UNIV THE VOLUME I. ID THE HISTORY OF INDIA, THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE CLOSE OF LORD DALHOUSIE'S ADMINISTRATION. BY JOHN CLARK MARSHMAN. li/ VOL. I. LONDON : LONGMANS, GREEN, READER & DYER. 1867. [The right of Translation is reserved, ~[ -1 PRINTED BX HARBISON AND SONS, ST. MARTIN'S LANE. The compilation of this work was undertaken at the request of the University of Calcutta, to assist the studies of those who were desirous of competing for its honours. The author has been encouraged to publish an edition in this country on the kind assurance of friends, that it may also be found useful by those who are in search of a brief and compen- dious narrative of the progress of the British empire in India. So far as historical truth can be discovered he is prepared to vouch for the accuracy of the facts detailed in it, and he is not without a hope that his efforts to present an impartial and trustworthy opinion on the various transactions which have been the subject and the sport of party-feeling, may be found not altogether unsuccessful. January 1st, 1867. For the information of the English reader, it is requisite to intimate that a crore of rupees is a million sterling ; a lac of rupees, 10,000. ; a gold mohur, 32s. ; a pagoda, 8s. ; and a rupee, 2s. ; also that a maun is equivalent to 82 Ibs., and a seer to 2 Ibs. CONTENTS THE FIRST VOLUME. CHAPTER I. EARLY HISTORY TO THE GHUZNI INVASION. Page Boundaries and divisions of India 1 Hindostan and the Deccan .... .... .... .... .... 1 Chronology of the Hindoos ~. 2 Early history of the Hindoos .. 2 Ten divisions and ten languages 4 The Vedus 5 Jlunoo .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... 5 The solar and the lunar race 6 Earau 6 The great war celebrated in the Muhabharut .., 7 The battle of Kooroo-kshetru .... 8 Influence of Ramu's expedition and the great war 9 The Takshuk invasion 9 Expedition of Darius .... 10 Eeligion of Boodh, spread of Boodhism 11 Expedition of Alexander the Great .... .... .... .... 12 H is progress and return ... It His great projects and death !<* Kundu, Chundra-goopta .... .... .... .... .... .... 15 'The Mugudu kingdom 16 The Ugnikools 17 Expulsion of the Boodhists .... 18 Cave temnles of India 19 Vikramadityu ... 19 The birth of Jesus Christ 20 The Andras . 20 ri CONTENTS, Date. Page Early history of the Deccau , .... 21 The Pandyas and the Cholas 21 Kerula, Telingana, Orissa, and Maharaatru ... 22 Rajpoots of Chittore 23 Mahomed 24 Early Mahomedan invasions 25 War between the Mahomedans and Chittore 26 The Cunouj Brahmins in Bengal 26 CHAPTER II. FROM THE DYNASTY OF GHCZNI TO THAT OF TOGHLUK. 10091321. Movements in Khorasan and Cabul 27 976 Subuktugeen .... -. 28 Invasion of Jeypal repelled 28 997 Death of Subuktugeen .... 29 Mahmood mounts the throne of Ghuzni 29 1001 His first expedition to India 30 1004 Second expedition 30 1005 Third expedition .... 30 1008 Fourth expedition; Hindoo confederacy defeated 31 Capture of Nugarcote ... .... .... .... .... .... 31 1011 Sixth expedition; Thanesur 31 1017 Ninth expedition ; capture of Cunouj 32 1024 Twelfth expedition ; plunder of Somnath 33 1030 Death of Mahmood .... 34 His character 35 1030 1040 Musaood; his conflict with the Seljuka 36 1040 1118 Succession of seven monarchs 37 1118 Byram ; his quarrel with Ghore 38 1152 The House of Gliuzni retires to India under Khusro .... .... 39 1186 The House of Ghuzni extinguished in the reign of Khusro Malik 39 Antecedents of the House of Ghore 39 1152 Alla-ood-deea gives up the city of Ghuzni to plunder ... .... 40 1157 Gheias-ood-deen mounts the throne, and associates his brother Shahab-ood-deen (Mahomed of Ghore,) with him in the government ... .... .... .... .... .... .... 40 1191 State of the Hindoo princes 41 Bhoje raja ... 4-2 Mahomed Ghore defeated by the Hindoos .. 43 1193 He conquers Delhi and Ajmere .. .... .... .... .... 44 1194 Conquest of Cunouj ; emigration of the Rathores .... .... 45 1203 Conquest of Behar and Bengal ... ... 45 1206 Death of Mahomed Ghory ; extent of his territories; he utterly demolishes the Hindoo power in Hindostan .. .... ... 46 1206 Kootub-ood-deen establishes an independent Mahomedan sovereignty at Delhi 47 1211 Altumsh, the slave of Kootub, ascends the throne 48 1219 Conquests o; the Moguls under Jenghis Khan .... 48 CONTENTS. Vll Date. Page 1236 Death of Altnmsh ~ ~. ~. .... 50 Sultana Rezia on the throne ; her abilities, weakness, and death 50 1246 Nazir-ood-deen sovereign ; Bulbun vizier 50 1266 Bulbun succeeds to the throne ; his virtuous reign 51 1279 Expedition against Bengal .... ... .... .... .... 52 1288 Kei-kobad's atrocities bring the dynasty to an end 53 1288 Feroze Ghiljie establishes a new dynasty - ; ;3 1294 Alla-ood-deen's invasion of the Deccaa .. 53 1295 He assassinates his father and mounts the throne .... .... 54 1297 Expedition to Guzerat 55 1303 Capture of Chittore 5 1305 1306 Mogul invasions of India 56 1306 Renewed expedition to the Deccan ... 57 1310 Farther invasion of the Deccan; extinction of the Hindoo dynasty of Belial .. ... 57 1311 Kafoor carries the Mogul arms to the extremity of the Deccan, and returns laden with booty ... ... 58 1316 Mobarik succeeds to the throne, is assassinated, and Ghazee Toghluk extinguishes the dynasty 59 CHAPTER III. FROM THE ACCESSION op THE HOUSE OP TOGHLUK TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OP THE MOGULS, 1321 1526. 1321 Ghazee Toghluk 60 1323 Conquest of Telingana, and capture of Warungole 60 1325 A cce sion of Mahomed Toghluk; his wild character .... .... 61 He attempts to conquer China and fails .... .... .... 61 His tyrauny and exactions .... .... .... .... .... 62 1338 He attempts to remove the capital to Dowlutabad 62 1340 Revolt of the provinces 63 1344 A new Hindoo dynasty established in Telingana 63 Hindoo kingdom established at Beejuynugur .... .... .... 63 1347 General rebellion in the Deccan 64 135; Death of Mahomed Toghluk 64 Feroze Toghluk ; his public works .... .... .... .... 64 1394 General anarchy and dissolution of the monarchy .... .... 65 1395 1400 Four independent kingdoms 65 1398 Invasion of Timur 66 He plunders Delhi, and retires beyond the Indus 07 1414 Khi/Jr Khan Syud, founds a new dynasty .... .... .... 68 1450 The Syud dynasty extinguished by Beloli Lodi 68 Rise of the Lodi family ... .... .... .... .... .... 69 1478 Jounpore reannexed to the throne of Delhi .... .... .... 70 1488 Secundur Lodi, his bigotry and intolerance ... 70 1517 Ibrahim Lodi succeeds to the throne; general revolt of the provinces .... ... .. .... 71 1401 Sultan Dilawur founds the independent kingdom of Malwa .... 71 1396 Mo/.ufler Shah becomes independent in Guzerat 72 1435-HS2 Reign of Mahtnood Khan Ghiljie in Malwa 72 VU1 CONTENTS. Date. Paore 1456 Alliance between Malwa and Guzerat for the conquest of Chittore 73 1482 Seraglio of Gheias-ood-deen of Malwa 73 1459151 1 Reign of the great Mahomed Shah of Guzerat 74 1512 Mahmood the Second of Malwa .. 75 Grandeur of Rana Sunga of Chittore 76 1526 Extinction of the kingdom of Malwa 77 1349 Hussun Guneu, first Bahminy king 77 1358 Conflict of Mahomed Bahminy with Beejuynugar 78 13971435 Reigns of Feroze and Ahmed Shah 79 1435 A lla-ood-deen's wars with the Hindoos 80 1463 Mahomed Shah Bahminy ^ 81 1481 His great minister, Mahmood Gawan. executed by his orders ... 82 1482 The Bahminy kingdom crumbles away, and five states formed out of it 83 Rise of the Portuguese power 84 1497 Vasco de Gama conducts the first expedition to India .... 85 1499 Second voyage under Cabral .... .... .... .... .... 86 1502 Vasco de Gaina's second voyage .... 87 1508 Almeyda's naval actions 88 15071515 Albuquerque .... _ 89 CHAPTER IV. MOGUL DYNASTY. BABEB TO AKBAB. 1526 1605. Early career of Baber 91 1519 1526 His five expeditions to India 92 1526 Baber enters Delhi 93 State of India on Baber's accession 93 1527 Defeat of Rana Sunga 94 1529 Baber attacks Chunderee 95 1530 His death and character ^. 95 Humayoon succeeds to the throne 96 1533 He overruns Guzerat .... .... .... .... .... .... 97 1537 Tragic death of Bahadoor Shah of Guzerat 97 Origin of Shere Khan Afghan ... 98 1539 He defeats Humayoon ... 98 1540 Humayoon flies across the Indus .... 99 1542 Birth of Akbar 99 1540 1545 Illustrious reign of Shere Shah; his death 100 1545 1554 His two successors; the crown lost to the family .... 101 1543 Humayoon retreats to Candahar and Persia 102 1555 He recrosses the Indus, and regains the throne of Delhi .... 103 1556 His death 103 Accession of Akbar 103 Defeat and death of Hemu 104 1560 Arrogance and fall of Byram 104 Revolt of Akbar's generals 106 1564 Heroism of Doorgawuttee, a Hindoo princess 107 1566 Revolt of Akbar's brother 107 1567 Complete subjugation of the disaffected generals 107 CONTENTS. IX Date. Page Matrimonial alliances with the royal Eajpoot families .... 108 1568 Capture of Chittore 108 Singular mode in which it is commemorated 109 1572 Conquest of Guzerat 109 1550 Orissa conquered by the Affghans of Bengal .... .... .... 110 1576 Conquest of Bengal by Akbar Ill 1577 Revolt of the Mogul Officers in Bengal 112 1560 Destruction of the city of Gour 113 1587 Conquest of Cashmere 113 Attempt to curb the Khyberees 114 1591 1594 Conquest of Sinde and Guzerat 114 History of the Deccan in the 16th century ; the five kingdoms of Beder, Berar, Golconda, Beejapore, and Ahmednugur .... 115 Rise and growing importance of the Mahrattas 115 1565 Hindoo kingdom of Beejuynugur extinguished at the battle of Tellicotta 116 Portuguese during the 16th century 117 The great Beejapore gun 117 1570 Combined attack on Goa ... 118 1594 Complete pacification and settlement of Hindostan by Akbar 119 1595 Akbar's views on the Deccan ... .... 119 He enters the state of Ahmednugur ; the city defended by Chand Sultana 120 1596 She cedes Berar and makes peace 121 ] 597 Doubtful battle of Soneput ^. 121 1599 Akbar goes in person to the Deccse 121 1600 Capture of Ahmednugur 121 1601 Candesh absorbed 121 1605 Akbar's death and character 122 His religious views and toleration; his revenue reforms and military system, and his Court .... .... .... .... 124 Division of the empire into soubahs ^. 124 CHAPTER V. JEHANGEEB AND SHAH JEHAN, 1605 1658. 1605 Jehangeer ascends the throne .... .... 125 1606 Rebellion of Khusro 126 1611 Marriage of Jehangeer with Noor Jehan 127 Talents of Malik Amber ; he defeats Jehangeer 128 1614 Subjugation of Oodypoore .... .... .... .... .... 129 1615 Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to Delhi 129 1617 Second expedition against Malik Amber 130 1621 Death of Khusro 131 Empress alienated from Shah Jehan 131 1623 Mohabet sent against him 131 1625 Empress's hatred of Mohabet 132 1626 Mohabet seizes the emperor .... 133 Empress fights him, and is defeated 133 She is reconciled to him j release of Jehangeer 134 1627 His death and character ... 134 CONTENTS. Date. Pa~* Acesssion of Shah Jehan .... .... lt>4 His extravagant expenditure 135 Condition of the kingdoms of Beejapore, Ahmednugur, and Golconda 135 16291637 Revolt of Jehan Lodi ; war kindled in the Deccan .... 136 1637 The kingdom of Ahmednugur extinguished 137 The emperor's accommodation with Beejapore 137 Golconda submits to pay tribute 137 Portuguese power in Bengal .... .... .... .... .... 138 1632 Capture of Hooghly and extinction of the Portuguese power.... 138 1637 Ali Merdan betrays Candahar to the emperor 139 His canal 139 1644 1647 Military operations beyond the Indus 139 Services of the Rajpoots in the Hindoo Kosh 140 1648 Persians retake Candahar ; three unsuccessful attempts to re- cover it .... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... 140 1655 Aurungxebe viceroy of the Deccan; renews the war with its princes 141 Career and talents of Meer Joomla 142 1656 Aurungzebe attacks Golconda ; plunders and burns Hyderabad; exacts a large tribute ... 143 1657 Unprovoked attack on Beejapore; he is obliged suddenly to proceed to Delhi 143 The four sons of Shah Jehan ... 144 Aurungzebe moves with Morad towards Delhi .... .... 144 Soojah takes the field, and is defeated by Dara 145 1658 Dara defeated by Aurungzebe 145 Aurungzebe deposes Shah Jehan and ascends the throne of Delhi 145 Character of Shah Jehan 145 His peacock throne .... .... .... .... .... .... 14d CHAPTER VI. ADRDNGZEBE, 1658 1707. 1658 Aurungzebe gets rid of his three brothers .... 147 1662 His dangerous illness ; intrigues at the Court .... 149 Meer Joomla's disastrous expedition to Assam, 149 Rise and progress of the Mahrattas .... .... .... .... 150 The Mahrattas trained to war during the contests between Beejapore and Ahmednugur 151 1594 Birth of Shahjee 151 1620 He succeeds to the jaygeer of Poona 152 1634 He endeavours to create a king of Ahmednugur 152 1627 Birth of Sevajee ; his early habits 152 1646 Begins his career by capturing Torna 153 1649 His constant aggressions ; his father seized as a hostage .... 153 1657 His correspondence with Anrungzebe 154 He plunders the Mogul territories 155 1659 Auruugzebe cedes the Coucan to him 155 King of Beejapore sends Afzul Khan to subdue him 155 CONTENTS. XI Date. Page Afzul Khan treacherously murdered 156 1662 The extent of Sevajee's possessions 157 Shaista Khan sent by Aurungzebe against Sevajee 157 1664 Sevajee plunders Surat 158 Great commercial wealth of that port .... 358 Death and possessions of Shahjee 159 Maritime exploits of Sevajee 159 1665 He submits to Aurungzebe ^ .... 160 Origin" of the chout ~ 160 1666 Sevajee goes to Delhi ; treated with hauteur 161 His civil and military institutions 162 16661670 Prosperous state of the Mogul empire 162 Aurungzebe breaks with Sevajee, who proceeds to levy cliout, 1<33 1671 Jinjeerah made over to the Moguls 163 1673 Aurungzebe baffled in the Khyber .... 164 1674 Sevajee assumes royalty with great pomp 167 1676 His expedition to the Carnatic .... .... .... .... .... 167 1676 Insurrection of the Sutnaramees 164 Iti77 Aurungzebe persecutes the Hindoos ; imposes the jezzia .... 165 1678 Revolt of the Rajpoots in consequence 166 1679 Aurungzebe attacks Beejapore 169 1680 Death and character of Sevajee 169 He is succeeded by Sambajee 170 1683 Aurungzebe's grand expedition to the Deccan; his splendid camp ... 172 1684 He invades the Concan and is repulsed 172 1686 Invasion of Beejapore, and plunder of Hyderabad 173 Conquest and extinction of the kingdom of Beejapore .... 174 1687 Conquest and extinction of Golconda 174 Confusion in the Deccan 175 1689 Sambajee made prisoner and put to death .... 176 Sahoo becomes king ; Eam-raja regent, retires to Ginjee .... 177 1692 Extensive Mahratta depredations 177 Comparison of the Mahratta and the Mogul armies 178 1690 1698 Siege of Ginjee 178 1698 Eam-raja returns and makes Satara his capital 179 1700 New military plans of Aurungzebe 179 1702 1707 His increasing embarrassments 180 1706 He makes overtures to the Mahrattas 181 He returns to Ahmednugur pursued by them 181 1707 Death of Aurungzebe ; remarks on his reign .... 181 CHAPTER VII. FBOM THE DEATH OP AURUNGZEBE TO THE INVASION OF NADIB SHAH, 17071739. 1707 Bahadoor Shah ascends the throne 182 1708 Dissensions among the Mahrattas 183 Daood Khan grants the chout to the Mahrattas .... .... 184 Origin and progress of the Sikhs 184 1712 Bahadoor Shah marches against them ; his death 185 Jehander Shah's brief reign .... 185 Xli CONTENTS. Date. Paga 1713 Ferokshere ascends the throne of Delhi 185 Origin and progress of Nizam-ool-moolk 186 1714 Balajee Vishwunath becomes Peshwa .... .... .... .... 187 Hussein Ali, viceroy of the Deccan ., 187 Death of Daood Khan .... 187 1717 Hussein grants the chout by a convention to the Mahrattas .... 188 Remarks on this event 188 1718 Ferokshere put to death 189 1719 Accession of Mahomed Shah 189 1720 Revolt of Nizam-ool-moolk 190 Hussein Ali assassinated ... .... .... .... .... .... 190 Mahomed Shah abolishes the jezzia 190 1721 Origin of the royal family of "Oude .... 191 1723 Nkarn-ool-moolk, independent viceroy of the Deccan .... 191 1720 Death of Balajee Vishwumth 192 Bajee Rao, Peshwa .... .... .... .... .... .... 192 Affairs of Guzerat 193 1729 Bnjee Rao obtains the chout of Guzerat 193 1730 The two Mahratta royal families 194 1730 Origin of the Guickwar Family 195 Origin of the family of Sindia .... .... .... .... .... 195 Origin of the family of Holkar 195 1731 Convention between the Nizam and Bajee Rao 195 1736 Malwa ceded to Bajee Rao .... 196 Bajee Rao's exorbitant demands; he marches to the gates of Delhi 196 1737 The Nizam defeated by Bajee Rao at Bhopal 197 Nadir Shah's antecedents and career 198 He invades Afghanistan and India 199 1739 He orders the massacre at Delhi 200 He plunders Delhi and the provinces .... .... .... .... 200 State of India after his invasion 201 CHAPTER VII. RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH, 16001756. The English in India before 1600 202 1599 Formation of the East India Company 203 Their first adventures .. 204 Power of the Portuguese at this period 204 1613 Firmans granted by the Eiaperor 205 1615 Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe 205 1620 First settlement in Benaal 206 1636 Privileges obtained by Mr. Boughton 2U6 1639 First establishment of the factory at Madras 207 1658 Cromwell grants a new charter to the Company .... .... 207 1661 Charter granted by Charles the Second 208 1662 Acquisition of Bombay 208 1668 Introduction of Tea into England 208 1664 French East India Company established 209 1667 The Dutch begin to trade with Bengal 209 1667 The Danes establish a factory in Bengal , 209 CONTENTS. XI11 Date. Page 1682 Bengal erected by the East India Company into a Presidency 210 Disturbance of the English trade in Beu.iral ... 210 1685 The Company go to war with the Great Mogul 211 1688 Bengal abandoned by the Company 212 1690 Eeconciliation with the Emperor 213 1690 August 24th, Charnock returns; foundation of Calcutta .... 214 1690 Ambition of the Court of Directors quenched for 50 years .... 215 1695 Fortification of Calcutta 215 1698 Rival East India Company; mutual injury 216 Depredation of Captain Kidd, the pirate 218 1700 Embassy of Sir W. Norris to the Emperor 2)8 1702 Union of the two Companies .... 219 Constant contests between the Soobadar of Bengal and the Company's agents from 1700 to 1756 219 Moorshed Koolee Khan, viceroy of the three soubahs .... 221 1715 Embassy from Calcutta to Delhi 221 Mr. Hamilton disinterestedly obtains great privileges for the Company 222 1715 Financial system of Moorshed Koolee Khan 223 1725 His death 223 Succeeded by Soojah-ood-deen 223 The Ostend East India Company 224 1739 Death of Soojah ood-deen ' 224 ' 1740 Ali verdy Khan seizes the government 224 1739 Disputes between Bajee Rao Peshwa and Rughoojee Bhonslay 225 Rughoojee's expedition to the Carnatic 225 1740 Death of Bajee Rao 226 1740 Balajee Bajee Rao, Peshwa 226 1741 Invasion of Bengal by the Berar Mahrattas 227 1742 The Mahratta Ditch of Calcutta .... 227 1744 Continued Mahratta depredations ' 228 1745 Rebellion of Mustapha, the general of Ali verdy 228 1751 Ali verdy purchases peace by ceding Orissa to the Mahrattas, and agreeing to pay chant .... ... .... 229 1710 Daood Khan appoints Sadutoola governor of the Carnatic .... 229 1732 On his death Dost Ali succeeds to the post 229 1736 Dost Ali defeated and killed by the Mahrattas 230 1741 Chunda Sahib sent prisoner to Satara .... 230 1740 The Nizam moves into the Carnatic, appoints Anwar-ood-deen governor of the province, who founds the family of the " Nabob of Arcot" 231 CHAPTER IX. EFFORTS OP THE FRENCH TO ESTABLISH AN EMPIRE IN INDIA, 17461761. 1744 War between the English and the French 231 Labourdonnais' previous career .... .. .... .... .... 232 1746 Arrives off the coast with a large armament .... .... .... 232 Dupleix's early career 233 Labonrdonnais captures Madras.... 233 Fate of Labourdonnais on his return to France ... . 234 XIV CONTENTS. Date. Page Defeat of the Nabob's army by a handful of French troops .... 235 1747 Dupleix besieges Fort St. David; the Nabob changes sides and joins him ... .. ... 236 1748 Fruitless siege of Pondicherry by Admiral Boscawen 237 Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle terminates the war 238 1749 Expedition to Devi-cotta '^38 'J he ambitious designs of Dupleix 239 1748 Death of Nizam-ool-moolk 240 Nazir Jung sets up as K izam 240 He defeats Anwar ood-deen, who is killed in battle 240 1749 The English first espouse the cnuse of his son Mahomed AH ... 241 Mozuffer Jung and Clurnda Sahib besiege Tanjore 242 They are defeated by Nazir Jung 242 Dupleix's skilful manoeuvres 243 Nazir Jung attacked and killed by the French 243 1750 Mozuffer made Nizam by them 244 He appoints Dupleix governor of all the di.-tii'jts south of the Kistna .. .. .... 244 1751 Mo/uffer Jung killed by the Nabob of Kurnool 246 Salabut Jung made Nizam by Bussy .... 245 1744 Olive enters the civil service of ihe Company 246 1751 He captures Arcot 246 Memorable sie or Tamerlane, was born within forty miles of Samarcand, and came of a Turki family, which had long been in the service of the de- scendants of Jenghis Khan. His lot was cast at a period in human affairs when the decay of vigour in the established kingdoms presented the fairest opportunity for the foundation of a new empire by any daring adventurer. Timur was pos- sessed of the spirit suited to such an enterprise, and, having been raised at the age of thirty-four, to the throne of Samarcand by the general voice of his countrymen, in the course of a few years prostrated every throne that stood in the way of his progress, and became at once the scourge of Asia, and the terror of Europe. Animated by a stupendous ambition, he led the hordes of Tartary to the conquest of Persia, Khorasan and Transoxiana, and subjugated the whole of Mesopotamia and Georgia, and a portion of Russia and Siberia. Having made himself master of the whole of Central Asia, he despatched his grandson, Peer Mahomed, with a powerful army to invade India. The youth, however, encountered more opposition than was expected, and Timur found it necessary to advance to bis support^ He arrived on HI.] SACK OF DELHI. 67 the banks of the Indus on the 12th of September, 1398, with ninety-two squadrons of horse, and crossed it at Attock, where Alexander the Great had crossed it before him. Hia grandson soon after joined his camp, and the two armies marched to Bhutnere, but though the town was surrendered on terms, it was burnt to the ground, and the inhabitants were put to the sword. The villages and towns were de- eerted as he advanced, but a considerable number of prisoners necessarily remained in his hands, and as they were found greatly to encumber his march, he ordered them all to be massacred in cold blood, to the number of 100,000. A battle was soon after fought under the walls of Delhi, between the veterans of Timur and the effeminate soldiers of the empire, with the result which might have been expected. The emperor was defeated and fled to Guzerat, and Timur entered the city, and caused himself to be proclaimed emperor. His soldiers could not be restrained from their usual violence which brought on resistance, and the whole of the Mogul army was let loose on the devoted city. The scenes of horror which ensued defy all description. The citizens sold then: lives dear, but their valour was quenched in their blood, and many streets were choked up with dead bodies. After Timur had satiated his revenge and satisfied his cupidity, by the desola- tion of the city, " he offered up to the divine Majesty," as his historian observes, " the sincere and humble tribute of grateful praise in the noble mosque of poh'shed marble," erected by Feroze on the banks of the Jumna, and directed his army to prepare for its return. On his way back he ordered a general massacre in the city of Meerut, and then proceeding to Hurdwar, skirted the hills, and recrossed the Indus in March, 1399. He contented himself with the mere title of emperor of India, and left the country a prey to the distractions which his invasion had intensely aggravated. Mahomed Toghluk, the third, who had fled to the syuds, Guzerat after his defeat, returned to Delhi on the 1412-1450. departure of Timur, but his minister, Ekbal, monq- f 2 68 DYNASTY OF THE STUDS. [CHAP. polized all the power of the state. Khizir, the governor of La- hore and Mooltan, resenting this usurpation, attacked and slew him, and thus restored to Mahomed some portion of his authority which he exercised till 1412. On his death, Khizir marched a second time to Delhi, and extinguished the Toghluk dynasty. He was a descendant of the prophet, and hia family, which filled the throne for thirty-six years, has from that circumstance, been denominated that of the Syuds. Khizir affected to decline the title of emperor, and styled himself the viceroy of Timur, in whose name he struck the coin, and caused the Khooiba to be read in the mosques. His administration was beneficial, and prosperity began again to dawn on the desolated provinces. He added his own princi- pality of the Punjab to the dominions of the imperial crown, but he made little progress in recovering the other districts which had become independent. His son, Mobarik, suc- ceeded him in 1421, but his reign of thirteen years was marked by no event except an indecisive battle with the king of Jounpore. The territories subject to Delhi were as limited in extent at his death as they had been at his accession. He was assassinated by some Hindoos at the instigation of his vizier, who raised his son Syud Mahomed to the throne, but was himself cut off by the exasperated nobles. The youth was found to be totally unfit for the duties of government, and the governors of the few districts still attached to the throne, began to aspire to independence. Among these, was Beloli Lodi, an Afghan, who made himself master of Mooltan, and tfye greater part of the Punjab. Encouraged by the weakness of the throne, the king of Malwa marched to the capital, but was repulsed by Beloli, within two miles of its gates. That chief subsequently laid siege to the city which he had saved, but finding himself unable to capture it, with- drew to his own province, to await the demise of the crown, which occurred in 1445. Mahomed was succeeded by his son Alla-ood-deen, during whose weak reign the domains belong- ing to the throne were still farther reduced, till at length in.] LODI DYNASTY. 69 they extended only twelve miles from the city in one direc- tion, and scarcely a mile in the other. Beloli Lodi, thinking the pear was now ripe, marched down upon Delhi. The king resigned the throne to him without a sigh, and retired on a pension to Budaon, where he passed twenty-eight years of his life in cultivating his gardens. With him, in 1450, ended the house of the Syuds. Beioii Lodi, Beloli was an Afghan of the tribe of Lodi, 14501488. now known as the Lohanee, which is engaged chiefly in the conveyance of merchandise between Hindostan and Persia. His grandfather, a wealthy trader, repaired to the court of Feroze Toghluk, the first great patron of the Afghans, where he acquired sufficient interest to obtain the government of Mooltan, to which was subsequently added that of the Punjab. This rich inheritance eventually came to Beloli, though not without great opposition on the part of his relatives. His success was chiefly owing to the talents of Humeed, the vizier of his predecessor, whom he subsequently banished from his court, on the plea that he was becoming too powerful for a subject. The ambitious Beloli was not likely to remain content with the humble limits to which the imperial territory had been reduced, and the great object of his reign was to extend his authority, and more particularly to' re-annex the kingdom of Jounpore to the crown, which, since its establishment, had become, in every respect, the rival of Delhi. Beloli had not been two years on the throne before he made an inroad into it, but was vigorously repulsed. The struggle between the two kingdoms was prolonged with various successes for twenty-eight years, during which period Delhi was twice besieged by the armies of Jounpore. Hos- tilities were occasionally suspended by a truce, but it only afforded the combatants the opportunity of recruiting their strength for fresh conflicts. It is distressing to reflect on the desolation entailed on these districts, which form the garden of Hindostan, and the misery inflicted on the wretched in- habitants, by the internecine wars of these two royal houses, TO EXTINCTION OF THE KINGDOM OF JOUNPORE. [CHAP. in comparison with which even the oppression of the worst of governments must appear light. Happily for the interests of humanity, the conflict was brought to a close in 1476, when the " King of the East," as he was styled, fled to Bengal and the kingdom of Jounpore was absorbed in the territory of Delhi. The dynasty existed for eighty years, of which period one-half was comprised hi the reign of Ibrahim, one of the most illustrious princes in the history of Hindostan. Under his beneficent administration, the prosperity of the country reached its summit. Learned men from all parts of India were invited to the court, which was universally acknow- ledged to be the most polished and elegant in India. The city of Jounpore was adorned with superb and massive structures, the remains of which to this day testify the magnificence of the dynasty. Beloli survived this protracted warfare ten years, and died in 1488, after a reign of thirty-eight years, during which he succeeded in extending the territory of the crown from the Jumna to the Himalayu, and from the Indus to Benares. Seconder ana Beloli, as if he had determined to render family Ibrahim Lodi, feuds inevitable, divided his territories among 1 his 1133 1526 sons, but Secunder, to whom he had bequeathed the largest share, together with the throne, lost no time in dispossessing his brothers. His prosperous reign of twenty- eight years was marked by the recovery of Behar. Though just and equitable in his administration, he followed the rule rather than the exception of the Mahomedan conquerors of India with regard to the treatment of the Hindoos. He lost no opportunity of manifesting his hatred of them, and in every quarter demolished their temples and erected mosques with the materials. In the holy city of Muttra he planted a mosque in front of the stairs leading to the sacred stream, and at length forbade the devotees to bathe in it, and the barbers to shave the pilgrims. In the year 1517, he was suc- ceeded by Ibrahim, the third and last of his line, who alienated the nobles by his suspicious temper and his haughty HI.] CAltoESH, MALWA, GUZERAT, MEWAB. 71 demeanour. His reign was a constant struggle with rebel- lion. Behar revolted under its governor, who is said to have brought a body of 100,000 men into the field, and repeatedly defeated the armies of the emperor. A prince of his own family took possession of the eastern districts and endea- voured to revive the kingdom of Jounpore. Dowlut Khan, the governor of the Punjab, the viceroys of which had fre- quently imposed their own orders on the emperor of Delhi, and more than once usurped the throne itself, now entered into negotiations with Sultan Baber for the invasion of Hin- dostan. Even the emperor's own brother, Alla-ood-deen, joined that prince at Cabul, and encouraged him in his designs on Hindostan. The success which attended his invasion will be the subject of a future chapter. Having thus reached the period when the throne of Delhi was transferred to the fifth and last Mahomedan dynasty, we turn to the progress of events in the Deccan, in Malwa, and in Guzerat, from the period when those provinces were separated from the empire. Candesh, The principality of Candesh, the governor of Maiwa, Gozerat, wnich had revo i t ed from the throne of Delhi, and Mewar, to 1443. though abounding in population and wealth was too limited and weak for independent action, and became sub- servient to its more powerful neighbours. During the period of more than a century and a half which elapsed between the dismemberment of the empire under Mahomed Toghluk, and the rise of the Mogul dynasty, the two Mahomedan kings of Guzerat, and Malwa, and the Hindoo raja of Mewar, or Oodipore, were engaged in perpetual hostilities with each other, and their history may therefore be conveniently grouped together. Sultan Dilawur, the first independent king of Malwa, bequeathed the kingdom in 1405, to his son, Sultan Hoshung, who was engaged for more than twenty-five years in wars with his neighbours, in which he was seldom success- ful. His name is perpetuated in the town of Hoshungabad, which he founded. He was attacked and made prisoner by Hozuffer, the king of Guzerat, but was released, upon a report 72 WARS BETWEEN MALWA AND GUZERAT, [CHAP. that his subjects were about to elect another sovereign, and take the field. Mozuffer was succeeded in 1412 by his grand' eon, Ahmed Shah, whose long reign of thirty years, was passed in constant hostilities either with Malwa or Mewar. His name survives in the new capital, Ahmedabad, which he erected on the banks of the Sabunnuttee, and adorned with magnificent mosques, caravanseras and palaces, in such pro- fusion, that the Mahomedan historians described it as the handsomest city in the world. He was a zealous Mahomedan, and a great destroyer of Hindoo temples and images. He was succeeded in 1443 by his son, Mahomed Shah, surnamed by his subjects, the " merciful," and by his enemies, the " weak." Sultan Hoshung, the turbulent king of Malwa, died in 1432, and bequeathed the kingdom to his son, who was soon after put to death by his minister, Mahmood Khan Ghiljie, the Afghan, who mounted the throne, and proved to be the ablest of the kings of Malwa, during a long reign of forty-seven years, which extended from 1435 to 1482. Some years after his accession, he invaded Guzerat with an army of 100,000 men, and pursued the feeble monarch to the promontory of I)UL The Guzerattee nobles, anxious to retrieve the national honour, persuaded the queen to administer poison to him, and then raised his son, Kootub Shah, to the throne, and resolved to make a vigorous effort for their independence. A pitched battle was accordingly fought under the walls of Ahmedabad, in which Mahmood was for the first and last time defeated ; but seeing the day lost, he put himself at the head of some troopers, and pushing through eveiy obstacle, bore off the regalia in triumph from the tent of the king. Notwithstand- ing this partial reverse, he seems to have had the unobstructed range of northern India, as we find him the next year march- ing to Biana, and establishing his son governor of Ajmere. On his return to Malwa he proceeded first against the Bahminy kingdom in the Deccan, then to Candesh, and finally against the rajah of Chittore. War with During the scenes of confusion at Delhi, which III.] MAHMOOD OF MALWA. 73 Chittore, 1554. have been previously described, one Hindoo king- dom in the north recovered its independence, and succeeded in maintaining it for two centuries the Eajpoot state of Chittore, or Mewar. In the days of sultan Hoshung the throne was filled by Koombhoo, one of the most illustrious princes of that ancient line, who applied himself for fifty years vigorously to the consolidation of Eajpoot power, and founded the city of Koomulnere. In 1456, Kootub Shah of Guzerat, formed an alliance with Mahmood of Malwa, for the conquest and partition of Mewar, but the result of the war is differently related. The Mahomedan historians affirm that the Rajpoot prince acknowledged himself the vassal of Mahmood, while Hindoo writers state that he was triumphant, and erected a column to commemorate his victory on, the brow of Chittore. In 1461, Mahmood, seeing the throne of the Deccan filled by a child, and the country distracted by factions, marched against the capital, Beder, under the walla of which a battle was fought in which he proved victorious. He renewed the invasion the next year, when the ministers, unable to cope with his superior force, implored the aid of the king of Guzerat, who readily granted it, and obliged the invader to retire, by creating a diversion in his own territo- ries of Malwa. A treaty appears to have been subsequently concluded between him and the Bahminy cabinet, based upon the cession of certain districts. The career of Mahmood, the greatest of the kings of Malwa, " whose tent was his house, and the battle field his resting place," was at length brought to a close in 1482, and the court of Mandoo exhibited a sudden and ludicrous change. His son and successor, Gheias-ood-deen, had no Gheias-ood- ..-. deen's seraglio, sooner ascended the throne, than he invited his nobles and officers to a splendid entertainment, and hi a set speech informed them, that he had passed thirty- four-years in the field, fighting by the side of hie gallant father, and was determined to spend the remainder of his life in peace and enjoyment, that he intended to retain the royal 74 THE GREAT MAHOMED SHAH OF GUZERAT. [CHAP. dignity, but to transfer the management of affairs to his son. The youth was accordingly proclaimed vizier, and the king retired to his seraglio, which he had filled with 15,000 of the most beautiful women he could procure. In this female court, the pomp and distinctions of royalty were strictly maintained ; the royal body guard consisted of 500 Turki maidens dressed in male attire and armed with bows and quivers, and of 500 Abyssinian girls furnished with firearms. Strange as it may appear, the king was allowed to enjoy this pageantry for eighteen years, without a single attempt at rebellion. His son, Nazir-ood-deen, succeeded him in 1500, and his reign of twelve years was noted only by its cruelty and sensuality. ,. * >. During the listless reign of Gheias-ood-deen, of Mahmood Shah, ' of Guzerat, Malwa, and the dissolute reign of his son, the rival H59-1511. t h r one of Guzerat was filled by Mahmood Shah, the brother of Kootub Shah, who ascended the throne in 1459, and shed lustre on it for fifty years. Though crowned at the early age of fourteen, his talents were soon matured, and it was while yet a youth that he marched into Malwa, and created the diversion which has been noticed. The European travellers who visited his court, awed by the dignity of his personal appearance, conceived the most extravagant opinion of his power. They affirmed that a portion of his daily food consisted of mortal poisons, with which his system be- came so impregnated, that if a fly sat on him it dropped down dead. He was the original of the picture drawn by the British poet of the prince of Cambay, " whose food was asp, and basilisk and toad." But even without the power of digesting poisons, he was a most puissant prince. In 1469, he attacked Gernal, a Hindoo fortress, of boundless antiquity and impregnable strength. It fell on the third assault, when the king is said to have persuaded the raja and all his court to embrace Mahomedanism. Three years after, he overrun Cutch and defeated an army of Belochees, annexed Sinde to his dominions, and extended his boundary to the Indus. Soon after, a Mahomedan saint complained to him that on hia III.] MEDNI EOT, THE HINDOO. 75 return from Ormuz in Persia, he had been ill-used and plun- dered by the people of Jugut, the land's end of India on the western coast. The king and his soldiers were equally inflamed by the story of the holy man's wrongs, and they marched with great zeal " against the infernat-minded brahmins," as the Mahomedan historian, Ferishta, calls them. Jugut was reduced, but the pirates on the coast, who fled to the island of Bete, in the gulf of Cambay, are said to have fought twenty naval battles before they were finally subdued. In 1482, Mahmood led an army against the Hindoo ruler of the very ancient principality of Chumpanere. The place is said to have been defended by 60,000 Rajpoots, of whom a large number fell in the siege, and the prince and his minis- ters were put to death, when it was found that they refused to become Musulmans. The conflicts of the Guzerat navy' with the Portuguese during this reign, will be narrated here- after. On the death of this renowned prince in 1511, he was succeeded by his son, Mozuffer the Second. Mahmood the Second, the last king of Malwa, Mahmood, the second, of Mai- ascended the throne in 1512, when his nobles con- wa, 1512. spired to unseat him and to elevate his brother. The confederacy was defeated through the exertions of Medni Roy, the Rajpoot chief of Chunderee, who was thereupon ap- poirited the chief minister as the reward of his services, and proceeded forthwith to fill the court and the army with his own countrymen. The Mahomedans, considering all the offices of state as their own property, resented this intrusion, and endeavoured to infuse suspicions into the mind of the king, who is said to have dismissed 40,000 Rajpoots at once from his service, and to have employed assassins to despatch the minister himself. He escaped with a few wounds, and even- tually succeeded in regaining his power at the Malwa court. Mahmood, feeling himself little better than a prisoner in his own capital, escaped to Guzerat, where he found the king, equally with himself, alarmed at the growing power of the Hindoos. The neighbouring kingdom of Chittore was go- 76 EXTINCTION OF THE KINGDOM OF MALWA. [CHAP. verned at the time by Eana Sunga, who had raised it to the summit of prosperity by his genius and valour. His army consisted of 80,000 horse, supported by 500 war elephants. Seven rajas of the highest rank, and a hundred and thirteen of inferior note attended his stirrup to the field. The rajas of Jeypore and Marwar served under his banner, and he was the acknowledged head of all the Rajpoot tribes. The historian of Rajpootana enumerates eighteen pitched battles which he had fought with Malwa and Guzerat. Those two sovereigns dreaded lest Medni Roy should obtain possession of the re- sources of Malwa, and unite with the Rana in establishing Hindoo sovereignty throughout central India. To meet this danger, they marched against Mandoo, the capital of Malwa, which was then held by the son of Mcclni Roy, and which did not surrender until 19,000 Rajpoots had fallen in its defence. Mahmood was restored to his kingdom, and in 1519 measured his strength with Rana Sunga. In the battle which ensued, the Malwa king was totally defeated and captured. The generous Rajpoot prince personally attended to his wounds, and, when they were healed, liberated him without a ransom. Hostilities, however, continued between the king of Guzerat and the Rana, which, after a succession of successes and defeats, terminated in a solid peace. Extinction of On the death of Mozuffer of Guzerat in 1526, Midwa - the throne was successively occupied by two princes, who speedily disappeared, when the wild and way- ward Bahadoor Shah ascended it. A brother of his fled to Malwa, and, in an evil hour, the king Mahmood granted him an asylum, which so incensed Bahadoor, that he immediately equipped a large army for the invasion of the country. While this storm was gathering on one side, the ill-starred king provoked the wrath of Rana Sunga, who lost no time in forming an alliance with Bahadoor Shah, and their united forces poured down like a torrent upon Malwa. Mahmood ia some measure retrieved his reputation by his noble conduct in the last scene of his life. Though his army was reduced in.] RISE OP THE BAHMINY BYSASTJT. 77 to 3,000, he still continued to defend his capital with great courage, but he was at length obliged to capitulate ; and on the 26th of May, a month after Baber had established the Mogul dynasty on the throne of Delhi, the standard of Guzerat was planted on the battlements of Mandoo, x and the kingdom of Malwa, then in its hundred and twenty-fifth year, was absorbed in the dominions of its rival. Mahmood and his seven sons were sent prisoners to Chumpanere, but were put to death on the road, hi consequence of an attack by the Bheels. _ . It has been stated that the oppressions of Ma- The Bahminy dynasty, homed Toghluk produced a revolt in the Deccan, 397 ' which issued in the establishment of an indepen- dent kingdom. Ismael, the Afghan, who had been raised to the throne, voluntarily ceded it soon after to the general Hussun Gungu, who had been the chief instrument in acheiv- ing the revolution. He was likewise an Afghan, but of humble extraction, who leased a plot of ground from a Hindoo astrologer hi the city of Delhi, and resigned to him of his own accord some valuable treasure which he had discovered in it. The astrologer was so highly pleased with his honesty as to recommend him to the notice of the emperor, under whose favour he rose to great distinction. Out of gratitude to the astrologer Gungu, his early patron, he had assumed his name, and on his elevation to the throne of the Deccan in 1347* took the additional title of Bahminy, by which the dynasty is generally known in history. The kingdom com- prised all the territories held by the emperor of Delhi south of the Nerbudda, with the exception of the provinces of the two Hindoo kingdoms of Telingana and Beejuynugur, the establishment of which circumscribed the Bahminy dominions, and led to incessant war. Hussun died in 1358, after a pros- perous reign of eleven years, and was succeeded by his son Mahomed, who commenced his reign by attacking the king of Telingana, and obliging him to sue for peace, which was granted on the cession of the hill of Golconda, and the eur- 78 WARS OP THE BAHMINY KINGS WITH THE HINDOOS. [CHAP. render of a throne of immense value, which was subsequently enriched with additional jewels till it was estimated to be worth four crores of rupees. Soon after Mahomed, in a drunken revel, granted an order on the treasury of Beejuy- nugur, and the raja immediately sent an army across the Kistna to revenge the insult, when the town of Moodgul was captured and its inhabitants put to the sword. Mahomed, on hearing of the slaughter, swore "that food and sleep should be unlawful to him till he had propitiated the martyrs of Moodgul by the slaughter of a hundred thousand infidels." He crossed the Toombudra and pursued the raja for three months from district to district, putting to death every Hindoo who fell into his hands. A pitched battle was at length fought, in which the Bahminy monarch was victorious, when having, as he hoped, completed his vow of revenge, he granted his opponent honourable terms, and, on his return to his own capital, devoted his time to the improvement of his dominions. He died in 1375, after a reign of seventeen years, and was succeeded by his son Mujahid Shah, who pos- sessed the most majestic beauty of all the princes of his line, and was exceeded by none in valour and fortitude. He began his reign by demanding from the raja of Beejuynugur, Kaichore, Moodgul, and other places lying in the dooab of the Kistna and the Toombudra, the object of perpetual strife between the rival Hindoo and Mahomedan powers. The demand was refused, and a war commenced, during which Mujahid chased the raja for six months through the whole extent of the Carnatic, and at length accepted his submission. The merit of the young king in this campaign was rendered the more conspicuous by the disparity of his resources as compared with those of the Hindoo raja, whose territories stretched from sea to sea, and who reckoned the rulers of Malabar and Ceylon among his tributaries. Mujahid was assassinated by his own uncle, after a brief reign of four years. Ferozeana Fcroze, tho son of the assassin, mounted the III.] FEROZE AND AHMED SHAH BAHMINY. 79 Ahmed Shah, throne in 1397, and his reign and that of his 13971435. brother, which occupied thirty- seven years, are considered the most palmy days of the dynasty. Feroze reigned twenty-five years, and made twenty-four campaigns. He carried fire and sword through the whole extent of the Carnatic, and constrained the raja of Beejuynugur to submit to an annual tribute of a crore of rupees, and to give him his daughter in marriage. He was a great patron of learning, and erected an observatory. He established a mercantile navy, and instructed his commanders to bring the most learned men and the most handsome women from the ports they visited. His seraglio is said to have contained beauties from thirteen different nations ; and the historians affirm that he was able to converse with each one in her own tongue. He likewise made a point of copying sixteen pages of the Koran every fourth day. The close of his reign was gloomy. He wantonly engaged in hostilities with the raja of Beejuy- nugur, and was totally defeated. The triumphant Hindoos appeared anxious to bring up the arrears of vengeance due to their relentless enemies. In the various towns which they captured they razed the mosques to the ground, and erected platforms of the heads of the slain. The end of Feroze was hastened by these reverses, and he was succeeded by his brother Ahmed Shah, denominated Wully, or the saint, for the supposed efficacy of his prayers in procuring rain in a season of drought. Anxious to recover the prestige of the Mahomedan power he proceeded immediately to the invasion of the Hindoo kingdom. He crossed the Toombudra in great force, defeated the raja, and pursued the Hindoos in every direction with unrelenting ferocity, halting only to celebrate a feast whenever the number of the slain was computed to have reached 20,000. He obliged the raja to pay up all arrears of tribute, and then turned his arms against Teliugana, captured and despoiled the capital, and, according to the usual Mahomedan practice, pulled down the temples, and erected mosques with the materials. He then marched to the north, 80 FOUNDATION OP AH3IEDABAD BEDER. fCHAP. where he was captivated with the situation of Beder to such a degree that he caused a new city to be built on the site, which he called after his own name, Ahmedabad Beder, and adorned it with magnificent buildings. He was likewise engaged in two wars with Malwa, and a third was averted only by the cession of Berar. His generals were also sent to seize the Concan, or strip of land lying between the ghauts and the sea, from Mahim, or Bombay, to Goa. But this expe- dition brought him in contact with the formidable naval power of Guzerat, and he was constrained to relinquish it. His wild career terminated in 1435. Aiia-ooa-deen, He was succeeded by his son Alla-ood-deen, H35. w } 10 immediately went to war with Beejuynugur, and was successful. He then proceeded to invade Caudesh, took the capital, Boorhanpore, and levelled the royal palaces with the ground. The Hindoo rajas of Beejuynugur had seldom been able to cope with their Mahomedan neighbour ; but, though their dominions were superior in extent, popula- tion and wealth, had been constantly subjected to the payment of tribute. It was about this time that the raja, Deva Roy, is said to have assembled his nobles to investigate the cause of this disgrace. Some ascribed it to the decree of the gods; others to fate, which is stronger than the gods; while a third party traced it to the superior cavalry and archery of the Mahomedans. The raja, therefore, enlisted 2,000 Mahomedan archers in his service, and, in conjunction with 60,000 of his own bowmen, took the field against Alla-ood-deen, and fought two battles, but with doubtful success. Two Mahomedan officers of rank, however, fell into his hands, and the Bahminy monarch swore that if they were not instantly given up he would sacrifice 100,000 infidels for each. Deva Eoy had not forgotten the result of a similar vow on a former occasion, and sued for peace, paying up all the tribute that had become due. Alla-ood-deen died in 1457, and was succeeded by his son a monster of cruelty who was assassinated by his own servants as he lay on his couch helpless from intoxication. HI.] MAHMOOD GAWAN, THE GREAT STATESMAN. 81 We pass on to the last substantive king of the Deccan, Mahomed Shah, who was placed on the throne at the age of nine, in 1463. Mahomed shah, During his minority the administration was lies-use. conducted by the queen mother and two ministers, one of whom, the preceptor of the prince, was assassinated by her orders, because he was supposed to have acquired too great an influence over his pupil. The other, Mahmood Gawan, was the greatest general and statesman of the age, and one of the most distinguished characters hi the Mahomedan history of India. He marched into the Concan, where two former expeditions had failed, and not only reduced the pro- vince and the ghauts above it to subjection, but wrested the island of Goa from the raja of Beejuynugur, who had usurped it. He then turned" his attention to the eastern coast, rein- stated the Kay of Orissa, who had been expelled and sought protection, and added Condapilly and Rajahmundry to the Bahminy territories. But the Ray subsequently took ad- vantage of a famine which was desolating the country to make an attempt to regain the districts he had lost. Mahmood Gawan marched down upon him with prompitude, and speedily extinguished all opposition, and annexed Masulipatam to the kingdom. The king, who had accompanied the expedition, having- heard of the renowned temple of Canchi, or Con- jeveram, near Madras, the walls and roof of which were reported to be covered with plates of gold, rushed through the intervening country, at the head of 6,000 chosen horse, with such rapidity as to astound the various chiefs, took possession of the temple, and despoiled it of its wealth before they could come to its rescue. ,, . . Under the powerful genius of Mahmood the Murder of r . Mahmood Bahminy kingdom reached its greatest limits. It stretched from the Concan to Masulipatam, and from the Nerbudda to the Kistna. The minister now resolved to turn his attention to the improvement of the ad- ministration. He divided the kingdom into eight provinces, c 82 HIS TRAGICAL DEATH. [CHAP. and curtailed the power of the governors, thus diminishing the chance of their revolt. He introduced vigorous reforms into every branch of the government to the great disgust of all whose private interests were affected by them. They deter- mined, therefore, on his destruction ; and having ingratiated themselves with the Abyssinian who had charge of his seal, induced him, when half drunk, to affix it to a blank sheet of paper, which they filled up with a treasonable letter to the Kay of Orissa, inciting him to revolt, and offering him as- sistance. The paper was artfully produced before the king, as if it had been found by accident ; and Hussun Bheiry, a converted Hindoo, the mortal enemy of Mahmood, who had been his benefactor, endeavoured to inflame his mind against the minister. He was ordered into the royal presence and upbraided with his treason. He exclaimed, " This is a great forgery ; the seal is mine, but of the letter itself I am totally ignorant." The king, inflamed with wine and passion, ordered one of his Abyssinian slaves to cut him down. Gawan calmly replied that the fate of an old man could be of little con- sequence, but that his death would seal the doom of the king- dom. The king turned into his seraglio; the slave approached the minister, then in his seventy-eighth year, and he knelt down, with his face towards Mecca, and received the fatal blow. He died in graceful poverty. Though he had served five monarchs, his cabinet was found to contain only 10,000 rupees. The proceeds of the jaygeer allotted for the support of his office, he had, in part, distributed among his officers, and, in part, disbursed among the poor in his master's name. The money which he had brought with him into the country had been employed in commerce, the profits of which, after providing for his kitchen on the moderate scale of two rupees a day, were assigned to the poor in his own name. The king died within a twelve month of his minister, a prey to remorse, exclaiming, in the paroxysms of his agony, that Mahmood Gawan was tearing him to pieces. Dissolution of It is unnecessary farther to pursue the history ill.] EISE OP FIVE INDEPENDENT KINGDOMS the Bahmin the Sim Of its pros- kingdom, ' perity set with the stroke which deprived the 512 ' great minister of life. Mahmood Shah, the son of the late king, ascended the throne in 1482, and lived on, though he can scarcely be said to have reigned, for thirty- seven years ; the kingdom crumbled away, as governor after governor revolted, and it was at length resolved into five independent states. The fire king- 1. Eusof Adil Shah, the adopted son of Mah- mood Gawan, a Turk, who claimed descent from the conquerors of Constantinople, established the Adil Shahy dynasty at Beejapore. 2. Hussun Bheiry, who had insti- gated the murder of Mahmood, and was subsequently ex- ecuted by order of his master, was a brahmin of Beejapore, who was taken prisoner and sold to the Bahminy king, who circumcised him and raised him to distinction. His son, Ahmed Nizam, on hearing of his father's fate, raised the standard of revolt at Ahmednugur, and established the Nizam Shahy dynasty. 3. Imad-ool-moolk, on the general dissolution of the monarchy, made himself independent in the province of Berar, of which he was governor, and gave rise to the Imad Shahy line of princes. 4. Koolee Kootub was a Turkoman of Hamadan hi Persia, who came to India in search of employment, and rose to the post of governor of Golconda, where, on the decomposition of the Bahminy kingdom, he established an independent dynasty, which is known in history as the Kootub Shahy. 5. Ahmed Bereed was appointed minister on the execution of Mahmood Gawan, and gradually substituted his own influence for that of the king at the capital and in the adjacent districts, and at length established the Bereed Shahy dynasty at Beder. This division of sovereign power among five independent states who were incessantly at war with each other, was the greatest calamity which could have befallen the country, and subjected the wretched provinces for a century and a half to merciless rapine. a 2 84 RISE OF THE PORTUGUESE POWER. [CHAP. Rise of the For- While the Bahminy kingdom was thus crumb- tuguese power. jj n g ^ Q pj eceSj another race of adventurers ap- peared on the western coast of India, and gave a new direc- tion to its politics and commerce. A Portuguese expedition landed in the harbour of Calicut, and paved the way for the eventual transfer of power from the Mahomedans to the Christians. For some time previous to this memorable event, the general progress of improvement in Europe and the in- crease of nautical skill and boldness, had inspired its mari- time nations with a strong desire to discover the way to India by sea, and to participate in its rich commerce, which was then monopolised by the Venetians. The Portuguese were at this time the foremost and most enterprising among the navigators of Europe ; and John, king of Portugal, anxious to make the circuit of the continent of Africa, had sent his admiral, Bartholomew Bias, on this perilous under- taking. It was he who first doubled the Cape of Good Hope, which he named the Cape of Storms in reference to the tem- pestuous weather which he encountered. But the king was BO highly elated with the success of the expedition and the prospects which it opened to him, that he changed the name to that which it has ever since borne. Soon after, Christo- pher Columbus, hoping to reach India by sailing westward, obtained the patronage of the king of Spain, and, launching boldly into the ocean, which had never been traversed before, made the discovery of America. His successful return from this voyage of unexampled peril filled all Europe with as- tonishment. The king 1 of Portugal was deeply chagrined to Portuguese ex- ' r J pedition to find that the neglect with which he had treated India, 1497. ^e a( j vances o f Columbus, had deprived him of the opportunity of adding another continent to his dominions ; but he resolved to seek compensation for this loss in an attempt to reach India, by doubling the Cape, and stretching to the eastward. An expedition was accordingly fitted out for this purpose, consisting of three vessels, the command of m.J VASCO DE GAMA LANDS AT CALICUT. 