the ground giving way be- 
 neath his feet. The arrangement (to use 
 the most lenient epithet) between him and 
 Munnce Begum, regarding the " entertain- 
 ment money," would, if other testimony 
 were wanting, suffice to prove that he had 
 not scrupled to obtain, in a more or less 
 surreptitious manner, large sums in addition 
 to the regular salary (£25,000 per annum), 
 and allowances attached to his position of 
 governor-general. The probability was a 
 strong one, that the various and specific 
 charges which the vindictive Brahmin was 
 prepared to maintain at the hazard of his 
 life, would contain at least sufficient truth 
 to enable the adversaries of Hastings to 
 triumph over him, by the ruin of the repu- 
 tation he had, from early youth, spent 
 laborious days and anxious nights in ac- 
 quiring. To lose this was to lose all : he 
 had no extraneous influence with the 
 crown, the ministers, in parliament, or even 
 with the company, sufficient to prop up his 
 claims to the high position which credit for 
 personal disinterestedness, still more than 
 for great and varied talents, had obtained 
 for him. ^Vith a mind depressed by gloomy 
 apprehension, he prepared for the worst ; 
 and, to avoid the last disgrace of dismissal, 
 placed in the hands of two confidential 
 agentsf in London his formal resignation, to 
 be tendered to the directors in the event of 
 a crisis arriving which should render this 
 humiliating step of evident expediency. 
 Meanwhile he met his foes with his usual 
 undaunted mien, and carried the war into 
 the enemy's country, by instituting pro- 
 ceedings in the Supreme Court against I\un- 
 comar and two kinsmen, named Eowke, in 
 
 san, indeed, who will go to the length of declaring 
 that the hands of the governor-fieneral were alto- 
 gether clean." — (Thornton's British India, ii., 71.) 
 t Col. Macleane and Mr. Graham.
 
 334 NUNCOMAR TRIED BEFORE SIR ELIJAH IMPEY FOR FORGERY 
 
 the company's service, for an alleged con- 
 spiracy to force a native, named Camul-oo- 
 deen, to write a petition reflecting falsely 
 and injuriously on himself and certain of 
 his adherents, including his banyan Cantoo 
 Baboo, on whom he was known to have 
 conferred undue privileges. Clavering, Mon- 
 son, and Francis, after hearing the evidence 
 adduced at an examination before the 
 judges, placed on record their conviction 
 that the charge was a fabrication, and had 
 no foundation whatever in truth. Within 
 a few days from this time a more serious 
 ofience was alleged against Nuncomar — 
 he was arrested on a charge of forging a 
 bond five years before, and thrown into the 
 common gaol. The ostensible prosecutor 
 was a native of inconsiderable station ; but 
 Hastings was then, and is still, considered 
 to have been the real mover in the busi- 
 ness. The majority manifested their con- 
 victions in the most conspicuous manner : 
 they dispatched urgent and repeated mes- 
 sages to the judges, demanding that Nun- 
 comar should be held to bail ; but to no 
 purpose. The assizes commenced ; a true 
 bill was found ; Nuncomar was brought 
 before Sir Elijah Impey, and after a pro- 
 tracted examination, involving much con- 
 tradictory swearing, was pronounced guilty 
 by a jury of Englishmen, and condemned to 
 death. 
 
 The animus of the whole affair could not 
 be mistaken : all classes were infected by a 
 fever of excitement ; and Clavering, it is 
 said, swore that Nuncomar should be 
 rescued, even at the foot of tlie gallows. 
 Impey behaved throughout the trial with 
 overbearing violence, and not only refused 
 to grant a reprieve until the pleasure of the 
 home authorities should be known, but even 
 censured the counsel of Nuncomar, in open 
 court, for his laudable attempt to prevail on 
 the foreman of the jury to join in recom- 
 mending his client to mercy.* Hastings, 
 who might, had he chosen, have set his cha- 
 racter in the fairest Hght by procuring the 
 respite of his accuser, remained perfectly 
 
 • Thornton's British India, ii., 84. Burke pub- 
 licly accused Hastings of having " murdered Nunco- 
 mar, through the hands of Impey." Macaulay views 
 the matter more leniently as regards Hastings ; but 
 deems the main point at issue quite clear to everyone, 
 " idiots and biographeis excepted," and considers any 
 lingering doubt on the subject quite set aside by the 
 strong language in which Impey was subsequently 
 described by Hastings as the man " to whose sup- 
 port I was at one time indebted for the safetv of my 
 fortune, honour, and reputation." — (ii., 265.) 6ut this 
 
 quiescent, and thereby confirmed the general 
 conviction that he dared not encounter the 
 charges of Nuncomar. 
 
 The sufficiency of the evidence by which 
 the act of forgery was established, is a 
 question of secondary importance when 
 compared with the palpable injustice of 
 inflicting capital punishment for a venial 
 offence on a person over whom the judges 
 had but a very questionable claim to exer- 
 cise any jurisdiction at all.f Forgery in 
 India was the very easiest and commonest 
 description of swindling — a practice which 
 it was as needful, and quite as difficult, for 
 men of business to be on their guard against 
 in every-day life, as for a lounger in the 
 streets of London to take care of the 
 handkerchief in his great -coat pocket. 
 The English law, which made it a capital 
 ofience, was just one of those the introduc- 
 tion of which into Bengal would have been 
 most vehemently deprecated by Hastings, 
 had he not been personally interested in its 
 enforcement. The natives, both Mussul- 
 man and Hindoo, were astounded at the 
 tinprecedented severity of the sentence ; 
 many of them, doubtless, remembered the 
 notorious forgery of Clive, and the fate of 
 Omichund : and now an aged man, a Brah- 
 min of high caste, was sentenced to a 
 public and terrible doom for an act, a little 
 more selfish in its immediate motive, but 
 certainly far less dreadful in its effects. 
 The offence which had not barred an Eng- 
 lishman's path to a peerage, was now to 
 doom a Hindoo to the gallows. And yet 
 not so; the ostensible reason deceived no 
 one ; and even the warmest partisans of 
 Hastings could not but view Nuncomar 
 rather as the determined opponent of the 
 governor-general, about to pay with life the 
 forfeit of defeat, than as a common felon, 
 condemned to die for a petty crime. The 
 Mussulmans were mostly disposed to view 
 with exultation the fate of the inveterate foe 
 of Mohammed Reza Khan ; but the Hindoos 
 waited in an agony of shame and doubt the 
 dawn of the day which was to witness the 
 
 evidence is not unexceptionable, since it is very pos- 
 sible that these words referred to the important de- 
 cision of the judges, at a subsccpient crisis in the ca- 
 reer of Hastings, when liis resignation was declared 
 invalid, and Clavering reluclanlly compelled to relin- 
 quish his claim to tlie position of governor-general. 
 
 t Inasmuch as Nuncomar was not a voluntary in- 
 habitant of Calcutta at the time when the ofience 
 was said to have been committed, but a prisoner 
 brought and detained there by constraint, under 
 the circumstances referred to in the preceding page.
 
 EXECUTION OF THE MAHA-RAJAH, NUNCOMAll-l 775. 
 
 835 
 
 ignominious end of a Brahmin vvlio, Ijy tlicir 
 laws, could, for the darkest crime ever 
 pictured by tiie imagination of man, only 
 be puiiislicd with loss of caste. The fatal 
 morning of the 5th of August arrived, and 
 Nuncomar stepped into his palanquin with 
 the dignified serenity so often displayed by 
 his countrymen wlien brouglit face to face 
 with a violent death, and was ijornc; through 
 countless multitudes, who beheld the rnehui- 
 clioly procession with an aniazeiuent which 
 swallowed uj) every other feeling. Calmly 
 mounting the seati'old, the old man sent a 
 last message to the three councillors who 
 would, he knew, have saved him if possible, 
 commending to their care his son, Rajah 
 Goordass. He then gave the signal to the 
 executioner. The drop fell, and a loud and 
 terrible cry arose from the assembled popu- 
 lace, which immediately dispersed — hun- 
 dreds of Hindoos rushing from the pol- 
 luted spot to cleanse themselves iu the 
 sacred waters of the Hooghly. 
 
 The majority in council, thus publicly 
 defeated, sympathised deeply with the fate 
 of this victim to political strife; and the 
 older English oflicials could not but remem- 
 ber for how many years Nuncomar had 
 played a part, of selfish intrigue it is true, 
 but still an important and conspicuous part 
 in Anglo-Indian history; for his co-opera- 
 tion had been gained at a time when gover- 
 nors and members of council, then mere 
 commercial factors, paid assiduous homage 
 to native functionaries.* The feelings of 
 Hastings may be conjectured from au e.x- 
 
 * Nuncomar was governor of Ilooghly in 1756. 
 He was induced by the English to talte part witli 
 them against liis master, Surajah JJowlah, whose 
 orders of affording aid to the French wlien besieged 
 in Chandernagore he disobeyed, to serve his secret 
 allies, to whom on several occasions he rendered con- 
 siderable service, and in so doing incurred the sus- 
 picions of the nabob, and was dismissed from office. 
 His subsequent career lias been shown in previous 
 pages; its termination adds another name to the list 
 of remarkable deaths which awaited the chief actors 
 in the conspiracy that was carried into execution on 
 the field of I'lassy. At the division of spoil which 
 took place in the liouse of the Seit brothers, nine 
 persons were present. Of these, three (the Seits 
 and Koy-duUub) were murdered by Meer Cossim 
 Ali ; the fourth (Clive) died by his own hand ; the 
 fifth (Meeran) perished by lightning ; the si.\th 
 (Scrafton) was lost at sea; the seventh (Omicliund) 
 died an idiot; the eighth (Meer Jaffier) went to his 
 grave groaning under every suffering which pecu- 
 niary dilficidties, domestic sorrows, and bodily diseases, 
 resulting from deliauchery, could indict. Of the 
 death of Mr. Watts I have seen no record. Gassitee 
 Begum, and several confederates not present on the 
 occasion above referred to, were put to death at 
 
 pression which csca|)ed him many years 
 lat(;r, that he had never bc(!n the per.Honal 
 enemy of any man but Nuncomar,! " whom 
 from my soul 1 detested even when 1 was 
 compelled to countenance him." He like- 
 wise foresaw the eflect the fate of his fallea 
 foe would produce in the mind.s of the na- 
 tives. To contest with a fortunate man, was, 
 in their sight, especially in tiiat of the Mo- 
 h:iirinK!(lan population, like fighting against 
 God himself — as futile, and, in some sort, 
 as impious. As to the power of the ma- 
 jority in council, its prestige was gone for 
 ever; although, how the right of making 
 war and peace, levying tax.es, and nomi- 
 nating officials, came to be vested in one 
 set of men, and the exclusive irresponsible 
 infliction of capital punishments in another, 
 was a question quite beyond the comprehen- 
 sion of the Bengalees. 'J'he governor-general 
 felt relieved from the danger of any more 
 native appeals, pecuniary or otherwise ; J and 
 whilst the air was yet filled with weeping 
 and lamentation, he sat down to write a 
 long and critical letter to Dr. Johnson about 
 the Tour to the Hebrides, Jones' Fersian 
 Grammar, and the history, traditions, arts, 
 and natural productions of India. From 
 this time he renounced all idea of resiirnin? 
 his position, and repeatedly declared, in 
 both official and private communications, 
 that nothing short of death or recall should 
 hinder him from seeing the result of the 
 struggle with his colleagues. That result 
 may be told in his own w ords — " his adver- 
 saries sickened, died, and fled,"§ leaving him 
 
 various times. Meer Cossim himself died poor and 
 in obscurity. 
 
 t Life, iii., 3o8. This speech needs qualification; 
 for Hastings, on his own showing, entertained for 
 P'rancis, Wavering, and many minor functionaries, 
 a feeling for which it would be difficult to find 
 any other name than personal enmity. One gentle- 
 man, apjiointed by the majoiity to supersede a fa- 
 vourite nominee of his own as resident at Oude, lie 
 speaks of as " that wretch Bristowe ;" and entreats bis 
 old friend Mr. Sulivan ^the ancient opponent of Clive, 
 and the chairman of tlie Court of Jjirectors) to help 
 rid him " from so unworthy an antagonist," declaring 
 that he would not employ him, though his life itself 
 should be the forfeit of refusal. — (ii.,336.) 
 
 X Francis, when e-xamined before parliament in 
 1788, declared, that the effect of the execution of 
 Nuncomar, defeated the inquiries entered into re- 
 garding the conduct of Hastings; " that itirapresised 
 a general terror on the natives with respect to pre- 
 ferring accusations against men in great power ;'' and 
 that he and his coadjutors were uiiwiili:ig to expose 
 them to what appeared to him and his fellow-coun- 
 cillors, as well as to the Bengalees, a manifest 
 danger.— (Mill, iii., 641.) 
 
 § Life of Ilastiiujs, iii., 305.
 
 336 HASTINGS KEPUDIATES RESIGNATION TENDERED BY HIS AGENT. 
 
 the undisputed master of the field. The 
 first to fail was Colonel Monson, who, after 
 two months' sickness, fell a victim to the 
 depressing influence of climate, and the wear 
 and tear of faction. The casting vote of 
 Hastings, joined to the undeviating support 
 of Barvrell, restored his complete ascendancy 
 in council, which he exercised by reversing 
 all the measures of his adversaries, displacing 
 their nominees to make way for officials of 
 his own appointment, and by reverting to 
 his previous plans of conquest and dominion, 
 of which the leading principle was the 
 formation of subsidiary alliances with the 
 native princes, especially of Oude and Berar, 
 — a policy which, in skilful hands would, he 
 foresaw, act as a powerful lever wherewith to 
 raise England to a position of paramount 
 authority in India. But once again his 
 ambitious career was destined to receive a 
 severe though temporary check. The ac- 
 counts sent home by the Clavering party, 
 furnished both the government and the 
 directors of the E. I. Cy. with strong argu- 
 ments for his immediate recall. With the 
 proprietors he had been, and always con- 
 tinued to be, a special favourite, and they 
 vehemently opposed the measure. Still 
 there seemed so little chance of his con- 
 tinuance in office, save for a limited time, 
 and on the most precarious and unsatisfac- 
 tory tenure, that his agents and friends, after 
 much discussion, thought themselves war- 
 ranted in endeavouring to effect a compro- 
 mise, by tendering his voluntary resignation 
 in return for a private guarantee on the part 
 of government for certain honours and advan- 
 tages not clearly stated. The resignation was 
 proffered and accepted, but it appears that 
 the conditions annexed to it were not ful- 
 filled ; for the negotiators sent Hastings 
 word, by the same ship that brought an 
 order for the occupation of the chair by 
 General Clavering (pending the arrival of 
 the newly-appointed governor-general, Mr. 
 Wheler), that they hoped he would not 
 abide by the pledge given on his behalf, 
 since the stipulations made at the same time 
 had been already flagrantly violated.* 
 
 On receipt of this varied intelligence, 
 Hastings was, or afi'ected to be, at a loss 
 
 * See Letters of Maoleaiie and Stowart. — (Lifi:, 
 ii., 95.) The " gross breacli" of afjrcement so loudly 
 complained of, was the investment of General Claver- 
 inp; with the order of tlic liath. This same " red 
 ribbon" created as much spleen and envy among the 
 Englisli functionaries, as the privilege of carrying 
 a fish on their banners did among the ancient Mogul 
 nobility ; and a strange evidence of the consequence, 
 
 how to act; but the violence of General 
 Clavering in attempting the forcible assump- 
 tion of the reins of government, afforded 
 him an inducement or a pretext to repu- 
 diate the proceedings of his representatives 
 in London, and declare that his instructions 
 had been mistaken ; that he had not, and 
 would not resign. Clavering insisted that 
 the resignation which had been tendered 
 and accepted in England, could not be 
 revoked in India: he therefore proceeded, 
 with the support of Francis, to take the 
 oaths of office, issue proclamations as gover- 
 nor-general, hold a council, and formally 
 demand the surrender of the keys of the 
 fort and the treasury. But Hastings had 
 the advantage of that possession which an 
 old adage pronounces to be " nine-tenths of 
 the law :" he warned the officers of the gar- 
 rison at Fort WUliam, and of all the neigh- 
 bouring stations, to obey no orders but his 
 at their peril, and altogether assumed so 
 daring an attitude, that his adversaries 
 shrank from the alternative of civil war, 
 and consented to abide by the decision of 
 the judges. The notorious partiality of the 
 chief justice left little doubt of the issue ; 
 but apart from any such bias, the decree 
 was sufficiently well-grounded. The right 
 of Clavering rested on the resignation of 
 Hastings, and Hastings would not resign. 
 In such a case the most reasonable course 
 was to let things remain as they were, pend- 
 ing the decision of the home authorities. 
 The defeated party, and especially Francis, 
 behaved with unexpected moderation; but 
 the victor, not contented with his triumph, 
 strove to prevent Clavering from reassuming 
 his place in the council, on the ground that 
 it had been formally vacated, and could not 
 be reoccupied except with the combined 
 sanction of the ministers and directors. 
 This absurd proposition Hastings maintained 
 with all the special pleading of which he 
 was an unrivalled master; but the judges 
 could not, for very shame, support him, and 
 Clavering was sufi'ered to resume his former 
 position. These proceedings occurred in June, 
 1777. They had a most injurious cft'cct on 
 the health of the high-principled but hasty- 
 tempered general; so much so, that Hastings' 
 
 attributed to the intriguing nabob of Arcot at the 
 Knglish court, was afforded by the knightly insignia 
 being sent to him, with authority to invest theiewitll 
 (jeneral Coote, and the royal ambassador, Sir John 
 Lindsay. — (Auber's Imliii, i., liOO.) The greatest 
 w<inder is, that the honest and plain-spoken general 
 did not fiatly refuse to receive the lionour by the 
 luuul of one he so thoroughly despised.)
 
 THE SUPEEME COURT OF CALCUTTA IN 1780. 
 
 337 
 
 prophecy that he ■would soon die of vexa- 
 tion, was realised in the followinj; August.* 
 Mr. Whclcr, on his arrival in November, 
 was compelled to content liimsrlf with the 
 rank of a councillor, instead of tlie high 
 ofTioc he had c::])ccted to fill. National 
 difficulties fast following one another, en- 
 gaged the whole attention of English poli- 
 ticians; and war with America, conjoined to 
 the hostility of France, Spain, and Holland, 
 with the armed ncutndity of the Baltic, 
 and growing discontent in Ireland, left the 
 miuistryt little inclination to begin reforms 
 in India, which must commence with the 
 removal of a man whose experience, energy, 
 and self-reliance might be depended upon 
 in the most perilous emergency for the de- 
 fence of British interests in India; although, 
 in less critical times, his aggressive policy 
 necessitated an amount of counter-action 
 quite inconsistent with the unchecked 
 authority he so ardently desired to obtain, 
 and which, for many reasons, it seemed 
 advisable to vest in the governor-general. 
 These considerations procured for Hastings 
 a temporary confirmation in oflice after the 
 expiration of the term originally fixed hy 
 the Regulating Act. In 1779, a new par- 
 liamentary decree announced that the 
 .£1,400,000 borrowed of the public, having 
 been repaid by the company, and their bond- 
 debt reduced to £1,500,000, they were 
 authorised to declare a dividend of eight 
 per cent. The r.aising of the dividend seems 
 to have been an ill-omened measure ; for 
 once again it was followed by an increase 
 of pecuniary distress, which not even the 
 inventive brain and strong arm of the gover- 
 nor-general could find means to dissipate, 
 although the departure of Francis freed 
 him from the restraining presence of a se- 
 vere and prejudiced, though public-spirited 
 censor. Before their final separation, a 
 partial and temporary reconciliation took 
 place, effected under peculiar circumstances, 
 through the mediation of Mv. Barwell, who, 
 having amassed an ample fortune, returned 
 to enjoy it in England in 1780. Unanimity 
 in the council was indeed of the first neces- 
 sity to meet a great and instant danger — 
 namely, the alarming excitement occasioned 
 among the native population by the perse- 
 
 • It was about this period that the news of the 
 much-desired divorce arrived, wliich enabled the 
 Baroness Inihoff to become Mrs. Hastings. The 
 Mussulman chronicler, in relating the splendid fes- 
 tivities with which the marriage was celebrated, 
 asserts that the governor-general, ve.xed at the ab- 
 sence' of Ckvering, went himself to his house, and 
 
 vering attempts of the Su])remc Court to 
 extend its jurisdiction over the whole of the 
 company's territory, and to exert a control- 
 ing power even over the council itself. 
 Macaulay has drawn a picture of this period 
 in language too vivid and grajjhic to be 
 condensed, and which has a peculiar value 
 as proceeding from the pen of one who him- 
 self filled the position of councillor in the 
 Bengal prcsidencj', in an expressly legal 
 capacity. In enumerating the evils at- 
 tending the new tribunal, lie states that it 
 had " collected round itself," — 
 
 " A banditti of bailiffs' followers compared with 
 whom the retainers of the worst English spunging- 
 houses, in the worst times, might be considered as 
 upright and tender-hearted. Many natives highly 
 considered among their countrymen were seized, 
 hurried up to Calcutta, flung into the common gaol, 
 not for any crime even suspected, not for any debt 
 that had been proved, but merely as a precaution 
 till their cause should come to trial. There were in- 
 stances in which men of the most venerable dig- 
 nity, persecuted without a cause by extortioners, died 
 of rage and shame in the gripe of the vile alguazils 
 of Impey. The harems of noble Mohammedans, 
 sanctuaries respected in the east by governments 
 which respected nothing else, were burst open by 
 gangs of bailitfs. The Mussulmans, braver, and less 
 accustomed to submission than the Hindoos, some- 
 times stood on their defence ; and there were in- 
 stances in which they shed their blood in the door- 
 way, while defending, sword in hand, the sacred 
 apartments of their women. Nay, it seemed as if 
 the faint-hearted Bengalee, who had crouched at the 
 feet of Surajah Dowlah — who had been mute during 
 the administration of Vansittart, would at length 
 find courage in despair. No Mahratta invasion had 
 ever spread through the province such dismay as 
 this inroad of English lawyers. All the injustice of 
 former oppressors, Asiatic and European, appeared 
 as a blessing when compared with the justice of a 
 Supreme Court." • • • u f hg lapse of sixty 
 years, the virtue and wisdom of many eminent 
 magistrates who have during that time administered 
 justice in the Supreme Court, have not effaced from 
 the minds of the people of Bengal the recollection of 
 those evil days." — {JEstay, p. 49.) 
 
 The power of the Supreme Court con- 
 tinued to increase, until it seemed as if 
 every other function of government would 
 be swept away in the vortex created 
 by its ever-growing circles. Not satis- 
 fied with treating -iTitli the utmost con- 
 tempt the magistrates and judges of the 
 highest respectability in the country, the 
 " black agents," as the chief justice con- 
 
 at length brought him in triumph to pay homage to 
 the bride. The fatigue and excitement, perhaps, 
 accelerated a crisis, for the general died a few days 
 later. — (Siyar ul Mutahherin, ii., 477.) 
 
 t The dissolution of the Hockinchara ministry, by 
 the sudden death of its chief, in 1782, was one of the 
 circumstances which prevented Hastings' recall.
 
 338 
 
 RECALL OF SIR ELIJAH IMPEY— 1783. 
 
 temptuously termed them,* he at length 
 fairly ventured upon a distinct assumption 
 of dominant authority in Bengal, by sum- 
 moning the governor-general and council 
 individually to defend themselves against a 
 suit for trespass committed by them in their 
 ofBoial capacity. Hastings could bear much 
 from his "respectable friend, Sir Elijah 
 Impey;" but there were limits even to his 
 tolerance; and Francis, who had long vehe- 
 mently remonstrated against the tyranny of 
 the Supreme Court, willingly shared the 
 responsibility of releasing various persons 
 wrongfully imprisoned by the judges, and 
 of preparing to resist the outrageous pro- 
 ceedings of the sheriff's officers, if necessary, 
 by the sword. But before matters had pro- 
 ceeded to the last extremity, a compromise 
 was effected between the governor- general 
 and chief justice, by means of an offer which 
 the former had clearly no right to make, 
 and the latter no shadow of excuse for ac- 
 cepting. It will be remembered, that before 
 the Regulating Act came into operation in 
 India, a court of appeal had been projected, 
 under the title of Sadder Deiuannee Adawlut, 
 to consist of the governor- general and 
 council in person ; but this arrangement 
 had not beeu carried out, because the in- 
 tended members feared to find their deci- 
 sions set aside by the overweening authority 
 assumed by the "king's judges," as the 
 officers of the Supreme Court delighted to 
 style themselves, in contradistinction to the 
 company's servants. It was precisely this 
 independence (in itself so just and neces- 
 sary, though misused in unworthy and in- 
 discreet hands) that Hastings desired to 
 destroy ; and he did so, for the time at 
 least, most effectually, by offering Impey, 
 in addition to the office already held by 
 him, that of chief justice of the Sudder De- 
 wannee Adawlut, with a salary and fixed 
 emoluments amounting to nearly £8,000 
 a-year, to be held during the pleasure of the 
 governor-general and council. Francis and 
 Whelcr united in opposing this arrange- 
 ment, and stated, in plain terms, that the 
 idea of establishing peace upon the ground 
 of adverse claims still unrelaxed, and which 
 nothing even appeared to reconcile but the 
 lucrative office given to the chief justice, 
 could be maintained oidy upon suppositions 
 highly dishonourable to the public justice 
 
 * Letter of Impey to Lord Weymouth. — (Mill.) 
 t Keport of Committi'e, 1781. 
 I Sir E. Coote,who had taken the placeof Barwell, 
 geconded Hastings, though with doubt and hesitation. 
 
 and to the executive administration of 
 Bengal. This view of the case was per- 
 fectly just. Even as far as the rival func- 
 tionaries (executive and judicial) were con- 
 cerned, it could produce only a temporary 
 pacification, while its worst effect was — as a 
 parliamentary committee afterwards affirmed 
 — that it gave the governor-general an as- 
 cendancy by which he was " enabled to do 
 things, under the name and appearance of a 
 legal court, which he would not presume to 
 do in his own person. "t The measure was 
 carried by Hastings and Coote,J in defiance 
 of Francis and Wheler; and the chief jus- 
 tice entered on his double functions, and 
 the receipt of his double salary, with much 
 alacrity, but considerably diminished arro- 
 gance, and continued to give undeviating 
 allegiance to his patron, until news arrived 
 of an act of parliament, passed in 1782, for 
 the limitation of the powers of the Supreme 
 Court of judicature ; accompanied by the re- 
 call of Impey, to answer before the House 
 of Commons the charge of having " accepted 
 an office not agreeable to the true intent 
 and meaning of the act 13 Geo. III." 
 
 The ascendancy of Hastings afforded 
 some relief to the natives against wanton 
 outrage, and the subsequent restraint laid 
 on Anglo-Indian jurisdiction, contributed to 
 their further relief. But the terrible pres- 
 tige given by the unwarrantable proceedings 
 of these times could not easily pass away. 
 Moreover, even when its first terrors had 
 been set aside, the labyrinth of innu- 
 merable and inexplicable forms, aggravated 
 by the difficulties of a foreign language, in 
 which a native found himself surrounded when 
 brought within the mysterious circle of an 
 English court of law, was calculated to 
 deepen rather than remove the prejudices 
 of persons who might be impelled by suffer- 
 ing to seek relief from present injury or 
 redress for past wrongs, by a course of liti- 
 gation which experience could scarcely fail 
 to prove so tardy and expensive in its pro- 
 gress, as frequently to neutralise the benefit 
 of an upright and unprejudiced decision. 
 I can speak from personal experience of the 
 fear entertained, by both Mussulmans and 
 Hindoos, of being by any hook or handle 
 involved in the harassing intricacies of a 
 lawsuit; and even to the present day, many 
 natives from the interior habitually fix their 
 abodes on the safe side of the Mahratta 
 ditch — the boundary of chancery and other 
 civil branches of the Supreme Court. 
 
 The uncompromising opposition of Francis
 
 DUEL BETWEEN HASTINGS AND FRANCIS-1782. 
 
 8S9 
 
 to the scheme of ITasting;s, toRctlier witii 
 difl'iToiicos oil jioiiits of forcifjii ixjlir^-, ter- 
 minated in the renewal, and even inerease, 
 of former ill-feclinfj. The govcrnor-f;eneraI 
 recorded, in an oflieial minute, liis disbelief 
 in the "promises of candour" made by his 
 opponent, and declared liis jMibJie, like liis 
 private conduct, "void of truth and honour." 
 Francis, whose health and spirits had been 
 for some time visil)ly failinjj;, and who, in 
 the words of his opponent, had lost all self- 
 control, and needed to be dealt with like "a 
 passionate woman,"* could ill bear this un- 
 merited taunt. After tlic council had risen, 
 he placed a cliallcn^e in the hands of 
 llastiiifts. It had been expected, and was 
 immediately accepted. The example had 
 been previously given by General Clavcring 
 (the commander-in-chief) and Mr. Barwell ; 
 and now the governor-general of India and 
 the senior councillor, with remarkable dis- 
 regard for the interests of their employers at 
 a very critical period (not to speak of higher 
 principles, which were quite out of the ques- 
 tion), proceeded to edify an assemblage of 
 women and children, by iigliting a duel, as the 
 Mussulman chronicler has it, "according to 
 the established custom of the nation. "t At 
 the first exchange of shots, Francis fell, 
 severely but not mortally. wo\inded. He 
 recovered slowly, and resumed his seat at 
 the council board ; until, wearied with the 
 unequal contest, he threw up his position 
 and returned to England at the close of 
 178.2, leaving to Hastings the undisputed 
 supremacy. Wheler had gradually been 
 relaxing in his opposition. After the de- 
 parture of his unbending colleague, he 
 sided almost invariably with the governor- 
 general, who spared no eflbrts to conciliate 
 him by every possible means, especially by 
 " providing handsomely for all his friends."J 
 Yet. however great the triumph of Hastings, 
 and undisguised his delight at the successful 
 termination of a six years' conflict, abundant 
 cause for anxiety remained, on every side, 
 to lower the exulting tone he might have 
 otherwise assumed. The ministers of the 
 
 * Life of Ilaslinijs, ii., !384. 
 
 I Siijar til Mutukherin, ii., 518. 
 
 \ Wheler's support was not, however, quite un- 
 deviftting; and his despotic chief complained of his 
 attachment to " the lees of Mr. Francis, and his 
 practice of <J strunpe polic;/ of heariiii; whattver 
 any nian has to say, and especially against public 
 measures." — (/'iff of Hustings, ii., 'SSI.) 
 
 § litem, iii., 31. 
 
 II He himself acknowledged how little he allowed 
 an " expression dictated by the impulse of present 
 
 crown and the directors of the company 
 
 suffered his retention of the highest oflice in 
 India simply as a measure of temporary 
 expediency ; and even his stanch friends, the 
 proprietors, failed not to give occasional 
 and qualified censure to the unscrupulous 
 deeds of the man on whose abilities and ex- 
 perience they relied for the fulfilment of 
 those financial expectations which he had 
 made it his great oijject to realise. But the 
 very uncertainty of his position tended to 
 encourage his innate propensity for tem- 
 porising measures, and induced him to pur- 
 chase golden opinions from his fellow-ofHcials 
 by conniving at innumerable illicit proceed- 
 ings, for the interest of individuals, to tlie 
 manifest injury of the revenues of the com- 
 pany and the prosperity of the provinces. 
 Reforms are generally most unpopular 
 where most needed ; and Hastings, after 
 forming plans for a large reduction of ex- 
 penditure, set them aside until, as he re- 
 marked, he should be more certain of liit 
 own fate; "for I will not," he adds, "create 
 enemies in order to ease the burdens of my 
 successors. "§ This very natural feeling, 
 though somewhat inconsistent with the exces- 
 sive zeal expressed by the writer for the pecu- 
 niary interests of the company, is quite in 
 accordance with the unscrupulous manner 
 in which he dealt with native princes — 
 treating their riglits and claims as valid or 
 invalid, as substantial ormereempty-seeming, 
 just as it suited his immediate object. || 
 Such habitual double-dealing, however con- 
 venient the weapons it might afford for an 
 immediate emergency, could not fail to 
 render his publicly-recorded o])inions a 
 tissue of the most flagrant contradictions ; 
 and it tended materially to produce the 
 evils which he endeavoured to prove had 
 resulted solely from the opposition made to 
 his measures by the ex-majority. Those evils 
 are thus enumerated by his own pen : — 
 "An exhausted treasury; an accumulating 
 debt ; a system charged with expensive 
 establishments, and precluded, by the mul- 
 titude of dependents and the curse of patron- 
 emergency," to impose upon him "the obligation of 
 a fixed principle." And one of his ablest and not 
 least partial advocates, in the present day, admits 
 tliat liis determination to hold " his post and his 
 pnrposcs" in defiance of the directors, led hira " to 
 devise arguments and assign motives intended to 
 meet the exigency of the moment, and, therefore, 
 sometinus as much at variance with themselves as 
 were the arguments of those by whom he was so 
 veliemently and invariably opposed." — (Professor 
 Wilson's Note on Mill's India, iv., 30.)
 
 340 
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY— 1772. 
 
 age, from reformation ; a government de- 
 bilitated by the various habits of inveterate 
 licentiousness ; a country oppressed by 
 private rapacity, and deprived of its vital 
 resources by the enormous quantities of 
 current specie annually exported in the 
 remittance of private fortunes, in supplies 
 sent to China, Fort St. George, to Bombay, 
 and lately to the army at Surat, and by an 
 impoverished commerce; the support of 
 Bombay, with all its new conquests ; the 
 charge of preserving Fort St. George, and 
 recovering the Caruatic from the hands of a 
 victorious enemy ; the entire maintenance 
 of both presidencies ; and lastly, a war, 
 either actual or depending, in every quarter 
 and with every power of Hindostan."* 
 
 Before proceeding to describe the manner 
 in which Hastings, now alone at the helm, 
 steered his way through this troubled sea of 
 dangers and difficulties, and likewise through 
 personal trials of his own seeking, it is 
 necessary to narrate, as briefly as possible, 
 the leading events which, since his promo- 
 tion to the station of governor-general in 
 1772, had taken place in the minor or sister 
 presidencies of Bombav and Madras. 
 
 Bombay, 1772 to 1780. — The possession 
 of the little island of Salsette and the fort 
 of Bassein had long been earnestly coveted 
 by the E. I. Cy., and in 1768, they strongly 
 urged on their Indian representatives the 
 additional security to Bombay to be de- 
 rived from the annexation of these places ; 
 which, however, they desired to see eflected 
 " rather by purchase than war." Under 
 the strong government of Madhoo Rao, the 
 latter experiment would have been suffi- 
 ciently hazardous ; and the result of nego- 
 tiations opened in 1772, clearly proved the 
 small chance that existed of a voluntary 
 surrender of territories no less valued by 
 the one party than desired by the other. 
 The death of the Mahratta peishwa pro- 
 duced dissensions in the state which, by 
 destroying unity of interest even in Poona 
 itself, offered to the English a prospect of 
 obtaining, in the character of mediators or 
 partisans, the concessions vainly sought for 
 by more legitimate means. Madhoo Rao, 
 always patriotic and unselfish, liad diligently 
 striven to <ivert the calamities by which his 
 early death was likely to be attended. Per- 
 ceiving his end approaching, he caused his 
 uncle Ragoba to be released from confine- 
 ment, and in the most affecting and im- 
 
 • Life of llmtiwjs, ii., 329. 
 
 t Giant Dufl's Mahrnltas, ii., 249. 
 
 pressive manner entreated him to guard and 
 guide the person and counsels of his brother 
 and successor Narrain Rao, a youth of seven- 
 teen. Ragoba appeared kindly disposed to 
 the nephew thus committed to his charge, 
 and the new peishwa was formally invested 
 by the pageant-rajah with the insignia of 
 office. But before long, dissensions arose 
 between the chief ministers of Narraiu 
 (Sukaram Bappoo, Nana Furnuvees, and 
 others, appointed by Madhoo Rao) and 
 Ragoba, the result of which was his con- 
 finement to certain apartments in the palace. 
 While smarting under the check thus given 
 to his ill-regulated ambition, Ragoba, stimu- 
 lated by the evil counsels of his tale-bearing 
 wife, Anundee Bye, was induced to gratify 
 the jealous hatred entertained by her against 
 Gopika Bye, the mother of Madhoo and 
 Narrain, by giving a written sanction for 
 the seizure of the young peishwa, which she : 
 wickedly converted into an order for his ; 
 assassination, by changing the word dhu- \ 
 raws (to seize) into marawi (to kill.) A ' 
 domestic, who had been publicly flogged by 
 order of the destined victim, was a chief 
 mover in the plot, which was carried out by 
 working on the discontent of a body of un- 
 paid infantry. They had been extremely 
 turbulent during the afternoon of the 30th of 
 August, 1 773, and in the night the ringleader, 
 Somer Sing, entered the palace by an un- 
 finished doorway newly opened to make an 
 entrance distinct from that of the portion 
 inhabited by Ragoba. Narrain Rao, on 
 starting from sleep, fled, pursued by Somer 
 Sing, to his uncle's apartments, and flung 
 himself into his arms for protection. Ragoba 
 interfered, but Somer Sing exclaimed — " I 
 have not gone so far to ensure my own 
 destruction ; let him go, or you shall die 
 with him." Ragoba was too deeply com- 
 promised to give way to remorse : he disen- 
 gaged himself from the grasp of his nephew, 
 and got out on the terrace. Narrain Rao 
 strove to follow him, but was seized by the 
 leg and flung to the ground by the vengeful 
 servant before named. At this moment 
 one of the personal attendants of the peishwa 
 entered, unarmed, and flew to his rescue ; but 
 his fidelity cost him his life, for both mas- 
 ter and servant were dispatched by the 
 swords of the assassius.f The unfortunate 
 Narrain Rao appears to have manifested a 
 degree of indecision and timidity, on this try- 
 ing occasion, remarkable in one of his caste 
 and nation; but these failings were probably 
 not radical defects, but rather incidental
 
 ENGLISH ESPOUSE CAUSE OP MAIIRATTA CHIEF RAGOBA— 1775. 34.1 
 
 to an unformed cluirwlcr.* A searching 
 inv<'stiji;atioti was instituted into the ad'uir 
 bj' Ham Sliasti'oc, tlio celebrated judge, 
 whose integrity and ability had reflected so 
 much honour on the administration of liis 
 beloved disciple Madlioo Jlao. To him 
 Ragoba confessed his partial ])artiei])ati()u 
 in the crime, and asked what atonement he 
 could make. " The sacrilice of your own 
 life," replied the uncompromising judge; 
 " for neither you nor your government can 
 prosper; and, for my owti part, I will neither 
 accept of employment, nor enter I'oona 
 whilst you preside there. "t I^c kept his 
 word, and retired to a sequestered village, 
 from whence he witnessed the fuHilment of 
 his prediction ; for Ragoba's "ili-luek" be- 
 came proverbial, and communicated itself, in 
 a greater or less degree, to every enterprise 
 in which he was concerned. At the onset, 
 the total absence of a rival claimant enabled 
 him to obtain, without dillieulty, the con- 
 firmation of the rajah of Sattara to his 
 assumption of the rank of peishwa; but his 
 title was subsequently rendered invalid by 
 the posthumous birth of a son, the rightful 
 heir to Narrain Rao. Considerable doubt 
 was thrown upon the legitimacy of the child 
 by the means adopted by the ministers 
 (Nana Furnavecs, Sukaram Bappoo, and 
 others), to provide a male substitute, in the 
 event of their influence being endangered 
 by the birth of a girl ; but, as the ease hap- 
 pened, the manoeuvre only served to en- 
 danger their own cause, and afford Ragoba 
 a pretext for resisting the claims of the 
 son of his murdered nephew, who was 
 
 * Madhoo Rao, whose generous nature rose su- 
 perior to tlie unwortliy considerations which induced 
 the Mogul emiicrors lo treat their near relatives as 
 dangerous rivals, and confine them from infancy to 
 state prisons, delighted in cherishing and drawing 
 public attention to the good qualities of his in- 
 tended successor. The Mahrattas relate, that the 
 brothers were witnessing an elephant-fight from a 
 small hill in the environs of Poona, when one of 
 the animals becoming excited, rushed furiously to- 
 wards the spot wliere they were seated. The com- 
 panions and attendants of the peishwa, forgetting all 
 courtly etiquette, took to their heels, and Narrain 
 jumped up to run ofi' with the rest. " Rrother," said 
 Madhoo Kao, " what will the ukbars [luilire netrs- 
 fiapersl say of you ?" The boy instantly resumed his 
 seat, and retained it until the danger, wliich became 
 imminent, had been averted bv the bravery of a by- 
 stander, who, drawing nis nagger, sprang in front of 
 the peishwa and turned the animal aside by wound- 
 ing it in the trunk. — (Dufl's Mdliratta', ii., 251.) 
 
 f Histori/ of Malirattas, ii., 2-U). An interesting 
 
 feature in the intercourse of Madhoo Uao and Ram 
 
 Shastree, is related by Duff. The peishwa devoted 
 
 himself, at one period, to the practice of " Jhep" or 
 
 2 Y 
 
 proclaimed peishwa when only forty days 
 old. The l-iiglish atithorities ajipcar to 
 have been quite misled by the representa- 
 tions which accompanied his appeal for 
 their assistance; and even when compelled 
 to recognise the utter futility of attempting 
 to establish his supi-emaey in defiance of the 
 general feeling of the Mahratta nation, they 
 seem never to have rightly understood the 
 nature of his claims, or the basis on which 
 they rested. Tlie cession of Bassein and 
 Salsette, with the payment of a large sum 
 of money, formed the leading stiinilatious 
 on the part of the Bombay authorities; but 
 as Ragoba was very unwilling to consent to 
 any sacrifice of territory, they took advan- 
 tage of the plea afforded by an inclination 
 manifested by the Portuguese to regain their 
 ancient possessions, to forcibly occupy them 
 with British troops, protesting, nevertheless, 
 that they held them only on behalf of 
 Ragol)a, until he should himself settle the 
 arrangements of the pending treaty. The 
 part taken by Sindia and llolcar, in siding 
 with the ministers, left him no choice but 
 to comply with the demands of the English; 
 and, in I'eturn for his concessions, J 2,500 men 
 were landed at Cambay, under Colonel Keat- 
 ing, in the early part of the year 177o, to aid 
 his own mob-like assemblage of about 20,000 
 men. The campaign was successful, though at- 
 tended with considerable loss of life; § but pre- 
 parations for the renewal of hostilities, at the 
 close of the monsoon, were suddenly arrested 
 by the interference of the Bengal presidency. 
 The Bombay authorities were sharply repri- 
 manded for disregarding the recent regu- 
 
 rcligious meditation, to a degree which interfered 
 with his public duties. Ram Shastree told him, 
 that if he were inclined to revert to the condition of 
 devout and austere poverty, which by the Hindoo 
 doctrine was the especial duty of a Brahmin, he 
 would gladly do tlie same ; but if, on the contrary, 
 Madhoo intended to follow the example of his pre- 
 decessors, and retain the position of an earthly poten- 
 tate, the duties incumbent on the assumed office 
 ought to be his first consideration. " The musnud, or 
 a life of self-denial in the holy city of Benares, — which 
 you will," said the honest Mentor ; " I will abide with 
 you in either station." Happily for Maharashtra, Mad- 
 hoo Rao remained its ruler, and Ram Shastree its 
 leading judge, — an unimpeachable one, for he had 
 no thirst for power, and all his habits were consistent 
 with his characteristic rule — to keep nothing more 
 in his house than sufficed for the day's consumption. 
 
 I Ragoba, or Rugonatli Rao, having no other funds, 
 deposited with the company, jewels valued at up- 
 wards of six lacs. These gems were, about twenty- 
 eight years later, freely presented to Bajee Rao on 
 his restoration to the office of peishwa, in 1813. 
 
 § In tlie small detachment of Colonel Keating, 
 222 persons perished, iiicluding eleven officers.
 
 342 TREATY OF POORUNDER— 1773. MAHRATTA WAR RENEWED— 1778. 
 
 lations, wbicli placed the control in matters of 
 foreign policy in the hands of the governor- 
 general and the supreme council ; and, be- 
 sides being blamed for insubordination, 
 they were informed that an envoy (Colonel 
 Upton) would be sent direct from Bengal 
 to conclude a treaty of peace. This latter 
 proceeding could not fail to irritate the Bom- 
 bay officials, and to lower their authority, 
 and, indeed, that of the English in general, 
 in the eyes of the Mahratta ministers, than 
 whom no men living were better able to 
 appreciate the weakness arising from divided 
 counsels. The consequence was, that after 
 a negotiation conducted, on the part of the 
 Mahrattas, with more than characteristic 
 procrastination. Nana Furnavees and the 
 ministers of the infant peishwa,. concluded a 
 treaty at Poorunder, by which Colonel Upton 
 promised that the English should relinquish 
 the cause of Ragoba, and guarantee the dis- 
 bandment of his army on certain stipulations 
 quite contrary to the views of that individual. 
 Of Salsette Island they were to retaiu pos- 
 session, but to relinquish certain cessions in 
 Guzerat, made by the Mahratta chief Futteh 
 Sing Guicowar. No sooner had this hu- 
 miliating agreement been entered into than 
 the home despatches arrived, highly ap- 
 plauding the conduct of the Bombay autho- 
 rities, and bidding them, in any and every 
 case, retain all their late acquisitions, espe- 
 cially Bassein, if it were included in the 
 number; which was not the case. The 
 mandate came late, but its efl'ects were soon 
 manifested in a partial breach of faith, by 
 continued though guarded favour shown to 
 Ragoba, and a decided inclination to break 
 with the Poona ministry. Nana Furnavees, 
 a politician of much ability and more cun- 
 ning, strove to prevent the renewal of hos- 
 tilities, by affecting to encourage the pre- 
 tensions of a French adventurer, named 
 St. Lubin, who, after imposing upon the 
 Madras government in the character of an 
 agent of the court of Versailles, had re- 
 turned to France, and by exaggerated repre- 
 sentations of the influence acquired by him 
 at Poona, had induced the minister of ma- 
 rine to intrust him witii a sort of clandestine 
 commission, as an experiment for ascertain- 
 ing if any footing migiit be gained (tiie port 
 of Choul being especially desired.) 
 
 No one had less inclination to suflfcr the 
 introduction of Frencii power into ]Maha- 
 rashtra than Nana Furnavees ; and by the 
 little favour shown to the avowed agent of 
 another European state (Austria), then at 
 
 Poona, it seems that he considered St. 
 Lubin as a mere impostor, and encouraged 
 him simply as a means of alarming the 
 English government by an affected alliance 
 with France. These proceedings served, on 
 the contrary, to incite immediate opera- 
 tions before the anticipated arrival of 
 French auxiliaries at Poona. Even Has- 
 tings was dissatisfied witli the treaty of 
 Poorunder ; and notwithstanding the cen- 
 sure bestowed on the previous " unwar- 
 rantable" interference of the local authori- 
 ties, they were now directed " to assist in 
 tranquillising the dissensions of the Mah- 
 ratta state." Ostensibly for the promotion 
 of this object. Colonel Leslie was dispatched, 
 with a strong detachment, to march across 
 the centre of India, from Bengal to the 
 western coast. The Bombay presidency, 
 delighted with this indirect admission of the 
 advisability of their former measures, deter- 
 mined not to wait the arrival of reinforce- 
 ments, but to make war at once, upon the 
 strength of their own resources ; and Mr. 
 Carnac, who had the lead in council, was 
 himself placed at the head of a committee, 
 to aid in the direction of military operations. 
 In fact, despite the oddity of making war 
 under the superintendence of civilians, the 
 infirm health and inexperience in Indian war- 
 fare of Colonel Egerton, the officer on whom 
 the command devolved by right of seniority, 
 rendered such a step of absolute necessity 
 to the carrying out, with any prospect of 
 success, the wild plan of advancing with a 
 force (including a few straggling horse under 
 Ragoba) of less than 4,500 men, to at- 
 tack the ministerial party in their own 
 capital. So bold a design imperatively 
 needed rapidity in execution; yet, after 
 crossing the Ghaut (mouutaiii-pass), the 
 army, without any reason for such ill-timed 
 tardiness, advanced only eight miles in 
 eleven days. The enemy had fully prepared 
 for their reception ; and the deliberate 
 progress of the English was but slightly 
 opposed, until, at about sixteen miles from 
 Poona, they found themselves face to face 
 with the ^Mahratta host. Mr. Carnac and 
 Colonel Cockburu (who had taken the lead, 
 in consequence of the sickness of Colonel 
 Egerton) seem to have been panic-struck 
 by the imminent danger which they had 
 wantonly incurred, and they immediately 
 issued orders for a silent midnight retreat. 
 In vain the junior officers and Ragoba, 
 whose military experience was treated with 
 undeserved contempt, urged that, from the
 
 CONVENTION OF WURGAUM WITH THE MAHRATTAS-1779. 343 
 
 well-known tactics of the enemy, such an 
 attempt, made in dcfiuneo of clouds of 
 trained cavalry, was more perilous than the 
 boldest advance. And so the event proved ; 
 for the first retrograde movement of the 
 English gave the signal for attack to the 
 whole hostile force. The bravery and skill 
 of Captain Hartley, the oillocr in command 
 of tlie rear-guard,* together with his extra- 
 ordinary inlluence with the native troops, 
 conduced materially to save the invading 
 army from total destruction. After several 
 furious charges, the enemy desisted, without 
 having made a serious impression on any jiart 
 of the line. But the loss of .'5{)0 men, includ- 
 ing fifteen officers, had so completely dis- 
 pirited the military leaders, that they now, 
 in continued opposition to the arguments and 
 entreaties of Hartley and others, declared 
 advance and retreat alike impossible, and 
 that nothing reniained but to make peace 
 with the ]\Ialirattas on any terms, — in other 
 words, to confess themselves caught in their 
 own trap, and consent to such a ransom 
 as their captors might dictate. They were 
 even prepared to give up Ragoba to his 
 foes, the ministers ; but he, aware of the un- 
 generous intention, made private terms of 
 surrender with Siiulia. The almost indepen- 
 dent power of this chief, and the jealousy 
 existing between him and the Poona au- 
 thorities, enabled the English, by a direct 
 application to him, to obtain more favour- 
 able terms than might otherwise have been 
 conceded ; but despite the moderation of the 
 victors, the Convention of Wurgaum formed 
 a fitting ending to one of the few disgrace- 
 ful campaigns recorded in the annals of the 
 Anglo-Indian army. Every point in dispute 
 was yitlded ; all ae(|uisitions made since the 
 death of JSIadhoo Rao (of course including 
 Salsette) were to be rclinquished, as also 
 the revenue raised by the company in 
 Broach, j- and even in Sural, which the Mah- 
 rattas had never possessed. Hostages (Mr. 
 Farmer and Lieutenant Stewart) were left 
 with Siudia for the performance of the treaty : 
 nevertheless, the lii-st act of the committee 
 by whom the whole aflair had been so 
 terribly mismanaj. -', ou descending the 
 Ghaut in safety, w>.s to countermand the 
 
 • Sindia loudly extolled (he conduct of the rear- 
 guard, which he compared " to a red wall, no sooner 
 beat down than it was built un af;ain." — (Duff.) 
 
 t A petty Mogul nabob held Broach, in subordi- 
 nation to the Mahrattas until 1772, when it was 
 captured by a British force under General Wedder- 
 burnc, who was killed in the a-sault. 
 
 order dispatclicd in agreement with the 
 recent convention forbidding the advance of 
 the troops from Bengal. J 
 
 The presidency were indignant beyond 
 measure at this discreditable conclusion of 
 their attempt to show (Calcutta what JJombay 
 could do. Hastings was, on his part, no 
 less irritated by a series of rashly-planned 
 and ill-executed measures, which nothing 
 but " success, that grand ajjology for states- 
 men's blunders,''^ could excuse. His own 
 long-cherished hopes of taking advantage 
 of the dissensions of the jMaiiratta state 
 jiroved equally fruitless. A mistaken idea 
 of the connexion of Moodajec Blionslay, 
 the ruler of Berar, with the house of Seva- 
 jee, led Hastings to stimulate Moodajec to 
 assert his supposed claim to the raj, or 
 sovereignty, upon the death of Uam Rajah 
 in 1777, and the appointment, under the 
 name of Shao ]\Iaharaj, of a distant rela- 
 tive, adopted as his son, and heir to his 
 gilded ca[)tivity by the deceased prince. 
 The elfort proved fruitless, for Moodajee 
 retained a lively recollection of kindness 
 received from the grandfather of the infant 
 peishwa, and despite the jiromptings of am- 
 bition, was reluctant to interfere ;yith the 
 power of that family. These kindly feel- 
 ings, one of the Hindoo guardians of the 
 child (either Nana Furnavees or Sukaram 
 Bappoo) liad taken pains to cherish, by 
 placing his infant charge in the arms of 
 young Raghoo, the son of INIoodajee, and 
 styling him the protector of the peishwa. 
 Hastings himself remarks that acts of this 
 description establish in the minds of the 
 Mahrattas " obligations of the most solemn 
 kind," and afford " evidence of a generous 
 principle, so little known in our political 
 system." II The powerful minister. Nana 
 Furnavees, was, however, actuated by less 
 generous principles, his chief object being 
 to use the little peishwa as au instrument 
 for his own aggrandisement and that of his 
 family, to whom he designed to transmit 
 his paramount authority over the puppet 
 minister of a puppet rajah. These designs 
 were not likely to escape the notice of 
 his colleagues in of!ice, and dissensions 
 arose, of which Sindia took full advantage 
 
 I The hostages were, nevertheless, generously re- 
 leased by Sindia, who did not even demand the parole 
 of Lieutenant Stewart not to fight against him, but, 
 on the contrary, said — " Resume your place in the 
 army; your sword is your subsistence." — (Wilks.) 
 
 § Duti's Mahrattas, ii., 379. 
 
 II Life of Hastings, ii., 361.
 
 344 GWALIOR FORTRESS, AHMEDABAD, AND BASSEIN CAPTURED— 1780. 
 
 for the establishment and increase of his 
 own power, by interfering as much as pos- 
 sible in the garb of a mediator.* Under 
 the pressure of external hostilities, internal 
 disputes invariably gave way to co-operation 
 for mutual defence ; and such was tlie imme- 
 diate effect produced by the repudiation by 
 the governor-general of the Convention of 
 Wurgaum, which he declared invalid, inas- 
 much as the English committee had far 
 exceeded the powers vested in them. This 
 was actually the case ; and Mr. Farmer had 
 informed Sindia that they had no power to 
 enter on any treaty without the sanction of 
 the supreme government. The Mahratta 
 chief treated this excuse as a mere pretence 
 to avoid giving an inconvenient pledge, and 
 scornfully asked, if their authority was so 
 limited, by whose order they had ventured 
 to break the treaty concluded by Colonel 
 Upton ? The question was unanswerable ; 
 the danger imminent ; and Mr. Carnac, 
 consoling himself with the idea that if, after 
 ■what had passed, the Mahrattas were duped, 
 the fault was their own, dispatched a pleni- 
 potentiary to the camp of Sindia for the 
 avowed purpose of concluding a treaty, 
 ■which he confirmed by every outward mark 
 of good faith, under a mental reservation 
 of the invalidity of the whole transaction. 
 
 On their return to Bombay, Mr. Carnac, 
 Colonel Egerton, and Colonel Cockburn (a 
 brave and steady soldier, but totally unfit 
 for so arduous a command), were dismissed 
 the service, and the recall of Colonel Leslie 
 was only prevented by his death of fever. 
 The ofi'ence of the latter officer was the 
 
 * Sukaram Bappoo, the chief rival of Nana Fur- 
 navees, at length became his victim, and was secretly 
 removed from one fortress to another, till he perished 
 miserably under bodily suffering created rather by 
 the efi'ects of unwholesome food and harsh treat- 
 ment, than the slight infirmities of a green old 
 age. Among his various prisons was that of Pertab- 
 gurh, on the western side of which lay an abyss 
 formed by 4,000 feet of rugged rock. From the 
 eastern side the spot ■Nvas plainly visible where his 
 Brahrnin ancestor, 120 years before, won over by 
 Sevajee, swore the treacherous, midnight oath to 
 deliver up his master, Afzool Khan, to planned 
 assassination. — (Duff's 3lu!inittas, ii., yOO.) 
 
 t This little ])riiicipality, situated on the north- 
 eastern bank of tlie Nerbudda, was formed by the 
 usurpations of Dost Mohammed, an Afghan in the 
 service of Aurungzebe. ])uring the troubles that 
 succeeded the death of the emperor, he assumed the 
 title of nawab («)»//m' nabob), and rallied round liim 
 bands of adherents whom he had invited from Ben- 
 gal. His successors contrived to extend their sway, 
 and, what was more ditficuh, to gain the good-will of 
 the intractable Gonds, or people of Gondwarra, the 
 inhabitants of the southern portion of the Bhopal 
 
 slowness of his march from Bengal, and his 
 mistaken policy in allowing some Rajpoot 
 allies of the Slahrattas to engage him in 
 petty hostilities, and hinder the accomplish- 
 ment of his main object — namely, speedy 
 arrival at the seat of war. General God- 
 dard was chosen by Hastings for the com- 
 mand, and his progress was altogether as 
 speedy and fortunate as that of his predeces- 
 sor had been slow and unsatisfactory. After 
 receiving great kindness, bestowed under 
 circumstances of much doubt and difficulty 
 by the Afghan ruler of Bhopal, t Goddard 
 marched boldly on, manifested his good 
 sense by cordial co-operation with the 
 Bombay government, carried out their plan 
 of attacking Guzerat (notwithstanding the 
 almost independent authority with which 
 he was invested), and having, by extra- 
 ordinary expedition, avoided the snares laid 
 to interrupt his progress, crossed the Taptec 
 on the 1st of January, 1780, and before 
 the end of the month, carried by storm 
 Ahmedabad, the great but decayed capital 
 of the province. The famous fortress of 
 GwaliorJ was captured on the night of the 
 3rd of August, by a force of 2,400 men, 
 sent direct from Bengal by Hastings; and 
 the year terminated with the conquest of 
 Basseiu by Goddard. But these successes 
 were counterbalanced by disasters in other 
 quarters, which rendered the English anxious 
 to conclude a speedy peace with the Mah- 
 rattas on almost any terms. The aspect of 
 afl'airs was indeed alarming ; for, at this 
 period, Hyder Ali and the Nizam had merged, 
 for the moment, their mutual animosities, 
 
 territory, chiefly through the instrumentality of an 
 able Hindoo minister, Bejee Ram, and a lady of re- 
 markable ability, who for more than half a century 
 greatly influenced, if she did not control, the coun- 
 cils of the principality, under the name of Mahjee 
 Sahiba, the " lady-mother," an appellation descriptive 
 of her benevolent character only, for she was child- 
 less. Hindoos and Mohammedans agree in cherish- 
 ing the memory of this beloved princess, and vie 
 with one another in citing anecdotes illustrative of 
 her judgment ami integrity. She attained the age 
 of eighty. — (Major Hough's Bliopnl Priucipiility.) 
 
 t Gwalior, the famous state-prison of Akber and 
 Aurungzebe, had, upon the dismemberment of the 
 Delhi empire, fallen into the hands of a Jat chief, 
 known as the rana of Gohud. It was taken by 
 Sindia in 1779, and captured, in turn, by the British 
 troops under Major I'opham, the scarped rock on 
 which the citadel stood being ascended at daybreak 
 by means of wooden ladders. Hastings bad formed 
 a very exaggerated idea of the power of the rana of 
 Gohud, to whom he restored the fortress ; but on 
 discovering his mistake, he changed his policy, 
 and sanctioned its recovery by Sindia, in 1781 — con- 
 duct which formed an article in his impeachment.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF MADRAS PRESIDENCY— 17G9 to 1772. 
 
 345 
 
 and confederated with their sworn foes, the 
 Poena ministers, for the express purpose 
 of expellitig the English and the n!il)ol) 
 Mohammed Ali from the Carnatic. Tlic 
 causes uliich led to this ahirmiiii^ coalition 
 of Hindoo and ]\lnssulman ])o\vcrs, are 
 closely interwoven with the history of the— 
 Madras Puksidkncy kuom 17()i)T() 17H(). 
 — The principles wiiich guided the counsels 
 of this government were so avowedly bad, 
 that tlieir ruinous consequences seem to 
 have been the natural fruit of the tree they 
 planted. In 1772, the presidency made 
 war u])()n the poligars or chiefs of certain 
 adjacent districts called the Marawars, not 
 that they had any quarrel with them, but 
 simply because the tyrannical nabob had 
 "made them his enemies, and therefore," 
 the Madras councillors add, " it is necessary 
 they should be reduced. It is necessary, 
 or it is i;ood jiolicy they should. We do 
 not say it is altogether just, for justice and 
 good policy are not often related."* Hosti- 
 lities were commenced on the above not 
 "altogether just" grounds, and they were 
 carried on, to adopt the same smooth-tongued 
 phraseology, in a not altogether merciful 
 manner. The poligar of the greater Mara- 
 war (a boy of twelve years of age), was 
 taken at the capture of his capital of Ram- 
 nadaporam, in April, 1772, after brave but 
 unskilful resistance on the part of its native 
 defendants (the tribe called Coleries by 
 Orme.) The poligar of the lesser Marawar 
 was slain after a treaty of peace had been 
 actually concluded, owing to a misunder- 
 standing between the English commander 
 and the son of the nabob, Omdut-al-Omrah. 
 The peasantry, as usual, remained passive 
 during the siege of the various forts : they 
 expected to be little aflectcd by the change 
 of one despot for another; but the grinding 
 exactions of the new conqueror, which are 
 said to have surpassed even those of Ilyder 
 Ali in the amount of misery inflicted, soon 
 convinced them of their error ; and on being 
 turned out of their lands, many took nj) 
 arms in sheer despair — the inverted plough 
 
 * Tarl. Papers, quoted by Mill, iv., 100. 
 
 t Mill's India, iv., 10;J. 
 
 \ Col. AVilks describes the sway of Hyder as one 
 succession of experiments as to how fiir extortion 
 couUl be practised on the farmer without diminish- 
 ing cultivation. When his subjects claimed justice 
 at his hands, he jnuiished the offenders by a heavy 
 fine, but pocketed the money himself, dpclaring that 
 this appropriation was, by restraining oppression, 
 nearly as good for the people, and a great deal better 
 for tiie sovereign. Nevertheless, Wilks states that 
 
 being the general symbol of revolt. The 
 English ofTicer, Colonel Bonjour, who had 
 been ordered to superintend the settlement 
 of the country in the manner desired by Mo- 
 hammed Ali, remonstrated forciljly against 
 an ol)jcct which, being in itself opjircssive to 
 the last degree, would rctpiire for its accom- 
 plishment " extremities of a most shocking 
 nature. "t For instance, the impossibility of 
 seizing the armed and watciiful foe, must, 
 he said, be met by such rejirisals as the 
 complete destruction of the villages to which 
 they belonged, the massacre of every man 
 in them, and the imprisonment (probably 
 to end in slavery) of the women and children ; 
 with other "severe examples of that kind. "J 
 Colonel Bonjour received an answer very 
 similar to that given by Hastings to Colonel 
 Champion in the case of the Rohillas, to 
 the effect, that these things were the natu- 
 ral consequences of war, and that the worthy 
 ^lohammcd Ali must not be affronted by 
 impertinent interference. In fact, the ma- 
 jority of the Madras council, at this period, 
 were the nabob's very humble and obedient 
 servants, although some trouble was taken 
 to conceal the fact from their " honourable 
 masters" in Leadenhall-strect. Subser- 
 viency of so manifestly degrading a cha- 
 racter, could scarcely be the result of any 
 but the most unworthy motives ; and the 
 simple truth appears to have been, that the 
 leading English councillors entered upon 
 the extension of the power of the Moham- 
 medan nabob of Arcot, as a particularly 
 safe and promising speculation, since if 
 their efforts succeeded, great part of the 
 profit would be their own; and in the event 
 of failure, the expenses must be borne by 
 the company. So early as 1769, three 
 members of council held a large assignment 
 of territorial revenue, wliich the Court of 
 Directors subsequently discovered; and many 
 official and private persons received from 
 the nabob, bonds for the repayment of 
 money lent and not lent, the true conside- 
 ration given or promised being of a descrip- 
 tion which neither party cared to specify. 
 
 the misrule of Mohammed Ali " left at an humble 
 distance all the oppression that had ever been prac- 
 tised under the iron government of Hyder." — (3Iij- 
 soor, ii., 103.) Swartz corroborates this statement 
 by his remarks on the regularity and dispatch with 
 which the government of Mysoor was conducted. 
 " Hyder's economical rule is to repair all damages 
 without losing an instant, whereby all is kept in 
 good condition, and with little expense. The Euro- 
 peans in the Carnatic leave everything to go to 
 ruin." — {Idem, p. 5"'2.)
 
 346 CAPTURI!; AND RESTORATION OF TANJORE— 1772 and 1776. 
 
 "When Englishmen of a certain rank " could 
 make open and undisguised offers of tlieir 
 services to become directors of the E.I.Cy.,"* 
 and even stoop to occupy seats in the Bri- 
 tish parliament purchased with his funds, 
 avowedly for the promotion of liis interests, 
 little cause for surprise remains that Anglo- 
 Indian functionaries, placed for the time 
 beyond the reaeli of that public opinion 
 ■which with so many men stands in the 
 stead of conscience, should, by degrees, 
 lose all sense of shame, and scarcely take 
 ordinary pains to conceal their venality. 
 Even had they been more on their guard, 
 the conduct of Mohammed Ali could scarcely 
 have failed to provoke recriminations calcu- 
 lated to expose tlie whole nefarious system. 
 His love of money, though it fell far short 
 of his thirst for power, was still excessive : 
 he never willingly parted Avith gold, but 
 accumulated large hoards, giving bonds to 
 his real and pretended creditors, until they 
 themselves became alarmed at the enormous 
 amount of private debts with which the 
 revenues of Arcot were saddled. Mean- 
 while, the legitimate expenditure of govern- 
 ment was narrowed within the smallest 
 possible limits ; the troops, as usual, were 
 in arrears of pay, and the promises made 
 to the E. I. Cy. remained unfulfilled. The 
 booty obtained by the seizure of the Ma- 
 rawars had only served to whet the appetite 
 of Mohammed Ali and the party of whom 
 he was at once the tempter and the dupe. 
 There was a neighbouring state better worth 
 attacking — that of Tanjore, a Mahratta 
 principality against which the nabob of 
 Arcot had no shadow of claim, except that 
 of having, by dint of superior strengtli, ex- 
 acted from thence an occasional subsidy. 
 Its late ruler, Pertap Sing, had, it is said, 
 more than once purchased the mediation of 
 the leading English officials by borrow- 
 ing from them large sums of money at 
 exorbitant interest : but his son and succes- 
 sor, Tuljajee, forsaking this shrewd policy, 
 applied to the Dutch at Kegapatam, and the 
 Danes at Tranquebar, for the means where- 
 with to pay a heavy sum which he had been 
 compelled to guarantee to the Arcot autho- 
 rities as the price of peace, so late as 1771. 
 
 • lu!c Wilks' M;/soi»; ii., 213; and Burke's ad- 
 mirable speech on tlie C'arnatic debts, in which he 
 affirmed that the nabob of Arcot had returned eight 
 members to one British parhament. 
 
 t Lord I'igot went out as a writer to Madras in 
 1730; was promoted to the government in 11 'A 
 went home, in 1 7G3, with an immense fortune; ana 
 Buccessively obtained the rank of a baronet and of 
 
 Some small portion of this agreement re- 
 mained unfulfilled, and it served to afford 
 a sufficient pretext for the invasion of Tan- 
 jore. In fact, such a formality could only 
 be necessary for the sake of preserving ap- 
 pearances with the company and the British 
 public. George III. had, it was well known, 
 been prepared, by wilful perversions of the 
 truth, to take a generous and manly, but 
 wholly mistaken and prejudiced view of all 
 matters regarding Mohammed Ali, whom 
 he had been induced to regard as an in- 
 dependent sovereign of high principle and 
 ability, whose plans the English were, in 
 gratitude and duty, bound to further to the 
 uttermost. Existing disputes between the 
 governments of Poona, Guzerat, and Berar, 
 preventedthe chiefs of the Mahratta confede- 
 ration interfering to protect the rajah ; there- 
 fore, taking advantage of the opportunity, 
 hostile proceedings were commenced, and 
 ground broken before Tanjore on the 20th 
 of August ; on the Gth of September a 
 breach was effected ; and on the following 
 day, during the intense heat of noon, while 
 the garrison were for the most part at rest, 
 in expectation of an evening attack, the 
 English troops were, with the least pos- 
 sible noise, marshalled for the assault. The 
 stratagem was entirely successful ; the fort 
 was captured almost without loss, and the 
 rajah and his family fell into the hands of 
 Mohammed Ali, by whom his dominions 
 were formally occupied. The indignation 
 of the company was naturally roused by a 
 procedure which lacked even the thread- 
 bare excuse of zeal for their service. Orders 
 were issued (though somewhat tardily, owing 
 to the disturbed state of affairs at home) for 
 the restoration of the rajah of Tanjore; 
 and Lord Pigot,t his proved friend, was 
 sent out as governor, in 1775, for their en- 
 forcement. This act of justice was not car- 
 ried through in a purely disinterested man- 
 ner, for stipulations were made for the main- 
 tenance of an English garrison within the 
 citadel, and the payment of tribute to the 
 nabob. The latter clause failed to reconcile 
 Mohammed Ali to the surrender of Tanjore : 
 he even formed a plan for its forcible de- 
 tention,! which was forestalled by the prompt 
 
 an Irish peer. A treaty with tlie rajah of Tanjore, in 
 '7l32, was one of his iiivourite measures, and he felt 
 naturally annoyed by its shameless violation. 
 
 I I'iJe Willis' Mi/svui; ii., 225. Mohammed Ali 
 had secretly ordered n large amounl of military 
 stores from the ])anish authorities at Trancjue- 
 bar, but tliey arrived too late for the purpose de- 
 signed. The Danes had no great reason to rejoice
 
 MR. PAUL BENFIELD— ARREST OP LORD PIG0T-I7rG. 
 
 317 
 
 and decisive measures of Lord Pigot, who 
 proceeded in |)crson, in tlie spring of 177(), 
 to rcinstiitc Tuljajoc ia liis former (lij;nity. 
 The conncil took advantage of his al)sence 
 to consider the delicate question of tlie pecu- 
 I'.iary chiims of indivichials, especially those 
 of Mr. Paul Benficld. The case of this in- 
 dividual may servo to illustrate the character 
 of the nahoh's debts, the majority of \vhic;h 
 wen; similar in kind, tliouj;h less in degree, 
 in proportion to the o|)portunities, audacity, 
 and cunning of the parties concerned. Mr. 
 Benfield was a junior servant of the com- 
 pany, with a salary of a few hundred pounds 
 a-year, which, as all old Indians know, could 
 leave little margin for extravagance; never- 
 theless, this clever adventurer, having in 
 his own scheming brain a talent for money- 
 making scarcely inferior to that vested in 
 the fairy purse of Fortunatus, contrived 
 not only to support a splendid establishment 
 and equipages, unrivalled at Madras even 
 in those days of luxury and ostentation, but 
 also to obtain certain assignments on the 
 revenues of Tanjore, and on the growing 
 crops of that principality, to the enormous 
 extent of ,€234,000, in return for .€102,000 
 Ostensibly lent to the nabob of Arcot, and 
 i;72,000 to individuals iu Tanjore. Such 
 was the leader of the party arrayed on the 
 side of Mohammed Ali, who had actually 
 signed bonds to the amount of nearly a 
 million and a-half sterling, backed by as- 
 signments on the revenues of Tanjore; and 
 the very nature of these claims caused 
 them to be urged with peculiar acrimony 
 and violence. In Calcutta, the character 
 of the majority hy whom Hastings was at 
 this very time so fiercely opposed, was wholly 
 different to that with which Pigot had to 
 
 struggle. 
 
 Clavering, jMonson, and Francis 
 
 might be reproached with party spirit, but in 
 all pecuniary matters their reputation was 
 unblemished, and their public proceedings 
 were, consequently, free from the baneful 
 
 in the transactinn, iVir Ilyder made them pay a fine 
 of £14,000 sterling for furnisliing liis inveterate foe 
 with warlike weapons ; and Mohammed Ali, despite 
 his desire to keep the affair quiet, liquidated but a 
 small portion of the stipulated price. The whole 
 matter came to light in 1801, wlien the E. I. Cy. took 
 possession of the Carnatic, and on tlie production of 
 the secret correspondence with the naliob, paid the 
 Danish Cy. a balance of £42,304.— (Wilks, ii., 10.) 
 
 * The scale on which bribery was carried on, may 
 be conjectured from the fact, that Admiral I'igot 
 declared in the House of Commons, in 177S, that his 
 brother, the late governor, had been otfered a bribe, 
 amounting to £600,000 sterling, only to defer for a 
 time the reinstatement of the rajah of Tanjore. 
 
 and narrowing influence of self-interest. 
 At Madras the case was wholly difrerent; 
 the majority consisted of men of dee|)ly 
 corrupt character, who, in return for accu- 
 sations of venality in abetting the aggressions 
 of the nabob, reciprocated the charge against 
 all the uphohlers of the rajah, from the 
 governor downwards.* The previous career 
 of Lord Pigot did not facilitate the per- 
 formance of the invidious task he had under- 
 taken. Like Clive, he had formerly accumu- 
 lated an immense fortune by questionable 
 means, and had returned to root up abuses 
 which, at an earlier stage, might liave been 
 nipped in the bud. Even his present visit to 
 Tanjore, and the part played by him in the 
 struggle for the appointment of a resident 
 at that government, was far from being 
 free from all suspicion of private ends and 
 interests, either as regarded himself or his 
 immediate retainers. But, however alike in 
 their views and motives, the positions of Clive 
 and Pigot were very different. The latter, 
 instead of possessing supreme authority, was 
 subordinate to a governor-general by no 
 means inclined to afford cordial support to 
 any reformatory measures, save of liis own 
 introduction; and Lord Pigot, trusting too 
 much in his own strength, by a haughty 
 aiul violent line of conduct,t soon brought 
 matters to a crisis he was unprepared to 
 meet. The imprisonment of Sir Robert 
 Fletcher, with the attempted suspension of 
 two of the leading members of council, was 
 retaliated by his own arrest, perfor.iied in 
 a very unsoldier-like style by the temporary 
 commander-in-chief of the army, Colonel 
 Stuart, with the aid of a coachman in the 
 pay of Mr. Paul Benfield. J Having thus 
 unceremoniously disposed of their chief, the 
 majority proceeded to enact a series of leg.nl, 
 or rather illegal forms, and assumed the 
 whole power of government. § They did not 
 long enjoy their triumph; for the home 
 authorities, astonished and alarmed by such 
 
 f Swartz, commenting on the proceedings of which 
 he was an eye-witness, remarks : — " Probably his in- 
 tentions were laudable, but he began not with God." 
 
 X Col. Stuart was on terms of close intimacy with 
 Lord Pigot; had breakfasted and dined with him on 
 the day of the arrest, and was ostensibly on the way '< 
 to su]) w ith him, when the carriage of the governor, ! 
 in which they were both seated, was, by the appoint- j 
 ment of the colonel himself, surrounded and stopped 
 by the troops. — (Mill, iv., 1;J4.) The governor was 
 dragged out, made a prisoner, and thrust into Ben- 
 field's chaise. — ( J'icle Abstract of Trial of S'.ralton, 
 Brooke,Floyer, and Mackay. Murray ; London, 1780.) 
 
 § Hastings "persuaded his colleagues to acquiesce 
 in the nevf arrangements." — (Life, ii., 106.)
 
 348 
 
 GOVERNOR riGOT DIES A PRISONER— MADRAS— 1777. 
 
 strange excesses, recalled both the de- 
 posed governor and his opponents, that the 
 whole matter might be brought to light. 
 Before these orders reached India, Lord 
 Pigot had sunk under the combined effects 
 of mental suffering and imprisonment for 
 nine months in an ungenial climate. His 
 death terrified all parties into a compro- 
 mise. The chief civil servants concerned 
 in the affair returned to England; the four 
 members of council paid the to them very 
 trifling fine of £1,000 each, and tlie su- 
 bordinates crept back into the service. 
 Colonel Stuart was tried by a court-martial, 
 and, unhappily for the company, acquitted. 
 The new j^overnor, Sir Tiiomas Rumbold, 
 reached Madras in 1778, and applied himself, 
 with much energy, to the improvement of his 
 private fortune. The council cheerfully fol- 
 lowed so pleasant an example ; and unwonted 
 tranquillity prevailed within the presidency, 
 the predominant feature being wilful blind- 
 ness to the storm gathering without. Yet even 
 Mohammed Ali beheld with alarm that the 
 utterly inconsistent, hesitating, yet grasping 
 policy long persisted in, was about to issue 
 in the conjoined hostilities of Hyder Ali, 
 the Nizam, and the Mahrattas, to each of 
 I whom distinct occasions for quarrel had been 
 ! given ; and to these dangers the fear of 
 French invasion, owing to the outbreak of 
 ! European war, was added. Hyder Ali, their 
 most formidable foe, had been made such by 
 their own misdoings. He had earnestly de- 
 
 * Hyder entered Coorg in 1773. The rajah (l)i- 
 vaia) fled, and was afterwards captured ; but the 
 people hastily assembled on a woody hill, which was 
 immediately surrounded by the enemy. Seating 
 himself with much state, Hyder proclaimed a reward 
 of five rupees for each head that should be brought 
 to him. After receiving about 700, two were de- 
 posited on the heap of such singular beauty, that, 
 looking earnestly at them, he ordered the decapita- 
 tion to cease. The remaining Coorgs were not, how- 
 ever, disposed to submit tamely to the usurper 
 notwithstanding the tribute paid to the finely-formed 
 heads of their murdered countrymen ; and when he 
 proceeded to raise the assessment on produce from 
 the ancient tenth to a sixth, they rose as one man, but 
 were again reduced to submission by asweejiing mas- 
 sacre of nearly every individual of note. — (Wilks.) 
 
 f Guoty is almost impregnable under ordinary 
 circumstances ; but the number of refugees from the 
 town, and the quantities of cattle driven into the 
 citadel, had exhausted the reservoirs of water ; and 
 Morari Rao, after above three months' siege, was re- 
 luctantly compelled to treat for peace, which Hyder 
 guaranteed on condition of receiving eight lacs of 
 rupees in coin, or that amount in jewel.s, immediately, 
 and a hostage for the subsequent payment of four 
 more. The hostage, a brave but inex])erienced 
 youth, won by the praise bestowed on his chief and 
 himself by the conqueror, imprudently boasted that 
 
 sired to keep the Mahrattas at bay by means 
 of an alliance with the English, whose enmity 
 he dreaded, fearing, above all things, the 
 unseen resources of the E. I. Cy. The 
 Madras government temporised with him 
 for years, and he bore all manner of neglects 
 and slights, waiting, in sullen silence, an 
 opportunity of revenge. After the death 
 of Madhoo Rao, he regained his previous 
 conquests, and largely increased them. The 
 little principality of Coorg,* and Gooty, 
 the eagle's nest of ]\Iorari Rao, fell succes- 
 sively : the first, before a sudden invasion, 
 most barbarously carried through ; the other 
 under peculiar circumstances of treacherj'.f 
 The JMahratta chieftain soon perished under 
 the influence of the insalubrious climate of 
 a hill-fort, called Cabal Droog, aggravated 
 by food of so unwholesome a character as to 
 be almost poisonous. His family, being sub- 
 jected only to the first of these evils, survived 
 him fifteen years, and then perished in a gene- 
 ral massacre of prisoners, ordered by Tippoo, 
 in 1791. 
 
 At the close of the year 1770, Hyder con- 
 templated with delight the fertile banks of the 
 Kistna, newly become the northern boundary 
 of the empire he had erected ; but still 
 unsatisfied with its extent (as he would pro- 
 bably have been had it comprised all In- 
 dia), he proceeded in person to besiege the 
 fortress of Ciiittledroog,J which, amid the 
 chances and changes of previous years, had 
 fallen into the hands of a brave Hindoo 
 
 nothing short of being reduced to three days' water 
 would have induced Morari Rao to capitulate. 
 Hyder forthwith resumed the blockade, which he 
 maintained until the garrison, in an agony of thirst, 
 consented to an unconditional surrender, and then 
 such as escaped with life and liberty were robbed 
 of every other possession ; even the women being 
 despoiled of their accustomed ornaments, for the ex- 
 clusive benefit of the perfidious invader. 
 
 J The second siege. of Chittledroog lasted three 
 months, and was attended with immense loss of life. 
 The garrison believed the place invested with super- 
 natural strength as the site of a famous temple dedi- 
 cated to the goddess Call, so long as her rites were 
 duly performed. Unlike Hindoo deities in general, 
 Cali was supposed to delight in blood, and conse- 
 quently her worshipjiers, despite the rashness of such 
 a proceeding, regularly sallied forth, after )K'rforming 
 their devotions, on every successive Monday morn- 
 ing during three months; and notwithstanding the 
 warning to the besiegers, given by the loud blast of a 
 horn as the signal for the outburst, and the fore- 
 knowledge of nil except the exact point of attack, 
 the Beders never once returned witliout carrying off 
 the specific number of heads to be ofi'cred to their 
 tutelary deity, upon whose shrine about 2,000 of 
 these bloody trophies were found ranged in small 
 ])vr:imids alter the fall of the place. — (Colonel Wilks' 
 nUlonj of Mysoor, ii., 182.)
 
 CHANDERNA.GORE AND OTHER FRENCH SETTLEMENTS SEIZED_1778. 34£ 
 
 polij^ar or oliinf. The native garrison de- f Sprinpinpf from his conch, he performed the 
 
 foiidcd tlic ]il;icc with the fciirlrss /pal of fatia 
 ticisin, but were l)ctr.ay<'(I by a corjjs of Mo- 
 hammedan mercenaries, whom Ilydcr found 
 means to corrupt throuj^h the medium of 
 tlieir spiritual instructor, a hermit of rei)utod 
 sanctity, who resided unmolested on tlie 
 plain below, near the hostile encampment. 
 The natives of the surroundiii<i; territory 
 (chiefly of the Beder tril)e) had manifcstrtl 
 unconquerable attachment to the fallen chief. 
 In vain llyder had seized all the visible 
 [jropcrty, and consumed all the provisions on 
 which his practised j)ilfcrers could lay hands ; 
 neither these measures, nor the infliction 
 of the most cruel punishments on every 
 person cn^asjcd in the conveyance of sup- 
 plies to the besieged, could deter men, women, 
 and even children from sacrifieino; their lives, 
 in continued succession, in the attempt to 
 support the garrison. Ilyder at length de- 
 termined to sweep off" the whole remainder 
 of the population, whose fidelity to their be- 
 sieged countrymen had alone prevented their 
 following the general example of flight to the 
 woods, or other provinces. About 20,000 
 vrere carried away to populate the island of 
 Seringapatiim ; and from the boys of a cer- 
 tain age, Ilyder formed a regular military 
 establishment of captive converts, in imita- 
 tion of the Turkish janissaries (new soldiers.) 
 These regiments, under the name of the 
 " Chelah"* battalions, were extensively em- 
 ployed by Tippoo Sultan. The reduction 
 of the small Patau state of Kurpa and 
 several minor places, next engaged the at- 
 tention of the Mysoorean. One of these 
 expeditions nearly cost him his life, by 
 rousing the vengeance of a party of Afghan 
 captives, who having overpowered their 
 guards in the dead of night, rushed to his 
 tent, and the foremost having succeeded in 
 effecting an entrance, aimed a deadly blow 
 at the rich coverlid which wrapped what he 
 took to be the body of the sleeping despot. 
 But Hyder himself had escaped to the protec- 
 tion of the nearest corps. On first hearing the 
 uproar he guessed its cause; for it was a por- 
 tion of his earthly punishment that, sleeping 
 or waking, the dagger of the assassin was never 
 absent from his thoughts. Despite the bur- 
 den of advancing years, his mental and 
 physical energies were wholly unimpaired. 
 
 * Chelah wns a softened name for slave ; first cm- 
 ployed hy Akhcr, who disliked the harsh term, 
 hut not the odious thing denoted. Slavery has, 
 
 avourite feat of the nursery hero, Jack the 
 fiiant-killer, by stealthily laying his long 
 pillow in the place of his own body. 'J'lien 
 cutting a passage through the side of the 
 tent, he efl'eetcd a safe and unsuspected re- 
 treat. The wretched Afghans were slain or 
 disarmed ; those taken alive were reserved 
 for various cruel deaths, such as having their 
 hands and feet struck ofl', or being dragged 
 rouiul the camp tied to the feet of elephants, 
 until, and even long after, life had left their 
 mangled bodies. 
 
 Such was the barbarous character of the 
 foe whom the I'^itiglish had so long braved 
 with impunity, that, from the sheer force of 
 habit, they continued to treat him with con- 
 temptuous superiority, even after the unpro- 
 mising state of their own affairs, in various 
 quarters, rendered it obviously advisable to 
 adopt a conciliatory policy. The renewal of 
 European war, would, it was probable, prove 
 the signal for an attempt, on the part of the 
 French, to regain their lost possessions in 
 India, by the co-operation of some of the 
 more powerful native states. It was notorious 
 that St. Lubin and other adventurers, had es- 
 sayed to ingratiate themselves as representa- 
 tives of their nation, with the Mahrattas and 
 also with Hyder. But both these powers 
 were bent on avoiding any intimate con- 
 nexion with European states, whose tendency 
 to become supreme they justly dreaded, 
 though they were ever desirous to purchase, 
 at a high rate, the services of foreigners to 
 discipline their troops. Hyder especially 
 dreaded the eflcct of French influence, and 
 would certainly have had no dealings with 
 that government, save as a counterpoise to 
 the English and Mohammed AH, whom 
 he cordially detested. Affairs were in a very 
 precarious condition, when intelligence ot 
 the renewal of war in Europe reached Ben- 
 gal (July, 1778) ; and, though somewhat 
 premature in character, Hastings thought 
 the information sufficiently authentic to 
 warrant the immediate seizure of the whole 
 of the French settlements before reinforce- 
 ments should arrive from England, or time 
 be given for the adoption of any concerted 
 plan of defence. Chandernagore, with the 
 factories at ]\Iasulipatam and Karical, sur- 
 rendered without resistance. Pondicherry 
 hondsmen of the palace, even beneath the sway o. 
 Hyder.had so much the air of "children of the house," 
 that the <cood missionary, Swartz, praises the care 
 
 however, habitually assumed a milder form in the i evinced for orphans, in total ignorance that Hyder's 
 F.ast than the N\ est Indies, under Hindoo and Mo- protection had been purchased by the severance of 
 hsnjmedan, than under Christian masters ; and the every natural tie of family, country, and creed. 
 2 z
 
 350 PONDICHERRY AND MAKE TAKEN, 1779— HYDER AND SWARTZ. 
 
 was captured after a combined attack by sea 
 and land. The French squadron, under M. 
 Tronjolly, was worsted by the English admiral 
 Sir Edward Vernon, and quitted the coast 
 by night ; but the garrison, under M. Belle- 
 combe, held out bravely, and availed them- 
 selves of every advantage derivable from the 
 strong defences, which had been restored 
 since their destruction in the course of the 
 last war. A breach having been effected, 
 and a combined assault planned by the 
 troops under Sir Hector Munro, in con- 
 junction with the marines and seamen, fur- 
 ther resistance became hopeless ; the place 
 capitulated, and its fortifications were 
 razed to the ground. The fortress and 
 port of Mahe alone remained to the 
 French. The territory in which they were 
 situated (on the Malabar coast), beside 
 being included in the recent conquests of 
 Hyder, was the depot for the military stores 
 which he obtained from the Mauritius ; he 
 was therefore extremely anxious for its re- 
 tention by its French possessors, and dis- 
 patched a vakeel (ambassador or envoy) to 
 Madras, threatening the invasion of Arcot 
 in the event of any hostile attempt on Mahe. 
 The fortress was nevertheless besieged and 
 taken in March, 1779, although the colours 
 of Mysoor were hoisted on the walls with 
 those of the French, and its troops assisted 
 in the defence. The presidency were not 
 without misgivings regarding the hazard 
 incurred by these multiplied provocations, 
 and Sir Thomas Rumbold made an effort 
 to discover the intentions of Hyder, by dis- 
 patching to his court the missionary Swartz, 
 the only ambassador he would consent to 
 receive. " Send me the Christian," said 
 Hyder ; " he will not deceive me."* The 
 reward of the envoy was to be some bricks 
 
 • Swartz had exerted his great personal influence 
 very successfully for the peaceful and equitable set- 
 tlement of Tanjore. Hyder had probably heard 
 much in his favour ; and his own opinion, formed from 
 subsequent observation, was forcibly shown by the 
 order issued in the Carnatic war, " to permit the 
 venerable Father Swartz to pass unmolested and 
 show him respect and kindness, for he is a holy 
 man, and means no harm to my government." 
 
 t Private resources Swartz had none ; little help 
 could be expected from the Europeans of Madras, 
 who, he says sorrowfully, could contribute 10,000 
 pagodas for a playhouse, " but to build a pray- 
 house people had no money." The immorality of 
 nominal Christians, he considered the most serious 
 obstacle to the conversion of the heathen ; espccif.lly 
 in the case of the rajali of 'J anjore.^(Wilks, ii., /id!).) 
 
 X Perhap:; two more op])o.sile characters never en- 
 gaged in familiar converse than when the vindictive, 
 ambitious, and merciless Hyder sat and talked with the 
 
 and rcortar, to biuld a church, from the 
 stores at Tanjore.f These had been already 
 promised for service rendered to govern- 
 ment in his capacity of a linguist, but 
 withheld from time to time. Hyder, who 
 had ever been distinguished by discrimi- 
 nation of character, fully appreciated the 
 singlemindedness and tmaffected piety of 
 his visitor, with whom he held frequent in- 
 tercourse,! and suffered him to convey reli- 
 gious instruction to the European soldiers 
 in his service, and to hold unrestricted com- 
 mnnication, not only with them, but also 
 with the native troops, through the medium 
 of the Persian, Tamul, Mahratta, and Hin- 
 doostanee languages. Swartz refused to 
 accept any gift from Hyder, even for his 
 church, and on taking leave, stated with 
 earnestness, that a desire for the prevention 
 of war was the sole motive that had induced 
 him to undertake a political mission, which, 
 under the circumstances, he considered as 
 in nowise derogatory to the office of a 
 minister of God, who is a God of peace. 
 " Very well, very well," said Hyder ; " if 
 the English offer me tlie hand of peace and 
 concord, I shall not withdraw mine." 
 
 Swartz returned to Madras and related 
 the verbal assurance, which qualified the 
 written communication of which he was 
 the bearer, wherein the various grievances 
 sustained by the jMysoorean state, as well as 
 by Hyder personally, from the time of the 
 breach of faith regarding Trichinopoly in 
 1754, down to the recent offence of attempt- 
 ing to inarch an army, without even asking 
 his sanction, through his recently acquired 
 territory of Cudapah to that of Bassalut 
 Jung at Adoni, were enumerated; with the 
 ominous conclusion — " I have not yet taken 
 revenge; it is no matter." 
 
 gentle, self-denying, peace-loving missionary, in one 
 of the stately halls of the palace of Seringapatam, 
 overlooking gardens adorned with fountains, cypress 
 groves, trees grafted so as to bear two kinds of i'ruit, 
 and every refinement that luxury could suggest. 
 Hyder appears to have made no attempt to disguise 
 his barbarous system of administration ; for Swartz 
 speaks with horror of the dreadful tortures inflicted 
 on the collectors of revenue if they failed, under any 
 circumstances, to collect the stated revenue. " Al- 
 though Hyder sometimes rewards his servants, yet 
 the i)rincipal motive is fear. 'J"wo hundred people, 
 with whips, stand always ready to use them. Not a 
 day passes on which numbers are not flogged. 
 Hyder applies the same cat to all transgressors 
 alike, — gentlemen, horsekeepers, tax-gatherers, and 
 his own sons;" but they are not dismissed, hut con- 
 tinued in oflice ; for Hyder, adds Swartz, "seems to 
 think that almost all i>rople who seek to cnricli 
 themselves are void of all principles of honour."
 
 CONJ''Kl)i:ilA(;V OF NATIVE POWEJIS AGAINST ENGLISH— 1780. 851 
 
 Tlic authorities, immersed in the deadly 
 stupor of indolfuco and venality, conducted 
 themselves as if wholly iniliU'erent to the 
 threat thus sij^nificantly conveyed. Swartz 
 found that he had been a mere tool, and 
 that Ilyder had appreciated more justly 
 than himself the selfish duplicity of Sir 
 Thomas Kuinbold and his coUi'afjues. Still 
 perscvcriufi^ in the insultinj; aliectation of 
 a desire to preserve amity, tli(;y actually 
 sent to the magnificent court of INIysoor — 
 to a sovereign enriched witli the spoil of 
 principalities and provinces — a private per- 
 son of no note as ambassador (Mr. (Jray), 
 bearing with him an ill-made English saddle 
 (hogskin to a Mussulman !) and a rifle which 
 loaded at the breech. The presents were 
 declined as unwortliy the giver or intended 
 receiver ; neither would Ilyder grant a pri- 
 vate audience to the envoy ; but on learning, 
 through one of his nobles, the desire of the 
 presidency to form an alliance with him, he 
 sent word that he had at one period ear- 
 nestly and repeatedly solicited it without 
 effect, but was now strong enough to stand 
 alone. 
 
 The most alarming part of this defiant 
 message is said to have been withheld by 
 Sir Thomas Ilumbold,* whose policy was 
 at the time directed to carrying off an 
 immense fortune safe to England. Taking 
 leave of the council, he congratulated them 
 on the prospect of peace at a moment when 
 every nerve ought to have been strained to 
 prepare for defence against invasion, and 
 took his departure in time to avoid the 
 receipt of the recall then on its way to 
 India. t Among the jjolitical errors urged 
 against him was the offence given to Nizam 
 Ali, by compelling his brother and subject, 
 Bassalut Jung, to make over the Guutoor 
 Circar to the company in 1779, instead 
 of suffering him to enjoy it for life, as 
 agreed upon by the treaty of 1768; and 
 then using this extorted concession as a 
 means of gratifying the cupidity of Mo- 
 hammed Ali, to whom this fine district was 
 to be let in farm. Both the Loudon direc- 
 tors and the Bengal authorities strove to 
 assuage the anger of the Nizam at conduct 
 which he was both able and willing to resent ; 
 but the Madras officials persisted in justify- 
 ing their conduct in this respect, and also 
 
 • Vide Captain Jamca Munro's Coromaudel Coast, 
 p. 130. Dr. Moodie's MSS., in library of E. I. Cy. 
 
 f A criminal prosecution was commenced against 
 him in 1782, in the House of Commons, but ad- 
 journed from time to time, and eventually dropped. 
 
 in endeavouring to repudiate the arrears of 
 peslieush, ortribute, due for the other (Mrcars, 
 as warranted by their pi^euniaiy necessities, 
 and far less faulty in principle, than the 
 breach of faith committed in withholding 
 the tribute pledged to the emperor as a first 
 charge upon the revenues of Bengal. 
 
 Ilyder Ali had spies everywhere. He 
 was perfectly aware of the ill-feeling exist- 
 ing between the controlling and subordinate 
 governments, and made no secret of the hos- 
 tile intentions and utter contempt he enter- 
 tained towards the latter. The extraordi- 
 nary apathy of the majority of the council, 
 together with the violent measures used to 
 stille the representations of the few who 
 advocated the adoption of immediate mea- 
 sures for the defence of the Carnatic, gave 
 weight to his assertions that the time had 
 arrived for all Indian powers to unite in ex- 
 pelling the one great European state which 
 threatened to engulph every other. Now, in 
 its moment of weakness, when the reins of 
 authority were vested in incapable and selfish 
 hands, a short and decisive struggle might, 
 by the conjoined strength of Mohammedans 
 and Hindoos, brought to bear against the 
 common foe, be attended with such com- 
 plete success iis " to leave not a white face in 
 the Carnatic." The confederacy advocated 
 by Ilyder was actually formed, and a plan 
 laid down which, if all parties had carried 
 out their pledge as he did his, might have 
 gone far to realise the desired object. Mo- 
 hammed Ali, for once a true prophet, fore- 
 told the coming storm; but in vain. The 
 presidency persisted in declaring that the 
 dark clouds which they could not deny 
 overshadowed the political horizon, would 
 pass away or be dissipated by the precau- 
 tions of the Bengal council ; — days, weeks, 
 months elapsed, at a time when even hours 
 of continued peace were of incalculable im- 
 portance, without any attempts for reinforc- 
 ing weak garrisons in important positions, 
 or for making arrangements for the pro- 
 visioning of troops, notwithstanding the 
 obvious necessity of the latter measure in 
 all cases of threatened invasion, especially 
 by a foe whose desolating and destruc- 
 tive mode of warfare was proverbial. Yet 
 the verj' man who had once before dictated 
 terms at the gates of Madras, was treated 
 as a mere braggart, even after he had 
 actually crossed the frontier, and was ap- 
 proaching, with his two sons, at the head 
 of above 80,000 men, supported by a large 
 train of ai'tillery and a considerable body of
 
 352 
 
 INVASION OP THE CARNATIC BY HYDER ALI— 1780. 
 
 Europeans (chiefly French), constituting, 
 without doubt, the best-disciplined army 
 ever marshalled by a native Indian power. 
 At length the burning of Conjeveram, the 
 largest village in the Carnatic (sixty miles 
 from Fort St. George, and thirty-five from 
 Arcot), and the testimony of numerous ter- 
 rified and bleeding fugitives, closely followed 
 by the sight of the much-dreaded predatory 
 horse of the foe, prowling about amid the 
 garden-houses round Mount St. Thomas, 
 changed doubts, sneers, and cavils into un- 
 speakable dismay, which the tidings of every 
 successive hour tended to increase. Hyder 
 pursued his favourite policy of creating a 
 desert about the places he desired to con- 
 quer. Round Fort St. George he drew a 
 line of merciless desolation, extending from 
 thirty to thirty-five miles inland, burning 
 every town and village to the ground, and 
 inflicting indiscriminate mutilation on every 
 individual who ventured to linger near the 
 ashes. The wretched peasantry, victims of 
 the quarrels of usurping powers, whose 
 actions they could neither understand nor 
 influence, were sacrificed by thousands by 
 fire or the sword, while multitudes, doomed 
 to more protracted suflering, were driven 
 ofi' in a whirlwind of cavalry into exile or 
 slavery, frequently to both united ; — the 
 father torn from his virgin daughter; the 
 husband from the wife ; the mother borne 
 away in the torrent, unable so much as to 
 snatch her shrieking infant from the tramp- 
 ling hoofs of the snorting horses. Yes ! 
 Hyder was indeed at hand : dense clouds 
 of smoke, mingled with flame, were the sure 
 harbingers of his approach. The country- 
 people fled, wild with terror, to Madras ; 
 aud no less than 300,000 were sufl'ered to 
 take up their abode in the black town in 
 the space of three days. 
 
 The assembling of the troops was evi- 
 dently of the first importance. There was 
 no lack of men or ammunition; but a 
 grievous deficiency of discipline, and gene- 
 ral discontent, engendered by the severe 
 suflering inflicted by the non-payment of 
 arrears.* A strong and united effort, by 
 the local authorities, to relieve their wants 
 
 • The force of the nabob alone, in 1776, was stated 
 by Col. Matthews, before a Pari. Committee, to 
 amount to 35,000 effective men. That of the presi- 
 dency comprehended about .'iOiOOOj but even the Eng- 
 lish forces were on the brink of mutiny for want of 
 pay. In 1777, a regiment completely equipjied for 
 service, and stationed a few miles from Hyder's 
 frontier, seized Captain Campbell and their other 
 officers, and were only brought to release them by 
 
 and inspire confidence, was, however, all 
 that was needed to restore their wonted 
 efiicieacy ; but so far from any decisive 
 measures being taken, delays and disputes 
 arose; for the commander-in-chief. Sir 
 Hector Munro, could not be spared to take 
 the head of the army, because his vote 
 alone insured the supremacy in council of 
 his own opinions and those of the president, 
 Mr. Whitehill. Lord Maeleod,t who had 
 recently arrived from England with a high- 
 land regiment 1,000 strong, was desired to 
 assume the command, but he positively 
 refused to accept the responsibility of car- 
 rying out the hazardous plan devised by 
 Munro, of uniting the main body with that 
 absent in the Guntoor Circar, under Colonel 
 Baillie, at the distant site of Conjeveram, 
 and strongly urged the adoption of the more 
 reasonable course suggested by the minority, 
 of marshalling the forces with the least pos- 
 sible delay on St. Thomas' Mount. Munro, 
 wedded to his project, determined to take 
 the field in person, and actually proposed 
 and carried that he should appoint a 
 nominee to occupy his seat in council so 
 long as it continued vacant. The opposi- 
 tion members indignantly reprobated this 
 arrangement ; and one of them (Mr. Sad- 
 leir) so provoked the majority, that they 
 decreed his suspension, which was followed 
 up by a challenge from Sir Hector. 
 
 The subsequent conduct of the campaign 
 corresponded with this inauspicious com- 
 mencement. In the very face of the enemy, 
 when from Cape Comorin to the Kistna 
 all was plunder, confusion, and bloodshed, 
 the civil and military authorities continued 
 to quarrel with each other. Munro per- 
 sisted in attempting the junction of the 
 troops in the centre of a country occupied 
 by an enemy. He marched to Conjeveram 
 with the main body, which comprised 5,209 
 men, of whom 2,481 were European infantry 
 and 294 artillery, and there awaited the 
 arrival of Colonel Baillie, whose force con- 
 sisted of about 150 Europeans aud 2,000 
 sepoys. Hyder was at the time engaged in 
 besieging Arcot ; but his invariable policy — 
 from which the English general might have 
 
 the interference of Col. .Tames, the commandant of 
 Trichinopoly, who made himself personally respon- 
 sible for the utmost extent of arrears he could pro- 
 vide funds to meet. The Kuro|)ean otiicers and na- 
 tive troops under Colonel Fullarton, were, at a 
 subsiqueut period, twelve months in arrear, and 
 obtained their very food on credit. 
 
 t Lord Macleod afterwards quitted India, in con- 
 sequence of Col. Btuart being placed over him. 
 
 I
 
 HYDEll ALI CUTS OFF COL. BAILLIE'S DETACHMENT— 1780. 353 
 
 learned a useful lesson — of directinj? his 
 chief enorfjies to the most prominent 
 danger, induced him to send the flower of 
 the army, under Tippoo, to intercept the 
 detachment under Baillic, which was ac- 
 complished at a spot aljout tit'tccn miles 
 distant from Conjeveram. 
 
 After a severe conflict of several hours, 
 Baillie succeeded in repellinj^ his assailants, 
 but with so much loss, that he sent word to 
 the general he could not join him unless 
 reinforced in such a manner as to be eajjable 
 of resistin;; the opposition of the enemy. 
 He suggested that Munro himself should 
 advance to the rescue; instead of which, 
 the general thought fit again to divide his 
 small army by sending forward a detach- 
 ment under Colonel Fletcher, to strengthen 
 that threatened by Tippoo. 
 
 The intelligence of Ilyder regarding the 
 plans and proceedings of the English, was 
 as speedy and reliable as their information 
 concerning him was tardy and misleading. 
 Mis plot to surprise and destroy Colonel 
 Fletcher on the march was, happily, neu- 
 tralised by the discreet change of route 
 ordered by that officer ; and it is considered, 
 that had the junction of the detachments 
 beeu followed up, after a few hours' rest, 
 by speedy movement, the conjoined troops 
 might have made their way safely to Conje- 
 veram. But needless delay gave time for 
 Tippoo to fix cannon at a strong post on 
 the road, and, worse still, for Hyder him- 
 self to advance in person and oppose their 
 passage. The little band, both Europeans 
 and sepoys, sustained furious and repeated 
 assaults with extraordinary steadiness, in- 
 spired with the hope that Munro would 
 take advantage of the opportunity to relieve 
 them by attacking the foe in the rear. 
 Hyder was not without apprehensions on 
 this score, which were heightened by the 
 representations of the French oilicers in his 
 service, especially of Lally and Pimorin.* 
 The fate of the day hung in suspense until 
 two of the tumbrils blew up in the English 
 Hues, and at once deprived them of ammu- 
 nition, and disabled their guns ; they never- 
 theless maintained the contest for another 
 hour and a-half. At the end of that time 
 but 400 men remained, many of them 
 wounded yet they still rallied round their 
 
 * LiiUy was the commander of a small body of 
 Buropeaii mercenaries who had successively served 
 Nizam Ali and Bassalut Jung, before entering the 
 service of Hyder. Pimorin was a French officer. 
 
 t Of eighty-six officers, thirty-six were killed, 
 thirty-four wounded, and sixteen surrendered unhurt. 
 
 leader, desiring to cut their way through 
 
 the hostile ranks or perish in the attempt. 
 But Colonel Fletcher lay dead on the field 
 of battle, and Colonel Baillie, willing to 
 save the lives of his brave companions, and 
 despairing of relief from hcad-ciuarters, held 
 up his handkenducf as a flag of truce. An 
 intimation of quarter being given, the Eng- 
 lish laid down their arms; but had no 
 sooner done so than a fierce onslaught was 
 made by the enemy, and the whole of 
 them would have been slain in cold blood, 
 including even the native women and chil- 
 dren who had accompanied the detachment, 
 but for the interference of the French mer- 
 cenaries. Baillie was brought, stiff with 
 wounds, into the presence of his barbarous 
 conqueror, and eventually perished in the 
 prison of Seringapatam. About 200 Euro- 
 peans were taken, of whom fifty were ofK- 
 cers.t They were destined to linger long 
 years in a captivity more terrible than death. 
 When tidings of this disaster reached 
 Conjeveram, Munro threw his heavy guns 
 and stores which could not be removed, 
 into a tank, and retreated from that jjlace 
 to Chiugleput, where he hoped to procure a 
 supply of rice for the army; but being dis- 
 appointed by the conjoined ettect of Ilyder's 
 alertness and his own want of precautionary 
 measures, he retreated to Madras. Here 
 general consternation and alarm prevailed, 
 aggravated by the utter want of provisions, 
 military stores, or funds even to pay the 
 troops, European or native ; the latter, in 
 the service of Mohammeu Ali, deserted 
 in whole regiments simply for that reason. 
 The state of things seemed hopeless, when 
 the vigorous measures of the supreme gov- 
 ernment at Bengal gave a new turn to 
 affairs. The unfaltering courage and clear 
 perceptions of Hastings were never ex- 
 erted more advantageously than at this 
 crisis. He had already instituted a nego- 
 tiation with the Nizam for the restoration 
 of the Guutoor Circar, the chief bone of 
 contention ; and he maintained a correspon- 
 dence with the Mahratta ruler of Berar, 
 Moodajee BhonslajT, which had the eflect 
 of rendering that chief unwilling to co- 
 operate actively with his countrymen against 
 the English, though he did not care openly 
 to refuse joining the general confederacy. 
 But these measures were manifestly insuffi- 
 cient to meet the present crisis. Hyder 
 had followed up his success at Conjeveram 
 by the siege and capture of Arcot. Wan- 
 duwash, Vellore, Chiugleput, and other bul-
 
 354 SIR EYRE COOTE DEFEATS HYDER NEAR PORTO NOYO— 1781. 
 
 warks of tlie Carnatic, were wretchedly 
 provisioned and closely blockaded ; while 
 the numerous forts under the direct control 
 of the nabob, Mohammed Ali, were, for the 
 most part, surrendered without a blow, from 
 the various and often concurrent causes of 
 disgust at an incapable and extortionate 
 master, corruption, and despondency. Such 
 was the news brought to Calcutta by a swift- 
 sailing ship, flying before the south-west 
 monsoon. In twenty-four hours the gov- 
 ernor-general's course was taken. Supplies 
 of every description — of men, money, and 
 provisions — were gathered in, and dispatched 
 under the charge of the veteran general 
 Sir Eyre Coote, whose very name was a 
 host, and to whom the sole conduct of the 
 war was to be entrusted ; for Hastings, 
 rightly deeming the emergency a justifica- 
 tion for exerting the utmost stretch of 
 authority, took upon himself to suspend 
 Mr. Whitehill, the venal and incapable 
 governor of Fort St. George. 
 
 On reaching Madras, Coote found at his 
 disposal a force num.bering altogether 7,00U 
 men, of whom only 1,700 were Europeans. 
 Despite the manifest disparity of numbers, 
 he earnestly desired to bring Hyder to a 
 regular engagement, believing that the 
 danger to be incurred by such a proceeding 
 would fall far short of that resulting from 
 the waste of resources and dispiriting cflects 
 of the harassing hostilities carried on by his 
 opponent in a country already desolated. 
 The wary Mysoorean well knew the foe with 
 whom he had now to cope, and neither taunts, 
 threats, nor manoeuvring, could induce him 
 to risk a pitched liattle. This very circum- 
 stance enabled the English to relieve Wan- 
 dewash,* Permacoil, and other besieged 
 places ; but [only for a time : the indefati- 
 gable foe marched oft" uninjured to bloc- 
 kade a diflerent fortress, and Coote followed 
 till his troops were well-nigh worn out.f 
 At length a seeming evil procured the long- 
 desired engagement ; for Hyder, encouraged 
 by the presence of a French fleet on the 
 coast, intrenched liis army in a strong post 
 ■near Cuddalore, close to the village called 
 by Europeans i'orto Novo, and strove to 
 
 * Wandewash was most gallantly defended by 
 Lieut. Flint, who, notwithstanding; very deficient re- 
 sources, and without a sinf,'le artilleryman, not only 
 held his ground during seventy-eight days of o])en 
 trenches against the flower of llyder's army, but 
 raised a little corjis of cavalry, and procured provi- 
 sions for his garrison and supplies for the main army. 
 
 t When urged by the Uritisli commander to de- 
 cide liie iortune of war by a pitched battle, Ilyder 
 
 intercept and cut ofl" the supplies of the 
 English, who had recently been repidsed 
 in an attack on the pagoda of Chillambrum. 
 Coote advanced boldly, and having dis- 
 covered a means of approach for a portion 
 of the troops by a passage through a ridge 
 of sand-hills, formed by Hyder for his own 
 use, the general contrived, by a series of 
 simple yet skilful and admirably executed 
 movements, to marshal his forces in the 
 face of several heavy batteries, and finally 
 succeeded, after a close and severe contest, 
 in forcing the line of the enemy and fairly 
 putting them to flight. 
 
 At the commencement of the battle 
 (about nine o'clock on the morning of the 
 1st July, 1781), Hyder took up his position 
 on a little hill commanding the scene of 
 action, and there he sat until four in the 
 afternoon, cross-legged, on a low stool, 
 watching every movement made by or 
 against the English, and so enraged by the 
 unexpected progress of aflfairs, as to become 
 stupid with vexation. Fourteen years be- 
 fore, when defeated by Colonel Smith, J he 
 had been observed by the English oflicers, 
 with cool self-possession, issuing orders for 
 a retreat, in the manner of one who could 
 afford to wait and bide his day of triumph. 
 But Hyder was an old man now ; a pam- 
 pered tyrant, accustomed to tread on the 
 necks of his fellow-beings ; and he believed 
 the time at length arrived to triumph over 
 the power of the people by whom he 
 had been long braved with impunity. The 
 cup of revenge was at his lips; was it to 
 be flung to the ground almost untasted? 
 Considerations of this nature shut out from 
 view all thought of personal danger, and 
 rendered him deaf to the arguments off'ered 
 to induce him to quit a position rapidly be- 
 coming extremely perilous. The nobles in at- 
 tendance were silenced by the obscene abuse, 
 always lavishly bestowed by their imperious 
 master when out of temper; their horses 
 and servants had disappeared in the general 
 flight before the advancing foe ; but Ilyder 
 rcm.ained seated until a groom, who through 
 long and faitiiful service was in some 
 sort a privileged man, came forward, and 
 
 is said to have replied — " What ! put my chargers, 
 worth more than one hundred rupees each, in con- 
 petition with your cannon-balls, that only cost a 
 few i)ice (halfpence.) No, no : you shall hear of 
 me often, but see me never. I will keep you march- 
 ing until your legs are as big as your bellies, and 
 your bellies the size of your legs ; and then you shall 
 light when I choose, not when you please." 
 \ At Trincomalee. in ITiT. {See p. 318.)
 
 BATTLE OF POLLILOOR— MACARTNEY REACHES MADRAS— ]'/8]. 355 
 
 drawing the legs of Ilyder from under liim, 
 thrust WiA .slippers on liis feet, and with 
 blunt fidelity jirevailed on him to rise, 
 sayinfi, " we will lieat them to-morrow ; in 
 the meanwhile mount your horse." Ilyder 
 complied, and was out of s\^\\t in a few 
 momenta, leaving the discomfited group, 
 around liis stool of repentance, to save 
 themselves as they hest could. Luckily 
 for them, the Engli.sh had no cavalry where- 
 with to carry on the pursuit. The victory 
 was, however, frauijht with important con- 
 sequences. It induced the hostile force to 
 fall hack upon Arcot. Sir Eyre Coote fol- 
 lowed, and encouraged by previous success, 
 ventured to attack Ilyder near Polliloor, 
 in a position which, besides great natural 
 advantages, was held by the su])erstitious 
 Mysoorean in particular estimation as a 
 lucky spot, being that on which he had cut 
 ofl' the detachment under Baillie in the 
 previous year. The British troops became 
 furious at the sight of the nnburied re- 
 mains of their fallen comrades ; but insur- 
 mountable obstacles retarded their advance. 
 They could not get at the enemy ; two tum- 
 brils broke (as on the previous occasion) ; 
 and to make the confusion greater. Sir 
 Hector Munro, having received a hasty 
 rebuke from Coote, sullenly seated himself 
 beneath the only tree in the plain, and 
 refused to issue a single command. The 
 loss of the English was about 500 killed, 
 including some officers ; and the action would 
 probably have terminated in a defeat, had 
 their wily adversary suspected the existence 
 of the dissension and confusion which tem- 
 porarily prevailed in an army characterised 
 by united action and steady discipline. The 
 campaign ended with the surprise of the 
 Mysooreans at tlie pass of Sholingur, on 
 the road to Vellorc : their loss was estimated 
 at 5,000 men ; w hile that of the English 
 fell short of 100. 
 
 Meanwhile, an important change had taken 
 place at Madras in the nomination of Lord 
 Macartney as governor and president of Fort 
 St. George. The appointment of a man of 
 acknowledged talent and strict integrity was, 
 doubtless, a great step towards abolishing 
 the systematic venality whieh had long dis- 
 graced the presidency ; and the earnest and 
 straightforward manner in which the new 
 ruler applied himself to his arduous and in- 
 vidious task, justified the expectations en- 
 tertained on his behalf. But the difficulties 
 which surrounded him were great beyond 
 expectation. Disastrous news awaited bis 
 
 arrival in June, 1781. First, tliat the Carnatic, 
 which Sir Thomas Rumbold Iiad re|)resented 
 in a most j)eacit(ul and jtrornising condition, 
 was aetually occupied by a ruthless foe ; 
 secondly, that the means of defence had 
 been vainly sought for by men possessed 
 of the local experience in which he was of 
 necessity wholly deficient; and thirdly, that 
 the increasing scarcity which prevailed 
 through the Carnatic, threatened to termi- 
 nate in a terrible famitie. Macartney was 
 called on to decide how best to meet these 
 difficulties without clashing with the extra- 
 ordinary powers vested in the brave and in- 
 defatigable, but peevish and exacting (ieneral 
 Coote, and still more with the su[)remc 
 authority wielded by the seemingly concilia- 
 tory, but really dictatorial and jealous 
 Hastings. 
 
 Lord Macartney brought to India intel- 
 ligence of war with Holland ; and despite the 
 objections of Coote, who desired to see the 
 whole force concentrated for the reconquestof 
 Arcot, the Dutch settlements were attacked ; 
 Sadras, Pulicat, and IVcgapatam successively 
 taken ; after which the troops of Ilyder be- 
 gan to evacuate the forts which they had 
 occupied in Tanjore. But these successes 
 were soon followed by renewed disasters. 
 A French fleet arrived on the Coromandel 
 coast in January, 1783, and after intercept- 
 ing several vessels bound to Madras with 
 grain, landed 3,000 men at Porto Novo, 
 where Tippoo speedily joined them with a 
 large body of troops. An English and 
 native detachment, about 2,000 strong, sta- 
 tioned in Tanjore, under Colonel Brathwaite, 
 misled by a system of false information car- 
 ried on by the spies of Ilyder, were surprised 
 by a conjoined force under Tippoo and 
 Lally, and after maintaining a desperate re- 
 sistance for six-and-twenty hours, against an 
 enemy who outnumbered them twenty to 
 one, were at length completely surrounded, 
 and either slain or captured. The conclu- 
 sion of a peace with the ^lahrattas being 
 officially announced at Madras in the month 
 of June, gave an opportunity for opening a 
 similar negotiation with Ilyder. The terms 
 on which it had been obtained were not, 
 however, of a nature to induce so wary a 
 [xilitieian to make important concessions. 
 The English, he well knew, had purchased 
 peace by the surrender of almost all they 
 had been fighting for — that is, by reverting 
 to the terms of the indignantly repudiated ', 
 treaty of Poorundcr ; and even these coudi 
 tious had been made tlirough the instruineu
 
 356 
 
 DEATH OF HYDER ALI— DECEMBER, 1782. 
 
 tality of the formidable and intriguing 
 Sindia.* But Hyder desired an interval of 
 tranquillity in -which to settle a plan of com- 
 bined operations with the French admiral 
 Suffrein ; he therefore proceeded to treat 
 with Sir Eyre Coote, who remained in sus- 
 pense until the vakeel from Mysoor was 
 suddenly withdrawn, and the old general 
 discovered that his whole stock of provisions 
 had been consumed, while the troops were 
 kept in a state of inactivity by the artifice 
 of Hyder. The subsequent attempts of the 
 English to force a battle were unavailins; ; 
 and matters grew from bad to worse, until 
 towards the close of the year, Coote, who 
 had previously sustained a fit of apoplexy, 
 now suffered afresh seizure, which compelled 
 him to resign the command to general 
 Stuart, and retire to Bengal. Madras was 
 by this time reduced to a terrible condition. 
 The ravages of famine, after spreading over 
 the whole Carnatic,t at length became felt 
 in the presidency, and increased with alarm- 
 ing rapidity, until the number of deaths 
 amounted to, and continued for several 
 weeks, at from 1,200 to 1,500. The French 
 appear to have been ignorant of the state of 
 affairs ; for they made no attempt to bloc- 
 kade the coast ; and supplies from Bengal 
 and the Northern Circars came in time to 
 aid in preventing the scourge of pestilence 
 from following the ravages of famine. Hyder 
 Ali had ever been accurately informed re- 
 garding the condition of every leading Eng- 
 lish settlement, and would doubtless have 
 not failed to take advantage of the condition 
 of the capital of the presidency, but that his 
 marvellous energies of mind and body, so 
 long vouchsafed, so terribly misused, were 
 fast failing. His health had been for some 
 time decluiiug, and, in November, symptoms 
 
 * The price paid to Sindia ■ko.s the surrender of 
 the city of iiroach and its dependencies. The ar- 
 rangements referred to (commonly known as the 
 Treaiy of Salhi/e) were concluded in May, 1782. 
 
 + An eye-witness pathetically describes the man- 
 ner in which the nf lives, " whose very excess and 
 luxury, in their most plenteous days, had fallen short 
 of our severest fasts — silent, patient, resigned without 
 sedition or disturhance, almost w;tnjut complaint," 
 perished in multitudes. — (Mcodie's Transactions.) 
 
 X It is said that Hyder, like Hamilcar, swore his 
 sen to wage incessant war against the English ; 
 but the tnUh of this assertion is doubtful. 
 
 § The age of Hyder is very differently stated. 
 Wilks (the best general authority regarding My- 
 soor) slates that he was seven years old in 1728, 
 which would make him about sixty at the time of 
 his death ; but Mill and other writers unanimously 
 speak of him as attaining a far more advanced 
 age ; and the careful and accurate Thornton 
 
 appeared of a mortal disease described as 
 peculiar to natives of high rank, and there- 
 fore called the raj-poora, or royal boil. He 
 died at Chittore, in December, 1782, f leaving 
 Tippoo§ to prosecute hostilities with the Eng- 
 lish. The defalcation of the Mahrattas had, 
 it is said, led him to regret the confederacy 
 he had formed, and even to regard it as the 
 most impolitic act of his whole career. " I 
 have committed a great error," he exclaimed 
 with bitterness; " I have purchased a draught 
 of seandeejl (worth about a farthing) at 
 the price of a lac of pagodas. I can ruin 
 their resources by land, but I cannot dry up 
 the sea."^ It would have been well for his 
 successor had he profited by this dear-bought 
 experience; but Tippoo, fierce, headstrong, 
 and bigoted, was the last person in the 
 world to gain wisdom on such easy terms. 
 A leading characteristic of Hyder had been 
 perfect toleration to every religious sect. 
 Though quite capable of respecting the 
 genuine piety of such a man as Svvartz, he 
 appears to have been himself devoid of any 
 belief whatever ; and alternately counter 
 nanced and joined in the ceremonial obser- 
 vances of the Mohammedans and Hindoos, 
 and even the grossest forms of idolatry, super- 
 stition, and magical incantation performed 
 by the latter, simply from motives of policy. 
 His cruelties, great and terrible as they 
 were, resulted from the same cause, except- 
 ing only those prompted by his unbounded 
 sensuality. Tippoo Sultan, on the contrary, 
 had all the insatiable ferocity of the wild 
 beast whose name he bore, when the fear- 
 ful relish for human blood has once been 
 acquired ; and none of his victims could have 
 suggested a more appropriate badge than 
 the stripe of the royal tiger, which formed 
 part of his insignia.** With him, the fiendish 
 
 describes him as little younger than Aurungzebe. 
 
 II Date wine, a cheap but very intoxicating liquor. 
 
 •U Mysoor, ii., 373. Col. Wilks gives this strange 
 confession on the authority of Poornea, the Hindoo 
 minister, to whom it was addressed. Hyder, it must 
 be recollected, had no ally on whom he could rely. 
 The Mahrattas had forsaken him, and from the 
 French he could only receive very partial aid, since 
 he had predetermined, under no circumstances, to 
 admit them in force to Mysoor. — {Linm, 374.) At a 
 very critical period (March, 1782), Hyder resented 
 the' attempt of a Frencli ofhcer to take possession of 
 ChiUambrum, by turning him out of the fort, and 
 the troops, having no bullocks, were actually com- 
 pelled to drag their artillery back to Porto Novo ! 
 
 •* Tippoo Sultan is thought to have been named 
 after a famous ascetic for whom Hyder Ali had a 
 regard, and who had assumed this strange designa- 
 tion to signify sovereignty obtained over the tiger- 
 like passions of the flesh. — (Wilks' Mysoor, ii., 567.)
 
 CIIAKACTER OF TIPPOO SULTAN— DEATH OF COOTK— 1783. 357 
 
 delight of inflicting pain and degradation, 
 pliysical and moral, seems to have been an 
 iustinc't (hivcloped eveil in early boyliooii. 
 
 In vain the stern reprimands of his 
 dreaded father were frequ(;iitiy sounded 
 in his ears ; in vain the repeated inflietion 
 of corporal punishment by the long whips, 
 which Ilyder (h'clarcd to be better security 
 for good government than all the reading 
 and writing in the worhl ; — Tippoo conhl 
 never be restrained from indulging the 
 vicious tendencies whicli subseipiently found 
 vent in the form of religious persecution. He 
 persisted in inilieting the outward mark of 
 Islam on such Christians as fell in liis 
 power,* and insulted the peaceful Hindoo 
 subjects of his father by wantonly defiling 
 their places of worship, and slaving the 
 animals they hold most sacred, especially 
 the sacred bulls, which he recommended to 
 his associates as the best possible beef Yet 
 Tippoo, stanch Mussulman as he deemed 
 himself, and sworn foe to idolatry, was not 
 the less a slave to the gross superstitions of 
 which the Brahminical creed of modern 
 times is so largely composed ; and, like Hydcr 
 himself, he rarely failed, in commencing a 
 difficult and dangerous undertaking, to have 
 the jebbum — a strange species of magical 
 incantation — performed on his behalf by 
 the Hindoos, simultaneously with the offer- 
 ing up of ])rayers for success in the mosques. t 
 Add to these cliaracteristies that of an irre- 
 pressible tendency for pilfering and lying, 
 and we have, perhaps, about as detestable a 
 person as can well be conceived. In acti- 
 vity in battle, he is said to have surpassed 
 his father, and to have equalled him in 
 personal daring; but in every other more 
 Heedful capacity of a despotic ruler, lie was 
 immeasurably inferior. His uncontested 
 succession was ensured by the manoeuvres of 
 two Brahmins, the chief ministers of Hy- 
 der,J who concealed the death of the 
 sovereign as long as possible, in order to 
 give his heir time to return from his post on 
 the western frontier of ^lysoor, whither he 
 
 * When a youth, his father punished him severely 
 for havinf; intiieted circumcision on an English sol- 
 dier, at a lime wlicn he was anxious to conciliate 
 the fjood-wili of the Madras presidency. 
 
 t The Jebbum, though ])uiely a Hindoo cere- 
 monial, was frequently resorted to by Mohamme- 
 dans; one, of which the details are on record, is 
 said to have cost Mohammed Ali £5,000, which he 
 did not grudge, since il killcil Lord Pir/ot ; and 
 another, after several failures, jiroduced the death 
 of Hyder himself — (Wilks' Mj/som: ii., 'lob.) 
 
 X The cliief ministers, rehitively speaking; for Hy- 
 der was himself the acting head of everv department. 
 3 A 
 
 had proceeded to repel the incursions 
 
 of the English under Colonel 1 1 umber- 
 stone. Lord Macartney, on learning the 
 late event, earnestly pressed tlie comrnan- 
 der-in-ehief (General Stuart) to take im- 
 mediate advantage of the confusion likely 
 to arise from a change of ruler. But 
 here again the spirit of disunion, which pre- 
 vailed to so remarkable an extent in the 
 Madras presidency, forbade speedy and com- 
 bined action. The general claimed to be 
 allowed to exercise the same independent au- 
 thority bestowed by the supreme government 
 on Sir Eyre Coote, and the governor con- 
 tended, as Hastings had done in Bengal, 
 for the entire subordination of the military 
 to the civil authority. The general, to vin- 
 dicate his alleged right, took tlie course 
 natural to an opiniatcd and narrow-minded 
 man, of acting in direct opposition to the 
 instructions given by the presidency ; and 
 during the remainder of this the first war 
 with the new ruler of Mysoor, the very 
 spirit of discord ruled in the senate, the 
 camp, and the field, neutralising every suc- 
 cess, and aggravating every disaster. By 
 the urgent solicitations of Hastings, Coote 
 was again induced to return to the Carnatic; 
 although, before liis departure from thence, 
 some serious disputes had taken place be- 
 tween him and Lord Macartney, notwith- 
 standing the care evinced by the latter to act 
 in the most conciliatory manner. But the 
 ill-defined authority vested in the Supreme 
 Council of Bengal, in conjunction with the 
 personal misunderstanding which unhappily 
 existed between Hastings and iLacartney,§ 
 tended to mingle personal feelings with 
 public questions ; and the dissensions be- 
 tween them increased in violence, until the 
 governor-general took the resolve not only 
 of delegating to Sir Eyre Coote tlie uncon- 
 trolled conduct of the war, but also, in the 
 event of determined resistance at Fort St. 
 George, of enforcing that measure by the 
 deposition of the president. The death of 
 Coote, four days after landing at Madras, || 
 
 § The spotless integrity of Lord Macartney was a 
 standing reproach to Hastings, who in dealing with 
 him completely lost his temper. Thus, in a commu- 
 nication dated 13th of April, 1783, he desires Lord 
 ALi artney to explain some misunderstanding which 
 liad arisen on an official subject, adding as a reason, 
 " if you consider the estimation of a man [the goy- 
 ernor-generai of India writing to the head of a 
 subordinate presidency !] so inconsiderable as I am 
 deserving of attention." — [Life, ii., t)3.) 
 
 II During the voyage. Coote was chased for two 
 days and nights by a French ship of the line; and 
 the agitation caused therebv accelerated his death.
 
 358 BEDNORE CAPTUEED FROM, AND REGAINED BY, TIPPOO— 1783. 
 
 perhaps prevented intestine strife ; for Lord 
 Macartney, though courteous and moderate, 
 was by no means inclined to submit tamely 
 to the lot of his predecessor, Lord Pigot. In 
 all other respects the loss of the experienced 
 general was a severe calamity. Despite the 
 irritation and excitability consequent on ill- 
 health, with other failings less excusable — 
 such as extravagance as a commander, and 
 covetousness in his private capacity — he pos- 
 sessed a degree of activity, precision, and 
 experience far beyond any of his compeers; 
 besides which, a frank soldierly manner, 
 aided by the charm of old association, and 
 his own strong attachment to the troops, 
 rendered him beloved by the army in gene- 
 ral, and especially by the native soldiers. 
 Many a white-haired sepoy, in after times, 
 loved to dwell on the service they had seen 
 under "Coote Bahadur;" and ottered, with 
 glistening eye and faltering voice, a grateful 
 tribute to his memory, while making a 
 military salutation to the portrait of the 
 veteran, suspended in the Madras exchange. 
 The death of Coote was nearly simultaneous 
 with the arrival of M. de Bussy. He had 
 been long expected ; but his plans had been 
 twice disconcerted by the capture of the 
 convoy destined to support him, by Admiral 
 Kempenfelt, in December, 1781. A similar 
 disaster occurred in April, 1782; and when, 
 after much delay, he reached the Carnatic in 
 the following June, he found a conjuncture of 
 affairs awaiting him by no means favourable 
 to his views. Hyder was dead, and Tippoo 
 absent on an expedition for the recovery of 
 Bednore, which had surrendered to an Eng- 
 lish force under General Matthews. This 
 enterprise, which unforeseen circumstances 
 alone rendered successful, had been under- 
 taken for the express purpose of withdraw- 
 ing the Mysoorcans from Arcot. The object 
 was accomplished, but the expected advan- 
 tages were greatly lessened by the previous 
 ill-advised destruction of the forts of Wan- 
 dewash and Carangoli, which had been 
 demolished by the for once united decision 
 of Lord Macartney and General Stuart, 
 although almost every military opinion, 
 from that time to the present, lius pro- 
 nounced the measure premature, if not 
 
 * The fjovenior was a chelnh, or slave, named Sheik 
 Ayaz, to whom liyder had been so strongly attached, 
 that he repeatedly declared he wished he had be- 
 gotten him instead of Tippoo. The consequence was, 
 Tippoo cordially hated Ayaz, and had arranged to 
 put him to death ; but the letter beinp; intercepted, 
 the intended victim hastened to make his escape. 
 
 t Bernadotte, afterwards Crown Prince of Swe- 
 
 wholly inexpedient. Considerable pecuniaiy 
 acquisitions were expected to be realised 
 from the capture of Bednore ; but these an- 
 ticipations proved delusive, — whether owing 
 to the large sums carried off by the native 
 governor (himself the intended victim of 
 Tippoo),* or whether from the peculation 
 of English officers, is a disputed question. 
 The place was only retained about three 
 months, at the end of which time it was 
 captured by Tippoo, who having (by his own 
 accoimt) discovered that the English officers, 
 in violation of the terms of capitulation dic- 
 tated by him, were carrying away treasure 
 and jewels to a large amount, caused them 
 all to be marched off in irons to different 
 prisons, where they endured a rigorous and 
 dreary captivity, terminated, in the case of 
 Matthews and several others, by a cruel death. 
 Meanwhile Bussy, disappointed in the hope 
 of joining the main body of the Mysoorean 
 army under Tippoo, concentrated his force 
 at Cuddalore, which was subsequently in- 
 vested by General Stuart. It was of evident 
 importance to use the utmost expedition in 
 order to forestal the large reinforcements ex- 
 pected from France, and which did eventually 
 arrive. Nevertheless, Stuart, although com- 
 pelled to some degree of obedience to the Ma- 
 dras government, contrived to neutralise their 
 plans by marching at the rate of three miles 
 a-day, and thus occupied forty days, instead 
 of the usual period of twelve, in reaching 
 Cuddalore. The siege,t when commenced, 
 proved long and sanguinary ; and in an 
 attack which took place on the 13th of June, 
 1783, the English lost upwards of 1,000 
 men. M. de Suifrein arrived shortly after, 
 and landed a body of 2,400 men to 
 strengthen the garrison ; but Stuart had 
 recklessly determined to carry out the 
 commands of the presidency as literally as 
 possible ; and all the British troops en- 
 trusted to his charge, including a detach- 
 ment tinder Colonel FuUarton, which had 
 marched to his aid from Tanjore, would 
 probably have been sacriliced to the spleen 
 of one unprincipled man, but for the arrival 
 of orders for tlie immediate cessation of 
 hostilities, in consequence of the peace 
 newly concluded betweett France and Eng- 
 
 dcn, was captured in a midnight sally made by the 
 garrison. He was treated with great kindness by 
 General Wangenheim. commandant of the Hano- 
 verian troops in the I''ngiisli service ; and in later 
 life, when their relative jiositions were strangely 
 altered, the general had am])le reason to remember, 
 with satisfaction, the compassion ho had evinced 
 towards the wounded sergeant. — (Wilks, ii., 442.)
 
 PEACE SIGNED WITH '1 ll'l'OO SULTAN— MAY, 1784. 
 
 55!) 
 
 land. 'I'liis intcllif^cnce, at an (finally oppor- 
 tune nionicnt, reached tlu; troops ('nf^a^cd in 
 the defence of Maii^alore, which, thou<;li 
 a place of very inferior strength, had stood a 
 siege of fifty-six days, the defence being 
 directed by Colonel Campbell, tiic attaeiv 
 by Tippoo himself, who had proceeded 
 thither with the main body after taking 
 Bcdnore. The French envoy, Pcveron, is 
 accused of having kept back the intelli- 
 gence he came to bring, in order to enable 
 Tippoo to retain the aid of Cossigny (the 
 French engineer), Lally, and Boudcnot. Tiie 
 declaration could, at length, be no longer 
 withheld. Cossigny quitted the Mysoor 
 army, and insisted on his companions with- 
 drawing likewise. Tippoo was beyond mea- 
 sure enraged by what he considered nothing 
 short of treacherous desertion ; and his late 
 allies, as the sole means of escaping urduirt 
 by his resentment, were glad to avail them- 
 selves of the protection of the l"]nglish. 
 After some unsuccessful attempts to carry 
 the place by his own unassisted strength, he 
 agreed to an armistice, to extend over the 
 coast of Malabar. (3ne leading condition 
 was the supply of a stated monthly allowance 
 of provisions to Mangalore, sufficient for the 
 use of the garrison without trenching on their 
 previous stock. This stipulation was broken 
 by his furnishing articles deficient in quan- 
 tity and deleterious in quality : no salt was 
 sent, and many of the sepoys, Colonel AA'ilks 
 affirms, became actually blind, as well as 
 affected by various other ailmti.ts, in conse- 
 quence of being compelled to eat rice in its 
 simple, undigestible state, without the addi- 
 tion of any of the usual coudimcnts. The 
 ]\Iadras government were extremely anxious 
 to conclude a peace ; and to this circum- 
 stance, as also to the want of union among 
 those in command, may be attributed the 
 supiueness of Ceneral INlaclend and the 
 scruples which prevented his eft'ective inter- 
 position for the succour of Mangalore, which, 
 after nearly a nine months' siege, fell before 
 its cruel and perfidious foe. Colonel Campbell 
 died soon after, overwhelmed with fatigue 
 and disappointment. Tippoo had succeeded 
 in his immediate object of proving to the 
 native Indian powers his sufficiency to 
 effect that which had baffled the skill and 
 discipline of his French auxiliaries: in every 
 other respect he had little reason to con- 
 gratulate himself on the conquest of an iu- 
 consider.iblc place, purchased by a long and 
 costly siege, which, besides having hindered 
 his attention to the affairs of his own 
 
 dominions, had left the English free to 
 
 gain consid(U'ai)lc advantages in other (|uar- 
 tcrs. The misconduct of (jeneral Stuart, in 
 the expedition to Cuddalorc, had filled the 
 measure of his ofl'enecs, and induced the 
 governor and council to order his arrest and 
 forcible embarkation for England.* After 
 this decisive measure matters took a difi'er- 
 cnt and far more favouraltle turn. 
 
 Tlu; abilities of Mr. Sulivan, the resident 
 at Tanjore. and of colonels Lang and Ful- 
 larton, had been successfully exerted in 
 various ways. Caroor and Diiidegul, Pal- 
 gaut and C'oimbatore, were captured; and 
 Colonel Fullarton was even preparing to as- 
 cend the (rliauts and march on Seringapa- 
 tam, when he received tidings of a treaty of 
 peace concluded between Tippoo Sultan and 
 the Madras government, on the basis of a 
 mutual restoration of conquests. The so- 
 called peace was, however, but a hollow 
 truce, to which nothing but fear of the 
 ]\Iahrattas and the Nizam had driven the 
 sultan. Throughout the whole of the ne- 
 gotiations he behaved in the most insulting 
 manner to the British commissioners,t 
 who had been inveigled to his court to be 
 lield up in the light of suitors for peace ; 
 and even when the treaty was concluded, 
 the fulfilment of his pledge of restoring his 
 ca[)tives to liberty, gave fresh occasion for 
 resentment, by revealing the treatment to 
 which they had been subjected. Hyder 
 had shown little humanity in his dealings with 
 English prisoners, whom he kept in irons, 
 chained in pairs, because "they were imruly 
 beasts, not to be kept quiet in any other 
 way." But Tippoo Sultan far surpassed his 
 father in barbarity, and the English learned, 
 with horror and indignation, that many 
 officers distinguished by rank, skill, or 
 bravery, had been poisoned or .assassinated 
 in their dungeons ; that others, especially the 
 younger of these unfortunates, had sutiered 
 torture and ignominy of a revolting descrip- 
 tion ; and that even the most fortunate among 
 the captives had sustained close confinement 
 in loathsome dens, their beds the damp 
 ground ; with food so miserably insufficient, 
 as to give scope for the untiring fidelity and 
 self-devotion of their native companions in 
 allliction, to show itself by the frequent 
 sacrifice of a portion of the scanty pittance 
 
 * One of the sons of Mohammed Ali expressed his 
 vi?w of the matter in broken English, by declaring 
 '• (ieiieral Stuart catch one Lord [Pigot], one Lord 
 [Macartney] catch General Stuart." 
 
 f Messrs. Sadleir, Staunton, and Hudleston.
 
 360 HISTORY OP CHEYTE SING, RAJAH OF BENARES— 1778-1781. 
 
 allowed for their maintenance, in return for 
 unremitting labour, to mend the fare of the 
 European soldiers.* 
 
 The treaty entered into with Tippoo by 
 the Madras authorities was transmitted to 
 Bengal, and signed by the Supreme Council, 
 on whom the full powers of government had 
 devolved, owing to the absence of Mr. 
 Hastings at Lucknow. On his return to 
 Calcutta, Hastings found much fault with 
 the treaty, especially because it made no 
 nrention of the nabob of Arcot. He drew 
 up a new one, and peremptorily commanded 
 the Madras authorities to forward it to 
 Tippoo. Macartney positively refused com- 
 pliance ; Hastings could not compel it ; and 
 so the matter ended. 
 
 Close of Hastings' Administration. — 
 Before the commencement of the war with 
 Hyder, the financial condition of every one of 
 the three presidencies had become seriously 
 embarrassed. In August, 1780, the Supreme 
 Council had been under the necessity of 
 contracting a new debt, and when to this 
 heavy burden on the Bengal revenues an 
 additional one was added by the costly 
 military operations required for the defence 
 of the Carnatic, the governor-general felt 
 compelled to announce to the directors the 
 probability of a total suspension of the in- 
 vestment, unless the purchase-money were 
 sent from England. Nothing short of the 
 most absolute necessity could, however, 
 induce Hastings to endanger his standing 
 with the Court of Proprietors, by the execu- 
 tion of so unpopular a measure, while any 
 source of supply remained available; yet 
 such as there were had been already severely 
 taxed. The nabob of Oude and the rajah of 
 Benares were tributary princes. Viewed in 
 this light, they were bound in all cases of 
 difficulty to furnish assistance to the superior 
 and protecting state. The degree of co- 
 operation to be afforded was an open ques- 
 tion, which Mr. Hastings, who now held un- 
 disputed sway in Bengal, thought fit to 
 decide in person, and, with that intent, pro- 
 ceeded to the wealthy, populous, and venera- 
 ted city of Benares. The rajah, Cheyte Sing, 
 was the son and successor of Bulwunt Sing, 
 whose alliance the English had courted 
 during the war with Shuja Dowlah. The 
 
 * Their exemplary conduct is the more deserving 
 of admiration from the r.evere trials to which their 
 fidelity had been recently exposed, as recorded in 
 the pages of Wilks, Fuliarton, and other military 
 authorities. The mismanagement of the finances of 
 the Carnatic had told fearfully on the condition of 
 the army; even veteran sepoys, who had served un- 
 
 usurping nabobs of Oude had asserted the 
 claim of the sword over the district of which 
 Benares forms the capital, on the plea of its 
 being a district dependent on their govern- 
 ment. Bulwunt Sing made common cause 
 with the English ; and on the conclusion of 
 peace, an article was expressly inserted to 
 secure him from the vengeance and cupidity 
 of the nabob-vizier. This proved increas- 
 ingly difficult; until at length, in 1774, it 
 was proposed by Mr. Hastings, as the sole 
 mode of protecting the rajah, to insist on 
 his being declared independent of Oude, and 
 tributary to Bengal. A stated sura was 
 fixed to be paid annually, and the Supreme 
 Council unanimously decreed that no more 
 demands of any kind should be made upon 
 him on behalf of the company. Cheyte 
 Sing forwarded the tribute to Patna with 
 remarkable regularity; nevertheless, in 1778, 
 the necessities of the presidency were consi- 
 dered to justify a demand for a heavy con- 
 tribution (five lacs of rupees) to be furnished 
 immediately. The rajah pleaded poverty, 
 and asked for time ; but troops were sent 
 against him, and he was compelled to furnish 
 the sum originally demanded, with a fine of 
 £2,000 for military expenses. He had, un- 
 happily, incurred the personal enmity of the 
 governor-general, by courting Clavering and 
 Francis during their brief day of power; and 
 the offence was one Hastings was little dis- 
 posed to let pass unpunished. In 1780, the 
 system of exaction commenced against Cheyte 
 Sing, was continued by a new demand of 
 five lacs, from which he endeavoured to gain 
 relief by arguments and supplications, en- 
 forced by a private offering of two lacs, 
 which Mr. Hastings accepted, not as a part 
 of the contribution, but as a distinct item, 
 and then proceeded as before to exact the 
 five lacs, with an additional mulct or fine of 
 £10,000, for the trouble of compelling pay- 
 ment. In 1781, the unfortunate rajah was 
 again importuned for supplies of money and 
 troops ; but this time unreasonable demands 
 appear to have been made, simply with the 
 object of provoking conduct which was to 
 serve as a plea for the complete confiscation 
 of his whole possessions. The amount now de- 
 manded was not to be less than fifty lacs, with 
 a contingent of 1,000 men. The rajah be- 
 
 der Clive, were but imperfectly, if at all provided for. 
 Colonel Fnllarton expressly slates, that the natives 
 under his command were nearly twelve months in 
 arrear, and that many wei'e driven to such extremities 
 as to be compelled to sell their children into slavery 
 to save themselves from starvation. — [View of Etig- 
 lii/t Interests in India, 1782 to 1784; pp. 98—201.)
 
 DEPOSITION OF CIIEYTE SING, RAJAH OF BENARES— 1781. 861 
 
 havcd with remarkable moderation: lip(loiil)t- 
 less (juessod tlio views entertained by Has- 
 tinfjs — citlier tlie seizure of liis forts with 
 tbeir eontents, or the sale of liis dominions 
 to tlie nder of Oude ; and he. left no means 
 untried to avert, by submission, evils which 
 it was hopeless to combat by force. On the 
 approach of the governor-f^eneral, he went 
 to meet him with every demonstration of 
 respect ; and, in token of entire submission, 
 laid his turban on the; lap of the reserved 
 and imjiassive Euf^lishman, the last act of 
 humiliation in a country, where, to be bare- 
 headed, is considered unspeakable degrada- 
 tion. This conduct did not check, per- 
 haps it accelerated the extreme measures 
 adopted by Hastings, who asserted that be- 
 sides falsely pleadiup; poverty, the rajah was 
 really plottitig to become perfectly indepen- 
 dent of the presidency ; but to this charjje 
 his youth and inexperience att'ord the best 
 contradiction, when viewed in conjunction 
 with the unresisting^ manner in which he 
 suffered the governor-general to take pos- 
 session of Benares, though attended by a 
 very slender escort, and even to go the 
 length of arresting and confining him to his 
 own palace. The two companies of sepoys 
 placed on guard there, were not provided 
 with ammunition, so little was any resis- 
 tance anticipated on the part of this incipient 
 rebel. The people were expected to witness, 
 with indifference, the change of rulers. On 
 the contrary, they were rendered desperate 
 by an aggression which involved the downfall 
 of one of their own race and religion, to be 
 followed by the transfer of the sacred city 
 and its fertile environs into the hands of 
 aliens, who had no sympathies with their 
 creed, and no interest in their welfare. 
 Groat crowds assembled round the palace 
 and blocked up all the avenues; and before 
 reinforcements with ammunition could ar- 
 rive to support the sepoy guard, a furious 
 attack liad been made, in which the greater 
 part perished. The rajah, so far from com- 
 ing forth to head the mob, took advantage 
 of the confusion to make his escape, and 
 was let down the steep bank of the Ganges, 
 by means of turbans tied together, into 
 a boiit which conveyed him to the oppo- 
 site shore. The multitude rushed after 
 him, leaving the palace to be occupied by 
 the English troops. Had they at once pro- 
 ceeded in search of Hastings, no effective re- 
 sistance could have been offered, since he had 
 no protection beyond that of the thirty gen- 
 tlemen of liis party and fifty armed sepoys. 
 
 Cheyte Sing had, however, no thought of 
 
 organised operations against his ])erseeutor, 
 and he sent repeated apologies, and ofl'ers 
 of the most com[)lete submission, all of 
 which were treated with contemptuous dis- 
 regard. The numbers of the insurgents 
 continued to increase ; the building in which 
 the Jlnglish party had taken up their abode 
 was blockaded, and the sole means of con- 
 veying intelligence to Bengal was by the 
 subtlety of native messengers, who, taking 
 advantage of the custom of laying aside in 
 travelling their large golden earrings, becau.se 
 tempting to thieves, placed on this occasion 
 not the ordinary quill or roll of blank paper 
 in the orifice, but dispatches from Has- 
 tings to the commanders of British troops to 
 come to his rescue, liefore these orders 
 could be executed, affairs assumed a still 
 more menacing aspect. A slight skirmish, 
 brought on by a premature attack made 
 by an English oflScer, at the head of a 
 small body of men, on Ramnagur, a for- 
 tified palace beyond the river, terminated 
 in the death of the leader, and many of his 
 followers by the hands of the people of Be- 
 nares. The survivors retreated ; and Has- 
 tings, alarmed for his own safety, fled by 
 night to the fortress of Chunar, leaving the 
 wounded sepoys behind. The excitement 
 spread for hundreds of miles ; the husband- 
 man quitted the field, the manufacturer his 
 loom, and rallied round Cheyte Sing ; the 
 oppressed population of Oude rose against 
 the misgovernment of Asuf Dowlah and his 
 English allies ; and even Bahar seemed ripe 
 for revolt. The rajah at length assumed a 
 haughty and defiant tone ; but the absence 
 of skill or discipline rendered the tumul- 
 tuary force thus voluntarily assembled utterly 
 incapable of taking the field against a Euro- 
 pean army, and the troops, under ^lajor 
 Popham, were everywhere victorious. The 
 fastnesses of the rajah were stormed, his 
 adherents, to the number of 30,000, forsook 
 his standard, and returned to their ordinary 
 avocations, while their late ruler quitted the 
 country for perpetual exile. Benares was 
 anne.xed to the British dominions. To 
 save appearances, a relation of the banished 
 ruler was appointed rajah, but, like the 
 nabob of Bengal, he became a mere stipen- 
 diary, removable at the pleasure of the pre- 
 sidency. This tyrannical procedure com- 
 pletely failed in promoting the avowed ob- 
 ject of Hastings — the attainment of a large 
 sum of ready money ; for, notwithstanding 
 the indignities used in searching even the
 
 362 MORTIFYING RESULT OF EXPEDITION TO BENARES— 1781. 
 
 persons as well as the wardrobes of the mother, 
 wife, and other females of the family of Chevte 
 Sing (in violation of the articles of capitula- 
 tion), the booty realised was not only un- 
 expectedly small (£250,000 to £300,000), 
 but was wholly appropriated as prize-money 
 by the armv.* Thus the immediate effect 
 of the expedition was to enhance the diffi- 
 culties it was intended to relieve, by the 
 expenses attendant on putting down a re- 
 volt wantonly provoked ; and so far from 
 meetinsf the approbation of the company, 
 the conduct pursued towards the rajah was 
 denounced as " improper, unwarrantable, 
 and highly impolitic." Nevertheless, the 
 war into which Cheyte Sing had been driven 
 was held to justify his expulsion from Be- 
 nares ; and the positive declaration of Has- 
 tings, that an order for the reinstatement of 
 the rajah would be regarded by him as the 
 signal for his own instant resignation of 
 office, probably prevented any step being 
 taken to make amends for past wrongs. 
 
 The next expedient adopted to fill the 
 empty treasury of Calcutta, was more suc- 
 cessful in its results, but, if possible, more 
 discreditable in character. Asuf-ad-Dow- 
 lah, the successor of Shuja Dowlah, was 
 a young man, not devoid of a certain 
 description of abilityt and kindly feeling ; 
 but his better qualities were neutralised 
 by an amount of indolence and sensuality, 
 which rendered him a political nobody in 
 the sight of the presidency, and a severe 
 scourge to his subjects by reason of the ex- 
 tortions and cruelty perpetrated in his name 
 by unworthy favourites. Already sundry 
 concessions (such as the Benares tribute) 
 had been extorted fi'om him, which Has- 
 tings would never have so much as pro- 
 posed to his father; and these, together 
 with general misgovernment and extrava- 
 gance, had reduced the treasury of Oudc 
 to a condition which left its master little to 
 fear from the rapacity of his neighbours. 
 Continued drought had heightened his dis- 
 tress, by diminishing the power of the 
 people to meet the heavy taxation demanded 
 
 from them ; and he found himself unable to 
 pa}^ any portion of the arrears of his own 
 mutinous troops, much less to maintain the 
 costly detachment and the long train of 
 officials, civil as well as military, forced 
 upon him by the English. 
 
 In an evil hour he sougiit counsel with 
 the governor-general at Chunar, pleaded 
 poverty, and gave as one, among many 
 reasons for inability to fulfil the heavy con- 
 ditions into which he had been led to enter, 
 the large proportion of his father's wealth 
 bequeathed to his mother and grandmother. 
 These princesses had been uniformly treated 
 by Shuja Dowlah with the highest con- 
 sideration and respect : his wife, especially, 
 had won his entire confidence by repeated 
 evidences of energetic and devoted affection. 
 During his lifetime the chief direction of 
 his pecuniary affairs had been entrusted to 
 her management, and, after his death, the 
 two ladies remained in possession of certain 
 extensive jaghires, with other property, to -a 
 large extent ; not for their exclusive use, 
 but for the maintenance of the rest of 
 his family and those of preceding nabobs, 
 amounting (including female retainers of all 
 kinds) to about 2,000 persons. The profli- 
 gate prince had early coveted the inheri- 
 tance of his relatives, and he continued to 
 exact contributions from them, until his 
 mother, wearied and alarmed by his impor- 
 tunities and injurious treatment, consented to 
 surrender an additional sum of thirty lacs, on 
 condition of his signing a formal pledge, gua- 
 ranteed by the Supreme Council of Bengal, 
 that she should be permitted to enjoy 
 her jaghires and effects exempt from fur- 
 ther persecution. This covenant, effected 
 through the mediation of Bristowe, the 
 English resident at Lucknow, was approved 
 of and confirmed by the majority then 
 dominant in Calcutta. Hastings disap- 
 proved, but being in the minority, could 
 offer no effective opposition. In 1 781 , when 
 his authority became again (for a time) su- 
 preme, he scrupled not to set aside all 
 former promises by empowering the nabob 
 
 * Hastings would seem to have outwitted himself 
 in this matter. The wife of Cheyte Sing was a per- 
 son of liigh character, niucli-beloved and tstcemed, 
 and safety and respect for her person, tof;ether witli 
 those of the other ladies of the family of the ill-fated 
 rajah, were among the express terms of capitula- 
 tion. Yet Hastings was unmanly enough to ques- 
 tion the "expediency of the promised indulgence to 
 the ranee," and to suggest that she would " contrive 
 to defraud the captors of a considerable portion of the 
 booty, by being suffered to retire without examina- 
 
 tion." The intimation did not pass unheeded. The de- 
 fenceless ladies were subjected to the insulting search 
 of four females, but with what effect does not ap- 
 pear ; and their persons were further insulted by thw 
 licentious people and followers of the cnmp. But 
 the officers and soldiery maintained that llastings 
 liad exjiressly made over to thimi the whole profits of 
 this nefarious transaction, and would not so much as 
 lend a ])ortion to government. The share of the com- 
 nuinder-iu-chief wiis X'^O-OOO. — (Mill, Moodie, Arc.) 
 ■j- I'iclc tlie charming stanzas translated bylleber.
 
 TREATY OF CIIUNAR, 1781— BEGUMS OF OUDE TORTURE— 1783. 363 
 
 to take possession of the jaghircs of Ijotli 
 princesses, as a. means of i)ayin}( liis debts 
 to the eonipaiiy; and, as a further assistance, 
 the I'Jn<^lisli troops, wliose maintenance 
 l>resse(l h(!avily on tlie Oiide revenues, were 
 to he withdrawn. Mr. llastinf^s asserted, 
 in justification of his eonchiet, tliat the 
 bef^ums had evinced an inclination to take 
 part witli ('hcytc Sin;^ ; but the accusa- 
 tion is improl)al)lc in itself, and uiisui)- 
 ported by any reliable evidence : their other 
 alleged fault — of embarrassing the gov- 
 eruraeut of the nabob — was contradicted by 
 the statements repeatedly forwarded by the 
 English resident, of the persecutions endured 
 by them at the hands of the local authori- 
 ties. Asuf-ad-l)o\vlah (who, ever since the 
 covenant signed in 177"), had been repeatedly 
 violating it in dill'erent ways) was at first 
 delighted at having his refractory relatives 
 deprived of the protection to which they 
 had constantly appealed ; but on quitting 
 Chunar, and regaining his own dominions, 
 he began to consider the matter in a dif- 
 ferent light. Unsupported by the plausible 
 reasoning of Hastings, the proposed plan of 
 despoiling his mother and grandmother 
 appeared fraught with ignominy ; and Mr. 
 Middleton (who had been recently restored 
 to the position of British resident) described, 
 in the strongest terms, the almost uncon- 
 querable repugnance evinced by the nabob 
 towards the violent measures agreed on at 
 (Chunar. He was peremptorily informed, 
 that in the event of his continued refusal, the 
 seizure of the jaghires and personal property 
 of the begums would be accomplished by 
 the English without his co-operation. The 
 weak and vacillating prince, fearful of the 
 ctfect such an assumption of authority by 
 foreigners might produce on the minds of 
 his subjects, reluctantly consented to ac- 
 company the expedition sent to attack the 
 princesses in tlieir own territory, in the 
 
 * MiiUlleton's defence. Vide House of Commons 
 Papers, Mardi, 1781 ; and Milfs India, vol. iv. 
 
 I The account of these disgraceful proceedings is 
 very fraf;mentary, but amply suftieient to warrant the 
 assertions made in the text. Three principal facts 
 are on record. The first is a letter from Middleton 
 to the Knf;lish officer on guard, dated January, 1782, 
 desiring that theeunuchsshould "be put in irons, kept 
 from all food," iVrc. The second is a letter from the 
 same officer to the president, jileading the sickly 
 condition *f his prisoners as a reason lor temporarily 
 removiny' their chains, and allowing them to take a 
 little exercise in the fresh air. This was refused, 
 and the captives were removed to Lvicknow. Tlie 
 third comnninication, addressed still by one com- 
 pany's servant to another, is a direct order for the ad- 
 ■ mission of torturers to " inflict corporal punishment" 
 
 commencement of the year 1782. The 
 town and castle of Fyzabad (the second 
 jilace in Oude) were oeeupied witiiout blood- 
 shed, the avenues of the palae(' blocked up, 
 and the begums given to understand that 
 no severities would be spared to compel 
 the complete surrender of their property. 
 But here a serious obstacle presented itself. 
 Even Middleton doubted what description 
 of coercion could be effectually adopted, 
 without offering an offence of the most un- 
 ])ardonable description to the whole native 
 |)0|)ulation ; for the ladies were hedged in 
 by every protection which rank, station, and 
 character could confer, to enhance the force 
 of oiiinion which, on all such occaiions, is 
 in the east so strong and invariable, " that 
 no nuin, either by himself or his troops, can 
 enter the walls of a zenana, scarcely in the 
 case of acting against an open enemy, much 
 less the ally of a son acting against liis own 
 mother."* In this dilemma it was deemed 
 advisable to work upon the fears and sym- 
 pathies of the begums in the persons of 
 their chief servants, two eunuchs, who had 
 long been entrusted with the entire manage- 
 ment of their affairs. There is, perhaps, no 
 page in Anglo-Indian history so deeply 
 humiliating to our national feelings, as that 
 which records the barbarities inflicted on 
 these aged men, during a period of nearly 
 twelve months. Certainly no other instance 
 can be found equally illustrative of the false 
 varnish which Hastings habitually strove 
 to spread over his worst actions, than the 
 fact that, after directing the mode of dealing 
 with the eunuchs — by rigorous confinement 
 in irons, total deprivation of food, and, 
 lastly, by direct torture ;t after inciting 
 the indirect persecution of the princesses 
 and the immense circle of dependants left 
 to their charge l)y the nabob-vizier, by 
 cutting oft' their supplies of food and neces- 
 saries ;J — after quarreUing with and dismiss- 
 on two aged prisoners accused of excessive fidelity to 
 their mistresses ; and lest the feelings of a British 
 ofHcer should rise against the atrocities about to be 
 inflicted, an express injunction was added, that the 
 executioners were to have " free access to the pri- 
 soners, and to be permitted to do with them wh.it- 
 ever they thought proper." — (Idem.) 
 
 X The women of the zenana were at various times 
 on the eve of perishing for want ; and on one occasion 
 the Jiangs of hunger so completely overpowered the 
 ordinary restraints of custom, that they burst in a 
 body from the palace and begged for food in the 
 public bazaar, but were driven back with blows by 
 the sepoys in the service of the E. I. Cy. — (Dr. 
 Moodie"s Transnctions, p. 405.') Major Gilpin, the 
 commandant of the guard, humanely adTanced 
 10,(100 rupees for the relief of these unfortunates.
 
 364 PARTIAL RESTORATION OF THEIR JAGHIRES TO THE BEGUMS. 
 
 fng his favourite employe Middleton, for hav- 
 ing been backward in conducting a business 
 from which a gaoler of Newgate prison 
 might turn with disgust, — he, nevertheless, 
 when it became advisable to adopt lenient 
 measures (since no further payments could be 
 extorted by cruelty), had the consummate 
 hypocrisy to remove the guard from the palace 
 of the begums, and release the eunuchs, on 
 the express understanding that their suffer- 
 ings had proceeded from the nabob and 
 his ministers, but their release from his 
 own compassionate interference. The pre- 
 vious ill-feeling justly entertained by the 
 princesses and their adherents against Asuf- 
 ad-Dowlah, probably lent some counte- 
 nance to this untruth ; and the commanding 
 officer by whom the eunuchs were set at 
 liberty, described, in glowino; terms, the 
 lively gratitude expressed by them towards 
 their supposed liberator. " The enlargement 
 of the prisoners, their quivering lips and 
 tears of joy, formed," writes this officer, " a 
 truly affecting scene." He adds a remark, 
 which could scarcely fail to sting the pride, 
 if not the conscience, of one so susceptible 
 of censure in disguise — " If the prayers of 
 these poor men will avail, you will, at the 
 last trump, be translated to the happiest 
 regions in heaven."* In the benefits to be 
 derived from the recent despoliation, 
 Hastings hoped to share largely, for he 
 expected that the E.J. Cy., in gratitude for 
 an accession of £600,000 to their exhausted 
 treasury, would cheerfully assent to his 
 appropriation of the additional sum of 
 £100,000, which he had actually obtained 
 bonds for from Asuf-ad-Do\vlah at Chunar. 
 An extortion like this, committed at a time 
 when the excessive poverty and heavy debts 
 of the nabob-vizier, the clamours of his 
 nnpaid troops, and the sufferings of the 
 mass of the people, were held forth in ex- 
 tenuation of the oppression of his mother 
 and grandmother, together with other acts 
 of tyrannous aggression, needs no comment. 
 The directors positively refused to permit 
 his detention of the money, and, moreover, 
 commanded that a rigorous investigation 
 should be instituted into the charges of 
 disaffection brought against the begums ; 
 and that, in the event of their innocence 
 being proved, restitution should be made. 
 
 • Pari. Papers, quoted l>y Mill, iv., 458. 
 
 t LeUer of Haslin^js to coiiiicil, 1784. They gave 
 rich gif'Ls to -Mrs. Hastings, in the I'orra of chairs 
 and couches of exquisitely cru'ved ivory, &c. 
 
 t Except a heavy exaction from FyzooUa Khan. 
 
 Hastings strongly deprecated this equitable 
 measure. He urged that the evidence 
 ofl'ered under such circumstances would be 
 sure to be favourable to persons whose cause 
 should be so manifestly upheld by the com- 
 pany ; and supported his views on the sub- 
 ject by many characteristic arguments, such 
 as its being unsuitable to the majesty of 
 justice to challenge complaint. A compro- 
 mise was effected ; the nabob, at his own 
 urgent desire, was permitted to restore the 
 jaghires wrested from his relatives ; while 
 the ladies, on their part, thankful for even 
 this scanty justice, " made a voluntary con- 
 cession of a large portion of their respective 
 shares" of the newly-restored rents, j- 
 
 This transaction is the last of any impor- 
 tance in the administration of Warren 
 Hastings. J V^arious causes appeared to have 
 concurred to render him as anxious to re- 
 sign as he had once been to retain his post. 
 The absence of his wife, to whom he was 
 tenderly attached, and his own failing 
 health, had doubtless their share in ren- 
 dering him weary of a task, the difficulties of 
 which had been lately increased by a change 
 in the council-board calculated to destroy 
 the despotic power essential to the policy of 
 a ruler, whose measures, however cleverly 
 planned and boldly executed, were rarely of 
 a character to bear impartial, much less 
 hostile criticism. Beside these reasons, his 
 opponents suggested that of recent private 
 extortions from the nabob-vizier; and it can- 
 not be forgotten, that although he pleaded 
 urgent necessity as an inducement for the 
 directors to suffer him to appropriate the 
 bonds obtained at Chunar, yet, about three 
 years later, he was enabled, notwithstand- 
 ing his habitual extravagance, to bring 
 home a fortune avowedly not far short of 
 £100,000, apart from the costly jewels 
 exhibited by Mrs. Hastings, and the well- 
 ! furnished private purse which there are 
 grounds for believing her to have possessed. 
 
 The prolonged administration of Hastings, 
 his winning manner, and conversance with 
 native languages, together with the im- 
 posing efl'ect of the state by which he had, 
 from motives of policy, thought fit to sur- 
 round himself, made a deep impression on 
 the minds of the Indian pojjulation. 1 have 
 myself met with ballads, similar to those 
 alluded to by Hcbcr and IMacaulay, which 
 commemorate the swift steeds and richly- 
 caparisoned elephants of " Sahib Ilushting;" 
 they likewise record his victory over Nun- 
 couiar who refused to do him homage.
 
 HASTINGS RETURNS TO ENGLAND, 1785— HIS IMPEACHMENT. 305 
 
 Tlio Incliaii version of tlic story makes, 
 liovvcvcr, no mention of tlie accusation of 
 forgery, but resembles rather tlic scripture 
 Btory of Hamaii and INlordceai, witli a difler- 
 ent ending. 'J'lio IJcngaleus jjossiljiy never 
 understood the real and lasting injury done 
 tlieni by Hastings, in fastening round their 
 necks the chains of monopoly, despite the 
 opposition of liis colleagues, and contrary 
 to the. orders of the company. Once fully 
 in 0|)eration, tlu; profits of exclusive trade 
 in salt and opium* became so large, that its 
 renunciation could s])i'ing onh' from philan- 
 thropy of the purest kind, or policy of the 
 broadest and most liberal character. With 
 his countrymen in India, Warren Hastings 
 was in general popular. It had been his 
 unceasing effort to purchase golden opinions ; 
 and one of the leading accusations brought 
 against him by the directors, was the wilful 
 increase of governmental expenses by the 
 creation of supernMmcrai'y offices to provide 
 for adherents, or to encourage those already 
 in place by augmented salaries. His own 
 adr.iissions prove, that attachment to his 
 person, and unquestioning obedience to his 
 commands, were the first requisites for 
 subordinates; and the quiet perseverance 
 with which he watched his opportunity of 
 rewarding a service, or revenging a " per- 
 sonal liurt," is not the least remarkable fea- 
 ture in his character. 
 
 lie quitted India in February, 1785. 
 Notwithstanding the unwarrantable mea- 
 sures adopted by him to raise the revenues 
 and lessen the debts of the company, he 
 failed to accomplish these objects, and, on 
 the contrary, left them burdened with an 
 additional debt of twelve-and-a-half mil- 
 lion, and a revenue which (including the 
 provision of an Euro[)can investment) was 
 not equal to the ordinary expenses of the 
 combined settlements. t Doubtless, great 
 allowance must be made for the heavy drain 
 occasioned by the pressing wants of the 
 Bombay and JIadras presidencies, and de- 
 cided commendation awarded for the ener- 
 getic steps taken to avert the ruin in which 
 the Mahratla war and the invasion of Hyder 
 
 • The 12th article of impeachment .igainst Has- 
 tings set forth, "that he granted to Stc])hen Sulivan, 
 son of Lawrence Sulivan, chairman of the Court of 
 Directors, a contract for four years for the provision 
 of opium ; that in order to pay for the opium so pro- 
 vided, he borrowed Kirge sums at an interest of eight 
 per cent., at a time when he declared the drug could 
 not be ex])orted with prolit ; and yet he sent it to 
 China, which was an act of additional criminality, ns 
 he l:ii*:w that the iiiij/vvtdfion qf<>j)itiin utts ^jyultihitcd 
 3 B 
 
 threatened to involve these possessions : 
 but it is equally true, that the double-faced 
 and gras|)ing policy of the governor-general 
 tended to neutralise the benefit of his coa 
 rage and decision, and, as in the case of 
 Lord I'igot, fomented, instead of allaying, 
 the evils of dissension and venality, which 
 were more destructive to the interests of 
 the E. I. Cy. than any external O])position. 
 
 Had Hastings resolved to abide by the 
 conviction whicli led him on one occasion to 
 exclaim, that he " wished it might be made 
 felony to break a treaty," the consequences 
 would have been most beneficial both to 
 India and to England, and would, at the 
 same time, have saved him long years of 
 humiliation and anxiety. He little thought 
 that the Rohilla war, the sale of Allahabad 
 and Oudc, and the i)ersccution of the begums, 
 would rise in judgment against him on 
 his return to his native land, — bar his path to 
 titles and offices of state, and compel him to 
 sit down in the comparatively liumble posi- 
 tion ■which had formed the object of his 
 boyish ambition, as master of Daylesjford, 
 the ancient estate of his famih'. 
 
 But Francis, now a member of parliament, 
 had not been idle in publishing the evil 
 deeds which he had witnessed without power 
 to prevent ; and Burke, whose hatred of 
 oppression equalled his sympathy for suffer- 
 ing, brought forward the impeachment as a 
 question which every philanthropist, every- 
 one interested in the honour of England or 
 the welfare of India, was bound to treat as 
 of vital importance. Political motives, of 
 an exceptionable character, on the part of 
 the ministers, favoured the promoters of the 
 trial; and after many tedious preliminaries, 
 Warren Hastings apj>eared at the bar of the 
 House of Lords, and knelt before the tri- 
 bunal of his country, in j)rcsence of one of 
 the most remarkable assemblages ever con- 
 vened in the great hall of A\ illiam Rufus. 
 Of the brilliant aristocracies of rank, talent, 
 wealth, and beauty, of which England then 
 boasted, few members were absent. Tb.e 
 queen and princesses had come to witness 
 the impeachment of a subject known to 
 
 hy the Chuiese." Sulivan sold the coitract to a Air. 
 Benn for £10,000; Benn to a Mr. Young for £60,000; 
 and the latter reaped a large profit. — (.Mill.) 
 
 t A comparison of the receipts and disbursements 
 of the year ending April, 17S6, exhibited a deficit 
 of about £1.300,000. The arrears of the army 
 amounted to two million ; and " the troops at Madras 
 and Bombay were in a state of utter destitution, 
 and some of them in open mutiny." The ascertained 
 Bensial debt alone was about four million sterling.
 
 ^6G DEATH OP HASTINGS— CORNWALLIS'S ADMINISTRATION— 1786. 
 
 have enjoyed no ordinary share of royal 
 favour, and to listen to the charges urged 
 against him by the thrilling eloquence of 
 Burke, the solid reasoning of Fox, and 
 the exciting declamation of Sheridan. The 
 trial commenced with a strong feeling 
 on the part of the public against the ac- 
 cused ; but it dragged on, like most state 
 proceedings, until people ceased to care how 
 it ended. At length, after seven years 
 spent in law proceeding;s of a most tedious 
 character, the wrongs inflicted in a distant 
 clime, and at a distant period, became 
 almost a matter of indifference : a sort of 
 sympathy, such as is often felt for acknow- 
 ledged criminals, took the place of lively 
 indignation ; and when the inquiry ended 
 in the acquittal of Hastings, he was 
 generally'' believed to have been sufficiently 
 punished by the insuperable obstacles whicli 
 his peculiar position had imposed to prevent 
 his selection for any public office, and by 
 the ruinous condition to which his finances 
 had been reduced by the costly expenses, 
 legitimate and illegitimate, of the painful 
 ordeal through which he had passed. The 
 law charges alone exceeded £76,000. Pro- 
 bably still larger sums were expended in 
 vrious kinds of secret service — " in bribing 
 newspapers, rewarding pamphleteers, and 
 circulating tracts;"* beside iil2,000 spent 
 in purchasing, and .€48,000 in adorning, 
 Daylesford : so that Hastings, when finally 
 dismissed, turned from the bar of the House 
 of Lords an absolute pauper — worse than 
 that — an insolvent debtor. The company 
 came to his relief with an annuity of £1,000 
 a-year, and a loan of £50,000, nearly half 
 of which was converted into a giftj and 
 they continued to aid him at intervals, in 
 his ever-recurring difficulties, up to the 
 period of his death, in 1818, aged eighty-six. 
 
 • Macaulay's Essay on Hastings, p. 100. 
 
 t Lord Macartney, on taking possession of the 
 office of president of Madras, made a formal slale- 
 ment of liis property, and on quitting office presented 
 to tiie company a precise account of tiie increase 
 effected during tfie interval. Tlie E. I. Cy. met him 
 in tlie same frank and generou.s spirit by the gift 
 of an annuity of i;i,oOO. It is to be regretted tliat 
 he lent the sanction of example to the vice of duel- 
 ling, then frightfully nrevalent, by a meeting with a 
 member of council (Mr. Sadleir) wilh whom a mis- 
 understanding had arisen in tlie course of ofKcial 
 duty. On his return to J'highind he was challenf;cd 
 by General Stuart, and slightly wounded. Tlie 
 leconds interfered, and the contest terminated, though 
 Stuart declared himself iiiisatishrd. 
 
 \ The establishment of a 15oard of Control, with 
 other important measures, respectively advocated by 
 Fo.x or I'itt, will bo noticed in a subsequent section. 
 
 Administration op Lokd Cobnwallis.— 
 The government of Lord Macartney termi- 
 nated in Madras about the same time as 
 that of I\L'. Hastings in Bengal ; and a high 
 testimony to the ability and unsullied integ- 
 rityt of the former gentleman, was afforded 
 by the ofl'cr of the position of governor- 
 general, which he declined accepting, unless 
 accompanied by a British peerage. This 
 concession wg,s refused, on the ground that, 
 if granted, it would convey to the public 
 an impression that a premium was neces- 
 sary to induce persons of consideration in 
 England to fill the highest office in ludi.a, 
 and the appointment was consequently con- 
 ferred on Lord Cornwallis. To him was 
 entrusted the charge of carrying into exe- 
 cution some important alterations contem- 
 plated by the act of parliament passed in 
 178-1; and by means of an express provision 
 in the act of 1786, the powers of com- 
 mander-in-chief were united in his person 
 with that of the greatly enlarged authority 
 of governor-general. f He arrived in Cal- 
 cutta in the autumn of 1786, and immediately 
 commenced a series of salutary and much- 
 needed reforms, both as regarded the collec- 
 tion of revenue and the administration of 
 justice. Mr. Macpherson, the senior member 
 of council,§ who had temporarily presided 
 over the affairs of government, had success- 
 fully exerted himself to diminish the waste 
 of the public finances connived at by his 
 predecessor ; and Lord Cornwallis set about 
 the same task with a steadiness of principle 
 and singleness of motive to whicl; both Eng- 
 lish officials and Indian subjects had been 
 long unaccustomed. The two great measures' 
 which distinguish his internal policy, are the 
 establishment of a fixed land-rent through- 
 out Bengal, in exact accordance with the 
 opinions of Francis ; and the formation of a 
 
 § Mr. Wheler was dead. Jlr. (afterwards Sir 
 John) Macpherson went to India, in 1700, as purser 
 in a vessel commanded by his uncle, contrived to 
 ingratiate himself witli the nabob of Arcot, and ro- 
 turned to I'higland as his agent. AflL'r a strange 
 series of adventures, which it is not necessary to 
 follow in detail, he rose to the position of acting 
 governor-general, in which capacity he obtained fur 
 tlic company the valuable settlement of Penang or 
 Prince of Wales' Island, by an arrangement with the 
 King of (iueda. His brief administration was like- 
 wise marked by a duel with Major 13rown (on the 
 Bengal establishment.) The Court of directors, tired 
 of witnessing the peaci.' of their territories endangered 
 by such proceedings, unanimously nihxed the pi nalty 
 of dismissal from tiie conijiitny's service to any iierson 
 who should send a challenge oi\ account of matters 
 arising out of the discharge of their ollicial duties. — 
 (Auber's liritish India, ii., 39.)
 
 IMMENSE DESTRUCTION OE LIFE HY TIPPOO SU-LTAN— 1785, 8G7 
 
 judicial system to protect property. The 
 necessity of eomiiif^ to some sjiccdy scllle- 
 nieiit rcj.;ardiiig tlio collection of tcriitoriul 
 rcven\ie, whether under tlic dcnoniiTiation 
 of a rent or a tax, is the l)est apology for tiie 
 necessarily imperfect character of the system 
 framed at this period on the sound principle 
 of giviuij; a proprietary ri^ht iu the soil; but 
 even a brief statement of the different views 
 taken hy the advocates of the zeniindarrce 
 settlement, and of tlic opposite art^uments 
 of those who consider the riniit in the soil 
 vested in the ryots or cultivators, would 
 mar the continuity of the narrative. 
 
 The foreign policy of the governor-general 
 was characterised hy the novel feature of the 
 reduction of the rate of tribute demanded 
 from a dei)cndent prince. Asuf-ad-Dowlah 
 pleaded, that in violation of repeated trea- 
 ties, a sum averaging eighty-four lacs per 
 annum had been exacted for the company 
 during the nine preceding years ; and his 
 arguments appeared so forcible, that Lord 
 Cornwallis consented to reduce this sum to 
 fifty lacs per annum, which lie declared sufli- 
 cient to cover the " real expenses" involved 
 in the defence of Oudc. Negligent, profuse, 
 and voluptuous iu the extreme, the nabob- 
 vizier was wholly dependent on foreign aid to 
 secure the services of his own troops or the 
 submission of his own subjects; he liad 
 therefore uo alternative but to make the best 
 terms possible with the English, and might 
 well deem himself fortunate in finding the 
 chief authority vested in a ruler whose ac- 
 tions were dictated by loftier motives than 
 temporarj' expediency ; and infiucneed by 
 more worthy considerations than the strength 
 or weakness of those with whom he had to 
 deal.. The extreme dissatisfaction openly 
 expressed by Englishmen in India, regard- 
 ing the peace of 1784, and tlie insulting 
 conduct of Tippoo, led the jMahrattas and 
 the Nizam to believe that the E. I. Cy would 
 gladly take part with them in a struggle 
 against one whose power and arrogance were 
 alarmingly on the increase ; but their over- 
 tures were met by an explicit declaration, 
 that the supreme government (in accor- 
 dance with the recent commands of the 
 British parliament) had resolved on taking 
 no part in any confederacy framed for pur- 
 poses of aggression. Tippoo and the Mah- 
 rattas therefore Aveut to war on their own 
 
 • "Wilks' History of Mi^soor, ii., 530. 
 t MoliamiDcd Tofjlilak. Sec page To. 
 i Tippoo, in liis celebrated production, the Sill- 
 taun-u- Towaicckh , or King of Histories, expresses 
 
 resources, and continued liostile operations 
 for about a year, until the former wa^ 
 glad to make ])cacc, on not very favourable 
 terms, in order to turn hisuiulivided attention 
 to a portion of the territories usurped by liis 
 father, and enact a new series of barbarities 
 on the miserable inhabitants of tlic coast of 
 Malabar. The fh-st measure by which this 
 barbarian signalised his accession to despotic 
 sway, Was the deportation of upwards of 
 ;5(),()()0 native Christians from Cauara. The 
 memory of the deeds of Cardinal Mcnezcs, 
 and otlier stanch supporters of the " Hoi v 
 Inquisition," had not passed away; and 
 Tippoo affirmed, that it was the narrative of 
 the intolerance exercised by the "Portu- 
 guese Nazarenes" which caused " the rage 
 of Islam to boil in his breast,"* and induced 
 him to vcut his wrath upon the present in- 
 nocent generation, by sweeping olf the whole 
 of both sexes and every age into slaverv, 
 and compelling them to observe and re- 
 ceive the external rites of the Moslem creed. 
 Of these tinfortunatcs, not one-third are be- 
 lieved to have survived the first year of exile 
 and degradation. The brave mountaineers 
 of Coort( drew upon themselves the same 
 fate by the constant struggles for liberty, to 
 which they were incited by the odious tyranny 
 of the usurper. Tippoo at length dealt with 
 them in the manner in which a ferocious 
 and half-crazed despot of early times diil 
 with another section of the Indian popula- 
 tion. f The dominant class in Coorg had as- 
 sembled together on a hilly, wooded tract, 
 apart from the lower order of the peasantry 
 (a distinct and apparently aboriginal race.) 
 Tippoo surrounded the main body, as if en- 
 closing game for a grand circular hunt; beat 
 up the woods as if dislodging wild beasts ; aiul 
 finally closed iu upon al)out 70,000 persons, 
 who were driven off, like a herd of cattle, 
 to Seriugapatam, and " honoured witJi the 
 distinction of Islam,"! on the very dav 
 selected by their persecutor to assume sove- 
 reign, or rather imperial sway, by taking 
 the proud title of Padsha, and causing his 
 own name to be prayed for in public in 
 place of that of the !Mogul Shah Alum, as 
 was still customary in the mosques all over 
 India. 
 
 The Guntoor Cire.ar, to which the EnglfSTT" 
 had become entitled upon the death of 
 Bassalut Jung, iu 1782, by virtue of the 
 
 great detestation for the immorality of the Coorgs, 
 who, he truly affirmed, systematically pui-sued a most 
 e.\tr,iordinary system of polygandna, by giving to 
 several brothers one and the same woman to wife.
 