85 which was entrusted to Vasco de Gama. The whole popula- tion of Lisbon poured out to witness his departure on the 8th of July, 1497, and the sailors went through various religious ceremonies, as men who never expected to return. Vasco was four months reaching the Cape, which, however, he doubled with a fair and gentle breeze. He anchored at Melinda, on the African coast, where he was supplied with a pilot to conduct his vessels to India. On the 22nd of May, 1498, .he cast anchor on the Malabar coast, off Calicut, which presented to his delighted eyes the appearance of a noble town with a fertile plain rising up in the back ground, bounded by a distant range of lofty mountains. Calicut, then a place of extensive traffic, belonged to an independent Hindoo raja, called the Zamorin, and lay considerably to the south of the limit to which the Mahomedan conquests had extended. The harbours on the coast immediately to the north of it, be- longed to the Hindoo raja of Beejuynugur ; those higher up to the Bahminy kingdom, while those in the extreme north were within the limits of Guzerat. The Zamorin was greatly struck with the appearance of strangers from a remote and unknown region, differing so entirely in aspect, manners, and arms from the foreigners who frequented the port. He re- ceived them at first with cordiality, and manifested every disposition to promote their views. But the Moors, as they were called, or the Musulmans from Egypt and Arabia who had engrossed the maritime traffic of that coast, and enjoyed no small influence in its ports, viewed the arrival of the in- terlopers with great jealousy, and determined to defeat their object. They bribed the minister of the raja to insinuate to him that the strangers were not the men they represented, themselves to be, but pirates, who had plundered the coast cfi Africa, and were now come to India on the same errand. The Zamorin, swayed by these accusations, authorized the Moors to adopt violent measures against them, and two of Vasco's principal officers, who were on shore, were treache- rously arrested. He immediately retaliated by seizing six of 86 SECOND EXPEDITION OP THE PORTUGUESE. [CHAP. the respectable natives who happened to be on board his vessel, and refused to release them till his own officers were surrendered. The raja manifested some hesitation to comply with this reasonable demand, and Vasco weighed anchor in haste and began to sail out of the harbour with the hostages. Presently, several boats were seen to pull off from the shore, one of which contained his officers whom the Zamorin now hastened to release. Vasco sent back some of the natives he had detained, but resolved to take several of them with him to Lisbon, to give them an opportunity of viewing the city and reporting its grandeur on their return. Having now completed his cargoes, he set sail for Europe, and, on the 29th of August, 1499, re-entered the Tagus, in regal pomp, after an absence of twenty-six months. Men of all ranks crowded to welcome him, and to admire the vessels which had performed so marvellous a voyage ; the king showered honours on him, and the nations of Europe were enraptured with the discovery of a new and easier path to the land of fabulous wealth. _ , A second expedition was fitted out in the same Second voyage r under Cabrai, year, consisting of thirteen ships and 1,200 men, the command of which was given to Cabrai. He was accompanied by eight friars, who were sent to preach Christianity to the natives, and he was directed to carry fire and sword into every province that refused to listen to them. In the course of the voyage he discovered Brazil, on the coast of South America, and took possession of it in the name of his sovereign, in the year 1500. In doubling thfe Cape he encountered terrific gales, and lost four of his ships, in one of which was the celebrated admiral Bias, who thus found a grave in the seas which he had been the first to explore. Cabrai, on reaching Calicut, restored the natives who had been taken to Portugal, where they had been treated with distinguished kindness. He was received with much courtesy by the Zamorin, to whom he presented gifts of rare beauty and value. But the Moorish merchants, annoyed at HI.] SECOND VOYAGE OF VASCO DE GAMA. 87 the return of the strangers whom they hoped to have finally driven from the shores of India, effectually prevented them from obtaining cargoes. Cabral presented a remonstrance to the Zamorin, and received authority, as he supposed, to se- quester vessels carrying the Mahomedan flag. A Moorish ship with a rich cargo was accordingly seized ; the merchants hastened to the raja with their complaints, and obtained permission to expel the intruders. The factory which the Portuguese had erected was forthwith attacked, and all the foreigners in it were put to death. Cabral immediately seized and burnt ten Moorish craft, after having transferred their cargoes to his own ships. He then laid his vessels abreast of the town, and having set it on fire with his artillery, set sail for the neighbouring town of Cochin, where he formed a treaty with the raja, and returned to Lisbon in July, 1501. Second voyage The report of these transactions inflamed the of vasco, 1502. fagfrQ w hich the king of Portugal had been cherishing to establish an empire in the east. He assumed the title of Lord of the Navigation, Conquest, and Commerce of Ethiopia, Persia, Arabia and India, and fitted out a more formidable expedition than any that had as yet left the shores of .Portugal. Vasco de Gama, who was placed in command of it, reached the coast of India without any accident, and anchoring off Calicut, demanded satisfaction for the insult offered to Cabral, which was at once refused, and Vasco is said to have put to death fifty of the natives who had repaired to his vessels. At the same time he poured a destructive fire into the town of Calicut, and then weighing anchor pro- ceeded to the friendly port of Cochin, which now became the mart of the Portuguese trade. Three expeditions of minor importance were successively sent out, and cargoes obtained partly by barter, and partly by terror. The Portuguese were lulled into security by the success which attended them, and Pacheco was left with a handful of men to protect their settle- ment at Cochin. The Zamorin was thus encouraged to make 88 NAVAL BATTLE WITH THE MAHOMEDAN3. [CHAP. an attempt to expel them, and at the same time to punish the raja of Cochin for having fostered them. The troops of Calicut exceeded those of Pacheco as fifty to one, but his admirable strategy, and the valour of his soldiers, repulsed every assault ; and he was the first to exhibit that decisive superiority of European over Asiatic troops, which three cen- turies and a half have now abundantly confirmed. In the year 1505, the king of Portugal sent out Naval battle . . with the Maho- Francis Almeyda, with the title of viceroy ot medans, 1508, India) t h ou gh as ye t he did not possess a foot of land in it. The early success of the Portuguese in India is to be attributed to the singular genius and audacity of the men who conducted their expeditions, and Almeyda was infe- rior to none of them. Soon after his arrival, the Hindoo raja of Beejuynugur, who could not fail to perceive that the power of the strangers would become paramount on the western coast, sent an envoy with rich presents for the king of Portugal, to whom he proposed a treaty of alliance, and offered his own daughter in marriage. But the bright pros- pects thus opened to the Portuguese were soon overclouded. Before the discovery of the passage to India round the Cape, the whole trade of the east, conveyed overland, had been monopolised by the Venetians, and the " Queen of the Adri- atic," as Venice was called, became the envy of Europe. The Venetians had reason now to apprehend that this mag- nificent traffic would be diverted into a new channel, and pass altogether out of their hands. They possessed great influence in Egypt, which was one of their most important marts, and they urged the Sultan to fit out a fleet in the Red Sea, to sweep their rivals from the Indian Ocean, and assisted him with timber from their own forests in Dalmatia. A powerful fleet was speedily equipped and sent to India, under the com- mand of Meer Hookum, the Egyptian admiral. The king of Guzerat, who was equally alarmed at the progress of the Portuguese, ordered his admiral to co-operate with the Egyp- tians. Lorenzo, the son of Ahneyda, was cruising in the Ed.] ALMEYDA AVENGES THE DEATH OF HIS SON. 89 north with a division of the Portuguese fleet, when the com- bined squadrons bore down upon him. The Portuguese fought with the gallantry of European sailors, but the supe- riority of the enemy in the number of their ships, and the calibre of their guns, gave them the victory. The gallant Lorenzo, whose vessel was entangled in some fishing stakes, and thus exposed singly to the fire poured in upon him from all sides, fell covered with wounds, after performing prodigies of valour, which filled even the Mahomedans with admiration. To avenge the death of his son, Almcyda reduced the flourish- ing port of Dabul to ashes, and then proceeded in search of the enemy, whom he found anchored in the harbour of Diu. The conflict was long and doubtful, for the Egyptian and Guzerattee admirals were men of great nautical experience and valour, but all their larger vessels were at length either burnt or captured, and the smaller craft escaped up the river. Peace was subsequently concluded between the belligerents, and all the European prisoners were restored. Albuquerque, Almeyda soon after resigned his post to Albu- 16071510. querque, the greatest of all the Portuguese com- manders. It was his ambition to found an empire in the east, and he succeeded in this bold enterprise. Abandoning the system of predatory excursions along the coast which had satisfied his predecessors, he resolved to establish and fortify a port which should serve as the centre of his operations. He fixed on the island of Goa, lying on the Malabar Coast, about twenty-three miles in circumference, of which he took possession, and though at one tune driven from it by the native prince, recaptured it, and erected fortifications which effectually baffled all the efforts of the country powers. From that time Goa became the seat of the Portuguese power in the east, and Albuquerque sent and received embassies with all the magnificence of an eastern monarch. Having placed the government of his new settlement on the wisest foundation, he -turned his attention to more distant regions and enterprizcs. He proceeded eastward, to the port of Ma- 90 ALBUQUERQUE. [CHAP. lacca, then the great emporium of trade in the eastern archipelago, with an armament of 800 Portuguese soldiers and 600 natives whom he had enlisted and trained. The native prince is said to have assembled an army of 30,000 men to resist him, but the valour and discipline of his little force soon placed the city in his hands. The possession of this important position was immediately secured by the erec- tion of a strong fort, and a new field of commercial enterprize to Siam, Java, and Sumatra, was thus opened to his country- men. His efforts were next directed to the west, and he equipped a powerful squadron for the conquest of Ormuz, in the Persian Gulph. The imposing force which accompanied him effectually deterred the native prince from resistance, and Albuquerque was permitted to take possession of the island, and to raise a fortification in it. Ormuz rose rapidly in importance, the town was filled with 40,000 inhabitants, and became one of the most flourishing settlements in those seas. Thus had the genius of Albuquerque, in the short space of nine years, built up the Portuguese power in the east, and given them the command of the sea, and the control of the traffic throughout the eastern archipelago, which they continued to enjoy for a hundred years without a rival. Though he never obtained possession of a single pro- vince on the continent of India, his authority was supreme over 12,000 miles of coast, and it was sustained by an irre- sistible fleet and thirty factories, of which many were fortified. He was at length abruptly superseded in his com- mand by the orders of his own sovereign, who did not con- descend to soften the disgrace by any mark of distinction, or even by the courtesy of a letter. The ingratitude of which he was the victim, broke his heart ; he expired on the barque which was conveying him to Goa, and was interred in the settlement which he had created, amidst the lamentations and tears of natives and Europeans, by whom he was equally beloved. iv.] 91 CHAPTER IV. MOGUL DYXASTY. BABER TO AKBAR. 1526 1605- The Mogul IJT the month -of April, 1526, Sultan Baber cap- tured Delhi, and established the Mogul dynasty, which continued to flourish for a hundred and eighty years, under a succession, unprecedented in India, of six monarchs, distinguished by their prowess in the field, and, with one exception, by their ability in the cabinet. Eater's early Baber, the sixth in descent from Timur, was career. fae gon o f Sheikh Mirza, to whom the fertile province of Fergana, on the upper course of the Jaxartes, had been allotted in the distribution of the family possessions. His mother was a descendant of Jenghis Khan, and it has been noted by historians as a remarkable fact, that the empire founded by Baber should be known in history only as the Mogul empire, while he himself execrated the name of Mogul. Baber appears to have inherited that spirit of enterprise which distinguished both his renowned ancestors, and at the early age of fifteen, when he succeeded to the throne, commenced that adventurous career, which he pursued without interruption for thirty-five years. His first campaign was against the city of Samarcand, the metropolis of Trans- oxiana, wMch he captured with little difficulty, but he had not held it a hundred days before he was recalled to the defence of his paternal kingdom. He subsequently made three successful efforts to obtain possession of that city, which he coveted as the capital of Timur, and was thrice expelled from it. Bab r seizes Baber was engaged for eight years in a series Afghanistan, of the most perilous enterprises, and experienced vicissitudes of fortune, which would have crushed an ordinary mind, but they only served to give fresh vigour 92 BiBER CAPTURES DELHI. [dlAP. to his buoyant spirit. Seeing no hope of extending his con- quests beyond the Oxus, he seized the city of Cabul in the year 1504, and succeeded in maintaining possession of it for twenty years. During this period he was incessantly em- ployed in defending or enlarging his dominions, and never enjoyed a year of repose. His greatest peril arose from the progress of the Uzbeks, a tribe of ferocious Tartars, now swarming from their native hive, and seeking new settlements in the south. Their leader Shaibek had swept the posterity of Timur from Transoxiana and Khorasan, and in his progress towards the Indus had captured Candahar and threatened Cabul. Had he been able to march at once on that capital, he would probably have extinguished for ever the hopes of Baber, but he was recalled from these conquests by the hostility of Isrnael Shah, the powerful chief of the tribe which had recently seized the throne of Persia, and established the dynasty of the Sophis. The Uzbek chief was routed and slain, and Baber seized the opportunity of again occu- pying Samarcand, from which he wae again expelled in the course of a few months. Eater's five ex- To compensate for this disappointment, he tadiaTiwa turned his attention to India, where the imbeci- 1525. lity of the emperor of Delhi presented a tempta- tion too strong to be resisted by a descendant of Timur. His first irruption was in the year 1519, and it was followed by two others, in five years, though with partial success. In 1524 he resumed this ambitious project, and overran the Punjab, where he was joined by Alla-ood-deen, the brother of the emperor, with Dbwlut Khan, and other officers, who had been alienated from him by his constant oppressions. But Baber, after having advanced as far as Sirhind, was obliged to return across the Indus, to repel an invasion from the north, and Dowlut Khan, on his departure, deserted his standard and took possession of the Punjab. Alla-ood-deen, who had been left in charge of the province, fled to Cabul, and was immediately sent back to India by Baber, with a well- IV.] STATE OP INDIA. 93 appointed army ; but was signally defeated by the emperor, under the walls of Delhi. Baber now advanced on his fifth and last expedition with an army not exceeding 12,000 men, but they" were all experienced veterans. The emperor, Ibrahim Lodi, advanced to meet him with an army generally estimated at 100,000, and a thousand elephants. The destiny of India was decided on the field of Paniput. The engage- ment lasted from sunrise to sunset, and resulted in the total defeat of the imperial army, and the death of the emperor, and 15,000 of his troops. Delhi opened her gates to the victor in May, 1526, and Baber vaulted into the vacant throne, and, as a token of his success, sent gifts from the treasury to the most celebrated Mahomedan shrines in Asia. But Delhi had long ceased to be the capital and State of India r onBaber'sac- the mistress of India. The great Mahomedan empire had been broken up more than a century and a half before, by the extravagances of Mahomed Toghluk, and at the period of Baber's accession the various provinces were in the possession of independent rulers. In the southern extremity of Hindostan, the great Hindoo monarch of Bee- juynugur claimed the allegiance of the various native chiefs who had never submitted to the Mahomedan yoke. Farther to the north lay the territories of the five kings of Beejapore, Ahmednugur, Golconda, Beder, and Berar, who were esta- blished on the dissolution of the Bahminy kingdom. The province of Gujerat was governed by a wild youth, who was ambitious of trying conclusions with the Mogul in the field. Kana Sunga, the most powerful prince of his race, was para- mount in Rajpootana. The opulent kingdom of Bengal, including Behar, was ruled by an Afghan family, and the " sacred soil," as it was called, of Orissa, was in the possession of its ancient Hindoo dynasty. Still nearer Delhi, an hade- pendent prince held his court at Jounpore, and supported it from the revenues of Oude. The victory of Baber, therefore, only gave him the command of the districts to the north-west of Delhi, and a narrow tract of land, stretching along the 94 BABEB FIGHTS RANA SUNGA. Jumna to Agra. He had India yet to conquer, but his gene- rals shrunk from the task, and entreated him to return to the cooler and more genial climate of Afghanistan, where they might enjoy the booty they had acquired at Delhi and Agra. But Baber had crossed the Indus, not simply to plunder pro- vinces, but to found an empire, and he announced his unalter- able resolution to continue in India, and pursue his career; at the same tune, however, he granted permission to all those to return who preferred ease to glory. His ardour subdued their reluctance, and only one of his generals availed himself of this privilege, and he and his soldiers were dismissed with honour, and laden with wealth, in the hope of inducing others to resort to Baber's standard. In the course of four months after the battle of Paniput, all the country held by Ibrahim Lodi had been secured, and the revolted kingdom of Jounpore brought under subjection. Defeat of Kana But a more formidable enemy now appeared in Sunga, 1527. the field. Rana Sunga, the Rajpoot prince of Chittore, and at this time the most powerful of all the sove- reigns north of the Nerbudda, elated by a recent triumph over the king of Malwa, espoused the cause of the dethroned dynasty of Delhi. All the princes of Rajpootana ranged themselves under his banner, and he advanced with 100,000 men to drive Baber back across the Indus. The first conflict took place at Futtehpore Sikri, where the advanced guard of the Moguls was totally routed by the Rajpoots. Many of Baber's troops on this deserted their colours, some even went over to the enemy, and all were dispirited. Accustomed as he had been to dangers for thirty years, this extraordinary peril staggered him, but he never despaired. He states in his memoirs that in this emergency he repented of his sins, and determined to reform his life ; that he foreswore the use of wine, and broke up his gold and silver cups, and distributed their value among the poor. He resolved to allow his beard to grow like a true Musulman, and promised, if God gave him the victory, to remit the stamp tax to the faithful* tv.] BABEE'S DEATH AND CHARACTER. 95 Animated by his example, his generals took an oath on the Koran to conquer or to die. In this fever of enthusiasm Baber led them against the enemy, and by the aid of his efficient artillery obtained a signal victory, which completely broke the power of Chittore. He celebrated his success by constructing a pyramid of the heads of the slain, and assuming the title of Ghazee, or champion of the faith. conquest of The next year Baber attacked Ghunderee, held Ctad^and'' ky Medni Roy, whose history, in connection with Behar, 1529. the kingdoms of Guzerat and Malwa has been already related. Finding his position untenable, he and his Rajpoots devoted themselves to death with the usual cere- monies, and rushed with frenzy on the Mogul swords. Those who survived the onset put themselves to death. In the following year, Baber extended his authority over Oude and south Behar. But his constitution, which had been gradually impaired by long indulgence, was worn out by these severe exertions in an uncongenial climate. So active had been his life, that for thirty-eight years he had never kept the feast of the Ramzan twice in the same place. He died Death of r Baber, 1530, at Agra in 1530, at the age of fifty, and his his character. rema i ns were conveyed to Cabul and interred in a beautiful spot which he had himself selected for his tomb. The simple and chaste monument raised over his grave con- tinued to attract admiration three centuries after his death. Among the Mahomedan princes of India, no monarch is held in higher estimation than Baber. His career exhibited that romantic spirit of adventure of which nations are always proud. His personal courage bordered on rashness; his activity was almost fabulous. While labouring under a wasting disease he rode a hundred and sixty miles in two days, and swam across the Ganges. He was, however, rather a valiant soldier than a great general, and he lost nearly as many battles as he won ; but he never lost heart, and was as buoyant after a defeat as after a victory. Amidst all the bustle of war, ho found time for the cultivation of 96 HUMAYOON'S PEOGRESS. [CHAP, literature, and his Persian poetry has been always admired for its elegance. The little leisure he enjoyed from the labours of the field, he devoted to the construction of aque- ducts, reservoirs, and other works of public utility. There is no Indian prince with whose individual character we are so familiar, and this is owing to his own vivid delineation of it in the volume of personal memoirs he compiled, in which he records his transgressions with so much candour, and his repentance with so much sincerity, and recounts his friend- ships with so much cordiality, that in spite of all his failings he becomes an object of personal esteem. Humayoon succeeded his father at the close of Humayoon * succeeds to the 1530, but the first incident in his reign exhibited throne, 1530. t k a t easmegs o f disposition to which his subse- quent misfortunes were chiefly to be attributed. His brother, Kamran, the governor of Cabul and Candahar, hesitated to acknowledge his authority, and Humayoon, not only con- sented to resign these provinces to him, but added the Punjab also. By this injudicious act he was deprived of the means of recruiting his army from the countries beyond the Indus, a loss which was severely felt in proportion as Baber's vete- rans died out, and Humayoon was obliged to depend on the troops he could enlist in Hindostan. In the third year of his reign, Humayoon became involved in hostilities with Bahadoor Shah. This impetuous prince who ascended the throne at the age of twenty, was incessantly engaged in aggressive wars during the eleven years rat defeated, of his reign. He had subjugated the inde- pendent kingdom of Malwa, and annexed it to his own dominions. He had compelled the kings of Ahmed- nugur and Beder to do him personal homage. He had added the ancient and venerable city of Oojein to his conquests, and sacked the city of Chittore, in the defence of which 32,000 Rajpoots are said to have fallen. Humayoon demanded the surrender of a fugitive conspirator, which was haughtily refused, on which he marched at once into the country. IV. J HE OVERRUNS GUZERAT, 97 Bahadoor Shah had planted his army in an entrenched camp at Mandishore, trusting to his fine artillery, manned by Por- tuguese gunners and commanded by Roomy Khan, originally a Turkish slave, but now the first engineer officer in India. Humayoon besieged the camp for two months, cut off its supplies, and reduced the king to such straits, that he was obliged to fly, and eventually to take refuge in Diu, the most remote harbour in the peninsula of Guzerat. Humayoon's Humayoon immediately overran the province, of chmiipMere, an( ^ P r ceeded against the fortress of Chumpanerej 1535. i n which the accumulated wealth of the dynasty was deposited. With only three hundred select troops, he climbed up the perpendicular rock on which it was built by means of steel spikes, and mastered it by an exhibition of heroism which rivalled the exploits of his father. The gal- lantry of his officers and soldiers was rewarded with as much gold and silver as they could heap on their shields. But his further progress was arrested by the necessity of returning to Agra, to arrest the progress of Shere Khan. On his retirement, Bahadoor Shah again took the field and regained his kingdom as rapidly as he had lost it ; but he did not long enjoy it. While at Diu, he had negotiated with the Portu- guese for three hundred Europeans to assist him in, recovering his' kingdom, and in return granted them permission to< establish a factory at that port. They began immediately to surround it with a wall, the rudiments of a fortification, and: brought up a fleet to protect the progress of the work. Bahadoor Shah had all the native horror of European intrusion, Tragic death of an( ^ was determined to prevent the completion of Shah, the work. He proceeded on board the admiral's 1537 ship, and invited him and his officers to an enter- tainment at which he had laid a plot to assassinate them. The admiral, it appears, was equally anxious to obtain possession of the king's person. An affray ensued in which the king lost his life, by accident, according to the Portuguese his- torians, by treachery, if we are to believe the Mahomedaus. 98 EARLY CAREER OF SHERE KHAN. [CHAP. Shere Khan, wlio now appears on the scene, was Origin and pro- rc . gross of shere one of the most distinguished characters in the annals of Mahomedan India. He was an Afghan of noble birth, of the tribe of Soor, which claimed affinity with the kings of Ghore. His father held the rank of a com- mander of 500, and the jaygeer of Sasseram, in Behar, where Shere Khan was born. At an early age he quitted his home in disgust, and enlisted as a private soldier under the king of Jounpore, but at the same time endeavoured to store his mind with knowledge, and prepare himself by study for future eminence. A long series of adventures in which he was engaged on his own account for several years, ended in the occupation of Behar and the siege of Gour, the capital of Bengal. Humayoon was recalled from Guzerat by the tidings of his alarming progress, and moved down to oppose him with a large army, but was detained six months beseiging Chunar, though it was assaulted by the floating batteries of Roomy Khan, whom Humayoon had allured to his service after the defeat of Bahadoor Shah. During this protracted siege Shere Khan captured Gour, conquered Bengal, and sent the king flying tor shelter to the imperial camp. Humayoon As Humayoon entered Bengal, Shere Khan store K-han at retircd to tne ni % and inaccessible region of the Buxar, 1539. south-west, and deposited his family and treasures in the fortress of Rhotas. The emperor took up his residence in Gour, then in the zenith of its grandeur, and on the eve of its decay. When the rains set in, the delta of the Ganges became a sheet of water, and the great army of Humayoon was reduced by disease and desertions. He was constrained to retreat with his dispirited troops towards the capital, where his brothers were beginning to take advantage of his diffi- culties and to intrigue for the throne. Shere Khan now issued from his fastnesses, interrupted the progress of Hurua- yoon's force, and after cutting up a detachment at Monghir, came up with the main army at Buxar. At a time when every moment was precious, Humayoon wasted two months IV.] HTOIAYOON LOSES THE THRONE. 99 in constructing a bridge across the Ganges. Before it wafl completed, he was attacked and completely defeated by his rival, who now assumed the title of Shere Shah, and openly aspired to the empire. Humayoon Humayoon at length reached Agra, and extin- aJriflies^ross" gashed the hostile schemes of his brothers, tue Indus, 1510. Eight months were passed in assembling an army for the great struggle with his formidable rival, who employed this period in subjugating and organizing Bengal. The two armies met in the neighbourhood of Cunouj, and Humayoon experienced a second and more fatal defeat. He fled from the field of battle to Agra, pursued by Shere Shah, and had barely time to remove his family to Delhi. From thence he Avas driven to Lahore, where his brother, instead of affording him an asylum, hastened to make his peace with the victor, and was allowed to retire to his territories beyond the Indus. Thus fell the kingdom which Baber had established, and not a vestige of Mogul sovereignty remained in India at the end of fourteen years. The throne of Delhi was restored to the Afghans. Humayoon made the best of his way with his few remaining adherents to Sinde, where he spent eighteen months in fruitless negotiations with its chiefs. He then resolved to throw himself on the protection of Maldeo, the powerful Rajpoot prince of Marwar, but on approaching the capital, found the raja more disposed to betray than to succour him. The wretched emperor endeavoured to cross the desert to Amercote, and was subjected to incredible hardships during the march. The son of Maldeo, eager to revenge the intru- sion of the emperor and the slaughter of kine in his territories, pursued him with the utmost rigour. At length Humayoon reached Amercote with only seven mounted attendants, and it was in these wretched circumstances that his queen, who had nobly shared with him all the disasters of this journey, Birth of Akbar, g ave birth to a son, afterwards the illustrious 1542. Akbar, destined to raise the Mogul empire to the pinnacle of greatness. After another series of reverses, E 2 100 SUCCESS AND DEATH OF SHERE SHAH. [CHAP. Humayoon was obliged to quit India, and seek an asylum at Candahar. Five years' Leaving Humayoon across the Indus, we turn brilliant reign fo foe progress of Shere Shah, who now mounted of Shere Shah, 15401545. the throne of Delhi, and established the Soor dynasty. While he was combating the emperor, Bengal re- volted, as a matter of course, but was speedily reduced to- subjection. In 1542 he conquered the province of Malwa, and in the succeeding year reduced the fortress of Raisin, remarkable for its unfathomable antiquity, and for the honour of having been erected, according to local tradition, by the great national hero of the Ramayun. It was here that his reputation was tarnished by the only stain ever attached to it. The Hindoo garrison had surrendered on terms, but the Mahomedan doctors assured him that, according to the pre- cepts of the Koran, no faith was to be kept with infidels, and the infidels were, therefore, slaughtered almost to a man. In 1544 Shere invaded Marwar with 80,000 men. It was de- fended by a body of 50,000, and -by its own sterility. Through the artifice of letters intended to be intercepted, he contrived to raise suspicions regarding his chiefs in the mind of the raja, and thus induced him to retire from the contest ; but one chief, indignant at this distrust, fell on the emperor's force with 12,000 men with such fury as to expose him to the greatest peril; and the emperor, alluding to the barrenness of the country, said that " he had nearly lost the empire for a handful of millet." Soon after, the capture of Chittore placed Rajpootana at his feet, and he proceeded to the attack of Calinjer, one of the strongest fortresses in 1545, and Bundlecund, but was killed by the explosion of a character. -, , j. ,, -, ,, magazine as he was superintending the batteries. Thus prematurely ended the career of Shere Shah. As he inflicted the greatest humiliation on the Moguls, the his- torians of their party have treated him as a usurper, and loaded his memory with obloquy. But his right to the throne was as valid as that of the Tartar adventurer Baber, and in IV.] IMBECILITY OF HIS SUCCESSORS. 101 both cases it was equally based on the decision of the sword. But the kingdom which he gained by conquest, he governed with the greatest beneficence, and the brief period of five years in which he held supreme power, is the most brilliant in the annals of India. He was a man of consummate ability, distinguished not less by his military exploits than by the triumphs of his civil administration. Though incessantly engaged in the field, he found time for a complete reform of every branch of the government, and his civil institutions survived his dynasty and became the model of those of Akbar. He constructed a grand trunk road from the banks of the Indus to the bay of Bengal, through a distance of 2,000 miles, and planted it with trees, and adorned it with wells and caravanseras, at short distances, for the convenience of travel- lers, and erected mosques for the benefit of the devout. He appears to have been the first prince who established a mounted post for the conveyance of the mails. At the end of three centuries, his stately mausoleum at Sasseram, the place of his birth and of his burial, continues to recall the remembrance of his grandeur and his glory to the mind of the traveller. His eldest son was set aside by the nobles for imbecility, and his second son, Jelal Khan, nephew, 1554. wag raiged t() the throne un( J er the t j tle of g e j im Shah. After quelling a dangerous rebellion by his prompti- tude and vigour, he was enabled to pass nine years in tran- quillity, indulging his hereditary taste for public works ; and if his reign had extended over a longer period, we should probably have heard little or nothing of a Mogul dynasty. It was the profligacy of his successor that brought the son of Baber again to India. He was the brother of Selim, and after having murdered his son, mounted the throne, and is generally known in history simply by the name of Adili. He was remarkable only for his ignorance and prodigality, and exhibited all those purple-born vices which, in India, presage the fall of a dynasty. But the ruin of this royal 102 HUMAYOON IN PERSIA. [CHAP. Hemn sustains house was retarded by the matchless talents of the throne. Hemu, a Hindoo, originally a shopkeeper, whose figure is said but only by Mogul historians to have been as mean as his origin. Adili having exhausted his treasury by profligate waste, began to resume the jaygeers of his Patan nobles, and they went one by one into insurrection. Five independent sovereignties were forthwith established in the dominions under the crown, till nothing was left to it, except some of the districts around the metropolis. Hemu presented a bold front to these difficulties, and had suc- ceeded in reducing two of the rebels, when the aspect of affairs was at once changed by the appearance of Humayoon on the banks of the Indus. Process of We left this prince a refugee at Candahar in SteM^g 1543 ' wuere Ilis adverse fortune still continued India. to pursue him. The hostility of his brother obliged him to retreat, and he sought shelter in Persia, the throne of which was then filled by Shah Tamasp, the second of the Sophi dynasty, who directed that he should be received with royal hospitality in his progress, but did not condescend to give him an interview for six months. The fugitive prince was subjected to all the humiliating caprices of a despot and a bigot, for Tamasp was an intolerant Shea, and regarded the Soonecs with more than the usual measure of polemical hate. His father had invented a peculiar cap the kuzelbash as an emblem of religious distinction, and Humayoon was required to place it on his head in the pre- sence of the Persian monarch, though the courtly historians of the Mogul dynasty speak with much reserve on this subject. He was also required to sign' an engagement to embrace and to enforce the Shea creed, and to cede the frontier provinces of Afghanistan to the Persian crown. The Persian monarch then furnished him with a body of 14,000 horse, with which he marched to Candahar, and cap- tured it after a siege of five months, making it over, with all the treasure found in it, to Morad Mirza, the Persian rv.] HUMAYOON'S SUCCESS AND DEATH. 103 prince. On his death, which happened soon after, Humayoon entered the city as a friend, but put the greater portion of the Persian garrison to the sword, an act of perfidy which has fixed an indelible stain on his memory. Having thus obtained Conquest of possession of Candahar, he marched to Cabul and b^H^a^on, established his authority in that province, but 1545. had to maintain a protracted struggle with his brothers, in which he was alternately victorious and defeated. His brother Kamran at length fell into his hands, and to his disgrace, he ordered the sight of the unfortunate prince to be extinguished. He crosses the After ten years of incessant warfare, the in- renmurtifthe creasing confusion at the capital of India tempted throne, 1555. Humayoon to make a bold stroke to regain the throne. He crossed the Indus in 1555, and obtained a complete victory over Secunder Soor, who had usurped the imperial authority at the capital, and who was posted at Sirhind with a body of 80,000 men. In this battle the young Akbar gained his first laurels. Leaving the young prince in the Punjab to watch the movements of the usurper, Humayoon hastened to Delhi, and mounted the throne he had lost fifteen years before. But before he could recover the do- minions attached to it his career was brought to a close by a fatal accident. Six months after he had entered Delhi, while descending the steps of his library, he heard the muezzin's call to prayer, and stopped to repeat the creed, and sat down. As he endeavoured to rise, leaning on his staff, . it slipped on the polished steps, and he fell over llis death, 1556. the parapet, and four days- after closed his chequered life, at the age of forty-nine. Accession of Akbar, the greatest prince of the dynasty of Akbar, 1556. Baber, whose genius raised the empire of the Moguls to the summit of renown, was only thirteen years and three months of age when the death of Humayoon placed him upon the throne, which he continued to adorn for fifty years. He was the contemporary of Queen Elizabeth, 104 AKBAR MOUNTS THE THRONE. [CHAP. his reign having 1 begun two years before, and ended two years after hers ; and thus, by a memorable coincidence, this period of half a century has been rendered as illustrious in the annals of England as of India. During the minority of Akbar, the regency continued in the hands of Byram Khan, a Turko- man, the companion of Humayoon in all his vicissitudes, and the greatest captain and statesman, of the age, but a man of austere manners and stern bigotry. Hemu, the Hindoo general of Sultan Adili, was employed in quelling a rebellion in Bengal when he heard of the death of Humayoon, and conceiving fresh hopes from that event deposited the emperor at Chunar, and moved up with an army of 30,000 men Defeat of which was swelled to 100,000 as he advanced. Hemu, 1556. Agra and Delhi opened their gates to him, and so completely were the commanders in Akbar's army confounded by the rapidity of his successes, that they entreated their master to abandon India and return to Afghanistan. Byram alone advised an immediate and vigorous attack, and Akbar, though only a stripling, seconded his ardour. The two armies met at Paniput, and the destiny of India was a second time decided on that field. Hemu, after prodigies of valour, was completely defeated, and conducted, bleeding from his wounds, to the tent of Akbar. Byram urged him to secure for himself the religious merit of slaying an infidel, but the generous youth refused to imbrue his hands in the blood of a gallant and now helpless foe, and Byram struck off the head of the captive with one stroke of his scymetar. , It was the military talent of Byram, and the Arrogance and * J fail of Byram, vigour of his measures, which had seated Akbar on the throne, but the minister had grown too big for a subject. So great indeed was his power and influence that for four years after his accession, Akbar felt himself a mere cypher in his own dominions. Such thraldom was intolerable to a high spirited prince, and when he had reached the age of eighteen he resolved to throw off the yoke. On the plea of the sudden illness of his mother, he repaired abruptly to Delhi, IT.] FALL OF BYRAM, 105 and immediately issued a proclamation announcing that he had taken the government into his own hands, and that no orders were to be obeyed but those which issued from himself. Byram felt that his power was slipping away, and endeavoured to regain it, but he had alienated all the public officers by his haughty demeanour, and in the time of his adversity found that he was without a friend. He retired to Nagore, giving out that he was proceeding on pilgrimage, but he lingered there in the hope of receiving some gracious message from his master. Akbar, however, discharged him from all his offices, und requested him to hasten his departure. Stung by this indignity, he assembled an army, and marched against the imperial troops. He was signally defeated, and constrained to throw himself on the mercy of the emperor. As the fallen minister entered the royal tent, with his turban humbly sus- pended on his neck, and cast himself at the feet of the prince whom he had cherished from his cradle, Akbar hastened to raise him, and seated him on his right hand, investing him with a robe of honour, and offering him the choice of any post in the empire. The pride of Byram, who had been the instrument of erecting the Mogul throne a second time in India, led him to prefer a retreat to Mecca, and he accordingly proceeded to the sea coast, but was assassinated on the route by an Afghan, whose father he had put to death. Akbar was now his own master, at the age of Akbar his own . ... master at eighteen, but he was surrounded with difficulties which would have broken a spirit of less energy. For some time after its establishment, the dynasty of the Moguls was weaker than any which had risen to power since the Mahomedans first crossed the Indus. It was not con- nected with any large and powerful tribes beyond that river, ready to support the progress of their countrymen. It had no resources in reserve. Akbar's army was simply an assembly of mercenaries drawn together by the hope of plunder from the various countries of Central Asia. His officers were only a band of adventurers, bound to his family by no ties of here- 106 REVOLT OF AKBAR'S GENERALS. [CHAP. ditary loyalty, and more disposed to carve out kingdoms for themselves, as other adventurers had done for five centuries, than to unite in building up a Mogul empire. Their ambition had been effectually curbed by the iron despotism of Byram, but blazed forth on his removal, the effect of which soon became visible in the growth of disorders. In the fourth year of his reign, Akbar extended his authority along the banks of the Ganges to Jounpore ; the son of the last king, bar's generals, Adili, advanced to recover his dominions, and was 567 ' defeated by Zeman Khan, but that general, despis- ing the youth of his sovereign, withheld the royal share of the booty, and manifested such a spirit of independence, that Akbar was obliged to take the field, and reduce him to obedience. Adam Khan, another of Akbar's generals, was sent to expel the Afghans from Malwa, but after defeating their general, he determined to keep the fruits of his victory to himself. Akbar marched against him in person, and accepted his sub- mission, but he soon after requited this lenity by stabbing the vizier when at prayers in a room adjoining that occupied by the young king. For this atrocious deed Akbar ordered him to be thrown headlong into the Jumna. Abdoolla Khan, a haughty Uzbek, who had been received into the Mogul service, with many of his countrymen, was then entrusted with the government of Malwa, but within a twelvemonth raised " the standard of revolt." Akbar came down upon him with promp- titude, and drove him ignominiously to seek shelter in the kingdom of Guzerat. This event created great discontent in the minds of the Uzbek officers, who were reduced by the arts of Abdoolla to believe that Akbar was animated with a here- ditary hatred of their tribe and had formed a resolution to disgrace them. The spirit of disaffection spread rapidly through the Mogul army. Asof Jah, one of its generals, had been sent to subjugate the little Hindoo principality of Gurra on the Nerbudda. It was then under the regency of the princess Doorgawuttee, renowned no less for her beauty than FV.J SEVEN YEARS OF REVOLT. 107 Heroism of a h er valour. She led her army in person against Hindoo princess, . 1564. the invader, and maintained the conflict with tne greatest heroism till she received a wound in her eye. The troops, missing her command, began to give way, when she, to avoid falling into the hands of the enemy, seized the weapon of the elephant driver and plunged it into her own bosom. Her exploits are still a favourite theme with the Hindoo bards. The booty obtained by this capture consisted of a hundred jars of gold com, independently of jewels and gold and silver images, and Asof Jah appropriated the largest portion of it to his own use ajid then joined the hostile confederacy, which now included the most eminent of Akbar's generals. Eevoitof ^k e Danger f the emperor was extreme. It Akbar's brother, was as much a struggle for the throne, as the battle of Paniput, and the question at issue was, whether the empire should be Mogul or Uzbek. Akbar's detachments were repeatedly defeated, but he maintained the conflict with unflinching resolution for two years. Just at this critical juncture, his brother Hakim ungratefully took advantage of his embarrassments, and endeavoured to wrest the province of Lahore from the crown. Akbar was obliged to quit the pursuit of the Uzbeks to meet this new revolt, which, however, he succeeded in crushing at once. On his return to the south, he found that the revolted generals had obtained possession of the districts of Allahabad and Oude, and were preparing to advance on the capital. The rains had set in when all military operations are generally suspended j but he did not hesitate to march against them, and by the promptitude and vigour of his attack, completely broke the strength of the confederacy, and, at the age of twenty-five, had the happiness of seeing his authority firmly established throughout his dominions. Nothing gives us a Akbar's autho- nty fully csta- higher idea of the real greatness or Akbar s bushed, 1567. character, than the conflict which, at so early an age, he successfully maintained against his own mutinous troops and officers. 108 AKBAB CAPTUKES CHITTOBE. [CHAP. Baber, with a liberality of spirit foreign to every preceding conqueror, had determined to strengthen his government by Matrimonial matrimonial alliances with the Hindoos. He en- the ! E? S oot th couraged his son Humayoon to espouse a daughter princes. of Bhugwan Dass, the raja of Jeypore. Akbar, following his father's example, allied himself with the same house, as well as with the ruling family of Marwar, or Joudhpore. At the same time he conferred an office of high dignity at his court on the raja of Jeypore. Thus the purest Hindoo blood was mingled with that of the Mahomedan con- querors, and the princes of Kajpootana gloried in these imperial alliances as conferring additional dignity on their families. But the orthodox house of Chittore, wrapped up in its religious pride and exclusiveness, disdained any such connection, arid even excommunicated the rajas of Jeypore and Marwar; though Bappa, the founder of that family, con- sidered by his countrymen as the " sun of Hindoo dignity," married Mahomedan wives without number, and left a hundred and thirty circumcised children. Akbar, having reduced his military aristocracy to sub- mission, determined to chastise the raja of Chittore for having Attack on th gi ven encouragement to the king of Malwa. The raja of ciiittore, throne was then filled by Oody Sing, the degene- rate son of the renowned Rana Sunga. On the approach of the Moguls, he fled to the hills, and left the defence of his capital to Jeymul, the Rajpoot chief of Bednore, esteemed by his countrymen the bravest of the brave. Akbar, with a powerful artillery, made his approaches in the most scientific mode, closely resembling the practice of modern Europe. The siege of Chittore was protracted by the genius and valour of Jeymul, but he was at length slain by a bolt from the bow of Akbar, while inspecting the ramparts. His death deprived the garrison of all confidence, and they deter- mined to sell their lives as dear as possible. The women threw themselves on the funeral pile of the raja, and the men rushed frantically on the weapons of the Moguls, and perished IT.] CONQUEST OF GUZEBAT. 100 to the number of 8,000. With that generosity of character which distinguished Akbar, he erected a statue to the memory of his heroic foe in the most conspicuous place of his palace at Delhi. The fall of Chittore which from that Capture and abandonment of period was abandoned for the new capital, Oody- -ore, 1568. p 0r6j ca u e( j by ^ e founder after his own name was considered the most fatal blow which had fallen for ages on that royal house. The remembrance of this event has been perpetuated throughout India by a most remarkable practice. Akbar estimated the golden ornaments taken from the Rajpoots at seventy-four maunds and a-half. The nu- merals, 74|, were therefore deemed accursed. The Rajpoots, and more particularly the Marwarees, are now the largest and most enterprizing mercantile community in India, and their commercial correspondence bears the impress of these figures, signifying that " the sin of the slaughter of Chittore is invoked on any one who violates the secrecy of the letter." The practice has now become universal throughout India. Conquest of Akbar's next enterprize was one of greater Guzerat, 1572. magnitude. The province of Guzerat, enlarged by the conquests of Bahadoor Shah about forty years before this period, and enriched by maritime commerce, was estimated to yield a revenue of five crores of rupees, and to be equal to the support of 200,000 troops ; but it had been a prey to faction since his death. Four weak and profligate monarchy had filled the throne in thirty-six years. The distraction of the kingdom had been increased by the arrival of the Mirzas, as they are styled by the native historians, a family connected with Akbar by the ties of blood, who had revolted against his authority, and, having been driven out of his dominions, transferred their intrigues to Guzerat. Etimad Khan, origi- nally a Hindoo slave, who now managed the government in the name of Mozuffer the Third, seeing no other mode of quelling the factions in the country, invited Akbar to take possession of it. The emperor proceeded with a powerful army to Puttun, where that feeble monarch advanced to meet 110 HISTORY OF OIUSSA. [CHAP, him, and resigned his crown without an effort; and Guzerat, after two centuries and a-half of independence, was again annexed to the crown of Delhi As soon, however, as Akbar returned to his capital with a large portion of his army, Mirza Hussein, the most turbulent of the brothers, raised a new revolt, and the imperial generals were reduced to great straits, and obliged to act on the defensive. The rains had set in, but Akbar was ready for action at all seasons. He immediately dispatched a force of 2,000 choice cavalry from Agra, and followed it with 300 of his own guards, marching, in that season, no less than four hundred and fifty miles in nine days. The rapidity and vigour of his movements con- founded the rebels ; they suffered a signal defeat, and the subjugation of the province was completed. The attention of Akbar was next directed to the Orissa con- quered by the recovery of Bengal, but before narrating this Afghans, 1550. ex p e( jiti n, it is necessary to advert to the for- tunes of the neighbouring kingdom of Orissa. That country had been governed by the family of the Guju-putees, or lords of the elephant, from a very remote period of Hindoo history. About 400 years before the time under review, the throne was occupied by the dynasty of the Gunga-bungsus. The princes of this race expended the revenues of the country in the erection of the most magnificent temples, and extended their authority from the river Hooghly to the Godavery, and on one occasion earned their arms as far south as Con- jeveram, in the vicinity of Madras. A little before the period of Akbar's accession, the king of Golconda, who was endea- vouring to extend his power over the Hindoo tribes on the sea coast, attacked the king of Orissa, Mookund Rao, the last of his race ; at the same time, Soliman, the king of Bengal, sent his general Kala-pahar with a large body of Afghan cavalry, to invade it from the north. The valour of the raja was of little avail; he was defeated and slain in 1558, and this venerable Hindoo monarchy, which had never before felt the shock of a Mahomedan invasion, was extinguished, and IV ~\ CONQUEST OF BENGAL. Ill the Afghans parcelled the country out in jaygeers among themselves. The native inhabitants, who had enjoyed the undisturbed exercise of their religion from time immemorial, were now to taste the bitterness of persecution. Kala-pahar was a brahmin by birth, but had embraced the religion of the Prophet to obtain the hand of a princess of Gour, and now became a relentless oppressor of his former creed. So terrific did he appear to the Hindoos, that it was popularly reported that the legs and arms of the idols dropped off at the sound of his awful kettle-drum. He made every effort to root out Hindooism ; he persecuted the priests, and confiscated the reli- gious endowments which had accumulated during twenty generations of devout monarchs ; he pulled down the temples, and erected mosques with the materials, and seized the imago of Jugunnath, which he committed to the flames on the banks of the Ganges. Akbar invades The attention of Akbar was drawn to Bengal, Bengal, 1576. even while he was engaged in the subjugation of Guzerat. Under the successor of Shere Shah, the Afghan governor had assumed independence, and four kings reigned in Bengal during a period of thirty years, of whom the most distinguished was Soliman, the conqueror of Orissa. In the height of his prosperity, he had the wisdom to acknowledge the supremacy of the emperor. But his successor, Daood Khan, a debauchee and a coward, who ascended the throne in 1573, finding himself at the head of an army which was estimated, by oriental exaggeration, at 140,000 infantry, 40,000 cavalry, and 20,000 guns of all sizes, considered himself a match for Akbar, and while he was engaged in Guzerat attacked and captured a fort above Ghazeepore. Akbai immediately ordered a large army to proceed to the con- quest of Bengal. Ghazeepore, which was strongly garrisoned, submitted after a brave resistance, and the king fled to Orissa, where he made one bold stand for his throne. He was de- feated, but allowed to retain Orissa, as a feudatory of Delhi. The year after, on the withdrawal of a portion of the imperial 112 REVOLT OP AKBAB'S TROOPS. [CHAP. troops, he invaded Bengal, but was defeated and slain, and his head sent to the emperor. With Daood Khan, in 1576, terminated the line of Afghan kings in Bengal, who had reigned in succession over it for two hundred and thirty- six years. During the sovereignty of these foreigners, not only was every office of value bestowed on their countrymen, but the whole of the land was parcelled out among them in jaygeers, and the natives of the country were employed only as managers, or cultivators, of the estates. The iaygeers of the discomfited Afghans were Revoltofthe . " J& . ~s Mogul officers, seized by the victorious Mogul officers. Akbar was resolved, however, to introduce the same fiscal economy into Bengal which he had established in other provinces. But when his revenue officers called on the Mogul jaygeerdars to account for the revenues they collected, and to furnish a muster of the troops they were bound to main- tain, they rose in a body in Bengal and Behar, and 30,000 of Akbar's finest cavalry appeared in arms against him. His new conquest was for the time lost, and the spirit of dis- affection spread to the neighbouring province of Oude. Finding it difficult, in this emergency, to trust any of his Mogul officers, he sent an army of Rajpoots, under the cele- brated Hindoo raja Toder Mull, who succeeded in giving a severe blow to the revolt; but the war languished for a time, and was terminated by Azim Khan, whose success was owing as much to the offer of a compromise, as to the vigour of his arms. The Afghans in Orissa took advantage of this confusion, and recovered their footing in the lower provinces of Bengal. The great Kajpoot raja Man Sing, the near relative of the emperor, was sent to quell this formidable revolt, which was not effected without great difficulty ; and it was not till the year 1592, after a dozen battles and seven- teen years of conflict, that the authority of Akbar was con- clusively established in a province which, a century and a half later, was at once and finally conquered by Olive in one decisive action. IV.] SUCCESS OF THE KBYBEREES. 113 Destruction of It was a short time previous to the invasion Gour, cii. 1560. O f B en g a i by Akbar, that the ancient city of Gour was depopulated and abandoned, after having existed more than twenty centuries. It was admirably situated on the confines of Bengal and Behar for the government of both these provinces ; it had been the capital of a hundred kings, by whom it was successively adorned with the most superb edifices. It extended along the banks of the Ganges, and was defended from the encroachments of the river by a stone embankment, not less than fifteen miles in length. This magnificent city, the seat of wealth and luxury, was suddenly humbled to the dust by some pestilential disease, which has never been satisfactorily explained. The establishments of government were transferred, in the first instance, to Tondah, and then to Eajmahal. Conquest of The next important event in the reign of Akbar Cashmere, 1587. was ^he conquest of Cashmere, by his brother-in- law, the raja of Jeypore, when the Mahomedan king of that province was enrolled among the nobles of the court, and this lovely valley, the paradise of Asia, becam'e the summer retreat of the emperors of Delhi. The attempt which Akbar was required to make, soon after, to curb the highland tribes around the plain of Peshawur, proved far more arduous. These wild mountaineers, of whom the Eusufzies and the Khyberees were the most considerable and most turbulent, had been for ages the plague of every successive ruler of the province. It was their hereditary belief that the fastnesses of the mountains had been bestowed on them by the Creator, to enable them to levy contributions on the industry of the plains. Every form of conciliation and coercion had been .^employed in vain to restrain their- inroads. On this, occasion Akbar sent an army against them, under the joint command of his foster brother, and his great personal friend and favourite, the Hindoo raja Beerbull. Their troops were decoyed into the defiles and cut off, and, to the infinite regret of the emperor, Beerbull was among the slain. So complete i 114 THE KINGDOMS OF THE DECCAN. [CHAP. was the disgrace, that according to the historian of this reign, of 40,000 horse and foot, who entered the hills, scarcely an individual escaped. Such wholesale destruction would appear incredible, if we had not witnessed an example of it in the same scene in our own day. The task of subjugating them was then committed to the rajas Toder Mull and Man Sing, who established military posts in the hills, and cut off the supplies of the mountaineers from the plains, and thus imposed some restraint on then 1 violence. They became, however, as troublesome a century after, in the days of Aurungzebe, as they had been in the time of Akbar, and it is only since the establishment of British authority at Peshawur, that they have felt themselves in the presence of a master. Akbar, having no other war on his hands, pro- Conquest of sinde and can- cecded to annex the kingdom of Sinde to his danar, 1591-94. Dominions, an( j soon a f t er reconquered the province of Candahar. Thus, after a series of conflicts, which extended over a period of twenty-five years, Akbar saw himself the undisputed monarch of all his hereditary territories beyond the Indus, and of all the principalities which had ever belonged to the crown of Delhi, north of the Nerbudda, and it only remained to extend his authority over the Deccan. A brief notice of the events in that region, during the sixteenth century, will form a suitable introduction to the Mogul expe- dition, on which Akbar now entered. It has been stated in a previous chapter that on History of the _ r Deccan in the the decline of the Bahminy kingdom, the governors tury ' of the different provinces threw off their allegi- ance, and that at the period of Baber's invasion, five separate kingdoms had been established in the Deccan, at Beejaporc, Ahmednugur, Golconda, Beder, and Berar. Of these Beder, the most insignificant, was gradually absorbed by its more .. . powerful neighbours. Berar was scarcely of The kingdoms e of Beder and more weight in the politics of the Deccan, and was extinguished about the year 1572 by the Nizam Shahee ruler of Ahmednugur. The kingdom of Golconda, IV. J JBEEJAPORE AND AHMEDNTJGUK. 115 which was sometimes called Telingana, as comprising the districts of that extinct Hindoo monarchy, was consolidated Kingdom of ^J Koolee Eootub Shah, who claimed homage on Goiconda. ^he ground of being lineally descended from Japhet, the son of Noah. His reign extended over sixty years, during which he was employed, as he delighted to say, "in spreading the banners of the Faith, and reducing the infidels from the borders of Telingana to Masulipatam and Rajahmundry." Year after year he took the field against the Hindoos, reducing their villages to ashes, and turning their temples into mosques. Though the kings of Goiconda mixed freely in the intrigues of the two other princes of the Deccan, and were always ready to enter the lists against them when plunder or territory was to be gained, their attention was more particularly directed to the subjugation of the Hindoo districts lying between the eastern border of their kingdom and the Bay of Bengal. The two states of Beeiapore and of Ahmed- Kingdoms of . Eeejaporeand nugur, called the Adil Shahee, and the Nizam inugur. g na h ee? which bordered on each other, were inces- santly engaged in mutual hostility. Within the circle of those kingdoms was included the region inhabited by the Mahrattas, the rise and importance of whose power is to be attributed primarily to the perpetual warfare in which these royal families were involved. As early as 1499, we find a body of 5,000 Mahrattas enlisted in the service of one of them, and throughout the sixteenth century, their armieb were strengthened by Mahratta contingents, consisting of five, ten, and sometimes even twenty thousand troops. Not a few of the Mahratta families, which subsequently rose to distinction, traced the origin of their dignity to these appointments. There was as yet no bond of national unity among them, and their mercenary weapons were sold to the highest bidder, even though their own countrymen might bo in the opposite ranks. As the object of the kings of the Deccan was to inflict the greatest amount of havoc on their I 2 116 EXTINCTION OP BEEJUYNUGUB. [CHAP- opponents, the aid of men who were bandits by birth and profession, must have been invaluable. To the south of the three Deccan kingdoms, The Hindoo kingdom of lay the territories of the great Hindoo monarch Beejuynugur. o ^ Beejuynugur, who exercised authority, more or less complete, over all the Hindoo chiefs in the south. The kings of this race had incessantly waged war with the powerful Bahminy sovereigns, and on the extinction of their power, were always engaged either in alliance or in war with some one of the Deccan kings, the ally of one year being frequently the foe of the next. The revenues of Beejuynugur, which were said to have been enriched by the commerce of sixty seaports, on both coasts, enabled the king to maintain a force with which no other single state was able to cope. Earn Raja, the reigning monarch in the middle of the sixteenth century, had recently wrested several districts from Beejapore ; he had also overrun Telingana, blockaded the capital, and constrained the king to make large concessions. His growing power gave just alarm to the Mahomedan kings of Beejapore, Ahmednugur, Golconda, and Beder, and they resolved to suspend their mutual jealousies and form a general con- federacy to extinguish it. This was nothing less than a conflict for supremacy between the Hindoo and the Mahome- dan powers in the Deccan. Earn Eaja, then seventy years of age, called up to his aid all his Hindoo feudatories as far as Ceylon, and was enabled to assemble an army, consisting, on the most moderate computation, of 70,000 horse. 90,000 foot, 2,000 elephants, and 1,000 pieces of cannon. The great and Battle of Teiii- decisive battle was fought on the 25th of January, cotta, 25 Jan., 1565, at Tellicotta, about twenty miles north of Beejuynugur, and terminated in the total defeat and capture of the raja, and the slaughter, according to the Mahomedan historian, of 100,000 infidels. The aged raja wan put to death in cold blood, and his head was preserved as a, trophy at Beejapore, and annually exhibited to the people for two hundred years on the anniversary of his death. The IT.] THE POKTUGUESE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 117 capital was plundered of all its treasures, and gradually sunk to insignificance. The power of the Hindoos in the Deccan was irretrievably broken, but the confederate monarchs were prevented from following up their victory by mutual dis- sensions, and the brother of the raja was thus enabled to save some portion of the territory, and to establish his court at Penconda. The capital was subsequently transferred to Chundergiree, which has been rendered memorable in the history of British India as the town where, seventy-four years after the battle of Tellicotta, the descendant of the raja granted the English the first acre of land they ever possessed in India, and on which they erected the town of Madras. During the sixteenth century, the Portuguese The Portuguese ,.,, . during the leth made little effort to extend their conquests into the interior of the country. They were content with being masters of the sea, from which they swept all the fleets of India and Arabia, and with the monopoly of the commerce between Europe and India. There are, therefore, few events of any consequence in their history. It was about thirty years after they had landed at Calicut that they determined to obtain possession of the harbour of Diu at all hazards. A large expedition was fitted out, consisting of 400 vessels, with a force of 22,000 men, of whom 5,000 were said to be European soldiers and sailors ; but it was defeated by the artillery and the extraordinary talents of Koomy Khan, the great engineer officer of the Guzerat army. Here it may be useful to note, that the Portuguese, on their arrival in India, found the native princes furnished with artillery fully equal to their own,' and in some cases superior to it. The engineers in the native armies, who came from Constantinople and Asia Minor, and usually bore the title of Koomy, were skilled in every branch of the science of artillery, and few battles were fought without the aid of field guns. It was Roomy Khan who, in 1549, cast, or constructed, the great gun at Ahmednugur now called the Beejapore gun the calibre of which was 28 inches and the weight 40 tons. In 1535, 118 SUCCESSFUL DEFENCE OF GOA. [CHAP. Bahadoor Shah, the king of Guzerat, was driven from his throne by Humayoon, and took refuge at Diu, where the Portuguese, after their repulse, had succeeded in forming an establishment. There he entered into a treaty with them, granting permission to erect a fortress in return for a con- tingent of 50 European officers and 450 soldiers, with whose aid he was enabled to reconquer his kingdom on the departure of Humayoon. The disputes which arose regarding this fortification, and the tragic event in which they ended, have been already narrated. The fortress was completed in 1538, and contributed to strengthen the power of the Portuguese, who had now become the terror of the eastern seas through the superiority of their naval equipments. It became, there- fore, the interest of all the Mahomedan powers in Asia to extirpate them, and the Grand Seigneur at Constantinople entered into a combination with the king of Guzerat to accomplish this object. The Turkish admiral sailed from Suez to Diu, with a force of 7,000 men and a superb train of artillery. A body of 20,000 men co-operated with them from Guzerat. Sylveira, the Portuguese Commander, had only a force of 600 men, but defended himself with such gallantly, that the seige is one of the most remarkable transactions in the history of the Portuguese. When, at length, forty alone of the garrison remained fit for duty, and there was no prospect before them but an unconditional surrender, the Mahomedans, exhausted by this long and fruitless seige, drew off their troops, and Diu was saved. Combined ^ ne g rea test event of this century, however, attack on Goa, was the seige of Goa, in 1570. The kings of ^esf s^fue- 11 " Beejapore and of Ahmednugur formed a coalition inents, 1570. w ^h the Zamorin of Calicut to expel the Portu- guese from the coasts of India, each of the confederates engaging to attack the settlements contiguous to his domi- nions. Ali Adil came down upon Goa, with a force of 100,000 infantry, 35,000 cavalry, and 350 pieces of cannon ; Don Luis, the governor, was able only to muster 1,600 men, including IV. J STATE OF THE DECCAN. 119 the monks ; but he obliged the king to raise the seige with ignominy, after ten months had been wasted, and 12,000 of Iris troops slain. Mortiza Nizam Shah of Ahmednugur, descended the ghauts with an army scarcely less numerous, composed of natives of Turkey, Persia, Khorasan, and Ethio- pia, and attacked the port of Ghoul, in the neighbourhood of Bombay, but he was repulsed at all points, and 3,000 of his troops perished in the assault. The Zamorin, at the same time, laid seige to the port of Chale, but it was rescued from danger by the timely arrival of reinforcements from Goa. The Portuguese, having thus repulsed the most formidable attempt made on their settlements since they became a power in India, constrained the discomfited princes to sue for peace, and retained their supremacy in the Indian ocean, and on the coasts of India to the close of the century, when they had to encounter the rivalry of the new power introduced by the Dutch, to which they were obliged eventually to succumb. ., , . Akbar, having consolidated his empire to the Akbar s views r on the Deccan, north of the Nerbudda, resolved to conquer the Deccan. There can be little doubt that this movement was dictated simply by the "lust of territorial aggrandisement," and that it is open to ah 1 the censure which English historians have bestowed on it. Yet aggression had been the normal principle of every government, since the Mahomedans " turned their face to India," in the year 1000 ; perhaps even long before that period ; and if the enterprise of Akbar had been crowned with success, it would doubtless have been an incomparable benefit to India. It is difficult to imagine a more deplorable condition than that of the unhappy provinces of the Deccan during the whole of the sixteenth century. The kings seem to have had no occupation but war. Scarcely a year passed in which the villages were not subjected to rapine, and the fair fruits of industry blasted by their wanton irruptions. No govern- ment, however tyrannical, could have inflicted anything like tlic wretchedness occasioned by these unceasing devastations. 120 CHAND SULTANA. [CHAP. So inestimable is the blessing conferred by a strong govern- ment in India, in putting down intestine war, and giving repose and confidence to the people, that it appears mere affectation to inquire into the origin of its rights, which, in nine cases out of ten, will be found to be as valid as those of the power it subverts. Akbar enters On the death of Boorhan Nizam Shah, the king the Ahmed Q f Ahmednugur, i n 1595 four rival factions arose nugur stdtG, 1595. in the state, the most powerful of which called in the aid of the Moguls. Akbar, who had long been watching an opportunity of interfering in the affairs of the Deccan, readily accepted the overture, and lost no time in sending forward two armies. But before they could reach the capital, another revolution had placed the power of the state in the hands of Chand Sultana. She was a princess of Ahmednugur, who had been bestowed in marriage in 1564 on Ah' Adil Shah of Beejapore, to bind him to the alliance then formed by the Mahomedan kings against the raja of Beejuynugur. On his death she returned to her native country, and now assumed the regency on behalf of her nephew, Bahadoor Nizam Shah. This celebrated woman, the favourite heroine The celebrated Chand Sultana, of the Deccan, the subject of a hundred ballads, determined to defend the city to the last extremity, and persuaded the rival factions to merge their differences iut a combined effort against the common foe. The Moguls had constructed three mines, two of which she countermined ; the third blew up, carrying away a portion of the wall, and many of her principal officers prepared to desert the defence. The Sultana flew to the spot in full armour, with a veil over her countenance, and a drawn sword in her hand, and recalled the troops to a sense of their duty. Combustibles of every de- scription were thrown into the breach, and so heavy a fire was directed against it, that the besiegers were constrained to retire. During the night she superintended in person the repairs of the wall. It is a popular and favourite tradition, that when the shot was. exhausted, she loaded the guns with IV.] CAPTURE OF AHMEDNTJGDB. 121 copper, then with silver, and then with gold, and did not pause till she had begun to fire away her jewels. The allies whom she had importuned to aid her, were now approaching ; the Mogul camp began to be straitened for provisions, and prince Morad, the son of Akbar, who commanded the army, offered to retire on obtaining the cession of the She cedes Berar to the Moguls, province of Berar. Chand, having little confi- dence in the fidelity of her troops or of her allies, was constrained to accede to these terms. Battle of sone- Within a year of this convention, the kings of put, Jan., 1597. Beejapore, Ahmednugur, and Golconda formed an alliance to drive the Moguls back across the Nerbudda, and brought an army of 60,000 men into the field. An action was fought at Soneput, which lasted two days, without any decisive result, though both parties claimed the victory. Dissensions at length broke out among the officers of the Mogul army, and Akbar, who had resided for fourteen years in the countries bordering on the Indus, felt the necessity of proceeding in person to the Deccan. On reaching Boorhan- pore he sent an army to lay seige again to Ahmednugur. The government of the Sultana, which she had maintained with great difficulty, was now distracted by factions, and feeling the city to be incapable of defence, she endeavoured to make the best terms in her power with the Moguls. The populace, inflamed by her enemies, rushed into her chamber and put her to death. But they soon had reason to deplore their ingratitude. The Mogul army stormed and plundered the city, giving no quarter to the defenders, and the young king and his family were sent as state prisoners to Gwalior. The fall of the capital did not, however, ensure Capture of Ah- r mednugur, the submission of the kingdom, and it was not July, i6( incorporated with the Mogul dominions till thirty- seven years after this period. Soon after, Akbar deprived his vassal, the king of Candesh, of all authority, and that kingdom was re-annexed to the Mogul empire. 122 DEATH OF AKBAK. [CHAP. This was the last event of importance in the Last four years . of Akbar-s reign, reign of Akbtff, who returned to the capital in iGoi-1606. by the misconduct of his son Selirn, then thirty years of age, a prince not altogether destitute of that talent, which for a century and a half distinguished the family of Baber, both in the cabinet and in the field, but violent and vindictive, and the slave of wine. The emperor had declared him heir to the throne, but he was so impatient to occupy it, as to take up arms against his father, which, however, he was induced to lay down by a fond and paternal letter, and a grant of the provinces of Bengal and Orissa. He had contracted an in- veterate hatred of Abul Fazil, one of the most illustrious officers of Akbar's camp, and, after the death of raja Beerbull, his most intimate friend. Prince Selim caused him to be assassinated by a zemindar of Bundlecund. Abul Fazil was equally eminent as a general, a statesman, and a historian ; and Akbar is indebted for his renown in no small degree to the pen of his noble historian. Akbar's death, Iu September, 1605, Akbar began to feel the isth oct, 1605. approach of death. The profligacy of Selim had induced an influential body of courtiers, among whom was raja Man Sing, to contemplate the elevation of his son Khusro, a minor, to the throne ; but Akbar nipped the project in the bud. He summoned his courtiers and his son around his couch, and ordered the prince to bind his favourite scymetar to his side as a token that the empire had been bequeathed to him, and recommended his personal friends and the ladies of the harem to Ins protection. Then, addressing the omrahs around him, he asked forgiveness for any offence he might have given them; a priest was soon after introduced, and Akbar repeated the confession of faith, and died in the odour of Mahomedan sanctity, though he had lived the life of a heretic. Akbar was not only the ornament of the Mogul dynasty iv.J AKBAR'S RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 123 r-s charac- b u t incomparably the greatest of all the Malio- institutions. medan rulers of India. Few princes ever exhibited greater military genius or personal courage. He never fought a battle which he did not win, or besieged a town which he did not take ; yet he had no passion for war, and as soon as he had turned the tide of victory by his skill and energy, he was happy to leave his generals to complete the work, and to hasten back to the more agreeable labours of the cabinet. The glories of his reign rest not so much on the extent of his conquests, though achieved by his personal talent, as on the admirable institutions by which his empire was consolidated. . The superiority of his civil administration was owing not to his own genius alone, but also to the able statesmen whom, like Queen Elizabeth, he had the wisdom to collect around him. In the early period of his career he was a devout ITis religious ' r Tiews and his f ollower of the Prophet, and was at one time bent on a pilgrimage to his tomb, the aspiration of every Mahomedan ; but about the twenty-fifth year of his reign lie began to entertain sentiments incompatible with fidelity to the Koran. He professed to reject all prophets, priests, and ceremonies, and to take simple reason as the guide of his thoughts and the rule of his actions. The first article of his creed was, " There is no God but one, and Akbar is his pro- phet." Whether he ever intended to become the founder of a new creed may admit of controversy ; but ah 1 his measures tended to discourage the religion of the Prophet. He changed the era of the Hejira ; he restrained the study of Arabic and of Mahomedan theology ; and he wounded the dearest prejudices of the faithful by proscribing the beard. Nothing but the ascendancy of his character, and -his dazzling success in war and in peace, could have preserved the throne amidst the dis- contents produced among his own chiefs by these heterodox measures. Among a people with whom persecution was considered the most sacred of duties, Akbar adopted the prin- ciple not only of religious toleration, but, what has been found a more difficult task even in the most enlightened Christian com- 124 AKBAR'S CIVIL ADMINISTRATION. [CHAP. munities, of religious equality. He formed the magnanimous resolution of resting the strength of his throne on the attach- ment of all his subjects, whether they belonged to the esta- blished religion of the state or not. He disarmed the hostility and secured the loyalty of the Hindoos by allowing them to share the highest civil offices and military commands with the Mahomedans, and thus placed himself a century ahead of the Stuarts in England. He abolished the odious jezzia, or capitation tax ; he issued an edict permitting Hindoo widows to marry ; he discouraged suttees to the full extent of his power, and he abolished the practice of reducing captives to slavery. His revenue Under the supervision of the great financier reforms. o f fae age, the raja Toder Mull, Akbar radically remodelled the revenue system of the empire He caused all the lands to be measured according to a uniform standard, and with the most perfect instruments procurable. He divided them, according to their character and fertih'ty, into three classes, and fixed the demand of the state generally at one- third the annual produce, and then commuted it to a money payment. He abolished all arbitrary cesses, and made the settlement for ten years, and with the cultivators themselves, to the exclusion of all middlemen. It is questionable there- fore whether, during his reign, there were any zemindars in India at all, and whether those who afterwards assumed their prerogatives were, at this period, and for more than a century after, anything beyond mere officials employed in collecting- the public dues. Division of the The whole empire was divided into fifteen pro- empire, vinces, or soubahs: Cabul, beyond the Indus; Lahore, Mooltan, Delhi, Agra, Oude, Allahabad, Ajmere, Guzerat, Malwa, Behar, and Bengal ; and south of the Nerbudda, Candesh, Berar, and Ahmednugur. Each province was placed under a soobadar, who was entrusted with full powers, civil and military, and assisted by a dewan, or minis- ter of finance, who, though nominated by the emperor, was V.] ACCESSION OP JEHANGEEK. 125 accountable to the soobadar. The military duties of each province were entrusted to a fouzdar, who also commanded the police force, and was responsible for the peace of the country. Civil law was administered by a Mahomedan chief justice, assisted by local judges, and the decisions were inva- riably in accordance with the precepts of Mahomedan law. His military The military system of Akbar was the least ecoiy^f ST P erfect of ali nis arrangements, and his extraordi- court. nary success is to be attributed more to the weak- ness of his opponents than to the superiority of his own army. He perpetuated the great military error of paying the commanders for their soldiers by the head, which created an irresistible temptation to make false musters, and to fill the ranks with ragamuffins. The same organization which per- vaded, the various offices of state was carried into all the establishments of his court, down to the department of the fruits and the flowers, the perfumery, the kitchen, and the kennel, which were regulated to the minutest details under the personal directions of the emperor. Every establishment was maintained upon a scale of imperial magnificence. He never had fewer than 12,000 horses and 5,000 elephants in his own stables, independently of those required for hawking, and hunting, and war. During his progress through the provinces his camp was a great moving city, and the eye was dazzled by the sight of the royal tents surmounted with gilt cupolas, and enriched with the most gorgeous ornaments. CHAPTER V. JEHANGEER AND SHAH JEHAN, 1605 1658. ON the death of Akbar, Prince Selim quietly Jchan^eer as- cends the throne, stepped into the throne, at the age of thirty- seven, and adopted the title of Jehangeer, the conqueror of the world. The great empire to which he sue- 126 NOOR JEHAN. [CHAP, ceeded was in a state of profound tranquillity, and there was no spfrit of insubordination among the military or civil chiefs. His proceedings on his accession served not only to calm the fears which his previous misconduct had excited, but even io win him the esteem of his subjects. He confirmed his father's ministers in their posts, abolished some vexatious taxes, and, though strongly addicted to wine himself, prohibited the use of it, and endeavoured to control the indulgence in opium. He replaced the Mahomedan creed on the coin, and mani- fested a more superstitious attention to the precepts of the Prophet than his father had done. At the same time he courted popularity by affording easy access to the complaints of his people. But a subject of disquietude soon arose. His son Khusro had become the object of his Rebellion of his . J sonKhuuro, detestation by the effort made during the last days of Akbar's life to place him on the throne by some of the leading courtiers, and the youth now fled to the Punjab, where he collected a body of 10,000 men. He was promptly pursued and captured, and the emperor exhibited the brutality of his nature by causing seven hundred of his adherents to be impaled alive, while the wretched Khusro was carried along the line to witness their agony. The event which exercised the greatest influ- Parentage and marriage of encc on the conduct of Jehangecr for sixteen twn " years was his marriage with the celebrated Noor Jehan. She was descended from a noble Persian family of Teheran, but her father, having been reduced to poverty, determined to follow the prevailing current of emigration, and proceed to India to repair his fortunes. During the journey, his wife gave birth to a daughter under the most calamitous circumstances, though they were subsequently embellished with all the romance of poetry when she became the Queen of the East, and was in a position to reward the pens of poets. A merchant who happened to be travelling on the same route afforded assistance to the family in their exigency, and, on reaching the capital, took the father into his own employ, and, V.j MARRIAGE OF KOOB JEHAW. 127 perceiving his abilities, introduced him to the service of Akbar, in which he gradually rose to eminence. His daughter, Noor Jehan, received all the accomplishments of education which the capital of India could afford, and grew up into a woman of the most exquisite beauty. In the harem of Akbar> which she occasionally visited with her mother, she attracted the attention of the prince Selim, who became deeply ena- moured of her. But she had been already betrothed to a Turkoman of the noblest descent, who had acquired the title of Shere Afgun, from having killed a lion singlehanded. He had served with renown in the wars of Persia and India, and was distinguished no less by his gigantic strength than by his personal valour. Akbar refused to annul the nuptial engagement, even in favour of his own son, and, in the hope that absence would allay the passion of the prince, appointed Shere to a jaygeer in the remote district of Burdwan. But Jehangeer had no sooner mounted the Noor Jehan raised to the throne than he determined to remove every ob- one, 1611. g t ac i e to the gratification of his wishes, and Shere perished in a scuffle, which was not believed to be accidental. His lovely widow was conveyed to Delhi, when Jehangeer offered to share his throne with her; but she rejected tho offer with disdain, and was consigned to the neglect of the harem, where she had leisure for reflection and repentance. Anxious to regain Jehangeer's attachment, she contrived to throw herself in his way, and her youth and beauty did not fail to rekindle his former passion. Their marriage was cele- brated with extraordinary pomp, and she was clothed with honours greater than any Sultana had ever enjoyed before. The emperor went so far as to associate her name with his own on the coin,- in these graceful terms: "By order of the emperor Jehangeer, gold acquired a hundred times additional value by the name of the empress Noor Jehan" the light of the world. Her talent for business was not less remark- able than her personal charms, and her influence was beneficial to the interests of the state. She softened the natural cruelty 128 MALIK AMBER. [CHAP. of the emperor's disposition, and constrained him to appear sober at the durbar, however he might indemnify himself for this restraint in the evening. Her taste imparted grace to the splendour of the court, at the same time that she curtailed its extravagance. Her brother, Asof Khan, was raised to a post of high dignity, and her father, who was placed at the head of affairs, proved to be one of the ablest of viziers. Malik Amber ^^ c ^ v ^ Ahmednugur, as previously stated, was ana the state of captured by Akbar, on the murder of Chand Sultana, in 1600, and the royal family was consigned to the fortress of Gwalior ; but the kingdom was not subdued, though Akbar designated it as one of the soobahs of his empire. Malik Amber, the chief of the Abyssinian nobles of the court, assumed the control of public affairs, and placed a kinsman of the late king on the throne. He attacked the Mogul forces with vigour, and erected the national standard on what had been regarded the impregnable rock of Dowlutabad; he founded a new capital at the foot of it, at Kirkee, and adorned it with many splendid buildings. Malik Amber stands foremost in the history of the Deccan as a statesman of sur- passing genius, who maintained the sinking fortunes of the Ahmednugur dynasty for twenty years with the greatest energy. Planting himself on the borders of the Deccan, he continued to repel the encroachments of the Moguls, and repeatedly drove their armies back to Boorhanpore. He availed himself to so great an extent of the services of the Mahratta chieftains, that he may be said to have cradled their power ; more especially was it under his banner that Shahjee, the father of Sevajee, laid the foundation of his greatness. With a natural genius for war, he was still more remarkable for the assiduity with which he cultivated the arts of peace ; and it is the revenue settlement he brought to perfection which has given lasting celebrity to his name. He was the Toder Mull of the Deccan. jciiangeerat- i n the year 1612 Jehangeer resolved to re- tacks Amber, . * K12. cover the footing which the Moguls had lost V.] SUBJUGATION OF OODYPORE. 129 in the Deccan, and two armies, the first commanded by Abdoolla Khan, were sent against Malik Amber. But he avoided a general engagement, while his light Deccanee horse hovered on the flanks and rear of his enemy, cut off his communications and supplies, and harassed him by night and by day so inexorably as to oblige him to sound a retreat, which the Abyssinian soon converted into a disgraceful flight. The second army met the Ahmednugur troops in the flush of victory, and wisely retraced its steps across the Nerbudda. Subjugation of These disappointments were balanced by success -oodypore, 1614- against Oodypore. It has been already stated that Oody Sing, the feeble rana of Chittore, the founder of the town of Oodypore, wa,s obliged by the generals of Akbar to seek refuge in the hills. He was succeeded by his son, Pertap Sing, who is still idolized by his countrymen for the heroism with which he repelled the attacks of the Moguls, and preserved the germ of national independence in his wild fastnesses. Although the Rajpoot rajas of Jeypore and Marwar were ranged against him, he succeeded in recovering the greater portion of his hereditary dominions before the death of Akbar. His son Omrah, equally valiant, but less fortunate, after having repeatedly defeated the Mogul troops, was, in the year 1614, attacked by Shah Jehan, the gallant and favourite son of the emperor, and compelled to acknowledge fealty to the throne of Delhi. That generous prince, himself, on the mother's side, of Rajpoot blood, restored the territories of the fallen prince, but only as the vassal of the emperor, at whose court, however, he was assigned the highest post of honour. Thus was the independence of the family of the great ranas of Chittore, which had been maintained for eight hundred years, at once extinguished. ofs - The tenth year of the reign of Jehangeer was ren- Thomas BOB, dered memorable by the arrival of Sir Thomas Roe, as ambassador from James, the king of England, to solicit privileges for the East India Company, then recently K t30 SECOND ATTACK ON MAT.TK AMBEB. [CHAP. established. He landed at Surat, and proceeded by slow journeys to the court, then held at Ajmere, where he was received with greater distinction than had been conferred on any foreign envoy. Of the result of his embassy we shall have occasion to speak hereafter ; here it may be sufficient to state, that he was fascinated by the oriental magnificence of the court, which so completely eclipsed the tinsel pomp of that of his own master. He was dazzled with the profusion of gold and jewels on every side, and, not least, with those which adorned the foreheads of the royal elephants. But he perceived little comfort among the subjects of the empire, who were ground down by the extortions of the public ser- vants of every grade. The emperor dispensed justice daily in person ; but he retired in the evening to his cups, which he never left while there was any reason left in him. He was maudlin and easy, and his courtiers were universally corrupt and unprincipled. Military discipline had decayed after the death of Akbar, and the only good soldiers in the army were the Eajpoots and the Afghans. There was a large influx of Europeans at the capital, and so greatly was Christianity encouraged, that one of the emperor's nephews had embraced it, and the Emperor himself had an image of Christ and the Virgin in his rosary. Second cam- The attention of Jehangeer was now called to ^ 1 f a . gai . nst the state of affairs in the Deccan, and he marched Malik Amber, March, 1617. down to Mandoo to superintend the war, which he entrusted to the command of Shah Jehan, at the same time declaring him the heir of the throne. The prosperity of Malik Amber had created a feeling of envy at the Ahmed- nugur court, and alienated many of his confederates. On the approach of Shah Jehan, he was still further weakened by the defection of the king of Beejapore, and was obliged to enter into negotiations, and cede the fortress of Ahmed- nugur, together with all the conquests he had made from the Moguls. But within four years he renewed the war, and succeeded in driving the imperial forces across the Taptee. V.] KEBELLION OP SHAH JEHAN. 131 Shah Jehan was again selected by his father to command the army ; but he accepted the charge only on condition that his brother Khusro should accompany him. Before he reached the province of Malwa, Malik Amber had crossed the Ner- budda and burned down the suburbs of Maudoo. But success still attended the arms of Shah Jehan. He contrived to cor- rupt the principal Mahratta chiefs in the army of Malik Amber some of them by the most extravagant offers and that general, deserted by his own officers, suffered a defeat, and was obliged to purchase peace in 1621, by a large sacri- fice of treasure and territory. Death of Khusro, Just at this juncture Khusro died, and themis- N l o d o?j!S 80f f o rtunes of Shah J ehan began. Noor Jehan had 1621. bestowed her daughter by Shere Afgun on Shariar, the youngest of the emperor's sons, and determined to raise him to the throne, in the hope of perpetuating that unbounded influence which she had enjoyed under Jehangeer. Her father, the vizier, whose virtue and wisdom had maintained order in the empire, notwithstanding the dissoluteness of the Court, had recently died, and the salutary restraint of his authority being removed, she was at liberty to indulge her passions without control. The Persians had recently reconquered Candahar, and, in the hope of removing Shah Jehan out of her way, she persuaded Jehangeer to employ his great military talents hi regaining it. Shah Jehan was alive to the danger of quitting India, and began to stipulate for securities. His demands were regarded as treasonable j all his jaygeers and estates were sequestered, and he was driven into rebellion by the force of circumstances. Mohabet hunts To meet this difficulty, Mohabet, the ablest torough^e general in the emperor's service, was drawn from country, 1623. his government of Cabul, and directed to march against Shah Jehan. A partial and indecisive action took place in Rajpootana, and the prince unwisely determined to retire to the Deccan. This retrograde movement was attended, as might have been expected, with the most fatal couse- 132 INTRIGUES AGAINST MOHABET. [CHAP. quences. Malik Amber and the kings of Beejapore and Golconda refused him any assistance ; his own troops began to desert, and he was obliged to retreat to Telingana. On reaching Masulipatam he marched along the coast to Bengal, took possession of that province and of Behar, and advanced to Allahabad. Mohabet, who was lying at Boorhanpore, on hearing of his sudden appearance on the Ganges, hastened to encounter him ; his raw levies were speedily dispersed, and he fled a second time to the Deccan. Malik Amber was now at issue with the emperor, and made common cause with his fugitive son, and they advanced together to the siege of that city. But Mohabet pursued the prince with such energy that he was f am to seek reconciliation with his father, which, however, was not granted but on the hard condition of surrendering all his forts, and giving two of his sons as hostages. Jehan A new scene now opens in this eventful drama. * Mohabet, the greatest subject of the empire, and 1625. the prime favourite of the emperor, had acquired additional importance by his brilliant success; but as he manifested no disposition to second Noor Jehan's views re- garding the succession of Shariar, her confidence was capriciously converted into hatred, and she resolved on his ruin. Jehangeer was at this tune on his way to Cabul. A charge of embezzlement during his recent campaign was trumped up against Mohabet, and he was summoned to the court to answer it. He came, but with a body of 5,000 Rajpoots who were devoted to his service. He had recently betrothed his daughter to a young noble without obtaining the usual consent of the emperor. Jehangeer, on hearing of the cir- cumstance, ordered the youth into his presence, and hi a fit of brutal rage directed him to be stripped naked and whipped with thorns in the presence of the court, and confiscated all his estates. When Mohabet approached the royal encamp- ment he was refused admission. He could not fail to perceive that his ruin was determined on, and he resolved to strike V.] BIOHADET SEIZES THE EMPEROR. 133 . v . . the first blow. The following 1 morning the army Mohabet seizes ; the Emperor, crossed the Hydaspes, and Jehangeer, who had not recovered from the debauch of the previous night, remained behind with a slender guard. Mohabet pro- ceeded to the emperor's tent and seized his person. Jehan- .geer was frantic at this indignity, but seeing himself abso- lutely in the power of his general, was persuaded to mount an elephant, with his goblet and his cup-bearer, and proceed to Mohabet's tent. Noor Jehan crossed the bridge in disguise and Noor Jehan fights for his joined the imperial army, and the next morning cue, 1626. proceeded to the rescue of her husband. The bridge having been destroyed during the night by the Raj- poots, she advanced at the head of the troops to a ford which had been discovered, mounted on a lofty elephant, with a bow and two quivers. The struggle was long and deadly. She endeavoured to animate the soldiers by her exertions, but they were driven into the stream by the shower of balls, rockets, and arrows which the Rajpoots poured into the files massed on the narrow ford. Noor Jehan's elephant reached the opposite bank, but was assailed with redoubled fury ; her guards were cut down, and among the hundred missiles aimed at her one struck the infant son of her daughter whom she carried in her lap. The elephant driver was killed, the animal was wounded, and carried down the stream in endeavouring to recross it, and the life of the empress was in imminent danger. When her female attendants came shrieking to the spot, they found the howda, or seat, covered with blood, and the empress employed in extracting the arrow and binding up the wound of the infant. Noor Jehan After this vain attempt at a rescue the empress feigns recondii- yielded to necessity, and joined Jehangeer, who peror-'s release, continued a captive in the hands of his revolted subject, but was treated with the greatest respect. Mohabet, now in full command of the army, crossed the Indus, and encamped at Cabul. There, her fertile genius, by a 134 1>EATH OF JEHANGEER. [CHAP. series of skilful manoeuvres, contrived gradually to turn the tables on him; he saw that his position was becoming daily more insecure, and made offers for a reconciliation. Noor Jehan condoned his revolt on condition that he should proceed in pursuit of her other enemy, Shah Jehan. That prince, after making his submission to the emperor, had fled to Sinde, intending to seek an asylum in Persia, but he was still a for- midable obstacle to her views. But when his prospects were at the lowest ebb they began to brighten. Mohabet, dreading a reign of weakness and violence if Shariar succeeded to the throne through the influence of Noor Jehan, resolved to assist the efforts of Shah Jehan, and, instead of proceeding to attack him, joined him with the troops yet remaining under his standard, The empress on hearing of this defection ordered him to be hunted through the empire, and set a price on his head. But her power was at once annihilated by the death of Death and Jehangcer, whose constitution was completely jehl^geerf exhausted by a life of indulgence, and who ex- 1627. pired at Lahore on the 28th of October, 1627, in the sixtieth year of his age. He was contemporary with James the First of England. Not only was their reign of the same duration, but there was a remarkable accordance in their characters. They were both equally weak and con- temptible, both the slaves of favourites and of drink, and, by a singular coincidence, they both launched a royal decree against the use of tobacco, then recently introduced into England and India, and, in both cases, with the same degree of success. ... On the death of Jehangeer, Asof Khan, the Accession of shah Jehan, brother of Noor Jehan, and one of the chief ministers, determined to support the claims of Shah Jehan on the same ground which had influenced the decision of Mohabet. He despatched a messenger to summon him from the Deccan, and at the same time placed the empress dowager under restraint. Her influence expired with the V.] StATE OF THE bECCAN. 135 death of her husband, and she retired from the world with an annuity of twenty-five lacs of rupees a-year, and passed the remaining years of her life in cherishing his memory. Shariar, who was at Lahore, was attacked and defeated by Asof Khan, and put to death by order of Shah Jehan. That prince lost no , time in coming up from the Deccan, in company with ' passion for Mohabet Khan, on whom, as well as on Azof magnificence, j^ ^ instruments of nis elevation, he be- I stowed the highest dignities. He was proclaimed emperor, at Agra, early in 1628, and began his reign by indulging that pas- sion for magnificence in which he eclipsed all his predecessors. The anniversary of his accession was commemorated by a dis* play of incredible extravagance. A suite of tents was manu- factured of the finest Cashmere shawls, which, in the figu- rative language of his biographer, it required two months to pitch. In conformity with the usage of the ancient Hindoo sovereigns he was weighed against silver, and gold, and jewels, which were then lavished among the courtiers. Vessels filled with gems were waved over his head and emptied on the floor for a general scramble. The expense of this festival was computed at a crore and a half of rupees. Condition of The first eight years of the reign of Shah Jehan dora^the^" were occupied with military operations hi the Deccan. Deccan. Thirty years had now elapsed since Akbar crossed the Nerbudda, and overran the kingdom of Ahmednugur, on which occasion he added to his titles that of king of the Deccan. The genius of Malik Amber had, however, succeeded in restoring the independence of the kingdom, to- gether with much of its ancient power; but he had recently died, at the age of eighty. The king of Beejapore, Ibrahim Adil Shah, renowned for the grandeur of his edifices, had died about the same time, bequeathing a full treasury and an army of 200,000 men to his successor. The king of Golconda was engaged in extending his authority over his Hindoo neigh- bours to the east and south. Of all the acquisitions made by Akbar south of the Nerbudda, there remained to the crown of 136 EEVOLT OF JEHAN LODI. [CHAP. Delhi only the eastern half of Candesh, and the adjoining por- tion of Berar. The war in the Deccan on which Shah Jehan Deccan occa- now entered, and which continued for eight years, was occasioned by the revolt of Jehan Lodi. He Lodi, was an Afghan of ignoble birth, but great ability and arrogance, who had raised himself to eminence in the Mogul army, and obtained the office of governor of the Deccan, from which post he was removed to Malwa under the new reign. He was invited to court, and treated appa- rently with great distinction ; but, having imbibed a suspicion that the emperor, to whom he was personally odious, had a design on his life, he quitted the capital abruptly with the troops which had accompanied him. He was immediately pursued, and overtaken on the banks of the Chumbul ; and it was only with extreme difficulty that he was able to elude pursuit and reach the Deccan ; but, having once reached it, he was joined by numerous adherents, and supported by the king of Ahmednugur. The emperor considered the revolt so serious as to order three armies, each consisting of 50,000 men, into the field, and even to proceed to the Deccan in person. Jehan Lodi was driven out of Ahmednugur by the Mogul force, and sought the aid of the king of Beejapore, which was peremptorily refused him. His friend, Shahjee, the Mahratta chieftain, considering his cause desperate, abandoned it, and joined the Moguls ; for which act of treachery he was rewarded with a title of nobility. Meanwhile his allies, the Ahmednugur troops, were defeated by the Moguls at Dow- lutabad; and Jehan. Lodi, overwhelmed by the defection of his friends and the discomfiture of his allies, fled northward, in the hope of reaching Afghanistan, and rousing his country- men ; but he wap brought to bay on the borders of Bundle- kund, and, after performing prodigies of valour with the small body of 400 men who still adhered to his fallen fortunes, was struck dead by a Rajpoot, and his head sent as aii accept- able offering to Shah Jehan. V.] EXTINCTION OP AHMEDNUGUR. 137 The war with Ahmednugur did not, however. Termination of . . the war in the cease with the cause of it. The king, Mortiza Deccan. Nizam, had fallen out with his minister, Futeh Khan, the son and successor of Malik Amber, and thrown him into prison ; but, having experienced nothing but mortifi- cation in his struggle with the Moguls, released him, and restored him to power. The Abyssinian rewarded the kind- ness of his master by causing him and his adherents to be assassinated ; and, having placed an infant on the vacant throne, offered his submission to the emperor. Meanwhile, the king of Beejapore, alarmed at the progress of the Mogul arms, deter- mined to make common cause with Ahmednugur, and thus brought down the imperial armies on his own territories. It would be wearisome to go into a detail of all the intrigues, the treachery, and the vicissitudes which form the history of this period of five years. Suffice it to record that the war with Beejapore was conducted with varied fortunes ; that the king baffled the Mogul generals by creating a desert for twenty miles around his capital, and depriving their armies of food, forage, and water ; and that both parties, becoming at length weary of this war of fruitless desolation, listened to terms of accommodation. The result of this conflict of eight years may be thus summed up : the kingdom of Ahmednugur was entirely extinguished, after it had flourished a century and a half ; a portion of its territory was ceded to Beejapore for a tribute of twenty lacs of rupees a year, and the remainder absorbed in the Mogul dominions ; while the king of Golconda, overawed by the neighbourhood of the Mogul army, consented to pay an annual subsidy. The Portuguese We tum now to Ben al - At what period the power in Bengal Portuguese formed their first establishment in that province is not accurately known ; but in the year 1537, the king, Mahmood, when pressed, as we have already stated, by the famous Shere Shah, invoked the aid of the Portu- guese governor on the Malabar coast, and Samprayo, his admiral, entered the Ganges with nine vessels. Though they arrived 138 THE PORTUGUESE IK BENGAL. [CHAP. too late to afford him assistance, it is supposed that they formed a settlement in the neighbourhood of the great port of Satgong, at a place called Golin, or Gola, the granary, afterwards cor- rupted to Hooghly, where they continued to flourish for a hun- dred years. Towards the close of the century they appear to have formed another and larger settlement atChittagong, where Gonzales is said to have held the district around it in subjec- tion with the help of a thousand Europeans, two thousand natives, and eighty ships. So formidable was his power, that the Mogul viceroy made Dacca the seat of his government, in order more effectually to check his progress. With the com- mand of the only two ports of the Gangetic valley, the power of the Portuguese in Bengal during the sixteenth century must have been an object of no little alarm to the Mogul authorities. Hoogwy. At Hooghly they had fortified their factory, and obtained the complete control of the commerce of the river, and the prosperity of Satgong began to wane under this rivalry. At the time when Shah Jehan, flying before Mohabet, in 1624, advanced from Masulipatam to Bengal, he besought the Portuguese chief at Hooghly, Michael Rodrigues, to assist him with some guns and artillerymen, but, as the governor had no confidence in the success of that rash enterprise, the request was refused. Six years afterwards .when Shah Jehan had become emperor, a representation was made by the soobadar of Bengal that some European idolaters, who had been allowed to establish a factory in Bengal, had erected a fort and mounted it with cannon, and grown insolent and oppressive. Shah Jehan had not forgotten the repulse he received from Rodrigues at Hooghly in his adversity, and curtly replied, "Let the idolaters be immediately expelled from my dominions." capture of The viceroy lost no time in investing Hooghly, Hooghly, 1632. an< j ? fi n( ji n g ^^ j t cou i(j not fa carr i e d by storm, undermined the defences. The great bastion was blown up ; the Moguls rushed with fury into the breach, and slaughtered V.] OPERATIONS BEYOND THE INDtJS, 139 more than a thousand Portuguese, Of three hundred vessels then in the river, it is stated that only three escaped. More than four thousand were made prisoners ; the priests were forwarded to Delhi, and the most beautiful of the women re- served for the royal seraglio ; the churches and images were demolished. By this blow, the power of the Portuguese in Bengal was irretrievably broken ; and no vestige now remains of their former influence, save the few vocables they contributed to the language of the country, and the old church at Bandel, within sight of Hooghly, erected two centuries and a half ago. The Mogul viceroy directed that it should thenceforth be made the royal port of Bengal j all the public records and offices were removed to it from Satgong, and that city, which may be traced back to the days of the Caesars, sunk into a little paper making hamlet. Acquisition of In the year 1637 the emperor was gladdened ^fSSl by the unexpected recovery of Candahar, which His canal. had been so often lost and gained by the family of Baber Ali Merdan, the governor under the Persians, was driven into rebellion by the tyrannical proceedings of his sovereign, and made over the town and territory to the Moguls; after which he sought a refuge at the court of Delhi. He was received, as may well be supposed, with great honour by Shah Jehan, and subsequently employed in many military expeditions beyond the Indus. But his fame has been perpetuated in India by the great public works which he executed, and more especially by the canal, near Delhi, distinguished by his name, which has proved an incal- culable blessing to the country it irrigates. Military opera- ^ notary operations which were undertaken tiona beyond the beyond the Indus, can scarcely be said to belong Indus 1644-47. , ,, , . , . T ,. m , P ,, to the history of India. The emperors of the house of Baber retained the same ardent interest in all the political movements of the region from which they sprung, as the first and second George took in the fortunes of Hanover. India was, therefore, drained of men and money for the con- 140 SIEGES OF CANDAHAE. [CHAP. quest or defence of those distant, and, as compared with India, unprofitable possessions The son of the Uzbek ruler of Balkh had revolted against his father; the government was thrown into confusion, and Shah Jehan, who had enjoyed seven years of repose, could not resist the temptation of again prosecuting the dormant rights of his family on that remote province. Ali Merdan was sent across the Indus with a large army, and ravaged Budukshan, but was constrained, by the severity of the whiter, to retreat. Raja Jugut Sing was then sent to conduct the war with 14,000 Rajpoots ; and never did the chivalry of that race of warriors, and their sym- pathy with a tolerant and just government, shine more conspi- cuously than in this expedition. Regardless of Hindoo preju- dices, they crossed the Indus, and surmounted the Hindoo Kosh, and encountered the fiery valour of the Uzbeks in that frozen region. To be near the scene of operations, Shah Jehan took up his residence at Cabul. His third son, Aurung- zebe was also employed in these operations, and at first gained a great victory, but was soon after obliged to retire upon Balkh, and then to make a most disastrous retreat to Cabul, with the loss of a great portion of his army. The emperor was at length induced calmly to weigh the policy of con- tinuing an expensive war in that distant quarter ; and he had the moral courage to relinquish the enterprize. The Persians ^^ e re P ose gained by abandoning Balkh was, retake candahar, however, of short duration. Shah Abbas, the and three efforts ,. - T T_ ^ j i_ -^ made in vain to king oi Persia, having now attained his majority, recover it, 1648. came down on Candahar and retook it, after a siege of two months. Shah Jehan was resolved to recover it, and the following yeai Aurungzebe invested it for foul months, but without success. Two years after, the vizier as well as the prince again invested the town with a larger force, but the attempt was a second time unsuccessful, and Aurungzebe was sent as viceroy to the Deccan. A third army was despatched in 1653, under prince Dara, the eldest eon of the emperor, who was impatient to achieve success in V.] RENEWAL OF WAR IN THE DECCAN. 141 an expedition in which his ambitious brother had been twice foiled ; but, though it set out at the precise moment which the royal astrologer had pronounced to be most auspicious, it was equally destined to disappointment. Thus termi- nated the third and last attempt of the Moguls to recover Candahar, of which they had held but a precarious posses- sion since the days of Baber. The failure was followed by two years of repose, when Shah Jehan completed the revenue settlement in the Deccan, on which he had laboured for twenty years, and introduced the financial system of Toder Mull. The year 1655 marks the commencement of an Eenewal of the war in the important senes of events ; the renewal of the >eccan, less. war j n ^g j) eccari} wn ich continued for fifty years to consume the resources of the Mogul empire, and served to hasten its downfall. During the twenty years of peace which followed the treaty with the king of Beejapore, in 1636, 'that prince had given his attention to the construction of those splendid palaces, mausoleums, and mosques which dis- tinguished his reign ; and to the conquest of the petty prin- cipalities in the Carnatic which had sprung out of the ruins of the Hindoo kingdom of Beejuyanugur. The tribute which he exacted at the same time from the king of Golconda, had been paid with punctuality, and that prince had manifested every disposition to cultivate the friendship of the emperor. There was no cause of difference with these rulers, and Shah Jehan appeared to be completely satisfied with the rela- tion they maintained with his throne. But in 1653, Aurungzebe, after his second repulse from Candahar, was appointed to the Deccan, and determined to obtain an indemnity for his disappointment in the subjugation of the two kingdoms of Beejapore and Golconda. Meer joomia. An unexpected event gave him the pretext he was seeking for an interference in their affairs. Mahomed, generally known by his title of Meer Joomia, then the chief minister of Abdoolla Kootub, king of Golconda, was born of indi- gent parents at Ispahan, the capital of Persia, and was placed 142 ATTACK ON GOLCONDA. [CHAP. in the service of a diamond merchant, who look him to Gol- conda, and bequeathed his business to him. The enterprizing youth embarked in maritime trade, and amassed prodigious wealth, and came to be held in high estimation for his talents and probity in every Mahomedan court in Asia. He entered the royal service of Golconda, and gradually rose to the supreme direction of affairs. He led an army to the south, and extended the authority of the king over the chiefs who yet enjoyed independence ; and it was while absent on this expedition that his son, Mahomed Amin, by some sup- posed act of disrespect, incurred the displeasure of his sovereign. Meer Joomla solicited that consideration for his Meer Joomla Attack of Qoi- son, which he considered his own services entitled conrta. submis- , . , -, ,. ,-, ft j sion of the icing, him to, but meeting with a refusal, made an 1653 - appeal to Aurungzebe, which that prince was but too happy to take up. Under his influence, Shah Jehan was induced to send a haughty missive to Abdoolla to grant redress to the youth, which the king answered by placing him in confinement, and confiscating his father's estates. An order was then sent to Aurungzebe from Delhi to enforce compliance by the sword, and he entered upon the execution of it with that craft which was the prominent feature of his character through life. He assembled a large army, giving out that he was about to proceed to Bengal to celebrate the marriage of his son with the daughter of his brother, the viceroy of that province. He advanced towards Hyderabad with the most friendly professions, and the unsuspecting Abdoolla, prepared to welcome him with a magnificent entertainment, when he found himself treacherously assailed by the Mogul army, and constrained to seek refuge in the fortress of Gol- conda. A large portion of Hyderabad was burnt down, and the city subjected to indiscriminate plunder, by which the booty which Aurungzebe had destined to himself, fell to his soldiers. The king of Golconda, reduced to extremity by this sudden and unprovoked assault, was constrained to sub- mit to the harsh terms imposed by Aurungzebe, that he V.] ASSAULT ON BEEJAPORE. 