 368 ENGLISH, MAHUATTAS, AND NIZAM UNITE AGAINST TIPPOO— 1790. 
 
 treaty of 1768, was obtained from Nizam 
 Ali iu 1788. The cession was expedited 
 by a recent quarrel between him and Tippoo 
 Sultan, which rendered the renewal of the 
 treaty of 1768 peculiarly desirable to the 
 former, inasmuch as it contained a proviso 
 that, in the event of his requiring assistance, 
 a British contingent of infantry and artil- 
 lery should march to support him against any 
 power not in alliance with the E. I. Cy. ; 
 the exceptions being the Mahrattas, the na- 
 bobs of Arcot and Oude, and the rajahs of 
 Tanjore and Travaneore. The Nizam would 
 fain have interpreted the revived agreement 
 as warranting a united attack on Mysoor ; 
 but his schemes were positively rejected by 
 Lord Cornwallis, on account of the recent 
 engagement entered into with that state, 
 which was still professedly at peace with the 
 English. Yet it was evident to every power 
 in India, that the sultau only waited a 
 favourable opportunity to renew hostilities. 
 The insulting caricatures of many of the 
 company's servants, held up to mockery 
 and coarse jesting on the wails of the houses 
 of Seringapatam, might have been an idle 
 effusion of popular feeling ; but the wretched 
 captives still pining in loathsome dungeons, 
 in violation of the promised general release 
 of prisoners, and the enrolment of a num- 
 ber of English children as domestic slaves 
 to the faithless tyrant, afforded, in con- 
 junction with various rancorous expressions, 
 uumistakeable indications of his deadly 
 hatred towards the whole nation.* The 
 inroad of the ]\Iysooreans on the territory 
 of the rajah of Travaneore, brought matters 
 to an issue. The rajah, when menaced by 
 invasion from his formidable neighbour, 
 appealed to the E. I. Cy. for their promised 
 protection, and an express communication 
 was made to Tippoo, that an attack on the 
 lines of defence formed on the Travaneore 
 frontier, would be regarded as a declaration 
 of war with the English. The lines referred 
 to, constructed in 1775, consisted of a broad 
 and deep ditch, a strong bamboo hedge, a 
 slight parapet, and a good rampart, with 
 bastions on rising grounds, almost flanking 
 one another. They extended a distance of 
 thirty miles (from the island of Vaipeen to 
 the Anamalaiah range), but were more im- 
 posing than cHc-ctual, as it was hardly pos- 
 sible to dcR;nd so great an extent. Tippoo 
 approached this barrier in December, ] 78'J, 
 
 • Col. Fullarton, writinp; in 1784, accuses Tippoo 
 of having caiiaed 200 English to be forcibly circum- 
 cised and enrolled in his service. — ( View, 207.) 
 
 and proceeded to erect batteries. An un- 
 suspected passage round the right flank of 
 the lines, enabled him to introduce a body 
 of troops within the wall, and he led them 
 onward, hoping to force open the nearest 
 gate, and admit the rest of the army. The 
 attempt proved, not merely unsuccessful, 
 but fatal to the majority of the assailants. 
 They were compelled to retreat in confusion, 
 and, in the general scramble across the 
 ditch, Tippoo himself was so severely bruised, 
 as to limp occasionally during the remainder 
 of his life. His palanquin fell into the 
 hands of the enemy, the bearers having 
 been trodden to death by their comrades ; 
 and his seals, rings, and personal ornaments 
 remained to attest his presence, and contra- 
 dict his reiterated denial of having borne 
 any part in a humiliating catastrophe, which 
 had materially deranged his plans. Moi"e 
 than this, alarm at the probable conse- 
 quence of a repulse, induced Tippoo to 
 write, in terms of fulsome flattery, to the 
 English authorities, assuring them that the 
 lute aggression was the unauthorised act of 
 his troops. Lord Cornwallis treated these 
 assertions with merited contempt, and 
 hastened to secure the co-operation of the 
 Nizam and the Mahratta ministers of 
 Poona, to wliich he would gladly have 
 added that of Sindia, had not the price de- 
 manded been the aid of British troops for 
 aggressive warfare in Rajpootaua, which was 
 unhesitatingly refused. He proceeded to 
 make vigorous preparations for a campaign, 
 by assembling troops, collecting supplies, 
 and meeting financial difficulties in an open 
 and manly spirit. Further outlaj' for a Eu- 
 ropean investment he completely stopped, 
 as a ruinous drain on resources already 
 insufficient to meet the heavy expenditure 
 which must inevitably be incurred in the 
 ensuing contest, the avowed object of which 
 was to diminish materially the power of the 
 sultan ; for, as Lord Cornwallis truly de- 
 clared, in a despatch to General Medows, if 
 this despot were " suft'cred to retain his 
 present importance, and to insult and bully 
 all his neighbours, until the French should 
 again be in a condition to support him, it 
 would almost certainly leave the seeds of a 
 future dangerous war." INIeauwhile, Tippoo 
 conflrnmd these convictions, and justified 
 the intended procedure by a renewed at- 
 tempt upon Travaneore, and succeeded in 
 razing the defences and spreading desola- 
 tion over the country. The invasion of 
 ]Mysoor compelled him to rcturu for its
 
 CORNWALLIS, IN PERSON, UIRECTS THE CAMPAIGN OF 1701. 3G'J 
 
 defence; and the system of intellif^cnce 
 cstal)lishrd by liis fatlior, tojrethcr witli liis 
 own (U'tivity, cnabl<'(l liini to take ailvaiitnf^o 
 of the separation of the JCii<;lisli army into 
 three divisions, to attack tlicin in detail, 
 break through their chain of communica- 
 tion, and transfer hostilities to tlie Carnatic. 
 'J'hese reverses were partially compensated 
 by the success of a fourth detachment from 
 liombay in obtainiufj possession of the 
 whole of Malabar. The second campaign 
 was opened in February, 1791, by Corn- 
 wallis in person. Placing himself at the 
 bead of the anny, he entered ^lysoor by 
 the pass of Mooglee, and iu the commence- 
 ment of March, laid siege to tlie fortress of 
 Bangalore. Though the troops liad been 
 little harassed by hostile operations, they 
 M'ere much enfeebled by the fatigues and 
 privations of a tedious march ; the cattle 
 were worn to skeletons, and their supplies, 
 both of food and ammunition, nearly ex- 
 hausted. The arrival of a Mabratta re- 
 inforcement bad been long and vainly ex- 
 pected ; and aft'airs weie iu a most critical 
 state, when the successful assault, first of 
 the town, and subsequently of the citadel 
 of Bangalore (carried by a bayonet charge), 
 relieved the mind of the commander-in- 
 chiff from the gloomy prospect involved in 
 the too probalilc event of defeat. Never- 
 theless, dilliculties and dangers of no ordi- 
 nary cliaracter remained to be combated. 
 At the close of ]\Iarch the army moved 
 from Bangalore northward, for the purpose 
 of forming a juuetiou with the auxiliary 
 corps of cavalry expected from the Nizam. 
 M'hen, after being repeatedly misled by false 
 information regarding the vicinity of the 
 Hyderabad troops, the desired union was 
 at length successfully efl'ceted, it proved a 
 fresh source of trouble and disappointment; 
 for the 10,000 light troops so anxiously 
 awaited, instead of rendering good service 
 iu the field, were so ill-disciplined and un- 
 trustworthy, as to be incapable of conduct- 
 ing even a foraging expedition, and there- 
 fore did but augment the distress and 
 anxiety they were sent to lessen.* 
 
 Though surrounded ou every side by 
 
 * Their eonimander is said to have been influenced 
 by inUif,'ues carried on between tlie mother of Tippoo 
 and the favourite wife of the Nizam. The former 
 lady successfully deprecated the wrath excited by 
 the gross insults lately ofi'ered by her son, in return 
 to solicitations addressed by some female members 
 of the family of Nizam AH when in peril at Adoni. 
 
 t Twenty En^jlish youths, the survivors of the un- 
 happy band whom Tippoo, with malicious w antonness, 
 
 circumstances of the most depressing cha- 
 racter, Cornwallis, with undaunted courage, 
 made sucli preparations as tlie |)ossession of 
 Hangalon^ placed in his [lowcr for the siege 
 of Seringapatam. An earnest desire to 
 bring to a speedy close hostilities, the pro- 
 longation of which involved a grievous 
 sacrifice of life and treasure, added to the 
 alarming information constantly arriving in 
 India regarding the jirogress of the French 
 revolution, induced him to advance at once 
 upon the capital of Mysoor, despite the 
 defective character of his resources. The 
 troops marched, in ^lay, to Arikera, about 
 nine miles distant from Seringapatam, 
 through a country which, in anticipation of 
 their approach, liad been reduced to the 
 coiulition of a desert. Tippoo Sultan took 
 up a strong position in their front, from 
 whence he was driven by Lord Cornwallis — 
 forced to action, defeated, and compelled to 
 retreat and take refuge under the works of 
 his capital, for the safety of which he now 
 became seriously alarmed, llecognising too 
 late the folly of wantonly provoking the 
 vengeance of a powerful foe, he gave orders 
 that the caricatures of the English slioidd 
 be carefully obliterated from all public 
 places; at the same time taking the savage 
 precaution of slaughtering, without distinc- 
 tion, such prisoners as he had privately de- 
 tained, lest they should live to afford incon- 
 trovertible evidence of his breacii of faith 
 and diabolical cruelty. t 
 
 Lord Cornwallis was, however, quite un- 
 able to pursue his recent success. The 
 deplorable condition of the army, in which 
 smallpox was now raging, with diseases 
 immediately resulting from insufficient food 
 and excessive fatigue under incessant rains, 
 comi)clled him to issue a reluctant order for 
 retreat. It seemed madness to remain un- 
 der such circumstances iu such a position, 
 still more to hazard further advance, on the 
 chance of the long-delayed succour expected 
 from the iMahrattas ; and after destroying 
 the battering train and other heavy equip- 
 ments, which the loss of cattlcj prevented 
 them from carrying away, the English, in 
 deep disappointment and depression, corn- 
 had caused to be trained and dressed like a troop of 
 Ilindoostanee dancing-girls, were tirst sacriticed to 
 his awakened fears; but there were many other vic- 
 tims, including native state prisoners. A few Eng- 
 lishmen contrived to elfect their e.'^cape, and one of 
 them wrote an account of the treatment received. — 
 (See Ciiptitilij of James Sciirr;/ : London, 1824.) 
 
 X Nearly -lO.obO bullocks perished in this disastrous 
 campaign. — (Mill's India, v., 396.)
 
 370 
 
 CAPTURE OF SAYENDROOG AND OTHER HILL FORTS— 179L 
 
 menced their homeward march. Orders 
 were dispatched to General Abercromby 
 (governor of Bombay), who was advancing 
 from the westward, to return to Mahibar; 
 and Lord Cornwallis, having completed these 
 mortifying arrangements, was about sis miles 
 en route to Bangalore, when a party of horse 
 unexpectedly rode in upon the baggage 
 flank. They were taken for enemies, but 
 proved to be forerunners of the despaired-of 
 Mahratta force, under Hurri Punt and Pur- 
 seram Bhow. In answer to the eager in- 
 terrogatories poured in upon them on all 
 sides, they replied that numerous messengers 
 had been regularly sent, at different times, 
 with accounts of their approach ; every one 
 of whom had been cut off by the unsleeping 
 vigilance of the light troops of the enemy. 
 Their tardy arrival was iu some measure 
 accounted for by the time spent by them in 
 co-operation with a detachment from Bom- 
 bay under Captain Little, in the siege of 
 Darwar, one of the great barriers of Tip- 
 poo's northern frontier. Tlie place held out 
 against the unskilful and dilatory operations 
 of the assailants for twenty-nine v.eeks, 
 when the arrival of news of the capture of 
 Baugalore induced its surrender, which was 
 followed by the easy conquest of all the 
 possessions of the sultan north of the 
 Toombuddra. 
 
 The Mahrattas now declared themselves 
 unable to keep the field, unless the English 
 could give them pecuniary support; and 
 Lord Cornwallis, unable to dispense witli 
 their aid, was compelled to advance them a 
 loan of twelve lacs of rupees, to obtain which 
 he took the bold measure of ordering the 
 Madras authorities to coin the bullion sent 
 out for the China trade into rupees, and for- 
 ward it without delay. The ample supplies of 
 draught cattle and provisions, together with 
 the innumerable miscellaneous contents of 
 the bazaar of a Mahratta army,* afforded a 
 most welcome relief to men half-famished 
 and wretchedly equipped. Still the advanced 
 season, and the return of General Aber- 
 cromby, compelled the continuance of the 
 
 • The Maliiattas commenced by asking exor- 
 bitant prices for their goods ; but when compelled 
 by the diminished purses of the purchasers to reduce 
 their demands or stop the sale, tliey took the former 
 alternative; but still continued to realise immense 
 profits, since their whole slock-in-trade had been ac- 
 cumulated by plunder. Their bazaar is described by 
 Col. Wilks as comprising every imaginable article, 
 from a web of linglish broadcloth to a IJirmingham 
 penknife ; from the shawls of Cashmere to the 
 secondhand garment of a Hindoo; from diamonds 
 of the first water to the silver earring of a poor 
 
 retreat to Bangalore; which was followed 
 up by the occupation of Oossoor, Rayacot- 
 tah, and other forts, whereby communica- 
 tion between the presidency and the Carnatic, 
 through the Polieade Pass, was laid open. 
 By this route a convoy reached the camp from 
 Madras, comprising 100 elephants laden with 
 treasure, marching two abreast; G,000 bul- 
 locks with rice ; 100 carts with arrack; and 
 several hundred coolies with other supplies. 
 The war was viewed by the British par- 
 liament as the inevitable consequence of 
 the cruelty and aggression of Tippoo. The 
 energetic measures of Lord Cornwallis were 
 warmly applauded, and reinforcements of 
 troops, with specie to the amount of 
 .€500,000, sent to assist his operations. 
 Comprehensive arrangements were made for 
 provisioning the troops, by taking advantage 
 of the extensive resources and experience of 
 the Brinjarries,-\ or travelling corn-mer- 
 chants, who form a distinct caste, and enjo}^, 
 even among the least civilised native states, 
 an immunity for life and property, based on 
 the great services rendered by these neutral 
 traders to all parties indiscriminately, from 
 a very remote period. Measures were like- 
 wise adopted for the introduction of a more 
 efficient system of intelligence. The gen- 
 eral campaign which opened under these 
 auspicious circumstances, was attended with 
 complete success. The intermediate opera- 
 tions were marked by the capture of the 
 hill-forts of Nundydroog, Savendroog, and 
 Ootradroog. All three were situated on 
 lofty granite rocks, and deemed well-nigh in- 
 accessible — especially Savendroog [the rock 
 of deatli) ; and so implicit was the con- 
 fidence placed by Tippoo in the strength 
 of its natural and artificial defences, that he 
 received with joy the tidings of the assault, 
 making sure that the malaria for which the 
 neighbouring jungle had acquired a fearful 
 celebrity, would fight against the English, 
 :uid slay one-half, leaving the other to fall 
 by the sword. But the very character of 
 the place diminished the watchfulness of its 
 garrison, and tempted them to witness with 
 
 plundered village maiden; from oxen, sheep, and 
 poultry, to the dried salt-fish of the Concan. The 
 tables of the moneychangers, overspread with tiie 
 coins of every country of the east, were not wanting 
 in this motley assemblage; and among the various 
 trades carried on with remarkable activity, was 
 tliat of a tanner, so tliat the Englisli officers were 
 enabled to obtain, by means of ambulatory tan-pita, 
 what their own Indian capitals could not then pro- 
 duce, except as Isuropean imports — excellent sword- 
 belts. — (Mr/soof, 'in., lo.S-'D.) 
 
 t A I'ersian compound, designating tlicir office.
 
 LOUD CORNWALLIS LEADS THE ATTACK ON SKllINCJAl'ATAM— 1702. 371 
 
 contemptuous iudiffcrencc the early ap- 
 proaches of tlic hcsicfjors, who, after a scries 
 of llerculcau hihours (ia wliich tlio utmost 
 cxcrtious of human strength and skill, 
 were aided in an extraordinary niauucr by 
 tlie force and saj^acity of some admirably- 
 trained elejjhauts), at length s\iccceded in 
 cfl'ecting a practicable breach in what formed 
 the lower wall of the rock, although it rose 
 1,500 feet from a base of above eight 
 miles in cireumfcreuee. Tjord Cornwallis 
 and General jMedows stood watching witii 
 intense anxiety tlic progress of the assault, 
 wliieh commenced an hour before noon on 
 the 21st December, 1791. The baud of the 
 52nd regiment played " Britons, strike 
 home;" and the troops mounted with a 
 steady gallantry which completely nnncrved 
 tlie native forces assembled to defend tlic 
 breach. A hand-to-hand encounter wij^ 
 men who had already overcome such tre- 
 mendous obstacles, was sufficient to alarm 
 the servants of a more popular master than 
 Tippoo, and they fled in disorder, tuml)liug 
 over one another in their eager ascent of 
 the steep and narrow path which led to the 
 citadel. The pursuers followed with all 
 speed ; but the majority of the fugitives had 
 effected their entrance, when a sergeant of 
 the 71st regiment shot, at a distance, the 
 soldier who was closing the first gate. All 
 the other barriers the English ))asscd together 
 with the enemy, of whom about 100 were 
 slain, while many others perished among 
 the precipitous rocks, in endeavouring to 
 escape. This important enterprise, wliieh 
 the commander-in-chief had eoutemplated 
 as the most doubtful operation of the war, 
 was clfected in twelve days from the first 
 arrival of the troops. The casualties were 
 not numerous, and the actual assault only 
 lasted an hour, and involved the loss of no 
 single life on the side of the besiegers. It 
 was well-timed ; for even so much as half-an- 
 hour's delay would have sufficed to bring 
 to the scene of action the ]\Iysoorean de- 
 tachment, then fast approaching to aid 
 their comrades. 
 
 The counter-hostilities of Tippoo were 
 • In detaining the garrison close prisoners, not- 
 ■n'itlistandinf; a proviso for tlicir liberation. IJad 
 faith was the notorious characteristic of Tippoo, 
 wlio, says CoL Wilks, could not be made to appre- 
 einte the value of truth even as a convenience. 
 Among his letters, translated by Col. Kiikp;iti'icl;, is 
 one in which he desires the commander of an attack 
 on a Mahratta fortress to promise anything until he 
 got possession, and then to put every living thing — 
 man, woman, ehiU, dog, and cat — to tiie sword, ex- 
 cept the chief, who was to be reserved for torture. 
 
 feebly conducted ; but the irrepressible ten- 
 dency of the Mahrattas for frcebooting on 
 their own account, led them again to de- 
 range the jdans of Lord Cornwallis, by neg- 
 lecting to support (Jcneral Abcreromby, and 
 their misconduct facilitated the conquest of 
 the fort of (.loimbatore by the J.Iysooreans. 
 The flagrant violation of the terms of sur- 
 render* (a besetting sin on the part of Tip- 
 poo), afl'orded a reason for rejecting his 
 overtures for ])eacc; and on the 1st of Feb- 
 ruary, 179.2, Lord Cornwallis, in conjunc- 
 tion with the Hyderabad and I'oona armies, 
 advanced to the attack of Seringa|)atam, 
 under the walls of which the sultan, with his 
 whole force, lay encamped. Aware of his 
 inability to compete in the field with the 
 formidable confederacy by which he was 
 opposed, Tippoo hoped to be able to hold 
 out against their combined efforts in his 
 island-capital,t by keeping them at bay 
 until the want of supplies, in an already 
 exhausted country — or, in any case, the 
 recurrence of the monsoon — should compel 
 their retreat. The dilatory and unskilful 
 tactics of the native troops would probably 
 have contributed to realise these auticipa- 
 tions ; but the English eomraander-in-ehicf 
 correctly appreciated the danger of delay, 
 and chose to incur the charge of rashness by 
 attempting to surprise the tiger in his den, 
 rather than waste strength and resources 
 in the dispiriting operations of a tedious and 
 precarious blockade. It was deemed inad- 
 visable to await the arrival of expected 
 reinforcements from Bombay, or even to 
 divulge the plan of attack to the allies, who, 
 on the night of the Gth, were astounded by 
 the news that a handful of infantry, \iu- 
 supported by cannon or cavalry, were on the 
 march to attack the dense host of Tippoo, 
 in a fortified camp under the walls of 
 his capital ; and that Lord Cornwallis, iu 
 person, commanded the division destined to 
 penetrate the centre of the hostile force ; 
 having gone to figlit, as they expressed it,J 
 like a private soldier. The sultan had 
 just finished his evening's repast when the 
 alarm was given. § He mounted, and beheld 
 
 t Seringapatam is situated on an island formed by 
 two branches of the Cauvery, which after separating 
 to a distance of a mile and a-half, again unites about 
 five miles below the point of division. A "bound 1 
 hedge'' of bamboo and other strong shruljs sur- 
 rounded the capital, and Tippoo's encamcment oc- 
 cupied an enclosure between this hedge and the river. 
 
 I There were two otlier columns, commanded l)y 
 General Medows and Colonel Maxwell. 
 
 § 'ITie Indians usually atuck at midnight or day- ■ 
 break.
 
 372 TIPPOO PURCHASES PEACE WITH HALF HIS KINGDOM— 1792. 
 
 by the light of the moon an extended column 
 passing rapidly through his camp, driving 
 before them a cloud of fugitives, and making 
 directly for the main ford of the stream 
 wliich lay between them and the capital. 
 This movement threatened to cut off the 
 retreat of Tippoo, who perceiving his danger, 
 hastened across the ford in time to elude 
 the grasp of his pursuers and take up a 
 position on a commanding summit of the 
 fort, from whence he continued to issue 
 orders till the morning. His troops had 
 already deserted by thousands. One band, 
 10,000 strong (the Ahmedy Chelahs, com- 
 posed of the wretched Coorgs), wholly dis- 
 appeared and escaped to their native woods, 
 accompanied by their wives and children ; 
 and many of the Assud Oollahees (a similar 
 description of corps) followed their example. 
 A number of Europeans, forcibly detained 
 in the service of Tippoo Sultan, likewise 
 fled to the protection of the English, in- 
 cluding an old Frenchman, named Blevette, 
 who had chiefly constructed the six re- 
 doubts which offered the most formidable 
 ■obstacles to the assailants. Two of these 
 were captured and retained by English de- 
 tachments, at the cost of much hard fight- 
 ing. The night of the 7th afforded an 
 interval of rest to both parties, and time to 
 ascertain the extent of their respective losses. 
 That of the British was stated at 535 men, 
 including killed, wounded, and missing ; that 
 of the enemy at 23,000, of whom 4,000 
 had fallen in the actual contest. On the 
 following morning operations were com- 
 menced against the strong triangular-shaped, 
 water-washed fort, in which the sultan had 
 taken refuge. His gorgeously furnished 
 garden-palace was turned into an hospital 
 for the wounded English, and the magnificent 
 cypress groves, and other valuable trees, cut 
 down to afford materials for the siege. Gen- 
 eral Abercromby arrived in safety with the 
 Bombay army, having perfected a line of 
 communication with the Malabar Coast; the 
 Brinjarries maintained such abundance in 
 the camp of Cornvvallis as had not been 
 known since the commencement of the war; 
 and the soldiers, stimulated by the hope of 
 speedily lil)crating, with their own hands, the 
 survivors of their murdered countrymen, 
 worked with unflaggiug energy at the b'rcach- 
 iug batteries. Tippoo, seriously alarmed, 
 made overtures for peace, and after much 
 delay, occasioned by his treacherous and 
 UMstal)le policy, and his unceasing efforts to 
 gain time, was at length compelled to sign a 
 
 preliminary treaty, the terms of which in- 
 volved the cession of half his territories to 
 the allies, and the payment of about three 
 million and a-half sterling. Two of his sons, 
 boys of eight and ten years of age, were 
 delivered up to Lord Cornwallis, as hostages 
 for the confirmation and fulfilment of the 
 agreement ; but despite this guarantee, Tip- 
 poo showed evident signs of an inclination 
 to renew hostilities, on finding that the 
 English insisted on his relinquishment of 
 Coorg, the rajah of which principality he 
 had hoped to seize and exhibit as a terrible 
 instance of vengeance. Lord Cornwallis, 
 who appears to have acted throughout the 
 war with equal energy and moderation, 
 endeavoured to conciliate him by the sur- 
 render of Bangalore — a fortress and dis- 
 trict whicli, in a military point of view, far 
 surpassed Coorg in value ; but on the latter 
 point he took decided ground, justly deem- 
 ing it a clear duty to reward the good ser- 
 vice rendered by the rajah, by preserving 
 him from the clutches of his relentless foe. 
 Preparations for a renewed siege at length 
 brought matters to an issue. The previous 
 arrangements were formally coafirraed by 
 Tippoo on the 19th of March, and the treaty 
 delivered to Lord Cornwallis and the allies 
 by the royal hostages. 
 
 The total territorial revenue of the 
 sultan, according to the admitted schedule, 
 averaged from about two-and-a-half to three 
 million sterling, one-half of which was now 
 made over to the allies, to be divided bv 
 them in equal portions, according to the 
 original terms of the confederation. By the 
 addition now made to their possessions, the 
 boundary of the Mahrattas was again ex- 
 tended to the river Toombuddra. The 
 allotment of the Nizam reached from the 
 Kistna beyond the Pennar, and included the 
 forts of Gunjccotah and Cuddapah, and the 
 province of Kurpa. The British obtained 
 Malabar and Coorg, the province of Dinde- 
 gul (a valuable accession to their southern 
 territory), together with Baramahl and the 
 Lower Ghauts, which formed an iron boun- 
 dary for Coromandcl. The Anglo-Indian 
 army were ill-pleased with this termination 
 'of the war. Tlicy had set their hearts on 
 nothing less than the storming of Seriiiga- 
 patam ; aiul when, in consequence of Tippoo's 
 overtures for peace, orders were given to 
 desist from further operations, they be- 
 came, says an officer who was present, 
 " dejected to a degree not to be described, 
 and could with dilliculty be restrained from
 
 THE GREAT MOGUL BLINDED BY llOIIILLAS— 1788. 
 
 373 
 
 eoutiiiui)>^ tlicir work." Tlieir diiisatisfuc- 
 tion Wiis iucruiiscd l)y the iiiiscriihlc; artifice 
 of Tippoo, «lu), dcsifous ot" cisstiiiiiii^f iictorc 
 liis own trifops !i (leliiiiit attitiulc, altlioii;fii 
 really a suitor for pt^aito, ;;avc; sccri't orricrs 
 to lire on the I'liifjiisli soldiery, liotli with 
 cniiiioii and musketry. Under sucli circum- 
 stances, it needed all the weif^ht of the public 
 and private character of Lord Cornwallis, to 
 enforce the admirable precept with which 
 the };eneial orders to the victorious troops 
 concluded, — " that moderation in success is 
 no less expected from brave men than f,'al- 
 lantry in action." In acknowledgment of 
 their excellent conduct, a donation, equal to 
 twelve mouths' batta, was awarded them, out 
 of the money e.vaeted from the sultan. The 
 disinterestedness of the commander-in-chief 
 and of General IVIedows was dis[)Iaycd in 
 their refusal to accept any portion of this 
 sum, or of the prize-money. Their cordial 
 co-operation and perfect confidence in each 
 other's zeal and integrity, had been con- 
 spicuous throughout the war, forming a 
 pleasing contrast to the divided counsels and 
 personal quarrels which had, of late years, 
 diminished the efllcieney of the military and 
 civil services of the oHicers of the com- 
 pany. This unanimity enabled Lord Corn- 
 wallis to take full advantage of the influence 
 he possessed over the Nizam and the Mah- 
 rattas. Their mutual distrust, combined 
 with the respect inspired by the English 
 commander-in-chief, led them to entrust 
 to him the sole control of the late opera- 
 tions. These were no sooner terminated by 
 the treaty of Seringapatam, than occasions 
 of quarrel reappeared among the allies. 
 The Nizam, by far the weakest of the three 
 powers, petitioned to be allowed to retain 
 the services of a British detachment. His 
 request was granted, greatly to the annoy- 
 auce of the ^lahrattas, whose discontent at 
 finding him thus favoured, was aggravated 
 by the refusal of Lord CornwalRs to sulfcr a 
 similar stipendiary force to be permanently 
 annexed to the army of the peisliwa, or 
 rather of his ambitious guardian. Nana 
 Furuavees. lu this ease the concession 
 
 • De Boigne was a Savoynni by birth, and had 
 been an ensign in the service of die E. I. Cv. 
 
 t Among the few wlio fiiithfully adhered to the 
 cause of Shah Ahim, was the widow of the notorious 
 Suniroo, who had entered the imperial service, or 
 rather that of Nujeef Klian, after quitting Oude, and 
 married the daughter of an impnveri^hed Mogul 
 noble. Tlie " Begum Suniroo" received Christian bap- 
 tism, at the request of her husband. After his death, 
 in 1778, she was suffered to retain tlie jaghire 
 3c 
 
 muiit have provoked immediate hostiliticH 
 with IMaliadajce Sindia, since it was to 
 oppose his large and formidalilc corps of 
 regular jirtillcry (under De IJoignc* and 
 other European olIic(;rs), that the services of 
 an Lnglish deta(;linient were especially de- 
 sired. Such a ])rocedure would have Ijeen 
 inconsistent with the pacific policy by which 
 it was both the duty and inclination of Lord 
 Cornwallis to abide; and ISindia was there- 
 fore suflered to retain, without interference 
 on the part of the only cncinv he feared, 
 the dominant position which the time-serving 
 policy of Hastings had first helped him to 
 assume, as vicegerent of the ^fogul empire. 
 His power, before reaching its present height, 
 had received a severe check, from the efforts 
 of other ambitious chiefs to obtain posses- 
 sion of the person, and wield authority in 
 the name, of the hapless Shah Alum,t who, 
 from the time of the death of his brave 
 general, Nujeef Khan, in 1782, had been 
 tossed about, like a child's toy, from one 
 usurper to another — a tool during their 
 prosperity, a scape-goat in adversity. Sindia 
 became paramount in 1785; but having 
 engaged in war with Pertab Sing of Jey- 
 poor, advantage was taken of his absence by 
 (iholam Kadir Khan, the son of Zabita 
 Khan, the Rohilla, to gain possession of 
 Delhi in 1788. This he accomplished 
 through the treachery of the warir or chief 
 eunuch, to whom the management of the 
 imperial establishment was entrusted. The 
 inmates of the palace were treated by the 
 usurper with a degree of malicious barbarity 
 which it is liardly possible to conceive any 
 human being evincing towards liis unoft'end- 
 ing fellow-creatures, unless actually pos- 
 sessed by an evil spirit. After cruelties 
 of all descriptions had been practised to 
 extort from the members and retainers of 
 the imperial family every article of value 
 which still remained in their possession, 
 Gholam Kadir continued to withhold from 
 them even the necessaries of life, so that 
 several ladies perished of hunger; and others, 
 maddened by sufl'ering, committed suicide. 
 The royal children + were compelled to 
 
 granted to him for the support of five battalions of 
 disciplined sepoys and about 200 Europeans, chiefly 
 artillerymen, whose movements she directed from 
 her palanquin, even on the actual field of battle. 
 An imprudent marriage with a German, named 
 Vaissaux, for a lime endangered htr influence ; but 
 after liis seizure by the mutinous troops, and death 
 by bis own han<l, she regained her authority. 
 
 I The Shahzada, Prince Jewan Bukht, had taken 
 refuge at Benares. Lord Cornwallis granted him a
 
 374 
 
 LORD CORNWALLIS SUCCEEDED BY Sill J. SHORE— 1793. 
 
 perform the most liumiliating offices ; and 
 when Shah Alum indiguautly remonstrated 
 against the atrocities he was compelled to 
 witness, the Rohilla sprang upon him with 
 the fury of a wild beast, flung the venerable 
 monarch to the ground, knelt on his breast, 
 and, with liis dagger, pierced his eye-balls 
 through and through. The return of 
 Siudia terminated these horrible scenes. 
 Gliolam Kadir took to flight, but was cap- 
 tured by the Mahratta chief, who cut off 
 his nose, ears, hands, and feet, and sent 
 him iu an iron cage to Shah Alum — a fear- 
 ful example of retributive barbarity. He 
 perished on the road, and his accomplice, 
 the treacherous nazir, was trodden to death 
 by au elephant. The condition of the im- 
 perial family, though ameliorated, remained 
 barely tolerable during the supremacy of 
 Sindia; for the stated allowance for the 
 support of the emperor and his thirty chil- 
 dren, though liberal in its nominal amount, 
 was so irregularly paid, that the royal 
 household often wanted the necessaries of 
 life. 
 
 The arrogance of Mahadajee increased 
 with his power ;* and not only the Nizam 
 and the Poona ministry headed by Nana 
 Furnavees, but even the English, began to 
 contemplate an approaching struggle as in- 
 evitable; when their apprehensions were 
 unexpectedly removed by his death, of fever, 
 in February, 1791, aged sixty-seven. He 
 left no male issue, but bequeathed his ex- 
 tensive territorial possessions to his gi-cat- 
 nephew and adopted son, Dowlut Rao, then 
 a youth of fifteen. 
 
 The administration of Lord Cornwallis 
 ended in the preceding year; its concluding 
 feature being the capture, once again, of 
 Pondichcrry and all the French settlements 
 in India, in consequence of the national 
 
 yearly stipend of four lacs (promised, but not paid, 
 by tlie vizier of Oude), wliich, after tlio death of the 
 prince, was continued to his family by the E. I. Cy. 
 
 * W'liat a blow would have been inflicted on the 
 pride and Ijigolry of Aurungzebe, could it have been 
 foretold tliat one of his dynasty would be comjjcllcd, 
 by a Maln-alta, to .sign a decree forbidding the 
 slaughter of kine throughout the Mogul dominions. 
 Yet this was enforced by Sindia on Shah Alum. 
 
 t In the year ending April, 179:i, the receipts of 
 the company in India amounted to i;8,22j,(i28 ; tlie 
 total expenses to £7,007,().)() ; leaving a surplus of 
 £1,218,078 clear gain. In tlie outgoings, were in- 
 cluded tlic interest of Indian debts (the ])rincipal of 
 wliich amounted to £7,iJ71,<l(),')), and money sup- 
 plied to ISencoolen and other distant settlements ; 
 making a drawback of £702,4'! 3. Tlie debts in 
 England, exclusive of the capital stock, were 
 £10,083,618. The capital stock liad been Increased 
 
 declaration of war. The charter of the 
 E. I. Cy. was at the same time (1793) 
 renewed for a term of twenty years.t Ar- 
 rangements were made for the relief of the 
 financial difficulties of jMohammed Ali. 
 The management of the revenues of the 
 Carnatic, which had been temporarily as- 
 sumed by Lord Cornwallis during the war, 
 was partially restored to the nabob at its 
 conclusion, and the payments to his credi- 
 tors reduced from the twelve lacs of pagodas 
 (conceded to them most improperly by the 
 Board of Control in 1785), to somewhat 
 more than six lacs. Attempts were like- 
 wise made, but with little success, to induce 
 the profligate Asuf-ad-Dowlah to adopt 
 reformatory measures, to stay the ruin which 
 seemed about to overwhelm the fair province, 
 or rather kingdom, of Oude. 
 
 Administration op Sir John Shore. — 
 This gentleman (afterwards Lord Teign- 
 mouth) had been many years in the service 
 of the company, and was selected for the 
 high post of governor-general,^: expressly on 
 account of the ability and perseverance 
 which lie had brought to bear on the in- 
 tricate and little understood question of 
 Indian revenue. His pacific disjjosition 
 was likewise viewed as affording a guarantee 
 for the fulfilment of the strict injunctions of 
 the British parliament — to shun every de- 
 scription of aggressive warfare on behalf of 
 the company, whether in the character of a 
 principal or an ally. Upon the deatli of 
 jMahadajee Sindia, preparations for hostili- 
 ties against the Nizam were carried on by his 
 young successor, Dowlut Rao Sindia, with the 
 co-operation of the Poona authorities and 
 all the leading Slahratta chieftains. § The 
 attempts of Sir Jolin Shore at friendly 
 mediation were treated with insulting indif- 
 ference by the j\Iahrattas, so soon as they 
 
 in 1789, from four to five million, on which sum a 
 dividend of ten-and-a-half per cent, was now paid. 
 
 I General Medows had been ofiered the position 
 on the expected resignation of Lord Cornwallis; but 
 lie declined it, declaring liis intention of staying in 
 India just long enough " to lead the storming party 
 at Seringap.atam, or until tlie war is over;" and no 
 longer. He adds, that he liad saved £40,000 out of 
 the liberal appointments of tlie company, and should 
 feel amply com])ensated if they pronounced "the la- 
 bourer worthy of his hire." — (Aubcr's Jiu/ici, ii., 121.) 
 
 § Tookajee Ilolcar and the rajah of Berar, with 
 the rejiresentative of the Puar and other influential 
 families, took tlie field ; while the Guicowars from 
 Guzerat, and otlicrs, sent deUiehnients to join the gen- 
 eral assembly of Malirattas, gathered together for the 
 last time under the nominal authority of the peishwa, 
 Madlioo Kao II., who was himself comjiletely con- 
 trolled by Nana Furnavees. — (Duff, iii.. 111.)
 
 LORD TEIGNMOUTII (SIIOllK) RESIGNS.— STATK OF INDIA— 17'J8. a7u 
 
 lierccivcd liis determination of preservint; a 
 strict neutrality. Tiic Nizam advanccrt to 
 Ucdcr, wlicrc tlic enemy liastcned to give 
 liim battle. After an indceisivc aetion, he 
 retreated l)y night to Kurdia, a small fort 
 surrounded by hills. He uas besieged, 
 closely blockaded, and compelled to pur- 
 chase peace by the most ignominious con- 
 cessions, which, if carried out, would have 
 completely crippled his resources, and left 
 him at the mercy of his old foe, Nana 
 Furuavees. Rut at this crisis the " Mah- 
 I'atta ]\Iachiavelli " overreached himself. 
 The severity and excess of his precautionary 
 measures wrought upon the high spirit of 
 the young peishwa (then onc-and-twenty 
 years of age) with unexpected violence, 
 and, in a moment of deep depression, 
 caused by the indignity to which he was 
 subjected, he flung himself from a terrace of 
 the palace, and expired in the course of 
 two days, after expressing a strong desire 
 that his cousin, Rajee Rao, should succeed 
 to the authority of which he had been 
 defrauded.* This arrangement would have 
 been generally popular ; for Hajec Rao, then 
 about twenty years of age, bore a high cha- 
 racter for skill in manly and military exer- 
 cises, and was besides deeply read in ancient 
 Brahminical lore, and a studious follower of 
 the intricate observances of caste. Reneath 
 this fair surface lay, as Nana Furnavees 
 truly declared, the weakness of his father 
 Ragoba, and the wickedness of his mother 
 Anundee Bye, as yet undeveloped. 
 
 The talents of Rajee Rao, even had they 
 been likely to be used for good instead of 
 for evil, would probably have been equally 
 opposed to the views of the minister, who 
 wanted a mere puppet to occupy the musnud 
 on public occasions, and then return to his 
 gilded prison. "With this intent he caused 
 the widow of the late jNFadhoo Rao II. 
 (herself a mere child) to adopt an infant, 
 whom he proclaimed peishwa. Sindia 
 espoused the cause of Rajee Rao, and the 
 dissensions which followed enabled Nizam 
 All to procure a release from three-fourths 
 of the cessions and payments stipulated for 
 by the treaty of Kurdia. 
 
 The remaining events during the admin- 
 istration of Sir John Shore may be briefly 
 
 • Bajee Rao had endeavoured to open a secret in- 
 tercourse with Madhoo Kao, which being discovered 
 by Nana Furnavees, drew severe reproaclies and 
 more strict surveillance on both cousins. — (DiiH.) 
 
 t In this year the Calcutta bench, and orientalists 
 in general, sustained a heavy loss in the death of the 
 upright judge and distinguished scholar. Sir 'William 
 
 noted. Fyzoolla Khan, the Rohilla ruler of 
 Ramporc and its dependent districts, died in 
 17t)kt His eldest son, Mohammed Ali, 
 snececded to the government, but was 
 seized and murdered by his younger brother, 
 Gliolam IMohammed Khan, who was in turn 
 deposed by the conjoined troops of the 
 English and the vizier. A jaghii-c of ten 
 lacs of revenue was conferred on Ahmed 
 Ali, the youthful son of the murdered ruler; 
 provision was made for the maintenance of 
 (iholam Mohammed, who came to reside at 
 Renares, under the jn'otection of the Bri- 
 tish government ; and the treasures and 
 remaining territory of the late Fyzoolia 
 Khan, were delivered np to the wasteful 
 and profligate Asuf-ad-Dowlah. 
 
 Mohammed Ali, of Arcot, died in 1795, 
 aged seventy-eight, and was succeeded by 
 his eldest son, Omdut-al-Omrah. In the 
 same year the English efl'ected the com- 
 plete reduction of the Dutch settlements 
 in Ceylon, Malacca, Banda, Amboyna, 
 Cochin, and the Cape of Good Hope. J Asuf- 
 ad-Dowlah died in 1797. A dispute con- 
 cerning the successioii arose between his 
 brother Sadut Ali, and his alleged son 
 Vizier Ali, a youth of seventeen, said to be 
 of spurious descent. § Sir John Shore 
 eventually decided in favour of the former, 
 with whom he entered into a new treaty, by 
 which the fort of Allahabad was made over 
 to the English, the annual subsidy increased 
 to seventy-six lacs of rupees, twelve lacs 
 guaranteed by the vizier as compensation 
 money for the expenses incurred in the 
 recent interference, and an annual pension 
 of a lac and a-half of rupees settled on 
 Vizier Ali, beside other arrangements re- 
 garding the support of the company's troops, 
 deemed necessary for the defence of Oude. 
 
 In the beginning of 1798, the governor- 
 general, who had been raised to the peerage 
 with the title of Lord Tcignmoiith, resigned 
 his position on account of ill-health, and 
 returned to England. Despite his high 
 character as a financier, the pecuniary re- 
 sidts of his four years' sway were disastrous, 
 and the scourge of war was but temporarily 
 delayed. Tippoo evidently waited an oppor- 
 tunity to renew hostilities ; and the expen- 
 sive preparations made to invade Mysoor, in 
 
 Jones, aged forty-eight. He was the first president 
 of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Warren Hastings 
 the patron, and Charles Wilkins a member. 
 
 + These conquests were mainly effected through 
 the zeal of Lord Hobart, governor of Madras. 
 
 § On inquiry, it appeared that the alleged children 
 of Asuf-ad-Dowlah were all sujiposilitious.
 
 376 ADMINISTRATION OF LORD MORNINGTON (WELLESLEY)— 1798, 
 
 the event of his taking part with the Dutch, 
 together with the requirements of the presi- 
 dencies of Madras and Bombay, obliged the 
 supreme government, in 1796, to open the 
 treasury for a loan bearing twelve per cent, 
 interest. In the following year, increasing 
 involvements compelled a considerable re- 
 duction in the investments^ — a step never 
 taken, it will be recollected, except under 
 the stern pressure of necessity. 
 
 Administration of Lord Morninoton 
 (Marquis Wellesley.) — An impending 
 war with Mysoor, intricate political rela- 
 tions based on the temporary interest of 
 other native powers, an exhausted trea- 
 sury, and an increasing debt, — such were 
 the difficulties that awaited the successor of 
 Lord Teignmouth. After some delay, the 
 choice — happily for England and for India — 
 fell upon a nobleman no less distinguished 
 for decision of purpose than for deliberation 
 and forethought in counsel, gifted with a 
 mind alike capable of grasping the grandest 
 plans, and of entering into the minute de- 
 tails so important to good government. 
 Lord Mornington was but seven-and-thirty 
 when he was selected for the arduous office 
 of exercising almost irresponsible authority 
 over British India ; but he had been early 
 called to play an important part in public 
 life, and had, from circumstances, been led 
 to regard Indian affairs with peculiar interest, 
 even before his appointment as one of the 
 six commissioners of the Board of Control, 
 
 * The Earl of Mornins;ton (afterwards Marquis 
 Wellesley) was descended from an ancient family, 
 whose founders went over to Ireland with Strong- 
 bow, and held (on the tenure of bearing the royal 
 standard " qxiando opus fiieiif) the castle and manor 
 of Dangan, in the county Meath, where the future 
 governor-general of India was born in 1760. The 
 name of his father Hlls an honoured place in the 
 musical annals of England, as the composer of some 
 of the finest chants and glees in the language : his 
 mother, the Countess of Mornington, was highly 
 gifted both in person and in intellect, and especially 
 remarkable for force of character, which she retained 
 unimpaired even to advanced age, and transmitted 
 to at least three of her sons — the subject of this 
 notice, "the Iron Duke," and Baron Cowley. The 
 death of Lord Mornington, in 1781, arrested the 
 college studies of his young successor, and called 
 him when scarcely of age, to relinquish the classic 
 pursuits by which he might else have become too 
 exclusively engrossed, for the severer duties of pub- 
 lic life. Close intimacy with the Cornwallis family, 
 doubtless contributed to direct his attention to In- 
 dian affairs ; and the influence of the Eton holidays 
 regularly passed with Archbishop Cornwallis at Lam- 
 beth Palace, from 1771 to 1770, had probably its 
 effect in producing, or at least strengthening the love 
 of justice and high sense of honour for which the 
 young lord became distinguished, as well as in im- 
 
 in 1793.* In this position he continued 
 for the ensuing five years, attending sedu- 
 lously to its duties, and availing himself to 
 the utmost of the opportunities it afforded 
 of becoming intimately acquainted witii the 
 condition of the E. I. Cy., the mode of gov- 
 ernment adopted in the three presidencies, 
 and the position and history of neighbouring 
 powers. The subject was, to the highest 
 degree, attractive to a statesman who con- 
 sidered that "the majesty of Great Britain 
 was her trade, and the throne of the com- 
 merce of the world the fittest object of her 
 ambition." The able and indefatigable, but 
 prejudiced historian of India, was probably 
 but imperfectly acquainted with the cha- 
 racter and antecedents of Lord Morning- 
 ton, when he remarked that he came out 
 as a war-governor : still less ground existed 
 for the assertion, that his lordship had 
 " possessed but little time for acquainting 
 himself with the complicated affairs of 
 India, when all his attention was attracted 
 to a particular point. "f The remarkable 
 letter, addressed to Lord JMelville from the 
 Cape of Good Hope, in 1798,J abundantly 
 attests the extraordinary amount of infor- 
 mation already accumulated by the writer, 
 as well as the profound and far-sighted 
 views which he had been enabled to form 
 therefrom. The mental qualifications of 
 Lord Mornington were rendered generally at- 
 tractive by the dignified and courteous bear- 
 ing, and the sweet, yet powerful utterance 
 
 planting the deep and clear views of religion which 
 formed the solace of his honoured age. His first 
 care was the voluntary liquidation of his father's 
 debts; the next, a most liberal provision for the edu- 
 cation of his brothers and sisters, especially for that 
 of Arthur, whose capacities he early appreciated. A 
 brilliant career in the Irish House of Parliament, 
 was speedily followed and surpassed by his success 
 as an orator in the British House of Commons, where, 
 strangely enough, his first speech was in reprobation 
 of the conduct of Lord North in making Warren 
 Hastings governor-general of India, after his un- 
 principled conduct regarding the KohiUas. The 
 o])inions delivered by him on the questions of war 
 with the French republic, the disputes regarding the 
 regency, the abolition of the Irish parliament, and 
 Catholic emancii)ation,have their ])agc in history ; but 
 none occupy a higher place in the memory of those 
 who cherisli the name of the Marquis \\'cllesley, 
 than his unwavering and indignant denunciation of 
 the slave-trade, which he declared to he an " abomi- 
 nable, infamous, and bloody traflic," the continuance 
 of which it was a disgrace to Great Britain to sanc- 
 tion, even for an hour. ( Tide IJebate on motion 
 of Mr. Dundas for t/raihial abolition, April, 1792.) 
 
 t Mill's India : edited by Pi of. Wilson, vi., 73. 
 
 \ Dfspalches, Mittulcx, and Corres/mnilmcn nf the 
 ]\larquis IVellcxIfij : edited by K. Montgomery 
 Martin, i., 1 — 15. Murray: Loudon, 1830.
 
 TiPrOO SULTAN INTtlTGUES WITH THE FRENCH REPUBLIC— 179R. 37? 
 
 which enhanced tlie effect of his rare elo- 
 nupuee. His small hut perfectly symmetrical 
 fi};urc, formed a worthy model for the chisels 
 of Bacon and Chantry; while the easel 
 of Lawrence rendered the delicate hut clearly 
 defined outline of the nose and month, tlie 
 soft, ga7,elle-like* eyes and dark arched 
 brows, in cotitrast with the silver locks 
 which clustered round his lofty forehead — 
 seareely less publicly known, in his own 
 time, than the remarkahle profile and eagle- 
 eye of his younger brother are at present. 
 
 On his arrival in ^Tadras, in April, 17!>8, 
 Lord Mornington was accompanied by his 
 younger brother Henry, afterwards Lord 
 Cowley, in the capacity of privnte seere- 
 t-ary. 'The future duke," then Lt.-Col. Wel- 
 leslej', with his i-egiment (the .'};5rd), had 
 been already some months in Lidia. After 
 a brief stay at Madras (of which presidency 
 Lord Clive, tlie son of the hero of Arcot, 
 was appointed governor), Lord Mornington 
 proceeded to Calcutta, and commenced a 
 series of civil reforms ; but his attention 
 was speedily arrested by the intrigues of 
 Tippoo and some French adventurers, who, 
 though in themselves of small importance, 
 might, he well knew, at any moment give 
 place to, or acquire the rank of powerfully 
 supported representatives of their nation. 
 Li fact, schemes to that effect were in pro- 
 cess of development ; though the success of 
 the British by sea and land, the victoiies of 
 Nelson on the Nile, and that of Acre by Sir 
 Sidney Smith, in conjunction with Lord 
 Mornington's own measures, eventually pre- 
 vented Buonaparte from putting into execu- 
 tion his cherished plasi of wresting fi'om Eng- 
 land her growing Indian empire. The re- 
 publican general and his great adversaries, 
 the brothers Wcllesley, had a long series of 
 diplomatic hostilities to wage in distant 
 hemispheres, before the last fierce struggle 
 which convulsed the European continent 
 with the death-throes of the usurped au- 
 thority of the citizen emperor! Their 
 battle-fields and council-chambers, as yet, 
 lay wide apart; but the letters of Buona- 
 parte to Tippoo Sultan and to Zemaun Shah, 
 the successor of the fierce Doorani conqueror 
 of Panipnt, who had threatened to renew 
 the incursions of his grandsire in Hindoo- 
 stan, served to convey an impression to the 
 
 * This expression may savour of exaj:<reration or 
 affectnlioii to persons unacquainted with Lord AVcl- 
 lesley. 'I'hose who have watched him wliile speak- 
 ini; on subjects wliich touclied his feelings, will, on the 
 nontrary, consider the comparison a poor compliment 
 
 native princes that a European power did 
 exist, eagerly waiting its opportunity to fight 
 the i']nglish with their own weapons. So 
 strongly impressed was Tip])oo with this con- 
 victioti, that he sent ambassadors to the 
 French governor of the Mauritius (M. Ma- 
 lartic), with proposals for an offensive and 
 defensive alliance against tlicir mutual rival, 
 offering to bear the whole expenses of the 
 French auxiliary force to be sent to his as- 
 sistance, and to furnish them with every ac- 
 customed allowance except wine and spirits, 
 with which lie declared himself entirely un- 
 provided. The truth was, that Tippoo, in 
 laudable conformity with the ordinance of 
 his standard of action, the Koran, forbade 
 his subjects to use any description of intox- 
 icating plants or beverages; and, as far as 
 possible, caused the white poppy and tlic 
 hemp-plant to be destroyed even in private 
 gardens. Those only who, like Colonel Tod 
 and other travelled historians, have had the 
 opijortunity of searching out for tticmsclves 
 autiientic records illustrative of the condi- 
 tion of the people of Lulia at diflcrent 
 epochs, can fully appreciate the political 
 importance of this measure, and its proba- 
 ble effect in tending to stay the moral and 
 physical degradation which ths abuse of all 
 intoxicating compounds never fails to pro- 
 duce, especially of that valuable medicine, 
 but when misused, detestable drug, opium. 
 
 The oiler of the sultan was warmly wel- 
 comed by the French goATrnor, and a small 
 detaehnientt of volunteers sent to I^Ialabar, 
 and received as an earnest of further assist- 
 ance. Lord Mornington addressed repeated 
 remonstrances to Tippoo inspecting this no- 
 torifius breach of faith ; and iTceived, in re- 
 turn, the same empty professions of good-will 
 which had been previously made to Lord 
 Cornwallis. There was but one course to 
 be taken with a man who met all argu- 
 ments regarding the hostile operations in 
 which he was engaged by positive denial 
 or wilful silence ; and the governor-general, 
 dcs])itc the exhausted treasury and financial 
 involvements which even a peace-governor 
 had i)een unable to avoid, now fouinl him- 
 self compelled to prepare for the renewal of 
 war. He proceeded to !Madras, where, by 
 infusing his own spirit into this heretofore 
 venal and incapable presidency, he procured 
 
 to eyes gifted with the power of reflecting every vary- 
 ing phase of thought and feeling, but ever tender 
 and g;izelle-like in repose. 
 
 t About loO; composed of convicted criminals and 
 the refuse of the rabble of the island. — {Vesjialches.)
 
 378 LORD WELLESLEY DISBANDS NIZAM'S FRENCH CORPS— 1798. 
 
 the adoption of measures for the complete 
 equipment of the armies on tl:e coasts of 
 Coromandel and Malabar. The conduct of 
 Nizam Ali, the suhahdar of the Deccan, 
 afforded much ground for uneasiness. The 
 refusal of Sir John Shore to suffer the Eng- 
 lish subsidiary detachment to fight against 
 the Mahrattas, had induced him to raise 
 a large corps, trained aud officered by 
 French adventurers, under the immediate 
 superintendence of a M. Raymond, who was 
 justly suspected of being in communication 
 with Tippoo. Lord ]\Iornington felt that 
 the course of events might render this 
 body a nucleus for all powers and persons 
 jealous or envious of British supremacy. 
 He therefore hastened to make overtures 
 for a closer alliance with the Nizam; and on 
 the 1st of September, a new treaty was con- 
 cluded, by winch the subsidiary detachment 
 in his service was increased from two to six 
 battalions, and the E. I. Cy. became pledged 
 for liis protection against any unjust de- 
 mands on the part of the Mahrattas. The 
 Nizam consented to the immediate dis- 
 bandnient of Raymond's corps, and the 
 surrender of their officers as prisoners of 
 war ; but as he manifested some hesitation 
 regarding the fulfilment of these stipula- 
 tions, the French cantonments were unex- 
 pectedly surrounded by the whole English 
 force, in conjunction with a body of the 
 Hyderabad cavalry. The men, already dis- 
 afl'ected,* upon a promise of continued 
 employment and the payment of arrears, laid 
 down their weapons ; the officers were 
 quietly arrested, and, in a few hours, 14,000 
 men, possessing a train of artillery and a 
 well-supplied arsenal, were completely dis- 
 armed and disorganised. The private 
 property and arrears due to the officers were 
 carefully secured to them by the governor- 
 general, and arrangements made for their 
 honourable treatment and speedy transport 
 to their own country. 
 
 The primary importance of neutralising 
 the danger of French influence at the court 
 of the Nizam, did not blind Lord Morning- 
 ton to the advisal)ility of avoiding hostilities 
 with the jMahrattas. The supremacy of 
 
 • M. Raymond, a. man of considerable talent, died 
 a few montlis before these events, and a struggle for 
 ascendancy had induced disunion among the troops, 
 who, it may be added, were avowed red republicans. 
 
 t Words of ]/ord C'ornwalHs. 
 
 I ll'iUcihi/ J)i:!.]iutclic:!<, v., 1,'). 
 
 § Tlie army assenililed at Vellore exceeded 20,000 
 men, including 'ifi'.'i') cavalry, and -(..'iSl i'lurojieans ; 
 to which was added the 6,500 men serving with the 
 
 Nana Furnavees and his baby pcishwa, had 
 given place to that of Sindia aud Bajee 
 llao, with whom Nana had become partially 
 reconciled ; and through his influence, a 
 pledge of co-operation, in the event of a 
 war with Mysoor, was given by them, but 
 apparently with the most treacherous intent. 
 
 These precautionary measures concluded. 
 Lord Mornington felt himself in a position 
 to bring matters to an issue. The "violent 
 and faithless"t character of the sultan, ren- 
 dered it necessary to take summary steps 
 for the reduction of his power and arro- 
 gance, which had again become alarming. 
 The abandonment of his French connexions 
 was at first all that was desired ; but the ex- 
 pense of military preparations having been 
 incurred — the cession of the maritime pro- 
 vince of Canara, with other ten-itory and a 
 large sum of money, the establishment of ac- 
 credited residents on the part of the E. I. Cy. 
 and their allies at his capital, and the expul- 
 sion of all Frenchmen from his service and 
 dominions, were now demanded. Tippoo 
 resorted to his old plan of evasion, hoping to 
 procrastinate until the season for attacking 
 Seringajjatam should be past; and when hard 
 driven, wrote a tardy consent to receive an 
 English envoy to negotiate terms of more 
 intimate alliance with that nation, while, at 
 the same time, in his capacity of citizen and 
 wearer of the red cap of liberty, he dispatched 
 an embassy to the French Directory, solicit- 
 ing speedy assistance " to attack and anni- 
 hilate for ever our common euemies.'-'J 
 
 As on a previous occasion, his duplicity 
 was met by a declaration of war ; and on the 
 5th of March, the British force, under 
 General (afterwards Lord) Harris, aud that 
 of the Nizam under his son ]\Ieer Alum, 
 entered the Mysoor territory, with the intent 
 of marching directly upon the capital. Lord 
 Mornington truly declared, " that an army 
 more completely appointed, more amply and 
 liberally supplied in every department, or 
 more perfect iu its discipline and in the 
 acknowledged experience, ability, and zeal 
 of its oflicers, never took the field iu India. "§ 
 The very abundance of the equipments of 
 the invaders formed, in sonic sort, an im« 
 
 Nizam, and a large body of Hyderabad cavalry. 
 The army of the western const, assenililed at Cana- 
 nore, under General Stuart, amounted to 6,420 
 men, of whom, 1,017 w-ere JOuropcans ; while a third 
 corjis, under Colonels Head and Brown, from the 
 southern districts of the C'arnalic, at once threat- 
 ened the enemy in Hank, and secured abundance of 
 provisions to the main body of the invaders. A Bri- 
 tish Heel, under Admiral llainier, lay olf the coast.
 
 WAR WITH TIPPOO SULTAN.— INVASION OF MYSOOll— 17'jy, 379 
 
 pediment to their speedy progress; and 
 this cirounistaiicc, tof^ctlior with tlic cum- 
 brous baggap;*' o^ tlie Nizam's troops, and 
 the innumerable camp followers, tended to 
 produce so much confusion, that the forces 
 were repeatedly compelled to halt, and 
 destroy a part of the mass of stores with 
 
 i which they were encumbered ; until at 
 length, the loss of powder, shot, and other 
 military stores, became sudiciently con- 
 siderable to excite alarm. Nearly the ivhole 
 of the draught and carriage bullocks, com- 
 prising upwards of 60,000, died in the 
 march to Seringapatam, although it was 
 scarcely retarded u day by the opposition of 
 the enemy. In the meantime. General 
 Stuart, with the force from Bombay, had 
 crossed the western frontier, and been at- 
 tacked on the Gth of IMareli, by the sultan 
 with a superior force, near Pcriapatam. 
 After a brisk action, iu which the rajah of 
 Coorg effectively seconded the English 
 general by personal bravery and commis- 
 sariat supplies,* Tippoo, being worsted, 
 drew oft' his army, and hastened to meet 
 the main body of the enemy under General 
 Harris. This he accomplished near Mala- 
 velly, on the ]\Iadoor river, but was again 
 defeated with heavy loss. His subsequent 
 attempts to impede or harass the pi'ogress 
 of the invaders, were frustrated by their un- 
 expected changes of route; and he learned 
 with dismay, that the battering train, with 
 the last of the army, had actually crossed 
 the Cauvery fifteen miles east of Seringapa- 
 tam, while he was yet at a distance, keep- 
 ing guard in an opposite direction, — an 
 indubitable proof how greatly his system 
 of intelligence fell short of that maintained 
 by his father. Deeply disappointed, he 
 summoned his chief officers to his pre- 
 sence. " "We have arrived," he said, " at 
 our last stage ; what is your determina- 
 tion?" " To die with you," was the unani- 
 mous reply; and the assembly separated, 
 * The rnjah of Coorg had collected 6,360.000 Ihs. 
 of rice, and 560,000 lbs. of grain, for tlie use of the 
 troops ; and his whole conduct during the present 
 war, warranted praise equal to that awarded him on 
 the previous occasion, of having been " the only ally 
 Mfixa had performed all his obligations with fide- 
 lity, efticiency, and honour."- — (3l;/sn(»; iii., 247.) 
 It is no disparagement to llie acknowledged merits 
 and peculiarly chivalrous character of the rajah, to 
 add, that he had the deepest wrongs, both as re- 
 
 1 gardcd family and national relationship, to avenge 
 upon the usur|)ing dynasty. The reduction of Coorg 
 had been at first clfected by Hydcr, through trea- 
 cherous interference, during a contested succession. 
 Of the two families, one was destroyed ; the repre- 
 sentative of the other (Veer Rajunder) escaped 
 
 after a tearful farewell, having resolved to 
 interot^pt the expected passage of the 
 1'^nglish across the stream to the island on 
 which Seringapatam is situated, and make 
 death or victory the issue of a single battle. 
 The equipments of the sultan were iu order, 
 and his troops well jilaeed to contest the 
 fords; but the advancing foe did not ap- 
 proaeii them, but took up a position on the 
 south-western side of the fort, on the ijtii of 
 April, exactly one month after crossing tiiC 
 j\Iysoor frontier, having advanced at the 
 rate of not seven miles a-day on hostile 
 ground, and not five from the coramence- 
 ment of the march. The consequence of 
 this unc.vpected tardiness, and of great loss 
 of stores, was, that despite the extraordi- 
 nary supplies assembled by tlie governor- 
 general, it was ascertained, on the 18th of 
 April, that but eighteen days' provision for 
 the fighting men, at half allowance, re- 
 mained in store.t The siege was of necessity 
 carried on with the utmost diligence. The 
 sultan made overtures for peace, but re- 
 jected the terms of the preliminary treaty 
 now proposed — namely, the surrender of 
 his remaining maritime territories, and of 
 half his entire domiuions, with the pay- 
 ment of two erore of sicca rupees, and the 
 total renunciation of French auxiliaries. 
 Every hour's delay rendered the position of 
 the allies more critical; and on the 28th, 
 when the sultan i-enewed his proposals for a 
 conference, he was informed that no ambas- 
 sadors would be received unless accom- 
 panied by four of his sons and four of his 
 generals (including ScyedGhofar) as hostages, 
 with a erore of rupees, in token of sincerity. 
 
 No answer was returned. Tippoo's he- 
 reditary aversion to the English liad been 
 raised to the highest pitch by the represen- 
 tatives of the French adventurers about his 
 person. Naturally sanguine, he had buoyed 
 himself up with expectations of the arrival 
 of succours direct from France, from Egypt, 
 from the hands of Tippoo, and upon the out- 
 break of the previous war, hastened to join the Eng- 
 lish. jN'otwitlistanding the ruthless manner in which 
 the population and resources of his country had 
 been treated, lie was able, by his intelligence and 
 activity, to aid materially the operations of the 
 Bombay army. Mill, who is little inclined to bestow 
 praise on Indian princes, speaks of him as possess- 
 ing a remarkable "enlargement of mind, and dis- 
 playing a generosity and a heroism worthy of a 
 more civilised state of society." — (v., 4J3.) Col. 
 Wilks narrates many actions which confirm this tes- 
 timony. So, also, does M.-ijor llirom"s Narrative. 
 
 t There nuist have been, also, much disgraceful 
 jobbery, the effects of which were happily neutral- 
 ised by a public tender of 1,200 bullock-loads of rice.
 
 380 
 
 STORMING OF SEEING APATAM— MAY 4th, 1799. 
 
 or from the Mauritius ; and when at length 
 the progress of the siege drew from him a 
 sincere attempt at negotiation, his haughty 
 spirit could not brook the humiliating con- 
 ditions named as the price of peace, and he 
 suffered hostilities to proceed, comforting 
 himself with the idea that Seringapatam 
 was almost invincible ; that the failure of 
 supplies would probably even now compel 
 the enemy to withdraw ; and that, at the 
 worst, " it was better to die like a soldier, 
 than to live a miserable dependent on the 
 infidels, in the list of their pensioned rajahs 
 and nabobs." Despite the manliness of 
 Tippoo's words, his deeds evinced a strange 
 mixture of indecision and childish credulity. 
 For years he had shown himself the bigoted 
 and relentless persecutor of his Hindoo 
 subjects ; and so effectual had been his 
 measures, that only two Brahminical tem- 
 ples remained open throughout his domi- 
 nions. Yet now, those very Brahmins, 
 whom he had compelled to violate the first 
 rules of their creed, by fleshing their 
 weapons on the bodies of sacred animals, 
 were entreated to put up prayers on his 
 behalf, and the jebbum* was performed at 
 great cost by the orders of a Mussulman 
 sovereign, to whom all kinds of magical 
 incantation were professedly forbidden, 
 and who simultaneously put up earnest 
 and reiterated prayers in the mosque, re- 
 questing thereto tlie fervent amen of his 
 attendants. Then he betook himself to the 
 astrologers, and from them received state- 
 ments calculated to deepen the depression 
 by which his mind was rapidly becoming 
 unhinged. The evident progress of affairs 
 might well furnish them with a clue to 
 decypher the predictions of the stars, and 
 a set of diagrams were gravely exhibited as 
 warranting the conclusion, that so long as 
 Mars should remain within a particular 
 circle, the fort would hold out : he would 
 touch the limit on tlic last day of the lunar 
 month, the 4th of IMay; then it would be 
 advisable to offer the oblations prescribed by 
 law to deprecate an expected calamity. It 
 is possible that the true movers in this 
 singular scene may have been certain faith- 
 ful servants of Tippoo Sultan, who, as the 
 danger increased, beheld with grief his 
 accustomed energy give place to a sort 
 of despairing fatalism, alternating with 
 bursts of forced gaiety, which were echoed 
 
 • See previous p. 307. 
 
 t Baird was taken prisoner witli llie Lurvlvors of 
 Cul. Baillie's detachment, and not released until 1 '^■i. 
 
 back by the parasites by whom he had 
 become exclusively surrounded. Seyed 
 Ghofar was one of the most zealous and 
 able of the Mysoorean commanders. Al- 
 though wounded at an early period of the 
 siege, he did not relax his exertions for the 
 defence of the capital, or his efforts to 
 awaken its master to action, despite the 
 despairing exclamation — " He is surrounded 
 by boys and flatterers, who will not even 
 let him see with his own eyes. I do not 
 wish to survive the result. I am going 
 about in search of death, and cannot find 
 it." On the 3rd of May, a practicable 
 breach (100 feet wide) was effected. On 
 the morning of the 4th, the sultan offered 
 the oblation before arranged ; and after an 
 attempt to ascertain the aspect of his des^ 
 tiny by the reflection of his own face in a 
 jar of oil, returned to his accustomed 
 station on the fortifications. Seyed Ghofar, 
 seeing the trenches unusually crowded, sent 
 word that the attack was about to com- 
 mence ; but the courtiers persuaded their 
 infatuated lord that the enemy would never 
 dare the attempt by daylight; and he re- 
 plied, that it was doubtless right to be on the 
 alert, although the assault would certainly 
 not be made except under cover of night. 
 
 Excited by such mistaken security, the 
 brave officer hastened towards the sultan. 
 "I will go," said he, "and drag him to the 
 breach, and make him see by what a set of 
 wretches he is surrouuded : I will compel 
 him to exert himself at this last moment." 
 The arrival of a party of pioneers, to cut off 
 the approach of the foe by the southern 
 rampart, induced him to delay his intention 
 for the purpose of first giving them their 
 instructions; and, while thus engaged, a 
 cannon-ball struck him lifeless to the 
 grouiul, and saved him from witnessing the 
 realisation of his worst anticipations. 
 
 Tippoo was about commencing his noon- 
 day repast, when he learned with dismay 
 the fate of his brave servant. The meal was 
 scarcely ended before tidings were brought 
 of the actual assault, and he hastened to the 
 breach along the northern rampart. 
 
 The leader of the storming paity was 
 Major-general Baird, who had, at his own 
 request, been deputed to head the attack on 
 the fortress, within whose walls he had been 
 immured in irons for three years and a-half f 
 The hope of releasing captives treacherously 
 detained, and of i)rev(uting such faithless 
 outrages for the futuic, would, apart from 
 less commendable feelings, have been suffi-
 
 THE DEATH OF TIPPOO SULTAN— 1799. 
 
 881 
 
 cient to excite to tlic utmost a less anient 
 teiiipcianieiit. Mouiitinj; tlie parapet of 
 the breacli, in view ol botii armies lie drew 
 liis swDid, and, in a voice wliicli thrilled 
 tiironj;li every heart, called to the euliimus 
 into which the assaidtin;^ force* had been 
 divided, "to follow him and prove them- 
 selves worthy the name of British soldiers." 
 A forlorn hope, composed of a serj;eant 
 and twelve men, led the van of cither 
 column, followed by two sul)altern detach- 
 ments, and were met on the slope of the 
 brca(^h by a small but icsohite body of My- 
 sooreans. Nearly the whole of the first com- 
 batants perished, l)ut their place was rapidly 
 supplied by the forces led by Baird; and in 
 six minutes after the energetic call to arms, 
 the British colours were planted on the 
 summit of the breach. This important step 
 accomplished, much danger and difficulty 
 remained ; for the traverses, especially along 
 the northern rampart, were stronger than 
 liad been expected, and the sultan in 
 person animated the exertions of his de- 
 fenders. After much hard fighting, the 
 British columns overeame all intermediate 
 obstacles, and menaced Tippoo and his sup- 
 porters both in front and rear. The confu- 
 sion then became com|)lete : the Mysooreans 
 fled in various directions; some through a 
 gateway in the rampart opening on the 
 palace, some over the fortifications, and others 
 by a water-gate leading to the river. The 
 sultan, after long lighting on foot, being 
 slightly wounded, was seen to mount his 
 horse, but what he had next done, no one 
 knew. It was eonjeetured that he had taken 
 refuge within the palace ; and the chief per- 
 scms admitted to his confidence during the 
 last few perilous days, alleged that obscure 
 hints had escaped him of an intention to fol- 
 low the ancient Indian custom, by putting to 
 death the females of his family, destroying 
 certain private jjapers, and then sallying 
 forth to perish on the swords of his foes. 
 According to instructions previously framed. 
 Major Allan was deputed to proceed to the 
 palace with a flag of truce, and offer protec- 
 tion to Tippoo and every one in it, on the 
 proviso of immediate and unconditional sur- 
 render. The major laid aside his sword, in 
 evidence of his peaceable intentions, and 
 prevailed upon the attendants to conduct 
 him and two brother ofBcers to the presence 
 
 • Comprising 2.494 Europeans, and 1,882 natives. 
 
 ■)■ 'I'lie inct was subscqueiuly asceitaintd by ex- 
 luimin^ tlie bodie?. The niniour bein^ in itself 
 sutlicieiulv probable, niav palliate, but cannot justiCv, 
 ■3 D 
 
 of the two eldest sons of Tippoo, from whom 
 he with diilieulty obtained warraut ior the 
 occupation of the palace, witliiii u hieli 
 many hundred armed men were assembi d; 
 while, without the walls, a large body of 
 troops were drawn up, with General Buird 
 at their head. The fierce excitement of a 
 hard-won field had been increased by the 
 hoiiible and only too well authenticated 
 information of the massacre of about thir- 
 teen Europeans taken during the siege ;t 
 yet the torrent of exccratiun and invective 
 was huslied in deep silence when the sons of 
 the hated despot passed through the ranks as 
 prisoners, on their way to the British camp. 
 The royal apartments were searched, due 
 care being taken to avoid iullicting any 
 needless injury on the feelings of the ladies 
 of the harem, by removing tlicm to distinct 
 rooms; but still the impoitaiit question re- 
 mained unanswered— what had become of 
 the sultan ? 
 
 At length it was discovered that private 
 intelligence had reached the killedar, or 
 chief ottieer in command, that Tip|)O0 was 
 lying under the arch of the gateway open- 
 ing on the inner fort. General Baird pro- 
 ceeded to the s[)ot, and searched a dense 
 mass of dead and dying, but without suc- 
 cess, until a Hindoo, styled Ilajah Khan, 
 who lay wounded near the palanquin of 
 the sultan, pointed out the spot where his 
 master had fallen. Tippoo ha(l received two 
 inusket-l)alls in the side, when his horse 
 being wounded sank under iiim. Kajah 
 Ivlian, after vainly striving to cany iiim 
 away, urged the necessity of disclosing his 
 rank as the sole chance for his preservation. 
 This Tippoo peremptorily forbade, and con- 
 tinued to lie prostrate from the loss of blood 
 and fatigue, half-buried under a heap of 
 his brave defenders, until an English soldier 
 coming up to the spot, strove to seize the 
 gold buckle of his sword-belt, upon which 
 he partly raised himself, seized a sabre that 
 lay beside him, and aimed a desperate blow 
 at his assailant, who, in return, shot him. 
 through the temple. 
 
 Thus perished Tippoo Sultan, in the 
 forty-seventh year of his age. The body, 
 when eventually dragged forth, was found 
 to have beeu riHed of every ornament except 
 an amulet on the right arm, immediately 
 below the shoulder. ' The head was un- 
 
 the threats used by General Baird to the princes and 
 others, who liad surrendeieil on the lailh ol' the 
 assurances of .\lajor Allan, to draw from ihrm the 
 whereabouts of Tij)poo. — (Thoiulon's India, iii., o9.)
 
 382 
 
 GOVERNMENT AND ARMY OP TIPPOO SULTAN— 1799. 
 
 covered, and, despite the ball which had 
 entered a little above the right ear and 
 lodged in the cheek, and three wounds in 
 the body, the stern dignity of the counte- 
 nance,* its glowing complexion, the expres- 
 sion of the dark full eyes unclosed and sur- 
 mounted by small arched eyebrows marred 
 by no distortion, were altogether so life- 
 like, that the effect, heightened by the rich 
 colouring of the waistband and shoulder- 
 belt, almost deceived the bystanders; and 
 Colonel Wellesley and Major Allan bent 
 over the body by the uncertain and flicker- 
 ing glare of torch-light, and felt the pulse 
 and heart, before being convinced that they 
 were indeed looking on a corpse. f The 
 remains were deposited beside those of 
 Hyder Ali, in the superb mausoleum of Lall 
 Bang, with every ceremonial demanded by 
 Mussulman usage. The minute-gun and 
 other military honoui's, practised by Euro- 
 peans, were paid by order of the com- 
 mander-in-chief, a ceremonial which, how- 
 ever well intended, was misplaced. It 
 would have been better taste to have suf- 
 fered the bereaved family of the sultan, 
 who had died in defence of his capital, to 
 bury their dead, undisturbed by the presence 
 of his triumphant foes. Terrific peals of 
 thunder and lightning,| to an extent re- 
 markable even in that tempestuous district, 
 burst over the island of Seringapatam, and 
 formed a fitting close to the funereal rites 
 of the second and last representative of a 
 brief but blood-stained dynasty. The pre- 
 diction of Hyder was fulfilled: the empire 
 he had won his son had lost, and with it 
 life itself. The romantic circumstances 
 attendant on the death of Tippoo may tend 
 to throw a false halo over his character > but 
 admiration for his personal bravery, or even 
 better -grounded praise for his excellent 
 
 • The sultan was about five feet ten inches in 
 hciglit, had a short neck and square shoulders; his 
 limlis were slender, (eel and hands remarkably small, 
 and nose aquiline. His dress consisted of a jacket of 
 fine white linen, loose drawers of flowered chintz, a 
 crimson {girdle, with a handsome pouch slung over 
 his shoulder by a belt of red and green silk. 
 
 I This expression, says Col. W'ilks, was noticed 
 only by those who saw Tippoo for the first time ; it 
 wore otf the more s])eedily owing to his excessive 
 garrulity and harsh, inharmonious voice. 
 
 J Two officers and several ])rivates were killed. 
 § llistvry (if Mysiiur, iii., 209. 
 
 II On the 4th of May, there were in the fort 
 13,7:i9 regular troops, and 8,100 outside and in the 
 inlrenchnients. with 120 I'renchmen, under the c(mi- 
 mund of a clicf lie brii/aile, ,M. Cliapuis. In the as- 
 sault, 8,001) Mysooreans were killed, including twenty- 
 four principal otticers killed and wounded, beside 
 
 measure in striving to put down the use of 
 intoxicating preparations, which had become 
 a very curse to India, must not be permitted 
 to disguise the fact that, with few excep- 
 tions, his career was one of blood and rapine, 
 beside which that of Hyder appears just and 
 compassionate. 
 
 'iippoo manifested remarkable industry in 
 his endeavours to establish the reputation 
 of a reformer; but the regulations framed 
 for the government of his dominions, were 
 enforced by penalties of so revolting a cha- 
 racter, as alone to prove the lawgiver 
 unfit to exercise authority over his fellow- 
 men; equally so, whether these were 
 prompted by diabolical wickedness, or the 
 aberrations of a diseased intellect. " His- 
 tory," says Colonel Wilks, "exhibits no prior 
 example of a code perverting all pos.sible 
 purposes of punishment as a public example, 
 combining the terrors of death with cold- 
 blooded irony, filthy ridicule, and obscene 
 mutilation — the pranks of a monkey with 
 the abominations of a monster. "§ Such a 
 despotism, based on usurpation and fraud, 
 and exercised with unparalleled ferocity, 
 Britain may well rejoice in having been per- 
 mitted to abolish. 
 
 The total military establishment of 
 Tippoo was estimated at about 100,000, 
 including matchlockmen and peons (revenue 
 officers or police) ; his field army at 47,4.70 
 ett'ective troops. The granaries, arsenals, 
 and magazines of all kinds in Seringapatam, 
 were abundantly stored ;|| but a very exag- 
 gerated idea had, as is commonly the case, 
 been formed of the amount of his treasure 
 in gold and jewels, the total value of which 
 did not reach a million and a-half sterling, 
 and was entirely appropriated by the con- 
 quering army. In acknowledgment of the 
 energy and forethought displayed by the 
 
 numbers of inferior rank. The total loss of the 
 British, during the siege, was twenty-two officers 
 killed and forty-five wounded (twenty-five of these 
 in the storming of the citadel) ; rank and file — Euro- 
 peans, 181 killed, 622 wounded, twenty-two missing: 
 natives, 119 killed, 420 wounded, and 100 missing. 
 In the fort were found 929 pieces of ordnance (373 
 brass guns, sixty mortars, eleven howitzers, 41)6 iron 
 guns, and twelve mortars), of which 287 were mounted 
 on the fortifications : there were also 424,400 round 
 shot J 620 lbs. of gunpowder, and 99,000 muskets, 
 carbines, iS;c. Within the fortress were eleven large 
 powder-magazines ; seventy-two expense magazines j 
 eleven armories for making and furnishing small 
 arms; thne buildings with machines for boring 
 guns; four large arsenals, and seventeen other store- 
 houses, containing accoutrements, swords, itc. ; and 
 many granaries abundantly filled with provisions of 
 every description. — (lieatson's War with I'ippoo.)
 
 DIVISION OF NEWLY-CONQUERED TEllRITOllIES— 1799. 
 
 383 
 
 governor-general, in directing the whole 
 resources of British India to one point, and 
 thus, iiuinaiily spcakin]^;, cnsurin;; suei'css 
 in a single canipaifjn, lie was raised a step in 
 the peerage,* and infornied that, Ijy the con- 
 current authority of his majesty's ministers 
 and the Court of Directors, a portion of the 
 spoils of Seringapatam, to the value of 
 J21 00,000, would be directed to be appro- 
 priated for his use, the remainder to be 
 divided among the troops. Lord Wcllesley 
 was far from ricli, but he unhesitatingly 
 refused this tempting offer, as an cneroaeii- 
 inent on the claims of the army, and, more- 
 over, as being an injurious precedent, likely 
 to afford the future arbiters of peace and 
 war, in India, pecuniary temptations to a 
 belligerent policy. A star and badge of the 
 order of St. Patrick, composed of some of 
 Tippoo's jewels, was all that he accepted 
 at the time. In 1801, an annuity of £5,000 
 was settled on him by the company. 
 
 Unfortunately, this memorable example 
 of disinterestedness did not prevent some 
 very discreditable proceedings with regard 
 to the distribution of the prize-money; and 
 the commandcr-in-cliief (Harris) and six 
 general officers (Floyd, Baird, Popham, 
 Bridges, Stuart, and Hartley), were con- 
 sidered by the home authorities to have 
 appropriated to themselves a very undue 
 proportion ; General Harris, in ])articular, 
 having received one-eighth instead of one- 
 sixteenth part of the whole. The command 
 of Seringapatam was entrusted by Harris 
 to Colonel Wellesley, much to the displea- 
 sure of General Baird, who exclaimed — 
 " Before the sweat was dry on my brow, I 
 was superseded by an inferior officer '." The 
 governor-general showed his conviction of the 
 propriety of the measure, by subsequently 
 investing his brother with the superinten- 
 dence of the civil government of Mysoor. 
 As, despite liis strong family aflection. Lord 
 Wellesley is universally acknowledged to 
 have been distinguished for a judicious and 
 impartial selection of particular men for 
 particular positions, perfect reliance may be 
 placed on his own assertion, that, despite 
 the jealousy to which the appointment made 
 
 • Rather a doubtful advantage in the sif;Iit of the 
 receiver, who was wont to allude to the merging of 
 an English eai'ldom into an Irish marquisate, as hav- 
 ing changed his English ale into Irish hntterniilk. 
 
 ■j- Haird could not be trusted nilh such authority. 
 
 I Tippoo left three legitimate and seventeen ille- 
 gitimate cliildren ; twenty-four died before him. 
 
 § The chiefs of districts submitted cheerfully to the 
 conquerors. The only opposition offered was that of 
 
 by Harris would give rise among the senior 
 oilicers, ho confirmed, and would iiimself 
 have originated it if necessary, simply be- 
 cause, from his "knowledge and experience 
 of the discretion, judgment, temijcr, and 
 integrity" of Colonel Wellesley, Jie con- 
 sidered him "the most proper for the ser- 
 vice."t The generous warmth with which 
 Lord Wellesley cherished the abilities of his 
 younger i)rotliers, was, it may be thought, 
 part of his private rather than public cha- 
 racter; but it was closely allied with the 
 active benevolence which formed the main- 
 spring of his whole career. The cadets of 
 the service found themselves, for the first 
 time, the objects of almost parental scrutiny. 
 Talent, zeal, and industry were found to 
 ensure a better welcome at government- 
 house, under an administration celebrated 
 for a singular union of oriental magnifi- 
 cence, patrician refinement, and scholastic 
 lore, than ])atronage, high birth, or the yet 
 more congenial aristocracy of talent could 
 obtain, unsupported by meritorious service. 
 Tlie disposition made by Lord Wellesley 
 of the newly-conquered teriitory, was warmly 
 approved in England, and excited in India 
 a general feeling of surprise at its equity 
 and moderation. Tlie fortress of Vellore, 
 in the Carnatie, was fitted up for the family 
 of H'ippoOjJ and an allowance made for their 
 support, more liberal than tliat previously 
 assigned by him; his chief officers were ail 
 provided for by jaghircs or pensions, dis- 
 pensed witli a well-considered munificence, 
 which furnished a striking contrast to the 
 parsimonious dealings of their late master. 
 The affections of the Hindoo population 
 were conciliated§ by an unlooked-for act of 
 generosity. Cham Raj, the pageant-sove- 
 reign placed by Hyder on the throne of 
 Mysoor in 1772, died of smallpox in 1706. 
 He had been regularly exhibited in public 
 at the annual feast called the Dussera; but 
 Tippoo chose to dispense with the cere- 
 mony of nominating a successor, and caused 
 the son of Cham Raj, a child of two years 
 old, to be removed with his great-grand- 
 mother (a woman of above ninety), his grand- 
 mother, and other female relatives, from the 
 
 Dlioondea AVaugh, a Mahratta, who after serving 
 under Tippoo, set up for himself as leader of a pre- 
 datory band, was taken prisoner, and remained in con- 
 finement for years in the fortress of Seringaijatam. 
 Amid the general confusion of the assault he managed 
 to escape, and soon collected round him a daring 
 band of freebooters ; nor was it until after severu 
 months' hostilities, that he was at length defeated and 
 slain in a charge of cavalry led by CoL AN'ellesley.
 
 384 AKCIENT HINDOO DYNAS 1 Y fF MYSOOR PARTIALLY RESTORED 
 
 ^bI 
 
 ancient Ilimloo palace to a miserable hovel, 
 where they were found by the English 
 authorities' in 1799, in a state of deep 
 poverty and humiliation. Their sorrow was 
 turned into joy and gratitude on being in- 
 formed that the conquerors had resolved, 
 not simply to restore them to liberty, but 
 to place the young prince Kistna Raj 
 Oodaveer on the throne* of his fathers, 
 iu their ancient capital of Mysoor, with 
 a revenue exceeding that of the former 
 Hindoo kingdom. The English reserved to 
 themselves, by treaty, the right of inter- 
 posing with paramount authority, in the 
 event of any financial or political questions 
 arising similar to those which had long 
 distracted the Carnatic; but so far from 
 employing their unquestioned supremacy to 
 vest (as liad been the case on former occa- 
 sions) all power and profit in English func- 
 tionaries, nearly every office, civil and 
 military, was left to be filled by the natives 
 themselves. Poornea, the experienced and 
 trustworthy Hindoo chief minister under 
 the usurping dynast}-, was continued in 
 office with the decided approbation of the 
 female guardians of the young rajah. Colo- 
 nel Wellesley, in all respects, hut especially 
 by judicious abstinence from needless inter- 
 ference, justified his selection for military 
 commandant; while the rectitude and abili- 
 ties as a linguist, of Colonel (afterwards 
 Sir Barry) Close, facilitated his satisfactory 
 fulfilment of the delicate position of politi- 
 cal resident. The result was, that the 
 Marquis Wellesley, at the close of his memo- 
 rable jidministralion, was enabled to declare, 
 that the actual success of the arrangement 
 of Mysoor had realised his most sanguine 
 expectations. 
 
 * Literally so, for he was seated on the ancient 
 ivory throne, whicli Aui'ungzebe is said to have ex- 
 pressly sanctioned his ancestor in using, and which 
 was found in a lumber-room of the palace after the 
 siege. The throne of Tippoo was taken to pieces, 
 its various parts forniin}^ splendid trophies of vic- 
 tory. The asceiit to the musnud was by small silver 
 steps on each side, its support a ti^er, somewhat above 
 the iiaiural size, in a standing attitude, entirely cov- 
 ered with plates of pure gold, the eyes and teeth being 
 reijreseiiled by jewels of suitable colours. A gilded 
 pillar supported a canopy fiinged with pearls; from 
 the centre was suspended an image of the Uina, 
 a bird about the size and shape of a small jjigcon, 
 formed of diamonds, rubies, and emeralds inlaid in 
 gold, and valued in India at 1,000 guineas. It was 
 presented to King George III., as a tilting tribute to 
 royally, being generally regardeil in the East as the 
 harbinger of victory and sovereign power to the 
 favoured individual whom it deigned to overshadow. 
 By a singular coincidence, a bird of this "august" 
 species (tor such, according to M. d'Herbelot, is the 
 
 Of the usurpations of Hyder, besides 
 those . restored to the Hindoo dynasty, to 
 the value of thirteen lacs of pagodasf per 
 annum; and after liberal provision for the 
 families of Hyder and Tippoo, and their 
 chief officers, a large overplus remained, 
 the division of which, between the English 
 and the Nizam, formed the basis of a new 
 treaty. J The former took possession of the 
 fortress, city, and island of Seringapatam, 
 the districts of Caiiara, including all the 
 sea-coast of Mysoor, together with Coim- 
 batore and Daramporam, the intervening 
 country between the territories of the E. 
 I. Cy. on the Coromandel coast, and on that 
 of Malal)ar; of the forts and posts forming 
 the heads of the principal passes above the 
 Ghauts, on the table-land of Mysoor, and 
 the district of Wynaad. To the Nizam were 
 given territories yielding an equal revenue 
 with those appropriated by the English in 
 the districts of Gooty, Goorumcondah, and 
 the tract of country situated along the 
 military line of Chittledroog, Sera, Nnndi- 
 droog, and Colar, but without the forts, 
 which it was considered would strengthen, 
 to a dangerous extent, the position of a 
 fluctuating and doubtful ally. The course 
 to be adopted with regard to the Mahrattas, 
 was a difficult question. The peishwa had 
 wholly failed in his engagements of co-opera- 
 tion against Tippoo ;§ nevertheless, the gov- 
 ernor-general deemed it politic to offer him 
 a share in the conquered territory on cer- 
 tain conditions, which he looked upon as 
 necessary preliminaries to the establishment 
 of a solid and satisfactory peace; especially 
 the reception of an English subsidiary force, 
 and an amicable adjustment, according to 
 English arbitration, of the claim of cliout 
 meaning of its Persian name) built its nest in a grove 
 of trees, under the shide of which the governor- 
 general dictated his de- patches while resident at 
 Madras, fur the purpose of more conveniently super- 
 intending the conduct of the war. The natives 
 hailed "itb delight the prosperous omen, and re- 
 ceived the tidings of the capture of Seringapatam as 
 confirmation of the victorious augury convejed bv 
 the ])resence of the Uma, which the marquis was 
 subsequenily empowered to add to his crest, with 
 the motlo, " Sii/ier Iiidos pi-iitulit Iiiijjrn'iiin." 
 
 t A pagoda was then above eight shillings in value. 
 
 1 The whole of 'I'ippon's annual revenue was esti- 
 mated at .'iO.-lO.OOO pagodas. 'I'o the rajah of Mysoor 
 was assigned i:i,()0,0()Oi to Nizam .-Mi, o,:!0,nOO; to the 
 E. I. C). 5,37.00(1 ; for the maintenance of the faniiliea 
 of Hyder and Tippoo (in charge of the Hritish gov- 
 ernment), 2,40,000; and for Kummur-u-Deen, com- 
 mander of Tippoo's cavalrv, and his family (in chargo 
 of the Nizam), 7,00,00 pagodas.— (DufT, i'ii., 177.) 
 
 § 13ajeeKao had actually aceepied a heavy bribe from 
 Tippoo to break faith with the English. — (Duff.)
 
 STIBSIDIAllY SYSTEM PROMOTED BY THE MARQUIS WELLESLEY. 385 
 
 Ions; lu-fipd ajjainst the Nizam. Tlicse sti- 
 piil;iti()n!< were percniptorily rpjoctcd ; aiitl 
 tlip reserved districts of llnrpoiicliy, Sooiida 
 above tlio fJliants, and otliors, equ;il iti value 
 to hctweeii one-lialf and two-tiiirds of the 
 previously descril)ed portions, were thereupon 
 shared agreeably to the articles of the parti- 
 tion Irenty by the company and Sadut Ali. 
 
 A fresh contract was entered into between 
 tlic hitter parties in October, 1800, by vviiieh 
 the Nizam, wlio was notoriously incapable 
 of dcfendinj:!; himself against the Mahrattas, 
 purchased the services of additional troops 
 from the company and the promise of their 
 aid against every aggressor, by the cession 
 of all acquisitions made from the doniinions 
 of Tippoo, either by the late treaty or that 
 of Seringapatam in 1702. The pro[)osition 
 originated with the minister of the Nizam ; 
 and the governor-general prudently hastened 
 to close an arrangement which placed the 
 maintenance of the previously subsidised, as 
 well as additional troops, on a more satisfac- 
 tory fooling than the irregular payments 
 of a corrupt government. The countries 
 thus ceded yielded a revenue of about 
 1,758,000 pagodas. By this arrangement, 
 says Mill, " the English acquired a sniall 
 territory, with the obligation of defending a 
 large one." This is not correct, inasmuch 
 as the company were previously bound, both 
 by considerations of honour and policy, to 
 protect their ally in time of need ; and by 
 tlie new compact they did but secure thetn- 
 selves against pecuniary loss in so doing. 
 Circumstances again altered their relative 
 positions; or, to speak more plainly, the Bri- 
 tish powerj increasing in an eddying circle, 
 manifested in this as in other eases, its inhe- 
 rent tendency to absorb the misgoverned aiul 
 unstal)le principalities which sought and 
 found in its strength temporary support, 
 being driven by necessity, or induced by 
 ignorance or recklessness, to ado|)t a pro- 
 cedure calculated to induce eventually their 
 political extinction. Lord Wellesley, like 
 many other great statesmen, anticipated but 
 very imperfectly the result of his favourite 
 I measure. He hoped to find the subsidiary 
 system instrumental in mitigating the 
 turbulence of the native states of India, 
 by controlling the sources of dissension, and 
 encouraging and enal)ling minor chiefs to 
 cultivate the arts of peace in the indepen- 
 dent enjoyment of their respective rights.* 
 But, iu truth, the first elements of stability 
 were wanting; and although the personal 
 
 • Wellesley Desjjaiclies, iv., 151. 
 
 rectitude and ability of a nabob or a rajah, 
 or their ('hief ministers, might for a time 
 hold together the incongruous elements of 
 Moslem and Hindoo communities, under 
 an eilicicnt rule, distinct, so far as internal 
 regulations were concerned, from the para- 
 mount power, provided that were exercised 
 with rigid moderation ; yet the more fre- 
 quent eonsetpience of becoming subsidiary, 
 was utter indifl'erence on the yjart of the 
 sovereign to the ])rogress of a principality 
 over which he had lost all absolute control; 
 and, on the part of his subjects, contempt 
 and indiHcrence for his diminished power. 
 The oriental idea of authority is identified 
 with despotism ; exercised rn every variety 
 of form, from the homeliest phase of patri- 
 archal sway, to the unapproachcd grandeur 
 of Solomon : still the same in essence — the 
 delegated government of God. In the 
 (Christian world, despite the blinding in- 
 fluence of our sins and imperfections, we do 
 iTcognise, by the light of the Gospel, the 
 inestimable worth of civil liberty. The law 
 of the land, apart from the individual who 
 dispenses it, is the basis on which the 
 nationality and independence of every Eng- 
 lish and American subject rests securely. 
 But to Asiatics this is still a hard saying, 
 and must remain so, until the same source 
 from which we learned to realise its prac- 
 tical importance, be laid open to them also. 
 If British supremacy prove, indeed, the in- 
 strument for the spiritual and moral rege- 
 neration of India, thrice blessed will be both 
 giver and receiver. Yet whatever be the re- 
 sult, the immediate duty is clear — to spread 
 the Gospel as widely as possible, and to en- 
 deavour by good government, by just laws 
 honestly administered, by lenient taxation 
 equitably assessed, to show our native sub- 
 jects the value of the tree by its fruits. 
 
 To return to the affairs of the subsidiary 
 states. The turbulent and dangerous cha- 
 racter of Vizier Ali, the rival candidate for 
 the dominion of Oude, rendered it advisable 
 to remove his residence from Benares to 
 Calcutta. The youth remonstrated strongly, 
 but without effect; and while visiting, by 
 appointment, the British resident ^Ir. 
 Cherry, he spoke in violent terms of the 
 hardship of the threatened coercion. The 
 resident is represented to have behaved with 
 much moderation ; but Vizier Ali, giving 
 vent to rage, started up and made a 
 thrust at him with his sword; an example 
 which, according to eastern custom, was 
 immediately followed by his atteudants.
 
 886 EXTENSION OF BRITISH POWER TO THE NORTH-WEST— 1800 to 1803. 
 
 Mr. Cherry was killed while attempting to es- 
 cape through a window, and two of his cora- 
 pauions shared his fate. The assassins, ap- 
 parently in the hope of heading a general 
 insurrection, hurried to the residence of the 
 English magistrate,* who, after sending his 
 wife and family to the terrace on the top of 
 the house, seized a long spear, took up his 
 position on a narrow staircase, and delayed 
 their ascent until a party of horse arrived 
 and put them to flight. Vizier Ali sought re- 
 fuge in the woody country of Bhootwal, and 
 being joined by several disafl'ected zemin- 
 dars, soon mustered a considerable preda- 
 tory force, wherewith to make incursions on 
 Oude. The parsimonious and timid admin- 
 istration of Sadut Ali had rendered him 
 extremely unpopular; and he urgently en- 
 treated that the English troops might be sta- 
 tioned immediately about his person to pro- 
 tect him, if need were, against his own 
 army, whose faithlessness and disaffection 
 likewise formed his excuse for not personally 
 taking the field, in co-operation with his 
 allies, against their joint foe. His assistance 
 was not needed ; Vizier Ali soon found him- 
 self abandoned by his followers, and was, in 
 December, 1800, delivered over by the rajah 
 of Jeypoor to the British government, and 
 detained prisoner in Fort William. t 
 
 At the close of hostilities, the marquis 
 pressed on the nabob the propriety of dis- 
 banding a force which, by his own showing, 
 was worse than useless. This proposition, 
 Sadut Ali met by a declaration of his 
 desire to resign a position which he found 
 full of weariness and danger. On the fur- 
 ther development of his views, it appeared 
 that the abdication in question was to be in 
 favour of his son ; and that in quitting the 
 musnud, he intended to carry away the trea- 
 sures and jewels inherited from Asuf-ad- 
 Dowlah, leaving his successor to pay tiie 
 arrears due to the E. I. Cy. and the native 
 troops as best he could. These conditions 
 were promptly rejected, and a long discus- 
 sion ensued, which terminated in the dis- 
 bandment of all the native troops (their ar- 
 rears being first wholly liquidated), and the 
 substitution of an additional European force 
 (numbering, in all, 13,000 men), in return for 
 which, the provinces of the Doab and llohil- 
 
 • Mr. Davis, father of the present Sir J. Davis. 
 
 t Vizier Ali was afterwards removed to Vellore, 
 where his family were permitted to join him. He 
 died there, a natural death. — (Davis's Memoir.) 
 
 X The gross revenues of the ceded provinces 
 were one crore, thirty-five lacs, 23,474 rupees. 
 
 cundj were conceded in perpetuity. To 
 adjust the provisional administration of the 
 ceded districts, three of the civil servants of 
 the company were formed into a board of 
 commissioners, and the Hon. Henry Wel- 
 lesley nominated president and lieutenant- 
 governor. For this appointment Lord Wel- 
 lesley was blamed by the directors, as an 
 evidence of partiality towards his brother, 
 at the expense of the covenanted officials; 
 but the propriety of the selection (as ii\ 
 the case of Colonel Wellesley in !My- 
 soor) was amply justified by the result; 
 and the disinterestedness (as far as regarded 
 pecuniary motives) of both nominee and 
 nominator was apparent, from no eraolu- 
 ment being attached to the delicate and 
 onerous office. By the late treaty, the tri- 
 bute paid to the ruler of Oude by the nabob 
 of Furruckabad (the Patau chief of a district 
 in the province of Agra), was transferred to 
 theE.I.Cy., and an arrangement made — it is 
 said with his perfect acquiescence — by which 
 he renounced political power, and was added 
 to the growing list of titled stipendiaries. 
 Several of tiie more powerful zemindars of 
 the ceded territories resisted the proposed 
 alterations, and made attempts at indepen- 
 dence; especially Bngwunt Sing, who pos- 
 sessed the forts of Sasnee and Bidjegliur; 
 the rajah Cliutter Sal ; and the zemindar 
 of Cutchoura : but they were all overpowered 
 in the course of the years 1802 — 1803, and 
 compelled to seek safety in flight. 
 
 Tiie character of Sadut Ali was strikingly 
 evinced, in the course of his negotiations with 
 Lord Wellesley, by an attempt to win from 
 the latter a sanction similar to that given 
 to his half-brother (Azuf-ad-Dowlah), for 
 the plunder of the begum, the grandmother 
 of both these hopeful rulers. The intima- 
 tion was met with merited disdain ; but the 
 old lady, fearing to be exposed to continuous 
 indirect persecution, took tlie prudent step 
 of ensuring the peaceable enjoyment of her 
 personal property, by offering to constitute 
 the company her heir — a proposition which 
 was gladly accepted. 
 
 While these changes were taking place in 
 Oude, others of a similar character were 
 carried out in Tanjore and Arcot. Rajah 
 Tuljajee died in 1787, leaving his adopted 
 son and heir, Scrfojec, a boy of ten years 
 old, under the public tutelage of his half- 
 brother, Ameer Sing, and the private guar- 
 dianship of the missionary Swartz. Ameer 
 Sing succeeded for a time in persuading the 
 English authorities to treat the adoption of
 
 ASSUMPTION OF TANJORE, CARNATIC, AND SURAT— 1790— 1801. 887 
 
 his youiip; ward as illegtal, and caused liim 
 to l)c confined and cruelly ill-trcatcKJ. 'I'iie 
 vigilance and untiring exertion of Swartz* 
 occasioned a searching investigation, and 
 the evidence brought forward on the matter 
 led botli Lord Coriiwallis and Sir John Shore 
 to consider the claims of Scrfojec as well 
 founded. The oppression exercised by 
 Ameer Sing over the widows of the de- 
 ceased rajah, was accompanied by general 
 maladministration. During the first war 
 with Ti|)poo, the management of Tanjore 
 had been assumed by the English, as the 
 sole means of rendering its resources avail- 
 able against the common foe; and on the 
 conclusion of peace, a prolonged discussion 
 arose concerning the propriety of restoring 
 to power a ruler whose legal and moral 
 claims were of so questionable a character. 
 The supreme government, fearing to incur 
 the im|)utation of excessive rigour, replaced 
 Ameer Sing in his former position : but the 
 home authorities do not appear to have 
 approved of this decision ; for in June, 1 799, 
 they expressly instructed Lord Wellesley 
 not to relinquish possession of the territories 
 of Arcot and Tanjore, which, in the event 
 of hostilities with Tippoo, would "of course 
 come under the company's management," 
 ■without special orders to that effect. The 
 measure thus taken for granted by the di- 
 rectors, had not been adopted by the 
 governor-general, who deemed the brief and 
 decisive character of the war a sufficient 
 argument against a step the immediate 
 effect of which " would have been a con- 
 siderable failure of actual resources, at a 
 period of the utmost exigency." The 
 disputed succession afforded a better plea 
 for the assumption of the powers of govern- 
 
 * Swartz S]i.ired no pains in implanting religious 
 principles, or in cuhivating tlie naturally gifted in- 
 tellect of Seifojee. The death of the good mis- 
 sionary, in 1798, prevented him from witnessing the 
 elevation of his grateful pupil, who honoured the me- 
 mory of his benefactor, less by the erection of a stately 
 monument, than by his own life and character. 
 Bishop Heher, in noticing the varied acquirements of 
 Serfojee, states that he quoted Fourcroy, Lavoisier, 
 Linnajus, and Buft'on fluently; that he had "formed 
 a more accurate judgment of the merits of Shaks- 
 peare than tliat so felicitously expressed by Lord 
 ISyron," and was " much respected by the English 
 officers in the neighbourhood, as a real good judge 
 of a horse, and a cool, bold, and deadly shot at a 
 tiger." — {Joiinial, ii,, 459.) 
 
 t The key to the cypher was found among the 
 private papers of the sultan. The English were de- 
 signated by the term tieic-comers ; the Nizam, by 
 that of nol/iiiir/iie^x ; the Mahrattas, as desjiicahle. 
 In commenting on the disclosure of these proofs ot 
 faithlessness on the part of the nabobs of the Carnatic, 
 
 ment; Ameer Sing was deposed, and Serfo- 
 jee proclaimed rajah, in accordance with the 
 terms of a treaty, dated October, 1709, by 
 which he renounced all claim to political 
 authority, in return for nominal rank, and 
 the more substantial advantage of a pension 
 of one lac of star pagodas, with a fifth of 
 the net revenues. The assertion of corn- 
 plcte authority over the Carnatic, was expe- 
 dited by the discovery, consequent on the 
 capture of Scringapatam, of a secret corre- 
 spondence, in cypher,f carried on between 
 IMohammed Ali and his successor, Omdut- 
 al-Omrah, with 'I'ippoo, in direct violation of 
 the treaty of 1792. The conduct of the 
 nabob during the late war, in withholding 
 promised supplies, had given rise to suspU 
 cions of treachery which were now confirmed. 
 His failing health induced Lord Wellesley 
 to delay the contemplated changes; but on 
 his death, in 1801, tlie dispositions made by 
 him in favour of his illegitimate son, Ali 
 Hoossein, a minor,J were set aside in favour 
 of Azim-ad-Dowlah, a nephew of the late 
 prince, who made over to the company all 
 claim to real power, on condition of receiving 
 the title of nabob, and the allotment of a 
 fifth part of the net revenues of the Car- 
 natic for his support. The company further 
 engaged to provide for the family of the 
 preceding nabobs, and to pay their debts. 
 The government of the extensive and 
 populous, though dilapidated city of Surat, 
 was assumed by the company in 1800 ; the 
 Mogul nabob, or governor, resigning his 
 claims on receipt of a pension of a lac of 
 rupees annually, in addition to a fifth of the 
 net revenues guaranteed to him and his 
 heirs. 
 
 The ■ commencement of the nineteenth 
 
 as favouring the views of the directors, .Mill exclaims, 
 " Nothing surely ever was more fortunate than such 
 a discovery at such a time." Yet, although plainly 
 intimating the possibility of fabricating evidence to 
 prove a lie, he is conipellrd, by his own truthfulness, 
 to bear witness to the character of the great man, 
 against whom he appears to be, on the whole, 
 strangely prejudiced. " With regard to Lord Wel- 
 lesley," he adds, " even his faults bear so little affinity 
 with this species of vice, and his most conspicuous 
 virtues are so directly opposed to it, that we may safely 
 infer it to be as unlikely in his case as in any that 
 can well be supposed, that he would fabricate evi- 
 dence to attain the objects of his desire." — (vi., 312.) 
 X The governor-general was disposed to confirm 
 the will of the late nabob in favour of Ali Hoossein, 
 despite his illegitimacy ; but his refusal (too late 
 withdrawn) to accept the terms offered on behalf of 
 the E. L Cy., occasioned his being altogether set aside. 
 He was carried off by dysentery in the following year. 
 Ameer Sing, the deposed rajah of Tanjore, died a 
 natural death in the commencement of 1802.
 
 388 
 
 ANGLO-INDIAN ARMY JOIN BRITISH IN INDIA— 1801. 
 
 century, thus strongly marked by the ex- 
 tension of British power in India, is no less 
 memorable for the bold and decisive mea- 
 sures of foreign policy, planned and executed 
 by the governor-general. The threatened in- 
 vasion of Zemaun Shah had been no vague 
 rumour. A letter addressed by the Afghan 
 leader to Lord Wellesley, peremptorily de- 
 manding the assistance of the English and 
 their ally, the nabob vizier, m rescuing 
 Shah Alum from the hands of the ]\Iah- 
 rattas, and replacing him on the throne of 
 his ancestors, had furnished ample reason 
 for precautionary measures against the re- 
 newed incursions, under any pretext, of the 
 dreaded Afghans. To avert this evil, there 
 appeared no surer method than to form a 
 close alliance with Persia; and for this pur- 
 pose Captain (afterwards Sir John) Malcolm 
 was dispatched as British envoy, in Decem- 
 ber, 1799, to tiie court of Teheran, attended 
 by a magnificent embassy. The result was 
 completely successful. Ali Shah engaged 
 to lay waste the country of the Afghans 
 if ever they should invade India, and 
 to permit uo French force to form a 
 settlement on any of the shores or islands of 
 Persia ; the English, on their part, pro- 
 mised to aid the Shah in the event of inva- 
 sion, whether from France or Cabool. In- 
 ternal dissension between Zemaun Shah and 
 his brother Mahmood, rendered the issue of 
 the above negotiation of less importance as 
 regarded the Afghans, whose turbulence 
 found vent in civil war; but the danger of 
 French encroachments still pressed severely 
 on the mind of the governor-general. The 
 injury inflicted by the privateering force of 
 the Mauritius and Bourbou upon the Indian 
 coasting trade, and even upon that with 
 Europe, was of serious magnitude. Between 
 the commencement of hostilities and the 
 close of 1800, British property, to the amount 
 of above two million sterling, had been car- 
 ried into Port St. Louis. Lord Wellesley 
 resolved to attempt the extinction of this 
 fertile source of disasters, by the conquest 
 and ocou|)ation of the French islands; and, 
 with this intent, assembled at Trincomalce* 
 in Ceylon, a force comprising three royal 
 regiments and 1,000 Bengal volunteers. 
 The project fell to the ground through the 
 pertinacity of Admiral Rainier, who declared 
 that he could not lawfully take part in the 
 
 • Tiincomalee was taken from the Dutch in 1796. 
 
 t Lord Wellesley, with liis usual fuiesii^ht, gave 
 orders for the occu|)iition ol Perini, a small islimil in 
 the straits of Bab-el-Muiideb, the possession of which 
 
 proposed expedition, without the express 
 sanction of the king. The favourable oppor- 
 tunity was lost; and French privateers con- 
 tinued, during several subsequent years, to 
 harass and plunder the commercial naviga- 
 tion of the eastern seas. The troops as- 
 sembled by the zeal of Lord Wellesley, found 
 useful and hoiioural)le employ. He had 
 repeatedly suggested to the home govern- 
 ment the propriety of dispatching an Indian 
 armament for the reinforcement of the 
 British force in Egypt ; and on tlie receipt 
 of orders to that efi'ect in 1801, 1,600 native 
 infantry were added to the body already 
 raised, and forwarded to Mocha as fast 
 as transports could be provided for them.f 
 Sir David Baird had command of the land 
 troops ; Rear-admiral Blankctt, of a squad- 
 ron of the company's cruisers, sent on with 
 a small detachment as an advance guard, 
 but Sir Home Popham was dispatched from 
 England to direct the naval part of the ex- 
 pedition. The struggle was well nigh ended 
 before their arrival, by the defeat of the 
 French in Egypt on the 21st of March, with 
 the loss to the victors of their brave leader. 
 Sir Ralph Aberciomby. General Baird 
 marched from Suez to Rosetta, at the head 
 of 7,000 men, in the hope of contributing 
 to the capture of Alexandria; but the treaty 
 of surrender was already in progress ; and 
 with its ratification, hostilities were brouglit 
 to a close. The striking demonstration of 
 the power of England, made by bringing 
 together numerous and cttective arma- 
 ments from the east and west, to fight her 
 battles upon the banks of the Nile, was 
 doubtless calculated to "enhance her re- 
 nown, and confirm her moral as well as 
 political strength." Still, it is well added by 
 Mill, that had the Anglo-Indian army been 
 permitted to accomplish the purpose for 
 which it was first designed by the governor- 
 general, the conquest of the Mauritius and 
 Bourbon would have been a more sub- 
 stantial though less brilliant service. 
 
 Upon the restoration of Pondicherry (ia 
 accordance with the treaty of Amiens), mea- 
 sures were taken by Buonaparte which 
 amply proved the wisdom of the energetic 
 precautious of the Marquis Wellesley against 
 attempts for the revival of French iuHuence 
 in India. Seven general, and a proportionate 
 number of inferior ofHcers, were sent from 
 
 would have effectually shut up the French forces in the 
 Ked Sea, even had ihey passed through Kfjypt. The 
 Earl (if KIgin, iheu unib.issador to the I'orte, eflec- 
 tively co-operated with the marquis in various ways.
 
 INDO-MOIIAMMEDAN SWAY— USURPATION ON USURPATION. 389 
 
 France with 1,400 regular troops, and 
 £100,000 in s|)ccic. The renewal of war 
 in Europe aflbrdcd a reason I'or tiic rcoeeu- 
 pation of' Pondielieny in IHO;}, and enaljlcd 
 the E. I. Cy. to direet nndividcd attention to 
 the complicated iiostilities then carried on 
 with the JNlahrattas, tlie only Indian jjcoplc 
 possessing; in tlicnisclves resources to main- 
 tain unaided a loii;^ contest. 'J'iic most 
 vulneralde part of tlie Bi'itish frontier lay 
 contiguous to the country ])ossessed hy 
 Sindia. The death of Nana Euruavees, in 
 1800, left this enterprising ciiicf no formi- 
 dahle rival at the court of Poena ; and 
 Bajee Rao the peishwa, appeared little 
 less entirely under his control than the 
 pageanteniperor of Delhi. In the event, 
 therefore, of a strujigle for supremacy, 
 arising out of the numerous causes of quar- 
 rel abouiuiing oti both sides, the Mahratta 
 confederacy, including the rajah of Berar, 
 the representative of the Ilolcar family in 
 Malwa, and the fiuicowar of Guzerat, with 
 other leaders of minor rank, led by Sindia 
 and the peishwa, and aided hy the skill 
 and science of French ollicers, could collect 
 a force against their European rivals which it 
 would require a costly sacrifice of blood and 
 treasure to repel. The best mode of avert- 
 ing this dangerous possiliility appeared to 
 be the formation of a strict alliance with one, 
 at least, if not with the whole of the 
 Mahratta chiefs. The error of Hastings, in 
 sanctioning the aggressions of Sindia in 
 Iliudoostan Proper, had furnished expe- 
 rience which strcnj;thened the convictions of 
 Lord AVellesley with regard to the policy of 
 forming connexions with native powers, only 
 on conditions calculated to secure an ascen- 
 dancy, more or less direct, in their councils. 
 Perfect neutrality amid scenes of foreign 
 and domestic warfare, venality, extortion, 
 and bloodshed, could scarcely have been 
 recommended by considerations of duty or 
 of policy ; and such a course, even supposing 
 it to have been practicable, must have in- 
 volved the infraction of old as well as 
 recent treaties, oflensivc and defensive, 
 with the Nizam aud others. As for Lord 
 Wellesley, his clear and statesmanlike view 
 of the case, formed after careful examination 
 of the actual state of British power in 
 India, was never marred by doubt or hesi- 
 tation in the moment of action. Fettered 
 by the parliamentary denunciatiou against 
 the extension, under any circumstances, 
 of the Anglo-Indian empire, yet, convinced 
 that its foundations must be largelv iu- 
 3 E 
 
 creased before a state of secure and tranquil 
 authority could be reasonably expected, he 
 was oftin driven to adduce secondary causes 
 to justify measures, wiiich might have been 
 sufiieiently vindicated on the score of poli- 
 tical necessity, since they involved no moral 
 wrong. The wretchedness of the peo])le of 
 the Carnatie and Oude, abundantly excuse 
 the steps taken to place them under the im- 
 mediate superintendence of tlie company, 
 in preference to employing, or rather con- 
 tinuing to employ, the military force of 
 England in riveting the chains of a foreign 
 despotism, founded on usurpation of the 
 worst kind, that of sworn servants betraying 
 their master in the hour of weakness. There 
 were no lawful heirs to these states; or, if 
 there were, they should have been searched 
 for in the ancient records of the Hindoos: 
 the Mohammedans were all intruders in the 
 first instance, and the existing leaders of 
 every denomination, with few exceptions, 
 rebellious subjects. AVhy, each one of the; 
 African chiefs, whom English colonists anil 
 Dutch boors have so unscrupulously exiled 
 from their native territories, had more of 
 hereditary right and constitutional privilege 
 on his side than all the Indo-Mohamraedan 
 dynasties put together. The case of the 
 Hindoos is widely difl'crent; but in excuse, or 
 rather in justification, of the conduct of the 
 company, it may be urged that they found 
 the great majority of the native inhabitants 
 of India, under Moslem rulers, a con- 
 quered and much-oppressed people ; and 
 that, if England do her duty as a Christian 
 state, they will, and — with all her errors and 
 shortcomings, it may be added, they have 
 materially benefited by the change. 
 
 The Rajpoot states were the only ones 
 which, although brought in collision with 
 the jVIogul empire, were never wholly ab- 
 sorbed in it. The Mahratta confederation 
 had been founded on the ruins of the vast 
 dominion won i)y the strong arm of Aurung- 
 zebe, and lost through persecuting bigotry 
 and the exactions eonsc(iuent on unceasing 
 war. Sevajee and Bajee Rao (the first usurp- 
 ing peishwa, or prime minister) built up Mah- 
 ratta power. Madhoo Rao I. arrested its 
 dissolution; but ]\Iahadajee Sindia, prompted 
 by overweening ambition, enlarged his 
 chiefdom until its overgrown dimensions 
 exceeded in extent the whole remainder of 
 the Mahratta empire, and threatened speedily 
 to destroy the degree of independence still 
 existing in llajpootana. Dowlut Kao pos- 
 sessed equal ambition and energy with his
 
 390 
 
 RISE OF SINDIA AND HOLCAR PllINCIPALITIES. 
 
 predecessor, but far less jiicl2:ment and mode- 
 ration. Tlie retirement to Europe, in 1796, 
 of the experienced and unprejudiced leader 
 of the European trained bands, De Boigne, 
 and the accession to autborit}- of a French 
 leader named Perron, \vith strong national 
 feelings, gave a decidedly anti-English bias 
 to the counsels of Dowlut Rao. The peish-n-a 
 Bajee Rao, knew this, and had, in the time 
 of Sir John Shore, courted the protection 
 of the supreme government, as a means of 
 securing to himself some degree of authority. 
 The danger of provoking war, by giving 
 offence to Sindia, induced the refusal of 
 this request. The accession to office of 
 Lord Wellesley was attended vrith a reversal 
 of the policy of both parties. Perceiving 
 the great advantage to be derived from the 
 permanent s'ettlement of a subsidiary force 
 at Poona, the governor-general formally 
 offered the services of a body of the com- 
 pany's troops, for the protection of the 
 peishwa and the revival of the energies of 
 his government. The very circumstance of 
 the boon, once urgently sought, being now 
 pressed on his acceptance, would have sufficed 
 to ensure its rejection by so capricious and 
 distrustful a person as Bajee Rao : but other 
 reasons — especially the meditated departure 
 of Sindia, to superintend his own disaffected 
 troops in Hindoostan, and the impending 
 war between Tippoo and the English — were 
 not wanting to confirm his determination. 
 The conquest of Mysoor again changed the 
 aspect of affairs ; but Bajee Rao, in ac- 
 cordance with the sagacious counsels of 
 Nana Furnavces,* even after the death of 
 the wary minister, continued to reject the 
 alliance pressed on him by the English, 
 until an unexpected chain of events com- 
 pelled him to look to them exclusively for 
 help and ])rotcction. 
 
 Sindia and Holcak. — A new actor had 
 recently come forward on the stage of 
 Mahratta politics, whose progress seemed 
 likely to diminish the authority of Sindia, 
 and enable Bajee Rao to exercise unques- 
 tioned supremary at Poona. Of those 
 anticipated results only the former was 
 realised ; the predatory chief in question, 
 Jeswunt Rao II clear, proving strong enough 
 not only to harass I)ut to defeat the 
 
 * Nana Fiirnavces was imprisoned by Sindia ; 
 but being releused in HOS, on jiaympiit. of ten lacs of 
 rupees, lie accepted oftice under liajee Kao. 
 
 ■(• AV'lien the ])owpr of Aliiilya liye became es- 
 tablished, the beautiful but wicked wife of Kapoha 
 sent a female attendant to bring her an account of 
 the personal appearance of a princess so highly oele- 
 
 troops of Sindia, and drive Bajee Rao from 
 his capital. The founders of the Sindia and 
 Holcar families were, it will be remembered, 
 men of humble origin ; they became distin- 
 guished as leaders of Piudarries, a class 
 of the lowest freebooters who had from early 
 times infested the Deecan. Bajee Rao I., 
 though always ready to avail himself of their 
 services for the invasion of Mogul provinces, 
 took care to exclude such dangerous subjects 
 from Maharashtra, by habitually stationing 
 them in ]\Ialwa, where the power of the two 
 leaders became paramount. The progress 
 and history of Mahadajee Sindia has been 
 incidentally told in previous pages ; but of 
 Mulhar Rao Holcar little mention has been 
 made since the battle of Paniput, in 1760, 
 when he was named as one of the few 
 leaders who escaped the carnage of that day. 
 Having retreated into Central India, he em- 
 ployed himself, during the remaining years 
 of his life, in settling and consolidating his 
 possessions in Malwa and the Deecan. He 
 had established considerable influence in 
 Jeypoor, and obtained from the rajah an 
 annual tribute of three lacs and a-half of 
 rupees. A considerable part of the province 
 of Candeish had been allotted to him for 
 the maintenance of his troops ; beside which, 
 several villages were granted, by the peishwa 
 and the Nizam, to the females of his family. 
 The only lineal descendant of jNIulhar Rao, 
 a vicious youth of unsound mind, succeeded 
 his grandfather in 1766, but survived him 
 only nine months. His mother Ahalya 
 (pronounced Alea) Bye, a singularly gifted 
 woman, declared her intention, as the sole 
 representative of both the deceased rulers, 
 to select a successor. Ragobaf attempted 
 to interfere ; but jMadhoo Rao, with charac- 
 teristic chivalry, directed his uncle to desist 
 from further opposition to the projects of a 
 person whose right and ability to manage 
 affairs were alike indisputable. With the 
 entire approbation of the leading military 
 commanders in the army of her deceased 
 relatives, Ahalya Bye took the reins of power 
 in her own hands. The Mohammedan cus- 
 tom of rigid seclusion had happily not been 
 imitated by Mahratta females ; Ahalya Bye 
 had therefore no conventional impediment 
 of any kind to check the free exercise of 
 
 brated, and so universally beloved. The description 
 of a small slight woman, with irregular features, but 
 "a heavenly lighten her counlcnanec," set the fair 
 inli-ifiunic at rest as to any rivalry in the attractions 
 by wliieh she set most store; and, williout noticing 
 the last part of the description, Anundce Bye re- 
 marked, " But she is not handsome, you say."
 
 AIIALYA BYE.— SUTTEK OK Wl'Al DAUGHTER, MUCIITA ]JYE. 391 
 
 her physical or mcnt.al powers. Still there 
 were duties inconsistent with a woiiuiii's 
 sphere of action; and to ensure their rulfil- 
 mcnt, she formally adopted as her son,* and 
 elected asoonimaMd(;r-in-cliicf,TookiijccHol- 
 car, the leader of the household troo])s ; of the 
 sanietribc, hut no otherwise related toMulliar 
 llao. Like our great Eli/,al)eth, the litness of 
 her ministers proved the judgnumtof the se- 
 lector. The conduct of Tookajec, diirin;^ a 
 period of above thirty years, justified tiie 
 confidence reposed iu him. Ahalya Bye 
 died, aged sixty, worn out with pul)lie cares 
 and fatigues, aggravated hy domestic sor- 
 rows ; but without having had, during that 
 long interval, a single misunderstanding with 
 her hrave and honest coadjutor. The his- 
 tory of the life of this extraordinary woman, 
 givei\ by Sir John Malcolm, affords evidence 
 of the habitual exercise of the loftiest virtues; 
 and it is difficult to say, whether manly 
 resolve or feminine gentleness predomi- 
 nated, so marvellously were they blended iu 
 her character. The utter absence of vanity, 
 whether as a queen or a woman ;t the fear- 
 less and strictly conscientious exercise of 
 despotic power, combined with the most 
 xuiaflccted humility and the deepest sym- 
 pathy for sufl'ering ; learning without pe- 
 dantry, cheerfulness without levity, im- 
 maculate rectitude with ])erfect charity and 
 tolerance ; — these and other singular combi- 
 nations would almost tempt one to regard 
 Ahalya Bye as too faultless for fallen and 
 sinful humanity, but for the few draw- 
 backs entailed by her rigid adherence to 
 almost every portion of the modern Brahmin- 
 ieal creed, in which, happily, persecution has 
 still no part, though self-inflicted austerities 
 and superstitious observances have gained a 
 most undue prominence. The declining 
 age of the princess was saddened by the reso- 
 lution taken by her only surviving child, 
 jMuelita Bye, of self-immolation on the grave 
 of her husband. The battle-field had widowed 
 Ahalya Bye at twenty ; yet — despite the 
 modern heresy of the Hindoos, that the 
 voluntary sacrifice of life, on the part of the 
 bereaved survivor, ensures immediate re- 
 union between those whom death has di- 
 vided, and their mutual entrance into the 
 highest heaven, she had not been tempted 
 by this lying doctrine to commit suicide, 
 
 * Although Tookajee always addrrssed Iut by the 
 name of "mother," he was considerably her senior. 
 
 t A Hrahniin wrote a book in lier praise. Ahalya 
 Bye, after patiently hearing it read, remarked, 
 that she was " a weak, sinful woman, not deserving 
 
 but liad lived to protect her children and 
 establish the independence of the Holcar 
 pritiei])ality. Now, flinging herself at the 
 feet of Muehta J}ye, she besought her child, 
 by every argument a false creed coidd sanc- 
 tion, to renounce licr ])urj)ose. The reply 
 of the daughter was affectionate but de- 
 cided. " \'ou arc old, mother," she said, 
 "and a few years will end your pious life. 
 My only child and husband are gone, and 
 when you follow, life 1 feel will be insup- 
 portable ; but the op])ortiHiity of termi- 
 nating it with honour will then have passed." 
 ]<]very effort, short of coercion, was vainly 
 practised to prevent the intended " suttee ;"% 
 but the unfaltering resolve of the devoted 
 widow remained unshaken, and her wretched 
 parent accompanied the procession, with 
 forced composure, to the funeral ])yre : but 
 when the first vivid burst of flame told of 
 the actual consummation of the sacrifice, 
 self-command was lost in anguish ; the 
 agonising shrieks of their beloved ruler 
 mingled with the exulting shouts of the 
 immense multitude; and excited almost to 
 madness, the aged princess gnawed the hands 
 she could not liberate from the two Brah- 
 mins, who with difficulty held her back 
 from rushing to die with her child. After 
 three days spent in fasting and speechless 
 grief, Ahalya Bye recovered her equanimity 
 so far as to resume her laborious round 
 of daily occupations, including four hours 
 spent in receiving ambassadors, hearing pe- 
 titions or complaints, and transacting other 
 business in full durbar or court ; and she 
 seemed to find solace iu erecting a beautiful 
 monument to the memory of those she 
 lamented, and in increasing the already 
 large proportion of the revenues devoted to 
 religious purposes and public works. Her 
 charity was not lioundcd by the limits of 
 the principality : it began at home (for she 
 fed her owu poor daily), but it extended to 
 far-distant lands. The pilgrim journeying 
 to Juggernaut in Cuttack, in the far north 
 amid the snowy peaks of the Himalaya, or 
 south almost to Cape Comorin, found cause 
 to bless the sympathy for individual sufl'er- 
 ing, as well as the reverence for lioly shrines, 
 manifested by Ahalya Bye with royal mu- 
 nificence; while the strange traveller, with- 
 out claim of creed or country, was arrested 
 
 such fine encomiums," directed the book to be 
 thrown into the Nerbudda, which flowed beneath 
 her palace window, and took no farther notice of the 
 aulhor.^ — (Malcolm's Central India, i., 193.) 
 X Suttee or sati, denotes tlie completed sacrifice.
 
 392 SUCCESSFUL ADMINISTRATION OF THE PIOUS AHALYA BYE. 
 
 on liis weary, clusty road, hy water-bearers 
 stationed at intervals to supply the wants of 
 the passer-by ; and the very oxen near her 
 dwelling at Mhysir, were refreshed by 
 cooling draughts brought by the domestic 
 servants of the compassionate princess. 
 
 The beasts of the field, the birds of the 
 air, the fishes of the sea, had all their 
 allotted share of her bounty ; and however 
 puerile some of her minor arrangements 
 may sound to European ears, or fanatical 
 the habits of a sovereign who never dis- 
 carded the plain white weeds of Hindoo 
 widowhood, or touched animal food ; yet, 
 probably, these very traits of character con- 
 spired to add to the reputation her govern- 
 ment retains in Malwa as the best ever 
 known, tlie personal reverence paid to her 
 memory as more than a saint, as an Avatar, 
 or incarnation of the Deity. 
 
 A blessing rested on the efforts of Ahalya 
 Bye, despite the fettering power of hea- 
 then darkness. Indore grew, beneath her 
 sway, from a village to a wealthy city ; 
 bankers, merchants, farmers, and peasants, 
 all throve beneath her vigilant and foster- 
 ing care. Malcolm states, that he made 
 inquiries among all ranks and classes in the 
 countries she had governed, and could elicit 
 no information calculated to detract, in the 
 judgment of the most impartial inquirer, 
 from the effect of tlie eulogiums, or rather 
 blessings, poured forth whenever her name 
 was mentioned, except the large sums be- 
 stowed on Brahmins, and the expenditure 
 of state funds in the erection and mainte- 
 nance of public works on foreign soil. The 
 remarks made by one of her chief min- 
 isters, when commenting on what Sir John 
 considered misdirected bounty, afford a 
 suggestive text alike to eastern and western 
 potentates. He asked, " whether Ahalya 
 Bye, by spending double the money on an 
 army that she did in charity and good 
 works, could have preserved her country 
 for above thirty years in a state of pro- 
 found peace, while she rendered her sub- 
 jects happy and herself adored ? No person 
 doubts tlie sincerity of her piety ; but if 
 she had merely possessed worldly wisdom, 
 she could have devised no means so admi- 
 rably calculated to eliect the object. Among 
 the princes of her own nation, it would have 
 been looked upon as sacrilege to have become 
 her enemy, or, indeed, not to have defended 
 licr against any hostile attempt. She was 
 considered hy all in the same light. The 
 Nizam of the Decean uiul i'ippoo Sultan 
 
 granted her the same respect as the peishna, 
 and Moliammedans joined with Hindoos in 
 prayers for her long life and prosperity."* 
 
 After the deatli of Ahalya Bye, in 1795, 
 the sole authority centred in Tookajee 
 Holcar, who survived his excellent mistress 
 about two years. He left two legitimate 
 sons, Casee and !Mulhar Rao. The elder 
 was of weak intellect and deformed person; 
 the younger, able and active. Ahalya Bye 
 and Tookajee had hoped that the example 
 of their unanimity would be followed by 
 the brothers in the joint exercise of autho- 
 rity, but neither of the princes were capable 
 of the self-denial and lofty rectitude neces- 
 sary for such a course ; and preparations for 
 a war of succession were at once commenced, 
 but abruptly terminated by the treacherous 
 interference of Dowlut Rao Sindia, who 
 having inveigled jNIulhar Rao to his camp, 
 caused him to be shot through the head ; 
 and retaining possession of Casee Rao, not 
 only compelled him to pay the heavy price 
 stipulated for the murder of his brother, 
 but reduced him to the condition of a mere 
 tool. An avenger arose unexpectedly to 
 scourge the unprincipled ambition of Sindia. 
 Two illegitimate sous of Holcar, Jeswunt 
 Rao and Etojee, survived their father; the 
 latter was seized and imprisoned by Sindia 
 and Bajee Rao. He escaped and joined a 
 bod}' of freebooters; but being recaptured, 
 was trampled to death by an elephant in 
 the city of Poona. Jeswunt llao sought 
 refuge at Nagpoor with Ragojee Bhonslay 
 of Berar. His confidence was betrayed; 
 and through the intrigues of Sindia and 
 the peishwa, he also was made a captive, 
 but succeeded in eluding his guard, and 
 reaching Candeish about a year and a-lialf 
 after the death of Mulhar Rao. Resolved to 
 make an efl'ort to rescue the possessions of 
 his family from the hands of Sindia, he 
 took the name of assertor of the rights of 
 Kundee Rao, the infant son of Mulhar 
 Rao, then a prisoner at Poona, and assem- 
 bled a heterogeneous force of Pindarries, 
 Bheels, Afghans, Mahrattas, and Rajpoots. 
 In 1798, he joined his fortunes with those 
 of Ameer Khan, a jMohammedan adven- 
 turer, less daring and reckless, but quite as 
 unprincipled as himself, on whom he sub- 
 sequently conferrcil the title of nabob. A 
 terrible scries of hostilities ensued betwceu 
 Sindia and Iloh^ar. From the ap[)carance 
 of the latter chief, in 1800, the natives of 
 Central India date the commencement of 
 • Malcolm's Ceninil India, !., 189.
 
 TREATY OF BASSEIN ARRANGED WITH THE PKISIIWA— 1802. 393 
 
 an epoch of cifilitocn years' duration, wliich 
 tlicy cm[jliiitic:illy <l(:si^iiate " tlic time of 
 trouble." Tlic tiiiincd battalions of Siiidia 
 were defeated, and his capital, Oojciti, and 
 other chief places, captured and rifled by 
 llolcar and Ainecr Kliaii, with a barbarity 
 which was horribly rcvenf^cd on the wretched 
 inhabitants of Indore by the instrumentality 
 of Sirjee Rao (iliatkay, the iathcr-in-law of 
 Sindia, and the ])rom|)ter as well as exe- 
 cutor of his worst actions. Between four 
 and five thousand persons are said to 
 have perished by the sword, or under tor- 
 tures inflicted by the ferocious Pindarries, 
 for the express gratification of their dia- 
 bolical leader; and the wells witliin the 
 limits of Indore were actually choked up 
 by tlie bodies of females, who had rushed 
 on death to avoid the lust and cruelty which 
 reigned unchecked for a period of fifteen 
 days, and ended only with the slaughter or 
 flight of almost every citizen, and the demo- 
 lition of every house. Jeswunt Rao, with 
 Indore, lost his only means of giving regular 
 pay to his soldiers. Without attempting 
 disguise, he told them the actual state of 
 the case, and bade such as chose follow his 
 fortunes in quest of plunder. The invita- 
 tion was accepted with acclamation, and 
 Jeswunt Rao became avowedly the leader 
 of an army of freebooters, whose worst licen- 
 tiousness he directed rather than curbed, 
 and whose turbulence he bent to his will 
 hy the habitual display of the dauntless 
 courage which formed the distinguishing 
 characteristic of his family, and by the coarse 
 humour and inimitable cajolery peculiar to 
 himself.* His declared object was the restora- 
 tion of Mahratta supremacy over India by a 
 revival of the predatory system of Sevajee ; 
 but of this there was never any reasonable 
 prospect. Jeswunt Rao was not the man to 
 found a state even on the most precarious 
 basis ; he was " terrible as a destroyer," but 
 powerless to erect or consolidate dominion. 
 The marauding force increased daily. 
 Sindia renounced the cause of Casee Rao 
 (who became thenceforth a dependent on 
 
 * The following anecdote indicates that, with all his 
 vices, Jeswunt Kao was nut what a modern writer de- 
 sifjnates a s/inm. At an early prviod of liis career, the 
 accidental buvstint; of a matchlock deprived him of the 
 sisjht of an eye. ^Vllen told of tlie irreparable injury 
 inflicted, lie exclaimed, in allusion to the Indian pro- 
 verb that one-eyed people arc always wicked — " I was 
 bad enouf;h before, but now I shall be the very Gooroo 
 (hiuh-priest) of roi;ues." lie had no relis;ions scru- 
 ples, but would plunder temples and ])rivate dwellings 
 with equal inditterence. 'Ihe madness in which his ca- 
 reer ended, is regarded as the punishment of sacrilege. 
 
 his half-brother), and would have willingly 
 purchased peace by the surrender of the 
 infant Kuiidee Rao; but llolcar knew his 
 strength, and had, besides, gone too far to 
 recede with safety. A desperate contest 
 took place between the two chiefs near 
 Poona, in October, 1802, when the ])er- 
 sonal exertions of Jeswunt Rao, who had 
 staked his all ou the event, with the deter- 
 mination of not surviving defeat, resulted 
 in a com|)lete victory. By turning his owa 
 guns on the ungovernable Patans of Ameer 
 Khan, who was quite unable to check their 
 violence, t llolcar saved the city from indis- 
 eriniiiiate pillage; not, however, from any 
 motiv(! of justice or compassion, but only 
 that he might be enabled to plunder it 
 systematically and at leisure, for the pay- 
 ment of the arrears of his troops and the 
 replenishment of his private coffers. After 
 committing every description of extortion, 
 and giving, in his own person, an exami)le of 
 hard-drinking, by unrestrained indulgence 
 in his favourite liquors, cherry and rasp- 
 berry brandy, he left Amrut Rao (Ragoba's 
 adopted son) in charge of the government, 
 and marched off to pursue his marauding 
 avocations in Central India. 
 
 The triumph of llolcar completely changed 
 the relative position of Bajee Rao and the 
 English. Surrounded by a select body of 
 troops, the peishwa waited the result of the 
 contest; and when it was decided, fled from 
 Poona, leaving with the British resident a 
 draft treaty for the company, requesting 
 the permanent establishment of a subsi- 
 diary force within his dominions, and prof- 
 fering in return the assignment of a certain 
 amount of territory, and a pledge to hold 
 no intercourse with other states, except iu 
 concert with the English. The treatv of 
 Bassein, arranged on this basis, was con- 
 eluded in 1802. It entailed the subjection 
 of the claims of the peishwa on the Nizam, 
 and on Anuud Rao Guieowar, the chief 
 of Baroda in Gnzerat, with whom the 
 English )iad recently become closely allied; 
 their interference having been solicited in 
 
 t .\meer Khan had little personal courage. After 
 the battle of Poona he came to Jeswunt Rao, who 
 was tying up his wounds, and boasted of good for- 
 tune in escaping unhurt; ''for, see!" he said, point- 
 ing to the feather mounted in silver, which adorned 
 liis horse's head, " my khuljee has been broken by a 
 cannon-ball." " Well, you are a fortunate fellow," 
 retorted the Mahratta, with a burst of incredulous 
 laughter; "for I observe the shot has loft the ears 
 of your steed uninjured, though the wounded or- 
 nament stood betwixt them.'' — (Central India, 
 l, 229.1
 
 394 
 
 FAITHLESSNESS AND INDECISION OF BAJEE RAO— 1803. 
 
 favour of the legitimate heir iii a case of 
 disputed succession. These concessions in- 
 volved a heavy sacrifice of political power; 
 but they were slight compared with those 
 which would have been exacted by Sindia 
 or Holcar; and Bajee Rao could scarcely 
 fail to fall into the hands of one or other 
 of these leaders, if not upheld by extraneous 
 support. Like his father, he had few per- 
 sonal friends, and so little deserving the 
 name of a party at Poena, that the governor- 
 general, on discovering his unpopularity, ap- 
 pears to have doubted what course to pursue 
 with regard to his reinstatement on the 
 musnud. The treaty had been entered 
 upon in the belief that the majority of the 
 jaghiredars, and the great mass of the 
 nation, would co-operate with the English 
 for the restoration of the peishwa. But if 
 his weakness or wickedness had thoroughly 
 alienated their confidence, the case was dif- 
 ferent ; and Lord Wellesley plainly declared, 
 that "justice and wisdom would forbid any 
 attempt to impose upon the Mahrattas a 
 ruler whose restoration to authority was 
 adverse to every class of his subjects." 
 
 In the absence of any general manifesta- 
 tion of disafi'ection, Bajee Rao was escorted 
 by an English force to the capital from 
 whence he had fled with so little ceremony. 
 Amrut Rao retired on learning his approach, 
 and eventually became a state pensioner, re- 
 sident at Benares. Tranquillity seemed 
 restored. There could be no doubt that 
 Holcar, Sindia, and Ragojee Bhouslay of 
 Berar, would all feel mortified by a treaty 
 which gave the English that very ascen- 
 dancy in the councils of Poona they, or at 
 least Sindia and Holcar, individually coveted. 
 Still Lord Wellesley considered that their 
 mutual deep-rooted enmity would prevent 
 a coalition for so desperate an object as 
 war with the English. Perhaps the result 
 would have realised these anticipations had 
 Bajee Rao been true to his engagements ; 
 instead of which, he behaved with accus- 
 tomed duplicity, and corresponded with both 
 Sindia and Ragojee Bhonslay, to whom he 
 represented his recent voluntary agreement 
 as wholly compulsory, and endeavoured to 
 incite them to hostilities, trusting to the 
 chapter of accidents for the improvement 
 of his own position. Yet, when the moment 
 
 • The (lay nftcr the tukin^; of Poona, Col. Close, 
 the lirilish resident, was sent for by Iloicar, whom 
 he found in a small tent ankle-deep in mud, with a 
 spear wound in the body and a sabre-cut in tlie 
 head | which last he liud received from an arlillery- 
 
 for action came, his schemes were lost in 
 timidity and indecision : he would not trust 
 others ; he could not trust himself. 
 
 Holcar had heretofore expressly disavowed 
 any unfriendly feeling towards the English ;* 
 and they would willingly have mediated 
 between him and the peishwa, had the ran- 
 corous animosity of the latter suffered 
 them to enter upon the negotiation. Sindia 
 courted the co-operation of Holcar through 
 the instrumentality of Ragojee Bhonslay, 
 and went so far as to surrender the child 
 Kimdee Rao, and acknowledge Mulhar 
 Rao as the representative of the Holcar 
 family, surrendering to him their territories 
 in Malwa, and recognising his various claims 
 throughout Hiudoostan. Despite these con- 
 cessions, the robber-chief hung back; and 
 when pressed by the confederates to unite 
 his army with theirs in the Deccan, with a 
 view to making war upon the E. I. Cy., he 
 asked who was to take care of Northern 
 India? and withdrew to pillage the de- 
 fenceless provinces of friend and foe. 
 
 The gathering storm did not escape the 
 observation of the governor-general. Hos- 
 tile preparations were commenced in every 
 part of British India, and a declaration of his 
 intentions demanded from Sindia ; who re- 
 plied curtly, yet candidly, that he could not 
 give any until after an approaching interview 
 with the Bhonslay ; but would then inform 
 the resident " whether it would be peace or 
 war." This pledge was not redeemed ; the 
 meeting took place, and was followed by 
 vague and general professions of good-will to 
 the British government, mingled with com- 
 plaints against the peishwa for an undue 
 assumption of authority in signing the treaty 
 of Basseiu. The civil expressions of the 
 chiefs ill accorded with the hostile and 
 menacing attitude occupied by their armies 
 on the frontiers of Oude. JNIajor-general 
 Wellesley, to whom his brother had dele- 
 gated full powers, political as well as mili- 
 tary, either for negotiation or war, brought 
 matters to au issue with characteristic 
 frankness, by proposing as a test of the 
 amicable intentions of the two chiefs, that 
 they should respectively withdraw their 
 forces, pledging himself to do the same ou 
 the part of the English. The offer being 
 rejected, the British resident was with- 
 
 nian while leading a charge on tlie guns of the 
 enemy, lie expiessed a strong wish to be on good 
 terms with the ICnglish, and, with reluctance, per- 
 mitted the withdrawal of the resident, alter which 
 the worst outrages were couniiitted at I'oona.
 
 MAIIRATTA WAR.— BATTLE OF ASSAYE— AUGUST, 1803. 
 
 39S 
 
 drawn, and preparations made on both sides 
 for an appeal to arms. 
 
 Maiikatta Waii. — Tlie govcrnor-fjcncral 
 well knew that the finances of his employers 
 were in no condition to endure the drain of 
 protracted warfare, and he resolved to follow 
 out the policy so brilliantly sncecssful in the 
 Mysoor eampaif^n, of lirin^ing the whole 
 force of British India to bear on the enemy; 
 not, however, by concentration on a single 
 point, but by attacking; their territories in 
 every quarter at tlic same time. 
 
 The army, by his exertions, was raised to 
 nearly .WjOOO men. The troops in the 
 Deccan and Gnzcrat numbered 35,(500, of 
 whom KJjSoO formed the advanced force 
 under General Welleslcy; in Ilindoostan, 
 10,500 men were under the command of 
 General (afterwards Lord) Lake ; 3,500 were 
 asscml)led at Allahabad to act on the side 
 of Bundelcund; and 5,210 were destined 
 for the invasion of Cuttack. The armies 
 of Sindia and Ragojce were estimated at 
 about 100,000 men, of whom half were 
 cavalry; and 30,000 regular infantry and 
 cavalry, commanded by Europeans, chiefly 
 Freucli, under M. Perron, the successor of 
 De Boigne. Ilimmut Bahadur, an influ- 
 ential ]\Iahratta chief of Bundelcund,* 
 sided with the English against the rajah, 
 Shumshccr Bahadur. The campaign opened 
 by the conquest, or rather occupation, of 
 Ahmednuggur, the ancient capital of the 
 Ahmed Shahi dynasty, on the 1st of 
 August, 1803. The army under 'Major- 
 general Wcllcslc}', by whom it was accom- 
 jdishedj after much marching and counter- 
 marching, fought the famous battle of 
 Assaye, so named from a fortified village 
 (near the junction of the Kailna and .Tuah 
 rivers, 2G1 miles north-west of Ilydrabad), 
 before which the confederates had encamped 
 21st August, 1803. They numbered 50,000 
 men, and were supported by above a hundred 
 pieces of artillery. The British counted b\it 
 4,500 men; and their leader beheld with 
 anxiety the strength of the foe, even though, 
 on finding the Mahrattas at length drawn up 
 in battle array, the exulting remark re-echoed 
 through, the ranks — " They cannot escape 
 us." While the British lines were forming, 
 the IMahrattas opened a muidrrous cau- 
 
 • The ancient Hindoo (lyna5;ty of Bundelcund, of 
 which Chuttor Sil was the last cfticicnt represent.i- 
 tive, was ovorwhelmed by the Mahrattas about 1786. 
 Shunisheer Bahadur was an illegitimate descendant 
 of the first peishwa, Bajee Rao. Himmut Bahadur, 
 by a not unfrequent combination, was a ijnsacn 
 (religious devotee) and a soldier of fortune. — (D:ip'.) 
 
 nonadc. The 74tli regiment sustained heavy 
 loss, and were charged by a body of the 
 enc-my's horse. The 19th light dragoons 
 drew only 3()0 sabres, but they received the 
 order for a counter-charge with a glad 
 huzza; and being manfully seconded by 
 native cavalry, passed through the broken 
 but uiulismayed 71th amid the cheers of 
 their wouwIcmI comrades, cut in, routed the 
 opposing horse, and dashed on at the iu- 
 fatitry and guns. The troops of the line 
 pressed on after them, and drove the enemy 
 into the Juab at the point of the bayonet. 
 The victory was com[)lctc, but dearly pur- 
 chased ; for one-third of the conquerors lay 
 dead or wounded at the close of this san- 
 guinary action. Of the JVIahrattas, 1,200 
 were slain; the bodies of the fallen were scat- 
 tered around in dense masses, and ninety- 
 eight pieces of cannon remained on the field. 
 Ragojee Bhonslay fled at an early period of 
 the action, and Sindia soon followed his 
 example. The cavalry evinced little incli- 
 nation to out-stay their mastei-s; l)ut the 
 infantry behaved with greater steadiness; 
 the artillerymen stood to the last, and 
 eight of the trained battalions of De 
 13oigne manifested unflincliiug determina- 
 tion. AVhcn resistance became hopeless, 
 tlie majority surrendered. f 
 
 In the meantime, success still more bril- 
 liant in its results had attended the army 
 under Lake, w'ho was him,self the very 
 model of a popular commander, as brave 
 and collected in the front of the battle as 
 in a council of his own officers. The de- 
 struction of Sindia's force under Perron, 
 the capture of Agra and Delhi, with the 
 person of the emperor — these were the 
 leading objects to which he was to direct 
 operations ; and they were all so per- 
 fectly fulfilled, that the governor-general 
 declared, his most sanguine expectations 
 having been realised, he was unexpectedly 
 called on to furnish fresh instructions. 
 General Lake first came in sight of the 
 enemy's cavalry at Coel, near the fort of 
 Alighur, whither they retired after a slight 
 skirmish. Alighur, the ordinary residence 
 of j\I. Perron, was, in his absence, bravely 
 defended by the governor, M. Pedrons. It 
 was \^cll garrisoned, and surrounded by a 
 
 t The fidelity of these mercenary troops is ren- 
 dered more remarkable by the fact, that a politic 
 proclamation, issued by the governor-general at the 
 commencement of the war, had had the etlcct of in- 
 ducing the British part of the European officers to 
 quit the service of Sindia, on condition of the con- 
 liiuiance of the pay previously received from him.
 
 396 BATTLE OF ALIGHUR.— GALLANT DEFENCE OF DELHI— 1803. 
 
 deep and wide moat, traversed by a narrow 
 causeway, which formed tlie sole entrance 
 to the fort, and for which, by some strange 
 neglect, a drawbridge had not been sub- 
 stituted. One of the British officers who 
 had come over from the service of Sindia, 
 offered to head an attack on the gateway. 
 The daring enterprise was carried out. Of 
 four gates, the first was blown open by 
 troops exposed to a heavy fire ; the second 
 easily forced ; the third entered with a mass 
 of fugitives; but the fourth, which opened 
 immediately into the body of the place, 
 resisted even the application of a 12-pounder. 
 In this extremit}', a party of grenadiers, led 
 by Major M'Leod, pushed through the 
 wicket and mounted the ramparts. Oppo- 
 sition soon ceased, and the British found 
 themselves masters of the fortress, witli the 
 loss of 278 men killed and wounded, in- 
 cluding seventeen European officers. Of 
 the garrison, about 2,000 perished ; many 
 of whom were drowned in the ditch while 
 attempting to escape. 
 
 From Alighur, Lake marched to the 
 north-westward, and on the 11th of Septem- 
 ber, encamped within six miles of Delhi. 
 The tents were scarcely fixed, when the 
 enemy appeared in front. Perion had just 
 quitted the service of Sindia, in conse- 
 quence of the well-founded jealousy mani- 
 fested towards him by that chief and the 
 leading native officers. M. Bourquin, the 
 second in command, took his place; and on 
 learning the advance of the British against 
 Delhi, crossed the Jumna with twelve 
 battalions of regular infantry, and 5,000 
 cavalry, for the purpose of attacking Gen- 
 eral Lake, whose force, after providing for 
 the safety of his baggage, amounted to about 
 4,500 men. Bourquin took up a position 
 on rising ground, with swamps on either 
 side, defended in front by seventy pieces of 
 cannon, half-buried arnid long grass. From 
 this secure station he was withdrawn by a feint, 
 which, with less highly disciplined troops, 
 would have been very hazardous. Lake 
 advanced to reconnoitre, and after having a 
 horse shot under him, fell back with the 
 cavalry in regular order upon the infantry, 
 who had been meanwhile ordered to ad- 
 vance. The enemy followed the retreating 
 cavalry, until the latter, ojjcning from the 
 centre, made way for the foot to advance 
 to the front. Perceiving the trap into which 
 he had fallen, Bourquin halted, and com- 
 menced a deadly fire of grape, round, and 
 canister ; amidst which the British troops 
 
 moved on without returning a shot until 
 within one hundred yards of the foe; they 
 tiien fired a volley, and charged with the 
 bayonet. Sindia's infantry, unequal to a 
 hand-in-hand encounter, abandoned their 
 guns, fled, and were pursued as far as the 
 banks of the Jumna, in which river numbers 
 perished. The total loss of the ]\Iahrattas 
 was estimated at 3,000^that of the British 
 at 585, including fifteen European officers. 
 
 After being seventeen hours under arms, 
 the troops took up fresh ground towards 
 the river, and next morning encamped 
 opposite the city of Delhi. In three days 
 every show of resistance ceased, the fort 
 was evacuated, Bourquin and five other 
 French officers surrendered as prisoners of 
 war, and the unfortunate Siiah Alum thank- 
 fully placed himself under the protection of 
 the British commander, September 10th, 
 1803.* General Lake next marched against 
 Agra, where all was strife and confusion. 
 The garrison had been under the eoraraand 
 of British officers, who, on the breaking out 
 of the war, were confined by their own 
 troops. Seven battalions of Sindia's regular 
 infantry were encamped on the glacis, but 
 the besieged feared to admit them, on ac- 
 count of the treasure which they wished to 
 reserve for themselves. The battalions were 
 attacked on the lOtli of October, and de- 
 feated after a severe conflict; three days 
 afterwards, those who remained came over 
 in a body, and were admitted into the 
 E. I. Cy's service. The siege of the fort 
 was then commenced, and a breach effected, 
 when further proceedings were arrested by 
 the capitulation of the garrison, the im- 
 prisoned officers being released, in order to 
 make terms with their countrymen. The 
 surrender was accomplished on condition of 
 safety for life and private property, leaving 
 treasure to the amount of £280,000 to be 
 divided among the troops as prize-money. 
 
 It is almost impossible to sketch a cam- 
 paign carried on simultaneously by different 
 widely-separated armies, without losing the 
 thread of the narrative, or interfering with 
 the chronological succession of events. 
 Choosing the latter as the lesser evil, it 
 may be mentioned that, towards the close 
 of October, General Lake (]uitted Agra in 
 pursuit of a large force, composed of filteeu 
 
 Tieneral Lake found Sliali .\lum seated under a 
 small tattered canopy, his person emaciated by in- 
 digence and infirniily, and liis countenance dis- 
 figured with the loss ot his eyes, and beaiing marks of 
 extreme old age, joined to a settled melancholy.
 
 LAKE CONQUERS MAlIRATTyVS AT LASWAREE— NOV., 1803. 397 
 
 fcguliir battalions, dispatclicd by Siiulia 
 from the Dcpcaii to strciifjtlu'ii liis iioillicrn 
 army ; of wliieli there now rcmuiiieil but 
 two battalions, the wreck of the Dcllii 
 troops. Tiie total was, however, forinidalile ; 
 being estimated at about 9,000 foot and 5,000 
 horse, with a numerous and well-a|ipoiiited 
 train of artillery. Their d(;si^n was sup- 
 |)osed to be the recovery of Delhi; but as 
 the ]}ritish ndv;inccd, the IMahrattas re- 
 treated; and Lake, fearing tiiey would escape 
 his vigilance, and suddetdy reappear in some 
 unlooked-for quarter, followed with bis cav- 
 alry by forced marches, until, on the 1st of 
 Novcmijcr, he found himself, after a night's 
 journey of twenty-five miles, in face of an 
 enemy in apparent confusion, but advan- 
 tageously posted, and refreshed by rest. 
 After an ineffectual and disastrous attempt 
 at attack, the British general was compelled 
 to withdraw his brigade out of reaidi of 
 cannon-shot, and await the arrival of the 
 infantry. The details of this portion of the 
 action are somcwiiat vaguely told. The 
 76th regiment, which was chosen to head 
 the attack, with some native infantry,* who 
 had closed to the front, first reached the 
 point from which the charge was to be made, 
 and stood alone, waiting until the remainder 
 of the column should be formed by their 
 comrades, whose march " had been retarded 
 by impediments in the advance,''t the nature 
 of which is not stated. So galling was the 
 fire opened by the enemy, that Lake, who 
 conducted in person every operation of the 
 day, aiul had already had one horse shot 
 under him, resolved to lead the van to the 
 assault, sooner than stand still and witness 
 its destruction. At this moment his second 
 liorse fell, pierced by several balls. His son, 
 who officiated as aide-de-camp, sprang to the 
 ground, and had just prevailed on the general 
 to take the vacant scat, when he was struck 
 down by a ball. Lake bad a singularly 
 aflcetionate nature ; the fall of his child, 
 severely if not mortally wounded, was well 
 calculated to unnerve, or, in his own phrase, 
 " uimian" him ; but he knew his duty, and 
 loved the troops, who, be writes with un- 
 affected modesty, " at this time wanted 
 every assistance I could give them." J 
 Leaving !N[ajor Lake on the licld, the gen- 
 eral rode on with his gnllant band, until, on 
 
 * The second battalion of the 12lh native infantry, 
 and five companies of tlie IGtli. — (Thornton, iii. ooH.) 
 
 t Despatch i)f Lake to the eovernor-general. — 
 ( ll'c//fxli'i/ Dvspiitc/ifs, vol. iii., 413.) 
 
 I Welteslei/ Despatches, iii., 41ti. 
 
 § Idem, p. 446. General Lake, habitually so ready 
 
 3f 
 
 arriving within reach of the canister-shot 
 
 of tiic foe, their ranks were so rapidly thinned 
 as to render regular advance imjiracticable, 
 and tempt the Mahratta horse to charge. 
 But this "handful of heroes," as they 
 wei-e gratefully termed by Lake, him- 
 self " la brave de.i braves" repulsed their 
 assailants, who withdrew to a little distance. 
 The order to the British horse to charge 
 in turn, was brilliantly executed by the 29th 
 rlragoons. They dashed through both lines 
 of the opposing infantry, wheeled round upon 
 the cavalry, and, after driving them from 
 the field, turned the rear of the enemy's 
 second line. The British foot failed not to 
 take advantage of the opportunity thus 
 afforded. The whole force had by this 
 time arrived on the field of battle, and the 
 issue soon ceased to be doubtful ; yet the 
 hardy veterans of De Boigne's regiments, 
 though deprived of almost all their e.\peri- 
 cnced ofliccrs, would not surrender. About 
 2,000 of them were broken, surrounded 
 and made prisoners, but the majority fell 
 with weapons in their hands. " The gun- 
 ners," writes the victorious general, " stood 
 by their guns until killed by the bayonet : 
 all the sepoys of the enemy behaved exceed- 
 ingly well ; and, if they had been com- 
 manded by French officers, the event would 
 have been, I fear, e.\.tremcly doubtful. I 
 never was in so severe a business in my 
 life, or anything like it ; and pray to God I 
 never may be in such a situation again. 
 * * * These fellows fought like devils, or 
 rather heroes."^ 
 
 The battle of Laswaree was in all respects 
 memorable. It completed the overthrow of 
 the European disciplined brigades, and gave 
 to England undisputed mastery over Delhi 
 and Agra, with all Sindia's districts north 
 of the Chumbul. These advantages were 
 gained at a heavy sacrifice of life. The 
 English loss amounted to 172 killed and' 
 052 wounded : that of the ]Mahrattas was 
 estimated at 7,000. || 
 
 The detached expeditions had likewise 
 successfully accomplished their respective 
 missions. All Sindia's possessions in 
 Guzerat were captured by a division of the 
 Bombay troops under Lieutenant-colonel 
 Woodington. Broach was taken by storm 
 on the 29th of August; and the strong hill- 
 to praise others, barely notices his own gallant deeds 
 or those of his son : but he mentions, the day after the 
 battle, that parental anxiety rendered him " totally 
 unfit for anything." Happily, Major Lake's woand 
 proved less severe than was at first expected. 
 
 II Memoir of the Campaign; by Major Thorn.
 
 ibrt of Powanghur, which overlooked the 
 town of Champaneer, surreudered ou the 
 17th of September. 
 
 The seizure of Cuttack was accomplished 
 by detachments of the Madras and Bengal 
 forces under Lieutenant-colonel Harcourt. 
 The Brahmins of Juggernaut placed their 
 famous pagoda under the protection of the 
 British ou the 18th of September; and the 
 fall of Barabuttee, the fort of Cuttack, on 
 the l-lth of October, completed the reduc- 
 tion of the whole province. 
 
 lu the subjection of Buudelcund, Lieute- 
 nant-colonel Powell was materially aided by 
 Himmut Bahadur, the Hindoo leader pre- 
 viously mentioned, who joined the British 
 detachment in the middle of September, 
 with a force of about 14,000 men. The 
 army of Shumsheer Bahadur made but feeble 
 resistance, and on the 13th of October was 
 driven across the river Betwa. Their chief 
 eventually became a British stipendiary. 
 
 The concluding operations of the war 
 were performed by the army under ]\Iajor- 
 general Wellesley and Colonel Stevenson. 
 A detachment under the latter leader took 
 possession of Boorhanpoor on the 15th of 
 October, and two days after marched to 
 besiege Aseerghur, called by the natives 
 "the key of the Deccan." The fortress 
 surreudered on the 21st, and with it the 
 conquerors became masters of Sindia's Dec- 
 cani possessions, including several depen- 
 dent districts in Candeish. After a short 
 time spent in pursuing the rajah of Berar, 
 who retreated to his own dominions, and 
 in receiving some overtures for peace, of an 
 unsatisfactory character, fi'om Sindia, Gen- 
 eral Wellesley descended the Ghauts on 
 the 25th of November, with the intention of 
 assisting Stevenson in the projected siege of 
 Gawilghur. The junction was effected on 
 the 29th of August, near the plains of 
 Argaum, where the British commander, ou 
 reconnoitring, perceived with surprise the 
 main army of the Berar rajah, comprising 
 infantry, cavalry, and artillery, regularly 
 drawn up, about six miles from the spot 
 where he had himself intended to encamp. 
 Sindia's force, consisting of one very heavy 
 corps of cavalry, a body of Pindarries, and 
 other light troops, su])ported those of Berar. 
 It was late in tlie day, and the English were 
 wearied with a Tong march under a burning 
 
 • The defence liad been gallantly conducted by 
 two Hajpoot lenders, whose bodies were found amid 
 a heap of slain. 'I'licir wives and dau;;lilers were 
 intended to have all blmred their fate ; but the ter- 
 
 sun ; yet their leader thought it best to 
 take advantage of the opportunity rarclv 
 aflbrded of meeting the j\Iahrattas in a 
 pitched battle. Forming two lines of in- | 
 fantry and cavalry. Major-general Wellesley 
 advanced to the attack. A body of 500 
 foot, supposed to have heen Persian mer- 
 cenaries, rushed upon the 74th and 78th 
 regiments with desperation, and were de- 
 stroyed to a man. Sindia's horse charged 
 the British sepoys, but were repulsed; after 
 which the ranks of the enemy fell into con- 
 fusion and fled, pursued by the British 
 cavalry, assisted by auxiliary bodies of My- 
 soor and Mogul horse. The loss of the 
 victors, in killed, wounded, and missing, 
 was 346 men ; that of the Mahrattas is 
 nowhere stated, but must have been very 
 considerable. 
 
 The siege of Gawilghur, invested on the 
 5th of December, involved no ordinary 
 amount of labour and fatigue, in conse- 
 quence of the difficulty of carrying the guns 
 and stores to the point of attack. The 
 outer fort was taken by storm on the 15th; 
 the inner fort was escaladed by the light 
 company of the 94th, headed by Captain 
 Campbell, who opened the gates and ad- 
 mitted the rest of the assailants.* 
 
 The confederate chieftains had by this 
 time become extremely solicitous for the 
 termination of war. The rajah of Berar 
 dispatched vakeels or envoys to the 
 British camp the day after the battle of 
 Argaum ; but in consequence of the invete- 
 rate manoeuvring and procrastiuation of the , 
 Mahrattas, even when really desirous of | 
 concluding a treaty, aftairs were not finally 
 arranged until the 17th of December. By 
 the treaty of Deogaum, then signed, the 
 rajah consented to surrender the province of 
 Cuttack, including the district of Balasore, 
 to the company, and to relinquish to the 
 Nizam certain revenues extorted from him 
 ou various pretences. He further pledged 
 himself to submit all ditl'crenccs which 
 might arise between hitn aiui the Nizam or 
 the peishwa to British arbitration, and pro- 
 mised to receive into his service no Euro- 
 pean or American subject of any state at 
 war with the English, nor even any English- 
 man, without the express sauction of the 
 governor-general. 
 
 Siudia had now no alternative but to 
 
 rible order had been imperfectly performed willi steel 
 weapons, instead of by the usual method of fire ; and 
 thouph several died, the majority beinj^ carefully 
 tended, recovered ol' their wounds. — ( Wviksk'y Dcq>.]
 
 TREATY OF SURJEE ANJENGAUM Will I SINDIA— DEC, ]80:J. 399 
 
 make peace on such terms as the con- 
 querors tliouplit fit to {rrant ; and on tlie 
 liOth of December he signed tlie treaty of 
 Snrjec Anjent;;uini iti the J5ritisli camp, by 
 which lie ecdc-d his rights over the couiilry 
 between the Jumna and the Ciaiifjcs (in- 
 cluding the cities of Jhdlii and Agra), and 
 to the nortliward of tin; ]lai[)oot principali- 
 ties of Jeypoor and Joudpoor; also the forts 
 of Ahmedabad and Broach, with their de- 
 pendent districts. On the; south lie yielded 
 Ahniednuggur to the peishwa, and some 
 extensive districts to tiie Nizam. In return, 
 the leading j)hiccs coucpiercd during the 
 war, uot above named, were restored to 
 him. Shortly after this arrangement, Sindia 
 entered the general alliance of which the 
 British government formed the dominant 
 portion, and agreed to receive a subsidiary 
 ]5ritisli force, whose expenses were to be 
 furnished from the revenue of the territories 
 already ceded. 
 
 The leading objects of the war had been 
 fully carried out, in accordance with the 
 plans of the governor-general. Among the 
 less conspicuous but important services ren- 
 dered by Lake, were the formation of alli- 
 ances with the rajahs of Jeypoor, Joudpoor, 
 Boondi, and Alacherry; with the Jat rajah 
 of Bhurtpoor, the rana of Gohud, and 
 Arabajec Inglia, the unfaithful successor of 
 Perron in the service of Sindia.* Lord AVel- 
 lesley was anxious to maintain the indepen- 
 dence of the Rajpoot principalities against 
 Mahratta aggressions, both as a matter of 
 justice and policy. Their territories were 
 guaranteed to them against external ene- 
 mies, with immunity from tribute; but they 
 were uot to receive European ofKcers into 
 their service without the sanction of the 
 British government, and were to defray the 
 expense of any auxiliary force required to 
 repel invaders from their dominions. 
 
 War with ITolcak. — Despite so many 
 brilliant victories, attended with such sub- 
 stantial results, the British armies could not 
 quit the field. During the recent hostilities, 
 llolcar had remained in jVIalwa, levying 
 enormous contributions upon the adjoining 
 provinces. The success of the British arms 
 seems to have convinced him of his mistake 
 in neglecting to co-operate with chiefs of 
 his own nation against a power whose 
 elibrts were steadily directed to the sup- 
 
 • Sindia seized the Goliud jiroviiice, and gave it 
 in clias<;e to Ambajue Inplia, wlio went over to the 
 English. Tliey kept Gwahcr, and divided the rest 
 of the province between tiie rana and Inglia. 
 
 pression of the predatory warfare by which 
 lie had reached, and could alone expect to 
 maintain, his jircsent position. AMien too 
 late he bestirred himself to negotiate with the 
 Rajpoots, the Hhurlpoor rajali, the Rf)hillas, 
 th(! Soiks, and lliially with Sindia, whom he 
 recommended to break the humiliating treaty 
 he had recently formed, and renew the war. 
 But Sindia had suffered too severely in the 
 late hostilities to provoke their repetition; 
 and being, moreover, exasperated by the 
 time-serving policy of Holcar,t he commu- 
 nicated these overtures to Major Malcolm, 
 then resident in his camp. The inimical feel- 
 ings entertained by llolcar, had been already 
 manifested by the murder of three British 
 officers in his service, on a false charge that 
 one of them had corresponded with the 
 commander-in-chief. Still it seemed higlilv 
 imiu'obable that he could seriouslv iuteiid 
 flinging the gauntlet at a nation whose 
 military achievements had become the 
 theme of every tongue in India; and the 
 English authorities, anxious to bring matters 
 to a speedy and amicable conclusion, invited 
 him to send commissioners to their camp, to 
 explain his views and desires. The ]\Iah- 
 rattas are ever apt to treat conciliatory 
 measures as symptomatic of weakness; and 
 Holcar was probably influenced by some 
 such consideration in framing the condi- 
 tions for which his vakeels were instructed 
 to stipulate witli General Lake as the terms 
 of peace, and which included leave to col- 
 lect cltout according to the custom of his 
 ancestors, with the cession of Etawa and 
 various other districts in the Doab and 
 Bundelcund, formerly held by his family, 
 llolcar had not without reason blamed 
 Sindia for too exclusive attentioit to the 
 rules of European discipline, and the neglect 
 of the guerilla warfare which Sevajce and 
 Bajce Rao had waged successftdly against 
 Aurungzcbe. This was the weapon with 
 which he now menaced the English, in the 
 event of non-compliance with his demands. 
 " Although unable," he said, " to oppose 
 their artillery in the field, countries of 
 many coss should be overrun, and plundered, 
 and burnt ; Lake should not have leisure to 
 breathe for a moment, and calamities would 
 fall on lacs of human beings in continued 
 war by the attacks of his army, which woidd 
 overwhelm like the waves of the sea." 
 
 t Amt-cr Khan was actually dispatched by Holcar 
 to co-operate with Sindia; but the news of the 
 battle of Assaye reached him on the inarch, and 
 he returned as he came. — (Ameer Khan's Memoirs.) 
 
 =^
 
 400 
 
 ZALIM SING OF KOTAH, THE NESTOR OF INDIA. 
 
 Such a menace, from one of the most 
 reckless and powerful marauders by whom 
 the timid peasantry of Hiudoostan were ever 
 scourged, was tantamount to a declaration of 
 war — a formality which, it may be remarked, 
 forms DO part of Mahratta warfare. Yet it 
 was not till further indications appeared 
 of his intention to commence hostilities 
 at the first convenient moment, that the 
 negotiation, which Holcar desired to gain 
 time by protracting, was broken off, and 
 Lord Lake and Major-general "VVellesley 
 directed to commence operations against 
 him both in the north and the south. The 
 governor-general entered on this new war 
 with unaffected reluctance. Once com- 
 menced, it could not be arrested by an 
 accommodation such as that entered into 
 with Sindia ; for a predatory power must, 
 he thought, be completely neutralised, in 
 justice to the peaceable subjects of more 
 civilised governments. It was important to 
 secure the cordial co-operation of the sub- 
 sidiary and allied states against the common 
 foe ; and this was eS'ected by the declaration 
 of Lord Wellesley — that all territory con- 
 quered from Holcar should be divided among 
 the British auxiliaries without reserve. 
 
 The opening of the campaign was dis- 
 astrous. Major-general Wellesley could 
 not advance in consequence of a famine 
 which prevailed in the Deccan. Lake, 
 after storming the fort of Rampoora (IGth 
 May, 1804), was compelled to withdraw the 
 main army into cantonments for the rainy 
 season, leaving Colonel Monson, with five 
 sepoy battalions and c5,000 irregular horse, 
 to watch the movements of the foe. The 
 proceedings of this commander were most 
 unfortunate. Though " brave as a lion," 
 he wanted decision of purpose and con- 
 fidence in the native troops. After making 
 an ill-advised entrance into the dominions 
 of the enemy, he became alarmed at the 
 reported approach of Holcar in person ; and 
 fearing the probable failure of supplies 
 before the British could join the Guzerat 
 force under Colonel Murray, he retreated 
 forthwith. A retrograde movement on the 
 part of British troops was proverbially more 
 hazardous in native warfare than the boldest 
 advance. Holcar eagerly followed, attacked 
 and defeated the irregular cavalry left in 
 the rear to forward intelligence of liis pro- 
 ceedings, and summoned the main body to 
 surrender. This being indignantly refused, 
 furious and reiterated onsets were made 
 by liim on the sepny battalions at the 
 
 Mokundra pass, which they resisted with 
 steadiness and success, till, at evening, 
 their assailants drew off a few miles. 
 Monson, not considering his position ten- 
 able, continued the retreat ; the native 
 troops behaved admirably, and, though 
 harassed by the enemy, and exposed to 
 heavy rains, reached Kotah in two marches. 
 Kotah was a Rajpoot principality, ori- 
 ginally formed of lands separated from 
 Boondi. It remained for above a century 
 and a-half of secondary importance, until it 
 fell beneath the sway of Zalim Sing, a Raj- 
 poot of the Jhala tribe, who governed under 
 the name of regent — it would appear, with 
 the full consent of the rightful prince or 
 rana, Omeida Sing. Zalim Sing played 
 a difficult part with extraordinary ability, 
 and by dint of consummate art, perfect 
 self-control, and unfailing energy, so steered 
 the vessel of state, that while every other 
 Rajpoot principality tottered under the 
 effects of the furious attacks or undermin- 
 ing intrigues of tlie encroaching INIahrattas, 
 Boondi, though ever first to bend to the 
 storm, raised her head as soon as it had 
 passed over, as if strengthened by the trial. 
 Excessive humility and moderation formed 
 the disguise beneath which the regent at- 
 tained the position of a general arbitrator 
 in the never-ceasing disputes of neighbour- 
 ing governments, which lie fostered under 
 pretence of mediation. His deep duplicity 
 did not preserve him from incurring strong 
 personal hostility ; and Tod, after narrating 
 no less than eighteen attempts at his assas- 
 sination, represents him as sleeping in an 
 iron cage for security. At the time at 
 which we have now arrived, "the JMestor 
 of India" was about sixty-five years of age. 
 His position was one of peculiar difficulty. 
 To keep peace with Holcar he had paid 
 dearly, both in money and character, having 
 stooped to forui an intimate alliance with 
 Ameer Khan as a means of averting the 
 scourge of indiscriminate plunder from the 
 fertile fields of Boondi, great part of which 
 were cultivated for his exclusive benefit; yet 
 Colonel Monson, on his arrival with tlie 
 weary and half-famished troops, demanded 
 from the regent notliing less than their ad- 
 mission into the city, which could not be 
 granted without creating great confusion 
 and insuring the deadly vengeance of the 
 j\Lahrattas. To the English, Zalim Sing was 
 yet more unwilling to give offence. Their 
 paramount authority was being daily aui;- 
 mentcd and consolidated ; nor could he
 
 SIEGE OF BIIURTPOOR.— DEFENCE OF DELHI. 
 
 401 
 
 doubt that Kotuli, like other native prinei- 
 palitics, wouhl cvoiituiilly do well to (iiid in 
 a dependent alliance on the dominant power, 
 an alternative from complete extinction.* 
 Even now, lie was ready to make common 
 cause witii the retrcatinpj and dispirited 
 troops, or to do anythiiif; for their snceoiir, 
 to the extent of his ability, outside the 
 walls of Kotah ; but the pertinacity of 
 Monsoii iu demanding admittance was un- 
 availing, and the detachment marched on 
 to Rampoora, through an inundated country 
 barely traversal)lc for the troops, and im- 
 practicable for cannon and stores, which 
 were consequently destroyed and aban- 
 doned. A reinforcement sent with supplies 
 by (jleneral Lake, gave temporary relief to 
 the harassed soldiers, but could not remedy 
 the incapacity of their commander; and 
 after many more struggles and revcrses,t 
 attended with a complete loss of baggage 
 on the road to Agra, the confusion of one 
 very dark night brought matters to a 
 climax ; the troops fairly broke and fled 
 in separate parties to the city, where the 
 majority of tiie fugitives who escaped the 
 pursuing cavalrv, found an asylum on the 
 31st of July, ISbk 
 
 These proceedings increased the rabble 
 force of Holcar tenfold. Adventurers and 
 plunderers of all descriptions (including 
 the wreck of the armies of Sindia and the 
 Bhonslay) flocked to his standard ; and after 
 making the regent of Kotah pay a fine of 
 ten lacs for his partial assistance of the 
 English,]: the ]\Iahratta chief invaded their 
 territories, at the head of an immense army,§ 
 in the character of a conqueror. At his 
 approacli the British troops abandoned 
 Muttra with its stores; but the fort was 
 reoccupied by a detachmcut sent by Gen- 
 eral Lake, who had marched hastily from 
 Cawnjjore, in hopes of bringing the enemy 
 to action. He was, however, completely 
 outwitted by Ilolcar, who occupied the 
 attention of the British general by ma- 
 nCEuvring his cavalry ; while his infantry, by 
 
 • When Colonel Tod was employed in forming 
 an alliance between the supreme government and the 
 Kotah pvincipality, he took an opportunity of assuring 
 Zalim Sing that the Englisli desired no more terri- 
 tory- Tlie old politician smiled, as he answered — "I 
 believe you think so ; but the time will come when 
 there will be but one sicca (stamp of sovereignty on 
 coin) throughout India. You stepped in at a lucky 
 time ; the p'fout (a sort of melon, which bursts 
 asunder when fully matured) was ripe, and you had 
 only to^take it bit by bit. It was not your ])Ower so 
 much as our disunion that made yo>i sovereigns, and 
 will keep you so." — I^Rajasfhan, i., 766.) 
 
 a rapid movement, succeeded in inventing 
 Delhi. The city, ten miles in circum- 
 ference, had but a ruined wall, with scarcely 
 more than 800 sepoys, for its defence; never- 
 theless, these troops, headed by Lieutenant- 
 colonels Ochterlony and Burn, after nine 
 days' operations, compelled a force of 20,000 
 men to raise the siege. || Ilolcar, with his 
 cavalry, withdrew to the Doab, whither he 
 was followed by Lake, who, after a long pur- 
 suit, by marching fifty-three miles in twenty- 
 four hours, eventually came up with the 
 enemy on the 17th of November, under 
 the walls of Furruekabad. The Indian 
 horse never could stand a charge in the 
 field ; their leader knew this, and was him- 
 self the first to fly, followed by his j)anic- 
 struek adherents, of whom 3,000 were cut 
 to pieces by the victors, and the rest escajied 
 only by the superior swiftness of their horses, 
 The Mahratta chief made his way to Deeg, a 
 strong fort belonging to Runjeet Sing of 
 Bhurtpoor, a Jat leader, who, after the defeat 
 of the detachment under Monson, had quitted 
 the English, and joined the opposite interest. 
 The determined proceedings of Lake 
 induced the confederate chiefs to evacuate 
 Deeg and retreat to Bhurtpoor, a city not 
 very formidable in appearance, of six to 
 eight miles in circumference, defended by a 
 high mud wall, and a broad ditch not 
 easily fordable. But the rajah was skilful 
 and desperate. Holcar had little to boast of; 
 for while himself heading a defeated army 
 in the field, his strongholds, iu various 
 quarters, had been reduced by the English; 
 and a detachment of troops from Guzerat 
 had occupied Indore, and were preparing to 
 intercept his retreat. Still he was a ma- 
 rauder by profession, whose kingdom was in 
 his saddle; whereas the Jat rajah truly 
 declared he had no home but in his castle — 
 every hope was bound up in its battlements. 
 The defence was most determined ; and 
 even when a practicable breach had been 
 effected, attempts to take the place by 
 storm were neutralised by the ready inven- 
 
 t When the younger European officers were heart- 
 sick, and well-nigh sinking with fatigue, the sepoys 
 were frequently beard bidding them be of good cheer ; 
 for they would carry them safely to Agra. — (Duff.) 
 
 { Zalim Sing and Holcar (both one-eyed men) met 
 in boats on the Chumbul, each fearing treachery. 
 
 § ."Vccording to Malcolm, Holcar'sarmv eomnrised 
 92,000 men (66,000 cavalry, 7,000 artillery, 19.000 
 infantry), with 190 guns. — (Central India, i., 238.) 
 
 II The sepoys were on duty day and night. To 
 keep up their spirits under incessant fatigue, Ochter- 
 lony had sweetmeats served out, and promised them 
 halt" a month's pay when the enemy was repulsed.
 
 402 
 
 COLLEGE OP FORT WILLIAM.— INDIA-BUILT SHIPPING. 
 
 tion of the besieged. Stockades and bul- 
 warks rose as if by magic to blockade the 
 breach ; the moat was rendered unfordabie 
 by dams; and, during the attack, pots filled 
 with combustibles, and burning cotton-bales 
 steeped in oil, were flung upon the heads of 
 the assailants. The British were four times 
 repulsed, with a total loss of .3,203 men in 
 killed and wounded ; nor did even their 
 highly-prized military reputation escape un- 
 impaired. On one occasion, the famous 
 76th, in conjunction with the 75th, refused 
 to follow their officers after the 12th Bengal 
 sepoys had planted the colours on th.e top 
 of the rampart. The bitter reproaches of 
 their general recalled them to a sense of 
 duty, and, overpowered with shame, they 
 entreated to be led to a last attack, in which 
 they displayed much desperate but unavail- 
 ing courage. The operations of the siege 
 were for a time intermitted to procure 
 further reinforcements. The rajah, con- 
 vinced that his destruction, however tempo- 
 rarily retarded, was but a question of time, 
 offered twenty lacs of rupees, with other 
 concessions, as the price of peace, and the 
 proposal was accepted, although at the risk 
 of leaving on the minds of the natives a 
 dangerous example of successful resistance. 
 The advanced state of the season, the fear 
 of the hot winds, together with the me- 
 nacing attitude of Sindia, then under the 
 influence of his father-in-law, the notorious 
 Shirjee Rao Ghatgay, were sufficient rea- 
 sons for refraining from engaging the flower 
 of the British army, at a critical period, in 
 a contest with a desperate man, who, if 
 mildly treated, might be neutralised at 
 once. The son of the rajah of Bhurtpoor 
 was therefore taken as a hostage for the 
 fidelity of his father, and the restoration of 
 the fortress of Deeg held forth as its reward. 
 The force of Holcar had been reduced by 
 desertion, more than by actual loss, to less 
 than a fourth of its number at the opening of 
 the campaign. The separate treaty entered 
 into by the rajah of Bhurtpoor left him no 
 hope but in the co-operation of Sindia, who 
 afl'ected to bo desirous of mediating with 
 the British government on his behalf. The 
 power of both chiefs was, however, broken, 
 and few oljstacles remained towards a 
 general pacification, on terms very advan- 
 tageous to the ]!^nglish ; when their whole 
 policy was abruptly changed by the passing 
 of the office of governor-general from the 
 hands of the jMarquis AVcJlrsley into those 
 of Lord Cornwallis, in 1805. 
 
 As early as January, 1802, Lord Welles- 
 ley had signified to the Court of Directors 
 his desire of quitting India. The motives 
 for the proffered resignation were various. 
 They included several acts, on the part of 
 the directory, which the marquis deemed 
 derogatory to the reputation of himself and 
 his brothers, as well as to that of his 
 stanch coadjutor, Lord Clive, the governor 
 of Madras ; but the chief ground of com- 
 plaint was the disfavour shown to his 
 favourite scheme of founding a college at 
 Calcutta, for the express instruction of 
 young civilians in the description of know- 
 ledge absolutely requisite for the fulfilment 
 of their allotted duties. The glaring igno- 
 rance of native languages evinced by Euro- 
 pean rulers, had long been a manifest hin- 
 drance to the good government of the people 
 of India, as well as a bar to the kindly in- 
 tercourse which might otherwise have sub- 
 sisted. It was this primary defect which 
 the marquis hoped to rectify, and at the 
 same time to infuse into the youths of the 
 service something of the esprit de corps, 
 which he remembered with such vivid plea- 
 sure to have existed at Eton. The College 
 of Fort William was his favourite project. 
 The company did not deny the want of 
 systematic instruction, which was daily 
 more painfully felt ; but they could not be 
 brought to consent to the expenditure which 
 Lord Wellesley deemed absolutely needful 
 to fulfil the double object of educating 
 Europeans and affording encouragement to 
 native talent. The Board of Control sup- 
 ported the views of Lord Wellesley ; but 
 the project was, after all, but very imper- 
 fectly carried out, so far as the Indian popu- 
 lation was concerned : for the instruction 
 of civilians destined to serve the E. I. Cy., 
 a college (Haileybury) was founded in Eng- 
 land a few years later. Another cause 
 which rendered the governor-general un- 
 popular with his employers, was his delibe- 
 rate and avowed opinion in favour of the 
 extension of trade with England to India- 
 built shipping, instead of confining it solely 
 to the chartered vessels of the E. 1. Cy. 
 Despite the obvious policy, as well as jus- 
 tice, of this measure, as the only means of 
 preventing Indian commerce from finding its 
 way to Europe l)y more objectionable chan- 
 nels, " the shipping interest," then greatly 
 predominant iu the counsels of the com- 
 pany, violently opposed any alteration which 
 should trench on their monopoly, and con- 
 trived, in many ways, to render Lord Wei-
 
 CLOSE OF TIIli; WELLESLEY ADMINISTRATION— 1805. 
 
 403 
 
 lesley sensible of their unfriendly feelings. 
 Nevertheless, his profl'cred resignation was 
 depreeated by an entreaty to remain at least 
 another year, to settle the newly-acquired 
 territories, and eonecrt with the home 
 authoritiijs the foundation of an cflieient 
 system for the litiuichuiun of the Indian 
 debt. Tlio renewal of war with tlic Alah- 
 rattas, despite the brilliant sueeess with 
 whieh it was attended, could not but involve 
 an increase of immediate expenditure, though 
 compensated by a more than proportionate 
 augmentation of territory. ]5ut tlie invest- 
 ments were impeded; and a failure in the an- 
 imal supplies was ill borne by the company, 
 however advantageous the promise of ulte- 
 rior advantages ; consequently, a clamour 
 arose against the marquis as a war-governor, 
 which (leeided his recall at the time when 
 all material obstacles were removed, and his 
 whole energies directed towards the attain- 
 ment of a solid and durable peace. He 
 had been sent out for the express purpose 
 of eradicating French influence, an object 
 which he had completely accomplished, 
 though, of necessity, at the cost of much 
 war and more diplomacy.* 
 
 Tiie Wellesley administration — from 1798 
 to 1805 — formed a new era in the annals 
 of the E. I. Cy. Principles of honour and 
 public spirit were engrafted which bore 
 much fruit in after days ; and many a friend- 
 less cadet of the civil and military service 
 found in rapid promotion the direct reward 
 of talent and integrity. Nay, more ; there 
 are honoured veterans still with us, who, 
 after the lapse of half a centm-y, delight to 
 attribute their success to the generous en- 
 couragement or kindly warnings of the 
 good and gifted ^larquis AVcl lesley. f 
 
 Perfect toleration was his leading rule ; 
 nevertheless, he did not hesitate to interfere 
 for the suppression of such heathen customs 
 as were manifestly incompatible with the 
 spirit of a Christian government ; such as 
 the frightful amount of infanticide annually 
 
 * Into his minor measures, especially the restric- 
 tions jilaced on tlic liberty of the press, it is not 
 practicable to enter : the motives for some of them 
 were inirely political — to check the conveyance of 
 dangerous information, or \\'u\g rumours to foreign 
 states ; while the edict forbidding the publication 
 of newspapers on Sundays, had the double object 
 of reverence for the sabbath and a desire to show 
 the nations, that not only the missionaries, but the 
 Europeans in general had n religion — a fact which 
 might well have been doubted. 
 
 t The rising talent of the civil service was called 
 out in a peculiar manner by Lord AVellesley. 'I'he 
 youths of the three presidencies, who had distin- 
 
 comraittcd at the mouth of the Ganges. 
 
 Neither was he withheld, by timid or sec- 
 tarian views, from aflbrdiiig liberal encou- 
 ragement to the able and zealous mea 
 (IJuehanan ami (Jarey, for instance) who 
 had devoted themselves to the oflice of 
 Christian missionaries. To all around him 
 engaged in the cause of religion or gotxl 
 government, he extended cordial sympathy 
 as fellow- workers ; and if a shadow of blame 
 can be cast on his ever-discriminating 
 praise, it would be that of having been 
 sometimes too liberally bestowed. J5iit the 
 full meastire of love and confidence he gave 
 so freel}', was returned into his own bosom. 
 Military and civil officials, of all ranks and 
 classes — from the Earl of Elgin, at Con- 
 stantinople, and Lord Clivc, at Madras, to 
 the humblest clerk — vied in alTording the 
 fullest and most correct information for the 
 use of the governor-general ; and the mer- 
 chants and bankers seconded his measures 
 in the most effective manner by furnishing 
 government loans on the lowest possible 
 terms. At the close of the administration 
 of Sir John Shore, it had been difKcult to 
 raise money on usurious interest ; but the 
 ^larquis Wellesley, on the eve of a hazardous 
 war, found men who could appreciate the 
 policy of his measures, and make them prac- 
 ticable, even at considerable ])ecuniary risk. J 
 The general feeling in India was, unhap- 
 pily, not a])prcciatcd or shared in I'jtiglaud. 
 The marquis returned, after an arduous and 
 brilliantly successful administration, to find 
 the uncertain tide of popidar feeling turned 
 against him. The British public were well 
 acquainted with the aggressive and grasp- 
 ing policy of Hastings, and the manner ia 
 which he had made the weakness or wicked- 
 ness of native princes conduce to the ag- 
 graiulisemcnt of his employers or his own 
 personal interest. It was a very natural 
 conclusion to be arrived at by persons ig- 
 norant of the general disorganisation of 
 India, that a governor who had added hun- 
 
 guished themselves in their examinations at the 
 college of Fort Willisrm, were placed in the secre- 
 tary's office of the governor-general, and educated 
 under his immediate care for the respective depart- 
 ments, for the duties of which they were best fitted. 
 Of those thus brought forward, three (Metcalfe, 
 Adams, and Butterworth Bayley) became acting 
 governors-general ; and the majority attained high 
 positions in India and in England. 
 
 I Mr. (afterwards Sir Charles) Forbes, the head of 
 tlie well-known firm at Bombay, was the chief of those 
 who, by tiiking ti]) government paper at par, as well 
 as furnishing supplies, restored ihe confidence of the 
 wealthv natives in the slabilitv of the E. I. Cv.
 