143 should bestow his daughter on one of his sons, with a rich dowry, and pay up a crore of rupees, as the first instalment of an annual tribute. Shah Jehan, who had a conscience, remitted one-fifth of this sum, and, inviting Meer Joomla to Delhi, invested him with the office of vizier. AsauitonBee- Having thus reduced Golconda to submission, japore, 1657. Aurungzebc resolved to attack Beejapore, and he had not long to wait for a pretext. Mahomed Adil Shah died in 1656, and bequeathed the kingdom to his son, a youth of nineteen, who mounted the throne without paying that homage which the emperor pretended to consider due to him. It was, therefore, given out that the youth was illegitimate, and that it belonged to the emperor to nominate a successor. The war which arose on this unwarrantable claim was, perhaps, a more wanton and heinous aggression than any to be found in the darkest annals of India. Meer Joomla, as commander-in-chief, and Aurungzebe, as his lieu- tenant, suddenly invaded the territories of Beejapore. The Mahratta chieftains in the service of that state, nobly rallied round the throne, but the abruptness of the irruption, ren- dered it impossible to collect a sufficient force a large portion of the army being absent in the Carnatic or to resort to the usual means of defence. The forts of Beder and Koolburga were captured, the country was laid waste with fire and sword, and the capital was invested. The king made the most humble supplications, and offered to purchase peace by the payment of a crore of rupees, or any sacrifice the prince might demand ; but every offer was sternly rejected. The extinction of the dynasty appeared inevitable, when an event occurred in the north, which gave it a respite of thirty years. News came posting down to the Deccan that the emperor was at the point of death, and that the contest for the empire had begun. Aurungzebe was obliged to hasten to the capital to look after his own interests, and the siege of Beejapore was raised. 144 THE FOUR SONS OF SHAH JEHAN. [CHAP. Shah Jehan had four sons; Dara, the eldest, The four sons of ehan. had been declared his successor, and admitted to va^eTt^Demi, a considerable share of the government. He had 1657. great talents for command, and an air of regal dignity; he was frank and brave, but haughty and rash. Soojah, the second son, the viceroy of Bengal, had beea accustomed to civil and military command from his youth, but was greatly addicted to pleasure. The third, Aurungzebe, was the most able and ambitious, as well as the most subtle and astute member of the family ; while Morad, the youngest, though bold and generous, was little more than a mere sot. Dara was a free thinker of Akber's school ; Aurungzebe was a bigoted Mahomedan, and contrived to rally the orthodox around him by stigmatizing his brother as an infidel. The claims of primogeniture had always been vague and feeble in the Mogul dynasty, and the power of the sword generally superseded every other right ; when, therefore, four princes, each with an army at his command, equally aspired to the throne, a contest became inevitable. Soojah takes the ' Soojah was the first in the field, and advanced field, 1657. f rom B en g a i towards the capital. Morad, the viceroy of Guzerat, on hearing of his father's illness, seized the public treasure, and assumed the title of emperor. Aurungzebe, after having extracted a large supply of money from the king of Beejapore, granted him a peace, and advanced with his army to the northern boundary of his province. His object was to cajole Morad, whom he saluted as emperor, and congratulated on his new dignity, declaring that as for himself his only desire was to renounce the world and proceed on pilgrimage to Mecca, after he had liberated his father from the thraldom of the irreligious Dara. Morad was simple enough to believe these profes- sions, and united his army to that of Aurungzebe on the banks of the Nerbudda, when the two brothers advanced towards the capital. V.] DEPOSAL OP SHAH SOOJAH. 145 Dam defeats ^ ara P re P are( * to meet both these attacks. He soojah. Aiming- despatched raja Jey Sing, of Jeypore, to oppose Soojah, and raja Jesswunt Sing to encounter poses shah Aurungzebe. The selection of two Hindoo gene- Soojah.1658. 3 rals to command the armies which were to decide the fortunes of the Mogul throne affords strong evidence of the feelings of loyalty which the wise policy of Akbar had inspired. Just at this juncture Shah Jehan was restored to health and resumed the functions of government ; but it was too late to quench the elements of strife. The imperial force came up with Soojah at Benares, and he was defeated, and obliged to fly to Bengal. The united armies of Aurungzebe and Morad encountered Jesswunt Sing near Oojein, and defeated him, and then advanced with 35,000 troops to the neighbourhood of Agra. Dara came -out to meet them with a superior force, estimated at 100,000 foot, 20,000 horse, and 80 pieces of cannon. In the fierce and bloody battle which ensued, Dara was completely overpowered and fled from the field with a remnant of barely 2,000 men. The victorious Aurungzebe entered the capital, deposed his father, and assumed the whole power of the empire. Character of The character of Shah Jehan is aptly described shah Jehan. by hj s na tive biographer. " Akbar was pre-emi- nent as a warrior and as a lawgiver. Shah Jehan for the incomparable order, and arrangement of his finances, and the internal administration of the empire." Though he drew a revenue of thirty crores of rupees annually from his dominions. which did not include the Deccan, it is generally asserted that the country enjoyed greater prosperity during his reign than tinder any of his predecessors ; it has therefore been charac- terized as the golden age of the Mogul dynasty. This is a significant fact, since this prosperity cannot be attributed to any enlightened policy, or to any encouragement given by the emperor to the pursuits of industry ; it was owing- simply to that respite from the ravages of war, which afforded the provinces within the Indus scope for the development of their 146 CHARACTER OF SHAH JEHAN. [CHAP. resources. Shah Jehan was unquestionably the most magni- ficent prince of the house of Baber, and perhaps of any other Mahomedan dynasty. The pomp of his court, and the cost- liness of all his establishments almost stagger our belief ; but with a treasury which received 600 crores of rupees during twenty years of peace, what might not a monarch do, who had only his own will to consult ? In nothing was the splen- dour of his taste more manifest than in his buildings. It was he who founded the new city of Delhi, in which his castellated palace, with its spacious courts, and marble halls, and gilded domes, was the most attractive object. Of that palace the noblest ornament was the far-famed peacock throne, blazing with emeralds, rubies, diamonds, and the most costly stones, the value of which was estimated by a European jeweller and traveller at six crores of rupees. To him the country was indebted for the immaculate Taj Mehal, the mausoleum of his Queen, the pride of India, and the admiration of the world. But all his establishments were managed with such circum- epection, that after defraying the cost of his expeditions beyond the Indus, and maintaining an army of 200,000 horse, he 'left in his treasury, according to his native historian, a sum not short of twenty-four crores of rupees, CHAPTER VI. AURUNGZEBE, 1658 1707. Accession of AuRUNGZEBE having thus obtained possession of the capital and the treasury, threw off the his conduct to- ,_. . . -n i p M wards hi three mask. He no longer talked of a pilgrimage to brothers, 1658. | ecca? b u t at once assumed all the powers of government, and took the title of Alumgeer, the Lord of the TTL] ACCESSION OP AUKTJNGZEBE. 14t World. His father was placed in captivity in his own palace, yet treated with the highest respect ; but though he survived this event seven years, his reign ended with his confinement. Aurungzebe did not, however, consider himself secure while there was a single relative left, who might disturb his tranquillity. As he had now no further use for Morad, he invited him to an entertainment, and allowed him to drink himself into a state of helplessness, when he was taken up and conveyed to the fortress of Agra. Dara, after his defeat near Agra, had escaped to the Punjab, where, with the resources of that province and of Afghanistan, he might possibly have made a stand had not Aurungzebe pursued him with promptitude, and obliged him to retreat to Mooltan, and thence to Guzerat. The emperor then quitted the pursuit, and hastened to encounter his brother Soojah, who was advancing a second time from Bengal to contest th,e throne. The battle between the brothers was fought near Allahabad, when Aurung- zebe was for a time placed in extreme peril, by the treachery of raja Jesswunt Sing, who, in a fit of disappointment, had come to an accommodation with Soojah, and suddenly fell on the emperor's baggage. The constancy and valour of Aurung- zebe, however, restored the day. At one period of the engage- ment his elephant became unmanagable from its wounds, and the emperor was on the point of descending from his seat, when Meer Joomla, who was by his side, exclaimed, "you descend from the throne," on which the legs of the animal were bound, and Aurungzebe continued to animate his troops by his presence. Soojah was completely defeated, and the emperor returned to Delhi, leaving his own son Mahomed, and Mecr Joomla, to follow up the victory. They pursued the prince to Monghir, and from thence to Rajmahal, which he had made his capital, and adorned with noble edifices ; but his pursuers gave him no respite and hunted him down to Dacca, and then out of Bengal. He took refuge, at length, with the King of Arracan, by whom he and his whole family were barbarously murdered. L2 148 DESTRUCTION OP HIS RIVALS. [CHAt. Dara 'a cap- Meanwhile, Dara having obtained aid from the deato^tohis* governor of Guzerat was enabled to assemble an son, 1659. army and move up to join raja Jesswunt Sing, who was prepared to make common cause with him against the emperor. Aurungzebe, who dreaded this junction, em- ployed all his devices to detach the raja from the alliance. Dissembling the resentment which his recent treachery at the battle of Allahabad had naturally excited, he wrote him a complimentary letter with his own hand, and conceded all the honours, the refusal of which had driven him into rebellion. Under the influence of these flatteries Jesswunt Sing deserted the cause of Dara, who was defeated, and driven to seek refuge with the raja of Jun, whom he had formerly laid under the greatest obligations. By that ungrateful chief he was received with apparent cordiality, and then betrayed into the hands of his vindictive brother, who ordered him to be paraded, with every token of indignity, through the streets of Delhi, where he had recently been beloved as a master. A conclave of Mahomedan doctors was then convened, who gratified the Emperor's wishes by condemning him to death as an apostate from the creed of the Prophet. His son Soli- man, who had taken shelter with the raja of Sreenugur, by whom he was basely betrayed, was, like his father, exhibited in the streets of the capital, but in fetters of gold, and his noble bearing and deep calamity are said to have moved the spectators to tears. He and his younger brother, together with a son of Morad, were consigned to death in the dun- geons of Gwalior. It only remained now to dispose of Morad him- Aurungzebes r dangerous m- self, who had lain in confinement for three years, less, 1662. rp o ac kj mgu i i injury, he was subjected to a mock trial for some execution which he had ordered while viceroy of Guzerat, and condemned and executed. Thus, in the course of three years, had Aurungzebe, by a series of atrocious murders, secured, to all appearance, the stability of his throne, when his own life was threatened by an alarming VI. J EXPEDITION TO ASSAM. 149 illness ; and the edifice of his greatness, reared by so many crimes, was threatened with sudden destruction. While he lay helpless on his couch the court began to be filled with intrigues. One party espoused the cause of his son, Muazzim, another that of Akbar. Jesswunt Sing was advancing from Joudh- pore, and Mohabet from Cabul, to liberate and restore Shah Jehan ; but Aurungzebe, having passed the crisis of his dis- ease, caused himself to be propped up in his bed, and sum- moned the officers of his court to renew their homage to him. His recovery dissolved the various projects to which his illness had given birth ; and Muazzim had to wait forty -five years for the crown. Meer joomia's A short time previous to the illness of the Assamfand his emperor, Meer Joomla, who had been appointed death, 1662. viceroy of Bengal, on the expulsion of Soojah, entered upon his unfortunate expedition to Assam, in the hope of adding that kingdom to the Mogul dominions. He assem- bled a large army and conveyed it up the Berhampooter in boats. The capital of the province having been mastered without difficulty, he sent a pompous despatch to the emperor with a report of his success, promising in the following year to' plant the Mogul standard in the rich empire of China. The emperor was delighted with the prospect of treading in the footsteps of his renowned ancestor, Jenghis Khan, and ordered large reinforcements to Bengal. But a sad reverse was impending. The rains set in with extraordinary violence ; the Berhampooter rose beyond its usual level, and the whole of the country was flooded ; the supplies of the army were cut off ; a pestilence, probably the Asiatic cholera, broke out in the camp ; and Meer Joomla was obliged to retreat in haste and disgrace from the country, pursued by the exasperated Assa- mese. On his return to Bengal, he expired at Dacca, leaving behind him the reputation of one of the ablest statesmen, and of the greatest generals of that stirring period. Aurungzebe conferred all his titles on his son, Mahomed Amin, the youth who had been disgraced by the king of Golconda ; and in the 150 RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE MAHRATTAS. [CHAP. letter of condolence sent to him, remarked " You have lost a father, and I have lost the greatest and most dangerous of my friends." Soon after the recovery of the emperor he was obliged to send an army to check the devastations committed by the Mahrattas in the Mogul provinces of the Deccan; and it becomes necessary, therefore, to pause and trace the origin and progress of this power, which rose to dominion on the ruins of the Mogul empire, and for more than a century governed the destinies of India. The country inhabited by the Mahrattas, desig- Eise and pro- * gressofthe nated Maharastra in the Hindoo shastrus, is con- sidered to extend from the Wurda on the east to the sea on the west ; from the Satpoora range on the north to a line in the south drawn due east from Goa. The great fea- ture of the country is the Syhadree mountains, more commonly called the Ghauts, which traverse it from north to south at a distance of from thirty to fifty miles from the sea, and rise to the height of four or five thousand feet above its level. The strip of land lying along the coast, at the foot of the mountains, is called the Concan. The inhabitants are of diminutive stature and vulgar in appearance, presenting a strong contrast to the noble figure of the Rajpoot ; but they are sturdy, laborious, and persevering, and distinguished for cunning. This mountainous region was exceedingly difficult of access, and the strongest points had been improved by forti- fications. For centuries the Mahrattas had been known chiefly as plodding accountants and village officers; and it was not before the sixteenth century that they were deemed worthy of notice by the Mahomedan historians. Then* coun- try was comprised in the dominions of the kings of Beejapore and Ahmednugur ; and the noblest Mahratta families trace their distinction to the civil and military employments which they held under these two dynasties. The Mahrattas These sovereigns were incessantly at war with trained to war. eac k O t ne r, or with their neighbours ; and they were happy to employ the Mahratta chieftains in raising VI.] OKIGIN OP SHAHJEE. 151 levies among their own hardy countrymen, each one com- manding his own muster of free lances. Jaygeers, or lands given for maintaining a body of troops, were frequently granted for their support. Titles were likewise conferred upon many of the Mahratta chieftains, but they were gene- rally ancient Hindoo appellations. Towards the close of the sixteenth century, seven Mahratta chiefs are enumerated as being ranged under the banner of Beejapore, and two but of superior importance under that of Ahmednugur. It waa the wars which raged for a century in the Deccan, between the Kistna and the Taptee, that first taught the Mahrattas their own importance, and paved the way for their future pre- dominance ; but it was chiefly under Malik Amber that they made the most rapid strides towards political influence. A community of village clerks and husbandmen was thus trans- formed into a nation of warriors, and only required the appear- ance of some master spirit to raise it to empire. That spirit appeared in Sevajee. ori of shah ^allojee Bhonslay, an active captain of horse, jee, the father of was employed about the year 1600 in the service of the king of Ahmednugur. His wife, who had long been childless, offered her prayers and vows at the Mahomedan shrine of Shah Seffer ; and the child to whom she gave birth was named Shahjee in gratitude to the saint. He was born in 1594, and his father sought an alliance in the patri- cian family of Jadow Kao. In after times, when the Mahrattas had become the arbitrers of India, the national historians endea- voured to trace the family of Mallojee from the rajas of Chittore, who claimed to be the lineal descendants of the great denied hero, Ramu ; but at this period Jadow Rao spurned the alliance of so plebeian a family. Soon after Mallojee suddenly came into possession of a large treasure, acquired, doubtless, in the Mahratta mode; and he obtained from the venal court of Ahmednugur the jaygeers of Poona, Sopa, and several other places. No further objection was raised to the alliance, and the nuptials are said to have been graced by the presence of the 152 BIRTH OF SEVAJEE. [CHAP. king of Ahmednugur. On the death of his father, in 1 620, Shahjee succeeded to the jaygeer, and augmented his military force and importance, and entered into a close connection with Malik Amber. Nine years after, we find him espousing the cause of Jehan Lodi ; but when the fortunes of that Afghan chief appeared to be on the wane, he deserted his cause and joined the Moguls, for which he was rewarded with the nominal honour of a commander of 5,000, and the substantial boon of a confirmation of his jaygeer. But Shahjee was speedily disgusted with the shuffling policy of the Mogul com- manders, and again changed sides. Places a prince On the capture of the young prince of Ahmed- ofltaSuJir, augur, in 1634, he considered himself strong 1634. enough to aspire to the regency, and raised another prince to the throne as the lawful heir of Nizam Shah. For three years he appears to have maintained a desultory warfare with the imperial generals, but was at length driven out of the country and obliged to seek refuge in the court of Beejapore, where his ability was known and appreciated ; and he was entrusted with the command of an expedition to the Carnatic. His zeal and success were rewarded with the grant of extensive jaygeers in Bangalore, and the neighbouring districts where he conceived the design of establishing an independent Hindoo sovereignty, and resigned the petty jaygeer of Poona to his son Sevajee. Sevaiee, the founder of the M'ahratta empire, Birth and early J life of Sevajee, was born m 1627, and was sent, three years after, to reside with his mother at Poona, under the tutelage of Dadajee Punt his father having taken a second wife. Dadajee managed the estate with the strictest eco- nomy as well as fidelity, and remitted the revenue with punc- tuality to Shahjee, but contrived to reserve a small sum annually at Poona. He watched over his youthful charge with assiduity, and is said to have given l.!m an education suited to his station and prospects. Sevajee, however, was never able to read or write j but he was skilled in the use of VI.] EARLY CAREER OP SEVAjfe. 153 the bow and the sword, and the weapons employed in the Hills; he was expert in all manly exercises, and, like his countrymen, an accomplished horseman. His tutor did not neglect his religious instruction, and Sevajee grew up a devout and rigid Hindoo, with a profound veneration for brahmins, and a hearty hatred of Mahomedans. His imagin- ation was excited in youth by the perusal of the great epic poems of India, and he longed to emulate the exploits which are immortalized in them. At the "age of sixteen he formed an association with youths of wild and lawless habits, and engaged in hunting or marauding expeditions, which made him familiar with all the paths and defiles of the tract which became the cradle of his power. Having trained the inhabit- ants of his native glens the Mawullees to arms and disci- Sevajee begins pline, he began his career of ambition at the age ?ur i r g r To r r2, CaP " of nineteen, by capturing Torna, a hill fort of 1646. very difficult access. In the succeeding year he erected a new fortress, to which he gave the name of llai- gur. These proceedings did not fail to excite observation at Beejapore, and letters were sent to Shahjee in the Carnatic calling him to account for the doings of his son, but he replied tliat he had not been consulted by him, though he could not doubt that they were intended to improve the jaygeer. At the same time he remonstrated with Dadajee on the conduct of Sevajee, and the tutor failed not to reprimand his pupil ; but, finding that he was bent on pursuing a course which appeared likely to injure the prospects of the family, fell a prey to anxiety. As his end approached he is said to have called Sevajee to his death bed, and urged him to continue the career on which he had entered; to protect brahmins, kine, and cultivators, and preserve the temples of the gods from violation. Sevajee immediately took possession of the y& eer ' inhis father>s name bu t employed the hostage, 1649. treasure which Dadajee had husbanded, as well as the resources of the district in augmenting his little army, 154 CONFINEMENT OF' SHAHJEE. [CHAP. and in the course of two years extended his authority over thirty miles of territory. He attacked a convoy of treasure proceeding to Beejapore, and carried off three lacs of pagodas to his eyry in the mountains. In quick succession it was announced that he had captured seven other forts, and had, moreover, surprised the governor of Callian, and extorted the surrender of all his fortresses. The audacity of these pro- ceedings raised the indignation of the Beejapore court and Shahjee, who managed all their recent acquisitions in the Carnatic, was held responsible for the proceedings of his son, though he pleaded, and with truth, that he had long ceased to possess any influence over his movements. Shahjee was treacherously seized by the Mahratta chief of Ghorepuray, and brought a prisoner to the capital, where he was threat- ened with a cruel death. To procure his release, Sevajee, then only twenty-two, memorialized the emperor, and offered to enter the imperial service, and it is not improbable that Shahjee owed his life to the representations made by the court of Delhi. He was, however, detained for four years as a hostage, until the increasing disorders in the Carnatic conquests con- strained the king of Beejapore to restore the government of them to hun. During his father's detention, Sevajee dis- creetly suspended his incursions, but on hearing of his release resumed his predatory and ambitious course, and, by an act of base treachery murdered the brother chieftains of Jaolee, and appropriated then: lands to himself. _ .... While Aurungzebe was engaged in the war Sevajee's inter- course with AU- with Beejapore, in 1657, Sevajee entered into ebe, 1657. Corres p 0n d e nce with him, and professed himself a devoted servant of the throne of Delhi. He was thus enabled to obtain a confirmation of the territory he had wrested from Beejapore, and was encouraged to farther encroachments. But no sooner had Aurungzebe marched towards Delhi than Sevajee began to ravage the Mogul territories, and carried off three lacs of pagodas from the town of Joonere. For the more distant enterprizes to which VI.] MUKDER OF AFZUL KHAN, 155 he aspired, he felt the necessity of an efficient body of horse, and he now began to make the most vigorous efforts to organize that light cavalry, which subsequently became the scourge of Hindostan. About the same time he enlisted his first body of Mahomedan troops, taking into his pay 700 Patans who had been unwisely discharged from the service of Beejapore ; but he took the precaution of placing them under the command of a Mahratta officer. The success of Aurung- zebe's efforts to obtain the throne gave just alarm to Sevajee, who sent an envoy to Delhi to express his deep regret for what had occurred, and his attachment to the throne ; and he had the effrontery to offer to protect the imperial territories during the emperor's absence, asking only for the transfer of the Concan to himself. Aurungzebe, conceiving that the security of the Mogul districts would be promoted by giving The concan encouragement to Sevajee, consented to his wsfireueveree Baking possession of the Concan. He lost no 1659. time in sending an army to occupy the province, but his troops were defeated with great slaughter, and he experienced the first reverse he had sustained since the beginning of his career. Afzui Khan is The court of Beejapore was at length roused and'nfrcteredT to a sense * tne danger arising from the inces- 1669. gant encroachments of this aspiring chief, and Afzul Khan was sent against him with 12,000 horse and foot, and a powerful artillery, consisting of swivels mounted on camels, rockets, and other ordnance. He was a vain, con-> ceited noble, and manifested the greatest contempt for his antagonist. Sevajee determined to defeat the object of the expedition by treachery. He professed the humblest sub- mission to the king of Beejapore, and offered to surrender all his territories, if he might but be allowed^to hope for pardon and acceptance. Afzul Khan was thrown off his guard by these artifices, and agreed to meet the Mahratta chief with only a single attendant. The Mahomedan army was stationed at a distance ; but Sevajee, acquainted as he was with, the 156 MURDER OF GHOREPURAT. [CHAP. mountain defiles, placed a select body of Mahrattas in ambus- cade. Having performed his religious devotions with great fervour, he advanced to the interview with all humility, and while in the act of embracing Afzul Khan, plunged a con- cealed weapon in his bowels, and despatched him with his dagger. The troops of the murdered general, thus taken by surprise, were surrounded and defeated, and the whole of the camp equipage, including 4,000 horses, fell to the victor. The success of this stratagem, notwithstanding the atrocity of the deed, served to exalt the character of Sevajee in the opinion of his countrymen, and greatly improved his position. He followed up this victory by the capture of numerous forts, and plundered the country up to the very gates of Beejapore. Sevajee is re- The king now took the field in person, and suc- king o^Beeja- 6 cee ded in regaining many of the forts and much pore, 1662. of the territory he had lost. The war was pro- tracted with various success for two years ; but the balance of benefit remained with the Mahratta. A reconciliation was soon after effected between the parties, chiefly, as historians conjecture, through the mediation of Shahjee, who had paid his son a visit. It will be remembered, that in 1649, Shahjee was betrayed to the king of Beejapore by the Mahratta chief," Ghorepuray. On that occasion, he wrote to Sevajee : " If you are my son, you must punish Bajee Ghorepuray of Moo- dhole." Thirteen years had elapsed since, that act of treachery, but Sevajee had not forgotten his father's injunction. During the war with Beejapore, he learned that his enemy had pro- ceeded to Moodhole with a slender escort, and he resolved not to lose this opportunity of avenging his family wrongs. He appeared suddenly before the town, captured and burned it to the ground, and with one exception, slaughtered the whole of the family and adherents of Ghorepuray, even to the infants in the womb. Shahjee was delighted on hearing of this vindictive exploit, and resolved to visit his son, whom he had not seen for twenty years. He was received with the VI. J SHAISTA KHAN ESCAPES ASSASSINATION. 157 highest distinction, and Sevajee attended him on foot for twelve miles. Shahjee congratulated him on the progress he had made towards the establishment of a Hindoo power, and encouraged him to persevere. On his return, he was entrusted with presents for the king of Beejapore, which served as a peace offering and led to a treaty. At this period, Seva- jee, hi his thirty-fifth year, was in possession of jee's possessions the whole coast of the Concan, from Callian to in 1662. Goa, extending about four degrees of latitude ; and of the ghauts, from the Beema to the Wurda, about 130 miles in length, and 100 in breadth. His army, which consisted of 50,000 foot and 7,000 horse, was out of all proportion to the territory under his authority ; but he was incessantly engaged in war, and he made war support itself by exactions. Sevajee being now at peace with Beeiapore, let ShaistaKhan J . f , sent to repress loose his plundering hordes on the Mogul ternto- Sevajee, 1662. ^^ j n utter violation of his engagements with Aurungzebe, and swept the country up to the suburbs of Aurungabad. The emperor appointed Shaista Khan, his own maternal uncle, and the nephew of Noor Jehan, viceroy of the Deccan, with orders to chastise this aggression, and carry the war into the Mahratta domains. Shaista captured Poona, and took up his residence in the very house where Sevajee had passed his childhood ; and Sevajee conceived the design of assassinating him in his bed A Mahratta foot soldier in the imperial service whom he had gained, got up a marriage procession, which Sevajee joined in disguise, and was enabled to enter the town with thirty of his followers in the suite. After nightfall, when the town was dark and quiet, he pro- ceeded unperceived to the palace, with every corner of which he was familiar, and suddenly fell on its inmates. The viceroy, awaking suddenly from sleep, escaped with the loss only of a finger, but his son, and most of his guards were cut down. Sevajee, foiled in his chief object, the destruction of the viceroy, retired before the troops could be assembled, and was seen returning to his encampment amidst a blaze of torches. 158 SEVAJEE ATTACKS SUKAT. [CHAP. This daring exploit, so congenial with the national character, was regarded with greater exultation by his own countrymen than his most splendid victories. Shaista Khan was 'soon after recalled and sent to govern Bengal, and the Rajpoot raja Jesswunt Sing, the governor of Guzerat, who was left in command was little disposed to push matters to extremity against men of his own faith. sevajee attacks The operations of Sevajee, which had hitherto Surat, 1664. been limited to the neighbourhood of the ghauts, were now extended to a more remote and a bolder enterprize. The city of Surat, a hundred and fifty miles distant from Poona, was at that period the greatest emporium of the western coast of India. The annual importation of gold and silver from Arabia and Persia alone amounted to fifty lacs of rupees, and two families in the town were accounted the richest mercantile houses in the world. It was, moreover, considered pre-eminently the port of the Mogul empire, where all the devout Mahomedans, official and private, from the various provinces which yielded a revenue of thirty millions a year, embarked on pilgrimage for Mecca. Sevajee is said to have visited the city in disguise, and during four days marked the houses of the most opulent for plunder. Taking with him 4,000 of his newly raised horse, he appeared sud- denly before the town, which was ill fortified, and having deliberately plundered it for six days, returned leisurely to his capital at Raigun He met with no resistance except from the European factories. Sir George Oxenden, the English chief at Surat, defended the property of his masters, and also that of the natives, with such valour and success as to obtain the applause of Aurungzebe, as well as a perpetual exemption from some of the duties exacted of other merchants. This was the first occasion on which English and native troops came into contact with each other, and the result filled both Mahomedans and Hindoos with astonishment. On his return from this ex- Death of shah- pedition, Sevajee heard of the death of his father, jee, lee*. a t the age of seventy, and immediately assumed the VI.] HE PLTJTSDEKS BARCELORE. 159 title of raja, and began to strike the coin in his own name. At the period of his death Shahjee was in possession, not only of the extensive jaygeers around Bangalore which he had received from the raja of Beejapore, but of Arnee, Porto Novo, and Tanjore, in the south of the peninsula, which he had subjugated, and, in consideration of his fidelity to the state, had been permitted to retain. Sevaiee, finding that his power would not be Sevajee plan- J ' , & ., , ,, ders Barceiore, Complete unless he could command the sea as well i664- as the land, had been engaged for some time in creating a fleet. While his troops were employed in ravaging the Mogul territories up to the walls of Ahmednugur, hia ships were capturing Mogul vessels bound to Mecca, and exacting heavy ransoms from the rich pilgrims embarked on them. In February, 1665, he secretly drew a large fleet together at Malwan, consisting of eighty-eight vessels, of which three were large ships of three masts and the re- mainder of from 30 to 150 tons burden. Having embarked with 4,000 troops, he proceeded to Barceiore, a hundred and thirty miles south of Goa, which had long been considered one of the greatest marts of commerce on the western coast, but has now disappeared even from the map. There he obtained immense booty and returned to his capital before it was known that he had embarked. This was the first expe- dition at sea which he headed in person ; it was also his last, for a violent gale drove his vessel down the bay ; he suffered seriously from sea-sickness, and his spiritual guide assured him that this was the mode in which his tutelar deity had manifested his displeasure at such a heterodox enterprise. Sevajee submits On nis return from this voyage Sevajee found to Aurungzebe, that a powerful Mogul army, commanded by the renowned raja Jey Sing and Dilere Khan, the Afghan general, had entered his territories. Aurungzebe, who was an intense bigot, felt greater indignation at the interrup- tion of the holy pilgrims proceeding to the Prophet's tomb 16ft ORIGIN OF THE CHOOT. [CHAP. than at the assumption of the title of raja, the plunder of Surat, the coinage of money, or any other aggression of Sevajee. On this occasion Sevajee was attacked with the greatest impetu- osity by the imperial generals, and felt his inability to cope with an army so greatly superior to his own. He was, there- fore, induced to call a council of his officers, at which he appeared the most irresolute of all ; and it was resolved to enter into negotiations with the enemy. They ended in the Convention of Poorunder, by which he engaged to restore all the forts and districts he had taken from the Moguls, with the exception of twelve, which, with the territory around them, yielding a revenue of a lac of pagodas a year, he was to hold as a jaygeer dependent on the emperor. But he dexterously inserted a clause which would have overbalanced all his losses. In lieu of some pretended claims on the old Nizam Shahee state, he asked for certain assignments which he termed the chout, and the sur-desh-mookhee on some of the Beejapore dis- tricts above the ghauts, the charge of collecting which he offered to take on himself. This is the first mention in history of the celebrated claim of the chout, or fourth of the revenue, The origin of which the Mahrattas subsequently marched over the chout. India to enforce. So anxious was Sevajee to get the principle of these exactions admitted, that he offered a peshcush or donative of forty lacs of pagodas nearly a million sterling to be paid by aanual instalments, and engaged to maintain an additional body of troops for the emperor's ser- vice. In the letter which Aurungzebe wrote to him on this occasion he confirmed all the stipulations of the convention, but made no allusion to the chout or sur-desh-mookhee, probably because he did not comprehend the insidious tendency or even the import of these barbarous terms. But Sevajee chose to consider the silence of the emperor as an acknowledgment of these claims, which, from this time forward, it became the para- mount object of Mahratta policy to extend to every province. Sevajee, having now entered the emperor's service, VI.] SEVAJEE AT DELHI. 161 Sevajee attacks joined the imperial army with 2,000 horsemen ^u*Dduli, and an( * 8,000 foot, and marched against Beejapore. 1666 - The Mahratta horse in the service of Beejapore, a portion of which was commanded by "Vencajee, the half- brother of Sevajee, greatly distinguished themselves in this war ; nor were the Mahrattas in the service of the emperor less conspicuous for their valour. Aurungzebe wrote a compli- mentary letter to Sevajee, inviting him to court, and he proceeded to Delhi with an escort of 1,500 horse and foot. The emperor had now an opportunity of converting a formi- dable foe into a zealous adherent ; but, either he had not the tact of conciliation, or his pride rendered him blind to his interests. Sevajee found himself treated with wanton insult, and presented at the durbar in company with nobles of the third rank. He left the imperial presence burning with indig- nation, and asked leave to return to his jaygeer. But the object of the emperor was to detain him, and his residence was beleaguered and all his movements watched; he contrived, however, to elude the vigilance of the emperor's guards, and escaped in a basket, and reached his own dominions in the disguise of a pilgrim in December, 1666. The raja Jesswunt Sing, and prince Muazzim were sent to command in the Deccan, the Maho- poiity, 1668-69. medan fond of pleasure, and the Hindoo of money. Sevajee gratified the avarice of the raja with large gifts, and through him was enabled to make his peace with the emperor, who made an addition to his territories and conferred on him the title of raja. The Mahratta manuscripts ascribe this un- expected lenity on the part of the emperor to the design he cherished of again decoying Sevajee into his power. About the same time a treaty was concluded between the king of Beejapore and Aurungzebe, by which the former ceded the fort and territory of Solapore, yielding near two lacs of pagodas a-year. Sevajee now prepared to enforce his claim of chout on the districts of Beejapore, alluded to hi the Con- vention of Poorunder, but the vizier of that state purchased 162 PROSPERITY OF AURUNGZEBE< exemption by agreeing to an annual payment of three lacs of rupees. Some agreement of a similar character appears to have been entered into by the minister of Golconda for a sum of five lacs of rupees. Having now a season of greater leisure than he had hitherto enjoyed, Sevajee employed the years 1668 and 1669 in revising and completing the internal arrangements of his government. There is nothing which gives us so high an opinion of his genius as the spirit of wisdom which pervades his civil polity. It is impossible to behold without the greatest admiration, a rough soldier, who was unable to read or write, and who had for twenty years been simply a captain of banditti, establishing a system of adminis- tration so admirably adapted to the consolidation of a great kingdom. His military organization, which was distin- guished for its vigorous discipline and its rigid economy, was equally suited to the object of creating a new and predomi- nant power in Hindostan. prosperity of This was also the most prosperous period 'of JKS** 1 * Aurungzebe's long reign. The empire was at 166670. peace. His father Shah Jehan had recently sunk into the grave, and there was no longer any dread of projects for his restoration. The emperor was held in the highest respect throughout the Mahomedan world, and received tokens of deference from the most distant sovereigns. The Scheriff of Mecca, the Khan of the Uzbeks, the king of Abys- sinia, and even the sovereign of Persia, had sent complimen- tary embassies to Delhi. But the restless ambition of Aurung- zebe again kindled the flames of war, which continued to rage without the intermission of a single year through the period of thirty- seven years to which his reign was prolonged. Finding it impossible to inveigle Sevajee into his power, and knowing that his general Jesswunt Sing was inactive under the influence of Mahratta gold, he issued the most peremptory orders to seize him and some of his principal officers, threaten- ing vengeance for neglect. Sevajee, seeing hostilities inevit- able, prepared for the conflict with the most determined reso- VI.] JINJEERAH MADE OVER TO THE MOGULS. 163 lution. He opened the campaign by the capture of Singurh, a fortress deemed inaccessible to an enemy, but which his general Maloosray escaladed with his mountaineers, the Ma- wullees, and fell in the moment of victory. Sevajee rewarded every private soldier with a silver bangle. Poorunder, a fortress of equal strength and importance, was also recovered. With an army of 14,000 men he again plundered Surat, and again the factors of the East India Company covered them- selves with renown by the gallantry of their defence. One of Sevajee's generals overran the province of Candesh, and for the first time levied the chout from a Mogul district. The most remarkable circumstance attending this distant invasion was the exaction of a written document from the village authorities, in which they engaged to pay one-fourth of the government dues to Sevajee, or to his officers. Sevajee, on his part, engaged to furnish them with regular receipts, which would exempt them from future pillage and ensure them protection. T . . . The great naval arsenal of the Beeiapore state Jinjeerah made J r over to the was the port of Jinjeerah, and it was under the Moguls, i67i command of an Abyssinian admiral. It had long been" the earnest desire of Sevajee to obtain possession of this important harbour, and he had besieged it annually for nine years, but, owing to the inferiority of his artillery, had invariably failed. In 1670 he again brought his whole force against it, but was again baffled. He endeavoured to seduce the admiral from his allegiance by large offers ; but three of the subordinate, officers of the port, who were personally obnoxious to Sevajee and detested the very name of Mah- ratta, imprisoned the admiral, and placed both the arsenal and the fleet under the protection of the Moguls. This waa a severe blow to the projects of Sevajee, as it strengthened his most formidable and inveterate foes, the Sedees of Jin- jeerah, by enabling them to obtain reinforcements from Surat, which rendered the port impregnable. Meanwhile, the em- peror, dissatisfied with the inactivity of his son Muazzim, sent M 2 164 AtJKUNGZEBE IN THE KHTBEK. [CHAP. Mohabet Khan, with an army of 40,000 men to the Deccan. Sevajee had always avoided a pitched battle with the superior forces of the Moguls, but on this occasion he boldly resolved to try conclusions with them in the open field. The result was the most complete victory the Mahrattas had ever gained, and no trifling increase of their confidence. The attention of the emperor was soon after drawn to Afghanistan, and the war with Sevajee languished. Aumngzebe in The turbulent Khyberees and Eusufzies, the the Khyter, 1673. p er p e tual enemies of peace and order, had again broken out in open revolt. They had defeated Mahomed Amin, the son of Meer Joomla, and destroyed his army in the passes, subsequently rendered memorable by the annihilation of a British army, and obliged him to redeem his women and children by a heavy ransom. The emperor determined at first to undertake the subjugation of these incorrigible high- landers in person, and marched with a large force as far as Hussun Abdal, but soon after transferred the command of the expedition, in which little glory was to be reaped, to his eon. The war occupied two years, and the emperor was at length happy to terminate it by accepting the nominal submis- sion of the tribes. On his return to Delhi he found Revolt of the Sutnanuneea, himself suddenly involved in a most formidable difficulty arising from a most insignificant cause. A sect of Hindoo devotees, called Sutnaramees, living in the town of Narnoul, agriculturalists by profession but always bearing arms, were thrown into a state of extreme excitement by the violence of a police soldier. The emeute gradually grew into a revolt. The devotees assembled by thousands, and being joined by some disaffected zemindars and men of note, defeated a body of troops sent against them. The pro- vinces of Agra and of Ajmere were thrown into commotion, and the imperial army shrunk from collision with enthusiasts, who were said to possess the magical power of resisting bullets. The tact of Aurungzebe at length succeeded in putting down a rebellion which threatened his empire. He VI.] AURUNGZEBE PERSECUTES THE HINDOOS. 165 caused texts of the Koran to be written on slips of paper and attached to his standard, and his troops, now believing them- selves protected from the spells of the enemy, obtained an easy victory. This event would scarcely be worthy of notice. Aurungzebe per- " i secutes the but f or the disastrous results which sprung from Hindoos, 1677. j^ Akbar and his two successors had adopted the liberal and sound policy of reconciling the Hindoos to the Mogul power by granting them religious liberty and equality. During a century of toleration the Eajpoot chiefs became the firmest supporters of the Mogul throne. But the bigotted Aurungzebe entertained a strong religious hatred of all infidels, though from motives of policy, he still continued to employ Rajpoot troops, as a counterpoise to his Mahomedan soldiers, and had formed two family alliances with Eajpoot princesses. Prom the beginning- of his reign, all his mea- sures had breathed a spirit of intolerance, but it was not till his feelings were embittered by the want of success in the Khyber, and the revolt of the Hindoo devotees, that he entered upon a systematic persecution of the Hindoos. He issued an edict forbidding all governors any longer to receive Hindoos into the public service, and ordered the jezzia, or poll tax, to be imposed on all who were not Mahomedans. The tax was odious, not so much from its pressure, being less than three quar- ters per cent, on income, as from its being a " tax on infidels," and a token of religious degradation. On going to prayers at the mosque after this edict, his way was blocked up by suppliants whom his guards were ordered to disperse, and many of whom were trampled to death by his horses and elephants. After this example of severity, the tax was sullenly submitted to. So severe was the persecution, that not only were the pagodas destroyed throughout Bengal, but in the holy city of Benares, the sanctuary of Hindooism, the most sacred temples were demolished and mosques erected on the ruins, while the images were used as steps for the faithful to tread on. 166 HEVOLT OP THE RAJPOOTS. [CHAP. Revolt of the These violent proceedings produced great dis- Eajpoots, 1678. affection in every province, but no open revolt, except in Eajpootana, and for the Rajpoots the emperor had no sympathy. His father and grandfather were, indeed, the off- spring of Rajpoot princesses, but he himself was of unmixed Tartar blood. It was not, however, till after the death of the two celebrated Mahratta generals who had been the prop of the throne, raja Jey Sing, of Jeypore, and raja Jesswunt Sing, of Joudhpore, that Aurungzebe ordered the jezzia to be im- posed on his Hindoo subjects. Jesswunt Sing had recently died in the imperial service at Cabul, and his widow had re- turned to Delhi with her two sons, on her way to their native country. Aurungzebe, anxious to detain the children as hostages, surrounded their encampment with his troops ; but Doorga Bass, the faithful servant of the family, extricated them by the most ingenious contrivances from the toils of the emperor, and conveyed them in safety to their own capital. The insult thus inflicted on this noble house served to rouse the indignation of the Rajpoots, and, with the exception of the raja of Jeypore, who was bound to the imperial family by many intermarriages, the whole of Rajpootana was hi a blaze. The emperor lost no time in marching into the country, and constrained the rana of Oodypore to make his submission. Favourable terms were granted to him, and a cession of terri- tory was accepted in lieu of the poll tax. But soon after he took up arms again, and Aurungzebe, exasperated by this re- newed opposition to his wishes, summoned troops from every part of India, even 'from the province of Bengal, and let them loose on this unhappy country. The prince was again driven to the mountains, the women and children were carried into cap- tivity, and the country was consumed by fire and sword. The alienation of the Rajpoots from the Moguls was now complete. After this period they were often at peace with Aurungzebe and his successors, and furnished their contingents of troops, and accepted the government of provinces ; but that cordial attach- ment which had made them the bulwarks of the empire for VT.] SEVAJEE ASSUMES ROYALTY. 167 more than a hundred years, was gone. During this war with the Rajpoots, the embarrassments of the emperor were in- creased by the defection of his son, prince Akbar, who went over to the enemy and advanced suddenly upon the imperial camp with an army of 70,000. Aurungzebe was in imminent danger of being captured with his slender escort, but with his accustomed craft he succeeded in sewing dissensions among the adherents of the prince, who found himself generally deserted, and sought refuge with the Mahrattas, accompanied by the faithful Doorga Dass, and 500 Rajpoots. Sevajee assumes To return now to the progress of Sevajee. In royalty, 1674. iQf2 he appears to have proceeded on a secret expedition to Golconda, and extracted nine lacs of pagodas from the king. While Aurungzebe was employed in Afghan- istan, he took advantage of the death of the king of Beeja- pore and the weakness of a minority, to annex the whole of the Concan and the adjoining ghauts, with the exception of the ports held by the English, Portuguese, and Abyssinians. He had long struck the coin hi his own name, and he now determined to proclaim his independence and assume all the ensigns of royalty. After many religious solemnities, on the auspicious day fixed by the brahmins, the 6th of June, 1674, he was enthroned at Raigur, and announced himself as the "ornament of the Khsetriyu race, the lord of the royal umbrella," the chutti*u putee of modern India, the satrap of ancient Persia. In accordance with the custom of oriental princes he was weighed against gold, and the money was distributed amongst the brahmins to the amount of 16,000 pagodas, for, to their chagrin, he was found to weigh only ten stone. The next year he sent an army for the first tune across the Nerbudda, and ravaged the province of Guzerat. In the year 1676 he undertook one of the Scvajee's expe- ' dition to the most extraordinary expeditions recorded in Indian camatic, 1676. j^jy^ whether we regard the boldness or the success of the design. It was directed to the recovery of the paternal jaygeer, held by his half -brother Vencajee, as a vassal 168 SEVAJEE'S EXPEDITION TO THE CARNATIC. [CHAP, of Beejapore, and the extension of his conquests in the south of India. Having bribed the Mogul general Khan Jehan who directed the operations against him, and obtained an armistice, he made the most judicious provision for the protection of his forts until his return. At the close of 1676 he marched to Golconda with a force of 30,000 horse and 40,000 foot, and, through the medium of the chief minister, a Mahratta, entered into a compact with the sovereign, who engaged on his part to cover Sevajee's territories during his absence, while Sevajee agreed to grant him a moiety of all his con- quests, with the exception of the paternal estates. After a month of negotiation and the receipt of a large supply of money and artillery, he sent forward his army and proceeded himself to pay his devotions at the celebrated shrine of Pur- wuttun. Naked and covered with ashes, he assumed the guise of a Hindoo jogee or devotee, and having for nine days com- mitted various acts of superstitious folly, which at one time alarmed his attendants for his sanity, resumed the command of the army, and marched by Madras in the beginning of May. Fort after fort was surrendered to him ; but the most extra- ordinary exploit of this expedition was the capture of Ginjee, the inaccessible fortress of the south, " tenable by ten men against any force that could be brought against it." He had now advanced six hundred miles from his own capital, and at Trivadee had an interview with his brother, Vencajee, who held Tanjore and the other territories bequeathed to him by Shahjee. These domains he refused to share with Sevajee, who thereupon took forcible possession of the whole of the jaygeer ; while his horse ranged through the Carnatic and subjected it to plunder wherever the exaction of the chout was resisted, but no portion of either land or money did he allot, according to his agreement, to the king of Golconda. Mean- while the Moguls attacked that state, and Sevajee, having come to an understanding with his Tanjore brother, returned to his own dominions and reached Raigur in the middle of 1678, after an absence of eighteen months. VI.] HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER. 169 Attack of Beeja- A formidable army had been sent by Aurung- pore, 1679. Z ^ Q under Dilere Khan to besiege Beejapore ; and the regent, during the king's minority, invoked the aid of Sevajee, who stipulated as the price of his assistance, for the cession of the Raichore dooab, or country lying between the Toombudra and the Kistna, and the sovereignty of his father's jaygeer and of the conquests he had made in the south. To create a diversion in favour of Beejapore, he proceeded north- ward, and laid waste all the country between the Beema and the Godavery, and plundered the town of Aurungabad for three days, though the Mogul viceroy was at that time resid- ing in it. After his return from this expedition he captured twenty-seven forts, and on the receipt of an express from the regent of Beejapore hastened to the succour of the town. On the line of march, his son, Sambajee, who had been placed in confinement by his father for an attempt to violate the wife of a brahmin, made his escape and went over to the Mogul general. Sevajee retired to Panalla to devise means for the recovery of the youth, and sent his army to Beejapore, which was making a noble defence. The Mahratta generals cut off all supplies from the enemy's camp, and eventually obliged Dilere Khan to raise the siege. At the same time Sambajee returned to his allegiance and was placed under restraint by Death of seva- bjs father. But in the midst of these events all jee, 5th April, Sevajee's plans of ambition were cut short by his death, which happened at Rairee on the 5th of April, 1680, in the fifty-third year of his age. His character. Aurungzebe could not conceal the satisfaction he felt on the death of his most formidable enemy. During the long struggle which he was constrained to maintain with Sevajee, he affected to despise his power, and was accustomed to deride him as the mountain rat ; but after his death he did full justice to his character. " He was," he said, " a great captain, and the only one who has had the magnanimity to raise a new kingdom, while I have been endeavouring to destroy the ancient sovereignties of India ; my armies have 170 ACCESSION OP SAMBA.TEE, [CHAP. been employed against him for nineteen years, and neverthe- less his state has been always increasing." This state, at his death, comprised a territory estimated at four hundred miles in length, and a hundred and twenty in breadth, in the north ; in the south he was in possession of half the Carnatic, which alone was equal in extent to many kingdoms in India. These large possessions were created by the efforts of his own genius, and consolidated by a communion of habits, reli- gion, and language, and a common hatred of the Mahomedans. Sevajee is one of the greatest characters in the native history of India, greater than Hyder Ali, greater even than Runjeet Sing who, in after times followed his example, and beginning life as adventurers closed it as mighty sovereigns. He did more than found a kingdom ; he laid the foundation of a power, which survived the decay of his own family. His son was a dissolute tyrant, and his grandson a simpleton, from whose hands the sceptre fell ; but the spirit of national enthusiasm which he infused into the Mahrattas, in a few years made them the arbiters of the fate of India. Succession of Sambajee, the eldest son of Sevajee, was Sambajee, 1680. living in durance at the time of his father's death, in the fortress of Panalla, and a party was formed among the Mahratta chiefs to exclude him from the throne, on the ground of his profligacy. But he succeeded in establishing his authority, and was acknowledged the sovereign of the Mahratta nation, after which he gave loose to the ferocity of his disposition. He caused one of his father's widows as well as those who had opposed his succession to be executed, not sparing Anajee, a brahmin, to whom he was under the greatest obligations. He had none of the virtues of his father, except his courage. His cruelties soon alienated the great generals and statesmen who had assisted in building up the Mahratta throne ; and he rendered himself an object of general contempt by his slavish devotion to a favourite of the name of Kaloosu, a Cunouj brahmin. His inglorious reign of nine years was marked only by rash enterprizes, or VI.] AURUNGZEBE INVADES THE DECCAN. 