 404 CHARACTER AND POLICY OF THE MARQUIS WELLESLEY. 
 
 dreds of miles and thousands of subjects 
 to an empire, which Hastings had been 
 stigmatised as an usurper and oppressor for 
 increasing by units and tens, must have 
 been guilty of the same sins in an aggra- 
 vated degree. Besides, the augmentation of 
 territory and population had been effected 
 in the teeth of a parliamentary prohibition 
 of the most decided character. The oldest 
 and ablest Indian politicians vainly strove to 
 show the utter impracticability of neutrality, 
 and argued that England, now the dominant 
 power, could not relinquish her high posi- 
 tion in measure, but must, of necessity, 
 abandon territorial sovereignty and com- 
 mercial advantage in almost equal degree. 
 The company were smarting beneath the 
 expenses of a war, which a little patience 
 would have brought to the most satisfactory 
 conclusion, by the prostration of the pre- 
 datory power, which was equally opposed 
 to all regular governments, foreign or native. 
 But no ! an immediate compromise was the 
 order of the day; the withdrawal of the 
 plundering Mahrattas from the company's 
 territories -was a relief to be obtained upon 
 any terms, even by a direct violation of the 
 pledge voluntarily given to the Rajpoot states 
 to maintain their independence against their 
 marauding foes. What matter if all Rajast'- 
 han were overrun by these eastern Goths. 
 The company's investments would go on 
 meanwhile ; and when Sindia and Holcar 
 had quite exhausted all outside the magic 
 circle, it would be time enough to devise 
 some other sop wherewith to engage them. 
 This selfish policy, disguised by the few who 
 understood the real state of the case by 
 much abstract reasoning regarding the ad- 
 mitted justice of non-interference in general, 
 deceived many good men and raised a 
 strong, though short-lived clamour, against 
 the champion of the opposite system. The 
 feeling of certain leaders in the directory, 
 joined with party politics of a very discre- 
 ditable description in the ministry, found a 
 channel in the person of a ci-devant, trader 
 named Paull, who, having accumulated a 
 large fortune in India, came to England 
 and entered parliament in the character of 
 impeacher of the Marquis Wellesley, to 
 whom, by his own account, he owed heavy 
 obligations, and entertained, in common 
 with the generality of Anglo-Indians, 
 " tlie highest respect." The leading accu- 
 sations were aggressions on native states : 
 extravagance and disregard of home autho- 
 rities, — at peculation or venality, not even 
 
 calumny dared hint. The first charge re- 
 garding Oude was thrown out by the Hous? 
 of Commons, and the accuser died by his 
 own hand, prompted by vexation or remorse. 
 Lord Folkstone strove to carry on the im- 
 peachment by moving a series of condemna- 
 tory resolutions, which were negatived by a 
 majority of 182 to 31, and followed by a 
 general vote of approbation. Thus ended, 
 in May, 1808, a persecution which cost the 
 noble marquis £30,000, and excluded him 
 from office during its continuance; for, 
 with rare delicacy, he refused repeated soli- 
 citations to re-enter the service of the Crown 
 until the pending question should be satis- 
 factorily settled. He lived to see the gene- 
 ral recognition of the wisdom of his policy; 
 and on the publication of his Despatches in 
 1834-'5, the E. I. Cy. made the amende 
 honorable, by the unusual procedure of the 
 erection of his statue in the E. I. House,* 
 a grant of £20,000, and the circulation of 
 his Despatches for the instruction and guid- 
 ance of their servants in India. He died be- 
 loved and honoured, aged eighty-three ; hav- 
 ing twice filled the office of viceroy of Ireland 
 — been secretary of state for foreign affairs ; 
 beside other distinguished positions. This 
 is not the place to tell of the efficient man- 
 ner in which the illustrious brothers worked 
 together for the defeat of the national foe, 
 Napoleon : here we have to do with the 
 marquis as an Indian governor ; in that 
 character let the pen of the historian of 
 the E. I. Cy. speak his merits. " The 
 Marquis Wellesley was ambitious; but his 
 ambition sought gratification not in mere 
 personal aggrandisement, but in connecting 
 his own fame with that of the land to which 
 he belonged, and of the government which 
 he administered, — in the diffusion of sound 
 and liberal knowledge, and the extension of 
 the means of happiness among millions of 
 men who knew not his person, and some 
 of them scarcely his name. That name is, 
 however, stamped for ever on their history. 
 The British government in India may pass 
 away — its duration, as far as human means are 
 concerned, will depend on the degree in which 
 the policy of the Marquis Wellesley is main- 
 tained or abandoned — but whatever its fate, 
 or the length of its existence, the name and 
 niemtny of the greatest statesman by whom 
 it was ever administered are imperishable. "f 
 
 • Lord Welleslry rpiiinrUrd, that to witness this 
 coniiiliinent (raiuly paid until after death), was " hke 
 haviiif; a peep at one's own funeral." 
 
 t Thornton's India, iii., 570.
 
 SECOND ADMINISTRATION OF MARQUIS CORNWALLIS— 1805. 405 
 
 Second Administration of Lord Corn- 
 WALLis. — The new governor arrived at Fort 
 William in July, 1805, and immediately 
 assumed the reins of office. The interval of 
 tliiiteen years between liis resignation and 
 rc'snmptioii of authority in India, liad told 
 heavily on his strength of mind as well as of 
 body, and the once indefatigable eom- 
 mander-in-ehief returned to the scene of his 
 former successes a worn and weary man, 
 fast sinking to the grave under the inflic- 
 tion of clironic dysentery. Yet the Euglisli 
 authorities, in accordance with ])oj)ular 
 opinion, declared him to be the only man 
 fit to curb and limit the too extensive domi- 
 nion obtained by tlie late administration in 
 conjunction with the gallant Lake, whose 
 services, though their effects were denounced, 
 had been acknowledged by a peerage. 
 
 Lord Cornwallis had given proof of mode- 
 ration by suflering Tippoo to purchase peace 
 with a third of his revenues, and had rather 
 relaxed than straitened the connexion of the 
 E. I. Cy. with various native states. Despite 
 tlie unsatisfactory results of his arrange- 
 ments, and still more so of those formed by 
 Sir John Shore, the Directory and Board of 
 Control agreed in reverting to the non- 
 intervention system, and urged the arduous 
 office of eflecting an immediate and total 
 change of policy upon the ex-governor- 
 gcneral with so much vehemence, that he, 
 from self-denying but mistaken views of 
 duty, would not sufl'er failing health to 
 excuse the non-fulfilment of what, with 
 strange infatuation, was pressed on him as a 
 jinblic dutj'. It is not easy to understand 
 the process of reasoning by which Lord 
 Cornwallis was led to adopt such extreme 
 opinions regarding the measures to be 
 taken towards Sindia and Holcar. He had 
 warmly a])proved the arrangements of the 
 Marquis Wellesley regarding the occupation 
 of Seriugapatam and the complete suppres- 
 sion of the usurping dynasty ; yet, now the 
 arrogant and aggressive Sindia, and the 
 predatory Holcar were to be conciliated, 
 not simply by the surrender of a succession 
 of dearly-purchased conquests, but by the 
 renunciation of alliance with the Rajpoot 
 and other states, who had taken part with 
 the British forces against the marauding 
 !Mahrattas in the late crisis. 
 
 Sindia had suffered, if not caused, the 
 English residency attached to his camp to 
 be attacked and plundered by a body of 
 Pindarries, and had himself detained Mr. 
 Jenkins; yet no rcpaj'atiou was to be de- 
 3g 
 
 manded for this outrage : and the governor- 
 general, in liis ira|)atient desire to conclude 
 a peace, would even have waived insisting 
 uijon the release of the resident ; but from 
 this last degrading conecssion the J'^nglish 
 were ha])pily saved by the intervention of 
 Lord Ijake. Nothing could exceed the in- 
 dignation of the brave and honest general 
 on learning the nature of the proposed 
 treaty, which he felt to be based on the 
 unworthy principle of conciliating the 
 strong at tlie expense of the weak. The 
 territories conquered from Holcar had been 
 distinctly promised to be divided among the 
 allies of England ; instead of which, they 
 were all to be restored to the defeated chief; 
 and the breach of faith thus committed 
 towards the only power able to resent it, 
 was to be repaired at the expense of the 
 powerless rana of Gohud, who had made 
 over Gwalior to the English on being 
 enrolled among the list of subsidiaiT princes. 
 He was now to be reduced to the condition 
 of a mere stipendiary, dependent on his 
 hereditary foe for subsistence; for all Gohud, 
 including Gwalior, was to be given to propi- 
 tiate the favour of Sindia — " an act," writes 
 the governor-general, " entirely gratuitous 
 on our part." Equally so was the renuncia- 
 tion of our connexion with the numerous 
 rajahs, zemindars, jaghiredars, and other 
 chiefs on the further side of the Jumna, for 
 whose protection the British faith had been 
 solemnly pledged. Lord Lake, who had been 
 mainly instrumental in forming the majority 
 of these alliances, and had, in his capacity 
 of commander-in-chief, received material 
 assistance from several of the parties con- 
 cerned, addressed an earnest remonstrance 
 to the governor-general against the proposed 
 repudiation, declaring that the weaker allied 
 princes never could be induced by any argu- 
 ment or temporary advantage to renounce 
 the promised support of the E. I. Cy., and 
 that the bare proposition would be viewed 
 " as a prelude to their being sacrificed to the 
 object of obtaining a peace with the Mah- 
 rattas." This communication bore date the 
 day following that on which Lord Corn- 
 wallis expired. For some time before his 
 death, he passed the morning hours in a 
 state of weakness amounting to insensibility ; 
 but the evening usually brought him suffi- 
 cient strength to hear despatches read, and 
 even to dictate replies. Had the energetic 
 appeal and arguments of Lake been sent a few 
 days earlier, they might perhaps have been 
 instrumental in delaying and modifying the
 
 406 
 
 DEATH OP THE MARQUIS CORNWALLIS— OCTOBER, 1805. 
 
 uugeuerous and selfish measures which cost 
 England so dearly in character and blood 
 and treasure, by strengthening the predatory 
 power it was alike her duty and her interest 
 to abase. It is hardly possible that the 
 man who steadily befriended the rajah of 
 Coorg, even at the hazard of renewing a 
 perilous war with Tippoo, could seriously 
 intend to abandon the Rajpoot and other 
 princes to the shameless marauders against 
 whom they had recently co-operated with 
 the English, unless prejudice and ignorance, 
 aided by mental debility, had blinded him 
 to the plain facts of the case. But whatever 
 effect the honest exposition of Lake was cal- 
 culated to produce on the mind of Lord 
 Cornwallis, can be only surmised from his 
 habitual conscientiousness. He had been ex- 
 tremely desirous of personally superintend- 
 ing the progress of the negotiations, and 
 hoped by short and easy stages to reach head- 
 quarters ; but at Ghazipoor near Benares, an 
 accession of weakness stopped his journey, 
 and after lingering some time in the state 
 previously described, he died there October 
 5th, 1805, aged sixty-six years. 
 
 No provision had been made by the home 
 government to meet this highly probable 
 event.* Sir George Barlow, the senior 
 member of council, on whom the chief au- 
 thority temporarily devolved, had been asso- 
 ciated with Lord Wellesley throughout his 
 whole administration, and cordially seconded 
 his lordship's views regarding subsidiary 
 alliances. During the last illness of Lord 
 Cornwallis, while hourly expecting his own 
 accession to power, Sir George had expressed 
 in writing " his confident hope that an 
 accommodation would be effected with 
 Sindia and with Holcar, on terms not differ- 
 ing esseutially from those to which he was 
 aware that Lord Wellesley was prepared to 
 accede." Most certainly his lordship would 
 never have consented to an accommodation 
 which involved a direct breach of faith with 
 numerous weak states. Sir George must 
 have known this ; but his conduct was in 
 perfect accordance with the principle which 
 enabled a certain well-known individual "to 
 
 • Lord Grenvillo pulilicly stated, that it had been 
 generally supposed in London that Lord Cornwallis 
 would not bear the voyafjej and, in any case, could 
 not long survive his arrival in India. — (Thornton.) 
 
 t (^iic of the few concessions demanded from 
 Sindia was the exclusion from office of his father-in- 
 law ; but even this was eventually renounced, and 
 Shirzee Kao became again paramount. Happily his 
 audacity at length grew offensive to Sindia, and an 
 altercation took place which enabled the attendants, 
 
 live and die vicar of Bray." The result was, 
 however, less satisfactory ; for though the 
 E. I. directors were inclined to reward 
 imphcit obedience to their mandates with 
 the highest position in their gift, the min- 
 isters of the crown were not equally com- 
 pliant; and although they also were de- 
 sirous of purchasing peace on any terms, 
 the recent appointment was neutralised, and 
 a rule laid down that thenceforth no servant 
 of the company should fill the office of 
 governor-general. Sir George was placed 
 in charge of Madras ; but before his removal 
 from Calcutta he had contrived to neutralise, 
 as far as possible, the effects of the measures 
 which he had assisted in enacting ; his 
 avowed expectation being that the native 
 states, when left to themselves, would forth- 
 with engage in a series of conflicts which 
 would, for the present at least, keep them 
 fully employed, and prevent the renewal of 
 hostilities with the English. Sindiaf and 
 Holcar received the proffered concessions 
 with unmixed astonishment at the timidity 
 or vacillation of their lately dreaded foe. 
 The Rajpoot and other princes indignantly 
 remonstrated against the renunciation of an 
 alliance pressed upon them by the British 
 government in her hour of need. The 
 rajah of Jeypoor, who had especially pro- 
 voked the vengeance of the Mahrattas, felt 
 deeply aggrieved by the faithlessness with 
 which he was treated, and his bitter re- 
 proaches were conveyed to Lord Lake 
 through the mouth of a Rajpoot agent at 
 Delhi. Disgusted at being made the instru- 
 ment of measures which he denounced, and 
 at the almostf total disregard manifested 
 towards his representations. Lord Lake re- 
 signed his diplomatic powers in January, 
 ] 806, and after about twelve months spent in 
 completing various necessary arrangements 
 regarding the forces, and settling, agree- 
 ably to the instructions of the government, 
 the claims of various native chiefs, he 
 quitted India, leaving behind him a name 
 that will be honoured and beloved so long 
 as the Indian army shall subsist. § He died 
 in England, 21st February, 1808, aged 64. 
 
 under pretence of securing the person, to take the 
 life of a miscreant whose memory is still execrated 
 in Poona for the cruel oppression practised there. 
 
 I Lord Lake was so far successful, that his repre- 
 sentations against the immediate danger, as well as 
 faithlessness, of dissolving the alliance with the rajahs 
 of Macherri and Bhurt|)oor, induced Sir George to 
 delay the execution of a determination which he 
 nevertheless declared to be unchanged. 
 
 § Major-general WeUesley, after receiving s
 
 MUTINY OF TROOPS AT VELLORE— JULY, 180G. 
 
 407 
 
 Little difference of opinion now exists 
 regarding the acoomraodatioii cftVctod villi 
 the Malirattas. The noii-iiitcrvciitiou policy 
 was soon abandoned; but its results justify 
 the declaration of Grant Duff", that the 
 measures of Sir George 15arlovv were no less 
 short-sighted and contracted than selfish 
 and indiscriminating. His provisional ad- 
 ministration terminated in July, 1807,* its 
 concluding event being an alarming mutiny 
 among the native troops in the Carnatic. 
 The immediate cause was the enforcement 
 of certain frivolous changes of dress, together 
 with other orders trivial in character, but 
 involving a needless interference with the 
 manners and customs of the soldiery, which 
 had been introduced without the knowledge 
 of Lord William Bentiuck, the successor of 
 Lord Clivc in the government of Madras. 
 "The new regulations required the sepoys 
 to appear on parade with their chins clean 
 shaved, and the hair on the upper lip cut 
 after the same pattern, and never to wear 
 the distinguishing mark of caste, or their 
 earrings when in uniform. A turban of 
 a new pattern was also ordered for the 
 sepoys."t 
 
 These ill-advised changes might possibly 
 have been accomplished without occasioning 
 any serious disturbance, had a cordial under- 
 standing subsisted between the British and 
 the native officers. But this was not the 
 ease ; and the consequence of the alienation 
 existing between them was, that the sons of 
 Tippoo Sultan, then resident at Vellore, 
 took advantage of the princely income and 
 unusual degree of liberty allowed them as 
 state prisoners, to assemble a large band of 
 adherents, who made it their business to 
 inspire the soldiery with aversion to their 
 foreign masters, on the ground that the 
 newly-devised turban, and its concomitants, 
 though ostensibly ordered for the sake of 
 convenience and unanimity, were really the 
 tokens and forerunners of a forcible conver- 
 sion to Christianity. The assertion was an 
 utter absurdity. The Hindoos themselves, 
 whose creed makes no provision for eon- 
 knighthood of the Order of the Bath, quitted India 
 in 1805, ill-pleased with the manner in which the 
 services of his brother and himself were received. 
 
 • Mill's Jlistorrj of British India terminates with 
 the peace with the Mahraltas. In an able, but pre- 
 judiced, and without the comments of Prof. Wilson, 
 misleading summary of the commercial results of 
 the Wellesley administration, the revenues are shown 
 to have been raised from £8,059,880, in lS05'-6, to 
 £15,403,409; but the war expenditure, with the in- 
 terest on the incre.iscd debt, which had been tripled. 
 
 verts, were scarcely more devoid of prose- 
 lytising zoal than the KngliKh had shown 
 themselves, de8[)ite the opposite tendency of 
 a religion whicii directs its professors " to 
 preach the gospel to all nations," The 
 military officers liad, as a body (for there 
 were exceptions), no need to defend them- 
 selves against any imputation of over-anxiety 
 to manifest the excellencies of their faith in 
 their lives and conversation, or by any en- 
 couragement of missionary labours. Of 
 Christianity the natives in the vicinity of 
 Vellore knew nothing, and were conse- 
 quently ready to believe just anything, ex- 
 cept that its divine Founder had enjoined 
 on all his disciples a code so fraught with 
 humility, chastity, and brotherly kindness, 
 that if observed it must infallibly render 
 Christians a blessing to every state, whether 
 as rulers or as subjects. 
 
 Rumours of the growing disaffection were 
 abroad, but excited little attention in the 
 ears of those most concerned. Unmistak- 
 able symptoms of mutiny appeared, and 
 were forcibly J put down, until, on the lOtli 
 of July, 1806, the European part of the 
 Vellore garrison were attacked by their 
 native colleagues, and Colonel Fancourt and 
 112 Europeans had perished or been mor- 
 tally wounded, before Colonel Gillespie, at 
 the head of a body of dragoons, terminated 
 a contest which involved the destruction 
 of about 3,50 of the mutineers, and the 
 imprisonment of 500 more. Lord William 
 Bentinck became the sacrifice of measures 
 adopted without his sanction, and was re- 
 called, together with the commander-in- 
 chief. Sir John Cradock. The obnoxious 
 orders were repealed, the allowances of 
 the sons of Tippoo were diminished, their 
 place of imprisonment changed from Vellore 
 to Bengal ; and, by slow degrees, the panic 
 wore off. The captive insurgents were gra- 
 dually set at liberty ; the cheerful obedience 
 of the men, and their customary fidelity to 
 those whose salt they ate, returned ; and the 
 British officers " ceased to sleep with pistols 
 under their pillows." § 
 
 caused the annual charges to exceed the receipts by 
 above two million. This was a temporary addition, 
 but the revenues of the conquered territories were a 
 permanent gain, viewed as so certain, that Barlow 
 held forth the prospect of a million sterling as the 
 annual surplus, to follow immediately on the restora- 
 tion of peace. t Auber's India, ii., 432. 
 
 X The severe coercion employed may be conjec- 
 tured from the fact that 900 lashes each were in- 
 flicted upon two grenadiers for refusing to wear th» 
 " hat-shaped" turban. § Bentinck 's Memorial.
 
 408 MINTO ADMINISTRATION, 1806.— CRISHNA KUMARI OF OODIPOOR. 
 
 Administration OF Lord MiNTo — 1806 to 
 1813.— The new governor-general (formerly 
 Sir Gilbert Elliot) came to India strongly 
 prepossessed in favour of a neutral policy, but 
 was speedily compelled to modify his views. 
 Holcar, on his return to Malwa, found 
 occupation in quelling the disturbances 
 arising from the non-payment of arrears to 
 his turbulent followers, who made use of 
 the boy, Kundee Rao, to intimidate his 
 uncle into the liquidation of their claims. 
 The object being accomplished, the child 
 became, as he had himself predicted, the 
 victim of the wrath of Jeswunt Rao ; and 
 Casee Rao died suddenly soon after, having 
 been likewise, it was supposed, assassinated 
 to prevent the possibility of the rights of 
 any legitimate descendant of Tukajee being 
 brought into collision with those of Jeswunt 
 Rao. These and other atrocities were the fore- 
 runners of madness,which appeared in tempo- 
 rary paroxysms, with intervals of partial sanity, 
 employed by Jeswunt in making extensive 
 military preparations, especially in casting 
 cannon, a work which he superintended 
 night and day, using stimulants to supply 
 the place of food and rest. It soon became 
 necessary to confine him ; and twenty to 
 thirty men with diflSculty succeeded in bind- 
 ing the despot fast with ropes, like a wild 
 beast. His fierce struggles gradually sub- 
 sided into speechless fatuity, and, at the 
 expiration of three years, during the 
 greater part of which he was fed like an 
 infant with milk, the dreaded freebooter 
 died a miserable idiot in his own camp, on 
 the 20th of October, 1811.* Before his 
 insanity, Holcar had taken advantage of 
 the withdrawal of British protection to 
 ravage and pillage the states of Rajast'han, 
 especially Jeypoor or Amber, under the old 
 pretext of exacting arrears of chout. The 
 quarrels of the Rajpoot princes gave full 
 scope for his treacherous interference. The 
 hand of Crishna Kumari, the high-born 
 daughter of the rana of Oodipoor, was an 
 object of dispute between Juggut Sing of 
 Jeypoor, and Maun Sing of Joudpoor. 
 Holcar was bought oS' by Juggut Sing, but 
 this arrangement did not prevent him from 
 suffering his general. Ameer Khan, to hire 
 his services to the opposite party. The chief 
 commenced liis task by ridding the rajah of 
 Joudpoor of a rebellious feudatory, named 
 
 • Holcar was of middle lieight, remarljnldy strong 
 and active. A small but handsome mausolenm was 
 erected to his memory near Rampoora, and his favou- 
 rite horse ranged in freedom around it. Tod describes 
 
 Sevaee Sing, whom he deluded, by oaths and 
 protestations of friendship, into visiting his 
 camp. The intended victim entered the 
 spacious tent of the Patan with a body of 
 friends and attendants, and was received 
 with every demonstration of respect. Ameer 
 Khan invented a plausible pretext for a 
 short absence, and caused the cords of the 
 tent to be suddenly loosened ; then, taking 
 advantage of the confusion, he ordered a 
 sharp fire of musketry and grape to be 
 poured indiscriminately on the whole of the 
 crowded assembly. The massacre was com- 
 plete; and not only the companions of the 
 betrayed Rajpoot, but those of Ameer Khan 
 himself, with a party of dancing-girls and 
 musicians, were mercilessly sacrificed. The 
 rana of Oodipoor was seriously alarmed by 
 the enmity of so unprincipled an adversary. 
 He vainly appealed to the British govern- 
 ment, as possessing the paramount authority 
 in India, to interfere for the protection of 
 their oppressed neighbour : his entreaties, 
 like those of Zalim Sing, were disregarded, 
 and the proud representative of the Surya 
 race (the offspring of the sun) was compelled 
 to fraternise with the infamous Patan ad- 
 venturer by the exchange of turbans, as 
 well as to subsidise his troops at the cost of 
 a fourth of the revenues of the principality. 
 This was in itself deep abasement, but worse 
 remained behind. Ameer Khan, in con- 
 junction with Ajeet Sing, a Rajpoot noble, 
 whose memory is, for his conduct on this 
 occasion, execrated throughout Rajast'han, 
 succeeded in convincing the unhappy rana, 
 that the death of his child was absolutely 
 necessary to save the principality from de- 
 struction at the hands of the rival suitors. 
 With his consent, poison was mixed with the 
 food of the princess ; but she ate sparingly, 
 and its murderous purpose was not accom- 
 plished. The high-spirited girl, on dis- 
 covering the design thus temporarily frus- 
 trated, bade her father attempt no more 
 concealment, since, if bis welfare and the 
 safety of the state required it, she was ready 
 to die by her own act. Accordingly, having 
 bathed and dressed, as if for a nuptial feast, 
 she drank off" the poison. The first two 
 draughts proved harmless, for nature re- 
 volted, and the noxious beverage was re- 
 jected ; but the third time a more insidious 
 preparation was administered, and Crishna 
 
 this animal with enthusiasm, as the very model of a 
 Mahratta charger, with small and pointed ears, full 
 protruding eyes, and a mouth tliat could drink out 
 of a tea-cup. — (Kajast'han, ii., 720.) 

 
 CAPTURE OP THE MAURITIUS, BOURBON, AND JAVA— l«10-'l 1. 409 
 
 slept to wake no more in this life. Ilcr 
 niotlicr (lied of fjricf ; her fatlier survived to 
 endure tlic gailinj^ rcproaolics of some of 
 his most faitiiful chiefs; and Oodipoor, so 
 far from benefiting by the unnatural crime, 
 lost from that hour its remaining glories.* 
 
 Ameer Khan, elated by success, grew 
 more daring in his plans ; and, attended by 
 large bodies of Pindarries, undertook, in 
 1809, an expedition against the indolent 
 and effeminate rajah of Berar. Lord Minto 
 became alarmed by the probable subversion 
 of the principality, and, departing from the 
 non-intervention policy, sent a strong de- 
 tachment for the defence of Nagpoor, and 
 notified to the invader that the territories of 
 the rajah were under British protection. A 
 blustering and defiant reply was returned, 
 upon which Colonel Close marched into 
 Malwa, and occupied Seronje, the capital of 
 Ameer Khan, with other of his possessions. 
 The strict commands of the home authori- 
 ties, together with considerations of finance, 
 prevented the governor-general from fol- 
 lowing up these vigorous measures by the 
 complete overthrow of " one of the most 
 notorious villains India ever produced ;"t 
 and the immediate safety of Berar having 
 been secured, Ameer Khan was suffered to 
 escape with laidiminished powers of mis- 
 chief. Before the close of his administra- 
 tion. Lord Minto had reason to repent this 
 mistaken lenity. Berar was again invaded, 
 and one quarter of the capital burnt by the 
 Patan and Pindarry freebooters, a party of 
 whom proceeded to set at nought British 
 authority, by an irruption into the fertile 
 province of Mirzapoor. The advisability of 
 reverting to the bold and generous policy of 
 the Marquis Wellesley became evident ; 
 and Lord Minto, whose term of office had 
 nearly expired, urged upon the directors the 
 necessity of vigorous measures. Indeed, 
 
 • Malcolm's Central India, i., 340. Tod's liajasi'- 
 han, i., 466. Malcolm states, that the circumstances 
 attenduig the death of the princess excited loud and 
 bitter wailing throughout the city of Oodipoor. 
 An aged chief, named Sugwan Sing, having heard 
 of the intended sacrifice, mounted his horse and rode 
 with breathless haste to the palace. He found the 
 rana and his counsellors seated in solemn silence ; 
 and to his impetuous inquiry, whether Crishna 
 were alive or dead, Ajeet Sing, the instigator of the 
 tragedy, replied by an injunction to respect the 
 affliction of a bereaved parent. Sugwan Sing un- 
 buckled his sword and shield, and laid them at the 
 feet of the rana, saying, " my ancestors have served 
 yours for more than thirty generations, but these 
 arms can never more be used on your behalf;" then 
 turning to Ajeet Sing, he reproached him with hav- 
 ing brought ignominy on the Rajpoot name, add- 
 
 the leading acts of Lord Minto liimself were 
 neither of a strictly defensive nor neutral 
 eharaeter. Sir George liarlow's with- 
 drawal of protection from the petty chiefs 
 south of the Sutlcy, had tempted a neigh- 
 bouring potentate, with whom the company 
 had heretofore no connexion, to extend liis 
 conquests in that direction. The leader in 
 question was the famous Runjeet Sing, 
 rajah of Lahore, a Seik chief of Jat descent. 
 To prevent further aggression, the minor Seik 
 powers menaced by him were declared under 
 British supremacy, and a strong force as- 
 sembled for their defence. Runjeet Sing, 
 unwilling to provoke a contest, concluded a 
 treaty with the company, by which he con- 
 sented never to maintain a larger body of 
 troops on the left bank of the Sutlcj than 
 was needful to support his authority already 
 established in that quarter. As a further 
 guarantee for his good faith, a detachment, 
 under Sir Uavid Ochterlony,J took up a 
 permanent station at Loodiana, on the east- 
 ern side of the river. 
 
 The multiplied aggressions of France on 
 the vessels of the E. I. Cy., and the fear of 
 attempts to regain a territorial position in 
 India, induced the dispatch of embassies to 
 Persia§ and Cabool, for the sake of forming a 
 more intimate alliance with those kingdoms. 
 The Mauritius, Bourbon, and the Moluccas 
 were captured by the British in 1810; and 
 Java, with its dependencies, was conquered 
 by Lord Minto, in person,|| in 1811. Of 
 these valuable acquisitions, Bourbon, the 
 beautiful island of Java, and the ^loluccas, 
 were relinquished at the general pacifica- 
 tion in 1815. 
 
 Some few rcmainiug incidents of im- 
 portance, which occurred in the time of 
 Lord Minto, remain to be chronicled. The 
 first of these is the death of the aged em- 
 peror Shah Alum, in 180G, aged eighty- 
 
 ing, as he quitted the assembly, " May the curse 
 of a father light upon you — may you die childless." 
 The malediction excited considerable attention, and 
 the successive deaths of all the children of the 
 guiltv noble, were viewed as its fulfilment. 
 t tod's Jiqiasflian,i., 468. 
 
 I Sir David Ochterlony and Runjeet Sing, like 
 Holcar and Zalim Sing, were both one-eyed men. 
 
 § Sir John Malcolm was sent to Persia by E. I. Cy. ; 
 Sir Harford Jones and Sir G. Ouseley, by the Crown. 
 
 II Lord Minto had been compelled' to'visit Madras 
 in 1809, in consequence of the strong dissatisfaction 
 ^s■hich prevailed among the European officers, arising 
 from reduced allowances; but greatly aggravated by 
 the dogged and tyrannical proceedings of the gov- 
 ernor. Sir George Barlow. By a judicious blending 
 of firmness and conciliation. Lord Minto succeeded 
 in allaying an alarming tumult.
 
 410 
 
 MOIRA, OR HASTINGS' ADMINISTRATION— 1813 
 
 three. He was succeeded in his titular 
 authority by his eldest son, Akber Shah, 
 who made some feeble attempts at the ac- 
 quisition of real power, but soon renounced 
 the futile endeavour. The exertions of the 
 Travancore authorities in 1809, to throw 
 off the yoke of the E. I. Cy., involved some 
 destruction of life, but terminated in the 
 principality becoming completely dependent 
 on Fort St. George. The tribute exacted 
 from Cochin was also largely increased. 
 
 The last feature was an impending rup- 
 ture with the Goorkas, a tribe who had 
 come into notice about the middle of the 
 eighteenth century, and had gradually as- 
 sumed a dominant influence over the whole 
 of the extensive valley of Nepaul. During 
 the second administration of Lord Corn- 
 wallis, they had completed the attainment 
 of territory (less by violence than by fraud 
 and corruption) which presented, on the 
 side of the English, a frontier of 700 miles. 
 Disputes had arisen between the Goorkas 
 and certain chiefs, who, through the ces- 
 sions made by the vizier of Oude, or other 
 arrangements, had become British feudato- 
 ries. The so-called pacific policy of Lord 
 Wellesley's successors had emboldened ag- 
 gression in all quarters ; and the seizure of 
 Bhootwal (a border district of the ancient 
 viceroyalty of Oude) was followed by re- 
 newed invasion; until, in 1813, a new turn 
 was given to affairs by the demand of the 
 English authorities for the immediate sur- 
 render of the usurped territories. Before 
 an answer could arrive from the court of 
 Nepaul, the reins of government passed from 
 the hands of Lord Slinto, who returned to 
 England, where he died (June, 1814), aged 
 sixty-five. He was an able and energetic 
 man ; and the removal of his prejudices paved 
 the way for a similar change of feeling on 
 the part of his countrymen.* 
 
 MoiRA, OR Hastings' Administration, 
 1813 to 1823.— Lord Moira reached Calcutta 
 in October, and, in the following month, 
 received the tardy reply of the Goorkalese 
 sovereign to the demand of Lord Minto for 
 the evacuation of Bhootwal and Sheoraj. 
 It was complimentary in manner, but un- 
 compromising in substance. There were 
 many reasons for avoiding immediate hos- 
 tilities in this quarter, and attempts were 
 made to settle the question by amica- 
 
 * In 1813, an attempt to impose a house-tax occa- 
 sioned great excitement in the lioly city of Benares: 
 the people practised a singularly combined, and even- 
 tually successful system, of passive resistance. 
 
 ble negotiation ; but the persistance of the 
 commissioners from Nepaul in reviving 
 points previously settled, being at length 
 silenced by a positive refusal to enter on 
 such discussions, the British agent was 
 warned to quit the frontier ; and the envoys 
 were recalled to Katmandoo, the capital of 
 Nepaul. Lord Moira was too anxious to 
 avert a frontier war, to give place to hasty 
 resentment; and he addressed aremonstrance 
 to the Nepaulese government regarding the 
 insulting manner in which the late negotia- 
 tion had been broken off. No answer being 
 returned to this communication, a detach- 
 ment was sent from Goruckpoor to occupy 
 the disputed lands, an object which was 
 effected without opposition. The British 
 troops placed the direction of affairs in the 
 hands of native officials, and withdrew, con- 
 gratulating themselves on the easy fulfilment 
 of an unpromising task. 
 
 The position of the northern mountaineers 
 was but very imperfectly understood by the 
 Calcutta functionaries, who now wielded the 
 sceptre of the Mogul. During the palmy 
 days of the empire, while the reins of gov- 
 ernment were held by too firm a hand for 
 servants to appropi'iate to themselves the dele- 
 gated sway of the sovereign, the plains at the 
 foot of the mountains, between the river 
 Teesta on the east and the Sutlej on the west, 
 had been possessed by numerous petty Hin- 
 doo rajahs, who became tributary to the em- 
 peror, and received, in return, protection from 
 the aggressions of the lawless hill-chiefs, 
 most of whom maintained their indepen- 
 dence, though some were content to own a 
 sort of vassalage to the empire, in return for 
 the possession of a portion of the magnifi- 
 cent forest of Sdl trees, and of the rich 
 plain called the Turaee, lying between them 
 and Hindoostan. The old highland rajahs, 
 whose families had warred with their low- 
 land countrymen from time immemorial, 
 held their own during the continuance and 
 after the decline of Mohammedan power, 
 until one of themselves, an aspiring chief, 
 named Prithi Narayan Sah,t rajah of the 
 small state of Goorka, to the north-west of 
 Nepaul, incited by the early victories of the 
 English in Bengal, armed and disciplined a 
 body of troops after the European fashion, 
 and proceeded to absorb the surrounding 
 states, in a manner described as closely 
 
 t According to Col. Kirkjiatrick, the Goorka 
 dynasty claim descent from the ranas of Oodipoor. 
 Itumilion states, tliey helong to the Magar tribe, 
 which has but very partially yielded to Brahministn.
 
 WAR WITH THE GOORKAS OR NEPAULESE— 1814. 
 
 411 
 
 resembling that whieh had rendered the na- 
 tion lie imitated manterH of India. The na- 
 bob of Moorsliedabad, Meer (Rossini Ali, at- 
 I tempted to interfere on behalf of some of 
 the weaker chiefs in 1762-'3, bnt sustained 
 a 8ij:i;!ial defeat ; and an expedition sent by 
 the Hengal government, in 17()7, to succour 
 the rajah of Nepanl, proved equally unsuc- 
 cessful. Prithi Narayan died in 1771, but 
 his successors carried on the same scheme 
 of conquest, crossed the Gogra river, seized 
 Kumaou, and even strove to gain posses- 
 sion of the rich valley of Cashmere. The 
 lowland rajahs, when transferred by the ces- 
 sion of the vizier of Oude from Mussulman 
 to British rule, were suflered to retain un- 
 disturbed possession of their territories on 
 payment of a fixed land-tax. The Goork- 
 alcsc, on the contrary, as each hill-chieftain 
 was successively vanquished, exterminated 
 the family, and, with the conquered posses- 
 sions, took up the claims and contests of 
 their former lords, and were thus brought in 
 contact with numerous rajahs and zemindars, 
 actually occupying the position of British 
 subjects. The complaints laid before the 
 supreme government by these persons were 
 generally but lightly regarded ; and, unless 
 under very peculiar circumstances, the 
 Goorkalese were treated as good neigh- 
 bours, whom it was desirable to conciliate. 
 Under a strong government at Calcutta, 
 outrages on the frontier were of compara- 
 tively rare oceurrence, and, when firmly de- 
 manded, reparation was usually made ; but 
 the unfortunate measures of Sir George 
 Barlow incited aggressions which were not 
 to be so easily checked as heretofore. The 
 rajah (a prince with a long string of names, 
 differently given by different authorities)* 
 was a minor. The chief authority rested 
 in the hands of a military aristocracy, headed 
 by a powerful family called Thappa, of 
 whom one member, Bheem Sein, exercised 
 the office of prime minister, with the title of 
 general, while his brother, Umur Sing, held 
 command of the army. The expediency of 
 war with the English was much canvassed 
 by the Goorkalese chiefs. The decision 
 arrived at was, that their native fastnesses 
 would always afford an invulnerable position, 
 and by issuing thence on predatory incur- 
 sions, a state of hostility could be made more 
 
 • Styled by Fraser, Jiibun Joodeber Bheem Sah ; 
 by Prinsep, Maharajah Xurnian Jorih Bikram Sah 
 Bahadur bhumsheer Jung. His father was assassi- 
 nated by hia own brother in full durbar, in 1805. The 
 fratricide was slain in the ensuing barbarous aflVay, 
 in which most of the chief nobles perished, and the 
 
 advantageous, than peace purchased at Ihc 
 saerificeof their favourite system of encroach- 
 ment. The British, on their part, viewed 
 the approaching struggle with little appre- 
 hension. The Bengal oflicers, especially, 
 made sure of victory. From the days of 
 Clive to those of Lake, with scarcely an ex- 
 ception, they had but to take the field and 
 march straight against the enemy, to en- 
 sure his precipitate flight. The uncontested 
 occupation of Bhootwal and Slieoraj, seemed 
 the natural effect of their military reputa- 
 tion, and considerable surprise was excited 
 by tidings that the Goorkalese had set them 
 at defiance, by taking advantage of the with- 
 drawal of the troops to surround the three 
 police-stations in Bhootwal, where after kill- 
 ing and wounding twenty-four of the de- 
 fenders, the superior local officer of the 
 British had been murdered in a very bar- 
 barous manner. The governor-general de- 
 manded from the court of Katmandoo the 
 disavowal of any share in this outrage, and 
 the punishment of its perpetrators ; but re- 
 ceived a menacing reply, whieh precluded 
 further hope of an amicable arrangement, 
 and occasioned the issue of a declaration of 
 war by Lord Moira in November, 1814. 
 
 The army destined for the invasion of the 
 enemy's frontier, formed four divisions, of 
 which the first, under Major-general Marley, 
 comprised 8,000 men, and was intended to 
 march against Katmandoo. The other three 
 divisions, under Maj. -generals Wood, Gilles- 
 pie, and Ochterlony (4,500, 3,500, and 6,000 
 strong), were directed to attack different por- 
 tions of the hostile frontier ; besides which, 
 Major Latter was furnished with a body of 
 2,700 men for the defence of the Purneah 
 frontier, to the eastward of the Coosy river. f 
 The campaign opened with the siege of the 
 petty fortress of Kaluuga or Nalapanee, situ- 
 ated on an insulated hill, a few miles from 
 Dehra, the chief town in the Doon (or valley.) 
 The garrison consisted of about (500 men, 
 headed by a nephew of Umur Sing. The 
 English expected to carry the place by 
 storm according to custom, and the gallant 
 Rollo Gillespie, with fatal impetuosity, led an 
 assault, in which, while waving his hat to 
 cheer the troops, he was shot through the 
 heart. The siege was discontinued pending 
 the arrival of a battering train from Delhi ; 
 
 royal family was nearly extinguished. The present 
 rajah (then an infant) was secreted in the zenana. 
 
 t Major (now General) Latter rendered good service 
 by his negotiations with the rajah of Sikkim (a hill 
 state cast of Nepaul), and his small detachment "ac- 
 complished more than it was destined to attempt."
 
 412 
 
 INVASION OF NEPAUL— MALOUN BESIEGED— 1814-'15. 
 
 but even when a breach had been effected, 
 the soldiers, dispirited by their former re- 
 pulse, could not be induced to advance. It 
 was not until the assailants had sustained a 
 loss, in killed and wounded, considerably be- 
 yond the entire number of the garrison, that 
 measures were taken to shell the fort, and 
 cut off the supply of water obtained without 
 the walls. The besieged were compelled to 
 evacuate the place on the 30th November, 
 1814. The conquerors found in the mangled 
 bodies of hundreds of men and women, dead 
 or dying of wounds and thirst, fearful evidence 
 of the determination of the foe with whom 
 they had now to deal. This inauspicious 
 commencement seems to have inspired three 
 out of four of the leaders of the British army 
 (ineludiuif Martindell, the successor of Gil- 
 lespie) with a degree of timidity and dis- 
 trust, which can scarcely be disguised be- 
 neath the name of prudence ; and General 
 Marley was struck oiF the staff for neglect 
 and incompetency. General Ochterlony 
 displayed a quickness and energy which, 
 combined with discretion, enabled him to 
 cope with difficulties of a new and unex- 
 pected order, and, although opposed by 
 Umur Sing in person, to obtain triumphs 
 to counterbalance the disasters which at- 
 tended the other divisions. He had formed 
 from the first a just estimate of the charac- 
 ter of the enemy, whom he met with their 
 own weapons, especially by the erection of 
 stockaded posts, before unknown in Anglo- 
 Indian warfare. The opening movements 
 of the English veteran were cautious and 
 laborious. The making of roads, and diplo- 
 matic proceedings with wavering chiefs, oc- 
 cupied much time before his masterly policy 
 could be developed ; but its eflects were 
 manifested by the reduction of the Ramgurh 
 and other forts, and by the withdrawal of 
 Umur Sing, with his entire force, to the 
 strong position of Maloun. The stone fort 
 thus named, and that of Soorajgurh, formed 
 the extremities of a line of fortified posts, 
 erected on a lofty and difficult ridge project- 
 ing into the Sutlej. Of the intervening 
 peaks, all were occupied by stockades except 
 Ryla peak and Deothul. Of these two, 
 Ochterlony, on his approach, succeeded in 
 obtaining possession ; the first without diffi- 
 culty, the second after a sanguinary conflict 
 
 * Thi! Ooorkalcse displayed throughout the cani- 
 jjaign an unexpected amount of chivalry, and ex- 
 hihited, in many ways, their confidence in the fjood 
 faith of the Ijritish. After the battle of Deothul, 
 ihey asked for the body of Bhukti Sing, whose loss 
 they loudly bemoaned, declaring that the blade of 
 
 on the 15th April, 1815. Bhukti Thappa, 
 a famous leader, above seventy years of age, 
 who commanded at Soorajgurh, represented 
 to Umur Sing the necessity of dislodging 
 the British from Deothul ; and on the morn- 
 ing of the 16tli, an attack was made by the 
 flower of the Goorkalese army on all acces- 
 sible sides.* Happily, the previous night 
 had been spent in throwing up defences in 
 expectation of a renewed struggle. The 
 enemy came on with such furious intre- 
 pidity, that several men were bayoneted or 
 cut to pieces within the works; and their 
 fire was directed so effectively against the 
 artillerymen, that at one time three officers 
 and one bombardier alone remained to serve 
 tlie guns. A reinforcement, with ammuni- 
 tion from Ryla peak, arrived at a critical 
 moment, and the British, after acting for two 
 hours on the defensive, became in turn as- 
 sailants ; Bhukti was slain, his followers put 
 to flight, and a complete victory obtained, 
 at the cost of 213 killed and wounded. The 
 enemy left about 500 men on the ground 
 before Deothul. The event afforded a great 
 triumph to the native troops, by whom it 
 was almost wholly achieved. It was followed 
 by the evacuation of Soorajgurh, and the 
 concentration of the hostile force in Maloun, 
 against which place a battery was raised by 
 the end of the first week in May. 
 
 In the meantime, the governor-general 
 had been actively employed in initiating a 
 series of spirited operations on the side of 
 Rohilcund. While visiting the north-western 
 provinces, he had learned that the inhabi- 
 tants of Kumaon were held in rigorous 
 subjection by the Goorkalese, who frequently 
 seized and sold their wives and children to 
 enforce the most arbitrary exactions. To 
 supply the place of regular troops, levies 
 were made from the warlike Patans of Rohil- 
 cund, under the auspices of two commanders 
 (Gardner and Hearsey), who had come over 
 from Sindia at the time of the Mahratta 
 war. The corps organised by Major Hear- 
 sey was dispersed by the enemy, and its 
 leader made prisoner ; but Lieutenant Gard- 
 ner succeeded in making his way into the 
 heart of the province of Kumaon, and took 
 up a position in sight of Alniora, the capital, 
 where a force of reguhir infantry and artil- 
 lery, under Colonel NichoUs, joined him in 
 
 their sword was broken. Ochterlony complied with 
 the request, and sent the gory corpse, wrapped in 
 rich shawls, in acknoH ledgment of the bravery of the 
 fallen chief. II is two widows sacrificed themselves on 
 the funeral pile next day, in com]>liance with his in- 
 junction. — (H, T. I'rinsep's Trans, in India, i., 170.)
 
 SUCCESSFUL ISSUE OP NEPAULESE WAR— 181G. 
 
 413 
 
 the middle of April. The Sctolee lieif];hts, 
 distant from the fort about seventy y.-irds, 
 were gained after a severe contest ; and the 
 governor, thus closely menaced, and strait- 
 ened for want of supplies, si^^nod terms of 
 surrender for the whole iirovincc, and for the 
 retirement of the Goorkalcsc troops to the 
 cast of the Kalee river — articles which were 
 duly executed. 
 
 Tidings of the fall of Almora facilitated 
 the conquest of Maroun. The dispirited 
 Goorkalesc entreated Uinur Sing to make 
 terms for himself and his sou llunjoor, 
 whom General Marlindell had incfl'ectually 
 besieged in the fort of Jythidc. The old 
 chief refused, declaring, that the rainy 
 season, now close at hand, would compel 
 the British to withdraw ; aud he used the 
 most severe coercion to retain the allegiance 
 of the troops. But in vain : the majority 
 of both oHicers and men came over to the 
 British camp as prisoners of war; and Umur 
 Sing, with but 250 remaining adherents, 
 beheld the batteries ready to open upon the 
 walls of Maloun. Convinced of the hope- 
 lessness of prolonged resistance, the proud 
 chief resigned his last stronghold, together 
 with all the territory from Kuraaou west- 
 ward to the Sutk'j, including, of course, 
 Jythuk. Thus a campaign which, in Jan- 
 uary, promised nothing but disaster, termi- 
 nated in May with the conquest of the 
 whole hilly tract from the Gogra to the 
 Sutlej, a country hitherto deemed impene- 
 trable to Europeans. The triumph was, in 
 fact, mainly due to native troops; of whom, 
 with the exception of a few artillerymen, 
 Ochterlony's division was exclusively com- 
 posed. It is important to add, that this 
 force was extremely well oiliccrcd, and that 
 its operations were materially facilitated by 
 the ability of the field engineer, Lieutenant 
 Lawtic, who died, aged twenty-four, of 
 fever, brought on by excessive fatigue 
 aud exposure eudurcd before Maloun.* 
 
 Ochterlony received a baronetcy, and a 
 pension of £1,000 a-year in acknowledg- 
 ment of his services. The governor-general 
 was rewarded by a step in the peerage, being 
 created IMarquis of Hastings. "X'arious im- 
 portant arrangements attended the conclu- 
 sion, or rather interruption, of hostilities. 
 Many of the Goorkalesc entered the Bri- 
 tish service, aud were formed into what were 
 
 • General Ochterlony deeply lumeiited liis brave 
 
 coadjutor. The whole army went into mourninjj, 
 
 and afterwards erected a monument to the memory 
 
 of Lieut. Lawtie in the cathedral church of Calcutta. 
 
 3 II 
 
 termed the A^Mseeree battalions; a provincial 
 corps was also raised for civil duties iri 
 Kumaon, which now became a British pro- 
 vince. The Doou was retained, and lUti- 
 niately annexed to the Seharanpoor district. 
 The remaining hill country was restored to 
 the several chiefs from whom it had been 
 wrested by I mur Sing, with the exception 
 of a few military posts; and the whole terri- 
 tory was declared under British protection. 
 
 The Katmandoo government was not, how- 
 ever, yet sufficiently humbled to accept the 
 terms of peace offered by Lord Hastings. 
 Umur Sing and his sons strenuously advo- 
 cated the renewal of war, in j)reference to 
 suffering a British resident and military 
 establishment to be stationed at the capital. 
 Another object of dispute was the fertile 
 but insalubrious Turaee and the adjacent 
 Sal [shorea robusta) forest, of which, accord- 
 ing to a Goorkalesc saying, " every tree is 
 a mine of gold.''t The })roposed treaty was 
 therefore rejected, and Sir David Ochter- 
 lony again took the field in January, 1816, 
 at the head of nearly 17,000 effective men, 
 including three European regiments. All 
 the known passes through the first range of 
 hills had been carefully fortified by the 
 enemy ; but, happily, a route was dis- 
 covered through a deep and narrow ravine, 
 by which the Chcrea heights were gained 
 without resistance, and the position of the 
 Goorkalesc completely turned. The Bri- 
 tish general marched on to the beautiful 
 valley of the llaptee, and was moving up 
 to ]\lukwanpoor, when a skirmish of posts 
 paved the way to a general action, in which 
 he obtained a signal victory ; whereupon the 
 royal red seal was hastily affixed to the re- 
 jected treaty of Segoulce, and a duly quali- 
 fied envoy presented it on his knees at 
 the durbar of General Ochterlony, in pre- 
 sence of all the vakeels in the camp. 
 
 By a jiolitic concession, a part of the 
 Turaee was surrendered to tlie Nepaulcse. 
 The portion skirting the Oude dominions 
 was retained, and, together with Khyree- 
 gurh, a pergiinnah of Kohilcund, was made 
 over to Ghazi-oo-deen, in payment of a 
 second loan of a crore of rupees obtained 
 from him during the war, aud furnished out 
 of the hoards of his father, Sadut Ali, the 
 late nabob-vizicr, who died in 181 1. 
 
 During the Goorkalesc war, indications 
 
 t The timber is used in ship-building, though 
 far inferior to the teak of Malabar ami of the 
 Burnian empire. The elephant, rhinoceros, and 
 bufi'alo abound in the forest, and ravage the plain.
 
 414 PINDARRY IRRUPTIONS— MAHRATTA PROCEEDINGS— 1815-'16-'17. 
 
 of a desire to take advantage of any symptom 
 of vreakuess in tlie British government were 
 not wanting on the part of Sindia, or even 
 of the peishwa, who now began to think 
 himself strong enough to stand alone, and 
 was well inclined to kick aside the ladder 
 by which he had risen to fortune. The 
 triumphant conclusion of the late hostili- 
 ties checked the development of these feel- 
 ings, and left Lord Hastings at liberty to 
 direct his chief attention to the suppression 
 of the predatory bands of Pindarries and 
 Patans, who had arisen, " like masses of 
 putrefaction, out of the corruption of weak 
 and expiring states."* The chief difference 
 between them was, that the Patans were 
 military mercenaries, associated for the pur- 
 pose of invading or plundering such states 
 as they could overpower or intimidate ; while 
 the Pindarries were cowardly and desperate 
 banditti, whose object was universal rapine. 
 Against both these descriptions of marau- 
 ders the English authorities were compelled 
 to be continually on the alert. The most 
 effectual defensive measure was considered 
 to be the establishment of subsidiary troops 
 in Berar. The death of Ragojee Bhouslay 
 appeared likely to facilitate this arrange- 
 ment; for his only son Pursajee, being 
 paralysed and an idiot, the nephew of the 
 late rajah Moodajee, commonly called Appa 
 Sahib, assumed the regency; and the better 
 to establish his ascendancy, sought the re- 
 cognition of the English at the cost of 
 entering upon tlie defensive alliance which 
 they particularly desired. Appa Sahib was, 
 at heart, decidedly opposed to the establish- 
 ment of foreign influence at Nagpoor, and 
 no sooner felt himself firmly seated on the 
 yadi, than he sought the means of re- 
 covering the purchase-money of his position 
 by entering into negotiations with the court 
 of Poona, then the nucleus of a powerful 
 confederacy forming against the English — a 
 proceeding which he accompanied by the 
 precaution of causing his young and afflicted 
 ward to be strangled in the night of Feb- 
 ruary 1st, 1817. 
 
 • Malcolm's Central India, i., 431. Sir John, on 
 the authority of tlm Pimlarry leader, Kurcem Klian, 
 gives the etymolo^'y of the term Pindarry— from 
 Pinda, an intoxicating drink which they were con- 
 stantly imbibing. Kunem Khan was a llohilla. 
 
 t No fewer than twenty-live women drowned 
 themselves to escape violation ; manv sacrificed also 
 their young cliildren. The ordinary' modes of tor- 
 ture inflicted l)y the Pindarries were — heavy stones 
 placed on the head or chest; rcd-hol irons applied to 
 the soles of the feet ; tying the liead of a person into 
 a tobra or bag for feeding horses, filled with hot 
 
 Before this event, the incursions of the 
 Pindarries had alarmingly increased, and in 
 1816 they remained twelve days within the 
 British frontier, during which time they were 
 ascertained to have plundered 339 villages, 
 put 182 persons to a cruel death, severely 
 wounded 50.5, and subjected 3,G03 others to 
 different kinds of torture. t The losses sus- 
 tained by individuals at Guntoor (in the Nor- 
 thern Circars) and elsewhere, were estimated 
 at about £100,000 sterling. The peishwa, 
 Sindia, and the divided authorities on whom 
 the management of the Holcar principality 
 had devolved, affected to desire the suppres- 
 sion of these enormities; but as it was 
 notorious they favoured the perpetrators, 
 it became necessary to take steps against 
 such deceitful governments. 
 
 The policy pursued by the peishwa toward 
 his English patrons, had become evidently 
 hostile since the accession to office, in 1815, 
 of one Trimbukjee Dainglia, a menial ser- 
 vant, who had found the path to power 
 by promoting the gratification of his mas- 
 ter's ill-regulated desires. The assassination 
 of Gungadhur Shastree,J the representative 
 of the Guicowar chief, who had come to 
 Poona to settle a question of finance, under 
 the express protection of the English, justified 
 the resident {]\Iountstuart Elphinstone) in 
 demanding the removal from office of the 
 instigator of the crime. Bajee Rao, with 
 characteristic indecision, first surrendered 
 his favourite, and then unceasingly solicited 
 his deliverance from the imprisonment which 
 was the only punishment the English autho- 
 rities desired to inflict. Artifice eflected 
 the deliverance of the prisoner. The Mah- 
 ratta groom of one of the British officers 
 in the garrison of Tanna, in the island of 
 Salsette, while engaged in exercising his 
 master's horse, sang beneath the window 
 of Trimbukjee what appeared to be one of 
 the monotonous ballads of the country, but 
 which really communicated to the captive a 
 plan of escape, of which he took advantage 
 on the evening of the 12th of Septem- 
 ber, 1816. Having made an excuse for 
 
 ashes; throwing oil on the clothes and setting fire 
 to them ; besides many others equally horrible. 
 Their favourite weapon was the long Mahratta s])ear. 
 J Gungadhur was the name of the ambassador; 
 Shastree, a title denoting intimate acquaintancs 
 with tlie Shastras, a portion of the sacred writings 
 of the Hindoos. B.ijee Hao was himself supposed 
 to have sanctioned tlic murder, to revenge an affront 
 given by the Shastree in refusing to allow his wife 
 to visit the ]ia!ace of tlie jieishwa, then tlio scone of 
 licentiousness unparalleled during the sway of any of 
 his predecessors. — (]>uff's 3Iahrattas, iii., ST-l.)
 
 TREATY OF POONA, 181G— PATANS AND PINDAIUIIES. 
 
 4H 
 
 quitting IjIs rooms, he reached an embra- 
 sure, and lowered himself into the ditch hy 
 means of a rope, secured to a fjnii by one 
 of his aeeonipliccH. Tbis udvcntme ^I'tally 
 increased the reputation of Trinibuli jcc; with 
 his own countrymen, and he bof;an to as- 
 semble troops on the ]\Iahadco hills to the 
 north of the Nccra. The military ])repa- 
 rations of the pcishwa, and his secret cor- 
 respondence, and even interviews, with a 
 subject ajjainst whom lie affected to desire 
 the co-operation of Britisli troops, left little 
 doubt of his peiiidious intentions; and the 
 govcrnor-<;cncral considered himself justified 
 in adopting a very summary mode of di- 
 minishing the power which he expected to 
 sec employed in counteracting his plans for 
 j the destruction of the Piiularries. Bajec 
 ; Rao was treated as an avowed enemy, and 
 I required, as the only means of averting war, 
 to surrender Trimbukjec, to renounce the 
 right of supremacy over the Mahratta con- 
 federation, and to surrender certain terri- 
 tories in Malwa, Guzerat, and the Deccan, 
 for the purpose of supporting a force of 
 5,000 cavalry and 3,000 infantry, to be 
 maintained in lieu of the previous 15ritish 
 contingent. Other humiliating concessions 
 were exacted from Bajee Rao, by the treaty 
 of Poona ratified in June, 1816, which 
 in fact reduced him from the position of 
 an independent prince to that of a mere 
 vassal. The treaty of Basseiu had been 
 censured for the sacrifices it entailed on the 
 peishwa ; and " the extension of the sub- 
 sidiary system in 1805, had led the way to 
 the retirement of the most eulighteued 
 statesman who had ruled in India."* By 
 this time the weathercock of public opinion 
 had veered round, and the Court of Direc- 
 tors expressed themselves well satisfied with 
 the course of events, and convinced " of the 
 irrepressible tendency of our Indian power 
 to enlarge its bounds and to augment its 
 preponderance, in spite of the most peremp- 
 tory injunctions of forbearance from home, 
 and of the most scrupulous obedience to 
 them in the government abroad.''t 
 
 The sanction of the E. I. Cy. was hkewise 
 
 • Auber's British Power in India, ii., 528. 
 
 t Secret LeUer of Directory to Bengal, Jan., 1818. 
 
 j I'rinsep's MUitary Transactions, ii., 21. 
 
 § Among the malcontents assembled under Ameer 
 Khan was Dya Kam, a refractory talnokilar, or ze- 
 mindar of the Doab, who, in ISlfi, had been ex- 
 pelled by British, troops from his fort of Hatras. 
 
 II The peislnva had command over 2S,0(M) horse ; 
 13,800 foot ; 37 guns. Sindia— 1 1,2 JO horse ; 16,250 
 foot; 140 guns. Holcar— 20,000 horse ; 7,940 foot; 
 
 given to offensive operations to tiic extent 
 re(jnisite to drive the Pindarrics from their 
 haunts on the Norbudda and from Malwa. 
 Tiic views of the Martpiis of Hastings were 
 more comprehensive : he considered that the 
 peace of Central India demanded the total ex- 
 termination of these predatory bands; and to 
 that ciul " did not hesitate boldly to assume 
 the principle that, in the operations against 
 the Pindarrics, no power could be sullered 
 to remain neutral, but all should be recpnred 
 to join the league for their suppression. "J 
 
 At this period (181 7) the Pindarrics, under 
 their i-cspcetive leaders, were stated, by the 
 lowest computation, at 15,000 horse, 1,500 
 foot, with twenty guns. Other writers car- 
 ried the estimate as high as 30,000; but 
 authorities agreed, that when joined by 
 vohiuteers and adventiu'crs from other na- 
 tive armies, they often exceeded the latter 
 amount. The Patans, mider Araccr Khan, 
 were estimated at 12,000 horse, 20,000 foot, 
 and 200 guns. Supposing the contemplated 
 confederation between the four Mahratta 
 leaders (the peishwa, Sindia, Holcar, and 
 the Bhonslay), the Nizam, Ameer Khau,§ 
 and the Pindarrics, to have been carried 
 out, a force of above 130,000 horse, 87,000 
 foot, and nearly GOO guns might have been 
 brought into the field to dispute British 
 supremacy. || 
 
 Measures had been already taken to 
 diminish the danger of hostility on the part 
 of the peishwa, and the subsidiary alliance 
 lately formed with Berar was expected to 
 ensure neutrality in that quarter. The 
 plan of the campaign, therefore, was princi- 
 pally formed with relation to the indepen- 
 dent states of Sindia, Ilolcar, the Rajpoots, 
 the nabob of Bhopal, and the chiefs of 
 Bundelcund. Something after the fashion 
 of the old "circular hunts" was to be at- 
 tempted, by assembling armies round these 
 countries which should, by simultaneous 
 movements, close in so as to encompass the 
 Pindarrics and their abettors at all points, 
 provision being made for the defeat of the 
 project through the strength or cunning of 
 the enemy, as well as for the defence of the 
 
 107 guns. Bhonslav— 15,766 horse; 17,826 foot; 
 85 guns. Nizam— 25,000 horse ; 20,000 foot. The 
 Nizam himself was too weak and indolent, if not 
 incapable, to be suspected of any intention to in- 
 trigue against the English ; but his sons were tur- 
 bulent youths, whose vicious practices it had been 
 necessary to assist their father in restraining ; and it 
 was difficult to judge what might be the conduct of 
 the numerous armed population of Hyderabad, in 
 the event of reverses attending our arms.
 
 416 LORD HASTINGS MARCHES AGAINST THE PINDARRIES— 1817. 
 
 British territory. The forces destined to 
 carry out this extensive scheme comprised 
 above 91,000 regular troops, and 23,000 
 irregular horse,* divided and subdivided 
 in accordance with the plan of the cam- 
 paign. On the 20th October, 1817, the mar- 
 quis, in person, assumed command of the 
 grand army at Secuudra (near Kalpee), and 
 after crossing the Jumna by a bridge of 
 boats, proceeded to occupy a position south 
 of Gwalior, where Sindia had established his 
 permanent camp ;t while another division of 
 the Bengal troops took up its station at 
 Dholpoor. Undoubted evidence had been 
 obtained that Sindia had not onlj' pledged 
 himself to support the Pindarries, but had 
 even attempted a treacherous correspon- 
 dence with the Nepaulese. His intercepted 
 communications proved him to be only 
 wanting a favourable opportunity to take 
 the field, and thus give an example which 
 would assuredly liave been followed by the 
 open appearance in arms of Ameer Khan 
 and his Patans, who were at present inclined 
 to hold back from their Pindarry friends. 
 Sindia had inherited the ambition without 
 the judgment or decision of his predecessor. 
 He had not anticipated the skilful move- 
 ment by which he found himself menaced 
 by a formidable force in front and in the 
 rear. To bide the event of a siege in 
 Gwalior, or to repair to his distant domi- 
 nions and join the Pindarries, with the 
 chance of being intercepted and compelled 
 to risk the event of a general engagement, 
 were both humiliating and dangerous mea- 
 sures, which he thought best to avoid by 
 agreeing to the demands of the English. 
 These involved active concurrence against 
 the Pindarries, and the temporary sur- 
 render of the forts of Ilindia and Aseerghur, 
 as a pledge of fidelity. The treaty exacted 
 from Sindia was followed by the submission 
 of Ameer Khan, who agreed to disband his 
 army, if confirmed in possession of tlie terri- 
 tory of which he was in the actual tenure 
 under grants from Holcar. As this noto- 
 
 • The Deccan force, under Sir Thomas Hislop 
 (including a reserve corps, the Guzerat division, 
 and the troops left at Poona, Hyderabad, and Nag- 
 poor) numbered 57,000 regulars, of whom 5,-'Jo 
 were cavalry. The liengal force comprised 34,000 
 regulars, including 5,000 cavalry. — (Col. Rlacker.) 
 
 t Sindia seized Gwalior ujion the death of Am- 
 bajee Inglia, in 1808, and established his army in 
 the neighbourhood, where he remained until his own 
 demise in 1827. A city sjjrang up there which 
 soon rivalled Oojcin, if not in the costliness of its 
 structures, at least in the amount of population. 
 
 rious chief was a mere adventurer, whose de- 
 mands could only be conceded by legalising 
 the usurpations on which they were founded, 
 it may be doubted whether temporary expe- 
 diency, rather than justice, was not the 
 actuating motive in the arrangement entered 
 upon with him. Treaties with Zalim Sing 
 of Kotah, and other minor potentates, were 
 made in a spirit similar to those formed by 
 Lake under tlie auspices of Lord Wellesley; 
 and the nabob of Bhopal, especially, entered 
 cordially into the intended expedition against 
 the despotic freebooters from whose ravages 
 his small territories had sustained almost 
 irremediable damage. J 
 
 The Pindarry chiefs, meanwhile, aware of 
 the extensive preparations made against 
 them, employed themselves during the rains 
 in recruiting their respective durrahs or 
 camps. The want of cordiality between the 
 principal leaders — namely, Cheetoo, Kureem 
 Khan, and Wasil Mohammed — prevented 
 their forming any combined plan of resis- 
 tance. With the exception of some luhburs, 
 or plundering expeditions dispatched against 
 the unprotected territory of the British or 
 their allies, little attempt at opposition was 
 made ; and losing their usual activity, the 
 majority of the Pindarries retreated pas- 
 sively before the advancing foe, fixing their 
 last hope on the secret assurances of support 
 received from Poona. 
 
 The governor-general does not appear to 
 have anticipated any struggle on the part of 
 the peishwa to recover his lost authority. 
 Mr. Elphiustone, in his capacity of resident, 
 had seen ample reason to take precautions 
 against this highly probable event; but 
 Bajee Rao, in an interview with the politi- 
 cal agent. Sir John IMalcolm, had conducted 
 himself so plausibly, that Sir John, com- 
 pletely duped by professions of grateful 
 attachment for early support, mingled with 
 sad complaints of the harsh policy recently 
 adopted, forgot the character of the arch- 
 hypocrite with whom he had to deal, and 
 actually advised the peishwa to continue 
 
 X In 1797, two Pindarry leaders, named Heeroo 
 and Burrun, who were also brothers, offered the 
 services of themselves and tlieir 5,000 followers to 
 the state of Bhopal, as auxiliaries in the war then 
 carried on with Berar. Being rejected, they went 
 off and made a similar proposition to liagojee 
 Bhonslay, who received it favourably, and bade 
 tlicm lay waste Bhopal, then in a most flourishing con- 
 dition. The order was obeyed with cruel and lasting 
 effect. The cliiefs were plundered by their employer 
 the Berar rajah. Heeroo, the father of Wasil Mo- 
 hammed, died in prison ; Burrun at Aseerghur.
 
 J3ATTLE OF KIRKEE— BAJEE BAO DEFEATED— NOV. 5, 1817. 417 
 
 enlistiiifij recruits for the laudable pur[)ONe of 
 co-operating with his good friends the Eng- 
 lish. Thus encouraged, IJajee llao opeidy 
 levied troops from ail (juartoi's, and secretly 
 endeavoured to induce the IJritish sepoys 
 stationed at I'oona to desert their colours. 
 The native oflicers and regulars were, with- 
 out exception, proof against these solicita- 
 tions, which in many instances were made 
 known to their commanders. But the 
 iri'cgular battalions, under Major Ford, 
 contained a large proportion of Mahrattas, 
 and these were naturally more subject to 
 temptation. It is asserted that the peisliwa 
 desired, before proceeding further, to be rid 
 of the resident by assassination ; but that 
 Bappoo Gokla, the chief Mahratta leader, 
 positively refused to sufl'cr the perpetration 
 of so base a crime, the more especially since 
 he had received peculiar kindness from the 
 intended victim. Happily, Mr. Elphinstonc 
 was on his guard alike against national and 
 individual hostility, and waited anxiously 
 the first symptom of xmdisguised hostility, 
 in anticipation of which a regiment had 
 arrived from Bombay. Thinking the can- 
 tonment in Poona too exposed, the station 
 was changed to the village of Kirkce, four 
 miles distant ; a step which, being attributed 
 to fear, greatly encouraged the jMahrattas, 
 who began to plunder the old cantonments. 
 At length, on the 4th of Nov., 1817, Moro 
 Dikshut, the minister of the peishwa, ac- 
 tuated by personal attachment, warned 
 Major Ford to stand neuter in the coming 
 struggle, and thus save himself and his 
 family from the destruction which was 
 shortly to overwhelm the whole British de- 
 tachment. Up to this moment the major, 
 though in daily communication with the 
 city, had been so completely hoodwinked by 
 Bajee Rao, as to entertain no suspicion of 
 intended treachery. On the following day, 
 news of the approach of a light battalion 
 from Seroor, determined the irresolute 
 peishwa to defer the attack no longer. 
 Efforts were continued to the last to thi'ow 
 the British ofl' their guard ; and an emissary, 
 bearing some frivolous message from the 
 court, had scarcely quitted the residency, 
 before intelligence arrived that the ^laliratta 
 army was in movement. Mr. Elphinstone 
 and his suite had just time to mount and 
 retire by the ford of the Moola river, to join 
 their comrades at Kirkce, before the enemy 
 arrived and took possession of the residency, 
 which was speedily pillaged and burned. 
 The British brigade, leaving their canton- 
 
 ments, advanced to the plain between Kirkce 
 
 and the city, to meet the .Mahratta troops. 
 The peishwa, disconcerted by this daring 
 movement, sent word to (jokla not to fire the 
 first gmi. (Jokla, seeing the messenger, and 
 susptcting the nature of his errand, waited 
 not his arrival, but commenced the attack 
 by opening a battery of nine guns, detach- 
 ing a strong corps of rocket camels, and 
 pushing forward his cavalry to the right and 
 left. A spirited charge was made under his 
 direction by Moro Dikshut, with a select body 
 of (),()00 horse, bearing the Jitree Putka or 
 swallow-tailed golden ])cnnon of the empire. 
 They came down like a torrent on the 
 British front, but were steadily encountered 
 by the 7th battalion. Colonel Burr had 
 "formed ami led" this corps; and now, 
 though completely paralysed on one side, 
 he took his post by its colours, calm and 
 collected. One ball went through his hat, 
 another grazed the head of his horse, two 
 attendants were shot by his side; but the 
 infirm oflicer, unhurt and undismayed, con- 
 tinued to cheer and direct his men. The 
 advance of the assailants was happily im- 
 peded by a deep slough (the existence of 
 which was not ])reviously suspected by either 
 party), situated immediately in front of the 
 British line. The cavalry, while scrambling 
 out of the mire, were exposed to the re- 
 served fire of Burr's detachment; ISforo 
 Dikshut was killed, the force of the charge 
 broken, confusion spread through the Mah- 
 ratta ranks, and the advance of the English 
 proved the signal for a general retreat. The 
 battle of Kirkee must ever remain con- 
 spicuous among the hard-fought fields of 
 India, for the great disproportion of the 
 combatants. The Mahratta force comprised 
 18,000 cavalry and 8,000 foot: their loss 
 was 500 men in killed and wounded ;* beside 
 which, a considerable number of their valu- 
 able and highly-cherished horses were dis- 
 abled. The whole number of the British 
 troops engaged in this affair, including 
 jMajor Ford's battalion (part of which de- 
 serted), was 2,800 rank and file, of whom 
 800 were Europeans. Their loss was 186 
 killed and fifty-seven wounded. 
 
 During the engai;ement, the peishwa re- 
 mained on the Parbuttee hill, witli a guard 
 of 7,000 men. At the first outbreak of 
 hostilities, his orders were vindictive and 
 ferocious in the extreme ;t but he became 
 
 * Moro Dikshut was mortally wounded by a shot 
 from a gun attached to Captain Ford's battalion, 
 t Several Europeans were killed in cold-blood;
 
 418 BATTLE OF CORYGAUM— SURRENDER OF SATTARA— 1818. 
 
 alarmed by the unexpected turn of events, 
 and gave over all power into tlie hands of 
 Gokla, who was anxious to continue the 
 contest. " "We may have taken our shrouds 
 about our heads," he said, "but we are 
 determined to die with our swords in our 
 hands."* This was not, however, the gen- 
 eral feeling of the ]\Iahrattas. They had 
 httle cause for attachment to the grasping 
 and incapable Bajee Rao ; and he displayed 
 an utter want of confidence in their will or 
 ability to protect him, by taking the ap- 
 proach of a British reinforcement, under 
 General Smith, as the signal for a midnight 
 retreat towards Sattara. Poona, thus a 
 second time deserted by its sovereign, sur- 
 rendered on the following day; and the 
 necessary arrangements having been made 
 for its retention. General Smith started off 
 in pursuit of the peishwa, who, though a 
 fugitive, was still at the head of a formi- 
 dable army. He was further strengthened 
 by the open adhesion of Appa Sahib, the 
 rajah of Berar, between whom and the 
 British force, under Colonel Scott, a severe 
 conflict took place on the heights near Nag- 
 poor, on the night of the 26tli of November. 
 The rajah being defeated, made terms of 
 peace, for the fulfilment of which he was 
 himself to be the guarantee, as a sort of 
 prisoner in his own palace ; but Mr. (after- 
 wards Sir Richard) Jenkins, learning that 
 Appa Sahib was only waiting an opportu- 
 nity of escape, seized and sent him strongly 
 escorted towards Benares. The captive, 
 though treated heretofore without much 
 ceremony, was suffered to choose his own 
 escort; the result of which was, that the 
 British officer on guard, having been made 
 to believe that his charge was an invalid, 
 gave a hasty glance at the bed on which 
 Appa Sahib usually slept, and turned away 
 after this slack performance of his nightly 
 duty, without discovering that a pillow had 
 been made to take the place of a person 
 who was already many miles distant. 
 
 General Smith followed the peishwa 
 through the Ghauts, but failed in bringing 
 him to action. This much-desired object 
 was, however, unexpectedly accomplished 
 on the 1st of January, 1818, by a detach- 
 ment proceeding to support Colonel Burr in 
 resisting an expected attack on Poona. 
 Captain Staunton, with one battalion of 
 N. I. GOO strong, 350 irregular horse, and 
 
 and the families of the native troops who fell into the 
 hands of the Mahrattas were cruelly maltreated 
 • Duff's Mahratlas, iii., 429. 
 
 two 6-pounders, manned by twenty-four 
 Europeans, after a long night march, reached 
 the hills above Corygaum, a village over- 
 hanging the steep bauk of the Becma river, 
 and beheld with surprise the whole force of 
 the peishwa, estimated at 25,000 to 28,000 
 men, encamped on the opposite bank. Both 
 parties pushed on for the village, and suc- 
 ceeded in occupying diSereut portions ; but 
 the British gained possession of a small 
 choultry, or place of refreshment, which had 
 originally been a temple. Here the de- 
 tachment remained, under a burning sun, 
 cut off from the water from noon to nine 
 o'clock, disputing every foot of ground, and 
 repidsing repeated attacks with the bayonet. 
 The peishwa ascended an adjoining emi- 
 nence, and, with the rajah of Sattara by his 
 side, awaited what seemed a certain vic- 
 tory. Gokla and Trimbukjec (who had now 
 joined his master) directed the attacks; and 
 the Arab mercenaries, whose superior cou- 
 rage was acknowledged by superior pay, 
 at one time became masters of the choultry, 
 but it was soon recaptured. The struggle 
 seemed hopeless, but surrender was not 
 thought of. " See," said Captain Staun- 
 ton, pointing to the headless trunk of Lieu- 
 tenant Chisholm, lying beside a gun, " the 
 mercy of the Mahrattas ! " The troops, 
 though some were fainting and others nearly 
 frantic with thirst, declared that sooner 
 than fall into the hands of their foes, they 
 would die to a man : and the result seemed 
 probable. Happily, towards nightfall, a 
 supply of water was procured. The firing 
 gradually ceased ; and at daybreak, when 
 the brave band prepared to renew the con- 
 flict, the enemy was descried moving off on 
 the road to Poona, in consequence of the 
 rumoured advance of General Smith. Cap- 
 tain Staunton, who was unburt, retreated to 
 Seroor; and the government, in commemo- 
 ration of this gallant affair, raised the corps 
 engagedf to the much-coveted rank of grena- 
 diers, and added " Corygaum" to the name 
 of " Maugalore," previously borne by the 
 first regiment of Bombay native infantry. 
 
 Sattara was besieged by a combined force 
 under generals Smith and Pritzlcr, on the 
 9th of February, and capitulated on the fol- 
 lowing day. A manifesto was issued by 
 Mr. Elphinstone, on behalf of the British 
 government, taking formal possession of the 
 dominions of the peishwa, with the view of 
 
 + The battalion (2nd of 1st ISombay N. I.) lost 153 
 killed and wounded ; the artillerymen (2(5 in all), IS; 
 cavalry, 90 ; officers, 6 out of 8, including 2 surgeOns.
 
 BATTLE OP ASIITEIi— SUBMISSION OP PEISHWA-CIIOLKRA. 419 
 
 retaining all except a small tract to be re- 
 served for tlic nijah of Sattara, wlin, with 
 his family, was still in tin: haiids of Bujcc llao. 
 General Smith aj^ain started olf in [jiir- 
 suit, and came up with the Maliratta force 
 at Ashtee, to the north-westward of Shola- 
 poor. IJajee Rao, as usual, thoufjlit only of 
 making good his retreat, and left (jokla, with 
 a body of ci^lit or ten thousand horse, to 
 fight the En^'lish. (Jeneral Smith,* tliough 
 in other respects a good officer, is said to 
 have been ignorant of the art of manoeuvring 
 cavalry, and he was opposed by a leader of 
 unrivalled skill in that favourite branch of 
 Maliratta warfare. The English chief was 
 cut down, and some confusion ensued ; of 
 which before Gokla could take advantage, he 
 was liimself slain — falling, as he had pi'o- 
 mised, sword in hand. There was no one 
 capable of taking his place, and the Mali- 
 rattas fled in wild dismay, leaving elephants, 
 camels, and baggage of all descriptions, to 
 the victors. t The rajah of Sattara, with 
 his mother and two brothers, voluntarily 
 threw themselves on Jiritish protection ; and 
 being placed under the care of Mr. Elphiu- 
 stone, and assured of the favourable inten- 
 tions of the British government, the rajah 
 assumed the state of a sovereign. The 
 wound of General Smith did not prove 
 dangerous, and he was soon enabled to re- 
 sume the pursuit of Bajee Rao, which the 
 excessive heat of the weather rendered an 
 extremely arduous and depressing task. 
 The men fell beneath sun-strokes more 
 surely and speedily than in the recent 
 engagements, and the hospitals became 
 crowded. The fugitive peishwa had long 
 been desirous to make terms of peace ; and 
 at length, when his intended passage across 
 the Nerbudda was intercepted by Sir John 
 Malcolm, he made proposals which that 
 officer considered as affording satisfactory 
 ground for an arrangement. The terras 
 finally agreed to were the complete renun- 
 ciation of every political right or claim by 
 Bajee Rao, in return for an allowance of 
 not less than eight lacs of rupees a-year. 
 Beithoor, a place of sanctity near Cawnpore, 
 was appointed for his future residence. 
 Trimbukjee was soon after captured in his 
 lurking-place by a party of irregular horse 
 under Lieutenant Swanston (one of the vic- 
 
 • Afterwards Sir Lionel Smith, govr. of Jamaica. 
 
 t The British loss amounted to only nineteen 
 killed and wounded; that of the encmv, to 200. 
 
 I 'Trniisactwits in India, 1813 to 18^3, i., 107—111. 
 Mr. Prinsep was present at head-quarters, and lost 
 seven servants and a moonslicc in four days. During 
 
 tors at Corygaum), and sent prisoner to 
 
 the fort of Cliunar, in Bengal. 
 
 'i'o revert to the 0])crations simulta- 
 neously carried on against the Pindarrics, 
 Soon after the signing of the treaty of alli- 
 ance with Sindia, on the oth of Nov., 1817, 
 the army uiid(!r Lord Hastings was over- 
 taken by a violent pestilence, since known 
 as cholera,]: which traversed the whole of 
 India, from Nepaul to Cape Comorin. The 
 year was one of scarcity, the grain of in- 
 ferior quality, and the situation of the 
 British cantonments low and unhealtliy. 
 Por ten days the whole camp was an hosjiital ; 
 and the deaths in that short [leriod amounted 
 to a tenth of the total number collected. 
 Towards the end of the month the troops 
 removed to a healthy station at Erich, on 
 the Betwa, and the epidemic had evidently 
 expended its virulence. Notwithstanding 
 this calamity, the object of Lord Hastings 
 in advancing to Gwalior, was fully answered 
 by the prevention of any co-operation 
 between Sindia and the Pindarrics. The 
 latter, after being expelled from their haunts 
 in Malwa, were compelled to retreat in 
 various directions, and annihilated or dis- 
 persed, with the exception of those under 
 Chectoo, who being pursued by Sir John Mal- 
 colm, took refuge in the camp of Holcar, near 
 Mahidpoor. The government of the Holcar 
 principality at this time rested in the hands 
 of Toolsae Bye, the favourite mistress of the 
 late Jeswunt Rao, who had exercised the 
 chief authority during his insanity. After 
 his death, she placed on the musnud his 
 infant son jNIulhar Rao, and proceeded to 
 give vent to all the cruel caprices which could 
 suggest themselves to the imagination of a 
 woman of thirty years of age, handsome 
 and of fascinating manners, but of an im- 
 perious and merciless temper and most li- 
 centious morals. Her last favourite, who 
 assumed ex officio the reins of govern- 
 ment, was the Dcwan, Gunput Rao. He 
 wavered between fear of the I'higlish and a 
 desire to take part with the peishwa, then 
 in arms. The commanders of battalions, 
 especially the Patans, were adverse to en- 
 tering upon any treaty by which their con- 
 sequence was likely to be lowered ; and 
 fearing that the force under Malcolm, to 
 which the division under Sir Thomas Hislop 
 one week, 761 soldiers and 8,000 camp followers 
 perished. Total deaths of Europeans in camp in 
 Nov. — 148. The epidemic, called hy the natives the 
 "black death," visited Calcutta in September, 1817, 
 and for a lonj; time destroyed above 200 per diem 
 in that city. — (Prinsep : Wilson, ix., 253.)
 
 420 MAHIDPOOR—ASEERGHUR— SUPPRESSION OF PINDARRIES— 1818, 
 
 had since been added, would overawe their 
 vacillating rulers into submission, they 
 threw Gunput Rao iuto prison, enticed away 
 the child, Mulhar Rao, from the tent before 
 which he was playing, and carried off Toolsae 
 Bye, by night, to the banks of the Seepra, 
 where, despite her cries, she was decapitated, 
 and the body thrown into the river.* 
 
 On the following day (21st of December, 
 1817), a pitched battle took place, in which 
 the British were completely successful, 
 though at the cost of nearly 800 in killed 
 and wounded. The euemy lost 3,000 men, 
 chiefly in the flight to Mundissoor. The 
 mother of the child Mulhar Rao, though a 
 woman of inferior rank, being now the ac- 
 knowledged regent of the Mahratta state, 
 made full submission to the English; and 
 in return for the cession of all claims in 
 Rajast'hau and south of the Sautpoora 
 range, was confirmed in the actual posses- 
 sion of the remaining territories of the prin- 
 cipality, at the court of which a British 
 resident was to be established. Many of 
 the old leaders repudiated this engagement, 
 and set ofl" to join Bajee Rao — an attempt in 
 wliich some succeeded, but others were 
 intercepted, and cut oft' or dispersed. t The 
 ministers, under the new order of things, 
 " did not deplore an event which disembar- 
 rassed a bankrupt state of a mutinous sol- 
 diery, and cancelled a number of old and 
 troublesome claims." 
 
 The struggles of the Pindarries were 
 nearly ended ; Kureem Khan, and other 
 chiefs, surrendered on the promise of pardon 
 and a livelihood, and received small grants 
 of land. Wasil Mohammed poisoned him- 
 self. Cheetoo for some time contrived to 
 elude pursuit, but was surprised in Dec, 
 1817, with the main body of his followers, 
 and dispersed by a detachment from the 
 garrison at Hiudia. The Bheels (aboriginal 
 peasantry) and the Grassias (native land- 
 owners), remembering the outrages they 
 
 • The career of Toolsae Bye resembles that of the 
 heroine of a romance. She passed as the niece, but 
 was generally supposed to be the daughter, of Ad- 
 jeeba, an amhitious priest, who, though a professed 
 mendicant, rose to rank and influence. He spared no 
 pains in the education of Toolsae ; and she, Malcolm 
 not very gallantly remarks, was "tutored in more 
 than the common arts of her se.x." Jeswunt Hao 
 became enamoured witli the fair iniriijante at first 
 sight. She was married, but that mattered Utile. 
 In a few days the lady was in the palace of Ilolcar, 
 her husband in prison, from whence he was re- 
 leased and sent home to the Deccan with some 
 jiresents. Toolsae Bye had an artful waiting-maid, 
 double her own age, who, after having attained high 
 
 had long passively sustained, now spared not 
 a Pindarry who fell into their hands ; but 
 Cheetoo, with about 200 followers, still re- 
 mained at large. J Though driven from place 
 to place, the daring freebooter bore up against 
 misfortune with a spirit worthy a better 
 cause; till he suddenly disappeared — none, 
 not even his son and few remaining follow- 
 ers, knew how or where; for they had 
 parted from him to hunt the forest for food. 
 After some days, his horse was discovered 
 grazing near the jungles of Aseerghur 
 (where Appa Sahib had sought refuge), sad- 
 dled and bridled : at a little distance lay a 
 heap of torn and blood-stained garments, 
 and a human head, the remains of a tiger's 
 feast. It was a fitting death for the last of 
 the Pindarries — the last that is deserving 
 the name ; for these bold marauders, de- 
 prived of their leaders, without a home or a 
 rendezvous, never again became formidable. 
 After the termination of the war with the 
 peishwa, they gradually merged into the 
 ordinary population, following the example 
 of their leaders. Many of them settled in 
 the Deccan and Malwa, as cultivators ; and 
 some, employing their energies to a right 
 use, became distinguished as active, im- 
 proving farmers. The remaining Patan 
 troops were conciliated or dispersed without 
 further bloodshed. 
 
 The flight of Appa Sahib caused much 
 anxiety, which terminated with the fall of the 
 fortress of Aseerghur (April, 1819), whence 
 the ex-rajah escaped disguised as a fakeer, 
 and soon sank into a state of insignificance, 
 from which he never emerged. An infant 
 grandson of Ragojee Bhonslay was chosen to 
 bear that name and fill the vacant gadi, or 
 throne of Berar, with the title of rajah, 
 under the nominal regency of his grand- 
 mothci', the British resident being vested 
 with the actual control of affairs during the 
 minority. The remaining operations of the 
 war were chiefly directed to the expulsion 
 
 station and amassed large sums by extortion (thereby 
 exciting the envy of the minister on whom the fleet- 
 ing affections of her mistress for the moment rested), 
 was dung into prison, cruelly tortured, and driven to 
 end her agonies by taking poison. — (Malcolm.) 
 
 t An excellent account of the Mahratta and Pin- 
 darry campaigns of 1817-'18-'li», has been given by an 
 oilicer engaged therein — Lieutenant-colonel Blacker. 
 
 I Conditions of surrender were discussed on behalf 
 of Cheetoo, but his terms were extravagant : moreover, 
 he feared treachery and transi)ortation ; and even 
 when dreaming, used to lalk with horror of the 
 sea, the hateful Cctla paid, or black water. After his 
 tragical end, a few fields were allotted for the sub- 
 sistence of his son, a youth of weak intellect.
 
 FIRM OF PALMER AND CO.— RESIGNATION OF HASTINGS. 421 
 
 of various Anib garrisons from Candeisli, a 
 province wliicli, tliouj^li [)rofcasc(l!y under 
 tlicsway of tlic I'oona f;ovcrnnu;ut, liad been 
 gradually usurped by Arab colonists. Malli- 
 gauni, the strouffcst fort in the Candcish 
 valley, was p;aincd after au obstinate siege 
 in June, 1819, at a cost to the successful 
 besiegers of 200 killed and wounded.* 
 
 The E. 1. Cy. evinced their sense of the 
 conduct of the governor-general during the 
 late " glorious and successful wars," by 
 granting him the sum of .£00,000 from the 
 territorial revenues of India, for the purchase 
 of an estate in the United Kingdom. Few 
 remaining events in tlic administration of 
 Lord Hastings need here be mentioned. 
 Its commencement was marked by the 
 renewal of the company's charter for twenty 
 years; by the opening of trade with India to 
 the nation at large ; ami by the formation of 
 an ecclesiastical establishment for British 
 India. t The occupation of Singapore, in 
 1817, was effected througli the efforts of 
 Sir Stamford Raflles, to whose zeal and dis- 
 cernment may be attributed the possession 
 of the British portion of the Indian Archi- 
 pelago. Protracted negotiations were carried 
 on with Holland by ]\Ir. Canning, then 
 President of the Board of Control, which 
 terminated in the Netherlands' treaty of 
 1821, by which the Dutch settlements ou 
 the continent of India, with Malacca, and 
 the undisputed right to Singapore, were 
 ceded to England in exchange for Sumatra, 
 which was needlessly surrendered. 
 
 The financial dealings with Oude have 
 been noticed. The pecuniary loans of the 
 nabob aided in enabling him to assume the 
 title of vizier without the sanction of the 
 emperor; and, in 181',), the style of vizier 
 was changed for that of king — an indis- 
 creet admission on the part of the E. I. Cy. 
 Tlie chief blot upon the character of Lord 
 Hastings' administration, was caused by 
 the countenance lent by him to the ne- 
 farious transactions of certain persons wlio, 
 
 * In the course of Uio Mahratta war, considerable 
 service was rendered by Sir Thomas Munro, who, 
 with a few hundred men, was deputed to take pos- 
 session of the country ceded by the treaty of Poona, 
 which was effected witli some fi^'htinj, but cliielly 
 by conciliation. Sir David Ochterhinybkewise played 
 a conspicuous part in the I'indarry war. His death, 
 in 1825, occurred under painful circumstances. He 
 was twice appointed resident at Delhi, and removed 
 each time against his inclination : on the last oc- 
 casion, vexation of spirit increased the morbid melan- 
 choly which hastened the close of his eventful career ; 
 and his last words, as he turned to the wall, were — 
 " I die disgraced." — (Kay's Life of Metcalfe, ii., 132.) 
 3 I 
 
 under pretence of mercantile dealings, 
 obtained the sanction of government to tlic 
 most shameless and usurious practices, car- 
 ried on at the expense of the weak and in- 
 competent Nizam. It was in fact a new 
 version of the "Carnatic debt," conducted in 
 the name of ^Icssrs. Palmer and Co., one of 
 the confederates or jiartners being Sir 
 Thomas Rtimbohl, who stood almost in 
 the po.-iition of son-in-law to the governor- 
 general, having married a niece whom his 
 lordship had brought up from infancy, and 
 for whom he avowedly cherished the feelings 
 of a father. Strong domestic attachment 
 and excessive vanity conspired to induce 
 Lord Hastings to defend a course into 
 which he had been misled by the artifice of 
 covetous men ; and when his late secretary, 
 Charles Metcalfe, on entering upon the 
 duties of British resident at Hyderabad, set 
 forth in very guarded and moderate lan- 
 guage, the necessity of introducing a better 
 order of things, the marquis manifested 
 great annoyance, and subsequently addressed 
 a most intemperate letter to the directory, 
 in return for their very just animadversions 
 on the nature of a firm which, without 
 oflice or establishment, carried on "dealings 
 to the extent of nearly .t700,000, occurring 
 under an imperceptible progress. "f Pay- 
 ments for real or imaginary loans, at sixteen 
 to eighteen per cent., were made by the 
 Hyderabad government, by cash and by 
 assignments of revenue; notwithstanding 
 which, .£000,000 were claimed by Messrs. 
 William Palmer and Co., as the balance of 
 accounts with the Nizam in 1820. 
 
 Buring the course of his prolonged ad- 
 luiuistration, the Marquis of Hastings, 
 involved in numerous and intricate military 
 operations, found little opportunity to study 
 with success questions connected with the 
 civil administration of the empire, and the 
 complicated and anxious question of reve- 
 nue. § His lordship resigned his office 
 into the hands of the senior member of 
 
 t The first Bishop of Calcutta (Middleton) came 
 out in 1814. He died in 1822, and was succeeded 
 by Reginald Hcber, who was cut off by apople.KV in 
 182G. Bisliop J.ames died in 182S. Turner in 1830. 
 
 I Auber, ii., 5J8 to uG6. Thornton, iv., 583. 
 
 § Sir Tliomas Muni-o was sent to Madras in 1814, 
 at the head of a commission formed for the purpose 
 of revising the judicial system. He exerted himself 
 very efficiently in the decision of arrears of causes 
 which had been auH'ered to accumulate to a shameful 
 extent. In 1821, he became governor of Madras, 
 and carrii d out a settlement with a portion of the 
 individual cultivators, called the ryotwar assessment, 
 by wliicli each small holder was not simply put in
 
 423 
 
 ADMINISTRATION OF LORD AMHERST— 1823. 
 
 council, Mr. Adam, and quitted India in 
 January, 1823.* Though nearly seventy 
 years of age, pecuniary embarrassments pi-e- 
 vented him from spending his remaining 
 days in his own country ; and he was ap- 
 pointed governor of Malta, where he died, 
 in consequence of a fall from his horse, in 
 1826.t 
 
 For six months the supreme atithority 
 rested in the hands of Mr. John Adam, an 
 honest and able man, but somewhat pre- 
 judiced. He had uniformly dissented from 
 the conduct adopted by the late governor- 
 general with regard to the house of Palmer 
 and Co. ; and he was ready and willing to 
 carry out the orders of the court for 
 making the large advance to the Nizam 
 necessary to free him from the hands of his 
 rapacious creditors, who were forbidden to 
 have any further dealings with the court of 
 Hyderabad. The circumstances of the case 
 are involved in mystery ; but it is certain 
 that the failure of the concern created a 
 great commotion in Calcutta, many persons 
 being secretly interested in these transac- 
 tions whose names were never made public. 
 The proprietors of East India stock called 
 for documents calculated to throw light on 
 the whole affair; and, after much tedious 
 discussion during the next twenty years, 
 political influence procured a decision more 
 favourable to the claims of the European 
 money-lenders, against various native debtors 
 iu Oude, than was consistent with the honour 
 of the British government. 
 
 This provisional administration was marked 
 by the deportation of Mr. Silk Buckingham, 
 the editor of the Calcutta Journal, for a 
 breach of the regulation forbidding editorial 
 comments on public measures. The suc- 
 cessful eflbrts of ]VIr. Adam for the reduc- 
 tion of expenditure, especially of the interest 
 of the Indian debt, were highly meritorious, 
 
 the position of a mere yearly tenant, but was com- 
 pelled to pay a fluctuatinf; amount assessed annually 
 at the pleasure of the collector for the time being, 
 whose chief object was naturally the realisation of 
 an immediate amount of revenue, without regard to 
 the permanent welfare— indissolubly united— of the 
 governors and the governed. This system, much 
 praised at the time, reduced the Madras ryots to a 
 state of extreme depression. Munro died of cholera 
 near Gooty, in 1827.— ( Vide Life, by Gleig.) 
 
 * The revenues of India rose from £17,228,000, 
 in 18iy-'14, to £23,120,000 in 1822-3; but a con- 
 siderable share of this increase is attributable to the 
 accession of territory made under the Wellesley ad- 
 ministration. The more than proportionate aug- 
 mentation of military expense is no less clearly as- 
 cribable to the unjustifiable measures of Lord Corn- 
 wallis and Sir G. Barlow, and especially to the 
 
 as were also his unavailing attempts for 
 the extension of native education. 
 
 Amherst Administration: 1823 to 1827. 
 — The place of Lord Hastings was at first 
 destined to be filled by Mr. Canning; but 
 the changes in the cabinet, consequent upon, 
 the death of the ]\Iarquis of Londonderry, 
 opened more congenial employment to the 
 newly-appointed governor-general, and he 
 remained at home in charge of the foreign 
 office. Lord Amherst was selected for the 
 control of Indian aiFairs, and arrived in 
 Calcutta in August, 1823. The first object 
 pressed on his attention was the open hos- 
 tility in which a long series of disputes with 
 the Burman empire abruptly terminated. 
 The power of the Burmese was of com- 
 paratively recent growth. The people of 
 Ava, after being themselves subject to the 
 neighbouring country of Pegu, revolted 
 under a leader of their own nation, in 1753. 
 Rangoon, the capital of Pegu, surrendered 
 to the Ava chief, who assumed the title of 
 Alompra,J and the style of a sovereign; and 
 during the succeeding eight years, laid the 
 basis of an extensive state, which was sub- 
 sequently enlarged by acquisitions on the 
 Tenasserim coast taken from Siam, and by 
 the annexation of the previously indepen- 
 dent states of Arracan, of Munnipoor, and 
 of Assam. Proceedings connected with the 
 conquest of Arracan, brought the Burmese 
 in contact with the British government; 
 for, at the close of the eighteenth century, 
 many thousand persons of the tribe called 
 Mughs, sought refuge from the insufferable 
 persecution of their oppressors in the 
 British province of Arracan. The numbers 
 of the immigrants excited apprehension, 
 and attempts were made to prevent any 
 more of them from crossing the boundary 
 line formed by the Naaf river. But this 
 was impracticable by means consistent with 
 
 sufferance long extended to the ferocious I'indar- 
 ries and the encroaching Mahrattas. For five years 
 (1817 to 1822), the average annual military expendi- 
 ture was £9,770,000. In 1822-3, the expenses still 
 reached £8,495,000. The Indian debt increased 
 from £27,002,000, in 1813-'14, to £29,382,000 in 
 1822-3; showing an augmentation of £2,380,000. 
 An alile and comprehensive summary of the Hast- 
 ings administration is given l)y Josiah Conder, whose 
 history terminates at this point. 
 
 t Lord Hastings married Flora Campbell, Countess 
 of Linulon, who lived with him in India in the full 
 blaze of vice-regal splendour. In 1827, the sum of 
 £20,000 was granted to the young marquis. 
 
 I Alompra (correctly, Aliiiiiii/-lj'liiini), a term ap- 
 plied by the Duddhists of Ava to an individual 
 destined to become a Budd'ha, and attain the supreme 
 felicity of absorption into the divine essence.
 
 IMMIGRATION OF MUGHS— FIRST BURMESE WAR— 1823. 423 
 
 ordinary huiiKuiity. la J7!)S, not fewer 
 tliiiu 1(),()00 ]\liif;lis nislicd to tlic iVontier 
 iu iui almost frenzied state, and were fol- 
 lowed l)y another Ixjdy still more muneroiis, 
 Icavin;;- the cai>ital of Arracan nearly dc- 
 l)0|)nlatcd. Tliey had fled throngii Avilds 
 and deserts without any preconcerted plan, 
 leavinp; behind thenj abundant traces of 
 their melancholy progress in the dead bodies 
 of both old and young, and of mothers with 
 infants at the breast. The leader of one 
 party, when told to withdraw, replied that 
 he and his companions would never return 
 to Arracan : they were ready to die by the 
 hands of the English, or, if forcibly driven 
 off, would seek refuge in the jungles of the 
 great mountains, the abodes of wild beasts. 
 The wretched multitudes attempted no 
 violence, but sustained life as best they 
 could on "reptiles and leaves," numbers 
 daily perishing, until the British govern- 
 ment, taking pity upon their misery, pro- 
 vided the means of sustenance, and materials 
 for the construction of huts to shelter them 
 from the a])proaehing rains. Extensive 
 tracts of waste lauds, in the province of 
 Chittagong, were assigned to the refugees, 
 whom, perhaps, it would have bceu advisa- 
 ble to have settled in a more central posi- 
 tion, since a colony of 40,000 persons, 
 established under such circumstances, would, 
 as they grew stronger, be very likely to 
 provoke hostilities with the already incensed 
 and barbarous sovereign of Ava. 
 
 The surrender of the Mughs was repeat- 
 edly demanded by this potentate, but the 
 Marquis Wcllesley returned a decided re- 
 fusal ; qualified, however, by an ofl'er to 
 give up any proved and notorious criminals, 
 and by a promise to prohibit any renewed im- 
 migratiou of Burmese subjects. Some com- 
 munications took place of little importance ; 
 and the discussion might have passed oft' 
 without producing further hostility, but for 
 the restless spirit of the ]Mughs, and their 
 natural longing to regain possession of their 
 ancient rights and former homes. A chief, 
 named Khyeu-brau (miscalled Kingbcrring), 
 arose among them inspired with an insatiable 
 desire of vengeance against the Burmese, 
 
 * The names of the kings of Ava, like those of 
 the zaninrins of Calicut, were kept secret until 
 their deatlis. The stylo of the Ava court, was to 
 speak of " the golden presence," to address " the 
 golden ear," or lay petitions before " the golden 
 foot;" and on state occasions, tlie royal iiead was 
 litcraliy "p|»Tssed with the wcifjht of a golden pyra- 
 mid, and the body clothed in wronj^ht gold. — 
 (Trant's Two YearsinAiaj'Z'O; Havelock's.-irii, 245.) 
 
 which he manifested byannnal irruptions into 
 Arracan. The Calcutta govern tncnt strove 
 to cheek these aggressions, and Jjord Hast- 
 ings gave leave to the J$urrncse to pursue 
 the dejiredators to their haunts in Chitta- 
 gong ; but this concession did not appease 
 the King of Ava, who attempted to form a 
 confederacy with Uunjeet Sing and other 
 Indian princes, for the ex[iulsion of the Eng- 
 lish from India. After the death of Kliyen- 
 bran, in 1815, the tjorder warfare greatly 
 diminished, and the British authorities, con- 
 sidering the chief cause of contention re- 
 moved, maintained a very conciliatory tone, 
 which being interpreted by the nameless* 
 majesty of Ava as significant of weakness, 
 only rendered his representatives more inso- 
 lent and overbearing. Still no actual rup- 
 ture took jjlace until September, 1H2.3, when 
 a thousand Burmese lauded by night on the 
 small island of Shahpoori, at the entrance 
 of the Tek Naaf, or arm of the sea dividing 
 Cliittagong from Arracan. The islet was 
 little more than a sandbank, affording pas- 
 turage for a few cattle. The guard con- 
 sisted only of thirteen men, three of whom 
 were killed, four wounded, and the rest 
 driven off the island. 
 
 An explanation of this conduct was de- 
 manded, and given in the form of a vaunt- 
 ing declaration, that Shahpoori rightfully 
 belonged to the " fortunate king of the 
 white elephants, lord of the seas and earth," 
 and that the non-admission of the claim of 
 "the golden foot" would be followed by 
 the invasion of the British territories. The 
 threat was carried into execution, and a 
 Burmese force actually took post within five 
 miles of the town of Sylhet, only 22(3 miles 
 from Calcutta. The governor-general en- 
 tered upon the war with unfeigned reluc- 
 tance, and its commencement was mate- 
 rially iitipcded by ignorance of the country, 
 its routes, and passes. The advance from 
 Bengal was at one time intended to have 
 Ijeen made through Arracan, but this plan 
 was set aside from regard to the health of 
 the troops; and the main part of the force 
 designed for the campaign, comprising about 
 11,000 mcn,t of whom one-half were Euro- 
 
 t This included the combined strength of Madras 
 and Bengal ; but the excessive repugnance mani- 
 fested by the native troops in the service of the 
 latter presidency to forsake their families and forfeit 
 caste by embarking on bo.ard ship, rendered it im- 
 possible to employ any considerable portion of them. 
 It appears, moreover, that great neglect existed oa 
 the part of those entrusted with the charge of the 
 commissariat, as in the case of the refusal to march
 
 424 ENGLISH INVADE AVA BY THE IRAWADDY RIVER— 1824. 
 
 peans, assembled in IMay, 182i, at Port 
 Cornwallis, iu the Great Andamaus. Major- 
 gcueral Sir Archibald Campbell took com- 
 mand of the land, and Commodore Grant 
 of the marine portion of the expedition, 
 but the latter commander was speedily com- 
 pelled, by ill-health, to give place to Captain 
 Marry at. The forces safely reached Ran- 
 goon, the chief port of Ava, which was eva- 
 cuated after a very feeble attempt at resist- 
 ance.* On the 10th of June, a successful 
 attempt was made on the fortified camp and 
 stockades at Kemeadiue, on the Irawaddy 
 river. The outwork was taken by storm ; 
 the first man to gain the summit being 
 Major (afterwards Sir Robert) Sale. These 
 conquests were followed by a disastrous ex- 
 pedition, which involved not only loss of 
 life, but of character. A Burmese detach- 
 ment had formed stockades, under cover of 
 a fortified pagoda, at Kykloo, fourteen miles 
 from Rangoon, and a body of Madras infan- 
 try was dispatched to drive them off, under 
 Lieutenant-colonel Smith. The Burmese 
 suffered the English to approach within 
 sixty yards of the pagoda, and then opened 
 their reserved fire with deadly cflect. The 
 sepoys may well be excused for quailing 
 before the foe when British officers fairly 
 lost all self-control, and lay down to screen 
 themselves from danger. Colonel Smith 
 ordered a retreat, which soon became a 
 flight, and many lives would doubtless have 
 been sacrificed had not the approach of re- 
 inforcements arrested the progress of both 
 pursuers and pursued. A strong force was 
 sent by Sir A. Campbell to drive the Bur- 
 mese from Kykloo, but they had previously 
 absconded. This affair, which occurred iu 
 October, 1821', was not calculated to cheer 
 the army, or encourage them in a position 
 daily becoming less endurable. No con- 
 sideration of pity for the unfortunate people 
 
 against the Burmese, made by the 47th regiment 
 (about 1,400 in numbei'), at Barrackpoor, in 1825. 
 The men entreated to be dismissed and suffered to 
 return to their homes, but without effect. The regi- 
 ment was paraded, and the refusal of the men to 
 march or ground their arms (which they lield un- 
 loaded, thougli furnished with forty rounds of am- 
 munition), was punished by a murderous discharge 
 of artillery, whidi killed numbers of them. Aliout 
 200 were taken prisoners, of wliom twelve were 
 hanged, and the remainder condemned to labour in 
 irons. The court of inquiry appointed to report on 
 the whole affair, declared the conduct of the unhappy 
 soldiers "to have been an ebullition of despair at 
 being compelled to march without the means of 
 doing 60." — (Thornton's India, iv., ll'i.) IIo^v mili- 
 tary men can reconcile their consciences to such 
 proceedings as these, is perfectly incomprehensible. 
 
 of Rangoon had prevented the complete de- 
 vastation of the country by its sovereign, 
 and the invaders were consequently dis- 
 appointed in their hopes of obtaining sup-' 
 plies of fresh meat and vegetables, and 
 compelled to feed on putrid meat and bad 
 biscuit. The influence of dense jungle and 
 pestilential swamp, aggravated by intense 
 heat and deluges of rain, spread fever and 
 dysentery through the camp : scurvy and 
 hospital gangrene followed in their train; and 
 by the end of the monsoon scarcely 3,000 
 men were fit for active dut)'. The King of 
 Ava relied on the proverbial unhealthiness of 
 Rangoon to aid the efforts of his ill-disci- 
 plined troops, and facilitate the performance 
 of his command to drive the invaders into 
 the sea, or bring them to the capital to suffer 
 torture and ignominy. Notwithstanding 
 this vaunting language, his majesty of the 
 golden foot became extremely uneasy on 
 witnessing the pertinacity of the English, 
 and despite much affected rejoicing at their 
 having fallen into a trap by taking up a 
 position at Rangoon, he compared himself, 
 in an unguarded moment, to a man who, 
 having got a tiger by the tail, knew not 
 whether to hold on or let go.f He is said 
 to have been encouraged in " holding on," 
 by an odd tradition (if any such did really 
 exist) that the capital would remain invin- 
 cible until a magical vessel should advance 
 against it without oars or sails !J 
 
 The Diana steamer, which accompanied 
 the flotilla on the Irawaddy, though pos- 
 sessed of no magic power, did great service 
 in capturing and destroying the war-boats 
 and fire-rafts sent out by the Burmese. 
 The arrival of reinforcements and supplies 
 from Bengal restored the number of troops 
 at Rangoon to about their original amount, 
 and infused new life into the survivors, 
 and spirit to resist the repeated but ill- 
 
 • Crawfurd's Embassy to Ava in 1827: App., p. 65. 
 
 t The Shwe-da-gon, a Buddhist temple of great 
 size and remarkable sanctity, being deserted by ils 
 priestly guardians, was >.ised by Sir A. Campbell 
 as a military outwork. The building was of solid 
 brickwork, elaborately decorated, and coated with 
 gilding, whence its name — the Golden Pagoda. The 
 portion deemed peculiarly sacred, was a solid cone 300 
 feet high, which was supposed to enshrine, or rather 
 entomb, relies of the four last Budd'has — the staff of 
 Krakuchunda, the watcr-jjot of Gunnguna ; the bath- 
 ing-robe of Kasyapa, ami eight hairs IVom the head of 
 Gautama, or Sakyasinha. — (\\'ilson's Mill, ix., 50. 
 Also Hough, Symes, Snodgrass,'lVant, and Ilaveloek.) 
 
 J Auber gives the tradition upon the authoriiy of 
 Col. llopkiiisnn, who CDUimandcd tlie Madras artil- 
 lery in the Burmese war. — (ii., 57!l.) Tranl alsr 
 mentions it. — {Two Years in Ava, 211.)
 
 TRIUMPHANT TERMINATION OF BURMESE WAR— 1826. 
 
 425 
 
 directed attempts of the various forces dis- 
 patched ai,'aiust them from Ava. 
 
 The ])r()viiicfis of Assam and Cachar were 
 captured by troops sent from Jliiidoostaii, 
 witli tlie aid of native auxiliaries. In Jan- 
 uary, 1825, 11,000 men were assembled in 
 Chittagong, and dispatched, under General 
 Morrison, to Arraean, witli instructions to 
 reduce that province, and tlien join Sir 
 Areliibahl Cani[)bcllon tlie Irawaddy. Tiic 
 first object of the mission was fulfilled ; but 
 if;noraucc of the Aeng Pass rendered tlie 
 Youmadoung mountains an impracticable 
 barrier, and prevented the performance of 
 the latter order. By tlic close of the rainy 
 season one-fourth of the men were dead, 
 and more than half the survivors in hos- 
 pital, from the uulicaltliiness of the climate. 
 The remainder were therefore recalled, with 
 tlie exception of a few divisions left on coast 
 stations. Happily the war had been more 
 successfully prosecuted in Ava. The whole of 
 Tenasserim was conquered by detachments 
 from Rangoon* before the close of 1821'; 
 and in the following February, General 
 Campbell prepared to advance, by land and 
 water, against Prome, the second city of 
 Ava. On the 2r)th of ]\Iarch, the troops 
 came in sight of Donabew, a fortified place, 
 where the flower of the Burmese army lay 
 encamped. Our flotilla was attacked with- 
 out success. Bandoola, the ablest and most 
 popular of the Burmese commanders, was 
 killed by a shell ; upon which Donabew was 
 abandoned by the enemy and immediately 
 occupied by order of General Campbell, 
 who advanced against Prome, which was 
 evacuated on his approach. The King of 
 Ava had not yet lost hope : levies were 
 raised in every part of the kingdom; and in 
 November, a heterogeueons force marched 
 under the command of the prime minister 
 for the recovery of Prome. An engagement 
 took place on the 1st of December, which 
 terminated in the death of the Burmese 
 leader and the dispersion of the entire force. 
 The British general prepared to follow up 
 his victor}' by marching on the capital, 
 but his progress was delayed by overtures 
 of peace, which proved to be mere pretexts 
 to gain time. The same stratagem was 
 repeated more than once; -and even at the 
 last, wheu the evident futility of resist- 
 
 * .\mong the expeditions .■sent against tlio Eng- 
 lish at Rangoon, was one under the immediate 
 superintendence of the king's two brotliers, and 
 numerous astrologevs. A band of warriors termed 
 "invulnerahlcs" by their countrymen, accompanied 
 
 ancc seemed to attest the sincerity of the 
 defeated Burmese, the boast of a military 
 adventurer, that he would be answerable for 
 the discomfiture of the invaders if enabled 
 to lead an army against them, induced the 
 renewal of offensive operations by the King 
 of Ava. Troops to the nuiriber of 10,000 
 were assembled under the new leader, who 
 was dignified by the name of Nuring 
 Tliuring, prince of Sunset (which our troops, 
 being jjoor linguists, translated as prince of 
 Darkness), and entrusted with the charge of 
 covering the capital against the ajiproach of 
 the British army. The so-called " retrievers 
 of the king's glory" eucountcred about 
 1,.300 men, under Colonel Campbell (two 
 brigades being absent on duty), and were 
 dispersed with greater loss than had been 
 sustained by their predecessors on any pre- 
 vious occasion. Their brave, though boast- 
 ful leader, ventured to piostrate himself 
 before the golden throne, and solicit a more 
 powerful force, but was immediately put to 
 death by the enraged and humiliated sove- 
 reign. No time could be spared now for 
 procrastinating schemes if Ava were to be 
 saved from the grasp of the I'higlish army, 
 which marched on to Yandabuo, only forty- 
 five miles distant. Two American mission- 
 aries (Messrs. Price and Judson), " the only 
 negotiators in whom the king had any con- 
 fidence," were dispatched to the British 
 camp to conclude peace. General Camp- 
 bell made no increase on the terms already 
 stipulated for, and a treaty was finally con- 
 cluded in February, 1826, by which the 
 King of Ava ceded Arraean and Tenasserim 
 to the English ; agreed to pa)' them a crore 
 of rupees (about a million sterling), to re- 
 ceive a resident at his court, and to grant 
 to their ships the privileges enjoyed by 
 his own. lie likewise renounced all claim 
 upon Asam, Jyntia, Cachar, and ^Iuuuii)oor, 
 which were to be placed under princes 
 named by the British government. 
 
 The " peacock signet" was afiixcd to the 
 treaty, the provisions of which were ful- 
 filled, including the money stipulation, after 
 some delay and discussion; and thus ended 
 the first Burmese war. The dangers, 
 disasters, and heavy cost of life and treasure 
 involved therein, aflforded strong arguments 
 to both parties in favour of a durable peace. 
 
 the princes, and were remarkable for the elaborate 
 tattooing of their bodies, wliicli were covered with 
 figures of animals, and literally inlaid with precious 
 stones. Despite their name, and real though ill- 
 directed valour, they tied before European musketry.
 
 426 
 
 SIEGE OP JAT FORTRESS OF BHURTPOOR— 1825-'6. 
 
 The maiu body of the invading force re- 
 turned as they came, by the line of the 
 Irawaddy; but a body of native infantry 
 succeeded in finding a practicable route to 
 the Aeng Pass, and thus clearly proved that 
 nothing but ignorance of the geography of 
 the country had, humanly speaking, been 
 the sole means of preventing " a portion of 
 General IMorrison's army from wintering in 
 Ava, instead of perishing in the mountains 
 of Arracau."* 
 
 Before the termination of the Burmese 
 war, proceedings had occurred in another 
 quarter which involved a fresh appeal to 
 arais. The successors of Runjeet Sing of 
 Bhurtpoor, had faithfully observed the treaty 
 of 1805. The latter of these rajahs, Baldeo 
 Sing, had taken pains to ensure the pro- 
 tection of the supreme government for his 
 son, Bulwunt Sing, a child of five years 
 old, by entreating the political agent at 
 Delhi, Sir David Ochterlony, to invest the 
 boy with a khelat, or honorary dress, which 
 was the form prescribed by Lord Wellesley 
 as the oflicial recognition necessary to legal 
 succession on the part of all subsidiary and 
 protected princes. The request of the rajah 
 was granted early in 1824^, in consideration 
 of his infirm health ; and his death a year 
 after, not without suspicion of poison, was 
 followed by a train of events which proved 
 the justice of the pi-ecautions adopted on 
 behalf of the heir. For about a month the 
 reins of government rested quietly in the 
 hands of the guardian and maternal nncle 
 of the young rajah ; but at the expiration 
 of that time, the citadel was seized, the 
 uncle murdered, and the boy made pri- 
 soner by Doorjun Sal (a nephew of the late 
 Baldeo Sing), who assumed the direction of 
 affairs. This daring usurpation involved a 
 defiance to the British government, which 
 Sir David Ochterlony felt keenly ; he also 
 knew on how slender a thread hung the life 
 of the boy, for whose protection the honour 
 of England had been solemnly pledged. 
 An immediate demand for the surrender 
 of Bulwunt Sing was refused ; but the 
 promptitude and determination with which 
 it had been made, probably prevented an- 
 other name from being added to the long list 
 of Indian princes born too near a throne to 
 escape death by a poisoned opiate, or the 
 dexterous liand of an athlete. Sir David 
 
 • Traiit's Two Years m Ava, IIT. I'rof. Wilson's 
 Ducuiiioiils IllunlriUlvc of Unriiiese Jl'ar, 
 t Wilson's Mill's Iiirlui, ix., lUl. 
 I See Note to j). 421 
 
 was anxious to waste no time in inconclu- 
 sive negotiation : he wished to march at 
 once against Bhurtpoor, before the enemy 
 should have opportunity to take measures 
 of defence. Witii this intent, the veteran 
 general, then in his sixty-eighth year (fifty 
 preceding ones having been spent in India), 
 set on foot the necessary preparations, wliich 
 were arrested by counter-orders from the 
 supreme government. The heavy pecuni- 
 ary cost, and numerous disasters attendant 
 on the early stages of the Burmese war, 
 combined with mortifying recollections of 
 the issue of the former siege of Bhurtpoor, 
 rendered Lord Amherst reluctant to enter 
 on an undertaking which, if unsuccessful, 
 might, it was feared, add to existing embar- 
 rassments — that of " hostilities with every 
 state from the Punjab to Ava."t The suc- 
 cessful defence of this Indian fortress against 
 Lake, was still the favourite vaunt of every 
 secret and open foe to English supremacy : 
 the repetition of such an event was to be 
 avoided at any cost. The annulment of 
 the recent measures may be vindicated as a 
 necessary act ; but tliere can be no excuse 
 for the harsh and peremptory manner iu 
 which it was enforced, to the bitter mortifi- 
 cation of Ochterlony, who after being before 
 deprived of the position of Delhi resident 
 by Sir George Barlow, was now compelled 
 to tender his resignation, which he sur- 
 vived only a few months. J 
 
 Doorjun Sal attributed the conduct of 
 the British government to fear, and was 
 consequently emboldened to drop the sub- 
 missive tone which he had adopted while 
 military preparations were in progress, and 
 assert his claims, not as regent, but as rajah. 
 The new Delhi resident, Sir Charles Met- 
 calfe, advocated the same policy as that 
 which had cost his predecessor so dearly; 
 and his representations, in conjunction with 
 the warlike proceedings of Doorjun Sal, 
 induced the supreme government to resolve 
 on espousing the cause of Bulwunt Sing. 
 An attempt at negotiation having failed, an 
 army, comprising about 21,000 men and 
 above a hundred pieces of heavy ordnance, 
 marched against Bhurtpoor in December, 
 1825, under the direction of Lord Comber- 
 mcrc. The garrison was believed to comprise 
 20,000 men, chiefly Rajpoots and Jats, 
 with some Afghans; but the best di:fencc of 
 the fortress consisted iu its thick high walls 
 of indurated clay, rising from the edge of a 
 broad and deep ditch, flanked by thirty-five 
 tower-bastions, and strengthened by the
 
 I 
 
 CAPTURE OF BHURTPOOR, JAN., 1826— DUTCH CESSIONS. 427 
 
 outworks of nine gateways. Of these forti- 
 fications several had been added since 1805 : 
 one in particular, termed the Bastion of Vic- 
 tory, was vauntingly declared to have been 
 built with the blood and bones of Euf^lish- 
 men there laid low. On the previous occa- 
 sion the besieged had, nevertheless, enjoyed 
 advantages far superior lo those on wliicli 
 they now relied. An immense number of 
 troops, stated, doubtless with exaggeration, 
 at 80,000,* were then assembled within the 
 walls, whence they eould issue at pleasure 
 to draw supplies from the adjacent country; 
 for the liuiited number of Lord Lake's force 
 confined his operations to a single point. 
 Moreover, the English at that time trusted 
 too exclusively to hard fighting, and neg- 
 lected the resources of engineering skill, 
 especially the construction of mines — a mea- 
 sure now adopted by Lord Combermere, at 
 the suggestion of Major Gallowayf and 
 Lieutenant Forbes of the engineers, who 
 was on duty at the siege. Tlie communica- 
 tion between the moat of the fortress and 
 the extensive piece of water by which it was 
 supplied, was cut off, the ditch nearly emp- 
 tied, and mines were carried across and 
 above it ; while the operation of powerful 
 batteries covered the approaches and kept 
 down the fire of the enemy. By the 
 middle of January the walls had been 
 efJ'ectively breached, and the army impa- 
 tiently waited the order to storm. It was 
 given on the 18th, the appointed signal 
 being the springing of a mine containing 
 10,000 lbs. of powder. The foremost of the 
 storming party, in their anxiety to advance 
 immediately after the explosion, crowded 
 too near the opening, and the quakings of 
 the earth, and the dull tremulous sound 
 beneath their feet, came too late to save 
 several of them from sharing the fate of 
 numbers of the enemy assembled to defend 
 the breach, who perished in tl'.e convulsion 
 which darkened the air with dense clouds 
 of dust and smoke, and hurled disjointed 
 masses of the hardened ramparts in all 
 directions. The fate of their comrades gave 
 a momentary cheek to the ardour of the 
 assailants; but the order to advance was 
 issued and obeyed — the troops scaled the 
 ramparts, aud after overcoming a resolute 
 resistance at different points, gained pos- 
 session of the town and outworks, at the 
 cost of about 600 killed and wounded. The 
 
 * Creighton's Siege of lihurtpnor in 1825-'6, p. 152. 
 t Better known as Major-trencral Galloway, the 
 author of a valuable work on the mud forts of India. 
 
 loss of the enemy was estimated at 11, 000, 
 of whom 8,000 were slain in the assault; 
 many being cut off by the British cavalry 
 while attempting to escape through the 
 gates on the western face of the fortress. 
 The citadel surrendered in the afternoon. 
 At the conimenecmcnt of the assault, 
 Doorjun Sal had (juitted the fortress with 
 his wife and two sons, escorted by forty 
 horsemen, and sought refuge in au adjoin- 
 ing wood, where he remained for several 
 hours, and then endeavoured to escape un- 
 pcrceived. The attempt failed ; the fugi- 
 tives were overtaken by a troop of native 
 cavaliy, and secured without opposition. 
 Doorjun Sal was sent as a prisoner of state 
 to Allahabad, and the young rajah rein- 
 stated on the throne of his ancestors; but 
 though the nominal regency was made over 
 to the prinei[)al widow of Baldco Sing, and 
 the jiartial management of affairs entrusted 
 to his leading ministers, the paramount 
 authority was vested in a British resident 
 permanently appointed to Bhurtpoor. The 
 armv appropriated booty to the amount of 
 about £22,000. Before the fall of Bhurt- , 
 poor, the conduct of the Ava war, though. | 
 not entirely approved, procured an earldom 
 for Lord Amherst. Lord Combermere was 
 created a viscount. The di[)lomatie arrange- '. 
 ments made during this administration were \ 
 of some importance. In 1821, ^Malacca, I 
 Singapore, and the Dutch possessions on I 
 the continent of India, were ceded by the | 
 King of the Netherlands in exchange for 
 the British settlement of Bencoolen, in Su- 
 matra. Dowlut Rao Sindia died in March, 
 1827, leaving no son. His favourite, but 
 not jirineipal wife, Baiza Bye, was, in ac- 
 cordance with his wish, suffered to adopt a 
 child and assume the regency — a procedure 
 for which the consent of the company was so- 
 licited and obtained, provision for the con- 
 tinued maintenance of a British contingent 
 being made by the advance of a loan or 
 deposit of eighty lacs of rupees, the interest 
 of which, at five per cent., was to be em- 
 ployed in the support of the troops. 
 
 Lord Amherst visited the titular king 
 of Delhi early in 1827, and then repaired 
 to Simla on the lower range of the Hima- 
 laya, which from that time became the 
 favourite retreat of the governors-general 
 of India, from its beauty and salubrity. 
 AVbile there, hostilities broke out between 
 Russia and Persia, and the latter and 
 of course much weaker power demanded the 
 aid of the Calcutta government, in accord-
 
 428 BENTINCK ADMINISTRATION, 1838— ABOLITION OF SUTTEE— 1839. 
 
 ance with the treaty concluded at Tehran 
 in 1814. The point at issue regarded the 
 boundary line between the two countries. 
 The cabinet of St. Petersburp^ positively re- 
 fused to accept the arbitration of British 
 officers; and the result was, that a struggle 
 ensued, in which the British took no part ; 
 and the Persians, being worsted, were com- 
 pelled to make peace with Russia by the 
 surrender of the contested territory, in Feb- 
 ruary, 1828. 
 
 In the same month Lord Amherst re- 
 signed his position, and returned to Eng- 
 land. The restoration of tranquillity had 
 enabled him to pay some attention to civil 
 matters ; and the diffusion of education had 
 been promoted by the formation of col- 
 legiate institutions at Agra and at Delhi, as 
 also by the establishment of schools in 
 various provincial towns. The pressure of 
 financial difficulties impeded the full execu- 
 tion of these as well as of other measures 
 required to lighten the burdens and stimu- 
 late the commerce of the people of India. 
 The war with Ava had necessitated heavy 
 disbursements. In two years (1824 and '25), 
 the sum of nineteen million sterling had 
 been raised ; and at the close of the Am- 
 herst administration, "the financial prospects 
 of the country were of a most alarming com- 
 plexion."* Nearly eighteen months elapsed 
 before the arrival of a new governor-general, 
 and during that time the supreme authority 
 rested in the able hands of the senior mem- 
 ber of council, Butterworth Bayley, who 
 busily employed himself in laying the foun- 
 dation of various internal reforms, which 
 were carried out during the ensuing — 
 
 Bentinck Administration, 1828 to 1835. 
 — After his recall from the government of 
 Madras, in 1807, Lord William Bentinck 
 had remonstrated forcibly against the injus- 
 tice of making him the victim of measures 
 adopted without his cognizance; and his 
 arguments being seconded by influential 
 family connexions (with Mr. Canning and 
 the Portland family), he eventually obtained 
 the appointment of governor-general, and 
 in July, 1828, arrived in Calcutta. At that 
 time unaccustomed tranquillity prevailed 
 throughout India, and the character of 
 Lord William Bentinck was considered the 
 best guarantee against its disturbance by 
 any aggressive or domineering spirit on the 
 
 • Wilson's continuation of Mill, ix., 231. 
 
 t The altered tone of Calcutta Kociety may be 
 conjectured, from the fact of Jacqueniont's going on 
 Sunday to the house of tlic chief justice, Sir Charles 
 
 part of the English. A vivacious French 
 traveller (Jacquemont) declared that the 
 actual possessor of the sceptre of the Great 
 Mogul thought and acted like a Pennsyl- 
 vanian quaker : yet some of the acts of this 
 administration would certainly not have 
 been sanctioned by the great American 
 coloniser. The influence of Lady Bentinck 
 was unquestionably of the best description ; 
 and the improved tone of thought and feel- 
 ing which pervaded the society of gov- 
 ernment-house, diffused itself throughout 
 Calcutta and the British presidencies. f All 
 the support derivable from a manly and 
 conscientious spirit, was needed by one who 
 came out burdened with the execution of 
 immediate and sweeping retrenchments. 
 No opposition was made to the extensive 
 reduction of the army; but the old question 
 of batta (extra pay) which had called forth the 
 energies of Clive, became afresh the source 
 of bitter discontent. The total diminution, 
 on the present occasion, did not exceed 
 €20,000 per annum ; but it fell heavily on 
 individuals : and although the governor- 
 general could not avoid enforcing the ac- 
 complishment of stringent orders, he was 
 thereby rendered permanently unpopular 
 with the military branch of the service. The 
 press commented freely on the half-batta 
 regulations, and the discontented officers 
 were wisely suffered to vent and dissipate their 
 wrath in angry letters. The same forbeai'- 
 ance was not manifested when the excessive 
 flagellation, which at this period disgraced 
 the discipline of the army, became the theme 
 of censure ; for Lord W. Bentinck, " though 
 a liberal to the very core," held, as had 
 been proved at Vellore, very stern notions 
 on military affairs ; and in this, as also in 
 some other cases, showed himself decidedly 
 " inclined to put a gag into the mouth of the 
 press. "J 
 
 In 1829, a regulation was enacted, by 
 which the practice of suttee — that is, of 
 burning or burying alive Hindoo widows 
 — was declared illegal, and the principal 
 persons engaged in aiding or abetting it, 
 became liable to trial for culpable homicide, 
 and were punislial)lc with imprisonment 
 and fine. This enactment was far from ex- 
 citing the expected degree of opposition. 
 The same unlooked-for facility attended 
 another measure (denounced still more de- 
 Grey, to hear some music, play chesa, and seek a 
 refufje from tlic general devotion of the English. — 
 (Lctlcrs from India, i., 101.) 
 
 X Kaye's Life of Metcalfe, ii., 253.
 
 EXTHIPATION OF THUGS-SUBJUGATION OF COORG— 1834. 429 
 
 cisivel)') in prospect, as a perilous innovation, 
 not on "the rii^hts of women" only, but on 
 those of the entire Hindoo community ; 
 namely, the abrofjation of the intolerant 
 laws which decreed the forfeiture of all 
 civil rip;hts as the penalty of conversion to 
 (Jhristianity. Tlie convert not only became 
 an outcast, but an outlaw ; incapable of 
 inheriting personal or family property. 
 The wonder was that a Christian govern- 
 ment had not sooner put a stop to such 
 bigotry. Now, the necessary steps were taken 
 with much caution, and the alterations were 
 so mixed up with other ordinances, as to 
 create little commotion or excitement even 
 when first published. 
 
 In 1831, active measures were adopted 
 for the extirpation of the numerous and 
 formidable gangs of depredators, known by 
 the name of Thugs or Phansi-gars ; the 
 former term (signifying a cheat) being the 
 more common, the latter (denoting the 
 bearer of a noose or phansi, wherewith to 
 commit murder by strangulation) the less 
 general, but equally appropriate designa- 
 tion. The lasso was not, however, neces- 
 sary to these miscreants, whose horrible 
 dexterity enabled them, with a strip of 
 cloth, or an unfolded turban, to destroy the 
 unwary traveller speedily and surely; — 
 the dead body was then buried in the 
 ground, and every trace of the crime care- 
 fully obliterated. Hundreds upon hundreds 
 of husbands and fathers perished none 
 knew how, save the members of this horri- 
 ble confederacy, who, whether of Hindoo or 
 ^Mohammedan origin, were usually thieves 
 and murderers by hereditary descent. Of 
 the doctrines of the Koran they were wholly 
 ignorant, and of Eraliminism they knew 
 nothing but its worst superstitions; which 
 are those connected with the sanguinary 
 worship of the goddess Doorga or Cali, the 
 wife of Siva, whom they regarded as their 
 jieculiar patroness, and looked to for 
 guidance and counsel, which they believed to 
 be communicated through the medium of the 
 flight and utterance of birds, beasts, and 
 reptiles. Fearful oaths of secrecy were inter- 
 changed; and the difliculty of detection was 
 enhanced by the consummate art which 
 enabled the stealthy assassin to maintain 
 the bearing of an industrious peasant or 
 busy trader. Remorse seems to have been 
 well-nigh banished from this community by 
 the blinding influence of the strange pre- 
 destinarian delusion that they were born to 
 rob and kill their fellow-men — destined for 
 3k 
 
 this end by Providence by a law similar to 
 that which impels the savage beast of the 
 forest to slay and devour human beings. 
 "Is any man killed from man's killing?" 
 was their favourite argument. " Are we 
 not instruments in the hand of (JodV" 
 The mysterious workings of that almighty 
 and ever-present power, which controls the 
 actions, but leaves the will free, was un- 
 thought of by these unhappy men, whose 
 excesses rendered them a by-word of fear 
 and loathing throughout India. Lord 
 Hastings made some eflbrts for their sup- 
 ])rcssion by military detachments, but with 
 little cfleet. Summary and organised mea- 
 sures of police were adopted by Lord Ben- 
 tinek, and ably carried out by Mr. Smith, 
 Major Sleeman, and other functionaries. 
 In the course of six years (1830 to 1835) 
 2,000 Thugs were arrested and tried at 
 Indore, Hyderabad, Saugor, and Jubbul- 
 poor, of whom about 1,500 were convicted 
 and sentenced to deatii, transportation, or 
 imprisonment. The strange esprit de corps 
 which for a time sustained them, at length 
 gave way ; many purchased pardon at the 
 expense of full and free confession : formi- 
 dable gangs were thus reduced to a few scat- 
 tered and intimidated individuals; and the 
 Thugs became a bugbear of past times. 
 
 The most exceptionable feature in the 
 Bentinck administration was the deposition 
 of the rajah of Coorg, Yeer Rajundra AVudi- 
 yar, and the conversion of his mountainous 
 priuci])ality into a province of the JIadras 
 presidency. The immediate occasion ap- 
 pears to have been a domestic quarrel with 
 his sister and her husband, which led them 
 to seek the protection of the British resident 
 at Mysoor. The rajah was described as 
 fierce, cruel, and disposed to enter on in- 
 trigues against the supreme government 
 with the rajah of ^lysoor. TJiese vague 
 charges, together with some angry letters, 
 demanding the surrender of his fugitive 
 relations, and the imprisonment of a servant 
 of the company, were considered to justify 
 the dispatch of a powerful force for the sub- 
 jugation of Coorg. The British advanced 
 in four divisions, and entered the princi- 
 pality from as many quarters. The alleged 
 unpopularity of the rajah was contradicted 
 by the determination of his defenders, 
 despite a proclamation offering protection 
 to person and property as the price of 
 neutrality ; but the efforts of the brave 
 mountaineers were rendered unavailing, 
 less by the overwhelming superiority of
 
 430 RAJAH OF COORG— ESTABLISHMENT OF OVERLAND ROUTE— 1830, 
 
 numbers and discipline on the part of the 
 invaders, than by the avowed disinclination 
 of Veer Rajundra to organised opposition 
 against the powerful protectors of his an- 
 cestors. Merkara, the capital of Coorg, 
 was captured in April, 1834, and the rajah, 
 with liis family, surrendered uncondition- 
 ally. A committee of inquiry was instituted 
 into the charges adduced against him, and 
 the search made after the seizure of INIer- 
 kara, brought to light the bodies of 
 seventeen persons, including three relatives 
 of the rajah, who had been put to death by 
 decapitation or strangling, and thrown into 
 a pit in the jungle. This was a melancholy 
 revelation; but such severities are unhap- 
 pily quite consistent with the ordinary 
 proceedings of despotic governments ; and it 
 may well be doubted whether, even if 
 proved beforehand, they could warrant the 
 interference of a foreign state for the depo- 
 sition of the prince by whom they were 
 committed, in opposition to the will of the 
 people he governed. Certainly the assump- 
 tion of sovereignty over the Coorgs could be 
 excused only by the most rigid adherence 
 to the promise given, " that their civil rights 
 and religious usages should be respected, and 
 that the greatest desire should invariably be 
 shown to augment their security, comfort, 
 and happiness. How far these objects have 
 been effected," adds Professor Wilson, " may 
 admit of question ; but the province has 
 remained at peace, and the Coorgs have 
 shown no disposition to reassert their inde- 
 pendence."* 
 
 The rajah became a pensioner on the 
 E. I. Cy. Some few years ago he came to 
 England, bringing with him a daughter, a 
 lady-like and intelligent child, to be edu- 
 cated as a Christian. Queen Victoria, by a 
 graceful act of spontaneous kindness calcu- 
 lated to endear her to the vast Indian popu- 
 lation beneath her sway, officiated in person 
 as godmother to the young stranger, who, 
 it is to be hoped, will live to merit and 
 enjoy a continuance of the royal favour. 
 The rajah himself lias no trace, cither in 
 countenance or bearing, of the insane 
 cruelty ascribed to him ; and the satisfac- 
 tory arrangement of the pecuniary questionf 
 
 • Continuation of Mill's India, ix., SiiO. 
 
 t Kelaliiig to the proprietary right to a large 
 sum of money invested l)y the prince and his family 
 in the Anglo-Indian funds, the interest of which had 
 been regularly paid to the rajali. Veer Kajundra, 
 up to the time of his deposition, which the K. I. Cy. 
 now appear disposed to regard as confiscated. 
 
 ( The efforts of Lord W. Bentinck were especially 
 
 now at issue between him and the E. I. Cy. 
 is desirable, as the best means of strength- 
 ening the confidence of Indian princes iu 
 the good faith of the nation in general. 
 
 Whatever view may be taken of the con- 
 duct of Lord W. Bentiuck in this case, and 
 of certain complex arrangements, of com- 
 paratively small interest, with Oude, My- 
 soor, Nagpoor, Jeypoor, and other Indian 
 states, there can be no doubt that the gen- 
 eral result of his administration was highly 
 beneficial to the cause of religious civilisa- 
 tion. { Public institutions, whether for edu- 
 cational or charitable purposes, were warmly 
 encouraged; and the almost exclusive 
 agency of European functionaries, which 
 had been the radical defect of the Corn- 
 wallis system, was to some extent remedied 
 by the employment of natives in offices of 
 trust and emolument, — not, indeed, to the 
 extent which they have a right to expect 
 eventually, but as much perhaps as the cir- 
 cumstances of the time warranted. The 
 opening of the " overland route" by way of 
 the Red Sea, Egypt, and the Mediterranean, 
 and the consequent reduction of the length 
 of transit from four or five months to forty 
 or fifty days (an immense boon to the 
 Anglo-Indian community), was effected 
 mainly through the instrumentality of the 
 late Lieutenant Waghorn, R.N. 
 
 The navigation of the Ganges by steam- 
 vessels was attempted, and proved entirely 
 successful. § Measures were adopted to pro- 
 cure the unobstructed navigation of the 
 Indus, with a view to the extension of 
 British trade with the coimtries to the west- 
 ward as far as the Caspian Sea, and also in 
 the hope of establishing a commanding in- 
 fluence on the Indus, in order to counter- 
 act the consequences which might be an- 
 ticipated from the complete prostration of 
 Persia, and its subservience to the designs 
 of Russia against British India. The orders 
 of the cabinet of St. James were positive, 
 and Lord W. Bentinck must therefore be 
 acquitted of blame for the complex relations 
 formed with the IMohammedan states of 
 Bahawulpoor, Sinde, and Afghanistan, and 
 especially with the wily and ambitious Seik, 
 Runjeet Sing, to whom a present of several 
 
 directed to the diffusion of the English language 
 among the natives — a measure difllcult indeed, but 
 highly desirable in the sight of all their well-wishers. 
 § Tlie first voyage between Bombay and Suez, 
 made by the Huiih Liinlsuy in 1830, occupied thirty 
 days; the second, in the same year, only twenty- 
 two. The passage between England and India now 
 requires fewer weeks than it formerly did months. 

 
 METCALFE'S FREE-PRESS ACT, 1835— AUCKLAND ADMINLSTRATION. 431 
 
 English horses, of unusual size and stature, 
 were presented bv Lieutenant Buint^s, in 
 the name of William IV., in October, IH.'Jl. 
 The renewal of the charter of tlie K.l. Cy. 
 for the term of twenty years [IKVi to 185.'J), 
 was attended with a complete change in the 
 constitution of that powerful body, which, 
 after commencing in a purely commercial 
 spirit, now consented to place in abeyance 
 its exclusive privileges of trade with (Jliina 
 as well as with India, but retained its ])oliti- 
 cal rights; and, in conjunction with tlic 
 Board of Control, continued to direct the 
 affairs of Hindoostan. The fixed dividend 
 guaranteed to the shareholders, and charged 
 upon the revenues of India, the means of 
 redeeming the company's stock, with other 
 arrangements then made, are set forth in the 
 opening page of this history. Lord William 
 Bentiuck resigned his position on account 
 of ill-health, and quitted India early in 
 1835. The brief provisional sway of Sir 
 Charles Metcalfe was distinguished by a 
 measure which procured him much exagge- 
 rated applause and equally indiscriuiitiatc 
 censure. This act was the removal of the 
 restrictions on the public press of India, 
 which, though rarely enforced, were still in 
 existence. It is worthy of remark, that the 
 hability to government interference was 
 confined to Europeans ; for native editors 
 could publish anything short of a direct 
 libel : and after the banishment of ]\Ir. Silk 
 Buckingham by Mr. Adam, his paper was 
 continued by a successor of mixed race, an 
 Anglo-Indian, whom the law did uot affect. 
 The views of Sir Charles IMctealfe, with 
 regard to the precarious nature of our In- 
 dian empire, were of a decidedly exag- 
 gerated and alarmist character. In 1825, 
 he had declared the real dangers of a 
 free press in India to be, " its enabling the 
 natives to throw off our yoke ;'"' and a 
 minute recorded by him in October, 1830, 
 expressed, with some sharpness, the incon- 
 venience attendant on the proceedings of 
 government finding their way into the 
 newspapers. Despite some apparent incon- 
 sistency, the strenuous advocacy of the 
 freedom of the press, at all hazards, would 
 have been a proceeding worthy his frank 
 and manly character ; but it would be diffi- 
 cult to justify his conduct in enacting a 
 measure, however laudable in itsel.*", in op- 
 position to the will, and, as it was generally 
 supposed, to the interests of his employers. 
 The change could scarcely have been long 
 delayed ; for uow that Englishmen Avere to 
 
 be suficrcd to settle at pleasure in India, it 
 was not likely they would tamtdy submit to 
 have summary deportation held over them 
 as the ])enalty of ofrending against the pre- 
 rogative of a despotic governor, in a time of 
 external and internal tranquillity. 
 
 Auckland Ahministkation : 1835 to 
 1842. — The person first nominated as the 
 successor of Lord William Bcntinck was 
 Lord lleytesbury; but the brief interval of 
 ])()wer enjoyed by the Torv ministrv having 
 expired before his lordsliii) could quit Eng- 
 land, the appointment was cancelled, the 
 large sum granted as usual for outfitting 
 expenses being forfeited by the E. I. Cy. 
 
 The restored Whig cabinet, under Lord 
 Melbourne, bestowed the Indian vice- 
 royalty on Lord Auckland, a nobleman of 
 amiable character and business habits, who, 
 it was generally supposed, might be safely 
 entrusted with the charge of the supreme 
 government, which had certainly never been 
 assumed by any preceding functionary 
 under more favourable circumstances. Per- 
 fect tranquillity, a diminisiiing debt, and 
 increasing commerce, seemed to promise an 
 easy and honourable administration ; un- 
 happily, it proved the very reverse. The 
 first event of importance was one which, 
 though vindicated by an author whose im- 
 partiality reflects equal credit on himself 
 and the E. I. Cy.,* nevertheless appears to 
 the writer of the present work an act of 
 cruel injustice, the blame of which rests 
 chiefly on the Bombay authorities ; for 
 the new governor - general gave but a 
 tardy and reluctant assent to their deci- 
 sion. The measure in question was the 
 deposition of the rajah of Sattara, the legi- 
 timate successor of Scvajee, who had been 
 placed on the musnud in 1819. The policy 
 or impolicy of his reinstatement need not 
 be discussed. Pertab Sein, then twenty-seven 
 years of age, showed unbounded delight at 
 his restoration to what he nndisguisedly 
 viewed as real power, and diligently set 
 about improving his little sovereignty. Suc- 
 cessive residents at his court — Grant Duff, 
 generals Briggs and Robertson, and Colonel 
 Lodwick — bore witness to the general excel- 
 lence of his administration from 1819 to 
 1837-'8, the last gentleman with some 
 qualification, the specified drawback being 
 the new feature of weakness of mind mani- 
 fested by an excessive addiction to Brah- 
 minical superstitions, and the employment 
 
 * Mr. Edward Thornton, head of the statistical 
 department at the India House.
 
 432 DEPOSITION OP PEKTAB SEIN, RAJAH OF SATTARA— 1839. 
 
 of women in the management of elephants, 
 as guards, and in other unusual offices. 
 These complaints were the first indication 
 of an altered tone on the part of the local 
 authorities, and were probably the earliest 
 results of a conspiracy formed against the 
 rajah in his own palace. The favourable 
 nature of the testimony regarding his 
 conduct previously sent to England, had 
 drawn from the Court of Directors repeated 
 expressions of warm and generous praise. 
 In 1829 he was declared to be " remarkable 
 among the princes of India for mildness, 
 frugality, and attention to business;" in 
 1831, "his disposition and capacity for gov- 
 ernment" are again noticed; and in De- 
 cember, 1835, a letter was addressed to 
 him, lauding the "exemplary fulfilment" 
 of his duties as " well calculated to pro- 
 mote the prosperity of his dominions and 
 the happiness of his people," and acknow- 
 ledging " the liberality displayed in exe- 
 cuting various public works of great utility, 
 which has so justly raised your reputation 
 in the eyes of the princes and people of 
 India, and gives you an additional claim to 
 our approbation, respect, and applause." 
 This testimony was accompanied by a hand- 
 some sword, the most marked tribute of 
 respect which could be offered to a Mah- 
 ratta. The letter and sword were arbitra- 
 rily detained by the Bombay government, 
 and never presented to the rajah, whose 
 feelings about this time became irritated by 
 a controversy with them regarding certain 
 jaghires to which he laid claim. A con- 
 spiracy was, it is believed, concocted against 
 him by a vindictive, ungrateful, and profli- 
 gate brother, and the rajah was accused of 
 endeavouring to procure the overthrow of 
 British power by three extraordinary mea- 
 sures : — first, by striving to corrupt the 
 entire Anglo-Indian army through two 
 native officers of a regiment stationed at 
 Sattara; second, by inducing the Portu- 
 guese at Goa to land 30,000 European 
 troops in India, who were to be marched 
 overland for the purpose; third, by cor- 
 responding with the fugitive ex-rajah of 
 Nagpoor, who had neither character, in- 
 fluence, nor ability, — not a shilling, nor an 
 acre of territory, — and was himself dependent 
 
 • Since the deposition of tne Sattara ra)ah, on the 
 evidence of forf;ed documents and jierjiired wit- 
 nesses, a similar case has come to ligtit. Ali Morad, 
 one of the Ameers of Siiide, havinf; been convicted 
 of forgery, liad a large portion of his territories con- 
 fiscated by the British government. The accuser, 
 
 on charity. The seals of the rajah were 
 forged, pretended correspondence produced, 
 and other artful schemes successfully carried 
 through. There was at this time a vague 
 feeling of alarm throughout India relative 
 to a general rising against British supre- 
 macy : the press at home and abroad gave 
 countenance to the idea; and Sir Charles 
 Metcalfe declared he should not be surprised 
 " to wake some fine morning and find the 
 whole thing blown up." Sir Robert Grant, 
 then governor of Bombay, and some officials 
 around him, fell into the trap, and despatches 
 of several hundred paragraphs were written 
 regarding the alleged application of the rajah 
 for the aid of 30,000 Portuguese soldiers, 
 when, at that time, thirty would have been 
 an impossibility ; and great alarm was pro- 
 fessed lest 200,000 British soldiers — Mussul- 
 men as well as Hindoos, who had ever 
 proved themselves true to their salt — should 
 be seduced from their allegiance by this 
 petty prince, who was no warrior, but an 
 excellent farmer and landlord. The supreme 
 government of India at first treated the 
 affair with the contempt it merited : but 
 reiterated calumnies began to take effect ; 
 and the alarm once given, the most 
 absurd stories, many of which carried with 
 them the proof of their falsehood,* were 
 believed by men who were afterwards 
 ashamed to confess their credulity. Sir R. 
 Grant died, and Sir James Carnac, then 
 chairman of the Court of Directors, suc- 
 ceeded him. He went to Sattara in 1839, 
 and required the rajah to acknowledge his 
 guilt, sign a new treaty, and all would be 
 forgiven. Pertab Sein refused to declare 
 himself a traitor to the British government; 
 asked for a copy of the charges against him, 
 and demanded a fair hearing and a public 
 trial. Sir J. Carnac was a kind and mode- 
 rate man; but the strong prejudices — not to 
 use a harsher term- — of his associates warped 
 his judgment, and led him to view the con- 
 duct of the rajah as the continued contu- 
 macy of a rebel, instead of the offended 
 feelings of an innocent man. A body of 
 troops marched at midnight into the palace, 
 led by the successful plotter, Appa Sahib : 
 the rajah was made prisoner in his bed, 
 all his property seized; and ere morning 
 
 Sheik Ali Hussein, had been prime minister of the 
 chief, and was dismissed for mul|)ractices : at his 
 death (8lh May, 185:i), he confessed that all he had 
 sworn against Ali Morad was untrue, and that ho 
 had given false evidence for purposes of revenge. — 
 {Bombay Gazette, 10th May, 1853.)
 
 STATE OP AFGHANISTAN AND ADJACENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 433 
 
 dawned, the victim of a foul conspiracy was 
 ifjiioiiiiiiioiisly liiirricd away as a [)risoiier to 
 ]5cnarcN, wlicn; he died. The brother wlio 
 liad caused his ruiti was i)hiced on the 
 throne. After a few years of profligacy 
 and indolence Appa Sahib died, leaving no 
 son, and the little principality of Sattara de- 
 volved, in default of heirs, iqion the British 
 government. The whole transaction is pain- 
 ful, and reflects little credit on any con- 
 cerned therein: time, the revcaler of truth, 
 has exposed the fully and injustice of the 
 procedure ; and had the ex-rajah survived, 
 some measure of justice would probably 
 have been rendered him.* 
 
 The next and all-absorbing feature of the 
 Auckland administration is the Afghan 
 war, to understand the origin of which it 
 is necessary to explain the condition of the 
 territories on our western frontier. Zemaun 
 Shah, the Afghan ruler of Cabool, against 
 whom a treaty was negotiated with Persia 
 in 1801, by Sir .John iMalcolm, was deposed 
 and blinded in the same year by his brother 
 Mahmood — treatment precisely similar to 
 that bestowed by him on his immediate pre- 
 decessor, Iluraayun. Mahmood was, in turn, 
 displaced by a fourth brother, named Soojah- 
 ool-Moolk. With unwonted clemency the 
 conqueror refrained from inflicting ex- 
 tinction of sight, which, though not a legal 
 disqualification to sovereign power, usually 
 proves an insuperable bar to the claims of 
 any candidate. Soojah coidd not keep the 
 throne he had gained ; but being expelled 
 by the reviving strength of Mahmood, 
 sought refuge with Runjeet Sing, who plun- 
 dered him of all his valuables, including the 
 famous Koh-i-Noor (the gem of the English 
 Exhibition of 1851), and made iiim prisoner. 
 By the exertion of an unexpected amount 
 of skill and resolution. Shah Soojah suc- 
 ceeded in making his escape in the disguise 
 of a mendicant, and readied the British 
 station of Loodiana in September, 1816, 
 whither his family, together with Zemaun 
 Shah, had previously found refuge. Mah- 
 mood did not, however, possess the throne 
 in peace. His vizier, Futteh Khan, an able 
 chief, who had been mainly instrumental in 
 carrying out the late revolution, evinced 
 indications of a desire to elevate his nume- 
 rous brothers to almost exclusive authority, 
 and to make the Barukzye clan, of which 
 
 * Sir Charles Forbes, Bart., Mr. John Forbes, 
 M.P., and several leading directors of the E. I. Cy., 
 with Mr. Joseph Hume, M.P., .•Vrthur Lewis, of the 
 chancery bar, and many other members of the Court 
 
 he was hereditary chief, the governing class. 
 
 The youngest of his brethren, the after- 
 wards famous Dost Mohammed, treacherously 
 occupied the fortress of Herat, committed 
 great excesses there, and even profaned the 
 harem by seizing the ornaments of its in- 
 mates, and especially by violently tearing 
 away a jewelled girdle from the person of 
 one of the royal princesses. 
 
 The insulted lady sent the torn robe to 
 her relative, Prince Kamran, the son of 
 i\Iahinood Shah, with a demand for ven- 
 geance. Dost Mohammed fled to Cashmere, 
 where his brother, Azim Khan, was gov- 
 ernor. Futteh Ali was made prisoner, and 
 blinded by the dagger of Kamran. Subse- 
 quently, on his refusal to call upon his bro- 
 thers to surrender, the unfortunate vizier 
 was literally hacked to pieces by the courtiers 
 in attendance on the king and prince. 
 
 Dost Mohammed raised an army, and 
 made himself master of the city of Cabool, in 
 1818. Shah Mahmood and Kamran estab- 
 lished themselves in Herat, and the usurper 
 turned his attention to the affairs of gov- 
 ernment, and proved a much better ruler 
 than either of his predecessors. He had 
 many difSculties to contend with, includ- 
 ing the jealous intrigues of his brothers, 
 several of whom became in fact indepen- 
 dent princes. Their hostility encouraged 
 Shah Soojah to attempt regaining posses- 
 sion of Cabool, but without effect. At the 
 commencement of Lord Auckland's ad- 
 ministration. Dost Mohammed reigned over 
 the chief remaining portion of the Doorani 
 kingdom founded by Ahmed Shah, which, 
 at the time of the death of that ruler, ex- 
 tended from the west of Khorassan to Sir- 
 hind, and from the Oxus to the sea. Of the 
 seventeen provinces it then comprised, only 
 six now remained — namely, Cabool, Ba- 
 meean, Ghoreband, Ghuznee, Candahar, 
 and Jellalabad. Beloochistan had become 
 independent, under a chief named Moham- 
 med Khan, in 1802; Khorassan had beea 
 recovered by Persia ; Herat was retained by 
 Prince Kamran, after the death of Mah- 
 mood ; Baikh was taken by the King of 
 Bokhara, in 1823; and the Punjab, Mooltan, 
 Dera Ghaza Khan, Dera Ismael Khan, and 
 lastly Pcshawur, fell to the share of Runjeet 
 Sing. Sinde was still nominally dependent 
 on Cabool ; but its rulers — three brothers 
 
 of Proprietors, wlio were the warm friends of the ex- 
 rajah, never ceased to seek a hearing and trial for 
 him, and entertained a strong and permanent convic- 
 tion of his innocence.
 
 434 TRIPARTITE TREATY— ENGLISH, RUNJEET SING, & SHAH SOOJAH. 
 
 who governed conjointly under the title of 
 " the Ameers" — generally needed the pre- 
 sence of an army to compel the payment of 
 their arrears of tribute. Cabool itself, and 
 a considerable portion of the Hazerah 
 country, was under the immediate sway of 
 Dost Mohammed ; Candahar, and the adja- 
 cent territory, was held by his three brothers, 
 Kohen-dil-khan, Rehem-dil- Khan, and 
 Mehir-dil-Khan, under the name of sirdars 
 or governors. 
 
 The divided and independent governments 
 beyond the Indus were in a condition well 
 calculated to secure our power, without any 
 infraction of the strict neutrality which the 
 English rulers so ostentatiously declared it 
 their desire to preserve, when, in 1838, an 
 attack was made on Herat by the Shah of 
 Persia, with the aid of Russian officers.* 
 Herat has been called the key of Afghanis- 
 tan : it is also the gate towards which all the 
 great roads from Central Asia to India con- 
 verge ; and the Calcutta authorities became 
 exceedingly alarmed at the probability of 
 its falling under the influence of Russia. 
 They became very solicitous that Afghanis- 
 tan should maintain entire independence, 
 and reject the proffered alliance with the 
 Muscovite court. Lieutenant Burnes was 
 dispatched on an embassy to Dost Moham- 
 med, or " the Dost," as he was commonly 
 called ; but although the instructions of 
 Burnes were explicit regarding the non- 
 reception of Russian envoys, and other 
 demands to be exacted on the part of the 
 English, he had nothing beyond idle pro- 
 fessions of regard to ofler in return ; not 
 even mediation with Runjeet Sing for the 
 restoration of Peshawur, which the Seik 
 conqueror was willing to surrender to any 
 one except to the ruler of Cabool, from 
 whom it had been taken. 
 
 The contrast between the magnificent 
 presents brought by Mountstuart Elphin- 
 stone to Afghanistan, on a former occasion, 
 with the pistol and telescope, pins, needles, 
 and playthings, now offered to the Dost 
 for himself and the inmates of the zenana, 
 could not but be painfully felt; yet the 
 chief knew the value of British protec- 
 tion, and was not disposed to take offence 
 lightly. But he could not afford to re- 
 ject the direct ofl'crs of assistance, in 
 men and money, made by the secretary of 
 
 * One of the alleged reasons being the activity 
 with which the slave-trade was carried on at Herat. 
 
 t Mr. H. Tprrens, and John Colvin, Lord Auck- 
 land's private secretary. — Kaye's WarinAfghanistai). 
 
 the Russian legation, without some clear 
 guarantee against the evil effects of such 
 rejection; and as this was positively refused, 
 he had literally no alternative but to accept 
 the Russo-Persian alliance. It would have 
 been only common prudence, on the part of 
 the supreme government, to have waited 
 the issue of the siege of Herat, before pro- 
 ceeding further ; but Lord Auckland was 
 unhappily enjoying the cool breezes of 
 Simla, away from his legitimate advisers at 
 Calcutta, and was, it is said, considerably 
 under the influence of two or three clever 
 and impulsive men, who may have been 
 excellent secretaries and amusing table- 
 companions, but were very ill-adapted for 
 wary counsellors. f It would have been an 
 easy matter to convert Dost Mohammed, 
 the sirdars of Candahar, and the whole 
 Barukzye clan, into firm allies ; neverthe- 
 less. Lord Auckland, in an hour of weakness 
 and indecision, was induced to seek the co- 
 operation of Runjeet Sing for the restora- 
 tion of Shall Soojah; and, although the 
 defeat of the Persian army, and its with- 
 drawal, after a ten months' siege,J secured 
 the independence of Herat, and removed 
 one main incentive to war, the projected 
 invasion was carried out despite the apathy 
 of the Seik ruler (now fast sinking to his 
 grave, under the combined influence of age 
 and the most hateful excesses) and the 
 scarcely disguised distrust of Soojah, who 
 could not comprehend why the assistance 
 repeatedly refused by Lord W. Bentinck, 
 was bestowed unasked by Lord Auckland. 
 
 Perhaps so perilous an enterprise was 
 never more rashly and needlessly under- 
 taken. It was wrong in principle, weak in 
 execution, and appalling in its results. 
 Shah Soojah was not even presumptive 
 heir to the usurped dominions of his grand- 
 father; for Kamran, the son of the elder 
 brother Mahmood, had a prior claim. The 
 professed object of the Tripartite Treaty now 
 formed, viz., to restore a legitimate sove- 
 reign to the throne from whence he had 
 been wrongfully expelled, was therefore ab- 
 solutely false ; and as if to make the spirit 
 of the whole transaction more evident, Run- 
 jeet Sing affixed his signature to tlie treaty 
 at Lahore, June, 1838, with the ill-gotten 
 Koh-i-Noor gleaming on his arm.§ In re- 
 turn for furnishing a few thousand troops 
 
 J Lt. Eldred Pottinger cheered, counselled, and 
 fouglit with the garrison throughout tlie weary siege. 
 
 § This famous stone is said by several modern 
 writers on the Afghan war to have formed part of
 
 MARCH OF THE "ARMY OF THE INDUS" TO SINDE. 
 
 435 
 
 to be paid by Shah Soojah, Runject Sing 
 was to be confirmed in possession of all the 
 territories (incliuliiig Peshawnr) wrested by 
 him from Cabool.* As to the JOnglish, 
 they were willing to lavish men and money 
 on the trappings of war, and to get n[) "a 
 grand military promenade," for the sake of 
 terrifying Knssia by a formidable demon- 
 stration of our power and energy. Thosef 
 who vcnt\xrcd to speak of the dreary defiles, 
 inelement elimate, and, above all, of the 
 warlike temper of the people upon whom a 
 rejeeted yoke was to be reimposcd by Eng- 
 lish bayonets, were ecnsured as timid, pre- 
 judieed, or misinformed; and the assem- 
 bling of the " army of the Indus" was a 
 source of agreeable excitement, fraught with 
 promotions and a])pointments, commissa- 
 riat contracts, and honours from the Crown ; 
 for, despite the neutral policy urged by the 
 liome authorities, it was pretty evident 
 that a brilliant campaign was no less 
 certain to procure for its promoters rank 
 and emolument, than to inflict new burdens 
 on the Indian revenues, and increase the 
 pressure of taxes which it was alike the 
 duty and the interest of the government to 
 mitigate. 
 
 A declaration of war was issued from 
 Simla, in 1838, and a British force was 
 speedily gathered of 28,350 men, partly from 
 Bengal, partly from Bombay. It was deemed 
 advisable by the governor-general that the 
 Shah should " enter Afghanistan surrounded 
 by his own troops ;" and, for this end, about 
 
 Shah Jehan's peacock throne, which was carried off 
 from Hiiuloostan by Nadir Shah ; but there does not 
 seem evidence to support the statement. Several 
 diamonds of extraordinary value were seized by 
 different invaders, and one in particular was given 
 by the exiled Huniayun to his ungracious host the 
 Shah of Persia.— (Ste p. 91.) 
 
 * The concessions made to Runjeet Sing at this 
 period were no less undignified than unwise. At 
 the meeting which took place with Lord Auckland 
 at Ferozepoor, caresses were lavished on the " lion 
 of the Punjab," who though now a decrepit and 
 paralysed old man, continued to outrage public de- 
 cency by the ]iractice of shameful sensualities. 
 There he sat in his golden chair, shaped like a hip- 
 bath, with his attenuated limbs gathered beneath him, 
 and his single restless eye flashing in rivalry of the 
 Koh-i-Noor (the only ornament he wore, except a 
 string of 300 pearls of the finest water and the size 
 of small marbles), listening to the civilities of the 
 English authorities, which happily did not extend 
 to compliance with his previous demand for an Eng- 
 lish wife.— (Osborne's Court and Camp af Runjeet 
 Sin;!, 199.) The fact that the old debauchee en- 
 tertained some at least of his official visitors with 
 the "hurra tomaclia" (great fun) of intoxicating 
 "nautch" girls, for the sake of seeing them l)eat and 
 abuse one another, gives force to the remark of a 
 
 4,000 camp followersj were levied from the 
 E. I. Cy.'s military stations, and placed 
 under the nominal command of Timiir, the 
 eldest son of Soojah-ool-jMoolk ; the whole 
 boing led by British officers, and paid from 
 the British treasury. Runjeet Sing was to 
 supply a contingent of 0,000 men, and to 
 station 15,000 men as an army of observa- 
 tion in Peshawur. The commissariat ar- 
 rangements were extremely deficient, and 
 the enormous number of camp followers, 
 aiuounting to nearly 100,000 persons, im- 
 parted new diflicultics to a march of extra- 
 ordinary length, through an almost un- 
 explored and hostile territory. The in- 
 vading force had only physical difficulties, 
 and the depredations of certain mountain 
 tribes, to encounter on the road to Candahar. 
 It was expected that the Ameers of Sinde 
 would offer opposition on the score of the 
 manifest infraction of the treaty of 1832, by 
 which the E. I. Cy., when desirous to opea 
 the navigation of the Indus, expressly de- 
 clared that it would be employed by them 
 solely for mercantile uses. The Ameers, 
 however, saw the folly of remonstrating 
 with a powerful force thirsting for the plun- 
 der of the rich city of Hyderabad. Tiiey 
 paid £100,000 as an instalment of the 
 £280,000 demanded by Shah Soojah on the 
 favourite plea of arrears of tribute, and sur- 
 rendered the fortified island of Bukktir in 
 the Indus, the possession of which was 
 deemed necessary to the security of the 
 English force. The army of the Indus 
 
 British officer, who, commenting on tlie indulgence 
 evinced to the vices of Runjeet Sing, writes^" It was 
 impossible not to feel that this complaisance was 
 carried a little too far, when he was exhibited in the 
 character of a I3acchus or Silenus, in the presence of 
 an assemblage of English gentlewomen, and when 
 their notions of decency were further outraged by 
 the introduction, to whatever extent sanctioned by 
 culpable usage in other parts of India, of bands of 
 singing and dancing courtesans." — (Havelock's IJ'ar 
 in Afyhanistan, {., 87.) After all the Seiks were 
 not conciliated : they watched the Feringhees 
 (foreigners) with extreme suspicion ; and when their 
 infirm old chief, in his anxiety to examine a present 
 of two howitzers, fell prostrate before them, the ac- 
 cident was regarded as a fearful omen. 
 
 t In October, 1838, the author, deeply convinced 
 of the unjust and perilous nature of the war, drew 
 up a memorandum, which the Marquis AVellesley 
 transmitted to Sir John Cam Hobhouse, then Presi- 
 sident of the Board of Control. His lordship ad- 
 dressed a subsequent communication to Sir John 
 against the Afghan war, predicting that " our diffi- 
 culties would commence where our military successes 
 ended." The Duke of Wellington, Elphinstone, 
 Ednionstone, Metcalfe, and other Indian statesmen, 
 took the same view of the question. 
 
 X Col. Dcnnie's Campaigns in Afghanistan, 51.
 
 436 CAPTURE OF GHUZNEE— OCCUPATION OF CANDAHAR & CABOOL. 
 
 traversed the weary Bolan Pass, and the 
 dangerous and difficult Kojuck defile with 
 success, but at a fearful cost of life,* espe- 
 cially on the part of the camp followers, from 
 beat and want of water. Candahar (the 
 capital of Western Afghanistan), was occu- 
 pied without resistance by Shah Soojah and 
 his allies, in April, 1839. Kohun-dil-Khan 
 and his brother sirdars fled as the foe ad- 
 vanced; and English gold scattered lavishly 
 on all sides, enabled the returning monarch 
 to win the temporary suffrage of several 
 Barukzye chiefs. In the following June 
 the army under Sir John Keane and Shah 
 Soojah left a garrison at Candahar and set 
 out for Ghuznee. This ancient fortress 
 proved stronger than had been expected; 
 but a nephew of Dost Mohammed deserted 
 from the garrison, and betrayed the im- 
 portant secret, that an entrance called the 
 Cabool gate had not, like the rest, been 
 built up with stone, but had been left slightly 
 barricaded in the expectation of supplies. 
 The besiegers, acting on this information, 
 fastened bags of gunpowder upon the wooden 
 door at night, and by setting them on fire 
 effected a practicable breach, through which 
 a storming party, led by Colonel Dennie, 
 immediately secured an entrance, captured 
 the town, and, after some hours' resis- 
 tance, the citadel also, receiving little loss, 
 but slaying 1,000 Afghans: 3,000 more 
 were wounded or captured. Among the 
 prisoners were about fifty fanatics of all 
 ages, who had assumed the name of Ghazee, 
 in right of being engaged in holy warfare 
 against infidels. These men, the first taken 
 in arms against Shah Soojah, " were hacked 
 to death with wanton barbarity by the 
 knives of his executioners."! 
 
 So much for the magnanimity of the re- 
 stored monarch in his short hour of triumph. 
 The campaign thus successfully opened, was 
 to some extent overshadowed by tidings of 
 the death of Runjeet Sing, in 1839; but 
 notwithstanding the jealous dislike evinced 
 towards the English by the new authorities 
 at Lahore, the Seik contingent, wretchedly 
 insufficient as it was, became serviceable in 
 the hands of Colonel Wade ; and this ener- 
 getic officer, with his nominal coadjutor the 
 Shahzada (Prince Timur), who was "an 
 absolute cypher,"contrivcd, partly by fighting, 
 
 • Of 100,000 camp followers, only 20,000 reached 
 Candahar.— (Capper's Time I'reiiidem-ies, p. 212.) 
 
 t Vide John William K aye's graphic and fearless 
 Ilit^tory iif Ihc War in jifykunislan, i., 445. 
 
 \ Idem., 501. 
 
 partly by diplomacy, to traverse the formi- 
 dable Khyber Pass, at the head of a motley 
 assemblage of Hindoos, Seiks, and Afghans. 
 Akber Khan, Dost Mohammed's favourite 
 " fighting son," was recalled from his camp 
 near Jellalabad, to join his father at Cabool, 
 and the path being left open. Wade marched 
 on and seized Jellalabad. 
 
 The position of Dost Mohammed was 
 daily rendered more perilous by the deser- 
 tion of his relatives and followers. Very 
 shortly after the taking of Ghuznee, he at- 
 tempted to compromise matters by offering 
 to submit to the restoration of Shah Soojah, 
 on condition of his own nomination to his 
 late brother Futteh Khan's position of 
 vizier. This proposition was of course re- 
 jected ; for so far from being inclined to 
 delegate authority to his opponent. Shah 
 Soojah desired nothing better than to " hang 
 the dog" — a procedure which the British en- 
 voy, Mr. Macnaghtan, does not appear to 
 have considered otherwise than advisable, 
 provided they could catch him. J 
 
 The Dost desired to give the invaders 
 battle at Maidan, on the Cabool river, but 
 treachery and disaffection surrounded him 
 ou every side, and his camp at Urghundeh 
 fairly fell to pieces. The venal Kuzzil- 
 bashes (or Persian guard) forsook the 
 master whose salt they had eaten thirteen 
 years. In vain he entreated them to stand 
 by him in one charge against the Feringhees, 
 that he might die with honour, — the spirit- 
 stirring appeal fell on the listless ears of men 
 determined to purchase safety by desertion; 
 and, attended by a few faithful followers. 
 Dost ]\Iohammed in despair turned his 
 horse's head towards the Hindoo-Koosh, 
 leaving his guns standing. 
 
 Cabool opened its gates with " sullen, surly 
 submission;" and Shah Soojah entered the 
 Balla Hissar or palace-citadel in triumph, 
 while his British allies sounded a long loud 
 note of triumph, the European echoes of 
 which were destined to die away in the very 
 saddest cry of anguish and humiliation ever 
 uttered by the proud conquerors of India. 
 The authorities at Cabool soon discovered 
 that the foreign bayonets and foreign gold 
 which had been the means of replacing Shah 
 Soojah on the throne of Afghanistan, were 
 likewise the sole method of keeping him 
 there. Lord Auckland desired the return 
 of the entire " army of the Indus ;" 
 but the unpopularity of the Shah was too 
 evident to admit of lueh a step, unless we 
 were williuir to confess the whole affair a
 
 SURRENDER OF THE AMEER, DOST MOTIAMMKD— 1810. 
 
 4:37 
 
 failure, and escort his majesty l)af!k to 
 Loodiana, or if he thouf^lit fit, leave him 
 to take his chance among his own nountry- 
 meii. An open confession of error, how- 
 ever mortifyiiifT, would have been inca!- 
 eidably wiser than foliowiii}; up one false 
 step with a multitude of others. In 1S39 
 a portion of the troops retuined to Calcutta. 
 The commander-in-chief, Sir John Keane, 
 immediately proceeded to England, where lie 
 was elevated to the peerage by the title of 
 Baron Keane of Ghuznee, and further re- 
 munerated by a pension of £2,000 per ann. 
 for himself and his two next heirs male. The 
 governor-general, from a baron, was made 
 an earl. Mr. Maenaghten was created a ba- 
 ronet, and orders of the Bath were bestowed, 
 not with the most discriminating hand.* 
 
 The winter of 1839 passed in tolerable 
 tranquillity. The British took military 
 possession of the country by establishing 
 garrisons in the cities of Cabool and Can- 
 daliar, and in the principal posts on the 
 main roads to llindoostan — viz., Ghuznee 
 and Quettah on the west, Jellalabad and 
 Ali-Musjid on the east. Some minor de- 
 tachments were left in various other isolated 
 positions; thus dividing a force which, united, 
 was scarcely sufficient for its own protection. 
 Moreover, the military authorities in Cabool, 
 instead of retaining their position in the 
 Balla Hissar, were induced to build costly 
 and indefensible cantonments on the adja- 
 cent plain, in compliance with the scruples 
 of Shah Soojah, who soon began to feel his 
 throne somewhat too closely hedged in by 
 foreign troops. The first fiush of triumph 
 over, he could not but find it a weary thing 
 to live shut up in a fortress, despised by his 
 own subjects ; and as he looked forth from 
 the Balla Ilissar on the city beneath, he 
 said " everything appeared to him shruidv 
 small and miserable; and that the Cabool 
 of his old age in no res])eet corresponded 
 with the recollections of the Cabool of his 
 youth." 
 
 The yearnings of romance were soon 
 swallowed up in real dangers. Insur- 
 rections took place in various quarters. 
 Dost Mohammed again appeared in arms, 
 and several sharp encounters took place 
 in the course of the year 18-10; but 
 the Afghans, despite some partial successes, 
 offered no combined or systematic resistance. 
 The Dost, after making a brave and suc- 
 cessful stand at Purwau in November, 
 thought the time had arrived when he 
 
 * Dennie's .';eivices at Gliuznee were overlooked. 
 3 L 
 
 might, with a good grace, surrender him- 
 self to the English (into whose hands the 
 ladies of his family had already fallen.) 
 'i'urning from the field of battle in despair, 
 he galloped towards Cabool, and twenty- 
 four hours spent on the saddle, brought 
 him face to face with the British envoy, 
 who was returning homeward from an 
 evening ride. Dost Mohammed sprang to 
 the ground, tendered his sword, and claimed 
 protection as a voluntary captive. I'he 
 kindly peace-loving nature of Sir William 
 had been sadly warped since he had ex- 
 changed the ordinary routine of official 
 duties and scholarly recreations for the 
 arduous post of counsellor to Shah Soojah ; 
 and immediately before this unlooked-for 
 greeting, he had been inquiring with regard 
 to the Dost — " '\Vo\dd it be justifiable to 
 set a price on this fellow's head?" for "it 
 appears that he meditates fighting with us 
 so long as the breath is in his body." But 
 the chivalrous bearing of the defeated 
 Ameer banished all harsh thoughts. Sir 
 William refused the proffered sword ; and 
 when the Dost was sent as a state prisoner 
 to Hindoostan, actually advocated his being 
 provided for by the British authorities 
 " more handsomely than Shah Soojah had 
 been," for the followitig memorable reason : 
 — " The Shah had no claim upon us. We 
 had no hand in depriving him of his king- 
 dom ; whereas, we ejected the Dost, who 
 never offended us, in s\ipport of our policy, 
 of which he was the victim." Lord Auck- 
 land tacitly admitted the fact by receiving 
 the deposed ruler with extreme courtesy, 
 and burdening the Indian population with 
 a new pension of two lacs, or about £20,000 
 per ann. for his support. At this time the 
 revenues of Cabool, gathered by force of 
 arms, did not exceed fifteen lacs, and barely 
 paid the ordinary expenses of government, 
 'i'he Anglo-Afghan treasury was well-nigh 
 exhausted, and there were grounds for 
 doubting whether the E. I. Cy. would not 
 think a million and a quarter a-year too 
 dear a price to pay for the maintenance of 
 their nominee at Cabool. The reduction of 
 outgoings was attempted by the diminution 
 of the " black mail" paid to certain Khilji 
 chiefs for checking the excesses committed 
 by the predator}' tribes who infested the 
 passes. The experiment proved very dan- 
 gerous ; the Khiljies assumed a haughty 
 tone; the Kojucks, and many tribcj of 
 whose very names the English had until 
 now remained in happy ignorance, rose ia
 
 438 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ENGLISH IN AFGHANISTAN— 1841. 
 
 what was misnamed "rebellion" against 
 Shah Soojah. In Kohistan and the Khy- 
 ber, that region of snowy precipices and 
 roaring torrents, where every man is a 
 good marksman behind his native rock, 
 more than usual excitement prevailed. The 
 British envoy, considering with some reason 
 the state of Afghanistan to be at the best of 
 times one of chronic unrest, paid too little 
 heed to the numerous signs of an approach- 
 ing crisis which alarmed Shah Soojah. 
 The noses of the Dourani Khans (or lords) 
 had, Macnaghten said, been brought to the 
 grindstone, and all was quiet, from Dan to 
 Beersheba.* Impressed with this agreeable 
 conviction, he prepared to resign his posi- 
 tion, and return to Hindoostan to fill the 
 honourable station of governor of Bombay. 
 His intended successor, Sir Alexander 
 Burnes, had long ardently desired the office 
 of envoy ; but from the conflicting and con- 
 tradictory character both of his ofiicial and 
 private statements, it is difficult to say what 
 his actual opinions were concerning the 
 condition of the country and the feelings of 
 the people. He must have known that the 
 military occupation of Afghanistan (of ne- 
 cessity sufficiently unpopular) had been 
 rendered peculiarly hateful and galling by 
 his own unbridled licentiousness, and by 
 that of other officers, whose example was 
 closely imitated by the mass of the Euro- 
 pean soldiery. Lady ]\Iacuaghten, Lady 
 Sale, and other Englishwomen resided with- 
 in the cantonments, yet their presence 
 did not cheek the excesses, the terrible 
 retribution for which they were soon to 
 share. Shah Soojah, whom Macnaghten 
 declared to be "the best and ablest man in 
 Lis dominions,"t and whose fidelity was 
 evinced by the warnings he repeatedly gave 
 the English authorities of the impending 
 danger, and his entreaties that they would 
 take up their abode in the Balla Ilissar, 
 remonstrated forcibly against the immo- 
 rality of the officers, and pointed out the 
 
 * News had arrived at Cabool, in the course of the 
 summer, which greatly relieved the apprehensions of 
 Macnaghten and Burnes, both of whom had a 
 tendency to look out for dangers from afar, ratlior 
 than guard against those by -nhich they were imme- 
 diately surrounded. The raising of the siege of 
 Herat had only temporarily allayed their fears of 
 Tiussian aggression, which were soon aroused by the 
 dispatch of a powerful force, under General Tcroffski, 
 ostensibly directed against the man-stealing, slave- 
 holding princijjality of Khiva, but it was believed, in- 
 tended to act offensively against the I'higlish. Wliat- 
 evcr llie true design may have been, it was frus- 
 trated by the intense cold and inaccessible character 
 
 indignation which it excited among his 
 countrymen. " I told the envoy,'"' writes 
 the Shah to Lord Auckland, January, 1842, 
 " what was going on, and was not listened 
 to. I told him that complaints were daily 
 made to me of Afghan women being talcen 
 to Burnes' moonshee (Mohun Lai), and of 
 their drinking wine at his house, and of 
 women being taken to the chaonee, and of 
 my having witnessed it." J Kaye states, " the 
 scandal was open, undisguised, notorious. 
 Redress was not to be obtained. The evil 
 was not in course of suppression. It went 
 on till it became intolerable ; and the in- 
 jured then began to see that the only 
 remedy was in their own hands. "§ 
 
 That remedy was the death of the leading 
 offender, and the expulsion of the English 
 from Afghanistan. Warnings of various 
 kinds were not wanting; but they passed 
 unheeded. The week fixed for the depar- 
 ture of the envoy arrived, and preparation.s 
 were made for his journey, and for the 
 comfort of his successor in office, and of 
 tlie other functionaries during the coming 
 winter, which was expected to pass like the 
 two former ones, in a sttccession of pastimes, 
 including shooting, card-playing, drinking, y 
 and various amusements, innocent or other- 
 wise, according to the tastes and habits of 
 tliose concerned. On the evening of the 
 1st November, 1841, Burnes formally con- 
 gratulated IMacnaghten on his approach- 
 ing departure during a period of profound 
 tranquillity.^ At that very time a party of 
 chiefs were assembled close at hand dis- 
 cussing in full conclave the means of 
 redressing their national and individual 
 wrongs. At daybreak on the following 
 morning, Burnes was aroused by the mes- 
 sage of a friendly Afghan, informing him of 
 upproaching danger, and bidding him quit 
 the city and seek safety in the Balla Hissar 
 or the cantonments. The vizier of Shah 
 .Soojah followed on the same errand, but all 
 in vain ; the doomed man sent to ask mili- 
 
 of the country, which, together with pestilence, 
 nearly destroyed the Russian army, and compelled 
 Peroffski to turn back without reaching Khiva. 
 
 t Kaye, i., 5;S3. I Hem, ii., 354. § Idem, i., 615. 
 
 II Dost Mohammed ])roliibited the sale of a fiery 
 spirit distilled from the grape. The English restored 
 the Armenian manufacturers to full eniplnyment. 
 
 ^ It is asserted, that on the same day, intelligence 
 so clear and full of a hostile confederacy had been 
 given to liurnes, that he exclaimed the time had come 
 for the I5ritish to leave the country. Burnes was 
 impulsive, vacillating, ambitious, ami uni)rincipled. 
 It is possible tlial he deceived hinisi'lf soruetimes : 
 it is certain that he constantly misled Macnaghten.
 
 MASSACRE OV THE BROTHERS BURNES AND LIEUT. BROADFOOT. 439 
 
 tary support, and persisted in rrmainiii!^ in 
 his own al)0(lc, which adjoined that of Ca))- 
 tain Johnson, ])ayniastcr of the Sliah's 
 forces. This otriccr was absent iu canton- 
 ments, but tliG treasury was under the care 
 of the usual sepoy guard, and they were 
 ready and even desirous to fire on the in- 
 surgents. Burnes refused to give tlie neces- 
 sary orders, in the ho])c of receiving speedy 
 succour; mcanwliile the crowd of stragglers 
 grew into an infuriated mob, and his at- 
 tempted harangue from the balcony was 
 silenced by loud clamours and reproaches. 
 Two oificcrs had slept that night in the 
 house of Sir Alexander: one of them, Lieu- 
 tenant ]?roadfoot, prepared to sell his life 
 dearly, and it is asserted, slew no less than 
 six of his assailants before a ball struck 
 him to the ground a corpse; the other. 
 Lieutenant Charles Burnes, remained beside 
 his brother while the latter ofl'ered redress 
 of grievances, and a heavy ransom to the 
 populace as the price of their joint lives. 
 But in vain ; the outraged Afghans loved 
 vengeance better than gold; and after setting 
 fire to the stables, a party of them burst 
 into the garden, where they were fired iipon 
 by the sepoys under Lieutenant Burucs. 
 Sir Alexander disguised liimself in native 
 attire, and strove to escape, but was recog- 
 nised, or rather betrayed by the Cash- 
 merian who had induced him to make the 
 attempt. A fearful shout arose from the 
 party iu the garden on discovering his pre- 
 sence — " This is Secuudcr (Alexander) 
 Burnes!" and in a few moments both 
 brothers were cut to pieces by Afghan 
 knives. The sepoys in charge of the ti-ea- 
 sury fought desperately, and surrendered 
 their charge only with their lives. IMas- 
 sacre followed pillage ; every man, woman, 
 and child (Hindoo and Afghan) found in the 
 two English dwellings perished :* finally, 
 the buildings were fired ; and all this with 
 (),()00 British troops within half-au-hour's 
 march of the city. The only energetic 
 attempt made to check the insurrectionary 
 movement emanated from the Shah, and 
 was performed by one of his sons; but it 
 proved unsuccessful, and the British autho- 
 rities displayed aia apathy quite inexplicable, 
 even supposing the outbreak to have been 
 directly occasioned by the ill conduct of its 
 chief victim. General Elphinstone, the 
 commander-in-chief, was an officer of high 
 character, and of brave and kindly bearing; 
 
 ! * Moonsliee Mohim Lai, who did "the dirty work of 
 ' the British diplomatists," made his escape.— (Kaye.) 
 
 but increasing physical infirmities pressed 
 heavilj' on him: and before the catastrophe 
 he had ajjplied for his recall from Afghan- . 
 istan, where, indeed, he ought never to have 
 been sent. Between him and Maenaghten 
 no sympathy existed : they could not under- 
 stand each other, and never acted in con- 
 cert. The one was despondent and procras- 
 tinating, the other hopeful and energetic, 
 but too much given to diplomacy. The 
 consequence of this tendency was the adop- 
 tion of various compromising measures whea 
 the occasion loudly called for the most 
 active and straightforward policy. Post 
 after post was cajjtured from the British in 
 the immediate vicinity of Cabool, and it 
 soon became evident that the out-stations 
 were in extreme peril; for the insurrection, 
 from being local, speedily became general. 
 The "frightful extent" of the cantonments 
 (erected before Elphinstonc's arrival), the 
 loss of a fort four hundred yards distant, 
 in which the commissariat stores had been 
 most improvidently placed, together with the 
 deficiency of artillery, so disheartened and 
 unnerved the general, that he suffered day 
 after day to pass without any decisive effort 
 to gain possession of the city, and began to 
 urge on Maenaghten the propriety of 
 making terms with the enemy. The king 
 remained shut up iu the Balla Hissar, " like 
 grain between two millstones." He was a 
 man of advanced age and weak purpose, and 
 the hostility of his subjects being avowedly 
 directed against the Feringhees, he strove 
 to keep his crown upon his head, and hi^ 
 head upon his shoulders, by a trimming 
 policy, which rendered him an object of 
 distrust to both parties, and cost him even- 
 tually life as well as honour. Avarice had 
 grown on him, and he beheld with extreme 
 annoyance the sums of money lavished by 
 the British envoy in the futile attem])t to 
 buy off the more influential of the confede- 
 rate chiefs. The urgent solicitations of 
 Elphinstone, the growing difficulty of ob- 
 taining supplies for the troops, the unsatis- 
 factory results of daily petty hostilities, and 
 the non-arrival of the reinforcements of men 
 and money solicited by ^Maenaghten from 
 Hiudoostan, at length induced him to oflTer 
 to evacuate Afghanistan on honourable 
 terms. Tb.e tone adopted by the chiefs was 
 so arrogant and offensive, that the confer- 
 ence came to an abrupt termination ; both 
 parties being resolved to resume hostilities 
 sooner than abate their respective preten- 
 sions. During the interview a strange
 
 440 ENGLISH FORCE BELEAGUERED IN CABOOL CANTONMENTS— 1841. 
 
 scene took place outside the cantonments. 
 Thinking that a treaty of peace was being 
 concluded by their leaders, the British and 
 Afghan soldiery gave veut to their joy in 
 mutual congratulations. The Europeans 
 lent over the low walls (misnamed defences), 
 conversing familiarly with their late foes, 
 and even went out unarmed among them, 
 and thankfully accepted presents of vege- 
 tables. The result of the meeting between 
 the envoy and the chiefs was the renewal of 
 strife, and the men whose hands had been 
 so lately joined in friendly greetings, were 
 again called on to shed each other's blood 
 for the honour of their respective countries. 
 The English troops showed so little inclina- 
 tion for the work, that Macnaghtan angrily 
 designated them a " pack of despicable 
 cowards," and was soon compelled to reopen 
 his negotiations with the enemy. Aflairs 
 were in this precarious condition when 
 Akber Khan returned to Cabool, after more 
 than two years of exile and sufl'ering. His 
 reappearance caused no additional anxiety 
 to the beleagured English ; on the contrary, 
 the fact that the ladies of the family 
 of the young Barukzye were, with his 
 father, prisoners in Hindoostan, inspired a 
 hope that he might be made the means of 
 procuring favourable terms from the hostile 
 leaders who, on their part, welcomed the 
 return of the favourite son of the Dost with 
 extreme delight. Akber (styled by Roebuck 
 the "Wallace of Cabool") was, beyond 
 doubt, a favourable specimen of an Afghan 
 chief, strikingly handsome in face and 
 ^gure, full of life and energy, joyous in 
 peace, fearless in war, freedom-loving, deeply 
 attached to his father and his country, sus- 
 ceptible of generous impulses, but unedu- 
 cated and destitute of self-control. For 
 some time he took no leading part against 
 the English, and neither aided nor opposed 
 the dominant party in formally setting aside 
 the authority of Shah Soojah, and proclaim- 
 ing as king in his stead the Nawab Moham- 
 med Zemaun Khan, a cousin of the late 
 Cabool chief. The selection was fortunate 
 for the English, the Nawab being a humane 
 and honourable man, well inclined to grant 
 them acceptable terms of evacuation ; and his 
 turbulent and quarrelsome adherents were, 
 after much discussion, induced to sign a 
 treaty, the stipulations of which, mutual dis- 
 trust prevented from being fulfilled by either 
 party. The English consented to sur- 
 render the fortresses they still retained in 
 Afghanistan, and their cannon, on con- 
 
 dition of receiving a supply of beasts of 
 burden from the enemy, to facilitate their 
 march. Shah Soojah was to be allowed to 
 return with them or to remain in Cabool, 
 with the miserable stipend of a lac of rupees 
 per annum ; and one moment he resolved 
 on accompanying the retreatinjj army, while 
 the next he declared it his intention to 
 remain where he was, and wait a new turn 
 of events. In either mood, he declaimed, 
 with reason, against the folly of his allies 
 in divesting themselves of the means of 
 defence, asking indignantly whether any 
 people in the world ever before gave their 
 enemies the means of killing them? The 
 officers in charge of Candahar and Jellala- 
 bad (Nott and Sale) took the same view of 
 the case ; and, arguing that the order of sur- 
 render must have been forcibly extorted 
 from General Elphinstone, positively re- 
 fused to abandon their positions. The treaty 
 was thus placed in abeyance, and the troops 
 in cantonment lived on from day to day, 
 frittering away their resources, and growing 
 hourly more desponding ; while Macnaghten, 
 Elphinstone, and the second in command. 
 Brigadier Shelton, passed the precious 
 hours in angry discussion. The ill-health 
 of the general, increased by a painful wound 
 caused by a musket-ball, obliged him to 
 delegate many duties to Shelton, an officer 
 of great personal courage, but overbearing 
 and prejudiced, with the especial defect of 
 being unable to sympathise with the suffer- 
 ings, or appreciate the noble devotion of the 
 much-tried native troops. The civilian is said 
 to have been the truest soldier in the camp ; 
 but he had no confidence in his colleagues, 
 and his own powers of mind and body were 
 fast sinking beneath the load of anxiety 
 which had so suddenly banished the delusion 
 (sedulously cherished by the unhappy Burnes 
 to the last day of his life) of the tranquil 
 submission of Afghanistan to a foreign 
 yoke. Never had day-dreamer a more terri- 
 ble awakening. Incensed by the refusal of 
 the holders of inferior posts to obey his 
 orders, and by the non-fulfilment of the 
 promises made by the Barukzye chiefs of 
 carriage cattle, Macnaghten, chafed almost 
 to madness, was ready to follow any ignis 
 fatuus that should present a hope of escape 
 for himself and the 1G,000 men whose lives 
 trembled in the balance. Although osten- 
 sibly bound by treaty with the Barukzyes, 
 he was ready to side with Doorani or 
 Populzye, Khilji or Kuzzilbash, or, in a 
 word, to join any native faction able to
 
 MURDER OF SIR W. MACNAGIITEN AND CAPTAIN TREVOR— 1811. 441 
 
 afford cordial co-operation. In this mood 
 he lent a willing; ear to a comnniiiicatioii 
 made to him on tiic evening of ll2nd Dec, 
 1841. The proposal was that Akber and 
 the Kliiljics should unite with the British 
 for the seizure of the; person of Ameeri- 
 oollah Kiiari, a leading Barukzve chief, and 
 a party to the hite agreement, wiiosc head, 
 for a certain sum of money, would he laid 
 at the feet of tlie envoy. Happily for his 
 own honour and that of his country, Mac- 
 naghtcu rejected the proposition so far as 
 the life of the chief was concerned,* but 
 was prei)ared to aid in his capture without 
 tiie preliminary measure of declaring the 
 treaty void. The envoy gave a written 
 promise for the evacuation of Afghanistan in 
 the coming spring; Shah Soojah was to be 
 left behind, witii Akber for his vizier; and 
 the representative of the British govern- 
 ment furtiier guaranteed to reward the ser- 
 vices of Akber by an annuity of £40,000 
 a-year, and a bonus of no less than £300,000. 
 On the following morning Macnaghten scut 
 for the officers of his staff (Capts. Lawrence, 
 Trevor, and Mackenzie), and, in an excited 
 but determined tone, bade them accompany 
 him to a conference with Akber: lastly, 
 he informed the general of his intentions, 
 desiring that two regiments might be got 
 ready for service, and, to some extent, e.\- 
 plaining the matter in hand. Elphinstone 
 asked what part Nawab Zemaun Khan, and 
 other leading Barukzyes, were expected to 
 take ? " None," was the reply ; " they are 
 not in the plot." Tiie old general was scni- 
 pulously honest, and the word grated on his 
 ear. But Macnaghten would listen to 
 neither remonstrance nor entreaty. Impa- 
 tiently turning aside from the feeble but 
 chivalrous veteran, he exclaimed — "I under- 
 stand these things better than you ;" and rode 
 off to the fatal interview, — not, however, 
 without some misgiving as to its result; for 
 he declared to his companions, that come 
 what would, a thousand deaths were prefer- 
 able to the life he had of late been leading. 
 The meeting commenced in apparent cour- 
 tesy ; Macnaghten offered Akber a noble 
 Arab horse, which the young chief accepted 
 with thanks, at the same time acknowledg- 
 
 * The same riglit principle had not been inva- 
 riably adliered to during tlie .Afghan war, and the 
 chiefs had good grounds for suspecling that blood- 
 money had been offered for their lives. John 
 Conolly (one of three brothers who followed the for- 
 tunes of their uncle. Sir W. Macnaghten, and like 
 him, never lived to return to India), addressed from 
 tne Balla Ilissar repealed injunctions to Moluin Lai, 
 
 ing the gift of a pair of double-barrelled 
 pistols, sent on the previous day, which 
 he wore at his girdle. The whole party, 
 English and Afghans, dismounted, and 
 seated themselves on cloths spread on some 
 snow-clad hillocks, near the Cabool river, 
 and about ()()() yards from the fantoriments. 
 Macnaghten stretched himself at full length 
 on the Ijank ; Trevor and Mackenzie seated 
 themselves beside him ; but Lawrence knelt 
 on one knee, ready for action. There was 
 abundant cause for suspicion : the presence 
 of a brother of Ameen-ooUah, the excited 
 and eager manner of the Afghans, and the 
 numbers gathering round the iMiglish, drew 
 from Lawrence and Mackenzie a remark 
 that such intrusion was not consistent with 
 a private conference. " They are all in the 
 secret," said Akber; and, as he spoke, the 
 envoy and his companions were violently 
 seized from behind. Resistance was hope- 
 less : their slender escort of sixteen men 
 galloped back to cantonments to avoid 
 being slain, save one who perished nobly in 
 attempting to join his masters; the three 
 attache's were made prisoners; but Mac- 
 naghten commenced a desperate struggle 
 with Akber Khan, and a cry being raised 
 that the troops were marching to the rescue, 
 the young Barukzye, in extreme excitement, 
 drew a pistol from his girdle, and shot the 
 donor through the body. A party of fanati- 
 cal Ghazees came up, flung themselves on 
 the fallen envoy, and hacked him to pieces 
 with their knives. Trevor slipped from the 
 horse of the chief who was bearing him away 
 captive, and shared the fate of his leader; 
 and the other two officers were saved with 
 difficulty by Akber Khan, who, remorseful 
 for his late act, " drew his sword and laid 
 about him right manfully"t for the defence 
 of the prisoners against the infuiiated crowd. 
 While the mangled remains of the victims 
 were being paraded tlirough the streets and 
 great bazaar of the city, the military 
 leaders remained in their usual apathetic 
 state ; nor was it until the morrow that 
 authentic information was received of the 
 catastrophe. Major Eldred Pottinger, on 
 whom the office of political agent devolved, 
 entreated the authorities assembled in 
 
 to offer from ten to fifteen thousand rupees for the 
 heads of certain leading chiefs; and, in the cases of 
 AbdooUah Khan and Meer Musjedee, the rewards 
 were actually claimed but not accorded ; nor do the 
 offers of Conolly appear to have been made with the 
 concurrence or even cognizance of Macnaghten, much 
 less with that of Klphinstom-. — (Kaye, ii.. o7 — 104.) 
 t Capt, Mackenzie's words. — (Lt. Eyre's Juunml.)
 
 442 FATAL RETREAT OF ENGLISH TROOPS FROM CABOOL— JAN., 1841. 
 
 council, either to take refuge in the Balla 
 Hissar, or endeavour to force a way to Jel- 
 lalabacl, and there remain until the arrival 
 of reinforcements from India, tidings of 
 which arrived within two days of the mas- 
 sacre. But his arguments were not re- 
 garded, and new terms were concluded, by 
 which the representatives of the Indian 
 government engaged to abandon all their 
 forts, surrender their guns, evacuate Af- 
 ghanistan, restore the deposed Dost, and 
 pay a ransom of £140,000 in return for the 
 supplies necessary for the retreat. Hos- 
 tages were demanded and given for the 
 performance of these humiliating condi- 
 tions ; but Lawrence and Mackenzie were 
 released. Akber Khan desired that the 
 English ladies should be left behind, as se- 
 curity for the -restoration of the female 
 members of his family; but the married 
 officers refused the advantageous offers 
 made from head-quarters to induce them to 
 consent, and "some (says Eyre) declared they 
 would shoot their wives first." On the 6th 
 of January, 1843, though deep snow already 
 lay on the ground, the troops quitted 
 the cantonments, in which they had sus- 
 tained a two months' siege, to encounter 
 the miseries of a winter march through a 
 country of perhaps unparalleled difficulty, 
 swarming with mountain tribes predatory 
 by profession, and bitterly incensed against 
 the foreign invaders. The records of that 
 terrible journey are written in letters of 
 blood. No circumstances could possibly 
 have occurred under which regularity and 
 discipline were more needed to ensure the 
 safety of the retreating force ; yet even the 
 semblance of it was soon abandoned in one 
 general attempt to keep on with the fore- 
 most rank : to lag behind was certain death 
 from Afghan knives or Afghan snows. In 
 the dark and terrible pass of Koord Cabool, 
 five miles in length, through which a roar- 
 ing torrent dashed on between blocks of 
 ice, while its heights were crowned by the 
 jjitiless Khiljies, 3,000 persons perished. 
 The Englishwomen rode through, on horse- 
 back or in camcl-paniers, uninjured, except 
 Lady Sale, who received a bullet in her 
 arm; but, brave-hearted as they were, it 
 
 • Some of them had just become, or were nhout to 
 become mothers. Tlie widow of Capt. Trevor had 
 seven chiklrcn with )ier, and an eiglilh was born at 
 liiuldeeabad. Tlie idea of a (^rrind military prome- 
 nade was certainly carried out, Mlien not only ladies 
 and children, but a pack of foxhounds, and one of 
 firoadwood's best pianos, were broujjht through the 
 IJolan Pass. — (Fane's J''ive Tears; Ex-political's JJri/ 
 
 seemed scarcely possible they and their in- 
 fant children could long continue to bear 
 up against the intense cold and incessant 
 fatigue.* The only alternative was to ac- 
 cept the protection of Akber Khan, who, it 
 is said, promised to convey them to Pesha- 
 wur; and to him the whole of the married 
 Englishwomen, their husbands, and chil- 
 dren, with Lady Macnaghten and her 
 widowed companions, were confided. It 
 was a tempting opportunity for barbarian 
 revenge. The wives and babes of the proud 
 Feringhees were at the mercy of the Af- 
 ghans ; yet there is no record of any insult 
 having been offered to them, or any attempt 
 to separate them from their natural protec- 
 tors, now defenceless as themselves. On 
 the contrary, Akber Khan earnestly craved 
 the forgiveness of Lady Macnaghten, assur- 
 ing her he would give his right arm to undo 
 what it had done ; while, in many ways, he 
 strove to alleviate the hardships of the 
 march by bearing the weaker of the party 
 over fords on his own steed, binding up the 
 wounds of the officers with his own hands, 
 and sufiering the ladies to encumber the 
 march v.'ith the costly baggage which two 
 or three of them still retained. The volun- 
 tary surrender of such a prize was of course 
 not to be expected while his father, brothers, 
 and wives were retained in exile. As it 
 was, his " guests," as they were termed, 
 had every reason to rejoice at finding in 
 temporary captivity an alternative for the 
 loss of life. On the very next day (10th 
 January), the remnant of the doomed force 
 was intercepted on the road to Jellalabad, 
 in a narrow gorge between the precipitous 
 spurs of two hills, and the promiscuous 
 mass of sepoys and camp followers were 
 hewn down by the infuriated Afghans. EI- 
 phinstone sent to Akber Khan, who, with 
 a body of horse, still hovered on the fianks 
 of the retreating force, to entreat him to 
 stop the massacre; but he replied, that it 
 was impossible, — at such times the Khiljies 
 were uncontrollable even l)y their imme- 
 diate chiefs : there was but one chance for 
 the English — an immediate and uncondi- 
 tional surrender of arms. The general 
 sadly resumed his march to the Jugdulluck 
 
 Leaves.) The troops in Cabool, thoup;h in many 
 respects needlessly encumbered, do not seem to have 
 bten attended by a single chaplain ; an omission 
 ■Hhich tends to justify the description given by a 
 lieloochee of tile Fcringhee force, of whom one sort 
 (the Jlindoos) were idolaters; tlu' white (English) had 
 no religion at all ; but the third were good Mussul- 
 men, "and say their prayers as we do." — (Idem.)
 
 MASSACRE IN THE JUGDULLUCK PASS-JANUARY 12th, 1842. 443 
 
 heights, and there the troops who remained — 
 of ranks all but destroyed by death and de- 
 sertion — found a brief respite, and strove to 
 quench their burning thirst with handsful of 
 snow, and to still the cravinj^s of liunj^er 
 with the raw and rcekin;^ iicsli of three 
 newly-killed bullocks. Tlic nii^lit was spent 
 at JugduUuck; on the Ibllowing day Ak- 
 ber Khan requested a conference with the 
 General, Brigadier Shelton, and Captain 
 Johnson. It is strange, with the recollec- 
 tion of the Cabool plot fresh in their minds, 
 that the three military authorities should 
 have accepted this significant invitation ; 
 but they did so, were courteously received, 
 refreshed with food, provided with a tent, 
 and — made prisoners. They entreated their 
 captor to save the survivors of the force, 
 and he really appears to have exerted him- 
 self for that purpose, but in vain. Captain 
 Johnson, who understood the Persian lan- 
 guage, lieard the petty chiefs of the country 
 between JugduUuck and Jellalabad declaim- 
 ing, as they flocked in, against the hated 
 Feringhees, and rejecting large sums as the 
 price of a safe conduct to Jellalabad. On 
 the evening of the 12th, the wreck of the 
 army resumed its perilous march. The 
 sepoys had almost wholly perished, and of 
 the Europeans only 120 of the Ikh regi- 
 ment and twenty-five artillerymen remained; 
 but their movements were still impeded by 
 a comparatively large mass of camp fol- 
 lowers, who " came huddling against the 
 fighting men," thus giving free scope to 
 the long knives of the Afghans. The sol- 
 diers, after some time, freed themselves from 
 the helpless rabble, turned against their 
 foes with the bayonet, drove them off, and 
 pursued their way to the fatal JugduUuck 
 Pass, where their suflferings and struggles 
 found a melancholy termination. A bar- 
 ricade of boughs and bushes arrested fur- 
 ther progress ; officers, soldiers, and camp 
 followers desperately strove to force a pas- 
 sage, though exposed to the deliberate aim 
 I of the "jezails" (long rifles) of the enemy. 
 Anquetil, Thai.n, Nieholl, and the chief 
 
 I • A few stragsl'i^R sepoys and camp followers 
 afterwards found Uu'ir way to Jellalabad. 
 
 + The Xawab (or nabob) of Kurnoul was suspected 
 of entt'rtainiug hostile intentions against the English ; 
 the chief, though not very satisfactory evidence of 
 which rests on his having accumulated a large quan- 
 tity of warlike stores. He was likewise .said to be 
 a very oppressive ruler. At the close of t!ie year 
 1848, the capital was seized by a Uritisli force with- 
 out opposition, and the nabob, who had abandoned 
 the place, was pursued, taken prisoner, and became a 
 
 of the remaining leaders fell here. About 
 twenty olliecrs and forty-five European sol- 
 diers cut their way through, hoping to gain 
 Jellalabad; but weak and wounded, with 
 only two rounds of ammunition left, they 
 could not make head against the armed vil- 
 lagers who came crowding forth against them 
 from every Imt. The majority fell at Gun- 
 damuck; a few escaped and struggled on- 
 wards: but even they fell — one here, one 
 there; until a single European (Dr. JJrydon), 
 wounded and worn out by faininc and fatigue, 
 mounted on a jaded pony, alone survived 
 to announce to the gallant garrison of Jel- 
 lalabad the total annihilation of the force 
 of ]G,500 men which liad quitted Cabool 
 only seven days before.* 
 
 'J'he terrible tidings reached Lord Auck- 
 land at Calcutta while awaiting the arrival 
 of his successor in ofliec. lie had pre- 
 viously seen reason to regret bitterly that 
 ever British troops liad crossed the Indus : 
 he knew that the E. I. Cy. had consistently 
 opposed the Afghan war, and that the Peel 
 cabinet, now in power, were of the same 
 opinion ; and he therefore refused to follow 
 up the abortive attempts already made for 
 the relief of the beleaguered garrisons by 
 any efficient measures, lest his proceedings 
 should controvert tlie views and embarrass 
 the projects of his expected successor. The 
 arrival of Lord Ellenborough, at the close 
 of February, released Lord Auckland from 
 his painful position, and he quitted India 
 in the following month, leaving on record a 
 finance minute which proved the war to 
 have already inflicted a burden of eight mil- 
 lion on the Indian treasury. The only remain- 
 ing circumstances which occurred under his 
 swa}', were the annexation of the little prin- 
 cipality of Kurnoulf and of Cherong, a for- 
 tified place in Bundelcund. 
 
 Ellenborough Admi.vistratiox : 1842 
 TO 1 S44. — The opinions held by the new gov- 
 ernor-general were well known. His lord- 
 ship had been for yeai-s president of the 
 Board of Control : he was a conservative, 
 and agreed with his party and the majority 
 
 dependent on the British government. He retired 
 to Trichinopoly, and became a frequent attendant on 
 the mission clnii-ch. On the last occasion he was 
 mortally stabbed by one of his Jlohammedan fol- 
 lowers. His eldest son, Uluf Khan, received a pen- 
 sion of £1,000 a-year until his death in 1818. The 
 Knglish enjoy the entire revenues of Kurnoul, esti- 
 mated, in 1813, at £',10,000 per annum, and control 
 over a territory between 2,000 and 3,000 square miles 
 in extent, with a population stated in a Pari, return 
 for 1851, at 273,190.— (Thorntou's Oazetteer.)
 
 444 SALE AND "THE ILLUSTRIOUS GARRISON" OF JELLALABAD— 1842. 
 
 of unbiassed men, in considering the Afghan 
 invasion "a blunder and a crime;" but he 
 had likewise declared, that " India was won 
 by the sword, and must be kept by the 
 sword." These opinions, coupled with his 
 adoption of an axiom of unquestionable 
 truth, that "in war reputation is strength," 
 served to convince the Indian public that 
 his policy would probably aim at the com- 
 plete and speedy evacuation of Afghanistan, 
 performed in such a manner as to prove 
 beyond question that England voluntarily 
 resigned a position which an erroneous view 
 of the feelings of the Afghans had induced 
 her to assume ; and this object, despite 
 some glaring errors and inconsistencies, 
 was, in the main, carried through by Lord 
 Ellenborough. The first- event in his ad- 
 ministration was the surrender of Ghuznee, 
 by Colonel Palmer, to Shums-oo-deen Khan, 
 nephew to Dost Mohammed, on the 6th of 
 March ; the fear of a failure of water and 
 provisions being the reasons alleged for the 
 relinquishment of this strong fortress and 
 the surrender of the officers,* who were 
 treated with faithless cruelty by the con- 
 queror. Nott and Sale still held their 
 ground at Candahar and Jellalabad, against 
 bitter cold, scarcity of fuel and provisions, 
 and repeated though unskilful assaults, as 
 did also the little garrison of Kelat-i-Khilji, 
 under Captain Craigie, At Jellalabad, re- 
 peated minor shocks of earthquake were 
 succeeded on the 10th February by a ter- 
 rible convulsion, which levelled with the 
 ground the defences which liad been erected 
 and rendered efficient at the cost of three 
 months' intense labour of mind and body. 
 Akber Khan, with the flower of the Ba- 
 rukzye horse, was at hand, ready, it was 
 expected, to enforce the fulfilment of El- 
 phinstone's order of surrender. But " the 
 illustrious garrison," as Lord Ellenborough 
 justly styled the brave band, did not abate 
 one jot of hope or courage. The spade and 
 pickaxe were again taken in hand, and the 
 work of restoration went forward so rapidly 
 that Akber, deceived as to the extent of the 
 damage sustained, declared that English 
 witchcraft had preserved Jellalabad from 
 the effects of the mighty shock. The Af- 
 ghans, having little inclination for a hand- 
 
 * Kaye says — " If there had been any one in 
 Ghuznee acquainted with the use and ])ractice of 
 artillery, the garrison nii^ht have hoUi out till 
 April." He adds, "Ttiat among the oUicers of Nott's 
 army [by whom the place was reoccu|)ir'd in Sep- 
 tember], the loss of Ghuznee was considered even 
 less creditable than the loss of Cabool." — (ii., 428-'9.) 
 
 to-hand encounter with Sale's brigade, con- 
 tented themselves with striving to maintain 
 a rigid blockade; but the garrison sallied 
 forth under Dennie, and swept away sheep 
 and goats in the very froivt of the foe. The 
 political agent, Capt. Macgregor, an able and 
 energetic man, contrived to establish a system 
 of intelligence far superior to that gene- 
 rally maintained by the English. Tidings 
 arrived on the 5th of April, that General 
 Pollock, with 12,000 men and supplies of 
 all kinds, was fighting his way to their res- 
 cue through the Khyber Pass, opposed by 
 Akber Khan. The garrison gallantly re- 
 solved to assist their countrymen by issuing 
 forth to attack the Afghan camp. This 
 unlooked-for enterprise was attended with 
 complete success. The blockading troops 
 were completely routed, and fled in the di- 
 rection of Lughmaa. The victors lost only 
 thirteen men ; but that number included 
 the gallant Colonel Dennie, who fell at the 
 head of the centre column. On the 11th 
 April, the army under General Pollock 
 reached Jellalabad, and the garrison, whose 
 five months' beleaguerment ha 1 been already 
 so brilliantly terminated, sent the band of 
 the 13th light infantry to meet the troops, 
 and marched them in to the fort to the tune 
 of an old Jacobite song of welcome, of which 
 the refrain runs, " Oh ! but ye've been lang 
 o' coming." General England was not suc- 
 cessful in his early attempts to succour Nott 
 and his "noble sepoys"t at Candahar. 
 Having been repulsed in an attack on the 
 Kojuck Pass, he fell back upon Quetta, and 
 commenced fortifying that town ; but Gene- 
 ral Nott imperatively demanded his re- 
 newed advance, and sent the best part of 
 his force to aid England through the pass, 
 who thus assisted, marched to Candahar, 
 which place he reached with little loss; 
 for the Afghans, though strongly posted 
 at Hykulzie (the scene of his former dis- 
 comfiture), were rapidly dispersed by a vigo- 
 rous attack, and did not muster in any force 
 to oppose his further progress. 
 
 No impediment now remained to the 
 junction of the forces under Nott and Eng- 
 land with those of Pollock and Sale. The 
 only consideration was, what to do with 
 them. Lord Ellenborough had wisely re- 
 
 ■{■ " My sepoys," Nott writes to Pollock in April, 
 " have behaved nobly, and have licked the Afghans 
 in eTery affair, even when five timrs their number." 
 In the same letter lie states thnt thr'y had had no 
 pay since the previous December. The fidelify and 
 privations of the native troops throughout the Afghan 
 war well deserve a special narration.
 
 BATTLE OP TEZIiEN— MURDER OF SHAH SOOJAH— APRIL, 1842. 445 
 
 solved on the evacuation of Af^lianistan ; 
 but lie loft to the military authorities the 
 choice of "retiring" by the line of Ciuettaanrl 
 Sukkur, or by that of Ghuznce, Cabool, and 
 Jcllalubad. Nott chose the latter alterna- 
 tive; and in communinatint; his resolve, 
 repeated with quiet sarcasm his lordship's 
 plirasc of "retiring" from Candahar to 
 Lidia by vray of Ghuznee, Cabool, and Jel- 
 lalabad ; the said retirement, says Kaye, 
 being like a man retiring from Reigate to 
 London vid Dover and Canterbury. Pol- 
 lock entirely sympathised with General Nott. 
 The former marched to Cabool, which he 
 reached on the 5th Sept., after having 
 encountered and put to flight the Afghans 
 under Akber,* in the valley of Tezeen and 
 the adjacent passes of Koord Cabool, where 
 the English had been slaughtered in the 
 previous January. General Nott proceeded 
 to (jhuznee, which was evacuated on his 
 approach ; and after destroying the town as 
 well as citadel by fire, he proceeded to the 
 tomb of Mahmood, in obedience to the 
 special instructions of the governor-general, 
 to bear away tlip famous idol-destroying 
 mace of the conqueror, suspended above the 
 tomb, and a pair of sandal-wood gates, em- 
 bossed with brass, which were said to have 
 been carried away by him from the temple 
 of Somnauth, in Guzerat, a.d. 1024. Bur- 
 dened with these trophies, the general pro- 
 ceeded to Cabool, which city Pollock had 
 entered unopposed on the 15th Sept., and 
 planted the union-jack on the Balla Hissar.f 
 In the interval between the evacuation 
 and reoccupation of the capital of Afghanis- 
 tan by the English, another melancholy 
 tragedy had been enacted. Shah Soojah, 
 abandoned by his allies, for some months 
 contrived to maintain himself in the Balla 
 Hissar; but his position becoming at length 
 insupportable, he resolved to attempt to 
 join Sale at Jellalabad. Early on the morn- 
 ing of the 5th of April, the Shah left the 
 citadel, escorted by a small party of Hin- 
 doostanees, intending to revie\f the troops 
 
 * The Goorkalese infantry fought most manfully, 
 clambering undauntedly the steepest ascents, beneath 
 the iron rain poured on them from Afghan jezails. 
 — (Kaye, ii., 679.) It must have been a strange 
 sight to see these daring, sturdy, but diminutive men, 
 driving before them their stalwart foes ; but stranger 
 still the thought, how recently these vahiable aux- 
 iliaries had done battle on their native hills, against 
 the people for whom tliey were now shedding their 
 life-blood, and ably wielding the British bayonet. 
 
 t Bulla IIisti<2r, the Persian for High Fort. 
 
 J The trials of the captives began when Akber 
 became again a fugitive, and could no longer retain 
 3 M 
 
 and quit Cabool ; but his passage was op- 
 posed by a body of Afghans, who opened a 
 volley upon the royal cort/'ge, which struck 
 down the bearers of the state chair, and 
 killed the king himself. Throughout his 
 whole career, Shah Soojah had been a ]iom- 
 poiis man, sjjeaking and thinking ever of 
 "our blessed .self" Now his lifeless body was 
 stripped of its costly array, of its sparkling 
 head-dress, rich girdle, and jewelled dagger, 
 and flung into a ditch. His eldest son, 
 Prince Timur, then about twenty-three 
 years of age, was with the British at Can- 
 dahar. The ne.xt in succession, Futteh 
 Jung, was courted by the Barukzye chiefs, 
 who hoped to find in him a shield from the 
 vengeance of the advancing foe. The prince 
 listened with undisguised distrust to the 
 protestations made to him by the Seyed 
 deputies ; and in reply to offers of alle- 
 giance, to be sworn on the Koran, caused 
 several exemplars of the sacred volume to 
 be placed before them, bearing the seals of 
 the Barukzye, Dourani, Kuzzilbash, and 
 Kohistanee chiefs, with oaths of allegiance 
 to his murdered father inscribed on the 
 margin. "If there be any other Koran 
 sent from heaven," he said bitterly, " let 
 the Barukzyes swear upon it i this has been 
 tried too often, and found wanting." The 
 ambassadors were dismissed ; but Futteh 
 Jung, unable to maintain his ground, soon 
 fell into the hands of the chiefs he so 
 avowedly mistrusted, and after being robbed 
 of the treasure which his father had con- 
 trived to accumulate, made his escape, and 
 joined General Pollock at Gundamuck on 
 the 1st of September, with only two or 
 three followers. 
 
 The next feature in the campaign was a 
 joyful one — the recovery of the captives. 
 The ladies and children were alive and well, 
 but General Elpliinstoue had expired ia 
 the month of April, worn out by inees^ 
 sant bodily and mental pain. On learn-i. 
 ing the approach of Pollock, AkberJ coa- 
 fided his unwilling guests to the care of one 
 
 them under his immediate protection. About this 
 time an accident occurred which placed them in [ 
 jeopardy. A servant in attendance on the chief, ' 
 wounded him in the arm by the accidental discharge 
 of a musket. No difference took place in the con- 
 duct of Akber himself; and even when weak and 
 wounded, he gave up his litter for the accommoda- \ 
 tion of the ladies on their removal from Budeeabad. 
 His countrymen, more suspicious, attributed the 
 disaster to English treachery; and had the young 
 Barukzye died, the lives of ail the male captives and 
 hostages would probably have been sacrificed ».« an 
 act of retribution. Ameen-ooUah Khan, especially^ i
 
 446 RESCUE OF THE CAPTIVES AND HOSTAGES— SEPT., 1842. 
 
 Saleh Mohammed, who was directed to 
 deliver them to the charge of a neighbouring 
 Usbeck chief, styled the Wali of Kooloom, 
 who had proved a stanch friend to Dost 
 Mohammed. Salch Mohammed had for- 
 merly been a subahdar in the service of 
 the E. I. Cy., but being (by his own ac- 
 count) disgusted with the abusive language 
 used towards natives by the European 
 officers, he deserted with his company to 
 the Dost. It was not a difficult matter to 
 induce him to play the traitor over again, 
 provided the risk were small and the tempta- 
 tion great. Tidings of the progress of the 
 English army calmed his fears ; and offers 
 on behalf of government, backed by the 
 written pledge of the captives to pay him 
 1,000 rupees a-month for life, and a present 
 of 20,000 rupees, stimulated his hopes : from 
 gaoler he turned confederate ; and the sol- 
 diers (250 in number) were, by the promise 
 of four months' pay as a gratuity, metamor- 
 phosed from guards to servants. Eldred 
 Pottinger assumed the direction of affairs, 
 levied contributions upon some merchants 
 passing through Bamian, and hoisted an 
 independent flag on the fort the party 
 said that he knew a reward of a lac of rupees had 
 been offered by Macnaghten for his life. Moham- 
 med Shah Khan, and a " young whelp," his son, 
 took advantage of the absence of Akber to pillage 
 the captives, and is said to have obtained from Lady 
 Macnaghten alone, shawls and jewels to the value of 
 £20,000; but the jewels were soon voluntarily re- 
 stored (Johnson and Eyre.) Considering that the 
 daughter and sister of the plunderers (Akber's wife) 
 had been carried into exile by the countrymen of 
 Lady Macnaghten, there was nothing very extra- 
 ordinary in their thus seeking means to carry on the 
 war. IJefore the late crisis, the captives had enjoyed 
 advantages very unusual for even state prisoners in 
 Afghanistan. Five rooms in the fort of Budeeabad, 
 furnished by Mohammed Shah Khan for his own 
 use, were vacated for their accommodation. During 
 the three months s])ent here four European infants 
 were born. The elder children passed the time in 
 blindman's-buff and other games befitting their 
 age ; their parents in writing long letters to India 
 and England, carrying on a great deal of cypher 
 correspondence with Sale's garrison, and playing 
 backgammon and drafts on boards of their own 
 construction, and cards, by means of two or three 
 old packs preserved among their baggage. From 
 " a Bible and Prayer-book ])icked up on the 
 field at Boolhauk," the services of the established 
 church were read every Sunday, sometimes in the 
 open air ; and this observance was, we are told, not 
 lost on their guards, wlio, wild and savage as they 
 were, seemed to res])ect the Christian's thiy of rest, 
 " by evincing more decorum and courtesy tluin on 
 the working-days of the week." — (Kaye ii., 489.) 
 Who that really desires the spread of vital Chris- 
 tianity, can read this account without regretting that 
 the captives of Budeeabad had not been ins))ired 
 with more of the devotional spirit which burned so 
 
 had entered as prisoners. To remain at 
 Bamian was, however, deemed even more 
 perilous than to attempt to join the army at 
 Cabool; and on the 16th of September, the 
 officers, ladies, and children set forth on 
 their march. The next day Sir Richmond 
 Shakespear, at the head of 600 Kuzzilbash 
 horse, met the fugitives, who thus escorted, 
 joyfully pursued their route, till, on the 20th, 
 near Urghundeh, the column sent by Pollock 
 to support Shakespear appeared in sight, 
 and its veteran commander. Sir Robert 
 Sale, came galloping on to embrace his wife 
 and widowed daughter.* 
 
 The objects of the campaign were fully 
 accomplished : the beleaguered garrisons 
 had been relieved, the captives rescued ; the 
 last of them (Captain Bygrave) being volun- 
 tarily released by Akber ; and the orders of 
 the governor-general were stringent for the 
 return of the entire English force to Hin- 
 doostan without incurring any unnecessary 
 peril. The various Afghan chiefs, whose 
 blood-feuds and factious dissension had pre- 
 vented any combined action, now earnestly 
 deprecated the vengeance of the Feringhees. 
 The hostages left at Cabool were restored, 
 strong and clear in the bosoms of two other English 
 captives, then dying by inches in filth and misery at 
 Bokhara, but evincing such unmistakable indica- 
 tions of true piety, that sorrow for the suffering is 
 lost in veneration for the enduring faith of Colonel 
 Stoddart and Arthur ConoUy. The former I deeply 
 respected on the ground of personal knowledge; 
 the latter I know only by the touching records 
 made public since his execution. The history of 
 both is yet fresh in the minds of the existing genera- 
 tion. Colonel Stoddart had gone in an official 
 position to Bokhara, and was detained by the Ameer, 
 who had been angered by some real or apparent 
 slight shown him by the British authorities; 
 Conolly sought to procure the release of Stoddart, 
 but was condemned to share his imprisonment. The 
 touching letters written at this jicriod, and forwarded 
 to India through the intervention of a faithful ser- 
 vant, still remain to attest the patience in adversity of 
 these illustrious sufl'erers. Stoddart, in a moment 
 of weakness, after being lowered down into a deep 
 dark well, tenanted by vermin, was forced into 
 making a profession of bcHef in the false prophet; 
 but Conolly never wavered. On the 17th of June, 
 18-12, the two friends were brought forth to die, 
 clothed in the miserable rags which five months' in- 
 cessant wear had left to cover their emaciated 
 and literally worm-eaten frames. The elder captive 
 was first beheaded, and an offer of life was made to 
 his companion as the price of apostasy, luil without 
 ell'cct. " Stoddart," he Siiid, " became a Mussulman, 
 and you killed him: 1 am prepared to die." The 
 knife of the executioner did its work, and another 
 name was added to the glorious army of martyrs — 
 the true soldiers of the Cross. — (Kaye, AVolfe, &c.) 
 
 * The widow of Lieutenant Sturt, of the engi- 
 neers, a very active ofiiccr, who was mortally wounded 
 by tlie Khiijies in the Ki^ord Cabool Pass.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OF THE "ARMY OF RETRIBUTION"— 1812. 
 
 447 
 
 and bore testimony to the good treatment 
 they liad received iVoni the nabob, /einauu 
 Shah. The " };ucsts" of Akber Khan tohl tlic 
 same tale ; and Colonel Palmer and Mohun 
 Lai* were almost the only complainants ; — 
 the one having fallen into the iiauds of the 
 instigator of tiic murder of Shah Soojah, the 
 unworthy son of Nawab Zemaun Khan ; the 
 other having ])rovoked personal vengeance 
 by repeated offers of l)lood-moncy for the 
 heads of the leading Barukzycs. The prin- 
 cipal Cabool leaders proposed that a younger 
 son of the late king's, named Shahpoor (the 
 son of a Populzye lady of high rank), should 
 be placed on the throne ; and to this the 
 British authorities consented. The object 
 of the proposers was not accomplished; they 
 hoped to turn away the vengeance of the 
 invaders, but in vain. The military leaders 
 )yonouneed that the destruction of the 
 I'ortresses of Ghuznee, Jellalabad, Candahar, 
 K.helat-i-Khilji,t Ali-Musjid, and many 
 others of inferior note, — the sacrifice of 
 thousands of villagers armed and unarmed, 
 the wanton destruction of the beautiful fruit- 
 trees (which an Afghan loves as a Kaffir 
 does cattle, or an Arab his steed), with 
 other atrocities almost inseparable from the 
 march of an "army of retribution," were all 
 too trifling to convey a fitting impression of 
 the wrath of the British nation at the defeat, 
 disgrace, and ruin which had attended its 
 abortive attempt at the military occupation 
 of Afghanistan. It is idle to talk of the 
 savage ferocityj of tlie Khiljies, as dis- 
 played in the horrible January massacre, 
 siucc that very massacre had been wautonly 
 provoked. The EugUsh originally entered 
 those fatal passes as foes ; they marched on, 
 
 • Moonshee Mohun Lai was educated at the 
 Delhi college, where the experiment of imparting 
 secular education, without any religious leaven, was 
 being tried by the British government. The same 
 system is now in force lliroughout India. Mohun 
 liul was one of its first-fruits, and his cleverly-written 
 work on Cabool is well worthy of the attention of 
 all interested in tracing the effects of purely secular 
 instruction, ijhahamel .\li (author of the Hilili.i and 
 Afghans), the fellow-student of Mohun Lai, was a 
 diflerent character, and not a Hindoo, but a Mo- 
 hammedan. His new acquirements were not, there- 
 fore, likely to have the effect of producing the same 
 ilippancy and scepticism which was almost sure to 
 be occasioned by proving to such men as Mohun 
 Lai, that modern Brahminism was the offspring of 
 superstition and ignorance, without inculcating a 
 knowledge of those doctrines which Christians hold 
 to be the unerring rule of life, tlie only wisdom. 
 
 t Kaje, ii., 5'jy. Klielat-i Khilji, or"theKhilji 
 Fort," situated between Candahar and Ghuznee, 
 must not be confounded with the famous Khelat-i- 
 Nuseer near the Bolan Pass, taken by Major-gen- 
 
 iu the pride of conquerors, to rivet a rejected 
 yoke on the ncek of a free, though most 
 turbulent nation : their discipline and union 
 were at first irresistible ; yet subsequently, 
 strife and incapacity delivered them over into 
 the hands of their self-made enemies. They 
 had (to use an Orientalism) gone out to 
 hunt deer, and roused tigers. What wonder 
 that the incensed ])eoplc, heated with recent 
 wrongs, should crush with merciless grasp 
 the foe in his hour of weakness, under 
 whose iron heel they had been trampled on 
 so recently. It was a base and cruel thing 
 to slay tlie retreating legions; but have 
 civilised nations — France and England, for 
 instance — never done worse things in Africa 
 or the Indies, and vindicated them on the 
 plea of state necessity ? The defeated in- 
 vaders fell with weapons in their hands : 
 they fought to the last — at a heavy disad- 
 vantage, it is true ; but still they did fight ; 
 and the physical obstacles which facilitated 
 their overthrow, surely could not make the 
 difference between the combatants greater 
 than that which has enabled nations ac- 
 quainted with the nse of cannon to reduce 
 to slavery or deprive of their laud less-in- 
 formed people. 
 
 The English refused to surrender, and 
 paid by death the penalty of defeat, which 
 would, in all probability, have been inflicted 
 by them in a similar case. The captives 
 and hostages were, generally, remarkably 
 well used ; even the little children who fell 
 into the power of the Khiljies were volun- 
 tarily restored to their parents. § 
 
 Yet now the military authorities, not con- 
 tent with the misery wrought and suffered in 
 Afghanistan, II gravely deliberated on the most 
 
 eral AVillshire in November, 1S39, and in the de- 
 fence of which the Beloochee chief, Mehrab Khan, 
 with hundreds of his vassals, perished. Several 
 women were slain to prevent their falling into the 
 hands of the enemy : others fled on foot with their 
 infants. 
 
 I The author of one of the numerous Karratives 
 of the war, relates an anecdote of an Afghan boy of 
 six years old, being found by an English soldier 
 striving to decapitate the corpse of a colour-sergeant 
 who had fallen some time before when Pollock 
 fought his way through the Kbyber Pass. The 
 soldier came behind the child, " coolly took liim up 
 on his bayonet, and threw him over the cliff." 
 Lieut. Greenwood narrates this incident in "the 
 war of retribution" as evidence of Afylian fero- 
 city.— (176.) 
 
 § The daughter of Captain Anderson, and the son 
 of Captain Boyd, fell into the hands of the Afghans 
 in the Boothauk Pass. 
 
 II Lord Brougham sternly denounced the destruc- 
 tion of the "hundred gardens" of Cabooi, by "our 
 incendiary generals."
 
 4-48 
 
 DESTRUCTION OF CABOOL BAZAAR AND MOSQUE— 1842. 
 
 efficient mode of perpetuating in the minds 
 of the Cabool chiefs the memory of deeds 
 which all parties might have been glad to 
 bury in oblivion. The peaceable inhabitants 
 of the city had been induced to return and 
 resume their occupations; and when they 
 beheld the sou of Shah Soojali on the 
 throne, and the English in daily intercourse 
 with the leading chiefs, and making avowed 
 preparations for final departure, they might 
 well think that the worst was over. But it 
 was yet to come. General Pollock con- 
 sidered the death of the envoy still un- 
 avenged, and resolved on the total destruc- 
 tion of the Great Bazaar and the Mosque. 
 These orders were executed, but with diffi- 
 culty, owing to the massiveness of these 
 magnificent buildings, which it was found 
 impossible to destroy in any reasonable 
 time without the use of gunpowder. As 
 might have been expected, the victorious 
 soldiery and licentious camp followers did 
 not content themselves with fulfilling their 
 destructive commission, but rushed into the 
 streets of the city, applied the firebrand 
 to the houses, and pillaged the shops; so 
 that above four or five thousand people (in- 
 cluding many Hindoos who had been enticed 
 into the town by express promises of protec- 
 tion) were reduced to utter ruin. The ex- 
 cesses committed during the last three days 
 of British supremacy in Cabool, were far 
 more disgraceful to the character of Eng- 
 land, as a Christian nation, than the expul- 
 sion and extermination of the ill-fated troops 
 to her military reputation. 
 
 Popular feeling, both in India and in 
 England, was strongly expressed against 
 the needless injury done to the Afghans by 
 the razing of the Great Bazaar, and espe- 
 cially against the extensive destruction of 
 trees, by order of the commander-in-chief, 
 by deeply ringing the bark, and leaving 
 them to perish. Lord Ellenborough ap- 
 pears to have regretted these outrages; but 
 this and all other drawbacks were for the 
 time forgotten in the grand display with 
 which he prepared to welcome the return- 
 ing army. The homeward march com- 
 menced on the 12th of October, and proved 
 singularly peaceful and uneventful. The 
 old blind king, Zeraaun Shah, with his 
 nephew Futteh Jung, and the chief part of 
 the family of the late Shah Soojah, accom- 
 
 • Kayo, ii., 669. Among other authorities ex- 
 amined, in writing the above sketch of the Afghan 
 war, may be named Eyre's Ciibiml, llavelock's Nar- 
 rative, Dennie's Campaiijm, Outram's livui/h Notes, 
 
 panied the troops. The gates of Somnauth 
 were not forgotten ; and the governor-gen- 
 eral gave vent to his delight at their at- 
 tainment in a proclamation, in which he 
 declared the insult of 800 years to be at 
 length avenged, and desired his " brothers 
 and friends," the princes and chiefs of 
 Sirhind, Rajwarra, Malwa, and Guzerat, to 
 convey the "glorious trophy of successful 
 war" with all honour through their respec- 
 tive territories, to the restored idolatrous 
 temple of Somnauth. 
 
 For this strange " song of triumph," as 
 the Duke of Wellington styled the effusion. 
 Lord Ellenborough may perhaps be excused, 
 in remembrance of the honest and manly 
 recantation of error which he published on 
 behalf of the Indian government on the 1st 
 of October, 1842, when directing the com- 
 plete evacuation of Afghanistan, — this an- 
 nouncement being made from Simla pre- 
 cisely four years after the famous warlike 
 manifesto of Lord Auckland. The whole 
 of the Afghan captives were released. Dost 
 Mohammed returned to Cabool to take 
 possession of the throne vacated by the 
 flight of Shahpoor immediately after the 
 departure of the British force ; Akber joy- 
 fully welcomed home his father and family ; 
 the Persians again besieged Herat ; and all 
 things returned to much the same position 
 they occupied before thousands of lives (in- 
 cluding that of the forsaken Shah) and about 
 fifteen million of money had been wasted, in 
 an abortive attempt at unauthorised inter- 
 ference. The only change effected was, that 
 instead of respect and admiration, the Af- 
 ghans (generally, though perhaps not justly, 
 considered an unforgiving race) learned to 
 entertain towards their powerful neighbours 
 emotions of fear and aversion, excited by 
 the galling memories inseparably connected 
 with the march of a desolating army, 
 whose traces were left everywhere, " from 
 Candahar to Cabool, from Cabool to 
 I'eshawur."* 
 
 The annexation of Sinde — the next event 
 in Anglo-Indian history — has been termed 
 by its chief promoter "the tail of the Afghan 
 storm." Such is the light in which Sir 
 Charles Napier avowedly desires to place it; 
 and his brother, General William Napier, in 
 his account of the Conquest of Sitide, plainly 
 declares the open encroachment on the in- 
 
 Hough's Jliitish at Cahool, Fane's Five Years in 
 India, Osborne's Court of liunj'eet Sitii/, Taylor's 
 Scenes, Nasli's Afghanistan, IJarr's Cahoot, Burnes' 
 Cabool, Allen's Diary, Thornton's India,
 
 ORIGIN AND POSITION OF THE AMEERS OF SINDE— 1771 to 1838. 449 
 
 dependence of the Ameers, made by order of 
 Lord Auckland, to have been a measure of 
 wliich " it is impossible to mistake or to 
 deny the injustice. " Major (now Col.) Out- 
 ram, the political Resident at Hyderabad, to 
 some extent defends the procccdinjjs wiiicli, 
 though occasionally under protest, lie was 
 instrumental in carrying through ; and 
 brings forward a considuraiile body of evi- 
 dence to prove that Sir Charles Napier, 
 when vested with complete military and 
 diplomatic authority in Sinde, while de- 
 nouncing the unauthorised aggression com- 
 mitted by Lord Auckland, used the despotic 
 power vested iu him by Lord EUeuborough 
 to sap the resources of the Ameers, and then 
 drive them to desperation ; the results being 
 their ruin, the annexation to British India 
 of a fertile and valuable boundary province, 
 and the gain to the invading army of 
 prize-money to an enormous extent — the 
 share of Sir C. Napier (an eighth) amount- 
 ing, it is asserted, to £70,000. Taken 
 together, the admissions and accusations 
 respectively made and preferred by the two 
 leading authorities, cau scarcely fail to 
 leave on. the mind of the unprejudiced 
 reader a conviction that the Ameers were 
 very illuscd men, especially the eldest and 
 most influential of them, the venerable Mcer 
 Roostum. They were usurpers ; but their 
 usurpation was of above sixty years' standing: 
 and the declaration of Lord EUeuborough 
 is not equally correct, that what they had 
 won by the sword they had lost by the 
 sword ; inasmuch as their earliest and most 
 important concessions were obtained amid 
 " a sickening declamation about friendship, 
 justice, and love of peace ;" which declama- 
 tion was continued up to the moment when 
 Meer lloostum, bending under the weight of 
 eighty-five years, and his aged wife (the 
 mother of his eldest sou) were driven forth 
 into the desert, not by English b.iyonets, 
 but by English diplomacy. 
 
 Such at least is the account given by 
 Napier of the opening negotiations with 
 Sinde, and by Outram of their abrupt ter- 
 mination. To enter into the various points 
 of dispute would be manifestly incompatible 
 with the brief sketcli of the leading features 
 attending our occupation of the country, 
 alone consistent with the objects and limits 
 of the present work : even that sketch, to 
 economise space, must be given iu small type. 
 
 In the beginning of the 18th century, the Kal- 
 lorus, milituiy fanatics from Persia, became domi- 
 nant in Sinde, and though compelled to pay tribute 
 
 to the iJourani conqueror of Afghanist<jn, retained 
 their position as rulers until about 1771, when a 
 conflict arose between them and the chiefs of the 
 Iteloocliee trilic of 'I'alpoors, who had come from 
 llie hills to settle in the fertile |)lains. .\fter some 
 years' lif;htiiif; the 'I'alpoors became undisputed mas- 
 ters of Sin(l('. Their head, Meer Kutleh Ali, as- 
 signed portii)[is of the conquered territory to two 
 of his relations, and thus gave rise to the separate 
 slates of Khyrpoor and Meerpoor. The remaininjf 
 part of Sinde, including the capital Hyderabad, he 
 ruled until his death, in amicable conjunction with 
 his three brothers. The Taljjoors, like their pre- 
 decessors the Kalloras, evidently dreaded the en- 
 croaching spirit of the powerful Keringhees, and 
 quietly but firmly opposed their early attempts at 
 commercial intercourse. At length, in 1832, the 
 pertinacious resolve of the English to open up the 
 navigation of the Indus, prevailed over their prudent 
 reserve, and a new treaty was formed through the 
 intervention of Colonel (now Sir Henry) Pottinger, 
 by the filth article of which the contracting jiarties 
 solemnly pledged themselves " never to look with 
 the eye of covetousness on the possessions of each 
 other." The very words betrayed the apprehensions 
 of the Ameers; and that these were shared by their 
 subjects is proved by the exclamation recorded by 
 liurncs, as uttered in the previous year by the wit- 
 nesses of his approach — " Alas ! Sinde is gone since 
 the English have seen our river!" 
 
 The prediction was soon verified. In 1836, the 
 ambitious designs of Itunjeet Sing gave the Anglo- 
 Indian government an opportunity of interference, 
 which was availed of by the proffer of British media- 
 tion. At this time the original Talpoor rulers were 
 all dead, and their sons reigned in their stead. Noor 
 Mohammed wore the puggree or turban of supe- 
 riority, and was the acknowledged rais or chief at 
 Hyderabad; Sheer Mohammed at Meerpoor, and 
 Meer Koostum at Khyrpoor, in Upper Sincle. Meer 
 Koostum was eighty years of age, and was assisted 
 in the government by his numerous brothers. He 
 was, howevei, still possessed of much energy ; and so 
 far from fearing the hostility of Runjeet Sing, or 
 desiring the dangerous aid of the English, he ex- 
 claimed confidently — " AVe have vanquished the 
 Seik, and we will do so again." It was, liowever, 
 quite another thing to compete with the united 
 forces of Kunjtet Sing and the English; and the 
 intimate connexion so unnecessarily formed between 
 these powers in 1838, proved pretty clearly that the 
 choice lay between mediation or open hostilitv. 
 The Ameers chose the former, and consented to the 
 permanent residence at Hyderabad of a British poli- 
 tical agent, with an armed escort. Two months after 
 the conclusion of this arrangement, the Tripartite 
 Treaty was signed at Lahore, and involved a new 
 question as to the route to be taken for the invasion 
 of Afghanistan. lijunjeet Sing, stimulated by his 
 distrustful durbar or court, would not suffer his 
 sworn allies to march through the Punjab. Advan- 
 tage was therefore taken of the weakness of the 
 Ameers to compel them to sanction the passage of 
 the British troo|)s ; and the island-fortress of Bukkur 
 was obtained from Meer Koostiim, to be held " dur- 
 ing the continuance of the war." These concessions 
 paved the way for fresh exactions, and the Ameers 
 were next required to contribute towards the ex- 
 penses of the expedition. The demand » as first urged 
 on the plea of arrears of tribute claimed by Shah 
 Soojah as their suzerain, but this was refuted by
 
 the production of a formal release made by the Shah . 
 of all claims upon Sinde or Shikarpoor. The next 
 pretext for oppression was, tliat the Ameers had 
 tendered professions of submission to Persia, the 
 evidence beinf; a document of doubtful authenticity, 
 ostensibly addressed by Noor Mohammed to the 
 Persian monarch, and which, when freed from Ori- 
 ental hyperbole, contained little more than expres- 
 sions of unbounded respect for the Shah of Persia 
 as the head of the Sheiah sect of Mohammedans. 
 It was so improbable that the Ameers would comply 
 with the present demands, except under the sternest 
 compulsion, that preparations were made to punish 
 their refusal by the storming of Hyderabad, and the 
 army of the Indus turned out of its way for the 
 express purpose, and menaced Sinde at four different 
 points. Sir John Keane designated the antici- 
 pated siege of the capital, " a pretty piece of practice 
 ior the army ;" and the oflicers generally indulged in 
 sanguine expectations of pillage and prize-money. 
 The Ameers were divided in opinion ; and one of 
 them proposed that they should defend themselves 
 to the last, and then slay their wives and children, 
 and perish sword in hand — the terrible resolve car- 
 ried out not many months later by Mehrab Khan, 
 of Khelat-i-Nuseer. More temperate counsels pre- 
 vailed. Meer Roostum confessed that in surrender- 
 ing Bukkur he had given the heart of his country 
 into the hands of the foe ; and the Ameers, with 
 utter ruin staring them in the face, consented to the 
 hard terms imposed by the treaty signed in February, 
 1839, wliich bound them to receive a subsidiary 
 force, and contribute three lacs (afterwards increased 
 to three and a-half) for its support, to abolish all 
 tolls en the Indus, and provide store-room at Kur- 
 rachee for militaiy supplies. In return, the Anglo- 
 Indian government promised not to meddle with the 
 internal affairs of the Ameers, or listen to the cum- 
 plai/its of their subjects (a very ominous proviso.) 
 These concessions, together with a contribution of 
 £200,000, half of which was paid immediately, did 
 not satisfy Lord Auckland. Kurrachee had been 
 taken possession of during the war; and he now in- 
 sisted on its permanent retention, despite the promises 
 made by his representatives. 
 
 The Ameers had no alternative but to sU|J)mit : 
 yet, says General Napier, " the grace with which 
 they resigned themselves to their wrongs, did not 
 save them from the cruel mockery of being asked by 
 Colonel (Sir H.) Pottinger, ' if they had the slightest 
 cause to question the British faith during the last six 
 months?' and the furtlier mortification of being told, 
 ' that henceforth they must consider Sinde to be as 
 it was in reality a portion of Hindoostan, in wliieh 
 the British were paramount, and entitled to act as 
 they considered best and fittest for the general good 
 of the whole empire.' " 
 
 Colonel Pottinger, created a baronet, continued 
 Resident in Sinde until the beginning of 1840. He 
 was succeeded by Major Outram, who, by the death 
 cf his coadjutor, Mr. Ross Bell, became political 
 agent for the whole of Sinde and Belooehistan. 
 Major Outram found the Ameers in precisely the 
 state of feeling which might have been expected ; — 
 deejjly irritated against the English, dis])osed to 
 rejoice at any misfortune which might overtake 
 them, and ready to rise u)) and a.ssert their indepen- 
 dence if the oi)])nrtunily offered ; but constantly let 
 and hindered by the fear of consequences, and by the 
 divided counsels arising from separate interests. 
 With anxious care the Resident watched their feel- 
 
 ings and opinions — warning one, counselling anottier, 
 reasoning with a third ; and in the perilous moment 
 when General England fell back on Quetta, after a , 
 vain attempt to succour Nott at Candahar, Outram 
 strained every nerve to prevent the rulers of Sinde 
 from making common cause with their Beloochee 
 countrymen against the invading army. " Even 
 their negative hostility," he writes, " evinced by 
 withholding supplies, would have placed us in a 
 ])Osition which it is fearful even to contemplate." The 
 recollection of past wrongs did not, however, prevent 
 the majority of the Ameers from actively befriending 
 the troops in tlieir hour of need ; but some of thera 
 were suspected of being concerned in hostile in- 
 trigues ; and though Meer Roostum behaved with 
 accustomed candour, his minister, Futteh Moham- 
 med Ghoree became implicated in certain suspicious 
 proceedings. Towards the conclusion of the Afghan 
 M-ar, Major Outram proposed to Lord Ellenborough 
 (the successor of Lord Auckland) a revision of the 
 existing treaties, which were very vaguely worded, 
 urging that precautions should be taken against the 
 possible machinations of such of the Ameers as had 
 betrayed hostile intentions during the late crisis, 
 and advised that Shikarpoor and its dependencies, 
 with Sukkur and the adjacent fortress of Bukkur, 
 should be demanded in complete cession, in return 
 for the relinquishment of the yearly tribute of 
 £350,000, and of arrears due of considerable amount. 
 
 Lord Ellenborough was not content with this 
 arrangement : he desired to reward the good service 
 done to the forces in the late war by a neighbouring 
 prince, the Khan of Bhawalpoor,* by the restoration 
 of certain territories captured from him some thirty 
 years before by the Ameers, who were consid- 
 ered to have rendered themselves " most amenable 
 to punishment." To this Major Outram assented ; 
 but wlien his lordship proceeded to write denuncia- 
 tory letters to the Ameers, threatening them with 
 punishment for past offences, should any such be 
 clearly proved, the Resident withheld these commu- 
 nications, believing that their delivery would gravely 
 imperil the safety of the troops still scattered in 
 isolated positions in dreary Afghanistan. The gov- 
 ernor-general admitted the discretion of this proce- 
 dure ; but he had taken up, with the energy of a strong 
 though often prejudiced mind, the popular notion 
 of the day against political agents ; and the prudence 
 displayed by Colonel Outram did not exempt him 
 from the sweeping measures enacted for the super- 
 cession of political by purely military functionaries. 
 
 Sir Charles Napier had just arrived in India, and 
 to liim was entrusted the task of gaining the consent 
 of the Ameers to concessions amounting to their vir- 
 tual deposition. t The sudden recall of the Resident, 
 and the arrival of a military leader, at the head of a 
 powerful force, alarmed the Ameers, and tlicy strove 
 to deprecate the ini])ending storm by every means in 
 their i)o\ver. The testimonies of many Britisli ofhcers 
 and surgeons are brought forward by Major Outram, 
 to confirm his own evidence with regard to the 
 characters of the unfortunate chiefs of Sinde, whom 
 he describes as decidedly favourable specimens of 
 Mohannnedan princes, ruling after a very patriarchal 
 fashion, — merciful, accessible to complainants, singu- 
 larly temperate, abstaining not only from drinking 
 and smoking, but likewise rigidly eschewing the 
 accursed drug, opitmi, even as a mcdicine.| The 
 
 * TV(/e ,Slial::'iiict Ali's History \if Bahawalpoor. 
 f Thmnton's India, vi., 423. 
 
 * Oiitram's Vimnncntarr^ i)20. Dr. IJurncs' Sinde,
 
 I'LIUIIT Oi' MEER ROOSTUM— BATTLE OF MEANEE— FEB., 18i;j. 451 
 
 mere fact of so manj' chiefs living nnd hcnrinp swny 
 in llii! doiiirstic I'asliion (l('scril)eil by ]'()tlinf;c'r, 
 liuniL's, uiiU Oiitram, was a stroiif,' argiiincnt in llieir 
 favour; yet Sir C'luulus Naiiier uiiliappily lent a 
 credulous ear to the niiscliiovoiis nimotirs which 
 a longer residence in India would liav(' tau;jht him 
 to sift narrowly, or reject wliolly : and Iiis entire 
 conduct was in accordance with Iii,s iindisi,'uiseil 
 opinion, that the Ameers were " thorou^'h rullians" 
 and " villains," druidien, del>auclied, capable uf fratri- 
 cide, "any one of them,"and determined to assassinate 
 him and " Cahool" the troops. Accustomed to the 
 courtesy of liritisli ollicials (one of whom had stood 
 unshod in tlieir presence, some ten years before, to 
 crave permission to open the navigation of the Indus), 
 they were now startled by tlie tone of contemptuous 
 distrust with wliieli they were treated by tlie dark- 
 visajjed little old man, who, despite his untpiestioned 
 courage in the field of battle, avowedly suffered per- 
 sonal fear of treachery to ])revent his according a 
 friendly hearing to the " benign and grey-headed 
 monarch who had conferred the most substantial 
 benefits on the English nation." 
 
 Major Outran! states tliat Sir Charles Napier 
 scrupled not to add exactions to the treaties not 
 desired by ],ord Kllenborougli : and further, that he 
 incited the most ambitious and able of the Khyr- 
 poor brothers (Ali Morad), to intrigue against their 
 venerated rais or chief, Mecr f'oostum, who, perceiv- 
 ing the offensive and threatening attitude assumed by 
 the Hrillsh forces, asked the advice of the general 
 what to do to preserve peace, and offered to take 
 up his residence in the camp. Sir Charles Napier 
 advised, or rather commanded him to join hia 
 brother. The aged rais complied, and the residt 
 was his being first, as Sir Charles said, "bullied" 
 into resigning the jniggree to Ali jSIorad, and then 
 induced, by artfully-implanted fears of Knglish 
 treachery, to seek refuge with his family in the wil- 
 derness. This step was treated as an act of hostility, 
 and immediate ])reparations were made for what was 
 vauntingly termed " the conquest," but which was 
 expected to be little more than the occupation of 
 Sinde. The customary form of a declaration of war 
 was passed over; and it being suspected that the 
 fugitives had taken refuge in Eniaunghur, Sir Charles 
 marched, with -100 men mounted on camels, against 
 that fortress in January, 1843. Eniaunghur be- 
 longed to a younger brother of Koostum — Moham- 
 med of ]vhyr])oor,one of tlie reigning Ameers, whohad 
 never "been even accused of a single hostile or iin- 
 friendlyact,"* but who had the unfortunate reputation 
 of possessing treasure to the amount of from £'J0(),()()() 
 to £960,000, stored up in Emaunghur.t No such 
 prize awaited the general ; lie founcl the fort witliout 
 a living inhabitant, but well supplied with grain, of 
 which the troops took possession, razed the walls, 
 and marched back again. 
 
 At this crisis. Major Outram returned to Sinde, at 
 the especial request of both Lord Ellenborough and 
 Sir Charles Napier, to aid as commissioner in settling 
 the pending arrangements. Having vainly entreated 
 the general not to persist in driving the whole of the 
 Ameers of Ujiper Sinde to open war, by compelling 
 them to take jiart with Meer lioostimi and his fugi- 
 tive adherents. Major Outram centred his last 
 efforts for peace in striving to persuade the Ameers 
 
 * Outram's Conmieii/ary, 3!). t First Sinde B. B., 409. 
 
 t Outrn-ni iWemcil himself " bound to vindir.ite his 
 (Napier's) eonduet in my communieations with liis vic- 
 tims." — (Cimimenlary, 325.) § Idem, 439. 
 
 not yet compromised by any manifeotation of distrust, 
 
 to throw themselves at the feet of the Knglish, by 
 signing the required treaty. The task is best dc- 
 seribed in the words of the negotiator : — " I wa» 
 called upon to obtain their assent to demands against 
 which 1 had soleniidy ])rote»ted as a positive rob- 
 bery : and I had to warn them against resistance to 
 our requisitions, as a measure that would bring down 
 upon them utter and merited destruction J while I firmly 
 believed that every life lost, in consequence of our ag- 
 gressions, would lie chargeable on us as a murder."{ 
 
 The arguments of Major Outram succeeded in 
 procuring the signature of the cliiefs of Lower Sinde ; 
 but the jirohibition he ha<l received against any 
 promise of jiroteelion for Meer lto(jstum, however 
 clearly his innocence might be proved, e.xeited un- 
 eontrollable indignation on the part of the lieloochee 
 fc;udatory chiefs; and but for tlie efforts of theAmeers, 
 the commissioner and his party would have been 
 massacred on their return to the Hesidency. Major 
 Outram was warned to quit Hyderabad. The vakeels 
 or ambassadors disi)atched to the liritisli camp to 
 offer entire submission, failed to procure even a hear- 
 ing; and they sent word to their masters — "The 
 giMieral is bent on war — so get ready." In fact, 
 Napier had been so long preparing to meet a con. 
 spiracy on the part of the Ameers, that he seems to 
 have been determined either to make or find one, if 
 only to illustrate his favourite denunciation of — 
 " A\'oe attend those who conspire against the power- 
 ful arms of the eomjiany : behold tlie fate of Tippoo 
 Sultan and the peishwa, and the Emperor of China!" 
 Therelore he continued his march ; and the terrified 
 Ameers, on learning their last and deepest humilia- 
 tions had been endured in vain, gave the rein to 
 the long-restrained fury of their followers, — ^just fifty- 
 three days after the commencement of hostiliVies by 
 General Najner. On the lolh of Eebruary, a horde 
 of armed Belooehees attacked the residence of the 
 liritisli commissioner. After a few hours' resistance. 
 Major Outram and his escort evacuated the ])lace, 
 and retreated in marching order to meet the ad- 
 vancing army, which continued its progress to a 
 village called Meanee (six miles from Hyderabad), 
 which he reached on the 17th. Here the Ameers had 
 taken up their position, with a force stated by Sir 
 C. Napier at 25,802 Belooehees, hastily assembled 
 and ill-disciplined ; but than w hom, he savs, " braver 
 barbarians never gave themselves to slaughter." 
 And very terrible the slaughter was; for, if General 
 AV. Napier may be trusted, the Ameers " were broken 
 like potsherds," and f),000 men "went down before the 
 bayonets of his (brother's) gallant soldiers, wallowing 
 in blood." The English lost 2')4 killed and wounded. 
 
 Immediately after the battle, Meer Roostum and 
 two others of the Khyrpoor family, with three of tlie 
 Ameers of Hyderabad, influenced by the representa- 
 tions of Major Outram, abandoned all intention of 
 defending Hyderabad, and delivered themselves up as 
 prisoners ; and on 20th of Feb., Napier entered the 
 capital as a conqueror. Although there had been 
 no declaration of war, and no sign of defence, — not 
 a shot fired from the walls, — the prize. agents imme- 
 diately set about the plunder of the city, in a manner 
 happily unparalleled in the records of Anglo-Indian 
 campaigns. The ladies of the imprisoned Ameers 
 were exposed to the insulting search of one of the 
 most abandoned of their own sex, the concubine of 
 an officer on duty in Shide. Everything belonging 
 to them, even to the cots on which they slept, were 
 seized and sold by public auction ;§ and several of
 
 452 ANNEXATION OF SINDE, 1843— GWALIOR CAPTURED -1844. 
 
 these unfortunates, driven to desperation, fled from the 
 city harefoot, overwhelmed with shame and terror. 
 
 On the 24th of March, the army marched from 
 Hyderabad against Sheer Mohammed, Ameer of 
 Meerpoor,with whom a pitched battle took place near 
 that city, in which the British were victorious, but 
 lost 267"men in killed and wounded. Meerpoor was 
 occupied without resistance, and the desert fortress 
 of Amercot (the birthplace of Akber, conquered by 
 the Ameers from the Rajpoots) surrendered at the 
 first summons. The brothers Shah Mohammed and 
 Sheer Mohammed were defeated in the month of 
 June, by detachments respectively commanded by 
 captains Roberts and Jacob ; and the success of these 
 officers in preventing the junction of the brothers, 
 and defeating them, materially conduced to the tri- 
 umphant conclusion of the campaign ; for had their 
 forces been able to unite and retire to the desert, 
 and there wait their opportunity, heat, pestilence, and 
 inundation (in a land intersected by canals), would 
 have been fearful auxiliaries to the warfare of preda- 
 tory bands, against an army already reduced to 2,000 
 efiective men, who could only move in the night, 
 and were falling so fast beneath climatorial influ- 
 ences, that before the intelligence of Captain Jacob's 
 victory, orders had been issued for the return of 
 all the Europeans to head-quarters. 
 
 The Ameers were sent as prisoners to Hindoo- 
 stan, and stipends were eventually granted for their 
 support, amounting in the aggregate to £46,614. 
 Ali Morad was rewarded for his share in sending his 
 aged brother to die in exile, by an addition of terri- 
 tory, which was soon afterwards taken away from 
 him, on a charge of forgery urged against him, and it 
 was thought clearly proved, by a vengeful minister. 
 The rest of the province was annexed to British 
 India,' and divided into three coUectorates — Shikar- 
 poor, Hyderabad and Kurrachee. There is some 
 consolation in being able to close this painful episode, 
 by stating that the latest accounts represent the 
 country as improving in salubrity, the inhabitants 
 (considerably above a million in number) as tran- 
 quil and industrious, canals as being reopened, 
 waste land redeemed, new villages springing up, and 
 even the very mild form of slavery which prevailed 
 under the Ameers, as wholly abolished. This is well ; 
 for since we are incontestably usurpers in Sinde, it 
 is the more needful we be not oppressors also.* 
 
 The sword had scarcely been sheathed in 
 Sinde before it was again drawn in warfare 
 against the Mahratta principality formed 
 by Maliadajee Sindia. The successor of 
 Dowlut Rao, and the adopted son of Baiza 
 Bye, died cliildless in 1843. His nearest 
 relative, a l)oy of eight years of age, was 
 proclaimed Maharajah, with the sanction 
 of tlie British government; and the regency 
 was nominally entrusted to the widow of 
 tlie late prince, a wayward and passionate, 
 but clever and sensitive girl of twelve years 
 of age. Great disorders arose in the state ; 
 and the turbulence of the mass of 40,000 
 soldiers, concentrated at Gwalior, rendered 
 them an object of anxiety to the govcnx r- 
 gencral. The doctiine openly nioulcated by 
 
 * Vide Napier's Sinde ; and Outram's Commentary. 
 
 Lord Wellesley — of the rights and obliga- 
 tions of the British government, as the 
 paramount power in India — was urged by 
 Lord EUenborough as the basis of his pro- 
 posed movements with regard to Gwalior. 
 An army was assembled at the close of 
 1843; and while one division, comprising 
 about eight or nine thousand men, marched 
 from Bundelcund, and crossed the Sinde 
 river at Chandpoor, the main body, about 
 14,000 strong, under the command of Sir 
 Hugh Gough, accompanied by the governor- 
 general, crossed the Chumbul near the 
 town of Dholpoor, and on tlie 26th of De- 
 cember encamped at Hingona, twenty-three 
 miles north-west of the fort of Gwalior. 
 Marching thence on the 29th, the British 
 force came in front of a Mahratta host, 
 about 18,000 iu number, encamped fifteen 
 miles from Gwalior, near the villages of 
 INIaliarajpoor and Chonda. The details of 
 the ensuing engagement are unsatisfactorilv 
 recorded. That the British came unex- 
 pectedly on the enemy, is proved by the fact 
 tiiat Lord EUenborough (not a military 
 man, as he sorrowfully said) was on the 
 field, and also the ladies of the family of 
 the commander-in-chief. The conflict was 
 desperate, and the English suffered severe loss 
 from the numerous and well-served artillery 
 of the foe ; but they prevailed, as usual, 
 by sheer hard fighting, marching up under 
 a murderous fire to the mouths of the 
 cannon, bayoneting the gunners, and 
 driving all before them. Flinging away 
 their matchlocks, the Mahrattas fell back 
 on Maharajpoor, where they held their 
 ground, sword in hand, until General 
 Valiant, at the head of a cavalry brigade, 
 charged the village in the rear, and dis- 
 persed the foe with much slaughter. The 
 survivors retreated to Gwalior, leaving 
 on the field fifty-six pieces of artillery, and 
 all their ammunition waggons. The total 
 loss of British troops was 106 killed and 
 684 wounded. On the same day, Major- 
 general Grey encountered 12,000 Mahrattas 
 at Puniar, twelve miles south-west of (ivva- 
 lior, captured all their artillery, and slew a 
 large number of them, his own loss being 
 twenty-five killed and 189 wounded. The 
 victorious forces met beneath the walls of 
 the ancient stronghold, which, on the 4th 
 of January, 1844, was taken possession of 
 by the contingent force commanded by 
 British officers. At the base of the temple 
 stood the Ijashkar, or stationary camp, 
 where about 5,000 Mahrattas, being amply
 
 LORD ELLENBOROUGII SUPERSEDED BY SIR II. IIARDINGIi— I8ik 453 
 
 supplied with artillery, held out until the 
 odor of ii(niidation of arrears, and three 
 months' additional pay, induced them to 
 surrender their arms and ammunition, and 
 disperse quietly. 
 
 The native durbar attempted no further 
 opposition to the views of the f,'overnor- 
 gcneral, and a treaty was concluded on tiie 
 l.'kh Jan., \H\l, by which the Maharanee 
 was handsomely pensioned, but excluded 
 from the government; and the administra- 
 tion vested in a council of regency, under 
 the control of the British Resident, during 
 the minority of the ^laliarajaii. The fortress 
 of (rwalior was ceded in pcr[)ctuity, and the 
 sum of twenty-six lacs, or ati eiiuivalent in 
 land, was demanded by Lord lilllenborough, 
 ia payment of long-standing claims; the 
 subsidiary force was increased, and the maxi- 
 mum of the native army fixed at 9,000 men, 
 of whom not more than one-third were to 
 be infantry. The good conduct of the 
 young rajah led to his being permitted to 
 assume the reins of power before the expira- 
 tion of the stated interval, and at its close, 
 in 1853, he was formally seated on the 
 musnud, and confirmed iu the authority he 
 had previously exercised on sufferance.* 
 
 The hostilities carried on with China, 
 however important in themselves, have no 
 place in the already overcrowded history of 
 India; but it would be unjust to Lord 
 EUenborough, to omit noticing his vigorous 
 and successful exertions for the dispatch of 
 troops and stores to the seat of war. The 
 reasons for his recall by the E. I. Directory 
 in July, isy., were not made public; and 
 it would be superfluous to speculate upon 
 them in a work the object of which is to 
 state facts, not opinions. 
 
 IIardinge Administration: 1844 to 
 1848. — Lord EUenborough's successor. Sir 
 Henry IIardinge, employed the brief interval 
 of tranquillity enjoyed by the Anglo-Indian 
 government iu promoting public works, in 
 
 * Chunit Sing foiiiuled tlie fortunes of his family 
 by establishing a sirdaree or governorship, wliieli his 
 son, Maha Sing, consolidated by the capture of the 
 fort and town of Hamnnggnr, from a strong Mo- 
 hammedan tribe called Chettas. JIaha Sing died in 
 1780, leaving one son, a child then four years old, 
 the afterwards famous llunjeet Sing. The mother 
 and mother-in-law of the young chief ruled in his 
 name until the year ll'Xi, when llunjeet became 
 impatient of control, and sanctioned, or (according 
 to iM.njor Smyth) himself comniittid the murder of 
 his mother, on the plea of her shameless immorality — 
 a procedure in which he closely imitated the conduct 
 of his father, likewise a matricide. The conquest of 
 Lahore, in 1798, from some Seik chiefs by whom 
 it was conjointly governed, was the first step of the 
 3 N 
 
 improving the discipline of the army, 
 ameliorating the condition of the native 
 troops, and ciuleavouring to produce a 
 more friendly spirit between the military 
 and civil services. 
 
 The progress of much-needed reforms 
 was soon arrested by the outbreak of war 
 on the north-western frontier, wliieh was 
 met by the governor-general in a firm ami 
 decisive spirit. Upon the death of the old 
 Lion of the Punjab — the mighty robber- 
 chief who had raised himself from the 
 leadership of a small Jat tribe to the rank 
 of Maharajah of the Seiks, — the kingdom he 
 had fuunded was shaken to its base by a 
 series of durbar intrigues and midnight 
 assassinations, exceeding in atrocity the 
 worst crimes committed at the worst periods 
 of Hindoo or Mohammedan history. Kur- 
 ruck Sing, the successor, and, it was gen- 
 erally believed, the oidy son of the deceased 
 ruler, was deprived, first of reason and then 
 of life, by the hateful machinations of the 
 minister Rajah Dehra Sing and his profli- 
 gate and abandoned son Hcera (the pam- 
 pered luinion of Runjeet), the leading 
 luembers of a powerful family, generally 
 known as the Lords of Jummoo, a princi- 
 pality eouquered from the Rajpoots. f The 
 inercmation of Kurruck Sing was scarcely 
 eiuled, when some loose bricks fell on the 
 head of his son No Nehal Sing, who was 
 placed in a litter and carried off by the 
 arch plotter Dehra, before the extent of the 
 injury could be ascertained by the bystand- 
 ers, and kept froiu the presence of his family 
 until the crime had been completed, and the 
 young rajah was a corpse, ilurder followed 
 murder: men and women, the guilty and 
 the innocent, the vizier in the council- 
 chamber, the general at the head of the 
 army, the lady at her toilette, the babe in 
 its cradle, were by turns the victims of un- 
 scrupulous ambition, covetousuess of wealth, 
 lust, cowardice, or vengeance. Dehra and 
 ladder by which Kunjeet mounted to power. Moul- 
 tan and Peshawur were captured in 1818; Cashmere 
 in the following year; and Runjeet's career of plun- 
 der and subjugation ceased not until a wall of Im- 
 penetrable mountains closed its extension northward, 
 in a manner scarcely less decisive than the dieck to 
 his progress southward and eastward, previously given 
 by the English, when their prudent interference com- 
 pelledhimtoHnd in theSutlejabarrierasim.passableas 
 the Himalayas themselves. — (Prinsep's&'iAs; Smyth's 
 Jiiipiiiiif/ Fiimily (if Lahore : Shahamet All's Seiks and 
 .■ifyhiins; Hiigei's Travels in Cashmere and the Punjab.) 
 
 t The almost independent power which Runjeet 
 Sing suffered the Lords of Jummoo and other favour- 
 ite chiefs to assume, was one of the causes of the fierce 
 civil war for which his death ga»e tlie signal.
 
 454 WAR IN THE PUNJAB— BATTLE OF MOODKEE— DECEMBER, 1845. 
 
 Heera Sing fell, each at a different crisis, 
 while holding the office of vizier. Sheer 
 Sing, the sou of one of Runjeet's wives, 
 obtained for a time the throne; but was 
 murdered in 1843, after which a state of 
 wide-spread anarchy prevailed throughout 
 the Punjab, the chief remaining semblance 
 of authority being vested in the person of 
 Ranee Chunda, a concubine of the late 
 Runjeet Sing, and the mother of a boy 
 named Duleep Sing, who, though notori- 
 ously not the son of the Maharajah, had 
 been in some sort treated by him as such. 
 Dehra Sing, wanting a puppet, had drawn 
 this child from obscurity ; and his mother, 
 under the title of regent, became the head 
 of a faction, the opposers of which took 
 their stand by declaiming truly against the 
 spurious origin of Duleep Sing, and the 
 shameless immorality of Ranee Chunda ; and 
 untruly, with regard to her alleged efforts to 
 intrigue with the English against the inde- 
 pendence of the Seik nation. Now, in fact, 
 the only point upon which the various Seik 
 parties had ever shown any degree of una- 
 nimity, was that of enmity to the British ; 
 and much evidence has gradually been 
 brought to light of the actual treachery, as 
 well as passive bi-each of treaty committed 
 by them during the Afghan war. The in- 
 temperate language of Sir Charles Napier 
 in Sinde, and his undisguised anticipation 
 of war in the Punjab, had been published, 
 doubtless with exaggeration, throughout that 
 kingdom ; and the general feeling of the 
 Seiks was anxiety to assume an offensive 
 position, and meet, if not anticipate, the 
 expected invasion. The French officers iu 
 the Seik service (Ventura and M. Court), 
 appear to have borne little part in the past 
 commotions; but their exertions, together 
 with those of Allard and the Neapolitan 
 Avitabile, on whom Runjeet conferred the 
 government of Pesbawur, had been sedu- 
 lously and successfully employed in casting 
 cannon, organising artillery, and disciplining 
 troops after the European fashion. 
 
 The preparations made at Lahore for the 
 passage of the Sutlej by a Seik army, could 
 not long be concealed from the governor- 
 general, who, with all practicable expedition 
 and secrecy, concentrated 32,000 men and 
 j sixty-eight guns in and about Ferozepoor, 
 Loodiana, and Umballa. Towards the middle 
 of December, the Seiks crossed their boun- 
 dary, bringing with them large quantities of 
 licavy artillery ; and one body of 25,000 
 regulars and eighty-eight guns, took up a 
 
 position near the village of Ferozshah ; 
 whilst another force of 23,000 men and 
 sixty-seven guns, encamped opposite Feroze- 
 poor. Both divisions commenced throwing 
 up earthworks around their camps, and pre- 
 paring for a vigorous contest. 
 
 The governor-general had hastened to 
 the frontier to superintend the necessary 
 preparations at the various cantonments. 
 On learning the passage of the Sutlej by 
 the Seiks, in direct contravention of exist- 
 ing treaties, he issued a declaration of war, 
 and, in conjunction with the commander- 
 ii-chief. Sir Hugh Gough, advanced with 
 the main column from Bussean (the military 
 depot) towards Ferozepoor. On reaching the 
 village of Moodkee (18th December, 1845), 
 tidings were received of a hostile encampment 
 some three miles off, comprising a large 
 body of troops, chiefly cavalry, supported by 
 twenty-two guns. It was mid-day, and the 
 English were weary with marching ; never- 
 theless they started forward, after a brief 
 interval for refreshment. The Seik artil- 
 lery being advantageously posted behind 
 some low jungle, fired briskly upon the 
 advancing columns, but could not hinder 
 the approach of the British horse artillery 
 and light field batteries, which opened on 
 them with steady precision, and caused a 
 degree of confusion in their ranks, soon 
 utterly broken by a sweeping charge of 
 cavalry, closely followed by a continuous 
 discharge from the muskets of the infantry. 
 The Seiks were driven off by the bayonet 
 whenever they attempted to make a stand, 
 and fled leaving seventeen guns and large 
 numbers of their dead comrades on the 
 field. The slaughter would have been 
 greater but for the weariness of the victors 
 and the gathering darkness. The British 
 returned to their camp at midnight, with 
 the loss of 216 killed and 648 wounded, out 
 of a force of 1,200 rank and file. Among 
 the slain was Sir Robert Sale, who fell with 
 his left thigh shattered by grapeshot. The 
 victory was followed up by an attack on the 
 intrenched camp of the enemy at Feroz- 
 shah. The Seiks were estimated at 35,000 
 rank and file, and eighty-eight guns; while 
 the British numbered less tlian 18,000 men, 
 and sixty-five guns. The disparity was sen- 
 sibly felt, for the Seiks had jiroved them- 
 selves far more formidable opponents than 
 had been expected ; and their artillery 
 (thanks to the labours of Ventura, Allard, 
 Avitabile, and Court, and to the policy 
 of encouraging foreign adventurers to enter
 
 SlilK WAll— BATTLES OF FEROZSHAII, ALIWAL, AND SOBRAON. 455 
 
 the servicR of native princes, and prohibit- 
 ing Englishmen from a similar ])rocec(liug) 
 excelled ours in calibre as much as in number, 
 was in admirable order, and thoroughly well 
 served. The British advanced from iMood- 
 kce, and reached the hostile encampment 
 about eleven o'clock on the 2 1 st of December. 
 The engagement commenced with an attack 
 by the artillery on the Seik lines, which ex- 
 tended nearly a mile in length and half a 
 mile in breadth. An order was given to 
 the infantry to seize the enemy's guns ; and 
 the terrible task was (!lTeete(l with so much 
 success, that the battle seemed almost gained, 
 when the sudden fall of night obliged the 
 combatants to cease fighting, because they 
 could no longer distinguish friend from foe. 
 The main body of the British forces was 
 withdrawn a few hundred yards, and while 
 resting under arms, some of the Seik guns 
 which had not been taken possession of, were 
 brought to bear on the recumbent troops. 
 The governor-general mounted his horse 
 and led the gallant 80lli, with a portion of 
 the 1st Bengal Europeans, against the hos- 
 tile guns, carried them at a charge, caused 
 them to be spiked, and returned to his pre- 
 vious station. The remainder of the night 
 was one of extreme anxiety to the British 
 commanders: their loss had been most se- 
 vere ; and the reserve force, under Sir Harry 
 Smith, had been compelled to retire ; while 
 rciuforccments were believed to be ou their 
 way to join the Seiks. The " mettle" of the 
 troops and of their dauntless leaders was 
 never more conspicuous : at daybreak they 
 renewed the attack with entire success, 
 secured the whole of the seventy-six guns 
 opposed to them, and cleared the entire 
 length of the hostile works; the enemy 
 falling back on the reserve, which arrived 
 just in time to prevent their total destruc- 
 tion. Thus strengthened, the vanquished 
 Seiks were enabled to reeross the Sutlej 
 without molestation. The English found 
 full and melancholy occupation in burying 
 their dead and nursing the wounded. 
 Nearly 700 perished on the field; and of above 
 1,700 placed in hospital at Fcrozcpoor, 600 
 died or were disabled from further service. 
 
 The great loss thus sustained, and the 
 want of a battering train, prevented the 
 conquerors from marching on Lahore, and 
 bringing the war to a summary conclusion. 
 Many weeks elapsed before the arrival of 
 reinforcements enabled Sir Hugh Gough 
 again to take the field ; and in the iu- 
 tervalj the Seiks threw a bridge of boats 
 
 across the Sutlej, and encamped at Sobraon, 
 on the left bank of the river, where, under 
 the direction of two European engineers, 
 they constructed an almost impregnable t'He- 
 du-jiont. Arujther body crossed the river 
 and took post at the vilhige of Aliwal, near 
 Loodiana. Sir Harry Smith was dispatched 
 from I'crozcpoor to relieve Loodiana, which 
 having effected, he marched against Aliwal 
 with a force of about 10,000 men, and ad- 
 vanced to the attack on the 28th Jan., 18 IG, 
 with his entire line. A brief cannonade 
 and a cavalry charge was followed by the 
 onset of the infantry : the village was carried 
 by the bayonet, the opposing guns captured, 
 and the foe driven with great slaughter 
 across the river. Smith returned to Feroze- 
 poor on the 8th of February, and on the 
 following dav the long-expected heavy guns 
 reached the British camp. Before daybreak 
 on the 10th the troops marched forth to 
 attack the formidable intrenchments of an 
 enemy estimated at 54,000 men, and sup- 
 ported by seventy pieces of artillery. The 
 British numbered 10,000 rank and fde, with 
 ninety-nine guns. They advanced under a 
 murderous fire from cannon, muskets, and 
 camel guns, and in more than one place 
 were repeatedly forced back, but the charge 
 was invariably renewed. Line after line was 
 carried, in the accustomed manner, by the 
 bayonet, and the victory was completed by 
 the fierce onslaught of a body of cavalry, 
 under General Thackwell. The Seik guns, 
 camel swivels, and standards were aban- 
 doned, and the retreating mass driven over 
 their bridge of boats across the river, hun- 
 dreds perishing by the fire of the horse 
 artillery, and many more being drowned in 
 the eonf^usion. The English lost 3.20 killed 
 (including the veteran Sir Thomas Dick, 
 with other oflBcers of note), and the wounded 
 amounted to 2,063. The victorious army 
 marched to Lahore; and there, beneath the 
 city walls, dictated the terms of peace. The 
 governor- general was disposed to recognise 
 the claims of the boy Duleep Sing as ^laha- 
 rajah, and 10,000 men were left at Lahore 
 (under the command of Sir John Littler) for 
 his support and the preservation of peace. 
 The Seik government, or durbar, consented 
 to defray the expenses of the war, amounting 
 to a million and a-half sterling, and agreed 
 to the disbaudmeut of their turbulent sol- 
 diery, of w hom the majority had been already 
 temporarily dispersed. Sir Henry Hardinge 
 returned to England, and was rewarded for 
 zealous and successful service by eleva-
 
 456 ANNEXATION OP THE PUNJAB BY LORD DALHOUSIE— 1819. 
 
 tion to the peerage; a similar mark of 
 royal favour was conferred on Sir Hugh 
 Gough. 
 
 Dalhousie Administration: 1848 to 
 1855.— The recent Seik treaty was not 
 carried out, and appears to have been 
 merely signed as a means of gaining time. 
 A new series of crimes and intrigues com- 
 menced ; and, as before, hatred of the Eng- 
 lish was the only common feeling of the 
 various leaders of factions. The first signs 
 of open hostility appeared in the ancient 
 city of Mooltan, the capital of a petty state 
 between the Indus and the Sutlej, conquered 
 by Runjeet Sing in 1818. The British 
 assistant Resident (Mr. Vans Agnew) and 
 Iiieutenant Anderson of the Bombay army, 
 were assassinated in the fortress by Mool- 
 raj the governor, against wliom hostile ope- 
 rations were immediately commenced ; the 
 earlier of which were characterised by a 
 remarkable display of energy and judgment 
 on the part of Major Herbert Edvvardes, 
 then a subaltern, " who had seen but one 
 campaign."* The strong fortress of Mooltan 
 was besieged in August, and would probably 
 have been captured in the following month, 
 but for the treacherous defection of a large 
 body of Seik auxiliaries, which, with other 
 unmistakable indications of hostility, left (in 
 the words of Lord Dalhousie) " no other 
 course open to us than to prosecute a gen- 
 eral Punjab war with vigour, and ultimately 
 to occupy the country with our troops." 
 
 In November, 1849, a British army, under 
 Lord Gough, again took the field, and 
 marched from Ferozepoor to Ramnuggur, 
 near the Chenab, where a Seik force lay 
 encamped. The attack of the British proved 
 successful, but their loss was heavy, and 
 included the gallaut General Cureton, Co- 
 lonel Ilavelock, and Captain Fitzgerald. 
 The Seiks retreated in order towards the 
 Jhelura, while Lord Gough prepared to follow 
 up his victory by an attack on Lahore. 
 The siege of Mooltan, conducted by General 
 Whish, was brought to a successful issue on 
 the 2nd of January, 1849. The fortress was 
 most vigorously defended, until its massive 
 fortifications were completely undermined, 
 and several practicalile breaches effected. 
 Orders had been given to storm the citadel 
 at daybreak, and the troops were actually 
 forming, when Moolraj presented himself at 
 the chief gate, and proceeding straight to 
 the tent of the English general, surrendered 
 jthe keys and his own sword. 
 
 • I'ca)' im tlic Punjab Frontier, pp. 381 -'2. 
 
 A garrison was left in Mooltan, and the 
 remainder of the army marched off to join 
 the commander-in-chief, but arrived too late 
 to share the peril and the glory of the much- 
 criticised battle of Chillianwallah. Events 
 so recent are hardly fit subjects of history. 
 It is seldom until the chief actors have 
 passed away from the stage that the evi- 
 dence brought forward is sufficiently clear 
 and full to enable the most diligent investi- 
 gator to form a correct judgment on their 
 merits and demerits. 
 
 Early in January, Lord Gough proceeded 
 towards the Chenab, and found, as he ex- 
 pected, the Seiks strongly posted near Chil- 
 lianwallah, with their artillery planted in a 
 commanding and safe position, under cover 
 of some low but dense jungle. The British 
 marched to the attack, as they had often 
 done before, amid a storm of grape and 
 shell, and after a long and sanguinary engage- 
 ment, which lasted till after nightfall, car- 
 ried the murderous guns with the bayonet, 
 and purchased victory with the loss of 757 
 killed and above 2,000 wounded. The 
 carnage among the Seiks must have been 
 yet more terrible; nevertheless, being joined 
 by a body of Afghan horse, they prepared to 
 renew the contest. The final struggle took 
 place on the 21st of February, a few miles 
 from the town of Gujerat. The battle was 
 opened by Lord Gough with a fierce can^ 
 nonade, which was maintained without inter- 
 mission for nearly three hours. At the expira- 
 tion of that time the Seiks made a retrograde 
 movement, upon which the whole British 
 force rushed forth on the foe, and with bayo- 
 net, lance, and sword completed the over- 
 throw commenced by the heavy guns. 
 Chutter Sing, Sheer Sing, and other leaders, 
 surrendered to the victors ; the Afghans fled 
 across the Indus ; the Seik forces were dis- 
 banded ; and there being in truth no legiti- 
 mate heir to the usurpations of Runjeet 
 Sing, the Punjab was unavoidably an- 
 nexed to British India. Its present satis- 
 factory and improving condition will be 
 found described in an ensuing section. 
 
 Second Burmese JFac— Nearly two years 
 were passed by the governor-general in 
 active usefulness, without any interruption 
 of the general tranquillity; the only occa- 
 sion i'or military interference being to sup- 
 press the inroads of the Afiedees and otlier 
 predatory tribes in the vicinity of Peshawur. 
 The sole quarter from which hostility was 
 anti('i|)atcd was Burinah, the very one from 
 wbieli it was most earnestly to be depre-
 
 COMMODORE LAMBERT'S PROCEEDINGS AT RANGOON-1851-'2. 457 
 
 cated by all inclined to take warning by 
 past cxjicrieiicc. 
 
 The Earl of Dalbousio was deeply im- 
 pressed with this convietion, and serii])le(l 
 not, with rharactcristic (Vaiikiicss, to doelare 
 luso])inion, that "eou(|iu'st in Hiirinali would 
 be a ealaniity seeond only to the ealamity of 
 war."* The deeply disordered fiiianecs of 
 India had been rapidly improvinfj under his 
 peaceful and able administration, and he 
 looked forward with sincere rcpuj^nance to 
 a continjicney which woidd assuredly jjro- 
 duce " exhausted cash balances and reopened 
 loans. "t Neverthelcss,a series of unfortunate 
 events produced the renewal of war. The 
 treaty of Yandaboo had been j)rcserved in- 
 violate by the sovereign with whom it was 
 made; but his deposition, in 1837, gave a 
 new turn to affairs. His usurping brother, 
 known to the English as a military leader 
 by the name of Prince Thcrawaddi, mani- 
 fested great annoyance at the presence of a 
 political agent at Ava, and the residency 
 was in consequence removed to Rangoon, 
 and subsequently altogether withdrawn 
 from Burmali. The British continued to 
 trade with Rangoon for the following twelve 
 years; and during that time many com- 
 plaints of oppression and breach of treaty 
 were brought against the Burmese govern- 
 ment, but none of these were deemed of 
 sufficient extent or significaney to call for 
 the interference of the Calcutta authorities, 
 until the close of 1851, when the com- 
 manders of two British vessels laid before 
 Lord Dalhousie a formal statement of op- 
 pressive judgments delivered against them 
 by the governor of Rangoon in his judicial 
 capacity. Commodore Lambert was dis- 
 patched from Calcutta with full and very 
 clear instructions regarding the course to be 
 pursued — namely, first to satisfy himself re- 
 garding the justice of these allegations, and 
 then to demand about .fiDOO as compensation. 
 
 On reaching Rangoon, numbers of resi- 
 dent traders (styled by Lord Ellenborough 
 the Don Paeificoes of Rangoon) pushed off 
 in their boats with a strange assortment of 
 complaints against the governor; whereupon 
 Commodore Lambert, without waiting to 
 consult Lord Dalhousie on the subject, 
 broke off al! intercourse with the local func- 
 tionary, and commanded him, in very 
 peremptory language, to forward a letter to 
 the King of Ava, stating the object of the 
 British mission, and demanding the disgrace 
 
 * Further (Pari.) Papers on Burmese war, p. 44. 
 f Idem, p. 87. 
 
 of the ofTending intermediary. The letter was 
 dispatched, and an answer returned, that the 
 obnoxious iiulividual had received his dis- 
 missal, and that the required compensation 
 would be granted. A now governor arrived 
 at Rangoon, whose conduct induced the 
 commodore to doubt the sincerity of the 
 professions made by the Burmese authori- 
 ties; and so far he was probably correct. 
 But, unfortunately, his pecidiar position as 
 a Queen's officer,]: is alleged to have given 
 him a sort of independence, which induced 
 the violation of Lord Dalhousie's exj)ress in- 
 junction, that no act of hostility should be 
 committed by the British mission, however 
 unfavourable its reception, until definite 
 instructions had been obtained from Cal- 
 cutta. The refusal of the governor to re- 
 ceive a deputation sent by the commodore at 
 mid-day on the fith .Jan., 18.J2, — offered 
 by the Burmese atteiulants on the ])lea 
 that their master was asleep, according to 
 custom, at that hour (and afterwards ex- 
 cused on the plea that the deputies were 
 intoxicated, which has been wholly denied), 
 — was immediately resented Ijy a notice from 
 the commodore for all British subjects to 
 repair to the squadron — an order which was 
 obeyed by several hundred men, women, 
 and children. No opposition was made to 
 their embarkation, but those who remained 
 behind were thrown into prison. The next 
 and wholly unauthorised measure was to take 
 possession of a painted war-hulk, styled the 
 " yellow ship," belonging to the King of 
 Ava, which lay at anchor a little above the 
 British vessels. This procedure, which has 
 been almost universally censured, produced 
 a declaration from the governor of Rangoon, 
 that any attempt to carry away the property 
 of the king, would be forcil)ly resisted. The 
 British persisted in towing the vessel out of 
 the river ; and on passing the great stockade, 
 or battery, a fire was opened on them, but 
 soon silenced by a broadside from the 
 squadron, which " must have done great 
 execution. "§ Commodore Lambert declared 
 the coast of Burraah in a state of blockade, 
 and left in a steamer for Calcutta, to 
 seek other instructions than those he had 
 violated in ill-judged retaliation. 
 
 The notoriously hostile spirit of the Bur- 
 mese government, probably induced Lord 
 Dalhousie to confirm the general proceed- 
 ings of Lambert, despite his undisguised dis- 
 approval of. the seizure of the "yellow ship." 
 
 J Cobdon's Origin of Biinness IVnr, 7. 
 
 § Lambert's Despatch. Further Papers, 41.
 
 458 WAR WITH BURMAH— ANNEXATION OF PEGU— DEC, 1852. 
 
 The previous demand for coinpensation 
 was reiterated and received with a degree of 
 evasion which was deemed equivalent to re- 
 jection ; and both parties made ready for an 
 appeal to arms. The British commander-in- 
 chief, Lord Gough, was absent at Simla ; but 
 though a brave soldier, he was a man of ad- 
 vanced age; and the ability of Lord Dalhousie 
 and his council abundantly sufficed to over- 
 come all deficiencies, including those en- 
 countered in the raising of the Madras con- 
 tingent, through the insubordination of the 
 governor, Sir Henry Pottinger, who tacitly 
 opposed Lord Dalhousie at every point, — not 
 through any conscientious feeling regarding 
 the war, but simply from personal irritation, 
 caused by some petty jealousy of office.* 
 The Bombay authorities, aided by the head 
 of the Indian navy (Commodore Lushington) 
 and his able subordinates, captains Lynch 
 and Ilewett, bestirred themselves actively 
 in the preparation of the steam fleet, and 
 on the 2nd of April the Bengal division 
 arrived at the mouth of the Rangoon river; 
 the previous day having been fixed by the 
 governor-general as that on which the King 
 of Ava was to decide whether he would 
 avoid war by the payment of j£100,000 in 
 consideration of the expenses iucurred by 
 the British, and sanction the residence of an 
 accredited agent at Rangoon, in compliance 
 with the treaty of Yandaboo. The steamer 
 dispatched to Rangoon to receive the reply 
 of the Burmese government, was compelled 
 to retreat under a shower of shot from the 
 stockades lining the river; and the campaign 
 commenced. Martaban was stormed with 
 little loss, and occupied by a strong garri- 
 son. The ]\Iadras division arrived soon 
 after ; and the united forces amounted to 
 about 8,000 men, commanded by General 
 Godwin, an active and fearless veteran, who 
 had served under Campbell in the previous, 
 war, but whose projects were sadly fettered by 
 an exaggerated respect for the proceedings of 
 his predecessor. Rangoon was blockaded 
 on the 10th of April, 1852, and the follow- 
 ing day (Easter Sunday) witnessed a despe- 
 rate and prolonged struggle. The intense 
 heat, under which many officers dropped 
 down dead, impeded operations; and it was 
 not until the 14th that the fall of the Golden 
 
 • See an able article entitled " Annals of the Bengal 
 Presidency for 1852," Calcutta Berivw, Mar., 1853. 
 
 t The assassination of Captain Latter, the deputy 
 commissioner at Proine, in December, 1853, has 
 been variously attributed to the treachery of the 
 Burmese government, and to the vengeance of a 
 petty chief, in whose subjugation to Britisli autho- 
 
 Pagoda complc' d the capture of Rangoon, 
 which was ob._ined with the loss to the 
 victors of about 150 killed and wounded. 
 Bassein (once the head-quarters of the Por- 
 tuguese in Eastern India) vcas carried with 
 ease in June, and strongly garrisoned ; but 
 the dilapidated city of Pegu, which next 
 fell into the hands of a British detachment, 
 though evacuated on their approach, was 
 abandoned by them, owing to insufficiency 
 of troops. General Godwin sent to Cal- 
 cutta for reinforcements, and especially for 
 light cavalry, horse artillery, and a field 
 battery. These were assembled and dis- 
 patched with all possible celerity ; and the 
 governor-general, probably dissatisfied with 
 the progress of hostilities, himself visited 
 the seat of war. Prome was taken posses- 
 sion of in July, but abandoned, like Pegu, 
 for want of men, upon which the enemy 
 returned, and made preparations for its 
 defence. The reinforcements which reached 
 the British cantonments in September, 
 raised the army under General Godwin to 
 nearly 20,000 efiicient troops, and might, it 
 was considered, have amply sufficed for 
 more extensive enterprises than were at- 
 tempted. Prome was recaptured, with little 
 difficulty, in October, and Pegu in Novem- 
 ber; and both places were permanently 
 occupied. An effort was made for the re- 
 covery of Pegu by the Burmese, which 
 proved ineffectual ; and an engagement with 
 a body of the enemy, near Pegu, was chiefly 
 remarkable for the gallantry displayed by 
 the irregular Seik horse, who proved val- 
 uable auxiliaries to their late conquerors. 
 
 In December, 1852, the governor-general 
 declared the province of Pegu annexed to. 
 the British empire, and intimated that na. 
 further hostilities would be pursued by the 
 Anglo-Indian government, if the Burmese 
 were content to submit quietly to the loss, 
 of territory which, it must be remembered, 
 they had themselves acquired by usurpation. 
 A new revolution at Ava, caused by the 
 deposition of the king, Therawaddi, by one 
 of his brothers (a procedure similar to that 
 by which he raised himself to the throne), 
 occasioned a cessation of foreign hostilities,t 
 and it would appear that the Buiman court 
 and people are really solicitous for the 
 
 rity he was personally instrumental. The murder 
 was committed in the dead of night, and nothing 
 but life was taken. The assertion that a woman's 
 garment was found on the body, tliough often re- 
 peated, has been authoritatively denied; and of the 
 whole mysterious affair nothing is certain but thft 
 death of a brave, scientific, and energetic officer.
 
 REVIEW OF THE DALIIOUSIE ADMINISTRATION— 1855. 
 
 459 
 
 continuance of peace. Some disappoint- 
 ment was occasioned l)y tlic cnit)asny vohin- 
 tarily dispatched by tlie King of Ava to the 
 governor-general, and tiie mission sent in 
 friendly reeii)roeit,y to Ava, resnlting in no 
 treaty of alliance or conuneree. Tlie gov- 
 ernor-general, however, had from the first 
 " deprecated the reconstruction of any treaty 
 relations vvith the court of Ava at all ;" and 
 at the close of his administration, he de- 
 ciared, that he still considered " peace with 
 Ava as even more likely to be maintained 
 in the absence of all commercial or friendly 
 treaties, than if those conventions had been 
 renewed as before."* 
 
 Saltara. — On the death of the rajah, 
 on the 5th of April, 1848, the principality 
 was annexed to the British territories by 
 right of lapse, the rajah leaving no male 
 heir. 
 
 J/iansie, a small Mahratta state in Bnn- 
 delcund, lapsed in a similar manner to the 
 Rritish government on the death of its last 
 chief, in November, 1853. 
 
 Hyderabad.— On the 21st of May, 1853, 
 the Nizam signed a treaty, which provided 
 for the liquidation of his licavy and long- 
 standing debt to the company, and for the 
 maintenance of the stipulated military con- 
 tingent, by the cession of the districts of 
 Berar Payeen Ghaut, the border districts 
 from thence down to Shorapoor, and the 
 territory of the Dooab between the Kistna 
 and the Toomhnddia.-j- 
 
 Nagpoor, or Berar. — This kingdom, which 
 liad been made over to Kajali Ragojee by 
 the British government after it had been 
 forfeited by the treachery of Appa Sahib, 
 was left without an hereditary heir on the 
 death of the rajah in December, 1853. 
 There remained no male of the line, de- 
 scended from the stock, and l)earing the 
 nameof Bhouslah. The dominions of Berar, 
 or Nagpoor, were tJierefore considered to 
 have lapsed, and were incorporated in the 
 Anglo-Indian empire. There were other 
 annexations of less importance, such as the 
 raj of Ungool (in the Jungle Mahals), 
 and a portion of the land of the rajah of 
 Sikkini (a hill chieftain, on the borders of 
 Nepanl.) 
 
 In Sinde, Ali Morad, of Khyrpoor, was 
 accused of having forged a clause in a treaty, 
 
 * Minute by the Marquis of Palhousie, dated 
 28tli Febiuaiv, 185G, reviewing his administration 
 in India (Voni Januarv, 1848, to Marcli, 1856. — (Pari. 
 Papers, 16th June, 1856.) 
 
 whereby he had wrongfully obtained posses- 
 sion of land which of right belonged to the 
 British government; and his gudt being 
 held to be proved, his lands were con- 
 fiscated. 
 
 Glide. — The closing act of Lord Dal- 
 housic's administration was the annexation 
 of On<le, the government of which country 
 was assumed by his lordship, February 7tli, 
 1 85G. The reasons for this measure, and the 
 mode of its accomplishment, have lieen so 
 much discussed in connexion with the mili- 
 tary mutiny of the Bengal army, which 
 broke out in the following year, that it may 
 perhaps best suit the convenience of the 
 reader, to postpone the relation of the an- 
 nexation until a subsequent section. The 
 chapters immediately succeeding the present 
 one will, it is ho|)ed, afford an insight into 
 the physical and topographical character of 
 the country — a view of the numbers and dis- 
 tribution of the vast and varied population 
 of India — the mode of government — extent 
 of army — amount of commerce and revenue 
 — the field of missionary and educational 
 operations, &c. ; which will make the nar- 
 rative of the mutiny, and its attendant 
 circumstances, more easily understood than 
 it could be without such previous informa- 
 tion. 
 
 In reviewing his eight years' administra- 
 tion. Lord Dalhousio adverted to the rapid 
 progress of civilisation in India; to the es- 
 tablishment of railways at the three presi- 
 dencies and in Sinde; of telegraphic com- 
 munications between the chief cities; of 
 cheap and uniform postage ; the improved ' 
 means of conveyance by land and water ; 
 encoin'Mgement to agriculture and irriga- I 
 tion ; the reduction of impost dues ; the 
 creation of a loan for public works ; niid the 
 open discussion of governmental projects and 
 ttcts. Before his departure, the insurrec- 
 tion of the Sonthals (an aljoriginal race, 
 located near the Rajmahal hills in Bahar), 
 in 1855, was repressed, and precautions 
 taken to prevent a recurrence. Finally, 
 Lord Dalhousie took his leave, declaring, 
 that he " left the Indian empire in peace 
 witliout and within ;" and " that tiiere 
 seemed to be no quarter from which for- 
 midable war could reasonably be appre- 
 hended at present."! 
 
 t Pari. Papers — Commons, 26th Julv, 1854; pp. 
 34; 144. 
 
 X Minute of 2nd of February, 1855.
 
 460 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PRINCIPAL BATTLES AND SIEGES 
 
 Date. 
 
 Usual Name of 
 
 Battle or 
 
 Place. 
 
 14tli Nov., 1751 
 23d June, 1757 
 
 loth Jan., 1761 
 2nd Aug., 1763 
 
 6th Sept., 1763 
 
 6th Nov., 1763 
 
 23rd Oct, 1764 
 6th Mar., 1799 
 
 27th Mar., 1799 
 
 4th May, 1799 
 
 4th Sept., 1803 
 
 11th Sept., 1803 
 
 23rd Sept., 1803 
 
 1st Nov., 1803 
 28th Nov., 1803 
 
 14th Dec, 1803 
 
 13th Nov., 1804 
 
 24th Dee., 1804 
 9th Jan., 1805 
 
 2l5t Jan., 1805 
 20th Feb., 1805 
 21st Feb., 1S05 
 31st Oct., 1814 
 
 J7th Nov., 1814 
 27th Feb, 1816 
 
 fith Nov., 1817 
 
 Siege of Arcot — see 
 p. 264. 
 
 Plas-sy; inNuddea 
 dist. — see p. 278. 
 
 Battle of Patnas— 
 
 see p. 293. 
 Geriah ; near Soo- 
 
 tee, Moorshedu- 
 
 bad— p. 297. 
 Oodwaiiulla X'"ort ; 
 
 Bhaugulpoor dis. 
 Patna taken by 
 
 storm — p. 298. 
 Buxar— p. 299 . . 
 Sedaseer; nearPe- 
 
 riapatam — p. 379 
 
 Malavelly ; in My- 
 
 soor — J). o79. 
 Seringapatam, 
 
 Storm of, p. 381. 
 AUyghur Fort, 
 
 Sturm of, p. 396. 
 Delhi— p. 396 .. . 
 
 Assaye; in Hyder- 
 abad ter.— p. 395. 
 Laswarree — p. 397. 
 Argaum — p. 398 . 
 
 Gawilghur Fort — 
 p. 398. 
 
 Deeg ; nr. Bhurt- 
 poor — p. 402. 
 
 Deeg Fort— p. 401 
 
 Unsuccessful storm 
 of Bhurtpoor. 
 
 S' cond do. ) 
 
 Third do. >,PP-,o 
 
 Fourthdo. J'*"^"'- 
 
 Unsuccessful at- 
 tack of Kalunga 
 Fort— p. 411. 
 
 Do. assault, p. 412. 
 
 Muckwanpoor — p. 
 413. 
 
 Kirkee, nr. Poona 
 —p. 417. 
 
 Under 
 ■whose Ad- 
 ministration. 
 
 Mr. Sander- 
 son, Govr. of 
 Madras. 
 
 Clive." . . . 
 
 Mr Yansit- 
 
 tart. 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Marquis Wel- 
 lesley. 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Marquis Hast- 
 ings. 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 5nemy against 
 
 whom 
 
 Fought. 
 
 Reza Sahib, son of 
 Chunda Sahib, the 
 Nabob of Arcot. 
 
 Surajah Do\vlah,Na- 
 bob of Bengal. 
 
 Shah Alum, Empe- 
 ror of Delhi. 
 
 Meer Cossim, ex-Na- 
 bob of Bengal. 
 
 10 
 eight 
 6pds. 
 and 2 
 howts. 
 
 Ditto .... 
 
 Ditto .... 
 
 Vizier of Dude 
 Tippoo Sultan 
 
 Tippoo 
 Ditto . 
 
 Mahrattas, command 
 
 ed by French otficer.s 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Ditto . 
 
 Ditto . 
 Ditto . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Mahrattas (Holcar) 
 
 Rajah of Bhurtpoor . 
 Ditto 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Goorkhas 
 
 Strength of British Army. 
 
 Europeans. 
 
 Native. 
 
 Artillery. 
 
 Guns. 
 
 20 
 
 150 
 
 756 
 
 3,0 
 
 912 
 
 Ditto . 
 Ditto . 
 
 Mahrattas 
 
 200 
 850 
 
 750 
 
 00 
 
 857 
 
 4,608 
 
 750 
 
 918 
 
 1,766 
 2,726 
 20,000 
 
 Total. 
 
 300 
 2,300 
 
 L.500 
 
 5,297 
 
 11,061 
 GunL 
 
 Nizam 
 
 500 
 3,300 
 
 3,000 
 3,000 
 
 7,072 
 6,420 
 
 41,649 
 
 ascars. 
 's Con. 
 20000" 
 
 3,000 
 
 4,500 
 
 4,500 
 
 4,500 
 
 4,048- 
 
 3,000- 
 3,382« 
 
 2,737 
 
 2,477 
 10,000' 
 
 2,800 
 
 ' In the fifty days during which the siege was protracted, the British loss in defeating the attempt to storm 
 was only four Europeans killed and two sepoys wounded. 
 
 I* This number includes the sick ; the number that actually repulsed the storm on the 14th November amounting 
 to 80 Eurojjcans and 120 sepoys. 
 
 ' On the 14lh November; there are no means of ascertaining previous casualties. 
 
 '' Of these 150 were French. 
 
 • 'I he powers of the governor and council of Calcutta, in civil and commercial affairs, were preserved to them, but 
 in all military matters Clive was invested with independent authority. 
 
 ' Some say 35,000 infantry, 15,000 cavalry ; also forty Frenchmen with four light pieces of artillery. 
 
 « One of the remarkable events of this battle was the capture of Monsieur Law, who, with a few French troops, 
 had hitherto been the chief support of the native armies against the English. 
 
 ** Worked by 170 Kurcprans. 
 
 ' Exclusive of large bodies of irregular cavalry. 
 
 J Of these 2,000 were drowned in the Cararanassa. 
 
 ■• This includes sixteen missing. 
 
 ' The number is stated between 40,000 ami 50,000. 
 
 " This was the wh(}le force employed in the siege ; the two divisions which carried the place did not number more 
 than 4,000 men. 
 
 • These numbers include the casualties during the whole period of the siege, from 4th April to 4th May. 
 "• The number estimated to have fallen in the assault. 
 
 f Exclusive of the Kajah of Berar's infantry and Sindia'a irregular corps.
 
 UY THE ENGLISH IN INDIA, FROM TJIK VKAR J751 to 1852. 461 
 
 
 Eucmy. 
 
 
 BritMi Army Kil 
 
 ud und Wounded. 
 
 
 Enemy. 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Killed. 
 
 
 Wounded. 
 
 
 
 
 • 
 
 
 a 
 •S 
 
 a 
 
 Totul 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 a 
 >. 
 
 4> 
 
 Name of 
 
 9 
 
 Kuropcaus. 
 
 > 
 
 rt 
 
 Tutttl. 
 
 Europeans. 
 
 a 
 
 Total. 
 
 ■a 
 3 
 
 Of 
 
 a 
 
 3 
 
 iJritinli 
 Curauiandtr. 
 
 
 om- 
 
 c 
 
 Offi 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 cers. 
 
 g 
 
 )s 
 
 
 cors. 
 
 
 'A 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 < 
 
 
 y 
 
 3,U00 
 
 7,150'' 
 
 10,150 
 
 1 
 
 45 
 
 30 
 
 70- 
 
 2 
 
 22 
 
 5 
 
 227' 
 
 40 
 
 0' 
 
 8 
 
 Captain (afterwards 
 LordJ Olive. 
 
 64 
 
 18,000 
 
 60,000 
 
 58,000' 
 
 _ 
 
 fi 
 
 10 
 
 22 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 30 
 
 48 
 
 GO 
 
 
 
 60 
 
 Clive. 
 
 244: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 32- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 pds. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 10,000 
 
 10,000 
 
 20,000 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 Major Carnoc. 
 
 - 
 
 20,000 
 
 8,000 
 
 28,000 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 17'' 
 
 Major Adams. 
 
 — 
 
 CO, 
 
 000 
 
 CO.UOO 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 100 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 10,000' 
 
 10,000 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 - 
 
 kill. & 
 
 wond. 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 - 
 
 Mojor Carnac 
 
 — 
 
 40, 
 
 000 
 
 40,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 84 
 
 7 
 
 — 
 
 4,0 
 
 OOi 
 
 133 
 
 Major Munro. 
 
 ~ 
 
 40, 
 
 000 
 
 40,000 
 
 — 
 
 
 — 
 
 45'' 
 
 
 kill, & 
 
 wond. 
 
 98 
 
 2,0 
 
 00 
 
 " 
 
 General Stuart. 
 
 — 
 
 45, 
 
 000' 
 
 45,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 — 
 
 2,0 
 
 00 
 
 — 
 
 General Harris. 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 48,000 
 
 22 
 
 181 
 
 110 
 
 322" 
 
 45 
 
 G22 
 
 420 
 
 1,087° 
 
 8,0 
 
 00° 
 
 — 
 
 Lord Harris. 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 55 
 
 11 
 
 19 
 
 4 
 
 205 
 
 2.0 00 
 
 281 
 
 General (afterward* 
 Lord) Lake. 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 19.000 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 107 
 
 11 
 
 33 
 
 5 
 
 346 
 
 3,0 00 
 
 08 
 
 General Lake. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mis 
 
 sinff 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 35,000 
 
 10,500 
 
 45,500p 
 
 23 
 
 40 
 Mis 
 
 3 
 sine 18 
 
 426 
 
 30 
 
 1,1 
 
 06 
 
 1,136 
 
 1,200« 
 
 — 
 
 98 
 
 Gl.Wellcsley(Duke 
 
 ofWelliiiBton.) 
 General Lake. 
 
 72 
 
 4,600 
 
 9,000 
 
 13,600 
 
 U 
 
 16 
 
 1 
 
 172 
 
 25 
 
 62 
 
 6 
 
 651 
 
 7,000 
 
 . — 
 
 71 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 
 9 
 
 29 
 kill. & 
 
 1 
 wond. 
 
 300 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 38 
 
 General 'Wellesley. 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 — 
 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 kill. & 
 
 3 
 wond. 
 
 125 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 62 
 
 Colonel Stevenson. 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 15,000' 
 
 5 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 17 
 
 02 
 
 1 
 
 638 
 
 2,000" 
 
 — 
 
 87 
 
 Major-general Fra- 
 
 ser. 
 Lord Lake. 
 
 _ 
 
 
 
 „ 
 
 2 
 
 41 
 
 
 43 
 
 13 
 
 171 
 
 _ 
 
 184 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 100 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 5 
 
 38 
 
 42 
 
 85 
 
 23 
 
 183 
 kill. & 
 
 165 
 wond. 
 
 371 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Lord Lake. 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 __ 
 
 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 67 
 
 3 
 
 588 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 48 
 
 113 
 
 162 
 
 27 
 
 4.66 
 
 656 
 
 732 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 
 
 fi 
 
 fi3 
 
 5G 
 
 125 
 
 27 
 
 4.52 
 
 452 
 
 862 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 ~ 
 
 
 — 
 
 400 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 23 
 
 32 
 
 15 
 
 60 
 
 163 
 
 228 
 
 *" 
 
 — 
 
 
 Major-general Gil- 
 lespie. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 550 
 
 4 
 
 15 
 
 18 
 
 37 
 
 7 
 
 215 
 
 221 
 
 443 
 
 48 
 
 
 
 Colonel Mawbcy. 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 12,000 
 
 1 
 
 n 
 
 34 
 
 40 
 
 I 
 
 19 
 
 1.56 
 
 176 
 
 80 
 
 — 
 
 Major-general Uch- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 terlony. 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 25,000 
 
 — 
 
 17 
 
 2 
 
 19 
 
 1 
 
 65 
 
 11 
 
 67 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 
 Lieutenant - colonel 
 C. B. Burr. 
 
 ^ A large number of the wounded were scattered over the country. 
 
 ' The amount of the British force is not stated ; it must, however, have b:^. a considerable, as a junction had been 
 efiected between tlie forces of Geniral 'Wellesley and Colonel .Stevenson. Tl.e force placed at the disposal of the former, 
 at the commencement of the campaign, amounted tc 9.000 ; that of the latter to 8,000 men, 
 
 ■ Major-general Fraser's forte consisted of H.M's. 76th regiment, the Company's European regiment, and four 
 battalions of sepoys, exclusive of two battalions left for the protection of the baggage. The strength of the four 
 battalions and the two European regiments engaged in the attack, may be estimatei' at tlie amount stated in the Table. 
 
 ' Thorn says twenty-four battalions of inlantry, besides a considerable body of horse. Captain Thornton states 
 that the cavalry, swelled by numerous adventurers', amounted to 60,000, to which were added 15,000 well-disciplined 
 infantry. The numbers specified in the Table arc those of the infantry alone. 
 
 " Besides a large number drowned in a morass. 
 
 ' This number has reference only to the strength of the storming party. Lord Lake appears to have been present 
 with his whole army, which consisted of upwards of 10,000 men. 
 
 " The enemy's extensive intrenchments were occupied hy a large force, but the numbers are not stated. The troops 
 are represented to have consisted of several of the Kajah'of Bhurtpoor's battalions, and the remaining infantry of 
 Uolcar. 
 
 • This number comprises only the storming party. See Note to Detg. _ i. /.r v 
 ' The Bombay division, consisting of four battalions of sepoys, H.M's. 86th regiment, eight companies of the 65tn, 
 
 with a troop of Bombay cavalry, and 500 irregular horse, had now joined Lord Lake's force before Bhurtpoor. 
 
 • Sir David Oehtcrlony had a force of near 20,000 men, including three European regimenU. He divided this force 
 into four brigades, with two of which he marched to Muckwanpoor. 
 
 3o
 
 462 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OP PRINCIPAL BATTLES AND SIEGES 
 
 Dale. 
 
 Usual Name of 
 
 Battle or 
 
 Place. 
 
 26th and 27th 
 
 Nov., 1817. 
 
 21st Dec., 1817 
 
 1st Jan., 1818 
 
 20th Feb., 1818 
 
 27thFeb.,181S 
 17thApril,181S 
 20th Mav, 1818 
 18th to' 29th 
 
 May, 1818. 
 8th to 10th 
 
 June, 1818. 
 
 3l8t Jan., 1819 
 9th April, 1819 
 
 10th June, 1824 
 30th Oct., 1824 
 18th Jan., 1826 
 
 19th Jan., 1826 
 
 23ra July,1839 
 
 13th Nov., 1839 
 
 7th April, 1842 
 
 13th Sep., 1842 
 17th Feb., 1843 
 
 24th Mar., 1843 
 
 29th Dec, 1843 
 
 29th Dec., 1843 
 
 18th Dec, 1845 
 
 2l8t and 22nd 
 
 Dec , 184.5. 
 28th Jan., 1846 
 
 10th Feb., 1846 
 
 2nd Jan., 1849 
 
 13th Jan., 1849 
 
 21st Feb., 1849 
 
 14th Apr., 1852 
 Sept., 1852 . . 
 Dec, 1852 . . 
 
 Under 
 
 whose Ad- 
 
 miiiistratiou. 
 
 Sectabuldee; near 
 Nagpuor — p. 418. 
 
 Mahidpoor, p. 420 
 
 Corygaum, De- 
 fence of — p. 418. 
 
 Ashtee Combat — 
 p. 419. 
 
 Talueir, Storm of 
 
 Soonee Battle . . 
 
 Clianda Assault . 
 
 Malligauni taken 
 by Storm. 
 
 Satunwarree Fort; 
 unsuccessful at- 
 tack. 
 
 Nowah ; Hydera- 
 bad. 
 
 Asseerghur taken 
 by Storm— p. 420. 
 
 Kemendine, p. 424 
 
 Martaban — p. 425 
 
 Bhurtpoor Storm- 
 ing — p. 427. 
 
 Melloone Storm- 
 ing — p. 427. 
 
 Ghuznce Capture 
 —p. 436. 
 
 Kelat i in Beloo- 
 chistan. 
 
 Jellalabad Defence 
 
 Tezeen Battle . . 
 Meanee ; Sinde — 
 
 p. 451. 
 Hyderabad; Sinde 
 
 —p. 452. 
 Puniar ; Gwalior 
 
 —p. 452. 
 Maharajpoor — p. 
 
 452. 
 Moodkee ; left bank 
 
 of Sutlej— p. 454. 
 Fcrozshah ; on the 
 
 Sutlej — p. 4.54. 
 Aliwal ; on the 
 
 Sutlej. 
 Sobraon ; on the 
 
 Sutlej. 
 Mooltan, Siege of . 
 
 Cliillian-walla ; in 
 
 tlie Punjab. 
 Gujcrat ; in the 
 
 Punjab. 
 
 Rangoon 
 
 Promc 
 
 Pegu 
 
 Marquis Hast- 
 ings. 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 
 Ditto 
 Ditto 
 
 Lord Amherst 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Ditto . 
 
 Lord Auck- 
 land. 
 Ditto 
 
 Lord Ellen- 
 
 borougl 
 Ditto . 
 Ditto . 
 
 Ditto . 
 
 Ditto . 
 
 Ditto . 
 
 Enemy against 
 
 whom 
 
 Fought. 
 
 Guns. 
 
 M ah rat t as 
 
 Lord 
 
 dinge. 
 Ditto . 
 
 Ditto . 
 
 Ditto . 
 
 Lord 
 
 housic. 
 Ditto 
 
 Ditto . 
 
 Ditto . 
 Ditto . 
 Ditto . 
 
 Har 
 
 Dai- 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Arabs in pay of 
 
 Peishwa. 
 Peishwa . . . . 
 
 Arabs 
 
 Jlahrattas . . . . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Arabs in Native em- 
 ploy. 
 jNlahrattas . . . 
 
 Arab Garrison . . 
 
 Sindia's Command- 
 ant, Jcswunt Kao 
 Laar. 
 
 Burmese . . . . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Kajah of Bhurtpoor 
 
 Burmese 
 Afghans 
 Ditto . . 
 Ditto . . 
 
 Strength of British Army. 
 
 Europeans. 
 
 Artillery. 
 
 100 
 
 Ditto . . . 
 Beloochces 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Mahrattas (Sindia) 
 Ditto 
 
 Seiks, under Rojah 
 
 Lall Sing. 
 Seiks 
 
 Seiks, under Uun- 
 
 joor Sing. 
 Seiks 
 
 Seiks, under Mool- 
 
 raj. 
 Seiks 
 
 Ditto . 
 
 Burmese . 
 Ditto . . 
 Ditto . . 
 
 40 
 
 C5 
 24 
 90 
 150 
 125 
 96 
 
 850 
 674 
 
 Native. 
 
 
 15, 
 
 000 
 
 8,5 
 
 00 
 
 .12,0 53 
 
 17,0 00 
 
 Total. 
 
 1,400 
 
 11,305 
 750 
 
 419 
 
 513' 
 6,500' 
 2,630 
 
 550- 
 
 20,000' 
 
 219« 
 25,000 
 
 4,863 
 1,261 
 1,360 
 
 2,600 
 
 2,000 
 14,000 
 12,350 
 17,727 
 10,000 
 16,224 
 32,000 
 22,000 
 25,000 
 
 ' In Col. Blaeker's Mcmnir, p. 18, Holcar's force is estimated at 20,000 horse and 8,000 foot. 
 
 ' The numbers here given have reference to the strength of the cavalry, lu addition to tliis, there appears to have 
 been a detachment of horse artillery. 
 
 " The force consisted of 1,000 native cavalry, a ti-oop of horse artillery, a conijiany of European foot nrtillciy, 
 3,000 native infantry, 2,000 irregular horse, with three 18-pounders, four l}rass 12'.», sLt howitzers, and twelve 
 6-pounders. 
 
 * Native garrison.
 
 
 BV 
 
 THE ENGLISH 
 
 IN INDIA, FllO.M TUl:: VEAll 
 
 17;-. 1 
 
 T<J 
 
 1852. 403 
 
 
 Enemy. 
 
 British Army Killed and Wounded. 
 
 Enemy. 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 < 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 O 
 
 1 
 
 I'otal. 
 
 Killed. 
 
 ■\Vounded. 
 
 Name of 
 
 
 Kuropoans. 
 
 i 
 > 
 
 fntal. 
 
 124 
 
 174 
 04 
 
 F.uroponnB. 
 
 > 
 
 TuUil. 
 
 H !i 
 
 Urituih 
 Commander. 
 
 
 Offi- 
 cers. 
 
 d 
 
 Offl- 
 
 ccrn. 
 
 11 
 
 35 
 
 Men. 
 
 M 
 
 § 
 
 1 
 
 
 70 
 
 12,000 
 
 8,000 
 
 20,000 
 
 •i 
 
 3 
 '2 
 
 12 
 
 17 
 (1 
 
 ) 
 
 1 
 > 
 
 23 
 
 .50 
 11 
 
 J 
 
 ; 
 
 3 
 
 241 
 
 (iOl 
 116 
 
 30 
 
 3,0 
 
 ) 
 
 30 
 
 63 
 
 Lieutenant - colonel 
 
 H. Scot. 
 L.-KCn.SirT.Ili»lop. 
 Captain Staunton 
 
 — 
 
 9,000 
 
 — 
 
 9,00(1 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 19 
 
 I 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 20 
 
 ^ 
 
 — 
 
 Sir Lionel Smith 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 300 
 2,000 
 
 2.30 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 ) 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 13 
 34 
 
 11 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 IG 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 
 IS 
 
 55 
 175 
 
 75 
 
 25 
 1,0 
 20 
 
 1)0 
 ) 
 
 5 
 
 L.-Rcn.SirT.Hislop. 
 Colonel Adams. 
 Ditto. 
 Lieutenant - colonel 
 
 MacDowclI. 
 Major Lamb. . 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 501) 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 22 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 I 
 
 180 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 Major Pitman. 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 1,3.'jO 
 
 1 
 
 ■i 
 
 (1 
 
 47 
 
 9 
 
 0,"^ 
 
 7 
 
 2GG 
 
 43 
 
 95 
 
 119 
 
 Brigadier - general 
 Uoveton. 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 3,000 
 3,500 
 
 — 
 
 CI 
 
 42 
 
 ~7 
 103 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 283 
 
 3 
 
 183 
 
 14 
 4GG 
 
 15 
 4,0 
 
 
 00 
 
 - 
 
 Sir A. Campbell. 
 Colonel Godwin. 
 Lord Combermere 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 10,000 
 3,000 
 
 — 
 
 ^ 
 
 — 
 
 5 
 17 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 20 
 170 
 
 514 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 .Sir Archibald Camp- 
 bell. 
 Sir John Keanc. 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 2,000 
 fi,000 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 32 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 107 
 
 400 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Major-general Will- 
 shire. 
 Sir Kobert Sale. 
 
 15 
 
 : 
 
 : 
 
 ifi.oon 
 
 35,000 
 
 G 
 2 
 
 C 
 
 
 
 32 
 GG 
 
 3 
 13 
 
 10 
 
 12 
 
 20 
 
 kill. & 
 
 25 
 
 7 
 1 
 
 wond. 
 5 
 
 130 
 214 
 
 5,0 
 
 00 
 
 : 
 
 General Tollock. 
 Sir Charles Napier 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 — 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 12,000 
 
 — 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 35 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 1S2 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 24 
 
 Major-general Grey 
 
 100 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 18,000 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 113 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 G84 
 
 3,5 
 
 00 
 
 5G 
 
 Lord Gough. 
 
 22 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 12,000 
 
 16 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 216 
 
 48 
 
 GO 
 
 9 
 
 G57 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Ditto 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 35,000 
 
 48 
 
 8 
 
 20G 
 
 C94 
 
 1,1 
 
 03 
 
 G18 
 
 1,721 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 88 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 19,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 17G 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 - 
 
 413 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 68 
 
 Sir H. Smith. 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 34,000 
 
 : 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 320 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 2,0G3 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Lord Gough. 
 General Whish. 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 G0,000 
 
 20 
 
 73 
 
 1 
 
 757 
 
 C6 
 
 1,4 
 
 4G 
 
 1,512 
 
 4,0 
 
 00 
 
 12 
 
 Lord Gough. 
 
 o9 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 00,000 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 92 
 
 24 
 
 G5 
 
 S 
 
 GS2 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 57 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 General Godwin. 
 
 " This was the number of men of which the storming party was composed. 
 
 *■ The British force present at the conclusion of the siege, consisted of— horse artillery, one troop and a-half ; native 
 cavalry, eight squadrons ; foot artillery, five companies ; European infantry, t\vo battalions and a-half; native infantry, 
 eleven and a-half battalions ; irregular horse, 5,00U ; sappers and miners, thirteen compomes : and probably exceeded, m 
 the aggregate, the amount stated in the Table. 
 
 p The strength of the storming party. 
 
 [The above Table wiis prepax-ed by order of the Court of Directors, at the request of the Author. The particulars 
 which should appear in the columns left blank, cannot be furnished with perfect accuracy.]
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 TOPOGRAPHY— MOUNTAINS AND PASSES — RIVERS— PLATEAUX — PROVINCES AND 
 CHIEF TOWNS— CLIMATE AND DISEASES— GEOLOGY— SOIL— MINERALOGY. 
 
 the largest and most diversified 
 
 Asia, 
 
 quarter of the globe, has for its central 
 southern extremity a region of unsurpassed 
 grandeur, comprising lofty mountains, large 
 rivers, extensive plateaux, and wide-spread 
 valleys, such as are not to be found within a 
 like area in any otlier section of the earth. 
 This magnificent territory, known under the 
 general designation of India,* is in the form 
 of an irregular pentagon, with an extreme 
 extent, from north to south and from east 
 to west, of 1,800 miles ; a superficial area of 
 1,500,000 square miles; and a well-defined 
 boundary of 9,000 English miles. t 
 
 The geographical position of India possesses 
 several advantages. On the north, it is sepa- 
 rated from China, Tibet, and Independent 
 Tartary, for a distance of 1,800 miles, by the 
 Himalayan chain and prolongations termed 
 the Hindoo-Koosh, whose altitude varies 
 from 16,000 to 27,000 feet (three to five 
 miles), through which there is only one pass 
 accessible to wheeled carriages (Baraian.) 
 This gigantic wall has at its base an equally 
 extended buttress, the sub-Himalaya and 
 Sewalik hills, with, in one part, an inter- 
 vening irregular plateau (Tibet) of 90 to 150 
 miles wide : on the PVest, the Hindoo-Koosh 
 is connected by the low Khyber ranges with 
 the lofty Sufied-Koh, and its conjoint the 
 Suliman mountains, which rise ] 0,000 feet, 
 like a mural front, above the Indus valley, 
 and have a southerly course of 400 miles ; 
 the Suliman are connected by a transverse 
 chain with the Bolan mountains, which pro- 
 ceed nearly due south for 250 miles, and be- 
 come blended with the Keertar, Jutteel, and 
 Lukkee hills; the latter terminating in the 
 promontory of Cape Monze, a few miles 
 to the north-west of the Indus mouth. 
 This western boundary of 900 miles, sup- 
 ports the table-lands which constitute a large 
 part of Afghanistan and Beloochistan : to 
 these there are four principal ascents — the 
 Khyber, Gomul, Bolan, and Gundava passes, 
 readily defensible against the strategetic 
 
 * See p. 13 for origin of word: old geographers 
 designate the country as India witliin (S.W. of), and 
 beyond (S.E. of) the Ganges. 
 
 f The reader is requested to bear in mind through- 
 
 movements of any formidable enemy. On 
 the East, an irregular series of mountains, 
 hills, and highlands, extend from the source 
 of the Brahmapootra, along the wild and un- 
 explored re^ious of Naga, Munneepoor, and 
 Tipperah, through Chittagong and Arracan 
 to Cape Negrais (the extremity of the You- 
 raadoung range), at the mouth of the Ira- 
 waddy river ; to the southward and east- 
 ward of Pegu and Martaban, the Tenasserim 
 ridge commences about one hundred milea 
 distant from the coast, and prolongs the 
 boundary to the Straits of Malacca, along 
 the narrow strip of British territory which 
 fronts the Bay of Bengal. The length of 
 this eastern frontier is 1,500 miles, and it 
 forms an eflectual barrier against aggression 
 from the Burmese, Siamese, or Malays, with 
 whose states it is conterminous. On the 
 South, the shores of the above-described ter- 
 ritory are washed by the Bay of Bengal, the 
 Straits of Malacca, the Indian Ocean, and 
 the Arabian Sea, for 4,500 miles. The 
 natural frontiers of this extensive region 
 may be thus summarily noted : — north, 
 along the Himalaya, 1,800; west, along 
 Afghanistan, &c., 900 ; east, along Burmah, 
 Siam, &c., 1,800: total by land, 4,500; by 
 sea, 4,500 = 9,000 English miles. 
 
 No pen-and-ink description can convey 
 an adequate idea of India as a whole; the 
 mind may comprehend separate features, 
 but must fail to realise at one view a 
 complete portraiture, especially if devoid of 
 unity of configuration : in several countries 
 a mountain ridge and a main conduit form 
 an outline, around which the chief topogra- 
 phical peculiarities may be grouped ; but the 
 region before us contains several lines of 
 great length and elevation, with diverse axis 
 of perturbation, and declinations to three of 
 the cardinal points, causing numerous rivers, 
 flowing S.W. (Indus); S.E. (Ganges); S. 
 (Brahmapootra and Irawaddy) ; W. (Ner- 
 budda, Taptec, and Loonec) ; E. (Godavery, 
 Kistnah, Cauvcry, and Mahanuddy) ; and in 
 
 out this work, that round numbers are used to convey 
 a general idea, easy to be remenihered ; they must 
 be viewed as approximative, and not arithmetically 
 precise. Indian statistics are still very imperfect
 
 GllANDEUR, BEAUTY, AND VAIUJITY OF INDIAN SCENERY. 463 
 
 other directions aceordinj; to tlie course of 
 the mountain-ranges and th(! (lip of tlie 
 land towards the ocean, l)y wliicli the river 
 system is created and (h'fined. 
 
 Irrespective of tlie circuniscrihinj; barriers, 
 and of tlie bones and arteries (hills and 
 streams) whicli constitute the skeleton of 
 Hindoostan, three features, distinctively deli- 
 neated, deserve brief notice. The snowy 
 ranges on the north give origin to two 
 noble rivers, which, as they issue from 
 the lesser Himalaya, are separated by a 
 slightly elevated water-shed, and roll through 
 widely diverging plains — the cue in a south- 
 easterly direction to the Bay of Bengal, 
 the other south-westerly to the Arabian 
 sea; each swollen by numei'ous confluents 
 which, altogether, drain or irrigate an area 
 equal to about half the superficies of India 
 Proper. The Gangetic plain is 1,000, that 
 of the Indus (including the Punjab), 800 
 miles in length ; the average breadth of 
 either, 300 miles ; the greater part of both 
 not 500 feet aliove the sea ; the height no- 
 where exceeding 1,000 feet. Intermediate, 
 and bifurcating the valleys of the main 
 arteries, there is an irregular plateau, exteiid-- 
 ing from north to south for 1,000, with a 
 breadth varying from 300 to 500 miles, and 
 a height ranging from 1,500 to 3,000 feet 
 above the sea-level. jNIidway between Cape 
 Comorin aud Cashmere, this table-land is 
 bisected from west to east, for 600 miles, by 
 the narrow Nerbudda valley : the northern 
 section, of an oblong shape, comprising 
 Malwa, East Rajpootana, and Bundeleund, 
 has for its south-eastern and north-western 
 buttresses the Viudhya and Arravulli ranges, 
 and a declination towards the Jumna and 
 Dooab on the north-east, and to the Guzerat 
 plain on the south-west : the southern sec- 
 tion, constituting what is erroneously* termed 
 the Peninsula, contains the Deccaii, Mysoor, 
 Berar, and adjoining districts ; forms a right- 
 angled triangk'it supported on the north by 
 the Sautpoora mountains, and on either side 
 by the Western and Eastern Ghauts and 
 their prolongations ; the declination is from 
 the westward to the eastward, as shown by 
 the courses of the Godavery and Kistnah. 
 
 These prominent physical characteristics 
 
 • There is no partial insulation — no isthmus. 
 
 t The northern anil western sides are about 900 
 miles in length; the eastern 1,1(10. 
 
 X A full description of the geography of India 
 would require a volume to itself; but the tabular 
 Tiews here given, and now for the Hrst time pre- 
 pared, will, with the aid of the maps, enalile the reader 
 to trace out the topography of the country. 
 
 maybe thus recapitulated. Ist. The extensive 
 
 mountain circuinvaliation, cast to west, from 
 the Irawaddy to the Indus. 2iid. The two 
 great and nearly level jilains of the (janges 
 and Indus. 3rd. The immense undulating 
 plateau, of 1,000 miles long, in a straight 
 line from the Jumna to the Caiivery. To 
 these may be added a low eoast-line of 4,500 
 miles, skirtfd on either side of the Bay of 
 Bengal, and on the ^Malabar shore of the 
 Indian Ocean, by receding Ghauts and other 
 lofty ranges, backed by inland ridges of 
 hills, and mountains traversing the land in 
 diverse directions, such as the Yindhya, 
 Sautpoora, and Arravulli. These salient fea- 
 tures comprise many varieties of scenery; 
 but for the most part wirle-spread landscapes 
 extend on the east, — teeming with animal 
 and vegetable life ; sandy wastes on the west, 
 where the wild ass obtains scanty provender ; 
 on the north, an arctic region, whose snowy 
 solitudes are relieved from perpetual stillness 
 by volcanic fires bursting from ice-capt peaks; 
 on the south, luxuriant valleys, verdant with 
 perpetual summer; a rocky coast at Katty- 
 war, swampy sunderbunds at Bengal, jungly 
 ravines in Berar, and fertile plains in Tan- 
 jore; — here Nature in sternest aspect, — there 
 in loveliest form, — everywhere some dis- 
 tinctive beauty or peculiar grandeur : while 
 throughout the whole are scattered numer- 
 ous cities and fortresses on river-bank or 
 ocean-shore, adorned with Hindoo and Mos- 
 lem architecture, cave temples of wondrous 
 workmanship, idolatrous shrines, and Mo- 
 hammedan mausoleums, wrouglit with untir- 
 ing industry aud singular artistic skill; Cyclo- 
 pean walls, tanks, and ruins of extraordinary 
 extent, and of unknown origin and date; 
 but whose rare beauty even the ruthless 
 destroyer. Time, has not wholly obliterated. 
 These and many other peculiarities contri- 
 bute to render India a land of romantic in- 
 terest, which it is quite beyond the assigned 
 limits of this work to depict : all within its 
 scope J being a brief exposition of the various 
 motintain-ranges and passes, the plateaux, 
 the river system, coast-line, islands, &c., with 
 an enumeration of the principal cities aud 
 towns, which are more numerous aud popu- 
 lous than those of continental Europe. § 
 
 § Autumnal tourists, in search of health, pleasure, 
 or excitement, and weary of the beaten paths of the 
 Seine and Khine, might readily perform, in six 
 months (September to March), the overland route 
 to and from India, — examine the leading features of 
 this ancient and far-famed land, judge for themselves 
 of its gorgeiius beauty, and form some idea o! the man- 
 ners and customs of its vast and varied populatioD.
 
 466 EXTENT, POSITION, AND ELEVATION OP MOUNTAINS— INDIA. 
 
 
 
 
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 EXTENT, POSITION, AND ELEVATION OF MOUNTAINS— INDIA. 469 
 
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 CAPITAL CITIES OF EACH INDIAN PRESIDENCY. 
 
 481 
 
 PitiNciPAi. CiTiKS.* — A dpsoriptioii of the 
 cities ami towns in India would ()(,'fMi[)y 
 scvcrid volumes : all that can here he f^iven 
 is a l)ii(;f note on some of the hest known. f 
 
 Calrutta, — on Uit; Icl'l Imiik of Uie llooglily, ahowt 
 100 111. from tlip sea; present sent of sii]iri'in(,' pnv- 
 friiniciit; a village when acqiiirt-d by the Kriglish 
 in 1700. Lengtli, nboiit 45 m. ; Ijrcadth, M in.j 
 area, nearly 8 ,sq in. Hcyond the Mahratta Ditch 
 (an intrenchmenl intended as a defence against 
 the incursions of the Mahrattas), are the suburbs 
 of Chitpoor, Ntmdenliagli, liaharSimlah, Scaldah, 
 Eutally, Uallygunge, lih()wanee|)nor, AUiponr, and 
 Kidder|)Oor. On the opposite side of the river lie 
 the villages of Seebpoor, Howrah, and Sulkea. The 
 city is defended by Fori W'iMiam, a large and strong 
 fortress, built on a plain, of an octagonal form, some- 
 what resembling that of Antwerp : it mounts 619 
 guns. 
 
 In May, 1850, the population of Calcutta, ex- 
 clusive of suburbs, was 4115,182 ; number of resi- 
 dences, 62,505 ; of huts, 49,415. Among the public 
 buildings are the Government-house, a magnificent 
 structure ; the Town-hall, a handsome edifice ; the 
 Supreme Court of Judicature, the Madrissa and 
 Hindoo colleges, Metcalfe Hall, and the Ochterlony 
 monument. About three miles below the city, on 
 the Howrah side, there are extensive botanical 
 gardens, laid out witli good taste and effect. 
 
 The most elevated part of Calcutta (Clive-strect) is 
 only thirty feet above the sea-level at low-water. It 
 appears to me very probable that the whole city will 
 some day be submerged by the shifting beds of the 
 Hooghly or Ganges. 
 
 3/nf/rrts,— on the Coromandel coast, consists of three 
 broad streets, running north and south, dividing the 
 town into four nearly equal parts; they are well 
 built, and contain the principal European shops. 
 On the beach is a line of public offices, including the 
 Simreme Court, the Custom-house, the Marine Board 
 Omce, and the offices and storehouses of the princi- 
 pal European merchants. The other buildings are, 
 the Mint, the lloman Catholic Cathedral, the Church 
 Mission Chapel, Armenian Church, Trinity Chapel, 
 the General Hospital, and Medical School. Fort St. 
 George is in form an irregular polygon, somewhat of 
 a semicircle, of which the sea-face, which is well 
 armed with heavy guns, is nearly a diameter. 
 
 No part is probably more than twenty feet above 
 the sea-level. Population, 720,000, including the 
 Black Town and suburbs. 
 
 S'.milMi;/. — The old town, built on the island, is 
 about 2 m. in circuit, and strongly fortified; the 
 recent increase of the calibre of the guns has com- 
 pleted the means of defence. Few remarkable build- 
 ings. There is a Government-house, an excellent 
 dockyard and foundry for steam-vessels, a church 
 within the fort, and one on the island of Colaba, 
 where there are considerable cantonments : several 
 banks, insurance companies, the Steam Navigation 
 Company, Bombay branch of Asiatic Society, Bonibav 
 Geographical Society, iVc. ; and the leading merchants 
 have their offices within the fort. iPopulation, 
 666,119, including the widely-scattered suburbs. 
 
 Affrii, — formerly a large city; the old walls remain, 
 and mark out a space extending along the Jumna, 
 
 * Tlie several positions of these places, and their eleva- 
 tion, will be given in a Topographical Index. 
 
 t Full details nil] be found in Tlioniton's excellent 
 Gaietteer. 
 
 about 4 m. in length, with a breadth of 3 m. ; the area 
 is about 11 sq. m; but not one-half is at present oc- 
 cupied. Th<-re is one wide street running from the 
 fort in a north-westerly direction. The liouses are 
 built chiefly of red sandstone. Within the fort is the 
 palace of Shah Jehan, and his hall of audience ; the 
 Motee Masjid or I'earl Mosque, and other structures. 
 The celebrated Tajrnahal, or mausoleum of Shah 
 Jehan, is outside the city, and about a mile east 
 of the fort. Adjacent to the city, on the west, is the 
 Government-house, the official residence of the lieu- 
 tenant-governor of the North Western Provincei, 
 Population, 60,000. 
 
 A)n)icilalmd, — on the left bank of the Saburmuttee, 
 5' m. in circumference, surrounded by a high wall, 
 M'illi irregular towers every fifty yards. The noblest 
 architectural relic is the Jumnia Masjit or Great 
 Mosque, built by Ahmed Shah of Guzerat, the 
 founder of the city. Near the city wall is a tank a 
 mile in circumference. Population said to amount 
 to 30,000. 
 
 Ajmere, — a city of great antiquity and celebrity — 
 situate in a picturesque valley, surrounded by hills, 
 on the base and slope of one of which the town is 
 built. A wall of stone, with five strong gateways 
 (all on the north and west sides), surround it. The 
 town contains several large mosques and temples. 
 Some of the streets are wide and handsome. The 
 houses of the wealthy are spacious, and generally 
 well built! the habitations of the poorer classes are 
 more commodious than ordinary. The strong fort 
 of Taraghur, with a walled circumference of 2 m., 
 surmounts the hill rising above the city : it contains 
 two tanks, and commands another outside. 
 
 AUiilicihad, — at the confluence of the Ganges 
 (here H m. wide) and Jumna, ( j of a m. in width.) 
 The fort on the east and south rises directly from the 
 water, and is in form a bastioned quinquangle, 
 2,600 yards in circuit, and of great strength. The 
 town extends along the Jumna, to the west of the 
 fort. Notwithstanding the advantageous position, it 
 is an ill-built and ])overly-stricken place. 'I'he Jumma 
 Masjit is a stately building, but without much orna- 
 ment. Population, 70 000. [This ought to be the 
 seat of Supreme Government for India.] 
 
 Aliimra. — Principal place of the British district of 
 Kumaon, situate on the crest of a ridge running from 
 east to west, consists principally of one street, J of a m. 
 long, secured by a gate at ea h end, and forming two 
 bazaars, divided from each other by Fort Almora, 
 and by the site of the ancient palace of the rajahs of 
 Kumaon, now occupied by a gaol. Detached houses, 
 chiefly inhabited by Europeans and Brahmins, are 
 scattered along each face of the mountain below the 
 town. Fort Moira is at the western extremity, anc} 
 adjoins the military lines. 
 
 Amritsir. — A walled city, about half-way between 
 the Beas and Ravee rivers. It owes its importance 
 to a Tiil(w or re.servoir, which Ram Das caused to be 
 made here in 1581, and named it .\mrita Saras, or 
 " fount of immortality." It is a square, of 150 paces, 
 containing a great body of water, pure as crystal, 
 though multitudes bathe in it ; it is supplied, appa- 
 rently, from natural springs. f)n a small i.sland in 
 the middle is a temple, to which are attached 500 or 
 600 priests. On this island Ram Das (the founder) is 
 said to have spent his life in a sitting posture. City 
 very populous and extensive ; streets narrow; houses 
 lofty. Manufactures — cloths, silks, and shawls. There 
 is besides a very extensive transit trade, and con. 
 siderable monetary transactions. Most striking ob-
 
 482 
 
 PRINCIPAL CITIES OF INDIA. 
 
 ject, the fortress Govinghur; its great height and 
 heavy battfries, rising one above the other, giving it 
 a very imposing appearance. Population, 80,000 or 
 90,000. 
 
 Bangalore. — Town tolerably well built, has a good 
 bazaar, and is inclosed by a wall, a ditch, and a 
 broad fence of thorns and bamboos. Fort oval, con- 
 structed of strong masonry : within it is the palace of 
 Tippoo Sultan, a large building of mud. Manufac- 
 tures — cotton and silk ; but the present importance of 
 the place results from its being the great British 
 military establishment for the territory of Mysoor. 
 The cantonment is nearly 2-, m. in length, and 1 m. 
 in breadth. Population, 60,000. 
 
 .BareiV/v,— situate in a pleasant and well-wooded 
 country in the N.W. provinces. It is a considerable 
 town, the principal street or bazaar being nearly 2 m. 
 long, has a brisk and lucrative commerce, and some 
 manufactures, of which the principal is that of house 
 furniture, cotton- weaving, muslins, silks, jewellery, 
 gold, silver, and metal working, besides numerous 
 others. Population, 92,208. Cantonment at south side 
 of town, near the new fort, which is quadrangular, 
 and surrounded by a ditch : it is the head-quarters 
 for the Rohilcund division. 
 
 Baroda, — situate near the river Biswamintri, which 
 is here crossed by a stone bridge. The town is sur- 
 rounded by numerous groves containing many 
 niosques, mausolea, and tombs of Mussulmen, which 
 give an impressive solemnity to the scene. The for- 
 tifications, of no great strength, consist of slight 
 walls, with towers, and several double gateways. 
 Town intersected and divided into four equal quar- 
 ters, by two spacious streets, meeting in the centre, 
 at a market-place. Houses, in general, very high, 
 and built of wood. Population, 140,000. 
 
 Beejapoor.—'We walls, which are of hewn stone 
 and very lofty, are entire, but inside all is desolation. 
 The deep moat, the double rampart, and the ruins 
 of the palaces in the citadel, attest its former mag- 
 nificence. The Great Mosque is a grand edifice, and 
 the tomb of Ibrahim Adil Shah, remarkable for 
 elegant and graceful architecture. The chief fea- 
 ture of the scene is the mausoleum of JJohammed 
 Adil Shah, the dome of which fills the eye from every 
 point of view. ^ The fort has a rampart Hanked by 
 109 towers. The works surrounding it, and the 
 citadel in the interior, are very strongly built; the 
 parapets are 9 ft. high, and 3 ft. thick. ' The ditch 
 18 from 40 to 50 ft. in breadth, and about 18 deep : 
 the curtains, which appear to rise from the bottom 
 of it, vary from 30 to 40 ft. high, and 24 ft. thick. 
 A revetted counterscarp is discernible, the circuit of 
 which is 6i ra,, and its ground-plan deviates little 
 from a circle. To the westward of the fort there is 
 a vast mass of ruins, from the numerous edifices of 
 every description scattered around. Beejapoor was 
 evidently one of the greatest cities in India. It was 
 formerly divided into several quarters, one of which 
 is 6 m. in circumference. Among the various won- 
 ders of this ruined capital, is tiie gun called .Malik- 
 i-Maidan, or " the King of the Plain," one of the 
 largest pieces of brass ordnance in the world. 
 
 .Beefeneer,— capital of the Rajpoot state of the 
 same name, viewed from without presents the 
 appearance of a great and magnificent city. The 
 wall, which is built of stotie, is 3^ m. in circuit, 15 to 
 30 ft. high (including parapet), 6 ft. thick, sur- 
 rounded on three sides by a ditch 15 ft. deep and 
 20 ft. wide ; there are five gates and three .sally-ports. 
 The interior cxhibiu a rather flourishing appeaiance ; 
 
 many good houses, neat and uniform, with red walls, 
 and white doors and windows. Eighteen wells 
 within the city ; depth of each about 240 ft. Citadel 
 situate 7 am. N.E. of the city, and quite detached 
 from it; defences, about j of a m. in circuit, constructed 
 of good masonry. The rajah's residence occupies 
 nearly the whole of the inside. Population, stated 
 by Boileau and Tod, 60,000. 
 
 .B('i/a!<m, — Southern Mahratta country. Fort of 
 an oval ground-plan, 1,000 yards long, 700 broad, 
 and surrounded by a broad and deej) wet ditch, cut 
 in very hard ground. In 1848, the inhabitants 
 formed a committee, and in foui months recon^t 
 structed all the roads of the town, extending to a 
 length of between 9 and 10 m. Belgaum was 
 selected as the site of the educational institution for 
 the instruction of the sons of natives of rank : in 
 February, 1853, the number of jiupils exceeded 50. 
 
 Bellaiy. — The fort, or fortified rock, round which 
 the cantonment is situate, is a hill of granite : length, 
 1,150 yards; height, 450 ft.; circumference, 2 m. ; 
 eastern and southern sides precipitous ; western face 
 slopes gradually towards plain. Lower fort, j a m. in 
 diameter, contains barracks, arsenal, and commissariat 
 stores, church, two tanks, and several on the top of 
 the rock. Native population in 1836, exclusive of 
 military, 30,426. 
 
 Benares, — on the Ganges, 3 m. long, 1 m. broad, 
 Streets very narrow, and access gained to the river 
 by noble ghauts, extending along the bank of thj 
 river, in the city. Numerous Hindoo temples, which 
 render it a celebrated place of pilgrimage. PopuU- 
 tion, 300,000. 
 
 Bhiiyulpoor, — on the right bank of the Ganges 
 here 7 m. wide during the rains. Though repre- 
 sented to be 2 m. long and 1 broad, it is a poor 
 place, consisting of scattered market-placi's, meanly 
 built; it is, however, ornamented by European resi- 
 dences and by mosques. Cavalry barracks, occa. 
 sionally occupied ; 4 m. from them are those of a 
 native corps formed of the highlanders (Sonthals or 
 Puharees) of the Rajmahal wilds. There is also a 
 court of justice, a gaol, and an educational institution, 
 
 Bhoiij, — the capital of Cutch, at the base of a for- 
 tified hill. When viewed from the north, has an im- 
 posing appearance. Rajah's palace, a castle of good 
 masonry. A large tank has been excavated at the 
 west end of the city. Population, about 20,000. 
 
 Bhnpal. — Town surrounded by a wall of masonry 
 about 2 m. in circuit, within which is also a fort of 
 masonry. O.utside, a large g>i>ije or market, with 
 wide straight streets. The fort of Fultyghur is on a 
 rock S.W. from the town. S.W. of the fort is 
 Bhopal Tal, or Lake, 45 m. long, 1 im. broad: another 
 tank, 2 m. long, is on the east. They are deep, and 
 abound with alligators, but both appear to be arti- 
 ficial. The Bess river has its rise in the former. 
 Bhopal is the seat of the British political residency. 
 
 Bhiirtpoor. — Town 3 m. long, 1 { broad, and about 
 8 in circumference. Its site is somewhat depressed j 
 and this circumstance, in a military point of view, 
 contributes to its strength ; as the water of a neigh- 
 bouring jhil, being higher than the ditch of the 
 town, can be discharged into it in such a volume, as. 
 to render it unfordable. The defences are now 
 shapeless piles of mud.* This measure of repair waa 
 permitted to the young rajah, after attaining ma- 
 jority, in 1844, and the walls allowed to be main- 
 tained in a condition (in the rajah's words) " to keej> 
 out thieves and wild beasts:" and the town itself in 
 * See Historical Section, ISOS-'O, and 1821.'5.
 
 PRINCIPAL CITIES OP INDIA. 
 
 483 
 
 merely a (jrciit colli'ctioii of hovels ; hut it is a 
 thriving |)hic(', luivinp a trnflc in ttic S.imliluir Luke 
 Bait. I'opulation cstiinntcd at 1(1(1,000. 
 
 Hitnlumn, — on the Icl't l)ank of the Damrnootliih. 
 The niji»li'n residence is a j^reat collection of buildings 
 of various sines and colours, and without symmetry 
 or retfularity : the town an assenihla^e of crowded 
 8uburl)s, wretched huts, a few handsome houses, but 
 no temple of strikinp effect. Conti(,'Uous to the 
 town is an artificial |)iece of water, luivinf; nn esti- 
 mated area of :iO acres, and much frequented by the 
 natives for bathiiif;. liurdwan contains the civil 
 estahlishnient of the district, and two Knj;lish schools. 
 
 Catvnpoor, — on the right bank of the Ganges ; 
 area of the city, 090 acres; contains about 11,000 
 houses, and nearly .O'J.OOO inhabitants. Population 
 of cantonments, •l!),97J ; making a total of 10S,7it(), 
 exclusive of the military. Commerce — busy and im- 
 portant ; the Ganges (which is here 500 yards wide 
 when lowest, and 1 m. wide when swollen by the 
 periodical rains) being navigable to the sea, a dis- 
 tance of 1,000 m., and ui)wards to Sukertal, a distance 
 of 300 m. 
 
 Ciiimhatoor, — situate near the left bank of the 
 Noyel, a tributary of the Cauvery, in a dry and well- 
 cultivated country, near the base of the Neilgherry 
 group of mountains. Streets wide, airy, and neatly 
 built; Kuropean quarter eastward of the town, and 
 detached from it. In the time of Ilyder Ali it is 
 said to have contained 4,000 houses, but it suffered 
 muck in the wars between the British and .Mysoor. 
 
 CiiUack, — situated on a timgue of land near the 
 bifurcation of the Mahanuddy. Fortifications in a 
 ruinous state, their materials fast disappearing, the 
 stones being carried away, and used in various public 
 works; among others, in the lighthouse at False 
 Point, and in the macadamization of the cantonment 
 roads. Within the fort is an old mosque. Town 
 stnggling. and exhibits evident signs of decay. The 
 Jumma .Nlasjit, and the "Kuddum Hiissool," Moslem 
 buildings, are inelegant, and Hiahminical temples 
 small and ungraceful. Manufactures — brass cooking- 
 vessels and shoes. Population estimated at •lO.OOO. 
 
 Dacca, — on the Burba Gunga, an offset of the Ko- 
 niae or Jabuna; 4 ni. long, and 1{ m. broad. It is 
 at present a wide expanse of ruins. The castle of its 
 founder, Shah Jehangir, the noble mosque he built, 
 the palaces of the ancient newaubs, the factories and 
 churches of the Dutch, French, and Portuguese, are 
 all sunk into ruin, and overgrown with jungle. The 
 city and suburbs are stated to ])ossess ten bridges, 
 thirteen ghauts, seven ferry-staticms, twelve bazaars, 
 three public wells, a variety of buildings for fiscal 
 and judicial purposes, a gaol and gaol-hospital, a 
 lunatic asylum, and a native hospital. Population, 
 200,000. 
 
 Delhi, — about 7 m. in circumference, is inclosed on 
 three sides by a wall, and on the other, the river. 
 Streets mostly narrow ; the principal one is j of a m. 
 long, and 30 yds. wide, with good shops on each side. 
 Population, 137,977. 
 
 Dinapoor. — Important military station on the right 
 bank of the Ganges. Ilemarkahle for the barracks, 
 which are magnificent buildings, and of great extent. 
 Church, spacious and handsome. 
 
 Oolconda. — Fortress and ruined city, in the Nizam's 
 dominions. Fortress on a rocky ridge of granite, is 
 extensive, very strong, and in good repair, but is 
 commanded within breaching distance. lieing the 
 depository of the treasures of the Nizam, and also 
 used as a state prison, it is very strictly guarded, and 
 
 entrance cannot be obtained by any but officials. The 
 ancient mausolea form a group about GOO vardn from 
 the fort, the stern features of the surrounding, rocky 
 ground heightening the impressivenessand grandeur 
 of those astonishing buildings. These tombs were 
 erected at great expense, some of thi'm being said 
 to have cost £ISO,000. The diamonds of Golconda 
 have obtained great celebrity throughout the world. 
 (Siv Minerals.) 
 
 Gwalior, — the capital of the possessions nf Sin- 
 dia's family. The rock on which the celebrated Hill 
 Fort is situate, is completely isolated : greatest height 
 at the north end, 342 ft. The approach, by means of 
 steps cut in the rock, is so large, and of such gentle 
 acclivity, that elephants easily ascend. The passage, 
 protected by guns pointing down it, has a succession 
 of seven gates. Within the enclosure there are 
 several tanks, capable of supplving an adequate gar- 
 rison, though 15.000 men would be required to man 
 the defences. The town lies along the eastern base of 
 the rock; it is large, but irregularly built, and con- 
 tains a cannon-foundry, and gun])Owder and firework 
 manufactory. 
 
 JIurJwar, or sometimes Gangadwara. the " Gate 
 of the Ganges," — a celebrated place of Hindoo pil- 
 grimage. Town evidently of great antiquity, is 
 situate close to the western bank ; the foundations 
 of many of the houses in the bed of the river. 
 
 Jli/rlrtihad (I)eccan.) — The ground plan is a 
 trapezoid, the longest or north-western side of which, 
 extending along the river Mussi, is about 2j m. 
 in length ; the south-eastern, 2 m. ; the southern, 
 1 ni. ; the south-western, If m. A suburb on the 
 river side commtinicates with the city hv a stone 
 bridge. Streets, some paved ; narrow ; houses close 
 together, and disp'aying little or no taste. The 
 most remarkable structures are the principal mosque, 
 and the British residency. Population, probably not 
 exceeding 200.000. 
 
 Hi/ilrdlkid (Sinde), — on the Gunjah hills, 4 m. from 
 the Indus Outline of fortress irregular, correspond- 
 ing with the winding shape of the hills. Walls built 
 of burnt bricks, thick at the base, but taper towards 
 the top, and weakened by loopholes. There are 
 about 5,000 houses ; bazaar extensive, formin;; one 
 street the entire length of the town. Manufactures — 
 arms, and ornamental silks and cottons. Popula- 
 tion (supi)osed), 24,000. 
 
 Indorc, — capital of the possessions of Ilolcar's 
 family. Outline of city, nearly a square of 1,000 
 yards; area, about 21(5 acres :' ill-built, the houses 
 disposed in irregular winding streets, constructed 
 with sun-dried bricks, and covered with clumsy tiles 
 laid on bamboos. It contains a few mosque's, but 
 has no architectural pretensions. The British resi- 
 dency, east of the town, has a pleasing scene. 
 
 Jeasulmere, — built at the base of the south end of 
 a rocky range of hills. Kamparts and bastions of 
 uncemented stone; circuit, about 2j m ; height, 14 
 ft., including a parapet of 6 ft. ; thickness o? ram- 
 parts, 4 ft. : these defences are in many places so 
 obliterated by sand-drifts, that they may be crossed 
 on horseback. There are four gateways and three 
 sally-ports. Outline of citadel an irregiJIar triangle, 
 about ;ths of a mile in circumference; interior occu- 
 pied by the palace, and several temples and dwell- 
 ings. At the time of Boileau's visit, in 1835, there 
 were 6 guns, a large howitzer, and 3 field.pieces. 
 
 Jei/poor, — in a small plain surrounded by hills on 
 all sides, except the south. It is about 2 m. long, 
 E. to ^^ . ; 1 m. broad, encompassed by a wall
 
 484 
 
 PRINCIPAL CITIES OF INDIA. 
 
 of masonry, with lofty towers and well-protected 
 gateways, and considered to be the most regularly 
 built of the cities laid down by native Indians. A 
 main street, 2 m. long and 40 yards wide, extends 
 from E. to W. ; this is intersected by several streets 
 of the same width ; and at each point of intersection 
 is a chaiik or market-place; and the whole is por- 
 tioned out into rectangular blocks, the palace and 
 royal premises being in the centre. Houses in the 
 principal streets are generally built of stone, and, 
 with the fine temples, add to the architectural splen- 
 dour of the town. Population, 300,000. 
 
 Joudpoor, — on the north-eastern edge of a cultivated 
 but woody plain. Site striking, being at the southern 
 extremity of a ridge 25 m. long, between 2 and 3 
 m. broad, and from 300 to 400 feet above the aver- 
 age level of the plain. Built on an irregular surface, 
 sloping upwards towards the base of the rock sur- 
 mounted by the citadel, and inclosed by a rampart 5 
 m. in circumference. There are several tanks within 
 the walls ; but all fail in long-continued droughts, 
 except the Rani Sagur, which is reserved exclusively 
 for the garrison, being thrown open to the citizens 
 only on extreme emergency. North-east of the city 
 is the suburb Mahamandir. Population, 60,000. 
 
 Khatmandoo. — Capital of Nepaul, situate in a val- 
 ley,* and on the east bank of the Uishnmutty river. 
 Length, about 1 m. ; average breadth, scarcely j of a 
 m. Streets narrow; houses brick, with tiled roofs, and 
 though of several stories, are of mean appearance. 
 Town adorned by several temples, the gilded pin- 
 nacles of which have a picturesque effect. The river 
 is crossed by two bridges, one at each extremitv of 
 the town. Population estimated at 50,000 ; nuniber 
 of houses, 5,000. 
 
 Lahore, — surrounded by a brick wall, and defences 
 7 m. in circumference : fort at the north-west angle ; 
 there are several large and handsome mosques, be- 
 sides Hindoo temples. Streets narrow ; houses lofty; 
 bazaars contracted and mean. Population, 100,000, 
 or 120,000. 
 
 Loodiana, — four miles from left bank of the Sutlej : 
 town ill-built, and without a wall, but having a fort of 
 no great strength, which was constructed in 1808, on 
 the north side, situate on a bluff, rising about 30 ft. 
 above the nullah or watercourse. It is a thriving 
 place, the residents including several capitalists, 
 among whom are corresponding bankers ; and as the 
 mart lies on one of the principal routes between Hin- 
 doostan and Afghanistan, it has a considerable transit 
 trade. Manufactures — cotton, cloth, and shawls. Po- 
 pulation estimated at 20,000; chiefly Mohammedans. 
 
 Lucktww, — extends about4 m. along thebankof the 
 Goomtee. Streets, with few exceptions, crooked and 
 narrow ; number of brick-built houses small — palaces 
 of showy architecture. The great ornament is the 
 Imambarah, a Moslem cathedral, and the mosque 
 attached to it. Population, .300,000. 
 
 Masulipatam, — on a plain stretching to the base of 
 the E. Ghauts. Fort built on a swamp overflowed 
 by the sea at spring-tides. Gnnind-plan, an oblong 
 rectangle, 800 yards long and GOO broad, with high 
 ramparts and a wide and deep ditch. The native 
 town is situated south-west of the cantonment, and 
 has some wide and airy streets, tolerably straight, 
 and well built. Population, in 1837, 27,884. 
 
 Meerut, — situate in the Dooab, and nearly equi- 
 distant from the Ganges and the Jumna. Ruined 
 wall of the town extensive, inclosing a considerable 
 
 * See Note at end of " Mountains." 
 
 space. Streets narrow, and houses ill-built. Most 
 important structure, the English church. Canton, 
 ments 2 m. north of the town. Population, 29,014. 
 
 Mhow. — In the territory of Indore. Its appear, 
 ance is that of an European town, having a church 
 with steeple on an eminence, a lecture-room and 
 library, and a theatre. A considerable force is sta- 
 tioned at the cantonments, which are situate Ij m. 
 S.E. from the town. 
 
 Mirzapoor, — consists mainly of three long, wide, 
 straight streets, along the side of which are rows of 
 trees and wells. The houses, seldom more than two 
 stories high, are for the most part built of mud or 
 unburnt brick : those of the Europeans, which are 
 the best, occur only at considerable intervals. It 
 derives its present importance principally from its 
 being the greatest cotton mart in India; military 
 cantonment situated three miles north-east of the 
 city. Population, 55,000. 
 
 Mooltayi. — An ancient city, 3 m. east of the Che- 
 nab, whose inundations reach the fort. It is built 
 on a mound of considerable height, formed of the 
 ruins of more ancient cities. Bazaars extensive; 
 about 4,600 shops. Manufactures — silks, cottons, 
 shawls, loongees, brocades, tissues. Banking consti- 
 tutes a large proportion of the business, and the 
 merchants are considered rich. Population estimated 
 at 80,000. 
 
 Moorshedabad, — extends about 8 m. along both 
 banks of the Ganges, with an average breadth of 
 4 m. Though a place of considerable commerce it 
 consists but of mud buildings, lying confusedly to- 
 gether. Unapproachable by cralt of above a foot 
 draught, during the dry months of spring. Popula- 
 tion about 150,000. 
 
 Muttra, — extends along the Jumna in the form of a 
 crescent, and, with its great ruined fort, has a very pic- 
 turesque appearance; but its streets are steep, narrow, 
 winding, and dirty. Population, in 1846, 49,672. 
 
 Nagpoor. — About 7 m. in circumference, but very 
 irregular in shape. There is but one good street, the 
 others being mean and narrow. Throughout the 
 town no specimen of fine architecture; the rajah's 
 palace, which is the most considerable building, is 
 devoid of symmetry or beauty ; it is merely a large 
 pile of masonry, completely obscured by the en- 
 croachments of mean mud huts built against its 
 walls. Population, 111,231. 
 
 Oodeypoor, Rajpoot city,— situate on a low ridge, 
 in a valley, where extends an artificial lake 5 m. in 
 circuit. Town ill-built; palace, a noble pile of 
 granite, 100 ft. high, and overlooking the city. 
 
 Oqfeiii, — in the territory of Gwalior, on the 
 Seepra. It is of oblong outline, 6 m. in circum- 
 ference, surrounded by a stone wall with round 
 towers. Houses crowded together, and built either 
 of brick or wood. Principal bazaar, a spacious 
 street. There are four mosques, and many Hin- 
 doo temples. City well supplied with water. The 
 head of the Sindia family has a spacious palace 
 here, but of little exterior magnificence. At the 
 southern extremity of the town is the observatory 
 constructed by Jai Sing, the scientific rajah of Jey- 
 poor. Principal trade in cotton fabrics, opium, and 
 the wares of Europe and China. It is one of the 
 seven sacred cities of the Hindoos, and the first 
 meridian of their geographers. 
 
 Palna. — City extends about 1 j m. along the Ganges, 
 inclosed by a rectangular wall, and has extensive 
 sut)urb8 ; the principal one, on the east, called Ma- 
 rusganj, contams the chief market, and many store-
 
 PRINCIPAL CITIES OF INDIA. 
 
 48S 
 
 houses for prain. This is joinefl by another, dcno- 
 miii:itc'il (iiulir Kliaii. On llie t)tlicr sidu of the city 
 is a li'iiK, miiTow siilmrl), (■xUMidiii); to ItuDkipoor, a 
 ilisluncc (if abiiiit 4 111. ; tliis is ihc l'',iiin|)(;aii ([uar- 
 tcr. Till' bctlcr class of houses in the city are liuilt 
 of hrick, but the f;rt'atfr number of mud, and gene- 
 rally tiled. Po]iidation, '>M,\:i2. 
 
 I'eslmu'ur, — built by Akber, who fi.tcd the name, 
 lifjnifying "advanced post," in reference to its bein^; 
 the frontier town of Ilindoostan towards Afghanistan, 
 is situate on a pl'iin about 18 m. east of the eastern 
 extremity of tlie Khylitr I'as.s, and 44 m. from ttie 
 Indus. In the early part of the present century, 
 when visited by lolphinstone, it was a flourishin;; 
 town, nbout o m. in circuit, and re|iorted to contain 
 100,000 inhabitant'^. Twenty years later, Hunjeet 
 Sinfi; demolished the lialla Hissar, the state resi. 
 dence, injured the city, and laid waste the surround, 
 in;^ country. The fortress, erected by the Seiks on 
 the site of the lialla Hissar, is a square of about 220 
 yards, with round towers at each angle, and sur- 
 rounded by a wall of mud 60 ft. high, fausse-braie 
 ;iO ft., and n wet ditch. The city is now improved 
 under the Hritish government. Population, jC),045 ; 
 lliniloos, 7,700; remainder, Mussulmen. 
 
 Pooiui, — an ill-built city, witliout walls or fort ; 
 bazaars mean, streets irregular ; recent improvements 
 have somewhat changed its appearance. ISetween 
 1841 and 1846, 400 new houses were built, and seve- 
 ral more were in the latter year in course of con- 
 struction. A bridge over the Xagjurree Nullah was 
 coni]ileted, and a stone one replaced for the old 
 Mahratta bridge over the Moota Moola ; there is 
 another called the Wellesley bridge j the streets in 
 the eastern part of the city have been macadamized, 
 and a full supiily of water .secured to the population. 
 The most remarkable building is the palace, formerly 
 the residence of the Peishwa; situation picturesque. 
 Population, 100,000. 
 
 Rangoon, or the " City of Victory," — situated 
 about a mile from the river of the same name. 
 Ground-plan, a square of about jths of a m., having 
 at its northern side a ])agoda as a citadel. It has 
 been twice burnt (in 1850, when it was entirely 
 destroyed, and in 1853) ; but conditions have been 
 prescribed by government for ensuring its protec- 
 tion against future conflagrations. 
 
 Satturii, — situate amidst the highlands of the 
 Deccan, and where the country, though rugged, in- 
 clines to the eastward. The fort, on the summit of 
 a steep mountain, has an area extending about 1,000 
 by 500 yards. The town lies immediately under it, 
 in a valley. 
 
 Saui/or, — built along the west, north, and north- 
 east sides of a lake nearly a mile in length, and three- 
 quarters in breadth, which occupies the lowest ])art 
 of a valley, or rather basin, surrounded by hills. 
 There is a large fort, now used as an ordnance dejiot. 
 The mint stood about a mile from the lake, but the 
 busine.ss of the establishment has been transferred to 
 Calcutta. In 1830, an iron suspension-bridge was 
 erected over the Bessi, a river running near the 
 town. Population, 70,000. 
 
 Scn'»r/fi/i(ila>n, — a celebrated fortress (built "00 
 lears ago) and town, once the capital of Mysoor, 
 situate on an island in the Cauvery. Town ill- 
 built, having narrow streets ; houses ill-ventilated 
 and inconvenient: water supplied abundantly from 
 the river, which washes the walls on the northern 
 and south-west sides. Ground-plan, an irregular 
 pentagon, l.J m. by J of a m. Palace of Tippoo 
 
 3k 
 
 Sultan within the fort, and is ourroundcd by a 
 strong wall of stone and mud. The Shehr Gan- 
 gam, a suburb detached from the fortified towni 
 was demolished by Tippoo on the eve of the in- 
 vestment of the place, but was afterwards built 
 with consideralile regularity. Population of the 
 island, during his reign, estimated at 150,000; in 
 1800 it was only .'51,895, exclusive of the garrison. 
 
 tSUikarjtoor. — The most important commercial 
 town in Sinde. It is situate 20 m. west of the 
 Indus. A branch of the Sinde canal passes within 
 1 m. of the city. Circuit of wall, which is now in 
 ruins, 3,8;il yards. The character of the place is 
 thoroughly commercial, almo.st every house having a 
 shop; mansions of the opulent Hindoo merchants 
 large, inclosed and secluded by high brick walls; 
 but the streets are narrow, and the bouses generally 
 small. The bazaar extends about 800 yards through 
 the centre of trie city, and contained, in 18-37, 884, 
 an<i in 1841, 923 shops. Transit trade important, as 
 it is on the route to Afghanistan through the Bolan 
 Pass. Population estimated at 30,000 ; viz., 20,000 
 Hindoos, and 10,000 Mohammedans, of whom 1,000 
 are Afghans. The town was founded in 1(>17. 
 
 Sarut. — Outline of town an arc, nearly semicircular, 
 the river forming the chord; circuit, about 6 m. Castle, 
 though small, has bastions, covered way, and glacis ; 
 streets narrow and winding ; houses high, upper 
 stories projecting bevond the base. Population, in 
 1838, 133,544. 
 
 Tai'jore. — Town consists of two forts ; the greater, 
 4 m. in circumference, surrounded by a fortified wall 
 and a ditch ; streets within it irregularly built. Ad- 
 joining is the smaller fort, 1 m. in circuit, and very. 
 strong; within it is the great ]iagoda, considered to 
 be the finest of the pyramidical temples of India. 
 
 Trichiimpu/i/. — Kock very .striking when viewed 
 from a distance at any point, it being 600 ft. above 
 the surrounding level. The fort is situate on part 
 of the rugged declivity of the rock, and 2 furlongs 
 from the Cauvery, which is embanked, but the works 
 sometimes give way and inundate the countn'. The 
 fort, with its strong and massive walls, bear the 
 appearance of having been regularly and strongly 
 built ; they are from 20 to 30 ft. high, of considerable 
 thickness, and upwards of 2 m. in circumference. 
 Within is an extensive petta or town, arranged into 
 tolerably straight, wide, and regular street*, many 
 of which have bazaars. On the rock is a pagoda. 
 The natives manufacture hardware, cutlery, jewellery, 
 saddlery, and cheroots. The cantonment is from 2 to 
 3 m. south-west of the fort, and the troops generally 
 there form a force of between 4,000 and 5,000 men. 
 
 Umhalla.- — On the route from Ilindoostan to Af- 
 ghanistan. It is a large walled town, situate in a 
 level and highly cultivated country. Houses built of. 
 burnt brick, streets narrow. Fort at the N.K. of the 
 town, and under its walls the jencamping ground of 
 the British troops. 
 
 Vcltore. — \ town in the Carnatic, with a strong 
 extensive fort, on the south side of the Palar river ; 
 ramparts built of large stones, with ba.stions and 
 round towers at short distances. A deep and 
 wide ditch, cut in the rock, filled with water, sur- 
 rounds the whole. AVithin are barracks, hospitals, 
 magazines, and other buiklings. Town situate be- 
 tween the fort and some rocky hills on the east, is 
 clean and airy, and has an extensive and well-sup- 
 plied bazaar. Most remarkable building, a pagoda 
 dedicated to Crishna. Government, in 1S46, sanc- 
 tioned the erection of a church within the fort.
 
 48G 
 
 VARIETY OF CLIMATE IN INDIA, AND ITS EFFECTS. 
 