171 voluptuous excesses. At the beginning of his reign he was induced to renew the siege of the island of Jinjeerah, the great naval arsenal of the Moguls, which his father had attacked year after year in vain. He was obliged to relinquish the enterprize with disgrace, and the Seedee or Abyssinian admiral retaliated on him by ravaging the coast, and slaugh- tering kine, and eventually by destroying the fleet which Sevajee had been at the greatest pains to create. In the year 1681, the emperor's son, Akbar, who had at first joined the Rajpoots, sought refuge at the court of Sam- bajee and received a cordial welcome ; but, becoming at length disgusted with the follies of that prince, he retired to Persia. Aunmgzebe in Aurungzebe had never relinquished his designs theDeccan, on the Deccan. Though he had not prosecuted them with vigour, his generals had from tune to time invaded Beejapore, and he himself had steadily fomented all the internal discords in that state, as well as in Golconda, and encouraged the Mahrattas to assail and plunder them both. Having now, in a great measure, subdued the oppo- sition of the Rajpoots, which had been excited solely through his own bigotry, he resolved to bring the whole strength of the empire to bear on the subjugation of the south. It was a war of wanton aggression, and, by a righteous retribution, it exhausted the resources and hastened the downfall of the Mogul power. In the year 1683 he quitted Delhi, which he was destined never again to enter, with an army magnificent beyond all former example. The finest cavalry was assem- bled from the provinces beyond the Indus, and within it, and supported by a vast and well equipped infantry. The artillery consisted of several hundred pieces, served by native gunners, but directed by Europeans, as well as an efficient body of sappers and miners. A long train of elephants, intended both for war and equipage, and a superb stud of horses accompa- nied the camp. There was, moreover, a large menagerie of leopards and tigers, and hawks and hounds without number, 172 DISASTROUS INVASION OF THE CONCAN. [CHAP. and all the appliances of field sport. The camp, which re- sembled a moving city, was supplied with every luxury the age or country could furnish. The canvas walls which sur- rounded the emperor's personal encampment were twelve hundred yards in circumference, and the tents contained halls of audience, courts, cabinets, mosques, oratories, and baths adorned with the finest silks and velvets, and cloth of gold. There is no record of such extravagant luxury in any modern encampment, and it maybe questioned whether it was equalled by the Persian splendour of the army of Xerxes. But there can be no question that a thoroughly equipped and well commanded force of 10,000 Europeans cavalry, infantry, and artillery would have dispersed this host like chaff before the wind. Yet, amidst all this grandeur, the personal habits and expenses of the emperor were as frugal and austere as those of a hermit. invasion of the With this unwieldy army the emperor moved Concan, 1684. down to Boorhanpore, and then to Aurungabad, and, by a strange infatuation, commenced his operations by directing the odious jezzia to be imposed on all the Hindoos of the south. Contrary to all military principles he sent a body of 40,000 horse, under his son, prince Muazzim, to tra- verse the stupendous ghauts, and enter the maritime province of Concan. The prince reached the Concan without opposition, except from the natural obstacles presented by this region of mountains, and he plundered and laid waste every village as he proceeded. But the work of destruction recoiled on the invaders. The resources of the province were destroyed, and by the time the army reached the neighbourhood of Goa, it was in a state of starvation. The Mahratta cruizers inter- cepted the supplies sent from the Mogul ports, and their cavalry blocked up the passes. The wreck of this fine army, exhausted by hunger and pestilence, was at length happy to find shelter under the walls of Ahmednugur, while Sam- bajee, advancing to the north, insulted the emperor by plun- dering and burning down the town of Boorhanpore. VI.] ATTACK ON GOLCONDA. 173 invasion of l- n 1( >86 Aurungzebe moved his camp to Sola- Beejapore, 1686. pore, and sent his son, prince Azim, to attack Beejapore. In this, the last year of its national existence, the troops of that state exhibited the most devoted gallantry. They cut off the supplies of the Moguls, intercepted all their com- munications, and reduced the army to a state of extreme peril, from which it was extricated only by the extraordinary exer- tions of Ghajee ood deen, who, after a desperate engagement, succeeded in bringing up a convoy of 20,000 brinjaree bul- locks with grain; but the prince could effect nothing. In the meantime, the king of Golconda, Aboo Hussein, formed an alliance with Sambajee, who took advantage of the embar- rassment of the Mogul troops before Beejapore to lay waste the province of Guzerat, and sack the town of Broach. On the failure of the Beejapore expedition the emperor sent his general, Khan Jehan, to attack Golconda. Mudhoona Punt, the Mahratta minister of that state, had equipped an army of 70,000 men to meet the invasion. It was commanded by Ibrahim Khan, whose superiority in the field was so great as to place the Mogul commander completely in his power ; but instead of pressing his advantages, he treacherously went over to the enemy with a large portion of his army. Mu- dhoona was assassinated in a popular tumult excited by his enemies, and the helpless king sought refuge in the fortress of Golconda. For three days Hyderabad was subject to plunder, which the Mogul commander could not restrain, and the wealth which Aurungzebe had destined for his own coffers was, to his infinite chagrin, shared among the soldiers. The king at length sued for peace, and a treaty was concluded with him, on condition of his paying a contribution of two crores of rupees. ConquestofBee- Aurungzebe was now at liberty to turn his japore, 1686. w hole strength against Beejapore. The walls were of hewn stone, six miles in circumference, and the artillery was as superior to that of the Moguls as it had ever been ; Aurungzebe determined therefore to blockade the town. The 174 EXTINCTION OP THE BEEJAPORE STATE. [CHAP. garrison began to be straitened for provisions, and its brave Patan defenders were at length, obliged to capitulate. The emperor, seated on a portable throne, was carried in triumph through a breach in the walls, and the young king was con- signed to captivity, and died within three years, not without suspicion of violence. On the 15th of October, 1686, Beejapore was blotted out of the roll of Indian kingdoms, after having enjoyed a career of independence for more than a hundred and fifty years. The revenues of the country were estimated in the imperial registry at seven crores of rupees a year, a sum which appears incredible, notwithstanding the fertility of its soil, and the wealth poured into it by maritime commerce. Whatever may have been the resources of the kingdom, the Adil Shahee dynasty employed them in works of utility or magnificence which had no rival in India. No race of princes ever adorned their capital in so brief a period with such magnifi- cent mosques, palaces, and tombs. Even at the present day, after nearly two centuries of decay in an Indian climate, the majestic ruins of the city attract the admiration of the traveller, more especially the mausoleum of Mahomed Adil Shah, with its dome of simple grandeur, which, like the dome of St. Peter's, fills the eye of the beholder from every quarter. Conquest of Goi- ^ ne ^ a * e f Golconda was not long delayed, condoles?. Aurungzebe was determined not to allow the treaty which he had recently concluded with the king, to impede the absorption of the kingdom. Though the Mogul army was now sufficiently strong to overwhelm it, the emperor again had recourse to his habitual craft. He advanced into the territory with a large force, under pretence of a pil- grimage to the tomb of a saint, and began to practise on the fears of the bewildered monarch, from whom he gradually extracted all his treasure and jewels. It is recorded, that Aboo Hussein stripped the inmates of his seraglio of their ornaments to propitiate the emperor. But Aurungzebe's cold and selfish nature was never capable of a generous emotion. The only return he made for these offerings was a declaration VI.] EXTINCTION OF THE GOLCONDA STATE. 175 of war against the unhappy prince, charging 1 him, a follower of the Prophet, with the crime of having employed a brahmin for his minister, and formed an alliance with the infidel Mahrattas. The king, though addicted to pleasure, was roused to indignation hy the baseness of this treatment, and for seven months defended himself with a heroism worthy his ancestors. The fort of Golconda was at length captured, but only by an act of treachery, and the royal house of Kootub Shah became extinct, after a brilliant career of a hundred and seventy years. Mogul generals were sent to take posses- sion of the districts in the Carnatic and Telingana, which had been held by the kings of Beejapore and Golconda, and the Mahrattas, leaving nothing but the principality of Tanjore in the possession of Vencajee, in whose line it continued till it was absorbed in the British dominions. confusion in The ambition of Aurungzebe was now consum- tneDeccan. mated. He had extended his authority in the south over tracts which had never before acknowledged the sovereignty of the Mahomedans, and for the first time in seven hundred years the whole of India appeared to be bound in allegiance to a single head. The year 1688 is the culminating point of Mahomedan rule. The calamities of Aurungzebe commenced as soon as he had reached the sum- mit of success, and the decay of the Mogul empire may be dated from the fall of Golconda. The governments which had maintained order in the Deccan had disappeared ; no system of equal vigour was established in their stead. The suspicious nature of Aurungzebe prevented him from entrusting any of his generals with a force which they might be tempted, by its magnitude, to turn against him. The two states of Beeja- pore and Golconda had maintained their authority by an army of 200,000 men ; the Mogul army, after their subjugation, did not exceed 34,000 men. The disbanded soldiery enlisted under disaffected commanders, or joined the predatory bands cf the Mahrattas, and each petty chief, in accordance with the prescriptive habits of the country, "withdrew hia 176 DEATH OF SAMBAJEE. [CHAV. neck from the yoke of obedience," whenever it could be done with the prospect of impunity. Aurungzebe was incessantly employed in the siege of forts ; there was no energy at the head-quarters of government; there was no redress for the oppression of the governors, while the collectors of the jezzia extorted millions from the wretched Hindoos, and exasperated them against the Mogul conquerors. The Deccan became a scene of boundless confusion, and the last twenty years of the reign of Aurungzebe presented a constant succession of conspiracies and revolts, which consumed the strength of his army and of the empire. Death of Sam- Sambajee, infatuated with his favourite and bajee, 1689. immersed in low pleasures, viewed with indiffer- ence the fall of Beejapore and Golconda, though it enabled the Moguls to concentrate their efforts upon the Mahrattas. Aurungzebe had taken possession of the open country, and was engaged in besieging the forts, when Sambajee was sur- prised during a drunken revel, and conveyed as a prisoner to his presence. After the insult offered to the imperial power by the plunder of Boorhanpore and Broach he had sworn that " he would never return to Delhi till he had seen the head of the Mahratta weltering at his feet." The life of Sambajee was offered him on condition that he would turn Musulman. The haughty son of Sevajee replied, " Not if you would give me your daughter in marriage," and at the same time poured a torrent of abuse on the Prophet. Aurungzebe ordered his tongue to be cut out for his blasphemy, and finally put him to death with the most excruciating tortures. Though Sambajee had lived nine years amidst the contempt of his subjects, his tragic end created a strong feeling of pity among them, and gave a keen edge to that spirit of hostility which they cherished towards the Mahomedans The flagitious exe- cution of Sambajee, which has left a stain of the deepest die on the character of Aurungzebe, was not only a crime, but an error. It was the sowing of the dragon's teeth, of which the emperor reaped an abundant harvest before his death. VI.] INCREASED DEPREDATIONS OP THE MAHRATTAS. 177 The Mahrattas, unable any longer to look Sahoo, king of the Mahrattas, abroad f or assistance, and pressed by the whole power of the Mogul empire, were obliged to bend to the storm. The cabinet of ministers elected Sahoo, the infant eon of Sambajee, though then a captive in the emperor's camp, to fill the throne, and appointed his uncle, Earn raja, regent. Of the great kingdom founded by Sevajee little remained in the north, and it was determined to make suitable arrangements for preserving the remnant, and to transfer the seat of Mahratta power to the south. Ram- raja, with twenty-five chiefs, made his way in disguise through the Carnatic amidst a variety of adventures, on which the national historians delight to dwell, and established his court at the fortress of Ginjee, which Sevajee conquered in 1676, little dreaming at the time that it was one day to be- come the refuge of his family. Ram raja, on his arrival, laid aside the character of regent and assumed the ensigns of sove- reignty, arranging his court on the model of that of his father. Mahratta depre- In tne following year he sent two of his dations, 1692. generals, Suntajee and Dhunnajee, with a force which increased on its progress, to plunder the Mogul terri- tories and distract their attention. They extended their ravages to the neighbourhood of Satara, where Ramchunder, who had been entrusted with the Mahratta interests in the north, devised a new plan for damaging the Moguls. He conferred the right of levying the chout and sur desk mookee, and of laying waste the districts which refused these exac- tions, on every Mahratta chief who could bring his retainers into the field. At the same time he created a new demand of ghaus dana, or forage money, which was to be the individual perquisite of each chieftain. Under this new impulse, every mountain and valley poured forth its inhabitants to desolate the plains, and the Mogul authorities instead of having one great predatory army, directed by a single head, and amenable to obligations on their hands, had a monster with a hundred heads to deal with. 178 MOGUL AND MAHRATTA AKMIES COMPARED. [CHAP. The Mogul army was ill fitted to contend with Comparison of . the Mogul and this new swarm of warriors. Its commanders were Mahrattaarmies. ^^ genera i s com pared with the iron chiefs of Akbar's days. They vied with each other only in extrava- gant display, while their persons were protected from danger by wadding and chain armour. The spread of luxury had eaten out the spirit of valour and discipline, and nothing was so little desired by them as the sight of the enemy. The number of men for whom the officers drew pay, was never honestly maintained, and the ranks were filled with any cheap and beggarly recruits they could pick up. A force thus con- stituted was no match for the Mahratta troops, accustomed to hard fare and harder work. "The horse without a saddle was rode by a man without clothes, whose constant weapon was a trusty sabre ; footmen inured to the same travel, and bearing all kind of arms trooped with the horse ; spare horses accompanied them to bring off the booty, and relieve the wearied or wounded. All gathered their daily provisions as they passed. No pursuit could reach their march ; in conflict their onset fell wherever they chose, and was relinquished even in the instant of charge. Whole districts were in flames before their approach was known, as a terror to others to redeem the ravage." siege of Ginjee, The rallying point of the Mahrattas was the 169098. fortress of Ginjee, the siege of which was as protracted as . the siege of Troy. On hearing that Ram raja had taken up his abode in that fortress, Zulfikar Khan was in the first instance sent to capture it; but the suspicious temper of the emperor led him repeatedly to change the com- manders, and the operations necessarily languished. Zul- fikar was often in collusion with the Mahrattas, and it was even suspected that he contemplated the establishment of an independent authority through their aid, on the death of the aged emperor. It was during the languor of this siege that Suntajee Ghorepuray, having defeated the Mogul generals in the north, appeared before the place with a body vi.] ATJRUNGZEBE'S NEW PLANS, 179 of 20,000 horse. The besieging army was besieged in its turn, and Cam buksh, the son of the emperor, and the nominal commander-in-chief, was driven to a humiliating convention. Aurungzebe disallowed it, recalled his son, and entrusted the command for the third time toZulfikar. But as he was in communication with the enemy, the siege was again prolonged, till the emperor, indignant at his inactivity, gave him the option of its immediate capture, or his own degradation. Zulfikar now assaulted the fort in earnest, and it was reduced in the year 1698. Earn rafa makes ^ am ra J a ' Wn Da< ^ ^ een allowed, through the Satara his capi- connivance of Zulfikar, to escape from Ginjee before its capitulation, made his way back to his native mountains and selected Satara as his capital. He was soon enabled to assemble a larger army than Sevajee had ever commanded, and proceeded to levy what he termed " the Mahratta dues " through the provinces of Candesh and Berar. The greater portion of the maritime forts of the Mahrattas had been preserved or recovered ; and, with Colaba for their arsenal, they were enabled to keep the sea against the Moguls. On the other hand, the Mahratta cause suffered the severest injury by the death of Suntajee Ghorepuray, who had been the terror of the Mogul armies for seven years. Dhunnajee, his former associate, became his mortal enemy ; he was hunted by his own countrymen like a wild beast, through the region which he had filled with his exploits, and was at length brought to bay and his head cut off and sent as an acceptable present to the emperor. ]ang To meet the increasing audacity of the Mah- Aurungzebe, rattas, Aurungzebe devised the plan of separating his army into two divisions one to be employed in protecting the open country from their depredations the other in capturing their forts. The first duty was committed to Zulfikar Khan, the ablest and the most energetic of the Mogul generals, at a time when they were universally ener- vated by indulgence and venality. He repeatedly defeated the 180 AURUNGZEBE'S INCREASING DIFFICULTIES. [CHAP. Mahrattas in the field ; but he was unable to reduce their strength, and they always appeared more fresh after a defeat than his own troops after a victory. Aurungzebe reserved the task of capturing the fortresses for himself; and, breaking up his encampment on the banks of the Beema, to the deep regret of his voluptuous officers, commenced operations by the siege of Satara, which was surrendered to him in four months, in April, 1700. A month before this period Earn raja expired at Singur, and his son, a child of ten years of age, was declared king under the regency of his mother, Tara Bye. Hisincreasin During the succeeding five years Aurungzebe difficulties, 1702 was incessantly engaged in reducing the Mah- ratta forts ; but while thus employed he continued to superintend the minutest details of business throughout the empire, and not even a petty officer was admitted to the service at Cabul without his concurrence. When we are assured that the climate of India invariably relaxes the vigour of the body and the energies of the mind, we turn with astonishment to this octogenarian chief, engaged incessantly with youthful vigour in the duties of the cabinet or in the severer labours of the field, in a wild country and a vile climate. But all the energy of Aurungzebe was unable to cope with the disorders which multiplied around him. The Eajpoots were again in open hostility ; other tribes in the north, encouraged by his continued absence, and the conse- quent weakness of the administration, began to exhibit a refractory spirit. His treasury was exhausted by a wasting war of twenty-five years. The Mahratta chiefs began to recover their forts ; and in 1705 he received accounts at one and the same time that they had crossed the Nerbudda in great force, and extended their ravages to Malwa, and overrun Berar and Candesh, and also despatched 15,000 troops to levy contributions in Guzerat. In every direction around his camp, north, south, east, and west nothing was seen but the sack of villages, the slaughter of troops, and devastation of the country. VI.] HIS DEATH. 181 Overtures to the In these deplorable circumstances the emperor Mahrattas, 1706. ma( j e overtures to the Mahrattas, and offered them a legal title to the fourth and the tenth of the revenues of the six soohahs of the Deccan, on condition of their main- taining order and repressing violence. But they immediately rose in their demands, and had the effrontery to require dresses of honour for more than seventy of their marauding chiefs. The negotiation was therefore broken off, and the imperial encamp- ment began to retire to Ahmednugur, closely followed by the Mahrattas, who plundered up to the verge of the camp, and converted the retreat into an ignominious flight. Twenty years before Aurungzebe had marched from this capital in all the pride and pomp of war, to extend this dominion to Cape Comorin ; he now returned to it with the remnant of a discomfited army, and pursued by a victorious . . , foe, and there he expired on the 22nd of February, Aurungzebe s r J 7 death, 22nd 1707. By his will he directed that his funeral iruary, n( r ex p enseg should be limited to four rupees and-a, half, to be defrayed from the sum he had received for tht caps he had made and sold ; and that the sum of 805 rupees, which he had acquired from the sale of the Korans he had copied with his own hands, should be distributed among the poor. Aurungzebe has been considered by the native Kemarkson historians the type of Mogul greatness, and his name is invested with an indefinite idea of gran- deur, even in the minds of Europeans. But this feeling is corrected by a close inspection of the events of his reign, and it is impossible to resist the conviction that few characters in Indian history have ever been more overrated. His personal bravery, his military talents, and his application to business, are deserving of all praise ; but he persisted in a policy which was inherently vicious, after he perceived the ruin it was bringing on the empire. He was engaged for twenty-five years in a war, first of intolerance, and then of aggression, which exhausted the resources of the country, and hastened 182 ACCESSION OP BAHADOOR SHAH. the downfall of the house of Baber. The great oriental des- potism of the Moguls, like others which preceded it, had nearly run out the usual period of two centuries, and began to crumble to pieces, as soon as the genius or the prestige of Aurungzebe ceased to sustain it. CHAPTER VIL ROM THE DEATH OF AURUNGZEBE TO THE INVASION OP NADIR SHAH, 17071739. ON the death of Aurungzebe, prince Azim, who M b een banished through his father's dread of Bkm of Bahadoor being treated by his own sons when weakened by disease, as he had treated Shah Jehan, im- mediately returned to the encampment, caused himself to be proclaimed emperor, and prepared to march to the capital; but his elder brother, Muazzim, with better reason, assumed the crown, and advanced from Cabul to meet his rival. His son, who had governed Bengal for eleven years, materially assisted his cause by opportunely bringing up eight crores of rupees which he had amassed during that period. The two armies met in the neighbourhood of Agra, when prince Azim was defeated and fell, together with two of his sons. Zulfikar, who had remained neuter during the engagement, at once declared for the victor. It only remained to dispose of the pretension of the youngest son of the late emperor, Cam buksh, who was assembling troops in the Deccan. Zulfikar marched against him with a contingent of Mahrattas, and defeated him. He died shortly after of his wounds, and Muazzim, who was left the undisputed master of the empire, assumed the title of Bahadoor Shah. ^e Mahrattas, who had baffled the power of Ta Aurungzebe for thirty years, were now weak- ened by intestine discord. Tara Bye, the widow of VII.] SAHOO, GRANDSON OP SEVAJEE. 183 Ram raja held the reins of government for seven years, in the name of her son. Sahoo, the son of Sambajee, the legiti- mate heir to the throne, had been for seventeen years a captive in the Mogul camp, where he had been treated with great kindness by the emperor, who married him to the daughters of two of the principal Mahratta sirdars in his service. Prince Azim, when setting out to seize the prize at Delhi, adopted the sage advice of Zulfikar, and not only granted Sahoo his liberty but furnished him with assistance to assert his claim to the Mahratta throne, on condition that he should hold it as a vassal of the empire. Tara Bye imme- diately proclaimed him an impostor, and collected an army to oppose him; but he succeeded in obtaining possession of Satara, and in March, 1708, assumed the functions of royalty. In this family contest, the great Mahratta chieftains embraced opposite sides, and drew their swords against each other ; a happy event for the neighbouring provinces. At the end of five years, Sevajee, the son of Tara Bye, died, and her minister seized the opportunity of superseding her authority, and placing another of the sons of Earn raja, Sambajee, on the throne at Kolapore, which, from that period became the seat of the younger branch of the royal family, and the rival of Satara. Zulfikar Khan was rewarded for his adherence grants the to Bahadoor Shah with the vice-royalty of the eAoitt, 1708. Deccan, which he committed to the care of Daood Khan, while he himself continued to reside at the capital. Daood Khan was a Patan of noble birth, famous throughout the Deccan for his matchless courage, and his love of strong drink. He paid frequent visits to Madras, and did not hesitate to partake of English hospitality. The Madras President always " took care to supply him with liquors, because he was BO generous under their influence." It is recorded that in 1701, Mr. Pitt, the father of Lord Chatham, who then occupied that post, gave him a grand entertainment in the Council Chamber, when the Patan " pledged the chief largely in cordial waters and French brandy, amidst a discharge of cannon." 184 ORIGIN OF THE SIKHS. [CHAP. Zulfikar, who was desirous of cultivating peace with the Mahrattas, of whom he had been the most formidable foe in the field for fifteen years, authorized his lieutenant to offer Sahoo the chout which the Mahrattas had so long extorted by violence. Though the concession came only from a local officer, and was not therefore conclusive, it was not the less prized by the Mahratta cabinet, as the first legitimate title they had been able to acquire to their exactions. The tran- quillity of Rajpootana was secured by the same spirit of concession to its three principal rajas. Origin of the These arrangement which clearly indicated the Sikhs. growing weakness of the empire, appear to have been hastened by the inroads of the Sikhs in the north. Nanuk, the founder of the Sikh community, who flourished about the close of the fifteenth century, taught, that devotion was due to God, but that forms were immaterial, and that the worship of the Hindoos and the Mahomedans was equally acceptable to the deity. The sect which he founded gradually increased in numbers for a century, and became an object of detestation to the bigotted Mahomedans, who massacred its pontiff in 1606. In 1675, Gooroo Govind, the tenth spiritual chief in succession from Nanuk, conceived the idea of forming the Sikhs into a military, ae well as a religious, commonwealth. He abolished all distinction of caste, and admitted all converts to perfect equality; but every member of the body was required to be a pledged soldier from his birth, or his initiation. He inculcated reverence for the Hindoo gods and brahmins, and prohibited the slaughter of kine. After a long struggle with the Mahomedans, he saw his strongholds captured, his mother and children destroyed, and his followers slaughtered, mutilated, or dispersed. These severities exasperated the fanaticism of the Sikhs, and planted an inextinguishable hatred of the Mahomedans in their minds. Under a new thief, of the name of Bandoo, they issued from their retreats, overran the Punjab, and, if we are to believe the Mahomedan historians, committed unheard of atrocities. VII.] JEHANDER SHAH FEROKSHERE. 185 Death of Baha- At the beginning of the eighteenth century, door Shah, 1712. they had extended their inroads, on the one side to Lahore, and on the other to Delhi; and Bahadoor Shah marched against them in person and drove them back to the hills. He died on his return to Lahore, in February, 1712, after a brief reign of five years, at the age of seventy-two. Accession and ^ s death was immediately followed by the usual death of jehan- contest among his sons, which terminated in the de- feat and death of three of them, when the survivor mounted the throne, and assumed the title of Jehander Shah. One of the earliest acts of his reign, was to put to death all the princes of the blood royal within his reach. He appointed Zulfikar Khan, who had supported him through the conflict to the post of vizier, while he resigned himself to the most degrading pleasures, and raised the relatives of a dancing girl who had be- fcome his favourite mistress, to the highest honours in the state. But his ignoble career was speedily cut short by his nephew, Ferokshere, who had escaped the massacre of his family, by his absence in Bengal, of which he was the vice- roy. He advanced with an army of 70,000 men, and defeated the emperor in the neighbourhood of Agra. The noble Zul- fikar Khan, the last of the great captains of the Mogul dynasty, whose ancestors had served it in the highest offices for more than a century, was basely strangled by the orders of Ferokshere, and the wretched Jehander Shah was put to death after a reign of six months. Ferokshere, HIS. Ferokshere, the most contemptible, as yet, of The syuds. anv O f ^he princes of his line, ascended the throne in 1713, and dishonoured it for six years by his vices and his coward/ce. He owed his elevation to the exertions of two brothers, Hussein Ali, the governor of Behar, and Abdoolla Khan, the governor of Allahabad, generally denominated the Syuds, to denote their descent from the Prophet, and his reign was little else but a series of machinations to destroy them. The one was advanced to the post of vizier, and Hussein Ali was appointed commander-in-chief. They were both men 186 ORIGIK OP THE NIZAM*S POWER. [CHAP. of talent and valour, but, as they monopolised all power, they incurred the jealousy of the emperor and the enmity of his favourites. Immediately on his accession Ferokshere made a na- tive of Mooltan, who had been a cazee at Dacca, his chief confi- dant, and under his influence sent Hussein Ali against Ajeet Sing, the raja of Joudhpore, in the hope that the expedition might prove fatal to him. But he disappointed his enemies by concluding an honourable peace with the raja, and inducing him to give one of his daughters in marriage to the emperor. The nuptials, which were celebrated at Delhi with extraordinary splendour, have become memorable in the history of British India by the patriotic conduct of a British surgeon, the par- ticulars of which will be given in a future chapter. Nizam-ooi- Daood Khan, who had governed the Deccan as 1 2 ' not without a cause. He was at the time nego- tiating with Sir-boolund Khan, the imperial governor of Guzerat, 194 PEACE BETWEEN KOLAPORE AND SATAKA. [dlAP. who had succeeded in establishing- his authority, for the chout and other assignments which had been granted to the two Mahratta officers already mentioned, and, to expedite the bar- gain, sent his brother to lay the country waste. Sir-boolund at length found it expedient to purchase some measure of peace by yielding to these demands The concession was, however, more restricted than that . which had been granted by Hussein Ali, and confirmed by Mahomed Shah. The ohout was to be calculated on the actual amount of collections ; only two or three officers were to be placed in each district to collect the dues ; no other exactions were to be inflicted on the ryots, and every assistance was to be given to the imperial authority. From these limitations we are enabled to perceive how greatly the Mahrattas had abused the power conferred on them by the charters which they obtained eight years before. Never was a more flagitious and intolerable system of extor- tion invented by human ingenuity than that which the genius of Sevajee had devised, and which the Mahrattas considered it their mission to extend over the whole of India. While Baiee Rao was employed in settling his Kolapore and > * Satora at peace, demands on Guzerat, Sambajee crossed the Wurna ' 30 * and plundered the territory of his rival, Sahoo He was, however, subsequently defeated, and obliged to sign an acknowledgment of his cousin's right to the entire Mah- ratta territory, with the exception of a small tract around Kolapore, to which his branch of the royal family was thence- forward to be confined, and thus ended the dissensions of twenty years. The Nizam, foiled in his attempt to weaken the Mahrattas by internal discord, found a new instrument of mischief in Dhabarry, the Mahratta commander-in-chief. He had been intrusted with the Mahratta interests in Guzerat, and was mortified to find that the chout and other dues in his own province had been carried off by Bajee Rao. Under a feeling of resentment and at the instigation of the Nizam, he marched towards Satara with 35,000 men, with the avowed object of releasing Sahoo from the tyranny of the Peohwa, but VII.] ORIGIN OF THE GUICKWAR, SINDIA, AND HOLKAR. 195 he was defeated by an inferior force, and fell in battle. The influence of his rival was increased in no small degree by this attempt to destroy it. But the Peshwa acted with generosity, and conferred the office which had been held by Dhabarry on his son, an infant, and entrusted the management of affairs to origin of the Peelajee Guickwar, whose immediate ancestor Guickwar. was a co \v-herd, and whose descendants now occupy the throne of Baroda. origin of noikar To this period also belongs the rise of the fami- and Sindia. jj^ of Holkar and Sindia, destined to take a prominent share in the politics of India. Mulhar Rao Holkar was ihe son of a herdsman, but, being a youth of adventurous disposition, exchanged the crook for the sword, and by his daring courage recommended himself to Bajee Rao, who en- trusted him with the charge of levying contributions in eighty- four districts or villages in Malwa. Ranojee Sindia, th(,agh said to be allied to the noblest families in Rajpootana, was of the caste of cultivators, and entered the service of Balajee Vishwunath as a menial servant. It is related that on one occasion his master, returning from an interview with the raja Sahoo, found his attendant asleep on his back with the slippers firmly grasped in his hand. Struck with his fidelity in so humble an occupation, the Peshwa introduced him into his body-guard. He soon became one of the foremost of the Mahratta chieftains, and, like Holkar, received assignments on the districts of Malwa, which formed the nucleus of the family domain. After the defeat of Dhabarry, the Peshwa Convention be- j .1 XT- j j- tween Kajce Rao ano - *O6 .Nizam came to a mutual understanding ami the Nizam, f or ^he promotion of their respective interests, and it was agreed that Bajee Rao should be at liberty to plunder the Mogul territories in the north without restraint, and that the Nizam's possessions in the south should not be molested by the Mahrattas. In fact, the Nizam, the representative of the emperor in the Deccan, purchased peace by letting the Mahrattas loose on the dominions of his sove- o 2 196 PROGRESS OF THE MAIIRATTAS. [CHAP. reign beyond the Nerbudda. Bajee Rao crossed that river in 1732, and laid waste the devoted province of Malwa. The Mogul governor, Mahomed Bungush, was engaged at the time in besieging a refractory chief in Bundlecund, who in- voked the aid of Bajee Rao. Bungush was soon, in his turn, besieged, and was rescued only by the prompt arrival of his countrymen from Rohilcund. The Bundlecund raja evinced his gratitude to the Peshwa by bequeathing him a third of his territory of Jhansi; and thus was the Mahratta standard Maiwa ceded to planted for the first time on the banks of the Bajee Kao, me j umna> The government of Malwa was soon after conferred by the emperor on the Rajpoot prince, Jey Sing, whose reign was rendered illustrious by the encourage- ment of science and the erection of the beautiful city of Jey- pore, with its palaces, halls, and temples, and, above all, its noble observatory. The profession of a common creed had promoted a friendly intercourse between the Mahratta and the Rajpoot chiefs, and Jey Sing, who was more of a scholar than a statesman, made over the whole province of Malwa to Bajee Rao, though not without the supposed concurrence of the feeble court of Delhi. Bajee Rao's de- These concessions only served to inflame the mands, 1736. ambition of Bajee Rao, and the necessities of his position constrained him to extend his aggressions. Great as were the resources of the Mahratta state, the greater por- tion of the revenue was absorbed by the chiefs who collected it, and only a fraction reached the national treasury. The magnitude of Bajee Rao's operations had involved him in debt ; the bankers were slow to make further advances ; his troops were clamorous for their pay, and discipline was weakened by his inability to meet their claims. He therefore demanded of the imperial court a confirmation of the assignments on Guzerat which had been granted by Sir-boolund Khan, and of the recent cession of the province of Malwa, as his personal jaygeer. The emperor, or rather his minister, Khan Dowran, offered him an assignment of thirteen lacs of VTI.] BAJEE RAO AT THE GATES OF DELHI. 197 rupees on the districts south of the Chumbul, with permission to levy tribute in Rajpootana, in the hope that this claim would embroil him with the Rajpoot princes. But Bajee Rao, having learnt from his agent at Delhi that all his demands were likely to be conceded with a little more pressure, imme- diately increased them, and did not scruple to claim the whole territory south of the Chumbul, the surrender of the holy cities of Benares, Gya, Muttra, and Allahabad, and the im- mediate payment of fifty lacs of rupees. The court endea- voured to appease him with smaller sacrifices, which he readily accepted, but without abating the price of his forbearance, or the progress of his army. Holkar crossed the Jumna, by his orders, and plundered the Dooab, but was driven back by Sadut Khan, the soobadar of Oude ; and this success was magnified at Delhi into a grand victoiy, in which thousands of infidels were said to have perished. It was even reported that Bajee Rao had been obliged to retire. " I was compelled," he wrote, " to tell the emperor the truth, and to prove to him that I was still in Hindoostan; to show him flames and Mah- rattas at the gates of his capital." He advanced towards Delhi by forced marches of forty miles a day. The conster- nation in the imperial city may well be conceived ; but his object was not to sack the capital, but to intimidate the court into concessions, and circumstances rendered it advisable for him to withdraw. His moderation encouraged a party of eight thousand horse under some of the nobles to attack his carnp, but they were easily repelled by Holkar. Bajee Rao now retired from the north, recrossed the Nerbudda, and pro- ceeded to Satara. The Mahrattas appeared now to be paramount The Nizam do- . T ,. , feated by Bajee in India, and the Nizam was considered by the uao, 1737. emperor and his ministers, the only man who could save the empire from extinction. He himself perceived, when too late, the impolicy of his compact with Bajee Rao in 1732, which had enabled the Mahrattas to plunder the northern provinces without interruption, and augmented their power to 198 TOTAL DEFEAT OP THE NIZAM. . [CIIAP an extent which now threatened his own safety and that of every other Mahomedan potentate in India. He listened to the overtures of the court, and repaired to Delhi, where the government of Malwa and of Guzerat was conferred on him, and all the power and resources of the empire were placed at his disposal. But these resources Were now reduced to so low an ebb that he could assemble an army of only 34,000 men, with which he moved down to Malwa, while the Peshwa advanced to oppose him with 80,000. Owing, perhaps, to his great age he was now ninety-three perhaps to an over-confidence in his artillery, which was esteemed the best in India, he intrenched himself near Bhopal, instead of boldly encountering the enemy in the field. Bajee Rao adopted the usual Mahratta system of warfare laying waste the country around, intercepting all supplies, and harassing his opponent with incessant attacks. At length, on the twenty-fourth day from the commencement of the siege, the Nizam, receiving no reinforcements, while his enemy called up every Mahratta chief in the Deccan to his aid, was constrained to sign a humilia- tingtreaty, granting to the victorious Mahratta the sovereignty of Malwa, and of all the territory up to the banks of the Chumbul, and engaging to use all his influence to obtain the grant of fifty lacs of rupees from the treasury at Delhi. But that treasure was to find a different destination, invasion of Nadir ^ was m the midst of these distractions, which Shah, 1738. exhausted the strength of the empire, that Nadir Shah made his appearance on the banks of the Indus, and India was visited with another of those desolating irruptions to which it had been repeatedly subject during seven hundred years. Nadir's ^ ne P ers i an dynasty of the Sofis, which had antecedent lasted for two centuries, the usual term of Asiatic monarchies, was subverted in 1722 by the Ghiljies, the most powerful of the Afghan tribes. Shah Hussein, the last of that royal line, was blockaded by them in his capi- tal, Ispahan, which had then attained the summit of pros- VII.] NADIR SHAH. 199 perity, and contained a population of 600,000. After the besieged had endured the greatest extremities of misery and want, the king with his court went out attired in deep mourn- ing and gave himself up to Mahmood, the victorious chief, and placed the diadem on his brows. Mahmood, after a reign of two years, rendered execrable by his cruelties, left all his con- quests to his son Asruf. Nadir Shah, the greatest warrior Persia has produced since the days of Darius, was the son of a shepherd of Khorasan. His enterprising spirit led him to collect a band of freebooters ; their number increased with their success, and he soon found himself at the head of a formidable force, with which he freed Khorasan from the Abdalee Afghans who had overrun it. The Ghiljie king of Persia was the next to feel his power, and was obliged to re- sign all his father's conquests in Persia. Nadir, after his first success, raised Thamasp, the son of the dethroned Sofi monarch to the throne ; but when he had expelled the Turks and the Russians from the provinces they had occupied, and restored independence and dignity to his native land, he ascended the throne himself, on the assumed imporl unity of a hundred thousand of his subjects, nobles, soldiers, and peasants, as- sembled together on a vast plain to offer him the crown. To find employment for his troops, and to He invades Af- ghanistan and gratify the resentment of his countrymen, he India, 1737-38 carr i e( i his arms into the country of the Ghiljies, by whom they had been oppressed ; but Candahar was be- sieged for a twelvemonth before it surrendered. While en- gaged in the siege, Nadir sent a messenger to Delhi to demand the surrender of some of his fugitive subjects. The court was at the time distracted by the claims of Bajee Rao, and the demand was neglected. A second messenger was assassinated at Jellalabad. The government of India had, from time immemorial, been in the habit of paying an annual subsidy to the highlanders who occupy the passes between Cabul and Peshawur, and who were in a position to arrest the progress of any invader. In the confusion of the times the 200 SACK OF DELHI. [CHAP. payment of this black mail had been discontinued, and the Highlanders now opened the gates of India to Nadir Shah, who crossed the Indus, on a bridge of boats, with 65,000 hardy veterans, and overran the Punjab before the court of Delhi was aware of his approach. Massacre of The emperor marched to Curnal to repel the in- Deihi, 1739. vasion, biit experienced a fatal defeat, and, being without the means of resistance, proceeded immediately to the Persian camp, and threw himself on the mercy of the con- queror. The object of Nadir was wealth, not conquest, and it has been affirmed that he was prepared to retire on receiving a contribution of two crores of rupees ; but Sadut Ali, the soobadar of Oude, who had been refused some favour by the em- peror, sought revenge by representing to Nadir that this was a very inadequate ransom for an opulent empire, adding, that he was able to furnish such a sum from his own province alone. On this Nadir determined to levy the exactions under his own eye. He entered Delhi in March, 1739, in company with the ompernr, and took up his residence in the palace. On the succeeding day a report of his death was spread abroad, and the citizens rose on the Persians, of whom a thousand perished in the tumult, which continued throughout the night. The next morning Nadir mounted his horse and went forth to restore order, but the first sight which met his eye was the mangled corpses of his soldiers ; at the same time he himself was assailed with missiles from the windows, and a favourite officer was struck dead at his side. Unable any longer to restrain his fury, he issued orders for a general massacre of the inhabitants. For several hours the metropolis of India pre- sented a scene of violence, lust, and bloodshed, and 8,000 are said to have fallen under the swords of the infuriated soldiery ; yet so complete was Nadir's discipline, that every sword was sheathed the moment he issued the order. Plunder of Nadir Shah now entered deliberately on the Delhi, 1739. W0 rk of spoliation. He despoiled the emperor and his nobles of all their treasures and jewels, caused every house VII.] STATE OF INDIA ON NADIR SHAH'S DEPARTURE. 201 to be searched and sacked, and spared no cruelty to extort confessions of wealth. Of the infamous Sadut Ah' he de- manded the whole of the sum which he had said his soubah was able to furnish, and the traitor terminated his existence by swallowing poison. The governors of the other provinces were likewise laid under heavy contributions. Having thus subjected Delhi to fifty-eight days of ruthless pillage, and ex- hausted, as he supposed, the wealth of the country, he pre- pared to take his departure with plunder estimated at thirty- two crores of rupees. Before his departure he reseated Mahomed Shah on the throne, but annexed all the countries west of the Indus to the crown of Persia. He likewise sent a circular to all the princes of India to acquaint them that he was moving to the conquest of other regions, and had replaced his dear brother Mahomed Shah on the throne of his extensive empire, and that if any report of their rebellion reached his ears, he would return and blot their names out of the book of creation. The Mogul empire, which had been in a state of State of India after Nadir's rapid decay for more than thirty years, since the irruption in 1739. death of Aurungzebe , received its death-blow from the irruption of Nadir Shah and the sack of the capital. Its prestige was irrecoverably lost, and the various provinces ceased to yield any but a nominal obedience to the throne of Delhi. All its possessions beyond the Indus were alienated to the crown of Persia. In the extreme south the Mogul authority was extinct in the principalities of Tanjore, Madura, and Mysore. The nabob of the Carnatic recognised no superior. The government of the Deccan was shared between the Nizam and the Mahrattas, and the Mahrattas had recently extended their ravages to the gates of Delhi. In the pro- vinces of Guzerat and Malwa the authority of the emperor was trembling in the balance. The rajas of Rajpootana had ceased to be the vassals of the throne. The soobadars of Oude and Bengal acknowleged the emperor as the source of authority, but yielded him no obedience. Even in the imme- 202 INTRODUCTION OF THE ENGLISH INTO INDIA. [CHAP. diate vicinity of the metropolis new chiefs were, as the Maho- medan historian remarks, " beating the drum of independence." Towards the close of Aurungzebe's reign a tribe of sooders called Jauts emigrated from the banks of the Indus to the districts lying between Agra and Jeypore, and founded their capital, Bhurtpore, out of the plunder of the emperor's camp equipage ; and their leader, Chooramun, did not scruple to set the imperial authority at defiance. To the north of Delhi, a tribe of Rohilla Afghans, recently embodied under a circum- cised Hindoo, were rapidly rising into importance. The house of Baber had accomplished the cycle of its existence, and the sceptre of India was about to pass into other hands. Having thus reached the verge of a new era, we turn to the origin and progress of the strangers to whose lot that sceptre was to fall, though at this period they were engaged in the peace- ful pursuits of commerce, and dreaming of nothing so little as the establishment of an empire in India. The main stream of this narrative will now follow the fortunes of the British po\er, to which the history of the various kingdoms which rose upon the decay of the Moguls will be subsidiary. But, it may be useful to bear in mind, that, with the exception of the liajpoot chiefs and the puppet emperor at Delhi, not one ol the kingdoms which were subsequently absorbed in the British empire had been in existence even a quarter of a century when the English first took up arms in Hindostan. CHAPTER VIII. RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH, 1600 1756. THE rich trade which the Portuguese had esta- The English in India before Wished in the East during the sixteenth century served to quicken the spirit of enterprise which Queen Elizabeth laboured to foster in England, and her sub- jects were impatient to share in its profits. The splendid and VIII.] THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 203 successful voyages of Drake, Cavendish, and other English navigators to the eastern hemisphere tended.to augment the national ardour. In 1583, Fitch and three other adventurers started on a commercial expedition to India, by way of Aleppo and Bagdad. They carried letters of introduction from the queen to the emperor Akbar, soliciting his kind offices to her subjects who were proceeding from a far country to trade in his dominions, and offering the same kindness in return to any of his subjects who might visit England. Fitch travelled through the length and breadth of Hindostan, and was struck with the splendour of the court, the grandeur of the nobility, and the magnitude and opulence of the cities. The informa- tion which he collected regarding the commodities of the country, and the industry and wealth of the people, opened up visions of a lucrative commerce to his fellow-countrymen. A petition was accordingly presented to the Queen for permis- sion to send three vessels to India, but the political caution of her ministers rendered it fruitless. An association was at length formed in London, m 1599, consisting of merchants, ironmongers, clothiers, and other men of substance, who sub- scribed the sum of 30, 133 J. for the purpose of opening a trade with the East. In the following year they obtained a charter of incorporation from Queen Elizabeth, which granted them the exclusive privilege of this traffic for fifteen years, if it proved advantageous to the nation ; if otherwise, it was liable to be annulled on two years' notice. Such was the origin of the East India Company, which confined itself to commerce for a hundred and fifty years, and then took up arms in defence of its factories, and in less than a century established British sovereignty from the Himalayu to Cape Coinorin, and from Peshawur to the borders of Siam. The first adventure of the Company was placed under the command of Captain Lancaster, and consisted of five vessels freighted with iron, tin, lead, cloth, cutlery, glass, quicksilver, and Muscovy hides, of the value of 68,000 rupees, and 287,420 204 POWER OF THE PORTUGUESE. [CHAP. rupees in bullion. It sailed from Torbay on the 2nd of May, 1601, with letters of introduction from the Queen to the princes to whose kingdoms it might resort. The new Com- pany had no distinct knowledge of any part of India, and the fleet sailed to Acheen, in the island of Sumatra, where a cargo of pepper was obtained, and a treaty concluded with the Malay chiefs. In the Straits of Malacca, Captain Lancaster captured a Portuguese vessel of 900 tons, richly laden with calicoes and spices, and then steered for Bantam, the most flourishing- port in the island of Java, where he erected a factory and left agents. The expedition returned to England in September, 1603, with a satisfactory profit to the adventurers. During the following ten years eight voyages were undertaken, which gave a return of from one to two hundred per cent. lu 1608 the factors at Bantam represented that the calicoes of India were in great request in the islands of the Archipelago, and a fleet was therefore despatched, for the first time, to the coast of India ; but the object was defeated by the jealousy of the Portuguese. The Portuguese The Portuguese at this period enjoyed a corn- power, mercial supremacy in the eastern hemisphere, and were anxious to prevent the intrusion of rivals. They held little territory on the continent of India, but they completely monopolised its foreign trade. By the possession of Aden and Ormuz they entirely commanded the Ked Sea and the Persian Gulf. They occupied the coasts of Ceylon, and had no rival on the Malabar and Coromandel coasts. They were paramount on the Malay seaboard, and held possession of the Moluccas, or spice islands. They had erected a factoiy at Macao, and enjoyed the exclusive trade of China. Their well-fortified settlement at Hooghly, second only to that of Goa, rendered them a most formidable power in Bengal. It was \vith this great mercantile monopoly that the English had now to enter into competition. In 1611 the East India Company sent two vessels to Surat, and the Portuguese prepared to resist their advance with four ships, the largest VIII.] EMBASSY OF SIR THOMAS ROE. 205 cf which carried thirty-eight gung. In the several encounters which took place between them, the Portuguese were dis- comfited and disgraced in the eyes of the natives. The Mogul governor of Surat and his officers spent an evening on board the vessel of the commander, and was the first native chief who ever partook of the hospitality of the English. As the Portuguese power was an object of dread along the Coast, the reputation of the East India Company was relatively exalted, and they obtained authority to establish factories at Surat, Ahmedabad, and other towns. These privileges were con- firmed by an imperial firman granted by Jehangeer on the llth of January, 1613, and Surat became the chief seat of English commerce on the western coast of India. Embassy of si* To improve the footing which had been obtained T. Eoe, 1615. j n indja^ the Company prevailed on King James to send an embassy to the great Mogul. Sir Thomas Roe was appointed envoy, and proved to be admirably adapted for so delicate and difficult a mission. He sailed from England in January, 1615, and landed at Surat with great pomp, attended by a brilliant suite and eighteen men-at-arms, and proceeded to the imperial Court, where he was received with greater distinction than had been accorded to any Persian or Turkish ambassador. Having stated the chief object of his embassy, he was assured that the grievances of which he complained should be redressed. But he found himself thwarted by the influence of the Portuguese, as well as by the vizier and Shah Jehan, who subsequently succeeded to the empire. His talent and address enabled him to overcome these obstacles, and he obtained some valuable privileges for the Company, on whom, after his return, he bestowed the salutary advice which they did not forget for more than sixty years, "to seek their profit at sea and in quiet trade, and not to affect garrisons and land wars in India." It does not lie within the scope of this work to dwell on the long-continued struggle of the East India Company with 206 PATRIOTISM OF MR. BOUGHTOW. [CHAP. the Dutch for a share in the spice trade of the eastern islands, or on the massacre at. Amboyna, which continued for thirty years to rankle in the minds of Englishmen, till Cromwell compelled the Dutch, to make satisfaction for it. In like manner we pass over the contests with the Portuguese for the possession of Ormuz and the trade with Persia, which, when obtained, was not found worth retaining. We move on to the establishment of the Company in Bengal. In 1620 two of their factors visited Patna, but met with little The Enpiisn in encouragement. In 1634 a firman appears to have Bengal, 1620 se. j^^ obtained from the emperor, Shah Jehan, for the establishment of a factory in Bengal ; but the resistance of Rodrigues at Hooghly was yet fresh, and the residence of their agents was restricted to the port of Pipley, near Bala- sore. Two years after, the daughter of the emperor, who was then encamped in the Deccan, having fallen ill, the vizier dis- patched an express to the English factory at Surat to request the services of a surgeon. Mr. Boughton, attached to one of the ships, was accordingly sent to the imperial camp, and having succeeded in restoring the princess to health, was desired to name his own reward. In a spirit of the noblest patriotism, he stated that the only remuneration he would accept was an order granting his countrymen the privilege of trading in Bengal free of duty, and planting factories in the interior of the country. The request was at once granted, and he proceeded across the Deccan to Bengal at the charge of the emperor. Soon after his arrival at Pipley, the first English vessel which had ever visited Bengal entered the port, and he was enabled to negotiate the sale and purchase of the investment without being subject to extortion. Two years after, the emperor's second son, prince Soojah, who had been appointed viceroy of Bengal, established his court at Rajmahal. Mr. Boughton proceeded to pay his respects to the prince, and was requested to prescribe for one of the ladies of the seraglio. He was again successful, and enjoyed a viir.] COMPANY'S CHARTER CONFIRMED. 