 Climate. — A country extending through 
 six-and-twenty degrees of latitude, and with 
 elevations from the coast-level to the height 
 of three or four miles above the sea, must 
 necessarily possess great variety of tempera- 
 ture. About one-half of India is inter- 
 tropical, comprising within its limits the 
 three principal stations of Calcutta, Madras, 
 and Bombay ; in fact, all the country south 
 of a line drawn from Burdwan on the east, 
 through Bhopal, to the gulf of Cutch on the 
 west — a distance from Cape Comorin of 
 about 1,000 miles. All the region north of 
 this line, and extending 800 miles from 
 Cutch to Peshawur, is outside the tropic of 
 Cancer : the area of the inter and extra- 
 tropical territory is nearly alike. Mere 
 distance from the equator will not convey 
 an adequate idea of the climate of any 
 district : other circumstances must be taken 
 ints account; such as elevation above the 
 sea, — aspect in reference to the sun and the 
 prevailing winds, — more or less vegetation, — 
 radiation of terrestrial heat, — quantity of rain 
 falling,* or siccidity of atmosphere, — prox- 
 imity to snow-covered mountains or great 
 lakes, — drainage, ventilation, &c. ;t — all 
 these, varying in collateral existence or in 
 degree of operation, cause a variety of climate 
 and thermometrical range, which latitude 
 will not indicate. Regions contiguous to 
 the equator, at or near the sea-level, possess 
 a high but equable temperature : the mer- 
 cury, on Fahrenheit's scale, exhibits in the 
 shade at Singapore, a flat island in 1° 17' N., 
 a heat of 73° to 87° throughout the year. As 
 we recede from the equator north or south, 
 a wider caloric range is experienced, not 
 
 • The quantity of rain in the tropical or tempe- 
 rate zones is effected by the elevation of the land 
 above the sea. In India the maximum fall is at 4,500 
 feet altitude ; beyond this height it diminishes. This 
 is shown by the present scientific chairman of the 
 E. I. Cy., Colonel Sykes, in his valuable Mcteoroloi/i- 
 cal Ohservalions : thus, on the western coast of India 
 the fall is at sea-level (mean of seven levels) — inches, 
 81 ; at 150 ft. altitude (Rutnagherry in the Concan), 
 114; at 000 ft, Dapoolee (S. Concan), 134 ; at ],7(tO 
 ft. (Kundala Pass, from Bombay to I'oona), 141 ; at 
 4,500 ft. (Mahabulishv/ar — ^mean of 15 years, 254 ; 
 at 6,200 ft. (Augusta Peak, Uttray MuUay range), 
 194; at 6,100 ft. (Kotagherry, in the Ncilgherries, 
 one year), 81 ; at 8,610 ft. (Dodabctta, highest point 
 of Western India, one year), 101 inches. The same 
 principle is observable in the arid lofty table-land of 
 Thibet, and in the contiguous elevated regions where 
 rain seldom falls. So also in Chili and other parts 
 of the Andes. The distinguished meteorologist. Dr. 
 John I'^lctcher Miller, of Whitehaven, adduces evi- 
 dence, in his interesting account of the Cumberland 
 Lake JJistrict, to demonstrate the existence of a 
 similar law in I''ngland, where he considers the 
 
 only throughout the year, but within the 
 limits of a single day. In the N. W. Pro- 
 vinces of India, and in the S.E. settlements 
 of Australia, the mercury not unfrequently 
 rises in the summer season to 90' and even 
 1 00° Fahr., and shows a fluctuation, in twenty- 
 four hours, of 24°: but this extreme torridity 
 — when the circumambient fluid seems to be 
 aeriform fire — is but of brief duration. Ani- 
 mal and vegetable life are reinvigoratcd, for 
 a large part of the year, by a considerably 
 cooler atmosphere. Indeed, at New York 
 and Montreal, I found the heat of June and 
 July more intolerable than that of Jamaica 
 or Ceylon; but then snow lies on the 
 ground, at the former places, for several 
 weeks in winter. Again, moisture with heat 
 has a powerful and injurious eSect on the 
 human frame, though favourable to vegeta- 
 tion and to many species of animal life. 
 Speaking from my own sensations, I have 
 lain exhausted on a couch with the mercury 
 at 80° Fahr., during the rainy season, in Cal- 
 cutta, Bombay, and Hong Kong ; and ridden 
 through the burning forests of Australia, 
 on the sandy Arabian plains, and over the 
 sugar-cane plantations of Cuba, with the 
 mercury at 100"^ Fahr. So, also, with refer- 
 ence to elevation : in the East and West 
 Indies, at a height of several thousand feet 
 above the sea, I have enjoyed a fire at night 
 in June ; and yet, in April and September, 
 been scorched at mid-day inEgypt,Northern 
 China, and Eastern Europe. These observa- 
 tions are made with a view of answering the 
 oft-recurring inane question, without refer- 
 ring to any locality, " What sort of a cli- 
 mate has India?" In order, however, to 
 
 maximum fall of rain to be at the height of 2,000 
 feet. 
 
 t In 1829, I wrote and published in Calcutta a 
 small brochure, entitled TIte Effects of Climate, Food, 
 and Drink on Man. The essay was prepared in the 
 hope of inducing the government to adopt sanitary 
 measures for the drainage and ventilation of Calcutta, 
 where cholera had become permanently located. I 
 predicted that unless the nidus of this fearful malady 
 were destroyed in the Indian cities by the purifica- 
 tion of their respective atmospheres, the disease 
 would be extensively generated and wafted with the 
 periodical winds from Asia to Europe. The prog- 
 nostication was ridiculed : sad experience may now 
 perhaps ind\ice corporations and citizens of large 
 towns to adopt timely-effective sanitary measures. 
 By so doing a healthy climate may everywhere be 
 obtained; but no altitude or position will avail for 
 the prevention of endemic diseases, or for lengthen- 
 ing the duration of life, wherever large masses of 
 human beings are congregated, iinless complete 
 drainage, free circulation of air, and the removal of 
 all ])ulrescent animal and vegetable mailer be made 
 an urgent and daily duty.
 
 TEMPERATURE & RAIN-FALL AT DIFFERENT DISTRICTS IN INDIA. 487 
 
 convey some idea of the tliermomctrical 
 range, and tlic (juantily of rain falling at 
 
 difTcrcnt stations, the following table liaa 
 Ijcen collated from diU'erent sources : — 
 
 Meteorological MoMtij Olixcrvatiunx for (lijferent 2>">'ls of India : nhou'inij the Latitude, number of feel 
 abuee the level of the sea, average Theriiwiuctcr, and liain in inches. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 thbumumi 
 
 TKU. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 riiiccs, Liititudc, anil Elu- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mean 
 
 
 Jan. 
 
 Feb. 
 
 March 
 
 April. 
 
 May. 
 
 June. 
 
 July. 
 
 Aug. 
 
 Sept. 
 
 Oct. 
 
 Nov. 
 
 Dec. 
 
 of 
 Year. 
 
 Culcuttu, 22' 31', 18 ft. . . 
 
 01) 
 
 73 
 
 78 
 
 87 
 
 88 
 
 83 
 
 82 
 
 82 
 
 82 
 
 82 
 
 71 
 
 67 
 
 79* 
 
 Mudrus, 13° S', se;i-lcvel . 
 
 78 
 
 78 
 
 82 
 
 88 
 
 92 
 
 87 
 
 88 
 
 8G 
 
 86 
 
 84 
 
 82 
 
 78 
 
 83 
 
 liuinbay, 18° i)7', seii-k'Vflt 
 
 77 
 
 77 
 
 80 
 
 82 
 
 85 
 
 85 
 
 81 
 
 84 
 
 79 
 
 84 
 
 fH 
 
 80 
 
 84 
 
 Tirhool, 25' 2«', 20° 42', ) 
 littlu cluvated ... 
 
 GO 
 
 CG 
 
 70 
 
 85 
 
 89 
 
 8G 
 
 84 
 
 85 
 
 81 
 
 73 
 
 — 
 
 61 
 
 78 
 
 Goorgtton, 28' 28', 817 ft. . 
 
 70 
 
 72 
 
 80 
 
 — 
 
 101 
 
 98 
 
 85 
 
 84 
 
 89 
 
 87 
 
 75 
 
 66 
 
 — 
 
 Uulhi, 2S°41', 800 ft. . . 
 
 M 
 
 C2 
 
 70 
 
 70 
 
 82 
 
 82 
 
 82 
 
 80 
 
 80 
 
 73 
 
 62 
 
 66 
 
 72 
 
 Kajpootana, \ .tbout oOO ft. 
 
 70 
 
 73 
 
 82 
 
 82 
 
 74 
 
 90 
 
 85 
 
 — 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 90 
 
 66 
 
 — 
 
 N:i){|)i)or, 21° 10', y30 ft. . 
 
 OS 
 
 7.) 
 
 83 
 
 89 
 
 90 
 
 84 
 
 79 
 
 79 
 
 79 
 
 79 
 
 73 
 
 72 
 
 79 
 
 HyiliM-iibad, 17° 22', 1,800 ft. 
 
 1\S 
 
 70] 
 
 84 
 
 9U 
 
 93 
 
 88 
 
 81 
 
 80i- 
 
 79 
 
 80 
 
 76* 
 
 741 
 
 m. 
 
 13iiii({al(irc, 12" o8', 3,000 It. 
 
 71 
 
 73 
 
 79 
 
 78 
 
 79 
 
 75 
 
 74 
 
 74 
 
 74 
 
 71 
 
 71 
 
 70 
 
 74 
 
 IlawilbaRh, 29' 3S'.3,8,S7 ft. 
 
 47 
 
 ,5.) 
 
 01 
 
 GO 
 
 73 
 
 7G 
 
 78 
 
 79 
 
 75 
 
 G;t 
 
 60 
 
 62 
 
 — 
 
 KotagheiTV, 11° 27', 6,100 ft. 
 
 ,')!) 
 
 GO 
 
 01 
 
 02 
 
 G2 
 
 Gl 
 
 C4 
 
 65 
 
 G4 
 
 62 
 
 60 
 
 59 
 
 61 
 
 Ootacamuml, 11° 24', 7,300 ft. 
 
 .'54 
 
 fiG 
 
 GO 
 
 04 
 
 C4 
 
 69 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 55 
 
 .53 
 
 67 
 
 Miissnoric, 30° 27', 0,282 ft. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 77 
 
 70 
 
 68 
 
 68 
 
 67 
 
 61 
 
 66 
 
 
 
 
 Landour, 30° 27', 7,o79 ft. . 
 
 41 
 
 40 
 
 .5.') 
 
 G.5 
 
 68 
 
 CG 
 
 68 
 
 66 
 
 64 
 
 57 
 
 46 
 
 47 
 
 — 
 
 Uarjccling, 27° 2', 8,000 ft. 
 
 40 
 
 42 
 
 60 
 
 55 
 
 67 
 
 61 
 
 61 
 
 61 
 
 59 
 
 58 
 
 60 
 
 43 
 
 53 
 
 IIAIN IN INCHES. 
 
 I Total, 
 
 Calcutta . 
 Niigpoor . 
 Bangalore 
 K (It a:,' hurry 
 Ootacainuud 
 Darjccliug 
 
 005 
 
 0-48 
 
 1-77 
 
 3-52 
 
 12-86 
 
 3-04 
 
 12-44 
 
 8-15 
 
 8-19 
 
 3-68 
 
 0-OG 
 
 2-57 
 
 O-IO 
 
 60 
 
 3-84 
 
 1-01 
 
 0.21 
 
 6-25 
 
 14-93 
 
 7-51 
 
 16-32 
 
 
 
 2-89 
 
 0-13 
 
 
 
 
 35 
 
 4-lG 
 
 6-89 
 
 3-24 
 
 5-88 
 
 4-13 
 
 13-97 
 
 510 
 
 1-30 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 ii 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 fl 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 26 
 
 25 
 
 29 
 
 15 
 
 8 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 5G-61 
 63-99} 
 
 60 
 
 GO 
 
 122 
 
 The monsoons or prevailing winds within 
 the tropics, as on the Coromandel and 
 Malabar coasts, arc denominated the South- 
 west and the North-east ; but owing to 
 modifying circumstances, the direction is in 
 several places changed : at Arracau, the S.W. 
 blows more frequently from the S., and the 
 N.E. more to the W. of N. Lower Bengal, 
 including the country around Calcutta, has 
 a climate more trying than that of any other 
 part of Lidia. November, December, and 
 January arc tolerably cool, and Europeans 
 may walk out during the day. In Febru- 
 ary, March, April, and ^May, the heat daily 
 
 * Abstract of the mean annual summaries of a meteoro- 
 logical register kept at Calcutta, for ten years ; — - 
 
 Years. 
 
 Sunrise. 
 
 2-40 P.M. 
 
 Sunset. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1341 . . . 
 
 i2-/ 
 
 sy-0 
 
 8-2-4 
 
 18-12 . . . 
 
 73-3 
 
 88-0 
 
 82-1 
 
 1S43 . . . 
 
 73-3 
 
 87-G 
 
 82 5 
 
 IS 14 . . . 
 
 72-7 
 
 87-6 
 
 82-3 
 
 1845 . . . 
 
 73-7 
 
 869 
 
 82-3 
 
 1,S-IG . . . 
 
 71-3 
 
 8G-3 
 
 81-9 
 
 1817 . . . 
 
 73-2 
 
 86- 1 
 
 81-1 
 
 18-18 . . . 
 
 7-1-1 
 
 S7-4 
 
 82-5 
 
 ISi'J . . . 
 
 73-G 
 
 80-7 
 
 81-8 
 
 l.S.W . . . 
 
 731 
 
 86-1 
 
 81-4 
 
 Mean . . 
 
 73-4 
 
 87-2 
 
 S20 
 
 1'lie annual fall of rain at Calcutta, durins ..^ix years, 
 commencing with 1830, averaged 04 inches. In the wet sea- 
 son evaporation is \(:ry slight. 
 
 increases, until, during the last month 
 espeeially, it becomes almost intolerable; 
 not a cloud appears in the heavens to 
 mitigate the burning rays of the sun, which 
 seem to penetrate into the very marrow of 
 an European. I have known men and 
 beasts to drop dead in the streets of Cal- 
 cutta. "When the monsoon is on the eve of 
 changing, before the chota hursaut (little 
 rain) set in, the nights as well as the days 
 are oppressive ; respiration becomes labo- 
 rious, and all animated nature languishes : 
 the horizon assumes a lurid glare, deepening 
 to a fiery red ; the death-like stillness of the 
 
 t Amount of rain at Bombay for six years : — 
 
 Inches. [ Inches. 
 
 1S45 .... 64-73 1818 . . 73-42 
 
 1846 .... 87-48 1849 . . . 118-88 
 
 1847 .... 67-31 I 18.30 . . . 4778 
 Average annual fall during thirty years, 7608 inches. 
 
 At Madras, averace for eight years, 6G-59 inches. 
 
 + Between lat. 26° 54', and lat. 29° 23'.— (Boileau's Tour 
 in liajicara, pp. 304 — 317.) 
 
 ^ Situation, about 350 m. from nearest part of Bay of 
 Bengal, and 420 m. from Indian Ocean. In 1826, and in 
 1831, the fall of rain slightly exceeded 65 inches ; the 
 greatest registered fall was 72 inches, and that wa-s in 1809. 
 Average fall of rain for eight years, 48-10 inches. Pro- 
 ceeding west-ward towards the Ghauts and Indian Ocean, 
 the rains become heavier until reaching Mahubulishwar, 
 where the fall is probably unexampled in amount ; in 1849 
 it W.1S 294 inches. The mean annual quantity is 239 
 inches, of which 227 fell in the four monsoon months. The 
 greatest annual fall was in 1834, when it amounted to 297 
 inches. Another report gives the mean annual fall, as de 
 duced from the observation of ten years, at 229 inches ; and 
 I the n-)niber of days on which rain falls, at 127.
 
 488 CHANGE OF THE MONSOON— CHARACTERISTICS IN INDIA. 
 
 air is occasionally broken by a low mur- 
 muring, which is responded to by the 
 moaning of cattle : dense, dark masses of 
 clouds roll along the Bay of Bengal, accom- 
 panied with occasional gusts of wind ; 
 streaks of lightning, after sunset, glimmer 
 through the magazines where the electric 
 fluid is engendered and pent up ; the sky 
 becomes obscured with mist, and lowring ; 
 next, broad sheets of lambent flame illumine 
 €ach pitchy mass, until the entire heavens 
 seem to be in a blaze ; while peal after peal 
 of thunder reverberates from cloud to cloud, 
 like discharges of heavy artillery booming 
 through cavernous hills, or along an amphi- 
 theatre of mountains ; thin spray is scat- 
 tered over the <;oast by the violence of the 
 increasing gale, — the rain commences in 
 large drops, augments to sheeted masses, 
 and sweeps like a torrent from the sky ; the 
 surf roars along the beach, — -the wind howls 
 furiously, screaming or groaning piteously; 
 and every element seems convulsed with 
 the furious conflict : at length the S.W. 
 monsoon gains the victory, and the atmos- 
 phere becomes purified and tranquil. The 
 monsoon is felt with varying degrees of 
 intensity at different parts of the coast; but 
 at ^ladras and at Bombay the scene is one of 
 awful grandeur. During the rains the air is 
 saturated with moisture ; and the pressure on 
 each square inch of the human frame causes 
 extreme lassitude and mental depression : 
 along th:e sea-shore the pernicious effects 
 are mitigated by a sea-breeze, called the 
 "Doctor," which sets in about ten, a.m., 
 and lasts until sunset. As the country is 
 ascended above the ocean-level, varieties of 
 climate are experienced ; but on the plains 
 of the Ganges and of the Indus, and in 
 some parts of Central India, hot winds blow 
 nearly equal in intensity to those which are 
 felt in Australia. In few words, some idea 
 may be conveyed of the climate of several 
 districts : — 
 
 Bengal Proper, — hot, moist, or muggy for eight 
 months — April to November ; remainder cool, clear, 
 and bracing. 
 
 Stiliiir, — cool in winter months: hot in summer; 
 rain variable. 
 
 Oi«le, — fluctuating temperature and moisture ; 
 therm, range 28 to 112° ; rain, 30 to 80 inches. 
 
 Benares, — mean temperature, 77°; winter cool 
 and frosty sometimes ; therm, at night, 45°, but in 
 the day, 100°; rain variable — 30 to 80 inches. 
 
 Ai/ru, — lias a wide range of temperature ; in mid- 
 winter night-frosts and hail-storms sometimes cut off 
 the cotton crop and cover the tanks with ice; yet 
 at noon in April, therm, reaches the height of 100° in 
 the shade. 
 
 Ghazeepoor, — range in coldest months, 58 to 71° — 
 April, 8« to 90°; May, 86 to 95°; June, 85 to 98°; 
 July, 86 to 96°. In the Dehra Dorm — range 37 to 
 101°. In the vear 1841, December mean heat, 60°; 
 June, 88°; whole year, 74°. In 1839, total fall oi 
 rain, 67 inches; of which in July, 15; August, 26. 
 
 Cuttack and opposite coast of Bay of Bengal, — re- 
 freshed by a sea-breeze blowing continuously from 
 March to July. 
 
 Berar, — moderate climate, accorfling to elevation. 
 
 Madras, — cold season of short duration in the 
 Carnatic. Mercury in therm, higher than in Bengal, 
 sometimes 100° Fahr. Heat tempered by the sea. 
 
 Arcot, — high temperature, 110° in the shade, 
 sometimes 130° Fahr. Pew sudden vicissitudes; 
 storms infrequent. 
 
 Salem, — fluctuating climate — in January, 58 to 
 82°; March, 66 to 95°; May, 75 to 96°. 
 
 Trichinopoly, — has a steady high temperature, a 
 cloudless sky, dry and close atmosphere, with much 
 glare and intense radiation of heat. 
 
 Vizayapatam, — on the coast is hot, moist, and re- 
 laxing; inland equally sultry, but drier. 
 
 Bellary is characterised by great aridity; rain, 12 
 to 26 inches; therm, falls in January to 55 or 50°; 
 thunder-storms frequent in summer months. 
 
 Cadiiapah, — average max. temperature for several 
 years (in the shade), 98°; minn., 65°; mean, 81°: 
 mean temperature during monsoon, 77°; max., 89°. 
 
 Madura, — on the hills mild and genial in summer; 
 therm, seldom below 50° or above 75°; in the plains, 
 reaching 115° and even 130°. 
 
 Trarancore, — owing to proximity of mountains, 
 humid but not oppressive. 
 
 Mfjsorn; — table-land cool, dry, and healthy ; at 
 Bangalore (3,000 ft. high), therm, range from 56 
 to 82°. The monsoons which deluge the Malabai 
 and Coromandel coasts, have iheir force broken by 
 the Ghauts on either side, and genial showers pre- 
 serve the Mysoorean verdure throughout the year. 
 
 Neikjherries, — the climate resembles that of the 
 intertropical plateaux of America; at Ootacamund 
 (height 7,300 ft.}, mean temperature rather above 
 that of London, but ann. range very small; not 
 sufficient sunshine to bring the finer European fruits 
 to perfection, but corn and vegetables thrive. Lower 
 down the vales enjoy an Italian clime; at Coimbatoor 
 (height 4,483 ft.), during the cold season, max., 59°; 
 minn., 31°; in April, average 65°; May, 64° Fahr.; 
 there are no sultry nights, a blanket being acceptable 
 as bed-covering in all seasons. In the higher regions, 
 the air beyond the zone of clouds and mists is clear 
 and dry, as evidenced by the great distance within 
 which sound is heard, and by the buoyancy of the hu- 
 man frame. 
 
 Cuorff is a bracing mountain region. Daily range, 
 2 to 6°; ann., 50 to 80° Fahr.; annual rain, at 
 Mercara (4,500 ft.), 119 inches; in June, about 40 
 inches. 
 
 Malabar coaxf, — warm but agreeable ; therm. 68 
 to 8S° Fahr.; ann. rain, 120 to 130 inches. 
 
 Caiiara and tlic Cancans, — beneath the Ghauts are 
 not, tropically speaking, unhealthy, cxccj)t where 
 marsh and jungle prevail, when malaria is produced. 
 
 Jlonibai/, — tropical heat diminished hy sea-breezes. 
 
 Broach, — December to March, cool ; average rain, 
 33 inches. 
 
 In Gitzerat, which is the hottest part of W. India, 
 the westerly winds are burning in May, June, and 
 July; temperature high for nine months; average 
 fall of rain, 30 inches.
 
 DECREMENT OF HEAT AT DIFFERENT ELEVATIONS. 
 
 489 
 
 MiihrnlUi cnnntry, — near tlip Ghauts the clouds 
 are altr;u'li'il frnni the Indian Ocean, and a i)rofiisiiin 
 of rain fulls for three or four weeks without inter- 
 mission, hut often not extending ;i() ni. to thi.' K. or S. 
 
 The Dtccan tiihle-land is saliihrious; at Sattara, 
 mean nnn. temperature, 06°. ]Cven in Seplemher I 
 enjoyed tlie air of I'oona, as a prcat relief from the 
 sultry heat of Southern ('hina. Ann. range of 
 thi'rm., .'57 to 91°; full of rain, li};ht and uncertain — 
 2i to IJO inches ; among the Ghauts, liOO inches. I'ro- 
 ceeding westward towaids the (Janges, and north- 
 ward through Central Iiiilin ]ilateau, there is a 
 modified temperature (at Meerut, therm, falls to 
 'S'l° Falir.), with occasional hot winds, which prevail 
 as far as Sinde and the Punjah. Sinde is dry and 
 sultry; at Kurachee, or 8 inches rain; at Hydra- 
 bad, 2 inches ; at Larkhana, farther north, there was 
 no rain for three years. Mean max. temperature of 
 six hottest mouths, 98° in the shade. 
 
 Piinjiih, — more temperate than Upper Gangetic 
 plain ; from November to April, climate fine ; 
 fiimimer heat, intense ; hot winds blow with great 
 violence, and frequent dust-storms in May and June 
 render the air almost unbreathable. ]{ains com- 
 mence in July ; August and September, sickly 
 months. The Great Desert to the S. of tlie Punjal) 
 has a comparatively low temperature ; at liickaueer, 
 in winter, ponds are frozen over in Febr\iary ; but in 
 summer the heat is very great; therm. 110 to 120° in 
 the shade. 
 
 Cniirleisli has a luxurious climate like that of Malwa. 
 
 Ujippr Assam has a delightful tem|)erature; the heat 
 bearable, and the cold never intolerable. Mean tem- 
 perature of four hottest months, about 80° ; of winter, 
 57°; mean ann., 67°; heavy rains, which commence 
 in March and continue to October. The quantity 
 ■which falls is unequal; at Gowhatty, it is about 80; 
 at Chirra Poonjee, 200; and in the Cossya country, 
 500 to (100 inches = 50 ft. At this latter place 
 there fell in 18,^0, no less than 502 inches = 42 ft.; 
 in .\ugust, 1841, there were 2G4 inches = 22 ft., in 
 five successive days — ,30 inches every 24 hours. [Let 
 it be remembered that the unnuul fall in London is 
 27 ; in Edinburgh, 24 ; in Glasgow, 32 inches.] The 
 eastern side of the Bay of Bengal, to the Straits of 
 Malacca, is more genial and agreeable than that of 
 the Coromandel coast : the greatest heat is in April ; 
 therm., at Mergui, 100°; the monsoon is mild, but 
 violent to the northward. 
 
 Lower Assam ami Arracan are similar to Bengal. 
 
 This rapid sketch v ill iiidirate the variety 
 of climates in India; but it is in the loftier 
 adjoining regions that the greatest extremes 
 exist. 
 
 2'he Himalayn and Ilinduo-Koosh slopes and val- 
 leys exhibit a very varied temjierature, and corre- 
 sponding diversity of products, from the loftiest 
 forest trees to the stunted lichens and mosses, when 
 the last trace of vegetable life disappears as effectu- 
 ally as it does at the .\rctic or .\ntarctic Poles, snow 
 being equally perpetual at an elevation of four to 
 five miles (20,840 to 25,000 ft ) above the sea, as 
 at the extreme northern and southern parts of 
 onr globe. On the southern, or Indo-Gangetic side 
 of the Himalaya, which rises like a wall from the 
 sub-Himalaya, the snow-line commences at 12,000 
 to 13,000 ft. on some of the spurs or buttresses; 
 on the northern side of the same range, — table- 
 land of Tibet 10,000 ft. above the sea ; the snow- 
 line commences at 16,000 ft., but in some places is 
 
 not found at 20,000 ft. On the southern slope 
 cultivation ceases at 10,000 ft.; but on the northern 
 side, cultivation extends to 14,000 ft., where birch- 
 trees fiourish ; the limit of furze-bushcH is at 
 17,000 ft. Vegetation, to some extent, indicates 
 the more or less severity of this mountain clime: 
 t)ie I)mdar has its favourite abode at 7,000 to 
 12,000 ft. — attains a circumference of 30 ft., and ol 
 great stature, and the wood will last, exposed to the 
 weather, for 400 years. Various species of magni- 
 ficent pines liave a range of 5,000 to 12,000 ft.; the 
 arboraceous rhododendron, every branchlet termi- 
 nate<l by a gorgeous buneh of crimson flowers, 
 s])reads at 5,000 to 8,000 It. ; the horse-chesnut 
 and yew commence at 6.000 ft., and end at 10,000 
 ft. ; the oak flourishes at 7,000 to 8,000 ft. ; maple, 
 at 10,000 to 11,000 ft.; ash, poplar, willow, rose, 
 cytisus, at 12,000; elm, at 7,000 to 10,000; birch 
 commences at 10,000, ceases on S. slopo at 13,000 
 ft ; on N. side fine forest.s of this tree at 14,000 ft. 
 Juniper met with occasionally at latter-named height ; 
 the grape attains great excellence at Koonawur, 8,000 
 ft., but does not ripen bevond 9,000 ft. ; the currant 
 thrives at 8,000 and 9,000 ft. ; apricot, at 1 1,000 ft. ; 
 gooseberry and raspberry, at 10,000 to 12,000 ft. 
 
 The decrement of heat in ])roportion to latitude 
 and elevation is, as yet, imperfectly ascertained. Dr. 
 Hooker* allows one degree of Fahrenheit's thermo- 
 meter for every degree of latitude and every 300 
 ft. of ascent above the sea ; at Calcutta, in 22° 34', 
 the mean ann. temperature is about 79°; that of 
 Darjeeling, in Sikhim, 27° 2'; 7,450 ft. above Cal- 
 cutta, is 53°, about 26° hehno the heat of Cal- 
 cutta. The decrease of temperature with elevation 
 is much less in summer than in winter : in January, 
 1° = 250 ft., between 7,000 and 13,000 ft.; in July, 
 1° = 400 ft. ; the decrement also less by day than by 
 night. The decrcmcntal proportions of heat to 
 height is roughly indicated by this skilful meteo- 
 rologist — • 
 
 lo = 300 ft. at elevation 1,000 to 8,000 ft. 
 
 1° = 320 ft. „ 8.000 to 10,000 ft. 
 
 lo = 350 ft. „ 10.000 to 14.000 ft. 
 
 1° = 400 ft. „ 14,000 to 18,000 ft. 
 
 This must be effected by aspect and slope of eleva- 
 tion ; by quantity of rain falling, and permeability 
 of soil to moisture ; by amount of cloud and sunshine, 
 exposure of surface, absence of trees, undulation of 
 the land, terrestrial radiation, and other local in- 
 fluences. 
 
 Within the tropics, in the northern hemisphere, 
 the limits of perpetual congetation is 16,000 to 
 17.000 ft. above the sea; in lat. 30°, 14.000 ft.; in 
 40°, 10.000 ft.; in 50°, 6,000 ft.; in 60°, 5.000 ft.; 
 in 70°, 1,000 ft.; and in 80° and further north, at 
 the sea-level. In the southern hemisphere, Georgia, 
 which is in lat. 56°, exhibits perpetual frost. 
 
 hX. Kumaon, winter rigour is moderated by great 
 solar radiation, and somewhat tempered by con- 
 tiguous snow-capped mountains, whence a diurnal 
 current of air sets in as regularly as a sea-breeze 
 on a tropical shore, and with a nearly equally in- 
 vigorating effect. Snow commences to fall at the 
 end of September, and continues until the beginning 
 of Ajiril. During the absence of snow for five 
 months, the mercury ranges at sunrise, 40 to 55°; at 
 mid-day, 65 to 75° in the shade — 90 to 110° Fahr. in 
 the sun. The heat of course diminishes as height 
 increases, except during the cold season. At Almori 
 town, in 29° 30', 5,400 ft. elevation, the therm, before 
 * In bis valuable work, Himalayan Joumalt, ii., 404.
 
 490 CLIMATE OF THE HIMALAYAN REGION AND AFGHANISTAN. 
 
 sunrise is always lowest in the valleys, and the frost 
 more intense than on the hills of 7,000 ft. elevation, 
 while at noon the sun is more powerful ; extreme range 
 in 24 hours, sometimes from IS to 51° Fahr. Snow 
 does not fall equally in every season ; the natives 
 say the greatest fall is every third year. On the 
 Ghagor range, between Almora and the plains, 
 snow remains so late as the month of May. At 
 Mussoorie, 6,000 to 7,000 ft. high, the mean ann. 
 heat is only 57° Fahr.; indeed, at 4,000 ft. hot 
 ■winds cease, and vegetation assumes an European 
 character. Annual fall of rain at Almora, 40 to 50 
 inches. 
 
 The northernmost part of Nepaul valley, between 
 27 and 28°, and elevation of 4,000 ft., has a climate 
 somewhat similar to that of the southern parts of 
 Europe. In winter a hoar-frost commonly covers 
 the ground, occasionally for three or four months, 
 freezing the standing pools and tanks, but not severe 
 enough to arrest the flow of rivers. In summer 
 noon, the mercury stands at 80 to 87° Fahr. The 
 seasons are very nearly like those of Upper Hin- 
 doostan ; the rains set in earlier, and from the S.E. 
 are usually very copious, and break up about Oc- 
 tober, causing excessive inundations in some places 
 from the mountain torrents. In a few hours, the 
 inhabitants, by ascending the sides of the enclosing 
 mountains, may exchange a Bengal heat for a Sibe- 
 rian winter. 
 
 At Darjeeling the atmosphere is relatively more 
 humid than at Calcutta; the belt of sandy and 
 grassy land, at the foot of the Himalaya, only 
 300 ft. higher than in Calcutta, and 3^° N. of that 
 city, is, during the spring months, March and April, 
 6 or 7° colder ; and though there is absolutely less 
 moisture in the air, it is relatively more humid ; this 
 is reversed after the rains commence. The south 
 wind, which brings all the moisture from the Bay of 
 Bengal, discharges annually 60 to SO inches of rain 
 in traversing 200 m. of land ; but the temperature 
 is higher in advancing north-west from the Bay of 
 Bengal : which may be caused from the absence of 
 any great elevation in the Gangetic valley and 
 plain, and its being walled in to the northward by 
 the Himalaya mountains. 
 
 Elevation causes in Afghanistan a corresponding 
 diversity of climate : at C'abool, which is considered 
 to be very salubrious, and 6,396 ft. above the sea, 
 the air is warmer in summer and colder in •winter 
 than that of England ; and the diurnal therm, range 
 is great, amounting to 40°. June, July, and August 
 are the hottest; December, January, and February 
 the coldest months, — the mercury falling several 
 degrees below zero Fahr. ; but the sun possesses 
 sufficient power at mid-day to melt the surface of 
 the snow, which, however, is again frozen at night. 
 The seasons are very regular ; the sky is unclouded, 
 the air bright and clear, with scarcely any rain ; in 
 November a few showers are followed by snow ; and 
 from the middle of March till the 1st of May, there 
 is incessant rain, which melts the snow rapidly, and 
 causes a sudden transition from winter to summer 
 (with but little spring), when thunder and liail-storms 
 occur ; earthquakes are not unfrequent during winter 
 in the inunediate vicinity of the lofty ranges, l)iit 
 are said to be unknown at Candahar. Prevailing 
 winds, N.N.W. and W. ; K. seldom ; winter, calm ; 
 variable at breaking up of the season.* 
 
 * Notes of observations, 1st April, 1838, to 31st March, 
 1840, in Afghanistan. — (Calcuttu Jour. Nat. Hist. 
 t The Choora district (valley of the Vabur, 4,800- feet) 
 
 Cashmere valley, by its elevation (5,000 ft.), has 
 a cool climate ; in winter the celebrated lake is 
 slightly frozen over, and the ground covered with 
 snow to the depth of 2 ft. ; hottest months, July and 
 August, therm. SO to 85° at noon, when the air is 
 sometimes oppressive from want of circulation. 
 
 But it is in the loftier regions that the peculiarities 
 caused by altitude are most observable : at — ■ 
 
 Eussahir, — the climate varies from that of the 
 intertropical at Rampoor, 3,260 ft.f above the sea, 
 to that of the region of perpetual congelation : in 
 parts bordering on the table-land of Tartary the air 
 is at one season characterised by aridity greater than 
 that of the most scorching parts of the torrid zone. 
 In October, and later in the year, when the winds 
 blow with the greatest violence, woodwork shrinks 
 and warps, and leather and paper curl up as if held 
 to a fire ; the human body exposed to those arid 
 winds in a few minutes show the surface collapsed, 
 and if long left in this condition life becomes extinct. 
 Vegetation with difficulty struggles against their 
 effects. Gerard found tracts exposed to them to 
 have a most desolate and dreary aspect; not a 
 single tree, or blade of green grass, was distinguish- 
 able for near 30 m., the ground being covered with 
 a very prickly plant, which greatly resembled furze 
 in its withered state. This shrub was almost black, 
 seeming as if burnt; and the leaves were so much 
 parched from the arid winds of Tartary, that they 
 might be ground to powder by rubbing them be- 
 tween the hands. Those winds are generally as 
 violent as hun-icanes, rendering it difficult for the 
 traveller to keep his feet. The uniform reports of 
 the inhabitants represent the year as continual sun- 
 shine, except during March and April, when tliere 
 are some showers, and a ievi clouds hang about 
 the highest mountains ; but a heavy fall of rain or 
 snow is almost unknown. The excessive cold and 
 aridity on the most elevated summits cause the 
 snow to be there so light, loose, and powdery, that 
 it is continually swept like smoke through the air 
 by the tempestuous winds. The limit of perpet- 
 ual congelation ia Bussahir ascends to the north- 
 ward. 
 
 The direct rays of the sun are extremely hot at 
 great elevations : insomuch, that Jacquemont found 
 the stones on the ground on the table-land of Tar- 
 tary, at an elevation of 15,000 or 16,000 ft., be- 
 come so hot in sunshine, as to be nearly unbear- 
 able by the hand; at an elevation of 18,000 ft., 
 Gerard found the rays of the sun so oppressive that 
 he was obliged to wrap his face in a blanket. 
 
 At Jiulti or Little 'Tibet the atmosphere is very 
 clear and dry. But though rain is almost unknown, 
 snow falls, and lies from the dejith of 1 to 2 ft. 
 The cold in the elevated parts is intense in winter ; 
 on the high and unsheltered table-land of Deotsuh, 
 it at that season totally precludes the existence of 
 animal life. The heat in the lower parts in summer 
 is considerable, the therm. :[ ranging from 70 to 00° in 
 the shade at noon. 
 
 .\t Lailakh the climate is characterised by cold 
 and excessive aridity. The snow-line is so usually 
 high in Spiti and lluphsu, at tlie south-eastern 
 extremity of Ladakh, as to show the niter futility 
 of altem])ting to theorise respecting the so-called 
 isosthermal lines, in the ])re.sent scanty and im- 
 perfect state of our information as to the data from 
 
 is a beautiful and lirtile tract, with a delightful cli- 
 mate. 
 
 J Thornton's Gazcileer: Afi/hanislan, iifc, voh i., p. 120.
 
 DISEASES PECULIAR TO EUROPEANS AND TO INDIANS. '01 
 
 whicli they should be determined, (ierard says, rc- 
 spectin^ Spili, in lat. .'J^", tliat tlie marginal limit 
 of the snow, which, upon the sides of (;himl)orazo, 
 occurs at 1.0,700 ft., is scarcely iiormancnt in Thibet 
 at 1!I,0()0, and upon the soutliward asjiect has no 
 well-delined boiiridary at 21,000 ft.; and one sum- 
 mit, '22,000 ft. high, was seen by him to be free of 
 snow on the last day in August. This absence of 
 snow probably results, in part, from the very small 
 quantity of moisture kept suspended in the highly 
 rarclied atmosphere, in jjart from the intense heat of 
 the direct rays of the sun, the latter cause being in 
 some degree dependent on the former. " Wherever 
 we go," observes Gerard, " we find the sun's rays 
 oppressive." In one instance, in the beginning of 
 September, at an elevation of 1 j,.500 ft., a thermo- 
 meter, resting upon the rocks, marked 158°; in 
 another, at ll,.'iOO ft., the instrument, placed on 
 sand, marked l;iOo; and in a small tent, at an 
 elevation of 13,000 ft., it indicated 110°. These 
 phenomena he attributed to the rarefaction and 
 tenuity of the atmosphere, from elevation and the 
 absence of moisture, — circumstances which allow of 
 such immediate radiation of heat, that at the same 
 moment there will bo a difi'crenco of more than 
 100° between places only a few hundred yards 
 asunder, occasioned by the one receiving, and the 
 other being excluded, from the direct rays of the 
 sun. At ituphsu, at the elevation of 1G,'000 ft, it 
 freezes every night, even at Midsummer; but the 
 heat of the day so far countervails the cold of night, 
 that the Lake Chamorereil is free from ice during 
 the summer months. At Le, having an elevation of 
 about 10,000 ft., frosts, with snow and sleet, com- 
 mence early in September and continue until May; 
 the therm, from the middle of J'Jecember to rebruary, 
 ranges from 10 to 20° ; even in June, the rivulets 
 are often, at night, coated with ice. Moorcroft, during 
 his Himalayan travels, found the therm., when ex- 
 ])osed to the sun's rays at mid-day in July, to range 
 from 134 to 14-lo. The atmosphere is in general dry 
 in all ]iarts of the country. 
 
 In the works of Gerard, Lloyd, Moorcroft, Vigue, 
 Jacquemont, and Hooker, useful det.ails are given 
 on the meteorology of these lofty regions. 
 
 The climate of India is not inimical to 
 the European constitution : that of Bengal 
 and otiier low districts is very trying, espe- 
 cially to those who do not follow a strictly 
 temperate course in all things ; but there 
 are many instances of Englishmen living for 
 a quarter of a century at Calcutta, and on 
 returning to England, enjoying another 
 quarter of a century of existence, pre- 
 serving, to old age, a vigoi'ous mental and 
 bodily frame.* In the hot and moist parts 
 of India, abdominal diseases, — in the warm 
 and dry, hepatic action or congestion prevail. 
 Exposure at night, especially to malaria or 
 the cftlnvia arising from intense heat and 
 decomposing vegetable and animal matter, 
 causes a bilious remittent (popularly called 
 
 * Jlr. AV. C. Blaquiere, for a long period police 
 magistrate at Calcutta, died there in 18o4, tct. So: 
 he arrived at Bengal in 1774. 
 
 jungle fever), whicli operates as a poison on 
 tiie htiinan system, and becomes rapidly 
 fatal if not counteracted by mercury or 
 some other poison, or luiless the morbific 
 matter be expelled, and the patient have 
 strength of frame to survive the fever. 
 
 The direct rays of a nearly vertical sun, 
 and even those also of the moon, cause 
 ad'ections of the brain whieh are frequently 
 fatal ; and when not so, require removal 
 to the temperate zone for their relief. 
 The establishment of sanataria at elevated 
 and healthy positions, has proved a great 
 benefit to Anglo-Indians, who at Darjecling, 
 Simla, Ijandour, Mussoorie, j\Iount Aboo, 
 the Neilgherries, and other places, are 
 enabled to enjoy a Em-opcau temperature 
 and exercise, — to check the drain on the sys- 
 tem from the cutaneous pores being always 
 open, — to brace the fibres and tone the 
 nerves, which become gradually relaxed by 
 the long continuance of a high temperature. 
 As ludia becomes more clear and cultivated, 
 and facilities for locomotion by railroads and 
 steam-boats are augmented, the health of 
 Europeans will improve, and their progeny 
 will derive a |)roportionate benefit : but it is 
 doubtful whether there is any part of the 
 country where a European colony would 
 pcrmcaicn/ly thrive, so as to preserve for 
 successive generations the stamina and 
 energy of the northern races. 
 
 The diseases that prevail among the 
 Indians vary with locality : low, continued 
 fever is most prevalent in fiat, and rheu- 
 matism in moist regions. Leprosy and 
 other skin disorders are numerous among 
 the poorest classes. Elephantiasis, or swell- 
 ing of the legs ; berri-bcrri, or enlargement 
 of the spleen ; torpidity of the liver, weak- 
 ness of the lungs, and ophthalmia, are com- 
 mon to all ranks and places : goitre is found 
 among the hill tribes ; cholera and influenza 
 sometimes decimate large masses of the 
 people. Numerous maladies, engendered by 
 early and excessive sensuality, exist among 
 rich and poor, and medical or ehirurgical 
 skill are consequently everywhere in great 
 request. The inhabitants of India, generally 
 speaking, except in the more elevated dis- 
 tricts, have not the robust frames or well- 
 wearing constitutions whieh result from an 
 improved social state, or from the barbarism 
 which IS as yet free from the vices and 
 defects of an imperfect civilisation : the 
 inhabitants of the torrid zone do not enjov 
 a longevity equal to those who dwell iu the 
 temperate climates of the eai"th.
 
 492 
 
 GEOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OP INDIA. 
 
 Geology. — It will require many more years 
 of scientific research before au accurate geo- 
 logical map can be laid down for India.* 
 Immense tracts covered with impenetrable 
 forests, — tlie few Europeans in the coun- 
 try occupied with military and civil gov- 
 ernmental duties, — the lassitude of mind 
 and body which, sooner or later, oppresses 
 the most energetic, — and the malaria which 
 inevitably destroys those who attempt to 
 investigate the crust of the earth, overrun 
 with jungle, or immersed in swamp; — these, 
 and other obstacles lender the prosecution 
 of this science a matter of extreme difficulty. 
 All that can be attempted iu a work of this 
 nature is to collate the best known data, 
 and arrange them in outline, for reference 
 and future systematic exposition.! 
 
 Rerepresentatives of all the series found 
 in Europe and other parts of the world, are 
 traceable in India. Mr. Carter has indus- 
 triously noted the observations of various 
 investigators ; and the following summary is 
 partly abstracted from his compilation : — 
 
 Olper METAMORpnic Strata. — Gneiss, Mica 
 Schiste, Chlorite ScJiiste, Hornblende Schiste, Quartz 
 Sock, Micaceous Slate, Talcose Slate, Clay Slate, 
 Granular Limestone. 
 
 Gneiss. — Most general and abundant, — occurring 
 in different parts of tfie Himalaja ; Oodeypoor ; near 
 Baroda ; Zillafi Bahar ; Rajmahal hills ; Phoonda 
 Ghaut; Northern Circars ; and more or less through- 
 out " peninsula" (? Deccan) to the Palghaut, and 
 probably to Cape Comorin : it is frequently veined by 
 granite, contains in most places specular iron ore : 
 beds of garnets common everywhere ; corundum in 
 BOuthern India, and beryl in Mysoor. Composition 
 varied in texture, compactness, and with more or 
 less mica ; colour — speckled, black, brown, reddish 
 gray to white ; sometimes tinted green where chlo- 
 rite replaces mica; when very fine-grained and de- 
 composing, gneiss bears a close resemblance to fine- 
 grained sandstone. 
 
 Mica Schiste — Southern Mahratia country, and 
 western extremities of Vindhja range, passes into 
 micaceous slate at the Phoonda Ghaut: veined with 
 quartz, but no granite : being associated with gneiss 
 and hornl)lende schistes, they pass into each other. 
 
 Chlorite Schiste. — Southern Mahratta country : it 
 also contains garnets. 
 
 * The late eminent geologist, J. B. Greraough, has 
 made an excellent hegiiining by his large map on this 
 Bubjent, and by the voluminous materials lie collected. 
 
 t See a valuable Siimmari/ of the Geology of India, 
 between the Ganges, the Indus, and Cnpe Comorin; by 
 H. J. Carter, A.^st. Surg, linmbay Kstablishnient, Aug., 
 IS.'J.I : reprinted from Journal of lionibay Uritish Asiatic 
 Society, p. 156. 
 
 i In the neighbourhood of Cjileutta a series of boring 
 experiments to find water, were carried on at intervals 
 between 1804 and 1833; the results were — artifieial soil 
 at surface ; next, as follows : a liglit blue or gray-eoloured 
 sandy i:l.-iy, becoming gradually darker fiom decayed vege. 
 table mailer, until it i)asses at 31) ft. deep into a 2 ft. 
 stratum of black peat, aj)parently formed by the debris of 
 Sunderbund vegetation, which was once the delta of the 
 
 Horiiblende Schiste, forms the sides of the Neil- 
 gherries, where it is from five to seven miles in 
 breadth : garnets found in it. Southern Mahratta 
 country. Salem ; and often passes into mica schiste 
 on the Malabar coast. 
 
 Quartz Rock. — Hills between Delhi and Alwur, 
 and between Ajmere and Oodeypoor; mountains 
 around Deybur Lake, Chittoor, and at the western 
 part of the Vindhya range, with mica slate ; south- i 
 ern Mahratta country ; more or less in the granitic 
 plains of Hydrabad, and in the drongs of Mysoor. , 
 The rock is compact and granular in the Ajmere 
 mountains ; and of a red, violet, gray, or brewn 
 colour; brilliantly white in the Mahratta country. 
 Mica is frequently disseminated throughout the 
 rock in large masses ; talc and chlorite, occasionally. 
 
 Micaceous Slate and Chlorite Slate. — Both at the 
 Phoonda Ghaut ; and the latter in the Mahratta 
 country. The micaceous occurs in the Indo-Gan- 
 getic chain, Koonawur ; and in the Soolumbur 
 range, Oodeypoor. 
 
 Clay Slate, apjjears to be of great thickness, and 
 considerable extent, viz., from the Arravulli range, 
 the lower part of which is composed of this forma- 
 tion ; thence to Oodeypoor, rid the Soolumbur range, 
 across the Durgawud valley to Malwa, on the Ivist- 
 nah j southern Mahratta country, Nellore; and in 
 the Eastern Ghauts at Jungamanipenta, a ferrugi- 
 nous clay-slate overlies the trap at Mahabulishwar, 
 In the Arravulli it is massive, compact, and of a 
 dark blue colour. The Soolumbur range is almost, 
 entirely composed of this and chlorite slates. Alica- 
 ceous passes into clay-slate at the Phoonda, and, 
 farther south, the Saltoor passes (Western Ghauts.) 
 This also occurs at the Carrackpoor hills (Bahar), 
 where the clay-slate is about twenty miles wide, and 
 extends in the direction of the strata. | 
 
 Plutonic Rocks. — Granite,Diorite or Greenstone, 
 
 Granite. — Himalaya ; Ajmere and around Jeypoor, 
 traversing the mountains in veins and dykes; the 
 Arravulli range consists chiefly of granite, resting on 
 slate ; Mount Aboo ; from Balmeer across the sands 
 to Nuggur Parkur; the Gir ; Girnar; between Oodey- 
 poor and Malwa, are all varieties : it extends more- or 
 less southward to theNerbudda; on that river be- 
 tween Mundela and Amarkantak, Jubbulpoor, Ival- 
 leenjur, Zillah Bahar, Carrackpoor hills ; iu Bha- 
 gulpore and Monghyr districts ; near Baitool ; Nag- 
 pore territory ; Cuttack ; Orissa ; Northern Circars ; 
 Hydrabad ; between the Kistnah and Godavery ; 
 Gooty ; Neilgherries ; Malabar coast at Vingorla ; 
 Coromandel ; between Madras and Pondicherry; end- 
 ing at Cape Comorin. The granitic rocks vary in 
 structure and composition, as they do in colour : 
 thus there are syenitic, peijmatitic, and protoycnic. 
 It is gray at Hamteak in Nagpoor, red generally in 
 
 Ganges; below the peat a Mack clay, and in this and the 
 gray clay immediately above the jieat, logs and branches 
 of yellow and red wootl, found in a more or le.ss decayed 
 state. In one instaiu-e only bones were discovered, at 28 
 ft. deep. Under blue clays, at 50 to 70 ft. dcej), kunkur 
 and bagiri (ap])arently small land shells, as seen in Ujiper 
 India.) .\t 70 ft. a scam of loose reddish sand, — 75 to 
 125 ft. beds of yellow clay predominate, frequently stiff 
 and pure like potter's flay, but generally mixed with sand 
 and mica : horizontal strata of kuiiknr pass through it, 
 resembling exactly tiiose ftnuid at Midiuipoor. Below 
 128 ft. a more sandy yellow clay prevails, which gradu- 
 ally changes to a gray, loose sand, becoming coarser iu 
 quality to the lowest depth yet reached (170 ft.), w hen^ it 
 contains angular fragments, as large as j>eas, of quartz and 
 felspar.
 
 DISTRIBTITION OF GliO LOGICAL STRATA IN INDIA. 
 
 403 
 
 the Ducciui, Imt at VenratiRherry (Mysoor), nii'^ at 
 Viiigorln, gray: in the Ncil^'hcrrics it is syciutic. 
 
 (Jreriis/iitir. — ]liizan'i'hii;,'ii. Miihralla (■(iiiiitry, 
 Mysoor, Ni-llore, C'hiii;;lc'[nit, Madras, 'I'richiiKipoly, 
 ISuli'iii, in thii gninilic ])lains of Ilydraljad; and 
 extensively throiifjhout Southern India. In l)ie Dec- 
 ciiri the (iyltes maybe traced eonlinnoiisly for twenty 
 miles; idiout llydrubad they are I'rom 100 to ."500 
 feet broad ; about four miles from Dhonee, between 
 Oooty and Kiiriiool, tliere is one 150 feet hij{h, and 
 200 feet l)road, passing; througli a range of sandstone 
 and limestone mountains. 
 
 SiLUUIAN ItiK Ks, — Greywacke. — Ghiddore, ]{aj- 
 malial hills; ICuniaon. It is a quartzoze sandstone; 
 yellow colour, resinous lustre, and compact splintery 
 fracture. 
 
 Trunsilion or CamOrtan Gneiss, is of great extent 
 in Hhagulpore distiict, composing two-thirds of the 
 country between the Curruekpore and Kajmahal 
 liills, and the greater portion of the smithern ridges 
 of the latter group. It consists of quartz, more or 
 less, hornblende, felspar, mica, and garnet pebbles. 
 
 Oolitic. — Limcsiuiie, — Cutch ; near Neemuch, 
 Malwa ; liundelcund ; on the river Sone ; Firozabad, 
 on the Bheema ; Kuladgee, in tho southern Mah- 
 ralta country; on the Kistnah ; and as far south as 
 Cuddapah. Though its principal characters are its 
 uniform lithogra])hic texture, solidity, conchoidal 
 smooth fracture, and hardness, — dendritic surface, 
 smoky gray colour, passing into dark smoky blue ; 
 and parallel thin stratification, — it differs when de- 
 parting from its general composition, just as the 
 shales differ which interlaminate it, the coal strata, 
 and the saiulstone, as being more or less argillaceous, 
 bituminous, or quartziferous ; of diflerent degrees of 
 hardness, coarseness, and friability of structure ; and 
 of all kinds of colours, streaked and variegated. It 
 is occasionally veined, and interlined with jasper and 
 light-coloured cherts, which, near Cuddapah, give it 
 a rough appearance ; also contains drusy cavities, 
 calcedonies, and cornelian, north of Nagpoor : in 
 the btd of the Nerbudda between Lamaita and 
 Beragurh, near Jubbulpoor, of a snow-white colour, 
 ! and traversed by chlorite schiste. It is frequently 
 denuded of its overlying sandstone and shales in 
 Southern India, and in this state is not uncommonly 
 covered by traj), as near Ferozabad on the lilieema. 
 
 Thickness, y 10 feet near Kurnool ; 10 to ;iO feet on 
 the Bheema, with strata from 2 inches to 2 feet 
 thick. In the part of the Himalaya examined by 
 Captain Strachey, the secondary limestones and 
 shale-s were several thousand feet in thickness, the 
 U])per ])ortion being in some places almost made up 
 of fragments of shells. 
 
 If the white crystalline marble generally of India 
 is allowed to be metamorpliic strata, this limestone 
 exists in the Girnar rock of Kattywar ; the litho- 
 graphic form in Cutch, and between Neemuch and 
 
 * The British Residency at Hydrabad (Decean) is a 
 specimen; tlie Coriiitliiau columns, &o., being executed in 
 white cbunam. 
 
 t \oleanic tiies are said by the natives to exist among 
 the loftier peaks of the Hinilno-Koosh and the Himalayan 
 ranges, but earthquakes are of rare uecari-enee. \ severe 
 one was, however, experienced throuijiiout a large extent of 
 country on 2tjth August, 1833, — vibration from N.E. to 
 S.W., with three principal shocks : first at 6'30 P.M. ; 
 second, 11-30 P.M.; ami third, at five minutes to mid- 
 ni'j;lit. It was most sirverely felt at and near Katmandoo, 
 where about 3'JO persons perislied : the trembling of the 
 earth commenced gradually, and then travelled with the 
 rapidity of bghtning towards the westwa-d ; it increased 
 
 a a 
 
 C'hittore ; the white marble about OodeypoOr, and 
 northwards in the neighbourhood of Nusseerabad, 
 Jeypoor, liessona, and Alwar; a narrow strip about 
 loO m. long in liundelcund; again about liidjyghur 
 and KholaHyhur on the Sone ; white marble in the 
 bed of the Nerbudda, near Jubbuljjoor; in the hills 
 north-east of Nagjioor; near the junction of the 
 Godavery and I'renheta rivers ; thence along the 
 Godavery more or less to Kajahmundry ; Sholapoor 
 district ; on the' liheema ; of every variety of colour, 
 and greatly disturbed and broken up about Kalud- 
 gee, in tho sonthern Mahralta country ; along the 
 Kistnah, from Kurnool to Amarawa'tee; and more 
 or less over the triangular area formed by the latter 
 place, Gooty, and the Tripetty hills. Chunam, an 
 argillaceous limestone, used for building in Bengal, 
 liahar, Benares, &;c. ;* occurs in nodules in the 
 alluvium, which, at Calcutta, is oOO to 000 feet 
 thick. Near Benares, it cimtains fragments of fresh- 
 water shells. South of Madras, a dark clay abounds 
 in marine shells, used in preference for lime-burning 
 to those on the beach, as beeing freer from salt. 
 
 Sandstone, — ajjpcars to be composed of very fine 
 grains of quartz, and more or less mica, united 
 together by an argillaceous material. It exists in 
 Cutch ; in the Panna range, liundelcund ; the Kymore 
 liiUs ; Ceded Districts; in lat 18", 15 m. west of the 
 Godavery; on the banks of the Kistnah; plains of 
 the Carnatic, and the districts watered by the I'ennar 
 river. It is present in the sub-Himalaya range, and 
 in the Kajmahal hills. All the towns on the Jumna, 
 from Delhi to Allahabad, appear to be built of this 
 sandstone. The plains of lieekaneer, Joudpore, and 
 Jessulmere, are covered with the loose sand of this 
 formation. It borders on the northern and western 
 sides of the great trappean tract of Malwa, and forms 
 the north-eastern boundary of the Western India 
 volcanic district. 
 
 Its thickness varies, either from original inequality, 
 or subsequent denudation. Its greatest depth, at 
 present known, is in the eastern ))art of the Kymore 
 range, where it is 700 feet at Bidjighur; and l,:i00 
 feet at Khotasghur ; at the scarps of the waterfalls 
 over the Panna range, it does not exceed 3G0 or 400 
 feet; from 300 to 400 feet is its thickness near Kyel- 
 cherroo and Sundrogam, in the Ceded Districts. Its 
 greatest lieight above the sea is on the banks of the 
 Kistnah, 3,000 feet. Organic remains are very 
 abundant in this formation. It has been ascertained 
 that the great trap deposit of the Western Ghauts, 
 rests on a sandstone containing vegetable remains, 
 chiefly ferns. 
 
 Volcanic Rocks. t — Trap. — The largest tract is on 
 the western side of India, and extends continuously 
 from the basin of the Malpurba to Neemuch in 
 Malwa; and from Balsar, about 20 m. south of the 
 mouth of the Tajjtee, to Nagpoor. This is probably 
 the most remarkable trap-formation existing on 
 
 in violence until the bouses seemed shaken from their 
 foundations, — large-sized trees bent in all directions ; the 
 earth heaved fearfully ; and while the air was perfectly 
 culm, an awful noise l)urst forth as if from an hundred 
 cimnon. Probably in India, as in .\ustralia, subtcrraneaa 
 igneous action, which was formerly very violent, is now 
 almost quiescent, or finds its vent through mighty chim- 
 neys at a height of four or five miles above the sea. The I 
 Lunar Lake, 40 m. from Saulna, is a vast crater 500 ft. 
 deep, and nearly 5 m. round the margin ; its waters are 
 green and hitter, supersaturated with alkaline carbonate, 
 and eoiLtaining silex and some iron in solution : the mud 
 is black, and abounds with sulphuretted hydrogen ; the 
 water is, ne.vertheless, pure and void of smcU.
 
 494 GEOLOGICAL FEATURES AND SOILS OF DIFFERENT DISTRICTS. 
 
 the surface of the globe ; its breadth is about 335 m. 
 N. to S. ; length, about 350 m. E. to W. ; and covers 
 an area of from 200,000 to 250,000 sq. m.* Another 
 portion extends from Jubbulpoor to Amarkantak, 
 thence south-westerly towards Nagpoor. It consti- 
 tutes the core of the Western Ghauts, and predomi- 
 nates in the Mahadeo and Sautpoora mountains. 
 
 Its two grand geological features along the Ghauts, 
 ^yhere it has attained the highest elevation, are flat 
 summits and regular stratification. Fourteen beds 
 have been numbered in IMalwa, the lowest and 
 largest of which is 300 feet thick. These are equally 
 numerous, if not more so, along the Ghauts, but the 
 scarps are of much greater magnitude. Besides its 
 stratification, it is in many places columnar ; as in 
 the beds of the Nerbudda and Chumbul ; and the 
 hill-fort of Singhur presents a surface of pentagonal 
 divisions. 
 
 Wherever the effusions exist to any great extent, 
 they appear to be composed of laterite above, then 
 basalt, and afterwards trappife and amyffdaloid. 
 
 Basalt. — There are two kinds of this rock ; a dark 
 blue-black, and a brown-black. Both are semi- 
 crystalline. Their structure is massive, stratified, 
 columnar, or prismoidal. Dark blue is the basalt of 
 Bombay Island, brown-black that of the Deccan. 
 
 To this general description, I may add 
 what I have heen enabled to glean of the 
 specific structure of some of the principal 
 positions : — 
 
 Himalayas. — Formations primary: the first strata, 
 which is towards the plain, consists of limestone, 
 lying on clay-slate, and crowned by slate, grey- 
 ■wacke, or sandstone. Beyond the limestone tract, 
 gneiss, clay-slate, and other schistose rocks occur ; 
 granite arises in the mountains near the snowy 
 ranges. The peaks are generally composed of schis- 
 tose rocks, but veined by granite to a great eleva- 
 tion. Kamet, however, is an exception, appearing 
 to consist of granite alone. Greenstone dykes rise 
 through and intersect the regular rocks. Strata 
 fractured in all directions ; slate, as if crushed, and 
 the limestone broken into masses. The soil is prin- 
 cipally accumulated on the northern side. 
 
 The formation of the Indo-Gangetic chain, in 
 Koonawur, is mostly gneiss and mica-slate ; in some 
 I places, pure mica. On the left bank of the Sutlej, 
 ' granite prevails, forming the Kaldang peaks. Further 
 north, it becomes largely intermixed with mica-slate; 
 to the north-east changes into secondary limestone, 
 and schistose rocks, abounding in marine exuvia?.t 
 In Kuraaon, the Himalayas are composed of crystal- 
 line gneiss, veined by granite ; the range forming 
 the north-eastern boundary, is believed to be of 
 recent formation. The mountainous tract south of 
 the principal chain in Nepaul consists of limestone, 
 
 * The rock in which the EUora caves are excavated is 
 said to be a basaltic trap, which, from its green tinge and 
 its different stages from hardness to disintegration, is sup- 
 posed by the natives to lie full of vegetable matter, in a 
 greater or less advance to putrefaction : the crumbling 
 rock affords a natural green colour, which is ground up 
 and employed in painting on wet chunam (lime jjlastcr.) 
 
 t Dr. Gerard found some extensive tracts of shell for- 
 mation 1.^,000 ft. above the sea. The principal shells 
 comprised cocklts, mussels, and ]x'arl-fish ; nummulitcs 
 and long cylindrical productions. These shells, of whirh 
 many were converted into carb. of lime, some crystallised 
 like marble, were lying upon the high land in a bed of 
 granite, and pulverised state : the adjacent rocks com 
 
 hornstone, and conglomerate. The Sewalik (the 
 most southerly and lowest range of the Himalayan 
 system) i.s of alluvial formation, consisting of beds of 
 clay, sandstone with mica, conglomerate cemented by 
 calcareous matter, gravel, and rolled stones of various 
 rocks. The supposition is, that it is the debris of 
 the Himalaya, subsequently upheaved by an earth- 
 quake. The geology of the Sewalik is characterised 
 by the occurrence of quantities of fossil remains. 
 
 Punjab. — Near the north-east frontier, in the 
 vicinity of the Himalaya, is an extensive tract of 
 rocks and deposits of recent formation ; limestone, 
 sandstone, gypsum, argillaceous slate ; occasionally 
 veins of quartz. 
 
 2'he Salt-ranr/e. — Greywacke, limestone, sand- 
 stone, and red tenaceous clay, with deposits of chlo- 
 ride of sodium, or common salt. 
 
 The Siified-Koh is primarn, consisting of granite, 
 quartz, mica, gneiss, slate, and primary limestone. 
 
 The Suliman mountains are of recent formations, 
 principally sandstone and secondary limestone, 
 abounding in marine exuvite. 
 
 Central India. — ArravuUi range, generally primi- 
 tive, consisting of granite, quartz, and gneiss. For- 
 mation along banks of upper course of Nerbudda, 
 trappean ; lower down, at jubbulpoor, granitic ; at 
 Bhera Ghur, channel contracted between ichite cliffs 
 of magnesian limestone ; at the junction of the 
 Towab, there is a ledge of black limestone : at, and 
 near Kal Bhyru, slate of various sorts ; basaltic 
 rocks scattered over channel. Ranges enclosing 
 Nemaur, banks of rivers, and eminences in the 
 valley, basaltic. Saugor and Nerbudda territory ; 
 eastern part, towards Amarkantak, generally sand- 
 stone ; from here it extends westward, forming the 
 table-land bounding Nerbudda valley on the north, 
 and is intermixed with marl, slate, and limestone. 
 The volcanic tract commences about Ion. 79°, and 
 extends to about the town of Saugor, which is 
 situate on its highest part. This (trap), with that of 
 sandstone, further east, may be considered to belong 
 to the Vindhya ; and the former to the Mahadeo 
 and Sautpoora ranges. In some places, primitive 
 rocks appear through the overlying bed. The Bind- 
 yachal hills are of horizontally-stratified sandstone ; 
 Panna hills, sandstone, intermixed with schiste and 
 quartz ; and, to the west, overlaid by limestone. 
 
 Western Ghauts. — The great core is of primary 
 formation, inclosed by alternating strata of more 
 recent origin. These have been broken up by pro- 
 digious outbursts of volcanic rocks ; and from Alaha- 
 bulishwar northward, the overlying rock is exclu- 
 sively of the trap formation ; behind IMalabar they 
 are of primitive trap, in many places overlaid by im- 
 mense masses of laterite, or iron-clay. The A'lirra- 
 gherry or Pulnai hills (Madura) are gneiss, stratified 
 with quartz ; in some places precipices of granite. 
 
 Nay2)oor. — North-western and western part, vol- 
 
 posed of shell limestone, the large blocks composed of a 
 multitude of shells of ditferent sizes, imbedded in a mass 
 of calcareous tufa. Four classes of slicU formation were 
 distinguished ; one in particular, a freshwater bivalve, re- 
 sembling the unit), which exists in great abundance at the 
 foot of the lower hills and throughout the Dooab. In the 
 Neermal hills, N. of the Godavcry, on the road from 
 Hydrahad to Nagpoor, many very perfect fossil shells, 
 mostly bivalves, and evidently marine, have been dis- 
 covered imbedded in a volcanic rock, together with the 
 head anil vertcbrie of a fish : the formations around rest 
 everywhere on granite ; and there arc several hot-springs 
 holding lime in solution. Univalves and bivalves, particu- 
 larly kuccinum, ammonites, and mussels, abound in Mabva.
 
 MINERAL PRODUCTIONS OF INDIA, 
 
 405 
 
 canic, principally basalt and trap. Thia terminates 
 lit the city of NuKJioor, and tliu primitive, mostly 
 (;r.inite and pnoiss, rises to the surface. 
 
 Mysnor. — The drnor/s, luif;e isolated rocks, scat- 
 tered over the surface; vary in elevation from 1,(100 
 to 1,500 feet; bases seldom exoeedin;^ 2 ni. in cir- 
 cumference ; generally composed of (granite, gneiss, 
 quartz, and hornblende ; in many places overlaid by 
 laterite. 
 
 Soil, — mainly determined by the geological cha- 
 racter of each district, except in the deltas, or on 
 llie banks of rivers, as in tlie I'unjab, where an allu- 
 vium is nccunuilated. The hind in Lower Bengal is 
 of inexhiiustilile fertility, owing partly to the various 
 salts and earthy limestone with which the deposits 
 from the numerous rivers are continually impreg- 
 nated : it is generally of a light sandy appearance, 
 'i'he alluvium of Scinde is a stiff clay ; also that of 
 'I'anjore, Sumbulpore, and Cuttack, by the disinte- 
 gration of granitic rocks. A nitrous (saltpetre) soil 
 is general in Bahar; in the vicinity of Mirzapoor 
 town, it is strongly impregnated with saline parti- 
 cles ; and at many places in Vizagajiatam. The 
 rcijur, or cotton ground, which extends over a large 
 part of Central India, and of the Deccan, is supposed 
 i to be formed by a disintegration of trap rocks; it 
 slowdy absorbs,* and long retains moi.sture ; and it 
 lias produced, in yearly succession, for centuries, the 
 most exhausting crops. It spreads over the table- 
 lands of the Ceded iJistricts and Mysoor, ilanks the 
 Neilgherry and Salem hills, and pervades the Deccan, 
 but has not been observed in the Coneans. It is a 
 fine, black, argillaceous mould, containing, in its 
 lower parts, nodules, and pebbly alluvium. Kunkiir 
 (a calcareous conglomerate)! fills up the cavities and 
 fissures of the beds beneath it ; and angular frag- 
 ments of the neighbouring rocks are scattered over 
 its surface. It contains no fossils. In some parts 
 it is from 20 to 40 feet thick. Kunkur is common 
 in the north-western ])rovinces, the rocks often 
 advancing into the channel of the Jumna, and ob- 
 
 structing the navigation. In the western part of 
 Muttra district, it is mixed with sand : in Oude, 
 some patches of this rock, which undergo abrasion 
 very slowly, stand "0 or 80 feet above the neigh- 
 bouring country, which, consisting of softer materials, 
 has been washed away by the agency of water. Its 
 depth, in the eastern part of Meerut district, is from 
 one to 1!0 feet. In the Dooab, between the Ganges 
 and Jumna, and in many parts of the N.VV. provinces, 
 there is a light rich loam, which ])roduces excellent 
 wheat; at Ghazeepore, a light clay, with more or 
 less sand, is favouralile for sugar and for roses. 
 .■\s the Ganges is ascended before reaching Ghazee- 
 pore, the soil becomes more granitic, and is then suc- 
 ceeded by a gravel of burnt clay, argite, and cin- 
 ders, resembling what is seen in basaltic countries. 
 Assam, which has been found so well adapted for 
 the culture of tea, has for the most part a black 
 loam reposing on a gray, sandy clay ; in some places 
 the surface is of a light yellow clayey texture. The 
 soil usually found in the vicinity of basaltic moun- 
 tains is of a black colour, mixed with sand. Disin- 
 tegrated granite, where felspar predominates, yields 
 much clay. 
 
 A sandy soil exists in the centres of the Dnoals, 
 of the Punjab; more or less in Pani|mt, Khotuck, 
 and Ilurriana districts: Jeypoor, Macliery, and 
 Kajpootana; and in some parts of Scinde; in Mysoor, 
 a brown and rather sandy earth prevails; Trichi- 
 nopoly is arid and sandy; and near Tavoy town, on 
 the E. side of the Bay of Bengal, there is a large 
 plain, covered with sand. 
 
 The soil of Nagpoor, in some tracts, is a black, 
 heavy loam, loaded with vegetable matter; red loam 
 is found in Salem and in Mergui. 
 
 Tinnevelly has been found well suited for the cot- 
 ton plant, and the substance in which it delights 
 looks like a mixture of lime, rubbish, and yellowish 
 brickdust, intermixed with nodules of Kunkur.X A 
 chymical analysis of three of the best cotton soils in 
 tliese districts, gives the following result:?— 
 
 
 Vct»e- 
 table 
 
 Saline 
 ami 
 
 Irou. 
 
 Carb. 
 
 Mas- 
 
 Alu- 
 
 Silex. 
 
 Water 
 and 
 
 
 I'otton Soils. 
 
 
 
 
 Kemarks. 
 
 
 tor. 
 
 tivc. 
 
 Protox. 
 
 Deutox. 
 
 Tritox. 
 
 lime. 
 
 nesia. 
 
 mina. 
 
 
 loss. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 C No peat orlicnite; no- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 j thing soluble in eold 
 < water; ^ilex in line 
 
 Buudclcund 
 
 200 
 
 0-33 
 
 — 
 
 <■(■) 
 
 — 
 
 U 90 1 trace 
 
 3-10 
 
 74-0 
 
 100 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 powder; kunkur in 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t_ the gravel. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 C Gravel, mostly silcx, 
 
 Coinibatore 
 
 2-30 
 
 traces 
 
 400 
 
 ~ 
 
 
 7-50 
 
 trace 
 
 2-80 
 
 82-80 
 
 0-60 
 
 } with some felspar, but 
 
 j no kunkur. 
 
 fGravel, almost wholly 
 J kunkur ; some carb 
 
 Tinnevelly . 
 
 OIJ 
 
 020 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 28S 
 
 19i0 
 
 01.5 
 
 200 
 
 74-00 
 
 112 
 
 \ iron ; half the soil of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \^ gravel. 
 
 Guzerat is generally termed the Garden of Western 
 India. With the exception of Kattywar, and to the 
 eastward of Broach, it is one extensive plain, com- 
 prising many different soils ; the chief varieties being 
 
 * All the soils of India have, in general, a powerful ab- 
 sorbing quality ; hence their fertile properties. 
 
 •f Kunkur. — .\ calcareous concretion, stratified and in 
 mammillated masses of all sizes, which contains 50 to 80 
 per cent, of carbonate of lime, some magnesia, iron, and 
 alumina : these nodules are interspersed in large (juanti- 
 ties tliroughoul extensive tracts of the alluvial and 
 secondary formations, and are ascribed to the action of 
 calcareous springs, which are of frequent occurrence. 
 
 X It is curious to note, in dilierent countries, how plants 
 
 the black or cotton soil, and the yorat, or light 
 grain-producing soil.|| The former is chiefly confined 
 to Broach and part of Surat N. of the Taptee ; the 
 latter prevails throughout Baroda, Kaira, and part 
 
 seem to vary in their feeding : thus, at Singapore, the best 
 cotton soil apparently consists of laree coarse grains of 
 white sand, mixed with something like rough oharcoal- 
 dust, and with fragments of vegetables and mosses of all 
 sorts. A somewhat similar substance, mingled with shells 
 and decayed vegetable matter, is the favourite habitat of 
 the Sea Island cotton of Georgia, U. S. 
 
 § See .an interesting Essay on the Ayricullure ofHin- 
 doosfnn, by (i. \V. Johnston. 
 
 II See Mackay's valuable Report on V.'eitcm India, p. 41.
 
 496 MINERALS OF INDIA— IRON, COAL, TIN, LEAD, COPPER, GOLD. 
 
 of Ahmedabad, becominff more mixed with sand to 
 the northward; black soil abounds to the westward 
 of the Gulf, and in many of the Kattywar valleys. 
 The numerous veg:etable products of India attest the 
 variety of soils which exist there. 
 
 Minerals. — Various metals have been 
 produced and wrought in India from the 
 earliest ages : the geological character of the 
 ditfereut districts indicates their presence. 
 So far as we have yet ascertained, their dis- 
 tribution is as follows : — 
 
 Iron. — Ladakh. — Mines in the north-eastern 
 part of the Punjab,* a-nd in almost every part of 
 kumaon, where the requisite smelting processes are 
 performed; though on a small scale, and in a rude 
 and inefficient manner. Mairwarra; in veins, and of 
 good quality, believed to be inexhaustible. Kajma- 
 hal-; in gneiss. Lalgang, 16 miles south-west of 
 Mirzapoor city. Kuppudgode hills; in schistes, 
 quartz, and gneiss : on the north-east side, one stra- 
 tum of iron, 60 feet thick. Kamghur — liills abound- 
 ing in iron, though not of the best quality. Haza- 
 reebagh, in gneiss — flinty brown colour, pitchy 
 lustre, and splintery fracture ; 20 feet thick. Various 
 parts of Palamow district ; at Singra in inexhausti- 
 ble quantities. Eastern part of IVagpoor territory. 
 Mine of good quality at Tendukhera, near Jubbul- 
 poor (were the navigation of the Nerbudda available, 
 this would prove a most useful article of export for 
 railways.) Western extremity of Vindhya ; in gneiss. 
 Southern Mahratta country; in quartz: micaceous 
 and magnetic iron-ore occur in the same district; in 
 clay-slate. In all the mountains of the Western 
 Ghauts; in Malabar; in veins, beds, or masses, in 
 the laterite (here extensively smelted.) Salem, 
 southern part (yields 60 per cent, of the metal fit for 
 castings.) Nellore district. In many places in 
 Masulipatam. Rajahmundry; in sandstone hills. 
 Vizagapatam. Abundant in many parts of Orissa. 
 Tenasserim provinces ; occurs in beds, veins, and in 
 rocks. Between the Saluen and Gyne rivers, it is 
 found in sandstone hills. Most abundant between 
 Ye and Tavoy, approximating the sea-coast; the 
 best is at a short distance north of Tavoy town : it 
 is therein two forms — common magnetic iron-ore; and 
 massive, in granular concretions, crystallized, splen- 
 dent, metallic, highly magnetic, and with polarity. 
 The ore would furnish from 74 to 80 per cent, raw 
 iron. In various places the process of smelting is 
 rudely performed by the natives, but they produce a 
 metal which will bear comparison with the best 
 Swedish or British iron.f 
 
 Tin. — Oodeypoor, — mines productive. On the 
 
 * Colonel Steiiibiioh says that the mineral wealth of the 
 Punjal) is ronsicler.ible ; that mines of gold, copper, iron, 
 plumbaKo. and lead abound, and that " properly worked 
 they would yield an enormous revenue." 
 
 t Tlie natives of Cutcli make steel chnin-armour, salires, 
 and various sharp edge tools from their iron ; the liorse- 
 shoes arc cxcelli-ut — the metal being more malleable, and 
 not so likely to break as the English iron. 
 
 X The pray ore found in Dohnjiur affords 30 to .^lO per 
 cent, of copper ; it is associated with malachite, and con- 
 tained in a compact red-coloured dolomite ; hence mining 
 operations can be carried on without timbering or ma- 
 sonry. 
 
 § Mines discovered by Dr. Hej-ne, near Wangapadu. 
 " A footpath, paved with stones, led up the hill to the 
 place whieh wiis sliown me as one of tiie niiiies. It is 
 situated two-thirds up tlie hill, nnd might be shout 4(10 ft. 
 
 banks of the Barakur, near Palamow ; in gneiss. 
 Tenasserim provinces. Tavoy, rich in tin-ore; 
 generally found at the foot of mountains, or in 
 hills: Pakshan river; soil in which the grains are 
 buried, yields 8 or 10 feet of metal; at Tavoy, 
 7 feet : of superior quality in the vicinity of Mergui 
 town. 
 
 Lead. — Ladakh. Koonawur. Ajmere; in quartz 
 rocks. Mairwarra. Eastern part of Xagpoor. In 
 the vicinity of Hazareebagh. Eastern Ghauts at 
 Jungamanipenta; in clay-slate — mines here. Am- 
 herst province. Fine granular galena obtained in 
 clay-slate, and clay limestone on the Touser, near 
 the Dehra-Boon. 
 
 Copper. — Ladakh. Koonawur, in the valley of 
 the Pabur. Kumaon, near Pokree ; but these mines 
 are almost inaccessible, and the vicinity affords no 
 adequate supply of fuel for smelling: others at 
 I)ohnpur,J IJhobri, Gangoli, Sira, Khori, and Slior 
 Gurang. Mairwarra. Oodeypoor; abundant, — it 
 supplies the currency. Southern Mahratta country, 
 in quartz; also in a talcose form. Vencatigherry, 
 North Arcot. Nellore district. § Sullivan's and Cal- 
 lagkiank Islands, in the Mergui Archipelago. This 
 metal is most probably extensively distributed, and 
 of a rich quality. 
 
 Silrer. — In the tin mines of Oodeypoor. In the 
 lead mine, near Hazareebagh, and other places. 
 
 Gold. — Sands of Shy-yok, Tibet. Ditto Chenab, 
 Huroo, and Swan rivers, Punjab. Ditto ."Muknunda, 
 Kumaon. Throughout the tract of country W. of 
 the Neilgherries, amid the rivers and watercourses, 
 draining 2.000 sq. m., this coveted metal abounds ; 
 even the river stones, when pounded, yield a rich 
 |iroduct: it is usually obtained in small nuggets. 
 In the iron sand of the streams running from the 
 Kuppudgode hills, and from the adjoining Saltoor 
 range. Sumbulpoor; in the detrius of rocks. In 
 moderate quantities in several places in the eastern 
 ))art of Nagpoor. Many of the streams descending 
 from the Ghauts into Malabar; and in Wynaad. 
 Gold-dust in Mysoor.|| In the Assam rivers it is plen- 
 tiful : near Gowhatty 1,000 men used to be employed 
 in collecting ore for the state. Various parts of 
 Tenasserim provinces, but in small quantities. The 
 geological structure of India indicates an abundance 
 of the precious metals. 
 
 Coal. — The carboniferous deposits of the oolitic 
 series in Bengal, west of the Ganges and Ilooghly, 
 consist of coal, shale, and sandstone, but no lime- 
 stone, and they appear chiefly to occupy the depi-es- 
 siuns of the granitic and metamorjihic rocks which 
 form this part of India, becoming exposed in the 
 l)anks or beds of watercourses or ri\ers which have 
 liassed through them, or in escarpments which have 
 
 above the village (Wongapadu.) An open gallery cut into 
 the rock, demonstrated that it had been formerly worked ; 
 and as llie stones, whieh lay in abxmdanee near it, were all 
 tinged or overlaid with mnxmtain green, there could be no 
 doubt that the ore extracted had been copper." — (Heyne, 
 JYarts on India, p. 112.) 
 
 II In excavating the disintegrating granite in the vicinity 
 of Hangalore, to aseert;tin the <*xtetit to whieh the decom- 
 posing inlluence of the atmosphere will atieet the solid 
 rock (viz., 30 to 35 ft.), the contents of soil were fre- 
 quently auriferous. In blasting sieiiite at Chinapatam, 
 40 m. from Bangalore, on the road to Seringajjiitam, 
 Lieutenant Baird Smith, B.IC, observed considerable 
 q\i;intities of gold disseniiiuit'-d in sin;dl particles over 
 tlu* frnetured surfaces. At M'ynaad this metal was ob- 
 tained from rich yellow enrlh in sufiieient (luaulity to 
 employ a number of labourers and to yield some return.
 
 DIAMONDS AND OTllEll I'HECIOUS STONUS IN INDIA. 
 
 497 
 
 been produced by iiphcftvnl of the rocks on which 
 they were deposited. The coal iiccurs in strata from 
 an inch or less to 9 or U) feet lliiekness, inlerHtratifiud 
 with shah' nnil Hnndstone ; the wliole poasessinjj a (lark 
 black or blue colour, of ii greater or less intensity. 
 At l!nr<hv»n its cimracler is slaty: the genera of 
 plants are partly J''nj;lish, some Australian, some 
 peculiar. The deptli at the Curhurhalee field, situ- 
 ated fiO miles south of the (ianijes, near Siiraj^ur- 
 rah, is from 50 to 100 feet. I'roceedinjj westerly, 
 towards I'alamow district, which contains many 
 valuable and extensive fields, and where several 
 shafts have been sunk, it has been seen about Hi m. 
 from Chergcrh, in Sinjjrowhi; at the confluence of 
 the Sone and Tipan, about .'JO m. E. from .Sohajpoor. 
 Near Jeria, in I'achete district. Hills in Kamf;luir, 
 aboundinj; in coal. Juhbulpoor, .'iO m. S. from 
 Hoosungabad ; in Shahpoor in the same neiphbour- 
 hood ; and abundantly along the valley of the Ner- 
 budda. Traces of it are said to exist in the diamond 
 sandstone north-west of Nagpoor, and it has been 
 found in the Mahadeo mountains. In the I'unjab, 
 at Mukkud, on the left bank of the Indus, and in 
 the localities of .loa, Meealce, and Numniul. The 
 extremes of this coal formation, so far as have yet 
 been discovered in India, are: — the confluence of 
 the Godavcry and I'renheta in the south, in lat. 19°, 
 and the Salt range in about .'i;i° N.; Cutch in the 
 west, and Iturdwan in the east ; and detached in 
 Silhet, Pegu (recently found of excellent quality), 
 and the Tenasserim ]n'ovinces (plentiful, and ])nsses- 
 sing good properties.) There are many other places, 
 no doubt, in the country between Bengal and lierar, 
 where this valuable mineral exists ; traces of it 
 have been observed in Orissa, but it has not yet 
 been found available for use ; it is not improbable 
 that it extends across the delta of tlie Ganges to 
 Silhet, distant 300 miles. It also occurs extensively 
 in the grits bounding the southern slope of the 
 Himalaya ; it has been questioned whether this is 
 the older coal, or only lignite associated with nagel- 
 flue, — where the Teesta issues from the plain, its 
 strata is highly inclined, and it bears all the other 
 characters of the older formation. Analysis of Indian 
 coal found in different jiarts, and near the surface, 
 gave the following results: — Chirra Poonjee, slaty 
 kind: specific gravity, 1'497; containing volatile 
 matter, 30; carbon, 41; and a copious white ash, 
 23 = 100. Nerbudda (near Falehpoor), near the 
 surface, — volatile matter, lOo ; water, 3'5; charcoal, 
 20; earthy residue (red), (M == 100. Cossyah hills: 
 specific gravity, l''JTJ; volatile matter or gas, 38-5; 
 carbon or coke, (JOT; earthy impurities, 08 = 100 
 — (ash very small.) Hurdwar: specific gravity, 
 1'968; volatile matter, SUA; carbon, 50; ferru- 
 ginous ash, 146 =: 100. Arracan : specific gra- 
 vity, 1'308; volatile matter, 66'4 ; carbon, 33; ash, 
 0-6 = 100. Cutch: charcoal, 70; bitumen, 20; 
 sulphur, 5 ; iron, 3 ; calcareous earths, 2. 
 
 * These mountains are bounded on all sides by granite, 
 that everywhere njipears to pass under it. and to form its 
 basis ; some detached portions have only the upjier third 
 of their summits of sandstone and quartz, the basis or 
 remaining two. thirds l)eing of granite. Deep ravines are 
 not infreqiuMit. The diamond is procured only in the 
 sandstone hreccia, wliich is found under a compact rock, 
 composed of a heautitul mixture of rei! and yellow jasper, 
 quartz, chalcedony, and hornstone, of various colours, 
 cemented together by a quartz paste : it passes into a 
 pudding-stone of rounded pebbles of quartz, hornstone, &c., 
 cemented by nn argillo. calcareous earth of a loose friable 
 texture, in which the diamonds are most frequently found. 
 
 Sulphur. — Mouths of Godavery, and at Conda- 
 
 pilly, on the Kistnah. Sulphate of alumina ol)- 
 t lined from the aluminous rocks of Xrpaul; used 
 by the natives to cure fresh wounds or bruises: 
 yields on analysis — sulphate of alumina, 95 ; per- 
 oxyde of iron, ;' ; ailex, 1 : loss, 1. Sulphate of 
 iron is procure J in tlie Hehar liills, and used by 
 the Patna djem: it yields sulphate of iron, .39; 
 ])ert)xyde of iron, 3G ; magnesia, 23: loss, 2 = 100. 
 
 HiiDiKini/x. — Sumbulpoor has been celebrated for 
 the finest diam')nds in the world; they are found 
 in the bed rif the Mahanuddy. Mines were formerly 
 worked at AVyraghur, Xagpoor; Malavillv, in .Ma- 
 sulii)atam (nearlOllore); and at I'anna, in Hundlecund. 
 Mr. H. W. Voysey described, in 1H21, the diamond 
 mines of the '\u'//a Mii/la mountains, north of the 
 Kistnah,* which were formerly extensively worked. t 
 
 Ilithies. — Sumbulpoor; in the detrius of rocks. 
 
 Pearls. — Gulf of .Manaar, near Cape Comorin, 
 and on the coast of many of the islands in the 
 Mergui ArchiiJclago. 
 
 Muriat of soda (common salt) is found in rock and 
 liquid form at various places. A salt lake, 20 m. 
 long by 1 1 broad, is situated in lat. 2fio 5.3', long. 
 74° 57'; it sujiplies a great portion of the neigh- 
 bouring coimtry with salt after the drains are dried 
 up. A salt lake in Berar contains in 100 parts, — 
 muriat of soda, 20; muriat of lime, 10; muriat of 
 magnesia, 0. Towards the sources of the Indus, 
 salt lakes exist at 16,000 ft. above the sea. There 
 are extensive salt mines in the Suit rauye of the 
 Punjab. Natron and soda lakes are said to exist ig 
 the Himalaya. 
 
 Cornelian is found and worked in different places: 
 the principal mines are situated at the foot of the 
 western extremity of the Rajpeepla hills, close to the 
 town of Ruttunpoor; the soil in which the corne- 
 lians are imbedded consists chiefly of quartz sand — 
 reddened by iron, and a little clay. A^'ates abound j 
 in 'Western India : at one part of Cutch the sides of 
 the hills (of amygdaloid)) are covered with heaps ', 
 of rock crystal, as if cart loads had been purposely ' 
 thrown there, and in many parts of the great trap- 
 pean district the surface is strewed with a profusion 
 of agatoid flints, onyx, hollow spheroids of quartz, 
 crystals, and zoolitic minerals. There are evidences 
 of several extinct volcanoes in Cutch. 
 
 This is but an imperfect skctcli of the 
 minerals of India : dotibtiess, there arc many 
 more places where metals e.xist; but during 
 the anarchy and warfare whicli prevailed j 
 prior to British supremacy, the very know, 
 ledge of their locality has been lost. At no 
 distant day this subterranean wealth will be 1 
 developed ; and probably, when the gold- | 
 fields of Australia are exhausted, tliose of j 
 j India may be profitably worked. 1 
 
 The breccia is seen at depths varying from 5 to 50 feet, j 
 and is about 2 feet in thickness ; immediately akore it lies j 
 a stratum of pudding-stone, composed of quartz and 
 hornstone pebbles, cemented by calcareous clay and grains 
 of sand. The miners are of opinion that the diamond is 
 always growing, and that the chips and small pieces re- 
 jected ultimately increase to large diamonds. — Trati». 
 A. S. Bengal, vol. xiv., p. 120. 
 
 t The diamonds of Golconda have ot>tained great cele- 
 brity througliout the world, but they were merely cut and 
 polished there, having been generally found at Parteall, in 
 a detached portion of the Nizam's dommions, near the 
 southern frontier, in lat. 16° 40', long. 80° 28'.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 POPULATION— NUMBERS— DISTRIBUTION— DENSITY TO AREA— PROPORTION OF HIN- 
 DOOS TO MOHAMMEDANS— VARIETIES OF RACE— DIVERSE LANGUAGES— ABORI- 
 GINES— SLAVERY— PAST AND PRESENT CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 From remote antiquity India has been 
 densely peopled ; but, as previously ob- 
 served (p. 13), we know nothing certain of 
 its indigenous inhabitants, — of accessions 
 derived from immigration, or from success- 
 ful invasions by sea and land, — of the pro- 
 gressive natural increase, — or of the circum- 
 stances which influence, through many 
 generations, the ebb and flow of the tide of 
 population.* There is direct testimony, 
 however, that before the Christian era the 
 country was thickly inhabited by a civilised 
 people, dwelling in a well-cultivated terri- 
 tory, divided into numerous floui-ishiug 
 states, with independent governments, united 
 in federal alliance, and capable of bringing 
 into the field armies of several hundred thou- 
 sand men. 
 
 For more than a thousand years after the 
 Greek invasion, we have no knowledge of 
 what was taking place among the popula- 
 tion of India, and but a scanty notice, in 
 the eighth century, of the Arab incursions 
 of the regions bordering on the Indus. 
 Even the marauding forays of Mahmood 
 the Ghaznevide, in the eleventh century, 
 aiford no internal evidence of the state of 
 the people, save that derived from a record 
 of their magnificent cities, stately edifices, 
 immense temples, lucrative trade, and vast 
 accumulations of wealth ; the Hindoos were 
 probably then in a more advanced state of 
 social life, though less warlike than during 
 
 * It is not improbable that some of the early im- 
 migrants were offshoots of the colonists who are 
 said to have passed from Greece into Egypt, thence 
 travelled eastward, forming settlements on the banks 
 of the Euphrates and Tigris ; and ultimately reached 
 the Indus and Ganges. In craniological and facial 
 characteristics, many Hindoos present a striking si- 
 militude to the ancient Greek, modified by climate, 
 food, and habits ; and in several architectural struc- 
 tures, of which ruins are still e.\tant, there is con- 
 siderable resemblance to the ancient Iniildings of 
 ICgypt, and those erected on the Babylonian plains. 
 Bryant is of opinion that Clialdea was the parent 
 country of the Hindoos ; Vans Kenncdey traces the 
 Sanscrit language to Mesopotamia ; H. H. Wilson 
 deems that the Hindoos connected with the Hi;! 
 Veda were from a nortliern site, as in that work tlie 
 worshipper on more than one occasion, when solicit- 
 ing long life, asks for an hundn^d winters, which the 
 Professor thinks would not liave been desired by the 
 natives of a warm climate. This is not conclusive. 
 
 the Alexandrine period : they had gradually 
 occupied the whole of India with a greatly 
 augmented population, and possessed a 
 general knowledge of the arts, conveniences, 
 and luxuries of life. 
 
 During the desolating period of Moslem 
 forays, and of Mogul rule, there appears to 
 have been a continued diminution of men 
 and of wealth, which Akber in vain essayed 
 to check by some equitable laws. We have 
 sufficient indirect and collateral evidence to 
 show that whole districts were depopulated, 
 that famines frequently occurred, and that 
 exaction, oppression, and misgovernment 
 produced their wonted results in the dete- 
 rioration of the country. No census, or 
 any trustworthy attempt at ascertaining 
 the numbers of their subjects, was made by 
 the more enlightened Mogul sovereigns, 
 even when all their energies were directed 
 to the acquisition of new dominions. 
 
 The English, until the last few years, 
 have been as remiss in this respect as their 
 predecessors in power. An idea prevailed 
 that a census would be viewed suspiciously 
 as the prelude to a capitation tax, or 
 some other exaction or interference with 
 domestic afi'airs. In Bengal, Bahar, and 
 Orissa, which we have had under control 
 for nearly a century, no nearer approxima- 
 tion has yet been made to ascertain the 
 number of our subjects, than the clumsy 
 and inaccurate contrivance of roughly ascer- 
 
 In Britain man frequently dates his age from the 
 number of summers he has seen. There can, how- 
 ever, be little doubt that many of the early invaders 
 of India were of the type of Japhet, — some of them 
 acquainted with maritime commerce, and all com- 
 ])aratively more civilised tlian the itidiyenes who were 
 driven towards the southward and eastward, and to 
 mountain and jungle fastnesses. When this occurred 
 it is impossible to determine. General Briggs says 
 that the Vedax were written in India at the period 
 when Joshua led the Israelites over Jordan into 
 Canaan. The date wlien Menu, the lawgiver, lived 
 has not been ascertained. Whatever tlie period, the 
 Hindoos had not then occupied the country farther 
 south than the 2;ird degree, as Menu describes the 
 peo])le bevond as " barbarians, living in forests, and 
 speaking an unknown language." Remote annals 
 are lost in legends and traditions ; and the chrono- 
 logy of Hindooism is an absurdity, e.xcept on the 
 ]ninciplc of cutting off the ciphers attaolied to the 
 apocry])lial figures.
 
 DENSITY OF POPULATION OF INDIA TO EACH SQUARE MILE. 499 
 
 taininfi; tlic liousos and liuts in a villaf^o or 
 district, uiid tlicii supposing a fixed iiumljcr 
 of moiillis in each liouso (say five or six.) 
 The fallacy of such estimates is now ad- 
 mitted, and rulers are bc{;inning to sec the 
 value of a correct and full census, taken at 
 stated intervals, in order to show the I'atcs 
 of increase or decrease, and to note the 
 causes thereof. I believe that the Anglo- 
 Indian government have no reason to ap- 
 prehend unplcasitig disclosures if a decen- 
 nial census be adopted for all the territories 
 under their sway : the natural fecundity of 
 the Hindoos would lead to an augmentation 
 where peace and the elements of animal 
 sustenance exist ; and a satisfactory proof 
 would be aflbrded of the beneficence of our 
 administration, by the multiplication of 
 human life. With these prefatory remarks, 
 I proceed to show briefly all that is at 
 present known on the subject. 
 
 At pp. 3 to 11 of this volume will be 
 found the returns collected by the inde- 
 fatigable Edward Thornton, head of the 
 statistical department of the East India 
 House, with remarks thereon at p. 2. Evi- 
 dently there must be erroneous estimates 
 somewhere, otherwise there would not be so 
 great a disproportion of mouths to each 
 square mile, as appears between the British 
 territories (157) and the other states (74) — 
 
 * There have been several censuses of China, of 
 which we have little reason to doubt the accuracy : 
 that of ITo.", showed 102,328,258; that of 1792, 
 307,407,200; that of 1812, 361,221,900. In some 
 districts, alons; river banks, the density is very great ; 
 such as Kangsoo (Nankin) — 774 to the sq. ni. : in 
 
 say U)r.,()00,f)Of) on r,(;r,,m<) sq. m., and 
 r):5,()()0,()()() on 717,000 si], m. Estimating 
 the entire area, as above, at ],.'W0,0()0 sq. m., 
 and the population thereon at 158,000,000, 
 would give IM to each sq. m. Viewing 
 India as including the entire region, from 
 the Suliman on the west, to the Youmadoun'i 
 mountains on the cast, and from Cape 
 Comorin to Pcshawur, and estimating the 
 area at 1,500,000 sq. m., and the number of 
 inhabitants to each sq. m. at 130, would 
 show a population of 19.'5,000,000; which 
 is probably not far from the truth. 
 
 The Chinese census shows 3G7,G32,907 
 mouths on an area of 1,297,9'J'J sq. m., or 
 283 to each sq. m.* In England tlie density 
 is 333; Wales, 131; Ireland, 200; Scot- 
 land, lOO.f India, with its fertile soil, a 
 climate adapted to its inhabitants, and with 
 an industrious and comparatively civilised 
 people, might well sustain 2.50 mouths to 
 each sq. m., or 375,000,000 on 1,500,000 
 sq. m. of area. J 
 
 The following table, framed from various 
 public returns and estimates, is the nearest 
 approximation to accuracy of the population 
 of each district under complete British rule ; 
 it shows (exeludiug Pegu) a total of about 
 120,000,000 (119,(530,098) persons on an 
 area of 829,081 sq. m., or I-IG to each 
 sq. m. : — 
 
 others the density varies from 51.5 down to 51. {See 
 vol. i., p. 29, of my report on China to her Majesty's 
 government, in 1847.) 
 
 t See Preface (p. xv.) to my Australian volume, 
 new issue, in 1855, for density of population in 
 different European states. 
 
 X In illustration of tliis remark, the following statement, derived from the Commissioners' Report on the 
 Punjab, — of the jjopulution of JuUundhur Zillah, situated between the rivers Sutlej and Beas, — is subjoined, 
 with the note appended by the census officer, Mr. K. Temple, 25th of October, 1851 : — 
 
 
 Hindoo. 
 
 Mussulmcn. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Grand 
 Total. 
 
 Total 
 Area in 
 Acres. 
 
 Area in 
 
 Number 
 of inha- 
 bitants 
 
 per sq. 
 
 mile. 
 
 Number 
 
 Tcrgunnahs. 
 
 Agricul- 
 tural. 
 
 Non- 
 Agricul- 
 tural. 
 
 Agricul- 
 tural. 
 
 Non- 
 Agricul- 
 tural. 
 
 Agricul- 
 tural. 
 
 Non- 
 Agricul- 
 tural. 
 
 57,802 
 
 100,220 
 
 06,228 
 
 45,530 
 
 of 640 
 Acres 
 each. 
 
 of Acres 
 to each 
 Person. 
 
 Philor . . . 
 -TuUundhur . 
 Kahoon . . . 
 Nakodur . . 
 
 41,997 
 48,967 
 42,7.39 
 28,787 
 
 ;!S,.591 
 49,6.52 
 47,201 
 19,349 
 
 20,442 
 46,049 
 25,145 
 44,085 
 
 19,211 
 60,568 
 19.027 
 26,181 
 
 62,439 
 9.5,016 
 67,884 
 72,872 
 
 120,241 
 19.5,236 
 134,112 
 118,402 
 
 187,001 
 250,397 
 199,472 
 225,031 
 
 299 
 391 
 312 
 351 
 
 412 
 499 
 430 
 337 
 
 1-52 
 1-25 
 
 ISO 
 
 Total . . 
 
 162,490 
 
 154,793 
 
 135,721 
 
 114,987 
 
 298,211 
 
 269,780 
 
 567,991 
 
 861,901 
 
 1,346 
 
 422 
 
 155 
 
 Note. — This return certainly shows a considerable density of population. It may of course be expected that a small 
 and fertile tract like this, which contains no forest, waste, or hill, should be more thickly peopled than an cxtcnsiTo 
 region like the North-^Vestenl Provinces, which cmbrnces cverj- variety of plain 'and mountain, of cultivation and 
 jungle ; we find therefore that in the provinces we have 322 ^nhabit.^nts per square mile, while here we have one-fourth , 
 more, or 422 ; the population of this district proportionately exceeds that of tweatv-two out of thirtv-one districts of the 
 North-Westem Provinces, and is less than that of nine. It also exceeds the average population of anv one out of the 
 six divisions. It about equals that of the districts of Agra, Muttra, Furruckabad, and Cawnpoor, but is inferior in density 
 to the populous vicinities of Delhi or Benares, and to the fertile districts of Juanpoor, .\7cemgurh, and Ghazeepoor. The 
 comparative excess of Indian over European population hxs become so notorioiis, that it is superfluous to comment on 
 the fact, that the population averages of this district exceed those of the most highly peopled countries of Europe.
 
 nOO 
 
 POPULATION BY PROVINCES AND DISTRICTS. 
 
 British Territories in Cmitinental India — Area, Chief Towns, and Position. 
 
 Provinces, Districts, &c. 
 
 Bhnuai, Province: — 
 
 Calcutta, and 2-1 Pergunnas . . 
 
 Hooghly . . . ■ - • 
 
 Nuddea 
 
 Jessore 
 
 Backergunge and Shabazpore . . 
 
 Dacca 
 
 Tipperah and BuUoah . . . . 
 
 Chittiigong 
 
 Sylhet and Jyntea 
 
 Myineiisiug 
 
 RHJeshaye 
 
 Moorshedabad 
 
 Bcebhoora 
 
 Dinagepoor 
 
 Runspoor 
 
 Burdwau 
 
 Baraset 
 
 Bancoorah 
 
 Bhagulpore 
 
 Monghyr 
 
 Maldah 
 
 Bagoorab 
 
 Pubna 
 
 Purneah 
 
 Fureedpore, Deccan, and Jelalpore 
 
 Dai-jeeling 
 
 Singhbhoom 
 
 Maunbhoom 
 
 SovTH West Fro.ntier: — 
 
 Chota Nagpore 
 
 Palaraow 
 
 Bahar Province : — 
 
 Ramghur 
 
 Bebar 
 
 Patna 
 
 Shahabad 
 
 Tirhoot 
 
 Sarun and Cliumparuu .... 
 
 Sumbbulpoor 
 
 Orissa Province ;— 
 
 Midnapore and Hidgellee . . . 
 
 Cuttack and Pooree 
 
 Balasore 
 
 Koordah 
 
 Madras Presidency : — 
 
 Ganjara 
 
 Vizygapatam 
 
 Rajatnundry 
 
 Masulipatam 
 
 Guntoor 
 
 Belbiry 
 
 Cuddapah 
 
 North Arcot 
 
 South Arcot 
 
 Chinglcput and Madras . . . 
 
 Salem 
 
 Coimbatore 
 
 Trichinopoly 
 
 Tanjore 
 
 Madura 
 
 Tinnivelly 
 
 Malabar 
 
 Canara 
 
 Nellore 
 
 Kurnool 
 
 Coorg 
 
 Bombay Presidency : — 
 
 Concan, North 
 
 South 
 
 Bombay Island 
 
 Dliarwar 
 
 Pooiia 
 
 Knndci&h 
 
 Sunit 
 
 Br-iacb 
 
 Ahmcdnuggur 
 
 Sholapore 
 
 Belgtum 
 
 Area in 
 Square 
 Miles. 
 
 1,186 
 2,089 
 2,942 
 3,512 
 3,794 
 1,960 
 4,8.50 
 2,.560 
 8,424 
 4,712 
 2,054 
 1,8.56 
 4,730 
 3,820 
 4,130 
 2,224 
 1,424 
 1,476 
 5,806 
 2,558 
 1,000 
 2,160 
 2,606 
 5,878 
 2,052 
 834 
 2,944 
 5,652 
 
 5,308 
 3,468 
 
 8,524 
 5,694 
 1,828 
 3,721 
 7,402 
 2,560 
 4,693 
 
 5,029 
 
 4,829 
 
 1,S70 
 
 930 
 
 6,400 
 7,050 
 6,050 
 5,000 
 4,960 
 13,056 
 12,970 
 6,800 
 7,610 
 3,050 
 8.200 
 8,280 
 3,000 
 3,900 
 10,700 
 6,700 
 6,060 
 7,720 
 7,930 
 3,243 
 
 1,420 
 
 5,477 
 3,964 
 IK 
 3,837 
 5,298 
 9,311 
 1,629 
 1,319 
 9,931 
 4.991 
 5,405 
 
 Population. 
 
 701,182 
 
 1,520,840 
 
 298,736 
 
 381,744 
 
 733,800 
 
 600,000 
 
 1,406,950 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 380,000 
 
 1.487,000 
 
 671,000 
 
 1,045,000 
 
 1,040,876 
 
 1,200,000 
 
 2,559,000 
 
 l,8.54.1.i2 
 
 522,000 
 
 480,000 
 
 2,000,000 
 
 800,000 
 
 431,000 
 
 900,000 
 
 600,000 
 
 1,600,000 
 
 855,000 
 
 30,882 
 
 200,000 
 
 772,340 
 
 I 482,900 I 
 
 372,216 
 2,500,000 
 1,200.000 
 1,600,000 
 2,400,000 
 1,700,000 
 
 800,000 
 
 666,328 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 556,395 
 
 571,160 
 
 926,930 
 
 1,254,272 
 
 1,012,036 
 
 520,866 
 
 569,968 
 
 1,229,.599 
 
 1,451,921 
 
 1,4.85,873 
 
 1,006,005 
 
 1,283,462 
 
 1,195,367 
 
 1,153,862 
 
 709,196 
 
 1,670,068 
 
 1,756.791 
 
 1,269,216 
 
 1,514,909 
 
 1,056,333 
 
 935,690 
 
 273,190 
 
 f 65,437 1 
 
 1 in 1836 J 
 
 815,849 
 665,238 
 666,119 
 754,385 
 666.006 
 778,112 
 492,684 
 290,984 
 995,585 
 67.5,115 
 1,025,882 
 
 Principal Town. 
 
 Calcutta . 
 Iloi.ghly 
 Kishnugtir 
 J »-*sorp 
 Burrisol 
 Dacca . . 
 Tipperah . 
 Chittagong 
 Sylhet . . 
 Sowara . . 
 Kamponr 
 Berhampcre 
 Sooree . . 
 Dinagepoor 
 Rungpoor . 
 Burdwan . 
 Baraset 
 Bancoorah 
 Bhagulpore 
 Monghyr . 
 Maldah . 
 Bagoorah . 
 Pubna . 
 Purneah 
 Fureedpore 
 Darjeeling 
 Chaibassa . 
 Pachete 
 
 Lohadugga 
 Palamow . 
 
 Ramghur . 
 Gyah . . 
 Patna . . 
 Arrah . . 
 Mozufferpoor 
 Sarun or Chupr 
 Sumbbulpoor 
 
 Midnapore 
 
 Cuttack . . 
 
 Bdasore . . 
 
 Koordah . . 
 
 Ganjam . . 
 Vizagapatam . 
 Rajamuudry . 
 Masulipatam , 
 Guntoor . . 
 Bellary . . 
 Cuddapah . . 
 Chittoor . . 
 Cuddalore . . 
 Madras . . . 
 Salem . . . 
 Coimbatore . 
 Trichinopoly . 
 Tanjore . . 
 Madura . . 
 Tinniveliy. . 
 Calicut . . . 
 Maiigalore 
 Nellore . . 
 Kurnool . . 
 
 Merkara . . 
 
 Tannah . . 
 Kutnagheriah 
 Bombay . . 
 Dharwar . . 
 Poona . . . 
 Malligaum 
 Surat . . . 
 Broach . . . 
 Ahmcdnuggur 
 Sholapore . . 
 Belgaum . . 
 
 Position of Town. 
 
 Lat. N. Long. E. 
 
 22 34 
 
 22 55 
 
 23 24 
 23 9 
 
 22 33 
 
 23 43 
 
 23 28 
 
 22 20 
 
 24 54 
 24 44 
 24 33 
 
 24 12 
 
 23 53 
 
 25 34 
 25 40 
 23 12 
 
 22 43 
 
 23 14 
 25 11 
 25 19 
 25 2 
 
 24 50 
 
 24 
 
 25 46 
 23 36 
 27 2 
 
 22 36 
 
 23 36 
 
 23 6 
 
 23 50 
 
 24 
 
 24 43 
 
 25 53 
 25 31 
 
 6 
 45 
 29 
 
 26 
 
 21 
 
 22 25 
 
 20 28 
 
 21 30 
 20 10 
 
 19 24 
 
 17 
 17 
 16 
 16 
 15 
 14 
 
 13 12 
 11 42 
 
 13 
 11 
 11 
 
 10 48 
 
 10 48 
 
 9 65 
 
 8 44 
 
 15 
 
 II 
 
 12 52 
 
 14 27 
 
 15 50 
 
 12 27 
 
 IS 67 
 
 17 
 
 18 57 
 15 28 
 18 31 
 20 32 
 
 21 
 21 
 19 
 
 88 26 
 88 23 
 88 28 
 11 
 
 90 
 90 
 
 91 10 
 
 91 55 
 
 91 .50 
 
 90 23 
 
 88 38 
 
 88 18 
 
 87 31 
 
 88 38 
 
 89 16 
 
 87 56 
 
 88 33 
 
 87 
 87 
 
 86 30 
 
 88 11 
 
 89 25 
 89 12 
 
 87 34 
 89 50 
 
 88 19 
 
 85 44 
 
 86 50 
 
 84 46 
 
 84 1 
 
 85 24 
 85 2 
 85 16 
 
 84 43 
 
 85 28 
 85 48 
 
 84 
 
 87 23 
 
 85 55 
 87 
 85 43 
 
 85 7 
 
 83 21 
 
 81 50 
 
 81 12 
 
 80 30 
 
 76 69 
 
 78 62 
 
 79 9 
 
 79 50 
 
 80 21 
 78 14 
 
 77 2 
 
 78 46 
 
 79 11 
 78 10 
 
 77 44 
 75 50 
 
 74 64 
 
 80 2 
 
 78 6 
 
 75 48 
 
 17 40 
 15 60 
 
 72 63 
 
 73 20 
 
 72 62 
 
 75 4 
 
 73 53 
 
 74 30 
 
 72 61 
 
 73 2 
 
 74 46 
 
 76 
 74 36 
 
 Date of 
 Acquisi- 
 tion. 
 
 1700 & 1757 
 
 1757&1765 
 
 1765 
 
 183.5 
 
 1765 
 
 1760 
 
 1760 
 1765 
 
 1835 & 1850 
 1765 
 
 1818 
 
 1765 
 
 1775 
 1765 
 
 1850 
 
 1760 
 1803 
 
 1765 
 
 1759 
 1788 
 1800 
 
 1751 
 
 1765 
 
 1792 
 1799 
 1801 
 1799 
 1801 
 1801 
 1792 
 1799 
 1801 
 1838 
 
 1834 
 
 1818 
 
 1661 
 1818 
 
 17.59 
 1803 
 1S17 
 ISls 
 1817
 
 POPULATION BY PROVINCES AND DISTRICTS. 
 
 fiOl 
 
 British Territories in Continental India — Area, Chief Toums, and Position. 
 
 rroviiico, Districts, &c. 
 
 Bombay rv.v.siDZNC\— continued. 
 
 Kiiira 
 
 Ahnii'dabnd anil Nainik . . . 
 
 Suttain 
 
 Bekak Proyinck :— 
 
 Dcdgur above ihe Ghnuts . . ^ 
 „ ht'low the Olmuts 
 
 "Wein-Ounpa 
 
 Chotccs;;urh 
 
 Chaiidnrponr - 
 
 Nekmudua Disthicts : — 
 
 Saupor .... 
 
 Jul)lmlpnor 
 
 Hoosungubnd . . . 
 
 Seuiii ... 
 
 Diiniuh 
 
 Nursiiigpoor 
 
 )Jnit()c)l ... 
 
 AoiiA I'kes., on N.W. Prov. :— 
 
 Benares 
 
 Ghnzcepnre 
 
 Azimghur 
 
 Goruck])oor 
 
 Jounpnur 
 
 Allahabad 
 
 Baiuhi 
 
 Futtehpore 
 
 Cawnpore 
 
 Etawah 
 
 yurrueUabnd . ' 
 
 Shajehanpoor 
 
 Allyuhur 
 
 Bareilly 
 
 Moradabad 
 
 Agra 
 
 Delhi 
 
 Snliaruiipoor 
 
 Paniput 
 
 His^ar 
 
 Rohtiik 
 
 Goor^-aon . . 
 
 MozuH'crnuggur 
 
 Mierut ... .... 
 
 Boolundshuhur . ... 
 
 Bijnoie 
 
 Bndadii 
 
 M ultra 
 
 Mynpoory 
 
 Tlxinieerpoor 
 
 Mirzapoor 
 
 Jaloun 
 
 Ajmcre 
 
 Mairwarra 
 
 Cis StTLEJ : — 
 
 Umhnllah 
 
 Loodiaimh 
 
 Kythiil and Ladwa , . 
 
 Ferozepurc 
 
 Seik States 
 
 PuNJAt): — 
 
 Jhelum 
 
 Lahore 
 
 Lcia . . .... 
 
 Mnoltan ... . . 
 
 Jullunder . . 
 
 Peshawnr , 
 
 Knngra 
 
 SciNDE Province: — 
 
 Kurrachee 
 
 Shikarpoor 
 
 Ilydrabad 
 
 Ui.tka-(jangetic Districts : — 
 
 Arraean 
 
 Assam. Lower 
 
 Avsain, Upper 
 
 Goftlpara 
 
 Cossya Hills 
 
 Caehar 
 
 Tenasscrim, Mergui, Ye, &e. . 
 Pegu Province 
 
 Area in 
 
 Square 
 
 Miles. 
 
 1,869 
 9,331 
 10,222 
 
 76,432 
 
 1.857 
 6,237 
 1.916 
 1,4.59 
 2,428 
 .501 
 990 
 
 995 
 2,181 
 2,616 
 7,340 
 1,552 
 2,788 
 3,009 
 1,583 
 2,348 
 1.677 
 2,122 
 
 %m 
 
 2,1.53 
 3,110 
 2,698 
 1,8(;4 
 789 
 2,162 
 1.209 
 3,291 
 1,340 
 1,939 
 1,046 
 
 2,-.'no 
 
 1,823 
 1,900 
 2,401 
 1,613 
 2,020 
 2,241 
 6,1.52 
 1,873 
 2,029 
 282 
 
 293 
 
 725 
 
 1,538 
 
 97 
 
 1,906 
 
 13,9.59 
 13.428 
 30,000 
 14,900 
 1,324 
 
 4,836 
 
 I'opulatioii. 
 
 16.000 
 
 6,120 
 
 30,000 
 
 15,104 
 8,948 
 
 12,S57 
 
 3,.506 
 
 729 
 
 4,000 
 
 29,163 
 
 25,C00 
 
 Principal Town. 
 
 680,631 
 
 995,585 
 
 1,006,771 
 
 4,650,000-; 
 
 305,594 
 442,771 
 242,641 
 227,070 
 363,584 
 251,486 
 ■ 93,441 
 
 851.757 
 
 1,. 596,324 
 
 1,6.53,251 
 
 3,087,874 
 
 1,143,749 
 
 1,379,788 
 
 743,872 
 
 67W,7'i7 
 
 1,174,556 
 
 610,965 
 
 1,064,607 
 
 986,096 
 
 1,134,.565 
 
 1.37s,268 
 
 1,13S\461 
 
 1,001,961 
 
 435,744 
 
 i-0 1,325 
 
 389,085 
 
 3.30,S52 
 
 377,013 
 
 662,186 
 
 072,861 
 
 1,13.5,072 
 
 778,342 
 
 69.5,.521 
 
 1,019.161 
 
 862,909 
 
 832,714 
 
 648,604 
 
 1,104,315 
 
 176,297 
 
 224,891 
 
 37,715 
 
 67,1.34 
 120,898 
 164,805 
 
 1G,.890 
 249,686 
 
 1,116,0.35 
 
 2,470.817 
 
 1,. 500.000 
 
 600,000 
 
 569,722 
 
 f about ] 
 
 1 850,000} 
 
 185,550 
 3.50,401 
 651,811 
 
 .321 ,.522 
 710,000 
 260,000 
 400,000 
 10,935 
 60,000 
 115,431 
 650,000 
 
 Koira . 
 
 Ahniedabad 
 .Sattara . . 
 
 Chindwarn 
 Njig|ioie . 
 Buiidara 
 Kyepore 
 Chauduh . 
 
 Saugor . . 
 
 .I-ubliuIpoor 
 
 Hoo^iin^abad 
 
 Seuui . . 
 
 Dumoh 
 
 Nursingpoor 
 
 liaitool . . 
 
 Benares 
 Ghazeepore 
 Azinighur 
 Goruckpoor 
 Jounponr . 
 Allaliabad 
 Baiida . . 
 i'uttehpore 
 (Jawnpore . 
 I'",ta\vah 
 Furruekabad 
 Shajehanpoor 
 Allvghur . 
 Bareilly . 
 Moraiiabad 
 Agra . . 
 Delhi . . 
 ."ahMrunpoor 
 Paniput 
 lli-sar . . 
 Kobtuk. . 
 Gotu'yann . 
 MozuilVrnugg' 
 Meeiut. . 
 Biirr\in . . 
 liijuore . . 
 Bud a on 
 Muttra . . 
 Mynpoory , 
 Hurneei jioor 
 Mirzapoor 
 Jalnxin . . 
 .■Vjmcre 
 N\auugga. 
 
 Umballnh . 
 Loodianah 
 ICythul . . 
 Kernzcpore 
 Patialah . 
 
 Jhelum 
 Lahore . 
 Leia . . . 
 Mooltan 
 Jullunder . 
 Peshawnr 
 Kangra . . 
 
 Kurrachee 
 .Shikarpoor 
 Hydrabad . 
 
 Akvab . . . 
 Gowhatty 
 Seebpore . . 
 Goaipara . 
 Cllirra Ponjee 
 Silchar . . . 
 Mergui . 
 Pronie . . . 
 
 Position of 'I'own. 
 
 Lat. N. Long. E 
 
 22 i3 
 
 23 
 17 40 
 
 22 3 
 21 10 
 21 11 
 
 21 II 
 19 67 
 
 23 50 
 23 10 
 
 22 44 
 
 22 1 
 
 23 49 
 
 24 
 21 60 
 
 25 17 
 
 25 32 
 
 26 
 26 42 
 25 44 
 25 26 
 25 27 
 
 25 67 
 
 26 29 
 
 26 46 
 
 27 24 
 27 62 
 
 27 56 
 
 28 23 
 
 28 50 
 
 27 10 
 2S 38 
 
 29 58 
 29 23 
 29 8 
 
 28 54 
 28 2 
 23 28 
 28 59 
 
 28 24 
 
 29 22 
 
 28 2 
 27 30 
 27 14 
 25 68 
 
 25 6 
 
 26 9 
 26 29 
 26 6 
 
 30 24 
 30 55 
 
 29 49 
 
 30 55 
 
 30 20 
 
 32 56 
 
 31 36 
 
 30 67 
 .30 12 
 
 31 21 
 .34 71 
 
 24 66 
 28 1 
 
 25 12 
 
 20 10 
 
 26 9 
 
 27 
 26 8 
 25 14 
 24 49 
 12 27 
 17 40 
 
 40 
 68 
 
 72 40 
 
 72 36 
 
 74 3 
 
 78 68 
 
 79 10 
 79 41 
 
 81 40 
 
 79 23 
 
 78 49 
 
 80 1 
 77 4i 
 
 79 40 
 79 30 
 
 79 28 
 
 77 58 
 
 83 4 
 
 83 39 
 
 83 14 
 
 83 24 
 
 82 45 
 
 81 45 
 
 80 23 
 80 54 
 80 25 
 79 
 79 
 79 
 78 
 79 29 
 
 78 61 
 78 5 
 77 19 
 77 36 
 77 2 
 
 75 .00 
 
 76 38 
 
 77 5 
 77 45 
 77 46 
 
 77 86 
 
 78 11 
 
 79 11 
 77 40 
 97 4 
 
 80 14 
 
 82 38 
 74 24 
 74 43 
 
 74 25 
 
 76 49 
 
 75 64 
 
 76 28 
 
 75 55 
 
 76 25 
 
 73 47 
 
 74 21 
 71 4 
 71 30 
 75 
 71 
 
 31 
 38 
 
 76 18 
 
 67 3 
 
 08 39 
 
 69 29 
 
 92 54 
 
 91 45 
 
 94 40 
 
 90 40 
 
 91 4-5 
 
 92 50 
 98 42 
 96 17 
 
 Date of 
 
 Ai-quini* 
 
 ti'.n. 
 
 1803 
 1818 
 184S 
 
 1854 
 
 1818 
 
 1775 
 
 1801 
 
 1775 
 1801 
 1803 
 1801 
 
 1817 
 UCl 
 
 1SC3 
 
 1803 
 
 1836 
 
 1803 
 1S02 
 
 1603 ; 
 
 1802 
 1801 
 
 1817 
 
 1847 
 
 1843 
 1835 
 
 1849 
 
 1816 
 1S49 
 
 1S43 
 
 1826 
 
 1765 
 1826 
 18,30 
 lS2ti 
 1853
 
 502 DENSITY OF POPULATION IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF INDIA. 
 
 A more recent return (28th July, 1855) 
 from the East India House, gives the popu- 
 lation of India thus : — 
 
 Briiisfi States.— Bengal, &c., 59,966,284.; 
 N. W. Provinces, .30,872,766; Madras, 
 22,301,697; Bombay, 11,109,067; Eastern 
 settlements, 202,540: total, 124,452,354. 
 
 Native States.— Bengal, 38,259,862 ; Ma- 
 dras, 4,752,975; Bombay, 4,460,370 : total, 
 47,473,207. 
 
 Foreign States. — French settlements, 
 171,217; Portujjuese ditto, not known. 
 Grand total, 172,096,778.* 
 
 The varying degree of density of popula- 
 tion to area forbids reliance being placed 
 on any mere " estimates," or " approxima- 
 tions to actual amount." Thus in Bengal, 
 Behar, and Cuttack, the number of mouths 
 to each square mile is stated to be — in Jes- 
 sore, 359; Moorshedabad, .394; Bhagul- 
 poor, 318; Patna, .506; Cuttack, 220; 
 Dacca, 193; Chittagong, 324: average of 
 all, 324.t These are high ratios ; but the 
 soil is fertile, and the inhabitants very nu- 
 merous along the banks of rivers. In As- 
 sam, on the N.E. frontier of Bengal, and 
 along the rich valley of the Brahmapootra, 
 the density is placed at only 32 to the square 
 mile ; in Arracan, at 21 ; Tenasserim pro- 
 vinces, at 4; on the S.W. frontier (Chota 
 Nagpoor, &c.) , at 85 ; in the Saugor and Ner- 
 budda territories, at 109; in the non-regu- 
 lation provinces, Kumaon, Ajmeer, &c., at 44. 
 
 The census of the Madras Presidency (.«ee 
 Appendix) shows, on an area of 138,279 sq. 
 m., a population of 22,281,527, or 161 per- 
 sons to each sq. m. In some districts the 
 inhabitants are much more thinly scattered : 
 for instance, at Kurnool, 84; at Bellary, 
 94; at Masuli])atam, 104; the highest is the 
 rich district of Tanjore, with 430 to each 
 
 • The surn of 124,452,.354 is a higher figure than 
 the Anglo-Indian sulijects of the British crown have 
 hitherto been rated, and is probably the result of a 
 more accurate numbering of the people : thus, until 
 a census now (July, 1855) in progress was made of 
 the Punjab, the population was, as usual, under-es- 
 timated. According to the Lahore Chronicle of ;?Oth 
 of May, 1855, the returns then received show for 
 Lahore, 3,4.58,322; .Ihelum, 1,762,488; Cis-Sut- 
 lej, 2,313,i)G9 : which are higher figures than 
 those given from the Parliamentary Papers, at 
 previous page. The enumerations made up to May 
 last, for llie Punjab, gave 10,765,478; and it was 
 supposed that the grand total, when com|)Ieted, 
 would be about eleven million and a-half, or nearly 
 four niillion more than the official document pre- 
 viously given for the I'unjab and Cis-Sutlej states. 
 In my first work on India, twenty years ago, I 
 assumed the population under British jurisdiction 
 to be about one hundred million, which »omv. con- 
 
 sq. m. Madras has a much less density 
 than the British N. W. Provinces, which, 
 according to the return of 1852-'3, shows 
 the following results :J — • 
 
 Districts. 
 
 Square M. 
 
 Population. 
 
 Mouths to 
 each sq. m. 
 
 Agra .... 
 Allahabad . . 
 Benares . . . 
 Delhi .... 
 Meerut . . . 
 Rohilcund . . 
 
 9,298 
 
 11,971 
 
 19,737 
 
 8,633 
 
 9,985 
 
 12,428 
 
 4,373.156 
 
 4,526,607 
 9,437,270 
 2,195,180 
 4,522,165 
 5,217,507 
 
 465 
 378 
 
 478 
 254 
 453 
 419 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 72,052 
 
 30,271,885 
 
 420 
 
 By the two full censuses of Madras and 
 the N. W. Provinces, we gain at last a fair 
 estimate of the small number of Moham- 
 medans, as compared with the Hindoos, 
 in India: the Madras census of 1850-'l, 
 shows, on a total of 21,581,572, that the 
 adult Hindoos numbered 13,246,509; Mo- 
 hammedan adults and others, 1,185,654: 
 the c/«7rf/r?i— Hindoos, 6,655,216; Moham- 
 medans and others, 594,193: total census 
 (exclusive of Madras city and suburbs, con- 
 taining 700.000)— 
 
 Class. 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Hindoos . . . 
 
 Mohammedans 
 
 and others. 
 
 10,194,098 
 852,978 
 
 9,707,627 
 826,869 
 
 19,901,725 
 1,679,847 
 
 Total. . . 
 
 11,047,076 
 
 10,534,496 
 
 21,581,572 
 
 The proportion of Moslems to Hindoos in 
 Southern India, is as one to ten. 
 
 The N. W. Provinces return, in 1852-'3, 
 shows — 
 
 Class. 
 
 Hindoos . . . 
 
 Mohammedans ) 
 
 and others. J 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 Males. 
 
 13,803,645 
 2,376,891 
 
 16,180,536 
 
 Females. 
 
 11,920,464 
 2,170,880 
 
 14,091,344 
 
 Total. 
 
 25,724,109 
 4,647,771 
 
 30,271,880 
 
 sidered an exaggeration ; the above augmentation 
 of twenty-four million is accounted for by the ad- 
 dition of new states, such as the Punjab. I have 
 little doubt that an accurate census will show a 
 larger aggregate than 124,000,000. 
 
 fl obtained in India, in 1830, "a census," or 
 rather estimate of these districts, showing an aggre- 
 gate of area in .sq. m., 153,792; villages, 154,268; 
 houses, 7,781,240; mouths, 39,957,561: or about 
 one village to each sq. m. of 640 acres, five houses to 
 each village, five and a-half persons to each house, 
 and 259 mouths to each sq. m. (See my first His- 
 tory of the British Colonies, vol. i., Asia ; 2nd edi- 
 tion, p. 166: published in 1835.) 
 
 I As regards the censuses of Madras and the 
 N.\V. Provinces, I have seen no details given of the 
 means adopted to ensure an accurate enumeration in 
 a single day ; they mu.st, I think, be considered as 
 " near approximations" to truth: they appear to be 
 the best vet obtained.
 
 PROPORTION OF MOSLEMS TO HINDOOS— TWENTY LANGUAGES. 503 
 
 Delhi, Af;rii, and tlie adjacent |)roviii('cs, 
 have for several centuries ijeen the strun^,'- 
 liolds of the Moslems; yet even here tlieir 
 numbers (ineludinf; "other" denominations 
 not Hindoos) is only four million to twenty- 
 five million. In IKIiO, I estimated the total 
 Mohammedan popululion of In<lia at fifteen 
 million, and recent iuvcstigatioiis justify 
 this estimate. 
 
 A census of Agra and its suburbs (ex- 
 cluding inmates of bungalows round about 
 the city, and the domestics attached thereto, 
 about 3,000 in number, and also the inhabi- 
 tants of bazaars and villages in military 
 cantonments) was made in )8H— '45, after 
 seven months' careful examination : the re- 
 sult showed a population of 103,572, with 
 an excess of 8,215 Hindoos over Moham- 
 medans, iu this a former seat of Moslem 
 rule; the grand total of houses was 15,327. 
 
 A census, in 1829, of Moorshedabad city 
 and district, the head-quarters of the former 
 Mohammedan ruler of Bengal, showed — 
 Hindoos, 555,310; Mussulmeu, 412,810 
 = 968,120: i)roportiou of sexes — Hindoo, 
 males, 286,148; females, 269,162 : Mussul- 
 men, males, 216,878; females, 19f),344 : 
 number of houses, Hindoo, 123,495; Mus- 
 sulmeu, 84,734. AUaliabad city census in 
 1831-'2, gave — of Hindoos, 44,110; Mussul- 
 meu, 20,669. Allahabad district— Hindoos, 
 554,206; Mussulmcn, 161,209; iu the city, 
 the Hindoos were in the proportion of two 
 to one ; in the district, of more than three 
 to cue. 
 
 The population of Calcutta has been a 
 matter of wide estimate, and is iu proof of 
 the past neglect of statistical inquiries : iu 
 July, 1789, the inhabitants of the Anglo- 
 Indian metropolis were guessed at 400,000; 
 at the commencement of the present century, 
 about one million; in 1815, at half a mil- 
 lion; iu 1837, an imperfect census gave a 
 quarter of a million (229,714) ; and in 1850, 
 a more complete census showed nearly half 
 a million (413,182), comprising only those 
 residing within the City Proper, bounded by 
 the Mahratta ditch, or limits of the supreme 
 court : the dense population of the suburbs, 
 probably exceeding half a million, are not 
 stated ; nor, I believe, the floating mass of 
 
 * Principal languages : Knglish, French, Portuguese, 
 Spanish, Italian, German, Kuss, Polish, Turkish, 
 Givek, Dutch, Danish, Srtede, Noi-wegian, Finn = 15. 
 
 t This tongue was formed as a medium of collo- 
 quial intercourse in 1555, by the Emperor Akber, 
 out of llindee. the primitive language of tUe Hin- 
 doos, and Arabic and Persian, which were used bv 
 the Mohammedan conquerors : the character adopted 
 
 people who pass into and out of Calcutta 
 daily ; viz., 72, 125, of whom 10,9.'i6 cross 
 the river (iiurM:illv in ferries. 
 
 Uiisunic of CcnsuBM. 
 
 1850. 
 Males. 
 
 1837. 
 
 
 Femalpd. 
 
 Europeans 
 
 G,2;{;j 
 
 G.479 
 
 Eurasians (mixed blood) . . 
 
 4,(>15 
 
 4,746 
 
 Armenians 
 
 892 
 
 636 
 
 Chinese 
 
 847 
 
 362 
 
 Asiatics and low castes . . . 
 
 15.342 
 
 21,096 
 
 Hindoos 
 
 274.335 
 
 137,651 
 
 Mohammedans 
 
 110,918 
 
 58,744 
 
 Total 
 
 413,182 
 
 229,714 
 
 It is usual to speak of India as if it were 
 inhabited by a single race : such is not the 
 case ; the people arc more varied in lan- 
 guage, appearance, and manners, than those 
 of Europe.* About twenty languages are 
 extensively spoken ; viz., (1.) Hiudooslanee, 
 in pretty general use, particularly in the 
 N.W. Provinces, and usually hyMussulment 
 throughout India; (2.) BenyaHee, in the 
 lower parts of the Gangetic and Brahma- 
 pootra plains; (3.) Fuiijabee or Seik, in the 
 upper portion of the Indies ; (4.) Sindhee, in 
 Cis-Sutlej states and Sinde ; (5.) Tamul, 
 around Madras and down to the coast of 
 Cape Comorin ; (6.) Canarese or Karnata, ia 
 Mysoor and Coorg; (7.) Malyalim, ia Tra- 
 vancore and Cochin ; (8.) Telooyoo or 
 Telinga, at Hydrabad (Deccan), and east- 
 ward to coast of Bengal Bay ; (9.) Oorya, ia 
 Orissa ; (10.) Cole and Gond, in Berar; 
 (11.) Mahratta, iuMaliarashtra; [12.) Hindee, 
 in Ilajpootaiia and Malwa; (13.) Guse- 
 rattee, in Guzcrat; (14.) Cutchee, in Cutch ; 
 (15.) Cashmerian, in Cashmere; (16.) ^Ve- 
 paulese, in Nepaul ; (17.) Bhote, in Bootau ; 
 (18.) Assamese, Up. Assam; [19.) Biinnese, in 
 Arracan and I'egu ; (20.) Bi-ahooi, or Bc\oo- 
 chee, in Beloochistan ; Pi?rsian and Arabic 
 sparingly, and numerous dialects in different 
 localities. 
 
 In Bengal and Orissa the majority of the 
 people do not eat meat, and the abstinence 
 is ascribed to a religious precept forbidding 
 the destruction of life : but almost every Hin- 
 doo eats fish ; several consume kid flesh (es- 
 pecially when sacrificed and offered to idols), 
 
 is sometimes the Deva Nagri (Sanscrit), but mora 
 generally the Arabic alphabet. Although the great 
 majontj- of the people of India are usually termed 
 Hindoos as regards creed, there is as slight a bond of 
 union among them on that account as there is 
 among the professing Christians in Europe, and as 
 much diversity in reference to practices supposed to 
 be coniiectf'd with their religious faith
 
 504 
 
 ANTAGONISMS OF THE POPULATION OF INDIA. 
 
 md also birds. Numerous Brahmins and 
 Rajpoots of the highest castes, in N. and 
 W. India, partake of goat, deer, and wild 
 boar ; while they abhor the domestic sheep 
 iind swine: others who use the jungle cock, 
 (similar to our game-cock), would deem the 
 touch of barn-door poultry pollution. Some 
 classes feed on descriptions of provender 
 which are rejected by others: at Bikaneer, 
 all the Hindoos profess an abhorrence of 
 fish ; at Kuraaon, they will masticate the 
 short-tailed sheep of the hills, but not the 
 long-tailed one of the plains; people will 
 buy baked bread, but would lose caste if 
 they touched boiled rice cooked by these 
 very bakers : an earthen pot is polluted past 
 redemption if touched by an inferior caste ; 
 a metal one suffers no such deterioration : 
 some tribes allow a man to smoke through 
 his hands from the bowl [chillum) which 
 contains the tobacco, but would not suffer 
 the same person to touch that part of the 
 hookah which contains the water. Other 
 instances of diversity might be multiplied. 
 Even the religious holidays of Bengal are 
 different from those observed in the N. W. 
 Provinces. The barbarous ceremonies of 
 Juggernaut, and the alrominations of the 
 Churruk Poojah (where men submit them- 
 selves to be swung in the air, with hooks 
 fastened through their loins), are un- 
 known in N. and W. India. In some parts, 
 female infanticide is or was wont to be 
 almost universal; in others it is held in just 
 abhorrence : in some districts, polygamy 
 prevails ; in others polyandria — one woman 
 being married to all the brothers of a 
 family, in order to retain property among 
 them ; — here the marriage of a daughter 
 is a great expense, — there a source of 
 profit, as the husband buys his bride, and 
 has the right to sell her, and even to 
 mortgage her for a definite time as security 
 for a debt. 
 
 Independent of the division of the Hin- 
 doos into castes — Brahmins, Cashtriya, Vai- 
 syas, and Soodras, — and the subdivision of so- 
 ciety into numerous hereditary classes, there 
 are other diversities, arising probably from 
 origin of race, and the peculiarities engcn- 
 
 * A comparatively small portion of the Hindoo 
 population live on rice ; the majority eat wheat and 
 other f<i'ain, as also various species of pulse. 
 
 t I" Calcutta, wheie a variety of races, or, as they 
 may more properly be termed nations, are collected, 
 the peculiarities of each are readily ascertainable, 
 and their antagonisms quickly manifested. ."Vmong 
 twenty persons in my service at one time in liin- 
 gal, there were (excepting four Balasore palanquin- 
 
 dered during a long cottrse of time by 
 climate and food: thus the brave Rajpoot 
 and the bold Mahratta are decided antago- 
 nists; but both view, with something of 
 contempt, the peaceful, subtle, rice-feeding* 
 Bengallee, whose cleaidy, simple hal)its are 
 outraged by the gross-feeding, dirty Mughs 
 of Arracan, who object not to a dish of 
 stewed rats or snakes, or even to a slice of a 
 putrefying elephant. The Coromandel men 
 have features and modes of thought distinct 
 from those of the Malabar coast ; while 
 inhabitants of the Kattywar peninsula differ 
 essentially from both. The dwellers on the 
 cool and dry hills and plateaux, present a 
 marked contrast to those who reside in the 
 hot and humid plains and valleys ; and the 
 aborigines, such as the Gonds of Berar, 
 present no similarity whatever to the fine 
 mould and beautifully-chiselled head and 
 face, arched nose, and olive hue, of the 
 pure Hindoo, or to the large-boned, massive 
 frame, and manly cast of the hard-featured, 
 genuine iloslem. 
 
 The variety of races in India are so 
 decided, that an experienced officer will at 
 once say whether a soldier belongs to the 
 respective departments of the armv of 
 Bengal, of Madras, or Bombay; and further, 
 whether a Hindoo is from Rajpootana, from 
 Oude, from the Deccan, from the coast, or 
 elsev.'iiere.t 
 
 With regard to the Mohammedans, irre- 
 spective of their local aversions, they are 
 divided into two sects — Soonee and Shea, — 
 who abhor each other as cordially as the 
 members of the Latin and Greek church do, 
 or as the Romanists and Orangemen of Ire- 
 land, and are equally ready to fight and slay 
 on a theological point of dispute. Then, 
 besides these two leading divisions of the 
 population, there are several million per- 
 sons under the denominations of Jains or 
 Buddhists, who consume no animal food or 
 fermented beverage ; Seiks, who eat the 
 flesh of the cow, and drink ardent spirits; 
 Parsees or Guebers (erroneously termed 
 "fire-worshippers'"), Latin, Protestant, Nes- 
 torians, or Syriac and Armenian Christians, 
 — Jews,J and a mi.xed race sprung from the 
 
 bearers, a tribe bearing a high repute for honesty), 
 not two of the same race ; consequently much mutual 
 distrust, frequent quarrels, bickering, and lighting. 
 
 } Slavorinus adverts, in 1775 — '7fS, to the colony of 
 Jews at Cochin, who, he says, " although most of 
 them are nearly as black as the native Malabars, 
 they yet retain, both men and women, those cha- 
 racteristic features which distinguished this singular 
 [jcople from all other nations of the earlli." —
 
 ABORIGINAL RACES OF INDIA— CHARACTER AND HABITS. 505 
 
 marital (inioti of all — some of one rrocd, 
 some of anotlier : adilod to tliesn are the 
 Eurasians, born of ICuropeaii fathers and 
 Indian mothers; a rapidly increasiu'!; class, 
 probably destined, at some future day, to 
 exercise an important influence in the East. 
 Before ])assinf; from the subject of the 
 numbers and variety of the people, I would 
 wish to draw public attention to a larije and 
 most interesting section of them, to whom 
 .•eferenee has been made previously, as the 
 aborigines of India. They are scattered 
 over every part of the country, generally in 
 the hilly districts ; and although speaking 
 ditt'ercnt dialects,* and of varying appear- 
 ance, manners, and customs, they are con- 
 sidered by General Briggs and Mr. Hodgson 
 (who have studied their peculiarities) as 
 having their origin from a common stock. 
 Of their number throughout India we know 
 nothing; they must amount to several 
 million human beings, whose character is 
 thus summed up : — " The man of the ancient 
 race scorns an untruth, and seldom denies 
 the commission even of a crime that he may 
 have perpetrated, though it lead to death : 
 he is true to his promise; hospitable and 
 faithful to his guest, devoted to his supe- 
 riors, and always ready to sacrifice his own 
 life in the service of his chief; he is reckless 
 of danger, and knows no fear."t It may be 
 added, that he considers himself justified in 
 levying " black mail" on all from whom he 
 can obtain it, on the ground that he has 
 been deprived of his possession of the soil 
 by the more civilised race who have usurped 
 the territory. The at)origines are distin- 
 guished from the Hindoos by several marked 
 
 (Voyiiffcs to Eaut Indies, vol. iii ,p. 220.) They had 
 then "a very Ijeaiitil'ul ami aiitliciuic copy of the 
 Pentateuch," Init know not when or where they 
 derived it. Their own statement is, that ihey are of 
 the posterity of the ten trihes carried away into 
 captivity hy Shalnianeser, and wlio. after being 
 liberated from their Assyrian bonds, came hither, 
 where they have from time immemorial constituted 
 a small but isolated community, and enjoyed for a 
 series of ages valuable privile<;es, inciudini; the 
 exercise of their religion without restraint. Their 
 houses, in a separate town, are built of stone, plas- 
 tered white on the outside, and they have three 
 synagogues ; most of them are employed in trade, 
 and some are very wealthy. How these Jews be- 
 came black is not known; but according to Stavo- 
 rinus, when they purcliase a slave he is immediately 
 circumci.sed, manumitted, and received into the com- 
 munity as a fellow Israelite. By intermarriages with 
 such converts, the colour, in process of time, may 
 have become perfectly dark, while the peculiar 
 physiognomy was perpetuated in the race of mixed 
 blood, as I have noticed i.s generally the case with 
 the descendants, by male fathers, of the English, 
 
 customs : they have no castes ; cat beef and 
 all sorts of animal food ; drink, on every 
 possible occasion, intoxicating beverages 
 (no ceremony, civil or religions, is deemed 
 complete without such drink) ; have no 
 aversion to the shedding of blood ; atone for 
 the sins of the dead by the sacrifice of a 
 victim ; widows marry and do not burn ; 
 they arc ignorant of reading or writing, and 
 usually live by the chase and by pastoral 
 pursuits. Some tribes take their designa- 
 tion from the country they inhabit: Gonds, 
 in Gondwana ; Koles or Kolis, in Kolywara; 
 Mirs or Mairs, in Mainnaia ; Bhccls or 
 Bhils, in Bliilwara and lihilwan; Benjecs, 
 in Bengal, &c. Other tril)es, such as the 
 Todawurs of the Neilgherrics, have designa- 
 tions of which the origin is unknown. 
 
 The men are nearly naked ; the women 
 wear a cloth wrapper round the waist, 
 carried over the left shoulder and under the 
 right arm ; they live mostly in conical 
 thatched hovels, apart from the dwellings of 
 the Hindoos, by whoin they are treated as 
 outcasts, and have no valuables but asses 
 and dogs. As watchmen and thief-takers 
 they are of great use, from their fidelity, 
 sacred regard for truth, and the skill evinced 
 in following a foot-track : they are entrusted 
 with the care of private projicrty to a large 
 amount, and convey the public revenue to 
 the chief towns of districts — a duty which 
 they perform with scrupulous care and 
 punctuality. 
 
 An ui;seen deity is worsliipped ; prayers 
 are ofiTcrcd to avert famine and disease, and 
 for preservation from wild beasts and 
 venomous reptiles : to propitiate the favour 
 
 French, Spanish, and Portuguese. There is a colony 
 of white Jens at Mattacherry, or tlic Jiirs' lotcn, a 
 suburb of Cochin ; they regard the black Jews as an 
 inferior caste : the former say that tliey came to 
 Cranganore after the destruction of the second 
 temple, and tliat they have a jjlate of brass in their j 
 possession since the year A.D. 490, which records the i 
 grant of land and ]>rivilege9 conceded to them bv ' 
 the king of that part of India : a copy of it is now 
 in the ])ublic library at Cambridge. By discord and 
 meddling in the disputes of the natives', the Cranga- 
 nore Jews brought destruction on themselves at the 
 hands of an Indian king, who destroyed their strong- 
 holds, palaces, and houses, slew many, and carried 
 others into captivity. The Jews have a never-ceas- 
 ing communication with their brethren throughout 
 the East. For fuller details of these white and black 
 Israelites, see Hough's History iif Christianity in 
 India, vol. i., 464. 
 
 • 'i'hey seem to be connected with the Tamul and 
 other languages of Southern India, and have no 
 affinity with the Sanscrit. 
 
 + Lectures on the Ahori^nal Race cf India ; by 
 Lt.-General liriggs : lSo2, p. 13.
 
 r,06 VALUABLE QUALITIES OF THE ABORIGINES OF INDIA. 
 
 or appease the anger of the object of adora- 
 tion, living sacrifices (in some cases human 
 beings) are deemed essential ; and the blood 
 of the victim is retained in small vessels by 
 the votaries. x\ll social and religious cere- 
 monies are accompanied by feasting, drink- 
 ing, and dancing ; the latter performed, 
 sometimes, by several hundred women (their 
 hair highly ornamented with flowers) grouped 
 in concentric circles, each laying hold with 
 one hand on her neighbour's cincture or 
 waist, and beating time with the heels on 
 the ground. In figure they are well made 
 and sinewy ; rather low in stature ; face 
 large or flat, and wide ; eyes black and 
 piercing; nose- bridge depressed, nostrils 
 expanded, mouth protruding, lips large, 
 little or no beard : altogether presenting a 
 marked contrast to the Apollo-like form of 
 the genuine Hindoo.* 
 
 Several benevolent governmental servants 
 have undertaken the civilisation of diflFerent 
 tribes, and by kindness and tact effected 
 considerable improvement in their habits 
 and condition. When disciplined, they 
 make brave and obedient soldiers, are proud 
 of the consideration of their European 
 officers, to whom they become ardently 
 attached, and are ready to follow them 
 abroad, on board ship, or wherever they go. 
 The aborigines of the Carnatic formed the 
 leading sepoys of Clive and Coote ; and at 
 the great battle of Plassy they helped to 
 lay the foundation of the Anglo-Indian 
 empire. t The Benyies, who are found in 
 all parts of the Gangetic plain, when serving 
 in the Mohammedan armies, claimed as 
 indigenes the honour of leading storming 
 I parties. In the defence of Jellalabad, under 
 the gallant Sir R. Sale, the Pariahs (out 
 castes, or low castes, as the aborigines are 
 termed) evinced the most indomitable 
 courage and perseverance, as they have 
 done at Ava, or wherever employed in the 
 pioneer and engineer corps. These hitherto 
 neglected races may be turned to beneficial 
 uses. The tribe termed Ramoosees, or 
 foresters, became the active and indefatigable 
 infantry, who enabled Sevajee to conquer 
 from the Moguls the numerous hill forts 
 which formed the basis of the Mahratta 
 dominion. The Bheels have long been 
 celebrated in Western India annals, and 
 
 • Some of the gipsy tribe of the aboiiginps whom 
 I saw in the Deccun, were like their European 
 brethren of the same chiss, and the women equally 
 handsome : in the form of their cncumiimcnt — asses, 
 c»rt.s, and dogs — the tribe might have been con- 
 
 their deeds recorded by Malcolm, Tod, &c.: 
 as a local militia, they rendered good service 
 in Candeish. The Southals of Bhagulpoor, 
 reclaimed by the noble-minded civilian 
 Cleveland, have now one of the finest regi- 
 ments of the British army, recruited from 
 their once despised class. The Mairs of 
 Mewar are selected to guard the palace 
 and treasury of the Rajpoot rajah, and 
 form the only escort attendant on the 
 princesses when they go abroad. Hyder 
 Ali had such confidence in the Bedars of 
 Canara, that a body of 200 spearmen ran 
 beside him, whether on horseback or in his 
 palanquin, and guarded his tent at night. 
 
 Slavery in India. — During the early 
 Hindoo sway, the aborigines were, as far 
 as practicable, reduced to servitude ; those 
 who could not find refuge in the hills 
 and jungles, were made adscripti gleb(E, 
 and transferred as predial slaves with 
 the land. Under Moslem rule, this un- 
 happy class was augmented by another 
 set of victims of man's rapacity. Per- 
 sons unable to pay the government taxes 
 were sold into servitude ; others who were 
 reduced to extreme poverty voluntarily 
 surrendered themselves as bondsmen, either 
 for life or for a term of years, to obtain the 
 means of existence : in many cases the 
 children of the poor were bought by the 
 wealthy for servants or for sensual purposes. 
 Eunuchs and others employed in the harems 
 and as attendants, were imported from Africa 
 and other places. Hence slavery, domestic 
 and predial, now exists in almost every part 
 of India. Our government, even during 
 the administration of Warren Plastings, 
 were aware of the fact ; but it was deemed 
 politic not to interfere, for the same rea- 
 sons that induced the long toleration of 
 widow-burning and infanticide. 
 
 In 1830, I applied to Mr. Wilberforce on 
 the subject, and urged the anti-slavery so- 
 ciety to investigate the matter; but he con- 
 sidered it then most advisable to give all his 
 attention to the West Indies. Evidence 
 adduced before the East India parliamentary 
 committee, in 1832, disclosed a dreadful 
 state of human sufl'cring among East Indian 
 slaves, which was confirmed by subsequent 
 investigations, when it was ascertained that 
 the Anglo-Indian government were large 
 
 sidered a recent migration from Devonshire. Some 
 gipsies, whose location I vi.sited in China, presented 
 similar characteristics. 
 
 t .My authority for these statements is Lt.-general 
 Briggs. 
 
 < ^^"
 
 SLAVERY IN BRITISH INDIA— PROGRESS OF ABOLITION. 507 
 
 slaveholders in rifjlit of lands hel 
 possession. Pailianient, in IHIil- 
 
 111 netual 
 'i:>, li<f,'an 
 to disenss the matter, and several eminent 
 civil servants of the E. I. Cy. exerted them- 
 selves to cliieidate the evils of this nefarious 
 system. In Deeenibcr, 1838, I laid before 
 tlie Marquis Wellesley a plan for the 
 ;;radiial bnt efTcctiial abolition of slavery in 
 India: it was liif^lily approved iiy his lord- 
 ship, who iirj^ed the adoption thereof on the 
 Indian authorities. Some part of the plan* 
 was adopted : the government relinquished 
 their right to slaves on eseheated lands ; 
 reports were ealled for from the eolleetors 
 and other public officers ; and, on the 7th of 
 April, 18 1-3, an act (No. 5) was passed by 
 the President of India in council, which 
 declared as follows : — 
 
 " I. Tliat no public officer sliall, in e.tPCution of 
 any decree or order of court, or for the enforcement 
 of any demand of rent or revenue, sell or cause to be 
 sold any person, or the right to the compulsory 
 labour or services of any person, on the ground that 
 such person is in a state of slavery. 
 
 " II. That no rights arising out of an alleged 
 property in the person and services of another as a 
 slave shall be enforced by any civil or criminal court 
 or magistrate within the territories of the E. I. Cy. 
 
 " III. That no person who may have acquired 
 property by his owti industry, or by the exercise of 
 any art, calling, or profession, or by inheritance, 
 assignment, gift, or bequest, shall be dispossessed of 
 such property, or prevented from taking possession 
 thereof, on the ground that such person, or that the 
 person from whom the property may have been de- 
 rived, was a slave. 
 
 " IV. That any act which would be a penal offence 
 if done to a free man, shall be equally an offence if 
 done to any person on the pretext of his being in a 
 condition of slavery." 
 
 Much, however, still remains to be done, 
 until slavery be as eftectually extinguished 
 in the East as it has happily and beneficially 
 been in the Jf'est India possessions of the 
 British crown. There is no difficulty among 
 the Hindoo population, as slavery is not a 
 
 * My chief recommendations were — (1.) A com- 
 mittee of inquiry. (2.) A registry in each collectorate 
 of male and female slaves, agrestic and domestic. 
 (3.) District magistrates to report on the laws and 
 j customs in force. (4.) All children born after a 
 certain date to be declared free, (5.) Slaves to 
 have the same protection of the law as freemen ; 
 their evidence equally receivable in a court of jus- 
 tice. (6.) Ill-treatment to be followed by manumis. 
 sion. (7.) Masters no power to punish. (8.) Wife 
 and children not to be separated. (9.) Slaves on 
 government lands to be at once freed. (10.) No 
 voluntary sale of individuals or of their children to 
 be lawful. (11.) Transfers of slaves only in their 
 respective districts. (12.) Slaves to be entitled to 
 acquire and possess property, and to purchase manu- 
 mission : magistrate to arbitrate in cases of disputed 
 price. (13.) Magistrate to attend to the condition 
 
 question of raxle ; and with re{;ard to Mo- 
 hammedan laws, a Christian {government 
 cannot be expected to recognise that which 
 is repugnant to the first ])rineipl(!s of hu- 
 manity. We know nothing certain of the 
 number of slaves in Hindoostan ; the esti- 
 mates made arc but guess-work : in Malabar,t 
 Canara, C'oorg, 'I'innevelly, and other parts 
 of Southern India, the estimates are from a 
 half to one million ; for IJengal, or the 
 N. W. Provinces, we have no estimates. In 
 fact, we know not whether there be one or 
 ten million slaves under the British govern- 
 ment in Asia. 
 
 The foregoing illustrations sufficiently 
 indicate that there is no homogenity of 
 population in India, no bond of union, — no 
 feeling of patriotism, arising from similarity 
 of origin, language, creed, or caste, — no 
 common sentiment, founded on historic or 
 traditional associations : there is therefore 
 more security for the preservation of British 
 authority; but there is greater difficulty in 
 ameliorating the social condition of the 
 mass of the people, which was deteriorated 
 under Moslem tyranny, and is still, as 
 compared to some past period, at a low 
 ebb. 
 
 The discussion of this theme is beyond 
 my appointed limits, and I can only ofl'er 
 a few passing observations. The Hindoos 
 speak of having experienced three ages, — 
 1. Gold and silver; 2. Copper and brass; 
 3. Earth and wood, — which form the com- 
 ponent parts of their domestic utensils ; 
 but when these ages commenced and ended, 
 there are no means of ascertaining.! Ere 
 Tyre became a place for fishermen to dry 
 their nets, the Hindoo-Phcenician com- 
 merce had an Asiatic renown : the spices 
 of India were sought in the time of Solo- 
 mon ; the gossamer muslins of Dacca, the 
 
 and complaints of slaves, to pass summary judgment, 
 and to report his proceedings annually to govern- 
 ment, who were to send out queries, and call for 
 reports on the nature and extent of slavery in each 
 district, from the officers entrusted with supervision- 
 ment. 
 
 t Mr. Peggs and others estimate the number of 
 slaves, in Malabar alone, at 147,000; in Canara, 
 Coorg, Wvnaad. Cochin, and Travancore, at 254.000; 
 in Tinnevellv, 324.000; Triehinopolv, 10,000; Arcot, 
 20,000; Assam, 11,300; Surat, 3,000. According to 
 Buchanan, the number must be very large in Behar 
 and in Bengal: and all authorities describe their con- 
 dition as truly miserable ; — stunted, squalid, and 
 treated with far less care than the beasts of the 
 field. 
 
 X The third age is still extant, as illustrated by 
 the earthen water and cooking pots — chatty.
 
 508 PROSPERITY AND SPLENDOUR OF INDIA IN PAST AGES. 
 
 beautiful shawls of Cashmere, and the bro- 
 caded silks of Delhi, adorned the proudest 
 beauties at the courts of the Caesars, when 
 the barbarians of Britain were painted 
 savages. Embossed and filigree metals, — 
 elaborate carvings in ivory, ebony, and san- 
 dalwood; brilliant dyed chintzes; diamonds, 
 uniquely set pearls, and precious stones; 
 embroidered velvets and carpets ; highly 
 wrought steel; excellent porcelain, and 
 perfect naval architecture, — were for ages 
 the admiration of civilised mankind : and 
 before London was known in history, 
 India was the richest trading mart of the 
 earth. Ruined cities, such as Gour, the 
 ancient capital of Bengal, which covered an 
 area of seventeen miles, — Beejapoor, with its 
 million of inhabited houses; Mundoo, with 
 a wall twenty-eight miles in circuit; Raj- 
 mahal, tlie dwelling-place of an hundred 
 kings; Palebothra and Canouj, — indicated a 
 large urban class, who required to be fed 
 by a proportionately numerous agrestic 
 population. Hundreds of cave temples,* 
 equal in interior-size and architectural 
 beauty to the iiol)lest cathedrals of Europe, 
 attest the depth of religious feeling among 
 the worshippers; while gorgeous ceremonials 
 and sensuous luxuries indicate the highest 
 staire of Pagan refinement: but all afford a 
 melancholy contrast to the poverty which 
 now pervades the mass of the people, and 
 to the dull intellectuality and idolatrous 
 routine that at present extends over social 
 
 life.t 
 
 An extensive study of Indian records 
 leads to the conclusion that the decay of 
 Hindoostan dates from the period of Mo- 
 hammedan incursions and conquests. Af- 
 ghan, Tartar, Patan, Mogul, Persian, Arab, 
 
 * Such as those of Karli, Kllora, Elephanta, &c. 
 Dr. Biii-t, of Bombay, in his eloquent advocacy of 
 the claims of India, says — "These have been hewn out 
 in tlie absence of gunpowder, and, fashioned without 
 natural adjunct or addition of masonry into their 
 present form, covered with rich and elaborate struc- 
 tures by the hand of man. The caves are grouped 
 together so as to furnish places of worship, halLs of 
 instruction, and domiciles for the professors and their 
 pupils, exactly on the plan of the universities which 
 came into existence in Kurope tiro thausdiid i/cars 
 after those of India were forgotten; indicating an 
 amount of civilisation atid demand for knowledge 
 in the Kast twenty-lour centuries ago." — {Xofi.i on 
 India: London, 18.5:!, p. 10.) The number of tem- 
 ples in India is as yet imperfectly ascertained. Mount 
 Aboo, 5,000 feet high, is covered and surmounted 
 by these singular structures. 
 
 t See ])r. liuisl's Ndcfi <in Imlhi. 
 
 I The desolating effect of Moslern sway over the 
 fairest portion of Kaslern Europe for nearly 400 
 years, notwithstanjin;; the influences of surrounding 
 
 and other Moslem adventurers, here found 
 the richest spoil and the most fertile field : 
 swarming like locusts, and equally rave- 
 nous, successive hordes crossed the frontiers, 
 slew all who opposed, and, by their tyranny 
 and sensuality, pauperised and demoralised 
 all -whom they subjected to their sway. 
 Hence entire regions became desolate, and 
 famines frequent in the inhabited parts. 
 One of these afflictions, prolonged frooi 
 1640 to 1655, was felt throughout India, 
 but principally in Bengal and in the Deccan ; 
 another occurred in 1661, when Aurungzebe 
 was endeavouring to collect fifty per cent, of 
 the produce of the land : other famines, re- 
 sulting from poverty and exactions (not, as 
 is alleged, from nnpropitious seasons), 
 occurred at different times, followed as 
 usual by sicknesses, and swept off millions 
 of the inhabitants. 
 
 Then the fierce and long-continued strug- 
 gles of the Rajpoot, Mahratta, and other 
 Hindoo races in refusing to bow their 
 necks to Islamite yoke; the frequent rebel- 
 lions in distant provinces necessitating the 
 maintenance of large armies for the support 
 of imperial power at Delhi; the internecine 
 contests between several Mogul viceroys for 
 the extension of dominion ; and the desola- 
 tions of the Carnatic and of Southern India 
 by those jNIoslem scourges Hyder Ali and 
 his son Tippoo, must each and all, together 
 with other collateral circumstances which 
 cannot here be examined, have contri!)uted 
 to the rapid decay and impoverishment of 
 the people of India, in a manner not dis- 
 similar to the destruction and demoralisa- 
 tion of the Greeks, and the desolation of 
 the fair regions of Asia Minor by the Turks. J 
 That the Moguls have left traces behind 
 civili.salion, and with an active, intelligent, impres- 
 sive character in the millions of Greeks subject to 
 its sway, proves the incajiabilily of .Mohammedanism 
 for that progressive improvement in society which 
 pre-eminently marks Christianity as the true religion 
 adapted for man. The Turks for three centuries 
 lived among, yet apart, from the Greeks; dm-ing 
 their intolerant rule, there was no social intercourse 
 between the dominant and subject races; and, in 
 matters of dispute, all law or justice was set aside, 
 as the word or oath of a Christian was not recognised 
 in their legal tribunals. The taxes levied were enor- 
 luous; in the local country, where resistance to fiscal 
 oppression was im])ossibk', four-fifths of his produce 
 was exacted from the agriculturist, independent of 
 minor phuiderings, of " presents," forced tribute to 
 each new ])asha or jirovincial governor, and of end- 
 less extortions by his satellites, which was required 
 from nil who had accumulated any wealth. As in 
 India during the Mogul sway, ao in Greece: there 
 was no security for life, honour, and pro])erty ; the 
 virtue of woman, the labour of the ]ieasant, the skill
 
 EFFECTS OF MOSLEVI RULE IN ASIA AND IN EUROPE. 509 
 
 tlicm of some groat works is undonljtfdly 
 truo, but tlipy were tlic work of Hindoo 
 artificers, atid such as coiiquorors exact from 
 slaves ; — palaces and fiirtresses, nios(iuea and 
 mausoleums, canals and tanks — the latter 
 indispensable fur the ])roduction of territorial 
 revenue, which would fail without irrigation 
 of the land : but the IMohamniodans took 
 as little root in India as the Romans did in 
 Britain; and their power crumbled to pieces 
 
 of the artisan, were all at the mercy of sensual, 
 barharous, and cruel tyrants, from the sulian at 
 Constanliiioplo to the janissary in the smallest 
 village ; the whip and the bastinado, the sword and 
 the rope, were tlie prime instruments of Turkish 
 rule. As financiers and penmen, the Greeks, like 
 the Hindoos, were entrusted sometimes with liigh 
 ofliccs, which the Molianimedans were incnpable of 
 executing. The Hindoos, especially tlie Mahrattas, 
 made several attem]its to destroy Alnslem sway, but 
 tliere was no effectual combination. Tlie Greeks 
 were successful by their union in 1821. After seven 
 years of secret organisation, they commenced tlieii' 
 efforts for independence. Instead of beinjj met by 
 any concessions, Gregory, the patriarch of their 
 church, — although he had, at the bidding of the 
 sultan, e.\communicated and anathematised the 
 strugglers for liberty, and released the I'liiUkni 
 (members of the Secret Society) from their oath, — 
 was seized on Easter eve, dragged ignominiously 
 through the streets of Constantinople, and then 
 strangled at the door of the church in which he 
 recently officiated ; the body was left hanging three 
 days to be pelted at and made the jest of the popu- 
 lace, then cast into the Bosphorus. Three suffragan 
 archbishops were hanged by a black executioner at 
 different jiarts of the city, and many hundreds of 
 the clergy were massacred by the populace. Then 
 began a series of atrocities wliich ought to have 
 caused the entire expulsion of tlie barbarians from 
 Europe. Throughout every part of the wide-spread 
 Turkish dominions there was an indiscriminate 
 slaughter of the Christians; savage brigands from 
 Anatolia and Kurdistan were brought across the 
 Bosphorus, under a firman calling on all true Mo- 
 hammedans for defence: a few wealthy Greek mer- 
 chants, fearing what was coming, fled to Odessa, but 
 for the mass of their countrymen there was no 
 refuge or hope of escajie; houses were broken open, 
 and the inmates torn from their hiding-places and 
 carried to slaughter; every Christian seen in the 
 streets was instantly slain as if he were a mad dog; 
 " the European ships in the harbour, and the houses 
 of the foreign consuls were thronged by the un- 
 happy Christians, but their asylum was disregarded; 
 and the decks of British and Ereneh merchant ves- 
 sels were deluged with tlie blood of those whom their 
 captains had vainly endeavoured to protect. In a 
 few days 10,000 Christians perished in that one citv; 
 the remnant of the Greek iiojiulation there was scat- 
 tered to the four winds of heaven ; they wandered 
 as beggars through the streets of Odessa, or starved 
 in the ditches of the Byzantine suburbs." — (See 
 London Times, iith October, 1853.) In Adrianople 
 and Smyrna the streets were smeared w ith blood ; 
 and from the Danube to the Nile, wherever the 
 Moslem held sway, the life of a Christian was not 
 worth one hour's purchase. "Within the short space 
 
 of its own accord, leaving the sceptre which 
 liaber, Akber, and Aurungzebc had wielded 
 Ijy military force, to be scrambled f(jr by the 
 strongest arm. We found the people of 
 Bengal and of the Carnatic impoverished 
 and oppressed; the oppression has been 
 removed, but the poverty is as yet only 
 slightly mitigated. On this topic I lioi)e 
 to offer, at the concluding section (if space 
 permit), some points for consideration. 
 
 of a few weeks, in the year 1821, it is estimated that 
 '10,000 Christians were slain ; and during six years' 
 struggle for life and liberty, at least 100,000 perished. 
 Perhaps of all the massacres, the fiendish character 
 of the followers of the false prophet is best exem- 
 plified bv that which took place in the beautiful and 
 fertile island of Scio, of which an account is given 
 in the columns of the Annual Regider, 1822-'3. 
 Suflice it to say, that a population which at the 
 beginning of the year numbered 120,000, was in the 
 month of July reduced to 000, and even these were 
 in danger of jierishing from the pestilence which 
 ensued on the fearful slaughter of their countrymen. 
 How many such scenes may have been acted in 
 Hindooslan tliere were none to recoid. During the 
 debates in parliament, pending the war between 
 Kussia and England, fearful illustrations were pro- 
 duced of the cruelty, oppression, exaction, and re- 
 morseless spirit whicli characterise the Mohammedans 
 even at the present day. The consequences of Turkish 
 rule, and the condition of a Christian villaj;e after an 
 Osnianli invasion, are thus stated by Mr. Layard : — 
 'Their church was in ruins; around were the 
 charred remains of the burnt cottages, and the 
 neglected orchards overgrown with weeds. A 'oody 
 of Turkish troops had lately visited the village, and 
 had destroyed the little that had been restored since 
 the Turkish invasion. The same taxis had been 
 collected three times — and even four times over. 
 The relations of those who had run away to escape 
 from these exactions had been compelled to pay tor 
 the fugitives. The chief had been thrown, with his 
 arms lied behind his back, on a heap of burning 
 straw, and compelled to disclose where a little 
 money that had been saved by the villagers had 
 been buried." — (Times, Hth March, 18ol.) On 
 the 4th July, 1853, Lord Stratford de Kedcliffe 
 wrote to his government that he was necessitated of 
 late, and indeed for some years back, to bring to the 
 knowledge of the I'orte atrocious acts of cruelty, 
 rapine, and murder, for which no effectual redress 
 «as provided. Doubtless there are many high- 
 minded, trustworthy, and amiable men among the 
 disciples of the Crescent Asiatic travellers can 
 record numerous instances of good offices received 
 from Mo.slems — whether designated as Turks, Arabs, 
 Persians, or Hindoos. Under the .\nglo-Indian gov- 
 ernment, there are thousands of Moiianimedans as 
 " true to their salt," as brave and kindly in their 
 nature, as those of any other form of religion: but 
 for civil government, the creed of the Koran is 
 utterly unfit ; indeed, Mohammed never designed it 
 for aught but military power and despotic sway, which 
 naturally corrupts the minds of those who long use 
 these means to preserve their dominion, — to keep 
 men morally and politically in bondage, — instead of 
 fitting them in this world, by freedom and the exer- 
 cise of their faculties, for an eternity of happiness.
 
 510 
 
 PHYSICAL ASPECT OF DISTRICTS AND PROVINCES. 
 
 Locality and Physical Aspect of Districts, Provinces, 
 and States of India. 
 
 Punjab, or region of the *' iive rivers ;** adjoining 
 Afgiianistan on the E., — A plain, sloj)ing from N.E. 
 to S.W. ; north part, near Himalayas, hilly and moun- 
 tainous. Pasturage and grazing-grounds. 
 
 Cis-SuTLEJ Territory, — Between Sutlej and Jumna, and 
 a strip of land between the Ghara river and Hajpootana. 
 Bhawulpoor and Sirhind, a plain ; hill-slates on Hima- 
 laya ridges, mountainous and richly wooded. 
 
 Cashmere, — Western Himalaya. Cashmere Proper, a 
 fertile valley, enclosed by mountains. Elevation of 
 bottom, 5,500 to 6,000 ft. : lofty snow-clad ranges, 
 N.W. to S.E., constitute the general configuration. 
 
 BussAHiR, — Wonderful maze of some of the highest 
 mountains in the world ; general rise from S. to N. 
 
 Gurhwal, — Ranges of enormous height, with several 
 valleys ; the whole drained by the Ganges. Slope from 
 N. and N.E. 
 
 SiNDE, — Lower course and delta of Indus; between 
 Belooehistan mountains and Great Desert. Low and 
 fiat. Some short ridges of hills in the W. part ; to- 
 wards the E. a desert. Mouths of Indus continually 
 changing. 
 
 CuTCH, — S.E. of Sinde. Two parallel hilly ranges nearly 
 intersect province. 
 
 Western Rajpootana, — Between Sinde and Bhawidpoor 
 and ArravuUi range. Mostly a plain, interspersed with 
 sand-hills : rocky ridges extend in various directions. 
 
 Eastern Rajpootana, — Between ArravuUi mountains 
 and Malwa. Near the ArravuUi a table-land, declining to 
 N.E. : continuous parallel hUly ranges extend N.E. to 
 the vicinity of Delhi. 
 
 Guzerat, — S. of Cutch and Rajpootana. Very rugged, 
 especially in Kattywar ; bills connected with Vindbya, 
 and part of W. Ghauts. 
 
 Malwa (Central India), — Between Guzerat and Bundel- 
 cund. A plateau, supported by Vindhya range ; eleva- 
 tion diminishing towards Northern Gangetic valley. 
 
 Bhopal, Malwa, — Greater part a table-land, resting on 
 N. side of Vindhya; declivity to N. .A few streams 
 find their way, through gorges in the chain, into Ner- 
 budda, which flows along the S. frontier. 
 
 GwAHOR, or SciNDiAH, — Central India. N.E. part 
 level, bare, and much cut up by ravines ; S., the 
 country becomes hilly ; middle part, a plateau ; slope 
 to the N. ; S. part crossed by Nerbudda valley. 
 
 Ahmedabad ami Kaira, — Head of the Gulf of Cambay. 
 Almost a perfect level ; appearing as if the sea had 
 abandoned it at no very remote period. 
 
 Kandelsh, — Both banks of Taptce river. Valley of 
 Taptee, enclosed by bUls 1,000 to 1,800 ft. high. Tracts 
 formerly cultivated ; now covered with jungle and in- 
 fested with tigers. 
 
 Northern and Southern Concans, — Along the sea 
 from lat. 10° to lat. 20', including Bombay. Valleys 
 enclosed by spurs from W. Ghauts, through which a 
 clear stream flows, until influenced by the tides. 
 Ravines and gorges filled with jungle, harbouring 
 beasts of prey, especially tigers. 
 
 Poona, — Deccan. High table-knd ; slope from N.W. 
 to S.E. Intersected by numerous spurs from W. 
 Ghauts : elevation diminishing towards S.E. 
 
 Sattara, — Deccan. High table-land ; slope from N.W. 
 to S.E. Gradual but rugged declivity from W. Qbauts 
 to S.E. 
 
 Dharwar, Belgaum, and Sholapoor, — Deccan. Un- 
 dulating plains, elevated from about 2,000 to 2,500 ft. ; 
 slope to the E. and N.E. 
 
 HyueraBad, or Nizam's Dominions, — Deccan. For 
 the most part an undulating plain ; declivity from W. 
 to E. : many isolated hills and ranges, of moderate ele- 
 vation. 
 
 Western Division : Madras Presidency, — Malabar 
 coast. Low sea-coast, rising towards culminating ridge 
 of W. Ghauts. Numerous narrow shallow rivers flowing 
 E, to W. from Ghauts. Country hilly. 
 
 Travancore, — Malabar coast. Low sandy sea-coast; 
 behind the W. Ghauts ; attaining in some places an 
 altitude of 7,000 ft. 
 
 Southern Division : Madras Presidency, — Between 
 Mysoor and Travancore, and Coromandel coast. E. 
 parts level ; towards the W. rising into mountains : 
 NeUgherries and E. Ghauts supporting table-land of 
 Mysoor. 
 
 Mysoor, — S. of Deccan. High table-land ; here and 
 there huge masses of rock, apparently thrown tumul- 
 tuously together. 
 
 Central Division : Madr.^s Presidency, — Between 
 Mysoor and Coromandel coast. Bellary and Cuddapah 
 district; a table-land, resting on stupendous wall of 
 mountains. Coast districts low, interspersed with bUls. 
 
 Northern Division : Madras Presidency, — W. side 
 of Bay of Bengal. Low sea-coast (except a ridge ex- 
 tending along sea-shore in Vizagapatam district), hilly 
 and mountainous to W. delta of Godavery and Kistna 
 rivers. 
 
 CuTTACK,- — Orissa coast. Low sandy shore; delta of 
 Mahanuddy ; inland, the Moghalbandi, a dry tract ; 
 then rises the hill country, closing down to the sea neai- 
 Chilka lake, and near Balasore. 
 
 CuTTACK Mehals, — Inland of Cuttack province. Very 
 hiUy. Forests of fine timber. 
 
 South-West Frontier of Bengal. Table-lands of 
 Chota-Nagpoor, Sirgooja, and Mynpat ; and mountains 
 of Palamow, &c. 
 
 Orissa, — Inland of Northern Circars. Table-land, sup- 
 ported by E. Ghauts : slope to W., to Godavery ; toS., 
 to Bay of Bengal, the rivers flowing through ghats, or 
 passes ; and to N. and N.E., to Mahanuddy. 
 
 Nagpoor, or Berar, — Between Saugor and Nerbudda, 
 and the Circars ; and the Godavery and Wein-Gunga, 
 and upper course of Mahanuddy. In general of con- 
 siderable elevation ; slope from N.W. to S.E. Lanjhee 
 range divides the territory into two basins — one into 
 Mahanuddy, and the other into Godavery. N. part 
 rugged and mountainous ; S.E. part hilly and woody. 
 
 Saugor and Nerbudda Territory, — On each bank of 
 upper course of Nerbudda river. Considerably elevated 
 tract : E. part a table-land, declining to W., to valley of 
 Nerbudda ; to the S. are the Sautpoora and Mahadeo 
 mountains ; to the N. the Vindbya, which is but the 
 brow of a rugged plateau ; elevation diminishing towards 
 theN. 
 
 Rewah, — Adjoining Nerbudda territories on the N.E. 
 W. and N.W. mountainous, rising in three successive 
 plateaux : intersected by valley of Sone from W. to E. 
 S. of this a table-land, contiguous to that of Sirgooja. 
 
 BuNDELCuND STATES, — Between Nerbudda territory and 
 N.W. Provinces. Plain, little elevated above valley of 
 Jumna ; on the W. and S. a continuous range of hills ; 
 to the E. they close down upon the Ganges. Some of 
 the rivers flow through the plain, or are precipitated 
 in cascades over tlie brow of the high land. 
 
 Allahabad, — N. W. Provinces. Plain, sloping from 
 N.W. to S.E. Banks of Jumna high in some parts of 
 Banda district. 
 
 Aqua, — N. W. Provinces. Plain, sloping from N.W. to 
 S.E. A slightly elevated ridge extends along the 
 Dooab, about midway between the Ganges and Juuma. 
 
 Bhurtpoor, — Gangetic plain. Level; slope to E. Small 
 detached hills in N. part. 
 
 Meerut, — N. W. Provinces. Plain ; slope in Suharun. 
 poor, Mozufl'urnuggur and Meerut districts, from N. to 
 S. ; in Boolundshuhur and Allyghur, N.W. to S.E. 
 
 Delhi, — N. W. Provinces. Mostly level. Ridges in 
 Gonigaon district lOO to COO ft. above surrounding 
 counti'y. 
 
 KuMAON, — N. W. Provinces. Well defined mountain 
 system. S. limit, Ghagur mountain ; successive ranges 
 rise liighcr and higher, until ullimatdy crowned by the 
 culminating ridge of the stupendous Himalaya. 
 
 Roiiii.cuND, — N.W. Provinces. Level; slope from 
 N.W. to S.E., and from N. to S.
 
 ISLANDS ON THE COAST OF INDIA— LOCALITY, &c. 
 
 511 
 
 OuDK, — GimKctii^ pliiin. Plain ; ilcilivity (iivg. 7 in. per 
 in.) from N.W. to S.E. Sutj-lliinalayu range on N. 
 frontier. 
 
 Ni:r\rL, — S. of Himalaya; sustained by Hub-Himalaya. 
 Tableland Bvera);e about 4,000 ft. Valleys, cmlo^ied 
 by lofty cbains ; sides eovrrrd witli forests. Murmounled 
 by eubninatinp ridge of stKuv-elad Himalaya, 
 
 SiKKiM, — Himalaya. Sjiurs from Himalaya j enclosing 
 tleep valleys. 
 
 ^^:^:AKI';s,■ — N. W. Provinces. Plain on eitlier side of 
 (lungefl. I^eelivity from N.W. to S.K., and from VV'. to 
 I*j. In S, part n\' Mirzapoor (list., surface rises into a rug- 
 ged table -land, being a eon tin nation of tlie \'indbyaeliain. 
 
 l*ATNA, — (i.'ingeti)' plain, liengal. Sarun and Patna dis- 
 tricts ; and along tiangcs, level ; table-land in S.W. part 
 of Slialial).id, descent very abrupt j a roeky ridge in S. 
 part of Uehar district. 
 
 BiiAGUi,i>oi)ii, — (iangetie plain, Rengal. Generally flat : 
 slope from \V. to E. Uajmahal bills ri.se on river bank 
 of Ganges, and stretch .S. and S.W. through Bhagulpoor 
 district. Tirhoot diversifietl by undulations. 
 
 MooRSHKDAUAD, — Bengal. KuuKpoor and Pubna dists. 
 low ; Rajeshaye (bit ; hilly to W. ; W. parts of Moor- 
 shedabad and ISeerbhoom billy. 
 
 Jn.ssuRK. — Delta of Ganges, and river bank of Hooghly 
 river (Calcutta district.) Greater part level ; even de- 
 pressed in Jessorc district ; in W. parts of Hooghly, 
 Burdwan, and Baneoora, rises into slight eminences. 
 
 Dacca, — E. Bengal. Declivity from N. to S. ; inter- 
 sected by Urahniipoolra. ,Iyn(ca, billy ; Silhet, a hollow, 
 swampy basin, eni-losed on three sides by mountains. 
 
 G arrow aiul CossvAii .States, — Assam. Hilly and 
 mountainous ; numerous strean\s. 
 
 Coocii 1!i;hab, — Bengal. Level; slope to S.E. 
 
 N.E. Krontikr: Assam, — N. of Burmah. Intersected 
 by Brahmapootra, which receives the drainage of the 
 sub-Himalaya from the N. ; Garrows, Cossyab.s, and 
 Nag.'is from the S. : numerous clumps of abrupt liills. 
 
 Bhotan, — Foot of E. section of Himalaya. Imperfectly 
 known: a table-land resting on the sub-Himalaya, 
 which rise from .'i.OUO to 6,000 ft. above Assam. 
 
 Naga Triiies, — Upper Assam. Range of mountains 
 dividing Burmah from the British dominions. 
 
 TirPERAii, — Bengal. Wild hilly regions: fertile tracts 
 on Mcgna. 
 
 MuNEEpooR, — Burmese frontier. Valley, enclosed by 
 precipitous mountains. 
 
 Chittagong, — Mouths of Brahm.apootra, and N.E. side 
 of Bay of Bengal. Sea-coast : plains, — backed by 
 parsdlel ranges of lofty mountains, throwing off spurs in 
 a W. direction. Drainage from E. to W. 
 
 Arracan, — E. side of Bay of Bengal. E.itensive flats, 
 interscctt;d by numerous navigable salt-water creeks : 
 ranges of mountains extending N. and S. Islands and 
 tine harbours. 
 
 Pegu, — Lower course and delta of Irawaddy. Gradual 
 slope from N. to S. N. of Prome, billy : range skirting 
 E. shore of Bay of Bengal, diminishing in height to- 
 wards C. Ncgrais. Numerous passes. 
 
 Tenasserem Provinces, — E. side of Bay of Bengal. 
 Generally rugged : parallel ranges N. and S., and E. and 
 W. : iilso extensive plains. High, bold islands, with 
 many harbours. 
 
 Islands on the Coast of Inilia — Xame, Locality and 
 Position, Extent, Pliysicai Features, and Remarks. 
 
 Karoomba,— Gulf of Cutch ; lat. 22° 27', Ion. 69° 47'. 
 H m. broad, and 3 m. long. 
 
 Beyt, or Bet,— Gulf of Cutch ; lat. 22° 28', Ion. 69° 10'. 
 About 3 m. long, and greatest breadth about i m. On 
 the banks are situate a castle or fort, compact and im- 
 posing ; lofty massive towers, mounted with iron ord- 
 nance. Many temjiles and shrines in honour of Crishna. 
 
 Dit',— Kattywar; lat. 20° 42, Ion. 71°. About 7 m. 
 long; breadth, varying from 14 to 2 m. (See Diu — 
 " Ports and Havens.") 
 
 Pkrim,— Gulf of Cambay; lot. 21° 38', Ion. 72° 19'. 
 About 2 m. long, and J m. broad. Numerous organic 
 remains embcddird in conglomerate : TariouH antic|uitiea 
 extant. 
 
 Bashkin,— Concans; lat. 19° 2.1', Ion. 72° .'jO'. About 
 11 m. long, and 3 m. broad ; 3.*) sq. m. Irregular sur- 
 face ; amongst other eminences a high hill of tabular 
 form, and a conical peak not (juite so elevated. 
 
 Sai.seitk, — Concans; lat. 19°— 19° 18', Ion. 72° 54' — 
 7303'. IH m. long, 10 m. broad; about 150 sf|. m. 
 Diversified by hills, scimc of considerable elevation. 
 Keneii comtnands an extensive view, 
 
 Bomkay, — Concans; lat. 18° 57', Ion. 72° 52'. lycngth, 
 8 m. ; average breadth, 3 m. Two parallel rang(?s of 
 rocks of unequal length are united at their extremities 
 by hills of sandstone. Malabar, Mazagon, and I'arell 
 hills are the principal elevations. 
 
 Ei.ei'Hanta, or fiARA-i'oni, — Bombay harbour; lat. 
 18° 57', Ion. 73°. Rather less th;m 6 m. in cir- 
 cumference. Composed of two long hills, with a narrow 
 valley. Famed for its excavated temples. 
 
 Koi.ABAH, — Concans; lat. 18° 38', Ion. 72° 56'. Long 
 neglected, as a barren rock, but fortified by the Mah- 
 ratta, Sevajee. 
 
 Mai.wu.v, — Concans; lat. 1C° 4', Ion. 73° 31'. Little 
 elevated above the sea, and not easily distinguished from 
 the main-land. 
 
 Ramiseram, — Gulf of Manaar; lat. 9° 18', Ion. 79° 21'. 
 14 m. long, and 5 m. broad. Low, ?ondy, and uncul- 
 tivated. Sa(Ted in Hindoo mythology ; great pagoda. 
 
 Saugor,— Mouths of Ganges; lat. 2i'° 42', Ion. 88° 8'. 
 7 or 8 m. long, and 4 m. broad. Salt manufacture 
 formerly carried on. Island held in great veneration by 
 the Hindoos. 
 
 Don Manick Islands, — Mouths of Megna ; lat. 21°55', 
 Ion. 90° 43'. Flat. 
 
 Labador,— Mouths of Megna; lat. 22° 22', Ion. 90° 48'. 
 Low. 
 
 Deccan Shabazpore, — Mouths of Megna ; lat. 22° 30', 
 Ion. 91°. Flat. 
 
 Hattia,— Months of Megna; lat. 22° 35', Ion. 91°. 
 Level. 
 
 Sundeep,— Mouths of Megna ; lat. 22° 30, Ion. 91° 32'. 
 About 18 m. long, and 6 m. broad. Level ; fertile, and 
 abounding with cattle. 
 
 Kootubdea Islands, — Chittagong; lat. 21' 50', Ion. 
 91' 55'. About 12 m. long. Low and woody. 
 
 MuscAL, — Chittagong; lat. 21' 35', Ion. 92. 15 m. 
 long, and 7 m. broiid. Some small elevations. 
 
 Smaporee, — .\rracan ; lat. 20' 46', Ion. 92' 24'. 
 
 St. Martin,— Arracan ; lat. 20' 36', Ion. 92' 25'. Two 
 divisions united by a dry ledge of rocks, 
 
 Bolongo, — Arracan ; lat. 20', Ion. 93'. Mountainous, 
 woody, and rugged. 
 
 Peny kvouNG, — Arracan ; lat. 20', Ion. 93' 4'. 26 m. 
 long; 6 m. broad. Mountainous, woody, and rugged. 
 
 Angey Kyoung,— Arracan ; lat. 19' 50', Ion. 93' 10'. 20 
 m. long ; 3 m. broad. Mountainous, woody, and nigged. 
 
 Ramree,— Arr.acan ; lat. 19° 5', Ion. 93° 52'. About 
 50 m. long; extreme breadth, 20 m. 
 
 CiiEDUBA,— Arracan; lat. 18'40— 56', Ion. 93'31— 50'. 
 .\bout 20 m, long, and 17 broad ; 250 sq. m. Hill and 
 dale ; some parts picturesque. Hills in the north part 
 covered with jungle. 
 
 Flat,— .\rracan ; lat. 18' 37', Ion. 93' 50'. About 4 m. 
 long. Hii;h towards the centre. 
 
 Negrais, — Peg\i ; lat. 15' 58', Ion. 94' 24'. Circum- 
 ference, about 18m.; area, 10 sq. m. Rendered con- 
 spicuous by a hill forming the E. high land on the coast. 
 
 Pelkw Gewen, — Mouth of Saluen river; lat. 16' 20, 
 Ion. 97° 37'. 
 
 Kalegouk, — Tenasserim ; lat. 15' 32', Ion. 97° 43'. 6 m. 
 long ; 1 m. broad. 
 
 Moscos Islands, — Tenasserim; lat. 13' 47' — 14' 28', 
 Ion. 97' 53'. Safe channel between them and the coast. 
 
 Tavoy,— Tenasserim ; lat. 12' 55'— 13' 15', Ion. 98' 23'. 
 About 20 m. long, and 2 m. broad. Of moderate height.
 
 512 
 
 HARBOURS AND HAVENS ON THE COAST OF INDIA. 
 
 Cabossa, — Mergui Archipelago j lat. 12'48', Ion. 97° 58'. 
 
 Moderately high. 
 King— Mergui Archipelago ; lat. 12° 31', Ion. 98° 28'. 
 
 Length, 26 m. ; breadth, 10 m. 
 Elphinstone, — Mergui Archipelago; lat. 12' 21', Ion. 
 
 98° 10'. 13 m. long; 4.| m. broad. 
 Ross,— Mergui Archipelago; lat. 12= 54', Ion. 98' 12'. 
 Benti>'CK, — Mergui Archipelago; lat. 11' 45', Ion. 98' 9'. 
 
 20 m. long; 6 m. broad. 
 DoMEL,— M'ergui Archipelago; lat. 11° 40', Ion. 98° 20'. 
 
 26 m. long ; 5 m. broad. 
 KissERANG, — Mergui Archipelago; lat. 11° 34', Ion. 
 
 98' 36'. 20 m. long; 10 m. broad. 
 Sullivan's, — Mergui Archipelago ; lat. 10° 50', Ion. 
 
 98° 20'. 36 m. long, and 3 m. broad. 
 Clara, — Mergui Archipelago; lat. 10° 54', Ion. 98° 4'. 
 
 High ; liaving small peaks, one very sharp, like a 
 
 sugar-loaf. 
 
 Harbours and Havens on the Coast of India — Name, 
 District, Position, Dimen^iojin, Soundings, and Remarks. 
 
 Kdbrachee,— Sinde ; lat. 24° 51' N., Ion. 67° 2' E. Spa- 
 cious; about 5 m. N. from Munoora point, and about 
 the same from town. Entrance, l:v fath. at low-water; 
 3 ft. at spring-tides. W. side, from 2 to 4 fath. at 
 low-water. Position of great importance : the only safe 
 port in Sinde. Population, 22,227. Railway from port 
 to navigable part of Indus. 
 
 PooRBUNDER,— Kattywar ; lat. 21° 37', Ion. 69° 45'. 
 Entrance obstructed by a bar. Much frequented by 
 craft from 12 to 80 tons burthen ; trading with Africa, 
 Sinde, Beloochistan, Persian Gulf, and Malabar coast. 
 Exp., grain and cotton. Imp., various kinds. 
 
 NuvvEE-BuNDER,— Kattywar; lat. 21° 28', Ion. 09° 54'. 
 Available otdy for small craft. River Bhader, navigable 
 for 18 m. above town. 
 
 Diu, — Kattywar (on an island) ; lat. 20° 42', Ion. 71°. 
 Good haven, 3 and 4 fath. Small harbour E. of Diu 
 head, from 2 to 3f fath. A Portuguese town, well for- 
 tified ; little traffic. 
 
 MowA,— Kattywar; lat. 21° 3', Ion. 71° 43'. 7 to 10 
 fath. Anchorage without shelter from the S. ; with the 
 flood-tide a vessel must lie with a reef of rocks right 
 astern ; considerable traffic. 
 
 GoGO,— Kattywar ; lat. 21° 39', loD. 72° 15'. Excellent 
 anchorage ; safe during S.W. monsoon ; water always 
 smooth. Ships touching here may procure water and 
 refreshments, or repair damages. 
 
 Bhowndggur,- Kattywar; lat. 21° 45', Ion. 72° 10'. 
 Good and safe harbour. Place of extensive trade. 
 
 Broach,— Bombay; lat. 21° 42', Ion. 73° 2'. River 
 (Nerbudda) 2 m. wide, but shallow ; at flood-tide there 
 is a deep but intricate channel. Navigable only for 
 craft of 50 tons burthen at all times. Town walled. 
 
 SuBAT,— Bombay ; lat. 21° 10', Ion. 72° 52'. A barred 
 harbour. Roadstead dangerous in spring, when S. and 
 W. wind.s prevail. * 
 
 Damal'N,— Bombay ; lat. 20° 24', !on. 72° 53'. 2 ft. on 
 bar at low-water; spring-tides, 18 or 20 ft. inside. 
 Rise of tide, 17 or 18 ft. Outside bar, a roadstead 8 
 fath. Excellent place for small vessels during S.W. 
 monsoon, and for repairs. Portuguese town fortified. 
 
 Bombay, — Concans ; lat. 18° 57', Ion. 72° 52'. Excel- 
 lent and extensive haven. Continuous breakwater for 
 nearly 10 m. Lighthouse, 150 ft. above sea, at S. ex- 
 tremity of Colaba Island. Great facilities for ship- 
 building. Large docks, and strongly fortified. 
 
 JiNJEEB.\, or Rajapoor, — Concans; lat. 18' 18', Ion. 
 73° 1'. 4 to 5 fath. at entrance, and same dcptii inside 
 at low-water. No bar ; shelter from all winds. Fortified. 
 
 Bankotk, — Concans; lat. 17° 58', Ion. 73° 8'. 5 fath. 
 low-water. Small haven at the moulh of the Savitree. 
 Fort Victoria, on a liigh barren hill, S. side of entrance. 
 
 Gheriah, or ViziADROoG,- — Concans; lat. 16° 32', Ion. 
 73° 22'. 5 to 7 fath. entrance, and 3 to 4 fath. inside 
 at low-water. Excellent harbour ; land-locked and 
 sheltered from all winds. No bar. 
 
 ViNGORLA,— Concans ; lat. 15° 50', Ion. 73° 41'. Small 
 bay ; sheltered from every point except the S. About 
 2 m. from the main-land are the Vingoria rocks, 
 — dangerous. 
 
 Goa,— W. coast, S. India ; lat. 15° 30', Ion. 74°. Fine 
 harbour, formed by an arm of the sea, into which flows 
 a small river. Ancient Portuguese city, now falling 
 into decay. 
 
 Sedashevaghur, — Malabar coast; lat. 14° 52', Ion. 
 74° 12'. Entrance to river 25 ft. at high tide ; hazard- 
 ous and intricate. Anchorage outside in Carwar Bay, 
 sheltered by several islets. Fortified. 
 
 Honahwar, — Malabar coast; lat. 14° 17', Ion. 74° 30'. 
 
 7 m. long; 3 m. broad; 15 sq. m. ; 5 or 6 fath. 
 Though not a good haven, it can receive large ships. 
 
 Moolky, — Malabar coast ; lat. 1.3° 6', Ion. 74° 51'. Place 
 of shelter for coasting and fishing craft. Mulki rocks 
 outside. 
 
 Man-galobe,— Malabar coast; lat. 12° 52', Ion. 74° 54'. 
 Estuary, a fine expanse of water, separated from the sea 
 by a beach of sand. The utility of the haven is greatly 
 impaired, as the depth at the entrance is liable to vary. 
 
 Cananobe, — Malabar coast ; lat. 11° 52', Ion. 75° 26'. 
 Small bay, open to the S., but sheltered on the \V. 
 
 5 and 5i fath. abreast of the fort. Water-shoals and 
 rocky bottom near the fort. 
 
 Tellicherry, — Malabar coast ; lat. 1 1° 45', Ion. 75° 33'. 
 Abreast of the fort is a ledge of rocks, between which 
 and the land small craft may anchor. A shipping-place 
 for produce of coast. 
 
 Make, — Malabar coast; lat. 11° 42', Ion. 75° 36'. 5 or 
 
 6 fath. from H to 3 m."from shore. Vessels of con- 
 siderable burthen must anchor in the road. In fair 
 weather, small craft can cross the bar of the river safely. 
 A small French possession. 
 
 Calicut, — Malabar coast; lat. 11° 15', Ion. 75° 50'. 
 5 or 6 fath. from 2 to 3 m. from land. No river or 
 haven. A capacious haven said to have existed for- 
 merly ; now filled up by drifted sand. 
 
 PoNANY,— Malabar coast ; lat. 1 0° 48', Ion. 75° 58'. 3 or 
 4 m. to sea is a shoal, but anchorage between it and 
 land. 4 fath. on shoal, 6 fath. inside between it and 
 shore. River navigable only for small craft. A railway 
 from Madras is contemplated. 
 
 Cochin,— Malabar coast ; lat. 9° 58', Ion. 76° 18'. Out- 
 side the mouth of the Backwater there is a bar with 14 
 or 15 ft., inside about 25 or 30 ft. Injuriously aflected 
 by the S.W. monsoon. 
 
 QuiLON,— Malabar coast ; lat. 8° 53', Ion. 76° 39'. A 
 bight where ships may anchor, under shelter, at about 
 2^ or 3 m. from the fort. Formerly a place of note. 
 
 TUTICOBIN,- Gulf of Manaar ; lat. 8' 48', Ion. 78' 12'. 
 Safe roadstead ; good anchorage, sheltered on all points. 
 Pearl oyster banks exist in the vicinity. 
 
 Nagoee, — Coromandel coast; lat. 10° 49', Ion. 79° 54'. 
 
 8 ft. on the bar at high-water. Several vessels of 200 
 or 300 tons burthen belong to this place. 
 
 PoRTO-NoTO, — Coromandel coast; lat. 11° 31', Ion. 
 79° 49'. Ships must anchor 2 m. otf shore, in 6 or 7 
 fath. River small at its mouth; admits only coasting 
 craft. 
 
 CuonALOBE, — Coromandel coast; lat. 11° 43', Ion. 
 79" 50'. River small, and mouth closed up by a bar. 
 Admits coasting craft; good anchorage off shore 1^ m. 
 
 PoNDiCiiERBY', — Coromandel coast; lat. 11' 56', Ion. 
 79° 54'. 7 or 8 fath., about 3 of a mile from land ; 12 
 or 14 fath. in the outer road. Mouth of a small river, 
 capable of admitting coasting craft. French posses- 
 sion ; lighthouse, 89 ft. 
 
 Maoras,- Coromandel coast; lat. 13° 5', Ion. 80° 21'. 
 Anchorage 2 m. from shore, 9, 10, or 11 futh. ; 300 
 yards fjom bench, varj'ing from 12 to 25 ft. Vessels 
 obliged to anchor 2 m. from shore, exposed to a heavy 
 swell rolling in from seaward. Surf at all times suffi- 
 cient to dash to pieces any European boat. During the 
 .S.W. monsoon no communication with the shore can 
 be held without great danger. Fort St. George, strong.
 
 MILITAIiy STATIONS— SEATS OF GOVERNMENT— SANITARIA. 513 
 
 NlXAMPATVAM, — Coromntidcl roiitft; Int. 15*^ ti^\ Ion. 
 S0° 'M'. No vessel ot prcnt biirtlieii can approach the 
 place. A eoii.sidcrable ('ousting traile. 
 
 Masui.ipatam, — Golcondtt coast ; lat. IC 10', Ion. 
 81' 13'. Very nhallow, h fath. for nearly a mile. Ships 
 must anchor 4 or 5 m. from the land, and abreaut of 
 the town. 
 
 CoiiiNOA, — Oolconda const; lat. IG" 19', Ion. fi2° 19'. 
 Bar at entrance, with I2or I 1 ft. at spririp;-tiiles. Within, 
 from 2.V to -1 fath, Ilest place on thi« coast for building 
 or repairing small vessels. 
 
 ViZAGAPATAM, — Orissa coast ; lat. 17° 11', Ion. 8:1° 21'. 
 Bar at entrance passable for vessels of from l.'>0 to 200 
 tons burthen. H or 10 ft. on bar ; anchorage off land, 
 8 fath. In the S.E. monsoon, ships anchor S. of the 
 Dolphin's Nose j in the N.E. monsoon, from li to IJ m. 
 from land. 
 
 Jugguhnath, or Pooixee, — Orissa coast; lat. 19' 49', 
 Ion. 85' by. No harbour for town. Surf here very 
 violent ; landing can be effected only by boats similar to 
 those used on tlic Coromandel coast. 
 
 Balasokk,— Orissa coast; lat. 21° :tO', Ion. 87°. 12 
 to 15 ft. on bar at .spring. tides. Large ships cannot 
 enter the river ; they must lay in Bala.sore-roads, where 
 they are in some degree sheltered. Dry docks, to which 
 vessels may be floated during spring-tides. 
 
 Kkdjkuj'.k, — Bengal; lat. 21' 5.'i', Ion. 88'.- 6 or 7 
 fath. ; a bank has reduced the depth to 2 or 2V fath. at 
 low-water. Telegraphic communication with Calcutta, 
 to announce arrivals and intelligence. 
 
 DiAMO.N'D Harbour, — Bengal; lat. 22° 12', Ion. 88^10'. 
 
 So called as a part of Ilooghly river. Formerly the 
 resort of the large *' Indiameii." 
 
 Cnn-rAOo.NO,— Bengal; lat. 22° 29', Ion. 91° 54'. For- 
 merly a place of considerable trade, but now declining j 
 other ports having sujiphintcd it. 
 
 Akvaii, — Arracan ; lat. 20° 10', Ion. 92' 54'. Good bar- 
 hour. Suited for a commercial town. 
 
 KnvouK Phvou, — Arracan; lat. 19° 24', Ion. 93° .34'. 
 Harbour said to be one of the finest in the world. Safe 
 ingress for largest-sized ships at any season of the year. 
 
 GwA, or GoA,— Arracan ; lat. 17° 33', Ion. 94° 41'. 
 Barred. Harbour for vessels of 200 tons burlhen. 
 
 Bassf.in,— Pegu; lat. lf)'45'. Ion. 94' 50'. Deep river 
 channel affords a safe pa.ssage for large ships. 
 
 Rangoon,— Pegu; lat. 16° 40', hm. 90° 17'. Anchor- 
 age off the town in river. Rangoon river, a branch of the 
 Irawaddy river. 
 
 MouLMKiN, — Tenas.scrim ; lat. 16° 30', Ion. 79' 42'. An 
 e.vcellent well-sheltered haven. Fine seaport town. 
 Forests in the neighbourhood, with other advantages 
 favourable for ship-ijuilding. 
 
 Amhekst, — Tenasserim ; lat. 16° 4', Ion. 97° 40'. Har- 
 bour large, difficult of access, and, during the S.W. 
 monsoon, dangerous. 
 
 Tavoy, — Tenasserim; lat. 14' 7', Ion. 98' 18'. Ob- 
 structed by shoals and banks. Inaccessible for large 
 ships within some miles of the town. 
 
 Mkiigui, — Tenasserim; lat. 12' 27', Ion. 98' 42'. Har- 
 bour sjiacious, secure, and easy of access and egress for 
 ships of any size. Town inaccessible for vessels of large 
 burthen, as a bank obstructs the stream. 
 
 Militarii Stations.* — 1. Apra ; 2. Ahmedabad : 3. 
 AhmedmigKur ; 4. Akyab ; 5. Allahabad; 6. AUy- 
 ghur; 7. Allypoor; 8. /Vlniora; 9. Arcot ; 10. Arnee ; 
 U. .\sseerghur ; 12. liaitool ; 13. Bareilly ; 14. Bar- 
 rackpoor ; 15. Bancoorab ; 16. Bandah ; 17. Ban<ja- 
 lore; 18. Balnier; 19. Baroda; 20. Broacli ; 21. 
 Beawr; 22. Benares; 2.'i. IJerhampoor ; 24. Bellarv; 
 25. Belgaum ; 26. Bbaf,'ulpoor ; 27. Bhooj ; 28. 
 Bhopawur; 29. Bhurtponr ; 30. Bishnatb; 31. Bom- 
 bay; 32. Burdwan ; 33. Buxar; 34. Cannanore ; 
 35. Cawiipnor; 36. Chicacole; 37. Cliinsurah ; 38. 
 Chirra-poonjee ; 39. Chittagong ; 40. Chunar; 41. 
 Cuudapah ; 42. Cuttack ; 43. Dacca; 44. Dapoolec; 
 45. Delhi; 46. Dehra; 47. Deesa; 48. Dharwar ; 
 49. Dinapoor ; 50. Dindigul ; 51. Doruiida ; 52. 
 Dumdum; 53. Durrumgaiin ; 54. Etawah ; 55. Fra- 
 zcrpett ; 56. Ft. William ; 57. Futtehghur ; 58. 
 Ghazeepoor J 59. Gonickpoor; 60. Gowhatty; 61. 
 Giirrawavra ; 62. Gwalior; 63. Hansi ; 04. Hawil- 
 Bngb ; 65. Hazareebagh ; 66. Hoosungabad ; 67. 
 Hursole ; C8. Hydrabad (Deccan); 60. Ilydrabad 
 (Sinde); 70. ICaini; 71. Khyou-phyou ; 72. Kirkee; 
 73. Kidladjee ; 74. Kurnaul ; 75. Kurrachee; 76. 
 Joiinpoor; 77. Jubbnlpoor ; 78. Jnmalpoor ; 79. 
 Lahore ; 80. Lohooghaut ; 81. Loodiana; 82. 
 Lucknow ; 83. Malligaum ; 84. IMangalore ; 85. Ma- 
 sulipatam ; 86. Mecrut; 87. Midiiapoor; 88. Mirza- 
 poor ; 89. iMhow; 90. Moradabad ; 91. Moorsheda- 
 bad ; 92. Mndduckray ; 93. Mullye ; 94. Mund- 
 laisir ; 95. Mynpnoree ; 96. Nagpoor ; 97. Nee- 
 much ; 98. Noagaum ; 99. Nussr erabad ; 100. Oota- 
 camund ; 101. I'alamcotta ; 102. Halavera ; 103. 
 Palgatcheri ; 104. Peetoragbur ; 105. Peshawur ; 
 106. Poena; 107. Poonamallee; 108. Prome ; 109. 
 Quilon; 110. Kangoon; 111. Rajkote; 112. Riis- 
 sell-Kooiidab ; 113. Samulkotta ; 114. Sattara; 115. 
 
 ■* Seats of Gorcmmenl. — 1. Agra ; 2. Bombay ; 3. Cal- 
 cutta, or Fort William ; 4. Hydrabad (Sinde) ; 5. Lahore ; 
 6. Madras, or Fort St. George. 
 
 Saugor; 116. Seerolee ; 117. Seetapoor ; 118. Se- 
 eunderabad; 119; Suliarunpoor ; 120. Seroor ; 121. 
 Shahjflianpoor; 122. Sholapoor; 123. Siihet; 124, 
 St. Thoma.s's Mt. (Ft. St. George) ; 125. Subatboo; 
 126. Sultanpoor (Benares); 127. Sultanpoor (Oude) ; 
 128. Sural; 129. Trichinopoly ; 130. Vellore ; 131. 
 Vizianagrum ; 132. Vizagapatam ; 133. Wallajahbad. 
 
 Pihiripal Native Cities. — 1. Ahmedabad ; 2. Aj- 
 mere ; 3. Amritsir ; 4. Azimghur; 5. Bandah; 6, 
 Banswarra ; 7. Bareiliy ; 8. Baroda ; 9. Beejapoor ; 
 10. Beekaneer; 11. Benares; 12. Bhawulpoor ; 13. 
 Bhooj; 14. Bhopal ; 15. Booiulce ; 16. 13urdwan; 
 17. Burranpoor; 18. Calcutta ; 19. Calpee; 20. Cud- 
 dapah ; 21. Culna ; 22. Cuttack; 23. Dacca; 24. 
 Dliolpoor ; 25. Dinajepoor ; 26. Dohud ; 27. Dut- 
 teah ; 28. Ellichpoor ; 29. Ellore ; 30. Etawah ; 31, 
 Ferozabad ; 32. Furruckabad ; 33. Futtehpoor ; 34. 
 Fyzabad ; 35. Garakota ; 36. Gayah ; 37. Goruck- 
 poor ; 38. Guntoor ; 39. Gwalior; 40. Hnrdwar; 41. 
 Hydrabad (Deccan) ; 42. Hydrabad (Sinde) ; 43. 
 Indore; 44. Kashmir; 45 Ivhatniandoo ; 46. Kola- 
 poor ; 47. Jamoo ; 48. Jansi ; 49. Jeypoor ; 50. Joud- 
 poor; 51. Lahore ; 52. Leia ; 53. Lucknow; 54. Luk- 
 kur ; 55. Madura ; 56. Midna])oor ; 57. Mittun- 
 kote ; 58. Moor.sbedabad ; 59. Muttra ; 60. Nag. 
 poor; 61. Oodeypoor; 62. Patna ; 63. Putteeala; 
 64. Rangoon ; 65. Sattara ; 66. Sikri j 67. Siihet ; 
 68. Tanjore ; 69. Trichinopoly. 
 
 Principal Maritime Stations. — 1. Akyab ; 2. Am- 
 herst ; 3. Arracan ; 4. Balasore ; o. Broach ; 6. 
 Bombay ; 7. Calcutta ; 8. Cambay ; 9. Cannanore ; 
 10. Cochin; 11. Coringa; 12. Dalhousic; 1.3. Diu ; 
 14. Kedjeree ; 15. Kurrachee ; 16. Madras ; 17. 
 Mangalore ; 18. Masulipatam ; 19. Mergui ; 20. 
 .Moulniein ; 21. Poorbunder; 22. Quilon; 23. Ra- 
 moo ; 24. Rangoon; 25. Sural; 26. Vizagapatam. 
 
 Sanitaria. — Aboo, (Mt.) ; Chunar; Darjecling; 
 Ootacamund ; Laudour ; Simla ; Mahabuhshwar ; 
 Murree (on a spur of the Suttee hills in the Hazara 
 district) ; Chumba (at the bead of the Baree Dooab.)
 
 514 
 
 LAND REVENUE, AREA, AND POPULATION 
 
 Statistical Retitrn of Land Revenue^ Area, and Population in 
 
 Districts. 
 
 Paneeput - - 
 
 Hi'sar - - - 
 
 Delhi - - - 
 
 Rohtuck- - - 
 
 Goorgaou - - 
 
 Total - 
 
 Saharunpoor - 
 Mouzufferuuggpr 
 Mcerut - - - 
 Booluiidshahur 
 Allyghur - - 
 
 Total - . 
 
 Bijnore - - - . 
 Moradabad - - 
 Budaon - - - 
 Bareilly - - - ■ 
 Shahjehanpoor 
 
 Total - • 
 
 Muttra - - 
 
 Agra - - - 
 Furruckabad 
 
 Mynpnory - 
 E taw ah - - 
 
 Total - - - 
 
 Cawnpoor - 
 Futtehpoor - 
 Hunieerpoor 
 Banda - - 
 Allahabad - 
 
 Total 
 
 Goruckpoor 
 Azimgurh - 
 Jounpoor 
 Mirzapoor - 
 Benares - - 
 Ghazeepoor 
 
 Total 
 
 S^3 
 
 538 
 653 
 568 
 300 
 1,274 
 
 3,333 
 
 1,904 
 1,138 
 1,638 
 1,576 
 1,997 
 
 8,253 
 
 3,030 
 3,484 
 2,232 
 3,563 
 2,785 
 
 15,094 
 
 1,019 
 1,143 
 2,017 
 1,344 
 1,495 
 
 7,018 
 
 2,257 
 1,617 
 997 
 1,257 
 4,003 
 
 10,131 
 
 15,714 
 6,270 
 3,431 
 5,280 
 2,296 
 5,088 
 
 38,079 
 
 
 1,269-9 
 3,2942 
 789-7 
 1,340-4 
 1,939-1 
 
 8,633-3 
 
 2,162-3 
 1,6463 
 2,200-1 
 1,823-6 
 2,153-4 
 
 9,985-7 
 
 1,900-0 
 2,698-8 
 2,401-9 
 3,119-1 
 2,308-4 
 
 12,4282 
 
 1,6134 
 1,8649 
 2,122-9 
 2,020-2 
 1,677-0 
 
 9,298-4 
 
 2,3480 
 1,5831 
 2,241-6 
 3,0096 
 2,788-7 
 
 11,9710 
 
 7,340-2 
 2,516-4 
 1,552.2 
 5,152-3 
 995-5 
 2,181-0 
 
 19,737-6 
 
 Area in 
 Acres. 
 
 812,745 
 
 2,108,279 
 
 505,320 
 
 857,885 
 
 1,241,017 
 
 5,525,246 
 
 1,383,898 
 1,053,641 
 1,408,063 
 1,167,094 
 l,378,-204 
 
 6,390,900 
 
 1,216,005 
 1,727,216 
 1,537,191 
 l,996,-2-24 
 1,477,359 
 
 7,953,995 
 
 1,032,542 
 1,193,537 
 1,358,685 
 1,292,946 
 1,073,276 
 
 5,950,986 
 
 1,502,699 
 1,013,171 
 1,434,651 
 1,926,112 
 1,784,780 
 
 7,661,413 
 
 4,697,706 
 1,610,498 
 
 993,383 
 3,297,472 
 
 637,107 
 1,395,808 
 
 12,631,974 
 
 MalgooKaree or 
 assessed land. 
 
 ^< 
 
 407,051 
 988,923 
 263,208 
 641,792 
 895,940 
 
 3,196,914 
 
 774,2.53 
 670,468 
 907,758 
 715,587 
 961,076 
 
 4,029,142 
 
 590,622 
 839,919 
 928,299 
 1,056,961 
 716,201 
 
 4,132,002 
 
 733,362 
 747,536 
 749,023 
 687,098 
 557,804 
 
 3,474,823 
 
 800,438 
 509,793 
 770,2.54 
 S46,.S31 
 971,558 
 
 3,898,874 
 
 2,232,901 
 798,707 
 573,616 
 768,296 
 420,069 
 924,884 
 
 5,718,473 
 
 Granrl Total - I 81,908 72,054-2 46,114,514 24,450,228 7,942,491 3,267,203 10,454,592 40,654,410l 14 I 
 
 3 o 
 
 261,747 
 864,099 
 76,585 
 147,18: 
 168,428 
 
 1,518,042 
 
 211,449 
 1.53,173 
 236,021 
 143,260 
 77,725 
 
 821,6-28 
 
 175,553 
 308,851 
 286,055 
 394,810 
 453,032 
 
 1,618,301 
 
 87,224 
 118,104 
 178,.345 
 114,.526 
 
 69,927 
 
 558,126 
 
 149,2.32 
 131,895 
 316,504 
 .561,281 
 247,255 
 
 1,406,167 
 
 1.268,024 
 213,729 
 
 .58,121 
 293.394 
 
 35,791 
 151,108 
 
 2,020,227 
 
 Minhaee or unas- 
 sessed land. 
 
 ^< 
 
 19,398 
 85,528 
 91,402 
 22,7.30 
 16,352 
 
 235,410 
 
 64,597 
 76,287 
 82,028 
 88,036 
 41,070 
 
 342,018 
 
 42,626 
 256,086 
 69,734 
 83,630 
 33,067 
 
 485,143 
 
 97,649 
 84,460 
 69,985 
 8,510 
 29,143 
 
 289,747 
 
 61,992 
 9,417 
 14,.531 
 82,9.34 
 28,240 
 
 197,114 
 
 160,7.32 
 41,027 
 23,497 
 1,421,412 
 29,571 
 41,632 
 
 1,717,771 
 
 
 124,549 
 169,729 
 
 74,1 
 
 46,180 
 160,-297 
 
 574,8 
 
 343,599 
 163,713 
 182,256 
 220,211 
 298,333 
 
 1,198,112 
 
 407,204 
 322,360 
 2.53,103 
 460,823 
 275,059 
 
 1,718,549 
 
 114,307 
 243,437 
 361,332 
 482,812 
 426,402 
 
 1,628,290 
 
 491,03' 
 302,066 
 333,362 
 435,066 
 537,727 
 
 2,159,268 
 
 1,036,040 
 567,035 
 3,38,149 
 814,370 
 151,676 
 278,224 
 
 3,175,503 
 
 Demand 
 on act. of 
 land re 
 
 venue 
 1851-'55 
 
 in Rs. 
 
 10 
 
 827,123 
 465,760 
 456,48" 
 631,132 
 1,047,231 
 
 3,427,736 
 
 1,064,513 
 1,107,538 
 1,693,046 
 1,056,8.35 
 1,986,136 
 
 6,907,068 
 
 1,197,695 
 1,340,312 
 1,097,329 
 1,769,610 
 1,060,318 
 
 6,466,264 
 
 1,657,283 
 1,622,980 
 1,333,011 
 1,267,079 
 1,272,086 
 
 7,152,439 
 
 2,144,075 
 1,426,205 
 1,277,864 
 1,. 591, 377 
 2,141,221 
 
 8,680,742 
 
 2,133,931 
 1,489,619 
 1,254,095 
 839,73: 
 903,3.58 
 1,600,426 
 
 8,121,161 
 
 
 U 
 
 1 3 
 
 3 6 
 
 14 5 
 
 11 9 
 
 13 6 
 
 9 11 
 
 12 4 
 
 1 10 
 I 3 3 
 
 14 6 
 
 1 7 1 
 
 1 1 
 
 13 
 12 
 U 
 14 
 11 
 
 13 
 
 1 9 9 
 
 1 5 9 
 
 15 8 
 
 15 8 
 
 1 3 
 
 1 3 3 
 
 1 6 10 
 16 6 
 14 3 
 
 13 3 
 
 1 3 2 
 
 1 1 11 
 
 7 3 
 
 14 10 
 
 1 4 2 
 
 4 1 
 
 1 6 8 
 1 1 2 
 
 10 3 
 
 JV' 
 
 iM- Retjulution Districts, from 
 
 Census of 1S47-' 
 
 48, the latest date. 
 
 Divisions. 
 
 Districts. 
 
 Area in S(j. Miles. 
 
 Population. 
 
 No. to each Sq. Mile. 
 
 . 
 
 Saugor 
 
 1,857 
 
 305,594 
 
 166 
 
 
 Dumoh 
 
 2,428 
 
 363,584 
 
 149 
 
 
 Jubbulpore 
 
 6,237 
 
 44-2,771 
 
 71 
 
 
 Seonee .... 
 
 1,459 
 
 227,070 
 
 156 
 
 Saugor and Ncrbudda 
 Territories . . . 
 
 Mundla .... 
 Hoshungabad .... 
 Baitool . . . . 
 
 6,170 
 
 1,916 
 
 990 
 
 225,092 
 
 212,641 
 
 93,111 
 
 36 
 
 1-27 
 94 
 
 
 Nursingpore .... 
 
 .501 
 
 251,486 
 
 60S 
 
 
 Jaloun 
 
 2,313 
 
 2-10,'297 
 
 106 
 
 
 Jliansi 
 
 1,394 
 
 300,000 
 
 215 
 
 
 Chundeyreo .... 
 
 556 
 
 87,260 
 
 1.57 
 
 Jawud Ncemuch . . . 
 
 Jawud Ncemuch 
 
 443 
 
 84,860 
 
 191 
 
 Nimar 
 
 Nimar, British 
 
 269 
 
 26,727 
 
 96 
 
 Ajmcro 
 
 Ajmcrc, including allMairwarra 
 
 2,891 
 
 287,290 
 
 99 
 
 Kumaon 
 
 Kumaon— Gurwhal . 
 1 
 
 11,972 
 
 605,830 
 
 50 
 
 Total, Non-Regulation Districts .... 
 
 41, .396 
 
 3,791,9.10 
 
 91
 
 ]N N0RTII--WESTE11N PROVINCES— 1852-'53. 
 
 513 
 
 the District: of Iha North Wettern Provinces, prepared 
 
 ■;» 1852-' 
 
 53. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 S3 
 
 I'UI'ULATION. 
 
 
 la 
 
 S 2 
 
 ^3, 
 
 Hiuduos. 
 
 Muhainmedaii and uthers not liinduu. 
 
 •3 
 1 
 
 
 = t 
 
 Agricultural. 
 
 Non-Agricultural. 
 
 Agricultural. 
 
 Nun-Agricultural. 
 
 % g 
 
 
 Male. 
 
 Female. 
 
 Male. 
 
 Female. 
 
 Male. 
 
 Female. 
 
 Mule. 
 
 Female. 
 
 Y, " 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 18 
 
 19 
 
 20 
 
 21 
 
 22 
 
 23 
 
 24 
 
 1 3 9 
 
 4 
 
 1 5 6 
 12 10 
 15 9 
 
 2 6 
 
 7 6 
 
 1 11 9 
 
 15 9 
 
 1 2 8 
 
 9i,;!ri0 
 
 113,971 
 
 93,U6:i 
 
 117,168 
 
 174,457 
 
 73,397 
 93,170 
 77,731 
 102,275 
 147,726 
 
 49,252 
 23,655 
 78,912 
 61,770 
 73,138 
 
 38,802 
 17,207 
 65,459 
 60,010 
 65,453 
 
 20,411 
 33,638 
 10,030 
 11,890 
 85,314 
 
 16,869 
 28,189 
 8,881 
 12,059 
 73,057 
 
 61,643 
 12,041 
 62,292 
 11,451 
 22.107 
 
 44,351 
 9,075 
 
 48.470 
 9.790 
 
 21,234 
 
 389.085 
 330,852 
 435.744 
 377.013 
 602.486 
 
 306 
 100 
 552 
 281 
 342 
 
 209 
 6-37 
 116 
 
 2-27 
 1-87 
 
 11 8 
 
 1 1 2 
 
 593,922 
 
 494,299 
 
 286,627 
 
 237,631 
 
 161,289 
 
 139,055 
 
 149,537 
 
 132,920 
 
 2.195.180 
 
 254 
 
 2-52 
 
 1 1 3 
 1 6 6 
 1 7 8 
 1 3 8 
 1 14 7 
 
 1 C 
 1 10 10 
 1 13 10 
 
 1 7 8 
 
 2 1 1 
 
 155,176 
 i:t.),17,s 
 237,105 
 182,783 
 273,368 
 
 I0n,M6 
 105,76S 
 190,680 
 152,925 
 229,145 
 
 165,789 
 133,273 
 2 15,81 1 
 154,.520 
 269,663 
 
 125,829 
 115,6.52 
 211,639 
 113,468 
 241,198 
 
 53,281 
 44,336 
 43,996 
 24,512 
 15,475 
 
 44,833 
 39,i;07 
 38,354 
 23,259 
 14,047 
 
 79,840 
 51,672 
 88,386 
 49,164 
 47,369 
 
 67,431 
 47,075 
 79,098 
 47.711 
 44,300 
 
 801.325 
 672.861 
 
 1.1.35,072 
 778.342 
 
 1.134.565 
 
 370 
 409 
 616 
 427 
 527 
 
 1-73 
 1-66 
 1-24 
 1-.50 
 1-21 
 
 1 6 9 
 
 1 U 5 
 
 983,910 
 
 787,664 
 
 969,059 
 
 837,786 
 
 181,600 
 
 160,100 
 
 316,431 
 
 285,615 
 
 1..522,165 
 
 453 
 
 1-41 
 
 1 9 
 1 2 8 
 
 14 6 
 
 1 3 6 
 14 6 
 
 2 3 2 
 19 
 1 2 11 
 1 10 9 
 1 7 8 
 
 126,819 
 273,881 
 386,(197 
 402,647 
 380,372 
 
 98,796 
 228,450 
 321,094 
 3'.)8,761 
 317,803 
 
 128,377 
 139,417 
 
 92,372 
 110,7.57 
 
 85,589 
 
 110,802 
 
 124,246 
 
 77,946 
 
 97,169 
 
 74,768 
 
 25,613 
 95,925 
 40,792 
 75,510 
 27,434 
 
 22,811 
 86,842 
 36,678 
 67,921 
 25,099 
 
 96,425 
 97,249 
 33,674 
 84,481 
 36,354 
 
 85,878 
 92,451 
 30,508 
 80,989 
 38,677 
 
 695..521 
 1.138.461 
 1,019.161 
 1,378,208 
 
 986,090 
 
 366 
 422 
 424 
 442 
 
 427 
 
 1-75 
 1-52 
 151 
 1-45 
 1-50 
 
 1 2 
 
 1 9 
 
 1,629,816 
 
 1,364,907 
 
 556,512 
 
 484,931 
 
 265,304 
 
 239,351 
 
 348,183 
 
 328,503 
 
 5,217,507 
 
 419 
 
 1-52 
 
 2 4 
 1 14 
 1 7 
 
 1 9 3 
 
 2 11 
 
 2 4 2 
 2 2 9 
 1 12 G 
 
 1 13 6 
 
 2 4 6 
 
 274,2,S5 
 315,239 
 389,191 
 317,819 
 225,376 
 
 231,893 
 256,987 
 306,376 
 271,840 
 175,991 
 
 152,4.52 
 
 177,098 
 
 i:i(),824 
 
 89,681 
 
 96,249 
 
 134,.329 
 
 146,714 
 
 IJ 0,3.58 
 
 71,738 
 
 80,542 
 
 14,004 
 13,,551 
 24,861 
 10,637 
 4,843 
 
 11,909 
 
 11,.521 
 
 20,747 
 
 9,456 
 
 4,481 
 
 23,226 
 42,533 
 41,013 
 16,738 
 12,166 
 
 20,811 
 38,318 
 41,239 
 14,802 
 11,314 
 
 862,909 
 
 1,001,961 
 
 1,064.607 
 
 832,714 
 
 610,965 
 
 535 
 537 
 501 
 412 
 364 
 
 1-20 
 119 
 1-28 
 1-.55 
 1-76 
 
 1 12 4 
 
 2 1 
 
 1,551,910 
 
 1,243,087 
 
 646,307 
 
 543,679 
 
 67,896 
 
 68,117 
 
 135,676 
 
 126,484 
 
 4,373,156 
 
 1,174,.55G 
 679,787 
 648,604 
 743.872 
 
 1.379,788 
 
 465 
 
 136 
 
 2 4 1 
 2 3 7 
 1 2 10 
 1 2 1 
 1 12 1 
 
 2 10 10 
 2 12 i) 
 1 10 7 
 
 1 14 1 
 
 2 3 3 
 
 361,396 
 195,857 
 205,018 
 258,153 
 421,873 
 
 316,720 
 108,302 
 175,086 
 232,162 
 375,459 
 
 213,925 
 127,100 
 67,863 
 105,8,35 
 208,282 
 
 193,091 
 
 121,172 
 
 60,618 
 
 97,541 
 
 194,313 
 
 10,1.58 
 14,435 
 7,595 
 11,872 
 33,454 
 
 9,7.32 
 13,571 
 
 7,084 
 11.175 
 31,8.57 
 
 36,614 
 19,904 
 13,102 
 14,298 
 69,189 
 
 32,920 
 19,440 
 12,238 
 12,836 
 55,361 
 
 600 
 428 
 245 
 247 
 495 
 
 1-28 
 1-49 
 261 
 2-59 
 1-29 
 
 1 9 11 
 
 2 3 3 
 
 1,442,297 
 
 1,207,729 
 
 723,011 
 
 666,735 
 
 77,514 
 
 73,419 
 
 143,107 
 
 132,795 
 
 4,526,607 
 
 378 
 
 1-69 
 
 9 9 
 
 1 7 6 
 1 15 9 
 
 12 6 
 
 1 15 9 
 1 6 4 
 
 15 3 
 
 1 13 10 
 
 2 3 
 
 1 1 6 
 
 2 2 5 
 1 9 11 
 
 1,184,951 
 616,084 
 442,429 
 336,134 
 220,243 
 516,593 
 
 1,082.559 
 552,356 
 378,734 
 312,986 
 197,909 
 467,738 
 
 236,681 
 120,288 
 108,690 
 193,985 
 181,768 
 231,525 
 
 212,.581 
 107,302 
 101,735 
 186,793 
 169,196 
 222,229 
 
 136,121 
 
 64,922 
 
 22,3.56 
 
 7,906 
 
 4,515 
 
 17,527 
 
 126.012 
 
 50,781 
 
 20,992 
 
 7,458 
 
 4,612 
 
 17,523 
 
 67.234 
 62,940 
 34,732 
 30,724 
 38.252 
 6.3,218 
 
 51,7.32 
 57,678 
 34,081 
 28,329 
 35, -562 
 60,061 
 
 3,087,874 
 1,6.53,251 
 1,143,749 
 1,104.315 
 8.51.757 
 1.596.324 
 
 421 
 657 
 737 
 214 
 a56 
 732 
 
 lo2 
 •97 
 •87 
 
 2-98 
 •75 
 •87 
 
 1 9 
 
 1 6 9 
 
 3,347,337 
 
 2,992,282 
 
 1,072,937 
 
 999,836 
 
 243,347 
 
 227,278 
 
 287,010 
 
 267,243[9.437.270 
 
 478 
 
 134 
 
 1 4 1 
 
 1 8 2 
 
 9,549,192 
 
 8,149,963 
 
 4,254,453 
 
 3,770,498 
 
 996,950 
 
 897,320 
 
 1.379,941 
 
 1,273.660 
 
 130271885 
 
 42a 
 
 ^62 
 
 Bombay — Population. 
 
 Districts. 
 
 Hindoos. 
 
 Ahmedabad . . 
 
 Kaira 
 
 Broach .... 
 
 Surat 
 
 Taimah .... 
 
 Caiuieish .... 
 
 Uoiubay aiul ('ulaba 
 Islaud.s. including 
 City <>t" Bombay . 
 
 Tuoiiali .... 
 
 Ahmeduuggur . . 
 
 Sholapoor . . . 
 
 Kutnagherry . . 
 
 Uelgaum .... 
 
 Uharwar .... 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 363,980 
 289,060 
 1-22,.52S 
 256,535 
 640.821 
 566.56: 
 
 296,931 
 
 514,.596 
 722,818 
 427,501 
 549,960 
 543,762 
 357,055 
 
 Wild 
 
 Trii.fS, 
 
 129,363 
 
 182.138 
 
 81,429 
 
 131,728 
 
 83,413 
 
 83,725 
 
 38,470 
 67,910 
 12,170 
 90 
 58,631 
 44,909 
 
 5.652.109 913,976 
 
 Low 
 
 Castes. 
 
 61,402 
 48,806 
 23,570 
 34,317 
 70.099 
 68,622 
 
 8,007 
 
 70.347 
 131,0.59 
 86,148 
 61 ,093 
 76.375 
 46,158 
 
 782,003 
 
 Shraw- 
 iiiks. 
 
 Liugayetsi 
 
 32,766 
 7,010 
 3,583 
 
 10,687 
 1,468 
 4.154 
 
 1,902 
 
 2,780 
 13,607 
 
 4,.331 
 
 675 
 
 35.977 
 
 9,658 
 
 128.798 
 
 3.204 
 
 24 
 
 2.354 
 4,078 
 
 8,871 
 
 8,299 
 
 83,529 
 
 5,381 
 
 235,729 
 
 213,978 
 
 09,275 
 53,541 
 57.272 
 46,608 
 39.624 
 50,879 
 
 124.155 
 
 24.604 
 51,520 
 61,202 
 46,023 
 72,322 
 82,239 
 
 665,447 , 779,264 
 
 Parsce: 
 
 156 
 
 8 
 
 2,552 
 
 12,663 
 
 2,213 
 
 2o 
 
 114,698 
 
 107 
 65 
 18 
 19 
 35 
 7 
 
 132,.563 
 
 2,440 
 4 
 
 1.132 
 
 3 
 
 29 
 
 3,608 
 
 Chris- 
 tiaiis. 
 
 Grand TotaL 
 
 77 
 
 650,223 
 
 71 
 
 580,631 
 
 26 
 
 290,984 
 
 146 
 
 492,684 
 
 32.138 
 
 874,570 
 
 63 
 
 778,112 
 
 19,294 
 
 666,119 
 
 228 
 
 666.006 
 
 307 
 
 995.58.5 
 
 16 
 
 675.115 
 
 1,968 
 
 66.5J38 
 
 3,051 
 
 1.0-25.882 
 
 381 
 
 754.385 
 
 57.766 
 
 9,015^34
 
 516 
 
 POPULATION OF MADRAS AND CALCUTTA. 
 
 
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 Square 
 
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 7. Bellary . . 
 
 8. Cuddapah . 
 
 9. Chineleput . 
 
 10. North Arcot 
 
 11. South Arcot . 
 
 12. Salem . . . 
 
 13. Tanjore . . 
 
 14. Trichinopoly 
 
 15. Madura . , 
 
 16. Tinnevelly . 
 
 17. Coimbatoor . 
 
 18. Canara . . 
 
 19. Malabar . . 
 
 20. Kurnool . . 
 
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 BRITISH TERRITORIES UNDER THE BENGAL rRESIUENCY. 517 
 
 
 Arcii, 
 
 
 Dintricts. 
 
 Snuuru 
 MilcB. 
 
 I'upulatioa. 
 
 DKNGAL. 
 
 
 
 Jessore — • 
 
 
 
 Jessore .... 
 
 3,512 
 
 381,744 
 
 24 l'erf,'unnahs 
 
 1,1 S(i 
 
 288,000 
 
 Hurihvaii 
 
 2,224 
 
 1,804,102 
 
 llcc-lv. 
 
 2,0.S!I 
 
 1,020,840 
 
 Nuddi.'a 
 
 2,012 
 
 298,736 
 
 liaiicoorah 
 
 1,476 
 
 480,000 
 
 Burasel .... 
 
 1,424 
 
 522,000 
 
 
 14,803 
 
 5,345,472 
 
 7th(iit(/iil/>(>t'e — 
 
 
 
 l!liauf;id|KU-e . 
 
 0,806 
 
 2.000,000 
 
 Dinajporc 
 
 3,820 
 
 1,200,000 
 
 Mun^jlivr 
 
 2,558 
 
 800,000 
 
 I'oonu'ali 
 
 5,878 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 'i'iilioot .... 
 
 7,402 
 
 2,400,000 
 
 Maldali .... 
 
 1,000 
 
 431,000 
 
 
 26,464 
 
 8,431,000 
 
 CiUtack— 
 
 
 
 Cuttack with Pooree: — 
 
 
 
 Cuttack. . . .'i.OOl 1 
 Poorec . . . 1,768/ 
 
 4,829 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 Balasoie 
 
 1,876 
 
 506,395 
 
 Midnapore and Hidgellee 
 
 5,029 
 
 606,328 
 
 Koordah 
 
 930 
 
 571,160 
 
 
 12,664 
 
 2,793,883 
 
 Moorshedahad — 
 
 
 
 Moorshedabad 
 
 1,850 
 
 1,010,000 
 
 Uagooraii 
 
 2,160 
 
 900,000 
 
 llungpore 
 
 4,130 
 
 2,009,000 1 
 
 Kajsliahyc 
 
 2,081 
 
 071,000 
 
 Pubiia .... 
 
 2,606 
 
 600,000 
 
 Beerbhoom . 
 
 4,730 
 
 1,040,876 
 
 
 17,566 
 
 6,815,876 
 
 Dacca — 
 
 
 
 Dacca .... 
 
 1,060 
 
 600,000 
 
 l''unced])ore, Dacca Je- 1 
 lalpoi'c . . J 
 
 2,002 
 
 855,000 
 
 MvmeiisiMg . 
 
 4,712 
 
 1,487,000 
 
 Sylhet, including Jyntea 
 
 8,424 
 
 380,000 
 
 Bakurgunge, including 1 
 Deccau Shabazpore. J 
 
 3,794 
 
 733,800 j 
 
 
 20,942 
 
 4,055,800 
 
 Patna— 
 
 
 
 Shahabad 
 
 3,721 
 
 1,600,000 
 
 I'atna .... 
 
 1,828 
 
 1,200,000 
 
 Beluu- .... 
 
 5,694 
 
 2,500,000 
 
 Saiun, with Chumparan 
 
 2,560 
 
 1,700,000 
 
 
 13,803 
 
 7,000,000 
 
 (Jhdtngong — 
 
 
 
 Cliittagong 
 
 2,500 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 Tippcrah aud 1 
 BuUoah J 
 
 4,850 
 
 r 800,900 
 1 600,000 
 
 
 7,410 
 
 2,400,950 
 
 Saui/or and Xerbudda— 
 
 
 
 Jidoun and the Pergun- 1 
 iialis ceded by Jhaiisie J 
 
 
 
 l,8i3 
 
 176,297 
 
 Saugor .... 
 
 1,857 
 
 305,594 1 
 
 Jubbuli)ore . 
 
 6,237 
 
 442,771 i 
 
 lioshungabad 
 
 1,916 
 
 242,641 . 
 
 
 Area, 
 
 
 Districts. 
 
 Squuro 
 Mile<. 
 
 Populutioa. 
 
 
 
 Sconce .... 
 
 1 ,459 
 
 227,070 
 
 Dunioli .... 
 
 2,428 
 
 363,584 
 
 Nursingijore . 
 
 001 
 
 204,486 
 
 BaitDoI .... 
 
 990 
 
 93,441 
 
 British Maliairwarrah 
 
 282 
 
 37,710 
 
 
 15,670 
 
 1,967,302 
 
 Vis-Snllfij— 
 
 
 
 Unitiallali 
 
 293 
 
 67,134 
 
 Loodianali, includ.Wudni 
 
 720 
 
 120,898 
 
 Kythul and Ladwa 
 
 1,538 
 
 101,805 
 
 Ferozepore . 
 
 97 
 
 10,890 
 
 
 369,727 
 
 Territory lately belong- "1 
 ing to Seik chiefij. J 
 
 1,906 
 4,559 
 
 249,686 
 
 North-Hast Frontier (As- 
 
 
 
 som) — 
 
 
 
 Cossva Hills . 
 
 729 
 
 10,935 
 
 Cachar . . . . 
 
 4,000 
 
 60,000 
 
 
 4,729 
 
 
 Caniroop, Lower 2,788 "i 
 
 — 
 
 300,000 
 
 Nowgong, do. . 4,160 > 
 
 8,948 
 
 70,000 
 
 Uurrung, do. . 2,000 J 
 
 — 
 
 80,000 
 
 Joorhat (Seeb- 
 
 
 
 I)oor) Upper . 2,905 
 
 — 
 
 200,000 
 
 Lucikmpoor, do. 2,900 ^ 
 
 12,857 
 
 30,000 
 
 Sudiva, including 
 
 
 
 .Mutruck . . 6,942 J 
 
 — 
 
 30,000 
 
 
 21,805 
 
 780,935 
 
 Goalnara 
 
 3,506 
 
 400,000 
 
 Arracan 
 
 15,104 
 
 321,522 
 
 Tenasserim, Tavov, Ye, . 
 
 29,168 
 
 115,431 
 
 Pegu 
 
 no 
 
 returns. 
 
 Sout?i- If'est Frontier — 
 
 
 
 Sumbuli)ore . 
 
 4,693 
 
 800,000 
 
 Kanigurh or Uazarcebah 
 
 8,524 
 
 372,216 
 
 Loliur-jChota Nagpore i 
 dugga (and Palamow j 
 
 5,3081 
 3,468 i 
 
 482,900 
 
 Singbhoom . 
 
 2,944 
 
 200,000 
 
 Maunbhoon,{|;-|;-„^ 
 
 4,792\ 
 860/ 
 
 772,340 
 
 
 30,589 
 
 2,627,456 
 
 The Punjauh, inclusive of 
 
 
 
 the Julundur Doab and 
 
 
 
 Koolo territory — 
 
 
 
 Lahore . . i 
 
 
 
 Ihelum 
 
 
 
 Mooltan 
 
 
 
 Leia . . . ! 
 
 78,447 
 
 4,100,983 
 
 Peshawur . 
 
 
 
 lluzara and Kohat j 
 
 
 
 The Sunderbunds — 
 
 
 
 Mouths of Ganges. 
 
 6,500 
 
 unknown. 
 
 Total, Bengal . 
 
 325,652 
 
 47.958,320 
 
 NOKTH -WEST. PROV. 
 
 
 
 Delhi— 
 
 
 
 Pauecput 
 
 ! 1,279 
 
 283,42C
 
 518 NOUTH WEST PROVINCES— MADRAS, BOMBAY, AND SINDE. 
 
 Districts. 
 
 Hurreeanah . 
 Delhi . 
 Khotuck 
 Goorgaon 
 
 Meertit — 
 
 Sahanir.poor . 
 Moziiffernuggur 
 Meerut . 
 Boolundshuhur 
 Allygurh 
 
 Hohilcund — • 
 Bijnour . 
 Moradabad . 
 Budaon . 
 
 Bareilly and Pillibheet 
 Shajehanpore 
 
 Agra- — 
 'Muttra . 
 Agra . 
 Furruckabad 
 Mynpoorie 
 Etawah . 
 
 Allahabad — 
 Cawnpore 
 Futtehpoj-e . 
 Humeerpore and Calpee 
 Banda . . . . 
 Allahabad 
 
 Benares — 
 
 Goruckpore 
 
 Azimghur 
 
 Jounpore 
 
 Mirzapore 
 
 Benares . 
 
 Ghazepore 
 
 The Butty Territory, in-l 
 eluding Wuttoo. J 
 
 Perguiinali of Kote Kasim 
 
 JauMsar ai.d Bawur . 
 
 Jjeyrah Dhoon . 
 
 Kumaon (including Ghur- 1 
 
 wal. ... J 
 
 Ajnieer . . . . 
 
 British iSimaur . 
 
 Total, N. "W. Provinces 
 
 Area, 
 Squaru 
 Jliles. 
 
 3,300 
 
 602 
 
 1,340 
 
 1,942 
 
 8,463 
 
 2,165 
 1,617 
 2,332 
 1,855 
 2,149 
 
 10,118 
 
 1,904 
 2,967 
 2,368 
 2,937 
 
 2,483 
 
 12,659 
 
 1,607 
 1,860 
 1,909 
 2,009 
 1,674 
 
 9,059 
 
 2,337 
 1,583 
 2,240 
 2,878 
 2,801 
 
 Population. 
 
 225,086 
 306,550 
 294,119 
 460,326 
 
 1,569,501 
 
 547,353 
 537,594 
 860,736 
 699,393 
 739,356 
 
 3,384,432 
 
 620,546 
 
 997,362 
 
 825,712 
 
 1,143,657 
 
 812,588 
 
 4,399,865 
 
 701,688 
 828,220 
 854,799 
 639,809 
 481,224 
 
 3,505,740 
 
 993,031 
 511,132 
 452,091 
 552,526 
 710,263 
 
 11,839 j 3,219,043 
 
 7,346 I 
 
 2,520 I 
 1.552 I 
 5,235 I 
 994 I 
 2,187 1 
 
 2,376,533 
 
 1,313,950 
 
 798,503 
 
 831,388 
 
 741,426 
 
 1,059,287 
 
 19,834 I 7,121,087 
 
 3,017 
 
 112,274 
 
 70 
 
 13,767 
 
 579 
 
 24,684 
 
 673 
 
 32,083 
 
 6,!»G2 
 
 166,755 
 
 2,029 
 
 224,891 
 
 269 
 
 25,727 
 
 13,599 
 
 600,181 
 
 Districts. 
 
 Area, 
 Squiire 
 Miles. 
 
 MADRAS. ' 
 
 Rajahniundry . 
 
 Masulipatam 
 
 Guntoor, including Palnaud 
 
 Nellore .... 
 
 Chingleput 
 
 Madras, included in Chin- \ 
 
 gleput. J 
 
 Arcot, South Division, in- 1 
 
 eluding Cuddalore. J 
 
 Arcot, North Division, in- "I 
 
 eluding Consooddy. j 
 Bellary .... 
 Cuddapah .... 
 Salem, including Vomun- i 
 
 door and MuUapandy. j 
 Coinibatore 
 Trichinopoly 
 
 Tanjore, including Najore 
 Madura, including Dindigul 
 Tinnivelly . 
 Malabar . 
 Canara 
 
 Gangaiu . 
 Vizagapatam 
 Kurnool . 
 
 Total, Madras 
 
 L;ur, including 
 Sub-toliector- 
 
 85,571 I 23,800,549 
 
 BOMBAY. 
 
 Sural 
 Broach 
 ."Vhrnedabad 
 Kaira 
 Kandeish . 
 Tan n ah 
 Poonah 
 Ahmedniig 
 
 Nassick 
 
 ale. J 
 
 Shoiapore .... 
 Belgaum . . . . 
 Dharwar . . . . 
 Rutnaghcrry 
 Bombay Island, including i 
 
 Colaba Island. J 
 
 Sattara .... 
 Colaba . . . . 
 
 (Shikaporo 
 Sinde -JHydrabad 
 
 ( Kurrachee . 
 
 6,050 
 5,000 
 4,960 
 7,930 
 2,993 
 
 7,600 
 
 5,790 
 
 13,056 
 12,970 
 
 Population. 
 
 1,012,036 
 520,860 
 570,089 
 935,690 
 583,462 
 
 720,000 
 1,006,005 
 
 1,485,873 
 
 1,229,599 
 1,451,921 
 
 8,200 
 
 1,195,377 
 
 8,280 
 
 1,153,862 
 
 3,243 
 
 709,196 
 
 3,900 
 
 1,676.086 
 
 9,535 
 
 1,756,791 
 
 5,700 
 
 1,269,216 
 
 6.060 
 
 1,514,909 
 
 7,720 
 
 1,056,333 
 
 118,987 ! 19,847,305 
 
 6,400 
 7,650 
 2,643 
 
 135,680 
 
 1,629 
 1,319 
 4,356 
 1,869 
 9,311 
 5,477 
 5,298 
 
 9,931 
 
 4,991 
 5,405 
 3,837 
 3,964 
 
 18 
 
 10,222 
 
 318 
 
 6,120 
 
 30,000 
 
 16.000 
 
 926,9.30 
 
 1,254,272 
 
 273,190 
 
 22,301,697 
 
 Total, Bombay . 120,065 11,109,067 
 
 492,684 
 290,984 
 650,223 
 580,631 
 778,112 
 81 5,84 !» 
 666,006 
 
 995,585 
 
 675.115 
 
 1.025,8-82 
 754,385 
 065,238 
 
 560,119 
 
 1,005,771 
 
 58,721 
 
 350,401 
 
 551,811 
 
 ]S5,.550 
 
 Total, Madras and Bombay | 255,745 I 33,410,764 
 
 The foregoing districts arc under the sole control of the British government ; the suc- 
 ceeding tables exhibit the locality, area, population, rcventic, subsidy or tribute paid 
 by, and military resources of, each of the protected and subsidiary native states ; several 
 of these, liowevcr — Mysore, for instance — are entirely under our gov^'mnicut, aUliougli 
 the administration is carried on iu the name of tlie legitimate sovereign.
 
 TABULAll VIEW OP THE TRIBUTARY AND PROTECTED STATES. 519 
 
 Native Slates, not under direct Rule, but within the limits of Political 
 
 Supremacy. ' 
 
 
 Name. 
 
 Locality. 
 
 Area, 
 
 Popula- 
 
 Revenue. 
 
 Annual 
 Subsidy, 
 Tribute, 
 
 Military Rcsourcct." 
 
 in square 
 
 . ■ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 nnlcM. 
 
 
 
 or other 
 payment. 
 
 Artil- 
 lery. 
 
 Cavalry. 
 
 Infan- 
 try. 
 
 Bengal. 
 
 
 
 
 Rupees, 
 
 Rupees. 
 
 
 
 
 Alice Mohun or Kajpoor Al 
 
 Cent. In. (Malwa) 
 
 703 
 
 69,384 
 
 35,000 
 
 12,000 
 
 — 
 
 30 
 
 100 
 
 Amjlicrru .... 
 
 Do. . . 
 
 flSl 
 
 67,232 
 
 100,000 
 
 35,000 
 
 — 
 
 400 
 
 604 
 
 buhaUuorgurU . . | 
 
 N.W. ProT. (adja- 
 cent tu Delhi dist. 
 
 1 .8 
 
 14,400 
 
 130,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 70 
 
 80 
 
 Berar {vide Nagpoor). 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bhuwlj)oro 
 
 Cis-Sutlej . 
 
 20,003 
 
 600,000 
 
 1,400,000 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 3,127 
 
 10,048 
 
 lihopal^ .... 
 
 Cent. In. (Mahvo) 
 
 C,7(il 
 
 603,'i5G 
 
 2,200,000 
 
 — 
 
 117 
 
 442 
 
 2,457 
 
 Blivirtpore . . ] 
 
 Cent. In. (adjacent 
 to city of Agra) 
 
 1,978 
 
 600,000 
 
 1,700,000 
 
 — 
 
 200 
 
 1,500 
 
 3,700 
 
 Doriu {vitU Jabooa). 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bullubgurh 
 
 N.W. ProT. (adja- 
 cent to Delhi d.st. 
 
 lyo 
 
 57,000 
 
 100,000 
 
 — 
 
 ~ 
 
 100 
 
 350 
 
 Bundlecund — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 „ Adjyghur . 
 
 C. In. (Bundlecund) 
 
 3Ki 
 
 45,000 
 
 325,000 
 
 7,7.:o 
 
 18 
 
 200 
 
 1,200 
 
 „ AUypoora . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 85 
 
 9,000 
 
 45,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 75 
 
 „ Uandu 
 
 Ditto 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 . 
 
 69 
 
 167 
 
 207 
 
 „ Behree 
 
 Ditto . ' . 
 
 30 
 
 2,500 
 
 23,000 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 25 
 
 100 
 
 Bchut 
 
 Ditto 
 
 1.5 
 
 2,.5(10 
 
 15,.500 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 60 
 
 „ Beniunda . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 275 
 
 24,000 
 
 46,000 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 40 
 
 200 
 
 „ Baonce 
 
 Ditto 
 
 127 
 
 18,800 
 
 100,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 50 
 
 300 
 
 „ BiiyHcmda . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 S 
 
 2,000 
 
 9,000 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 11 
 
 125 
 
 „ Bijawur 
 
 Ditto 
 
 920 
 
 90,000 
 
 225,000 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 100 
 
 UOO 
 
 „ Bijna . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 27 
 
 2,800 
 
 8,000 
 
 " — 
 
 2 
 
 15 
 
 125 
 
 „ Chirkarce . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 880 
 
 81,000 
 
 460,8.30 
 
 9,484 
 
 30 
 
 300 
 
 1,0()0 
 
 „ Chutterporu 
 
 Ditto 
 
 1,240 
 
 120,000 
 
 300,000 
 
 ■ — 
 
 10 
 
 100 
 
 1,000 
 
 „ Uuttcah 
 
 Ditto 
 
 «oO 
 
 120,000 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 _ 
 
 80 
 
 1,000 
 
 5,000 
 
 „ Uoorwac . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 18 
 
 3,000 
 
 16,000 
 
 — . 
 
 — 
 
 8 
 
 230 
 
 „ Gurowleo . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 50 
 
 6,000 
 
 14,000 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 35 
 
 257 
 
 „ Gorihar 
 
 Ditto 
 
 76 
 
 7,500 
 
 65.000 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 60 
 
 225 
 
 „ Jignee 
 
 Ditto 
 
 27 
 
 2,800 
 
 15,000 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 19 
 
 51 
 
 „ Jusso 
 
 Ditto 
 
 180 
 
 24.000 
 
 13,000 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 60 
 
 „ Jhansi 
 
 Ditto 
 
 2,532 
 
 200,000 
 
 611,980 
 
 74,000 
 
 40 
 
 200 
 
 3,000 
 
 „ Kainpta 
 
 Ditto 
 
 1 
 
 .■;oo 
 
 1,500 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 . — 
 
 — 
 
 Logaseo 
 
 Ditto 
 
 29 
 
 3,500 
 
 12,680 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 14 
 
 40 
 
 „ Mukrce 
 
 Ditto 
 
 10 
 
 l.CuO 
 
 6,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 „ Nowagaon or ) 
 Nygowan J 
 
 Ditto 
 
 10 
 
 1,800 
 
 9,100 
 
 — 
 
 4 
 
 12 
 
 100 
 
 „ Nyagaon 
 
 ,, Oorcha or Tehree 
 
 Ditto 
 
 30 
 
 5,000 
 
 10,600 
 
 _ 
 
 — 
 
 7 
 
 100 
 
 Ditto 
 
 ■2,160 
 
 192,000 
 
 701,000 
 
 — 
 
 100 
 
 627 
 
 7.283 
 
 „ I'unna 
 
 Ditto 
 
 ■ 688 
 
 67,500 
 
 400,000 
 
 10,000 
 
 18 
 
 250 
 
 3,000 
 
 „ Paharee or Puliaree 
 
 Ditto 
 
 4 
 
 800 
 
 800 
 
 
 
 
 
 .— 
 
 50 
 
 Puhrah . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 10 
 
 1,600 
 
 8,000 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 4 
 
 99 
 
 Paldeo 
 
 Ditto 
 
 28 
 
 3,500 
 
 21,000 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 10 
 
 60 
 
 „ Poorwa 
 
 Ditto 
 
 12 
 
 1,800 
 
 9,500 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 5 
 
 40 
 
 „ Sumpthur . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 175 
 
 28,000 
 
 450,000 
 
 — 
 
 45 
 
 300 
 
 4,000 
 
 „ Surchlah . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 35 
 
 4,500 
 
 4.5,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 25 
 
 75 
 
 „ Tohrec Futteporc 
 
 Ditto 
 
 36 
 
 6,000 
 
 36,830 
 
 2,650 
 
 12 
 
 20 
 
 251 
 
 „ Taraon or Turaon 
 
 Ditto 
 
 12 
 
 2,000 
 
 10,000 
 
 — 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 40 
 
 Burwanee .... 
 
 Cent. In. (Malwa) 
 
 1,380 
 
 13,800 
 
 30,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 25 
 
 60 
 
 Caaliuiere (Gholab Sing's 
 Dominions) . 
 
 Punjab . 
 
 25,123 
 
 750,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1,200 
 
 1,972 
 
 20,418 
 
 Cooch Behar 
 
 Cossya and Garrow Hills— 
 
 N. E. frontier, Ben- 
 gal • 
 
 1 1,301 
 
 136,400 
 
 132,000 
 
 66,000 
 
 — 
 
 342 
 
 108 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The Garrows . 
 
 
 / 2,268 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ram Rye 
 
 
 323 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 K ustung 
 
 
 300 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Muriow . 
 
 
 28:i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Wolyong 
 
 Ditto 
 
 / 110 
 
 , 65,205 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 2,282 
 
 M ah ram 
 
 
 102 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Osimla . 
 
 
 350 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Kvrim, and other petty 
 Chiefs . . ) 
 
 
 4SG 
 
 J 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 iS'otes. — * Some of these states are protected ami tributary, others protected but not tributary ; scTersl, under sub- 
 sidiary allianc??, arc bound to maintain a body of troops in readiness, when required, to co-operate with the British army ; 
 a few small states nrc jjrotcrtL'd by England, but tributary t<t larger states. Nepaul is not protected, trilmtarj-, or 
 subsidiary, but the rajah is bound by treaty to abide in certain cx^es by the decision of the British government, and, 
 like all the other rulers, prohibited from retaininij in his service subjects of any European or American state. 
 
 ' In some states the troops are olhcered by Europeans from the British army ; in many there are police corps nnd 
 irregular feudal forces — corresi>onding in some measure to our militia. In scTcral instances there is a road police, &nd 
 an organized corps for the collection of the revenue. 
 
 =* Under the treaty of 1S18 the Nabob was to furnish a contingent force of 600 cavalry and 400 infantry ; but in 
 1824 the num'jcrs were reduced to 2j0 cavalry, 52-' infantry, and 48 artillery, and placed under European command. 
 The contingent is excluiive of the Nabob's trot.ps. There is also a feudal f-irce. consisting of 30 artillcr)-, 'JOO cavalry, 
 pnd 1,000 iniwiiVry .^[Statistical Papers relatimj to India, laid before Variiamt^nt^ \^oi.\
 
 520 TABULAR VIEW OF THE TRIBUTARY AND PROTECTED STATES. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Annual 
 
 
 
 
 
 Area, 
 
 Popula- 
 tion. 
 
 
 Subsidy, 
 
 Military Resources. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Loeality. 
 
 in square 
 
 Revenue. 
 
 Tribute, 
 
 
 
 
 
 miles. 
 
 
 or other 
 payment. 
 
 Artil- 
 lery. 
 
 Cavalry. 
 
 Infan- 
 
 Bengal — ccmtinued 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cuttack Mehals — 
 
 
 
 
 Rupees. 
 
 Rupees. 
 
 
 
 
 „ Angool 
 
 . 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1,550 
 
 — 
 
 5,000 
 
 „ Autf^ur 
 
 • 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 6,718 
 
 — 
 
 1,500 
 
 „ Banky . 
 
 • 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 
 4,162 
 
 — 
 
 1,500 
 
 „ Berumbah 
 
 . • 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1,310 
 
 — 
 
 1,.300 
 
 „ Dhenkanaul . 
 
 > 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 4,780 
 
 — 
 
 7,000 
 
 „ Hindole 
 
 * . 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 516 
 
 — . 
 
 250 
 
 ,, Kundiapurra 
 
 * • . . 
 
 ■ 7,605 
 
 346,275 
 
 — 
 
 3,948 
 
 — 
 
 2,000 
 
 „ Neelgur 
 
 . 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 3,617 
 
 — 
 
 oOO 
 
 „ Nursingpore 
 
 Cuttack, in the 
 • prov. of Orissa. 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1,364 
 
 — 
 
 1,500 
 
 „ Nyaghur 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 5,179 
 
 — 
 
 7,000 
 
 ,, Kunpoor 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1,313 
 
 — 
 
 1,500 
 
 „ Talchur 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 974 
 
 — 
 
 500 
 
 „ Tiggreah 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 826 
 
 — 
 
 300 
 
 „ Autmallik . 
 
 
 648 
 
 29,160 
 
 — 
 
 450 
 
 — 
 
 500 
 
 „ Boad . 
 
 
 1,377 
 
 61,965 
 
 ^ 
 
 750 
 
 — 
 
 2,000 
 
 „ DiispulJa 
 
 . 
 
 162 
 
 7,290 
 
 — 
 
 620 
 
 — 
 
 500 
 
 „ Koonjerry . 
 
 
 5,022 
 
 225,990 
 
 — 
 
 2,790 
 
 — 
 
 15,000 
 
 „ Monurbunge 
 
 
 2,025 
 
 91,125 
 
 i 
 
 1,001 
 
 — 
 
 8,000 
 
 Deojana . 
 
 North- West Provs. 
 (near Delhi dist.) 
 
 71 
 
 6,390 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 50 
 
 150 
 
 Dewas .... 
 
 Cent. In. (Malwa) 
 
 256 
 
 25,088 
 
 400,400 
 
 — 
 
 — , 
 
 175 
 
 500 
 
 Dhar 
 
 Do. . 
 
 1,070 
 
 104,860 
 
 475,000 
 
 — 
 
 47 
 
 '254 
 
 798 
 
 Dholpore ... 
 
 Hindostan (banks 
 ofChumbul). 
 
 1,626 
 
 550,000 
 
 700,000 
 
 — 
 
 40 
 
 177 
 
 1,600 
 
 Furruckabad . 
 
 North- West Provs. 
 (Lower Dooab). 
 
 _ 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 lOS 
 
 294 
 
 Furrucknuggiir . 
 
 North-West Provs. 
 (adjacentto Delhi). 
 
 22 
 
 4,400 
 
 — 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 25 
 
 Gholab Sing's Dominions, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 vide Cashmere. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Gwalior (Scindia's Pos.)* 
 
 Central India 
 
 .33,119 
 
 3,228,512 
 
 6,000,000 
 
 1,800,000 
 
 314 
 
 0,548 
 
 2,760 
 
 Hill States— 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cis-Sutlej— 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bhagul 
 
 Bujee or Beejee . 
 
 Northern In. (Cis- 
 Sutlej) 
 
 100 
 70 
 
 40,000 
 
 50,000 
 
 3,600 
 
 — 
 
 3,000 
 
 Ditto 
 
 25,000 
 
 30,000 
 
 1,440 
 
 — 
 
 1,000 
 
 Bejah . . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 5 
 
 3,000 
 
 4,000 
 
 ISO 
 
 — 
 
 200 
 
 Bulsun 
 
 Ditto 
 
 64 
 
 5,000 
 
 6,000 
 
 1,080 
 
 — 
 
 500 
 
 Bussahir 
 
 Ditto 
 
 3,000 
 
 150,000 
 
 150,000 
 
 15,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 1 300 
 
 Dhamie 
 
 Ditto 
 
 25 
 
 3,000 
 
 3,500 
 
 720 
 
 — 
 
 100 
 
 Dhoorcatty . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 5 
 
 200 
 
 400 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Gliurwal . 
 
 Ditio 
 
 4,500 
 
 100,000 
 
 100.000 
 
 . — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Hindoor or Nalagarh 
 
 Ditto 
 
 233 
 
 20,000 
 
 80,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 30a 
 
 Joobul 
 
 Ditto 
 
 330 
 
 15,000 
 
 14,1.30 
 
 2,520 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Kothar 
 
 Ditto 
 
 12 
 
 4,000 
 
 7,000 
 
 1,080 
 
 — 
 
 400 
 
 Koonyhar . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 12 
 
 2,500 
 
 3,500 
 
 ISO 
 
 — 
 
 — 1 200 
 2,690 
 
 Keonthul . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 272 
 
 26,000 
 
 33,500 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Konmharsiu 
 
 Ditto 
 
 56 
 
 12,000 
 
 10,000 
 
 1,440 
 
 — 
 
 1,000 
 
 Kiihloor . . . Ditto . .j 
 
 150 
 
 32,250 
 
 110,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 1 400 
 
 Mangul 
 
 Ditto 
 
 15 
 
 1,000 
 
 1,000 
 
 72 
 
 — 
 
 50 
 
 Jluhlog 
 
 Ditto 
 
 50 
 
 13,000 
 
 10,000 
 
 1,440 
 
 . — 
 
 500 
 
 Mance Majrah . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 80 
 
 16,7'20 
 
 00,00(1 
 
 — . 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Sirmoor or Nahun 
 
 Ditto 
 
 1,075 
 
 62,350 
 
 100,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 400 
 
 Hill States— 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Trans-Sutlej — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mundi 
 
 JuUunder Dooab . 
 
 759 
 
 113,091 
 
 3.50 000 
 
 
 . — 
 
 — 
 
 500 
 
 Sonkeit 
 
 Ditto . 
 
 174 
 
 25,926 
 
 80,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 300 
 
 Holcar's Vm.,ivide Indore). 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Hyderabad (Nizam's do- ) 
 minions* . . J 
 Indore (Holcar's Pos.) 
 
 Hindostan . 
 
 95,337 
 
 10,066,080 
 
 15,500,000 
 
 3,500,000' 
 
 — 
 
 4,521 
 
 12,369 
 
 Cent. Ind. (Malwa) 
 
 8,318 
 
 815,164 
 
 2217,210 
 
 
 642 
 
 3,145 
 
 3,821 < 
 
 Is'otes. — * The revenues of Gwalior amount to 60 lacs of rupees per annum, exclusive of the districts assigned fox 
 the paymont of the contingent force (18 lacs of rupees). The contingent consists of 8,401 men, commanded by British 
 officers The military force of the Maharajah, exclusive of the contingent, is not to exceed 9,000 men. 
 
 ' In addition to those troops the Niztim maintains an irregular force, composed of Arabs, Sikhs, Turks, &e., amounting 
 to 9,811 men. The State is itlso entitled to the services of 4,7-iO nrmcd retainers, maintained by the Feudal (.'liiefs from 
 revenues assigned by the Government for their support. The total military force of Hyderabad comprises tive separate 
 bodies, viz.: — 1. British Subsidiary Force, 10,G'28. 2. Nizam's Auxiliary Force, 8,094. 3. Nizam's Irregulars, 16,890. 
 4. Force of Feudal Chiefs, 4,749. 5. Miscellaneous Force of Arabs, Sikhs, Turks, &c , 9,811. Total, o0,172. Under the 
 Treaty of 1800, the Nizam's Contingent was to consist of 6,000 infantry and 9,000 cavalry; but the Anxiliarij Force, 
 organized untbtr British officers, and paid by the Nizam, has been substituted for the Contingent, and consists of 8,094 
 cavalry, infantry, and artillery. The British subsidiary force amounts to 10,628 artillery, cavalry, and infantry. 
 
 * The cost of the Nizam's Auxiliary Force. 
 
 * This force is inclusive of the contingent of cavalry, which Holcar is bound to furnish. This prince contributes 
 11,000 rupees per annum towards the maintenance of the Malwa Bhcelcorps, and also a further sum in aid of the United 
 Malwa contingent.
 
 TABULAR VIEW OF THE TRIBUTARY AND PROTECTED STATES. 521 
 
 Namo 
 
 Locality. 
 
 Area, 
 
 Po|)ula- 
 
 Revenue. 
 
 Annual 
 .SuljHidy, 
 Tribute, 
 or other 
 payment. 
 
 Military Rciourccs. 
 
 ins(niarc 
 milts. 
 
 tion. 
 
 Artil- 
 lery. 
 
 Cavalry. 
 
 Infan- 
 try. 
 
 n K.NOA h—conliniied. 
 
 
 
 
 Rupees. 
 
 Rupees. 
 
 
 
 
 Jabooa .... 
 
 Central India 
 
 1,318 
 included 
 
 1.32,104 
 included 
 
 144/)30 
 ) 
 
 39,000 
 
 
 40 
 
 m 
 
 Borai or Borco . 
 
 Cent In.(Mahva) 
 
 in that nf 
 Jiihooa. 
 
 in tliat of 
 .Taltrxia. 
 
 [ M.OOO 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 16 
 
 30 
 
 Jucknowil.i 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Ditto . 
 
 Ditto . 
 
 10,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 15 
 
 25 
 
 .Ihujur ... 
 
 North- West Provs. 
 fadjaccnt to Delhi) 
 
 I,'j:i0 
 
 110,700 
 
 600,000 
 
 — 
 
 180 
 
 1,280 
 
 1,700 
 
 Jobut 
 
 Cent. In. (.Malwa) 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 10,000 
 
 ._ 
 
 — ■ 
 
 15 
 
 2.5 
 
 Jowrn .... 
 
 Ditto 
 
 872 
 
 8.5,466 
 
 800,000 
 
 — 
 
 50 
 
 60 
 
 7!0 
 
 Jucknowda (vide Jabooa) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Koorwaco .... 
 
 Ditto 
 
 200 
 
 19,600 
 
 75,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 40 
 
 1.50 
 
 Loliaroo . . . j 
 
 North- West Provs. 
 (near Delhi.) 
 
 1 200 
 
 18,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 60 
 
 260 
 
 Muoherry {vide Alwur, un- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 der Rajpoot States). 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mminccpoor 
 
 N. Eastern Frontier 
 
 (Hengal). 
 Dcccan . 
 
 J ~,m 
 
 75,840 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 452 
 
 — 
 
 3,1.58 
 
 Napporc or Berar * 
 
 711, W2 
 
 4,650,000 
 
 4,908,560 
 
 800,000 
 
 372 
 
 2,424 
 
 4,163' 
 
 Ncpaul .... 
 
 Northern India . 
 
 .51,500 
 
 1,910,000 
 
 3,200,000 
 
 — 
 
 1,100 
 
 — 
 
 8,400" 
 
 Nizam h'ide Hyderabad). 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Nursinghur [vide Omut- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 warru). 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Omutwarra — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Ilajyhur 
 Nursinghur 
 
 Cent. In. (Malwa) 
 Ditto 
 
 I 1,34S 
 
 132,104 
 
 f 200,000 
 \ 275,000 
 
 — 
 
 10 
 
 20 
 
 50 
 
 1.50 
 
 150 
 3.50 
 
 Oude .... 
 
 North-West Provs. 
 
 23,738 
 
 2,970,000 
 
 14,473,380 
 
 — 
 
 5,304 
 
 4,08S 
 
 41,707 » 
 
 Patowdee ... 
 
 North-West Pi-ovs 
 (near Delhi dist.) 
 
 I ^* 
 
 6,660 
 
 60,000 
 
 ^__ 
 
 — 
 
 75 
 
 280 
 
 Rajghur (ride Omutwarra) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Uajpnor Ali (cidc Alice 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 >Iohun). 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Rajpoot States — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Alwur or Macherry, } 
 including Tejarra. j 
 
 Rajpootana . 
 
 1 3,573 
 
 280,000 
 
 1,SOO,000 
 
 — 
 
 - 
 
 4,000 
 
 11,000 
 
 Hanswarra . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 l.UO 
 
 141,000 
 
 95,000 ' 
 
 25,000 
 
 — 
 
 150 
 
 225 
 
 Bikaneer 
 
 Ditto 
 
 17,070 
 
 539,250 
 
 6.50,380 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 l,.58l 
 
 2,100 > 
 
 
 Ditto 
 
 2,291 
 
 229,100 
 
 .500,000* 
 
 40,000 
 
 150 
 
 1.000 
 
 520' 
 
 DooTigerporo 
 
 Ditto 
 
 1,000 
 
 100,000 
 
 109,000 
 
 8 
 
 — 
 
 125 
 
 200 • 
 
 Jcssulmcro 
 
 Ditto 
 
 12,252 
 
 74,400 
 
 84,720 
 
 
 
 30 
 
 754 
 
 252 
 
 Jvepore or Jyenagur . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 15,251 
 
 1,891,124 
 
 4,583,950 » 
 
 400,000 
 
 692 
 
 2,096 
 
 18,377'» 
 
 Jhall.iwur . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 2,200 
 
 220,000 
 
 1.500,000 
 
 80,000 
 
 500" 
 
 450 
 
 3,010 
 
 Joudpore 
 
 Ditto 
 
 35,672 
 
 1,7.S3,600 
 
 1,7.52,.520 
 
 223,000 
 
 — 
 
 2,630 
 
 5,8.50'» 
 
 Kerowlce . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 1,878 
 
 187,800 
 
 506,900 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 248 
 
 546 
 
 Kishcngurh 
 
 Ditto 
 
 724 
 
 70,952 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Kotah 
 
 Ditto 
 
 4,339 
 
 433,900 
 
 2,800,000 
 
 384,720 
 
 601 
 
 710 
 
 2,140 
 
 Odcypore or Mewar . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 11, 6U 
 
 1,161,400 
 
 1,250,000 
 
 200,000 
 
 — 
 
 1,200 
 
 4,200" 
 
 Xotes. — ^ The Rnjah is hound by treaty to furnish 1,000 horse to serve with the British army in time of war. Hi» 
 military force, as here stated, is exclusive ot a police corps of 2,'i74 men. 
 
 * In addition to this body of infantry there is an irregular force of 5,000 men, and a police corps amounting to 2,000 
 men. An accredited minister from the British Government resides at the court of Ncpaul, with an escort of 94 rank and 
 tile, officered and paid by the British. 
 
 ' The oblif^ation of the British government, under the treaty of 1798, to maintain a force of 10,000 men in Oude, was 
 superseded by the treaty of 1801. Under the provisions of the latter treaty, the British Government are bound to the 
 defence of the kingdom against all enemies, but exercise their own discretion as to the requisite number of troops. The 
 strength of the British subsidiary force amounts at the present time to 5,578 men. By the treaty of 18.'?7, the limit on 
 the number of troops to be maintained by the king was removed, and hi^ majesty may employ such a military establish- 
 ment as he may deem necessary for the government of his dominions — -power being reserved to the British government 
 to insist upon reduction in case of excess, A police corps of 100 horse and 460 foot is also maintained by the King of 
 Oude for the protection of the British frontiers of Goruckpoor and Shahjehanpoor, bordering ou the territory of Oude. 
 
 * Irrespective of the revenues of feudal grants and religious endowments. 
 
 * The militai-y force is irrespective of the quotas to be furnished by the Feudal Chiefs amounting to 1^00 horse^ 
 but inclusive of a mounted police, numbering 535 men. 
 
 " Irrespective of feudal estates and religious endo^rments. 
 
 ' Irrespective of a police force of 2,000 men, and also of an irregular feudal force of 2,500, 
 
 " The tribute is not to exceed three-eighths of the annual revenue. The force is exclusive of a poUco force^ amount- 
 ing to 100 men. 
 
 ' The revenue, as here stated, is independent of feudal jaghircs and charitable endowments, producing 4,000.000 
 more. The amount of tribute payable by Jyepore, under the treaty of ISIS, namely, 800.000 rupees, was rcdaced, in 
 1842, to 400,000 rupees. 
 
 '" The military force here stated is exclusive of the troops maintained by the Feudatory Chiefs, amounting to 5,690 
 men, and exclusive of the garrisons of forts, amounting to 5,267. 
 
 *' There is also a police force of 1,500 men in Jhallawur. 
 
 *' This force is irrespective of tlio Joudpore legion, which w.as embodied in 1347, in lieu of the Joudpore contingent, 
 and consists of— artillery, 31; cavalry, 251; infantrj-, 739 ; Bhcel companies, 222. Total, 1,246 men, commanded by 
 British otHcers. There is also a force of 2,000 men maintained by the Feudal Chiefs. 
 
 " Irrespective of the Kotah contingent, which consists of— cavali-y, 283; artillery, 66 j infantry, 799. Total, 1448 
 men, commanded by British officers. There is also a police force consisting of 2,000 men.
 
 522TABIJLAR VIEW OP THE TRIBUTARY AND PROTECTED STATES. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Bexgal — contiriued. 
 Rnjpnot States — continued. 
 Pertabgurh & Dowlea 
 
 Serohee 
 
 Rampore . . j 
 
 Rutlam .... 
 SauEjor and Nerbudda Ter- 
 ritories — ■ 
 
 Kothee , . ] 
 
 Myheer 
 
 Ocheyrah . 
 
 Rewa and Mookund- { 
 pore. j 
 
 Sohawul 
 
 Shahpurh . 
 Scindia's Dominions {vide 
 
 Gwalior). 
 Seeta Mow 
 Sikh Protected States— ^ 
 
 Boorea (Dealpurh) 
 
 Chickrowlee (Kulseah) 
 
 Furreedkote 
 
 Jhecnd 
 
 JIulair Kotla . 
 
 Mundote . . 
 
 Nabha 
 
 Puttiala 
 
 Rai Kote . 
 South-AV est Frontier of 
 Bengal — * 
 
 Bnmbra 
 
 Bonei .... 
 
 Jiora Samba 
 
 Burgun 
 
 Gangpoor . 
 
 Locality. 
 
 Jushpore 
 
 Keriall or Koren, in- *) 
 eluding Bhokur. J 
 
 Korea. 
 
 Nnwagur or Bindra) 
 Nowagur. J 
 
 Odeypore . 
 
 Patna . . . , 
 Phooljee 
 
 Rhyghur . 
 Sarunghur . 
 
 SingboomJ States in 
 
 Kursava ^7'.'^ f'"' 
 \ tript or 
 
 Scrickala -' Singboom. 
 Sirgooja 
 Sohnpoor 
 Suctce 
 Rikkim .... 
 Tijarra {vide AhvTir, Raj- 
 poot States). 
 Took, and other Dopcn- 
 ilcncics of Ameer Khan 
 viz. — 
 
 1. Chuppra; 2. Nim 
 l)cra ; 3. Perawa 
 4. Ilampoora ; 5. Se 
 ronjee. 
 
 Rajpootana . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 North-West Provs 
 
 (Barcilly). 
 Cent Iu."(Malwa) 
 
 Cent. In. fSaugor 
 and Nerbuddaj. 
 Ditto 
 Ditto 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Ditto 
 Ditto 
 
 Cent. In. (Mahva) 
 
 Cis-Sutlej 
 Ditto 
 Ditto 
 Ditto 
 Ditto 
 Ditto 
 Ditto 
 Ditto 
 Ditto 
 
 Area, 
 
 in square 
 
 miles. 
 
 Popula- 
 tion. 
 
 Orissa . 
 Ditto 
 Ditto 
 Ditto 
 Ditto 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Ditto 
 Ditto 
 Ditto 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Ditto 
 Ditto 
 Ditto 
 Ditto 
 
 Ditto 
 
 Ditto 
 Ditto 
 Ditto 
 Nortliern India 
 
 Central India 
 
 1,4.57 
 3,024 
 
 [ 720 
 936 
 
 '. 100 
 
 1,026 
 436 
 
 9,827 
 
 179 
 676 
 
 208 
 
 SO 
 
 63 
 
 308 
 
 376 
 
 144 
 
 780 
 
 541 
 
 4,448 
 
 6 
 
 1,224 
 
 1,0.57 
 
 622 
 
 399 
 
 2,493 
 
 617 
 
 1,.512 
 2,225 
 1,512 
 
 2,306 
 
 1,1.58 
 890 
 
 1,421 
 799 
 
 14-5,700 
 1.51,200 
 
 320,400 
 91,728 
 
 30,000 
 100,000 
 120,000 
 
 1,200,000 
 
 80,000 
 30,000 
 
 20,384 
 
 11,920 
 
 9,.387 
 
 45,892 
 
 66,024 
 
 21,4.56 
 
 116,220 
 
 80.609 
 
 602,752 
 
 894 
 
 55,980 
 47,565 
 27,990 
 17,9.55 
 112,185 
 
 27,705 
 
 68,040 
 
 100,000 
 
 08,040 
 
 133,748 
 
 52,110 
 40,050 
 63,945 
 35,955 
 
 Rcvt 
 
 Included in British 
 dist. of Singboom. 
 
 5,44! 
 
 1,467 
 
 268 
 
 1,670 
 
 1,864 
 
 316,252 
 66,015 
 12,060 
 61,766 
 
 182 
 
 Annual 
 Subsidy, 
 
 Tribute, 
 or other 
 payment. 
 
 Rupees. Ruppi 
 175,000 I 57,874' 
 f 3-8ths of 
 
 74,060 
 
 1,000,900 
 450,000 
 
 47,000 
 
 64,500 
 66,320 
 
 2,000,000 
 
 32,000 
 
 90,000 
 
 50.000 
 105,000 
 
 45,000 
 300,000 
 300,000 
 
 400,000 
 
 5,500 
 
 10,000 
 
 6,000 
 
 4,000 
 
 10,000 
 
 10,000 
 
 10,000 
 
 20,000 
 10,000 
 5,000 
 
 15,000 
 
 25,000 
 6.000 
 
 20,000 
 6,000 
 4,01 10 
 
 6,000 
 
 10,000 
 
 60,000 
 
 60,000 
 
 4,000 
 
 820,000 
 
 1 An. Rev. 
 
 66,150 
 
 Military Resources. 
 
 Artil- 
 lery. 
 
 47,2.50 
 
 ,340 
 
 200 
 
 160 
 
 320 
 
 500 
 
 (Included 
 
 I in Sir- 
 
 f-gooja. 
 
 1,095 
 
 1,600 
 
 'Included 
 in .Sir- ' 
 gooja. 
 600 
 440 
 170 I 
 
 1,400 : 
 
 107 I 
 
 3,200 
 
 6,400 
 
 240 
 
 29 
 
 Cavalry. 
 
 Infan- 
 try. 
 
 250 
 200 
 
 497 
 225 
 
 10 
 25 i 
 
 842 
 
 1.50 
 
 130 
 
 400 [ — 
 
 300 
 600' 
 
 1,387 
 600 
 
 50 
 300 
 
 7,291 
 
 SCO 
 
 225 
 
 20 
 
 50 
 
 10 
 
 50 
 
 60 
 
 100 
 
 250 
 
 500 
 
 168 
 
 200 
 
 100 
 
 60 
 
 400 
 
 500 
 
 1,500 
 
 1,500 
 
 12 
 
 20 
 
 ,Vor«».— ' The tribute is received by the British Government, but paid over to Holcar 
 
 • These troops, as well as the force maintained by feudatories, amounting to 905 cavalry and 5,300 infantry, are 
 employed also in revenue and police duties. 
 
 _' The Sikh Stales were taken under British protection by treaty with Runject Sing, ruler of the ruiijab, dated 25th 
 April, 1806. All but those above mentioned have been deprived of independent authority, in consciiuenee of failure in 
 their allegiance during the war with the Sikhs. 
 
 ' These States are comprised within the territory ceded to the British by the Rajah of Nagpore, under the treaty
 
 TABULAR VIEW OF THE TRIBUTARY AND PROTECTED STATES.r>23 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Annual 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Area, 
 
 Popula- 
 tion. 
 
 
 Subsidy, 
 
 Military Rcwiurcoa. 
 
 Namo, 
 
 Locality. 
 
 in nquare 
 miles. 
 
 Rovenuo. 
 
 Tribute, 
 or other 
 payment. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Artil- 
 lery. 
 
 1 
 
 Cavalry. 
 
 Infan- 
 try. 
 
 B K s a Ki.— continued. 
 Tonk, &c.— continued. 
 
 
 
 
 Rupees. 
 
 Rupees. 
 
 
 
 
 Tipporali ' 
 
 Eastern India, ad- 
 jacent to Burmah. 
 
 7,632 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Tiilcrnm (Sonaputtjr's 
 Territory). j 
 
 Eastern In. (Assam) 
 
 2,000 
 
 30,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 MADRAS. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cochin • . . . . 
 
 Coast of Malabar . 
 
 1,988 
 
 288,176 
 
 480,000 
 
 240,000 
 
 _ 
 
 , 
 
 __ 
 
 Jcypore, ami the Hill Zo- ) 
 mindurs. j 
 
 Orissa . 
 
 13,011 
 
 391,2.30 
 
 - 
 
 16,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Mysoro .... 
 
 Southern India . 
 
 30,886 
 
 3,000,000 
 
 6,931,870 
 
 2,450,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 2,472 
 
 roodoocr)ttali ( RajahTou- 
 diman's Dominions), j 
 
 Southern India \ 
 (Madura). J 
 
 1,165 
 
 01,745 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Travancoro 
 
 Southern India . 
 
 4,722 
 
 1,011,824 
 
 4,158,075 
 
 790,130 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 
 BOMBAY. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Balasinoro .... 
 
 Guzerat 
 
 2.58 
 
 19,092 
 
 41,548 
 
 10,000 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 50 
 
 Bansda ... 
 
 Ditto 
 
 32.5 
 
 24,050 
 
 47,000 
 
 7,S00 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 77 
 
 Bavoda (Dominions of tho ) 
 
 Guicowar. j 
 
 Ciinibiiy .... 
 
 Ditto 
 
 4,399 
 
 325,526 
 
 6,687,440 
 
 — 
 
 03 
 
 5,9 12 > 
 
 3,0.54 
 
 Guzerat . . 
 
 500 
 
 37,000 
 
 300,000 
 
 60,000 
 
 
 
 200 
 
 1,500 
 
 CiiUiporc, including its de- ) 
 pendencies, viz. — j 
 
 Southern Mah- ) 
 ratta country, j 
 
 
 
 550,000 
 
 — 
 
 27 
 
 450 
 
 3,848* 
 
 Bhowda 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 51.662 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 16 
 
 468 
 
 Inchulkunjco 
 Khaf-ul 
 
 — 
 
 • 3,445 
 
 500,000 • 
 
 75,000 
 72,700 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 50 
 25 
 
 1,051 
 672 
 
 Vishal^ur . 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 123,140 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 5 
 
 164 
 
 113 Surinjams.ormi- ) 
 nor dependencies. J 
 
 — 
 
 ) 
 
 . 
 
 631,628 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 
 Cutch .... 
 
 Western India 
 
 6,764 
 
 600,536 
 
 738,423 
 
 200,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Daung Rajahs . 
 
 Guzerat 
 
 950 
 
 70,300 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 _ 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Dhurrumpore 
 
 ( Ditto (coUecto- ) 
 1 rate of Surat). J 
 
 225 
 
 16,650 
 
 91,000 
 
 9,000 
 
 — 
 
 IC 
 
 5 
 
 Guzerat (Guicowar's Do- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 minions), vids Baroda. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Guzerat Petty States— ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Chowrar* . 
 
 Guzerat 
 
 225 
 
 2,500 
 
 9,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 Pahlunpore 
 
 Ditto 
 
 1,850 
 
 130,000 
 
 298,838 
 
 50,000 
 
 10 
 
 110 
 
 429 
 
 Radhunporo 
 
 Ditto 
 
 850 
 
 45,000 
 
 165,000 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 285 
 
 197 
 
 Bauhier 
 
 Ditto 
 
 120 
 
 500 
 
 1,206 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Charcut 
 
 Ditto 
 
 80 
 
 2,500 
 
 2,524 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Deodar 
 
 Ditto 
 
 80 
 
 2,000 
 
 3,650 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 — . 
 
 Kankrej 
 
 Ditto 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 12,895 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 „ 
 
 Merwara 
 
 Ditto 
 
 included 
 
 nThurrauc 
 
 4,230 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 Santulpoor . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 11,346 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 __ 
 
 Soegaum 
 
 Ditto 
 
 64 
 
 4,500 
 
 5,404 
 
 — 
 
 . 
 
 — 
 
 — . 
 
 Therwarra . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 48 
 
 800 
 
 2,303 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Thurra 
 
 Ditto 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 6,460 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 24 
 
 ! 8 
 
 Thurraud . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 600 
 
 23,000 
 
 11,335 
 
 ^_ 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 18 
 
 Warryc 
 
 Ditto 
 
 299 
 
 20,000 
 
 16.770 
 
 
 
 _ 
 
 — 
 
 
 AVow . . . . 
 
 Ditto 
 
 364 
 
 10,000 
 
 7,300 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 15 
 
 S 
 
 'I'he military force in Guzerat is thus composed of— Ut. British suh^idiary, 4,000 infantry; 
 1 1 company of artillery. 2nd. Guicowar's Ucpular Troops, 6,0o9. 3rd, Guicowar's Contiugeut, 
 
 Notes. — * This distinct is hilly, much covered with jungle, and vcrj- thinly inhabited. 
 
 * In Cochin, in consequence of the misrule of the liujah, the affairs of the State have been conducted, since 1839, by 
 a native minister, in commvxnicatiou with the llritish resident. 
 
 ^ This force includes a continijent of ."i.OOO cavalry, which acts with the British subsidiary force, but is supported at 
 the Guicowar's expense, and paid and equipped agreeably to the sugi^stions of the British Oovernment. There is aho 
 another body of troops (the Guzerat Irrecjular Horse), consistintf of /-^G men. paid by the Guicowar, but commanded by 
 British oflu'crs, and st;itioned in the British district of Ahincdabad. In addition to the foregoing there is a police force, 
 consisting? of 4,000 men. T' ' " " ' " ' " . - . - 
 
 2 resiments of cavalry, and ' 
 3,000 cavalry. 4th. Guzerat Irrci;ular Horse. 7'>G. 5th. Police Corps, 4,000. 
 
 * The Colaporc force here specified consists of native troops, uncontrolled as to discipline; they are a!«embled under 
 the orders of the jiolitical superintendent whenever required. There is, however, an efficient force (the Colaporc Local 
 Cori>s), commanded by Brili'^h olHrers, and consisting of— cavalry. 30;^; infantry, 004 ; total, 907. The military force of 
 the lour l-'oudiil Chiefs is shown under " Military Resources." They are hound to furnish a contingent for their JeudaJ 
 superior, consistini; of — cavalry. 'i4() ; infantry, oSO ; total, S'ifi. Besides the above there is a regal ar police corps of 674 
 men, »nd a body termed extra tighting-men, av;ulablo for police duties, amounting to o,U3 men. 
 
 ^ Quotas of horse and foot are furnished by chiefs in the petty States of Guzerat to their feudal superiors, whicl 
 have not been included in the military resources of each State. TUey amount, in the aggregate to 1,496 horse uo. 
 16.9.)4 foot. 
 ^ The petty State of Chowrar is divided among a numlier of chieftains. ,
 
 524 TABULAR VIEW OF THE TRIBUTARY AND PROTECTED STATES, 
 
 
 
 Area, 
 
 Popula- 
 tion. 
 
 
 Annual 
 Subsidy, 
 
 Military Resources. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Locality. 
 
 m square 
 miles. 
 
 Kerenue. 
 
 Tribute, 
 or other 
 payment. 
 
 
 Artil- 
 lery. 
 
 Cavalry. 
 
 Infan- 
 try. 
 
 Bombay — continued. 
 
 
 
 
 Rupees. 
 
 Rupees. 
 
 
 
 
 Guzerat Petty States— co7i- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 tinued. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Hiirsool {vide Pelut). 
 
 Guzerat 
 
 19,850 
 
 1,468,900 
 
 4,501,723 
 
 1,047,396 
 
 102 
 
 3,888 
 
 8,122 
 
 Kattywar* Pettv Chiefs , 
 
 Scinde 
 
 5,000 
 
 105,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 47 
 
 727 : 105 
 
 Khvrpore . . . • 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Wyhee Caunta* is dis- 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 tributed into Six Dis- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 tricts— 1st. Nance Mar- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■vvar— comprisiugEdur, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Alimeduuggur, Moras- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 sa. Ilursole, Byer, Tin- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 toiie, Dauuta, Malpoor, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Pole, Pall, Posuna, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Gudwaria, 'S\'a]la>uu, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 and Ilunole. 2ad. Beh- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 v,'uv — fonipri&ing Gore- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 varra. llunassiim, Mo- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 liuup()ur,Surdooe,lluo- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 pal, Boroodra, Wurra- 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 paon, and Dhudulea. 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3rd. Sabur Cawnta — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 composed of Cooly pos- 
 
 Guzerat 
 
 3,400 
 
 150,000 
 
 600,000' 
 
 138,400 
 
 — 
 
 291 
 
 630 « 
 
 sessions on the easttjrn 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 bank of the Sabur Mut- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 tee, with the Rajpoot 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 districts of Wursora, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Maunsa, and Peetha- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 pore, ou the western 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 bank of that river. 4th. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Kuitosun, — composed 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 exclusively of Cooly 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 possessions. 5th. By- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ul. or Baweesee— com- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 prising Wasna and Sa- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 dra. 6th. Watruck — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 comprising Amleyara, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mandwah, Khural, Bar 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mooarah, & Satoomba. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Feint and Hursool . 
 
 Collectorate of | 
 Ahmeduuggur. J 
 
 750 
 
 55,500 
 
 29,724 
 
 3,360 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 100 
 
 llewa Caunta, comprising 
 
 
 
 
 57,651 
 
 12,000 
 
 
 43 
 
 168 
 
 1st. Barrcea or Deog- 
 hur Burreea. 
 
 
 870 
 
 64,380 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2nd. Loonawarra . 
 
 Ditto . 
 
 500 
 
 37,000 
 
 40,000 
 
 19,200 
 
 — 
 
 50 
 
 100 
 
 Notes — * The province of Kattywar is divided among a considerable number of Hindoo chiefs. Some of them are 
 under the direc-t authority of the British Government ; the remainder, though subject to the Guicowar, have also been 
 placed under the control and management of the British Government, which collects the tribute and accounts for it to 
 the Guicowar. The following Table exhibits the divi.^ion of the province into talooks, or districts, with the number of 
 chiefs, the amount of revenue and tribute, and the military resources of each ; — 
 
 
 
 Number 
 
 ofChiefbiu 
 
 eiich 
 
 Talooka. 
 
 Revenue. 
 
 Tribute. 
 
 Remainder. 
 
 Sebundy Foj-ce. 
 
 
 Artil- „ , 1 Infan- 
 lery. Cavalry.j t^y_ 
 
 Boruth 
 llaUar 
 
 Muchookauta 
 Babriuwar . 
 Ond Surna . 
 Jhalawar . 
 Gohelwar . 
 Kaltcewar . 
 Burda . 
 Okamundel, &c. . 
 
 
 3 
 26 
 
 2 
 32 
 23 
 51 
 27 
 47 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 Rupees. 
 
 CJS.OOO 
 973,100 
 151,000 
 30,200 
 32,923 
 831,900 
 7'.i.i.:iOO 
 
 S.').J,SOO 
 
 200,000 
 
 73,500 
 
 Rupees. 
 
 99,959 
 322,461 
 
 06,358 
 8,127 
 
 10,307 
 238,143 
 140,492 
 121,113 
 
 34,1.30 
 
 Rupees. 
 
 528,041 
 
 650,639 
 
 84,642 
 
 22,073 
 
 22,616 
 
 593,757 
 
 578,808 
 
 734,687 
 
 165,564 
 
 73,500 
 
 30 
 
 25 
 20 
 
 ~~7 
 20 
 
 903 
 
 827 
 
 102 
 
 40 
 
 2 
 
 472 
 015 
 480 
 100 
 47 
 
 1,930 
 
 '1,702 
 
 175 
 
 65 
 
 5 
 
 717 
 
 1,720 
 
 895 
 
 400 
 
 513 
 
 Total . 
 
 
 216 
 
 4,501,723 
 
 1,047,390 
 
 3,454,327 
 
 102 
 
 3,888 1 8,122 
 
 » The province of the Myhee Caunta is divided among several petty chiefs, tributary to the Guicowar. The whole 
 province has been idaicU under the control and management of the Britisli Government, whicli collects the Guicowar's 
 dues, and pays over the amount to that prince. 
 
 » Revenue of Edur and Ahmednujjgur, 231,000 rupees ; of the remaining states, 206,000. Total revenue of Myheo 
 Cflunta, 600,000 rupees, 
 
 ' I'ix: force maintained by the other oliicfs of the Myhce Caunta is stated to consist of about 6.000 men
 
 MILITARY RKSOUIICKS OK 
 
 INI) [A- 
 
 -I5IUTISII AND ALLIED. 
 
 525 
 
 Namo. 
 
 Locality. 
 
 Area, 
 
 1 
 
 
 Annual 
 Subsidy, 
 
 .Military Rciourcci. 
 
 inkouari 
 milos. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 or other 
 payment. 
 
 Artil- 
 lery. 
 
 Cavalry. 
 
 Infan- 
 try. 
 
 noMW w—conlitmerl. 
 
 
 
 Kupoes. 
 
 Rupees. 
 
 
 
 
 Rewu Cuuntu — cottfiriui'iL 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3rd. Mtiwiissfo Cliicfs.j 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 residing (in tho biiiiUs ( 
 of tho Ncrbudda and ( 
 till! Mylu'c. J 
 
 CJuzcrat 
 
 375 
 
 27,750 
 
 — 
 
 67,613 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 4th. Odcyporo (Chutu) 
 
 or Mohun. J 
 5th. Uiypoi'iilii 
 
 Ditto . 
 
 1,059 
 
 78,300 
 
 74,000 
 
 10,000 
 
 — 
 
 70 
 
 368 
 
 I'itto . 
 
 1,650 
 
 122,100 
 
 203,960 
 
 60,000 
 
 — 
 
 98 
 
 286 
 
 6tli. Simutli . 
 
 Ditlo . 
 
 425 
 
 31,450 
 
 20,000 
 
 7,000 
 
 — 
 
 40 
 
 100 
 
 Sattani Jaj^'hirus — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1. Akulkoto . 
 
 Suttnra . 
 
 "> Tho area and po- 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 122 
 
 493 
 
 2. lihoro .... 
 
 Ditto . 
 
 puIati<mof tliese 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 20 
 
 908 
 
 3. Juth .... 
 
 Ditto . 
 
 States cannot be 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 10 
 
 202 
 
 4. Ounde 
 
 Ditto . 
 
 f given separately 
 
 Z 
 
 
 — 
 
 25 
 
 2.55 
 
 6. rhuUim 
 
 Ditto . 
 
 from theprinci- 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 15 
 
 173 
 
 Wyhoe 
 
 Ditt 
 
 •' pnlit 
 
 f of Sattura 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Sawunt Wiirree 
 
 South Concan 
 
 800 
 
 120,000 
 
 200,000 
 
 
 
 — . 
 
 — 
 
 611 
 
 Sindc {cuic Khyrporo). 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Suuthcrn Mahralta Jag- 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 hires — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 IlaWeo . 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 f 10,024 
 
 \ 
 
 — 
 
 14 
 
 75 
 
 Jhunikundeo . 
 
 
 
 
 270,246 
 
 
 — 
 
 102 
 
 785 
 
 Kooiiwiir 
 
 
 
 
 167,392 
 
 
 — 
 
 43 
 
 682 
 
 The two chiefs of Meeruj 
 Moodliole 
 
 Southern Mah- ) 
 rattu country. J 
 
 3,700 
 
 410,700 
 
 275,343 
 94,645 
 
 , 01,720 
 
 — 
 
 87 
 35 
 
 1,053 
 420 
 
 Nurgoond 
 
 
 
 51,609 
 
 
 
 
 103 
 
 643 
 
 dangleo .... 
 
 
 
 
 468,044 
 
 
 — 
 
 675 
 
 3,900 
 
 Savunore 
 
 
 
 
 29,670 
 
 
 — 
 
 25 
 
 431 
 
 Shedbal .... 
 
 
 
 
 123,599 
 
 
 
 
 68 
 
 212 
 
 Sueheen .... 
 
 Guzerat 
 
 300 
 
 22,'200 
 
 89,000 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 18 
 
 Wusravee (Bheel Cliicfs) | 
 
 Ditto (southern 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 boundary of Uaj- 
 
 [ 450 
 
 33,.3O0 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 peeplu. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ABSTRACT— 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Native States. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 IJongal .... 
 
 — 
 
 907,949 
 
 44,255,517 
 
 84,151,785 
 
 7,995,471 
 
 12,593 
 
 54,671 
 
 287,309 
 
 Madras .... 
 
 — 
 
 51,802 
 
 4,752,975 
 
 4,1.58,075 
 
 796,430 
 
 _ 
 
 — 
 
 2,472 
 
 Bombay . 
 
 
 57,375 
 
 4,393,400 
 
 18,670,820 
 
 1,862,990 
 
 369 
 
 13,632 
 
 27,872 
 
 
 717,126 
 
 53,401,892 106,980,681 
 
 10,654,891 
 
 12,962 68,303 
 
 317,653 ' 
 
 Notc.^ii will be seen from the above that the military resources of the native princes of India comprise a force of 
 398,018 men. Where no distinction has been made in the official records between the cavalry and infantry of a native 
 state, the whole armed force has been included in this statement . -^der the head of infantry. In reference to this enor- 
 mous force it is proper to observe, that considerable portions of the regular troops of native States are described in the 
 official returns as fitted rather for police purposes than as available for regular military duties. Where the military force 
 of ft native prince is not under the command of European officers, it rarely happens tnal there exists any regular system 
 of payment ; and, under such circumstances, a native army is invariably found to be badly organised and inefficient. The 
 figures above given do not include either the police corps or the quotas of troops which the military chiefs are bound to 
 furnish to their feudal superior. ' Including officers attached to native regiments. 
 
 Abstract of Population, Area of British and other European States, and Army of British Government in India, exclusive 
 of H. M. European Cavalrp and Infantry, comprising 30,000 men. 
 
 AllSTllACT OF POPULATIO.V. 
 
 Army op British Govebxment in India. 
 
 
 Area. 
 
 Population. 
 
 Description. 
 
 Euro- 
 pean. 
 
 Company's Troops. 
 
 
 Sq. Miles. 
 
 325,652 
 
 85,571 
 
 135,680 
 
 120,065 
 
 1,575 
 
 47,958,320 
 23,800.549 
 22,301.697 
 11,109,067 
 202,540 
 
 
 British States— 
 Bengal 
 
 Natives. 
 
 Total. 
 
 North-AVcsteru Provinces .... 
 
 Madras 
 
 Bombay 
 
 Eastern Straits Settlements 
 
 Engineers. 
 Artillery . 
 Cavalry 
 Infantry . 
 Medical . 
 Warrant Officers 
 Veterans . 
 
 Total . . 
 
 321 2,248 
 7,436 9,004 
 
 469 30,8.51 
 9,648 193.942 
 1,111 652 
 
 243 — 
 
 700 3,424 
 
 2,.569 
 
 16,440 
 
 34,9,84 
 
 229,406 
 
 1,763 
 
 243 
 
 4,124 
 
 Foreign States — 
 French (Pondicherrv, Mahe, &c.) 
 Portuguese (Uoa, Dm, Demaun.) 
 
 668,543 
 
 188 
 800 
 
 105,169,633 
 
 171,217 
 not known. 
 
 
 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 988 
 
 171,217 
 
 19,928 
 
 240,121 
 
 289,529 
 
 The Contingent Troops of the Native States commanded by British officers, and available, under treaties, to^ the 
 British Government, amount to about 32,000 men, viz. : — Hyderabad (Nizam's) .\uxiliary Force, 8,094 ; Gwalior (.Scin- 
 dia's) Contingent, 8,401; Kntah Contingent, 1.148; Mysore Horse. 4.000; Guzerat (Guicowar's) Contingent, 3,7.56; 
 Bhopal Contingent, 829 ; Malwa United Contingent, 1.617 ; Malwa Bhccl Corps, 648 ; Joudporc Legion, 1,246; Meywar 
 Bheel Corps. 1,054; Colapore Local Horse, 907 ; Sawunt Warree Local Corps, 611. Total, .32,311. Holkar and tho 
 Rajah of Nagpore arc bound bv treaty to furnish contingents, ihe former of 3,000, and the latter of l.OCO horse. 
 
 3 Y
 
 526 OFFICIAL STATEMENT RESPECTING SUBSIDIARY SYSTEM— 1853. 
 
 Therelationbetween the Anglo-Indian gov- 
 ernment and native states, is thus described : 
 
 " The states with which subsidiary alliances have 
 been contracted are ten in number :— Cochin ; Cutch ; 
 Guzerat (territoi-v of the Guicowar) ; Gwalior (pos- 
 sessions of Scindia) ; Hyderabad (territory of the 
 Nizam) ; Indore (territory of Holcar) ; Mysore ; 
 Nagpore, or Berar ; Oude ; Travancore. In some of 
 these states, enumerated in the above list, the charge 
 for the maintenance of the subsidiary force has been 
 commuted by various cessions of territory at the 
 undermentioned dates, viz.: — Guzerat (Guicowar), 
 ceded districts in Guzerat. in 1805; and Ahme- 
 dabad farm, &c., in 181": Gwalior* (Scindia), 
 Upper Dooab, Delhi territory, &c., 1803: Hy- 
 derahad, (Nizam), Northern circars, 1766; Gun- 
 toor, 1788; districts acquired from Tippoo, 1800; 
 Indore (Holcar), Candeish and other districts, 1818; 
 Oude, Benares, 1775: Goruckpore, Lower Dooab, 
 Bareilly, &rc., 1801. The Rajah of Nagpore, or Be- 
 rar, in addition to the cession of territory on the 
 Nerbudda and parts adjacent, pays to the British 
 government an annual subsidy of £80,000. The 
 four remaining subsidiary states pay annual subsidy, 
 as under :— Cochin, £24,000 ; Cutch, £20,000 ; My- 
 sore, £245,000 ; Travancore, £79,643. The British 
 government has reserved to itself the right, in the 
 event of misrule, of assuming the management of 
 the country in the states of Cochin, f Mysore,}: Nag- 
 pore,§ Oude,§ Travancore.|| The other subsidiary 
 states — Cutch, Guzerat, Gwalior, Hyderabad, Indore, 
 are not subject to control in their internal adminis- 
 tration ; yet so oppressive in some instances have 
 been the rule of the chiefs, and, in others, so lawless 
 the habits of the people, that the interference of the 
 British government has been occasionally rendered 
 absolutely necessary, in some of the above subsidiary, 
 as well as in several of the prutected states. Indeed, 
 a clear necessity must be held to confer the right of 
 such interference in all cases, as the prevalence of 
 anarchy and misrule in any district must be fraught 
 with danger to all around it ; while its long continu- 
 ance would lead to the dissolution of the state itself 
 where it prevailed, and, consequently, interference 
 would become essential to the effective exercise of 
 that protection which the British government has 
 engaged to afford. Besides the native states having 
 subsidiary treaties, there are about two hundred^ 
 others which acknowledge the supremacy of the Bri- 
 tish government, and which, by treaty or other en- 
 gagement, are entitled to its protection. The rulers 
 of these states are of various creeds, as shown in the 
 
 * " By the treaty of 1817, funds were set apart for the 
 payment of a continp;ent to be furnished by Scindia, and 
 commanded by British officers. These provisions were 
 moditifd liy treaty in April, 1820, and by a new arrange, 
 ment in 1830. liy the treaty of Gwalior, concluded in 
 1814, certain distriots were assigned to the British goveni- 
 nient for the maintenance of an increased force, to be 
 commanded by British officers, and stationed within Scin- 
 dia's territories." 
 
 t " In Cochin, in consequence of the mismanagement of 
 the rajah, the aflairs of the state have been conducted, 
 since 18.19, by a native minister in communication with 
 the British resident." 
 
 t "In respect to Mysore, the administration was assumed 
 by the British government in 18.'i4, in consequence of the 
 ndsrule of the rajah. The claim of the rajah to he rein- 
 stated was deemed inadmissible in 1847, on the (rround of 
 his incompetency to govern." 
 
 j " Oude and Nagpore remain under the government of 
 their respective rulers." 
 
 following list: — Mussulman; Hindoo, or orthodox 
 Brahmins ; Mahratta, Boondela, Rajpoot, Jaut, 
 Sikh — all professing Hindooism, with some modifi- 
 cations ; Bheel. In some of the petty states included 
 in the above enumeration, the chiefs are not abso- 
 lutely independent, even as to matters of ordinary 
 internal administration. In several states on the 
 south-west frontier of Bengal (Sirgooja, and other 
 districts), civil justice is administered by the chiefs, 
 subject to an appeal to the British agent, while in 
 criminal matters their jurisdiction is still more strictly 
 limited.** Somewhat similar is the position of the 
 southern Mahratta jaghiredars, who are required to 
 refer all serious criminal matters for British adjudi- 
 cation. In two of the protected states, Colapore and 
 Sawunt Warree,tt the administration has been as- 
 sumed by the British government, and carried on in 
 the names of the native rulers, who are in the posi- 
 tion of stipendiaries. In respect to Colapore, the re- 
 transfer of the government to the minor chief is 
 made dependent upon the opinion which may be 
 entertained by the British government of his cha- 
 racter, disposition, and capacity to govern. In Sa- 
 wunt Warree, the heir apparent, having forfeited his 
 rights, the country, upon the death of the present 
 chief, will be at the disposal of the paramount autho- 
 rity. In some other states, as those in Kattywar, the 
 Myhee and Rewa Cauntas, and others which are 
 tributary to the Guicowar, or ruler of Guzerat, 
 arrangements have been made, under which the 
 Guicowar abstains from all interference, and the 
 British government undertakes the management of 
 the country, guaranteeing the Guicowar s tribute. 
 In carrying out such arrangements, the British gov- 
 ernment has conferred important benefits upon the 
 country by abolishing infanticide, suttee, slave-deal- 
 ing, and the marauding system, termed bharwut- 
 tee,|J: as well as by the introduction of a criminal 
 court for the trial of the more serious off'ences, 
 through the agency of the British resident; the 
 native chiefs of the several states within the jurisdic- 
 tion of the court acting as assessors. From 1829, 
 when the practice of suttee was abolished through- 
 out the British dominions, the British government 
 have laboured to procure its abolition in the native 
 states of India, and to a great extent succeeded. 
 This success has been attained without either actual 
 or threatened coercion, resort to such means having 
 been deemed indiscreet; but by vigilant watchfulness 
 for appropriate opportunities and per.severance in 
 well-timed suggestions, the desired object has been 
 effected in almost every native state where the rite 
 was practised." — (Thornton's Offioial Report, 1853.) 
 
 II " In 1805, the entire management of the state of Tra- 
 vancore was assumed by the British ; but in the year 
 1813, the minor rajah, upon attaining his sixteenth year, 
 was admitted to tlie full enjoyment of his rights." 
 
 ^ " This number does not include the petty rajahs in the 
 Co>isya and (iarrow Hills, those of the Cuttack Mchals, 
 or the chiefs in the province of Kattywar. The addition of 
 these would more than double tiie number given in the text." 
 
 ** *' The power of passing sentence not involving the loss 
 of life is exercised by them ; but where the punishment is 
 severe, it is under the control of the British ugriit, while 
 sentence of death can only be passid by him in cases 
 regularly brought before his tribunal ; and each infliction 
 of i)unishnicnt must be included in a monthly report to 
 the government." 
 
 •f-f *' These two states were long ennvidscd hy internal 
 disorders, which at li-ngth burst ijito a general rebellion." 
 
 XX " Ucsort to indiscriminate plunder, witli a view to ex- 
 toi't the favourable settlement of a dispute with a feudal 
 superior."
 
 ClIAlTEIl IV, 
 
 RELIGION— CIIUISTIAN MISSIONS— EDUCATION— THK I'UESS— AND CRIME. 
 
 India exemplifios tlic truth of the asser- 
 tion,* that religion is iiisoparaljlc from the 
 nature of man : tlic savai;e and the saf^e 
 ahke frame some system of theolo(;ical be- 
 lief, — some mode of comraunieatiiig with 
 the Deity, — some link of spiritual connexion 
 between the created and the Creator ;t but 
 every attempt to invest humanity with the 
 attributes of Divinity has ended in the 
 deification of stocks and stones,! — in the 
 concoction of monstrous frauds, and in the 
 practice of the grossest sensuality, vvhich 
 corrupt alike the souls and the bodies of 
 the worshippers. 
 
 In Iliiidoostun the principle of a universal religion 
 is illustrated in every conceivalile form, from abstract 
 Monotheism to complex Pantheism, — from the wor- 
 ship of the sun, as the representative of celestial 
 power, to the rudely-carved image which a Urahmin 
 
 * See Preface to second edition of my Anah/sts of 
 the liihle with reference to the Social Duty of Man. 
 
 + From the hiffhest to the lowest link in the chain 
 wtiicli connects in one genus every variety of the 
 human race, all believe in a spiritual jjower that is 
 superior to man, — in an invisible world, and in a 
 resurrection after death : this is manifested by dread 
 of an unseen good or evil deity, — by a persuasion of 
 the existence of fairies or ghosts,- — by the sepulture 
 of the body, — and by placing in the grave things 
 deemed necessary in another stage of existence. 
 
 I The Rev. William Arthur, in his admirable work, 
 A Mission to Mijsoor, refers to the arguments he was 
 in the habit of having with Brahmins, and says — 
 " They frequently look strong ground in favour of 
 idolatry, urging that the human mind is so unstable, 
 that it cannot be fixed on any spiritual object with- 
 out some appeal to the senses ; that, therefore, to 
 worship by mere mental effort, without external aid, 
 is impossible ; but that, by placing an image before 
 the eye, they can fix the mind on it, and say, ' Thou 
 art Go<l ;' and by this means form a conception, and 
 then worship." It was probably this idea that un- 
 lui])pily induced the early Christian church to admit 
 images, pictures, and represintations of holy men, 
 into places of putilic worsliip ; thougli it is not so 
 easy to account for the introduction of Maryolatry. 
 'i'lie necessity of engaging the usually wandering 
 mind by some visual object is, I believe, the plea 
 used by Romanists and Greeks for the frequent 
 elevation of the crucifix ; and it is quite possible 
 that many pious persons deem its l)resence essential : 
 the danger is not in the crucifix, or the figure of the 
 Redeemer thereon, but in the representation degene- 
 rating into formalism. On the other hand, it is to 
 be feared that many professing ])rotestants have few 
 ideas of vita! Christianity, and consider its solemn 
 duties fulfilled by an hebdomadal public worship. 
 
 § Thus acknowleds;ed in one of tlie Hindoo prayers : — 
 •' We bow to Him whose glory is the (ier|Mnii;U theme of 
 every speech; — Him first, Him last. — the tjiipremc Lord of 
 the boundless world ; — who is primeval Lifc'Ut, who is ' 
 
 is supposed to endue with nentient existence, — from 
 the sacrificial offering of fruit and Mowers, to the im- 
 molation of human victims: here, also, we see this 
 natural feeling taken advantage of by artful men to 
 construct Brahminical and Huddhistical rituals, which, 
 embracing every stage of life, and involving monoto- 
 nous routine, completely subjugate the mass to a 
 dominant priesthood, who claim peculiar sanctity, 
 and use their assumed prerogatives for the retention 
 of the mass of their fellow-beings in a state of moral 
 degradation and of intellectual darkness. 
 
 Yet, amidst this corruption and blindness, some 
 rays of truth are still acknowledged— such as a 
 supreme First C'ause,§ with liis triune attributes of 
 omnipotence, omniscience, omnijjresence ;|| creation, 
 preservation, destruction; the immortality of the 
 soul, individual responsibility, atonement for sin, 
 resurrection to judgment, heaven and hell ; and a 
 belief in unseen beings pervading space, and seeking 
 to obtain a directing influence over probationary 
 creatures for good or for evil.^ But these cardinal 
 points are mingled with pernicious doctrines, supersti- 
 
 without His like, — indivisible and infinite,— the origin of 
 all existing things, movable or stationary." 
 
 II The Hindoo expression meaits att-pervasive. 
 
 % The Hindoos believe the Deity to be in everything, 
 and they typify Him iu accordance with their imaginations. 
 Brahm or Brihm is supposed to have had three inearna. 
 tions, viz., Brahma, the Creator; Vishnu, the Preserver ; 
 Siva, the Destroyer .■ — who have become incarnate at dif- 
 ferent times and in various forms, for many objects. To 
 these are added innumerable inferior gods, presiding over 
 earth, air, and water, and whatever may be therein. 
 Temples and shrines are erected to a multitude of deities, 
 to whom homage or worship is tendered, and tribute or 
 otferings made. The I'agan deities, in every country and 
 in all ages, have more or less an affinity to each other; 
 they refer, generally, to the powers of nature, and to the 
 wants or civilising appliances of man ; but they all merge 
 into, or centre in, one Supreme Being : thus there was an 
 intimate relation between the Greek and Indian mythology. 
 The Brahminical and the Magian faith had many points 
 of union: the sun was the ostensihle representation 
 of Divine power ; the fire-altar of both may be traced 1% 
 that of the Hebrews ; and the idolatry of the calf, cow, #r 
 bull, have all a common origin. Ferishla states Jk^t, 
 during the era of Roostum, when Soorya, a Hindoo, 
 reigned over Hindoostan, a Brahmin persuaded the kmg 
 "to set up idols ; and from that period the Hindoos be- 
 came idolaters, before which they, like the Persians, wor. 
 shipped the sun and stars." — (Vol. i., p. (J8.) The 
 Mythrae religion at one time existed in all the countries 
 between the Bo^phorus and the Indus ; vestiges are still 
 seen at Persepolis, at Bamian, and in various parts of 
 India. In all Pagan systems there is a vagueness with 
 reference to the Deity ; for it is only through the Savinur 
 that God c^in be known. \Vith regard to the soul, it is 
 thus negatively described by the author of the great Hin. 
 doo work, entitled Mahabarat : — *• Some regard the soul 
 as a wonder : others hear of it with astonishment ; but no 
 one knoweth it: the weapon divideth it not, the fire 
 burnetii it not, the water corrupteth it not, the wind 
 dryeth it not away ; for it is indivisible, inconsumable, in- 
 corruptible : it is eternal, universal, permanent, immov- 
 able ; it is invisible, incomvivable, and unalterable." 
 The sh.iiitras, or •* sacred" books, ctuitain also manv 
 remarkable and even sublime passages ; but theu: character 
 
 1
 
 528 HINDOO RELIGION, ITS CRUEL RITES AND SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 tious observances, cruel riles, and carnal indulgences; 
 hence the pure, merciful, and loving* character of 
 God is unknown, the innately sinful nature of man 
 imperfectly understood, the positive necessity of a 
 Kedeemer unappreciated, and the urgent want of a 
 Sanctifier unfelt. 
 
 It is not therefore surprising, that in the yearn- 
 ings of the spirit for a higher, holier enjoyment than 
 this world can afford, that sincere devotees in India, 
 as in other countries and in every age, devoid of the 
 light of Christianity, deem suicide a virtue ;t torture 
 of the body a substitute for penance of the soul ;| 
 ablution sufficient for purification ; solitude the only 
 mode of avoiding temptation ; offerings to idols an 
 atonement for sin ; pilgrimages to saintly shrines a 
 is well summed up by the Rev. William Arthur, who has 
 attentively studied the subject. This Christian writer says 
 — " Taking those books as a whole, no works of our most 
 shameless authors are so unblushing or so deleterious : 
 the Sama Veda treats drunkenness as a celestial pastime ; 
 all the gods are represented as playing at will with truth, 
 honour, chastity, natural affection, and every virtue, run- 
 ning for sport into the vilest excesses, and consecrating by 
 their example all hateful deeds. Falsehood, if with a 
 pious motive, has a direct sanction. Menu declares that 
 * a giver of false evidence from a pious motive, even 
 though he know the truth, shall not lose a seat in heaven : 
 such evidence men call divine speech.* Vishnu has often 
 preserved the gods by the most wicked impostures. Lies 
 flow familiarly from divine lips, and thus lose all dis- 
 repute in mortal eyes. The amours of the gods are so de- 
 tailed as to corrupt all who read and admire them ; while 
 they argue, on the part of the writers, a horrible familiarity 
 with every variety of debauch. In the lofty poetry of the 
 sacred books are musically sung expressions of a coarse- 
 ness that would be spurned from the vilest ballad. Part 
 of the retinue of every temple consists of priestesses, who 
 are the only educated women in the country, and whose 
 profession it is to corrupt the public morals. In some of 
 the temples, excesses are at certain times openly com- 
 mitted which would be concealed even in our lowest dens 
 of vice." — ( Arthur's 3/iSA70K to Mysoor, p. 489. London: 
 Hamilton, Paternoster-row.) Such is the system ; and 
 this is but a faint shadowing of its fearful wickedness, 
 against which Christianity has to contend. Simple 
 aboriginal tribes have an indefinite notion of an Almighty 
 superintending providence. Thus the Todawar of the 
 Neilgherries, on first seeing the sun daily, or a lamp, uses 
 the following prayer, with his face turned to the sky : — 
 *'Oh! thou the Creator of this and of all worlds — the 
 greatest of the great, who art with us as well in these 
 mountains as in the wilderness, — who keepest the wreatlis 
 that adorn our heads from fading, and who guardest the 
 foot from the thorn — God among a hundred — may we be 
 prosperous." They beheve that the soul, after death, goes 
 to tlie Om-nor (large country), about which they have 
 scarcely an idea; they sacrifice living animals, and burn 
 them on a rude altar: the dead are buried in a dark, 
 secluded valley. A blood sacinfice is deemed essential by 
 all these tribes, to procure rejiiission from sin. The 
 relative antiquity of Brahminism and Buddhism, — their 
 common origin and separation,— their points of unity or 
 dissonance, — and the various other forms of religion in 
 India, are subjects beyond my limits in this work. 
 
 * The only love that I can find recognised in rcferejve 
 to the Deity, is similar to that acknowledged by the 
 Greeks : hence Sir William Jones thus apostrophises the 
 Hindoo Cameo or Kjuua Deva (Cupid) : — 
 
 '* Where'er thy scat, whate'er thy name, 
 
 Earth, sea, and sky, thy reign proclaim : 
 
 W'realhy smiles and rosy treasures, 
 
 Are thy purest, fiweetest pleasures ; 
 
 All animals to thee tiieir tribute bring. 
 
 And hail tliec universal king 1" 
 I quote from memory this beautiful version uf Indian 
 stanzas. 
 
 means of obtaining peace or rest ; the maintenance 
 of perpetual fire the highest privilege ; contemplation 
 of God the nearest approximation to communion ; 
 and human sacrifice a propitiation of Divine wrath.§ 
 
 "With such creeds and such worship, perpetuated 
 for centuries, the votaries, both priests and laymen, 
 must necessarily be sunk to a depth of degradation 
 from whence no mere human efforts can elevate 
 them, and which the untiring perseverance of Chris- 
 tianism, with the guidance of the Spirit, can only 
 hope to meliorate in the existing generation. 
 
 Among the numerous creeds which pervade India, 
 tlie most prominent are Hindooism, or worshippers of 
 Brahm ;|| Buddhists, devoted to Buddh ;% Parsees, 
 disciples of Zoroaster ;** Moslems,tt followers of 
 
 t See section on crime for the number of suicides com- 
 mitted annually at Madras. 
 
 X The self-inflicted torture which Hindoo fanatics 
 undergo, with a view to the remission of sin, and to obtain 
 the favour of their deity, is revolting ; but it indicates 
 strong feelings on the subject. Among them may be 
 mentioned : — standing for years on the legs, which become 
 swollen and putrefying masses of corruption ; keeping an 
 arm erect until the muscles of the humerus are attenuated 
 and the joint anchylosed (fixed in the socket) ; lying 
 on a bed of spikes until the smooth skin is converted 
 into a series of indurated nodules ; turning the head 
 over the shoulders, and gazing at the sky, so tliat, when 
 fixed in that posture, the twist of tlie gullet prevents 
 aught but liquids passing into the stomach ; crawling like 
 reptiles, or rolling as a hedgehog along the earth tor years ; 
 swinging before a slow fire, or hanging with the head 
 downwards, suspended over fierce flames ; piercing the 
 tongue with spits ; inserting an iron rod in the eye-socket, 
 from which a lamp is hung ; burying up to the neck in 
 the ground ; clenching the fist until the nails grow through 
 the back of the hand ; fasting for forty or the greatest 
 practicable number of days ; gazing at the sun with four 
 fires around, until blindness ensues. These are some of 
 the practices of the Yogis or Sanyases, and other devotees, 
 § The Ganges is considered sacred by the orthodox 
 Hindoos, and its waters everywhere, from their source iu 
 the Himalaya to their exit in the Bay of Bengal, are 
 regarded with peculiar sanctity. It is supposed that, at 
 the moment of dissolution, a person placed therein will 
 have all his transgressions obliterated. Should a Hindoo 
 be far distant, the Brahmins enjoin that he should think 
 intensely of the Ganges at the hour of death, and he will 
 not fail of h\s reward. To die within sight of the stream 
 is pronounced to be holy ; to die besmeared with its mud, 
 and partly immersed in the river, holier still ; even to be 
 drowned in it by accident, is supposed to secure eternal 
 happiness. Until the close of the 18th century, the Brah- 
 mins, taking advantage of this superstitious idea, per- 
 suaded tens of thousands of Hindoos to assemble in Jan- 
 uary annually on the island of Guuga Saugor, at the sea 
 mouth of the Ganges, to perform obsequies for the good of 
 their deceased ancestors, and to induce many hundred 
 children to be cast living into the torrent by their parents, 
 as a means of atonement for the siu of their souls. Lord 
 Wellesley abolished this wickedness. — (Baptist Mission, 
 vol. i., p. 111.) Among some aboriginal tribes, a child is 
 not unfrequently slain when the agricultural season is 
 comm(;ncing, and tlie fields sprinkled with the blood o( 
 the innocent, to propitiate the earth god, in the expecta- 
 tion of procuring thereby an abundant harvest. 
 
 II For a description of Hindooism, see Maurice's Indian 
 Antiquities, in 7 vols. 8vo ; Ward's Mytholngy of the 
 Hindoos, 4 vols. 4 to ; Moor's Hindoo Pantheon; Cole- 
 man's Mythology of the Hindoos; Vans Kennedy's /ie- 
 searchcs ; various volumes of the Asiatic Society; the 
 Asiatic Journal of London ; and the Journal Asiatique of 
 Paris. 
 
 ^ Vor IJuddhism, sre the works of Upham and Hardy. 
 
 ** ycc the ZendarcHta, or code of Zoroaster. 
 
 ff Sec Sale's Koran: and Taylor's Mohamviedanism,
 
 EARLY STATE OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA. 
 
 529 
 
 Moliaiiimpil ; Sciks, altarticd to Naiiik;* Oonds, 
 Kolos, lilu'ifls, SonthalK, I'uliarocs, and otlier abori- 
 ginal tribes, distinct from all tlie prccfdinj;; Jews 
 (while and lilnck), Syriac, Armenian, and Latin 
 Christians ( rciin'sfntalni'S of the cluirches of Kng- 
 land, Denmark, and (iermany ; Scotch Preshyte- 
 rinii, Haptist, Wesleyan, Con);ref;ational, and Nortli 
 American missions. t Kacli |)ersuasinn or sect would 
 require one or more volumes for elucidation : all 
 that is practicable, is n very brief description of the 
 rise ana progress of jirotestant missions in Hin- 
 doos tan. 
 
 Christianity prevailed to some extent in India 
 from an early date ; but we have no certain know- 
 ledge of its introduction under the denomination of 
 Syriac, or any other chureh.J 
 
 The ]'ortiif,'uese, soon after their arrival, attemjrted 
 the conversion of the Hindoos, with wlioni they 
 were brought in contact, to tlie lloniish form of 
 Christianity, by Jesuitism and the inquisition ; and 
 necessarily failed, as they did in China and in .Japan. 
 The Dutch, engrossed with commerce, made little or 
 no attempt to extend ihe Calvinistic creed ; the 
 French were equally indifferent; but the King of 
 
 * Tins reformer, at the hcgiiuiing of the 1 Gth century, 
 attempted to construct in the Punjab a pure and peaceful 
 system of religion out of the l}est elements of ilindooism 
 and Mohammedanism : his i'ollcwcrs (the Seik-s) became 
 devastating contiuerors ; and infanticide and t)ther abomi- 
 nable crimes still fearfully ))revail among this warlike race. 
 
 f See Hough's valuable l!intory of Chrintianity in India, 
 4 vols. 8vo, 1839; Co.v's Hislory of liaplist Missions, 
 2 vols. ; Pearson's Lives of Dr. Claudivs Buchanan 
 (2 vols.) and of Schwartz, 2 vols. 8vo ; Arthur's graphic 
 Mission to the Mysoor, 1 vol. ; Duff on Jitdia Miss-ions; 
 Hoole's Missions to South of India ,■ Pcgg's Orissa, 
 1 vol. ; Memoir of U'. Carey; Life of Judson ; and other 
 interesting missionary works. 
 
 J Thomas Herbert, author of Some Veares Travels into 
 divers parts of Asia and Afrique (published in London in 
 1638, and who began his voyaging in 1026), speaks of there 
 being Christians in many places ; and refers especially to 
 several maritime towns in Malabar. He says — " Tlie 
 Christians in these parts ditler in some things from us, and 
 from the Papacie yet retaine many principles of the ortho- 
 dox and catiiolic doctrine ; their ehurdies are low, and 
 but poiu'ly furnished ; their vassalage will reach nc iurther, 
 whether from their subjection, or that (so the temples of 
 their bodies bee replenisht with vertue) the excellency of 
 buildings eontVrre not holinesse I know not : neat they are, 
 sweetly kept ; matted, without seats, and instead of images 
 have some select and usefull texts of holy writ obviously 
 writ or painted. Tliey assemble and baste to church each 
 Lord's day with' great alacrity : at their entering they 
 shut their eyes, and contcmi>late the holiness of the place, 
 the exercise they] come alumt, and their own unworthi- 
 nesse: as they kneele they look towards the altar or table 
 near which the bi>hop or priest is seated, whom they 
 salute with a low and humble reverence, who returns his 
 blessing by the uplilting of his hands and eyes : at a set 
 houre they begin prayers, above two houres seldom con- 
 tinuing : first they have a short generall confession, which 
 they follow tlie priest in, and assent in an unanim amen : 
 then follows an exposition of some part or text of holy 
 Scripture, during wliieh their attention, dejected lookes, 
 and silence, is admirable ; they sing an hynine," &c. 
 Herbert tlien proceeds to observe that they have the Old 
 and New Testaments ; they baptize commonly at the fortieth 
 d.ay, if the parents do not sooner desire it ; they observe 
 two days' strict preparation for the holy communion, 
 eatijig uo flesh, and having no revelry ; in the church 
 they confess their sins and demerits with great reluctance : 
 aftcj' the arrival of the Portuguese they shaved their heads. 
 The clergy marry but once, the laity twice ; no divorce, 
 save for adultery. Lent begins in spring, is strictly ob- 
 
 Di'umark, in the spirit of Luthcranism, encouraged, in 
 17(Ki, the Tranquebar missionaries in their merito- 
 rious efforts to ])reach the gospel of Christ to the 
 natives in the vernacular tongue ; and for more than 
 ft century many devoted men, including Ziegenbajg, 
 Schwartz, Gericke, Scliull/,c, and others, laboured 
 jiatiently in the south of India for the extension of 
 the Divine mission of truth and peace ; but tailed, by 
 permitting the intermingling of heathen customs 
 with the juirity of life which admits of no such 
 toleration. The lirilish church § and government 
 for many years made no response to appeals on 
 behalf of Christianity. The latter was not merely 
 negative or apathetic j it became positive and active, 
 in resistance to the landing of missionaries in the 
 territories under its control ; anil when, at the close 
 of the 18th century, the ])aiiish and other conti- 
 nental churches had almost retired in despair from 
 the field, and the liaptists (under the leadership of 
 (^arey and Thomas) sought to occupy some of the 
 abandcwicd ground, they and their able coadjutors, 
 Marshman and Ward, were compelled to seek an 
 asylum at the Danisli settlement of Seramjiore, on 
 the banks of the Hooghly, 1.5 m. above Calcutta. || 
 served for forty days; they "affect justice, peace, truth, 
 humility, obedience," &c. When dead, the bodies are 
 placed in the grave looking west towards Jerusalem, and 
 they "believe no purgatory." St. Thomas is their ac- 
 knowledged tutelar saint and patron. — (Lib. iii., on East 
 Indian Christians, p. 304-'5.) 
 
 § The E. I. Cy's. charter of 1098 directed ministers of 
 religion to be placed in each " garrison and superior fac- 
 tory," and a " decent and convenient place to be set apart 
 for divine service only :" the ministers were to learn the 
 Portuguese and the native languages, " the better to 
 enable them to instruct the Gentoos that shall be the 
 servants or slaves of the said comjiany, or of their agents, in 
 the protestant religion." By tlie charter of 1098, the 
 company were required to employ a chaplain on board of 
 every ship of 500 tons' burthen. This regulation was 
 evaded by hiring vessels, nominally rated at 499 tons, but 
 which were in reality, by building measurement, 600 tq 
 6.^)0 tons. — (Milburn, i., p. Ivi.) .Some clergymen of the 
 Church of Englanrl were sent out to India from time to 
 time ; but with a few exceptions (whose honoured deeds 
 are recorded by Hough in his History of Christianity 
 in India), such men as Dr. Claudius Buchanan, Dr. Kerr, 
 David Brown, Corrie, and Henry Martyn, had not many 
 imitators : they " performed duty " on the sabbath ; looked 
 after money and other matters during the week ; and, at 
 the termination of their routine official life, returned to 
 Europe with fortunes ranging from i.20,000 to i.'';'iO,000 
 each. Kicrnander. the Danish missionary, mentions, in 
 1 793, three of these misnamed ministers of the gospel 
 (Blanshard, Owen, and Johnston), then about to return to 
 England with fortunes of 500,000, 350,000, and 200,000 
 rupees each ; which (Mr. Kaye observes) shows, accord- 
 ing to their period of service, " an annual average 
 saving of X2,500."— (//i*/. ofAdmn. of E. I. Cy.,p. 630.) 
 
 II During its early career the E. 1. Cy. paid some at- 
 tention to leligion, and a church was built at Madras; 
 but as commerce and politics soon absorbed all attention, 
 the ministrations of religion were forgotten, and not in- 
 aptly typified by the fate of the church erected at Calcutta 
 by pious merchants and seamen, who were freemasons, 
 about the year 1716. when the E. I. Cy. allowed the 
 young merchants jt50 a-year " for their pains in reading 
 prayers and a sermon on a Sunday." In October, 1737, 
 a destiTictive hurricane, accompanied by a violent earth. 
 quake, swept over Bengal, and among damages, it is re- 
 corded that " the high and magnificent steeple of the 
 English church sunk into the gi'ound without breaking." 
 ■ — {Gentlejnans Magazine, 1738.) Christianity certainly 
 about this time sank out of sight in India, without being 
 broken or destroyed, and it is now rising into pre-
 
 530GOVERNMENT PERSECUTION OF THE MISSIONARIES— 1800— '09. 
 
 The Marquis Wellesley gave encouragement to 
 devout missionaries of every Christian persuasion ;* 
 but during the administrations of Lord Minto and 
 of the Marquis of Hastings, there was direct oppo- 
 sition to the ministers of the Cross, who were 
 obliged to proceed from England to the United 
 Stales, and sail in an American vessel to their desti- 
 nation. Some were prohibited landing on British 
 ground, others were obliged to re-embark ; ships were 
 refused a port entrance if they had a missionary on 
 board, as they were deemed more dangerous than the 
 plague or the invasion of a French army : and the 
 governor of Serampore, when desii'ed by the Calcutta 
 authorities to expel Drs. Carey, Marshman, and 
 others, nofely replied, — they might compel him to 
 pull down the flag of the Danish king, but he would 
 not refuse a refuge and a home to those whose sole 
 object was the temporal and spiritual welfare of their 
 fellow-beings. Despite the most powerful official dis- 
 countenance, the missionary cause ultimately tri- 
 umphed. The Church of England became an effective 
 auxiliary. Calcutta, in 1814, was made the see of a 
 bishop, under Dr. Middleton ; and his amiable suc- 
 
 eminence by the aid of that very E. I. Cy. who, a cen- 
 tury ago, were so indifferent, and half a century since, so 
 hostile to its introduction or discussion in Hindoostan. 
 In 1805, the Rev. Dr. Claudius Buchanan, government 
 chaplain at Calcutta, issued a Memoir on the Expe- 
 diejicy of an Ecclesiastical Establishment for British 
 India, both as a vicans of -perpetuating the Christian Re. 
 ligion among our own Countrgmeji, and as a foundation 
 for the ultimate Civilisation of the Natives. 'J'he me- 
 moir was dedicated to the Archbishop of Canterbury ; 
 and the appendix comprised a variety of instructive mat- 
 ter on the superstitions of the Hindoos. Tlie work was 
 in fact a forcible appeal to the Christians of Britain for 
 the evangelisation of India, and was exceedingly well re- 
 ceived by the bisliops of London (Porteous), Llandaff 
 (Watson), Durham, Exeter, St. David's, and other emi- 
 nent divines. In India the memoir caused great excite- 
 ment among that portion of the government who " viewed 
 with sensitive alarm, for the security of our empire in the 
 East, the circulation of the Word of God." — (Hough, iv., 
 179.) Contrasts were drawn between Hindooism and 
 Christianity, to the prejudice of the latter, by Euro- 
 peans who still professed that faith ; and in November, 
 1807, Dr. Buchanan memorialised the governor-general 
 (Lord Minto), on the change of pohcy from that which 
 the Marquis Wellesley had pursued. Among the points 
 complained of were — First, withdrawing the patronage of 
 government from the translation of the Scriptures into 
 the Oriental languages ; secondlg, attempting to suppress 
 the translations ; thirdly, suppressing the encomium of the 
 Court of Directors of the E. 1. Cy. on the character and 
 proceedings of the venerable missionary Schwartz ; and 
 fourthly, restraining the Protestant missionaries in Bengal 
 from the exercise of their functions, and establishing an 
 imprimatur for theological works. Sermons which Dr. 
 Buchanan had delivered on the Christian prophecies, he 
 was desired by the chief secretary to transmit to govern- 
 ment for its inspection, which he properly declined to do. 
 In 1813 Several missionaries from dittcrent societies were 
 ordered to quit India without delay ; one in particular 
 (Mr. Johns), was told if lie did not take his passage im- 
 mediately, he would be forcibly carried on hoard ship. 
 Two mcmbrrs of the American hoard of missinns, on 
 arriving at Jiombay, were ordered away by SirE. Ncpean, 
 and directed to proceed to England ; they left in a coast- 
 ing vessel, landed at Cochin on their way to Ceylon, and 
 were sent back to Bombjy as prisont;rs. Sir E. Nepean 
 was a religious man, and ultimately obtained permission for 
 the missionaries to remain. 
 
 * The oppo.>,ition of ihe home authorities to the college 
 of Fort William, whicli was fciuiuled by the Marquis 
 Wellesley, had reference chiefly to the religious design of 
 
 cesser (Heber) removed many prejudices, and paved 
 the way for a general recogniiion of the necessity and 
 duty of affording to the ])eople of India the means of 
 becoming acquainted with the precepts of Chris- 
 tianity. The thin edge of the wedge being thus 
 fairly inserted in the stronghold of idolatry, the 
 force of truth drove it home : point by point, step by 
 step, the government were fairly beaten from posi- 
 tions which became untenable. It was tardily ad- 
 mitted that some missionaries were good men, and 
 did not intend or de«ire to overthrow the dominion 
 of England in the Ea.st ; next it was soon acknow- 
 ledged that they had a direct and immediate interest 
 in upholding the authorities, as the most effectual 
 security for the prosecution of their pious labours. 
 Soon after the government ceased to dismiss civil and 
 military servants because they had become Chris- 
 tians ; then came the public avowal, that all the 
 Europeans in India had not left their religion at the 
 Cape of Good Hope, on their passage from England, 
 to be resumed on their return ; but that they still re- 
 tained a spark of the living faith, and ought no 
 longer to be ashamed to celebrate its rites.f When 
 the noble founder. Dr. Claudius Buchanan pointed out 
 that it was a mistake to consider the sole object was merely 
 to "instruct the company's writers." Lord Wellesley's 
 idea, as Dr. Buchanan correctly states, was " to enlighten 
 the Oriental world, to give science, religion, and i)ure 
 morals to Asia, and to confirm in it the British power and 
 dominion." The Doctor adds — " Had the college of Fort 
 Wilham been cherished at home with the same ardour 
 with which it was opposed, it might, in the period of ten 
 years, have produced translations of the Scriptures into 
 all the languagei from the borders of the Caspian to the 
 Sea of Japan." — (Pearson's Zife of Dr. C. Buchanan, 
 i., 374.) 
 
 t The Rev. M. Thomason, father of the late excellent 
 lieutenant-governor of the N. W. Provinces, was dismissed 
 from the governor-general's (Earl Moira) camp, in June, 
 1814, because he remonstrated against " the desecration 
 of the sabbath, and other improprieties of conduct." — 
 (Hough, iv., 383.) At Madras, a collector (civil servant 
 of high standing) was removed from the service for dis- 
 tributing tracts on Christianity among the natives. In 
 Bombay, the state of Christianity at the commencement 
 of the present century was indeed very low ; immorality 
 was general. Governor Duncan, a kind and benevolent 
 man, rarely attended divine service ; and rhe late lamented 
 Sir Charles Forbes told me, that tliough educated in the 
 sabbatical strictness of the Scotch kirk, the effect of evil 
 example on youth carried him with the stream, and that 
 Sunday was the weekly meeting of the " Bobbery hunt" | 
 (a chase on horseback of jackals or pariah dogs), and its ' 
 concomitant, drinking and other excesses. Henry Martyn, 
 when visiting Bombay in 1811, on his w.iy to Shiraz, 
 speaking of the Europeans, says — " I am here amongst 
 men who are indeed aliens to the commonwealth of 
 Israel, and without God in the world. I hear many of 
 those amongst whom I live bring idle objections against 
 religion such as I have answered a hundred times.*' At 
 the cantonments and revenue stations, marriages and bap- 
 tisms were usually performed by military and <-ivil ser- 
 vants. Many English officers never saw a church or 
 minister of the gospel for years. Earnest representations 
 for the erection of even small chapels were disregarded by 
 the goverimient, and the young cadets soon sank into 
 drinking, debauchery, and vice. In 1807 not a Bible was 
 to he found in the shops at Madras — it was not a saleable 
 article ; religious books were at a similar discount : tlie 
 first purchasable Bible arrived in 1809. The observation 
 of thoughtful old natives, for many years, on the English 
 was — " Christian Man — Devil I\laii." If Charles Grant, 
 who laboun-d so laiiicslly and elicctively half a century 
 for the inlrodut.-tion of Christian principles into India, 
 were now aiivc, he would perceive that the abonre reproach
 
 ABOLITION OP WIDOW-BURNING— SCRIPTURES CIRCULATED. 531 
 
 this vantn*(p-j;roiin(l was f^ainrd, olhcr triumphs 
 necessarily followed.* The Scriptures, which the 
 Ikitish nnd Foreign Bihio Society, and also the 
 Jiuptists, had heon enj^nj^fd in translating and nrint- 
 inj;, were now openly distrihuted. " Toleration ' was 
 no loiif^er conceded only to Hindooisni and oilier 
 idolatries; it wiis extended to Christianity : and the 
 ])rinciple was ur^jcd boldly, that the Ktatc should re- 
 nounce all interlerence in the shameful orgies of 
 Juggurnant and other P;if;an abominations ; — that 
 the car of this idol and its obscene priests should 
 cease to be annually decorated with scarlet cloth and 
 tinsel, specially ])rovided by the K. I. Cy. ; and that 
 the troops, p<nglish and Mohammedan, should no 
 longer have their feelings outraged by being com- 
 pelled to do honour to disgusting rites which were a 
 mockery to the true and living God.f 
 
 The demoniac practice of suttee (widow-burning), 
 was formidably assaulted by the missionaries ami 
 other good men. To sanction the crime of suicide 
 was admitted to be repugnant to the character of a 
 
 to his countrymrn was removed, and there would be found 
 many co-operators in the cvaiigelisinj; work. 
 
 * Up to 1851 the operations of tlic society, as regards 
 India, were: — Sanscrit gospels and acts, 8,200; llin- 
 doostunec Testament (Roman), [\\ ,000 ; Urdu Persian por- 
 tions of Ohl Testament, Urdu Persian gospels nnd acts, 
 82,000. Northern and Central India. — Bengallee portions 
 of Old Testament. Bengallee and English St. Mattlicw and 
 St. John, liengallee Testament {Rontan)^ liengallee. with 
 English Testament {Roman), 130,8-12 ; Uriya Bible, 
 16,000; Hinduwee Old Testament, 4,000; Harrottee 
 Testament, 1,000; Bikancera Testament, 1,000; Moul- 
 tan Testament, 1,000 ; Punjahce Testament, 7,000 ; Cash- 
 merinn Testament, 1,000 ; Nepaulese Testament, 1,000; 
 Simlheo St. Matthew, 500. Sotit/iem India — Telinga 
 Testament. I^.I.OOO ; Canarese Bible, 10.000; Tamul Bible, 
 105,000 ; Malayalim New Testament, Malayalim Old Tes- 
 tament, 32, 06'>'; Tulu Testament, 400; Kunkuna Testa- 
 ment. 2.000; Mahratta Testament, 30,000; Guzcrattee 
 Testament, 20,100; Cutchee St. Mattiiew, 500. 
 
 t In August, 183G, the Bishop of Madras, the clergy 
 of every denomination, several civil and militar)' servants, 
 merchants, &c., addressed a memorial to the governor 
 of Madras, the summary of wliieh prayed, that in accor- 
 dance with the instructions laid down by the Court of 
 Directors, 2Ht!\ February, 1833, g\iarantcping toleration, 
 but aftbrding no encouragement to Mohammedan or hca- 
 tlien rites — "That it be not hereafter required of any 
 Christian servaiit of the state, civil or military, of any 
 grade, to make an oflering, or to be present at, or to 
 take part in, any idolatrous or Mohammedan act of wor- 
 ship or religious festival. That the tiring of salutes, the 
 employment of military bands, and of the government 
 troops in lionour of idolatrous or Mohammedan proces- 
 sions or ceremonies, and all similar observances wlneh in- 
 fringe upon hbrrty of conscience, and directly ' promote 
 the growtli and jiopularity of the debasing superstitions of 
 the country,' be di^eontinued. That such parts of Kegu- 
 lation Vll. of 1817, as identify the government with Mo- 
 hammedhuism and heathenism, be rescinded, and every 
 class ot persons let"t, as the honourable Court of Directors 
 have enjoined, entirely to themselves, to follow their reli- 
 gious duties according to the dictates of tlieir conseiences." 
 The governor (Sir Frederick Adam) administered to the 
 bishop and to the memorialists a sharp rebuke, saying, 
 he did not concur in their sentiments, which he viewed 
 with '* the deepest |)ain and concern," «s tliey manifested 
 the ** zeal of over-heated minds," and that the " commu- 
 nication " (worded in a (guarded and Christian ^pirir) ** was 
 fraught with ilanger to the peace of tlie conntry, and de- 
 structive ol" tiie harmony which should prevail amongst 
 all classes of the c<mimunity." — (Pari. Papers — Commons, 
 No. 357 ; 1st June, 1837 ; p. 5.) The E. I. Cy. and her 
 Majesty's government thought differently: the praytT of 
 
 professing Christian government, which had already 
 forcibly suppressed infanticide ; and notwithstanding 
 many forcd)odings of danger, and considerable oppo- 
 sition by the enemies of missionaries, J self-murder 
 was, on Dec. 4, 1S29, during the administration of 
 Lord William lientinck, suppressed throughout Bri- 
 tish Inrlia, by a prohibitory edict of the supreme 
 government; under which all persons aiding and 
 abetting .sr/^/^e were liable to the penalty inflicted for 
 culjjable homicide. There was not the slightest op- 
 position to this ordinance throughout India. § Widow- 
 burning, however, still continues in several provinces 
 which are not under our immediate government. 
 
 Many other advantages accrued from the course of 
 Christian ])olity now fairly begun ; — the government 
 ceased to hold slaves, and passed a decree mitigating 
 some of the evils of the system ; churches were erected 
 at the principal civil and military stations ; and 
 chaplains were appointed for the celebration of 
 })ublic worship at P^uropean stations. j| In 1834, 
 bishoprics were founded at Madras and Bombay. 
 
 the memorialists was ultimately granted ; and the peace of 
 India and the harmony of its people was never for a 
 moment disturbed. But previous to the final concession. 
 Lieutenant-general Sir T. Maitland resigned the command 
 of the Madras army rather than be a participator in offering 
 honom's to idols by sending the troops to assist at tlie 
 Hindoo celebrations. Colonel Jacob, an old artillery 
 officer, stated before the House of Commons' committee, 
 4th August, 1853, when referring to the attendance of 
 British troops at idolatrous ceremonies — " I was myself 
 in that position at Baroda, on the occasion of the I)us- 
 serah festival, when we were waiting for six hours in the 
 sun at the beck and bidding of the Brahmins, who an- 
 nounced the fortunate hour, as they apprehended, for the 
 Guieowar to go and sacrifice a fowl to the Dusserah. The 
 whole of the force was under arms, and the British resi- 
 dent attended on the same elepliant with the prince. Upon 
 the Brahmins cutting off the head of the fowl, the signal 
 was given, and I had to lire a salute." This Christian 
 officer adds — " M'ithin oiu* own presideucy, under the 
 British flag, there can be no sort of excuse wliatever for 
 forcing British officers to take part in an heatiien or 
 idolatrous procession or worsliip, such as the cocoa-nut 
 offerings, annually at Surat, by the governor's agent. 
 At Madras, when I was there some years ago, the govern- 
 ment sanction was directly given to idolatrous practices 
 by presenting offerings of brcidcloth to the Brahmins, for 
 them to pray to the idol deity to save the Carnatic from 
 invasion." — (Pari. Papers — Commons; 6th August, 1853; 
 p. lol.) 
 
 * The Brahmins, who had originated suttee to prevent 
 their widows remarrying, declared it was a religious rite, 
 and on this ground several English functionaries objected 
 to its foreible suppression ; but the doctrine laid down by 
 Menu, the great Hindoo lawgiver, does not sustain the 
 assertion. The texts referring to the subject run thus : — 
 " A faithful wite, who wishes to attain in heaven the man- 
 sion of her husband, must do nothing unkind to him be 
 he living or dead. Let her emaciate her bodv by living 
 voluntarily on pure flowers, roots, and fruits; but let her 
 not, when her liusband is deceeised, even pronounce the 
 name of another man. Let her continue until death for- 
 giving all injuries, performing harsh duties, avoiding every 
 sensual pleasure, and cheerfully practising the incompar- 
 able rules of virtue which have been followed by such 
 women as have been devoted to one only husband." 
 
 § I was happily enabled to be of some use in preparing 
 the public mind for this great event by writing artides on 
 the subject, and addressing them, when translated into dif- 
 ferent languages, to the Hindoo population. 
 
 j] Until recently the spirit under which the Anglo-Indian 
 government was administered, was the protecuon and en- 
 couragement of Brahminism and Mohammedanism, and 
 the disavowal of any connection with Christianity. Thus, as
 
 532 
 
 TRIUMPH CF CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES IN INDIA. 
 
 Gradually the state, so far as is alleged to be com- 
 patible with pledged faith, ceased to interfere in the 
 temporal concerns of idolatrous shrines ; the for- 
 feiture of property by Hindoos who had become 
 converts to Christianity, was no longer recognised as 
 the law ; native Christians became equally eligible 
 with their fellow-citizens to public offices. Finally, 
 several of the highest functionaries have openly 
 avowed, that the best means for effecting an improve- 
 ment in even the physical condition of the people, is 
 by the diffusion of Christianity; and that the main- 
 
 stay for the security of British dominion in India, is 
 
 the inculcation and practice of its divine precepts. 
 Such are the glorious results of nearly half a cen- 
 tury* spent in peaceful but unceasing efforts on 
 behalf of truth ; and I now proceed to show the 
 means in operation for conlinuing the great work 
 which has been so signally blessed in its course. 
 The following data show the state of the Church of 
 England establishment,! and that of the principal 
 protestant missions in India, at the present pe- 
 riod : — 
 
 Tahular Tietc of the Church Missionary Society's Operations — 1855. 
 
 
 a 
 
 UrdaiiiLtl 
 
 Lay Teachers, &c. 
 
 ° 2 
 
 
 
 
 Scholars. j^ 
 
 
 St 
 
 3 
 O 
 
 aries. 
 
 0) TS . 
 
 2 6 sa 
 
 Natives. 
 
 
 rt 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 B 
 
 Principal Stations. 
 
 p 
 
 3 
 
 S 6 
 
 
 Is- 
 
 ■Ml 
 
 o 
 
 
 Total. 
 
 St 
 
 o 3 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 > 
 
 •a 
 
 3 
 S 
 
 B 
 o 
 O 
 
 si 
 .|l 
 
 m 
 
 lale. 
 
 male. 
 
 Total. 
 
 S3 
 
 1 
 
 Bombay & "W. India 
 
 + 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bombay .... 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 16 
 
 22 
 
 64 
 
 12 
 
 22 
 
 1,354 
 
 236 
 
 1,590 
 
 — 
 
 Nasik 
 
 , — 
 
 3 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 
 — 
 
 
 5 
 
 78 
 
 17 
 
 
 
 177 
 
 16 
 
 193 
 
 ^ 
 
 Junir and Malli- [ 
 gaum ... J 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 1 
 
 _ 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 45 
 
 19 
 
 4 
 
 179 
 
 
 179 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sinde mission . . 
 
 — 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 34 
 
 — 
 
 34 
 
 — 
 
 Calcutta & N.India 
 
 + 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Calcutta .... 
 
 — 
 
 4 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 13 
 
 26 
 
 41 
 
 45 
 
 716 
 
 181 
 
 15 
 
 1,220 
 
 59 
 
 1,279 
 
 
 
 Burdwan district 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 i 
 
 3 
 
 21 
 
 25 
 
 27 
 
 206 
 
 51 
 
 9 
 
 586 
 
 60 
 
 636 
 
 
 
 Krib^haghurh dist. 
 
 — 
 
 9 
 
 — 
 
 3 
 
 — 
 
 31 
 
 95 
 
 129 
 
 138 
 
 5,069 
 
 465 
 
 62 
 
 3,558 
 
 508 
 
 4,066 
 
 — 
 
 Bhagulpoor . . . 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 105 
 
 29 
 
 4 
 
 160 
 
 150 
 
 310 
 
 — 
 
 Benares .... 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 31 
 
 38 
 
 43 
 
 321 
 
 91 
 
 3 
 
 569 
 
 . — 
 
 589 
 
 
 
 Jaunpoor . . . 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 _ 
 
 1 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 19 
 
 22 
 
 23 
 
 '>2 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 467 
 
 32 
 
 499 
 
 
 
 Gonuckpoor . . 
 
 — 
 
 3 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 6 
 
 14 
 
 19 
 
 22 
 
 217 
 
 30 
 
 3 
 
 100 
 
 117 
 
 217 
 
 — 
 
 Jubbulpoor . . . 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 — 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 Agra 
 
 _ 
 
 4 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 7i 24 
 
 36 
 
 40 
 
 544 
 
 173 
 
 11 
 
 538 
 
 67 
 
 605 
 
 — 
 
 Meerut .... 
 
 — . 
 
 3 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 — 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 14 
 
 17 
 
 247 
 
 99 
 
 7 
 
 226 
 
 17 
 
 243 
 
 . 
 
 Himalaya . . . 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 11 
 
 13 
 
 21 
 
 11 
 
 7 
 
 111 
 
 15 
 
 126 
 
 
 
 Punjab mission . . 
 
 — 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 3 
 
 i 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 50 
 
 20 
 
 2 
 
 46 
 
 7 
 
 62 
 
 
 
 Pesbawur . . . 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 Madras & S. India 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Madras .... 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 20 
 
 29 
 
 34 
 
 606 
 
 199 
 
 12 
 
 279 
 
 297 
 
 576 
 
 
 
 Tinnevelly dist. 
 
 ;i53 
 
 14 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 187 
 
 37 b 
 
 576 
 
 597 
 
 27,920 
 
 3,565 
 
 327 
 
 5,131 
 
 3,020 
 
 8,151 
 
 1 
 
 Travancore district 
 
 26 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 — 
 
 36 
 
 96 
 
 133 
 
 144 
 
 5,007 
 
 1,242 
 
 83 
 
 1,802 
 
 442 
 
 2,244 
 
 1 
 
 Teluga mission . . 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 24 
 
 27 
 
 31 
 
 131 
 
 14 
 
 5 
 
 76 
 
 143 
 
 219 
 
 — 
 
 Totals . . . 
 
 384 
 
 79 
 
 18 
 
 25 
 
 18 
 
 312 
 
 783 
 
 1,138 
 
 1,235 
 
 41,373 
 
 6,231 
 
 589 
 
 16,632 
 
 5,182 
 
 2,1814 
 
 2 
 
 t No returns. 
 
 stated by the Rev. J. Lechman, In his evidence before par- 
 liament (8th August, 1853), *' the govcrninent have main- 
 tained for thirty years an institution for the instruction of 
 its Mohammedan subjects in tlieir erect), but has not 
 maintained any college or school for the exclusive instruc- 
 tion of its Christian subjects." 
 
 * The Rev. W. Mullens thus sums up the progress of 
 missions during the present century : — " \Vitliin a few 
 years stations were established in Calcutta, Madras, and 
 Bombay, and began to push outward into all the pre- 
 sidencies of Hindoostan. The beghinings were slow but 
 8ure. One society, then another— one missionary and 
 then another, landed on the coast, and took up their 
 posts on the great battle-field of idolatry. The London 
 Missionary Society sent mii^sionaries to Chinsunih, to 
 Travancore, to Madras, Vizagiipatam, Bellary, and to 
 Surat. The American board, after some opposition 
 from the government, occupied Bombay. The Church 
 Missionary Society entered first on the old missions at 
 Madras, Tranfiuebar, and Pulamcottah ; but soon began 
 an altogether new field among tiic Synan Christians in 
 Wctft Travancore. They planted a station at Agra, far 
 
 in the north-west, and maintained the agency which 
 Corrie had employed at Chunar. A native preacher 
 began the work at Meerut, while two missionaries were 
 stationed in Calcutta. The Baptist Missionary Society 
 soon occupied Jessore, Chittagong, Dinagepore, and 
 other places. The We^leyans speedily obtained a footing 
 in P.Tysoor ; and to them succeeded the missionaries of the 
 American board. North, south, east, and west, the 
 Cluirth of Christ was pushing forth its men and means 
 into the land with vigour and earnestness of purpose." 
 There is ro»w:h wanting for India a Medical Missionary 
 Society, similar in its working to the institution (rom- 
 posed of Americans and British) under this title which is 
 now accomplishing so much good in China. 
 
 t There is a large Roman catholic establishment con- 
 sisting of bishops, virurs-geiter'il, and inferior clergy, 
 not only at Goa and Poiulicherry, hut also at the British 
 stations: their number is alleged to iiave been, in 1853, 
 about 303, of whom 200 were Europeans ; and of these 
 forty are British. The Roman catholic community 
 throughout India is estmiated at 090,000, exclusive of 
 a'jout 10,000 soldiers.
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENTS— BENGAL, MADRAS, BOMBAY. 588 
 
 Stateinent shnwiiu/ the Number and Expense of the EccleniiiHlieal Establishments under each Presidency, 
 
 in the Y'ear "iS-'iL'-'SS, and in 1851 -'2. 
 
 1832-'33. 
 
 BEnoai, ; — 
 
 1 nislwip 
 
 1 Ari-lulcacon 
 
 2 Sciiifir Chuplaina ... ... 
 
 35 Chjiplains 
 
 2 ditto (at Straitii RCttloments) . . . 
 
 1 Officiating ditto . . . 
 Visitation and travcllint^ allowances, cs- ) 
 
 tablishmcnt, and contingencies ... J 
 
 Total church establishment . . . 
 
 Scotch Kirk — 
 
 2 Chaplains 
 
 Roman Catholic — ■ 
 
 Allowance to priests at Straits settlements 
 
 Total Bengal 
 
 Madras: — 
 
 1 Archdeacon ... 
 
 2 Senior Cllaplains 
 
 21 Chaplains, at.7,875 rupees each .... 
 
 Travelling allowances, establishment, and ) 
 contingencies J 
 
 Total church establishment . . . 
 
 Scotch Kirk — 
 
 2 Chs^>lains 
 
 Estabh'shment 
 
 Total Scotch Kirk 
 
 Roman Catholic— 
 Allowance to priests 
 
 T«tal Madras [^^^ 
 
 Bombay : — 
 
 1 Archdeacon 
 
 2 Senior Chaplains 
 
 13 Chaplains 
 
 Travelling allowances, establishment, and 1 
 contingencies \ 
 
 Total ckurch establishment . . . 
 
 Scotch Kirk — 
 
 2 Chaplaina . . 
 
 Establishment, &c 
 
 Total Scotch Kirk 
 
 lioman Catholic — 
 Allowance to priests . . . . . 
 
 Tot-l Bombay { f ^ • g^ 
 
 Grand Total . . . . Ss. Rupees 
 cr £ stg. 
 
 >. Rupees. 
 4.3,103 
 17,241 
 
 2«,724 
 
 317,006 
 
 18,372 
 
 2,871 
 
 54,908 
 
 480,825 
 
 22,414 
 6,254 
 
 608,493 
 
 Ms. Rupees. 
 19,091 
 26,160 
 165,375 
 
 32,576 
 
 243,202 
 
 19,635 
 1,050 
 
 20,685 
 
 5,744 
 
 269,631 
 252,889 
 
 By. Rupees. 
 17,778 
 28,660 
 104,000 
 
 36,047 
 
 180,985 
 
 20,382 
 1,389 
 
 21,771 
 
 4,440 
 
 213,196 
 202,158 
 
 963,540 
 96,354 
 
 1851-'52. 
 
 Benoal: — 
 1 Bishop 
 
 1 Archdeacon (also a Chaplain) , . . . 
 
 2 Senior Chaplains 
 
 19 Chaplains, at 9,600 francs each . . . . 
 40 Assistant Chaplains, at 6,000 frano each 
 
 2 ditto ditto at 9,600 „ „ 
 
 (ftntional in Straits settlements) . . 
 
 Visitation and travelling allowances, cs- 
 tablishmcnt,& contingencies in 1849-'50 
 
 Total church establishment . . 
 
 Scotch Kirk — 
 2 Chaplains 
 Establishment 
 
 Total Scotch Kirk 
 
 Roman Catholic — 
 Allowance to priests . . 
 
 Total Bengal Rs 
 
 Madras : — 
 1 Bishop 
 
 1 Archdeacon (also a Chaplain) . . . , 
 
 2 Senior Chaplains 
 
 9 Chaplains, at 8,400 rupees each . . . . 
 
 18 Assistant Chaplains, at 6,000 rupees each 
 
 Visitation and travelling allowances^ es- ) 
 
 tablishmcnt, and contingencies . . , j 
 
 Cog. Rupees, 
 
 45,977 
 
 3,200 
 
 27,912 
 
 1,82,400 
 
 2,40,000 
 
 19,200 
 47,761 
 
 Total church establishment 
 
 Scotch Kirk — 
 2 Chaplains 
 Establishment 
 
 Total Scotch Kirk 
 
 Roman Catholic — 
 Allowance to priests 
 
 Total Madras Rs. 
 
 Bombay; — 
 1 Bishop , 
 
 1 Archdeacon (also a Chaplain) . 
 
 2 Senior Chaplain.s 
 
 5 Chaplains, at 8,400 rupees each 
 
 10 Assistant Chaplains, at 6,000 rupees each 
 Visitation and travelling allowances 
 tablishmcnt, and contingencies . , 
 
 Total church establishment . 
 
 Scotch Kirk — 
 2 Chaplains 
 Establishment 
 
 r] 
 
 Total Scotch Kirk 
 
 Roman Catholic — 
 Allowance to priests . . 
 
 Total Bombay Rs. 
 
 Grand Total . . , 
 
 Cos. Rs. 
 or £ 
 
 5,06,450 
 
 23,112 
 676 
 
 23,688 
 
 21,840 
 
 6,11, Of 8 
 
 25,000 
 
 3,200 
 
 26,160 
 
 75.000 
 
 1,08,000 
 
 60,460 
 
 289,020 
 
 19,035 
 1,.323 
 
 20,958 
 
 10,320 
 
 3,20,298 
 
 25,600 
 3,200 
 26,160 
 42,000 
 96,000 
 
 30,127 
 
 223,087 
 
 20.160 
 948 
 
 21,144 
 
 22,800 
 
 2,67,031 
 
 11,99,307 
 112,435 
 
 
 
 Abstract 
 
 
 
 
 
 Years. 
 
 Church Establishments. 
 
 Scotch Kirk. 
 
 Roman Catholic. 
 
 Total. 
 
 lS32-'33 
 185i-'52 
 
 No. of Persons. « 
 
 82 SS,623 
 118 101,114 
 
 No. of Persons. 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 £ 
 
 6,240 
 0,103 
 
 £ 
 1,485 
 6,153 
 
 £ 
 
 90,.354 
 112,435
 
 534 
 
 WESLEYAN AND BAPTIST MISSIONS IN INDIA— 1855. 
 
 
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 * » * ^CO c^ 
 
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 CO 
 
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 H 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ti-5-^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 III 
 
 3 
 
 •a 
 
 
 
 CO ( t^* * * 
 
 4jt 
 
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 ■Sg." 
 
 ph 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 12^ 
 
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 ^ 
 
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 r- * * * 
 
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 o 
 
 w 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 
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 ccooccoDOx^^-^y^ |a;i--a)C)cr)':o(»cr>oca>ccoo Icoobcoco
 
 OPKRATIONS OP CHRISTIAN BRITAIN IN INDIA— RESULTS. 635 
 
 Statistics vf the London Missionary Society's Stations — 1855. 
 
 Com- 
 menced. 
 
 laie 
 
 1821 
 1819 
 1838 
 1850 
 IWo 
 
 ISOS 
 1852 
 1805 
 
 1852 
 
 1822 
 1820 
 1810 
 1820 
 1S27 
 
 is:i6 
 
 1819 
 1829 
 1838 
 1838 
 
 Stations. 
 
 NdKTHKKN l.N 1)1.4 ;— 
 
 Calcutta 
 
 litiranipore 
 
 Benares 
 
 Mirzapoor 
 
 Alm!)r:iti 
 
 Miihi Kantha (near Baroda) . . 
 Penin.sulau India: — 
 
 Madras 
 
 Tripassore 
 
 Vizngapatam 
 
 f Vizianujnrum (including Chica- 1 
 \ ciile J 
 
 f'uiklupuh 
 
 BelRauin 
 
 Bellarv 
 
 Bangalore 
 
 Salem 
 
 Coirnlmtoor 
 
 Sol'TU TllWANCOIlK : — 
 
 Nagercoil 
 
 Ncyoor 
 
 Piircjchaley 
 
 Trevandrum ^including Quilon) 
 
 MiH^ioniiries 
 (in addition 
 to nearly 301) 
 Native 
 Agents.) 
 
 "Worship- 
 pers.* 
 
 800 
 9fi 
 !)'.) 
 97 
 
 120 
 
 400 
 
 100 
 
 700 
 180 
 151 
 
 287 
 300 
 
 8,247 
 2, 7 OS 
 1,335 
 1,514 
 
 Cominuni- 
 cant-H. 
 
 210 
 30 
 20 
 14 
 
 20 
 
 110 
 40 
 40 
 
 00 
 ,33 
 55 
 84 
 44 
 45 
 
 COl 
 39 
 98 
 82 
 
 Schools. 
 
 18 
 9 
 
 11 
 
 12 
 7 
 
 14 
 
 93 
 44 
 Gl 
 17 
 
 Scholars. 
 
 Printing 
 I'reuci. 
 
 1,089 
 
 
 
 144 
 
 — 
 
 524 
 
 — 
 
 531 
 
 1 
 
 141 
 
 — 
 
 30 
 
 — 
 
 l.tOI 
 
 __ 
 
 3UI) 
 
 — 
 
 250 
 
 1 
 
 2U(; 
 
 — 
 
 4.W 
 
 __ 
 
 410 
 
 
 
 351 
 
 1 
 
 ;,sl 
 
 — 
 
 854 
 
 — 
 
 3,850 
 
 1 
 
 1,209 
 
 1 
 
 1,8'Jl 
 
 — 
 
 586 
 
 — 
 
 * The numbers in this column represent the nominal convert.s ; but do not include the heathen, whose numbers, 
 by reason of the irregularity of their attendance on the public services, cannot be reported. 
 
 In the beginning of 1852, the number of native 
 ("hristian churches in India (including Ceylon), was 
 'A'A\ ; of recorded members (communicants), 18,-101 ; 
 and of worshipping Christians, 112,191 : number of 
 missionaries (inclutling forty-eight ordained natives), 
 was 44^!, together with 398 native catechists belong- 
 ing to twenty-two missionary societies, who have 
 established 1,347 vernacular day-schools, 93 board- 
 ing, 347 day-schools for girls, 120 girls' boarding- 
 schools, 12G superior English scliools, throughout 
 the country (sec Mission returns.) There are eight 
 Bible societies in India, which published, in 1850, 
 no less than 130,000 copies of the Bible, or 
 selections from it, in thirteen languages, and 
 distributed 185,400 copies. There are also fifteen 
 tract societies engaged in supplying works for 
 native Christians — short tracts, or expositions of 
 Bible truth, and school-books for missionary schools. 
 Tlie entire Bible has been translated into ten lan- 
 guages, the New Testament into five others, and 
 separate gospels into four other languages ; besides 
 numerous works of Christians; — thirty, forty, and 
 even seventy tracts, suitable for Hindoos and Mus- 
 sulmen, have been prepared in the vernacular. The 
 missionaries maintain twenty-five printing establish- 
 ments. The cost of all tliese operations, for 1851, 
 ■was £190,000, of which £33,540 was contributed by 
 European Christians in India itself t 
 
 This is but a very small beginning of the great 
 work to be accomplished by ])hilantlir(ipists of all 
 classes; the Urgent Cltiims of India for more Chris- 
 tian Missions\ has been forcibly set forth by Mr. 
 Muir, of the Bengal civil service : he shows that 
 some of the fairest portions of India have no mis- 
 sionary ; that others are su])plied in the proportion of 
 one to one million people; — a " long range of fertile. 
 
 t Results of Missionary Labour in India, by Rev. W. 
 Mullens; reprinted from Calcutta Rniew, October, 1851. 
 London : Dalton, Coekspur-street 
 
 X Published by Dalton, Coekspur-street, London. 
 
 populous countries as much neglected as if they 
 were districts of Japan." — (p. 12.) Formerly the Hin- 
 doos would not listen to the missionaries; now they 
 attend to hear, discuss, and dispute : and, what is 
 still better, they buy the books issued from the mis- 
 sion presses, in large quantities. § Undoubtedly 
 there is a great change coming over the Indian 
 jiopulation, especially of the educated class : the 
 little leaven is fomenting the vast mass. Idolatry 
 cannot long stand before truth, when presented 
 in the manner in which its Divine Founder ex- 
 plained it to His disciples ; but the unbeliever must 
 be born again before he can see God, — he must be 
 born of water and of the Spirit before he can dwell 
 with Him. The Hindoo is as yet only born of the 
 earth — earthy, with every corruption of our nature in 
 its pristine strength ; he is also surrounded and 
 entangled by the meshes of a Satanic .systim, from 
 which he cannot extricate himself It seems to be 
 a part of the Divine scheme for man's redemption, to 
 make his fellow-man an instrument in the work of 
 regeneration ; for thus both the giver and receiver 
 of good are blessed. Hence, to liuman eyes, the 
 operation appears slow. But we cannot penetrate 
 the designs of Omnipotence. We cannot tell why 
 millions of Hindoos have been left steeped in the 
 mire of idolatry for ages, and that they should now 
 be raised from darkness into light by a handful of 
 men from the remote isles of the western world ; all 
 this, and much more, is a mystery : but may not 
 this singular communion between F.ngland and 
 India be as much for the benefit of the former as for 
 that of the latter ? May not Britain need, nearly as 
 much as Hindoostan, not only| the quickening in- 
 lluence which is able to save and make wise, but also 
 the renovation of the flickering tlame of celestial 
 
 § These are not solely religious trarts. For instance, 
 at the \Vesleyan press in Bangalore, Robinson Crusoe has 
 been printed in the vernacular language, with woodcuts ; 
 it has an extensive sale.
 
 536 PAST EDUCATIONAL STATE OF INDIA— CONFLICTING OPINIONS. 
 
 life, which, until the last few years, burnt dim and 
 fitful here, and needed kindling into a bright and 
 cheering light,— a light whose expanding, vivifying 
 rays may, ere long, spread to the darkest and re- 
 motest corners of our globe ? Be this as it may, the 
 Anglo-Indian Christian mission is now fairly com- 
 menced ; a wide and encouraging prospect is open 
 for its meritorious labours. In a mere worldly point 
 of view, an extension of operations is of the utmost 
 importance. Every Hindoo or Moslem converted 
 to the gospel of peace, is an additional security for 
 the permanence of British power. Mere secular men 
 ought therefore to aid this great cause. The day is 
 past in England for attempting to rule a nation by 
 brute force, as if men were beasts of burthen or 
 irreclaimable maniacs. Kindness, consideration, and 
 reasoning, are the instruments of conversion which 
 the missionaries employ, and they are happily in 
 accordance with the dictates and policy of govern- 
 ment. There is therefore, in a new sense, a union 
 between church and state in India, devoid of patron- 
 age or pecuniary relations, but based on the prin- 
 ciple that what is good for the spiritual, must be 
 equally good for the temporal interests of the people. 
 Education. — Under both the Hindoo and Moslem 
 governments, the education of the people was, at va- 
 rious times, deemed a matter of public importance ; 
 many of the temples now devoted to idolatry and 
 paphian rites, were originally schools and colleges for 
 instruction, endowed with lands for this purpose, and 
 conducted somewhat after the manner of the monastic 
 institutions of Europe : but in both regions the teach- 
 ing of the young fell into desuetude. The setting apart 
 of a body of men as more sacred than their fellow- 
 mortals, — investing them with peculiar privileges, — 
 furnishing them in abundance with not only the ne- 
 cessaries, but also the luxuries of life, for which they 
 were not required to labour, — enjoining celibacy, 
 — and placing them under an ecclesiastical, instead 
 of a civil law applicable to all, — was as pernicious to 
 the scholastic system of Hindoos and Mohammedans 
 as it was to that of the Latins: the funds allocated 
 for the temples and mosques became appropriated 
 solely to the use of a lazy, sensual priesthood ; the 
 minds as well as the morals of the people were neg- 
 lected ; and but for the village schools, sustained by 
 each little agricultural community, and the town 
 seminaries, supported by paying pupils, the people of 
 Hindoostan would not even have had the primary 
 elements of reading, writing, and arithmetic, which 
 we found to prevail pretty general among the better 
 classes of the community. 
 
 For a considerable period, the Anglo-Indian 
 authorities gave no thought to the subject. In 1781, 
 a Mohammedan madrissa (college) was established 
 at Calcutta, under the patronage of Warren Hastings ; 
 and in 1792 a Sanscrit college was founded at Be- 
 nares by Jonathan Duncan ; but the main idea in 
 connexion with these institutions — with the Hindoo 
 college at Calcutta, founded in 1816; colleges at 
 Agra and Delhi, in 1827; and a few seminaries in 
 various provincial towns — was the propagation of 
 Oriental literature, and the inculcation of the Hin- 
 doo and the Mohammedan religion. The extension of 
 the English language, and of the arts and sciences, 
 
 * The Riglit Honourable T. B. Macaulay deserves 
 credit for tlie efforts he maile in favour of the extension 
 of the Englisli language in India. 
 
 t Pari. Papers on India, submitted by E. I. Cy. in 
 1853. 
 
 % Of the course of education in this institution, that 
 
 of which it might become the medium, was an inno- 
 vation ; and as such, dreaded by those whose opiiiions 
 then ruled. A watchmaker at Calcutta, David Hare, 
 about 182.3-'4, established a British school there : 
 he saw that the efficacy of Lord Wellesley's policy 
 in founding the college at Fort William, as a means 
 of incorporating the English on the Asiatic stock, was 
 sound, and that no material improvement could take 
 place in the mass of the people by endeavouring to 
 communicate knowledge through twenty different 
 tongues instead of by one, which would form a com- 
 mon medium of intercourse for all. The thought 
 began to be " ventilated" — some advocating the 
 English, some the vernacular, some both. The latter 
 was partially adopted, as a compromise between the 
 two former systems : but it ultimately gave way ;* 
 and now sound-thinking Indian statesmen are con- 
 vinced that the foundation of education ought to be 
 the English, whatever may be the vernacular ; so 
 that in due time it may become the ordinary dialect 
 of about 200,000,000 in Hindoostan. 
 
 In 1813, attention was directed to the necessity of 
 something being done towards the education of the 
 people ; and under the then charter act it was decreed 
 lliat a lac of rupees (£10,000) should be annually 
 appropriated out of the revenue of India for the 
 " revival and improvement of literature. "t It was a 
 small sum for such an object : yet it remained unem- 
 ployed for ten years ; and then the accumulated funds 
 were appropriated to the Hindoo collegej at Cal- 
 cutta, which was placed under the superintendence 
 of government, and to such other Oriental seminaries 
 as a Committee of Public Instruction (appointed in 
 1823) might recommend. 
 