207 second opportunity of promoting the interests of his country. At his request the prince granted letters patent to the English to establish factories at Balasore and Hooghly. Establishment The first factory of the Company on the Coro- of Madras, 1639. man( Jel coast was opened at Masulipatam, from whence it was removed, in 1625, to Armegan. The trade was not however found to be remunerative, and Mr. Day, the superintendent, accepted the invitation of the raja of Chun- dergiree, the last representative of the great Hindoo dynasty of Beejuynugur, to remove the establishment to his territories. In a small village on the coast a plot of ground was marked out, on which, in 1639, he erected the factory which after- wards expanded into the great city of Madras. To give confidence to the native merchants, it was surrounded by a fortification, with twelve guns, and in honour of the champion of England was called Fort St. George. For fifteen years after this period there is no event in the transactions of the Company worthy of attention. The un- settled state of England during the civil wars was not favourable to the interests of commerce, and the trade of the Company languished. The investments were small, and the profits smaller; but as soon as domestic tranquillity was restored under the Protector, an attempt was made by a body of men, calling themselves the " Merchant Adventurers," to break up the exclusive privileges of the East India Company. The arguments they employed for free trade appear at the present day to be unanswerable, but their validity was not likely to be admitted by those who had devised the Navi- gation Act. Cromwell referred the question to the Council of State, who recommended him to confirm the privileges of the Company, and a new charter was accordingly granted to that body. There can be little doubt that, in the circumstances of the times, the decision of Cromwell was sound, and that the power of a corporation was essential to the maintenance of a trade exposed to the caprice and the hostility of the native powers of the East. The Merchant Adventurers were therefore incor- 208 ACQUISITION OF BOMBAY. [CHAP. porated with the old Company, and the two bodies united in soliciting a confirmation of their privileges from Charles the Second at the Restoration. A charter was granted on the 3rd of April, 1661, which, in addition to the usual commercial privileges, conferred the right to make peace and to wage war with any people in India not Christians, to seize and deport to England all unlicensed Englishmen, and to administer justice. The Company, which existed only for trade, was thus invested with the most essential attributes of government. AC uisition of ^ n *^ e succeeding year Charles II. married the Bombay, 1662. daughter of the king of Portugal, and received the island and dependencies of Bombay as part of her dower. A grand expedition was dispatched to India by the Crown, under the Earl of Marlborough, to receive possession of the settlements ; but after having held it for six years, the minis- ters of the Crown found that it cost more than it yielded, and ceded it to the Company, under whose fostering care the population has increased from 10,000 to 500,000, and the trade has risen from a few lacs of rupees to thirty crores. First tea in "^6 vear ' * n which the Company acquired the England, 1668. island of Bombay, is also memorable as that in which the first order for the purchase of tea was sent out by them to the East. Tea had been used at the period of the civil war as a "regalia in high treatments and entertain- ments, and presents to princes and grandees," and was sold as high as 100 shillings the pound weight, or 100 rupees the seer. But in 1657, Thomas Garraway, the founder of Garra- way's coffee-house, which still exists in London, was the first to sell it " in drink made according to the directions of the most knowing merchants and travellers into the eastern countries, and many noblemen, merchants, and physicians resorted to his house in Change Alley to drink the drink thereof." He sold it at a rate varying from 16s. to 50s. the pound. But it was not till ten years after that the Company issued an order for "100 Ibs. weight of the best tey they could gett to be sent home by their ships." The consumption VIII.] FLOURISHING STATE OF TRADE. 209 in England has increased from one hundred pounds weight to more than eighty millions of pounds. Events in Ben- Turning now to the progress of events in Bengal. cai, 16401680. With the exception of two biief intervals, the administration of the province was, during thirty-two years, in the hands of two princes of the imperial family, Soojah Khan and Shaista Khan, under whose mild arid beneficent rule it enjoyed repose and increased in prosperity. Shaista Khan is charged by the factors of the Company with insatiable rapacity; but they winced under every demand, however petty, and they did not deny that he fostered their commerce and obtained many favours for them from Delhi. In 1664, the French, under the auspices of the great minister Colbert, established an East India Company, in the hope of participating in the trade which had enriched England and Holland. Soon after, a large French fleet sailed up the Hooghly and formed a settlement at Chandernagore. Three years after, the Dutch, whose trade had been confined to Balasore, were permitted to establish a factory at Hooghly, but eventually fixed on Chinsurah, two miles distant, as the seat of their traffic, and erected a fortification capable of resisting the native powers, which they named Fort Augustus. About the same period the Danes entered the river, and embarked in the trade of the country. Bengal, thus blessed with tranquillity, and enriched by foreign commerce, became the most flourishing province in the empire. The general trade of the Company, which had been drooping for many years, received a .new impulse from the rapid increase of pros- perity in England after the Restoration, and their exports rose from 10 lacs in 1666, to 100 lacs of rupees in 1682. The ambitious fortunes to which this trade gave birth in England created a brood of interlopers, and gave rise to disputes which at one time threatened to embroil the two Houses of Parliament. Disturbance of Shaista Khan had been relieved from the govern- the trade, 1682. mcnt of Bengal at his own request, and the Com- pany's agents in Calcutta took advantage of his return to the 210 THE PROSPECTS OP TRADE OBSCURED. [CHAP. court to solicit a perpetual firman to exonerate them from the necessity of taking out a fresh firman on the arrival of every new governor, for which they were required to pay most heavily. It was granted through his intercession, and received in Calcutta with a salute of 300 guns. The trade of Bengal had moreover acquired such importance that the Court of Directors who managed the affairs of the Company raised it to the dignity of a separate and independent Presidency, and Mr. Hedges, the first governor, entered Hooghly with a body- guard of a corporal and twenty European soldiers. But these prospects were soon to be darkened by the wild ambition of the Court of Directors and the folly of their officers. Mr. Pea- cock, the chief of the factory at Patna, had remained neutral during a local emeute, and was charged by the Mogul governor with complicity, and placed in confinement, from which he was not released without much difficulty. The Company's lucra- tive trade in saltpetre was stopped at the same time. A rival East India Company had been formed in London under high auspices, and great efforts were made to obtain a char- ter for it ; but the old Company was still patronized by the Court, and was endowed with the additional powers of admiralty jurisdiction, which authorized them to seize and con- fiscate the property of their rivals abroad. They now soli- cited the permission of the viceroy to erect a fort at the mouth of the Hooghly, or on its banks, that they might more effectually intercept the vessels of interlopers. The repre- sentative of the Mogul had a horror of European fortifications, and, if he took any interest in the question of rival companies, must naturally have desired that the number of investments on which he could levy contributions, should be increased. The request was therefore refused, and not without reason, for such a fortification would have given the Company the absolute control of the port and of the commerce of the pro- vince. But the viceroy went further, and imposed a duty of 3^ per cent, on their goods, notwithstanding the exemption acquired by the imperial firman. VIII.] COMPANY GO TO WAR WITH THE MOGULS. 211 war with the Such demands had been often made before, and Moguls, less, as often eluded by a liberal donative ; but the East India Company had become inflated with an idea of their own power and importance, and determined to extort redress by going to war with the Mogul empire. They applied to James II. for permission to retaliate the injuries of which they complained, and fitted out the largest armament which had ever been dispatched from England to the East. Admiral Nicholson was sent out with twelve ships of war, carrying 200 pieces of cannon and a body of 600 men, to be reinforced by 400 from Madras. His instructions were to seize and fortify Ohittagong, for which purpose 200 additional guns were placed on board, to demand the cession of the surrounding territory, to conciliate the zemindars, to establish a mint, and to enter into a treaty with the raja of Arracan in short, to found a kingdom. But these ambitious projects were destined to a severe disappointment. The fleet was dispersed during the voyage, and several of the vessels, instead of steering for Chittagong, entered the Hooghly, and being joined by the Madras troops, anchored off the Company's factory. The arrival of so formidable an expedition alarmed th6 viceroy, and he offered to compromise his differences with the English ; but an unforeseen event brought the negotia- tion to an abrupt close. Three English soldiers, strolling through the market-place of Hooghly, quarrelled with some of the government policemen, and were severely beaten. Both parties were reinforced, and a regular engagement ensued, in which the natives were completely discomfited. At the same time the admiral opened fire on the town and burnt down 500 houses, as well as property belonging to the Company to the extent of thirty lacs of rupees. The Mogul commandant hastened to solicit a The English retire to ingeiee, suspension of arms, and assisted m conveying the remainder of the saltpetre on board the ships. Job Charnock, the English chief, considering Hooghly no longer safe, retired on the 20th December, 1686, to the little p 2 212 BEKGAL ABANDOIfED. [ciIAP. hamlet of Chuttanutty, about twenty-six miles down the river, on the site of which subsequently arose the magnificent capi- tal of British India. There the viceroy renewed and spun out the negotiations till his troops could be assembled, when he marched down to attack the English encampment, and Job Charnock retired with his soldiers and establishments to the island of Ingelee, at the mouth of the river. It was a low and deadly swamp, covered with long grass, and destitute of any fresh water. It appears incredible that a man of Char- nock's experience, who had been thirty years in India, and who must have known the nature of that jungle, should have selected the most unhealthy spot in Bengal for an entrenched camp. The Mogul general allowed him to remain there without molestation, well knowing that disease would spare his soldiers the use of their swords. In three months one half of the troops were dead, and the other half fit only for hospital. Bengal atmn- At. this juncture, when the prospects of the doned, 1688. English were reduced to the lowest ebb, the viceroy made unexpected overtures to Charnock. It appears that simultaneously with the dispatch of Admiral Nicholson's expedition from England, the Court of Directors instructed Sir John Child to withdraw their establishments from Surat and the neighbouring ports, and to commence hostilities on the western coast. An English fleet was therefore employed in blockading the Mogul harbours, and the pilgrim ships were captured. The bigotted Aurungzebe hastened to seek a re- conciliation with those who commanded the highway to Mecca, and orders were issued to the governors of provinces to make terms with them. Charnock returned to Chuttanutty, and the pacification was on the point of being completed when the appearance of Captain Heath rekindled the flame. The Court of Directors, on hearing of the failure of Admiral Nicholson's expedition, instead of folding up their ambitious project, determined to prosecute it with increased vigour, and sent out reinforcements under Captain Heath. Immediately on his arrival he disallowed the treaty then pending, and having em- Vm.] RECONCILIATION WITTI THE EMPEROR. 213 barked on board the ships under his command, lying off Chuttanutty, the whole of the company's officers, civil and military, proceeded to Balasore, which he bombarded and burnt. He then sailed to Chittagong ; but finding the forti- fications stronger than he had anticipated, crossed the bay, and landed the whole of the company's establishments at Madras ; and not a vestige was left of the commercial fabric which had been reared in Bengal by fifty years of painful exertion. Reconciliation "^ s fresh insult exasperated the haughty spirit with the of the emperor, and he issued orders for the extirpation of the English, and the confiscation of their property. His orders were literally obeyed, and the English possessions were reduced to the fortified towns of Madras and Bombay. Sir John Child sent two gentlemen from Bombay to the emperor's encampment at Beejapore to propose terms of accommodation. Aurungzebe never allowed his passions to interfere with his interests. He was aware that his dominions benefited greatly by the commerce of the English, the value of which exceeded a crore of rupees a year ; that their ships of war could sweep his coasts and extinguish his navy ; and, above all, that it was in their power to prevent the re- sort of pilgrims to the tomb of the Prophet. He was there- fore induced to accept the proposition of the commissioners, and directed the viceroy of Bengal to invite Mr. Charnock back to the province. Shaista Khan, who had now governed Bengal for twenty years, solicited permission to retire, and quitted Dacca in 1689. On his departure he closed one of the gates of the city, and placed an inscription over it to commemorate the fact that the price of rice had been reduced during his administration to 320 seers the rupee, and he interdicted any future governor from opening it till rice was again sold at the same rate. It consequently continued closed for thirty-six years. jfchiMinhmentof Shaista Klian was succeeded by Ibrahim Khan, Calcutta, lew. the sou of AH Mercian, whoso name is perpetuated 214 ESTABLISHMENT OP CALCUTTA. [CHAP. by his canals. The new viceroy, who was partial to the English, lost no time in inviting Charnock to re-establish the Company's factories in Bengal. Charnock, however, resented the humiliating as well as vague terms in which Aurungzebe had conceded the restoration of the settlements of the English, in consequence, so ran the proclamation, of thek having " made a most humble and submissive petition that the crimes they had committed should be forgiven." He replied that he could not accept the proposal unless the emperor granted a specific firman for Bengal, setting forth the precise terms on which they were to cany on their trade in future. The viceroy sent him a second communication, stating that several months must elapse before the firman could be received from the imperial Court, and importuned him to return without delay, offering a compensation of 80,000 rupees for the goods which had been plundered. Charnock could not resist this friendly appeal, and embarked for Bengal with the commercial establishments of the Company, and on the 24th of August, 1690, hoisted the standard of England on the banks of the Hooghly, and laid the foundation of the city of CALCUTTA. But he did not survive this memorable event more than two years. His name is perpetuated at Barrackpore, which the natives still continue to designate Achanuk, and a simple monu- ment in the churchyard of St. John's, in Calcutta, marks the grave of the man who founded the " city of palaces." It was not, however, till eight years after that the agent of the Com- pany was enabled to obtain permission, by a present of 1 6,000 rupees to the viceroy, to purchase the three villages of Calcutta, Chuttanutty, and Govindpore, on which the city stands; though the Court of Directors did not fail to remark that " they considered the price very high." Ambition of the The sudden spasm of ambition which seized the courtquenched. CovLTt of Directors, in 1685, and induced them to fit out , this grand armament to establish a political power in India, did not, however, last more than five years. The dying indication of it appears in their despatch of 1689 : " The VHI.] FORTIFICATION OF CALCUTTA. 215 increase of our revenue is the subject 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 interlopers, united by his Majesty's charter, fit only to trade where nobody of power thinks it their interest to oppose us ; and upon this account it is that the wise Dutch, in all their general advices that we have seen, write ten paragraphs concerning their government, their civil and military policy, warfare, and the increase of their revenue, for one paragraph they write concerning their trade." But adversity was not lost upon the Court of Directors ; from this time forward, and for more than fifty years, their views were confined so exclusively to the pursuits of commerce that in the year 1754, only three years before the battle of Plassy, which laid the foundation of their magnificent empire, they con- tinued to inculcate on their servants, the necessity of "avoid- ing an expensive manner of living, and of considering them- selves the representatives of a body of merchants, for which a decent frugality would be much more in character." Fortifications of After the establishment of the factory at Cal- caicutta, J695. cu ^ta, the Court of Directors were anxious to place it in a state of defence. They felt that their existence in India during the recent convulsion had been owing solely to the fortresses of Madras and Bombay, which were impreg- nable to the assaults of any native force. Those forts had been erected before the Mogul authority was extended over the territory in which they were situated ; but any increase of such defences was prohibited by the policy of the empire. Ibrahim Khan, the viceroy of Bengal, resisted all the impor- tunities of the Company's chief to fortify Calcutta, though it was backed by an offer of 40,000 rupees. But five years after that settlement had been established an unexpected event led to the gratification of this wish. Sobha Sing, a landed proprietor of Burdwan, irritated by the proceedings of his superior, created a rebellion, and invited Kuhim Khan, the 216 RIVAL COMPANY. [CHAP leader of the remnant of the Orissa Afghans, who had not been heard of for seventy years, to join his standard. Their united force defeated the raja Krishnu Ram, plundered the town of Hooghly, and took possession of the district. The English at Calcutta, the French at Chandernagore, and the Dutch at Chinsurah, with a ferocious enemy at their gate, asked permission to put their settlements in a state of defence. The pacific and irresolute viceroy, who was unequal to the crisis of a rebellion, desired them in general terms to provide for their own security. Immediately every hand was em- ployed day and night in erecting fortifications. The fort, built with lime brought up from Madras, was so substantial, that the demolition of it a hundred and twenty years after was supposed to have cost more labour than its erection. In compliment to the reigning monarch, it was named Fort William. Meanwhile the rebellion made head, and the Afghans became masters of the whole country on the right bank of the river, from Orissa to Rajmahal ; but they were at length completely defeated and dispersed by Zuberdust Khan, the valiant son of the feeble viceroy. But both father and son were soon after superseded by the emperor, who dreaded the juccess of his generals only less than that of his enemies, and Bent his grandson, Azim, to take charge of the province. The character of this prince encouraged the rebels to reassemble their forces ; the royal encampment was furiously assaulted, and the viceroy himself was saved from an ignominious defeat only by the death of Ruhim Khan. He fell in single combat with one of his officers, who announced himself to be the prince, and thus saved his master's life. On the death of then: leader, the Afghans made their submission to the government, the revolt died out, and the Orissa Afghans disappear from the page of history. Rival Company, Scarcely had the Company surmounted their 1698. difficulties in India, than they were threatened with a new and more appalling danger in England. The dazzling profits of the Indian trade had drawn forth a multi- Till.] DISASTROUS EFFECTS OF THE RIVALRY. 217 tude of competitors ; but the Company were enabled to obtain a confirmation of their exclusive privileges from the Crown in 1693. A few months after this event the House of Commons passed a resolution to the effect " that it is the right of all Englishmen to trade to the East Indies, or any part of the world, unless prohibited by Act of Parliament." This gave fresh animation to the interlopers, and many of them turned pirates, attacking the Mogul ships and plundering the Mecca pilgrims. In revenge for these injuries, the Mogul governor of Surat arrested fifty-three of the Company's servants, and put them in irons, and they were not liberated without the payment of heavy contributions. In 1698 the interlopers, and others who were eager to participate in the trade of the East, presented a petition to Parliament for a charter, and accompanied it with the tempting offer of accommodating the treasury with a loan of two millions sterling, at eight per cent. Their exertions were successful, and the old Com- pany, who had established British interests in India by a century of labour and expense, being unable to offer more than 700,000?., were ordered to wind-up their affairs and expire in three years. But the rivalry of the two bodies was found, even in the first year, to inflict the most serious injury on the national interests in India. At Surat the gentlemen on the staff of the old Company were seized by the agents of the new body, and conveyed through the streets like male- factors, with their hands bound behind them, and delivered as prisoners into the custody of the Mogul governor. In every market the competition of the two bodies created a scarcity, and enhanced the price of goods. The officers of the native government, courted by two parties, received bribes from each, and oppressed both. "Two East India Companies," exclaimed the old Court of Directors, " can no more subsist without destroying each other than two kings regnant at the same time hi the same kingdom ; that now a civil battle was to be fought between them, and two or three years must end this war, as the old or the new must give way." 218 EMBASSY OF SIR W. NORRIS. [CHAP. Embassy of sir On the establishment of the new Company, w. Nonis, 1700. g; r -William Norris was sent at their expense as ambassador from the court of England to the court of the Mogul, to obtain firmans for the establishment of factories. His difficulties began before he entered the port. The Mogul governor of Surat exacted 15,000 gold mohurs for granting him permission to make a public entry into the city. The vizier at Boorhanpore refused him an audience unless he came without drums and trumpets ; and he therefore turned off to the imperial encampment at Panalla, which he reached in April, 1701. Three weeks after, he proceeded to the durbar with a splendid cortege, and preceded by magnificent pre- sents. The aged emperor, then in his 88th year, but in the fullest enjoyment of his faculties, received him with great courtesy, and ordered the grants which he solicited to be pre- pared. But the Armenian agents of the old Company were present to thwart Sir William. Both parties were offering bribes and lavishing money, and decrying each other as impostors. With these conflicting claims before him, the emperor ordered a reference to be made to one Syud Sedoolla, a " holy priest of Surat," who was to determine by examina- tion which was " the real English Company." The holy priest put his award up to sale, and knocked it down for 10,000 rupees ; but the governor of Surat refused to report it with- out a donative of more than two lacs and a half of rupees. Before the terms could be settled, it was reported at the The English Court that three Mogul ships coming from Mocha pirates, 1698. j^ ^ een ca pt ure d by English pirates. These pirates, of whom Captain Kidd was now the chief, had long been the terror of India. Their vessels were fitted out at New York and in the West Indies, and they possessed several fortified stations on the island of Madagascar. With a fleet of ten ships, some carrying fifty guns, and divided into squadrons, they kept possession of the Indian seas. Two of the Company's vessels, which were sent against them, were seized by the crews, after the massacre of the officers, and added to the pirate Vm.] UNION OP THE TWO COMPANIES. 219 fleet. A squadron of four ships of war was sent against them under Commodore Warren, but one of his vessels was wrecked, and so lax was the naval discipline of the period, that the other three, instead of going in pursuit of the pirates, returned to England laden with cargoes of private merchandize. The emperor, on hearing of these renewed piracies, ordered the ambassador to furnish security for the restoration of the cap- tured vessels, and to enter into an engagement to prevent all piracies in future. With this unreasonable request he of course, refused to comply, on which he was informed that he knew his way back to England. He left the camp after seven months of fruitless negotiation, with a letter and a sword from Aurungzebe to the King of England ; and thus ended a mission which had cost the new Company nearly seven lacs of rupees. The embassy itself was a mistake. One of Cromwell's ambas- sadors a sixty-four gun ship, which spoke all languages, and never took a refusal would have been far more efficacious with this unprincipled court. Sir John Gayer and the other servants of the new Company at Surat would not then have been consigned to a jail as a retaliation for piracies they had no means of preventing. union of the ^he King, the Parliament, and the nation be- companies, 1702. came at length sensible of the fatal results of the rivalry they had created, and the two Companies were amal- gamated by universal consent, under the title of the " United Company of Merchants trading to the East," the indenture of which passed the Great Seal on the 22nd of July, 1702. On the completion of this union the Court of Directors, formed by the selection of an equal number from each Company, wrote to their representative at Calcutta, that " now they were esta- blished by a Parliamentary authority they deemed it a duty incumbent on them to England and their posterity to propa- gate the future interests of the nation in India with vigour." They directed their attention to the building of the town of Calcutta, and gave minute directions regarding its streets and houses. They completed the fort, surrounded it with au 220 CONTESTS WITH THE VICEROY. [CHAP. entrenchment, and mounted it with cannon. The military commandant of Hooghly was, on the occasion of a dispute with the Company's chief, deterred by its strength from attack- ing it, and the native merchants who resorted to it in large numbers were inspired with increased confidence. The Court of Directors then remodelled their Indian establishment, fixing the salary of the President at 300Z., of the eight members of council at 4QL, of the junior merchants at 30/., the factors at 15., and the writers at 51.', but these inadequate salaries were eked out by the addition of commons, an annual supply of madeira, and the privilege of private trade. The trade proved so lucrative that we find the Directors soon after this period, complain that even the junior servants sat down to dinner with a band of music, and rode out in a coach and four. From this time forward to the battle of Plassey Contests with the . . * viceroy, 1700 the history of Calcutta is little else but a chronicle 1756 ' of the exactions of the native government and the resistance, alternately bold and feeble, of the Company's agents. On one occasion the Directors complain that the extortions by the Fouzdar of Hooghly, who " was merely the jackal of the prince and the dewan to discover the prey, had made a great hole in their cash." Then, again, they remon- strate against the exorbitant demand of 30,000 rupees by the nabob that is, the viceroy and recommend greater discre- tion to their agents. Two years after, the nabob makes a new demand of 60,000 rupees, but is pacified with half that sum. The year after, the sum of 22,000 rupees is " squeezed out of them by the Patna king." Again, in 1717, they com- plain that " the horse-leeches of Moorshedabad had been prac- tising on their servants." " It was actual war which made Aurungzebe restore their privileges." Their servants are therefore ordered to stop, but not to seize, the vessels of the Mogul, " for reprisals, like extreme unction, must never be used except in the last extremity." " They never thought of carrying their contests so far as an open rupture with the viceroy of the whole country, though it might be expedient to Till'.] E5IB&SSY TO DELHI. 221 speak and look big with the under-governors." But this brought them no respite. Soon after, their native agent was "chabooked," or flagellated at Moorshedabad to extort u bond of 45,000 rupees from him, which was commuted to 20,000 rupees. Even so late as 1750, the President, having seized arid confiscated the vessel of an Armenian interloper, was fined a lac and a half of rupees to compensate the mer- chant, of which, however, he never received more than 20,000 rupees. It was amidst the constant recurrence of these out- rageous demands that the President and council in Calcutta contrived to carry on the trade of the Company till the young nabob of Moorshedabad filled up the measure of iniquity by the sack of Calcutta and the atrocity of the Black Hole, and Clive marched up to Moorshedabad and seated a nabob of his own on the throne of the three provinces. Moorshed Kooiee In the year 1702 Meer Jaffer was appointed Khan, i.o2. d ewan of Bengal, and eventually viceroy of the three soubahs of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa. He was the eon of a poor brahmin in the Deccan, and was purchased and circumcised by a Persian merchant of Ispahan, on whose death he was manumitted. He then entered the public service, where his talents attracted the notice of Aurungzebe and led eventually to his being intrusted with the finances of Bengal. At the same time he was dignified with the title of Moorshed Kooiee Khan, which was perpetuated in the new capital which he founded, Moorshedabad. Embassy to He manifested no little jealousy of the growing eiiii, 1715. p Ower O f the Company, and interfered to such an extent with then- trade that the President was induced to Rend an embassy to Delhi to seek a redress of grievances. Two of the senior officers in the service were selected for this office ; but their appeal was thwarted at every point by the agents of the Bengal viceroy, and not less by the profligate courtiers of Ferokshere. At length, however, their mission was unexpectedly crowned with success when they were on the eve of abandoning it. The emperor, as stated in a former 222 SYSTEM OP MOORSHED KOOLEE KHAN. [CHAP. chapter, was betrothed to the daughter of Ajeet Sing, the raja of Joudhpore, whom Hussein All had brought with him to the court. But the marriage was interrupted by a disease from which the imperial physicians were unable to relieve Ferokshere. The surgeon of the embassy, Mr. Hamilton, was called in and effected a complete cure. He was desired to name his own recompense, and, with the same feeling of patriotism which had distinguished Mr. Boughton, he asked only for the concessions which the British envoys had hitherto solicited in vain. His request was granted, and thirty-four patents embracing the different objects of the memorial were issued in the Emperor's name and authenticated by the impe- rial seal. The privileges now obtained were, that a dustucTc, or pass, signed by the President should exempt the goods it covered from examination by the native officers of government ; that the mint at Moorshedabad should be employed three days in the week in coining money for the Company ; that all persons, European or native, indebted to the Company, should be made over to the President ; and that the English should be at liberty to purchase the lordship of thirty-eight towns in the vicinity of Calcutta. The embassy returned in triumph to Calcutta ; but the viceroy did not fail to perceive that this accession of territory would give them the complete command of the port and make their power formidable, and he deter- mined to defeat the grant. He sternly prohibited the zemin- dars to grant a foot of land to the Company on pain of his severe displeasure. But though the hope of enlarging their settlement was thus frustrated, the minor privileges they had acquired gave a new impulse to the prosperity of Calcutta, and the port was often crowded during the year with 10,000 tons of shipping. system of the Moorshed Koolee Khan was the greatest and viceroy. .^ e mog energetic ruler Bengal had enjoyed since the days of Shere Shah. A hundred and fifty years before this period the great financier of Akbar, raja Toder Mull, had formed a settlement of the land rent of Bengal and Behar VIII.] BHOOJAH-OOD-DEEN. 223 with the ryots, to the exclusion of all middlemen. To facili- tate the collection of the public revenue Moorshed Koolee modified this system and divided the province into chuklas, over each of which he appointed an officer to collect the rents and remit them to the treasury at Moorshedabad. It was these officers, who, in process of time, claimed zemindary rights, imperceptibly enlarged their power, and having assumed the title of raja, made their office hereditary. The viceroy, who considered a Mahomedan a sieve, which retained nothing, and a Hindoo a sponge, which might be squeezed at pleasure, employed none but Hindoos in these financial duties. This will account for the singular fact that, at the period of the battle of Plassy, all the zemindary rajas of Bengal were Hindoos, while the government itself was Mahomedan. The viceroy was stern and oppressive in matters of revenue. Defaulting zemindars were subject to torture, and some were dragged through a pond filled with insufferable ordure, which was called, hi derision, bykoont, or paradise. Before appoint- ing these fiscal officers he caused the lands to be surveyed, and fixed the assessment at 142,00,000 rupees, of which sum 109,00,000 rupees were punctually remitted to Delhi year by year. The viceroy himself accompanied this convoy of treasure the first stage out of Moorshedabad. The whole expenditure of government was covered by the remaining 33,00,000 rupees ; but so tranquil was the province that 2,000 cavalry and 4,000 infantry were found sufficient to maintain the public authority. Soojah-ood- Moorshed Koolee died in 1725, and was succeeded deen. 1725. jjy n [ g gon-in-law Soojah-ood-deen, a Turkoman, who was confirmed by the emperor hi the government of Bengal and Orissa, while that of Behar was conferred on another. He administered the government for fourteen years, and punctually remitted the annual tribute to Delhi. During these two reigns the sum abstracted from the resources of this flourishing province and squandered at the capital exceeded thirty crores of rupees. Soojah augmented his army to 25,000, and adopted a more magnificent style at bis court than his frugal father-in-law. The only event of any 224 ALl VEEDT KHAST. [CHAP. note during 1 his reign was the destruction of the Ostcncl East India Company established by the emperor of Germany at the factory of Bauky-bazar, on the Hooghly, opposite Chander- nagore. The settlement of these interlopers was regarded with feelings of intense jealousy by the Dutch, and more par ticularly by the English, who declared their intention to '' cut up the Ostender's trade by the roots and not simply to lop off the branches." One of their ships was captured by an English vessel which blockaded the Hooghly. The emperor of Ger- many was induced, by powerful remonstrances, to withdraw the charter, and a bribe of 320,000 rupees from the English and Dutch induced the viceroy to send a force against Banky- bazar, which fell after a gallant defence, and the Ostenders were chased out of Bengal. Aii verdy Khan, Soojah-ood-deen died at the period of Nadir 174 - Shah's invasion, and his son Serferaj Khan took possession of the government, and ordered the coin to be struck and prayers to be read in the name of the Persian. But on his departure, Ali verdy Khan, the governor of Behar, who owed his fortunes entirely to the deceased viceroy, con- spired against his son, and, by large douceurs and larger pro- mises to the profligate ministers of Mohamed Shah, the empe- ror of Delhi, obtained a sunnud appointing him soobadar of the three provinces. With the army he had been for some time engaged in training, he marched against Serferaj, who was killed by a musket-ball in the battle which ensued, and Ali verdy mounted the throne, for which, however, he was eminently fitted by his great talents and experience. The promises he had made were faithfully performed, and he remitted to Delhi a crore of rupees in money and seventy lacs in jewels, obtained from the estate of the deceased nabob a most welcome supply after the imperial treasury had been drained by Nadir Shah. The presence of the new viceroy was required, soon after his accession, in Orissa, where the brother-in-law of Serferaj refused obedience; but he was speedily defeated and fled to Masulipatam, Having settled the province, Ali verdy disbanded his new levies, and was Vin.] DEATH OF BAJEE RAO. 225 marching back at his leisure to Moorshedabad with a small body of troops, when he received intelligence that the Mah- rattas were rapidly advancing with 12,000 predatory horse to levy contributions in Bengal; and the difficulties of his reign began. Mahratta pro- We turn now to the proceedings of the Mah- ceedings, 1739. rattag after the departure of Nadu- Shah, It was a fortunate circumstance for India that Bajee Rao was pre- vented from taking advantage of the confusion of the times by the necessity of watching the movements of his formidable rivals, the Guickwar of Guzerat and the Bhonslay of Berar. Parsojee Bhonslay was originally a private horseman of Satara, who raised himself to notice in that age of adventure, and was entrusted with the charge of collecting the Mahratta dues in the province of Berar, where he founded the Mahratta state of Nagpore. At the period when Holkar and Sindia were only commanders in the service of the Peshwa, Roghoojee Bhonslay, who had succeeded his cousin Parsojee, was in com- mand of a powerful force of his own, with large independent resources for its support. While the Nizam was besieged, as already stated, at Bhopal, he resisted the orders of the Peshwa to join the Mahratta standard, and proceeded on a plundering expedition to the province of Allahabad. Bajee Rao resented this intrusion into his own exclusive quarry, and sent an army to ravage Berar, but it was defeated by Roghoojee. That leader was now sufficiently strong to entertain a jealousy of the ascendancy which the Peshwa had acquired in the Mah- ratta councils, and was intriguing to supplant him ; in which design he was eagerly seconded by the Guickwar. The dif- ficulties of Bajee Rao's position were relieved by his own tact. Roghoojee was persuaded to take the command of an expedition to the Carnatic, consisting of more than 50,000 troops. During his absence Bajee Rao attacked Nazir Jung the second son of the Nizam, but was repulsed with great vigour. The war was protracted for many months, chiefly to the disadvantage of the Peshwa, and both parties, wearied 1 226 MAIIRATTAS INVADE BENGAL. [CHAP. with a fruitless struggle, at length agreed to an accommoda- tion. The Peshwa, dispirited by his ill-success and over- Death of Bt,jee whelmed by his debts, started for the north, but Bao, 1740. expired on the banks of the Nerbudda on the 28th of April, 1740. During the twenty years in which he wielded the power of the Mahratta confederacy he raised it to the highest position in India, and his power was equally felt on the banks of the Coleroon and of the Jumna. The impulse and the confidence he gave to the ambition of his countrymen continued to animate them after his decease to fresh conquests, and hi the course of twenty years rendered them supreme throughout India. He left three sons Balajee Rao, Roghoo- nath Rao, afterwards the notorious Raghoba, and the illegiti- mate Shumshere Bahadoor to whom he bequeathed his pos- sessions in Bundlekund. Succeeded by Balajee Rao was placed in his father's seat, Baiajee Kao. notwithstanding the strenuous opposition of the Bhonslay, and obtained, from his feeble sovereign, a grant of Salsette, Bassein, and the districts recently wrested from the Portuguese in the Concan, as well as the exclusive right of levying contributions to the north of the Nerbudda, with the exception of Guzerat, and this brought him into direct collision with Roghoojee. While that chieftain was engaged in the Carnatic, Bhaskur pundit, who had been left to manage his principality, entered Behar with a body of 12,000 horse, and, emerging from the Ramghur lulls, spread desolation over the western districts of Bengal. Ali verdy was returning from Cuttack with a slender force when the Mahratta commander encountered him, and demanded the immediate payment of ten lacs of rupees ; and, on its being indignantly refused, enveloped the Mogul army with his horse, capturing its tents, baggage, and artillery, and reduced the viceroy to the humiliation of offering 1 the payment he had previously refused. TheMahrattas -.r i invade Bengal, But the Mahratta now raised his demand to a hun- dred lacs, and Ali verdy resolved to run eveiy risk rather than submit to the exaction. With great gallantry he Vni.'J TIIE MAHRATTA DITCH, 227 fought his way to Cutwa, where he considered himself secure from any farther attacks. The rains had by this time com- menced in Bengal and the Mahratta army prepared to return to Berar; but this resolution was opposed by Meer Hubeeb, who represented the folly of throwing away so rich a prize as Bengal without an effort. Hubeeb was a native of Sheraz, in Persia, and had been a broker at Hooghly, though unable to read and write. He entered the service of the viceroy, and by his distinguished talents and spirit of enterprize rose high in his estimation; but having been taken prisoner fey Bhaskur pundit was induced to accept service with the Mahrattas, and for eight years was the soul of their expeditions and the cause of incalculable misery to Bengal. On the pre- sent occasion he obtained a large force from Bhaskur and advancing against Moorshedabad, before AH verdy could come to the rescue, plundered the suburbs and despoiled the bank- ing-house of Jugut Sett of two crores and a half of rupees. On the appearance of Ah' verdy, Meer Hubeeb recrossed the river, and laid waste the country from Balasore to Rajmahal. He got possession of Hooghly by a stratagem. The wretched inhabitants crowded into the foreign factories, and more especially to Calcutta, for protection from this storm, and the President sought permission of the nabob to surround the The Mahratta Company's territory with an intrenchment. It ditch, 1742. wag readily conceded, and the work was commenced and prosecuted with vigour, but suspended on the retirement of the enemy. This was the celebrated Mahratta ditch, which, though it has disappeared, like the old walls of London, still continues to mark the municipal boundaries of the city, and has fixed on its citizens the sobriquet of the Inhabitants of the Ditch. Continued Mah- Before the close of the rains, Ali verdy crossed ratta invasions. ^ ne river with the army he had recruited, and the Mahratta general was eventually defeated, and obliged to evacuate the province. Roghoojee, who had returned from the Carnatic expedition, determined to support his pretensions 228 REBELLION OF MUSTAPHA. [CHAP. in Bengal, and entered the province with a large army. OH the first appearance of the Mahrattas, Ali verdy had applied for aid to the court of Delhi, and the emperor invoked the succour of the Peshwa, offering him an assignment on the Bengal treasury, and a confirmation of the grant of Malwa. Balajee Rao, with his old grudge against Roghoojee, readily accepted the offer, and marched with a large force through Allahabad and Behar to the gates of Moorshedabad, where he is said to have exacted a crore of rupees from Ali verdy as the price of his services, after which he marched against Roghoo- jee, defeated his army, and despoiled him of the plunder he had acquired. Soon after, the two Mahratta chiefs found that their views would be most effectually promoted by coming to an understanding. The Peshwa agreed to assign the right to levy contributions from Oude, Behar, Bengal, and Orissa, to Roghoojee, who agreed, on his part, not to interfere with any of the plans or acquisitions of the Pesh- wa. The next year, 1744, Roghoojee sent Bhaskur pundit to renew his ravages in Bengal, when Ali verdy inveigled him to an interview, and by an act of the basest treachery caused him to be assassinated, upon which his army dispersed. Eeheiuon of This crime did not long remain unavenged. The Mustapha, 1745. nex t year witnessed the revolt of his great gene- ral, Mustapha Khan, who had been employed to decoy the Mahratta general to the fatal conference. Mustapha was the head of the Afghan troops who formed the strength of the Bengal army, and it was chiefly to his talents and valour that Ali verdy was indebted for his elevation. The government of Behar, which had been promised him, was refused by the viceroy, and he marched into that province with an army of 8,000 horse and a large body of infantry, and, at the same time, invited the Mahrattas to invade Bengal anew. The viceroy, menaced by this double attack, manifested the ut- most vigour, though then verging on seventy, and took the field with the Afghan generals who still remained faithful to him. Mustapha was at length defeated near Jugudeshpore and slam, and his body was quartered and exposed on the Tin.] EVENTS TO THE CAKNATIC. 229 walls of Patna. The Mahrattas who were advancing to his aid, retreated on hearing of his death, but they returned the next year, and, for four successive seasons, ravaged all the districts on the right bank of the river The recollection of these devastations was not effaced for generations, and to a late period in the present century the dread of the Burgees, by which name the Mahrattas were designated, continued to haunt the natives from Balasore to Rajmahal. The viceroy, worn out by the inroads which had for ten years harassed his wretched subjects and exhausted his own treasury, was compelled, in 1751, to purchase peace by agreeing to an Peace with the annual payment of twelve lacs of rupees as the Mahrattas, 1751. C ^ OM ; o f Bengal, and the cession of the province of Orissa. The chout ceased, as a matter of course, seven years after, when British authority became paramount in Bengal ; but the province continued in the possession of the Nagpore family for half a century. The Garuatic was now to become the theatre of Events in the Camatic, 1701 great events, which exercised an important in- fluence on the destinies of India. This extensive province on the Coromandel coast, on the seaboard of which lay the English and French settlements, extended about five hundred miles from north to south, and about a hundred miles inland. After the conquest of the southern provinces by the Moguls under Aurungzebe, it was included in the soubah of the Deccan. Zulfikar Khan, with whose name the reader is familiar, when recalled from his government by the emperor, transferred his authority to Daood Khan, who drank " cordial waters and French brandy" with the governor of Madras, and Daood Khan, when summoned to take a command in the imperial army in 1710, appointed Sadutoolla to act as his deputy, and he continued to administer the government of the Carnatic for twenty-two years, to the great benefit of the people. His nephew, Dost Ali, assumed the office on his death in 1732, without seeking the sanction of his superior, the Nizam, who was, however, too deeply embroiled in his contest with Bajee Rao to resent this assumption. Dost All 230 C1IUNDA SAHIB. [CHAP. had two daughters ; one married to his nephew, Mortiz Ali, the most truculent and unprincipled prince in the Deccan, the other to Chunda Sahib, distinguished equally by his talents and his liberality. In 1736 he obtained possession of the im- pregnable fortress of Trichinopoly by treachery, siezed the surrounding country, and extinguished the independence of the reigning family. Soon after came the great Mahratta invasion, under Roghoojee Bhonslay. Dost Ali advanced to meet him, but was defeated and slain. The Mahrattas then proceeded to levy contributions in every direction, until they were bought off with the promise of a crore of rupees, to be paid by instalments by Sufdur Ali, the son of Dost Ah, who now assumed the title of nabob of the Carnatic. During this irruption Chunda Sahib placed his family, for greater security, under the protection of the French at Pondicherry, which led to important results. The popularity of Chunda Sahib had, however, Chunda Sahib. l J . . ' ' excited apprehensions in the mind of Sufdur Ah, and it was a part of his compact with the Mahrattas that they should return the next year and extinguish his power ; retaining the principality of Trichinopoly for themselves. They came down, accordingly, in 1741 and laid siege to that fort, which Chunda Sahib defended with great skill and valour for three months, but was eventually constrained to capitulate ; and as he was considered the ablest and most formidable soldier in the south, he was conveyed to Satara and placed in strict confinement. Morari Rao, the Mahratta chief of Gooty, with 14,000 men, kept possession of the fort and territory of Trichinopoly. A year after, Sufdur Ali was assassinated by Mortiz Ah, who proclaimed himself nabob ; but the friends and relatives of the murdered prince withdrew his infant son from Madras, where he had obtained shelter, and raided liim to the throne. Meanwhile the Nizam, who had returned from Delhi to the Deccan, resolved to put an end to the anarchy of the Carnatic, and moved down with an army little short of t>0,000 horse and 200,000 foot. All parties hastened to make IX.] WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND FKANCE. 231 their submission to this overwhelming 1 force, and the Nizam placed the administration of the province in the hands of one of his old and faithful servants, Anwar-ood-deen, as the guardian of the youthful son of Sufdur All, on whom he en- gaged to confer the nabobship when he came of age. The youth was soon afterwards assassinated, but founds the family Anwar-ood-deen is not chargeable with complicity of nabobs of the i n this crime, though he obtained the benefit of it. Carnatic, 1740. 3 He was placed m the vacant post, and founded the family of the nabobs of Arcot, or of the Carnatic, subse- quently so notorious in the history of British India. Sadut- oollah and his son, Dost Ali, had governed the Carnatic for thirty years with great moderation and no little advantage to the people. To them are apparently due the merit of con- structing $iose works of irrigation which diffused fertility through the district. During their reigns the country enjoyed a respite from desolation, and begun to flourish. The people, grateful for so unusual a blessing, had contracted a warm attachment to the family, while the nabob of the Nizam was considered an interloper and regarded with a proportionate feeling of antipathy. CHAPTER IX. EFFORTS OF THE FRENCH TO ESTABLISH AN EMPIRE IN INDIA. 17461761. War with WE are now entering on a series of events, France, 1744. w hich, though of little significance at the time, produced the most momentous results, and laid the founda- tion of European supremacy in India. Up to this time the French and English in India had been engaged only in the pursuits of commerce, and though they were repeatedly at war, during a period of seventy years, in Europe, there was 232 LABOURDONNAIS. [CHAP. peace between their factories, lying side by side on the same coast and the same river. But in the war which broke out in 1744, the French ministry determined to extend the conflict to the east, and fitted out an expedition for the destruction of the English factories in India. So little apprehension was entertained in those settlements, at the tune, of any hostilities which might affect their security, that the whole amount of the European force at all the Presidencies and forts did not exceed six hundred, of whom more than one-half were un- trained recruits. It was in this unexpected emergency, that the English were obliged to take up arms in the defence of their interests ; and we have now to trace the steps by which they gradually became involved hi hostilities with the native powers, by the irresistible current of circumstances and contrary to their own wishes, till they found, themselves in possession of the empire of India. Labourdonnais, who was the first to break a lance with the English in India, had embarked for the east at the early age of fourteen, and in a long succession of voyages, acquired a complete knowledge of its trade, navi- gation, and resources. His application to business was indefatigable, and his spirit of enterprize was only strength- ened by difficulties. He was a man of large views, and yet personally directed the minutest details. In 1734, he was appointed governor of the Mauritius and Bourbon, which he found a wilderness, and left flourishing colonies. On his return to Europe, seeing the nation on the eve of a war with the English, he persuaded the minister to strike a blow at their commercial prosperity in India, and the command of the armament was judiciously entrusted to him. At the same time the British ministry despatched a squadron, consisting of six men of war, to protect the settlements of the Company on the Coromandel coast. On the morning of the 26th of June, 1746, the French fleet of nine vessels under Labour- donnais, appeared off the coast, and the British commodore brought on an immediate action, which, however, terminated IX.] CAPTURE OF MADRAS. 233 without any result. The French general, impatient to plant the French flag on the ramparts of Madras, proceeded to Pon- dicherry to obtain the co-operation of the governor, Dupleix. Dupieix. He was the son of a farmer general, and was sent in his youth to India, where he embarked in an extensive trade with all the ports of the east, and acquired great wealth. Having been appointed governor of Chandernagore, he en- riched it by commerce till it became more than the rival of Calcutta, and left two thousand brick buildings as a monument of his enterprising spirit. He was a man of inordinate am- bition and egregious vanity, but at the same time of vast energy and resources. He had been employed for four years in fortifying Pondicherry, when Labourdonnais arrived with plenary powers, but instead of co-operating with him to pro- mote the common interests of the nation, a jealousy of the reputation he might acquire, induced Dupleix to thwart all his projects. But the indomitable zeal of Labourdonnais over- came every obstacle, and his fleet was rapidly equipped for a descent on Madras. On the other hand, the English squadron, sent out for the express purpose of protecting the settlements, was unaccountably withdrawn at this critical juncture, and the commodore abandoned them to their fate. _ t , Labourdonnais, finding the coast clear, lost no Capture of ' Madras time in steering for Madras. That settlement ber,n46. j^ g rown U p f rom an insignificant hamlet in 1640 to a town of 250,000 inhabitants in 1746. The territory extended about five miles along the coast, and a little more than a mile inland. After a century of peaceful commerce, undisturbed by the appearance of any enemy by land or by sea, it was ill prepared for the formidable attack now impend- ing. The fortifications, which had never been strong, were now dilapidated, and the store of ammunition was scanty. Of the 300 Europeans in the town, 200 were soldiers, and few of these had ever seen a shot fired in earnest. On the 15th of September, 1746, Labourdonnais appeared off the town with 1,100 Europeans, 400 Malagasees, and 400 sepoys, or native 234 FATE OF LABOURDONNAIS. [CHAP. soldiers, trained and disciplined by Eiiropeans, an expedient which the French were the first in India to adopt. After a bombardment of five days, during which the French did not lose a man, and the English lost only five, and that by the bursting of one of their own bombs, the town and fort were surrendered. The French commander was interdicted by his instructions from retaining any of the settlements he might capture, and he, therefore, held the town to ransom, for the sum of forty-four lacs of rupees, independently of the mer- chandize, the military and naval stores, and the money belong- ing to the Company. None of the residents were molested in person or property; and it was agreed that the town should be evacuated by the French troops in three months, and that it should not be again attacked during the war. The success and the moderation of Labourdonnais only served to inflame the animosity of Dupleix, who protested against the ransom, and declared that the town and factory ought to have been razed to the ground. Fate of Labourdonnais was reinforced in a few days by Labourdonnais. fregh arrivals from France, which raised the number of Europeans under his command to more than 3,000, a force sufficient to have crushed every English settlement in India. But they were happily saved from destruction by the spleen of Dupleix, who obstructed all the projects of Labourdonnais, and by the weather. The monsoon set in with extraordinary violence ; and, though the ships freighted with the booty of Madras escaped the typhoon, some of the largest vessels in the squadron were stranded, and the whole of the fleet was disabled. Labourdonnais was constrained to quit the coast and return to the Mauritius, and eventually to Europe. On the voyage home in a Dutch vessel he was forced iiito an English harbour, and became a prisoner of war. But his great abilities, and his generous conduct after the capture of Madras, were so highly appreciated that he was immediately liberated on his parole. Far different was his reception in his native land. The representations of the envious Dupleix, and other IX.] DEFEAT OF THfl NIZAM'S TKOOPS. 