 The Court of Directors early foresaw the inefficiency 
 of mere Oriental literature as a means of improving 
 the people. In a despatch to India, WTitten in 1821, 
 the Court warned the local governments thus : — • 
 " In teaching mere Hindoo or Mohammedan learn- 
 ing, you bind yourselves to teach a great deal of 
 what is frivolous, not a little of what is purely mis- 
 chievous, and a small remainder indeed in which 
 utility is in any way concerned." Bishop Heber also 
 justly remarked — " The Mussulman literature very 
 nearly resembles what the literature of Europe was 
 before the time of Copernicus, Galileo, and Bacon. 
 The Mussulmans take their logic from Aristotle, fil- 
 tered through many successive translations and com- 
 mentaries ; and their metaphysical system is pro- 
 fessedly derived from Plato. Both Mohammedans 
 and Hindoos have the same natural philosophy, which 
 is also that of Aristotle in zoology and botany, and 
 Ptolemy in astronomy, for which the Hindoos have 
 forsaken their more ancient notions of the seven seas 
 and the six earths." The Court of Directors had to 
 contend against the prejudices of distinguislied Eng- 
 lishmen, who clung pertinaciously to the idea of 
 educating the people in the Oriental tongues. Thus, 
 in a despatch of September 29th, 1830, the Court 
 says — " We think it highly advisable to enable and 
 encourage a large number of natives to acquire a 
 thorough knowledge of English, being convinced 
 tliat tlie high tone and belter spirit of European 
 literature can produce their full effect only on those 
 who become familial- with them in the original lan- 
 
 aceurate observer the iate Rammohun Ray, said — ** It 
 can only load the minds of youth with grammatical nice- 
 ties and nietaiihysieal distinctions of no practical use; 
 the pupils will acquire what was known 2,000 years ago, 
 with the addition of vain and empty subtleties." In fact, 
 its pupils became deists and atheists.
 
 IMPROVED SYSTEM OF EDUCATION FOR INDIA— 1854r-'55. 537 
 
 guii<;e. AVhilc, too, we ngrce that, the higher branches 
 of science may lie more advantaf^eouhly stiKlied in 
 tlie hinfjtiapes of Kiiropc, tlian in translations into 
 the Oriental tonyues, it is also to be considered, that 
 tlie fittest persona for trnnslatinfj Knglish scienlidc 
 books, or for ))ntting their substance into a shape 
 adapted to Asiatic students, are natives who have 
 Rtudied profoundly in the original works." — (Des- 
 patch, Sei)tcmber 29tli, 1830.) 
 
 These sound views were not immediately adopted 
 by the Indian government, who absurdly perse- 
 vered for several years attempting to instruct the 
 people who attended the public seminaries by trans- 
 lating Knglish literature into Sanscrit and Arabic — 
 the one not spoken, and the other a foreign language 
 in Iiidia. liefore a Hindoo could study the best 
 masters in Knglish, he must waste precious time in 
 becoming an Oriental scholar : in effect, it would be 
 paralleled if boys in the national schools of liritain 
 were required to learn Latin and Greek, and then 
 study English literature from translations into these 
 
 languages. The pedantry and inutility of such a 
 system was at length exposed j and, with broader 
 views of statesmanship, there came a recognition of 
 the necessity of making English the classical and 
 jiredominant language. 
 
 On tlie 7th of March, 1835, the government 
 abandoned the Oriental scheme of education, and 
 the comprehensive and adaptative tongue of the 
 ruling power was gradually substituted by attaching 
 Knglish classes to the Hindoo and Mohammedan 
 colleges which had been established in different 
 cities ; to these were added scholarships, with sti- 
 ])ends attainable after a satisfactory examination, 
 and terminable at a central college to which the 
 school was subordinate. In October, 184-1, gov- 
 ernment passed a resolution, promising prefer- 
 ence of selection for public employment to stu- 
 dents of distinguished ability. Model schools have 
 been ado])ted in several districts ; suitable books 
 prepared ; an organised system of inspection main- 
 tained J* and Christian instruction thus extended : — 
 
 Missionary Schools in Continental India. 
 
 
 Male. 
 
 Female. 
 
 Stations. 
 
 Vernacular Day- 
 
 Schools. 
 
 Boarding-Schools. 
 
 English Schools. 
 
 Day-Schools. 
 
 Boarding-Schools. 
 
 
 Schools. 
 
 Boys. 
 
 Schools. 
 
 Boys. 
 
 Schools. 
 
 Boys. 
 
 Schools. 
 
 Girls. 
 
 Schools. 
 
 Girls. 
 
 Bcnjral, Orissa, and Assam 
 N. W. Provinces . . . 
 Madras Presidency . . 
 Bombay Presidency . . 
 
 127 
 5.5 
 
 852 
 Co 
 
 fi,369 
 
 3,07 S 
 
 61,;JGG 
 
 3,848 
 
 21 
 
 10 
 
 32 
 
 4 
 
 7C1 
 
 209 
 
 754 
 
 64 
 
 22 
 
 16 
 
 44 
 
 9 
 
 G,0o4 
 
 1,207 
 
 4,l.i6 
 
 984 
 
 26 
 
 8 
 
 2*^2 
 
 28 
 
 690 
 
 213 
 
 6,929 
 
 1,087 
 
 28 
 
 11 
 
 41 
 
 6 
 
 836 
 
 208 
 
 1,101 
 
 129 
 
 Total .... 
 
 1,099 
 
 74,6G1 
 
 67 
 
 1,788 
 
 91 
 
 12,401 
 
 284 
 
 8,919 
 
 86 
 
 2,274 
 
 In the parliamentary discussions relative to India, 
 in 18o2-'3, tlie subject of educating the people by a 
 general system, was fully recognised as one of the 
 most important duties of government; and accord- 
 ingly, in July, 1854, an admirable despatch was for- 
 warded to Bengal by the home authorities. t In 
 this document the Court of Directors declare that 
 " no subject has a stronger claim to attention than 
 education ;" and that it is " one of our most sacred 
 duties, to be the means, as far as in us lies, of con- 
 ferring upon the natives of India those vast moral 
 and material blessings which flow from the gener»l 
 diffusion of useful knowledge, and which India may, 
 under Providence, derive from her connexion with 
 England. For although British influence has al- 
 ready, in many remarkable instances, been applied 
 with great energy and success to uproot demoralising 
 practices, and even crimes of a deeper dye, which for 
 ages had prevailed among the natives of India, the 
 good results of those efforts must, in order to be per- 
 manent, [losscss the further sanction of a general 
 sympathy in the native mind, wliich the advance of 
 education alone can secure. ^Ve have, moreover, 
 always looked upon the encouragement of educa- 
 tion as peculiarly important, because calculated ' not 
 only to produce a higher degree of intellectual fit- 
 ness, but to raise the moral character of those who 
 partake of its advantages, and so to supply you 
 with servants to whose jirobity you may with in- 
 creased confidence commit oflices of trust' in India, 
 
 * In September, 1845, I attended an annual e.\amin.i- 
 lion of the Poena schools, and was agreeably surprised 
 by the intelligence and proficiency of the pupils. 
 
 where the well-being of the people is so intimately 
 connected with the truthfulness and ability of offi- 
 cers of every grade in all departments of the state. 
 Nor, while the character of England is deeply con- 
 cerned in the success of our efforts for the pro- 
 motion of education, are her material interests alto- 
 gether unaffected by the advance of European know- 
 ledge in India: this knowledge will teach the natives 
 of India the marvellous resuluof the employment of 
 labour and capital, rouse them to emulate us in the 
 development of the vast resources of their country, 
 guide them in their efforts, and gradually, but cer- 
 tainly, confer upon them all the advantages which 
 accompany the healthy increase of wealth and com- 
 merce ; and, at the same time, secure to us a larger 
 and more certain supply of many articles necessary 
 for our manufactures and extensively consumed by 
 all classes of our population, as well as an almost 
 inexhaustible demand for the produce of British 
 labour." 
 
 These are noble sentiments, ■worthy of England, 
 and of incalculable benefit to India. With this pre- 
 amble, the Court of Directors proceed to state the 
 main object thus: — " We emphatically declare that 
 the education which we desire to see extended in 
 India is that which has for its object the diffusion of 
 the improved arts, science, philosophy, and literature 
 of Europe ; in short, of European knowledge." 
 
 Pecuniary aid is to be given to vernacular and 
 Anglo-vernacular schools. The study of law, medi- 
 
 t It is nnderstood that the preliminary draft of this 
 valuable State Paper was drawn up by Sir Charles Wood, 
 then president of the India Board.
 
 538 GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS— EXTENSION OF EDUCATION— 1855. 
 
 cine,* and civil engineering to be encouraged ; and 
 all the higher branches of sound education. The 
 expenditure for these great designs will be large, 
 
 and can only gradually be employed : at present it 
 amounts to about £150,000 a-year, -which, it is to be 
 hoped, -will ere long be largely augmented.f 
 
 Kumher of Gnccrnment Educational Institutions, of Teachers and of Pupils therein, with the total Expense 
 thereof, and the Number and Value of Scholarships in each Presidency, in the Year 1852-'53. 
 
 Presidency. 
 
 Nature of Institution. 
 
 Institu- 
 tions. 
 
 Teachers 
 
 PupUs. 
 
 Expense. 
 
 Scholarships. 
 
 Number. 
 152 
 
 284 
 84 
 
 Value. 
 
 Bengal . . < 
 N A\'. Provinces . 
 
 English and native tuition . . . . 
 
 Vernacular tuition 
 
 Grants in aid to charitable and other ] 
 
 scholastic institutions J 
 
 English and native tuition 
 
 Vernacular 
 
 109 
 36 
 
 / 
 
 8 
 3 
 
 15 
 235 
 
 336 
 36 
 
 125 
 
 21 
 
 64 
 190 
 
 9,116 
 1,904 
 
 1,835 
 
 448 
 
 2,492 
 12,384 
 
 £ 
 
 51,000 
 1,192 
 
 6,306 
 
 14,577 
 
 5,437 
 
 3,789 
 
 766 
 
 1 17,143 
 
 £ 
 3,137 
 
 2,814 
 
 Madras .... 
 Bombay .... 
 
 English and native tuition 
 
 Vernacular 
 
 English and native tuition 
 
 Vernacular 
 
 Total I English and native tuition . 
 . -J Vernacular 
 
 Grand Total 
 
 5,880 
 
 
 134 
 279 
 
 546 
 226 
 
 13,891 
 14,288 
 
 — 
 
 520 
 
 11,831 
 
 
 «3 
 
 772 
 
 28,179 
 
 100,210 
 
 520 
 
 11,831 
 
 Note. — The above return is founded on the information received for the year 1852-'o3 ; but as the state of educa- 
 tion in India is at present one of transition, it is probable that considerable alteration has taken place. By the despatch to 
 the goveninicnt of India, dated the 19th July (No. 49 of 1854), a plan for the general extension of education was laid 
 down, and when the instructions therein contained shall begin to be carried out, the changes made will be of a wide and 
 sweeping character. For the reasons already assigned it is impossible to afford any precise information on the subject of 
 Vernacular Schools. It is known, however, that these schools are increasing in number and improving in character. In 
 October, 1849, sanction was given by the home authorities for the establishment of one government vernacular school in each 
 of eight tehsildarries, or revenue divisions of the North-West Provinces, to afford a model to the native village school- 
 masters. The experiment proved highly successful ; the number of village indigenous schools, within the eight tehsildar- 
 ries, having increased in three years, from 2,014 to 3,469 ; and that of the scholars therein, from 17,169 to 36,884. The 
 plan has now been extended to the whole of the North- Western Provinces, and also to portions of Bengal and the Pun- 
 jab, The expense of the measure is estimated at £60,000 per annum. 
 
 Under the present system there is an educational 
 department at each presidency, with an official of 
 talent, largely remunerated, at its head ; qualified 
 district inspectors report periodically on the colleges 
 and schools supported and managed by government, 
 and statistical returns are to be annually sent, with 
 the reports, to England. Universities are to be 
 established, under charter, in different parts of 
 India, and to he managed by senates, consisting of 
 
 * In 1829, I laid before Lord Wm. Bentinck, then 
 governor-general, a plan for estabhshing a medical and 
 surgical college at Calcutta, and pointed out the great 
 benefits which would accrue from such an institution. I 
 also offered to deliver gratuitously a course of lectures on 
 anatomy, for which there was an abundance of '* sub- 
 jects," the Ganges being the jtlace of sejjulture for many 
 million Hindoos whose bodies daily floated in thousands 
 past Calcutta. Lord Vvm. Bentinck warmly commended 
 my proposition ; but subsequently informed me that he 
 found such a decided opposition to it in the council that 
 it would be hopeless to get the sanction of those who 
 feared every innovation, and deemed that the Hindoos 
 would never attend a dissecting-room. In a few years 
 after my plan was effectively carried out by others, and it 
 has produced the most beneficial results, Hindoos even 
 come to England to study and qualify themselves for the 
 position of surgeon in the service of government. I know 
 of no branch of science so urgently needed for the people 
 of India as that of niedirino and rhirurgcry ; and it is to 
 be hopfd that public ho.>^pilaIs and lf(aurers will be estab- 
 lished in the large cities for the benefit of thi* native 
 population. The Friejid of hnHa thus alludt's to the 
 good done by the establishment of medical institutions in 
 Malwa : — " In 1H47, throughout the grtmt provinces over 
 which the authority of the resident at Indore extends, 
 there was not, we believe, one single dispensary. Tliere 
 are now nine, all supported by funds derived from sources 
 
 the chancellor, vice-chancellor, and fellows of each ; 
 periodical examinations to be held in the different 
 branches of art and science, and degrees conferred, 
 unconnected with religious belief, on qualified per- 
 sons who may be educated at the university college, 
 or at affiliated institutions conducted by all denomi- 
 nations, whether Christians, Hindoos, Mohammedans, 
 Parsees, Seiks, Buddhists, Jains, or any other reli- 
 gious persuasion, if found to afford the requisite 
 
 independent of the British government, and all frequented 
 by the people with an eagerness not always manifested in 
 our older provinces. The nine are stationed at Indore, 
 Oojein, Rutlan, Manpoor, Dhar, Dewas, Sillanah, and 
 Bhopawur, the central station having two. From these 
 establishments no less than 20,223 new patients have re- 
 ceived medical relief, of whom about a thiid, or 6,465, 
 were women and children. The number of females, in 
 itself a sixth of the whole, deserves especial remark. No 
 less than 2,468 surgical operations were performed ; a 
 number which appears enormous, unless very slight cases 
 are inrluded. When it is remembered that a few years 
 since this vast amount of human suffering must liave 
 been unrelieved, or relieved only by the superstitious 
 quackery of the Yedic doctors, the good which has been 
 accomplished by Mr. Hamilton, and the energetic resi- 
 dency surgeon, will be readily ajipreciuted. The whole 
 expenses of these estabiislimcnts amount to 16,032 rupees j 
 and the receipts, chiefly from native chiefs and princes, 
 have been a little above that sum. There appears to be 
 no probability of any falling oft'; and in S]iite of their 
 hereditary aputhy, the neighbouring chiefs appear to be 
 desirous of imitating a system which, under their own 
 eyes, produces so excellent an t'ffert." 
 
 t The reorganisation of village schools would bring 
 instruction home to the mass of the jieople : they might 
 be made industrinl institutions, and combine agrieuUurc 
 with rustic mechanics.
 
 NEWSPAPER PRESS, ENGLISH AND NATIVE, IN INDIA— 1854.639 
 
 course of study, and suliji-ct to the inspection, pe- 
 riodically, of goviTiimenl inspectors. 
 
 A people who have been suhjecl, for several cen- 
 turies, to a rigid political despotism, and sunk for 
 aj^es in a gross system of idolatry, which, while it 
 involved n slavish subjection to ii dominant caste, 
 encouraged the development and exercise of every 
 sensual passion, must necessarily have both intellec- 
 tual and moral faculties darkened to a degree almo.-it 
 surpassing Ix^Iief. If it bo a ho[)eless task to re- 
 generate a human being, of whose originally small 
 glimmering of soul scarcely a scintilla is left, and 
 whose frame, diseased by debauchery, is returning to 
 its original mire, how much more difhcult must it 
 be to raise a hundred million from the inert state in 
 which the mass now vegetate through existence ! 
 Far easier is the task of elevating the New-Zea- 
 lander or KalKr ; nay, the efl'orts making for the 
 civilising of liheels, Gonds, Mairs, Sonthals, and 
 other aborigines in India, may be attended with 
 earlier success than can be expected from the Hin- 
 doo, whose mind is still under the dominion of a 
 Gooroo, or 15rahmin. It is only, therefore, by great 
 and long-sustained exertions on the part of govern- 
 ment, aided by all its servants, tliat the literary, 
 moral, and industrial education of the people of 
 India can be accomplished.* 
 
 The 1'kess. — The rise and progress in India of 
 this potent engine of civilisation requires to be 
 briefly noted. During the administration of Warren 
 Hastings, the first English newspaper was established 
 at Calcutta : it was styled llicketjs Gazette, and is 
 described as a low, scurrilous, immoral publication ; 
 it soon died a n,atural death. In 1814, the Gorern- 
 ment Gazette vias the only jjublication extant. With 
 the increase of Anglo-Indian residents the number 
 of newspapers augmented, and their character im- 
 ])roved. In 1820 there were three weekly journals 
 and one monthly periodical in Calcutta. In 1830, 
 the number of daily, weekly, monthly, and annual 
 periodicals issuing from the Bengal press was thirty- 
 three. In 1834 the numbers stood thus: — Daily, 
 political newspapers, four; commercial advertisers, 
 four. Tri-tceekbj, political, two; commercial, one. 
 Weelihj, political, four; commercial, four. Mimthly, 
 
 * Government do not seem to have as yet given any 
 attention to the liiglily important subject of female educa- 
 tion. The character of the men of any country may be 
 readily inferred l)y the intellectual progress and moral 
 teaching of the women. Tiie barbarous system of the 
 Mohammedans is to keep the fair sex as ■mere sensual 
 toys or household drudges : this cruel policy lias, in some 
 places, been adopted by the Hindoos from their Moslem 
 conquerors ; but it belongs not to their serial ethics, as 
 Menu enjoins reverence and respect ; and there have been 
 several distinguished female sovereigns and personages in 
 Hindoostan. A London institution for promoting the 
 education of the women of liulia is now in full operation, 
 under the direction of a ladies' committee, who send out 
 carefully-trained schoolmistresses, and superintend the 
 working of the society at home and abroad. If tlie day 
 have not arrived when girls* scliools can be formed 
 by government in India as well as in England, then to 
 such a body as " the Society for promoting Female Educa- 
 tion in the East," the work of educating the women of 
 India might be temporarily entrusted by the state. 
 
 f There were t'khbars, or Court Circulars, containing 
 such scraps of official news, or y»p, as tlie ruling power 
 permitted to be made known. 
 
 X In 1S29, in conjunction with Rammoimn Roy, Dwar- 
 knnaut Tagore, Prussuna C<miarTagore. and other Hindoo 
 gentlemen, I established in C!aleutta a wceklv journ.il, and 
 printed it, under my own roof, in English, iiengallee, and 
 
 general, six. Quarterly, reviews and Army Lint, 
 four. AnnuaU and almanacs, five. In the N. W. 
 Provinces, Agra, Delhi, (Jawnpoor, and Meerut, had 
 each an iMiglish newspaper. 
 
 At Madras there were nine, and at Bombay ten 
 Knglish newsi)ap('rs and other jjeriodicals ; there was 
 no stamp or advertisement duty, but [)ostage wag 
 levied on the transmission of journals through the 
 post-ofiice. A registration of the name and resi- 
 dence of proprietors, and a lodgment of a copy with 
 government of each issue of a publication, were re- 
 quired. Until Sir Charles Metcalfe, when acting 
 governor-general in August, 183o, declared the press 
 of India free, and its conductors subject only to the 
 civil law, and trial by jury for libel, the government 
 exercised a vigilant censorshij), and could at any 
 moment destroy an obnoxious journal by the depor- 
 tation of its conductors to Europe (as w.is done in 
 the case of the late Mr. Silk Buckingham); but 
 since 183j, the newspaper press of India has been as 
 free as that of England. 
 
 The native periodical press is of recent formation. 
 During Hindoo and Moslem sway, no such thing a.s 
 a newspaper with freedom of discussion existed. t 
 Even in 1820 there were no journals in the verna- 
 cular : a few subsequently arose. ^ In 1834 there 
 were fifteen newspapers published weekly in Bengal, 
 some in Bengallee, others in Persian, and some with 
 translations into English. At the same period there 
 was in Madras one native newspaper published in 
 Hindoostanee and in English ; and in Bombay, 
 four — -in the Guzerattee, Mahratta, and Persian 
 languages. 
 
 With the establishment of these journals, English 
 and native, there came into operation several printing- 
 presses for the publication of books, pamphlets, &c., 
 which were of essential service to the spread of edu- 
 cation and literature. 
 
 The latest data before me (1853) of the news- 
 papers and periodicals in the English language at 
 each ])residency, show: — Calcutta — Daily, seven ;§ 
 bi-weekly, three; weekly, eleven; bi-monthly, five; 
 monthly, eight ; quarterly, nine ; yearly, eight. This 
 is a larger issue of periodical literature than Edin- 
 burgh, Dublin, or any city in the United Kingdom 
 
 Hindoostanee (Persiiin) characters, in parallel columns, 
 with a hojie of improving the tone of the native mind, 
 and preparing it for a temperate discussion of public 
 affairs. This journal was acknowledged to have been 
 eminently instrumental in aiding Lord Wm. Bentinck 
 in the abolition of snttee, by appeals to the humane 
 feelings of Hindoo Imsbands, fathers, and brothers. When 
 widow. burning was suppressed, attention was directed to 
 other prevailing pernicious practices, such as duelling 
 among Europeans, and flagellation in the army. Some 
 very mild comments on a court-marti.al sentence, dated 
 20th .luly, 1S29, of "one thousand lashes on the bare 
 back of gunner Wm. Comerford, of the 1st company 
 ."ith battalion of Bengal artillery" (whose wife had been 
 sedu(^ed by the captain of his company, and the seducer's 
 life threatened by the aggrieved husband), led to the con. 
 demnation by the government of India of the journal, and 
 its ultimate destruction, with the large property embarked 
 therein. It is now unnecessary to advert to the injury 
 sustained ; the circumstance is mentioned as a fragment 
 of histor)'. The sacrifice was made for great objects, and 
 it is seldom one is privileged to witness the beneficial 
 results by tlie attainment of the end in view. 
 
 § Englishman, tlurkani {Messenger), Citizen, Morning 
 Chronicle, Evening Mail, Commercial and Shipping Ga- 
 zette. Exchange Gazette. The Englishman and Hurkam, 
 for instauce, are of the size of the London Times without 
 its supplement.
 
 540 
 
 RAPID EXTENSION OF PRINTING IN INDIA— 1854-'55. 
 
 but London can exhibit. Somhai/^DaWy, three ;* 
 bi-weekly, two ; weekly, five ; bi-monthly, four ; 
 monthly, three; quarterly, one; half-yearly, one; 
 annually, two; and occasionally (transactions of 
 scientific societies), four. Madras — Daily and 
 weekly, nine ; bi-monthly, two ; monthly, eight ; 
 quarterly, three ; annual, six. Throughout different 
 parts of India there are also English newspapers, 
 journals, ite., viz., at Agra, four ; Delhi, four ; 
 Simla, one ; Lahore, one ; Serampoor {Friend of 
 India), one; Rangoon, one; Bangalore (bi-weekly 
 Herald), one; Poona, one; Kurachee (Sinde), two. 
 Of the native press I can find no complete returns : 
 in Bengal it has largely increased ;t as also at Bom- 
 
 * Times, Gazette, and Courier, each nearly equal in 
 size to the Calcutta newspapers. 
 
 f The Baptist Mission Press is distinguished in Ben- 
 gal above all others for the accuracy and excellency 
 of its work ; it does a large amount of business, the profits 
 of which are all devoted to the mission. By the aid of 
 this active society, the Scriptures have in whole or in 
 part been translated into, and printed in, forty-four 
 Asiatic languages, which may be thus enumerated : — • 
 Statistics of Translations (in the Languages of India) of 
 the Holy Scriptures, 
 
 Languages or Dialects. 
 
 No. of Copies. 
 
 WhoUy. 
 
 In Part. 
 
 
 3,500 1 
 
 3,000 
 
 
 2,790 
 
 
 6,509 
 
 Battak (numbernot known.) 
 Beloochee ditto. 
 
 341,655+ 
 
 67,060J 
 
 1,000 
 
 1,000 
 
 BhogTilcundi 
 
 6,400 
 
 Bhutueera 
 
 1,000 
 
 Bruj 
 
 6,000 
 
 
 16,500 
 
 
 3,000 
 
 
 9,100 
 
 Cingalese (about) 
 
 Guzerattee 
 
 Gurwhali or Shreenagur 
 
 Haroti 
 
 6,000 
 
 5,000 
 1,000 
 1,000 
 1,000 
 
 Hindi 
 
 76,000 
 
 Hindoostanee or Urdu 
 
 Javanese (about) 
 
 Jumbu ... 
 
 132,033 
 3,000 
 1,000 
 
 Juyapura (number not known.) 
 Kanoj . , 
 
 1,000 
 
 Khassi 
 
 500 
 
 
 1,000 
 
 K.unkunu , , . 
 
 2,000 
 
 KusoU (number not known.) 
 
 1,000 
 
 Mahralta 
 
 11,465 
 
 
 1,500 
 
 
 1,000 
 
 Mueuclh 
 
 1,000 
 
 Multani 
 
 1,000 
 
 Munipura 
 
 ^epaulcse .... 
 
 1,000 
 1,000 
 
 Oodeypoor (number not known.) 
 Oojin 
 
 1,000 
 
 
 14,000 
 
 Palpa 
 
 1,000 
 
 
 37,500 
 
 Sanscrit 
 
 Sikhi 
 
 71,580 
 6,000 
 
 Sindhi (number not known.) 
 Telinga or Teloogoo 
 
 1,000 
 
 Total number of Vols. . . . 
 
 14,900 
 
 833,180 
 
 X New Testament. § Old Testament. 
 
 (Pari. Papers — Commons; Cth August, IB.'iS; p. 16.').) 
 The London Misaionary Society have translated the wliole 
 
 bay, where there are two daily newspapers in Guze- 
 rattee; five bi-weekly, four w-eekly (Marathi, Guze- 
 rattee and Persian), one bi-monthly (Marathi and 
 English), one monthly (in Portuguese.) 
 
 The activity of printing may be judged by the 
 number of establishments in full operation at Bom- 
 bay, viz., English, seven; Guzerattee, eleven; Ma- 
 rathi, four; Persian, four; lithographic presses, five. 
 In the N. W. Provinces, the number of native presses 
 in operation during the year 1853, was forty; and 
 the number of native newspapers issued therefrom, 
 thirty-seven : some of these, though containing cur- 
 rent news, supply information useful for schools, on 
 subjects connected with geography, zoology, history 
 (chiefly modern), education, popular errors, transla- 
 tions from Shakspeare, influence of the moon on 
 animal and vegetable creation, and various scientific 
 matters. The official report to government (19th 
 No. of Selections) on the subject of these native 
 presses, states — '■ Of the forty presses at work, five 
 were established within the year, and four discon- 
 tinued during the same period ; in the same manner, 
 five new newspapers were issued, and five old ones 
 discontinued. The books published at the presses 
 were 195, and the approximate number of copies 
 of the same struck ofi' for general use, 103,615. Two 
 of the principal presses, viz., Gobind Pughonath's at 
 Benares, and the Moostufaee press at Delhi, have 
 not furnished us with the number of copies they 
 have published of each work issued by them : for 
 these, therefore, the lowest average, viz., 200 to each 
 work, has been taken ; but it may confidently be 
 assumed that a far greater number of copies were 
 struck off, more especially as the last-named press is 
 noted for its success in the publication and sale of 
 books." The report adverts commendingly to several 
 of the newspapers, viz., the Koh-i-Noor, at Lahore ; 
 the Noor-ool-Absar, ai A^ra.; the Quiran-oos-Sadi/n, 
 at Delhi ; the Soodhakeer, at Benares, " which ranks 
 very high among the native journals of these pro- 
 vinces." One newspaper deserves special note, owing 
 to its patronage and source: — "Another well-eon- 
 ducted periodical is the Blalwa Ukhbar, under the 
 patronage of the Maharajah Holkar and Sir R. N. 
 C. Hamilton, and published at Indore. The paper 
 is edited by one of the teachers of the Indore school, 
 and contains intelligence relative to the native neigh- 
 bouring states, which have been personally visited by 
 the editor, and with the condition and general afiairs 
 of which he would appear to be thoroughly con- 
 versant." It is to be regretted that there are no 
 government reports on the state of the native press 
 in Bengal, Madras, and Bombay. Very little fore- 
 sight is needed to perceive the vast importance, \ici\\- 
 tical, social, and moral, which this rapid extension of 
 printing is calculated to produce on the native mind 
 throughout the length and breadth of Hindoostan ; 
 for weal or for woe our government is now com- 
 mitted to the principle of free discussion on every 
 topic which the discursive faculties of the Asiatic 
 may choose to examine. Some publications of a 
 decidedly deistical and even atheistical character 
 
 Bible into two languages — the Canare.«e and Teloogoo ; 
 aided tliat of tli(; Oordoo, Guzerattee, Bcugallee, Tamul, 
 and Maliyalim. Of .£03,963 annual incnnie, X26,130 is 
 expended in India. The Church Missionary Society 
 spends in India i.'45,000 per annum, and has eighty- 
 eiglit ordained clergymen engaged in its glorious work. 
 Tlie excellent Moravians are "breaking ground" in the 
 Himalaya, and the Scotch church are effectively occupy- 
 ing Western India.
 
 THE PURE HINDOO AND THE ANCIENT GREEK COMPARED. 541 
 
 linve iilienily appcnn-d.* Piiinc's A(jc of Reason and 
 Voliicy's liuitis iif Kmpin'S, not lonf; since found a 
 nioif rcudy Mile llinn any othor inijinrled books; 
 for, in tlie Ininsition stiilf from I'iiijunism to Cliris- 
 li.misni, the j,'ulf of inlidclity must, it is to be 
 feared, be passed with ruin to many souls. f 
 
 The pure Hindoo mind, p;enprally sneaking, re- 
 sembles very much that of the ancient Greek: it is 
 loffical, yet fond of romance — acute iu perception, 
 but wanlinj^ in ])rofundity ; deligliting in subtleties, 
 and eager for disputation; more vain than proud,— 
 prone to exaggeration, — given to fine sentiments 
 rather than to noble actions,! — with a keener relish 
 for the beautiful than the true, — physically brave, 
 but morally pusillanimous, — -sujierstitious, impulsive, 
 ardent in love, bitter in haired, — of vivid thoughts, 
 bright imaginings, and lolly aspirations. With 
 sneli a people, whose natural character has been 
 subdued by centuries of despotism, great results 
 may be produced by example and precejit. If left 
 uiiguided, the bias of (allien man must lead to evil; 
 but with the powerful engine of the printing-press, 
 government may exercise a i)ermanent inlluence for 
 good. 'I'here is no time to be lost: the school in- 
 spectors, European and native, now being ap])ointed 
 over every district, may become ellicient instruments 
 for the guidance of the native press in the inculca- 
 tion of truth, the discussion of ])olitical economy, 
 and the ditl'usion of virtuous principles. 
 
 Crimk. — For want of regular returns and a uni- 
 form system, it is not possible at ]U'esent to show the 
 e.\lent of crime among the population generally ; the 
 nature of offences peculiar to the Hindoos or to the 
 Mohammedans; the increase or decrease for several 
 years; or the ratio that it bears to the number of 
 inhabitants: such statistics would be very valuable, 
 and might be obtained. Some returns prepared for 
 
 * I obtained in 1845, at Bombay, one atheistical book, 
 written by a I'arsee, in reply to the Scotch missionaries, 
 which was of such a blasphemous character that I burnt 
 the work to prevent its falling into the hands of any 
 young person in England. 
 
 t One of the ablest newspapers published in India, 
 termed the Ciitcuttii Itir^uirer, was edite<l by a Hindoo 
 named Khrisluia I\b>huu Bantiajee. a man of brilliant 
 abilities, perfectly well accpiaintecl with the English lan- 
 guage, which he wiehled with great power against the 
 government as a thorough " radical :" liis infidelity was 
 for a time complete. About the year 1834 he became 
 acfpminted with the missionaries ; his sce])tieism was 
 shaken, and he soon ('mhraeed Christianity — ceased to 
 oppose govermnent, "sounded the alarm to his country- 
 men and the authorities on the danger of imparting a 
 merely intellectual education, as inevitably leading a large 
 mass of the population into hostility to the British rule ; 
 and declared his entire conviction, both politically and 
 morally, tliat the government would do well not to 
 exebule Christianity from tlicir seliools." — {See valuable 
 evidence of CoUjucI Jacob, of the artillery, before pailia- 
 ment, 4th August, ISo.'i.) While in India, I invited the 
 presence of many young Hindoo gentlemen to my cham- 
 bers in the evening, and usually had large soirees : they 
 quoted Shakspcare. Byron, and other j)opular works with 
 remarkable memory, but almost invariably scoft'ed at the 
 Bible and all religion ; they had kiekeil .iway the cnUchcs 
 of Hindouisin, and leeeived no substitute; hence they 
 sturuhU'd through dark and fearful regions of atlu'ism. 
 
 J There are many exce]Hions to this, especially in Raj- 
 poot annals ; and the devotion of the Hindoo sepoy to his 
 European offteer, has often been exhibited by the sacrifice 
 of life to save that of his commander ; hut heroism is not, 
 in the present age, the characteristic of the mass of the 
 people, 
 
 § Of this number but 46, SSI were punished. The 
 4 A 
 
 the judicial department of the Madras governmfait, 
 furnishes useful details for the year 1 800. It appears, 
 that among a population of 22,'281,o27, there were in 
 one year l(i7,U0.'J alleged cases of as»ault,5 2,-'iOS of 
 cattle-hteuling, 9,135 of theft, and 5,424 of varioun 
 other olfenees : total, 183,930 cases of crime, for 
 which summonses were granted by the district magis- 
 trates. The vitttKjc police cases included 11,087 
 charged with petty assault, and 1,580 of petty theft. 
 
 'J'he offences against the person in the Madras 
 Presidency, show that the Hindoo is not the peace- 
 able person that he is generally represented.)! The 
 murders in 1850 were 275; homicide, 87 ; wounding 
 with intent to kill, 25 ; .assault with wounding, 412; 
 ra])e, 75 : total, 804. The otfenees against property 
 in the same year, were : — -Robbery, with aggravating 
 circumstances, 4SG ; robbery, without ditto, 828; 
 housebreaking, 5,959; theft, 2,350; cattle-stealing, 
 killing, or wounding, 922; arson, 377; embezzle- 
 ment and fraud, 205: total, 11,127. Forgery, 80;^ 
 perjury or subornation, 11; various, !,742: total, 
 1,839. This is a heavy catalogue of known crime, 
 which, it is to be feared, forms but a small propor- 
 tion of the amount actually perpetrated. 
 
 The crime of murder varies in different districts: — 
 Malabar, 32 cases ; Canara, 30 ; Cuddapah, 24 ; 
 Salem, 23 ; Bellary, 20 ; in Gangam, Kajuhmundry, 
 N. Arcot, Coimbatoor, Madura, and Tinnevelly, the 
 number of cases ranged from 12 to 16. The number 
 of persons charged, in 1850, with abuse of authority 
 as police-officers (principally jjeons, or constables 
 and village police servants), was 1,410, which indi- 
 cates grievous maladministration among the lowest 
 officials.** In jjroportion to the population of the 
 whole presidency, the number of persons summoned 
 for petty offences was one in eighty-three inhabit- 
 ants, and the crimes and misdemeanours one in 1,000. 
 
 disproportion of persons punished to those summoned is 
 a great evil. In Jlajahmundry, for instance, 1,422 out of 
 14,.')7i, or nine per cent. Thus ninety-one out of every 
 hundrid persons brought before the magistrates are ae- 
 knc)wledged to be innocent : this indicates a very bad 
 state oi society. 
 
 II Murder and attempts to kill are awfully prevalent 
 in every part of India: the nature of the assault varies 
 with the character of the i)cople, and is more manifest 
 among the hot-blooded Mussulmen tliau the cooler Hin- 
 doos ; the former slaying, the latter poisoning. Disputes 
 regarding women are often the cause, and a blood feud is 
 transmitted from father to son. Abstinence from animal 
 food does not seem to indispose the vegetarian from taking 
 the life of Ids fellow-man. 
 
 ^ Forgery, perjury, and coining, were deemed trivial 
 oflences under Pagan and Moslem rule. Coiinng base 
 money was turned to advantage by local functionaries, 
 who levied a tax from the coiners. 
 
 ** The native police throughout India (excepting the 
 Punjab) is notoriously incflicicnt and corrupt. There 
 can now be no doubt that tortures of the rao.-'t atrocious 
 and indecent character have been, and are still inBicted, 
 for the purpose of extorting confession from alleged cri- 
 minals, and stdl more with a view to obtain money from 
 the suspected or the accused. This, in a great degree, 
 accounts for the large number of persons summoned or 
 apprehended. In Bengal, dacoiti/, or gang-robbery, is 
 nearly as bad as in the days of \Varren Hastings. No 
 branch of our Indian administration demands reform more 
 than the police ; and perhaps in no department is it more 
 difficult, owing to the unprincipled and profligate class of 
 the community from whom the police are selected. The 
 remedy elsewhere suggested — of erecting municipalities, and 
 leaving the matter in the hands of corporations dependent 
 on the ratepayei-s, apjjears to afford the best means of 
 obtaining an honest and vigdant police.
 
 543 
 
 AMOUNT AND NATURE OP CRIME IN INDIA. 
 
 The number of suicides and accidental deaths 
 reported to the magistracy in I80O, within the limits 
 of the Madras Presidency, is very remarkable : — 
 
 Cause of Death. 
 
 Men. 
 
 Women. 
 
 Children 
 
 Total. 
 
 Suicides ; — 
 
 
 
 
 
 Drowning . . 
 
 195* 
 
 536 
 
 13 
 
 744 
 
 Hanging . . . 
 
 171 
 
 72 
 
 — 
 
 243 
 
 Poison 
 
 4 
 
 25 
 
 1 
 
 30 
 
 Various 
 
 28 
 
 10 
 
 — 
 
 38 
 
 Total .... 
 
 398 
 
 643 
 
 14 
 
 1,0.35 
 
 Accidental deaths: — 
 
 
 
 
 
 Drowning in wells . 
 
 573t 
 
 913 
 
 662 
 
 2,148 
 
 Do. in tanks or rivers 
 
 468t 
 
 270 
 
 521 
 
 1,2.59 
 
 By burning . . . 
 
 48 
 
 29 
 
 47 
 
 124 
 
 „ liglitning . . . 
 
 99 
 
 27 
 
 16 
 
 142 
 
 „ sunstroke . . . 
 
 15 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 25 
 
 „ wild beasts . . 
 
 85 
 
 21 
 
 13 
 
 119 
 
 „ landslips, &c. 
 
 67 
 
 26 
 
 35 
 
 12s 
 
 Various 
 
 497 
 1,852 
 
 87 
 
 64 
 
 648 
 
 Total .... 
 
 1,382 
 
 1,359 
 
 4,593 
 
 General Total . 
 
 2,2o0 
 
 2,025 
 
 1,373 
 
 5,648 
 
 The recklessness of life which this table exhibits is 
 awful ; upwards of a thousand suiciclesj and 4,500 
 alleyed accidental deaths, constitute only those 
 known to or reported by the police; and probably 
 many of those are murders. 
 
 Bombay, 1850. — The returns of crime for this 
 presidency vary in form, and are not so full as those 
 of Madras, neither do they appear to be so accu- 
 rately prepared. Number of persons apprehended 
 for crime by the district police, 60,G73 ; by the 
 village ditto, 2,398 -= G3,071. But here, as at 
 Madras, and owincr most probably to the same 
 sause — a corrupt police — the number apprehended 
 or summoned is no actual test of crime. For in- 
 stance, of 60,673 persons apprehended, 17,765 were 
 discharged without trial, and 16,564 acquitted after 
 investigation. § The following official specification 
 of crime for two years, throughout the Bombay Pre- 
 
 * In the year 1849 — men, 328 ; women, 527. 
 
 t lu 1849. 
 
 + In India, as in China, suicide very frequently results 
 from the use of opium and other intoxicating drugs, the 
 constant use of which (as an aphrodisiac in the first in- 
 stance) tends to the prostration of all vigour of mind or 
 body, and ultimately to self-murder, as a relief from the 
 torment experienced. Unhappily, our Indian government, 
 for the sake of obtaining a revenue, have encouraged not 
 only the growth of opium for exportation, but also for 
 private use. The late Henry St. George Tucker, a 
 respected and able chairman of the E. I. Cy., recorded 
 in 1829 his sentiments on this point. "The supreme 
 government of India have condescended to supply the 
 retail shops with opium for domestic consumption, I 
 believe that no one act of our government has appeared 
 in the eyes of respectable natives, both Mohammedan 
 and Hindoo, more questionable ; nothing, I suspect, 
 has tended so murli to lower us in their regard. Was it 
 becoming in a great government to cstablisli shops for the 
 retail sale of the drug? Is it desirable that we should 
 bring it to tlie very dnor of the lower orders, who might 
 never otherwise liave found the article within their rcacli, 
 and who are now tempted to adopt a iiabit alike injurious 
 to hciilth and to good morals." — [Memorials of Indian 
 Gox'cnniieiit ,■ Selectiona from the Papers (f Henry St. 
 Geurijc Tucker ^ p. 154. Edited by J. \V. Kuye : 
 London, 1 853.) 
 
 g In Madras, out of 183,930 persons summoned or 
 uppreliended tor alleged criminal onVnccs, oniy 51.UG7 
 were puniMhcJ, 
 
 sidency, will confirm the remark made under Madras^ 
 as to tlie immoral state of the population : — 
 
 Crime throughout the Bombay Presidency in 1850, 
 contrasted ivith 1849. 
 
 Offences. 
 
 Adulteryll 
 
 Assault with homicide 
 
 Ditto, with wounding or other violence 
 
 Ditto, simple 
 
 Arson 
 
 Child-steahngIT 
 
 Forgery, or counterfeiting the coin 
 Homicide . ...... 
 
 Murder ....... 
 
 Ferjury ....... 
 
 Rape 
 
 Receiving stolen goods 
 
 Gang-robbery, with murder 
 Ditto with violence 
 
 Ditto unaggravated 
 
 Robbery, including burglary and cattle- \ 
 
 stealing, with murder . . ■ • J 
 Robbery, including burglary and cattle- t 
 
 stealing, with violence , . . • j 
 Robbery, including burglary and cattle- ) 
 
 stealing, unaggravated . . • ■ J 
 Theft, with murder, iuchiding that of chil- I 
 
 dren for the sake of ornaments . . j 
 
 Theft, simple 
 
 Treason, rebellion, and riot 
 
 Thuggee 
 
 Miscellaneous Offences, viz. : — 
 
 Abuse of authority 
 
 Abusive language 
 
 Abortion, procuring and attempting, orl 
 assistant at ditto j 
 
 Attempt at theft ur robbery 
 
 Breach of contract 
 
 Breach of religious law - . . . 
 
 Breaking or destroying boundaries . 
 
 Bribery, and attempt at ditto . 
 
 Conspiracy 
 
 Concealment of robbery or theft 
 
 Concealment of murder .... 
 
 Dhurna 
 
 Embezzlement 
 
 Escape from custody, and attempts and ) 
 connivance at ditto . . • . J 
 
 Fraud 
 
 Failure to furnish security 
 
 Infraction of police rules . . . , 
 
 Jhansa 
 
 Neglect of duty and disobedience of orders 
 
 Return from banishment or transportation 
 
 Sxncide, attempts at . 
 
 Traga, and attempts at ... . 
 
 Uttering base coin and using false weights 
 
 Not included in the above 
 
 Total 
 
 45,351 
 
 1849. 
 
 1850. 
 
 213 
 
 201 
 
 15 
 
 26 
 
 503 
 
 499 
 
 13,5M 
 
 14,022 
 
 677 
 
 570 
 
 20 
 
 27 
 
 95 
 
 103 
 
 33 
 
 39 
 
 165 
 
 146 
 
 155 
 
 167 
 
 69 
 
 84 
 
 374 
 
 421 
 
 18 
 
 13 
 
 221 
 
 204 
 
 56 
 
 81 
 
 13 
 
 9 
 
 2,087 
 
 2,211 
 
 3,667 
 
 4,334 
 
 11 
 
 14 
 
 7,276 
 
 8,406 
 
 5 
 
 1!' 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 25 
 
 69 
 
 9,342 
 
 9,481 
 
 70 
 
 76 
 
 639 
 
 783 
 
 67 
 
 84 
 
 153 
 
 124 
 
 30 
 
 60 
 
 120 
 
 192 
 
 130 
 
 112 
 
 17 
 
 19 
 
 / 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 53 
 
 83 
 
 49 
 
 71 
 
 3)L' 
 
 277 
 
 ';■' 
 
 30 
 
 999 
 
 729 
 
 431 
 
 509 
 
 916 
 
 950 
 
 30 
 
 36 
 
 27 
 
 22 
 
 73 
 
 103 
 
 159 
 
 263 
 
 2,408 
 
 2,301 
 
 47,982 
 
 II This is a prevalent crime in India. The Punjab eom- 
 missioners report that " the men of the Punjab regard 
 adultery with a vindicliveness only to be appea.sed by 
 the death or mutilation of the parties ; yet in no louiitry 
 are inst.inoes of female depravity and conjugal infidelity 
 more frequent." The natives hate any system of law 
 which will not give such redress as their vengeance may 
 demand, and murder the aggressor when in their power 
 to do so. 
 
 \ Child-stealing was extensively practised under the 
 native rule ; and, desi)ite our vigilance, is still practised 
 in every part of India. While slavery existed and was 
 encouraged, tlicre was of course a premium olfercd for 
 the abduction of infants from their parents. I'n tin' Punjab, 
 for instance, *' children of both sexes, esj)i*cially ieniales, 
 were openly bought and sold." — (Report, p. 44.) Tliere 
 the crime is now imnisl]<d with teu or fifteen years' 
 iui)>ri3onment.
 
 STATE OF CRIME IN BENGAL, MADRAS, AND BOMBAY— 1850— '52. 545 
 
 The supposed niinibcr nC ofTi-ndiTS for thi.' year is 
 96,591, of wlioMi 7H,:!()(i only were apprelieiuled. Of 
 llie prisoners tried, no more lliaii 8,l'2-'i coidd read 
 and write ; the nutTil)er tried for second offences was 
 2,503. Tlie punishments are tlius shown of 4.2'22 
 prisoners who were in the fjaols on ^Ist ])ecemher, 
 1850: — Imprisonment for hfe, with lalioiir in irons, 
 131 ; ditto, without irons, 05 ; imprisonment, ten to 
 fourteen years, 270 ; ditto, seven to ten years, .195 ; 
 ditto, less than seven years, 2,702; ditto, without 
 hibour, 499. The number of deatlis in prison 
 throujj;hout the year was 318: the avernge mor- 
 tality bein}( aliout six ])er cent. The sentences of 
 death by the Sudder Foujd:iree Adawlut, or highest 
 criminal court, was only 13, wliicli marks a very 
 limited extent of capital punishment. l'"ines seem 
 to be the most usual mode of dealing with offenders : 
 of 20,352 sentenced by district police, 22,079 were 
 mulct in money, or imjjrisoned in default of pay- 
 ment, 2,482 confined without lal)our, and 1,191 
 placed in the stocks ; of 4,792 sentenced by magis- 
 trates, 2,535 were fined, 40 Hogged and discharged, 
 and the remainder imprisoned for various terms 
 under a year. The session judges' sentences on 
 1,258 tried before them, comprised 151 fined, and 
 the others imprisoned for various terms of one to 
 live years. 
 
 The returns for liombay,* as well as Madras, note 
 that petty crime prevails most in those districts 
 where there is heavy taxation, faslure of crops, 
 general distress, and want of remunerative emjdoy- 
 ment ; also assaults with woundingf where the men 
 still go abroad on all occasions armed. Where the 
 inhabitants are employed in constructing tanks, wells, 
 and other public works, crime has diminished. The 
 
 Persons apprehetiiled, convicted, acquitted, and comi 
 
 sums reported lost by robbery throughout the presi- 
 dency, ill 1S50, is not large, viz., rupees, 558,345 =• 
 £55,854 ; and recovered by the police — rupees, 
 150,500; lost by arson — rupees, 24,034. 
 
 NdUTii-WKSl' I'uovi.sCES. — The details of crime 
 for lH19,t in this large section of India, are very 
 meagre. The number of jiersons apprehended dur- 
 ing the year was 82,957; and, with the addition of 
 1,135 prisoners under examination 1st January, 
 1849, and 1,071 received by transfer, total disposed 
 of, 85,103 : of these only 45,80.3 (barely more than 
 one-half) were convicted, and 32,842 were acquitted ; 
 the remainder died (51), escaped (65), were trans- 
 ferred, ice. No statement of crimes or of suicides, 
 and no trustworthy returns from Hengal appear 
 among the papers laid before |)arliament ; but the 
 following significant expression by the governor- 
 general (l)alliousie), when examining the " Keport 
 of the Punjab," will, to some extent, show the state 
 of the country. His lordship says — " I will boldly 
 allirm, that life and property are now, and have for 
 some time been, more secure within the bounds of 
 the Punjab, which we have only held for four years, 
 than they are in the province of Bengal, which has 
 been ours for very nearly a century.''§ According to a 
 police report, it is stated that in 1854, out of a 
 [lopulation estimated at 35,000,000, spread over 31 
 districts, 84,536 persons were arrested for 82,925 
 separate charges: one ])erson accused in every 414 
 inhabitants — less than a fourth [ler cent. The con- 
 victions are quoted at 48,127, or one-seventh per 
 cent, on the population. Value of property stolen 
 during the year — rupees, 600,000 ; amount recovered 
 — rupees, 74,111, or nine per cent. A military 
 police, like that of Ireland, would be useful. 
 
 lifted for Trial, in each Presidency, from 1850 — '52. 
 
 Classification of Cri- 
 
 Bengal. 
 
 N. W. Provinces. 
 
 Madras. 
 
 Bombay. 
 
 minal Cases. 
 
 18.50. 
 
 1851. 
 
 1852. 
 
 18.50. 
 
 1851. 
 
 1852. 
 
 1850. 
 
 1851. 
 
 1852. 
 
 18.50. 1S5!|I 
 
 185211 
 
 rending on 1st nf .Tan. 
 Ucoiivfil hy transfer . 
 Apprehended during 
 the year .... J 
 
 2,634 
 440 
 
 107,967 
 
 2,496 
 529 
 
 107,718 
 
 2,805 
 441 
 
 104,474 
 
 1,356 
 758 
 
 83,059 
 
 1,.527 
 947 
 
 82,112 
 
 1,505 
 1,010 
 
 94,747 
 
 1,984 
 202,506 
 
 3,024 
 192,609 
 
 3,298 
 194,514 
 
 1,068 
 78,588 
 
 
 — 
 
 Total 
 
 111,041 
 
 110,743 
 
 107,780 
 
 85,173 
 
 84,586 97,262 
 
 204,490 
 
 196,233 
 
 197,812 
 
 79,056 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Convicted 
 
 Acquitted 
 
 Discharged without 1 
 
 trial 
 
 Committed .... 
 
 Died 
 
 Escaped ■ 
 
 Transferred .... 
 
 Peuding, in gaol . . 
 
 „ on bail . . 
 
 6,3,407 
 40,092 
 
 3,962 
 
 93 
 
 503 
 
 490 
 
 765 
 
 1,729 
 
 61, .583 
 40,799 
 
 4,080 
 1.34 
 540 
 734 
 994 
 
 1,879 
 
 03,316 
 35,804 
 
 4,417 
 184 
 614 
 632 
 913 
 
 1,840 
 
 46,170 
 32,580 
 
 4,300 
 
 59 
 
 32 
 
 .505 
 
 707 
 
 820 
 
 46,012 
 32,283 
 
 4,079 
 
 67 
 
 45 
 
 597 
 
 740 
 
 754 
 
 55,904 
 34,677 
 
 4,369 
 1 764 
 
 |1,S48 
 
 57,684 
 78,929 
 
 64,107 
 
 \ 146 
 
 3,624 
 
 51,463 
 78,255 
 
 63,144 
 
 73 
 
 3,298 
 
 52,300 
 78,018 
 
 63,544 
 
 86 
 
 3,864 
 
 33.S65 
 20,882 
 
 22,804 
 
 I 960 
 1,085 
 
 
 
 Total . ... 
 
 111,041 
 
 110,743 
 
 107,780 
 
 85,173 
 
 84.586, 97,262 
 
 204,490 
 
 196,233 
 
 197,812 
 
 79,656' — 
 
 1 
 
 — 
 
 Returns not yet received. 
 
 Punjab. — It is refreshing to turn from the crime 
 and inefficient jiolice of Southern India to the con- 
 dition of tlie Punjab Projier, where, previous to the 
 assumption of British sovereignty(29th March, 1849), 
 crime and deeds of violence were rife. Under the 
 sway of Kunjeet Sing, the penal code was unwritten. 
 There were but two ])enallies — mutilation and fine : 
 
 * Within the last two years, military officers have been 
 made assistant magistrates, and plaeeil in eharp:e of the 
 police. The re^tilt lias been satisfacti^ry : the policemen 
 have been broui^ht uiuler discipline, and rendered effective. 
 
 ■f In the Punjab Proper, a complete disarming of the 
 
 capital punishment wa.s rare ; imprisonment almost 
 unknown ; mutilation reserved for seduction and 
 adultery — sometimes inflicted for violent theft and 
 robbery ; but for every offence from petty larceny 
 to murder, impunity was purchased by money. 
 From one to ten thousand rupees was the price 
 of human life ; occasion.ally a noted murderer or 
 
 population recently took place with the happiest results ; 
 119,796 weapons of various kinds were seized or sur- 
 rendered to the police. 
 
 t Dated Agra. 13th September, ISaO. 
 
 § Minute 'by Governor-general, 9th May, 1353.
 
 544 DIMINUTION OF CRIME, AND EXCELLENT POLICE— PUNJAB. 
 
 robber was enlisted, on high pay, as a cavalier or 1 
 a foot soldier; if he were a notorious villain, he was 
 made an officer. When a district became disturbed, 
 Runjeet Sing left the matter to his lieutenants, and 
 did not object to the Draconian code of General 
 Avitabile,* in which hanging was the penalty for 
 everj' crime, small or great. 
 
 Considering that 60,000 men were let loose over 
 the Punjab al^ter the surrender of the Seik power, and 
 that the neighbourhood contained hosts of lawless 
 mountaineers, on a frontier line of 500 miles, apt at 
 all times to make forays, and prey on the more civi- 
 lised and wealthy communities of the plains, the 
 organisation of an efficient police became a matter 
 of the first consideration. A territory extending 
 over an area of 10,000 miles, between the Beas 
 and Indus, peopled by several million warlike Seiks 
 and fanatic Mussulmen, — by Rajpoots, Patans, 
 Jats, and Goojurs, — by devotees and renegades of 
 every faith in India, — required a preventive police 
 with military organisation, and a detective force 
 under civil control : the former consists of six regi- 
 ments of foot (5,400 men), and twenty-seven troops 
 of horse (2,700), regularly armed and equipped, and 
 commanded by four British officers as police cap- 
 tains. The infantry guard the gaols, treasuries, 
 frontier posts, and city gates, furnish escorts for the 
 transit of treasure, and other civil duties ; the cavalrv 
 are posted in small or larger numbers as a mounted 
 patrol along the grand lines of road. Both horse 
 and foot are ready at a moment's notice to aid the 
 civil police, the infantry to crush resistance, the 
 cavalry to expedite pursuit. 
 
 The civil police supported by the state (and inde- 
 pendent of the city watchmen and rural constabulary 
 paid by the people), consists of 6,900 men of all 
 grades, divided over 228 jurisdictions, in each of 
 which a police-officer is stationed, with one or two 
 depu;ies and policemen. Each tchsihlar (native 
 collector of land revenue) is invested with defined 
 police powers within his circle, with authority to 
 overawe the police when corrupt, to animate them 
 when negligent, and to aid the police-officers by 
 infusing honour and vigour into the men. Unknown 
 and suspicious characters are prevented prowling 
 about; curfew penalties are imposed on those found 
 wandering outside the villages between sunset and 
 sunrise ; parties not registered as public workmen 
 or camp followers, and found within cantonments, 
 are punished ; armed travellers must deposit their 
 arms at the police-station nearest to the pass, and 
 receive them back on their return ; all large bodies 
 of men are watched ; wayfaring men who put up at 
 the village inns, must report themselves to the 
 village chief; and any inn or hotel proved to have 
 sheltered enemies to the public peace, is destroyed. 
 The city watch and village police form an im- 
 portant link between the executive and the people. 
 
 The rural detectives here, as in other parts of India, 
 form admirable trackers; among the middle and lower 
 parts of the Donahs, amid the wild tract of forest 
 and brushwood, there is a scattered population, who 
 
 * At Pcshawur, where Avitabile (a Ncaiiolitan) was 
 supreme, the code w.is blood for blood, especially if the 
 murdered man was a .^lik ; hut " his objort was the s.irri- 
 fice of a victim rather than the punishment of guilt." — 
 (Report of Commission, 1851 ; p. 11.) 
 
 t General Report on Administration of Punjab, p. 39. 
 
 X Infiinlii-ide imhappily prevails extensively in the Pun- 
 jab. In llajpootana it has existed for years ; but here the 
 Rajpoots arc free from that crime which is committed 
 Jiicfly by the Beaces or priestly class among the Seiks, 
 
 hitherto subsisted chiefly by stealing thousands of 
 cattle, which once carried thither, never emerged 
 thence with life. Roads have been cut through 
 these haunts, and the professional trackers will 
 follow a thief with stolen cattle for fifty to one 
 hundred miles, although the ground may be over- 
 grown with grass, or too hard to he susceptible of 
 footmarks. Dacoity, during the first year of our 
 administration, attained an alarming height ; gangs 
 of armed and mounted robbers scoured the 
 roads at night, and attacked the houses of native 
 grandees by day, after the fashion of the bush- 
 rangers, as described in my volume on Van Die- 
 men's Land. These gangs have been dispersed, 
 hunted down by men braver than themselves, and 
 the leaders have suffered death or been outlawed : 
 those who escaped have been chased into perpetual 
 exile among the fastnesses of Bikaneer and Raj'- 
 hasthan, or the wilds of the Great Desert. Now 
 the Punjab is as free from dacoity as any part of 
 Upper India. Tlmggee, which was practised hy a 
 low class of Seiks, who, however, had not " the 
 supple sagacity, insidious perseverance, religious 
 faith, dark superstition, sacred ceremonies, peculiar 
 dialect, and mysterious bond of union which dis- 
 tinguished their Hindoo brethren," has been sup- 
 pressed, and an organised body of ferocious and 
 desperate murderers destroyed. Finally, in no part 
 of India is there more perfect peace than in the 
 Punjab. t The returns show a moderate amount of 
 crime,! especially when the recent habits of the 
 population be considered. The ratio, in proportion 
 to the population of the Lahore district, as compared 
 with other parts of Western India, is thus stated :— 
 
 
 
 
 •r'^ 
 
 '^^ 
 
 
 Districts. 
 
 
 ill 
 
 c a 
 
 C u 
 
 
 .2 §2 
 
 
 
 Ph '^.c 
 
 ^t 
 
 Qji" 
 
 
 Lahore division . 
 
 lS49-'50 
 
 9.009 
 
 .5,144 
 
 274-41 
 
 480-32 
 
 Do. do . . 
 
 1860-'.51 
 
 9,998 
 
 .5,423 
 
 247-13 
 
 4.5.5-61 
 
 Delhi district 
 
 . lS-19 
 
 2,179 
 
 1,653 
 
 140 68 
 
 186-66 
 
 Agra do. . . 
 
 
 4,070 
 
 2,313 
 
 203-3 
 
 308-6 
 
 Allahabad district 
 
 
 3,476 
 
 1,424 
 
 204-33 
 
 498-78 
 
 Benares do. 
 
 
 3,620 
 
 1,776 
 
 204-81 
 
 423-10 
 
 Under the native laws, punishments for crime were 
 exceedingly cruel ; but except in extraordinary eases 
 of treason or sacrilege, the poor w-ere alone the 
 sufl'erers, as the administration of justice was corrupt 
 to the core. Torture was applied to both principals 
 and witnesses, and by the gaolers also, to extort 
 money from the prisoners. Flogging, mutilation, 
 decapitation, drowning, burying alive, casting to 
 wild beasts, and disembowelling, constituted the 
 successive grades of sentences for those who were 
 unable to buy off the infliction. 
 
 Under our rule capital punishments are restricted 
 to murder; all other heinous offences are visited 
 with transportation to Sincapoor or other places 
 across the sea, with imprisonment and hard labour, 
 on the roads or at public works, either for life or 
 for a term of years. 
 
 who consider their order sacred, and that if their daughters 
 lived and married, the fathers would be degraded : the 
 children arc consequently doomed to an early death. 
 Other tribes also commit this unn.-itural and foul crime, 
 viz., "some of the Mussulmen sects, and some sub- 
 divisions of the Khastree caste.** The British officials, at 
 the suggestion of some excellent missionnrics, have hud a 
 public meeting of the chiefs, who have ngrced to rj>-opc- 
 rate in the abolition of this unnatural crime. The pur. 
 chase of slave girls is also decreasing.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CIVIL GOVERNMENT— JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATION— MILITARY POWER— AND PRO- 
 TECTED STATES AND PENSIONARIES. 
 
 TlTE cnrliost knowlcdfjc we possess nf India, inclines 
 me to think that tlie country was divided into Bcveral 
 forms of government, some as military monarchies, 
 others as aristocratic olij;archies,* and many with 
 republicanf or democratic institutions; hut all, more 
 or less, conihined the hereditary element in their 
 constitutions, and were required, on great occasions, 
 to unite for mutual defence against a foreign foe. 
 Individual freedom was prized by the jieople ; and 
 when overcome by an enemy, many fled into the 
 deserts and jungles, preferring solitude to subju- 
 gation. 
 
 The village or municipal system of India, which 
 has outlived all dynasties and changes, combines the 
 hereditary witli the democratic : tlie potail or mayor, 
 in virtue of his birth, would succeed his father; but 
 if unfit for his ])osit;on, the commonalty might elect 
 their chief. Among the Hindoos there is a strong 
 tendency to office-succession in the same family — 
 not so much in reference to feudality or clanship, as 
 to the transmission of property from one generation 
 to another, in an unbroken line, for a long series of 
 years; a feeling tenaciously held by some races of 
 mankind, and especially by several of Asiatic 
 origin. This idea would doubtless tend to mould 
 the form of governmpnt.| 
 
 As a general rule, it maybe stated that the Hindoo 
 polity was monarchical, with some republican prin- 
 ciples, a territorial feudal aristocracy, and hereditary 
 rights and privileges; the Mohammedan rule (ac- 
 quired by the sword) was styled imperial, and upheld 
 
 * .\t the city of Nysn, during the Alexandrine period, 
 the rhitf authority resided in a senate of 300 members. 
 When the Portuguese first saw the RajpnoLs, they de- 
 scribed them as living under aristocratic republics. — 
 (Uanos — Asia, iv., p. 51.').) The re.-ider desirous of in. 
 vestigating the frngnientnry information and legendary 
 lore derived from tlie Paranas. Maharabat, Cashinerian 
 annals, and other documents relative to the Hindoos, uj) 
 to the period of the maraxiding invasions of the Moham- 
 medans in the 11th eentury of the Christian era, will 
 find abundant scope for inquiry in the works of Sir W. 
 Jones, Colebrook, Wilkins, AVilson, Deguignes, Tod, 
 Bentley, Heeren, Bird, Wilford, Moore, Elphinstone, 
 Dow, Stewart, Masson, and other writers, who have praise- 
 worthily devoted tlicmsflvcs to anti<piarian researches con- 
 nected with the history of the East. A summary of the 
 scanty facts thus obtained would lead to no useful result, 
 as scarcely two authors agree in their general conclusions, 
 excepting in so far that about the period above-named 
 India was divided into many separate states, with nume- 
 rous tributary or indepentlent rajahs or feudal chiefs. 
 
 f This word is used in reference to tlie prevailing idea 
 of its signification. I do not myself think that any form 
 of republic, whether carried on by an oligarchy or by a 
 democracy, can long exist except under Christian polity, 
 when each member of the commonwealth not only 
 governs himself, but subjugates or directs his passions 
 and desires for the promotion of the public weal. In pro- 
 portion to the fulfilment of tliis duty, and so far as it 
 ae^'ords with the Divine law, in such proportion will be 
 the duration, prosperity, and happiness of aptate, whatever 
 may he the designation given to its form of government. 
 
 % Mr. George Campbell, B.C.S., in the first chapter of 
 his useful work (^Modern India, 1S52), shows the difficulty 
 of arriving at any definite conclusion as to the early form 
 
 by despotic sway; no aristocracy but that of office 
 or service was tolerated; no local institutions were 
 encouraged ; everything became, as far as possible, 
 centralised; and all persons and property were at the 
 mercy of the emperor, whose position, though to 
 some extent hereditary, was only so after the manner 
 of the CiTsars ; for the large standing army at Delhi 
 (as at Rome) could make or unmake the chief ruler.§ 
 After the marauding Moslem hordes from Tartary 
 and Afghanistan had consolidated their conquests, ' 
 the empire was divided into sotibahsU or provinces, 
 such as Bengal, Rahar, flude, Malwa, Lahore, &c., 
 over each of which there was a creature of the 
 court, with the style and position of viceroy ; most 
 of whom, on the break-up of the Mogul dynasty, 
 declared themselves sovereigns in their respective 
 localities, although they preserved the formality of 
 obtaining the investiture of office from the nominal 
 emperor at ]_)elhi. 
 
 When the English appeared in India, they fol- 
 lowed the example set by the Arabs and Portuguese, 
 — erected factories at places convenient for trade, and 
 gradually turned them into forts for the protection 
 of their goods and the security of their lives, during 
 the lawless slate which ensued consequent on the 
 breaking up of the imperial government at Delhi. 
 
 Until 1707, the affairs of the factory of Calcutta 
 were under the superintendence of Fort St. George 
 or Madras : in that year a presidency was 
 formed for Bengal, consisting of a president or gov. 
 ernor, aided by a council of varying number — of 
 
 of government among the Hindoos. He thinks the Raj- 
 poots conquered the greater part of India, and although 
 democratic or feudal at home, they were absolute sove- 
 reigns abroad, and that under their sway, previous to the 
 arrival of the Mohammedans, India "enjoyed prosperity 
 and wealth."— (p. 12.) 
 
 § At the beginning of the 18th century, the emperor 
 had .'JO, 000 cavalry and 400,000 infantry in constant pay. 
 Merit, not birth, gave precedence, and largesses were fre- 
 quently distributed. — {Gemetli.) 
 
 II ^ee p. 117 for the souhahs of the empire, and their 
 administration at the period of Akber's death in 1605. 
 Peter Heylin, in his Cosmographie, 2nd edition, Lon- 
 don. 1657, p. 883, says that India was then, according 
 to the latest observations, divided into forty-seven king- 
 doms, "whereof some few have still their own national 
 kings, the rest all subject to the power of the Great 
 iVlogul." By joining many lesser territories, he arranged 
 the whole of India within the Ganges into twelve 
 divisions, vnz. — 1. Dukinda (W. of the Indus) ; 2. Pen- 
 gab (E. of the Indus, more inclining towards the S.) ; 
 3. Maiidao, lying between the Fengab on the N., Agra on 
 the S., Delhi on the E., and the Indus on the W. ; chief 
 city, Mandao ; well fortified, and said to be 30 m. in 
 cireunifeRmee ; also Mooltan and other cities ; 4. Delhi 
 or Delia ; 5. Agra, including Gwalior ; 6. Sanya, on the 
 E. of .\gra, and S.W. of Cambaia ; 7. Cambaia, S. of 
 Dulsinda and part of Mandao, lying on both sides of 
 the Indus, and containing Guzerat, &c. ; 8. Deccan ; 
 9. Canara ; 10. Malabar; 11. Xarsinga (N. of Travaneore 
 and S. of Orixa) ; 9. Orixa or Oristan : 10. lioianler, 
 the petty kingdoms N.E. of the Ganges river; 11. Pa- 
 tanaw (Patna) ; 12. Bengala. The extra Gangetic terri. 
 tories were divided into Braraa or Banna (Burmah), Chav- 
 Chin China, Cambaia, Jangoma or Laos, Siam, and Peg\».
 
 546 rORM OF ENGLISH GOVERNMENT IN INDIA— 1707 to 1833. 
 
 nine to twelve members of the civil class,— chosen 
 according; to seniority, and generally head factors, 
 who held their lucrative situations at the will of the 
 governor. In 17o8 the government was remodelled 
 by order of the directors of the E. I. Cy.: instead of 
 one governor, four were nominated, each to hold 
 office three months, and follow in rotation ; these 
 quarterly governors to be aided by a council of ten 
 members. This extraordinary scheme was set aside 
 by the four newly-appointed governors themselves : 
 they saw it was not jjossible to work out such an 
 absurdity, and they invited Clive to accept the un- 
 divided office of ])resident ; which was done. 
 
 In 1765, another form was devised by the home 
 authorities, to remove existing disturbances in the 
 executive, viz., a governor and four councillors, 
 called a select committee. Before this body arrived, 
 the disturbances had ceased to exist; but the gov- 
 ernor and committee assumed the whole civil and 
 military authority. In 1769, a new plan was de- 
 vised, with a view to check the corruption, and 
 procure the funds which the E. I. Cy. expected from 
 India ; a Board of Commissioners was to supervise 
 the proceedings of the governor and council, and to 
 exercise abroad almost the entire power which the 
 Court of Directors were authorised to employ at 
 home. The ship in which the supervisors embarked 
 was never heard of after leaving port, and the plan 
 was abandoned. 
 
 The Crown began, in 1772, to take an interest in 
 the administration of India, which up to this period 
 had been exclusively vested in the E. I. Cy. In 
 1773, parliament passed a "Regulating Act," under 
 which, as previously stated (p. 313), a supreme gov- 
 ernment was established at Calcutta, Warren Hast- 
 ings was appointed governor-general, and several 
 changes were made defining the constitution of the 
 company, as regarded both Courts of Directors 
 and ])roprietors, and the jiowers to be vested in the 
 subordinate governments at Madras and Bombay.* 
 In 1781, another act (21 Geo. III., c. 95) was passed, 
 referring to the exclusive privileges of the company, 
 which had hitherto been considered perpetual, but 
 which were now^ fixed for a period of ten years, at 
 the end of which the company was entitled to a 
 three years' notice of the intention to resume the 
 conceded privileges ; and another step was taken to 
 abridge the power of the company, or, at least, to 
 associate it with that of the Crown. By a clause in 
 the Charter Act of 1781, copies of all letters and 
 orders relating to the civil or military government of 
 India, were to be delivered to one of her Majesty's 
 secretaries of state; and all documents relating to 
 the revenues, to be forwarded to the lords of the 
 treasury; and "the court should be bound by such 
 instructions as they might receive from her Majesty, 
 through one of the secretaries of state, as far as re- 
 lated to the conduct and transactions of the company 
 and their servants with the country powers of India, 
 as well as to the levying war and the n-.aking peace." 
 Henceforth the company ceased to be solely respon- 
 .sible for the good government of the territories 
 
 ♦The president and coiiiicil, at each of these stations, 
 were also liencetbrth proliibitcd commencing hostilities, or 
 declaring or making war against any Indian princes or 
 ])owers, or negotiatnig or eonchiding any treaty of peace, 
 or other treaty, witliout tlic consent or approbation of tlie 
 governor-genenil in council being first obtained, except in 
 sueli cases of imminent necessity as would render it d:in- 
 gcrous to jiostponi! li,)stilities or treaties until tlic orders 
 from the governor-general in council might arrive, or 
 unless special orders be sent from the E. 1. Cy. in England, 
 
 entrusted to its care. Censure for omission or com- 
 mission ought to be applied to the double govern- 
 ment. 
 
 In 1783, a committee of the House of Commons 
 was appointed to inquire and to consider how the 
 British possessions in the East could be best gov- 
 erned. In the succeeding year, Mr. Fox introduced 
 his celebrated " India Bill," which was very adverse 
 to the company,! " on the assumption that they had 
 betrayed their trust, mismanaged their afi'airs, op- 
 jjressed the natives of the country, and broiight 
 themselves to the verge of bankruptcy."! By 'he 
 bill, it was proposed to place the territorial govern- 
 ment, for four years, in the hands of seven directors, 
 to be nominated by parliament: the commercial 
 affairs (then of great magnitude) to be confided to 
 nine "assistant directors," elected by proprietors of 
 E.I. stock, but to act under the instructions of the 
 seven nominated directors, who could remove the 
 nine assistants. The company strongly protested 
 against the bill ; the measure became one of violent 
 party feeling ; the king wanted to be rid of Fox as 
 his Majesty's prime minister, and called the youthful 
 Pitt to his aid, who denounced the measure, which, 
 however, was carried through the Commons on the 
 8th of December, 1783, by a majority of two to 
 one ; but was rejected, after several debates, by the 
 House of Lords on the 17th of December, by a ma- 
 jority of nineteen.§ The ministry, also, was thrown 
 out; Pitt succeeded Fox, and early in 1784, moved 
 for leave to introduce a bill for the better govern- 
 ment and management of the affairs of the E. I. Cy.: 
 leave was refused by the Commons; parliament was 
 dissolved ; a new house, on the 6th of July, adopted 
 the views of the minister; an act (24 Geo. III., c. 25) 
 was passed constituting the Board of Control, or India 
 Board of Commissioners, consisting of certain mem- 
 bers of the privy council, including two of the secre- 
 taries of state and the chancellor of the exchequer 
 for the time being; the first-named person, in the 
 letters patent, to be styled the President. A secret 
 committee (chairman, deputy chairman, and senior 
 director) Avas formed out of the Court of Directors, 
 through whom the Board of Control could commu- 
 nicate on all state matters of importance which it 
 might not be deemed advisable to divulge to the 
 Court, and who were to be compelled, if necessary, 
 by ma)nlainus from the Court of Queen's Bench, to 
 transmit the orders of the Board to India. A secre- 
 tariat and staff were organised for the Board, before 
 whom were to be laid drafts of all despatches for 
 inspection and revision ; and if the Court failed, 
 within fourteen days, to prepare despatches on any 
 subject required by the Board, it was empowered to 
 transmit the orders to India, without the concur- 
 rence of the Court. On this basis, subject to some 
 alterations of detail in the renewed Charter Act of 
 1813, the government of India was administered, 
 with slight modifications, until 1833, when the com- 
 mercial character of the company ceased, the func- 
 tions of the Court became entirely territorial ond 
 political, and subject still more to the supervision of 
 
 f In the caricatures of the day. Fox was represented as 
 a carrier, with the India House on his back, with which 
 he was proceeding along Leadcnhall-street towards West- 
 minster. 
 
 X Kayc's History of the Administration of the E. I. Ci/., 
 p. 126. 
 
 § Government, nndrr the leadership ol' the Duke of 
 rortlKiul, l.^d lil'ty-siven peeis lucsent, and iiiiieloen 
 j-i-oxies ; the opponents, scvent} -live present, and twtnty 
 liit»> jes.
 
 iroME ADMINISTRATION OF BRITISH INDIA— 1855. 
 
 147 
 
 the Orown by llu! nomiiiiitioii of a fourtli itienibcr 
 of the council of India (.Mr. T. I!. Macnuhiy), who 
 wa.s also to be a law cnninii.ssioncr for the revision 
 iiiul (•odilicaliiiii of the Indian laws. Agru and the 
 N. W. I'rovincra wcro i'oinicd into a licntenant- 
 (fovernorsliip, under the immediate .su])ervi.sion of 
 the {{overnor-general. In every matter, the authori- 
 ties in the lOast were .subordinate to tlie Court of 
 twenty-four Director.", elected by the shareholders of 
 the K. I. Cy., and to the India Board or Board of 
 Control, whose authority was made more absolute at 
 each ]iarlianientary interference. 
 
 In ISJIi C-'Oth of August), on the termination of 
 the twenty years' tenure of ])ower* granted in 1833 
 to the K. 1. Cy., a new act of parliament was jiassed, 
 "to provide for the government of India." Under 
 this enactment, tlie usual lease of India for several 
 years to the K. I. Cy. was abolished, and the com- 
 ])any became tenants at will, in trust for her Majesty, 
 her heirs and successors, as a supervising autluH'ily in 
 Kngland ; subject in all things to the Board of Con- 
 trol as representative of the Crown, whenever that 
 Board might clioose to exercise paramount ])Ower in 
 the government of Indian affairs. By this act, the 
 number of directors chosen by the proprietaryt 
 was reduced from twenty-four to fifteen ; and the 
 Crown was empowered to appoint six directors — the 
 first three immediately, the second three as casual 
 vacancies occurred, — all to have previously served 
 oflicially in India for at least ten years. The Court 
 of Directors, " under the direction and control of the 
 Board of Commissioners for the affairs of India," 
 were empowered to ajipoint a separate governor, or 
 lieutenant-governor, for Bengal, and llius release 
 the governor-general from nnich detail (which has 
 since been done.) Every aii])ointment by the Court 
 of Directors of ordinary members of council at each 
 presidency, now requires the sign -manual and 
 counter-signature of the president of the India 
 
 * See p. 1, for changes in 1833. 
 
 f The number of proprietors of E. I. stork in April, 
 1852, entitled to vote in the election of directors by llie 
 possession of jLT,000 stock, was 1,705; number having 
 two votes, 311; three votes, GO; four votes, 42: total 
 number of votes, 2,322. Number of voters in service 
 of the coTuiKiny — civil service, 93: military, IGO ^= 253. 
 Of twelve chairmen of the Court of Directors, between 
 183-1 and 1852, nil but three had served ten years in 
 ludia; one had never been in the East; and two liad 
 (■ommanded company's ships. Viewed as a whole, the 
 Court of Directors, since the commencement of the 
 nreseut century, has contained many able men perfectly 
 conversant wilii the aflairs of India, and deeply interested 
 in its welfare. At the jiresent jieriod, the Court j)ossesses 
 a high range of talent among fifteen mend)ers, all ac- 
 quainted Ineidly with Inilia, — whose public character is 
 identitied with its good government and prosperity. 
 
 X The India Board consists of a president, who ranks 
 as a secretary of state — salary, ^5,000 ; parliamentary 
 secretary. .11,500; perniauent ditto, £"1,500; assistant 
 ditto, il.200; tive ^enior clerks, i. 900 to XI, 150; six 
 assistant ditto, i.500 to i.800 ; twelve junior ditto, i.150 
 to i550 ; librarian, i-lOO ; and other officials. The se- 
 cretariat establishment of the E. I. Cy. is large and well 
 iiaid ; but a government like that of India, where every 
 transaction of the most trivi;d ch;iraeter is recorded in 
 writing, and all correspondence and desjiatches, whieii are 
 very volununous, are transmitted in duplicate or tripli- 
 cate, necessitates a large executive. The heads of depart- 
 ments are gentlemen of known talent and great experi- 
 ence ; especially the secretary, Sir James Cosmo Melvill, 
 who. by bis administrative abilin', inform;itiou, and tact, 
 is entitled to rank among the most eminent men of his 
 
 Board.f A Lci/inlutive Councilhas been coniitiluted, 
 for making law« and regulations ; the council to 
 consist of one member from each ])residency or 
 lieutenant-governorship for the time being, of not 
 less than ten ycar.s' (dllcial bervice in India. The 
 chief justice of the Supreme Court of Judicature, 
 one other judge of the Queen's courts, and two 
 other jiersons of ten years' standing in the service of 
 the company, to be selected by the governor-generaj, 
 whose assent is requisite to the validity of all laws. 
 The discussions of this council are carried on in 
 ])ublic, with reporters of the press in attendance, as 
 in the Englisli House of Commons. Under this 
 act, the patronage of appointment to the civil and 
 medical service of India, which had heretofore been 
 vested in the Court of Directors, ceased, and the 
 nominations henceforth were thrown open to public 
 competition under certain regulations, and examiners 
 ordered by the Crown. The patronage of military 
 and naval ofttcers and chaplains still remains with 
 the Directory, who, in lieu of the advantages deriv- 
 able from civil appointments, receive — cliairman and 
 deputy, £1,000 each ; directors, £,0OO each, yearly.§ 
 Such, in substance, are the leading features of 
 the act of 18j3: it makes no mention of the 
 trading charter of the company, which is in abey- 
 ance ; and it leaves ])arliamenl at liberty to decree, 
 from time to time, whatever changes may be deemed 
 advisable in the administration of Indian aflairs at 
 home or abroad. The nomination of the governor- 
 general, governors, commander-in-chief of the army, 
 and other high functionaries, remains, as before, a 
 matter of arrangement between the Board and the 
 Directory ; the former with a controlling power. 
 The Court claims the right of recalling a governor-gen- 
 eral, as it did in the case of Lord Ellenborough : but 
 there can be no doubt that the ministers of the Crown 
 tacitly consented, for certain reasons, to that stretch 
 of prerogative, which is unnoticed in the act of 18J3. 
 
 age. Edward Thornton, the historian of India ; Professor 
 Horace Hayman Wilson, the celebrated Orientalist; Mr. 
 John Mill, son of the great historian (celebrated himself 
 as an economist writer) ; Professor l''orbes Royle, and 
 Mr. Peacock, are among the emplot/e's at Leadenhall-street. 
 § The jialronage of the Court of Directors, previous to 
 the act of 1852-'3, was undoubtedly large. I am also 
 bound to add, that with a few exceptions, it was equi. 
 tably distributed. From 1790 to 1835, the number of 
 writerships (in civil service appointments) ranged from 
 20 to 25 a year; and from 1835 to 1851, the number at 
 the disposal of the directors (exclusive of 40 at the nomi- 
 nation of the president of the India Board) was 34G, or, 
 per cent., 30. The cadetships for the army, and assistant 
 surgeonries and chaidains, were also very numerous between 
 1790 and 1837: the total was 9,446; averaging 224 per 
 ann. From 1835 to 1851, the number of cadets ap- 1 
 pointed (including 34 7 by the India Board president), j 
 was 4,916, or 289 per ann. Into the distribution of this I 
 patronage we have some insight, which is creditable to the I 
 distributiu-s. Between 1813 and 1833, the number of ' 
 cadets appointed was 5,092 ; of these, 409 were given to ) 
 sons of military officers in the royal military, and 124 to ^ 
 those in the nav:d service ; 224 to sons of company's civil 
 servants; 491 to ditto in company's military servants ; 40 
 to ditto of company's maritime service; 390 to sons of j 
 clergymen; and 1,1 19 to orphans and sons of widows. In t 
 the parliamentary returns of 1852-'3, the information is ! 
 not so precise : of 546 writerships at the disposal of the , 
 directors, 164 were given to the sons of civil officers, and ' 
 96 to those of military = 260. Of 4,569 codetships within 
 the same date — 342 to civil, and 1,100 to mihtary officers 
 of the company = 1,442. — (See Thornton's Stalittict 
 Kaye's Administration of E. I. Cy. — Indtaii Proffresi.)
 
 548 ADVANTAGES OP MUNICIPAL INSTITUTIONS FOR INDIA. 
 
 It is not within my province or limits to criticise 
 the changes that have been made, to say whether too 
 much or too little has been done ; time alone can 
 now determine the wisdom of the policy adopted. 
 The government of India is termed an " enlightened 
 despotism." At Madras and Bombay, the governors 
 are each aided by a council of three members, hold- 
 ing high office ; the lieutenant-governors of Bengal 
 and of Agra stand alone. The Supreme Council of 
 India, with whom all power resides, consists of three 
 or four members, of whom the commander-in-chief of 
 the Anglo-Indian army is generally one : the other 
 members are civil servants of the highest standing. 
 
 Each governmental department — such as foreign, 
 home, financial, military — has a secretary of state, 
 who is in fact its head, and responsible only to the 
 governor-general, or, in the subordinate govern- 
 ments, to their respective administrators. There is, 
 however, no uniformity: in some places there are 
 departmental boards ; in others, a single civil or 
 military officer is entrusted with all power. The 
 patronage of the governor-general is immense ; for 
 although seniority is the general rule, the exceptions 
 are very numerous. 
 
 The administration of Indian affairs may be con- 
 sidered as in a transition state ; the natives must, 
 sooner or later, be admitted to a share in the e.xecu- 
 tive and legislature of their country.* In Jamaica 
 and the AVest India colonies, I recently saw negroes, 
 of pure African blood, sitting as "honourable mem- 
 bers of her Majesty's council," and as representatives 
 of white and black men in the legislative assemblies. 
 Shall we deny to educated and trustworthy Hindoo, 
 Mohammedan, Parsee, and other native gentlemen, 
 those rights which are conceded in other parts of the 
 empire to Africans who, a few years since, were 
 slaves in the lowest stage of servitude ?t 
 
 I do think the time is arriving (if it have not 
 already come), when intelligent men, of every creed 
 and colour, pecuniarily independent, of good moral 
 character, and whose loyalty to the British govern- 
 ment is unquestioned, should sit in a general Legisla- 
 tive Assembly for all India. They might be selected 
 — as in other transmarine dependencies — by the 
 Crown, nominated for life (quam cliii se bene gesae- 
 rint), and enjoy some honorary rank or privilege: 
 
 * Of late years, the number of natives of India em- 
 ployed in the civil administration of the country, has 
 been largely increased. The following official return 
 shows the augmentation in twenty years : — 
 
 Positions held. — Revenue and Jvdicial — Principal Sud- 
 der Aumeens (native judges of tln-ee grades, who dispense 
 civil justice)— 1828, 64. Sudder Aumeens— 1828, 157 ; 
 1849, 81. Moonsifls— 1828, 80; 1849, 494. Deputy 
 magistrates — 1849, 11. Deputy and assistant collectors — 
 1849,86. Sub-collectors' assistants— 1849,27. Abknree 
 superintendents — 1849, 75. Tehseeldars — 1828, I55G ; 
 1849, 276. Sherishtcdars — 1828, 367 ; 1849, 155. 
 Mamlutdars— 1828, 9; 1849, 110. Dufterdars— 1828, 
 2; 1849, 19. Camavisdars- 1828, 57. Adawluttees— 
 1849, 5. Meer Moonshees — 1849, 1. Educational — 
 1828,14; 1849,479. Fttnoiu— 1828, 149; 1849,990. 
 Total, 1828, 1,197; 1849, 2,813. (Indo-Ikitons or 
 Eurasians — as persons of mixed colour are designated — 
 tiot included in these numbers.) Before 1828 there were 
 only two grades of native judges, viz., the Sutliler Aumeens 
 and Moousitis. Tlie oflire of Principal Sadder Aumeen 
 was instituted in 1837, tliat of do])uty eollect(jr in IH33, 
 and that of deputy magistrate in 1843. In 1827, no 
 native of India eiuplojed in the judicial or revenue de- 
 partment in IJcngal received more than 250 rupees jier 
 mensem, or .£300 per annum. 'J'he ullowauces now rc- 
 
 this would prepare the way for a representative 
 assembly and freer form of government.! In addi 
 tion to this general council, municipal bodies might 
 be formed in all the large cities, for cleansing, light- 
 ing, and police, erecting and supporting hospitals, 
 and other useful institutions, and superintending 
 generally the peace and welfare of the several com- 
 munities. A general act might be passed, empower- 
 ing the formation of these corporations in all cities 
 having at least 10,000 inhabitants : the people would 
 thus become familiarised to self-government, by 
 managing their own local affairs ; and the Hindoos 
 would recognise, in an improved form, one of their 
 most ancient and cherished institutions, and look to 
 the re-establishment of the punelimjet, or trial by 
 jury, as an indispensable adjunct for the administra- 
 tion of justice. In a sanitary point of view, — in the 
 sup])ression of crime, — in providing for the poor, in- 
 firm, and diseased, — and in organising the elements 
 of civil life and social concord, the formation of mu- 
 nicipalities throughout India would be attended with 
 the most beneficial results. 
 
 For executive purposes, British India is divided 
 into districts, each of which, on an average, § contains 
 the annexed area and population, and yields a land 
 revenue as estimated : — 
 
 Presidency. 
 
 Bengal . . . . 
 N. W. Provinces 
 Madras . . . . 
 Bombay . . . 
 
 Area sq. m. 
 
 3,200 
 2,300 
 6.600 
 4,200 
 
 Population. 
 
 1,000,000 
 730,000 
 800,000 
 600,000 
 
 Land Rev. 
 
 £ 
 
 103,000 
 130,000 
 16-5,000 
 160,000 
 
 Each of these districts in N.AV. Provinces, Madras, 
 and Bombay, is under the charge of one European 
 official, styled " Magistrate and ('oUectur." In 
 Bengal Proper, the magistracy and coUeclorship are 
 held by separate persons. These covenanted officers 
 are of the iiighest class, and consist of those who go 
 out as " writers" (the old designation.) The prize 
 of these high appointments is now obtained by 
 undergoing a public examination in languages and 
 elementary branches of knowledge. The range of 
 emoluments varies from £600 to £3,000 a-year and 
 upwards; if the lieutenant-governorship or governor- 
 
 ceived are as follow, at 2s. the company's rupee. One 
 receives iri, 560; 8 receive i:840 to ir960 ; 12— i;720 to 
 iS40; 68— i.'600 to .£"720; 69— i;480 to i,'600 ; 58— 
 .£\j60 to i.M80; 277— i.-'240 to i.360; 1,173— ^'120 to 
 i.'240; 1,147— £24 to i.l20per annum. Since 1849, 
 the number employed has been largely increased. 
 
 f Europeans and natives employed in India. Bengal 
 (in May, 1830, and 1850.) — Judicial branch — Europeans, 
 114 and 218; native, 11,161 and 22,800. Salaries, &c., 
 2,100,052 and 3,225,625 rupees per annum. Revenue 
 ditto — Europeans, 112 and 2U4 ; natives, 3,447 and 6,806. 
 Salaries, 651,962 and 1,601,810 rupees. Ciintorna — lairo- 
 pcans, 82 and 146: natives, 1,652 and 271. Salaries, 
 290,490 and 340,835 rupees, b'alt — Europeans, 41 and 
 32; natives, 8,569 and 4,786. Opium — Europeans, 15 
 and 42; natives, 1,638 and 2,066. Salaries, 157,433 and 
 378,620 rupees. Various other departments — Political, 
 educational, &c. — Europeans, 375 niul 573; natives, 
 16,247 and 32,076. Salaries, 2,642,437 and 4,932,356 
 rupees. ('unimcrcial — Europeans, 33 unil 9 ; natives, 
 2,026 and 39. Sahnies, 261,666 and 22,438 rupees. 
 PiiNJ.\n, (1H50.) — Europeans, 185 ; natives, 10,98C. 
 Salaries, 1,619,54 6 ru]icis per annum. 
 
 t Natives of Ceylon sit in the Legislative Council there. 
 
 § Modern India; by George Campbell, B.C.S. : Lon- 
 don, 1852, p. 239.
 
 COVENANTED AND UNCOVENANTED CIVIL SERVANTS IN INDIA. 649 
 
 ship of a presidency be obtiiined.* The unmvcnanlcd 
 consist (jf JCuropeaiis, or Kurasiaiis (i,'<-iitlemen of 
 colour born in liiiliii), who liold sulKinliniite posi- 
 tions, and cannot rise into the covenanted class : 
 their emoluments are good, but scarcely equal to 
 tlieir deserts. The number and |>o.silion of tliis 
 class are being augmented and iniproverl ; and many 
 soldier-oflicers now find active employment in magis- 
 terial and other civil <luties. 
 
 The number of covenanted orof uncovenanted civil 
 servants at each presidency in IS.'J'l and IHiil, the 
 number on the retired and on the active list, and on 
 furlough respectively, is thus officially stated in June, 
 1852 :— 
 
 Civil Servant*. 
 
 1831. 
 Covenanted : — 
 Active list (including thosa on ' 
 
 furlough) 
 
 On furlough 
 
 Kctircd us annuitants (other i 
 retirements not known) . J 
 Vncovcnantetl : — 
 
 Active list 
 
 On lurlough 
 
 Ilutii'cd (pensioners) . . . , 
 
 1851. 
 Covenanted: — 
 Active list (us above) . . . , 
 
 On furlough 
 
 Retired as annuitants (other 1 
 retirements not known) . . j 
 Uncovenanted : — 
 
 Active list 
 
 On furlough 
 
 Retired (pensioners) .... 
 
 Who haire served ten years : — 
 
 183-1. 
 Covenanted : — 
 
 lletircd (those only who arc an- 
 nuitants being shown on the 
 
 books) 
 
 On furlough 
 
 Uncovenanted : — 
 Retu'ed (pensioners only being 1 
 shown on the books) ... J 
 
 On furlough 
 
 1851. 
 Covenanted : — 
 
 Iletired (as above) 
 
 On furlough 
 
 Uncovenanted :— 
 
 Retired (as above) 
 
 On furlough 
 
 Ben- 
 
 g"bt 
 
 506 
 63 
 37 
 
 1,013 
 
 None. 
 
 102 
 
 49S 
 •15 
 
 135 
 
 2,014 
 
 None. 
 
 78 
 
 37 
 43 
 
 102 
 None. 
 
 135 
 
 None. 
 
 Mudras 
 
 225 
 32 
 20 
 
 430 
 
 None. 
 
 UG 
 
 188 
 27 
 
 9G 
 
 838 
 
 None. 
 
 113 
 
 20 
 24 
 
 116 
 
 None. 
 
 06 
 16 
 
 113 
 None. 
 
 Bom- 
 bay.t 
 
 152 
 29 
 10 
 
 108 
 
 None. 
 
 25^^ 
 
 12G 
 16 
 
 49 
 
 120 
 None. 
 
 10 
 19 
 
 2511 
 None. 
 
 49 
 13 
 
 None. 
 
 The duties of the European civil servants in India, 
 are thus described by the E. I. Cy. in their state- 
 ments laid before paiiiamont in 1852-'53: — ■ 
 
 " Civil servants arc prepared for the higher offices 
 in Bengal by previous instruction in this country. At 
 Haileybury the basis of education is European lite- 
 
 * Governors of Madras nnd Bombay, and Lieutenant- 
 governor of Bengal, .i'10,000 a-year each, and an official 
 residence, ijtc. ; memiuTS of council, iS.OOO per annum ; 
 secretary of government of Bengal, jL.3,t)00 per annum. 
 Such are a few of the prizes now thrown open to public 
 comjietition throughout the British empire. 
 
 ■f- Including Agra, the newly-acquired Cis and Trans 
 Sutlcj territory, and the Punjab. 
 
 X Including Sinde. 
 
 § E.Tclusive of the pensioners on " Warden's OflScial 
 Fund," whii-h cannot be shown, as the accounts received j 
 from India do not thstinguish Europeans from natives. 
 
 II Exclusive of pensioners on "Warden's Official Fund." I 
 4 B 
 
 ratiire and science (classics and mathematics), to 
 which is added, the study of the general principles of 
 law, together with political economy, liistory, and 
 the rudiments of the Oriental languages. 
 
 " At the college of Calcutta the studies of the 
 civilian are resumed, and directed to the mastery of 
 the vernacular languages, the acquisition of tho 
 principles of Mohammedan and Hindoo law, and a 
 familiarity with the regulations nnd the legislative 
 acts of the Indian government ; the object of the two 
 institutions being to combine the education of an 
 English gentleman with the qualifications of the 
 native law odicer. 
 
 " Upon passing his college examination, the civilian 
 commences his career in the public .service as assis- 
 tant to a collector and magistrate. He is thus 
 engaged alternately in the judicial and the revenue 
 line. In his magisterial capacity, he takes the 
 deposition of witnesses, and jircpares cases for the 
 decision of his superior; or he hears and determines, 
 subject to revision, cases specially made over to him 
 by the magistrate. His jiower of jjunishment extends 
 to two months' imprisonment, a period which, when 
 he is entrusted with special powers by the govern- 
 ment, is enlarged to twelve months. As assistant in 
 the revenue department, he decides petty claims 
 relating to arrears or exactions of rent. 
 
 " After this apprenticeship of several years, the 
 assistant is regarded as a candidate for promotion. 
 He i.s then subjected to a further examination, with 
 the view of testing his knowledge of the languages 
 and the laws of the country ; and his promotion is 
 made dependent on the success with which he passes 
 the test. That the examination is severe and search- 
 ing, may be gathered from the fact, that of twenty 
 civilians who came up in 1852, seven only were 
 passed. A successful candidate is then deemed 
 qualified for the office of collector or magistrate. 
 
 " As magistrate, he directs the police operations of 
 his district, and takes cognizance of all criminal 
 matters. The law provides for his dealing with cer- 
 tain classes of offences, but limits his power of pun- 
 ishment to three years' imprisonment. Parties 
 charged with graver crimes are committed by him to 
 take their trial before the sessions court. 5| In certain 
 cases the magistrate may inflict corporal punishment, 
 not exceeding a few stripes, and no other punish- 
 ment is then superadded. Ajjjieals from his sen- 
 tences, or from those of his assistant, when vested 
 with special powers, lie to the sessions judge. 
 
 " As collector, he has charge of the district trea- 
 sury. He superintends the collection of the govern- 
 ment rental ; puts in execution coercive measures 
 against defaulters; sells estates for arrears of revenue 
 and manages tho.se escheated or bought by govern- 
 ment. He superintends the partition of estates, and 
 regulates the distribution of the government assess- 
 ment among the several subdivisions. He also 
 exercises judicial powers in settling, by summary 
 
 ^ " British subjects guilty of felony or other grave 
 offences, are committed for trial before the Queen's 
 Court. In eases of assault and trespass, tliey are sub- 
 ject to tlie jurisdiction of the magistrate (European or 
 native), which extends to the imposition of a fine of 
 509 rupees, and to im]>risonment for two months if not 
 paid. An appeal from the decision of the magistrate bes 
 to the sessions judge, and the case, if so appealed, is not 
 liable to be removed to the Queen's Court by a writ of 
 certiorari. Further, Europeans, by being rendered sub- 
 ject to penal recognizances for the maintenance of the 
 peace, are virtually amenable to the jurisdictioa of the 
 mofiissil police."
 
 550 
 
 MODES OF ADMINISTERING JUSTICE IN INDIA. 
 
 process, disputes among the agricultural community 
 regarding rents. 
 
 " After further experience, the civilian is promoted 
 to the judicial chair. 
 
 " The civil judge presides over the civil courts in 
 his district, and supervises the dispensation of justice 
 by his native functionaries. It is competent to him 
 to withdraw suits from the courts below, and to try 
 them himself.* He hears appeals from the decisions 
 of his principal native judge, when the matter in 
 dispute does not exceed the value of £500; but he 
 may transfer appeals from the decisions of the other 
 subordinate courts to the file of the principal native 
 j^dge. 
 
 " In the sessions court the judge is required to try 
 all persons committed for heinous offences by the 
 magistrates. He has not the power of life and 
 death, but his jurisdiction extends to sixteen years' 
 irapriscnment.t All capital cases, after trial, must be 
 referred for the disposal of the Nizamut Adawlut ; 
 as also those cases in which the sessions judge dis- 
 sents from the opinion of his Mohammedan law 
 officer. Persons not professing the Mohammedan 
 faith are not to be tried under the provisions of the 
 Mohammedan law, but under the regulations, the 
 judge being assisted by a ptmchayet or assessors, or 
 a jury, but having power to overrule their opinion. 
 The sessions judge holds a monthly gaol delivery, 
 though in fact he may be said to be constantly sit- 
 ting. He sits in appeal from sentences passed by 
 the magistrates and their assistants. 
 
 "The Sudder Dewanny Adawlut, the highest of 
 the company's courts, is composed of the judges se- 
 lected from the civil and sessions judges. It has 
 ceased to exercise any original jurisdiction. It is 
 the court of final appeal in the presidency, and con- 
 trols all the subordinate civil tribunals. Besides 
 regular appeals from the original decisions of the 
 European zillah judge, and in certain cases from 
 those of the Principal Sudder Aumeen, the court is 
 competent to admit second or special appeals from 
 decisions of the courts below on regular appeals. 
 The grounds for special appeal are when the judg- 
 ments shall appear inconsistent with law or the prac- 
 tice or usage of the courts. The power thus given 
 to the Sudder Court of hearing special appeals ex- 
 tends their means of supervision, and brings judicially 
 before them the proceedings and decisions of all 
 classes of judicial officers, and affords opportunity 
 for correcting errors and insuring consistency, it 
 being one of their duties to regulate the practice 
 
 * " In the trial of civil suits, original or appeal, it is com- 
 petent to tlie European judge to avail himself of the as- 
 sistance of natives in one of tlie three following modes ; — - 
 1st. By a pmichayet, who conduct tlieir inquiries on 
 points submitted to tlicni apart from the court, and malce 
 their report to the judge. 2nd. By assessors, who sit 
 witli the judge, make observations, examine witnesses, 
 and offer opinions and suggestions. 3rd. By a jury, who 
 attend during the trial, and after consultation deliver in 
 their verdict. But under all the modes of procedure de- 
 scribed in the tliree clauses, the decision is vested solely 
 and excUisively in the judge." 
 
 t *' The great Icngtli of the terms of imprisonment in 
 In<lia is one of the vestiges of a barbarous law, or rather 
 a consequence of its abolition. In 1793, tlie punishment 
 of mutilation was abolished, and it was then ordained tliat 
 if a prisoner be sentenced by the fntva of the Moham- 
 medan law officer to lose two limbs, he should in lieu 
 thereof be imprisoned for fourteen years, and if sentenced 
 to lose one limb, to seven years. Under a later law, it is 
 competent to the judge to impose two years' additional 
 
 and proceedings of the lower courts. Moreover, 
 each judicial officer is required by law to record his 
 decisions and the reasons for them in his own ver- 
 nacular tongue; and this affords the Sudder Court 
 extended means of judging correctly of the indi- 
 vidual qualifications of their subordinates. The 
 Sudder Court sits daily except during the Dusserah 
 and the Mohurrum,| when all civil proceedings are 
 suspended. In the trial of appeals, the proceedings 
 of the lower tribunals are read before one or more 
 judges. A single judge is competent to confirm a 
 decree. Two of three sitting together must concur 
 for its reversal, whether the appeal be regular or 
 special. Decisions of the court in suits exceeding in 
 value £1,000, may be carried by appeal before the 
 Queen in council. Monthly reports are received of 
 the state of business from every district, and an 
 annual report is made to government of the admin- 
 istration of civil justice, both in the Sudder Court 
 and in its subordinate courts. 
 
 " The Nizamut Admchit. — The judges of the Sudder 
 Dewanny are the judges also of this court. The 
 Nizamut has cognizance in all matters relating to 
 criminal justice and the police of the country ; but 
 it exercises no original jurisdiction. Appeals from 
 the sessions judges lie to this court, but it cannot 
 enhance the amount of punishment, nor reverse an 
 acquittal. The sentences of this court are final. In 
 cases of murder and other crimes requiring greater 
 punishment than sixteen years' imprisonment (which 
 is the limit of the sessions judges' power), all the 
 proceedings of the trial are referred for the orders of 
 the Nizamut. The Mohammedan law officer of this 
 court (unless the futwa be dispensed with) first 
 records his judgment, and all the documents are 
 then submitted to the judges of the Nizamut. If 
 the case be not capital, it is decided by the sentence 
 of a single judge. Sentences of death require the 
 concurrence of two judges.§ Trials before the ses- 
 sions judge for crimes punishable by a limited period 
 of imprisonment, are also referred, as already inti- 
 mated, for the disposal of the Nizamut, in cases 
 where the sessions judge differs from the opinion of 
 the Mohammedan law officer. As in civil matters, 
 monthly abstracts of all trials are laid before the 
 judges of the court sitting together, when the pro- 
 ceedings of the sessions judges are reviewed. In 
 sentences of acquittal which may be disapproved, 
 though the Nizamut cannot interfere so as to affect 
 the sentence, the judge is admonished. 
 
 " Sevenue Commissioners and Board of Revenue. 
 
 imprisonment in lieu of corporal punishment. A reduc- 
 tion in the terras of imprisonment has been repeatedly 
 urged upon the government of India by the home 
 authorities." 
 
 X " The Dusserah is a Hindoo festival continuing for ten 
 days, which are appropriated to religious ceremonies. The 
 Mohurrura is a fast kept by Mohammedans in commemo- 
 ration of the death of Hossein and Hassein, the two 
 sons of Ali by his cousin Fatima, the daughter of Mo- 
 hammed." 
 
 § " If the judges of the Nizamut concur in the verdict of 
 the lower court, and the prisoner be considered deserving 
 of a higher degree of punishment than could be awarded 
 by the sessions judge, he may be sentenced to suffer death, 
 or to undergo imprisonment for twenty-one years; but if 
 sentenced to imprisonment for life, then transportation 
 for life, either to the penal settlements of Singapore, 
 Penang, or Malacca, the Tennsserim provinces, Arracan, 
 or Aden, would be substituted ; but no native of India 
 can be transported to New South Wales or the adjacent 
 islands."
 
 MODE OF ADMINISTERING JUSTICE IN INDIA. 
 
 551 
 
 — In Bengal and the North-Western Provinces there 
 arc revenue commissioners, a class of otliciTs superior 
 to collectors, each of whom lias authority extending 
 over a divisi(m comprisiiii,' several collectorates ; liis 
 duty being that of watching the proceedings of the 
 collectors therein, and ascertaining that in every 
 respect they are regular and consistent with just 
 principles of administration. 
 
 "All matters relating to the settlement, collection, 
 and administration of the revenue, ullimately fall 
 under tlie sujieriutendence and control of a Hoard of 
 Ilevemie, which exercises a general supervision over 
 the proceedings of commissioners and collectors. 
 Some arrangi'ments, not dissimilar, exi.st for the like 
 purjioses under the other presidencies. Appointments 
 to the Revenue Hoard, and al.so to the oflice of revenue 
 commissioner, are made by selection from civil ser- 
 vants employed in the revenue department." 
 
 The average period of service of the Bengal civil 
 servants is stated to be — Judges, Sudder Court, Cal- 
 cutta, 3-1 J members of Board of Revenue, .'50 ; secre- 
 taries to supreme government, 25 ; magistrates and 
 collectors, 18 to 26 ; magistrates, 7 to 19 years; other 
 grades varying in proportion. 
 
 Administration of Justice. — Within the limits 
 of the cities of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, 
 there are supreme courts of judicature, vested with 
 all the powers of the courts at Westminster, and 
 presided over by chief and puisne judges nominated 
 from the British bar. In these courts, trial by jury 
 takes place ; in civil and criminal cases, the law ad- 
 ministered is in conformity vvilh that of England, 
 and there is a regular " bar" and solicitors. Beyond 
 the limits of the three principal cities there are 
 "company's courts," viz., at each presidency a 
 supreme civil and a supreme criminal court; the 
 former being one of appeal from numerous zillah 
 or district courts, of which there are in Bengal, 32 ; 
 in the N. W. Brovinces, 21; in Madras, 20; in 
 Bombay, 8. The European judges who preside in 
 the company's courts are not educated for the " bar." 
 There is no jury to assist in deciding on the facts of 
 a case; the law is a compound of Hindoo, Moham- 
 medan, and English principles, and a decision rests 
 with the varying feelings and prejudices of the judge. 
 This great defect will, it is expected, be corrected. 
 
 Civil justice is now almost wholly dispensed by 
 native judges, styled I'rincipal Su(lder Aumeeni, 
 Sudder Aunieens, and Moonsifl's. 'I'lie first-named 
 are divided, in Bengal, into two classes, who receive 
 each £720 and £'180 [ler annum. Sudder Aumcens 
 receive £.300, and Moonsiffs £100 to £200 per 
 annum.* 'I'beir functions are thus officially de- 
 scribed :— " The jurisdiction of the two lower grades 
 is limited to suits in which the matter in dispute 
 does not exceed a certain value, the limit being of 
 course higher in regard to the upper of these two 
 grades tlian to the inferior. To the jurisdiction of 
 the highest native judge there is no such limit. To 
 these different classes of native judges is entrusted 
 the original cognizance of all civil suits; and no 
 person, whether British or native, is exempt from 
 their jurisdiction. 
 
 " The first grade of native judges (Principal Sudder 
 Aumeens) may sit in appeal from the decrees of the 
 two inferior courts; and as the law, except in spe- 
 cial cases, allows but one trial and one appeal, the 
 power of final decision in by far the larger number 
 of suits rests with native judges. t 
 
 " Further, suits wherein the amount in dispute ex- 
 ceeds £o00 may be tried either by the I'rincipal 
 Sudder Aumeen or by the European zillah judge, if 
 he so ])lease. But in either case an appeal lies only 
 to the highest company's court, the Sudder Adaw- 
 lut.J Here then the native judge exercises the same 
 extent of jurisdiction as the European functionary. 
 Native and British qualification and integrity are 
 jilaced on the same level. The suits now entrusted 
 to a head native judge were confided, before me 
 passing of Act No. 25 of 1837, to no officer below a 
 European provincial judge. 
 
 " The number of appeals affords evidence of the 
 feeling of the people in respect to the administra- 
 tion of the law. The number affirmed and reversed 
 is evidence of the qualifications, intellectual and 
 moral, of the native functionaries as estimated by 
 their superiors. The proportion of appeals to origi- 
 nal decisions in the suits disposed of in the N. W. 
 Provinces, for seven years, is about fifteen per cent. ; 
 the proportion of decisions reversed in the original 
 suits is little more than four per cent., as shown in 
 the following table : — 
 
 Years. 
 
 Original Suits decided on Merits. 
 
 Appeal Suits. 
 
 Reversals. 
 
 Proportion of 
 Reverses to 
 
 
 
 
 
 By Zilliih Judges. 
 
 By Native Judge.s 
 
 By Europ. Judges 
 
 By Native Judges 
 
 
 Original Suits. 
 
 1843 
 
 31 
 
 39,181 
 
 4,.505 
 
 3,083 
 
 2,301 
 
 55 per cent. 
 
 1844 
 
 17 
 
 40,213 
 
 4,397 
 
 2,902 
 
 2,020 
 
 6 
 
 1846 
 
 10 
 
 40,579 
 
 3,980 
 
 2,809 
 
 1,895 
 
 4i ., 
 
 1846 
 
 3 
 
 41,775 
 
 3,900 
 
 2,392 
 
 1,676 
 
 4 ., 
 
 1847 
 
 8 
 
 43,169 
 
 3,608 
 
 2,-559 
 
 1,673 
 
 3J ., 
 
 1848 
 
 11 
 
 41,340 
 
 3,977 
 
 2,916 
 
 1,736 
 
 4 
 
 1849 
 
 20 
 
 44,933 
 
 3,802 
 
 3,674 
 
 2,042 
 
 4J „ 
 
 * Mr. Kdward Tiiornton, in referenre to these salaries, 
 says — " If tlie value of money be estimated by the wages 
 of labour in the two countries, it would appear that its 
 worth is about seven times greater in India than in England. 
 The rate of wat;es issued to 2,000 men employed on the 
 Calcutta and Bombay mail-road is three rupees, or 6*. per 
 month rai'h ; and assuming the rate of wages in England 
 at \0s. per week, jL'Zi in India is equal to jtl68 in 
 England." 
 
 t " A. sues B. for a debt of i.10. The suit is instituted 
 in tlie Moonsiti''s court, and conducted by a vakeel or 
 pleader. Tlie pleadings and motions may be submitted 
 in writing, llie pleader merely examining the witnesses, or 
 he may have recourse also to oral pleading. The judge is 
 required by law to record his decision, and the reasons for 
 
 it, upon the face of his decree. The dissatisfied party 
 may appeal from the decision to the European judge o^ 
 the district, who either hears the appeal himself, or refers 
 it to his Principal Sudder Aumeen. The decision in either 
 case is final, except upon a point of law, when a special 
 appeal lies to the Court of Sudder Adawlut ; thus the subor- 
 dinate courts* proceedings are brought under supervision." 
 ^ "The course of proceeding in such cju-esis as follows: — 
 C. sues D. for i. 1,000. The suit must be instituted in 
 the court of the head native judge ; and if not withdrawn 
 by the European judge of the district, it is tried by the 
 native judge. The appeal in either case lies to the Sudder 
 Adawlut, from whose decision, however, there is an appeal 
 to the Queen in council, in all cases where the value in 
 dispute amounts to ;t 1,000.'*
 
 652 
 
 PROPOSED CODIFICATION OP INDIAN LAW. 
 
 " By a more recent enactment, natives of India are 
 eligible to the office of deputy magistrate. They 
 are competent in that capacity to exercise the powers 
 of the European covenanted assistant, and even 
 under orders of the local government,, the full powers 
 of magistrate. When entrusted with the latter, their 
 power of punishment extends to three years' im- 
 prisonment, and they are also competent, in cases of 
 assault and trespass committed by Europeans on 
 natives, to inflict a fine to the extent of 500 rupees, 
 and to imprison for the period of two months, if the 
 fine be not paid. Natives are frequently invested 
 with full powers of magistrates. 
 
 " Native deputy collectors are subordinate to the 
 European collectors, but they are competent to 
 transact any of the duties of the collector. Their 
 proceedings are recorded in their own names, and 
 on their own responsibility. 
 
 " The selection and promotion of native judicial 
 functionaries are regulated as follows : — Vakeels or 
 pleaders, before obtaining diplomas, must have 
 passed an examination before a committee, consist- 
 ing of the European revenue commissioner, the 
 European judge of the district, the Principal Sudder 
 Aumeen, the principal of the college or other educa- 
 tional establishment at the station, and such other 
 officers as may be appointed by the government. 
 
 " The examination may be presumed to be of 
 stringent character, from the following results : — 
 In 1852, at Agra, twenty-seven candidates presented 
 themselves for examination, — none passed. At Ba- 
 reilly, forty-eight candidates, of whom ttco passed. 
 At Benares, seventy-two, of -whom four passed. The 
 Moonsiffs (the lowest grade of native judges) are 
 selected from the vakeels, and appointed by the 
 Court of Sudder Adawlut. The Sudder Aumeens 
 are selected from the Moonsiff' class by the Sudder 
 Adawlut, and appointed by the government. The 
 Principal Sudder Aumeens are selected from the 
 class of Sudder Aumeens, and appointed by the gov- 
 ernment. The service is one of gradation, but not 
 of seniority, the superior ranks being filled up by the 
 most efficient men of the inferior."* 
 
 A reform is needed in this important section of 
 our civil government of India. By the Charter Act 
 of 1833-4, it was intended to remedy the defect; 
 and it was mainly with this object that a distin- 
 guished person (T. B. Macaulay) was then nominated 
 fourth member of the council of India. Indian law 
 commissioners (T. B. Macaulay, Macleod, Ander- 
 son, and Millett) were subsequently appointed, and 
 in June, 1835, laid before the governor. general a 
 draft penal code to be applied to all India ; and in 
 October, 1847, it was finally printed for distribu- 
 tion, examination, and discussion at home and 
 abroad. The code contains twenty. six chapters, 
 will) notes on each, occupies 124 folio pages, and is 
 undoubtedly a philosophical production. The prin- 
 cipal sections refer to offences ayuinst, or in relation 
 to, the state, army and navy, public tranquillity, 
 government servants, justice, revenue, coin, weights 
 
 * Statistical Papers relating to India, laid before par- 
 liamont by E. I. Cy., IS.'iS. 
 
 t Pari. Piipcrs, No. C73— Commons ; 3rd August, 1838. 
 
 X In 17G1, there were eighteen battiilions of native 
 infantry, perhaps about 15,000 men. In l/C), Clive 
 found the army of Kenpal (the principal forces) con. 
 BJstcd of four conipanics of artillery, a troop of liussars, 
 about 1 ,200 irregular cavalry, twenty. four companies of 
 European infantry, and nineteen battalions of sejioys, 
 with' a due pioportion of European officers. The aggre- 
 
 and measures, public health, safety and convenience, 
 religion and caste, the press, offences against the 
 human body, property and property marks, docu- 
 ments, illegal pursuit of legal rights, criminal breach 
 of service contracts, marriage, defamation, criminal 
 intimidation, insult and annoyance, abetment and 
 punishment.f This code has been much criticised; 
 but nothing has been done towards carrying it into 
 effect, or amending its provisions. 
 
 Anglo-Indian Army.— It is usually said, that 
 the tenure of British power in India is held by the 
 " sword :" this tenure is, however, changing into one 
 of " opinion," i.e., a conviction of the justice, honesty, 
 and advantage of our rule ; it will, however, require 
 many years before the latter be fully acknowledged, 
 and before the motley, unsettled, and in many parts 
 turbulent people subjected to our sway, can be left 
 to the simple administration of a purely civil gov- 
 ernment. The army of India (as was recently that 
 of Ireland) must be considered a police force for the 
 preservation of internal tranquillity, and, by means 
 of its well-educated 6,000 European officers, as an 
 efficient means of promoting the civilisation of the 
 people. 
 
 The formation of a body of armed men had its 
 origin in the necessity of protecting factories in 
 which valuable goods were stored, after the manner 
 previously adopted by the Portuguese, and their 
 predecessors (the Arabs) on the coasts of Asia and 
 of Africa. When once a selected class are set apart, 
 with weapons in their hands, to protect the lives and 
 property of others, discipline becomes imperative, 
 and for this purpose a few Europeans were sent from 
 England. In 1747, an act of parliament provided 
 for the regulation of the E.I. soldiers; and in 1754, 
 articles of war, comprised in fifteen sections, were 
 founded on the above act, and promulgated " for 
 the better government of the officers and soldiers in 
 the service of the company of merchants trading in 
 the East Indies." Dupleix organised a brigade, 
 with French officers; the English, in self-defence, 
 did the same. Hindoo and Mohammedan rulers 
 sought the aid of foreign mercenaries, and assigned 
 territorial revenues for their support ; interference 
 with the disputes of native states created the neces- 
 sity for more troops ; Hindoos and Moslems were 
 ready to enlist under French or English banners, 
 and made good soldiers; they fought against each 
 other, irrespective of caste or creed, — were faithful 
 and attached to their European leaders ; and, in due 
 process of time, an Anglo-Indian standing army was 
 formed and brigaded (seep. 304), which grew from 
 year to year, until it has now attained the following 
 proportions : — Aggregate strength of the Indian 
 army in 1851,| 289,525: component parts — Queen's 
 regiments — five of dragoons, twenty-four of infan- 
 try = 29,480 men ; E. I. Cy's. European infantry, 
 six regiments = 6,266 men ; company's artillery, 
 16,440, divided into European horse and foot, and 
 native foot or Golundanze; engineers, or sai)])ers and 
 miners, 2,569. Natives — cavalry, regular, twcntj-one 
 
 gate strength of the Anglo-Indian army, in 1799, was — 
 licngal, .')3,U0, including 7,280 Europeans; Madras, 
 ■18,839, inrliiding 10,157 Eunijii'ans ; lioniliay, 22,761, 
 including 4,713 Europeans: total, 12t,7tO; of these, 
 22,150 were Europeans. The above comprised — of her 
 Majesty's troojis, dragoons, four; infantry, eighteen — 
 regiments. In May, 1804, the numbiT of her Majesty's 
 troops serving in India, was — oav:dry, 2,072; infantry, 
 U,91I = II, 983. The number of troops has varied from 
 time to time, according to the exigencies of war.
 
 ANGLO-INDIAN ARMY-NUMBERS AND DISTINCTIVENESS. 5-,3 
 
 rcRimonts = 10,18G; irregulars, thirty-four corps = 
 21, KM; infantry rfgular rej;iments, 155= 157,711; 
 ditto irregular regiments, O'.i — ;}y,Gl.'J; veterans, or 
 native invalid corps for garrison duties, 4,124 men. 
 Among the natives, proportion of Mohammedans to 
 natives, one to four. European commi».sioncd olli- 
 
 ccrs, 5,142; warrant ditto, 24.'{. Medical cstahlish- 
 menl—K. doctors, 824; native ditto, 652; apothe- 
 caries, kc, 287. Aggregate cost per annum, ahout 
 £ 10,01)0,(100. 'I'he army of each presidency is kept 
 distinct under the governors and councils, but all un- 
 der the control of the governor-general and council. 
 
 La7id Farces in 1854.* 
 
 In India. 
 
 European 
 
 Commissioned 
 Officers. 
 
 European War- 
 rant and Noii- 
 Com. and Rank 
 and l''ilo. 
 
 Native Com., 
 Non-Com., and 
 Itank and I'ile. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Queen's troops 
 
 Company's troops, 35aropean .... 
 „ „ Native .... 
 
 896 
 
 688 
 
 3,644 
 
 25,930 
 
 14,061 
 
 3,122 
 
 233,699 
 
 26,826 
 
 14,649 
 
 240,46.3 
 
 Total 
 
 6,128 
 
 43,113 
 
 233,099 
 
 281,940 
 
 Puiijnb subsidiary troops and contingents 1 
 
 from native states J 
 
 Police, militarily organised .... 
 
 80 
 3.5 
 
 30 
 
 30,882 
 24,016 
 
 31,004 
 24,050 
 
 Grand total .... 
 
 6,249t 
 
 43,149 1 288,596 
 
 336,994 
 
 The company's European and native troops are 
 under the disei])linc of articles of war granted by 
 parliament; the officers hold commissions under the 
 sign-manual of the Queen, and have been recently 
 authorised to rank in England on the same footing 
 as H.M. troops of the line. The company is em- 
 powered to employ in India 20,000 European sol- 
 diers, irrespective of the Queen's troops, but not to 
 have at one time in Hritain more than 4,000 men. 
 
 The sepoys of the Indian army consist of men of 
 all castes and creeds : the Bengal troops, which are 
 considered the highest caste, are recruited princi- 
 pally from Oude, Hajpootana, and the N. AV. Pro- 
 vinces (a mixture of Hindoos and Mussulmen) ; the 
 men are hardy, bold, powerful — good materials for sol- 
 diers : the Bombay force has its recruits from Oude, 
 Deccan, Concan, &c. Hindoo, Moslem, Jew, and 
 Portuguese, all contribute to make hardy, efficient 
 troops, who will dig trenches (to which the Bengal 
 soldiers object), and fight in them with as much 
 courage as the Kajpoots. The Madras, like the 
 Bombay troops, are termed " low caste," but quite 
 equal to their compeers in any other part of India. 
 It is said that the Bengal troops do not stand being 
 " knocked about," or, in other words, " rough" it so 
 well as the other divisions. In the Punjab force there 
 are now many Seik soldiers. The pay and advantages 
 of the three presidencies have been equalised : the 
 sepoys get a higher and more certain remuneration 
 than is known in any other oriental service ; and a 
 scale of pensions is fixed adequate to native wants. 
 The period of enlistment is fifteen years : no bounty 
 
 * House of Commons' Return, 17th April, 1855. 
 
 f In 1760, the number of European officers in the 
 Bengal army was sixty; viz., nineteen captains, twenty- 
 six lieutenants, and fifteen ensigns. 
 
 X As an illustration of the fairness with which the 
 appointments are made, the following ease may be cited. 
 Sir Henry Willoek, with commendable public spirit, placed 
 a nomination to Addiscorab at the disposal of the Kensing- 
 ton Free Grammar Sohool. Several youths started for the 
 prize ; it was given, after a hard contest, to a friendless youth 
 whose competitors were all seniors to himself, and sever.il 
 of them possessed of family connections. The lad went to 
 Addiscomb, and determined to stand for an engineer ap- 
 pointment : he worked hard night as well as day, knew 
 no vacation, and soon outstripped cadets of older stand- 
 ing than himself; the second year he obtained the honour 
 of the corporal's sword, and the third year, after a neck- 
 
 is paid ; the service being popular, there is always 
 abundant offers of recruits. 
 
 T/ic artillery, horse and foot, is unrivalled by that 
 of any European power, save in its draught cattle ; 
 bullocks and elephants being still partially employed 
 for the siege or field artillery, which number about 
 400 guns. There are five brigades of horse artillery ; 
 twelve battalions of European foot artillery ; and six 
 battalions of native foot artillery. The horse artil- 
 lery is considered the " crack" corps of the Anglo- 
 Indian army. Its cadets at Addiscomb rank next to 
 the cnt/ineers, the prize for which is obtained by 
 those who attain the highest position after three 
 years' hard study and competition ;f the young 
 engineers are subsequently instructed for a year at 
 Chatham, along with the royal engineers, and are also 
 required to possess a knowledge of the civil branch 
 of their profession. Their pay and advantages are 
 higher than those of the artillery, and their ser- 
 vices much in request for the development of the 
 resources of the country. 
 
 The cavalry is divided into two departments — the 
 regular and irregular; the latter term being given 
 to those corps where the trooper provides and feeds 
 his own horse, and supplies his arms and equip- 
 ments, for which he receives an allowance from the 
 government of twenty rupees = 40.«. a-month ;§ in 
 the regulars, the state provides the horse, arms, and 
 clothing, and gives the soldier pay and batta for his 
 subsistence — about nine rupees = 18s. a-month. 
 
 There are also regular and irregular infantry re- 
 giments, the diflference consisting chiefly in the former 
 
 and-neck struggle, reached the goal, and became Liea- 
 tenant Julius George Medley, of the Bengal engineers. 
 He is now in a high and responsible position in the 
 Punjab, a credit to the service, and a honour to his 
 respected parent, the late William Medley, the eminent 
 banker and financier, to whose generous and patriotic 
 spirit several of the best of our monetary institutions 
 (such as the Provincial Bank of Ireland, and the Bank of 
 Briiish North America) owe their origin. 
 
 § The irregulars, whose numbers have recently been 
 increased by the addition of twenty-eight regiments, 
 making altogether 21,000 men, arc very useful. Ca- 
 valry thus formed are not half the expense of a 
 regular corps ; the service is liked, the discipline is not 
 strict — (it may be termed " free and easy") — there are 
 more native and fewer European officers, and the men can 
 march without baggage at a moment's warning.
 
 554 EFFICIENCY, DISCIPLINE, & ORGANIZATION-ANGLO-INDIAN ARMY. 
 
 always receiving half a batta (3s. a-month), which is 
 only allowed to the latter when on service or escort 
 duty. This, however, is very often, as the transmis- 
 sion of treasure from one part of India to another 
 gives employment annually to about 30,000 soldiers. 
 
 In the Punjab several Seik and other local corps 
 have been organised since the disbandment of our 
 former antagonists : among them is one called the 
 Guide corps ; it consists of both cavalry and in- 
 fantry, officered by Europeans. Most of the wild or 
 warlike tribes in Upper India are represented in its 
 ranks; the men unite all the requisites of regular 
 troops with the best qualities of guides and spies, — 
 thus combining intelligence and sagacity with courage, 
 endurance, soldierly bearing, and a presence of mind 
 which rarely fails in solitary danger and in trying 
 situations. Men habituated from childhood to war 
 and the chase, and inured to all the dangers of a 
 ■wild and mountainous border, are freely admitted 
 into its ranks. To whatever part of Upper India the 
 corps may be marched, it can furnish guides con- 
 versant with the features of the country and the 
 dialect of the people : it is thus calculated to be of 
 the most essential service in the quartermaster- 
 general's department, as intelligencers and in the 
 escort of reconnoitring officers.* This excellent 
 force was raised in 1846, at the suggestion of Colonel 
 H. M. Lawrence, and was of great use in the second 
 Seik war, and on other occasions. The corps has 
 been recently augmented to 800 men, who receive 
 rather higher pay than the ordinary soldiers. 
 
 Promotion is slow in the Indian army. In Jan- 
 uary, 1844, the Bengal artillery had ten colonels, 
 whose period of service ranged from forty to fifty- 
 three years ; ten lieutenant-colonels, thirty-five to 
 thirty-nine years ; ten majors, thirty-one to thirty- 
 five years ; captains, eighteen to thirty years : engi- 
 neers — four colonels, thirty-three to forty-eight 
 years ; four lieutenant-colonels, twenty-ssix to thirty- 
 one years ; four majors, twenty to twenty-six years ; 
 captains, fourteen to twenty years. Cavalry- — ten 
 colonels, twenty-four to forty-eight years ; ten lieu- 
 tenant-colonels, thirty-five to forty-two years ; ten 
 majors, twenty-five to thirty-five ; captains, eighteen 
 to twenty-four years : other ranks in proportion. 
 Retirements are effected by the juniors purchasing 
 out the seniors ; that is, paying them a certain sum 
 of money to induce them to retire on the pension 
 due to their rank :t the money for this purpose is 
 procured by loans from the Indian banks, for the 
 security of which all officers below the party retiring 
 are expected to become bound, or be " sent to 
 
 * Report of Punjab Commissioners, 1851, p. 27. 
 
 t The buying-out amount varies ; a senior captain or 
 junior major of the Bombay artillery would receive 
 jt3,f)00 to ji-1,000 for retiring on liis pension. 
 
 X In August, 1782, the Bengal army had reached a 
 position to entertain, and subsequently to carry into 
 effect, a project for the maintenance of the orphans of 
 European officers ; which is still in operation. A fund 
 was provided by a monthly contribution, deducted from 
 the pay of the several ranks under colonel, viz,, subal- 
 terns and assistant-surgeons, three ; captains and surgeons, 
 six ; and majors, nine — rupees each. Governors and 
 managers were appointed by the subscribers, and the 
 foundation laid of one of the most useful institutions in 
 the Kast, which promptly and liberally at once received 
 the suiijiort of the Indian government. — {Original Papers, 
 i(c.: London, 1784 j «vo. p. 5fi.) 
 
 § This experienced officer, whose sanitary measures for 
 the health of the troops in the West Indies I noticed in 
 the volume containing that section, thus refers to tlie 
 
 Coventry." This is said to be one of the causes of 
 the pecuniary embarrassments which prevail among 
 the juniors of the Indian army : the buying out of old 
 officers is, however, deemed essential to efficiency ; 
 and it is proposed to legalise the procedure by act 
 of parliament. A liberal spirit pervades all ranks ; 
 and a handsome provision is made for the children 
 of brother-officers who die in India. J: 
 
 The Indian commissariat is well managed ; the 
 troops are continually on the move, well fed, at- 
 tended and provided with hospital stores. The ex- 
 ecutive of this branch consists of a commissary- 
 general, deputy, and joint-deputy ditto, first and 
 second-class assistants, &c. — all Europeans, chosen 
 from the company's European regiments. When 
 an army takes the field, there are about three 
 registered camp followers to each fighting man. The 
 peace establishment of carriage cattle is large : of 
 elephants, about 500 ; of camels, 5,000. Knapsacks, 
 of forty pounds each, are carried for the men. A 
 subaltern, on the march, is allowed one camel (which 
 costs about three rupees a-month) to carry his bag- 
 gage ; other officers, of higher rank, in proportion. 
 During war, a doolie or litter, with six bearers, is 
 appointed to every twenty Europeans ; among the 
 native corps there are two doolies to each company. 
 Supplies are procured by tenders and contract. The 
 feeding of the troops is excellent ; the sepoys get 
 two pounds of flour daily. Porter and ale are sent 
 out from England for the canteens. Punkahs, to 
 keep the air cool, are supplied to the barracks and 
 hospitals; regimental libraries are established in 
 European corps ; and of late years (particularly 
 during the command-in-chief of Sir William Gomm)§ 
 large barracks, better bedding, improved ventila- 
 tion, and plunging baths for daily ablution, have 
 been adopted throughout India. By these and 
 other judicious measures the mortality has been 
 greatly diminished : recently, among European 
 troops, it amounts to — for Madras, two ; Bombay, 
 three and a-half ; Bengal, five and a-half — per cent. 
 The invalidings are heavy : to keep up 100 soldiers, 
 it requires ten annually to supply the decrement 
 by death, invaliding, discharges, and staff appoint- 
 ments. Each European soldier costs, when landed 
 in India, not less than £100. The entire expense of 
 her Majesty's troops serving in Hindoostan is de- 
 frayed from the Indian revenues. The discipline of 
 the Anglo-Indian army is excellent, || the morale 
 good, and its efficiency as an armed force has been 
 repeatedly proved.^ It is said by some, that the 
 cordial feeling between the European officer and 
 
 same subject in a recent letter to me from Simla : — " With 
 regard to improved barrack accommodation for the Eu- 
 ropean troops, I may report to you at once very satisfac- 
 torily, the government has promptly attended to all my 
 representations made to it with this view, and acceded 
 invariably to all my requisitions made upon it in further- 
 ance of this most desirable object. Thus the quarters at 
 Peshawur, Uawul-Pindee, and Meean Meer, have been 
 pre])ared with all jiracticable expedition ; those of Um- 
 ballft have been essentially improved ; while at Ferozepoor 
 anil Cawnpoor (in healthy sites), an entirely new set of 
 barracks have been recently sanctioned." 
 
 II The number of officers dismissed from the service by 
 sentence of court-martial, between 1835 and 1857 (in- 
 elusive), was — for Bengal, 47 ; Madras, 45 ; Bombay, 
 10 = 108 : which is certainly not a large number among 
 four or five thousand men during seventeen years. 
 
 ^ The Anglo-Indian officers are, as a class, superior in 
 military knowledge to the junior officers of similar rank 
 in the Queen's service.
 
 ANGLO-INDIAN ARMY SMALL COMPARED TO i'OPULATION.555 
 
 hia men does not now exist in the some decree as it 
 did in the linirs of (Mive and Coote, or even at a 
 later period ; Imt he this as it may in the refiiilar 
 regiments, there must l)e a considera!)le degree of 
 attaehnient still prevailin}; in the " irref;iilars," where 
 the few officers are so intimalc-ly dependent on the 
 feelinj^s of the men for their militnry success. 
 
 The nature of the climate, which renders the 
 luxuries of the temperate zone absolute necessaries, — 
 the habits and caste of the people, which require 
 several men to do the work that one would perform 
 in Kurope, and the wear and tear of life, make the 
 Anf;lo-Indian army a heavy expense on the revenue. 
 The following shows the comparative cost of a regi- 
 ment of each arm of the service in India, Queen's 
 and Company's:" — Her Majesty's dragoons, eight 
 troops — 701 non-commissioned and rank and file, 
 £'79,().S() ; native cavalry, six troops — f<()() native 
 commissioned, non-commissioned, and rank and tile, 
 £lil,840; brigade of horse artillery, consisting of 
 three European troops and one native — 'Ml Kuro- 
 pean non-commissioned and rank and fde, and 218 
 native commissioned, non-commissioned, and rank 
 and (ile, including gun Lascars, .t'.OOj.'ilO j battalion 
 of European foot artillery, consisting of four com- 
 panies — 336 European non-commissioned and rank 
 and file, and 140 native commissioned and rank and 
 file, gun Lascars, £31,020; battalion of native foot 
 artillery, six companies — (i30 native commissioned, 
 non-commissioned, and rank and file, £22,330; regi- 
 ment of her Majesty's infantry, nine companies — 
 1,0G8 non-commissioned and rank and file, £61,120; 
 regiment of company's European infantry, ten com- 
 panies — 970 non-commissioned and rank and file, 
 £52,380 ; regiment of native infantry, ten companies 
 — 1,100 native commissioned, non-commissioned, and 
 rank and file, £25,670 ; regiment of irregular cavalry, 
 of six ressalahs — 584 native commissioned, non-com- 
 missioned, and rank and file, £18,770; regiment of 
 local infantry, of ten companies — 940 native commis- 
 sioned, noncommissioned, and rank and file, £13,700. 
 
 In 1851, the total charges (including military 
 buildings) of 289,529 soldiers, Europeans and na- 
 tives, was £10,180,615, or £35 per head. The dis- 
 tribution of cost for the year 1 84 9-'50, which differs 
 but slightly from that of the year 1851, is thus 
 shown: — Iler Majesty's cavalry, £188,651 ; her Ma- 
 jesty's infantry, £771,148; engineers, £76,104; 
 artillery, European and native, H. E. L C, £576,318; 
 regular native cavalry, £479,075; irregular, £728,247; 
 company's Europeans, £175,954; regular native in- 
 fantry, £2,880,054; irregular, £431,857; veterans, 
 £128,257; medical department, £142,038; ordnance, 
 £154,813; staff, £415,862; commissariat, £1,248,986; 
 buildings and miscellaneous, £1,701,562. Grand 
 ; total, £10,098,926. 
 
 Taking the number of the Anglo-Indian army, 
 regulars and irregulars, at 330,000, of whom about 
 50,000 are Europeans, or one Englishman to about 
 six natives, it cannot be considered a large force for 
 the maintenance of peace, and the protection of a 
 country which extends 18,000 miles from north to 
 
 * Parliamentary Endcnce, 14th December, 1852, p. 9, 
 of P. Mclvill, the experienced chief of military dcpt. 
 
 f I do not take into account the irregular troops in the 
 service of native states ; they are very ineffective, unless 
 when disciplined by EngMsh ofticors. 
 
 { Officers on furlough 30/A April, 1851. — Military, 
 
 private afTairs, 146; sick certificate, 542 = 688. Mcdi- 
 
 i cal, private atTairs, 18; sick certificate, 93 = 111 ; total, 
 
 799. These figures do not include colonels of regiments, 
 
 south and from cost to west, and comprises a popu- 
 lation of about 200,000,000, of whom, not long 
 since, ten men at least in every hundred were 
 armed, and most engaged in some internecine 
 strife, but now all subjected to the dominant sway 
 of one power. Add to these considerations a land 
 frontier of 4,500 miles, and the necessity of being at 
 all times ready to repel invasion, and to preserve 
 the mass of the people from plunder, and we may 
 not be surprised at the extent, but at the smallness 
 of the force emjiloyedon an area of about 1,500,000 
 sq. m. : the result shows one soldier to about COOf 
 inhabitants; whereas, in France, there is one soldier 
 to seventy inhabitants; Austria, one to seventy-two; 
 Russia, one to sixty; Prussia, one to fifty-six- In 
 most of the old civilised countries of Europe, the 
 standing armies, in pro])ortion to the population, are 
 ten times larger than those of India. T'he garrison 
 in and around Paris exceeds in number that of the 
 European troops in all India. 
 
 The number of officers removed from regimental, 
 and employed in civil and on detached duties, is 
 large. In 1851, it consisted of — colonels, 37; lieu- 
 tenant-colonels, 47 ; majors, 48; captains, 479; lieu- 
 tenants, 400; cornets and ensigns, 29= 1,040.J The 
 complement of regimental officers in 1851, con- 
 sisted — European infantry, one colonel, two lieu- 
 tenant-colonels, two majors, twelve captains, twenty 
 lieutenants, and ten ensigns; native infantry, one 
 colonel, one lieutenant-colonel, one major, six cap- 
 tains, ten lieutenants, and five ensigns ; cavalry, one 
 colonel, one lieutenant-colonel, one major, six cap- 
 tains, eight lieutenants, and four ensigns. 
 
 It would seem advisable to organise an Indian 
 staff corps — a civil department of the army — of a 
 strength in accordance, from time to time, with the 
 necessities of government. A good discipline, educa- 
 tion, and moral training, under military surveillance, 
 where the Christian principles predominate, is an 
 effective school for preparing young and intelligent 
 men for the exercise of their powers on a large 
 scale. At present, owing to the want of civilians, the 
 government is allowed to drain off one-third of the 
 officers of the line ; military men are extensively em- 
 ployed in political duties, and the regiments are 
 denuded of their officers to an extent which often 
 seriously damages the efficiency of the corps. Double 
 the number of officers might be appointed to each 
 regiment, and after they had passed examination in 
 the native languages, and had served three years in 
 regimental duties (as now prescribed), the option 
 should be given of retiring from the military to the 
 civil branch of the army, or for employment as magis- 
 trates, superintendents, electric telegraph, geological 
 surveys, and in other functions, for which peculiar 
 talents might qualify. 
 
 IxDi.\.N Navy. — There is a small maritime force 
 under this designation, consisting of about thirty, 
 three sailing and steam-vessels, which have rendered 
 good service in the Persian Gulf during the China 
 war, and in surveys of the Indian coasts and havens. 
 The steamers are now chiefly employed as post-office 
 
 of whom the number on furlough, in 1851, was — Bengal, 
 70; Madras, 50 ; Bombay, 29 : total, 149. Number ojf 
 officers of each army employed, in 1851, on detached 
 service, civil and political and military respectively, — 
 Bengal, civil and political, 151 ; military, 430. Madras, 
 civil and political, 44 ; military, 208. IJombay. civil and 
 political, 42; military, 165. Officers of engineers not 
 included. A corps of civil engineers, trained for Indian 
 service, would be useful.
 
 556 PROTECTED STATES, AND STIPENDIARY PRINCES OF INDIA. 
 
 packets between Bombay, Aden, and Suez. A few 
 of these are of large burthen ; the vessels are well 
 armed, manned with Europeans and Lascars, and 
 altogether thus officered : — One commodore, eight 
 captains, sixteen commanders, sixty-eight lieute- 
 nants, 110 mates and midshipmen, fourteen pursers, 
 and twelve captains' clerks : a surgeon, detached 
 from the army, is placed on board the larger-sized 
 vessels. The pay is good. Commodore, £250 a- 
 month, with an official residence ; post-captains, £80 
 to £90; commanders, £50 to £70; lieutenants, £12 
 to £15 (and £2 5.s. a-month table money while 
 afloat); pursers, £25 to £30; clerks, £5 — a-month. 
 Retiring pensions, after twenty-two years' service 
 ■ — captains, £360; commanders, £290; lieutenants 
 and pursers, £190— pec annum. The above ranks 
 retiring from ill-healtli, after ten years' service, 
 £200, £170, and £125 per annum. In 1852, there 
 were fifty-three officers on retired list and nine on fur- 
 lough. There is an excellent pilot establishment, main- 
 tained by government, at the Sand Heads, off the en- 
 trance of the Hooghly river, where it is much needed. 
 Subsidiary and protected States and Pen- 
 sionaries, — At pp. 5 — 12 will be found a tabular 
 view of the states of India not under our immediate 
 government, with their area, population, soldiery, and 
 revenue. The British relations with protected states 
 are entrusted to officers selected from either the civil 
 or military services, according to their abilities, and 
 denominated Residents, Governor-general's Agents, 
 or Commissioners, as the case may be : at the larger 
 political agencies there are European assistants to the 
 Residents, who have, in some cases, charge of deposed 
 princes. Practically speaking, the " Resident" is, or 
 ought to be, a check on the native ruler when he does 
 ill; a guide and supporter when he does well. Civil 
 independence, with military superiority, is in reality 
 a nullity ; and although the Resident does not inter- 
 fert except in extreme cases, with the general admin- 
 istration of affairs, he expects to be consulted in the 
 selection of a minister of state; and a system, founded 
 on precedent, has grown to have almost the force of 
 law, though a wide discretion is necessarily left to the 
 
 British functionaries, who have, by remonstrance 
 and persuasion, rather than by direct interference, 
 put down, in several states, suttee, infanticide, and 
 other inhumanities. This system, which answered 
 well at an earlier stage of our dominion, has now 
 nearly outgrown the purposes for which it was de- 
 signed. Power in the chief, without responsibility, 
 has worked ill for the subject: relieved from external 
 danger in war, and from internal rebellion caused 
 by misgovernment, — indolence, sensuality, and crime 
 found full scope ; and we have been obliged to assume 
 the duties of lord paramount where princes have 
 died without heirs, or where it became a positive 
 obligation to prevent the misery and ruin of the 
 people of an entire kingdom. 
 
 The stipendiaries who receive annually political 
 payments from the British government, are thus 
 stated :* — The King of Delhi (a lineal descendant of 
 the Mogul emperors, but now totally divested of 
 power), £150,000; Nabob of Bengal (a descendant of 
 Meer Jaffier— see p. 291), £100,000; families of 
 former Nabobs, £90,000 ; Nabob of the Carnatic (a 
 descendant of a former Mohammedan viceroy), 
 £116,540; families of former Nabobs of Carnatic, 
 £90,000; Rajah of Tanjore (descendant of a petty 
 military chief), £118,350; Rajah of Benares (a de- 
 posed Zemindar), £14,300 ; families cf Hyder and 
 Tippoo (both usurpers — see pp. 316-'17 — and bitter 
 enemies of the English), £63,954 ; Rajahs of Malabar, 
 £25,000; Bajee Rao (deposed Peishwa), £80,000; 
 others of Peishwa's family, £135,000; various allow- 
 ances, including political pensions, compensations, 
 &c., £443,140: total, £1,486,284. It would cer- 
 tainly seem advisable to exercise some surveillance 
 over the recipients of these large sums : most of 
 them are usurpers and upstarts of yesterday, and 
 really have no claim to these extravagant pensions ; 
 the more so, as in several cases these large annui- 
 tants avail themselves of the means thus provided to 
 bad lives of debauchery and idleness, pernicious to 
 themselves and to all around. The main plea for the 
 continuance of the pensions is the large families and 
 harems of the stipendiaries. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FINANCE— INCOME AND EXPENDITURE— INDIAN DEBT— MONETARY SYSTEM. 
 
 Dt'RING the early periods of our intercourse with 
 India, tlie profits derived from commerce mainly 
 furnished the means for maintaining the necessary 
 establishments. After the acquisition of Bengal 
 (1765), an income was derived I'rora land, customs, 
 
 * Modem India; by G. Campbell, B.C.S. : p. 150. 
 
 f The oppressive ta.\es levied by the Mohammedans 
 have been abolislicd, including^ the inland transit dues. 
 Among the e^.actions during the Mogul rule, which are 
 not now collfctetl, the following may be enumerated; — 
 Jestjch, ov capitation tax, paid by Hindoos or other " in- 
 fidels ;" meer behry, port duties (probably similar to our 
 custom duties) ; kerrea, exaction from each person of a 
 multitude assembled to perform a religious ceremony ; 
 gau'shcmary, on o.vcn ; sirdentkhty, on every tree ; peisk- 
 ctishf jjrescnts ; fernk-aksam-pecHheh, poll-tax coUcctt^d 
 from every workman ; daroyhaneh (police) ; teeseeldary 
 
 and such other sources as contributed to fill the ex- 
 chequer of our Mohammedan predecessors.f Subse- 
 quent additions of territory furnished revenue to 
 defray the charges attendant thereon : and thus, 
 from time to time, the finances were enlarged. 
 
 (subordinate collector) ; fotedary (money-trier), taxes 
 made for those officers of government ; M'vjeh keryeh, 
 lodging cliarges for the above ofiirers ; kfiertjtehj for 
 money-bags; scrqfi/, for trying and exchanging money; 
 hassil daazar, market dues ; tiekass, tax on the sale of 
 cattle, and on hemp, blankets, oil, and raw bides ; also on 
 measuring and weighing, and for killing cattle, dressing 
 hides, sawing timber, and playing at dice ; raArfsry, or pass- 
 port ; pvy, a kind of poll-tax on salt, s|iirituous li(|Uors, 
 storax, niul lime — on tisbcrmeu, brokerage, hearths, buyer 
 and seller of a house, and other items coir.prised under the 
 term of serjerjehat. — (See Ayeen Akbery, for details.)
 
 REVENUES AND CHARGES Oi-' BENGAL, AIAURAS, AND BOMiJAY, 
 
 Revenues and Indian Chmjc 
 
 • (independent of home expenses 
 
 )t of each Presidency.— \i2i. the Sicca Rupee. 
 
 Years. 
 
 henoal. 
 
 MAD HAS. 
 
 
 DOHBAY. 
 
 
 
 Hevcnuo. 
 
 Charge. 
 
 Surplus. 
 
 Revenue. 
 
 Charge. 
 
 Surplui. 
 £ 
 
 Deficit. 
 £ 
 
 Ilevcnuc. 
 
 Charge. 
 
 Deficit 
 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 £ 
 
 1811 
 
 11,237,198 
 
 8,870,581 
 
 2,360,917 
 
 5,322,164 
 
 5,189,412 
 
 132,762 
 
 
 857,080 
 
 1,717,144 
 
 860,004 
 
 ISl;-. 
 
 11,115,791) 
 
 9,487,038 
 
 1,928,101 
 
 5,100,107 
 
 5,201,401 
 
 — 
 
 165,297 
 
 872,040 
 
 1,980,444 
 
 1,114398 
 
 LSIC. 
 
 ll,!l(i7,25!i 
 
 9,790,974 
 
 2,170,285 
 
 6,360,220 
 
 5,142,553 
 
 217,667 
 
 — 
 
 895//J2 
 
 1.946,118 
 
 1,050,626 
 
 1817 
 
 ll,7(i9,552 
 
 10,281,822 
 
 1,487,730 
 
 0,381,307 
 
 6,53.5,816 
 
 — 
 
 154,509 
 
 1,392,820 
 
 1,960,.527 
 
 663,707 
 
 1818 
 
 12,399,47.1 
 
 10,077,015 
 
 1,722,460 
 
 6,361,432 
 
 6,006,420 
 
 — 
 
 644,91b 
 
 1,720,537 
 
 2,597,776 
 
 877,239 
 
 1819 
 
 12,221,220 
 
 10,820,734 
 
 1,397,486 
 
 5,407,005 
 
 5,825,414 
 
 — 
 
 418,.109 
 
 2.161,370 
 
 3,204,785 
 
 1,043,416 
 
 18^0 
 
 1.3,518,9118 
 
 10,088,439 
 
 2,830.529 
 
 6,403,506 
 
 6,700,466 
 
 — 
 
 296,960 
 
 2,438,960 
 
 ,3,299,170 
 
 860,210 
 
 1821 
 
 i;i,3(;i,2(il 
 
 10,350,409 
 
 3,004,852 
 
 6,557,028 
 
 6.500,876 
 
 66,192 
 
 — 
 
 2,883,042 
 
 3,607,332 
 
 784,290 
 
 1822 
 
 M,lG9,li!ll 
 
 10,317, li)0 
 
 3,852,495 
 
 5,585,209 
 
 6,229,202 
 
 356,007 
 
 — 
 
 3,372,447 
 
 4,276,012 
 
 202,567 
 
 1821! 
 
 12,'.)50,:ii)8 
 
 10,912,710 
 
 2,037,598 
 
 6,498,704 
 
 6.398,8.56 
 
 — 
 
 900,092 
 
 2,789,550 
 
 3,2Gt,.509 
 
 454,959 
 
 1821 
 
 13,484,740 
 
 12,0211,179 
 
 804,561 
 
 6,400,742 
 
 6,789,333 
 
 — 
 
 348,591 
 
 1,785,216 
 
 3,.306,982 
 
 1,620,765 
 
 1825 
 
 13,121,282 
 
 13,793,499 
 
 X 
 
 6,714,915 
 
 6,056,967 
 
 — 
 
 342,052 
 
 2,202,393 
 
 4,032,988 
 
 1,770,695 
 
 1820 
 
 14,707,238 
 
 13,405.1-52 
 
 1,302,086 
 
 6,981,081 
 
 6,634,322 
 
 347,359 
 
 — 
 
 2,618/)49 
 
 4,000,552 
 
 1,382,003 
 
 1827 
 
 14,944,713 
 
 13,480,879 
 
 1,457,834 
 
 6,347,838 
 
 0,1.S8,127 
 
 — 
 
 840,289 
 
 2,679,905 
 
 4,002,506 
 
 1,482,661 
 
 1828 
 
 10,125,41(5 
 
 7,747,.834 
 
 2,.377,582 
 
 3,591,272 
 
 3,671,111 
 
 — 
 
 79,839 
 
 1,300,311 
 
 2,421,715 
 
 1,121,404 
 
 1829 
 
 9,858,275 
 
 7.015,097 
 
 2,212,.578 
 
 3,455,008 
 
 3,499,283 
 
 — 
 
 44,215 
 
 1,310,044 
 
 2,318,054 
 
 1,002,010 
 
 18:iO 
 
 9,883,892 
 
 7,340,050 
 
 2,543,242 
 
 3,41.5,759 
 
 3,388,028 
 
 27.131 
 
 — 
 
 1,304,300 
 
 2,218,6.37 
 
 914,337 
 
 1831 
 
 9,474,084 
 
 7,035,974 
 
 1,838,110 
 
 3,322,1.55 
 
 3,239,261 
 
 82,894 
 
 — 
 
 1,401,917 
 
 2,060,499 
 
 658,582 
 
 1832 
 
 9,487,778 
 
 7,687,229 
 
 1,800,549 
 
 2,909,956 
 
 3,174,347 
 
 _ 
 
 204,391 
 
 1,497 ,.309 
 
 2,034,710 
 
 637,401 
 
 18;i3 
 
 8,844,241 
 
 7,018,419 
 
 1,825,793 
 
 3,235,233 
 
 3,258,995 
 
 — 
 
 23,762 
 
 1,600,081 
 
 1,908,045 
 
 367,354 
 
 1831 
 
 9,355,289 
 
 7,322,30:: 
 
 2,0.32,980 
 
 3,308,948 
 
 3,017.676 
 
 361,272 
 
 — 
 
 1,503,782 
 
 l,90,s,092 
 
 404,310 
 
 183.5 
 
 10,057,302 
 
 7,085,079 
 
 2,972,283 
 
 3,590,052 
 
 2,830,549 
 
 759,503 
 
 _- 
 
 1,805,940 
 
 1,953,568 
 
 147,622 
 
 183G 
 
 10,203,012 
 
 6,914,973 
 
 3,318,039 
 
 3,2.35,117 
 
 2,817,.533 
 
 4I7,.584 
 
 — 
 
 1,704,213 
 
 1,980,763 
 
 276,5.50 
 
 1837 
 
 9,904,438 
 
 7,001,451 
 
 2,899,987 
 
 3,612,813 
 
 3,022,1.38 
 
 490,675 
 
 — 
 
 1,649,051 
 
 1,954,9.50 
 
 305,899 
 
 1838 
 
 10,375,426 
 
 8,070,034 
 
 2,304,792 
 
 3,533,803 
 
 3,082,652 
 
 451,161 
 
 — 
 
 1,418,464 
 
 1,940,729 
 
 622,265 
 
 1839 
 
 9,501,444 
 
 8,437,736 
 
 1,123,708 
 
 3,635,876 
 
 3,581,405 
 
 — 
 
 45,530 
 
 1,445,296 
 
 2,083,222 
 
 637,926 
 
 1810 
 
 9,741,240 
 
 8,943,099 
 
 798,141 
 
 3,503,343 
 
 3,352,075 
 
 211,268 
 
 — 
 
 1,827,922 
 
 1,966,380 
 
 138,458 
 
 1841 
 
 10,437,801 
 
 9,307,408 
 
 1,070,453 
 
 3,593,910 
 
 3,350,993 
 
 236,917 
 
 — 
 
 1,750,884 
 
 1,995,073 
 
 244,189 
 
 1812 
 
 10,829,014 
 
 9.934,751 
 
 894,863 
 
 3,028,919 
 
 3,380,783 
 
 24,8,166 
 
 — 
 
 1,960,683 
 
 1,991,.530 
 
 30,847 
 
 1813 
 
 11, .523,933 
 
 10,122,149 
 
 1,401,784 
 
 3,001,997 
 
 3,342,.573 
 
 259,424 
 
 — 
 
 2,046.728 
 
 2,204,121 
 
 157.393 
 
 1811 
 
 11,801,733 
 
 9,575,083 
 
 2,286,050 
 
 3,512,417 
 
 3,479,580 
 
 32,837 
 
 _ 
 
 ^1,918,607 
 
 2,496,173 
 
 677,566 
 
 184.5 
 
 12,174,338 
 
 10,170,220 
 
 2,004,118 
 
 3,589,213 
 
 3,523,598 
 
 65,615 
 
 — 
 
 2,047,380 
 
 2,.569,910 
 
 622,530 
 
 181f) 
 
 12,900,251 
 
 10.445,969 
 
 2,454,285 
 
 .3,631,922 
 
 3,449,018 
 
 182,304 
 
 — 
 
 2,120,824 
 
 2,662,100 
 
 641,276 
 
 1847 
 
 11,947,921 
 
 10,516.089 
 
 1,401,835 
 
 3,038,589 
 
 3,373,445 
 
 265,144 
 
 — 
 
 1,990,395 
 
 2,553,'286 
 
 662,891 
 
 1848 
 
 12,083,930 
 
 10,336,367 
 
 1,547,569 
 
 3,667,235 
 
 3,221, .195 
 
 449,740 
 
 — 
 
 2,475,894 
 
 2,929,520 
 
 453,626 
 
 1849 
 
 ||14,243,51! 
 
 11,033,835 
 
 3,209,076 
 
 3,543,074 
 
 3,138,378 
 
 404,696 
 
 — 
 
 2,489,246 
 
 2,999,119 
 
 609,873 
 
 1850 
 
 13,879,900 
 
 10,818429 
 
 3,061,537 
 
 3,62.5,015 
 
 3,212,415 
 
 412,600 
 
 
 
 2,744,951 
 
 3,086,460 
 
 341,519 
 
 1851 
 
 13,487,081 
 
 10,970,120 
 
 2,516.961 
 
 3,744,372 
 
 3,244,598 
 
 499,774 
 
 
 
 3,172.777 
 
 3,161,870 
 
 f 20,907 
 
 1852 
 
 14,01.5,120 
 
 11,239,370 
 
 2,775,750 
 
 3,766,150 
 
 3,307,192 
 
 458,958 
 
 — 
 
 3,166,1.57 
 
 3,279,118 
 
 112,961 
 
 • In the above statement, from the year 182R, the allowances and assignments payable to native princes and othcra 
 under treaties (amounting to upwards of a million and a-half per annum), and the charges of collecting the revenue, 
 including the cost of the opium and salt (amounting to upwards of two millions and a-half more), have been excluded in 
 order to arrive at the real produce of the revenue. 
 
 In the tabular statement, down to the year 1827, the gross revenues are shown; and tho rate of converting the 
 Indian money into sterling is 16 per cent, higher than the rate at present used. 
 
 t The Territorial Payments in England^ in lS49-'aO (latest return made up), were : — Dividends to proprietors of 
 East India stock, £02!), 4oo ; interest on the home bond debt, £173,723 ; purchase and equipment of steam-vessels, and 
 various expenses connected with steam coramuniciitirm with India, £50,ol3 ; her Majesty's government, on account of tho 
 proportion agreed to be bnnie by the company of the amount payable under contract between her Majesty's govern- 
 ment and Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company for an extended communication with India and China, 
 £70,000 ; transport of troops and stores, deducting freight charged in invoices, £36,418; furlough and retired pay to 
 military and marine officers, including off-reckonings, £614,393 ; pa}Tnents on account of her Majesty's troops serving 
 in India, £200.000 ; retiring pay to her Majesty's troops (Act 4 Geo. IV., e. 71.) including an arrear, £75,000. 
 
 VhardcSy general^ comprising: — Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India'; salaries of the president and 
 officers of the board, including superannuation allowances granted by warrant of the Crown under Act 53 Geo. III., 
 cap. 155, sec. 91, £30,523; salaries of the Court of Directors, £7,000 ; contingent expenses of the Courts of Directors and 
 Proprietors, consisting of repairs to the East India House, taxes, rates, and tithes, coals, candles, printing, stationery, 
 bookbinding, stamps, postage, and various petty charges, £28,S29 ; salaries and allowances of the secretaries and officers 
 of the Court of Directors, deducting amount applied from the fee fund in part payment thereof, £93,794 ; annuitants 
 and pensioners, including compensation annuities under Act 3 & 4 "Will. IV., cap. 85, and payments in commutation 
 thereof, £198.109; Haileybury College, net charge, £9,074 ; military seminary at Addiscombe, net charge, £4.057. 
 Recruiting charges : pay of otticers, non-commissioned officers of recruiting rstablishmentii, and of recruits previous to 
 embarkatiim, bounty, clothing, arms, and accoutrement,*, £43,438 ; passage and outfit of reconler. Prince of Wales' 
 Island, Bishop of Madras, aides-dc-camps, chaplains, company's officers in charge of recruits, officers iu her Majesty's 
 service proceeding to join their regiments, and volunteers for the pilot service, t<:c., £22,655; charges of the store de- 
 partment, articles for use in inspection of stores, labour, &c., £'j,201 ; Lord Clive's fund, net payment for pensions, &c., 
 £36,519 ; law charges, £12,215 ; cultivation and manufacture of cotton, &c. in India (expenses incurred in view to the 
 improvement ofj, £547 ; commission to agents at the outports on realisation of remittances, £260 ; maintenance of 
 lunatics, £6,466; miscellaneous — consisting of expenses of overland and ships' packets, maintenance of natives of India, 
 donation to the Bengal Civil Fund and to widows' funds for the home serv-ice, donations for services and relief, &c., £7,657. 
 Interest paid upon sums deposited by Great Indian Peninsula Railway Company, £1,722 ; East Indian Kailway Com- 
 pany, £2,083 ; absentee allowances to civil servants of the Indian establishments, £32,383 ; annuities of the Madras 
 Civil Fund of 1818, £15,3SS ; retired pay and pensions of persons of the late St. Helana establishment, not chargeable 
 to the Crown, £5,795. The total territorial payments, including invoice value of political stores (£378,100), and some 
 smaU items not above enumerated, was £2.750,937. 
 
 ^ Deficit of £852,217. ^ In this and following years, the receipts and charges of Sinde are included in Bombay. 
 I In this and following years, the revenues and charges of the Punjab are included in Bengal. H Surplus, 
 
 4 c
 
 558 RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS OF INDIAN REVENUE— lS52-'3. 
 
 The receipts for the year 1852-'53, were — Land- 
 tax, £15,365,000. Sayer (stamps, &c., on land) and 
 ahkarree (excise on spirituous liquors), £1,185,000; 
 moturpha (tax on houses, shops, trades, and pro- 
 fessions),* £118,000 ; salt, £2,421,000 ; opium, 
 £5,088,000; custom or import duties, £1,430,000; 
 stamp-duties, £491,000; post-office receipts, 
 £200,000; mint ditto, £150,000; tobacco, £63,000; 
 tributes and subsidies, £571,000; miscellaneous (com- 
 prising arrears of revenue, marine and pilotage 
 dues), £1,522,000: total gross receipts, £28,610,000. 
 
 The dishurscments for the same year were — In- 
 terest on India and home bond debt, £2,503,000 ; 
 charges defravable in England, viz., dividends to 
 proprietors of E. I. stock, £650,000 ; E. I. House and 
 India Board establishments, half-pay and pensions, 
 stores, &c., £2,697,000; army and military charges, 
 £9,803,000; judicial establishments, £2,223,000; 
 land revenue collection and charges, £2,010,000; 
 general charges and civil establishments, £1,928,000 ; 
 opium charges and cost of production, £1,370,000; 
 salt, ditto, £350,000 ; marine (including Indian navy, 
 pilot service, lighthouses, &c.), £376,000 ; post- 
 office, £213,000 : customs — collecting import duties, 
 £189,000 ; mints. £60,000 ; stamps, £32,000 : mis- 
 cellaneous (including sayer, excise, moturpha, public 
 works, &c.), £4,223,000': total charges, £27,977,000. 
 
 The Indian Debt requires a brief elucidation : 
 it was originally created to meet the temporary 
 ■wants of commerce, and subsequently those of terri- 
 tory ; money was borrowed in India, in such emer- 
 gencies, at high rates of interest. In April, 1798. 
 the debtamounted to £8,500,000 ;t of this,£l,300,000 
 was at twelve, £4,000,000 at eight, £1,700,000 at 
 six — per cent. ; the remainder at various lesser rates, 
 or not bearing interest. 
 
 In April, 1803, the debt stood at £17,700,000; of 
 which £10,200,000. was at eight, £3,000,000 at ten, 
 £600,000 at twelve — per cent ; remainder as above. 
 
 In April, 1804— debt, £21,000,000; of which 
 £3,000,000 at ten, £1,200,000 at nine, £12,000,000 
 at eight — per cent. ; remainder as above. 
 
 In April, 1834 — debt (exclusive of home bond), 
 £35,000.000; in April, 1850, £47,000,000; in 1855, 
 about £50,000,000. Annual interest of debt, at five 
 and four per cent., about £2,000,000. 
 
 There is a home India debt, which has been created 
 from time to time to meet deficiencies in remittances 
 required for home charges : it now amounts to 
 about £2,500,000. 
 
 Proportion of debt due to Europeans and to na- 
 tives, in 1834 — Europeans, £20,439.870 ; natives, 
 £7,225,360 = £27.665.230. In 1847, Europeans, 
 £21,981,447 ; natives,t £12,271,140 = £34,2.32,587. 
 
 The India debt has been mainly caused bv war :§ 
 that with the Burmese cost, from 1824 to 1826, at 
 least £13,000,000. The debt was augmented by it 
 from £26,468,475 to £39,948,488, or £13,500,000. 
 During the ten years from 1839-40 to 1848-49 
 (which was almost uninterruptedly a period of war- 
 fare in Afghanistan, Sinde, the Punjab, and Gwalior), 
 the aggregate charges exceeded the revenues of 
 India bv £15,048,702, showing an annual deficiency 
 of £1,500,000. 
 
 There was a noyiiinal reduction of the debt be- 
 tween 1830 and 1834, by an alteration of the high 
 rates of exchange, previously used, to the rate of two 
 shillings the sicca rupee, adopted after the passing 
 of the act 3 and 4 William IV., ch. 85 : by this the 
 debt appeared reduced from £39,948,488 in 1830, to 
 £35,463,483 in 1834. There was a real reduction to 
 £29,832,299, between 1834 and 1836, by the applica- 
 tion to that purpose of a portion of tea sales and 
 other commercial assets, derived from a winding up 
 of the mercantile business of the E. I. Cy. The 
 progress of the debt bearing interest in India is thus 
 shown : — 
 
 Years. 
 
 Value. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Value. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Value. 
 
 
 £ 
 
 
 £ 
 
 
 £ 
 
 1834 
 
 35,463,483 
 
 1841 
 
 32,051,088 
 
 1848 
 
 43,085,263 
 
 1835 
 
 33,984,654 
 
 1842 
 
 34,378,288 
 
 1849 
 
 44,204,080 
 
 18.36 
 
 29,.832,299 
 
 1843 
 
 36,322,819 
 
 1850 
 
 46,908,064 
 
 1837 
 
 30,406,246 
 
 1844 
 
 37,639,829 
 
 1851 
 
 47,999,827 
 
 1S38 
 
 30,249,893 
 
 1845 
 
 38,627,954 
 
 18.52 
 
 48.014,244 
 
 1839 
 
 30,231,162 
 
 1846 
 
 38,992,734 
 
 1853 
 
 49,043,526 
 
 1840 
 
 30,703,778 
 
 1847 
 
 41,798,087 
 
 1854 
 
 — 
 
 There is in India, as well as in England, a constant 
 tendency to increased expenditure. In fifteen years 
 the augmentation stood thus : — 
 
 
 Total Revenue. 
 
 Charges. 
 
 Debt. 
 
 
 India. 
 
 England. 
 
 India. 
 
 Home. 
 
 1834-'35 
 1849-'S0 
 
 £ 
 18,650,000 
 25,540,000 
 
 £ 
 16,080,000 
 23,500,000 
 
 £ 
 
 2,160,000 
 2,700,000 
 
 £ 
 
 35,460,000 
 47,000,000 
 
 £ 
 
 3,523,237 
 3,899,500 
 
 This increase has taken place in addition to 
 £8,122, 530JI appropriated from commercial assets, 
 in 1834, towards liquidation of India debt, and 
 £1,788,522 applied to reduction of home bond debt: 
 total £9,911,055; and notwithstanding a reduction 
 in the interest ef the India debt from six and five 
 to five and four per cent. An annual deficit of up- 
 wards of a million sterling, for about a quarter of 
 a century, does not appear satisfactory, and requires 
 
 * This tax, a relic of the Moslem system, still exists at 
 Madras : its abolition is under consideration. 
 
 •f- Instead of giving rupees, which pcqilex an English 
 reader, I give the sum, converted into sterling, at 2*. the 
 rupee. 
 
 J Between 1834 and 1846, the sums invested by Indian 
 princes in the India debt, has been — King of Oude, 
 i;l, 200,000; rajah of Mysoor, ^84,000; Bajee Rao, 
 
 not merely vigilance to keep down expenditure, 
 but still more, the utmost efforts to raise revenue 
 by increasing the paying capacities of the people. 
 Assuming theBritish India population at 130,0(10,000, 
 and the annual revenue at £28,000,000, the con- 
 tribution per head is about fifty-two pence each 
 ])er annum. A people in prosperous circumstances 
 would yield much more than four shillings and four- 
 pence each yearly. 
 
 je50,000 ; rajah of Gurhwal, ;eiO,000 ; Chimna, Indore, 
 £25.000; Pretaup .Sing, Tanjore, .£0.000. 
 
 § During the jircsent year (IHS.*)), a five per cent, loan 
 has been created, to be applied solely to the extension of 
 ])ublic works. In November, 1840, a similar proposition 
 was submitted by the author to the E. I. Cy. 
 
 II Of this sum, £2,677,053 constituted the principal of 
 the Carnatic debts.
 
 MONETARY SYSTEM— COINS MINTED-INDIAN BANKS. 559 
 
 The debt due to the ¥,. I. Cy. is provided for. 
 In US.'il till' Slim of £2,000,0n0 was set apiirt from the 
 coiiimerciul assets of tlie company to he invested in 
 the JmikHsIi funds (three pereents.),andlo arciinnihite 
 at compound interest, at forty years (until 17'^2), in 
 order to pay off the K. I. Cy's. slock of £(j,00(),()()n,* 
 at the rate of £200 for every £100 stock ; makinfj the 
 totalamount to he litpiidiited in 1874, £12,000,000. In 
 May, 18,52, the £2,000,000 liad increased, by the annual 
 reinvestment of tlireo per cent, int., to .£'.'!, 097,018. 
 
 The tanfjible commercial property sold under the 
 net of IWM, realised £1.5,223,180, which was thus 
 disposed of: — £8,191,3(iG towards discharge of In- 
 dia debt; £2,218,831 was applied in payment of 
 territorial charges in England; £1,788,(525 was ap- 
 plied in liipiidation of part of home bond debt; 
 £2,000,000 was paid into the liank of England, for 
 invest nient in the funds, to ])rovide a "security 
 fund," at compound interest, for the ultimate rc- 
 denii)tion of the capital stock of the company 
 (£0,000,000) in 187-1 ; £oGl,600 was ap])lied in com- 
 pensations to ship-owners and other (lersons ; and 
 the remainder, of £-103,13.5, w\as retained in London, 
 as an available cash balance for the purposes of 
 government in India. Tlie unavailable assets claimed 
 as commercial by the company — viz., the India House 
 in Leadenhall-street, one warehouse retained for a 
 military store department, and house property in 
 India, — the whole, valued at £G3o,4-J5, — remains in 
 the hands of the company, but applicable to the 
 uses of the Indian government. f 
 
 MoNETAUY SysTi-;M. — Silver is the standard of 
 value : the coins in circulation are — the rupee of 
 silver, value two shillings; the anna of copper, three- 
 halfpence ; and the pice, a base metal, whereof 
 twelve represent one anna. 
 
 The rupee contains 1C5 grains of fine silver, and 
 fifteen grains of alloy: when silver is worth five 
 shillings per ounce, its value is one shilling and ten- 
 pence farthing; the average rate of remittance, by 
 hy))othecation, from India, has been at the rate of 
 one shilling and elevenpence three farthings ; bul- 
 lion remittances have averaged one shilling and ten- 
 pence, four per cent, over tlie metallic value of the 
 rupee. It is usually converted into sterling, ap- 
 proximatively, for nominal purposes at two shillings. 
 Gold coins, termed pagodas and mohurs, are now 
 seldom seen. There are no means of ascertaining the 
 amount of the circulating medium, in metal or in 
 paper : government possess no returns on the sub- 
 ject. The quantity of specie (value in rupees) issued 
 from the mints, in several years, has been : — 
 
 Mints. 
 
 Calcutta, 1847-'4S . . 
 
 lS4S-'49 . . 
 
 1849— 'o3,4yrs, 
 
 Madras, 1848— '5.3, avg. I 
 
 of the 5 years . . \ 
 
 Bombay, avg. of same 1 
 
 period J 
 
 Total . . . . 
 
 Gold. 
 
 lliipeos. 
 10,'.'S6 
 46,980 
 
 151,299 
 
 208,565 
 
 Silver. 
 
 Rupees. 
 12,1.58,939 
 la,211,.580 
 84,534,529 
 
 3,271,189 
 17,264,598 
 
 132,440,835 
 
 Copper. 
 
 Rupees. 
 35,116,331 
 47,724,328 
 116,571,391 
 
 6,159,671 
 
 f none 
 1 coined. 
 
 205,571,721 
 
 * This capital consisted originally, on the union of the 
 two companies in 1708, of iS, 200,000 (see p. 230); 
 between 1787 and 1789, this sum was increased to 
 ^£4,000,000; from 1789 to 1793, to £5,000,000; and 
 from 1793 to 1810, to i6, 000. 000. 
 
 t Evid. of Sir.T.C.Melvill.— (Pari. P.apers; May,18.-)2.) 
 
 J An admirable memoir of this distinguished Indian 
 
 statesman, and selections from his valuable paocrs. have 
 
 PuiiLic Banks i.n India. — Until within the la«t 
 few years, there was only one public joint-stock bank 
 (Ilciii/al) in India. This institution owed it« forma- 
 tion, at the commencement of the present century, 
 to the financial ability of the late Henry St. George 
 Tucker,! and was eminently successful. In 1829-'30 
 I projjosed and assisted at the organisation of tiie 
 U>non Bank of Calcutta. It was soon taken out of 
 my liands by the leading merchant bankers, who 
 used its cajjital and credit to prop up their insolvent 
 firms : it did not, however, prevent their failure for 
 £20,000,000 sterling, leaving a dividend of not many 
 pence in the pound. The Union Hank held iu< 
 ground for a few years, but it ultimately fell with 
 another great crash of Bengal traders, and was then 
 ascertained to have been, for the last few years of its 
 existence, a gigantic swindle. 
 
 In conjunction with Sir Gore Ouseley and other 
 friends, I tried to establish in London an East India 
 Bank, which should act as a medium of remittance 
 between Britain and India. The government and 
 several members of the E. I. Cy. were favourable, 
 but private interests, connected with individual 
 banking and agency, were too powerful at the 
 Vj. I. House. A charter ofl'ered was clogged with re- 
 strictions which would defeat the object in view; 
 and after an expenditure of several thousand jjounds, 
 and five years of untiring perseverance, the project 
 was abandoned, when I went to China, in her Ma- 
 jesty's service, in March, 1844. Since then a local 
 bank, formed at Bombay, established a branch in 
 London — has now its head-quarters (Oriental U ink) 
 there, with branches in India and China, and ap- 
 pears to be doing a large and profitable business. 
 Acting on my su^'gestions, banks were established 
 at Bombay and Madras, on the same governmental 
 basis as that of Bengal ; their notes being received 
 as cash by government, and remittance operations 
 prohibited. There are now about a dozen public 
 banks in India, whose aggregate capital is only 
 about £5,000,000 : but no returns of their position 
 are made to the E. I. House. There are numerous 
 governmental treasuries in different parts of India. 
 To meet current expenses, and to provide against 
 contingencies, large cash balances are kept there. 
 In 1852, the coin ready for emergencies was 
 £12,000,000.§ 
 
 The Hindoos have no joint-stock banks among; 
 themselves ; the shroffs, or money-changers, is,sue 
 huondeci, or bills of exchange, which are negotiable 
 according to the credit of the issuer ; the leading 
 nhroffs in the principal towns correspond not only 
 with their brethren in all parts of India, but also in 
 the large cities of Asia, and even at Constantinople: 
 by this means important European intelligence was 
 wont, before the establishment of communication by 
 steam, to be known among the natives in the bazaar 
 at Calcutta, long before the government received 
 official tidings. 
 
 been recently prepared by Mr. J. ^V. Kaye, who has at- 
 tained a high reputation as a biographer. 
 
 § In June, 1855, the assets of the general treasuries was 
 —Bengal, 15,200,000 rupees ; Madra.s, 2,000,000; Bom- 
 bay, 9,200,000 = 26,400,000 rupees, of nliieh 22,300,000 
 was in specie. The assets of each of the three govern- 
 mental banks was, in April, 1855 — B. Bengal. 27,682,636 
 rupees; B. Madras, 6,062,163 rupees; B. Bombay, 
 12,077,566 rupees. Excess of assets over liabilities of 
 each, 10,863,264 rupees; 2,996,958 rupees; 5.340^490 
 rupees. Coin in these three banks, 10,660,000 rupees. 
 Uank notes outstanding, 17,500,000 rupees. GovernmwUt 
 bills and debentures, 6.400,000 rupees.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 COMMERCE— IMPORTS— EXPORTS— SHIPPING— VALUABLE PRODUCTS— CAPABILITY 
 OF GREATLY IXCREASED TRAFFIC. 
 
 1'he commerce of India has, for many ages,* been 
 deemed of great value ; but considering the extent 
 and resources of the country, it was not until re- 
 cently carried on with England to any large extent. 
 In 1811-'12, our dominion was firmly established in 
 Hindoostan, and there was general peace : a con- 
 trast between that year and 1851-'2, will show its 
 progress in forty years : — 
 
 Total Commerce. 
 
 Value of merchandise imported 1 
 
 from the United Kingdom . . J 
 
 Ditto from other countries , . . 
 
 Total Imports 
 
 Merchandise exported 
 
 United Kingdom 
 Ditto to other countries 
 
 Total Exports 
 
 to the 1 
 
 1811-'r2. 
 
 £ 
 
 1,300,000 
 
 160,000 
 
 1,460,000 
 
 1,500,000 
 600,000 
 
 2,100.000 
 
 1851-'o2 
 
 £ 
 
 9,300,000 
 
 3,100,000 
 12,400,000 
 
 7,100,000 
 12,700,000 
 
 19,800,000 
 
 Thus, exclusive of bullion, coin, or treasure, there 
 has been, in merchandise alone, an increase of im- 
 ports from £1,460,000 to £12,400,000, and of ex- 
 ports, from £2,100,000 to £19,800,000. The treasure 
 transit, at the two periods, has been: — 1811-'12 — im- 
 ported, £230,000; exported, £45,000: 1851-'52— 
 imported, £5,000,000; exported, £910,000. The 
 shipping of all nations entering at the two periods, 
 
 * Three hundred years before the Christian era the 
 India trade was a tempting prize to Alexander, and it 
 continued to be an object of solicitude to Europe and to 
 Asia. In 1204, the Venetians, assisted by the soldiers of 
 the fourth crusade, obtained possession of Constantinople, 
 and retained the occupation for lifty-seven years, mainly by 
 the advantages of Indian commerce : these were, in tlie 13th 
 and 15th centuries, transferred to their rivals the Genoese 
 (whose colonies extended along the Euxine and towards 
 the Caspian), in return for assistance given to the Greeks. 
 The Venetians then entered into a treaty with the Moliam. 
 medans, and conducted their commerce with the East via 
 Egypt and the Red Sea. The discovery of a maritime 
 route by the Cape of Good Hope, destroyed the over- 
 land trade by Egypt and Asia Minor. The construction of 
 a ship canal through the isthmus of Darien, would give a 
 fresh stimulus to the commerce of the East. 
 
 f For many years, great commercial injustice was done 
 by England to British India. High, indeed prohibitory, 
 duties were laid on its sugar, rum, coffee, &c., to favour 
 similar products grown in the West Indies : still worse, we 
 compelled the Hiiuloos to receive cotton and other manu- 
 factures from Enghind at nearly nominal duties (two and 
 a-half per cent.), wliile, at the very same time, fifty per cent, 
 were demanded here on any attempt to introduce the 
 cotton goods of India. — {See Commons Pari. Papers ; No. 
 227, April, 184G ; called for, and printed on the motion 
 of one of the oldest and most independent members, Ed- 
 ward Stillingflcet Cayley, M.P. for N. 11. Yorkshire.) The 
 same principle was adopted in silk and other articles : the 
 result was the destruction of tlie finer (lass of cotton, 
 silk, and other manufactures, witliout adopting tlie plan 
 of Jcstrailbrd, in Ireland, during the reign of Charles I. — 
 nam.'ly, the founding of the linen trade as a substitute 
 for tiiat of woollen, which was extinguished in order to 
 appease the English hand-loom weavers. To remedy the 
 
 was— 1811-'12, 600,000 tons; 1851-'2, 1,700,000 
 tons. 
 
 In 1811, it was gravely asserted before parliament, 
 by several witnesses, that the trade of India could 
 not be extended ; that it was not possible to augment 
 the consumption of British manufactures; and that 
 the people of Hindoostan had few wants, and little 
 to furnish in exchange. The answer to this is an 
 extension from one to nine million worth. Yet the 
 trade of India is still only in its infancy ; and but 
 for the unjust prohibitionsf to which for many years 
 it was subjected in England, it would now probably 
 be double its present value. A,ssuming the popula- 
 tion of all India at 200,000,000, including about 
 60,000 Europeans, and the exports of our merchan- 
 dise at £10,000,000,J there is a consumption of 
 only one shilling's worth per head. Our exports to 
 the United States of America, in 1834, amounted to 
 £21,400,000, or, for 25,000,000 inhabitants,§ about 
 seventeen shillings per head of the population ; to 
 Australia, for 700,000 persons, to £1 2,000,000, or about 
 £17 per bead durmga year of diminished trade. Even 
 the negro population in the AVest Indies, under one 
 million in number, take off nearly £2 sterling 
 per head of British produce ; and the colonists of 
 British America, £5 each yearly. The exports from 
 the United Kingdom to India, in the year 1834, 
 already, however, equal in amount those sent in 
 the same year to France (£3,175,290), Spain 
 
 evil of treating India as a foreign state, I appealed to the 
 common sense of the nation, through the public press, 
 to a select committee of parliament, by voluminous evi- 
 dence, and, aided by Sir Charles Forbes and other eminent 
 merchants, on 11th May, 1842, carried the principle of 
 the following motion in the General Court of Proprietors 
 of the E. I. Cy., as the sequel of a resolution laid before 
 the Court on the previous 22nd December, *' praying 
 that parliament, in the exercise of justice and sound 
 policy, will authorise the admission of the produce and 
 manufactures of British India into the ports of the United 
 Kingdom, on reciprocal terms with the produce and manu- 
 factures of the United Kingdom when imported into British 
 India — that East India vessels be entitled to the pri- 
 vileges of British shipping, and that the produce of sub- 
 sidiary states, whose maritime frontiers we have occupied, 
 be treated as that of British India." — {See Asiatic Journal 
 for January, 1842.) " That in the opinion of this Court, 
 tlie territories under the government of the E. I. Cy. 
 ought to be treated as integral portions of the British 
 empire ; and that as a revision of the English tariff is 
 now taking place, this Court, in fulfilment of its duty to 
 their fellow-subjects in British India, do again petition 
 both houses of parliament, praying for a comjilete recipro- 
 city of trade between India and England, which, if fully 
 and fairly established, will confer mutual and extensive 
 benefits on both countries, and materially contribute to 
 the security and |)crmanence of the Bi'itish jjower and 
 influence in the eastern hemisphere." — {See (Icb.-ite thereon 
 in Asiatic Journal, May, 1812.) The late Sir R. Peel 
 admitted the injustice, and adopted measiu'es for its redress, 
 which merged into the low import system, by a misnomer 
 designatcd/?"ce trade, which does not exist with any country. 
 
 Jin 1854, i.l0,025,9Cy. 
 
 § Census of 1800, 23,351,207, including 3,178,000 
 slaves.
 
 IMMENSE VALUE OF INDIAN COMMERCE TO ENGLAND. 561 
 
 (£l,270,0(;i), I'orliiKal (£l,:i70,(;f):!), Sardlnin 
 (£l,0.'il.oi;i), Lomlianly (£(i;!.3,'j:il), Napl^s 
 (£j(i;i,0;i;i), Tuscany (£.J05,852), Papal States 
 (£149,8UJ), Denmark (£7J9,718), Sweden and 
 Norway (£730,808.) 
 
 Tlu! export of liritlsli manufactures and produce to 
 India ought to amount to at least twenty shillings 
 per head, which would be equal to £26(),O0(),l)()(l 
 sterling, or twice the value of our present exports to 
 
 * Export of British and Irisli produce aiul manufactures 
 to every part of the world, in !«:> l~-.i!)7,2!)8,900. 
 
 ■f- India couhl su])ply ("(Htou ior all Europe. For some 
 years e.\i)i'rinit'uts have been made, and considerable 
 expense iucui-red, by sending out seed from America, 
 aiul American agents to superintend the culture and 
 cleaning: no corresponding residt has ensued; the main 
 elements of skill, energy, and en))ital are still wanting. 
 Western and Central India, csjiccially the provinces of 
 Guzerat and J5erar, afforil the best soils and i^limate for 
 the plant ; but roads, railways, and river navigation 
 are needed ; and it is a delusion to think that India 
 can rival the United States until they are supplied. 
 With every effort that government and individuals have 
 made since 1788, when the distribution of cotton-sccd 
 commenced, the import of cotton wool from India was, 
 in 18")!, no more than 12(),()00,0U0 lbs. — not one- 
 seventh of the United States' sujiply. Improvement of 
 the navigation of the Godavcry and other rivers, will 
 probably cause an extension of production. Silk has 
 long formed an article of Indi.-m commerce: it was pro- 
 bably introduced iVom Cliina, but was not largely pro- 
 duced until the midiUe of the ISth century, when the 
 E. I. Cy. sent (in 1757) a Mr. Wilder to Bengal, — 
 urged the planting of the mulbi'rry ; and granted, in 
 17G5, reductions of the rents of lands where attention 
 was paid to the culture of the tree, and in 1770 — '75, 
 introduced the mode of winding ])ractised in Italy and 
 other places. When Napoleon, in 1808, stopped the ex- 
 portation of silk from Italy to England, tlu; Court made 
 successful exertions to furnish large su]iplies of filature 
 wound in Bengal, and to augment the supply of silk 
 goods, which is an increasing trade. An unlimited quan- 
 tity of the raw and manufactured material can be pro- 
 duced in India. Wool of every variety, from fine down 
 adapted to the most beautiful fabrics, to the coarse, wiry, 
 and long shaggy hair which makes excellent carpets, is 
 procurable, and now exported to tlie extent of several 
 million lbs. annually. Tlie plateau and mountain slopes 
 of India sustain vast herds of sheep in a favourable 
 climate, with abundant pasture. It is a trade susceptible 
 of great development. Jniligo is a natural product of 
 many parts of India. Until the close of last century, 
 Europe derived its chief supjilies from South America 
 and the West Indies. About 1779, the Court of Direc- 
 tors made eftbrts to increase the production by contracting 
 for its manufacture. In 1786, out of several parcels con- 
 signed to London, one only yielded a profit: the aggre- 
 gate loss of the company was considerable. Improve- 
 ments took place in the preparation of the dye : and, in 
 1792, the produce of Bengal was found superior to that 
 of other countries; in 1795, tlie consignments amounted 
 to 3,000,000 lbs. Several civil servants of government 
 established indigo factories ; private Europeans came into 
 the trade ; capital was advanced by the merchant bankers 
 of Calcutta, who sometimes lost heavily, and sometimes 
 actjuired immense gains. Happily, low duties were levied 
 in England, and the cultivation and manufacture largelv 
 augmented, and now it is spread over about 1,200,000 
 acres of land in Bengal and Bahar, employing 50,000 
 families, and requiring an annual outlay of more than a 
 million and a-half sterling. Sinde is now becoming a 
 competitor with Bengal, and is said to have the advantage 
 of immunity from heavy rains, which wash the colour from 
 the leaves when ready to be cut. Siiijar is an indigenous 
 product of India; it was carried from thence into Sicily, 
 tlie south of Eiu-ope, the Canaries, and subsequently to 
 
 every part of the world.* Let not tliis be deemed 
 an extravagant as.'ierlion : the capacity of Hindoo- 
 Htan lo receive our goods is only limited by that 
 which it can furnish in return ; and, happily, the 
 country yields, in almost inexhaustible jirol'usion, 
 wherever capital has been applied, all the great 
 staples which ICngland requires, such as wheat, rice, 
 sugar, coffee, tea, cotton, silk, wool, indigo, flax and 
 hemp, teak, and timber of every variety,! tjiUow, 
 
 America ; the cane is grown in every part of India, and 
 its juice used by all cl.isses. For many years the export 
 to England was discouraged by the imposition of hiuh 
 duties to favour the West India interest; and in 1840, 
 I was under examination for several days before a select 
 committee of the House of Commons, adducing evidence 
 of the necessity of admitting East India on the same terms 
 as West India sugar into the Uinted Kingdom, The 
 tpiantity exported has increased of late years, but again 
 fallen off. In the year ending June 30th, 1855, the 
 sugar imported from the East Indies amounted to 
 739,MI ewt. ; Mauritius, 1,237,078 cwt. ; West Indies, 
 3,139,209 ; foreign produce, 3,117,665 = 8,233,696 cwt. 
 Duty received, ,£'5,330,907. Average price of Muscovado, 
 for the year, per cwt. — East Indies, 23*. id. ; Havannah, 
 22s. 9rf. ; British West Indies, 20*. llrf. ; Mauritius, 
 20j. 2d. Thus it will be perceived, that the imports 
 from all India are little more than one-half of the small 
 island of Mauritius, and that the price is higher (despite 
 labour wages at \\d. a-day) than in any other country. The 
 eonsum})tion of sugar in the United Kingdom, in the vear 
 ending30thJune,1855,was— 8,U5,180cwt.=9r2,2G0;i60 
 lbs., which, for 27.000,000 people, shows 31 lbs. per 
 head annually, or about 10 oz. a-week for each individual. 
 In the Taxation of the British Empire, published in 
 1832, when the consumption was only about 5 oz. a- 
 head weekly, I endeavoured to demonstrate that by re- 
 ducing the duty, and extending the market of supply, 
 the consumjJtion would be doubled ; whi(-h has taken 
 place : now, by aflbrding encouragement to sugar culti- 
 vation in India, the consumption in the United Kingdom 
 would probably increase to at least 1 lb. a-week per 
 head. The tea shrub has been found growing wild in 
 Assam, and contiguous to several of the lower slopes 
 of the Himalayas : it delights in sheltered valleys, the 
 declivities of hills, or river banks with a southern 
 exposure, as in Gurhwal, Kumaon, and at Katmaiuloo 
 (Nepaul), where a jilant ten feet high has been seen. In 
 1/88, it was announced officially that this remarkable 
 herb was indigenous to India; but no attempts were 
 made to encourage the cultivation, lest the China trade 
 should be disturbed. In 1835, Lord Wm. Bentinck 
 brought the subject under the notice of the E. I. Cy. and 
 of the public ; a committee of investigation was appointed, 
 who decided in favour of an experimental culture. In 
 1839, an Assam tea comjiany was incorporated in London, 
 with a capital of .£'500,000 ; the directors went to work 
 energetically, and have spent i.200,000, a large part of 
 which, however, was wasted. Experience has been dearly 
 bought ; but under the able supervision of Mr. Walter 
 Prideaux, a large crop is at present secured, and annually 
 increasing. The tea crop for three years, in Assam, 
 amounted to— in 1852, 271,427 lbs.; in 1853, 366,687 
 lbs.; in 1854, 478,258 lbs. The yield of Ig.^iD is ex- 
 pected to realise £'50,000, and the expenditure half that 
 sum. The Assam tea is of excellent quality, so also is 
 that of Kumaon. By perseverance and judgment, we 
 may hope to be less dependent on China for this now 
 indispensable and cheering beverage. Coffee, a native of 
 Yemen (Arabia), has long been naturalised io India : it is 
 grown, of excellent quality, in Malabar, Tellicherry, 
 Mysoor, and other contiguous places. Tobacco was in- 
 troduced in 1605, during the reign of .\kber, — is now 
 cultivated in every part, and in general use ; but as a 
 commercial article, is inferior to the .-Vmerican weed. Care 
 only is required to produce the finest qualities. This is 
 the case at Chunar on the Ganges, Bhilsa near Nagpoor
 
 hides and horns, vegetable oils, tobacco, peppers, 
 cardamoms, ginger, cassia, and other spices, lin- 
 seed, saltpetre, gum and shell-lac, rum, arrack, 
 caoutchouc and gutta-percha, canes or rattans, ivory, 
 wax, various dyes and drugs, &c. 
 
 These constitute the great items of commerce; and 
 the demand for them in Europe is immense — in fact, 
 not calculable: 200,000,000 Europeans could consume 
 twenty times the amount of the above-mentioned 
 products that are now supplied ; 200,000,000 Hin- 
 doos would consume, in exchange, an equal proportion 
 of the clothing, manufactures, and luxuries from the 
 
 Woodanum in the Northern Circars, in the low islands 
 at the mouth of the Kistna (from which the famed Masu- 
 lipatam snuff is made), ia the delta of the Godavery, in 
 Guzerat, near Chinsurah, Bengal, at Sandoway in Ar- 
 racan, and at other places. The Court of Directors pro- 
 cured from America the best seed from Maryland and 
 Vkginia, which has thriven well. Tobacco requires a 
 fertile and well-manured soil. The best tields at San- 
 doway, Arracan, show on analysis — iron(pevo.xyde), 15'G j ; 
 sahne matter, I'lO ; vegetable fibre, 3'7.') ; silex, 76'90 ; 
 alumina, 2 ; water and loss, 60 = 100. Flax and Hemp 
 are furnished by India in larger varieties than from any 
 other country in the world. The nuiij properly cured and 
 dressed, is equal to Russian hemp ; otlier varieties are 
 superior, as they bear a strain of 200 to -100 lbs. ; while 
 that of St. Petersburg breaks at IGO to 200 lbs. ; the 
 Icote-kangra of the Punjab is equal to 400 lbs. ; jnie is 
 also excellent ; the khiar, made from cocoa-nut husk 
 fibres, is used principally for maritime purposes, as the 
 specific gravity is lighter than sea-water, in which it does 
 not decay like hemp. Any amount of plants adapted for 
 cordage, coarse cloths, and the manufacture of paper (for 
 which latter there is a greatly increasing demand througli- 
 out the civilised world), are procurable in India. Linseed 
 was only recently known to abound in India, and is now 
 shipped annually to the extent of many thousand tons. 
 The greater part of the oil-cake used for fattening cattle 
 in Britain is derived from the fields of Hindoostan. Salt 
 is supplied in Bengal by evaporating the water of the 
 Ganges, near its mouth, and by boiling the sea-water 
 at different parts of the Bay of Bengal ; at Bombay and 
 Madras, solar evaporation is used. This indispensable 
 condiment is found pure in different parts of the interior ; 
 the Sambhur Lake, in Rajpootana, supplies it in crystals of 
 a clear and fine flavour, when the water dries up during 
 the hot season. The Punjab contributes a quantity of 
 rock-salt, from a range of hills which crosses due west 
 the Sinde-Saugor Dooab ; it is found cropping out in all 
 directions, or else in strata commencing near the surface, 
 and extending downwards in deep and apparently in- 
 exhaustible fecundity. The mineral, which requires no 
 preparatory process but pounding, can be excavated and 
 brought to the mouth of the mine for two annas (three- 
 pence) the maund (80 lbs.) ; it is of excellent flavour and 
 purity, — of transparent brilliancy and solid consistency ; 
 when, as is sometimes the case, veins of iron lie adjacent 
 to the saline strata, it assumes a reddish hue. In this 
 latter respect the salt of the cis-Indus portion of the 
 range differs from that obtained in the trans-Indus section. 
 Common bay-salt is made in many adjacent localities, and 
 in all parts of the country the ground is occasionally im- 
 pregnated with a salin{; efHorcscence resembling saltpetre. 
 In tlie Alpine principality of Mundee an imjmre salt is 
 produced, but it is strongly mixed with earthy ingredients. 
 In Sinde, a coarse kind of salt is everywhere procurable 
 in large quantities ; some ship-loads have been sent to 
 Bengal, and sold well. Saltpetre (nitre) is derived from 
 the soil of Bengal, Oude, and other places ; the average 
 quaniity annually exported is about 20,000 tons. Sul- 
 ])hate of soda (glauber-salt.s), is fomid near Cawnpoor; 
 carbonate of soda, at Sultanpoor, Ghazcepoor, and Tir- 
 hoot ; and other salines ore procurable, in various places, to 
 any rcijuired extent. Rice, — widely grown in Bengal, 
 Rahur, Arracan, As^am, Sinde, and other low districts, 
 
 western hemisphere. The tariff of India offers no 
 impediment to the development of such barter : 
 internal peace prevails, there are no transit duties, 
 land and labour abounds ; but capital and skill are 
 wanting. How these are to be supplied, — how 
 Britain is to be rendered independent of Russia or 
 of the United States for commercial staples, — how 
 such great advantages are to be secured, — how India 
 is to be restored to a splendour and prosperity greater 
 than ever before experienced, — I am not called on to 
 detail. Let it suffice for me to indicate the good to be 
 sought, and desire earnestly its successful attainment. 
 
 and also at elevations of 3,000 to 5,000 feet along the 
 Himalayas and other places, without irrigation, where the 
 dampness of the summer months compensates for ai-tificial 
 moisture. Bengal and Patna rice are now, by care and 
 skill, equal to that of Carolina, though the grain is not so 
 large ; that from Arracan and Moulmein is coming exten- 
 sively into use. Pegu will also probably furnish consider- 
 able supplies. W/ieat, from time immemorial, has been a 
 staple crop on the plains of Northern India, in the Punjab, 
 Nepaul , and other places. The soil is well fitted for this cereal, 
 but owing to defective cultivation, the crops are not good : it 
 is, however, the main food of many millions in Hindoostan ; 
 and yet, a few years since, when I placed a small sack of 
 excellent Indian wheat on the table of the Court of Proprie- 
 tors of the E. I. House, wbde urging its admission into 
 England at a low rate of duty, it was viewed with astonish- 
 ment, it being generally supposed that rice was the only 
 grain in the East. Oils, — that expressed from the cocoa- 
 nut is the most valuable, especially since it has been 
 converted into candles. This graceful palm thrives best 
 on the sea-coast, the more so if its roots reach the saline 
 mud, when it bears abundantly at the fourth year, and 
 continues to do so for nearly 100 years, wheu it attains a 
 height of about 80 feet. The planting of the cocoa-nut is 
 considered a meritorious duty. Castor-oil is extensively 
 prepared for burning in lamps, as well as for medicinal 
 purposes. Rose oil {attar of roses) is produced chiefly at 
 Ghazeepoor on the Ganges, whcie hundreds of acres are 
 occupied with this fragrant shrub, whose scent, when in 
 blossom, is wafted along the river a distance of seven 
 miles. Forty pounds of rose-leaves in CO lbs. of water, 
 distilled over a slow fire, gives 30 lbs. of rose-water, 
 which, when exposed to the cold night air, is found in 
 the morning to have a thin oleaginous film on the surface. 
 About 20,000 roses = 80 lbs. weight, yields, at the 
 utmost, an ounce and a-half of attar, which costs at 
 Ghazeepoor 40 rupees (.£'4.) Purity tested by the quick 
 evaporation of a drop on a piece of paper, which should 
 not be stained by the oil. Opium, — this pernicious drug 
 is extensively prepared in Babar (Patna) and Malwa. The 
 cultivation of the poppy (from whose capsule the poi- 
 sonous narcotic is obtained) began to attract attention in 
 1786; the trade was fostered as a means of obtaining a 
 public revenue, there being a great demand in China, 
 where its use has rapidly increased within the last forty 
 years, and hastened the decay of the Tartar goverument 
 of that vast country. The Patna drug is procured by 
 the Anglo-Indian government making advances of money 
 to the cultivators, and stipulating for a certain amount 
 at a fixed price ; that of Malwa yields a revenue by tran- 
 sit-permits on its ])assage to Bondjay. The revenut; to 
 the state, from botli these sources, is ujiwards of five million 
 sterling. Among the timber woods may be mentioned — 
 teak, sandal-wood, mango, banian, dhak, babool, different 
 kinds of oak, p ne, holly, maple, plane, ash, horse, 
 chesnut, juniper, leodar or llimalajan cedar, fir, sal, 
 sissoo, peon, michelia, syzygiuni, arbutus, bay, ncacia. 
 beech, chesnut, alnus, suppan-wood. cassia, toon, cedar, 
 laurel (four to six feet in diameter), mulberry, willow, tulip- 
 tree, indigo-tree, bandjoo, and a variety of other timber 
 adapted for ship and house-building. In the Madras 
 Presidency alont; there are upwards of a hundred dif- 
 ferent kinds of timber, and iibout 500 specimens have 
 been collected from Nepaul and the Uitra-Gangctic country
 
 IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OP INDIA SINCE 1884. 503 
 
 
 
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 3 "0 'jo 1- CO h~ cs CO -t" CO 71 71 '-3 71 to c; r-t 
 f:^ !;o iJi CO 1- 1^ r- 00 1^ « t^ c-1 0, 0, --_ 0^ 0. --^oj, -r 
 
 CJ'O'Ci- — '.0 CO CI CI co' 01 -xcr -•"--'(, 1^.0 
 
 
 
 S 
 
 c^ •-I'^-O^— CO — •1'^co 71 1-; —^■c -r C-.CO CO c»:>^— 
 
 
 ^^^^rH^^-^^ ^,„__„„_„„^„„„„„„„,-, 
 
 
 •O m «5 01 -t* t^ 10 C3S CO 01 -.0 CO *0 -*- CO OI 00 
 
 'O — -*<t^'ocicicoco<o'0 — i^ci 'f tr:: yz ■^ t-^ 
 
 
 1^1 
 
 
 . '6 CO CO CO CO CO 1^ (•- VD '.0 CO — -f CO to -O I-- — 1 
 
 CO CO I-. crv — CO — C; Ci -r -O r- :0 01 -T- 1 - Ci Ci 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 "^ 
 
 3'O_C7__7l^00c4f-^'-OOI.C:i_-t.-OOJ_l-^'y:iOl.CO_'J0i-;^CO 
 
 CJ CI M -f t^ CO CD -r 'C Ci 7 1 — -r '.0 'O C 1 
 
 
 
 bo 
 
 4) '^S'O't r--^— ' CO 'o 'O CO CO CO CO 'X"--:) to CO CO CO . 
 
 C1.'0 I-- '6 Ol — • CO C-I CO CO 'O CO CV ai^i CO -*• C7 1^ 
 
 'o'cc"'oco"co*"criCc co'c-ri-riCr~c--i-7rx''o'cr , 
 
 
 
 CO CO 'C ■^ CD "O CO CO X CI C! CD C CI rO -- -r 1 
 
 
 
 
 ■T* V - '„ r. •■ ^ ^ -, ' J V ^^ V •« - • ^V - c • •• 1 
 
 ^ ^ fL -r- *» * ^ f. a 9 * *K V fc Vii V fc •^ 1 
 
 
 
 
 Ot 
 
 3 -f'O Oi ^ 'O CD '(^ CO 01 ^ oj -f — ' r^ c~. c: ci VI. 
 
 'O Ci -^ 'O CI CO r-- — — CD — r^ r^ — 
 
 
 S 
 
 
 P 
 
 P^ CD CO C^ ' f^, C(5_ ' f^ K-:;^ c\ ' f^ 01 ' (^ Oi CO -1^ t - -i; CO_ CO CO 
 
 — 'fO C0_O_CiO CI,Ci-Jl,0 CI — 'O C(q_X CI CC CI 
 
 
 •<: 
 
 
 
 c-1 cfco CO CO "<*' >c-'5 'O CO I-- ;o CO "(^ CO t^ c> «r 
 
 -^ ic CO cs CO w CO « t^ o"o"o'xcr<3o=r— 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CO— <01COW3 01COCOCO^COCO-^-t<CO-fy. O'-O 
 
 h-coococo — or-cococi-i-coo'O — — c-ci 
 
 
 
 
 . CO "O r- — « -+< CO 'lO « CO ^ CO 01 ^ CO r- CO cr. I— 
 
 OC>-fCO'OCOiO<OCOCOOCOCiCOCI — CicOCJ 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 2 71 -^ CO — CO "C CO r- t^ 'O 01 a> e 'O i'- 
 
 S d^'-^-T-Toorof co^of *-o*-t<'crrcrco*'o oo'v^o co' , 
 
 -i* CO 'O c^uot^ci i^-f CI coco — ' —• CO as 71 
 
 •» 
 
 
 
 'rt 
 
 iC— cr^D"cr<o -t^oc^o" CO o:K"criCcrcro 7* , 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 D.^? 'O CO 'O CO ^ CO -f M '.0 OI^CO Tf CO -H 01 — 
 
 "t."^— ^=1'^'=^'-^''^"^'^..'^''^— ►'A^-'t.'n.^l'^ 1 
 
 % 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 3 c-r-j-~co •-r^"-jr:o -tT-^-cT'O cTc? rCc'of— '"O co 
 
 CJCD'D-^-^h-CO- — -?0 — — CIf7t--f — '/3 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 P^ CC^— _0_CDO_0>,I^CO -J^l-^t-- Tf"_31^CS C^^.^i^. •'^ 
 
 r- — cicoeo-3'co'ocii^— GOt^ -»'."v^ ws m 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 
 1-^'^ C^' iN ci" CO' r-^ i-h" rt" Co" •^'" Co" cf S -f ^* ■^ Co' CO ift CO 
 
 r-T — CJ r-7 
 
 (A 
 
 
 >(j d CO -^ -- CO 05 CO ci CTs >c 71 CO I- c r-1 
 
 . CO CO — « '0 -^ — t ro CO CO 'O 10 -f -^ 'O -O -f -^ CO 
 
 CI X CO 1- .-0 :o «io CO CO "O « -f CO f^ 'f5 m -f 
 
 
 t^ 
 
 CO — — CO X 'O — ' CO -^ lO -t"0 X ct CI 
 
 > 
 
 
 
 »JCC^7Q0I-'CI:^0^'OC0CO-t"f:>Cn — C50— "CICO 
 
 Ci C(!^ 0_ C5. 1 0_ t^ CO -^^^ » -i^ 00, CJ. 0, — _ 0. — , CO 1 -- 
 
 
 
 
 
 (U ^^ V ^ - V ^ " 1. V - ^ m. - - - ^ - " , « 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 d) CO -o CO --O i~- 01 -H ^ -o CO -t" CD 1^ CI -H .-:> , 
 
 co" cT cD~i^cr 0" cs" -*■" '•'3 CO cf—'cfi^cT—'x i-T— r , 
 
 ^ 
 
 H 
 
 a.CO CD I- 71 O.CD,Ci Tf^'O (^ 71 Cl_CO^Tr C1.0 71 cO o ( 
 
 — CJ.o CO CO c^Cj.'C^t-^cc^'O^co o_-o 'O -« q_ci.ci | 
 
 S3 1 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 3 cr-t'"TiH'"-o"cO cTtD -^"cf Co"?r t-- -.D'co'-r CO 
 
 W r-i CO cTo -fl-COt^— CO-fOC00 7l — CO tO-l-' 
 
 CJ 
 
 
 
 pq 
 
 QJOCOCO-^COCOl'-C'-t'-CiCi rT^i-^o^co^c;:-^-!- so 
 ^^-^'^^ ^cq" ^r- ^ ^ d CI CI cfcf 
 
 ^^^^.OO-CCOCO O^tjO — -3< »0 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 CI Ci 71 >o n C5 ca CO -*" CO CI — ' -^ 
 
 CO ^. X X — -^ 'O l^ 71 CO — CJ CO ^0 X 1 - ^ CO 
 
 •< 
 
 04 
 
 
 .'ooxci-f"cocooc70'-'i--cTico<nt-~o ^ 't* 
 
 t^ X .,0 — r-- CO — 1^ CO — c CI X r^ X CI 
 
 r3 
 
 "^ 
 
 H 
 
 rt 
 
 2^CD'C-t*COO-:t-CO.-rr' tO C^ =:> -O Oi C7 ^ O 'O 
 
 r-. c I — _ co_ :o_ tt-_ 0. x, — o_ - 0, co^ co, cd -r co_ f_ cq x. 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 Qj-^i-^cr»io-^-f"-^'o H^cf-c or— ---rT*.-;ro -^ , 
 
 CO 10 '-D —■ CI — CO — CO -o'c r— — 7i X CO — "r- co" , 
 
 ■^ 
 
 
 
 CCO 71 'O X — 7^ CO 1^ C--- '-0 '/:: CI l^ Ct t^— _0 t^ CD 
 
 ^-'t'^l'-^ — -'^=^_=l"^_'-t"v'-'^-^-.'^— .'^L-^'-'^.'-^ 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 C3 
 
 
 
 e 
 
 
 3 -O — "tCof CO -^cd o"t-r«"cc"tC-*rco — * CI COCrj iC 
 
 o"cOt^o"o"ci"cOX"crcrcO CDCD — cot— — ^0 
 
 c 
 
 
 
 1 .^ 
 
 
 Q^^rl ir->^r1 »-Hr-l— .--ir-.^.-.C4CIO 
 
 ^ ,_«^,^ Mt-— CI 
 
 
 CO r^-fOfi-^mcoi— CO — SO 1- — ** — cod-^o 
 
 <7j -^ ..f r, -r — »o — t^ -»* CI CO — '.0 X -o -*• 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 . -t" -» t-- CO — CD 1- t^ r- CD 'f? Tj CO CO Ci 'C •- r-- 
 
 — en CD CO (^ CO "O -i' -t" CO CJ -f — X 'O CV X 'O 
 
 G 
 
 
 rt 
 
 ^ CI CD CJ_O0 COOOOi— — t^COOClClOCDCOt^CO 
 
 «7CJ — coco — OiOCOCJ"Tt^Ot-t^OCIXr~ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 tD 
 
 cf-Tio co''o'r-^oa~cD"r-rco"co"o"crcrcD'oc'"-f ■* cf , 
 
 »C'Oco-»'"i^o*cf— "ci"rC'.c"cr-r"o"x~crc7''C co" , 
 
 
 
 □ 
 
 C-CD I^CICOOCDCOC^CCCI — — COI^-t'-fClCOrO 
 
 CT- CD — C^ CI CD CJ 7-1 '.C CD t^ "O '-0 — CO CO [ 
 
 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 3 — yj' _r -jT ^ 7-1" -^ go" -f^ ' 0^ CO -rT co" ^ --" -T CO 0" cT 
 ^ CD CO CO o_c),ci,c: cj cd^i^>o Ci co^(— •^^l-;.^co_ 
 
 CD <c" CD" -<* CO -*-" ' c r-T co" c-r x" x' 0' x" ■ c" i~^ ■ c' t-T 
 
 'a 
 
 •fi 
 
 
 CQ 
 
 ^,_,^^l,_^ — COCJCICTt^COClCI-? 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 ^^^ ^^^ ^ .— ^^Cvf;^ 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 a> 
 
 «0 GO CI — ' h- CO «C CO -^ Ci -H 'C CI CD GO CI CD 
 
 CO to CI — CO CO CI CO CO CI -f CD 'C X -0 CO I-- 
 
 
 
 ■a 
 
 COt^O'—COCDO'OCir^'CC73-+l^-t'X)3:iO— ■ 
 
 'O CO Cj 'O -^ t- — !• 1- CI CO r^ I-- — c; CJ ?o CO 
 
 
 
 c 
 
 
 
 ■^ 
 
 wO^mt^t^CO-^COOCSCDt-^CD — OCOCO en CO 
 
 CI Ci X X CD -f X — ci.t-:,— t>;co_c5_o.c; — ■ '-c co 
 
 c 
 
 CO 
 
 
 "7; 
 
 a 
 
 ^ -."oo'cT-f cD-cfcTic co"iCo -^To -o'yfco r-- -»- 00 . 
 
 — r— ■-TrCrCtC^'f 7-1 X — ci cD — co -o ci"— cTco" 
 
 A 
 
 .^ 
 
 
 
 rt 
 
 ^ — cocio — 'Occc7t--Tfr^cot^^cj;x) 1—^0 
 
 CO CO c; CI Tf 71 to -o — ec o,x_'0.ci x_ci_— c. — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t; 
 
 
 
 3 cD"co"eo"co -*r?c — ■GOo"-H"^ccocro"--''cr'o -r t-^ ' 
 
 cro'-t""-^r-r'o»-o"x"to ^ 7|t.0— 'x — co"(C--D* ' 
 
 
 
 
 ^ CI 1- 'O O^Cl GO-^l-^COaO^-OOO '17^ CO CI_'0 71 O 
 
 CJ — CI CH-- X f — w^ci,to,o CO^CO CD CO — X — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 <; 
 
 
 « 
 
 tC— "co'— -."o CO co"co r- CD r-Tuo co co t^c^di':^ 
 
 c. 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 ,_. ^ ,_ ,_, — 
 
 t-l,-,,-,^,-,,-.,-.- — — — — — — — — — 01 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 Ci 71 GO 1-^ CD t^ "7 r h -* Cti CD GO 01 Ci t-^ 10 
 
 CO I-- r- — CI X CJ r- CO CO '7 I - CI 'c CI 
 
 
 
 
 
 .-Ht~-CDt^C0f-OO — COCOCOOCOCOI-->COCO 
 
 t-* — C0XOC0C0CJXX71O — O7IXC0r-.X 
 
 1 
 
 a; 
 
 
 
 t-.i 
 
 2 CO_ CO_ 00^ 0_ Tf'^ -Tti 0_ 0^ 0, Tf GO C7_ CO^ CO_ 01 0_ CD CO 
 
 '^_^_— -"^-•-".^-'^::.'-^^"t.-l^-^.'-vt^*v^l^— ^ 
 
 
 
 oco'-f'-fxr-t-^coot^-fcococicococ^r-^r-rt-^ 
 
 — ~— ~t-^Cj'cO t— — *— X CO to rCl^ "O to X — lo'h^ 1 
 
 »-H 
 
 
 
 
 
 C-GC CD_'--^rf'_^^— -^CiCO 0^^_0 CO l--_Ci.C5^0 CO GO 1 
 
 ^ "t-GO^— Ct^— _-r 0_CO.CJ, Ci CO_X, CD_tC 0^0 CO_ 1 
 
 
 = 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 rC—^o'cfco^-f^'cT'^'-f^r-ro"— 'i-Co'co'cfco"— 'co 
 
 CO co" cf x" co"" ctj" 0" c' C7* Cj' -f' cd' —' 7 !" cT x" to" — -" x" 
 
 
 I- 
 
 
 
 O 2 
 
 p:j'-c__:o i-^oc t-^»c^-i^^5_ci_--^oc_co_-r GO oc t-^71 1-- 
 
 CJ — CO X CI X -^<-i^-t.— _<^ x_co_x CI or-o 
 
 
 »i 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 „"^"^^^,_rcicrcfcacfcicfcrcrcf CO co"c^ 
 
 '^"t-Tof cD~w^*o co'r-ci Ci X r- cTo'e'cro" 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 OCDC1COOC1COCOC10»IC — >0-t<-ft--C:>'Ci-H 
 
 OXCt- COCTJ — -*"COCO(--COi.Ch-COCO'>^'"*X 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 H 
 
 ll 
 
 -.-.O-HCOOOSCTi'-'r-.ClOCO-MCOOO'MOiOO 
 
 cOtOOClCi — XX'-CXOCOOCOCJOCDX--« 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 w 
 
 2 CI — . CD_ CO GO CO CD Tj._ |>- ^ CI ^ G0_ CI r-- 
 
 |--Ct~-Cl'.Oi.OX-^COCN — -S-XCliCr-— xco 
 
 :^ 
 
 
 
 
 7^-f«"»o*co'a^-1^co•c"cfco'-^.--^-t^'^^.-^c^c^^-^o , 
 
 cTco'— 'co—"cj"c7*tCd'— CO cTco'x'cT— "ox" ao , 
 
 
 s 
 
 S 
 
 
 •3 SP 
 
 CLCi «0 00«.OOS-S*Ci^t^Clt-OOCl«t~-CDW7 I 
 
 CO'CCCOCOCJ-rOOOOX — CO — CD — XI^ 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 J' 
 
 
 ;5 acco"c7*"--*o~co-H~co'0 •*'''CtCofcr--'tCorcr«' 
 
 irTrC— .0 ^"o'tocrcfco"— '0~— "x"cj"cf occ!"t-r 
 
 
 Jj 
 
 
 P^ !^ — GO CI 'C CI -f CO CO 0^ -^ -*■ I— liO -C r7 CI C) 
 
 C_Ci.cn_CO^'0_Cl,C_— ,X_t-^Cl.CD_»0 CD^— 0_— — CO 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 •< 
 
 o 
 
 
 ci CO co' CO CO ^" CO 'c 10 CD t-T CD -0' »o t-C t-T 00" cT t-T 
 
 co' co" -t"' --'* "^' to" b-T »C »c t-^ t-^ co' co' 1 0*" CO* r--' x' r^ -*" 
 
 
 
 COOOCO-^-fCl-fCD— •^^CD^O'OCOCiCOCD^- 
 
 xcococcooco — C7cocO'Ococ^O•T^7CJ•r' 
 
 
 
 >> 
 
 . 'O CO CD CI CI h- CI GO CD — ■— 00 t:~- — ' 1-- C? -r t ~ 'O 
 
 cr CJ — 'O 'C CI C? — t— CI CI C^ t— ?7 -O CD -O -^ -f* 
 
 
 vt 
 
 u 
 
 S G'^''C^CO^-^Cl_CO '0_C1^C0 CD^GO ■•1'^.--'__C5,^^t--_CO -*■ to 
 
 cD^ i-o I-- cj_ cd_ to. >o_ '0_ CJ_ — _ t-c, x_ CJ_ -f_ t-^ t^ — t^ fr> 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 cd''-— "o"co i--»'co cf^o CI o"'-'"cr-*"'.c'"r^rCr-ro"cD' , 
 
 cf t-T- '— 'cd"co x'crco'rdo'rCcfTcf — "co'o — — r , 
 
 
 c 
 
 rt 
 
 a 
 
 o 
 
 cc/D o,t-^-^_'-'_cD^co r-;_t^— _c7^-f^--«_a:_o^o,'0 co co 
 
 »Ot— CO — CiCOOCOtDCOCD— — ■cor— — CCOf 1 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 3 io'cO*tC~CC'"cC O^'O -1^0" C^^-^o"o-^'" -*"•-«''-*''" -"jT CO 
 
 — "--"iC— co'io'— "x'-o'cfcTo't- co'cTo'cTo 
 
 
 
 C^ t^— _^^Cft_C^0C_O GC_— _CD__t^O_t~^D^_^ ~__— _^to CI CI 
 
 0_'-^C1_'0_CJ.X^CO_^>C_CC — _— _X_CD__0_X_X^iO t- CO 
 
 
 f^ 
 
 
 — " cf cf ^" .-T r-T CO cf co" CO co" co" cf cf co" ^ '^ *-•* -#*" 
 
 CO -i"' to" co' CO cf ■'t'' — "— " cd"'o'«c" —' — " t-o i.o*co t-^ r-^ 
 
 
 
 OiOCDCO— •OCOCOtOr^O'-^ — — CD— .00 — 
 
 Cl 'O -O X X X —• CD — I— 71 X CO Cj CI •" 71 Cl 
 
 ■^e 
 
 
 
 _• on r^ CO CI t— CI CO CO ■-' CO -* -f CI -- CO '.-' — 
 
 I-- CJ X CJ T-. to CJ — <0 CI t^ CD CD CI -^ CD X CO 
 
 
 
 
 rt 
 
 S CI CI CI O^C^CO Cl^CO CD C^ — --ri-- CI r7 CO 
 
 ofco"o'cr^ CO cTco — "craTcrTGc cD'o"o'QcrTjr'o , 
 
 
 
 
 
 ci.:ocn^C7.t^cooq.ce — cicoo — cDcocof-lS I 
 
 '^---'.2^-^-^-^.'^'^"' — . X — — cof-cj c'l i; X — I 
 
 
 
 
 rt 
 
 ^ r-TcTo T CO CD t^ GO "O -tr-.^"oc r-r-ro'cfo'-H' 
 
 cocir^-iTCiCJ — — 00-f — — iC—'h-T— *■-'•'" 
 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 P^^O^tOCDCOCOl^COtOCO O_00 CO CI 00 00 
 
 X -^Cl^CJ Cl_0 Cl_CO_71.CD_-r_lCiCl_CJ_CI_'.7 :d — 
 
 
 
 t--COiOOC1«0'iO — 0CCOCl'#«d-f-f — -iJ-X^iX) 
 
 CDt-^OOtOX — — t--X — CJ — — CJI— XCDt- 
 
 ►^ 
 
 
 
 ■ O-— CO'OCl — iOO«7CIO^-CI— .-fjHO — co-?< 
 
 COCO- CO— •Oto— 'ocnt— tocOr~-:0 x(-c; — 
 
 
 
 __• 
 
 »J CC O_0i,O,":i.w:_«C — » l^Ci,— -j-_to --^t^ t-- 
 
 '^^ CJ_ — _ r^ CJ. C). CD x__ co_ o_ c;_ r^ CJ. '0_ '-T co_ ci_ t~^ 'O 
 
 
 "to 
 
 
 rt 
 
 <U— CO CO CI — 'O I^Ci — ■ -f cTcD -* c7'o"--rr^r-J^CD . 
 
 CI cf CO CO cf'Oco^--:?"^—— ^ CD co^xx'cTto cT 10 . 
 
 
 ■<: 
 
 
 bo 
 
 Cl.Cl_O^CiCO^Cl — _0,C1_10_-^_CO_C1_CO — CD CO ib t--CO [ 
 3 cTr^orrcD^co -rfTc^'o"— ."r-^co"co'— -'rCio oo'^TiKcr 
 rj*0'-ifT.'^cq^coi,cci_CJ''?'Cicicocococi — c^ 
 
 Cit—XtO- OOCDCO — CJ'O — — xxr^cox 1 
 
 
 ?. 
 
 
 
 Cj'c7'x"cD"cfocOCD*COCj'cf— 'co"co"^7'— 'cj'cfcO 
 <=i'^^-'-^'^«lC:5.C5.CO X^X X_C)_CJ 0.— _Ci -- t^ 
 
 
 (2 
 
 
 rH CS d d CO Tt* -* CO ■* 10 »0 »0 '^jT-sTiO cotC-qT 
 
 M-vococococoooxr-ocjcj'cft-^cTo'ci'o'o" 
 
 
 
 
 x'^StrCSSS:::^^'^*'^^^'^'^*^© — cico'^ 
 
 «>ccor-.xcjo— •C]co-*<iocDr--xcrso — cic^-« 
 
 
 at 
 
 o-K«ccDr— GOcio»-'cico'?t'«ooi--GOc:iO — -!ico 
 
 5;cOWCOCOCO;rj.Tr<^;^;»«;f-f^^^».0'CJto%6iO 
 
 ;::; "1 *"' "i 'r "i "i *i "i "i *« *r "i '1 *i 'i "1 "1 "r ~i "i 
 
 — lOCOr-XCTJO — ClCO^»OCDt-XCJO — CJCO 
 
 
 
 
 fH 
 
 £^CO^OCOCOCO^O■T*•--•-+<^■-J^-*^-*"■— • -*•-"^o^.'>l.-■l,'^ 
 
 «COOOQOCOCOOOGOaoCOOO«5COOOQOCOaO<^o6o^30 
 
 fcicocococococo-f — — — — -* — — — it 10 lOioS 
 
 yXXOOXXXXXXXXXXXOOXXXJODOO 

 
 564 MARITIME PROGRESS OF CALCUTTA, MADRAS, AND BOMBAY. 
 
 Numher 
 
 and! 
 
 onnage of all Vessels ei 
 
 tered 
 
 and cleared at the Ports in each Presidency — 1840 to 1 
 
 i52 :— 
 
 Years. 
 
 Entered. 
 
 Cleaved. 
 
 Tc 
 
 tal. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Entered. 
 
 Cleared. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Bexgal 
 
 Ves. Tons. 
 
 Ves. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Ves. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Bombay 
 
 Ves. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Ves. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Ves. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 1840 
 
 686 
 
 234,808 
 
 689 
 
 233,300 
 
 1,375 
 
 408,108 
 
 1840 
 
 19,322 
 
 444,435 
 
 19,173 
 
 469,.301 
 
 38,495 
 
 913,736 
 
 18il 
 
 913 
 
 295,-596 
 
 882 
 
 279,688 
 
 1,795 
 
 575,284 
 
 1841 
 
 19,804 
 
 578,716 
 
 15,051 
 
 462,226 
 
 34,915 
 
 1,040,942 
 
 1842 
 
 655 
 
 231,672 
 
 726 
 
 263,436 
 
 1,380 
 
 495,108 
 
 1842 
 
 19,237 
 
 611,271 
 
 16,980 
 
 477,539 
 
 .36,217 
 
 1,088,810 
 
 1843 
 
 772 
 
 254,519 
 
 813 
 
 271,754 
 
 1,585 
 
 526,273 
 
 1843 
 
 20,629 
 
 527,626 
 
 19,201 
 
 689,836 
 
 39,730 
 
 1,117,462 
 
 1844 
 
 729 
 
 252,491 
 
 773 
 
 267,058 
 
 1,.502 
 
 519,549 
 
 1844 
 
 19,227 
 
 624,8.50 20,4851 
 
 674,206 
 
 39,712 
 
 1,099,056 
 
 1845 
 
 1,045 
 
 282,674 
 
 1,052 
 
 292,315 
 
 2,097 
 
 674,989 
 
 1845 
 
 17,274 
 
 494,469 
 
 19,856 
 
 089,969 
 
 37,130 
 
 1,184,438 
 
 184G 
 
 996 
 
 274,634 
 
 1,024 
 
 289,587 
 
 2,020 
 
 564,221 
 
 1846 
 
 18,143 
 
 5.30,011 
 
 14.610 
 
 430,929 
 
 32,753 
 
 960,940 
 
 1847 
 
 1,117 
 
 332,688 
 
 1,108 
 
 326,972 
 
 2,225 
 
 6-5»,660 
 
 1847 
 
 18,199 
 
 659,276 
 
 19,201 
 
 692,777 
 
 37,400 
 
 1,1.52,0.53 
 
 1848 
 
 862 
 
 308,347 
 
 845 
 
 301,157 
 
 1,707 
 
 609,604 
 
 1848 
 
 24,441 
 
 685,165 
 
 21,487 
 
 652,265 
 
 46,928 
 
 1,337,4.30 
 
 18 19 
 
 1,020 
 
 349,614 
 
 1,046 
 
 362,290 
 
 2,060 
 
 711,904 
 
 1849 
 
 29,714 
 
 804,193 
 
 28,981 
 
 779,241 
 
 58,695 
 
 1,5!53,434 
 
 1850 
 
 1,033 
 
 356,502 
 
 1,029 
 
 357,799 
 
 2,062 
 
 714,301 
 
 1850 
 
 32,126 
 
 804,956 
 
 33,130 
 
 829,873 
 
 65,256 
 
 1,634,829 
 
 1851 
 
 998 
 
 393,322 
 
 980 
 
 373,330 
 
 1,978 
 
 766,652 
 
 1851 
 
 36,706 
 
 867,514 
 
 37,694 
 
 893,005 
 
 74,400 
 
 1,760,519 
 
 1852 
 
 839 
 
 433,739 
 
 811 
 
 414,795 
 
 1,650 
 
 848,534 
 
 1862 
 
 42,241 
 
 907,447 
 
 42,218 
 
 908,328 
 
 84,459 
 
 1,815,775 
 
 Madras 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Totals 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1840 
 
 5,879 
 
 371,644 
 
 6,727 
 
 427,872 
 
 12,606 
 
 799,516 
 
 1810 
 
 25,887 
 
 1,050,887 
 
 26,589 
 
 1,130,473 
 
 52,476 
 
 2,181,360 
 
 1841 
 
 6,271 
 
 368,924 
 
 6,781 
 
 432,474 
 
 13,052 
 
 801,398 
 
 1841 
 
 27,048 
 
 1,243,236 
 
 22,714 
 
 1,174,388 
 
 49,762 
 
 2,417,624 
 
 1842 
 
 6,016 
 
 400,728 
 
 6,476 
 
 441,803 
 
 12,492 
 
 842,536 
 
 1842 
 
 25,908 
 
 1,243,671 
 
 24,181 
 
 1,182,783 
 
 50,089 
 
 2,426,454 
 
 1843 
 
 5,680 
 
 375,375 
 
 6,790 
 
 479,046 
 
 12,370 
 
 854,421 
 
 1843 
 
 26,881 
 
 1,157,520 
 
 26,804 
 
 1,340,6.36 
 
 63,685 
 
 2,498,156 
 
 1844 
 
 6,181 
 
 430,295 
 
 7,292 
 
 490,588 
 
 13,473 
 
 920,883 
 
 1844 
 
 26,137 
 
 1,207,636 
 
 28,550 
 
 1,331,852 
 
 54,687 
 
 2,539,488 
 
 1845 
 
 6,495 
 
 456,854 
 
 7,818 
 
 533,564 
 
 14,313 
 
 990,418 
 
 1845 
 
 24,814 
 
 1,233,997 
 
 28,726 
 
 1,515,848 
 
 53,640 
 
 2,749,845 
 
 1846 
 
 6,168 
 
 475,038 
 
 7,405 
 
 534,935 
 
 13,573 
 
 1,009,973 
 
 1846 
 
 25,307 
 
 1,279,683 
 
 23,039 
 
 1,2.55,451 
 
 48,346 
 
 2,535,134 
 
 1847 
 
 5,868 
 
 448,712 
 
 6,531 
 
 486,316 
 
 12,399 
 
 935,028 
 
 1847 
 
 25,184 
 
 1,340,676 
 
 26,840 
 
 1,406,065 
 
 62,024 
 
 2,746,741 
 
 1848 
 
 5,711 
 
 441,891 
 
 7,108 
 
 528,781 
 
 12,819 
 
 970,672 
 
 1848 
 
 31,014 
 
 1,435,403 
 
 29,440 
 
 1,482,203 
 
 60,454 
 
 2,917,606 
 
 1849 
 
 6,876 
 
 439,807 
 
 7,693 
 
 649,573 
 
 13,569 
 
 989,380 
 
 1849 
 
 36,610 
 
 1,.593,614 
 
 37,720 
 
 1,691,104 
 
 74,330 
 
 3,284,718 
 
 1850 
 
 6,813 
 
 488,800 
 
 7,780 
 
 620,465 
 
 13,593 
 
 1,109,265 
 
 1850 
 
 38,972 
 
 1,650,258 
 
 41,939 
 
 1,808,137 
 
 80,911 
 
 3,468,395 
 
 1851 
 
 6,136 
 
 435,153 
 
 6,687 
 
 557,409 
 
 11,823 
 
 992,612 
 
 1851 
 
 42,840 
 
 1,695,989 
 
 45,361 
 
 1,823,794 
 
 88,201 
 
 3,519,783 
 
 1852 
 
 6,787 
 
 490,276 
 
 7,184 
 
 620,948 
 
 12,971 
 
 1,111,224 
 
 1852 
 
 48,867 
 
 1,831,462 
 
 60,213 
 
 1,944,071 
 
 99,080 
 
 3,775,533 
 
 Shipping entering these Ports between 1802 and 1835. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Calcutta. 
 
 Madras. 
 
 Bombay. 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 1802-'3 
 
 620 
 
 1.50,154 
 
 1,476 
 
 149,571 
 
 105 
 
 49,022 
 
 2,101 
 
 348,748 
 
 180.3-'4 
 
 594 
 
 171,229 
 
 1,851 
 
 198,218 
 
 143 
 
 62,635 
 
 2,588 
 
 432,082 
 
 1811-'12 
 
 601 
 
 151,224 
 
 5,826 
 
 267,888 
 
 79 
 
 32,161 
 
 6,506 
 
 451,273 
 
 1812-'13 
 
 527 
 
 14S,Sfi0 
 
 6,691 
 
 410,894 
 
 139 
 
 64,953 
 
 7,3.57 
 
 614,653 
 
 1823--24 
 
 498 
 
 139,773 
 
 8,094 
 
 485,297 
 
 122 
 
 52,720 
 
 8,714 
 
 677,790 
 
 1824-'25 
 
 539 
 
 157,0.39 
 
 6,642 
 
 305,422 
 
 129 
 
 64.239 
 
 6,310 
 
 616,700 
 
 1830-'31 
 
 475 
 
 134,805 
 
 5,157 
 
 262,127 
 
 149 
 
 60,379 
 
 5,781 
 
 457,311 
 
 1831-'32 
 
 492 
 
 110,767 
 
 4,885 
 
 255,296 
 
 145 
 
 66,051 
 
 5,459 
 
 422,114 
 
 18.32-'33 
 
 478 
 
 r21,.544 
 
 4,826 
 
 256,344 
 
 165 
 
 71,929 
 
 6,469 
 
 449,827 
 
 1833-'34 
 
 830 
 
 183,471 
 
 6,031 
 
 318,417 
 
 170 
 
 69,803 
 
 6,031 
 
 571,691 
 
 lS34-'35 
 
 643 
 
 104,485 
 
 6,012 
 
 306,727 
 
 181 
 
 73,175 
 
 5,841 
 
 644,387 
 
 1835-'36 
 
 522 
 
 151,019 
 
 6,379 
 
 311,694 
 
 204 
 
 75,830 
 
 6,105 
 
 638,543 
 
 Number and Tonnage of 
 
 f^essels of each Nation entered and cleared at Ports in 
 
 British India, since 1850-'51. 
 
 
 
 
 Entered. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Nationality of 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Vessels. 
 
 1S.50-'51. 
 
 1851 
 
 -'52. 
 
 185: 
 
 -'53. 
 
 1850-'51. 
 
 lS61-'52. 
 
 1852-'53. 
 
 Under — 
 
 Ves. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Ves. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Ves. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Ves. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Ves. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Ves. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 British Colours . 
 
 1,861 
 
 682,762 
 
 1,778 
 
 683,179 
 
 1,789 
 
 722,035 
 
 2,339 
 
 764,254 
 
 2,202 
 
 726,807 
 
 2,277 
 
 820,707 
 
 American , . . 
 
 67 
 
 33,299 
 
 74 
 
 34,888 
 
 89 
 
 57,207 
 
 66 
 
 33,860 
 
 79 
 
 33,782 
 
 37 
 
 24,358 
 
 Arabian . . . 
 
 
 296 
 
 36,623 
 
 230 
 
 32,461 
 
 252 
 
 37,476 
 
 430 
 
 4.5,621 
 
 259 
 
 43,841 
 
 284 
 
 36,491 
 
 Austrian . . 
 
 
 — . 
 
 . — 
 
 1 
 
 522 
 
 1 
 
 425 
 
 — . 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 506 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Belgian . . . 
 
 
 — 
 
 _ 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 3 
 
 1,380 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 3 
 
 1,380 
 
 Bhownugger 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 170 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Bombay . . 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 121 
 
 6,691 
 
 164 
 
 7,632 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 219 
 
 12,027 
 
 240 
 
 12,208 
 
 Bremen . . 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 6 
 
 2,846 
 
 4 
 
 1,165 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 573 
 
 1 
 
 600 
 
 Burmese . . 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 220 
 
 Danish . . 
 
 
 4 
 
 1,328 
 
 2 
 
 1,070 
 
 6 
 
 2,274 
 
 4 
 
 1,171 
 
 
 
 1,338 
 
 4 
 
 2,071 
 
 Dutch . . 
 
 
 6 
 
 2,284 
 
 3 
 
 1,790 
 
 6 
 
 3,232 
 
 t 
 
 2,469 
 
 2 
 
 1,474 
 
 4 
 
 1,969 
 
 French . . 
 
 
 1.39 
 
 42,682 
 
 146 
 
 44,210 
 
 263 
 
 65,647 
 
 148 
 
 47,518 
 
 176 
 
 67,031 
 
 295 
 
 66,606 
 
 Hamburg . 
 
 
 5 
 
 1,668 
 
 9 
 
 4.179 
 
 3 
 
 875 
 
 3 
 
 886 
 
 4 
 
 1,489 
 
 6 
 
 2,681 
 
 Korwefjian , 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 .^ 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 35C 
 
 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 Portuguese . 
 
 
 130 
 
 2,039 
 
 234 
 
 4,179 
 
 179 
 
 3,692 
 
 180 
 
 ,3,171 
 
 238 
 
 3,772 
 
 168 
 
 3,463 
 
 Russian . , 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 1,682 
 
 4 
 
 1,348 
 
 1 
 
 475 
 
 1 
 
 350 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sardinian . 
 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 601 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 604 
 
 Spanish . . 
 
 
 1 
 
 405 
 
 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 800 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Swedish . . 
 
 
 6 
 
 1,.358 
 
 6 
 
 2,466 
 
 10 
 
 3,339 
 
 6 
 
 2,012 
 
 3 
 
 1,023 
 
 8 
 
 4.045 
 
 Turkisll . , 
 
 
 — 
 
 _ 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 65C 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Native . . 
 
 
 36,424 
 
 822,692 
 
 40,181 
 
 842,610 
 
 46,019 
 
 859,566 
 
 38,71C 
 
 893,076 
 
 42,122 
 
 905,824 
 
 46,821 
 
 919,722 
 
 Steamers . . 
 
 
 33 
 
 23,118 
 
 46 
 
 33,224 
 
 82 
 
 62,665 
 
 38 
 
 22,794 
 
 51 
 
 33,660 
 
 63 
 
 47,046 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 38,972 
 
 1,650,253 
 
 42,840 
 
 1,696,989 
 
 48.867 
 
 1,831,462 
 
 41,939 
 
 1.808,137 
 
 45.301 
 
 1,823,744 
 
 60,213 
 
 1,944.071
 
 INDIAN BANKS— COINS, WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 565 
 
 Anglo-Indiiin Arm 
 
 y.— Total Number of Etirnpeant and Natives employed in all India,/ 
 
 rom the Year 1800. 
 
 Ycari. 
 
 liuropcans 
 
 Nntivcs. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Years 
 
 Kuropcans. 
 
 Natives. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Europeans. 
 
 Natives. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1800 
 
 22,832 
 
 115,.300 
 
 138,1.32 
 
 1817 
 
 31,0.56 
 
 195,134 
 
 228,190 
 
 1834 
 
 32,310 
 
 15.5,550 
 
 187.806 
 
 1801 
 
 23,012 
 
 132,801 
 
 155,870 
 
 1818 
 
 32.161 
 
 211,079 
 
 243,240 
 
 18.35 
 
 30,822 
 
 152,938 
 
 183.700 
 
 1802 
 
 24,341 
 
 r22,50(! 
 
 140,.S17 
 
 1819 
 
 29,494 
 
 21.5,878 
 
 245,372 
 
 1836 
 
 32,733 
 
 153,300 
 
 180,039 
 
 1803 
 
 24,930 
 
 11.5,211 
 
 110,141 
 
 1820 
 
 28,045 
 
 228,050 
 
 257,295 
 
 1837 
 
 32,.502 
 
 154,029 
 
 186,531 
 
 1804 
 
 23,042 
 
 1.55,(;71 
 
 178,713 
 
 1821 
 
 28,9M 
 
 228,008 
 
 250,982 
 
 18.38 
 
 31/)26 
 
 153.780 
 
 185,300 
 
 1805 
 
 24,891 
 
 l(i7,(!74 
 
 192,505 
 
 1822 
 
 29,065 
 
 216,175 
 
 245,240 
 
 1839 
 
 31.132 
 
 176,008 
 
 207,140 
 
 180C. 
 
 20,4^1.5 
 
 1.50,421 
 
 182„SG0 
 
 1823 
 
 30,933 
 
 200,799 
 
 237,732 
 
 1840 
 
 35,604 
 
 199,839 
 
 235,443 
 
 1807 
 
 26,4G0 
 
 1(5.3,023 
 
 180,083 
 
 1824 
 
 30,585 
 
 212,842 
 
 243,427 
 
 1841 
 
 38,400 
 
 212,616 
 
 251,022 
 
 1808 
 
 29,798 
 
 151,120 
 
 180,918 
 
 1.825 
 
 30,423 
 
 246,125 
 
 270,548 
 
 1842 
 
 42,113 
 
 212,624 
 
 254,737 
 
 1809 
 
 31,387 
 
 1.54,117 
 
 185,504 
 
 1.826 
 
 30,872 
 
 200,273 
 
 291,145 
 
 1843 
 
 46,726 
 
 220,947 
 
 267,673 
 
 1810 
 
 31,9.52 
 
 157,202 
 
 189,214 
 
 1827 
 
 32,073 
 
 240,942 
 
 273,015 
 
 1844 
 
 40,240 
 
 216,-580 
 
 262,820 
 
 1811 
 
 34,479 
 
 100,005 
 
 201,144 
 
 1828 
 
 34,.557 
 
 224,471 
 
 259,028 
 
 1845 
 
 46,IU 
 
 240.310 
 
 280,121 
 
 1812 
 
 33,83,5 
 
 105,022 
 
 199,457 
 
 1829 
 
 35,786 
 
 207,662 
 
 213,448 
 
 1840 
 
 44,014 
 
 240,733 
 
 284,747 
 
 1813 
 
 34,171 
 
 105,900 
 
 200,07 1 
 
 1830 
 
 36,409 
 
 187,067 
 
 22.3,476 
 
 1847 
 
 41,323 
 
 247,473 
 
 291,796 
 
 1814 
 
 31,051 
 
 102,787 
 
 194,438 
 
 1831 
 
 .35,011 
 
 101,987 
 
 190,998 
 
 1848 
 
 44,270 
 
 220,891 
 
 205,161 
 
 181.5 
 
 31,011 
 
 195,572 
 
 227,183 
 
 1832 
 
 34,707 
 
 158,201 
 
 192,908 
 
 1849 
 
 47,893 
 
 229,130 
 
 277.02.? 
 
 1816 
 
 32,399 
 
 198,484 
 
 230,883 
 
 18.33 
 
 33,785 
 
 150,331 
 
 190,116 
 
 18.50 
 1851 
 
 49,280 
 49,408 
 
 228,448 
 240,121 
 
 277,728 
 289,529 
 
 
 
 East India 
 
 Hanks.' 
 
 
 
 
 Name. 
 
 Date of 
 Establish- 
 ment. 
 
 Capital. 
 
 Notes in 
 
 Specie in 
 
 Bills under 
 
 Subscribed. 
 
 Paid up. 
 
 Circulation. 
 
 Coffers. 
 
 Discount. 
 
 Bank of Bengal .... 
 
 1809 
 
 £1,070,000 
 
 £1,070,000 
 
 1,714,771 
 
 851,964 
 
 12.5,2.51 
 
 „ of Marlras'' .... 
 
 1843 
 
 300,000 
 
 300,000 
 
 12.3,719 
 
 1,39,960 
 
 69,871 
 
 „ of Bombay' 
 
 1840 
 
 522,500 
 
 622,500 
 
 .571,089 
 
 240,073 
 
 19.5,836 
 
 Oriental Hank'' .... 
 
 1851' 
 
 1,215,000 
 
 1,21.5,000' 
 
 199,279« 
 
 1,146,529 
 
 2,918,.399 
 
 Agra and U. S. Bank''— head 
 office, Calcutta . 
 
 18.33 
 
 700,000 
 
 700,000 
 
 — 
 
 74,362 
 
 — 
 
 N. \V. Bank'— head ofRce, Calcutta 
 
 1844 
 
 220,.5flO 
 
 220,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 London and F.astern Bank . 
 
 1854 
 
 250,000 
 
 — 
 
 325,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Commercial Bank'— head office, 
 
 Bombay .... J 
 ncUii Bank'— head office, Delhi . 
 
 1845 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 450,000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1844 
 
 
 
 180.000 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 -~ 
 
 .Simla Bank 
 
 1S44 
 
 — 
 
 63,850 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Dacca Bank 
 
 1840 
 
 30,000 
 
 — 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Mercantile Bank" — head officei 
 
 Bombay .... 
 Bank of Asia .... 
 India, China, & Australian Bank 
 
 — 
 
 500,000 
 
 328,826 
 
 777,156" 
 
 77,239 
 
 109,647 
 
 1853'-4 
 
 not commc 
 
 need business 
 
 yet. 
 
 
 
 • The accounts of most of these banks are vngue and unsatisfactory, there is a niy.stilication which renders it ditiicult to ascertain 
 their solvencv. s* Last dividend, 8 per ct-nt. " Last ilividend. 9 per cent 
 
 d Lrist dividend. 10 per cent. "Corporation date of charter, 30lh nf Aiii,'iist, issi. f At 27th Sept., 1S55. 
 
 s Bills of exchanpe and prnmissory notes not hearing interest. *• A lending hank : and from its accounts in June, 1855, I 
 
 ffan dtiive no delinite view of its assets and liahiliiies. Braiiches.—A^Ta, Madras, Lahore, Canton, and London. 
 
 ' Branches.— 'Bomhuv. Simla, Mussouri, Aura; and they draw on Delhi and Cawnpoor. 
 
 k Apents in London. Calcutta, Canton, ami Slianphae. ' Aijents in London. Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras. 
 
 m linirichrf.— London, Calcutta, Colombo, Kandy, Canton, and Shanghae. Last dividend, 8 per cent. 
 
 n Drafts and bills in circulation. 
 
 CoMMF-Ri-iAL Tariff of Ixdia.— The chief provisions of the tarilT of 1855 may he thus stated: — British impor/i— Cotton and- 
 silk piece (;nods and manufactures, woollens, marine stores, metals, porter, beer, ale, cider, and similar fermented liquors, and aU 
 manufactured articles not named, 5; foreign imports of above, 10— per cent. Cotton thread, twist, and yam, British, 3| : foreign, ? — 
 per cent. Bullion and coin, grain, coal, ice, horses and other animals, free. Books. British, free ; foreiiin. .1 per cent. Coffee, 7i per 
 cent. Alum, camphor, c.issia, cloves, coral, nutmeg and mace, pepper, vermillion, and tea, 10 per cent. Spirits (London proof). 1 rupee 
 8 annas per imperial pallon; wine and liqueur. 1 rupee per imperial gallon. There are a few export duties: riz., indigo, 3 rupees per 
 maund (about s21bs.): lac, 4 per cent.; silk wound, 3 .innas; silk, raw Olature. 3^ rupees per seer; sugar and rum to foreign ports, 
 3 per cent, j tobacco, 4 annas per maund. These duties refer to Bengal : there is little difference at Bombay and Madras, except in the 
 export dues. With regard to salt, the duty on import into Bengal, is 2 rupees S annas per maund of SO tolas ; at Madras, 12 annas per 
 maund; at Bombay, free; salt exported'from Bombay to Madras, pays J anna per maund; salt exported to Malabar, Cochin, and 
 Travaneore, 1 anna per maund ; and it may be exported free to foreign or British ports not in Indiaor Ceylon. Salt exported to Bengal 
 pays excise duty, hut receives credit for amount in adju'^tment of local duty. The shipper exporting salt lo M.idras has to give security 
 for payment of full duty failing to produce certificate from place of import. All port -to-port trade throughout British India, except in 
 the articles of salt and opium, w.is rendered free by Act 6 of 1848. and Act SO of 1854. 
 
 Coins, Weigkts, and Measures. —B^-n^n/ Coint. — 2 double = 4 single pysa; 12 pie small = 1 anna; 16 annas =^ 1 rupee; 16 
 rupees = 1 gold moluir. When accounts are kept in sicca rupees, they use the imaginary pie of twelve to an anna. Small shells, called 
 cowries, are also made use of for paying coolies, S:c.. which are reckoned as follows : viz., 4 cowries = 1 gunda ; 20 gundas = 1 pun ; 5 
 puns = 1 anna. These rates vary from time to time. Gold and Silver Wrights. — 4 punkhos or quarter grain = 1 gram or dhan : 4 
 dhans = 1 rutty; G 3-Sths rutty = 1 anna; 8 rutty = 2 massa: 100 rutty, or 121 massaor Ift anna = 1 tola or sicca rupees; 1061 rutty, 
 or 13, 2S, 152 massa, or 1? annas = 1 gold mnhur. A gold mohur weighs "22 and nine-tenths troy weight, containing IS7.G51 fine goid 
 and 17,051 alloy. A sicca rupee weighs 7. 11 and two-iliirds ditto, containing 175.928 fine silver and 15,99.1 alloy. Cloth Measure.— 
 3 corbe = 1 angualw; 3 angnal:? = 1 gheriah ; S gherries = 1 haut, or cubit, 18 inches; 2 haul= I guz or yard. 
 
 Memorandum showing thk State and Prospects of Railways is India up to July, 1857.-3.648 miles of railwaj 
 have been sanctioned, and are in course of construction, viz.:— Bv the East Indian Railway Company, from C.ilcutta to Delhi, with 
 
 branches from Burdwan to Ranecgunge. and from Mirzapore to Juhbulpore, 1.400 miles, By the Madras Company, from Madras to 
 
 the Western Coast at Reypore, 43ii miles ; and From Madras, via Cudd.^pah and Bellary. to meet a line from Bombay at oc near the 
 
 river Krishtna, 310 miles. By the Great Indian Peninsula Company, from Bombay to Cillian 33 miles, with extensions. North 
 
 East to Juhbulpore. to meet the line from Mirzapore, with a branch to Oomrawuitee and Xappoor, SiS miles; and South Kast, n'J 
 
 Poop.ah and Sholaporc, to the Krishtna River, to meet the line from Madras, 357 miles. By the Sinde Company, from Kurrachee to 
 
 n point on the Indus, at or near to Kotree, 120 miles; and By the Bombay, Baioda, and Central India Company, Uom Sural to 
 
 Baroda and Ahmedabad, 160 miles. 
 
 4 D
 
 566 
 
 LAND REVENUE OF EACH INDIAN PRESIDENCY. 
 
 
 
 
 
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 Pt|
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE LAND-TENURES OF lilUTISH INDIA.— ZRMINDAH, 
 
 SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 KYOTWAH, AND VILLAGE 
 
 An important feature in the condition of 
 ' British India still requires elucidation, 
 before entering on the details of the fearful 
 } strife wliich, conimenein>; iu the fortu of a 
 partial and purely military mutiny, speedily 
 [ assumed a more general and formidable cha- 
 racter. 
 
 The tenure of laud in India is a subject 
 intimately connected with that of annexa- 
 tion, and (if the question regarding the 
 mode in which our subjects in Oude and 
 other provinces, have been, and arc to be, 
 dealt with. The defects and inequalities of 
 the existing land-tenures have long becu 
 viewed by the author as calculated to pre- 
 vent the English government from taking 
 deep root in the affection and confidence of 
 their native subjects; so much so, that, in 
 the spring of 1857, he framed a brief 
 exposition of the leading facts of the ease, 
 intending to publish it in the form of a 
 pamphlet. While the proof-sheets were 
 passing through the press, the tidings of 
 the first outbreak of the mutiny reached 
 England, and each mail brought intelligence 
 more alarming than its predecessor. 
 
 It was no time to discuss proprietary 
 rights and landed tenures when fire and 
 the sword were raging throughout India, 
 and the publication of the pamphlet was 
 abandoned; but now that the first tcrriiile 
 excitement is over, these questions become 
 more important than ever, because the in- 
 quirj' into them is essential to the unravel- 
 ling of the reasons of the partial disafl'eetiou 
 of the people, and to the establishment of 
 a policy better calculated to secure their 
 allegiance for the future. 
 
 There is no branch of political economy 
 more deserving of attention than the relation 
 in whieli man stauds to the soil from whence 
 the elements of subsistence and other useful 
 products arc derived. Hitherto the science, 
 whoso elementary rules Adam Smith but 
 partially defined, has been considered chiefly 
 applicable to commerce ; but trade, or the 
 bai'ter of commodities, is secondary in im- 
 portance to production ; and the laws which 
 regulate the application of labour and 
 capital to land, constitute the most cirectivc 
 basis of social organisation, and form a 
 
 faithful index to the sources of wealth and 
 physical coiulition of a nation. These re- 
 marks have peculiar reference to IJritish 
 India, where the wellbeing of about one 
 hundred and fifty million jjcoplc, depends 
 in great measure on the territorial laws 
 under which they are governed. 
 
 This subject has been a fertile theme for 
 discussion during the last half century, 
 though avowedly less with rcgaid to the con- 
 dition of the vast Indian jjopulation under 
 the supreme control of the sovereign of 
 England, than by reason of its influence on 
 the large amount required by the state, 
 viz., about £17,000,000 per annum, out of 
 a gross revenue of £30,000,000. 
 
 j\Iany theories have been propounded, 
 and some experiments tried, for the ame- 
 lioration of a system confessedly defective, 
 and even oppressive in operation; but in 
 general, the first principles of justice and 
 common sense have been neglected, or so 
 overlaid with words, and encumbered with 
 contradictory and pernicious conditions, 
 that no permanent benefit has accrued 
 therefrom. Hundreds of volumes of theories 
 and speculations have been printed under 
 the titles of" Landed Tenures" and " Reve- 
 nue Systems;" while honest energy and 
 precious time have been frittered away in 
 profitless discussions, or in futile endea- 
 vours to bring impracticable or injurious 
 projects into beneficial operation. 
 
 Unfortunately, English statesmen, per- 
 plexed with controversies on the relative 
 merits or demerits of the so-called Zemin- 
 dar, Ryotwar, and Villaye revenue set- 
 tlements, and confused with Oriental no- 
 menclature, seem tempted to abandon iu 
 despair, as a problem too difficult for them 
 to solve, the adjudication of a question 
 simple in principle, and unembarrassed by 
 details — How may a government tax be 
 levied on land with the least detriment to 
 the proprietor or cultivator ? xVnd the ad- 
 ministrative authorities, fearful of a dimi- 
 nution of annual income, and often urgently 
 pressed for more revenue, have been un- 
 j willing to consider the matter on broad prin- 
 ciples, dreading to jeopardise theu' power 
 I of arbitrarily assessing the tillers of the
 
 568 
 
 AMOUNT OF LAND-TAX IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 soil — a power which has been exercised in 
 accordance with the temporary exigencies of 
 the governors, rather than with the means 
 of the governed. It is true that the volu- 
 minous despatches of the Court of Directors 
 have teemed with injunctions to their ser- 
 vants in India to be moderate in assess- 
 ment, to avoid oppressing the people, and 
 to encourage agriculture;* but all such 
 orders, however well intended, were little 
 better than nugatory, so long as the pecu- 
 niary requirements or demands of the state 
 were unconditional and unsettled ; and 
 must remain so, at least to any satisfactory 
 extent, until the fee-simple of the land be 
 vested in a proprietary class, and the annual 
 taxation levied bear a just and uniform 
 proportion to the cost of cultivation, the 
 necessities of the cultivator, and the means 
 of laying by yearly a clear though small 
 profit, to accumulate as capital in the hands 
 of the landowners. Until this be done, 
 we shall have, as at present, a nation of 
 peasants, not a prosperous community of 
 various grades and occupations. 
 
 The allegation that revenue derived from 
 land is not a tax, scarcely needs refutation. 
 No state can stand with its subjects in the 
 relatioii of landlord and tenants, either in 
 sympathy, in pecuniary matters, or in 
 general copartnery of interest. Whatever 
 share the government takes of the gross or 
 net produce, be it little or much, is an 
 abstraction from capital, and a tax on the 
 industry and skill of the farmer. The gov- 
 ernment might as well assume the rights 
 of a AoM*e-lord, as those of a latid-lord, and 
 levy a tax on habitations. In the case of 
 India, it is manifestly impossible for a few 
 European functionaries to superintend the 
 operations of several thousand small — 
 minutely small — farmers ; or prevent the 
 systematic tyranny and injustice of subor- 
 dinate (native) officials — evils which the 
 British government have the strongest 
 possible interest to eradicate as one of the 
 worst legacies of Moslem misrule. 
 
 In Asia, as in Europe, land, at an early 
 period, constituted the main source of 
 public revenue ; the amount of taxation 
 varied in different countries, according to 
 the number and wealth of the population, 
 
 • l^x r/r., Letter of 13th August, 1851, which oc- 
 cupies lilty printed folio pages. 
 
 t Lib. r.i, c. 2. 
 
 \ S(m; Essay oti Money, by John Taylor, Esq., 
 2nd ed., p. 12. 
 
 and their power of resisting oppression; 
 but, generally speaking, the proportion of 
 the gross or net produce claimed by the 
 state, did not exceed the Egyptian fifth de- 
 vised by Joseph. We read in Genesis, 
 that, in anticipation of famine, Pharaoh, 
 king of Egypt, at the suggestion of the 
 inspired Hebrew, stored in granaries one- 
 fifth of the total produce; and before the 
 seven years of dearth passed, the cultiva- 
 tors parted with everything — cattle, silver, 
 and land — for food. Pharaoh gave back 
 the land on condition of the cultivators 
 paying one-fifth of the produce in per- 
 petuity. The Romans, on their occupation 
 of Egypt, found this tax still existing ; and 
 it remains, probably, to the present day. 
 
 The land-tax varied in different countries. 
 Among the Jews, Greeks, Romans, and 
 ancient Persians, it was one-tenth ; in 
 Sicily, the Romans levied one-tenth, and 
 Cicero indignantly protested against the 
 " infamous Verres" taking more. Accord- 
 ing to Livy,t Spain was taxed at one-twen- 
 tieth. The Greek authorities, previous to 
 the time of Solon, took a sixth of the yield 
 from the owner of the soil. J 
 
 In England, the land-tax, calculated on a 
 very moderate valuation of estates by the 
 government of William III. (a.d. 1692), 
 ranged from \s. to 4s. in the pound sterling. 
 France had its "rent fonciere" fixed at 
 one-fifth of the net produce, and this was 
 generally complained of as too high ; Tus- 
 cany, one-fifth of the net rent ; Venetian 
 tei-ritories, one-tenth the rent; Milanese, 
 £8 18*. per cent, on valuation, or I*. Qd. 
 in the pound ; Parma, 9d. per acre ; Bologna, 
 2d. per acre ; Persia (government share), 
 one-tenth ; Bokhara, one-fourth ; China, 
 one-tenth, but assessed so moderately as 
 not to exceed one-thirtieth of the ordinary 
 produce; Java, one-fifth; Birmah, one- 
 tenth ; Cochin China, one-sixth. In Ceylon, 
 during the twelfth century, on arable lands, 
 one-tenth ; high grounds, free. 
 
 Whoever were the first colonizers of 
 India, they probably settled in village com- 
 munities, and introduced, for the further- 
 ance of those measures of general utility 
 and protection which are the primary ob- 
 jects of all legitimate government, munici- 
 pal taxation on the chief commodity they 
 possessed — land. 
 
 Scanty as are the records of ancient 
 India, which even the indefatigable re- 
 searches of modern scholars have disen- 
 tombed, they arc decisive on the point of
 
 PROPRIETOUiillii' OF LAND IN INDIA— b.c. 880. 
 
 569 
 
 the actual proprictor.sliii) of tlic laud being 
 vested iu the people ; tliouf^li it was iu)uii- 
 nally attributed, in pul)lie docuiueuts, either 
 to tlie iinniediate superior of the addressiuf^ 
 parties, or to tlieir king; who, whatever the 
 extent of his territory, or nature of his 
 power, appears to have been cqunlly styled, 
 iu the maguiloqneuce of Eastern hyperbole, 
 Lord of the Eartli, Sea, and Sky. 
 
 The most ancient, and least controverted, 
 authority on tiiis matter, is found iu the 
 famous Instilules of Menu. Orientalists have 
 ascribed to this code at least as early a 
 date as the ninth century before Christ 
 (880 B.C.), and they regard it as alTordiu^ 
 a true and graphic picture of the state of 
 society at that period, before the torture of 
 witnesses or criminals was sanctioned by 
 law, or widow-burning and infanticide crept 
 into custom, with other horrible and de- 
 filing practices of modern Brahminism.* 
 
 The Insiitutes set forth, as a simple 
 matter of fact, that cultivated land is " the 
 property of him who cuts away the wood, 
 or who first clears and tills it." The state 
 is declared entitled to demand a twelfth, an 
 eighth, or a si.\th part " of grain from the 
 land, according to the difference of the 
 soil, and the labour necessary to cultivate 
 it." Tliis refers to times of peace ; but " a 
 military king, who takes even a fourth part 
 of the crops of his realm at a period of 
 urgent necessity, as of war or invasion, and 
 protects his people, commits no sin. Serv- 
 ing-men, artisans, and mechauics, must 
 assist by their labour (twelve days per 
 annum), but at no time pay taxes." One 
 of the ancient commentators (for there were 
 several) declares, that " the king who takes 
 more is infamous iu this world, and con- 
 signed to Nareka (the infernal regions) iu 
 the ne.\t." And it appears to have been 
 pretty generally the case, that Hindoo 
 sovereigns received from their subjects, 
 during peace, one-sixth, and during war 
 one-fourth, of the produce of their fields. 
 Some took nmch less thau this. For 
 instance, iu the mountainous region of 
 Coorg (an ancient Hindoo principality, 
 which, until very recently, retained its in- 
 dependence), the tax demanded by the 
 native government was only a tenth. t But 
 under all Hindoo governments, individual 
 
 • See ante, p. 14. t Wilks, vol. i., p. HI. 
 
 I Wilks' 6'o((i;/i of India, vol. i., p. 111. 
 
 § Ibid., vol. i., p" 19G. 
 
 I| Asiatic liiscarchcs, vol. i., p. Vli. 
 
 ^ See ante, pp. SI and 179. 
 
 proprietors of land appear to have uniformly 
 possessed a "dominion so far absolute as 
 to exclude all claims, exee|)tiug those of 
 tlic community who protected it ;"% the in- 
 fallible criterion being, that it was saleable, 
 mortgageable, and in every respect a trans- 
 ferable commodity, where the laws of 
 hereditary tenure were not concerned. 
 The law seems to have been regarded aa 
 incontestable, that " lie who has the tribute 
 from the laiul, lias no property iu the 
 land ;" nor could the state or sovereign, iu 
 any ease, be the heir to the landed pro- 
 perty of its subjects. Personal effects 
 might fall to, or be seized by the king; 
 but according to the Hindoo law, land 
 could "only escheat to the township,"^ 
 excepting iu tlic little state of Tatijore. 
 Mortgages, deeds of sale, and free grants 
 for religious and charitable purposes, as 
 well as to private persons, exist, of various 
 dates, iu many Indian languages. One of 
 the oldest and most curious of these title- 
 deeds, engraved on copper, bearing date 
 BC. 23, is minutely described aud trans- 
 lated by Dr. Wilkius, iu the opening 
 volume of the Asiatic Researches.\\ 
 
 The Greek accounts of the invasion of 
 the Punjab by Alexander the Great (b.c. 
 333), tend to prove the people of Western 
 India to have then possessed an acknow- 
 ledged proprietary right in the soil ; in 
 common phraseology, the land belonged to 
 the people — the tax to the king. 
 
 When the Mohammedans invaded, aiul 
 gradually subjected, the majority of the 
 states which previously existed in India, 
 they were ostensibly guided in their deal- 
 ings with the subjugated people by the rule 
 of the Koran, wliich holds forth, iu such 
 cases, conversion, with the dismal alterua- 
 tives of death or confiscation of property. 
 But the Moslem rule was spread over the 
 greater part of India more by intrigue, and 
 constant ititerference in the quarrels of the 
 native princes, than by any concerted and 
 systematic scheme of conquest ; aud, with 
 the exception of a few great battles (espe- 
 cially those on the plains of Paniput, in 
 Northern India^), their usurpations were 
 very gradual, and were rather the contests 
 of a powerful sovereign against petty neigh- 
 bouring [irinces, whose territories he de- 
 sired to absorb, thau the deadly struggle of 
 creed aud race, of Mohammedan against 
 Hiudoo. Had utter confiscation of pro- 
 perty, and total annihilation of all terri- 
 torial rights, beeu the habitual, or even
 
 570 
 
 TAXATION UNDER HINDOO AND MOSLEM RULERS. 
 
 the frequent practice of Mohammedan sove- 
 reigns, it is evident tliat the Hindoo chiefs 
 who swelled their ranks, and the Hindoo 
 financiers wlio invariably levied their reve- 
 nues, and were entrusted with the manage- 
 ment of their treasuries, would have of 
 necessity acted a different, and according to 
 European notions, a more patriotic part. 
 General Briggs, wlio has bestowed much 
 study on the subject, declares that no 
 Mohammedan prince claimed the ownership 
 of the soil. It must, however, be admitted, 
 that the despotism exercised, neutralised 
 the territorial rights of proprietors, and was 
 a source of cruel oppression. 
 
 Thus Alla-u-Deen, who reigned at Delhi 
 from 1294 to 1315 a.d., spread misery and 
 desolation among his subjects, both Mus- 
 sulman and Hindoo, by his insane and 
 ferocious avarice. We are told that, a.d. 
 1300, he " ordered a tax of half the real 
 annual produce of the lands, to be raised 
 over all the empire, and to be regularly 
 transmitted to the exchequer." " The far- 
 mers were confined to a certain proportion 
 of land, and to an appointed number of 
 servants and oxen to cultivate the same. 
 No grazier was permitted to have above a 
 certain number of cows, sheep, and goats, 
 and a tax was paid out of them to the gov- 
 ernment. He seized upon the wealth, and 
 confiscated the estates, of Mussulmans and 
 Hindoos, without distinction, and by this 
 means accumulated an immense treasure."* 
 
 On the establishment of the famous 
 dynasty of the Great Moguls by Baber in 
 1526, some attention was paid to a regular 
 territorial assessment ; but it was not till the 
 reign of Akber, the grandson of Baber, and 
 son of the fugitive and long-exiled monarch, 
 Humayun, that effective measures were 
 adopted for the systematic assessment of 
 the revenues, and especially for the com- 
 mutation of produce into money ; a very 
 delicate and difficult measure in a country 
 like India, which, throughout its vast ex- 
 tent, is remarkable for the extraordinary 
 variations in the quantity and in the value 
 of its annual produce. 
 
 Akber, who reigned from 1550 to 1005 
 (cotemporary with l^lizabcth of England), 
 has been held up as the model of Indian 
 
 * Fcrislita's li^in(?oos<«ii, translated by Dow, vol. i., 
 pp. 291-2. t Rickards, vol. i., p. 31G. 
 
 t Gladwin's Translation of the Ayccn Akhery, 
 vol. i., 2-1 5— 278. 
 
 § Kickards, vol. i., p. 19. 
 
 II Stewart's Jkiii/al, pp. 166 — 176. 
 
 financiers, chiefly on the strength of the 
 records of his measures and opinions con- 
 tained in the Atjeen Akbenj, the famous \ 
 work of his gifted and confidential minister, 
 the ill-fated Abul Fazil. Tlie tone of the 
 writer is too much that of indiscriminate 
 panegyric for the facts related by him not to 
 be open to suspicion ; but even on his evi- 
 dence, the revenue system adopted by Akber, 
 though full of intricacies and impracticable 
 classifications, is, as Rickardsf and others 
 have clearly shown, founded on computa- 
 tions based on the produce of the soil. 
 
 Evidence that the ordinary assessment of 
 Hindoo sovereigns did not exceed one-sixth 
 of the produce, is given in the Aijeen Akbery 
 itself f Among other instances to this 
 effect may be cited that of the king of 
 Cashmere, one of whose earliest acts of 
 power (a.d. 1326) was the confirmation of 
 the ancient land-tax, which amounted to 
 17 per cent., or about one-sixth of the total 
 produce. Akber appears to have exacted 
 first a fifth, and afterwards a third of the 
 produce of his territories ; or, if commuted 
 into money, a fourth of the net income. 
 The attempts to enforce these latter de- 
 mands are said to have "endangered the 
 stability of the imperial throne. "§ One of 
 Akber's most active instruments, Mozuffer 
 Khan, then governor of Bengal and Bahar, 
 was besieged by the oppressed landowners 
 in the fort of Tondah, compelled to sur- 
 render, and then put to death. Rajah 
 Todar Mul (the famous Hindoo financier, 
 whose mode of collecting the revenue in the 
 silver coin called Tunkha, gave its name to 
 the "Tunkha system") was appointed to 
 succeed Rajah Khan ; but he failed in sub- 
 duing the insurrection, and was super- 
 seded. || 
 
 Anrungzebe (a.d. 1658 to 1707), the 
 most powerful, and, until blinded by ambi- 
 tion and bigotry, the most astute of the 
 Great Moguls, was successful in his career 
 of aggrandisement up to the period when 
 his subjects became worn-out and well-nigh 
 ruined by the excessive taxation needed to 
 meet the exigencies of the immense armies 
 occupied during a long series of years — 
 under the simultaneous command of the 
 emperor himself, his sons, and at length his 
 grandsons — in Central and Southern India. 
 It was probably as much to supply a failing 
 treasury, as from a more fanatical motive, 
 that Anrungzebe imposed the hated Jczia, or 
 capitation-tax, on infidels, which so heavily 
 1 weighed down the whole Hindoo popula-
 
 TYRANNICAL ASSESSMENT BY HYDER ALI IN MYSOOR. 
 
 571 
 
 tion ; but let tlic cause have been what it 
 would, liis unjust and oppressive exactions 
 strcuj^tliencd the arms of those (l(;adly fucs 
 whom the (lcs])isc(l Hindoo, "the ^Nfountaiu 
 Rat" Sivajec, had formed into a nation, 
 despite the efforts of the miglity man of 
 war, wJio eventually, in extreme old age, 
 but still in possession of marvellous physical 
 and mental power, was well-nigh hunted to 
 death by the j\Iahrattas.* 
 
 After his decease the huge empire fell 
 rapidly to ruins ; and, tlirougliout its pro- 
 vinces, Mogul and ]\Ialiratta delegates vied 
 in exacting triljute from the wretched cul- 
 tivators, sometimes on their master's ac- 
 count, sometimes on their own. It would, 
 of course, be folly to look for precedents in 
 a state of society in which no general rule 
 prevailed beyond — 
 
 " The simple plan ; 
 That they shall take who have the power, 
 And they shall keep who can." 
 
 Comparatively happy were those districts 
 in which some eliicf or governor contrived 
 to maintain his own real or assumed rights, 
 and protected his people against all oppres- 
 sion but his own. It was at this time that 
 so many of the nominal servants of the 
 weak and short-lived Mogid emperors con- 
 trived gradually to make themselves inde- 
 pendent sovereigns, playing, however, fast 
 and loose with their nominal master, for 
 fear of the Mahrattas, and further kept in 
 check by frequent strife with their neigh- 
 bours and their subjects. 
 
 The English East India Compatiy now 
 began to assume the position of a territorial 
 power. The service rendered by a pa- 
 triotic medical officer, named Hamilton, to 
 the emperor Feroksheer, in 171G,t secured 
 the mttch-coveted imperial firmaun, or war- 
 rant, to become landowners in Bengal, by the 
 purchase of thirty-eight villages from private 
 proprietors.:]; This purchase in fee-simple 
 formed the nucleus of the Calcutta pre- 
 sidency. 
 
 The only considerable state which, con- 
 temporaneously with the East India Com- 
 pany, could boast any continuance of a 
 strong or even settled government, was the 
 ancient Hindoo kingdom of ^[ysoor, over 
 which the Mohammedan adventurer, Hyder 
 Ali, by mingled force and fraud, obtained 
 undisputed sovereignty. One of his early 
 acts of power is said to have been to decree 
 
 • See a7}te, p. 153. t Idem, p. 210. 
 
 J Stewart's Ilent/a/, p. 399. 
 
 § Wilks' South of India, vol. i., pp. 155 — 21S. 
 
 tlic appropriation of the profits of the land ia 
 the following proportions: — Cultivator, 5^; 
 pr()[)rietor, Ih; government, :{ = ]0. 
 
 According to ('olonel Wilks, H\'der ex- 
 acted a full third of the whole produce, 
 instead of the ancient rate of assessment, 
 which had not exceeded a sixth : and the 
 same authority states, that the usurper's 
 entire system of " government was a series 
 of exi)eriments how much Ik; could extort 
 from the farmer without diminishing cidti- 
 vation."§ In the records of his administra- 
 tion, abtmdant facts for warning may be 
 found ; but few, indeed, worthy the imitation 
 of Christian rulers, excepting his energetic 
 and discriminating measures for the execu- I 
 tion of public works, especially for the pur- i 
 poses of traffic and the irrigation of the land. 
 
 We are imperfectly informed as to the i 
 period when, or the extent to which, the ' 
 JMohammedans broke down the ancient 
 Hindoo Village system of petty municipali- i 
 tics, under whose regulations the revenue, 
 assessed on separate communities, was de- 
 livered over to the state through the inter- I 
 vention of a headman chosen by the vil- j 
 lagers, the government officers not being I 
 brought in contact with the cultivators. ' 
 In many places, officers, called by the vague 
 and general name of zemindars, were ap- 
 pointed by the ]Moguls ; and these " mid- 
 dlemen" either farmed the revenues some- 
 what after the old French system, or re- 
 ceived grants of territory, on condition of 
 making certain pavments in the ibrm of 
 peishciis/i, or tribute, or of reudering stipu- 
 lated services to the state. When the 
 zemindars or talookdars — as they were 
 called in Bengal and Baliar ; or polygars, as 
 they were termed in Southern India — were | 
 introduced, the Village system underwent 
 considerable change by reason of a superior 
 proprietorship being set up by the govern- 
 ment officers, who exacted tlie claims, and 
 exercised the rights, of feudal barons ; and 
 the ryots, or cultivators, paid each their pro- 
 portion of the produce, or its money equiva- 
 lent, direct to the zemindars or polygars; 
 but the system was too deeply rooted in the 
 hearts of the people to be entirely eradi- 
 cated. It still exists, more or less per- 
 fectly, over large districts ; and its pecu- 
 liar features are in tlie main invariable, I 
 though the names and even duties of 
 the functionaries employed dift'er accord- 
 ing to language and local circumstances. 
 Each village forms a distinct society, and 
 its affairs constitute the chief concern of
 
 572 
 
 THE ANCIENT VILLAGE SYSTEM OP INDIA. 
 
 the individuals residing witliin its limits. 
 As tlie revenue is furnished to the state (or, 
 it may be, to a zemindar, or to a talookdar 
 or feudal chief, as in Oude and N. W. India) 
 by all in relative proportions, each man is 
 interested in the industry and prosperity 
 of his neighbour. By an equal apportion- 
 ment, taxation falls fairly on the whole; by 
 a division of duties, general advantage is j 
 obtained : instead of all going to market, 
 one man is deputed to proceed thither, and 
 the rest to attend to the crops or other 
 special duty : the little corporation ap- 
 points its mayor or chief (Potail) ; there is 
 also the registrar (Putwarree), the clerk 
 and accountant, and surveyor [Bullaee) ; 
 the policeman [Choivkeedar) , the minister 
 [Pursaee), and the schoolmastw of the 
 parish ; the carpenter, blacksmith, barber, 
 washerman, &c.; the tracer [Puggee), hun- 
 ter or wild beast destroyer (Byadhee); — 
 and each receives a stipulated portion of the 
 produce ; some of which is set aside to 
 maintain the hospitalities of the village. 
 
 The Potail is the medium between the 
 officers of government and the villagers : 
 he collects their dues, enforces payment by 
 snch means as are sanctioned by usage ; in 
 some instances rents the whole of his vil- 
 lage from government. Whether this be 
 the case or not, the Potail, besides a tract 
 of rent-free land — varying from 10 to 200 
 beegahs (a beegah is about one-third of an 
 acre), according to the size and population 
 of the village — receives certain established 
 fees, and also dues, generally in kind, such 
 as from tvio to eight seers (a seer is about 
 21b.), from each beegah, of grain cultiva- 
 tion, and a share of the sugar and other 
 produce. The Potails generallj' maintain a 
 respectable position ; though not exempt 
 from much occasional bickering, jealousy, 
 charges of favouritism, and corruption, such 
 as are common to all small communities. 
 
 The Putwarree, or village registrar, does 
 not always hold his office by hereditary 
 right : he is sometimes elected ; sometimes 
 a government servant ; but enjoys rent-free 
 land and dues under the Potail, who recom- 
 mends to the office when it is vacant by 
 death or from malversation : there arc, 
 however, many instances of ■■ ery old heredi- 
 tary tenures. 
 
 The Bullaee, Bullawa, or Dher, ought to 
 know every inhabitant of the village and 
 his possessions; the landmarks, bounda- 
 ries, tanks, and the traditions respecting 
 them, arc expected to be within his cog- 
 
 nizance, as his presence and evidence are 
 essential in all landed disputes. When 
 travellers pass, he is their guide to the pre- 
 cincts of the village, and is responsible for 
 their safety and for that of merchandise in 
 its transit : in this and other matters he is 
 the representative of the Potail, for whom he 
 acts as spy, messenger, and newsmonger. 
 
 The Pursaee, or priest, is also the village 
 astrologer, and, with the aid of some old 
 books, professes to announce good or bad 
 seasons, fixes the hour for putting the seed 
 corn into the ground, and is consulted on 
 divers occult matters. He is, however, 
 generally poor, and not held in much 
 esteem, and is supported by a few beegahs 
 of rent-free land, and by petty fees for offi- 
 ciating at marriages, births, naming of chil- 
 dren, and funerals. 
 
 The Chowkeedar watches over the lives 
 and property of the villagers ; and in some 
 places, as in Guzerat, is assisted by a detec- 
 tive police, named Pugyees [pug meaning 
 foot), who trace the flight of thieves or 
 murderers from one village to another, by 
 their respective footprints, with extraordi- 
 nary sagacity. The Byadhee, or hunter, 
 fills an hereditary office for the destruction 
 of wild beasts, in villages surrounded by 
 uncultivated tracts, where tigers, elephants, 
 and other animals abound. 
 
 Sir John Malcolm observes, that in most 
 parts of Central India the Potail held what 
 was deemed an hereditary office, with a de- 
 fined quantity of land in the village rent- 
 free : he says, these men, in many cases, 
 can support their claim to the rights and 
 lands they enjoy, for eight, nine, or ten 
 generations.* Grant Dutf furnishes much 
 forcible evidence to the same effect, espe- 
 cially with regard to the Mahrattas. " The 
 greatest Mahratta commanders, or their 
 principal Brahmin agents, were eager to 
 possess their native village ; but .although 
 vested with the control, they were proud to 
 acknowledge themselves of the family of the 
 PatcU [Potail], or Koolkurnee ; and if 
 heirs to a Miras field, t they would sooner 
 have lost wealth and rank than been dis- 
 possessed of such wutun or inheritance. 
 Yet, on obtaining the absolute sovereignty, 
 they never assumed an authority in the 
 interior village concerns beyond the rights 
 and privileges acquired by birth or pur- 
 
 • Central India, vol. ii., p. 14. 
 
 t Dcnotini; a Held lielil by liereditary or proprie- 
 tary tuMure, as distinct from tliat of un Oopree, or 
 iiieru Icnuiil at will.
 
 VILLAGE REPUBLICS OR MUNICIPALITIES IN INDIA. 
 
 573 
 
 chase, according to the iuvariable rules of 
 the country."* 
 
 Sir Thomas Muuro, in a report dated 
 15th of May, 1800, says—" Every vilhif;e is 
 a little republic witli the Potail at the head 
 of it, and India a mass of such republics. 
 The inhabitants, durinj; war, look eliiclly to 
 their own Potail. They give themselves no 
 trouble about the breaking up and division 
 of kingdoms ; while the village remains 
 entire, they care not to what power it is 
 transferred. Wherever it goes, the internal 
 management remains unaltered. The Po- 
 tail is still the collector, magistrate, and 
 liead farmer." 
 
 Lord Metcalfe ol)serves — " Village com- 
 munities are little republics, having every- 
 thing they want withiu themselves, and 
 almost independent of any foreign rela- 
 tions. They seem to last where nothing 
 else lasts. Dynasty after dynasty tumbles 
 down, revolution succeeds revolution, Hin- 
 doo, Patau, Mogul, Mahratta, Sikh, Eng- 
 lish, all are masters in turn ; but the vil- 
 lage communities remain the same. This 
 (inion of village communities, each one 
 forming a separate state in itself, has, I 
 conceive, contributed more than any other 
 to the preservation of the people of India 
 throughout all the revolutions and changes 
 which tliey have suffered, and is in a high 
 degree conducive to their happiness, and to 
 the enjoyment of a great portion of freedom 
 and independence." 
 
 The natale solum principle is very strong 
 among the Hindoos, and they resemble, in 
 this respect, their alleged Scythie or Celtic 
 ancestors. During the ravages of the Piu- 
 darrees, numerous villages in the Ncrbudda 
 districts had been laid waste, and were 
 tenantless for more than thirty years ; but 
 the Potails, and other hereditary village 
 officers, though scattered, and residing 
 many hundred miles from their native 
 homes, maintained a constant communica- 
 tion with each other, strengthened their 
 links of attachment by intermarriage, and 
 kept alive the hope of restoration to the 
 home of their youth. When tranquillity 
 was restored, they flocked to the ruined 
 villages, bearing sometimes the infant 
 Potails (second or third in descent from 
 the expelled) at their head, amid songs and 
 rejoicings; the roofless houses were soon 
 reoccupied by the former proprietors, or 
 their heirs ; each field was taken possession 
 of without disptite by the rightful owner; 
 - History of the Mtihrattus, vol. !., p. 46 1. 
 4 K 
 
 and, in a few days, everything was settled 
 as if the internal relations of the community 
 had never been disturbed. f 
 
 Rightly to understand the full bearings 
 of the <iuestion, the circumstances must ije 
 understood which led to the formation of 
 what is vaguely termed the 
 
 Zemindar System in Bengal and 
 Bahar. — When the E. I. Company suc- 
 ceeded the usurping servants of the Great 
 Mogul in the possession of these provinces, 
 the Village system had ceased to exist ; the 
 land was parcelled out among Moslem tax- 
 gatherers, who plundered the people, hin- 
 dered tillage, and annihilated the proprietary 
 rights of stnall cultivators : these, in many 
 cases, fled from the oppressors, who forced 
 them to cultivate, not for themselves, but 
 for the state. The very extent of the evil 
 deterred the representatives of the Com- 
 pany from grap|)liug with it; and they all 
 temporised and theorised until the appoint- 
 ment of a governor-general, whose inde- 
 pendence of position and character enabled 
 him to form sounder opinions regarding 
 the great interests committed to his charge, 
 and gave him courage to act upon them. 
 Lord Cornwallis did not, as Warren Hast- 
 ings said his predecessors had done, regard 
 the highest seat in the council-chamber as 
 "a nest to hatch fortunes in," Neither 
 did he consider the exaction of the largest 
 possible immediate revenue as an advantage 
 to be procured at any cost. He saw a 
 crisis was at hand, and that some decided 
 measure was needed to avert it : ruin 
 seemed approaching from many quarters; 
 there was no capital — no fixity of tenure; 
 the annual and capricious assessments 
 involved endless detail and general con- 
 fusion, wath the iuvariable consequence 
 — wrong, injustice, and plunder to the pea- 
 santry. 
 
 Hopeless of disentangling so complex a 
 subject, the governor-general cut the Gor- 
 diau knot by resolving on the elevation of a 
 landed proprietary to an independent posi- 
 tion. He was told that no persons of this 
 class remained : he answered that it was 
 necessary, then, to create them. The 
 materials which he chose for the formation 
 of territorial gentry, consisted of the official 
 functionaries, whether Mohammedan or Hin- 
 doo, employed under the ^logul government, 
 in connection with the land revenues. In 
 Bengal these officials were termed zemindars; 
 but, as has been stated, they existed under 
 I f Malcolm's Central India, vol. ii., p. 21.
 
 574 
 
 ZEMINDAR SYSTEM ESTABLISHED IN BENGAL— 1792-'3. 
 
 other names in various parts of India. Their 
 elevation to the rauic of proprietors, as an 
 iutermediate class between the government 
 and the actual cultivators, was certainly 
 not based on any inherent claim, for 
 centuries of ]\Iohammedan exactions had 
 nearly obliterated all individual title to 
 property in the soil : but the measure was 
 one of sound policy, and has contributed 
 to the stability of British dominion by 
 benefitinpj a large portion of the popula- 
 tion of India.* lu accordance Avith the 
 views of the governor-general, the lauds of 
 Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, were divided 
 into estates of various dimensions, and 
 vested hereditarily in the zemindars; the 
 produce was divided into fifths ; and it was 
 estimated that, after deducting the expenses 
 of cultivation, two-fifths would be left to the 
 cultivator, and the remainder would consti- 
 tute the rent of the estate : of this, ten- 
 elevenths were taken as tax by government, 
 and one-eleventh went to the; zemindar. 
 Mr. Rickards says, that if the rent were 60 
 per cent, of the produce, the share of the 
 zemindar would be 5^ per cent.f 
 
 The assessment was ordered, by the Court 
 of Directors, to be equal to the average 
 collection of a certain period ; it was fixed at 
 this rate for ten years, and then declared 
 to be permanent,! the government pledging 
 itself never to exact any higher land-tax 
 from the territories thus settled : but no 
 remissions were to be made; in bad or 
 good seasons, the same amount of tax was 
 to be paid — one year must balance another; 
 and government was freed from all pecu- 
 niary liability for public works available for 
 irrigation, maintaining the banks of rivers, 
 &c. It was therefore an excellent bargain 
 for the state. Such a project could not 
 have succeeded if waste or uncultivated 
 lands had not been attached to each estate, 
 on which no future tax was to be levied, 
 and unless the proprietors had been left 
 perfectly free to grow any description of 
 produce, without having to pay an enhanced 
 revenue on every acre redeemed from 
 waste, as was the ca^e under the Mogul rule. 
 
 Moreover, the collection of the revenue 
 was much sim])lified and facilitated for the 
 government: if the zemindar failed in his 
 yearly obligations, the f^uropcan collector 
 I'cceivcd power to proceed against him for 
 
 • Malcolm, wiiting in 1S02, expatiates on the 
 happy operation of Lord Coi-iuvallis's system of re- 
 venue and judicature on the condition of the people, 
 and on its tendency " to fix upon the fiiniest basis 
 the British government in India, by securing the at- 
 
 the recovery of his stipulated tax, by sum- 
 mary process; and in default of payment, 
 not only was the estate liable to confisca- 
 tion and sale by the government, but the 
 zemindar was subject to imprisonment, and 
 forfeiture of any property he might possess. 
 Oir tlie other hand, the zemindar could 
 only proceed against his teuants or ryots 
 (to whom lie might sub-let the land) by 
 a regular, expensive, and tedious process, 
 in the zillah or local court, presided 
 over by an European judge, in the dis- 
 trict wherein the estate was situated. In 
 IZQ^, the law agaiust the zemindar was 
 modified by the abolition of the power of 
 imprisonment, but the government assumed 
 the right to confiscate and sell the estate 
 immediately, if the tax were not paid each 
 month. 
 
 The country was then only partially 
 recovering from centuries of desolating rule 
 and repeated famines : it had been drained 
 of specie by Moslem conquerors, Mahratta 
 plunderers, and European tax-gatherers ; the 
 price of grain was low, the interest of money 
 exorbitant ; and there was little or no foreign 
 demand for agricultural produce: added 
 to this, the waste lands attached to each 
 zeraindarree or estate, were so ill-defined, 
 that litigation soon commenced, and added 
 to the expense of the proprietors. Many ze- 
 mindars found themselves unable to comply 
 with the stringent terms under which they 
 became landlords, and the Gazette abounded 
 with notices for the sale of confiscated es- 
 tates. Several ancient families were ruined; 
 and in about fifteen years, few of the original 
 zemindars, with whom the permaneut set- 
 tlement had been made, retained their 
 properties ; which were sold and resold to 
 native merchants and others, who brought 
 capital into productive employment. But 
 the misfortunes of the original proprietors 
 cannot be charged on the plan itself, tlie 
 result of which is shown in the experience 
 of half a century. No famines have occurred ; 
 other sources of revenue have been created; 
 land has become a saleable commodity 
 worth ten years' purchase, which it is not 
 in any other part of India; and an influ- 
 ential class arc bound, by the tie of self- 
 interest, to siijjport the British government, 
 which guarantees them tranquil possession 
 of their paternal acres. 
 
 tachment of their subjects." — Kaye's Life of Sir John 
 31alcnlm, i., IVG. 
 
 t Filtli Heport, jip. 13—29. 
 
 I See " lieiigal Government llcgulationn ;" Xos. 
 2— H, and 44, of 179;).
 
 RYOTWAR TENURE IN MADRAS. 
 
 675 
 
 The countries under tlic poimancnt settle- 
 ment in tiie Bengal prcsidciiey, comprise 
 an area of li!),7S2 .sfinarc miles, iind include 
 the whole of 15i'iif;al, 15ahiir, IJcnares,* and 
 Orissa (Oiittack cxceijtcd), with a jxtpulation 
 of about 40,()()(),()()(). The auiiu;il revenue 
 from this fixed huul-tax is about ii3,500,000, 
 or about 21 jjence per head.f 
 
 The s\'stem now in force under the 
 Madras presidency, known by the name of 
 THK Ryotwaii Tknuue, nuiUcs each petty 
 holder responsible to government for the 
 ))ayment of the tax levied on the produce of 
 liis field or plot of land ; there is no common 
 or joint responsibility, as iu the Village plan, 
 and no landlord or government middleman, 
 as under the Moslem ride. When the liast 
 India Company first became interested in 
 the afl'airs of the Carnatic, the Ilyotwar 
 system was in general operation, under 
 zemindars or polygars, and continued so 
 until 17G9, when boards or councils were 
 established by the East India Comjiany, 
 and the lands placed under the supervision 
 of stipendiaries employed for the manage- 
 ment of llic revenue. In 1789, the receipts 
 of the zemindars with whom a fixed settle- 
 ment was made were estimated, and they 
 were required to pay one-third of their 
 rental to government; the country was 
 divided into sections called mooltahs, and the 
 tenures sold by public auction, lu 17U9, 
 Lord Mornington (afterwards Marquis AVel- 
 lesley), desired to introduce the permanent 
 settlement which had been adopted in 
 Bengal; but the project of Colonel Read, 
 which required the ryot to rent land direct 
 from government under a fluctuating and 
 arbitrary assessment, and which practically 
 discouraged the cultivation of waste lauds, 
 found favour with the home authorities; and 
 out of twenty collcctoratcs under the pre- 
 sidency of I\radras, seventecu are managed 
 under this disastrous and desi)otic system. % 
 
 Colonel (afterwards Sir Thomas) IMnnro 
 was entrusted, in 1803-'(5-'7, with the forma- 
 tion of the Ryotwar system at j\Iadras : he 
 laid down the monstrous principle that half 
 
 ' Tliis ])roviiico was " permanently settled'' by 
 Mr. Jonathan ])uncan (subsequently governor of 
 Bombay), nnder instructions from the Marquis 
 Cornwallis, in 1795. 
 
 t A parliamentary return, in 1827, estimates the 
 land-tax in Bengal at I'i., Madras, 52, and Bombay. 60 
 pence per head annually. A recent statement makes 
 the land-tax of Bengal (permanent settlement) on 
 ninety-seven million acres, about 5 annas = 7s pence 
 per acre; assuming a cultivated area of thirty-two 
 million acres — 21 pence per acre : the total atsess- 
 
 the produce, or at least 45 per cent., was to 
 be th(! government sjiare : this he arbitrarily 
 converted into money; but on what data 
 has never been ascertained, nor is it ex- 
 plained in any of his rc])orts. Up to 18r>2, 
 as declared by the Madrns Nalire Associa- 
 tion, no fixed system of commutation on 
 various kinds of land ha,s been adopted : 
 different modes are practised, not onlv in 
 different districts, but even iu sub-divisions 
 of the same district. 
 
 The assessment was soon found to be 
 exorbitant : in Dindegul and in other places, 
 the demand of government was discovered 
 to be beyond the resources of the people; 
 tidded to which, a great fall iu the price of 
 grain necessitated the ryot to part with 70 per 
 cent, of his produce, to pay the money-tax 
 required by government. Under IMunro'a 
 plan, the umbrageous mango-tree was taxed, 
 as well as the land beneath it : the poor 
 farmers in many places, unable to pay the 
 double tax, cut down these useful trees; 
 their absence caused drought, and famines 
 ensjied, by which thousands of humaa beings 
 perished. 
 
 In 1808, the evils of the field Ryotwar 
 system became so unbearable, that the 
 Madras authorities tried the partial intro- 
 duction of the A'illage system, first for a 
 triennial, and subseiiuentiy for a decennial 
 jieriod. The average collcetion from the 
 lands having been computed, thej' were 
 rented out to contractors, lunf the highest 
 bidders accepted. On this })lan, all duties, 
 or responsibilities as alleged landlords or 
 sovereign proprietors of the soil, were aban- 
 doned ; the sole idea was the obtainment of 
 a given sum of money for three years, lieed- 
 less of the condition of the cultivators, who 
 were farmed out with less consideration 
 than would attend the letting of a gang of 
 negro slaves to a contractor. It was soon 
 ascertained that such a project could not 
 succeed ; and then the vilhiges were assessed 
 at a fixed sum for ten years, the waste as 
 well as the arable land being given over to 
 each community, aud a distinct settlement 
 
 ment at Madras for the entire area — culturable, cul- 
 tivated, and barren — is 10 pence; but on the land 
 actually cultivated, it is -12 pence. 
 
 I A correct survey (which is an indispensable 
 preliminary to the just and successful operation of 
 the Kyotnar settlement) has not been made of 
 the cultivated lands : the measurements are of the 
 rudest description ; and a separate valuation of the 
 fields of every petty farmer is manifestly impos- 
 sible. — (Petition from Madras Native Association, 
 1852.)
 
 576 
 
 RUINOUS EFFECTS OF THE RYOTWAR SYSTEM. 
 
 made with each collective body of ryots, or 
 with the heads of a village. 
 
 In 1818, the home authorities determined 
 to send out Sir T. Munro as governor, to 
 re-enforce the Ryotwar plan, under some 
 modifications, such as a reduction of assess- 
 ment, varying from 12 to 25 per cent., 
 where found most exorbitant, with remissions 
 of taxation on failure of crops. — Several 
 parts of the plan were undoubtedly marked 
 by benevolence, and read well on paper; 
 but in general, they were either imprac- 
 ticable, or depended so much on indiiddual 
 judgment and energy, as to afford little 
 prospect of extensive utility. As a whole, 
 the system proved very expensive to the 
 state ; full of intricate and harassing details 
 for collectors, it abounded in motives for 
 falsehood on the part of the ryots, and in 
 opportunities for chicanery and malversation 
 by the native subordinates ; while it ne- 
 cessarily proved a complete barrier to the 
 growth of an independent landed proprie- 
 tary. The latter was, indeed, a main feature 
 in Munro's project : he openly asserted that 
 the best security for our prolonged and quiet 
 rule, was to keep the cultivators in the con- 
 dition of vassals or serfs to government :* 
 and he speaks of short leases as necessary 
 to prevent the growth of a spirit of inde- 
 pendence, which would be dangerous to 
 British authority. The practical working 
 of the Ryotwarree is too truly conveyed 
 in the following hypothesis, suggested by 
 Mr. FuUarton, a member of the Madras 
 government : — " Imagine the whole landed 
 interest — that is, all the landlords of Great 
 Britain, and even the capital farmers, at 
 once swept away from off the face of the 
 earth ; imagine a rent fixed on every field 
 in the kingdom, seldom under, generally 
 above, its means of payment ; imagine the 
 land so rented, lotted out to the villagers 
 according to the number of their cattle and 
 ploughs, to the extent of forty or fifty acres 
 each. Imagine the revenue rated as above, 
 leviable through the agency of one hundred 
 thousand revenue officers, collected or re- 
 mitted at their discretion, according to 
 their idea of the occupant's means of paying, 
 whether from the produce of his land or his 
 separate property ; and, in order to encou- 
 rage every man to act as a spy on his neigh- 
 bour, and report his means of paying, that 
 he may eventually save himself from extra 
 demand, imagine all the cultivators of a 
 village liable at all times to a separate de- 
 • Glcig's Life cif Munro, vol. ii., p. 108. 
 
 mand, in order to make up for the failure 
 of one or more individuals of the parish. 
 Imagine collectors to every county acting 
 under the orders of a board, on the avowed 
 principle of destroying all temptation to 
 labour, by a general equalisation of assess- 
 ment; seizing and sending back runaways 
 to each other ; — and lastly, imagine the col- 
 lector the sole magistrate, or justice of the 
 peace of the county, through the medium 
 and instrumentality of whom alone, any 
 criminal complaint of personal grievance 
 suffered by the subject can reach the supe- 
 rior courts. Imagine, at the same time, 
 every subordinate officer, employed in the 
 collection of the land revenue, to be apolice 
 office); vested with the power to fine, confine, 
 put in the stocks, and fioff any inhabitant 
 within his range, on any charge, without 
 oath of the accuser, or sworn recorded evi- 
 dence in the case." 
 
 The annual exaction by government of 
 the last shilling from the small cultivators, 
 is similar in effect to taking the honey 
 every night out of a hive ; when a rainy 
 day arrives, the bees make no food, and 
 they perish : thus has it been under the 
 Ryotwar system at Madras, where not one- 
 fifth of the land fit for tillage is under cul- 
 tivation. During the last half century, 
 several million people have perished from 
 famine and its concomitant, pestilence : 
 thus was it in Ireland when the potato crop 
 failed, and so must it be wherever the 
 population are reduced to the lowest scale 
 of diet compatible with the prolongation of 
 existence, and devoid of resources where- 
 with to supply a temporary exigency. 
 
 The collection of the land-tax from some 
 thousands of miserably poor peasants, living 
 from hand to mouth, has led to another 
 enormous evil, by engendering a systematic 
 plan of cruelty on the part of the native 
 officials. The European collector is ex- 
 pected to realise annually a certain amount 
 for the government, otherwise he will be 
 deemed negligent, and stand little chance 
 of favour or promotion : on the other hand, 
 if he can screw out of the ryots a larger 
 sum than his predecessor — the means un- 
 scrutinised — his name stands high at Ma- 
 dras. He tells his native subordinates that 
 so many rupees must be obtained, and 
 leaves them to manage how : the iehsildm; 
 knowing that torture is a part of the 
 Moslem system, and that it was recognised 
 under the Mogul rule, not only for com- 
 pelling suspected persons to criminate them-
 
 TORTURE EMPLOYED IN THE COLLECTION OF THE REVENUE. 577 
 
 selves or others, but also to enforce the 
 payment of the money cl.aimcd ,is due to 
 tlio state (the non-|)ayniciit of which is 
 (loomed a crime of f^rcat magnitude), and 
 finding torture the easiest and most effec- 
 tual mode of ])rocnriiig the money reriuircd 
 by his immediate superior (the European 
 collector), he resorts to its use in every 
 form ; the most usual at Madras being — 
 (1), tying tiie neck and feet together, 
 placing a heavy stone on the back, and 
 compelling the sufl'crer to remain in a 
 stooping position, exposed to a tropical 
 sun, until he satisfies tlie demands of the 
 tehsildar; or falls — it may be, dies — from 
 cxliaustion : (2), fastening in a cocoa-nut 
 shell, over the navel, the pool-lay insect, or 
 ■worms, which cause exquisite torture: (3), 
 twisting women's breasts : (4), putting chil- 
 lies and other hot peppers into the eyes, 
 and into the most sensitive parts of both 
 sexes : (5), thorns driven nnder the nails : 
 (6), surrounding the person with red ants, 
 whose sting is maddening : (7), tying coir 
 ropes to the muscles of the thighs and 
 arms, and then pouring water on the ropes 
 to produce gradual and extreme tension : 
 (8), application of the kittie — two sticks 
 (like a lemon-squeezer), between which the 
 fingers are jammed and squashed : (9), 
 flogging : (10), standing upon one leg in 
 mud or in water, with a large log of wood 
 on the head, muler a burning sun. Such 
 are some of the distressing revelations of 
 the Madras Torture Commission in 1854. 
 The European collectors, generally, allege 
 their ignorance that torture was used for 
 the collection of the revenue, although they 
 acknowledge its application for police pur- 
 poses. But admitting the truth of the de- 
 nial, they are then placed on the other 
 horn of the dilemma — that is, gross igno- 
 rance of the condition of the people com- 
 mitted to their charge : otherwise, they 
 must have discovered the means adopted to 
 squeeze ten rupees out of a man who had 
 only five. 
 
 The Torture commissioners, in 1854, re- 
 mark, that the infliction of physical pain, in 
 connection with the collection of the reve- 
 nue, is quite unknown in Malabar and 
 Canara ; and the reason assigned corrobo- 
 rates the above remarks, which were written 
 previous to a knowledge of the following 
 significant fact : — In those districts " the 
 land-tax is generally light, the people are 
 flourishing ; the assessment easily, and 
 even cheerfully paid — the struggle more 
 
 often being, who shall be allowed, than who 
 sliall be made, to pay the government dues; 
 land has acquired a saleal)le value, and 
 allotments of wsiste arc eagerly contended 
 for." 
 
 If anything could 0|)en the eyes of those 
 who uphold the Kyotwar system at Madras, 
 these torture revelations ought to do so. 
 The late Mr. Sullivan, member of council 
 at Madras, declared to the author, that 
 when he saw the cartloads of silver leaving 
 his cutchcrry (treasury) for Madras, and 
 remembered the poverty of the jjcople from 
 whom it was collected, he shuddered at the 
 thought of their prospect during the en- 
 suing year, as the demands of the govern- 
 ment were inexorable, and a certain amount 
 of money must be forthcoming. 
 
 The mere lowering of the assessment or 
 tax, though not an cfl"ectual remedy, is a 
 great boon. Mr. John Bruce Norton, of 
 the Madras bar, in his valuable letter to 
 the Right Hon. Robert Lowe, on the state 
 of Madras, referring to the heaviness of the 
 assessment in his presidency, says, that the 
 land belonging to the French at Pondi- 
 cherry, is assessed at four pagodas ; while 
 English land, " of precisely the same 
 quality," pays 1\ pagodas: and "in Feb- 
 ruary, 1852, the wise French government 
 reduced its land-tax 33 per cent., as well as 
 abolished all its petits droits." It is not, 
 therefore, surprising that the land is there 
 all occupied, while millions of acres lie 
 waste in the English territories at Madras. 
 Mr. Norton has fully exposed the evils of 
 the Ryotwarree, and shown, independently 
 of the duration of the tenure (whether an- 
 nual, leasehold, or permanent), how heavily 
 it presses on an agricultural people. He 
 says, that in Bengal, where the land is ex- 
 ceedingly rich, the tax averages one shilling 
 per acre on the whole cultivated area ; in 
 the North-West Provinces, the average on 
 22,340,824 acres of cultivated land, paying 
 assessment direct to government, is about 
 2s. od.; in the Dcccan it varies from less 
 than 1*., at Poonah, to 1.9. 9rf. for the 
 famous black cotton soil at Darwar ; the 
 very highest being let at less than 3s. per 
 acre. In contrast, Madras, on 14,000,000 
 acres, wet and dry cultivation, shows an 
 average of 5*. per acre ; 2,500,000 acres, 
 10s. per acre. The results are thus summed 
 up : — " A people impoverished and de- 
 graded ; irrigation neglected ; land un- 
 saleable ; good land thrown out of cultiva- 
 tion from its enormous assessment ; mil-
 
 578 BRITISH GOVERNMENT NO PROPRIETARY RIGHT IN THE SOIL. 
 
 lions of acres lyiug waste ; the revenue not 
 improving."* 
 
 Theoretically, the home authorities con- 
 curred witli the sound policy laid down by 
 the Marquis Wellesley :— " It can never be 
 desirable that the government itself should 
 act as the proprietor of land, and should 
 collect the rents from the immediate culti- 
 vators of the soil." In a despatch to Ben- 
 gal, dated January 6, 1815, the Court of 
 Directors say—" We do not wish to revive 
 the doctrine of the sovereign of India being 
 proprietor of the soil, either de facto or de 
 jure." Practically, this doctrine was re- 
 vived, and is still enforced, except under 
 the permanent settlement of Bengal. The 
 granting of leases in the North-West Pro- 
 vinces, is an assumption of proprietorship ; 
 the assessment of land in Madras from 
 year to year — in other words, the decreeing 
 the amount of rent or tax to be paid — is 
 the prerogative of the landlord ; and, with 
 regard to Bombay, Mr. A. Mackay has 
 shown that "the fee-simple has no exis- 
 tence : there are, in fact, no fees-simple ex- 
 cept the monster and all-devouring one of 
 the government, and the faint reflections of 
 it which are found in the hands of owners 
 of alienated lands : but no cultivator has, 
 in reality, any permanent indefeasible 
 tenure of the soil."t 
 
 The Anglo-Indian government loses by 
 the Ryotwar system. For twenty-four 
 years — viz., from 1820 to 1813 inclusive, 
 during which it has been in general opera- 
 tion throughout a large part of the J^Iadras 
 territories — no increase of revenue has ac- 
 crued to the state under the Ryotwar 
 system ; and, it may be inferred, no ex- 
 tended cultivation or improvement taken 
 place in the condition of the country. 
 
 The Ryotwarree is an expensive system 
 in various ways — in the charges of collec- 
 tion, in the very large stall" of ollicials 
 required to supervise minute details and 
 hold one auotiier in check, and in the 
 lieavy disbursements for irrigation, keeping 
 in repair tanks, &c. ; whereof no small 
 proportion goes to the enrichment of public 
 servants, instead of being used in fostering 
 agriculture. The charges for irrigation 
 and tank repairs, from 180r,-'6 to 1843-'4, 
 are stated at 24,300,000 rupees. 
 
 Sir G. R. Clerk, tiie late experienced 
 governor of Bombay, and present perma- 
 nent secretary of the Board of Control, 
 
 • Letter, &c., pp. 100—101. 
 
 t Keport on Wentern India, 1S53, p. 87. 
 
 in his evidence before parliament (5th 
 April, 1853), speaks forcibly of the Ryot- 
 warree : — " Of many systems, it is the 
 most objectionable ; * * -f: it certainly does 
 not work well either for the government or 
 the natives; they are as we foimd them, 
 still paupers; there is nothing between 
 them and the government ; they have no 
 head landholders over them to acquire 
 capital : in case of any sudden visitation, 
 such as damage to a village by a hail-storm, 
 a famine, or disease among the people or 
 their cattle, there is nobody to support 
 them, or to prop up a falling village : they 
 have no inducement to amass capital ; in 
 fact they cannot ; it is not to be obtained 
 upon these small jjieces of ground : they 
 live from hand to mouth." 
 
 North-West Provinces. — Over the 
 large extent of India comprised under this 
 designation, and including Agra, Delhi, and 
 other valuable territorial divisions, there is 
 happily no Ryotwar settlement. During 
 the latter period of Mogul rule, the Dooab, 
 or region lying between the Ganges and 
 Jumna, as well as other tracts, were greatly 
 impoverished : the Village system was al- 
 most annihilated by bauds of predatory 
 horsemen who dashed at everything ; and 
 not many years ago, lions prowled up to 
 the very gates of Delhi. The peace secured 
 by British rule has caused a reclamation of 
 waste lands; and the construction of the 
 noble Ganges canal, for irrigating the 
 Dooab, has materially aided in the exten- 
 sion of cultivation. 
 
 In part of these provinces, where the 
 assessment was onerous and uncertain, 
 especially in the Delhi district, there have 
 been severe famines, as those of 1834 and 
 1838. 
 
 On the 22nd of September, 1841, the 
 author of this work moved, in the Court 
 of Proprietors, at the East India House, 
 a scries of resolutions: \\z. — "1. That the 
 ]5ritisli government is neither de facto nor 
 de jure the proprietor of the soil of Britisii 
 India. 2. That periodical assessments on 
 the produce of the land, at the sole will oi 
 the government, defeat the jiroprictarv 
 rights of tlie occupiers and cultivators of 
 the soil, and, by preventing tlie hereditary 
 possession and transmission of landed pro- 
 perty, diminish its value, deteriorate the 
 revenue of the state, inipoTcrish the people, 
 and render the government of India un- 
 stable and insecure. 3. That the occupiers 
 and cultivators of the soil of British India
 
 LONCr LEASES CHANTED IN THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES. 570 
 
 are entitled to obtain from the British gov- 
 eriiraenta fixed iisscssmcnt and a f^uarantoe 
 of liereditary occupancy, unmolested by 
 arbitrary demands and periodical claims, 
 either by annual or more extended leases." 
 In reply to tlu; aif^uments urged ia su[)- 
 port of these resolutions, the mover was 
 asked to suspend any further discussion, 
 and the government woxdd grant leases of 
 thirty years' duration; and it was inquired, 
 if this measure would satisfy his views 
 ou the subject? He replied, that long 
 leases were a great improvement on annual 
 assessments; but notliini; would be so good 
 as granting the fee-simple to the people. 
 Government then adopted the long leases; 
 and to this important step iu the right 
 direction, England owes the ])reserva- 
 tion of many of her sons and daughters iu 
 the North-West Provinces. A writer in 
 the Times of the 23rd of July, 1857, re- 
 ferring to the flight from the massacre at 
 Delhi to Mcerut, of several officers and 
 their families, says — " The\' were, however, 
 neither murdered nor, as it would appear, 
 personally maltreated, although there was 
 ample opportunity fur both during their 
 wanderings, especially after they had been 
 robbed of their arms. With the exception of 
 the Goojurs, who are hereditary marauders, 
 the zemindars have behaved well to us, 
 
 which is a 
 
 great encouragement 
 
 to good 
 
 government ; for there cannot be a doubt 
 that it is mainly owing to the thirty years' 
 settlement, which has secured them against 
 the uuhmited exactions of the old revenxic 
 system." The plan adopted is thus described 
 iu the "Directions for Revenue Oflieers," 
 issued by the late Licnt. -governor Thomason. 
 
 " First. All the inhabited part of the 
 country is divided into portions with fixed 
 boundaries, called mehals or estates; ou 
 each mchal a sum is assessed for the term 
 of twenty or thirty years, calculated so as 
 to leave a fair surplus profit over and above 
 the net produce of the land ; and for the 
 punctual payment of that sum the land is 
 held to be perpetually hypothecated to the 
 government. 
 
 " Secondly. It is determined who are the 
 person or persons entitled to receive this 
 surplus profit. The right thus determined 
 is dechircd to be heritable and transferable, 
 and the persons entitled to it are considered 
 the proprietors of the land, from whom tiie 
 engagements for the annual payment of the 
 sum assessed by the government on the 
 mehal are taken. 
 
 " Thirdly. All the proprietors of a mehal 
 arc, severally and jointly, responsible iu 
 their persons and property for the payment 
 of the sum assessed by the government ou 
 the mchal. When there are more proijric- 
 tors than one, it is determined according to 
 what rule the}' shall share the jirolits, or 
 make good the losses on the estate. If 
 the proprietors ai'C numerous, engagements 
 are only taken from a iow of the body, 
 who, on their own parts, and as repre- 
 sentatives of the rest, undertake to manage 
 the mehal, and to jjay the sum assessed 
 upon it. 
 
 " The rate of assessment was in the first 
 instance limited to two-thirds of the net 
 produce of each mehal or estate ; but, ou 
 the revision which is about to take place on 
 the expiration of the thirty years which 
 formed the first term of settlement, it has 
 been determined to restrict the demand of 
 the state to one-half of the average net 
 assets."* 
 
 A " permanent settlement" was promised 
 to these provinces at the commencement of 
 the present century; the land-tax was 
 screwed U[) to the hij^hest pitch, iu order 
 that it might then be "fixed for ever;" 
 but good faith was broken with the people 
 by " orders from home," and the promise 
 has never been redeemed. 
 
 A parliamentary paper (Xo. 181), issued 
 in return to an order of the House of 
 Commons, dated 26th ^lareh, 1858, gives 
 some insight into the results produced by 
 our "revenue system" in the North-West 
 Provinces; including, among others, the 
 districts of Barcilly, Shahjehanpoor, Fur- 
 ruckabad, Scharanporc, &c. It is acknow- 
 ledged in the official "Narrative of the Pro- 
 ceedings of the Government," dated Agra, 
 18th July, 181'2, that "the assessment of 
 a fair and moderate revenue ou the land 
 might be so combined with an ascertain- 
 ment of private rights, and the constitution 
 of the village communities, that such records 
 might Ik; framed, such principles fixed, and 
 sucii sanitary ])rocesscs put iu action, a* 
 w ould cwrect the evils which had eaten like 
 a canker iuto the very vitals of landed pro- 
 perty and agricultural prosperity." In sub- 
 sequent passages of the same document, the 
 violation of proprietary rights is thus ad- 
 mitted : — I 
 
 " Tlie proceedings in the resumption department, ' 
 his Honourt observed, had in these, as in the Lower 
 
 • Pail. Papers, Xo. 112; 22iid June. 18j7. 
 t The Lieut.-governor of the N.AV. Provinces.
 
 580 PROPRIETARY RIGHTS VIOLATED IN THE N. W. PROVINCES. 
 
 Provinces, been marked at the outset by a hard and 
 harsh dealing with individual rights, gradually but 
 reluctantly yielding to the tempering influence of 
 the orders which, from time to time, have issued 
 from superior authorities, especially the Honourable 
 Court. The settlement officer swept up without 
 inquiry every patch of unregistered rent-free land, 
 even those under ten beegahs, exempted by a sub- 
 sequent order, and which did not come out before 
 five-sixths of the tenures had been resumed. In one 
 district, that of Furruckabad, the obligations of a 
 treaty and the direct orders of government were but 
 lightly dealt with ; and in all, a total disregard was 
 evinced for the acts even of such men as Warren 
 Hastings and Lord Lake. * • • 
 
 "The rajah of Mynpoory, whose predecessor had 
 received the highest acknowledgments from the 
 British government for his unshaken loyalty, when 
 the district was overrun by Holkar's army in the 
 year 1804, was, without a reference to government, 
 under construction put on the right of a talookdar, 
 deprived entirely, he and his successore in perpetuity, 
 of all power of interference in 116 of 158 villages 
 included in his talooka, which had descended to him 
 in regular succession, before the introduction of the 
 British rule. * • • 
 
 " In Alighur, Teekum Sing, the rajah of Moor- 
 saun, had his talooka curtailed by the severance of 
 138 of the 216 villages which it contained. The 
 village proprietors, with whom the settlement was 
 made to the exclusion of the rajah, proved in many 
 instances unequal to meet the obligation they had 
 incurred. • • • 
 
 " His Honour, in his remarks on the policy of thus 
 roughly handling these tenures, whence all that 
 remains of an aristocracy in the land derives its 
 support, observed, that there is a striking inconsis- 
 tency in the imposition of eighteen per cent, on 
 villages severed from a talooka as a compensation to 
 the talookdai. If that personage has not a title, 
 such as it is found impossible entirely to reject, why 
 saddle the land with this cess on his account; and if 
 he has a title, ought it not to rest with some more 
 impartial authority to set it aside, than a zealous 
 settlement officer, bent upon the realisation of 
 schemes to which those very talookas are a serious 
 obstacle ? 
 
 " The demarcation of the component portions of 
 every village, and the recording of the several rights 
 comprised therein, is what is technically called the 
 ' khusreh' survey. It is a necessary preliminary to a 
 settlement that had better, perhaps, been kept 
 separate from the scientific survey. The khusrehs 
 done in connection with that operation have many 
 of them been found inaccurate, and have had to be 
 entirely revised by the settlement oflTicers. 
 
 " To keep up a record of the circumstances of 
 every field, there must be a constant interference of 
 the executive in the affairs of every village, or, it 
 may be said, of every villager, which would be 
 irksome to any people, and will prove intolerable to 
 the natives of India. Already has it been found 
 necessary in many quarters to get rid of the old 
 putwarrees, and emi)loy in their stead more efficient 
 accountants ; but even with these, an almost un- 
 attainable vigilance will be required to pre\'ent the 
 progressive illa]ise of error and confusion. 
 
 " In conclusion, the Lieutenant-governor observes, 
 that it is a fearful experiment, that of trying to 
 govern without the aid of any intermediate agency 
 of indigenous growth, yet it is what the measures 
 now in progress have a direct tendency to bring 
 
 about. In a short time all may stand on a new 
 basis; the village watchman and the village ac- 
 countant may be persons in the direct service of that 
 government, of which the village proprietor may 
 appear but the nominee, while every trace of su- 
 perior existing rank will disappear under the three- 
 fold agency of the parcelling of talooks, the resump- 
 tion laws, and that late act, regarding sales, by 
 which the government has placed a restriction on 
 the exercise of its own prerogative of mercy. 
 
 " Far ahead, as in movements like the present, 
 the real objects often are of the avowed, there are 
 yet many who candidly admit the fall of what may 
 still be called the aristocracy and gentry of the 
 country, to be a not improbable consequence of the 
 system now pursuing, but who look forward with 
 confidence to the regeneration that is to spring from 
 this decay. 
 
 "Such spe'tulations may be safely indulged in by 
 individuals, but it is not for a government thus to 
 seek to escape from the practical duty of endea- 
 vouring, in giving content to the people at large, to 
 avoid giving disgust to particular classes, or of pre- 
 venting property from being dealt with in disregard 
 of the remark of a profound politician, ' that a rnan 
 will sooner forgive the death of his father than the 
 loss of his inheritance.' 
 
 " It is in this respect that the settlement appears 
 most open to exception : assuming the absolute 
 correctness of its own principles, and acting upon 
 these with a speed that ill accorded with its ju- 
 dicial character, it too often refused to pause to 
 weigh the various merits of any claim tnat pre- 
 sented an obstacle to the high-pressure pace of its 
 progress. 
 
 " It was impossible that those employed should 
 not have their minds somewhat tinged by the colour 
 of the work they were engaged in ; and it may not 
 be a mistaken belief that a disposition to look upon 
 men (natives) as mere units of the mass about which 
 alone it is becoming to feel any interest, has of late 
 grown very prevalent among the junior portion 
 of the civil service. 
 
 " Conducted upon somewhat arbitrary principles, 
 the settlement has not encouraged much indepen- 
 dence of mind among its agents; and the uniformity 
 that pervades all the reports which his Honour as yet 
 has perused, is very remarkable in the productions of 
 a service whose most prominent characteristic used 
 to be a free and fearless expression of opinion on 
 the part even of its youngest members." 
 
 It is not surprising, that the proviuces 
 where this system was pursued, are the 
 chief seats of tlie present revolt. 
 
 In Central India, under the Mahratta 
 government, leases were granted for long 
 periods, some extending to even seventy 
 years, which, says Malcolm, "gave the 
 renter an interest in the improvement of 
 the country beyond what he can have un- 
 der a short lease. The respect for some 
 renters has been so great, tliat large dis- 
 tricts have been, tliroughout the most 
 troubled jicriods, rented to their families." 
 It was the usage of tlic just Princess of 
 Indore, Ahalya Bye, to grant long leases ; 
 and many districts, " to this system owe
 
 their prosperity."* In confirmation of its 
 value, it may be remarked that, in the 
 regions thus situated, the inhabitants were 
 exempted from famine, except, as in 
 1803-' t, when tiie desohitinf? incursions of 
 myriads of armed horsemen trod down all 
 cultivation, and prevented the tillage of the 
 soil. 
 
 Bombay. — There is no " permanent set- 
 tlement" — in fact, no defined revenue 
 system, in the territories under the adminis- 
 tration of this presidency: in sonic places 
 there is a settlement, with villages ; in 
 others, with individual chiefs; or there is a 
 Ryotwar modification ; but no proprietary 
 right has been conceded ; the fee-simple in 
 the land does not exist. The result is im- 
 perfect cultivation, extensive wastes, much 
 poverty, and comparatively small exportable 
 produce. Some years since, when discuss- 
 ing tlie snbjcct in the Court of Proprietors, 
 the author found that the assessment in 
 Guzerat was equal to 7s. 6d. a beegah = 
 22s. 8rf. per acre. Since then the govern- 
 ment have found it necessary to reduce the 
 amount. 
 
 Punjab. — Under Seik administration, 
 the government assessment of the land 
 varied from two-fifths to one-third of the 
 gross produce ; the exaction was less in the 
 distant and imperfectly conquered terri- 
 tories : in the peculiarly rich lands round 
 Peshiiwur, the " government share never 
 exceeded one-third, and usually averaged 
 one-fourth or one-fifth, and fell even lower 
 — down to one-eighth of the crop,"t paid 
 in kind. In 1847 the revenue was thus 
 collected : — From kirdars (answering, pro- 
 bably, to the word zemindars), 2,549,873 
 rupees ; from heads of villages, 1,823,556 ; 
 by division and appraisement of crop, 
 among coparcenary communities, 8,944,658 
 ^ 13,318,087 rupees. In addition, there 
 were various other imposts^extra cesses, 
 capitation-taxes, village artisans' fines, graz- 
 ing taxes, and custom duties innumerable. 
 Since we became possessed of the country, 
 the land revenue has been reduced in 
 amount, but collected in money. Owing 
 to a great fall in prices, too high an assess- 
 ment, and want of fixity of tenure, there 
 lias been considerable distress among the 
 cultivators ; and the report on the state of 
 the Punjab, up to 1850, is the least 
 favourable section of that important and 
 generally satisfactory document. 
 
 • Malcolm's Political India, vol. ii., p. 41. 
 t Ollioial Report on the Punjab, l.S50-'ol, p. 5G. 
 4 F 
 
 Wc could not take a more effective step 
 for the security of British power at these 
 gates of India, than by announcing to the 
 people that the laud is theirs in jiorpetuity, 
 subject to a reasonable tax. If this were 
 done, the Seiks and Scindians would guard 
 warily against the ajiproach of ilussia or 
 any other power that might attempt to 
 molest the rulers who guaranteed them in 
 the secure possession of their homesteads ; 
 and with a brave and hardy population, 
 enjoying for the first time the advantage of 
 just and merciful rule, Kngland might bid 
 defiance to all external aggression via the 
 Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, Herat, or Cen- 
 tral Asia ; secured by a better bulwark 
 than even the sandy wastes and barely 
 traversable mountains which skirt our 
 northern and western frontiers. 
 
 The exact pecuniary burthen imposed by 
 the land-tax of India cannot be defined : 
 the pressure on the cultivator depends on 
 various circumstances — such as perpetuity 
 or uncertainty of tenure ; quantity of waste 
 land available to the farmer ; richness or 
 poorness of soil ; density and prosperity of 
 population, or the reverse ; proximity or 
 remoteness from remunerative markets ; 
 good or bad roads, or water carriage ; 
 means of irrigation ; and, above all, the 
 quantity of money in circulation (of which 
 there is a lamentable deficiency), which 
 materially influences the range of high or 
 low prices for produce. A parliamentary 
 return, in 1827, shows the following re- 
 sults : — 
 
 Bengal. Madras. Bombay. 
 
 Pop. per sq. mile — number . 244 77 76 
 
 Land-tax per sq. mile — pence . 23 17 19 
 
 Ditto per liead annually — pence 22 52 60 
 
 Accurate conclusions cannot be drawn 
 from this statement. Viewed according to 
 area, it appears that Bengal, under a pro- 
 prietary system, pays more to the state, per 
 square mile, than Madras or Bombay under 
 a fluctuating and uncertain tenure. Pros- 
 perity, by causing an augmentation of 
 population, spreads the assessment over a 
 larger mass, and Hghtens the burthen. 
 But although Bombay and Madras nomi- 
 nally contribute twice and three times as 
 much per head as Bengal, yet the frequent 
 recurrence of famines, the constant neces- 
 sity for remissions, and the expenses which 
 a landlord who grants no leases is bound in 
 justice to bear, reduces the amount, and 
 renders the regular payment of the lesser 
 sum — cheaply collected, and without draw-
 
 582 
 
 LAND SHOULD BE GRANTED IN FEE-SIMPLE. 
 
 backs — a much more reliable revenue to 
 government.* 
 
 Au iujurious land revenue system has so 
 completely impoverished the presidencies of 
 Madras and Bombay, that neither of these 
 large territorial possessions — the one com- 
 prising an area of 138,000 square miles, 
 with 23,000,000 inhabitants ; and the other 
 73,000 miles, with 12,000,000 inhabitants 
 — furnish an income adequate to their an- 
 nual expenditure : the deficiency is pro- 
 vided from the financial surplus of Bengal, 
 where a just land-tax has been in operation 
 since 1790. 
 
 In the fertile districts under the adminis- 
 tration of Madrasf and Bombay, there is 
 great, and, it is to be feared, increasing im- 
 poverishment. There are but two classes of 
 society — the few are money-lenders ; the 
 many, poor and borrowing agriculturists. 
 The great bulk of the people live from hand 
 to mouth, and have their numbers almost 
 periodically thinned by famine and pesti- 
 lence. A strong and despotic government 
 cannot be acquitted of blame, if there be no 
 improvement in the physical condition and 
 moral position of its subjects — if life be a 
 mere daily struggle for the lowest means of 
 existence, and all hope of amelioration be 
 denied. 
 
 If the British Crown had refused to grant 
 the laud in fee-simple in America, Australia, 
 the West Indies, and South Africa, how few 
 colonists would have gone thither. If the 
 government had annually exacted 30 to 50 
 per cent, of the produce of the soil in those 
 settlements, who would have felled the 
 forest, drained the swamp, or tilled the 
 ground ? — and if no change of rulers could 
 deteriorate the condition of the agricul- 
 turists, what interest would they have in 
 
 upholding exi.sting governments, or in re- 
 sisting foreign invaders? 
 
 The subject is one of vital and pressing 
 interest. In Hindoostan, as well as else- 
 where, man will convert a rock into a 
 garden, if it be his own property ; but he 
 will suffer a garden to become a desert if he 
 be deprived of that right, and subjected to 
 an arbitrary, indefinite, and often over- 
 whelming weight of taxation. In the former 
 case, he will support the government that 
 secures him in the peaceful enjoyment ot 
 his territorial rights ; in the latter, he will 
 be induced to wish for a change of masters, 
 under whom his condition may be improved, 
 especially if the tempting bait be held out 
 of the concession of a fee-simple tenure of 
 the soil. Recent events have done much 
 to bring conviction to many minds, of the 
 necessity of grappling with the complicated 
 difficulties of this question. Confiscation 
 has been going on in various parts of India 
 during the whole century of British su- 
 premacy ; but the mode has been indirect 
 and insidious : the sufferers have been for 
 the most part peasants, unable to set forth 
 the rights and grievances which few of 
 their foreign rulers could justly appreciate. 
 Yet the very idea of wholesale confisca- 
 tion, even as a measure of retribution, is 
 scouted by the British public ; and it foUows, 
 that if proprietary rights are to be respected 
 as the groundwork of the settlement of 
 Oude, much more should they be sedulously 
 investigated and guarded in other provinces 
 where no right of conquest can be pleaded. 
 Of Oude itself, nothing has been said 
 in the present chapter ; its recent annexa- 
 tion, and the mode of its occupation, neces- 
 sarily forming an important feature of the 
 narrative on which we are about to enter. 
 
 * A Meturnfor the Year 1855-'56, shows the proportion which the Revenue derived from Land, bears to 
 
 the other sources of Taxation. 
 
 Divisions. 
 
 Land. 
 
 Sayer, &c. 
 
 Moturpha. 
 
 Excise. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Salt. 
 
 Opium. IPost-Office 
 
 Stamps. 1 Mint. 
 
 Bcni^al . . . 
 N.W. Provinces 
 Madras . . . 
 Bombay . . . 
 Punjab . . . 
 
 4,668,156 
 4,999,497 
 3,642,251 
 2,845,723 
 954,344 
 
 499,190 
 302,715 
 247,033 
 115,630 
 78,990 
 
 108^81 
 
 45,147 
 
 6,212,493 
 6,302,212 
 3.997,965 
 2,961,,i53 
 1,033,334 
 
 1,081,034 
 549,235 
 541,584 
 275,402 
 203,601 
 
 4,171,718 
 1,024,258 
 
 44,864 
 87,282 
 59,222 
 22,129 
 23,956 
 
 223,552 118,853 
 169,224 — 
 71,312 18,640 
 68,496 58,493 
 20,167 — 
 
 £ 
 
 17,109,971 
 
 1,243,558 
 
 108,681 
 
 45,147 
 
 18,507,357 
 
 2,651,456 
 
 5.195,976 
 
 237,463 
 
 852,751 1 195,986 
 
 Customs 
 
 . £2,106,657 
 
 Miscellaneous 
 
 £1,369,892. Gross Total 
 
 £30,817,528. 
 
 t The president of the Board of Uevenue at Madras, in a minute dated June 16th, 1854, declares that 
 "portion.s of the richest and finest lands under the presidency have been thrown out of cultivation, in 
 consequence of the impos.sibility of paying the excessive assessment charged on them ;" and Lord Harris, 
 the governor of Madras, laments " a condition of affairs so unnatural and so hostile to the best interests 
 of the government and of the entire population." — (Pari. Taper, No. 83; June 8th, 1857.) 
 
 END OF VOL. I.
 
 TABLE OF DISTANCES BETWEEN DIFFERENT 
 
 To find the Distance between two places, sucli as Bombay and Poonah, look along the column parallel to the word 
 
 In the intersection show 
 
 Agra. 1 4C0 
 
 GGo] 200 
 
 — 1 — ' 
 
 2'.I6' 120.5 
 
 02. 
 
 579 
 
 1019 
 
 1207 
 
 125 
 
 379 
 
 705 
 
 848 
 
 839 
 
 185 
 
 1104 
 
 1473 
 
 1060 
 
 980 
 
 984 
 
 400 
 
 120 794 830 
 
 70 
 
 98 
 
 rco 
 
 104S 
 
 1052 
 
 200 
 
 83' 
 
 
 Alimcdabad ... 
 
 388 1 280 
 
 02.5 8.50 
 
 32( 
 
 800 
 
 040 
 
 921 
 
 000 
 
 080 
 
 245 
 
 321 
 
 1234 
 
 600 
 
 740 
 
 1183 
 
 888 
 
 681 
 
 1304 
 
 104 
 
 570 1085 903 
 
 500 
 
 550 
 
 840 
 
 078 
 
 798 
 
 490 
 
 OIC 
 
 
 Alimednuii^ur ] 610 
 
 73.5 602 
 
 6f 
 
 1047 
 
 340 
 
 530 
 
 875 
 
 700 
 
 027 
 
 181 
 
 1033 
 
 040 
 
 400 
 
 883 
 
 440 
 
 270 
 
 321 
 
 523 
 
 905 1000 370 
 
 040 
 
 090 
 
 070 
 
 260 
 
 350 
 
 810 
 
 2«l 
 
 
 Ajmere 
 
 5041214 
 
 54. 
 
 787 
 
 973 
 
 1101 
 
 335 
 
 587 
 
 400 
 
 050 
 
 1035 
 
 395 
 
 1058 
 
 1407 
 
 1058 
 
 870 
 
 1194 
 
 220 
 
 220 997 930 
 
 200 
 
 304 
 
 963 
 
 995 
 
 977 
 
 210 
 
 811 
 
 
 ABahalad 
 
 ....|lll0 
 
 63- 
 
 279 
 
 975 
 
 1096 
 
 283 
 
 80 
 
 805 
 
 977 
 
 498 
 
 143 
 
 1000 
 
 1391 
 
 965 
 
 905 
 
 690l 010 
 
 429 493 934 
 
 190 
 
 238 
 
 510 
 
 1030 
 
 1099 
 
 509 
 
 73.1 
 
 1 
 
 Arcot 
 
 
 6« 
 
 1392 
 
 202 
 
 135 
 
 1312 
 
 1180 
 
 1198 
 
 722 
 
 1850 
 
 1105 
 
 273 
 
 390 
 
 14.5 
 
 300 
 
 1227 1125 
 
 1329 1252 323 
 
 1115 
 
 1230 
 
 685 
 
 530 
 
 209 
 
 1409 
 
 37.5 
 
 
 A 
 
 uvurgabad. . 
 
 980 
 
 428 
 
 010 
 
 782 
 
 704 
 
 596 
 
 2C0 
 
 963 
 
 638 
 
 513 
 
 882 
 
 513 
 
 412 
 
 1275 
 
 492 
 
 749 1210 523 
 
 610 
 
 700 
 
 630 
 
 423 
 
 440 
 
 750 
 
 315 
 
 
 
 Baliar 
 
 1207 
 
 1455 
 
 509 
 
 196 
 
 1121 
 
 1230 
 
 297 
 
 400 
 
 1352 
 
 1673 
 
 1247 
 
 1237 
 
 407 
 
 889 
 
 703 230 1115 
 
 502 
 
 407 
 
 430 
 
 1312 
 
 1201 
 
 510 
 
 1017 
 
 
 
 Ballary 
 
 176 
 
 1110 
 
 1045 
 
 977 
 
 455 
 
 1090 
 
 030 
 
 85 
 
 454 
 
 149 
 
 130 
 
 1192 
 
 863 
 
 1143 1288 325 
 
 1000 
 
 1079 
 
 450 
 
 240 
 
 53 
 
 1118 
 
 240 
 
 
 
 Bangalore. 
 
 
 1324 
 
 1162 
 
 1141 
 
 032 
 
 1161 
 
 147 
 
 138 
 
 317 
 
 155 
 
 260 
 
 1327 
 
 1011 
 
 1331 1352 423 
 
 1107 
 
 1242 
 
 753 
 
 390 
 
 176 
 
 1252 
 
 361 
 
 
 
 BareUly...'. ... 
 
 345 
 
 830 
 
 1030 
 
 910 
 
 177 
 
 1195 
 
 1023 
 
 1135 
 
 1105 
 
 904 
 
 525 
 
 142 7 
 
 37 1175 
 
 120 
 
 82 
 
 830 
 
 1215 
 
 1151 
 
 322 
 
 967 
 
 
 
 Benarca 
 
 875 
 
 950 
 
 428 
 
 226 
 
 1130 
 
 1461 
 
 1035 
 
 995 
 
 559 
 
 090 
 
 503 410 873 
 
 270 
 
 321 
 
 460 
 
 1100 
 
 989 
 
 589 
 
 745 
 
 
 
 BhooJ 
 
 
 5.5C 
 
 1415 
 1301 
 
 749 
 939 
 
 985 
 494 
 
 1510 
 780 
 
 1109 
 609 
 
 888 
 364 
 
 1639 
 1475 
 
 219 
 452 
 
 609 1748 1148 
 880 1400 779 
 
 699 
 710 
 
 747 
 950 
 
 1085 
 851 
 
 923 
 292 
 
 1043 
 487 
 
 1017 
 974 
 20 
 
 600 
 790 
 1049 
 3S9 
 1268 
 1632 
 
 856 
 430 
 902 
 790 
 325 
 650 
 
 
 
 nmhiiv . . 
 
 
 ' 
 
 Calcutta... 
 
 
 700 
 
 1173 
 
 1498 
 
 997 
 
 1172 
 
 177 
 
 1226 
 
 976 233 719 
 
 708 
 
 
 369 
 
 1300 
 975 
 257 
 407 
 
 
 
 Cawnpoor. . 
 
 
 111.5 
 
 1446 
 
 1020 
 
 980 
 
 833 
 
 530 
 
 309 636 655 
 
 80 
 
 95 
 
 053 
 
 
 
 PhlftlnHrnnrr 
 
 397 
 
 190 
 
 130 
 
 1348 
 
 923 
 
 1228 1373 444 
 
 490 
 
 1164 
 
 784 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 Cochin 
 
 472 
 
 442 
 
 1073 
 
 1306 
 
 1697 1695 76'l 
 
 1390 
 
 1541 
 
 1070 
 
 472 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cuddapah .... 
 
 279 
 
 1172 
 
 1005 
 
 1184 1197 268 
 
 970 
 
 1085 
 
 008 
 
 389 
 
 96 
 
 1171 
 
 820 
 
 
 
 DISTANCE 
 
 S 
 
 Dharwar. 
 
 
 1344 
 
 084 
 
 1105 1260 420 
 
 1022 
 
 1112 
 
 720 
 
 80 
 1505 
 730 
 1172 
 1620 
 
 173 
 1192 
 
 873 
 1125 
 1217 
 
 1080 
 1148 
 
 430 
 80 
 
 991 
 
 205 
 1112 
 630 
 900 
 1137 
 
 
 
 
 
 Dacca ....*... 
 
 1140 
 
 1108 190 904 
 
 829 
 
 880 
 
 546 
 
 
 
 FROU 
 
 
 Deesa 
 
 450 Unnl sin 
 
 450 
 
 500 
 
 870 
 
 
 
 CALCUT 
 
 TA, 
 
 Dplhi 
 
 
 
 U 960 
 .. 919 
 
 175 
 091 
 
 185 
 
 692 
 
 880 
 .544 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Dinajepoor.. 
 
 
 
 
 
 EUore. ...'.... 
 
 808 
 
 923 
 
 340 
 
 601 
 
 288 
 
 1010 
 
 209 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Etawah 
 
 55 
 
 660 
 
 1033 
 
 924 
 
 210 
 
 740 
 
 
 
 
 
 DifitAnces from CiilcuUa (contd.) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Adoni 
 
 ... 1030 
 
 
 FulTuckabad.. 
 
 748 
 
 1134 
 
 1069 
 
 265 
 
 885 
 
 
 
 AUygliur 
 
 ... 803 
 
 Comorin Cape 1770 
 
 Ganj; 
 
 m 
 
 843 
 
 590 
 
 900 
 
 460 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 n^r. 
 
 293 
 
 1055 
 1020 
 
 393 
 187 
 
 
 
 Almora 
 
 ... 910 
 
 Catmandoo 560 
 
 
 Gooty .... 
 
 
 
 
 Anjengo 
 
 ... 1577 
 
 Dinapoor 411 
 
 DISTANCES 
 FaoM 
 
 Han 
 
 ll .. 
 
 
 880 
 
 
 
 
 
 Hydrabad 
 
 
 Arracan 
 
 ... 557 
 
 EUichpoor 700 
 
 MADRAS. 
 
 Islamabad 
 
 
 AzLmghar 
 
 ... 448 
 
 Feroepoor 1181 
 
 Adoni 270 
 
 Arnee 74 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Backergunge 
 
 ... 125 
 
 Futtj-ghur 703 
 
 Azinigliui- 1220 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Distances ftom Uadrai (coat*!.) 
 
 
 
 Balaiore 
 
 ... UC 
 
 Ghazecpoor 431 
 
 Backergunge 1210 
 
 Balasol-e 922 
 
 NagRCry 57 
 
 
 
 Bancoorah 
 
 ... 101 
 
 Golconda 907 
 
 Bandah 1102 
 
 KeemiuU 533 
 
 
 
 Banda 
 
 ... 5<;o 
 
 Guntoor 607 
 
 Beder 470 
 
 Bednore 300 
 
 Negapatam 160 
 
 Kundidroog 106 
 
 
 
 Barrackpoor 
 
 ... 16 
 
 Gwalior 772 
 
 Belgaum 519 
 
 Oojein 1009 
 
 
 
 Beder 
 
 ... 980 
 
 HoosunRabad 924 
 
 BimHpatam 518 
 
 Broach 9)7 
 
 Oude 1228 
 
 Taniput 1428 
 
 
 
 Bcdnore 
 
 ... 1290 
 
 Indore 1030 
 
 Burdwan 1066 
 
 Tonany 404 
 
 
 
 Beerbhoom 
 
 ... 127 
 
 Jej-poor 850 
 
 Cabool 2131 
 
 Calicut 335 
 
 Pubna 1211 
 
 Pulicat 22 
 
 
 
 Beltool 
 
 ... C77 
 
 Lahore 1356 
 
 Cannanore 345 
 
 Quilon 385 
 
 
 
 Bijnour 
 
 ... SCO 
 
 Lassa _ 650 
 
 Cashmere 1882 
 
 Raichoor 319 
 
 
 
 Broach 
 
 ... 1228 
 
 Midnapoor 69 
 
 Chinglcput 30 
 
 Cliunar 1140 
 
 liamnad 275 
 
 Hhotiik 1422 
 
 
 
 Bhiugulpoor 
 
 ... 2CS 
 
 Miizapoor 448 
 
 Com&rin Cape 440 
 
 Kungpoor 1322 
 
 
 
 BUopol 
 
 ... 790 
 
 Monghyr 304 
 
 Condaptlly 2S5 
 
 Ruttiinpoor 903 
 
 
 
 
 
 Conjevcram 42 
 
 Sutiarunpoor ... ... J477 
 
 
 
 Burdwan 
 
 ... 74 
 
 Moorshcdahod 124 
 
 Cuddalore lOO 
 
 Sadraa 42 
 
 
 
 Buiar 
 
 ... 398 
 
 Muttia 831 
 
 Dindigul 217 
 
 Dowlutabad ... w. C55 
 
 Socunderabad 308 
 
 Shcrgliotty 12S8 
 
 
 
 Cabool 
 
 ... 1815 
 
 Jlyeoor 12lfi 
 
 ElIicliiKior COO 
 
 Slialiabad 1307 
 
 
 
 Calinyapatam 
 
 ... 480 
 
 Oude 562 
 
 Golconda 358 
 
 Guntoor 225 
 
 Tattah 1«7 
 
 Slronj 905 
 
 
 
 Ciilpco 
 
 ... C48 
 
 Pumeah 283 
 
 Gwalior UBl 
 
 Indore ., 975 
 
 Tinncvelly 360 
 
 Tilvandium 305 
 
 
 
 Cambay 
 
 ... 1253 
 
 SironJ 619 
 
 Juggumattth 695 
 
 TraiKuicliar 147 
 
 
 
 Candalmr 
 
 ... 2047 
 
 Sumbulpoor 309 
 
 Kamptee 722 
 
 Kumool 289 
 
 Tlilicorin 325 
 
 Vencataglierry 132 
 
 
 
 Caslimcns 
 
 ... 1504 
 
 Tattah 1002 
 
 Lahore 1675 
 
 Wai'ungiil 414 
 
 
 
 Chuiiar 
 
 ... 4.17 
 
 Vclloro 1029 
 
 Moorsheilatiail 1138 
 
 Yelwall 293 

 
 PLACES IN IllUTISlI JNDIA.-IHUITISII MILES.) 
 
 Bombay until It IntorBecte the vertical column Ininiodialuly over the termination of the word Foonata. The figure* 
 
 the number of Mllea. 
 
 
 1 21 
 
 r,2« 
 
 .300 
 
 910 
 
 4H0 
 
 1.50 
 
 777 
 
 202 
 
 11.5K 1109 
 
 1288 
 
 081 
 
 ,538 
 
 210 
 
 1305 
 
 451 
 
 1372 
 
 790 
 
 918 1,115 
 
 921 
 
 8,50 
 
 2'.0 
 
 lOo 
 
 IS19 
 
 901 
 
 778 
 
 380- 
 
 1 
 
 080 1 (00 
 
 1279 
 
 1 ' 1 
 
 1406 1173^ 9C0| ^ 
 
 
 ISH 
 
 340 
 
 C85 
 
 1145 
 
 24 
 
 480 
 
 1032 
 
 040 
 
 1040 1177 
 
 BOO 
 
 820 
 
 440 
 
 280 
 
 1021 
 
 820 
 
 1101 
 
 413 
 
 770 1001 
 
 800 
 
 478 
 
 400 
 
 015 
 
 941 
 
 1285 
 
 671 
 
 075 
 
 1,58 
 
 1161 
 
 999 
 
 1131 
 
 840 648 
 
 "^ 
 
 
 1350 
 
 90 
 
 785 
 
 1000 
 
 384 
 
 540 
 
 853 
 
 COO 
 
 013 720 
 
 503 
 
 470 
 
 300 
 
 00,5 
 
 580 
 
 90,' 
 
 082 
 
 70 
 
 620 010 
 
 5,50 
 
 120 
 
 410 
 
 790 
 
 600 
 
 1180 
 
 120 
 
 COO 
 
 2C2 
 
 700 
 
 698 
 
 680 
 
 W7 20O 
 
 
 
 1270 
 
 f)50 
 
 480 
 
 1037 
 
 290 
 
 310 
 
 900 
 
 445 
 
 11,52:1421 
 
 1242 
 
 075 
 
 553 
 
 20 
 
 1205 
 
 747 
 
 1297 
 
 730 
 
 903 1201 
 
 910 
 
 700 
 
 309 
 
 304 
 
 1186 
 
 1197 
 
 710 
 
 680 
 
 495 
 
 1403 
 
 11,50 
 
 1331 I'2I4 
 
 920 
 
 9^' 
 
 
 80) 
 
 070 
 
 .50 
 
 020 
 
 025 
 
 140 
 
 484 
 
 127 
 
 1055 1.175 
 
 1244 
 
 979 
 
 405 
 
 430 
 
 1220 
 
 213 
 
 1,07 
 
 788 
 
 050 
 
 1175 
 
 052 
 
 856 
 
 320 
 
 180 
 
 1149 
 
 760 
 
 736 
 
 70 
 
 769 
 
 1314 
 
 1239 
 
 1246 1079 
 
 935 
 
 '.•: 
 
 
 UIO 
 
 COl 
 
 UOO 
 
 121k 
 
 980 
 
 1025 
 
 798 
 
 1215 
 
 73 
 
 205 
 
 300 
 
 305 
 
 705 
 
 1134 
 
 210 
 
 1340 
 
 81 
 
 036 
 
 383 
 
 120 
 
 413 
 
 942 
 
 919 
 
 12.19 
 
 210 
 
 1305 
 
 402 
 
 1170 
 
 870 
 
 169 
 
 290 
 
 170 
 
 9 
 
 498 
 
 
 
 1272 
 
 35 
 
 085 
 
 1033 
 
 353 
 
 510 
 
 774 
 
 088 
 
 089 
 
 824 
 
 097 
 
 533 
 
 293 
 
 400 
 
 720 
 
 804 
 
 730 
 
 144 
 
 470 
 
 710 
 
 490 
 
 200 
 
 380 
 
 726 
 
 G40 
 
 1347 
 
 171 
 
 094 
 
 231 
 
 668 
 
 CIO 
 
 828 
 
 639 
 
 349 
 
 
 
 .54? 
 
 917 
 
 190 
 
 271) 
 
 810 
 
 400 
 
 455 
 
 353 
 
 1237 
 
 1057 
 
 1530 
 
 1100 
 
 717 
 
 709 
 
 1508 
 
 40 
 
 1326 
 
 1138 
 
 640 
 
 11,50 
 
 030 
 
 1147 
 
 440 
 
 3C0 
 
 1431 
 
 410 
 
 10.57 
 
 170 
 
 lOOO 
 
 1444 
 
 1627 
 
 1666 
 
 1390 
 
 1077 
 
 'V 
 
 
 1338 
 
 300 
 
 915 
 
 1210 
 
 008 
 
 890 
 
 834 
 
 1080 
 
 317 
 
 390 
 
 200 
 
 345 
 
 400 
 
 830 
 
 202 
 
 1205 
 
 313 
 
 3,57 
 
 370 
 
 288 
 
 400 
 
 265 
 
 770 
 
 1090 
 
 212 
 
 1413 
 
 200 
 
 1035 
 
 640 
 
 430 
 
 260 
 
 393 
 
 220 
 
 2.10 
 
 4- 
 
 
 13U2 
 
 .543 
 
 1140 
 
 1203 
 
 014 
 
 1011 
 
 808 
 
 1197 
 
 208 
 
 202 
 
 198 
 
 .178 
 
 087 
 
 1000 
 
 1.10 
 
 1382 
 
 170 
 
 531 
 
 473 
 
 100 
 
 .503 
 
 403 
 
 891 
 
 1181 
 
 C5 
 
 1477 
 
 388 
 
 1162 
 
 809 
 
 200 
 
 ICO 
 
 165 
 
 no 
 
 360 
 
 .',:. 
 
 
 10511 
 
 753 
 
 270 
 
 772 
 
 005 
 
 210 
 
 940 
 
 1.50 
 
 1297 
 
 1,577 
 
 1345 
 
 1185 
 
 575 
 
 335 
 
 1498 
 
 472 
 
 1380 
 
 940 
 
 070 
 
 1310 
 
 935 
 
 081 
 
 3,10 
 
 69 
 
 1381 
 
 927 
 
 810 
 
 321 
 
 842 
 
 I5IC 
 
 1328 
 
 14091235 
 
 1020 
 
 1210 
 
 
 009 
 
 705 
 
 40 
 
 420 
 
 085 
 
 220 
 
 430 
 
 189 
 
 1103 
 
 1445 
 
 1314 
 
 748 
 
 475 
 
 510 
 
 1290 
 
 1,55 
 
 12.0 
 
 930 
 
 660 
 
 11,55 
 
 COO 
 
 915 
 
 280 
 
 234 
 
 1170 
 
 COO 
 
 815 
 
 10 
 
 905 
 
 1.184 
 
 1309 
 
 I286II80 
 
 1035 
 
 570 
 
 
 1701 
 
 ,565 
 
 855 
 
 1319 
 
 234 
 
 Olio 
 
 1277 
 
 779 
 
 1107 
 
 1281 
 
 1110 
 
 1008 
 
 085 
 
 410 
 
 1125 
 
 1044 
 
 1279 
 
 020 
 
 1065 
 
 1300 
 
 1105 
 
 085 
 
 049 
 
 805 
 
 1180 
 
 1475 
 
 778 
 
 805 
 
 30.5 
 
 1383 
 
 1196 
 
 1306 1188 
 
 820 
 
 Il2i> 
 
 
 1531 
 
 220 
 
 1037 
 
 1312 
 
 313 
 
 OtiO 
 
 1034 
 
 923 
 
 774 
 
 8G2 
 
 518 
 
 080 
 
 652 
 
 500 
 
 000 
 
 1143 
 
 805 
 
 08 
 
 709 
 
 730 
 
 740 
 
 146 
 
 555 
 
 8,59 
 
 022 
 
 1605 
 
 258 
 
 1120 
 
 177 
 
 074 
 
 016 
 
 849 076 
 
 270 
 
 761 
 
 
 2511 
 
 9.52 
 
 500 
 
 214 
 
 1200 
 
 GOO 
 
 251 
 
 049 
 
 1030 
 
 1330 
 
 1313 
 
 704 
 
 722 
 
 UOO 
 
 1208 
 
 341 
 
 1130 
 
 1208 
 
 009 
 
 1102 
 
 019 
 
 1232 
 
 800 
 
 094 
 
 1170 
 
 325 
 
 934 
 
 455 
 
 1238 
 
 1230 
 
 1312 
 
 1238 1029 
 
 ,2.52 
 
 557 
 
 
 92.5 
 
 570 
 
 100 
 
 703 
 
 540 
 
 8H 
 
 027 
 
 40 
 
 1182 
 
 1430 
 
 1100 
 
 700 
 
 400 
 
 340 
 
 1281 
 
 2.^0 
 
 1271 
 
 841 
 
 793 
 
 1200 
 
 820 
 
 780 
 
 220 
 
 82 
 
 1204 
 
 903 
 
 700 
 
 210 
 
 738 
 
 1309 
 
 1290 
 
 1383 1120 
 
 98. 
 
 1076 
 
 
 1423 
 
 41-5 
 
 1110 
 
 1383 
 
 784 
 
 975 
 
 919 
 
 1105 
 
 345 
 
 400 
 
 184 
 
 432 
 
 055 
 
 973 
 
 220 
 
 1200 
 
 354 
 
 300 
 
 404 
 
 228 
 
 5:4 
 
 310 
 
 850 
 
 1196 
 
 152 
 
 1498 
 
 200 
 
 1120 
 
 071 
 
 380 
 
 188 
 
 303 23fl 
 
 226 
 
 CI4 
 
 
 1700 
 
 710 
 
 1441 
 
 1.580 
 
 11C.5 
 
 1314 
 
 1244 
 
 1400 
 
 450 
 
 150 
 
 252 
 
 751 
 
 980 
 
 1.170 
 
 110 
 
 1121 
 
 300 
 
 770 
 
 790 
 
 180 
 
 820 
 
 622 
 
 1224 
 
 1,524 
 
 190 
 
 1794 
 
 655 
 
 1451 
 
 1015 
 
 310 
 
 140 
 
 180 290 
 
 482 
 
 900 
 
 
 1233 
 
 430 
 
 ,015 
 
 1108 
 
 730 
 
 880 
 
 743 
 
 1070 
 
 105 
 
 410 
 
 380 
 
 223 
 
 560 
 
 900 
 
 285 
 
 1105 
 
 220 
 
 507 
 
 318 
 
 205 
 
 348 
 
 414 
 
 760 
 
 1000 
 
 231 
 
 1308 
 
 300 
 
 1025 
 
 725 
 
 340 
 
 331 
 
 250 110 
 
 379 
 
 438 
 
 
 1452 
 
 320 
 
 055 
 
 1308 
 
 045 
 
 G5K 
 
 948 
 
 020 
 
 440 
 
 490 
 
 100 
 
 478 
 
 520 
 
 875 
 
 340 
 
 1475 
 
 200 
 
 208 
 
 470 
 
 300 
 
 500 
 
 180 
 
 070 
 
 970 
 
 260 
 
 1492 
 
 100 
 
 985 
 
 623 
 
 .502 
 
 270 
 
 485 340 
 
 I0<J 
 
 580 
 
 
 110 
 
 1241 
 
 590 
 
 110 
 
 1120 
 
 090 
 
 429 
 
 748 
 
 1211 
 
 1492 
 
 1488 
 
 931 
 
 1011 
 
 1000 
 
 1445 
 
 447 
 
 1310 
 
 1377 
 
 842 
 
 1202 
 
 812 
 
 UOO 
 
 720 
 
 818 
 
 1403 
 
 130 
 
 UOO 
 
 606 
 
 1413 
 
 1438 
 
 1495 
 
 1377 1215 
 
 1462 
 
 716 
 
 
 1470 
 
 380 
 
 6GH 
 
 1130 
 
 110 
 
 450 
 
 10,52 
 
 560 
 
 1120 
 
 1250 
 
 890 
 
 848 
 
 470 
 
 220 
 
 1103 
 
 845 
 
 1205 
 
 416 
 
 840 
 
 1044 
 
 1057 
 
 581 
 
 420 
 
 600 
 
 1023 
 
 1260 
 
 G64 
 
 080 
 
 201 
 
 1134 
 
 994 
 
 II00II20 
 
 611 
 
 680 
 
 
 1202 
 
 748 
 
 415 
 
 800 
 
 500 
 
 2711 
 
 882 
 
 280 
 
 1295 
 
 1504 
 
 1412 
 
 1109 
 
 6C2 
 
 230 
 
 1435 
 
 001 
 
 448 
 
 900 
 
 1022 
 
 1402 
 
 1022 
 
 058 
 
 370 
 
 210 
 
 1359 
 
 1103 
 
 808 
 
 605 
 
 675 
 
 1933 
 
 1323 
 
 1473 1230 
 
 1098 
 
 1072 
 
 
 330 
 
 070 
 
 410 
 
 80 
 
 1050 
 
 030 
 
 4,54 
 
 581 
 
 1230 
 
 1517 
 
 1513 
 
 904 
 
 740 
 
 020 
 
 I0;!8 
 
 234 
 
 1324 
 
 1325 
 
 824 
 
 1317 
 
 794 
 
 1170 
 
 050 
 
 031 
 
 1428 
 
 190 
 
 1080 
 
 420 
 
 1258 
 
 1443 
 
 1,528 
 
 1422 1240 
 
 1300 
 
 714 
 
 
 0C9 
 
 400 
 
 913 
 
 840 
 
 758 
 
 718 
 
 475 
 
 705 
 
 314 
 
 588 
 
 584 
 
 45 
 
 398 
 
 838 
 
 558 
 
 045 
 
 395 
 
 081 
 
 60 
 
 425 
 
 80 
 
 610 
 
 .598 
 
 1U4 
 
 490 
 
 1044 
 
 378 
 
 8G3 
 
 735 
 
 614 
 
 W9 
 
 61K 3|n 
 
 490 
 
 160 
 
 
 904 
 
 50O 
 
 240 
 
 008 
 
 470 
 
 90 
 
 707 
 
 110 
 
 1114 
 
 1180 
 
 1070 
 
 853 
 
 410 
 
 200 
 
 1231 
 
 400 
 
 1220 
 
 754 
 
 765 
 
 1.50 
 
 770 
 
 810 
 
 210 
 
 110 
 
 10,55 
 
 870 
 
 COO 
 
 205 
 
 540 
 
 1310 
 
 1240 
 
 1 1»9 1070 
 
 969 
 
 1156 
 
 
 1042 
 
 COS 
 
 223 
 
 727 
 
 530 
 
 140 
 
 858 
 
 HI 
 
 1105 
 
 1495 
 
 1348 
 
 0C8 
 
 4e5 
 
 280 
 
 1376 
 
 481 
 
 130.5 
 
 858 
 
 870 
 
 1295 
 
 790 
 
 909 
 
 250 
 
 65 
 
 1290 
 
 921 
 
 730 
 
 312 
 
 760 
 
 1434 
 
 11,55 
 
 1434 1215 
 
 1049 
 
 936 
 
 
 1283 
 
 600 
 
 498 
 
 579 
 
 8,0 
 
 .570 
 
 90 
 
 037 
 
 097 
 
 938 
 
 800 
 
 370 
 
 400 
 
 040 
 
 855 
 
 445 
 
 735 
 
 720 
 
 290 
 
 813 
 
 2G0 
 
 742 
 
 510 
 
 690 
 
 830 
 
 604 
 
 610 
 
 455 
 
 800 
 
 880 
 
 939 
 
 656 060 
 
 800 
 
 170 
 
 
 1M.5 
 
 340 
 
 1080 
 
 1389 
 
 C02 
 
 933 
 
 1070 
 
 1025 
 
 680 
 
 020 
 
 215 
 
 Oil 
 
 025 
 
 825 
 
 375 
 
 1200 
 
 Oil 
 
 266 
 
 C,51 
 
 410 
 
 681 
 
 100 
 
 803 
 
 1148 
 
 .193 
 
 1020 
 
 2i0 
 
 1090 
 
 469 
 
 638 
 
 30.5 
 
 618 
 
 487 
 
 30 
 
 761 
 
 
 1.5,50 
 
 300 
 
 1041 
 
 1128 
 
 734 
 
 834 
 
 703 
 
 1024 
 
 204 
 
 438 
 
 322 
 
 205 
 
 514 
 
 830 
 
 300 
 
 1140 
 
 290 
 
 360 
 
 338 
 
 250 
 
 368 
 
 310 
 
 714 
 
 954 
 
 230 
 
 1342 
 
 230 
 
 979 
 
 652 
 
 418 
 
 280 
 
 320 
 
 190 
 
 ;73 
 
 448 
 
 
 1313 
 
 GOO 
 
 495 
 
 970 
 
 .500 
 
 3,50 
 
 902 
 
 300 
 
 1358 
 
 1514 
 
 1313 
 
 1181 
 
 738 
 
 230 
 
 1410 
 
 741 
 
 1300 
 
 790 
 
 1083 
 
 1412 
 
 1098 
 
 930 
 
 450 
 
 290 
 
 1336 
 
 1183 
 
 024 
 
 584 
 
 065 
 
 1449 
 
 1360 
 
 .17, 
 
 1344 
 
 1070 
 
 1148 
 
 
 1 1.52 
 
 250 
 
 785 
 
 11.57 
 
 550 
 
 050 
 
 083 
 
 840 
 
 388 
 
 610 
 
 509 
 
 218 
 
 330 
 
 070 
 
 401 
 
 901 
 
 480 
 
 387 
 
 226 
 
 410 
 
 250 
 
 302 
 
 530 
 
 770 
 
 417 
 
 1227 
 
 170 
 
 735 
 
 505 
 
 569 
 
 900 
 
 540 
 
 330 
 
 350 
 
 320 
 
 .. •. 
 
 1202 
 
 739 
 
 250 
 
 1450 
 
 919 
 
 501 
 
 888 
 
 1280 
 
 158G 
 
 1503 
 
 1014 
 
 740 
 
 1 100 
 
 1518 
 
 500 
 
 1380 
 
 1458 
 
 915 
 
 1442 
 
 809 
 
 I4H2 
 
 10-.6 
 
 033 
 
 1429 
 
 190 
 
 1184 
 
 704 
 
 1488 
 
 I486 
 
 1562 
 
 1468 
 
 1279 
 
 1502 
 
 807 
 
 Juulntiti . . 
 
 620 
 
 900 
 
 300 
 
 480 
 
 090 
 
 1000 
 
 008 
 
 750 
 
 535 
 
 408 
 
 230 
 
 470 
 
 052 
 
 805 
 
 082 
 
 108 
 
 430 
 
 013 
 
 500 
 
 210 
 
 350 
 
 050 
 
 ,572 
 
 1277 
 
 155 
 
 695 
 
 247 
 
 70O 
 
 580 
 
 713 
 
 540 
 
 370 
 
 500 
 
 Juanjioor.. 
 
 400 
 
 075 
 
 100 
 
 470 
 
 13' 
 
 1143 
 
 1425 
 
 1294 
 
 788 
 
 410 
 
 517 
 
 1276 
 
 100 
 
 1233 
 
 861 
 
 700 
 
 1195 
 
 705 
 
 810 
 
 270 
 
 185 
 
 I20i 
 
 003 
 
 750 
 
 40 
 
 815 
 
 1354 
 
 1285 
 
 1334 
 
 1116 
 
 970 
 
 CIO 
 
 Juiimlpour.. 
 
 1110 
 
 040 
 
 400 
 
 009 
 
 1210|l483 
 
 1000 
 
 974 
 
 760 
 
 030 
 
 1303 
 
 300 
 
 1340 
 
 1211 
 
 830 
 
 1.507 
 
 810 
 
 UOO 
 
 740 
 
 6,59 
 
 1434 
 
 143 
 
 1120 
 
 430 
 
 1160 
 
 1446 
 
 1667 
 
 1388 
 
 1223 
 
 1340 
 
 720 
 
 Kalia. ...... . 
 
 460 
 
 1033 
 
 580 
 
 1025 
 
 11,53 
 
 872 
 
 708 
 
 410 
 
 270 
 
 907 
 
 840 
 
 1077 
 
 377 
 
 740 
 
 1037 
 
 700 
 
 443 
 
 400 620 
 
 917 
 
 12,53 
 
 513 
 
 675 
 
 122 
 
 1064 
 
 911 
 
 1064 
 
 981 
 
 572 
 
 908 
 
 Eallah... 
 
 
 583 
 
 137 
 
 1024 
 
 1200 
 
 1040 
 
 703 
 
 .130 
 
 308 
 
 1147 
 
 37.' 
 
 1140 
 
 054 
 
 075 
 
 1070 
 
 085 
 
 690 
 
 130 
 
 170 
 
 1077 
 
 783 
 
 COO 
 
 210 
 
 539 
 
 1219 
 
 10,50 
 
 120'. 
 
 990 
 
 869 
 
 670 
 
 1 
 KuUack 
 
 619 
 
 812 
 
 1003 
 
 10,59 
 
 520 
 
 682 
 
 790 
 
 1028 
 
 .570 
 
 870 
 
 1002 
 
 3S0 
 
 900 
 
 350 
 779 
 
 860 
 
 490 
 
 004 
 
 074 
 
 570 
 
 080 
 
 430 
 
 1042 
 
 988 
 
 1074 
 
 903 
 
 785 
 
 1033 
 
 260 
 
 LuL-kno\T. 
 
 
 1232 
 
 1480 
 
 1249 
 
 750 
 
 510 
 
 380 
 
 1331 
 
 310 
 
 1321 
 
 807 
 
 777 
 
 12,50 
 
 897 
 
 S,50 
 
 50 
 
 1251 
 
 752 
 
 730 
 
 105 
 
 78S 
 
 1410 
 
 118 
 
 1389 
 
 1170 
 
 979 
 
 1060 
 
 MiiJl-oa....' 1 289 
 
 440 
 
 265 
 
 704 
 
 1058 
 
 283 
 
 1261 
 
 88 
 
 672 
 
 370 
 
 219 
 
 394 
 
 610 
 
 918 
 
 I28i 
 
 284 
 
 135. 
 
 4C5 
 
 1091 
 
 903 
 
 206 
 
 403 
 
 207 
 
 67 
 
 56« 
 
 498 
 
 UuUura 
 
 30i! 
 
 570 
 
 970 
 
 1226 
 
 148 
 
 100,5 
 
 20O 
 
 704 
 
 &18 
 
 137 
 
 678 
 
 070 
 
 1170 
 
 1410 
 
 230 
 
 1601 
 
 600 
 
 143-5 
 
 103. 
 
 105 
 
 241 
 
 80 
 
 445 
 
 660 
 
 709 
 
 UuDgaloi'C 
 
 
 572 
 
 839 
 
 1108 
 
 108 
 
 1471 
 
 480 
 
 480 
 
 034 
 
 210 
 
 604 
 
 370 
 
 800 
 
 Ilea 
 
 130 
 
 1038 
 
 380 
 
 1304 
 
 765 
 
 376 
 
 90 
 
 355 
 
 316 
 
 230 
 
 744 
 
 Mosullpatitm . . 
 
 443 
 
 883 
 
 51.5 
 
 1000 
 
 378 
 
 546 
 
 80 
 
 428 
 
 100 
 
 520 
 
 6.3 
 
 800 
 
 404 
 
 1004 
 
 388 
 
 738 
 
 745 
 
 496 
 
 561 
 
 475 
 
 290 
 
 533 
 
 190 
 
 Nflimnftr . 
 
 
 440 
 d... 
 
 821 
 1122 
 
 035 
 07.1 
 1391 
 
 811 
 1..50 
 200 
 
 451 
 560 
 608 
 
 374 
 
 814 
 003 
 
 740 
 
 H76 
 
 88 
 
 388 
 828 
 633 
 
 430 
 
 725 
 520 
 
 200 
 300 
 lO.M 
 
 542 
 3-0 
 1201 
 
 744 
 
 llOli 
 80 
 
 1047 
 1073 
 1.593 
 
 340 
 034 
 492 
 
 380 
 602 
 1288 
 
 460 
 435 
 782 
 
 909 
 1260 
 165 
 
 720 
 1070 
 105 
 
 879 
 
 1183 
 
 660 
 1010 
 
 560 
 755 
 405 
 
 410 
 
 
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 850 
 
 
 
 Ootacamand. . . 
 
 135 209 
 
 723 
 
 
 DISTANCES 
 
 Patnl 
 
 I ...... .. 
 
 1201 
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 1007 
 073 
 
 704 
 445 
 
 1400 
 121 
 
 093 
 482 
 
 1005 
 008 
 
 440 
 lOlO 
 
 300 
 1371 
 
 1217 
 231 
 
 443 
 1413 
 
 975 
 543 
 
 105 
 
 1270 
 
 1020 
 953 
 
 1.544 
 116 
 
 1400 
 308 
 
 1481 
 118 
 
 1265 
 91 
 
 1196 
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 027 
 
 
 Ponaic'uc 
 
 986 
 
 
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 lah. . 
 
 
 012 
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 628 
 475 
 
 637 
 30 
 
 05 
 527 
 
 524 
 574 
 
 809 
 1230 
 
 525 
 549 
 
 1408 
 984 
 
 158 
 306 
 
 920 
 656 
 
 26.5 
 790 
 
 776 
 648 
 
 504 
 0.9 
 
 750 
 553 
 
 .577 
 380 
 
 196 
 .540 
 
 6«6 
 
 
 ICi^ahmiin 
 
 120 
 
 
 AJinl 754 
 
 AssMrt'hur 200 
 
 Allmgliiu- 077 
 
 Salem .. . 
 
 
 .505 
 
 540 
 
 »10 
 
 1180 
 
 110 
 
 1515 
 
 488 
 
 1145 
 
 028 
 
 90 
 
 195 
 
 70 
 
 121 
 
 435 
 
 6-21 
 
 
 SanmlcottiilL.. 
 
 552 
 
 510 
 
 832 
 
 579 
 
 954 
 
 420 
 
 695 
 
 721 
 
 678 
 
 679 
 
 583 
 
 411 
 
 570 
 
 8C 
 
 
 !>afctA 
 
 "a ... 
 
 
 500 
 
 86U 
 300 
 
 140 
 982 
 
 1477 
 640 
 
 132 
 480 
 
 904 
 265 
 
 320 
 450 
 
 706 
 1099 
 
 450 
 930 
 
 6.56 
 
 485 
 
 135 
 729 
 
 G21 
 
 
 
 
 
 1079 860 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 Sauffor ........ 
 
 57C 
 
 
 Bcltool 3".l0 
 
 Di.taiie4B from Bouil.y (conld.) 
 
 lutlovo 377 
 
 LoodiuM 1077 
 
 MuUipaum 175 
 
 Mir7iip,or 800 
 
 Mbiuw - ... 3C0 
 
 Mvsoor OOG 
 
 Ka-3iok ICO 
 
 Ouiio i013 
 
 Cjiia 408 
 
 kjao^vt ........ 
 
 Scctapoor.. 
 
 
 1386 
 
 802 
 
 780 
 
 236 
 
 820 
 
 1339 
 
 1262 
 
 1319 1100 
 
 1063 
 
 1113 
 
 
 Bccjiiyoor 215 
 
 Bdgaum 318 
 
 Blioptd 449 
 
 Bioiich )00 
 
 Cal)>ee 803 
 
 Chuoar 952 
 
 Daniaun 101 
 
 Ellichpoor 345 
 
 Gokonila 475 
 
 Gwalior 680 
 
 Scringapata 
 
 SiUict . 
 
 Sbo 
 
 m... 
 
 1633 
 
 412 
 1256 
 
 1160 
 606 
 806 
 
 702 
 1507 
 391 
 710 
 
 S49 
 I5C0 
 
 630 
 1336 
 1051 
 
 lOO 
 1633 
 
 425 
 1235 
 
 789 
 
 270 
 
 225 176 
 1666 1395 
 
 541 420 
 1264 1170 
 
 927 611 
 33 165 
 
 U0\ 276 
 
 330 
 1577 
 220 
 940 
 455 
 .575 
 335 
 625 
 517 
 
 6.5! 
 861 
 
 
 apoo 
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 r, .. . 
 
 52* 
 
 
 npo«r(iic 
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 74( 
 
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 DUtasces tnm Dombsy (eimld.) 
 
 Ruttunpoor 778 
 
 Tatt-oh 773 
 
 lailjore .. 
 Tdlic 
 
 hrrr 
 
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 Tricll 
 
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 67; 
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 745 
 
 
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 458 
 108 
 
 
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