235 enemies he had made in India by his energy and patriotism, were favourably received; his great services were overlooked, and he was thrown into the Bastile, where be lingered for three years, and died of a broken heart on his liberation. On the appearance of Labourdonnais' army Defeat of native L * troops; its before Madras, the Nabob of the Carnatic, An- suit; 1749. war-ood-deen, sent an agent to Pondicherry to remonstrate on the presumption of the French in attacking a settlement in his dominions which was tinder his protection. Dupleix endeavoured to pacify him by the promise of deliver- ing the town to him when captured, that he might enrich himself by its ransom. But after its surrender, the Nabob discovered that the promise had been made only to cozen him, and he sent his son with a force of 10,000 men to drive out the French. They advanced with confidence to attack the handful of Europeans, not exceeding a thousand, whom Labourdonnais had left to protect the town. But the field- pieces of the French fired three or four tunes a minute, while the native artillery thought they did wonders by firing once in a quarter of an hour. This rapid and galling fire staggered the Nabob's troops, and the resolute advance of the French infantry took all conceit of fighting out of them. The young Nabob, mounted on a lofty elephant which carried the great standard of the Carnatic, was the first to make his escape from the field, and he was followed by the whole army. This dastardly flight of ten thousand Indians before a ningle battalion of Europeans, is a memorable event hi the history of India. It dissolved at once and for ever the spell which had hitherto kept Europeans in dread of native armies. It demonstrated their inherent weakness, however strong in numbers, and it gave the English that confidence in their own valour and strategy which contributed more than anything else to the successive subversion of the native thrones. On the departure of Labourdonnais, Dupleix abandons the made no scruple to annul the treaty and confiscate iisn,i<49. ^ ^ property, private and public, found, in 236 THE NIZAM ABANDONS THE ENGLISH. [CHAP. Madras. The governor and the principal inhabitants were declared prisoners of war and marched down to Pondicherry, where, under pretence of doing them honour, they were marched through the streets, amidst the jeers of fifty thousand spectators. Dupleix followed up this act of bad faith by laying siege to Fort St. David, another settlement of the Company on the Coast, about a hundred miles south of Madras, which was at the time defended only by 200 European troops. The English chief solicited the aid of the Nabob of the Carnatic, who was smarting under the disgrace inflicted on his son at Madras, and readily advanced with a large force. A French detachment was unexpectedly attacked by the Nabob's general, and seized with a panic, and retired in disorder to Pondicherry with considerable loss. Dupleix who had a thorough knowledge of the native character, now set himself to detach the Nabob from the English alliance. The singular departure of the English fleet in the preceding year, and the arrival of four French vessels with reinforce- ments, enabled him to decry the one, and to extol the resources of the other. An Asiatic prince never considers himself bound by any principle of honour, or even consistency ; his own supposed advantage is the only rule of his conduct, and he changes sides without the smallest scruple. Dupleix suc- ceeded in persuading the Nabob that the English were the weaker party, and the Nabob did not hesitate for a moment to abandon them. His son was accordingly sent to Pondi- cherry to form an alliance with Dupleix, by whom he was received with the greatest ostentation, and loaded with presents. The French now advanced against St. David a second time with a greater force, but a large fleet was de- scried in the offing, which proved to be an English armament, and the besiegers retreated rapidly to Pondicherry. This armament, which had been despatched from of Poneucheriy, England for the defence of the Company's settle- 1748 ments, under the command of Admiral Boscawen, arrived off Fort St. David on the 9th of August, and was IX.] SIEGE OF PONDICHERRY. 237 immediately joined by the vessels of Admiral Griffin. The junction of the two squadrons formed the largest maritime force which had ever been seen in the eastern seas. It con- sisted of more than thirty vessels, none of which were of less than 500 tons, and thirteen of them men of war of the line. The English troops now on the oast comprised in all 3,720 Europeans, 300 topasses, and 2,000 sepoys, equal to any enterprise. The Nabob still changing sides as the power of the English or the French appeared to predominate, promised the aid of a body of his troops. Every bosom was beating with the hope that the loss of Madras would be avenged by the capture of Pondicherry ; but the English were subjected to a bitter disappointment The army began its march to that settlement on the 8th of August, and the siege was prosecuted for fifty days, but, notwithstanding the valour of the officers and men, it was at length disgracefully raised, after more than a thousand European lives had been sacrificed. Seldom, if ever, has any siege in India exhibited more egre- gious blunders on the part of the commanders. Dupleix announced the abandonment of the siege as a magnificent triumph of the French arms, to all the various princes of India, not forgetting even the great Mogul, and he received from all quarters the most flattering compliments on his own ability, and the valour of his nation. For the time, the French were regarded as the greatest European power in the Deccan, and the English, who had not only lost theu: own settlement, but failed to capture that of their rivals, sunk into contempt. Seven days after the retirement of the English force, informa- tion was received of the suspension of hostilities in Europe, which ended in the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, and Madras was restored to the East India Company. Effects of this ^h* 8 war ' f k'ttle more than two years' duration, two years- war opens a new era in the politics of India. In 1746, neither the English nor the French were viewed by the native rulers in any other light than as inoffensive traders. By the end of 1748, they had come out as great military powers 238 EXPEDITION TO DEVI-COTTA. [ciIAP. whose alliance or opposition was an object of importance to the princes of the country It might have been expected that on the return of peace both parties would lay aside their armour, and return to the counting-house. But as the eloquent historian of these transactions, who was at the time at Madras, observes, " The war had brought to Pondicherry and Fort St. David, a number of troops greatly superior to any which either of the two nations had assembled in India, and as if it was impossible that a military force which feels itself capable of enterprises should refrain from attempting them, the two settlements, no longer authorised to fight with each other, took the resolution of employing their arms in the contests of the princes of the country ; the English with great indiscretion, the French with the utmost ambition." Expedition to The English were the first to take the field. Devi-cotta, 1749. The little principality of Tanjore, seventy miles long and sixty hi breadth, with the history of which the reader is already acquainted, was at this time governed by Pretap Sing, the fifth in succession from the Mahratta chief- tain who had conquered it. His brother, Sahoojee, who had been deposed for his imbecility, applied to the governor of Madras to reseat him on the throne, engaging to defray all the expenses of the expedition and to cede the town and district of Devi-cotta, at the mouth of the Coleroon. The English had no right to interfere in this foreign quarrel, but their troops were unemployed, and the opportunity was very tempting. Tnis forms, perhaps, the only instance during a century of warfare of an expedition undertaken by them without any plea of necessity The force which was sent to conquer Tanjore consisted of 430 Europeans and 1,000 sepoys, with eight field pieces and mortars, under the command of Major Stringer Lawrence, the first of that long train of heroes who have rendered the British name illustrious on the plains of Hindostan. The commencement of the siege was inau- spicious. The typhoon which ushered in the monsoon, sunk some of the largest of the ships, and inflicted such destruction IX.] THE AMBITIOUS DESIGNS OF DUPLEIX. 230 on the army as to oblige the Major to retire to Porto Novo to refit. It would be tedious to follow the varied events of the siege, which was our first and most clumsy attempt to take an Indian fort, and which derives its chief interest from the circumstance that it afforded the first opportunity for develop- ing the genius of Clive. The fort was captured after two unsuccessful attacks ; but it had now become manifest to the Madras Presidency that the cause of our protegee was un- popular and hopeless. The raja of Tanjore, menaced by Chunda Sahib, offered to defray all the expenses incurred by the Com- pany in war, to cede Devi-cotta with the district around it, and to grant a pension of 50,000 rupees a year to his disinherited brother. These terms were accepted, and the troops returned to Madras. Dupieix's amw- While the English army was thus wasting its tious designs, strength on the walls of Devi-cotta, Dupleix was playing a higher game. He had seen a thousand European troops disperse an army of ten thousand native soldiers like a flock of sheep, and he had received the congratulations of the native princes on the success of his arms. He had at his disposal an army capable of any enterprise, and, in Bussy, a general fit to command it. He determined, therefore, to take advantage of the confusion of the times, and the prestige he had acquire*?, to set up a French empire in the Deccan. Chunda Sahib was considered by the natives of the Carnatic, the ablest soldier in the country, and the only man who could deliver them from the yoke of the hated Anwar-ood-deen, and Dupleix at once perceived how greatly his ambitious projects would be forwarded if Chunda Sahib were placed on the throne of the Carnatic by his instrumentality. He accordingly opened a correspondence with that prince, who had been a prisoner for eight years at Satara, through the medium of his wife who was residing at Pondicherry under the protection of the French government. After much negotiation Dupleix succeeded in obtaining the liberation of Chunda Sahib by the payment of seven lacs of rupees, and he appeared on the 240 DEATH OF THE NIZAM. [CHAP. confines of the Carnatic with 6,000 troops whom he had en- listed, when the death of the old Nizam, at Hyderabad, gave a new turn to public affairs. Death of the Towards the end of 1748 Nizam-ool-moolk, the Nuam, 1748. gO obadar of the Deccan, the great founder of the kingdom of Hyderabad, closed his long and eventful career at the age of a hundred and four. His eldest son, Ghazee-ood- deen, was at the time high in office at Delhi. His second son, Nazir Jung, who was with his father at the period of his de- cease and in command of the army, immediately seized the public treasure and the supreme authority, giving out that his elder brother had resigned the office of soobadar to him. But there was a grandson of the old Nizam whom he had cherished with great affection, and who now aspired to this honour. He affirmed that it had been conferred on him by the emperor himself, with the title of Mozuffer Jung, and he as- sembled an army of 25,000 men with which he hovered on the west of Golconda, watching the opportunity of action. Chunda Sahib, hearing of the position and designs of the young prince, immediately offered him the service of his sword. He was received in the camp with open arms, and his troops were at once taken into the pay of Mozuffer, who was per- suaded to appoint him Nabob of the Carnatic, and to march, in the first instance, to the conquest of that province, on the ground that its resources would be invaluable in the struggle with Nazir Jung. A communication was at the same time made to Dupleix, inviting him to join the confederacy, and offering him great advantages for the French Company. The proposal, if it did not originate with Dupleix, was most accep- table to hun, and a contingent of 400 Europeans and 2,000 sepoys was immediately sent to join the confederates. Their united force, swelled in its progress to 40,000 men, entered the Carnatic and began to levy contributions. The Nabob, Anwar-ood-deen, advanced to repel the invasion with a force of only half that number, and a battle was fought in July, 1749, at Amboor, fifty miles from Arcot, which decided the fate of IX.] CONSEQUENT COMMOTIONS IN THE DECCAN. 241 the Carnatic. The army of the Nabob was completely routed, chiefly through the valour of Bussy's troops ; the Nabob him- self was shot dead in the action, and his son, Mahomed Ali, fled to Trichinopoly, where the family and the treasures of the deceased Nabob bad been deposited. Mozuffer Jung marched the next day to Arcot. The English aid J Mahomed AH, and assumed the state and dignity of soobadar of the Deccan, conferring the government of the Carnatic on Chunda Sahib. From thence they proceeded together to Pondicherry, where Dupleix received them with all the oriental ceremonies due to the rank they had assumed, and was rewarded by the grant of eighty-one villages. Mahomed Ali, on his arrival at Trichinopoly, came to the conclusion that it could not be successfully defended against the victorious army of Chunda Sahib, backed by his French allies, although it was one of the strongest and most import- ant fortresses in the south. He sent, therefore, to implore the assistance of the English governor of Madras, who was, however, without any instructions for such an emergency. The Madras Council had bitterly repented of their wild expedition to Devi-cotta, and were anxious not to involve their masters again in the risk of alliances and disputes with the native powers. At the same time, they could not shut their eyes to the danger arising from the ambitious schemes of Dupleix, and the ascendancy he was acquiring in the Carnatic But they were incapable of that resolution which the crisis demanded, and they aided Mahomed Ali only with the contemptible force of 120 men, while by an act of incredible fatuity they sent back the fleet with the greater part of the land forces to England. Dupleix urged Chunda Sahib to lose no time in marching against Trichinopoly, where the adherents of the deceased Nabob were maturing their plans, and he placed 800 French troops at his disposal. But Chunda Sahib had an old quarrel to settle with the raja of Tan j ore, and was resolved to exact a heavy contribution from him. He immediately marched against that town, and. 242 DEFKAT OF MOZUFFEB JUNO. [CHAP. after two months had been wasted in the siege, the raja engaged to pay down seventy lacs of rupees to the allies, and to cede more than eighty villages to the French, around their settlement at Carical, With the view of gaining time, he doled out the money in driblets, but before the first instalment had been counted down, Dupleix informed the allies that Nazir Jung was approaching the Carnatic with an overwhelming force ; upon which they broke up their encampment in dismay, and retired to the vicinity of Pondicherry. The army with which Nazir Jung entered the Jung Carnatic to drive out the two adventurers did not and Chunda f a u gh^ O f 300,000 men, one-half of whom con- Sahib, 1749. sisted of cavalry, and a tenth of mercenary Mahrattas, with 800 guns and 1,300 elephants. He sum- moned to his standard all the tributaries of Hyderabad, and, among others, the Patan nabobs of Cuddapah, Kurnool, and Savanore. Their ancestors had held those districts under the crowns of Beejapore and of Golconda, and they themselves were at the head of the Patans, who were constantly streaming down from Afghanistan to seek employment and plunder in India. The encampment of Nazir Jung was esta- blished at Valdore, about fifteen miles from Pondicherry, and the Governor of Madras sent an English force of GOO Europeans to join it under Major Lawrence. Dupleix, on hia part, augmented the French contingent with Mozuffer Jung and Chunda Sahib to 2,000 European bayonets. But on the eve of the day fixed for battle, thirteen French officers, who were dissatisfied with their share of the treasure obtained from the raja of Tanjore, basely deserted their colours and returned to Pondicherry. The soldiers were panic struck, and followed their example. Chunda Sahib fought his way back gallantly to the French settlement, but Mozuffer Jung surrendered himself to his uncle, who took an oath to protect him, and then placed him in captivity. Dupieix's skilful The ambitious schemes of Dupleix were inter- IX.] DEA.TH OP NAZIR JUNG. 213 movements, rupted by this reverse, but he showed himself as 1749. great an adept in oriental intrigue as if he had been bred a Mahomedan courtier. He immediately opened a negotiation with Nazir Jung, and was allowed to send an envoy to his camp, who had thus an opportunity of ascertain- ing the precise position of affairs. Though the mission of his emissary was not successful, he discovered that the three Patan nabobs mentioned above were dissatisfied with the proceedings of the Nizam, and ready to revolt. Dupleix established a correspondence with them, and, with the view of securing their confidence and intimidating the Nizam, sent an expedition to Masulipatam, and captured the fort; attacked the camp of Mahomed Ali, and, after a prodigous slaughter, constrained him to fly with only one or two attendants, and then seized on Ginjee, the stronghold of the south, the siege of which had detained Zulfikar Khan nine years. These daring exploits at length roused Nazir Jung from the voluptuous sloth in which he was buried at Arcot, and induced him to send two of his officers to renew the negotiations with Dupleix. But Dupleix, seeing the game in his own hands, rose in his demands, and required the liberation of Mozuffer Jung and the restoration of his estates, together with the acknowledgment of Chunda Sahib as Nabob of the Camatic, and the cession of Masulipatam and its dependencies to the French. Nazir Jung, indignant at these audacious pro- Nazir Jung at- r tacked and posals, instantly ordered his army to march against kmed, 1749. the Frenc^ Though it had been reduced in num- ber by the dismissal of many detachments, fifteen days were occupied in marching a distance of only thirty miles. Scarcity and disease began to thin its ranks, and the Nabob, weary of a war in which he had wasted a twelvemonth to no purpose, conceded all the demands of Dupleix, and they were embodied in a treaty. But Dupleix had been for seven months in correspondence with the discontented nabobs, and on the R2 244 MOZUFFER JUNG BECOMES NIZAM. [CHAP. maturity of the scheme, had ordered his commandant at Ginjee to proceed against the camp of Nazir Jung, as soon as he received a requisition from them. Their summons unfor- tunately reached him before the ratification of the treaty, in total ignorance of which, he marched on the 4th of December, 1749, towards the Nizam's camp, with 800 Europeans and 3,000 sepoys. After a long and fatiguing march of sixteen miles, he came in sight of it as it stretched over an area of eighteen miles, and immediately commenced the attack. His small force was repeatedly charged by different divisions of the enemy, but his field-pieces shattered their ranks, and by mid-day half their army was in flight. Nazir Jung could not credit the report, that the French with whom he had just concluded a treaty were engaged in attacking his troops ; but when he was assured of the fact, he rode up with indig- nant haste to the three nabobs, who were marching to join the French, and singling out the Nabob of Cuddapah, re- proached him with his cowardice and treachery- The Nabob lodged two balls in the heart of his unfortunate master, and having caused his head to be struck off, hastened to present it to Mozuffer Jung. Mozuffer Jung was immediately released from Mozuffer Jung becomes Nizam, confinement, and saluted Soobadar of the Deccan. "Never," remarks the great historian of this period, " since the days of Cortez and Pizarro, did so small a force decide the fate of so large a sovereignty." The new Nizam proceeded to Pondicherry, and was welcomed with a grand display of eastern pomp. The day following his arrival he was installed as Soobadar, and Dupleix, arrayed in the gorgeous robes of a Mahomedan omra, appeared as the chief actor in the pageant. Chunda Sahib was declared Nabob of the Carnatic, and Dupleix was nominated governor on the part of the Mogul, of all the country lying south of the Kistna. Thus had this daring politician, in the brief space of twenty months, outrun even his own large scheme of ambition. He had not only created a Nabob of the Carnatic, but even a IX.] MOZUFFER JUNG MURDERED. 245 Viceroy of the Deccan, and had obtained the supreme control of a kingdom larger than France. Death of Mozuf- But Mozuffer Jung was not to enjoy this dig- fer Jung, 1751. n jty long. After having made a profuse distribu- tion of the treasures of Nazir Jung, amounting to two crores of rupees among his partisans, he left Pondicherry on his return to Hyderabad on the 4th of January, 1751, accom- panied by a French force of 300 Europeans and 2,000 sepoys, under the command of Bussy. He had not proceeded more than sixty leagues, when the three Patan nabobs, who were dissatisfied with the rewards they had received on the occasion of his elevation, broke into open rebellion. Bussy 's force was immediately called forth, and his artillery swept down their battalions; the treacherous Nabob of Savanore was hacked to pieces, and the revolt was quenched in the blood of those who had excited it. But the irritated Nizam, rejecting the sound advice of Bussy, insisted on the pursuit of the fugitives, and was struck dead by the javelin of the nabob of Kurnool, who was in his turn slam in the conflict. The whole camp was thrown into the greatest confusion by this unexpected event, but Bussy never lost his presence of mind. He assembled the bewildered generals and ministers, and, such was the influence he had acquired, that he induced them to confer the vacant dignity on Salabut Jung, the third son of the old Nizam, who was then a prisoner in the camp. Tranquillity was immediately restored, and the army resumed its progress. Leaving it now to pursue its march to the north, we turn to the movements of Chtmda Sahib. Chunda Sahib proceeded from Pondicherry with i. 8 ' 000 of ms own tr( > P 8 and 80 French auxiliaries to Arcot, in February, 1751, to receive homage as Nabob of the Carnatic, and then advanced to the siege of Trichinopoly. Mr. Saunders, now Governor of Madras, felt that a great error had been committed in permitting Dupleix to obtain such a footing in the south, and he resolved to counteract his schemes by a more decisive support of the 216 RISE OF CLIVE. [CHAP. cause of Mahomed Ali. A large detachment was accordingly sent to the relief of the small English garrison cooped up in the fort of Trichinopoly, but the troops of our ally scarcely exceeded a tenth of those assembled under the banner of Chunda Sahib. Captain Clive, who accompanied the reinforce- ment, returned to Madras and urged on the Governor the im- portance of creating a diversion, and suggested an expedition to Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic. Clive, the founder of the British empire in India, had gone out to Career of Clive. . f . ' Madras in the civil service of the East India Com- pany in 1744, and was present at the surrender of that town to Labourdonnais, two years after. Following the bent of his genius, he exchanged the pen for the sword, and obtained an ensign's commission. He distinguished himself in the operations before Devi-cotta, where he attracted the ad- miration of Major Lawrence. He was also at the abortive and disastrous siege of Pondicherry under admiral Boscawen. Mr. Saunders adopted his advice, and confided the Arcot ex- pedition to his charge, though he was only twenty-six years of age at the time. The only force that could be spared from Madras consisted of 200 Europeans, and 300 sepoys, and eight field pieces. Of the eight officers who accompanied it one- half were civilians, attracted to the expedition by the example of Clive, and six of them had never been in action. But Clive had seen from the rnm parts of Madras a mere handful of Europeans defeat aud disperse ten thousand native soldiers ; and he had confidence in his own powers. During the march of the troops they were overtaken by a violent storm of thun- der, lightning, and rain ; but they continued their progress with the utmost coolness, and this circumstance impressed the superstitious garrison with so exalted an idea of their prowess, that they were allowed to enter the fort without opposition. The expedition produced the desired effect; Chunda Sahib was obliged to detach a large force to Arcot, and the pres- sure on the English garrison at Trichinopoly was alle- viated. El/] SIEGE OP AJICOT. 247 The fort of Arcot was more than a mile in cir- by cuve, 1751. cumference, with a low and lightly-built parapet ; several of the towers were decayed, and the ditch, where not fordable, was dry and choked up. From the day of its occupation, Olive had been incessantly employed in re- pairing the defences, but the place seemed little capable of standing a siege. Of his eight officers, one had been killed and two wounded in successive encounters with the enemy, and a fourth had returned to Madras. The troops fit for duty had been reduced by casualties and disease to 120 Europeans and 200 sepoys, and it was with this small body that Clive sustained, for seven weeks, the incessant assaults of 10,000 native troops and 150 Europeans. On the last day of the siege the enemy endeavoured to storm the fort, but, during a conflict which lasted more than eighteen hours, they were repulsed on every point, and the next morning were seen to break up their encampment and retire. " Thus ended this tne Court of Directors wrote to the President in Calcutta : " On the 4th of June, we heard of the melancholy news of the loss of Fort William and the rest of our settlements in Bengal. On the 22nd day of July, Mr. Holwell arrived on the Siren, and gave a most agreeable turn to our thoughts by bringing advice of the recapture of Fort William." A few months after, they heard of the battle of Piassy, and the great revolution which had been effected by their troops. That victory more than realised the expec- tations which the Court had entertained seventy years ago, when they sent out Admiral Nicholson to make them "a nation in India." It had laid the foundation of a great empire. Yet so little conception had the Court of the high destiny which was opening before them that their chief source of gratification was derived from the hope that their servants in Bengal would now be able to provide the invest- ment for two years without drawing on them. The first object of Meer Jaffier, after his eleva- Clive quells J three reroitt, tion, was to plunder the Hindoo minister of finance, Roy-doorlub, and the officers who had amassed wealth in the governments conferred on them by Ali verdy. These proceedings provoked no fewer than three revolts within three months, in Behar, Purneah, and Midna- pore. But they were quelled without bloodshed, by the mere exercise of Clive's influence, to whom the whole country looked up as to a demigod. The ascendancy which he' thus acquired, though inseparable from his position and his genius, could not fail to lessen the importance of the Nabob, and to irritate his mind, while it gave umbrage to his family and his officers. They could not forget that it was only two years since the foreigners, who now bore the supremacy in Bengal, 3T.] EXPEDITION TO THE COAST. 283 had approached them as suppliants, with gifts and flatteries ; and it required the most delicate management on the part of Clive to prevent the explosion of their discontent. A. few months after the battle of Plassy, a Mahratta envoy arrived at Moorshedabad to demand the arrears of ckout now due for two years, but he soon found that the days of chout had ceased with the advent of the English. Expedition to ^ ne Court ^ Directors, on hearing of the great the coast, Sep- victory of Plassy, placed the government of Cal- tember, 1758. . , , * c m- j 11. cutta m the hands of Clive, and he was anxious to afford substantial relief to Madras, now menaced by Lally ; but the presence of a formidable French force on the confines of Orissa, and of Law with 200 Europeans on the borders of Behar, combined with the growing alienation of the Nabob, made it impolitic to weaken Bengal. The number of European troops at Madras was, moreover, twice as large as the number at the disposal of Clive, and, above all, that settlement had Lawrence for its military commander, which Clive considered an ample guarantee of its safety. He, therefore, supplied it most liberally with funds from his own full treasury, and took steps to remove one cause of disquietude by an attack on the French possessions in the Northern Sircars, now no longer protected by the genius of Bussy. He entrusted the expe- dition to Colonel Forde, one of the great soldiers created by the long-continued wars on the Coast. Clive had begun to enlist the Rajpoots, and was enabled to send 2,000 sepoys with Forde, in addition to 500 Europeans and 14 guns. That officer landed at Vizagapatam, and, after defeating Bussy's feeble successor, the Marquis of Conflans, formed the bold design of laying siege to Masulipatam, the great strong- hold of the French on the coast, though it was garrisoned by a larger force than that of the besiegers. Conflans solicited the immediate aid of the Nizam, Salabut Jung, who marched down to the coast with a large army in support of his friends. Forde, however, pushed the siege with such skill and energy as to oblige the French general to capitulate before the 284 ALI GOHUR INVADES BEHAR. [CHAP. arrival of the auxiliary force. The Nizam was thunderstruck at this early and unexpected surrender, and lost no time in changing sides, and courting the victor. A treaty was speedily concluded, by which Salabut Jung ceded Ma- sulipatam and eight districts around it to the English, and engaged to exclude the French from his dominions. This brilliant exploit raised the reputation of the English as high in the Deccan as it stood hi Bengal, and entirely deprived the French of the resources of the Northern Sircars. AH r,ohur While the troops were thus employed on the invades Behar, coast their presence was urgently required in Bengal. The emperor at Delhi was a mere puppet in the hands of his unprincipled vizier, from whose thraldrom the heir apparent, Mahomed Ali Gohur, had contrived to make his escape, not without his father's connivance. India, at this time, abounded with military adventurers ready for any service, and the name of the emperor was sufficient to attract crowds to the standard of his son. The Soobadar of Oude was likewise anxious to turn the unsettled state of Bengal to his own profit, and joined the camp of the prince with a large force, and induced him, in the first instance, to invade the province of Behar. An army of 40,000 men now suddenly appeared before Patna, the provincial capital, which Ram- narayun, the Hindoo governor, defended with great valour for twelve days. Meer Jaffier was thrown into a fever of anxiety by this invasion, and importuned Olive to hasten to the rescue. On his march towards Patna, Olive received repeated letters from Ali Gohur, offering him province after province for his assistance, but he handed them to the Nabob, who had like*- wise received letters from the emperor, written under the dictation of the vizier, and commanding him to seize his rebel- lious son, and chastise his adherents. Olive's advanced guard appeared in sight of the city on the 4th of April, and the Prince instantly raised the siege and endeavoured to escape from the province faster than he had entered it. As a matter of course, the Nabob of Oude deserted him on the first X.] FIGHT BETWEEN THE DUTCH AND ENGLISH. 285 appearance of adversity, and he was reduced to such straits during his flight as to throw himself on the compassion of Clive, who sent him 500 gold mohurs to relieve his necessities. Conflict with Scarcely had this cloud blown over than another the Dutch, 1789 gathered on the horizon. The Nabob, fretting under the supremacy of Clive and the restraints it imposed on him, cast about for some means of counterbalancing it, and hit on the device of inviting the Dutch to introduce a large European force into their settlement at Chinsurah. The Dutch government at Batavia appear to have viewed the prosperity of the English in India with no small feeling of envy, and eagerly embraced the proposition, hoping to fish up some prize in the troubled waters of Bengal. They accord- ingly dispatched a fleet of seven vessels to the Hooghly, with 700 Europeans and 800 well-trained Malay sepoys. Clive would tolerate no European rival in Bengal ; and, on hearing of the arrival of the expedition, blocked up the river and took measures to prevent the junction of this force with that already cantoned at Chinsurah. The two nations were at peace in Europe ; but, according to the established practice, this did not impede their waging war with each other in India. Even if Clive had felt any delicacy on the subject it was removed by the aggressive movement of the Dutch com- mander, who seized upon some of the British vessels, hauled down their colours, and transferred their guns and stores to his own ships. Clive retaliated by sequestering the vessels which had arrived from Batavia, and sending Colonel Porde, who had returned from the coast, with all the troops available to intercept the progress of the Batavian force. Forde, dread- ing the responsibility of attacking the troops of a friendly power, requested a written order from Clive. He was sitting at cards when the letter was put into his hands, and without rising, wrote on one of the cards with his pencil, " Dear Forde, fight them immediately, I will send you the Order in Council to-morrow." That officer hesitated no longer, but advanced to meet the Dutch army, which he came up with 286 FRESH INVASION OF INDIA BY AHMED SHAH. [CHAP. just as it arrived within sight of Chinsurah, and defeated in half an hour. Immediately after the action, the Nabob's son, Meerun, appeared with an army of 7,000 men, who were destined to turn on the English if the fortune of the day had been different. Clive restored the vessels he had taken to the Butch authorities, on their engaging to make good all the expense incurred in defeating their plans, and embarked fo- England on the 25th of February, 1760. Ahmed shah ^ e now resume t^ e thread of Mahratta and and the Mahrat- Mogul affairs. Ahmed Shah Abdalee returned to Persia hi June, 1757, leaving his son, Timur, in charge of the Punjab, and Nujeeb-ood-dowlah in command at Delhi, to protect the emperor from the designs of Ghazee-ood- deen. That profligate minister called the Mahrattas to his aid, and Raghoba, the fighting brother of the Peshwa, marched up to Delhi, and captured it after a month's siege. Nujeeb retreated to Rohilcund, and Ghazee-ood-deen was re- instated in the office of vizier. Soon after the capture of the capital by Raghoba, one Adina-beg, a veteran intriguer in the Punjab, invited him to seize on that province, as well as Mool- tan, and annex them to the Mahratta dominions. He marched to Lahore, hi May, 1758; the Abdalees were totally routed; Prince Timur retreated to Persia ; and the Mahratta standard was planted, for the first time, on the banks of the Indus. Raghoba then returned to the Deccan, but with more glory than money ; and, instead of the loads of booty which usually marked the return of the Mahratta expeditions, brought back a load of obligations little short of a crore of rupees. This disappointment gave rise to a serious altercation with Suda- seeb Rao Bhao, the cousin and civil administrator of the Peshwa. "Then take charge of the next expedition yourself," was the tart reply of Raghoba. The Peshwa took him at his word, and compromised the differences between them by trans- ferring the command of the army to Sudaseeb, generally known as the Bhao, and placing his brother at the head of the civil department. X.J THE MAHRATTA POWER AT ITS ZENITH. 287 Territory wrest- The Peshwa had been, for some time, engaged ed from Saiabut in intrigues for the acquisition of Ahmednugur, the most important city south of the Nerbudda, and, at length, obtained possession of it by an act of base treachery. This aggression brought on hostilities with Saiabut Jung and his brother, Nizam Ali, who had been recently re- conciled to him. The master-spirit of Bussy no longer ani- mated the councils or the army of the Nizam. Ibrahim Khan Gardee, one of the ablest native generals of the time, who was in command of the sepoy battalions trained by Bussy, and a powerful and well served artillery, had been dismissed from the service. He immediately transferred his sword to the Peshwa, and, in the conflict now raging, contributed, in no small degree, to reduce Saiabut Jung and his brother to such straits, that they were constrained to submit to the most humiliating conditions as the price of safety. A treaty was wrung from them, which conceded to the Mahrattas five of the most important fortresses in the Deccan, and some of its most flourishing districts, yielding a revenue of not less than sixty lacs of rupees a year. The Mahrattas had now reached Power of the the zenith of their power. Their authority was Mahrattas, 1759. equally acknowledged on the banks of the Cavery and the Indus. All the territory within these limits, which was not their own, paid them tribute. The vast resources of the Mahratta community were guided by one head and directed to one object the aggrandisement of the nation, and they now talked proudly of establishing Hindoo sove- reignty over the whole of Hindostan. The only hope of pre- serving the countiy from subjection to this power, of which, tyranny, rapine, and destruction were the constant attendants, now rested on the arms of a foreign potentate Ahmed Shah Abdalee. Fourth invasion ^ a ghoba had left Mulhar Eao Holkar and Data- of Ahmed Shah, jee Sindia to extort contributions from the Rajpoot princes, and to maintain the conquests he had made in the Punjab. At the instigation of Ghazee-ood-deen, 288 MURDER OF THE EMPEROR. [cHAPi Sindia sent his officers to invade Rohilcund, and in the course of a month they laid waste thirteen hundred villages in that flourishing province. The ulterior object of the vizier and of the Mahrattas was the possession of Oude, and as the Nabob dreaded them more than he hated the Rohillas, he entered into a treaty with Hafiz Ruhmut, the bravest of their chiefs, and, in conjunction with Nujeeb-ood-dowlah drove Sindia across the Ganges with great slaughter. Just at this juncture both parties were astounded by the intelligence that Ahmed Shah was entering India with a grand army to recover and extend his conquests. The remembrance of the sack of Delhi by his troops gave a portentous character to this, his fourth invasion ; and the Nabob and the Mahratta were in- duced, by a common alarm, to patch up an accommodation. The Abdalee crossed the Indus in September, 1759, and marched direct to Lahore. During his advance, the vizier, who had deprived his former master of sight, dreading the intercourse of the emperor with Ahmed Shah, on whom he felt that he had inflicted inexpiable injury, gave Murder of the , , emperor, Alum- orders for his assassination, and placed some geer, NOT., i<59. un ] cnown youth on the throne, who was howevei never acknowledged. The two Mahratta chiefs, supported by their allies, the Jauts, advanced to encounter Ahmed Shah, but they were in two divisions, widely separated from each other, Defeat of Sindia ' J and Hoikar; and he resolved to attack them before they could form a junction. The army of Sindia was sur- prised, and two-thirds of the troops, including the general, slaughtered. Hoikar made all haste to retreat, and might have escaped, but he could not resist the temptation of turn- ing out of his way to plunder a rich convoy, of which he had received intimation. Ahmed Shah overtook him by forced inarches of extraordinary length, and routed him with great carnage. Of these reverses the Peshwa received information, immediately after he and his cousin had succeeded in wresting the forts and districts already mentioned from Salabut. The X.] THE GREAT MAHRATTA FORCK. 289 Bhao, flushed with his recent success, entreated the Peshwa to allow him to proceed to Upper India, and restore the repu- tation of the Mahratta arms, and expel the Abdalees from the country. In an evil hour permission was granted, for though personally brave and resolute, he was rash and arrogant, and filled with an overweening conceit of his own abilities, which were unequal to the great expedition on which the fortunes of the Mahratta nation were about to be staked. The Mahratta "^ ne arrnv which now proceeded against Ahmed army. Shah was the largest and best equipped with which the Mahrattas had ever taken the field. It resembled rather the gorgeous array with which Aurungzebe had crossed the Nerbudda eighty years before than that of the humble and hardy mountaineers who had baffled him. The spacious and lofty tents of the chiefs were lined with silk and bro- cades, and surmounted with gilded ornaments. The finest horses, richly caparisoned, together with a long train of elephants, accompanied the army. The wealth which half a century of plunder had accumulated was exhibited in all its splendour. The officers, dressed in cloth of gold, vied with each other in profuse and prodigal display. The military chest was laden with two crores of rupees. Every commander throughout the Mahratta commonwealth was required to join the Bhao, and the whole of the Mahratta chivalry marched under the national standard. The Rajpoot chiefs contributed their cavalry brigades ; the Pindarrees, who now appear for the first tune in history, swarmed to the conflict, and Sooruj Mull, the Jaut chieftain, brought up a contingent of 30,000 men. The entire force did not fall short of 270,000. It was the grand struggle of Hindoo and Mahomedan for the sovereignty of India. Arrogance of ^ ne experienced old Jaut did not fail to perceive the Bhao. that the unwieldy masses of the Bhao, encum- bered with artillery and other accessories unsuited to their national mode of warfare, were ill calculated for such a campaign. He strongly advised that the guns and the u 290 MOGULS AND MAHEATTAS AT PANIPUT. [CHAP. infantry should be left in his forts, and that the army should revert to the old system of warfare, and harass the enemy with incessant attacks and cut off his supplies, till the hot season obliged the Abdalee to withdraw his troops to a more congenial climate beyond the Indus. But this sage advice, though supported by the ablest of the Mahratta generals, was rejected with scorn by the Bhao. The city of Delhi was occupied almost without a straggle, and he was with difficulty dissuaded from proclaiming Wiswas Eao, the eldest son of the Peshwa, Emperor of India. But, in a spirit of wanton barbarity, he destroyed the monuments of art which even Nadir Shah had spared. Disgusted with these acts, and not less with the overbearing conduct of the Bhao, the Rajpoots and the Jauts withdrew from his army. Ahmed Shah was cordially supported by the the V Mahra.ttas Rohillas, and with less zeal by the Nabob of is, Qude. His regular army consisted of 38,000 foot and 41,800 horse, with seventy pieces of artillery. His irregular force was computed to be equally strong. After a variety of manoeuvres the two armies con- fronted each other on the field of Paniput, where for the third time the fate of India was to be decided. The Bhao entrenched himself behind a ditch, forty feet wide and twelve feet deep. Ahmed Shah fortified his camp with felled trees. Numerous encounters took place from time to time between different detachments without any decisive result. The Rohillas and the Nabob of Oude were impatient to be led at once against the enemy, but the wary and experienced Ab- dalee prudently determined to wait the certain progress of famine in their encampment. The resources of the Mahrattas were gradually exhausted ; their foraging parties were con- stantly driven back, and starvation stared them in the face, while the stench from the dead bodies of men and animals within the narrow limits of the camp became at length insupportable. Unable any longer to bear these privations and evils, men and officers equally demanded, in a voice of X.] BATTLE OF TANIPUT. 291 thunder, to be led against the enemy instead of being cooped up to die like dogs. The Bhao was obliged to yield ; with the provisions which were left they partook together of one full meal, and then prepared for the struggle of the morrow. fp An hour before daybreak on the 7th of January, put, January 7, 1761, the Mahratta army issued from its en- trenchments, not, as on many former occasions, in the full confidence of victory, but with the recklessness of despair. The engagement was opened by Ibrahim Khan Gardee and his 10,000 sepoys, trained under Bussy, and his splendid artillery, with which he swept down the ranks of the Rohillas who were opposed to him. He then charged them with the bayonet, but they did not retire till 8,000 of their number lay dead or wounded on the field, while the loss of half the corps of Ibrahim shewed the desperate character of the conflict. The retirement of the Rohillas uncovered the right of the centre division of the Abdalees, and the Bhao and his cousin, with the flower of the Mahratta force, charged them with such vigour, that the day at one time seemed to belong to the Mahrattas, but at this critical juncture Ahmed Shah brought up his reserve, and the conflict became closer and more ferocious than ever. With the exception of Mulhar Rao Holkar, all the chiefs maintained their reputa- tion, but about two hours after noon, Wiswas Rao, the son of the Peshwa, was mortally wounded, and the Bhao imme- diately mounted his horse, and disappeared in the confusion of the fight. Holkar likewise marched off, and was followed by the Guickwar. As soon as the leaders were no longer seen the army fell into disorder and fled. No quarter was given, and the carnage was prodigious. Men, women, and children crowded into the village of Paniput, where they were surrounded for the night, but the men were drawn out the next morning, and ranged in files, when, to the eternal disgrace of Ahmed Shah, his soldiers were encouraged to amuse themselves in cutting off their heads, and piling them up as trophies in front of their tents. The body of Wiswas u 2 292 ITS EFFECT ON THE MAHRATTAS. [CHAP. Rao was found, and the Abdalee was with reluctance prevailed on to allow it to be burnt, instead of having it dried and stuffed, to take back with him to Cabul. Junkajee Sindia and the illustrious Ibrahim Khan Gardee, were taken prisoners and put to death, the latter on the ground of having fought on the side of the Hindoos against the true believers. Only one-fourth of the troops escaped ; and the entire loss of the Mahrattas, from the beginning of the campaign, was computed at 200,000. Never was defeat more complete or more fatal. There were few families which had not lost some relative, and grief and despondency overspread the community. The Peshwa died of grief, and with him perished the prestige of his family. The formidable unity of the Mahratta power was destroyed, and the hope which the Mahrattas had cherished of becoming masters of all India, was at once and for ever annihilated. CHAPTER XI. BENGAL, 1761 1772. THE battle of Paniput forms an important epoch Condition of . , r India after the m the modern annals of India, and a brief notice of the position and strength of the various princes at that period will serve to elucidate its subsequent history. The great empire of the Moguls was dissolved, and the emperor was wandering about in Behar, accompanied by a small band of mercenaries. In the districts around Delhi, the Jauts on one side, and the Rohillas on the other, were consolidating the power they had usurped. The Rajpoot rajas had been humbled during the encroachments of the Mahrattas, and manifested little of their former energy. The Nabob vizier of Oude possessed a rich territory, and a large undisciplined army, but was deficient in every military XI.] VANSITTART, GOVERNOR OP BENGAL. 293 quality, except courage. The Mahratta dream of universal empire in India, under a Hindoo sceptre, had been dissipated by the recent defeat, and although the Peshwa was still the head of the federation, its power was henceforth partitioned among the Guickwar, the raja of Nagpore, and Holkar and Sindia, who were seldom at peace with e:',ch other. The Nizam at Hyderabad, had been crippled by the surrender of some of his most valuable districts to the Mahrattas. The power of the French was completely broken. In the south of the peninsula, the Nabob of the Carnatic had been seated on the throne by the English, and was maintained solely by their arms, and Hyder All was on the point of grasping the supreme control in Mysore. The power destined eventually to bring these various principalities " under one umbrella," had recently subdued its European rivals in the south, and established its predominance in the valley of the Ganges, but was contemplating nothing so little as the conquest of India. Olive had become so completely identified with Vansittart, Governor of the existence of British power in Bengal, that his Bengal, 1760-61. Departure appeared to those who remained, as if the ' soul was departing from the government. He was succeeded in the chair by Mr. Vansittart, a Madras civilian, a man of the greatest probity, but utterly incompetent to manage the complicated machinery of the government. The appointment, though recommended by Clive, proved in every respect disastrous. The members of the Bengal Council were irritated by his intrusion into a seat which they considered to belong to them of right, and set themselves to thwart his measures, at a period when the exigencies of a novel and foreign administration required the greatest unanimity. Soon after Mr. Vansittart's appointment, moreover, an order from the Court of Directors reached Calcutta, summarily dismissing three of the ablest and most experienced members of Council, on account of a contumacious letter which had been provoked by their own arbitrary proceedings. The opponents of Mr. Vansittart thus obtained a majority in the Council, and 294 INVASION OP BEHAR BY THE SHAH ZADA. [CHAP. this circumstance, combined with his imbecility, rendered the four years of his administration a period of extraordinary criminality. The Shah Zada, the son of the emperor, in- Invasion 01 x Behar by the vaded Behar a second time at the beginning of Shah zada, 1760: ^^ ^.^ ^ ^^ Q ^^ ^ ^ collected around him. As already stated, the intelligence of his father's death reached him after he had crossed the Gurumnussa, and he immediately assumed the imperial dignity with the title of Shah Alum, which brought a large accession of troops to his standard. The Nabob of Oude was appointed vizier of this relic of an empire, and, in the hope of adding Behar to his territories, joined the emperor with a considerable force. Colonel Calliaud, one of the generals created by the wars on the coast, the comrade of Lawrence and Olive, of Goote and Forde, had been sent up from Madras to take the command of the army in Bengal, and had proceeded to Moorshedabad, where Clive, then on the eve of embarking for England, was making the necessary dispositions for repelling the invasion. Meer Jaffier contributed 15,000 horse to the expedition under the command of his son, Meerun, whose oppressions had made even Seraja Dowlah an object of regret. The united forces of the emperor and the vizier advanced towards Patna on one side, while Colonel Calliaud was moving up in an opposite direction to its succour. Ramnarayun, the Hindoo governor, had been strictly enjoined to await the arrival of these re- inforcements, but he chose to march out and encounter the enemy alone, and was totally defeated. The city must hav r e surrendered at discretion, if it had been immediately invested, but the emperor wasted the precious moments in plundering the district. On the 20th of February, Colonel Calliaud came up with the emperor, and, notwithstanding the misconduct of Meerun's horse, completely routed his army. The Emperor The emperor had received the promise of assist- marches to ance f rom the Mahrattas, and made a sudden and ueo. ' rapid march through the hills on Moorshedabad XI.] BATTLE OF PATNA, GAINED BY CAPT. KNOX. 295 to meet them. Calliaud lost no time in following his steps, and the two armies confronted each other about thirty miles from that city. But the emperor, hearing nothing of his allies, abruptly broke up his camp and marched back to Patna, to which he laid close siege for nine days. All hope of i " prolonging the defence was fading away, when Captain Knox, | who had advanced from Bengal by forced marches to its \ rescue, at the hottest season of the year, was descried ap- proaching it with a small force. The following day the two armies met, and the emperor was defeated, and his force dis- persed. The Nabob of Purneah, who had been for some time intriguing with the emperor, now advanced to his assistance with 30,000 men and thirty pieces of cannon. Captain Knox, to the utter amazement of the natives of Patna, immediately crossed the Ganges to oppose his pro- gress, with a handful of men not exceeding a battalion of sepoys and 200 Europeans, and a small squadron of cavalry. The native historian of that period vividly describes the breathless anxiety with which the inhabitants crowded on the walls to watch the issue of this desperate encounter. It was one of those battles in the early career of the English which gave prestige to their arms, and bewildered the native princes. It lasted six hours, and ended in tKe total defeat of the enemy. The result of the conflict was rendered the more grateful to the natives by the extraordinary valour displayed by one of their own country, raja Shitabroy, and by the high encomium bestowed on him by the English commander, as they entered the city together covered with dust. Colonel Calliaud and Meerun soon after arrived at Patna, and pro- ceeded across the river to follow up the victory. But they had not marched far when Meerun, as he lay on his couch listening to a tale, was struck dead by a thunderbolt, and the country was rid of a monster, in whose cabinet Death of ' Meerun, July 2, was found a list of three hundred men of note whom he had doomed to destruction on his return. 296 DEPOSITION OP MEER JAFFIER. [CHAP. Meer Jaffier The vigour of Meerun, in spite of his profligacy, deposed, 1760. h a d been the mainstay of the government of Moorshedabad, and his death brought on an immediate crisis. Meer Jaffier lost the little reason he ever possessed, and the administration fell into a state of complete anarchy. The troops surrounded the palace, and demanded the ar- rears of their pay with loud menaces, when Meer Cassim, the Nabob's son-in-law, came forward and offered to satisfy their claims from his own funds, on condition of being ap- pointed the successor of Meerun. The Nabob accepted his terms and his services, but, in an evil hour, sent him to Cal- cutta, to make pecuniary arrangements, in his name, with the Council. They had an expensive war on their hands, without a rupee in their exchequer. The treasure accumulated at Moorshedabad had been exhausted, and, in the confusion and scramble of the times, no thought had been bestowed on the future. The imbecile Meer Jaffier was not the man to re- move their embarrassments ; on the other hand, Meer Cassim appeared to possess great talent and energy. Mr. Holwell, who had taken the command of Fort William when it was deserted by Mr. Drake, was the inveterate enemy of Meer Jaffier, and urged his colleagues at once to determine on deposing him, and elevating his son-in-law to the throne. After a show of hesitation, the members of the Council adopted his advice, and Mr. Vansittart was requested to pro- ceed to Moorshedabad with 180 Europeans, 600 sepoys, and four guns, to persuade Meer Jaffier to resign the government of the three soobahs. The old man refused to abdicate, and threatened to appeal to Clive, his friend and protector ; but the arguments of Mr. Vansittart were irresistible, and he was obliged to submit to his fate, only stipulating for a safe asylum in Calcutta, well knowing that in India deposition meant Meer Cassim death. Meer Cassim became soobadai 1 , and, as Kabob, 1760- the price of his elevation, ceded to the Company the three districts of Midnapore, Chittagong, and Burdwan, which were then estimated to furnish a third of the XI.] ELEVATION OP MEER CASSIM HIS ENERGY. 297 revenue of Bengal. He agreed, moreover, to make good all arrears, and, above all, to bestow a gratuity of twenty lacs of rupees on his benefactors, of which Mr. Vansittart received five, and Mr. Holwell three lacs. The disorders of the times required a sharp remedy, but one might have been discovered without resorting to this odious breach of faith. Avarice was at the root of the transaction, and it ended in a fearful tragedy. Meer Cassim's Meer Oassim met the difficulties of his position IdSntton, with "* energy. He curtailed the extrava- 1701-63. gance of the court establishments. He abolished "the ram office, the antelope office, and the nightingale office/' and many other useless and costly appendages of the menagerie department. He subjected the public accounts to a severe scrutiny, and obliged the officers to disgorge the plun- der they had acquired. He exacted all arrears of rent with unexampled rigour, revised the assessment of the land, and made an addition of a crore of rupees to the annual revenue of the three provinces. These measures gave him the means of discharging all the obligations he had contracted to the English, after which he gave his entire attention to the great object of emancipating himself from the pressure of their authority, and restoring freedom to the soobah. He removed the seat of government to Monghir, a distance of 320 miles from Calcutta, where, free from observation, he prosecuted his plans of independence with such earnestness, that in less than three years, he considered himself in a position to set their power at defiance. For this rapid progress, he was mainly indebted to the exertions of an Armenian, born at Ispahan, generally known by his orientalized name of Gurghin Khan. He was originally a clothseller at Hooghly, but when entrusted with the responsibilities of office, turned out to be a man 'of original genius and vast resources. In less than three years, he created a force of 15,000 cavalry, and 25,000 infantry, disciplined on the model of the Com- pany's army ; he manufactured firelocks which were superior 298 TRANSACTIONS WITH THE EMPEROR. [CHAP. to the Tower proof muskets ; he established a foundry for casting cannon, and trained up a corps of artillerymen who would have done credit to the Company's service. Nothing was wanting to render Meer Cassim more powerful than Aliverdy Khan had ever beep, but a few years of undisturbed leisure. Transactions ^e em P eror > Shah Alum, unable to regain hia with the capital, lingered within the limits of Behar with a horde of troops, which wasted the districts like a flight of locusts. As soon, therefore, as the rains of 1761 had subsided, Colonel Carnac marched to Gya with an English force and dispersed them. Law, the French general, whose little band of Europeans had been the chief support of the prince, was taken prisoner on this occasion. The distin- guished courtesy with which he was treated by the English commander, confounded the ideas of the natives, who ex- pected that he would have been led out to immediate execu- tion, in accordance with the practice of oriental warfare. "Nothing," exclaims the native historian in his remark on this circumstance, " can be more modest and becoming than the behaviour of these strangers, whether in the heat of action, or in the pride of success." After the action, Colonel Carnac sent raja Shitabroy with a conciliatory message to the emperor, which was cordially welcomed, and he was con- ducted with suitable honours to Patna. Meer Cassim felt no little alarm on hearing of this friendly intercourse between the English commander and his own liege sovereign, and hastened to the English camp, but sullenly refused to pay his respects to the emperor. Colonel Carnac obviated his objec- tions by bringing the parties together in his own tent, when Shah Alum received the homage of the nabob, and conferred on him the office of soobadar of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, and obtained in return the promise of an annual payment of twenty-four lacs of rupees. The emperor then proceeded on his route to Delhi, and, on taking leave of the colonel, made an offer to the Company of the dewanny of the three provinces. XI.] THE TRANSIT DUTIES. 299 spoliation of ne ^ tne earliest objects of Meer Cassim after Bamnarayun, his elevation was the spoliation of the great pro- vincial officers, who had amassed wealth in their re- spective governments. Ramnarayun, the Governor of Patna, was destined to be the first victim, but the Council in Calcutta had pledged their honour to protect him from the designs of his enemies, and the Nabob was for a time baffled. But Mr. Vansittart yielded at length to his importunities; Colonels Coote and Carnac, who insisted on keeping faith with Ram- narayun, were removed from the province, and Meer Cassim was left to wreak his vengeance on him. The unfortunate governor was immediately seized and despoiled, while his subordinate officers were pursued with all the ardour of cupidity, and tortured to disclose their wealth. Of all the proceedings of the feeble Vansittart, this was considered the most baneful, inasmuch as it destroyed the confidence which the natives had hitherto reposed in the protection of the Company's officers, and strengthened the hands of the Nabob, whose hostility to the English was daily becoming more palpable. The transit Meer Cassim had made great progress in con- duties, 1762. solidating his government, when a storm was raised by the unprincipled conduct of the Council board in Calcutta, which eventually swept him from the throne. From the days of Munoo, the duties levied on the transit of mer- chandise through the country had formed one of the principal sources of the public revenue, and the highways of com- merce, both by land and by water, were obstructed by custom-houses. Under the old imperial firmans, the goods of the Company intended for export by sea were allowed to pass duty free, when protected by the dustuck, or permit of the President. But the battle of Plassy transferred the power of the state to the Company, that is, to their servants, and they rushed eagerly into the inland trade of the country, and claimed the same exemption from duty for their own goods, which had been conceded to the merchandise of their masters. 300 MR. VANSITTART'S CONVENTION. [CHAP. Their servants and dependants soon came to demand the same privileges for their own adventures. The native merchants, moreover, anxious to pass their goods duty free, were led to purchase dustucks from some of the Company's servants, even at a high premium, and the boys in the service, with less pay than fifty rupees a month, were enabled to realise an income of 15,000 or 20,000 rupees a year. To increase the confusion, any native trader who wished to evade the duties, had only to hoist the English niskan, or flag, on passing a custom- house. In every instance in which this symbol of impunity was not respected, sepoys were sent to drag the Nabob's officers as culprits to the nearest factory, and they soon came to understand the danger of offering the slightest resistance to the most glaring frauds. The Nabob was deprived of his revenues ; the entire trade of the country was disorganised, and nothing appeared on every side but the most perilous confusion. These encroachments "were rare during Olive's Mr. Vansittart's convention, administration ; but when his strong arm ceased to be felt, they increased to an indefinite degree. To provide a remedy for the disorders which thus threatened the peace of the country, Mr. Vansittart proceeded to Monghir, and, after a long conference with the Nabob, made an offer by way of compromise, which he at length accepted, that the trade of the Company's servants should be subject to a duty of only nine per cent., though that of his sub- jects was, in many cases, saddled with twenty-five per cent. This convention necessarily required the sanction of the Council board, to whom Mr. Vansittart had intended to break it with great caution, but the Nabob imprudently directed his officers to carry it at once into execution, and they entered upon the duty with little delicacy. Numerous collisions ensued, and the breach was widened. On his return to Calcutta, Mr. Vansittart encountered the most ferocious opposition from his colleagues at the board. To men with their lofty pretensions, who con- XI.] INIQUITOUS CONDUCT OF THE BENGAL COUNCIL. 801 sidered themselves masters of the country, it appeared intolerable that their commercial agents should be subjected to the authority of one whom they had themselves raised to the throne, and to the insolence, as they deemed it, of his servants. All the members of Council at the out stations were called down to Calcutta, to overawe the President, and they declared that they would pay no higher duty than two- and-a-half per cent., and that on the article of salt alone. Th N bob ^e Nabob, incensed by this declaration, deter- aboiishes aii mined to place his own subjects and the foreigners duties, 1763. u p 0n an e q ua ]ity by abolishing all transit duties throughout the country. The members of Council voted this measure a crime, and demanded, as a matter of right, that the native trade should be subject to the usual duties, while their own was exempted from them. It Avas in vain that Mr. Vansittart raised his voice against this iniquitous doctrine ; he was supported only by Mr. Hastings. From words the Council at length came to blows, and Stanlake Batson, one of its most turbulent members, denounced Mr. Hastings as a partizan of the Nabob, and struck him a blow which led to a hostile challenge. After having passed this disgraceful resolution, the majority deputed Mr. Hay and Mr. Amyatt to announce it to the Nabob at Monghir. During these transactions a boat proceeding to Mr. Ellis's in- temperate con- Patna with concealed arms, was searched and de- duct, nes. tained by the Nabob's officers. The affairs of the Company in that city were unfortunately at this juncture under the direction of Mr. Ellis, one of the most unscrupulous and headstrong of all the public servants. He had violently opposed the elevation of Meer Cassim, and seemed now to be anxious to precipitate a rupture with him. The boat was eventually released, but Mr. Ellis continued his hostile pre- parations with so little disguise, that Meer Cassim thought fit to detain Mr. Hay as a hostage for some of his own servants who had been seized ; but Mr. Amyatt was allowed to return to Calcutta. Mr. Ellis waited for the day which 302 WAR WITH SIEER CASSIM. [CHAP. had been fixed for their departure, and when he calculated that both of them were beyond the reach of the Nabob, seized on the city of Patna. The native commandant was obliged to retire, but on hearing that the European soldiers were confused with liquor, returned suddenly and recaptured the town. Mr. Ellis and the English gentlemen took refuge in their boats and proceeded up the river, but were overtaken and brought back prisoners to Patna. The Nabob, incensed at this outrage, ordered every Englishman throughout his dominions to be seized ; and Mr. Amyatt, then on his way to Calcutta, having refused to surrender, was slain in the scuffle. The Setts, the great bankers of Moorshedabad, who were possessed of incredible wealth, and had manifested a favour- able disposition to the English, were at the same time seized and conveyed to Monghir. war with Meer Both parties now prepared for war. The Nabob Cassim. Be- augmented his army, and applied for assistance to Btoration of , , , _ T , , . . -,_, n Meer Jaffier, the emperor and the Nabob vizier. The Governor 1763> and Council in Calcutta ordered their army into the field, and, at the same time, determined to reseat Meer Jaffier on the throne. The old man, seventy-two years of age, and scarcely able to move for the leprosy, was withdrawn from the obscurity to which he had retired, and required to confirm the cession of the three districts which had been made by his predecessor, to concede the flagrant exemption from duty claimed by the majority of the Council, and likewise to make large donations to them individually. The English army consisted of 650 Europeans, 1,200 sepoys, and a troop of native cavalry ; and although the rains had set in, opened Actions of the tne campaign on the 2nd of July. On the 19th, i9th and 24th the troops of the Nabob were defeated at Cutwa ; July, and the t . 2nd August, and on the 24th, Moorshedabad was occupied and Meer Jaffier, who had accompanied the army, was placed a second time on the throne. The army reached Gheriah on the 2nd of August, and found the Nabob's well disciplined troops drawn up to dispute their advance. The battle lasted XI.J MURDEB OP HIS EUBOPEAN PBISONEKS. 803 four hours, and, in the opinion of Clive, never did troops fight better than those of the Nabob. At one period of the action, indeed, they penetrated the English lines and captured two guns, and victory appeared, for a tune, likely to incline to them, but the gallantry of the Europeans, and the steadiness of the sepoys bore down all opposition, and the Nabob's troops were constrained to abandon all their guns and stores, and retreat to Oodwanulla. Massacre of the ^ lis reverse threw Meer Cassim into a paroxysm English pri- of rage, and he gave way to the ferocity of his toasts. 1763. ,. ... T, ,111' disposition. Ramnarayun, the deposed governor of Patna, was cast into the river with weights attached to his neck. Raja Rajbullub, the former governor of Dacca, was put to death, with all his sons. The Moorshedabad bankers were thrown into the Ganges from one of the bastions of the fort of Monghir. One of their favourite servants, the faithful Chunee, begged permission to share their fate, and when his request was denied, plunged into the river, determined not to survive them. Early in the month of November, the English army carried the entrenched camp at Oodwanulla, and the Nabob fled to Patna. But before his departure he ordered his officers to proceed to the house where his European prisoners were confined, and put them to death without distinction. They nobly replied that they were soldiers and not execu- tioners. " Turn them out," they said, " with arms in their hands, and we will fight them to the death." But there was in the camp one Walter Raymond, who had been a sergeant in the French service, and now, under the name of Sumroo, held a commission in the Nabob's army, who came forward and offered to do the bloody deed. The wretch proceeded to the house with a file of soldiers, and poured in volley after volley through the Venetian windows upon the defenceless vic- tims, till forty-eight gentlemen among whom was Mr. Ellis and 100 soldiers lay stretched on the floor. Patna was captured on the 6th of November, and the campaign ended in four months by the flight of Meer Cassim to the court of the 304 THE FIRST SEPOY MUTINY. [CHAP. Nabob vizier. The vizier had fought by the side The Nabob * vizier marches of Ahmed Shah Abdalee at Paniput, and, in the tna, 1764. j an g ua g e O f ^ e na tive historian, " considered himself a second Rustum." He determined to take advantage of the confusion of the times, and, six months after the ter- mination of the war with Meer Cassim, marched down to Patna with a large but ill-trained army. It was an act of wanton aggression on his part, dictated by ambition and avarice. The emperor and the disinherited Nabob of Bengal joined his camp with a small body of followers. The English army in the field was straitened for provisions, and retired to the city of Patna, which was vigorously attacked on the 3rd of May, 1764. The assailants were repulsed, but not without great difficulty, and not before the close of the day. The Nabob vizier, after hovering about Patna for four weeks, re- tired to Buxar to encamp for the rains. The first sepoy Major Munro, who now assumed the command mutiny, 1764. o f ^he Company's army, found the sepoys in a state of open revolt. There is no instinct of obedience in native armies in India, as in those of Europe, and their normal condition under every dynasty, native or foreign, Hindoo or Mahomedan, and in every province, has from time immemorial been that of insubordination. The British army of sepoys was no exception to the general rule. During the seven years in which they had been embodied as mercenaries under the colours of a foreign power, they had been instru- mental in defeating and deposing two Nabobs of Bengal. They became inflated with an idea of their own importance, and they now manifested it by the demand of a large donation and increased pay. Such a demand from men with arms in their hands was necessarily refused, and a whole battalion marched off to the enemy with their arms and accoutrements. Major Munro, an officer of undaunted resolution, determined to subdue this spirit at all hazards. The battalion was pur- sued and brought back. Twenty- four of the most active of the mutineers were selected, arraigned before a field court-martial, XI.] BATTLE OF BUXAK, 305 consisting of native officers, and found guilty. The Major ordered four of them to be blown away from the guns, when four noble looking grenadiers came forward, and demanded to be the first to suffer, as they had always been the foremost in danger. The European officers then reported that the sepoys had announced their firm resolution not to allow any further executions ; but the unflinching commander loaded his guns with grape, placed his European soldiers in the intervals, and commanded the native battalions to ground arms, threatening to discharge the guns on them if a single man was seen to move. The sepoys were awed by his resolution ; sixteen more were blown away; the mutiny was quenched in their blood, and discipline was restored. This was the first of that series of mutinies which broke out from time to time among the native sepoys chiefly after a successful campaign, when they are least amenable to reason and terminated hi less than a century in the dissolution of the whole Bengal army. Major Munro shewed his masters how the insubordination of sepoys was to be dealt with, and there can be no doubt that if the same spirit and promptitude had been exhibited on every future emergency, the result would have been equally auspicious. Battle of Buxar ^^ s example of severity restored the discipline October 23, of the army so effectually that within four months of the mutiny, Major Munro did not hesitate to lead his troops against the Nabob vizier, who had been encamped for several months at Buxar with an army of 50,000 men. On the 23rd of October he was attacked and completely routed, and obliged to abandon his camp, with all its stores and 130 pieces of cannon. The victory of Buxar was scarely less important to the interests of the Company than that of Plassy. It demolished the power of the Vizier, Soojah-ood-dowlah, the only chief of any importance in the north. It made the English masters of the entire valley of the Ganges, from the Himalayu to the sea, and placed Hindostan at their feet. The Nabob sent off his women and his treasure to Bareilly, and x 306 ARRANGEMENT WITH MEEK JAFFIER. [CHAP. opened negotiations with the victor, offering as the price of his forbearance, fifty lacs of rupees for the Company and the army, and eight lacs for himself. But the Council board de- manded the surrender of Meer Cassim and Sumroo, as an in- dispensable preliminary. The former, who had been stripped of his wealth and imprisoned by his treacherous host, hastened to seek refuge among the Rohillas. With regard to Sumroo, the Vizier offered to invite him to an entertainment, and cause him to be assassinated in the presence of any English gentle- man who might be deputed to witness and certify his death. The offer was indignantly rejected. Amn ement Immediately after the battle of Buxar, the emperor with Meer joined the English camp, and commenced negotia- tions with the Council in Calcutta. They proposed that the forfeited territories of the Vizier should be partitioned between them, the Company receiving the zemindary of Benares, and the emperor the remainder, on condition of de- fraying all the expenses of the war. But the arrangement fell to the ground. Meanwhile, the government in Calcutta was on the verge of bankruptcy. The war was not only expensive, as all wars must be, but it was conducted on a system of profligate extravagance and peculation which com- pletely exhausted the treasury. Meer Jaffier was, therefore, brought down to Calcutta to concert some means of relieving the pressing necessities of the Council. His position required a passive acquiescence in whatever they might chose to dictate, and they required him to contribute five lacs of rupees a month towards the expenses of the war, as long as it might last ; but they did not forget themselves. He was also charged with the payment of what they had the impudence to call "compensation for losses," that is, for losses, real or fictitious, sustained by them and their friends in the illicit monopoly of the necessaries of life. The demand was at first stated at ten lacs of rupees, but they soon dismissed all delicacy of feeling and raised it to thirty, and then to forty lacs, and did not pause till it had reached fif ty-three lacs. It XI.] DEATH OF MEER JAFFIEB. 807 was, moreover, provided that this nefarious claim should be satisfied before any payment was made to the Company's treasury for the expenses of the war ; which were met by the ingenious device of lending to the Government at an exor- bitant rate of interest, the sums paid to individuals by the Nabob. The effrontery exhibited during these five years' of crime makes one blush for the honour of England ; and the only relief to the mind is to be found in the consideration that it was an exceptional case. These importunities, combined with the age Death of f 7 Meerjaffier, and infirmities of the Nabob, hastened his end, and he expired in January, 1765. Then came the question of appointing his successor. The making of Nabobs had been, for seven years, one of the most lucrative employments of the Council, and the fourth opportunity which was now presented, was not to be neglected. Mr. Van- sittart had retired from the chair, and was succeeded by Mr. Spencer, a Bombay civilian, without either talent or probity. The Court of Directors, exasperated by the iniquity of their servants in Calcutta, had issued peremptory orders for the suppression of the inland trade, and for the execution of " covenants," binding them not to receive presents from native princes. These injunctions reached Calcutta before the death of Meer Jaffier. Mr. Spencer and his colleagues, were, moreover, aware that Lord Clive was on the eve of em- barking for India to root out abuses ; no time was, therefore, to be lost in the appointment of another Nabob. The cove- nants were thrown aside, and Nujum-ood-dowlah, the son of Meer Jaffier, was raised to the throne, and required to make donations to the members of the Council to the extent of twenty lacs of rupees, as well as to sanction the inland trade, exempt from the payment of all duty. _. , Clive, on his return to England in 1760, was Clive s second administration, received with great distinction by the king, the minister, Mr. Pitt, and the nation, and honoured with an Irish peerage. The India House, likewise, paid v 9 V w 308 LORD CLIVE RETURNS TO INDIA. homage to his talents and his success; but the Court of Directors was scarcely less demoralized by intrigue and jobbery than the Council board in Calcutta by venality and rapacity, and Clive was speedily brought into collision with the leading faction, at the head of which was Mr. Sullivan. In 1757, Meer Jaffier had ceded to the Company certain lands lying to the south of Calcutta, of the annual value of ten lacs of rupees, reserving to himself the quit-rent of three lacs a year. Two years after, the Nabob manifested his gratitude for the services of Clive by making him a donation of the quit-rent, which he received for several years without inter- ruption. But Mr. Sullivan and his party having gained the ascendancy in the Court of Directors in 1763, sent out orders to Calcutta, without any communication with Clive, to with- hold the usual payment, assigning no other reason for this act of injustice than the cessation of all cordiality between him and the Court. Clive was, therefore, obliged to file a bill in chancery for the recovery of his rights. But while this contest was raging, intelligence was received in London of the war with Meer Cassim, the massacre of the European pri- soners, and the total disorganization of the government in Calcutta. The proprietors of India stock saw with dismay the golden dreams of prosperity in which they had indulged vanishing away, and, in spite of the opposition of the Directors, resolved to send out the man to whom they owed all their greatness, to retrieve their affairs. They determined also to entrust the powers of government, which had hitherto been vested in a council of sixteen, to a select commitee of five. Clive was surrounded by friends and admirers, and in the enjoyment of an income of four lacs of rupees a year ; there was therefore no inducement for him to return to India, but he had been actuated throughout life by a high sense of duty, dnd he did not hesitate to accept the charge of a government which .was justly described as " headstrong and corrupt, and lost to every sense of honour." Clive landed at Calcutta on the 3rd of May, and found XI.] CONDITION OF BENGAL. 309 Condition of that the political dangers had passed off. Meer Bengal, 1765. c assmi had been expelled from Bengal, the Nabob vizier had been vanquished, and the emperor was a suppliant. Bat there were other and more alarming perils to be en- countered. Vast fortunes had been amassed by " the most nefarious and oppressive conduct ever known in any age or country." The power of the Company's servants had been employed in levying contributions on every class, from the Nabob down to the lowest zemindar. Even the exaction of twenty lacs of rupees from the young Nabob on his elevation, in defiance of the express orders of the Court of Directors, was openly avowed without a blush. Luxury, corruption, and debauchery pervaded every rank of the service, and threatened the dissolution of all government. Clive found Spencer, the governor, " as deep in the mire as any other," and he felt himself justified in affirming that " there were not five men of principle left at the Presidency." The massacre of the English gentlemen by Sumroo had thinned the ranks of the civil service; many of the seniors had returned to England laden with plunder, and young men had thus been pushed forward to posts of importance, with little judgment or experience, but inflamed with the most extravagant ex- pectations by the success of those who had preceded them. Clive's first duty was to enforce the execution of the cove- nants which abolished the receipt of presents, but he was met on the threshold by an attempt to question the powers of the Select Committee, and an effort was made to brow- beat him, but he soon reduced the refractory to silence by declaring that he would not allow his authority to be contro- verted for a moment, and that he would peremptorily dismiss from the service every officer who refused to sign the cove- nants. Arrangement On the 25th of June, Clive left Calcutta for the with the nabob, upper provinces, to dispose of the weighty ques- the vizier, and . , . i .,,;,.. _, * the emperor, tions which awaited his decision. He attributed the recent war with Meer Cassim to the impru-. 310 ARBANGEMENT WITH THE NATIVE PKINCES. [CHAP. dence of Mr. Vansittart, in advising him to form and discipline an army, and to render it efficient by just and punctual pay- ment. To prevent the recurrence of this cause of anxiety, the Nabob of Moorshedabad was relieved of all responsibility for the military defence of the country, and of the manage- ment of the revenue. The sum of fifty-three lacs of rupees a year was assigned him for the expenses of his court and the administration of justice. He received the proposal with ecstacy. " Thank God," he exclaimed, " I shall now have as many dancing-girls as I like." With regard to the Nabob vizier, he had invaded Behar without the least provocation, on the mere impulse of cupidity, but his power had been irretrievably crushed by the battle of Buxar, the capture of Lucknow, and a second defeat at Corah. Seeing his fortunes desperate, he repaired to the camp of General Carnac, and threw himself on the consideration of the English authorities. His kingdom was forfeited by the laws of war and the usage of the country, but Olive evinced his moderation by restoring it to him, with the exception of the two districts of Corah and Allahabad, which were reserved for the emperor. Such an instance of generosity in a victorious enemy was unknown in India, and excited emotions of the deepest gratitude. The emperor, though he had appeared in arms against the English at the battle of Buxar, was gratified with the revenues of the two districts assigned to him, which, with the annual pay- ment of twenty-six lacs of rupees from Bengal and Behar, for which he was likewise indebted to the kindness of the English chief, constituted his whole dependence. TheDewanny, After the completion of these arrangements, Aug. 12, 1765. cii ve requested that the Dewanny of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, which the emperor had repeatedly offered to the Company, should be conferred on them by an imperial firman. The act was completed on the 12th of August, 1765, a memorable day in the political and constitutional history of British India. As a substitute for a throne, two dining-tables were joined together in Clive's tent, and covered with em- XI.] THE ACQUISITION OF THE DEWANNY. 311 broidery. The emperor took his seat on a chair planted on them, and transferred the government of twenty-five millions of people, and an annual revenue of four crores of rupees to Lord Olive, on behalf ot the Company. The Mahomedan his- torian of the time, scandalized by the simplicity which marked the completion of this grand transaction, exclaims with in- dignation that " a business of so much importance, which, at other times, would have required the sending of wise ministers and able envoys, was done and finished in less time than would have been taken up in the sale of a jackass." This affair serves to exemplify that expansion of views which re- sults from the progress of events in the East. On the eve of his departure from England, in April, 1764, Clive assured the Court of Directors that " nothing but extreme necessity ought to induce us to extend our ideas of territorial acquisitions be- yond the three districts ceded by Meer Cassim, in his treaty with Mr. Vansittart." Before sixteen months had elapsed, he congratulated the Court on the acquisition of three pro- vinces, and a clear revenue of two crores of rupees a year. Yet with this pregnant proof of the fallacy of his judgment, he thought fit again to fix the limits of the British empire in India, and informed the Court that " it was his resolution and hope always to confine our possessions to these provinces, and he declared that to go farther was a scheme so extrava- gantly ambitious that no government in its senses would ever dream of it." The Court of Directors, with all due modesty, concurred in the necessity of accepting the provinces. " When we consider," they wrote, " that the barrier of the country government was entirely broken down, and every Englishman throughout the country armed with an authority that owned no superior, and exercising his power to the oppression of the helpless natives, who knew not whom to obey ; at such a crisis, we cannot hesitate to approve your obtaining the De< wanny for the Company." The mutiny of In announcing this acquisition to the India (fed*** House) c]iye remarkedj we have established 312 MTJTIXY OF THE ENGLISH OFFICERS [CRAP. such a force that all the powers in Hindostan cannot de- prive us of our possessions for many years," little dreaming that within a few months, the existence of that power would be endangered by that very force. The military expenses had hitherto swallowed up the resources of the Company. The army considered itself the most important department of the state, and the commanders, in the pride of their position, had endeavoured to imbue the native princes with the conviction that the power of the British government was lodged with them rather than with the civil authorities in Calcutta. A few months more of Mr. Spencer's servile administration would probably have rendered them masters of the country. The officers had been in the habit of receiving an allowance called batta when they took the field. Meer Jaffier, out of gratitude for his elevation, had increased this gratuity, and the army soon came to consider double batta as their right. When the Court of Directors became responsible for the finances of the country, they resolved to discontinue this extravagant allowance ; but the officers resented any in- terference with their interests, and the Council board was deterred by their imperiousness from carrying the orders into execution. The abolition of the double batta was enjoined on Clive when he was leaving England, and he lost no time, after his arrival, in announcing that it would cease after the 1st of January, 1766. The officers were little disposed to submit to a measure which affected even a captain's allowance to the extent of 1,000 rupees a month, and those in the higher grades in a larger proportion. The announcement of the order was the signal for mutiny, and a universal combination was formed to compel Clive to retract it. A committee of secrecy was organized in each of the three brigades, and a fund created to reimburse officers for any loss they might sustain ; and to this fund the discontented and factious civilians in Calcutta contributed more than a lac and a half of rupees. It was agreed that two hundred officers should throw up their commissions on the same day; and, as an XI.] QUELLED BY CLIVE. 313 army of 50.000 Mahrattas was advancing for the invasion of Behar, it was calculated that the government would be undei the necessity of giving way to retain their services. Resolution of It was a crisis of singular peril, but exactly cuve, nee. fitted to the daring genius of Clive. He felt that to yield to the demands of men with arms in their hands was to abandon the government to them, and he declared that he must see the soldiers' bayonets levelled at his throat before he could be induced to give way. He directed the command- ants to accept every commission that was tendered, and to send the offender under arrest to Calcutta ; at the same time, he ordered up all the officers and cadets who could be spared from Madras. Taking with him the officers who yet re- mained faithful to their colours, he hastened to Monghir, arrested the ringleaders, and ordered them to be tried by court-martial. His undaunted resolution overawed the spirit of insubordination, and many of the officers who had been persuaded to join the malcontents, entreated permission to recall their resignations, and were allowed to return to their duty. He then proceeded to Benares, where the same energy produced the same beneficial results. In two instances the sepdys, who had themselves been in a state of mutiny two years before, were actively employed in coercing their Euro- pean officers, and exhibited such fidelity and steadiness, that one battalion marched more than a hundred miles hi fifty-four hours, and arrived at its destination in time to avert an out- break. Thus was this formidable confederacy, which brought the affairs of the Company to the brink of destruction, dis- solved in the brief period of a fortnight, by an energy which reflected not less credit on the name of Clive than the battle of Plassy. It remained for Clive to deal with the difficiilt Society form land trade. question of the trade of the public servants, to which the Court of Directors attributed all the anarchy and bloodshed of the preceding five years. From tbe earliest period, the East India Company had followed the 314 THE SOCIETY FOR INLAND TRADE. [CHAP. example of all other commercial companies, in restricting their agents abroad to a mere pittance of salary, and allow- ing them to eke it out by private trade, and thus were the servants enriched at the expense of the masters. The same system was continued when the factory had expanded into a kingdom, and their servants entered on the government of provinces with unchecked power. The consequence was that from the governor to the youngest writer, from the general to the ensign, not excepting even the chaplains, all classes were busily engaged in commercial pursuits, which were ren- dered lucrative ' by the influence of their dominant position. In April, 1764, the Court of Directors thought that the evil might be remedied, simply by ordering that the trade should cease, without proposing any compensation to their officers ; but in a subsequent despatch they had the wisdom to modify this order by directing Clive to devise some equitable plan which should be satisfactory both to the government and the service. Clive felt that it was indispensable to the peace and prosperity of the country that the servants of the state should not be allowed to compete with the native dealers in every market, and equally indispensable to the integrity and efficiency of the public service that the officers of the go- vernment should not be left to starve in the midst of wealth which their position enabled them to grasp. He, therefore, established a Society for conducting a traffic in salt, on the principle of a monopoly, -the profits of which, after a reserva- tion of ten lacs of rupees a-year to the Company, should be divided among .the servants of the Company according to their rank ; the member of Council and the colonel receiving 70,000 rupees a-year, and the subordinate officers, civil and military, in due proportion. The scheme continued in opera- tion for two years, and was then abolished by orders from home, which substituted in its stead a commission of two- and-a-half per cent, on the gross revenue of the provinces. After a residence of twenty-two months in Clive's return to i i ' -n i J v England, 1767. India, Clive was driven back to England by a XI.] TREATMENT OP CLIVE IN ENGLAND. 315 severe attack of disease. In the large transactions in which he had been engaged, involving the fate of great kingdoms, and the disposal of crores of rupees, he might easily have added fifty lacs of rupees to his fortune, but he returned to his native land poorer than he had left it. It has fallen to the lot of few men to exercise so im- portant and permanent an influence on the course of human affairs. When he landed in Calcutta in 1757, he found the Company's factory in ruins, and their servants in exile. By 1767, he had made the Company the sovereigns of twenty-five millions of people, and masters of a revenue, little short of one-half that of England. He had laid the foundation of a great empire containing an irrepressible element of expansion. He had established the supremacy of Europe in Asia. His reception in England corresponded at first with his eminent merits, but it was not long before he was made to taste the bitterness of ingratitude. His great- ness excited envy and censure. The members of the civil service, whose rapacity he had defeated abroad, made large purchases of India stock on their return to England, and became members of the corporation in Leadenhall-street, that they might more effectually wreak their vengeance on him. His rancorous enemy, Sullivan, endeavoured by garbled statements to persuade Parliament that all the difficulties of the Company were to be attributed to his measures. The Court of Directors restored almost every civil and military culprit whom he had cashiered for peculation or mutiny. The Attorney-General proposed to confiscate all the donations he had received from native princes in India, and the Prime Minister joined the hue and cry against him. In Parlia- ment his conduct was described by his opponents " as a mass of the most unheard-of villanics and corruption." But when a vote of censure was pressed on the House, the members shrunk from the scandal of fixing a brand of infamy on the man who had given England a kingdom larger than itself, and came to the resolution that he had rendered great and 316 WRETCHED STATE OF BENGAL. [CHAP. meritorious services to his country. But his lofty spirit could ill-brook the persecution he had been subjected to, and under Death of the pressure of bodily and mental suffering, he ciive. 1774. p u ^ a p er } 0( j to his existence in November, 1774. _ . . , Lord Olive was succeeded in the government Wretched con- dition of Ben- by Mr. Verelst, a man of strict integrity, but without sufficient resolution to cope with the dis- orders of the times. Olive, with all his genius, had com- mitted the great error of establishing the system of double government, which for five years proved to be the curse of Bengal. The administration was nominally vested in the Nabob, in whose name the revenue was collected and justice administered, by native officers, but the irresistible power of the rapacious servants of the Company paralysed the whole system of government, and introduced endless intrigue and oppression. Those whom Clive had constrained to sign the covenants against presents, treated them as waste paper as soon as his back was turned, and plunged with increased ardour and perfect impunity into the trade of the country. Every man who was permitted to make out a bill, made a fortune ; and the nefarious charges of contractors, com- missaries, engineers, and other officers drained the treasury. The Council was without the power, even if they had possessed the will, to check these abuses. The three natives who managed the revenues enriched themselves, and left the governor to borrow money for the public service. It was at this period, and through their connivance, that the great majority of rent-free tenures was created, and an annual revenue little short of forty lacs of rupees was alienated from the resources of the state. It was a period of transi- tion between the dissolution of the old Mahomedan govern- ment and the vigorous development of British sovereignty, and it was, as usual, fruitful of anomalies, and not wanting in guilt. These evils were aggravated to a fearful extent by the great famine of 1770, which swept away one-third of the population of the lower provinces. XII.] THE OBLIGATIONS OP THE COMPANY ON THE COAST ] 7 CHAPTER XII. PROGRESS OF EVENTS AT MADRAS AND BOMBAY, 1761 1772. state of affairs now to the progress of events at the at Madras. Madras Presidency. The extinction of the French power in India by the capture of Pondicherry, had given Mahomed Ali, the ally of the English, the undisputed title of Nabob of the Carnatic, and, though he had afforded them no assistance during the war, he regarded himself as the absolute ruler of the country. But he was conspicuous even among the princes of India for his imbecility ; and his army was a mere rabble, which devoured the resources of a territory they were unable to protect. The Company thus found themselves, by the issue of the war, saddled with the defence of a province comprising 50,000 square miles, without any re- sources for the maintenance of a costly army, but the profits of their trade, which belonged to their constituents in London. They were constrained, therefore, to demand a contribution of fifty lacs of rupees from Mahomed Ali, to discharge the obligations they had contracted during the recent conflict. But the Carnatic had been without any settled government for twenty years ; every invader had desolated its districts, and the polygars paid no revenue but at the sword's point. The countiy was, moreover, now in the hands of a court at once wasteful and neglectful, which had been subsisting for many years on loans raised on exorbitant terms at Madras, which impaired the strength of those who borrowed the money, and the morals of those who lent it. Affairs of Tan- To meet this demand, the Nabob proposed to lore, 1763. ^he government of Madras to despoil the gover- nors of Vellore and the Marawars, and more particularly the rajah of Tanjore, whose principality had, to a certain extent, escaped the ravages of war, and which he was anxious to appropriate to himself Tanjore was an independent province, 318 PEACE OF PARIS. [CHAP. which had never been incorporated with the Mogul empire, though it had often yielded to the pressure of invasion, and paid contributions when unable to evade them. The Presi- dent at Madras, with an exhausted treasury, manifested the greatest reluctance to go to war with this state, and effected an amicable adjustment of the Nabob's demand for a payment of twenty-two lacs of rupees in four instalments, and four lacs of rupees a year as tribute. But the Nabob derived little benefit from this arrangement, as the Court of Directors ordered the sums as they arrived, to be taken to the treasury at Madras, and placed to the credit of his account. The peace of ^ke war b e t ween the French and the English Paris, lotu \vas terminated by the peace of Paris, which restored to the former all the factories they had possessed in India. It likewise stipulated that in order to preserve future peace on the coast of Coromandel and Orissa. the English and the French should acknowledge Mahomed Ali for lawful Nabob of the Carnatic, and Salabut Jung, for lawful Soobadar of the Deccan. Olive was then hi England, and endeavoured to convince the ministry, who knew nothing about Indian politics, of the danger and embarrassment which this clause would inevitably entail, but could only secure a slight and unimportant modification of it. It involved the double absurdity of disposing unceremoniously of territories belonging to the crown of Delhi, and of acknowledging the authority of Salabut Jung, eighteen months after he had ceased to reign. He had been deposed and confined on the 10th of July, 1761, by his brother, Nizam Ali, who, on finding that his rights were acknowledged by the two foreign Euro- pean powers, so formidable to the princes of the Deccan, lost no time in causing him to be assassinated, and the treaty which was intended to secure to him the possession of the the throne, became the cause of his death. Soon after, Nizam Ali invaded the Carnatic with a large army, laying waste the districts through which he passed, with the greatest barbarity. The English troops came up to the rescue, and XII.] ACQUISITION OF THE NORTHERN SIRCARS. 819 faced the Nizam at Tripety, but he had no mind to try con- clusions with them, and instantly evacuated the country. During these events, Clive happened to touch at Madras on his way to Calcutta, and was requested by the Nabob to obtain a firman from Delhi, releasing him from dependence on the Nizam ; and on the 12th of August in the same year, Mahomed AH was empowered by the emperor's sunnud to hold his fief directly of the imperial crown. To meet the expenses of their military estab- th^Northern Hshment at Madras, the Court of Directors were A rCar i765 th anxiousto obtain a permanentright to the Northern sircars on the Coromandel coast, which had fur- nished the sinews of war to Bussy, and which were embraced in the districts ceded to Colonel Forde by Salabut Jung in 1758. The Madras President had, at one time, offered to farm them of the Nizam at a high rent, but the proposal was declined. Clive, however, during his second administration, disposed of the question in a very summary manner. On the memorable 12th of August, when he received the Dewanny from the emperor, he likewise requested an imperial grant of the Northern sircars for the Company, which was necessarily granted. The Nizam, who had already lost his hold on the Carnatic, was not disposed tamely to part with this province likewise, and on hearing that an English force had been sent to take possession of the districts, threatened to march down and exterminate them, and also made preparations for the invasion of the Carnatic. The timid Presidency of Madras, alarmed at these menaces, directed their commander, General Calliaud, to suspend all military operations, and proceed to Hyderabad to enter into negotiations with the Nizam. They resulted in the disastrous and humiliating 1 Treaty with tne Nizam, i2th treaty of the 12th of November, 1766, by which the Madras authorities agreed to hold the Northern sircars, which had been conferred on them by the paramount power in India, as a tributary tenure under the Nizam, at eight lacs of rupees a year, and, in addition, to make an immediate 320 RISE OP HYDER ALL [CHAP. donation of five lacs. But what was still more objectionable, the President involved the Company in the intricate web of Deccan politics, by engaging to furnish the Nizam with two battalions of infantry and six pieces of cannon, " to settle, in everything right and proper, the affairs of his highness's government," well knowing that the first requisition for the troops would be to assist in attacking Hyder Ali, who had recently usurped the Mysore throne, and against whom a confederacy had been formed of the Mahrattas and the Nizam. Rise of We turn, therefore, to the rise and progress of Hyder AIL this extraordinary chief, who proved, eventually, to be the most formidable and inveterate foe the English ever encountered in India. The principality of Mysore was one of the provinces of the Hindoo kingdom of Beejuynugur, which was extinguished on the field of Tellicotta in 1564. In the confusion created by this event, it fell to the lot of a Hindoo prince, whose descendants continued, for two cen- turies, to maintain their independence and to encroach on their neighbours. About the year 1750, the old dynasty having become effete, the whole power of the state fell into the hands of the minister, Nunjeraj. It was at this juncture that Hyder appeared on the scene, and, in a few years, super- seded both king and minister. His family came originally from the Punjab, and his father, Putteh Mahomed, gradually rose to be a sirdar of peons, or head constable, and then ob- tained the command of a small body of troops. Hyder was born about the year 1702, and, as he advanced in years, gave himself up to the pleasures of the chase, and plunged into voluptuous riot. Like Sevajee, he was never able to read or write, but this deficiency was in some measure supplied by an extraordinary memory. He remained in complete obscurity during forty-seven years of his life, and first entered the Mysore army as a volunteer at the siege of Deonhully, where his energy and self-possession attracted the notice of Nun- jeraj. xii.] HYDER'S PROGRESS. 321 The foundation ^ ne Hester immediately promoted him 10 the of his fortune, command of 50 horse and 200 infantry, with instructions to augment their number, and it was this commission which laid the foundation of his future fortune. In 1755, the difficult task of providing for the safety of the fortress of Dindigul, lying to the south of Trichinopoly, was committed to him, and it was while in command of this post that he appears first to have entertained those ambitious views which he was enabled to bring to a consummation in the brief space of six years. Dindigul became the cradle of his power, and it was there that he increased his resources by a system of plunder, of which there had been no example since the days of Sevajee. His troops were let loose indis- criminately on every one, friend or foe, who had anything to lose, and their zeal was sharpened by permission to retain half the booty for themselves. Hyder's progress to power was aided in no small degree by his unrivalled power of dis- simulation. Having on one occasion reported a great victory to Nunjeraj, that minister sent his commissaiy to bestow the usual pensions for wounds, when 700 men were exhi- bited to him, wrapped in bandages which had been steeped in turmeric, whereas only 67 had been wounded. By similar acts of deceit, and by the repetition of false musters, * he was enabled to obtain large supplies of money, and to in- crease his force to 7,000. At the same time, he procured skilled artizans from the French settlements on the coast, and established an arsenal and a laboratory, and brought his artillery to a high degree of perfection. In 1757, the Peshwa, Balaiee Rao, made one of ThePeshwabe- ,.,., j -.1 ,-. -j sieges seringa- his periodical raids into Mysore, and, with the aid ityde^acqui- of tne European engineers whom he had enlisted, sitions. laid close siege to Seringapatam. The minister was obliged to purchase a respite by the sacrifice of thirty-two lacs of rupees, and to pledge a large territory for the' amount he was umtble to furnish in money and jewels. The Mysore treasury was exhausted by this heavy di^in, and the troops T 822 HYDER ASSISTS LALLT. [CHAP. became mutinous for their arrears. Hyder hastened to the capital, and engaged to satisfy their claims, on receiving the assignment of fresh jaygeers. By this politic act he in- creased his resources, and at the same time obtained an influence over the troops, and all classes began to regard him as the guardian of order. Soon after, he persuaded the minister to expel the Mahratta officers from the districts which had been pledged to the Peshwa, who immediately entered the country with a large force. Hyder was appointed to the command of the Mysore army, and harassed the Mahrattas in their own style of warfare, with so much effect that they offered to relinquish the mortgaged territory for an immediate payment. Hyder raised the money from the bankers of the city on his own personal security, and the districts were transferred to him. Then came fresh mutinies, and the raja and the minister were besieged in their palaces. Hyder was at hand to satisfy the troops and received fresh assignments, till he found himself hi possession of half the domains of the state. Hyder assists Lally was at this time besieged by Coote in laiiy, neo. Pondicherry, and solicited the aid of Hyder, who engaged to furnish him with 8,000 horse and foot and a due proportion of artillery, on being put in possession of the im- portant fortress of Thiagur. His relative and general, Mukdoom Ah, on his way to Pondicherry with the troops, fell in with a small English detachment, and defeated it. Hyder was so elated with this success, that he immediately ordered the strength of his contingent to be doubled. If this increased force had reached the French settlement while it was besieged, the war between the English and the French might have exhibited a very different result. But Hyder was Suddenly obliged to recall the whole force for the protection of his own interests. His usurpation of authority had created great indignation at the court, and the queen-mother and the raja, in conjunction with his bosom friend, Khundeh Rao, determined to take advantage of the absence of these troops XH.] HYDER, MASTER OF MYSORE. 323 to crush his rising power. He was encamped under the fort of Seringapatam with only 1,600 men, when the guns were unexpectedly opened on him, and he was obliged to fly for his life. He retreated to Bangalore, and recalled his troops from Pondicherry, but was overtaken and signally defeated by Khundeh Rao. Hyder's fortunes now appeared desperate, but covers his they were restored by his matchless tact and usurps the hypocrisy. Unarmed and alone, he suddenly pre- throne, i76i. sen t e( j himself before the minister, Nunjeraj, acknowledged his ingratitude with an appearance of the deepest penitence, and entreated that he might be forgiven, and allowed to serve under him hi any capacity, however mean. Nunjeraj was so simple as to give faith to these pro- fessions and condone his offence, and Hyder was thus enabled to assemble an army, but Khundeh Rao still followed him with such vigour that his escape appeared impossible. In this emergency, he contrived to throw in the way of his pursuer letters addressed to his officers, with the seal of Nunjeraj, in which allusion was made to certain treacherous proposals. Khundeh Rao, considering himself betrayed by his own officers, quitted his army, and fled with precipitation to Seringapatam. Hyder was now enabled to assemble a powerful army, with which he ascended the ghauts, and on his arrival at the capital in May, sent a message to the raja stating, " that large sums were due to him from the state, which must be liquidated, after which, if the raja thought fit to continue his services, it was well ; otherwise he would de- part and seek his fortune elsewhere." Such a message, backed by an overwhelming force, could not be misunder- stood. The raja yielded to necessity, and in June, 1761, re- linquished the government to Hyder Ali, on receiving an assignment of lands of the annual value of three lacs of rupees for himself, and one lac for Nunjeraj. Augmentation Hyder, now master of the kingdom of Mysore, directed all his energies to its aggrandisement, Y 2 324 MADHOO RAO PESHWA. [CHAP. and in the course of two years extended his frontier to the banks of the Kistna. In 1763, he invaded the terri- tory of Bednore, on the summit of the ghauts, which over- looked the maritime province of Canara. The capital was eight miles in circumference, and the country had not been exposed to the desolation of war. The queen set fire to her palace, and fled with a large portion of the inhabitants into the woods, and Bednore submitted without a struggle. It is said to have been the most wealthy city in the Deccan, and the plunder which Hyder acquired has been estimated at twelve crores of rupees. This sum is a manifest exaggera- tion, but he himself always attributed his subsequent pros- perity to the treasure he acquired in this city. He had previously changed his name from Hyder Naik to Hyder AH Khan Bahadoor, and he now introduced greater etiquette and splendour into the arrangements of his court, and moreover took advantage of the access he had obtained to the sea coast, to commence the construction of a navy. To turn now to the progress of affairs among Marthoo Eao, the Mahrattas. On the death of Balajee Rao, after *m wa> Sept ' tne fatal Defeat at Paniput, his son, Madhoo Rao, a youth of eighteen, proceeded to Satara, in com- pany with his uncle, Roghoonath Rao, known in British annals as Raghoba, and was invested with the office of Peshwa by the descendant of Sevajee, who was still held in confinement by his cruel grandmother, Tara-bye. Nizam Ali, the dewan, or prime minister of his brother Salabut Jung, who had usurped the whole power of the Hyderabad kingdom, resolved to take advantage of the crippled state of the Mahrattas, and the confusion of a new reign, to recover the district which the deceased Peshwa had wrested from him in the preceding year. He marched to Poona with a large army, but, on arriving within fourteen miles of it, was induced to relax his demands, and accept lands yielding twenty-seven lacs of rupees a year. Six months after, he placed his brother under restraint, and not long after, when intelligence Xn.] HE DEFEATS HYDER. 325 arrived that he had been recognised soobadar of the Deccan, by the peace of Paris, caused him to be put to death. Before the cession of the districts was completed, the restless Raghoba assembled his troops to oppose Nizam Ali, who immediately formed an alliance with Bhonslay, the raja of Berar, and marched again to Poona which, on this occasion, he plundered and burnt. Raghoba retaliated on him by marching to Hyderabad, and laying it under contributions. The two armies met on the banks of the Godavery. The faithless Nizam Ali de- Bhonslay was induced by the promise of lands, feated by Ra- valued at thirty-two lacs of rupees a year, to ghoba,1763. , ... *. , . . _ \ desert .Nizam Ali, and join Raghoba; and the result of this treachery was the entire defeat of the Nizam with immense slaughter. The raja of Berar, however, was not long permitted to retain the fruits of his perfidy. He had incensed the Peshwa by joining Nizam Ali, and Nizam Ali by deserting to the Mahrattas on the eve of the battle, and in 1766, the united armies of these princes invaded Berar, and constrained him to restore four-fifths of the territory he had gained by his treachery. Mahrattas at- Mysore had hitherto been considered by the tack and defeat Mahrattas a submissive province, paying chout, and affording a field for plunder when no other expedition happened to be on hand. The sudden rise and rapid encroachment of a new power roused the indignation of the Peshwa ; and, having disposed of Nizam Ali, he deter- mined to chastise the audacity of Hyder, who had already increased his force to 20,000 horse and 40,000 foot, one-half of which consisted of well-disciplined infantry battalions. It was his first regular encounter with the Mahrattas, and he was completely foiled hi all his movements. At the close of the monsoon, the Mahrattas again took the field, and forced Hyder to a general action in which he was again routed, with the loss of 10,000 men. The Mahratta horse spread over the country and plundered it without mercy, and Hyder con- sidered himself fortunate in obtaining peace by the restora- 326 CONFEDERACY AGAINST HYDER. [CHAP. tion of the greater portion of the districts he had usurped, and the payment of thirty-two lacs of rupees. These disasters shook his power in the other provinces he had recently con- quered, and it required a full year to restore his authority. Early in 1766, his ambition led him to invade the maritime province of Malabar. The Nan's, or military chieftains, anxious to maintain their hereditary renown, and to preserve their independence, offered a noble resistance, but their chivalrous valour could not avert their fate, and the whole pro- vince was reduced to subjection. In his progress along the coast, Hyder reached the town of Calicut, memorable as the place where the Europeans first set foot on the soil of India. The district had never been invaded by the Mahomedan arms, and the Hindoo chief still bore the title of Zamorin, as in the days of Albuquerque. He was awed into submission by the overwhelming force of Hyder, but seeing his minister subjected to torture, he set fire to his palace, and voluntarily perished hi the flames to avoid a similar fate. confederacy From these schemes of conquest Hyder was against Hyder, recalled to Seringapatam, to meet a confederacy which had been formed towards the close of 1766 by the Nizam and the Mahrattas, for the entire conquest of his country. Into this league the Madras Presidency was unfortunately drawn by the treaty concluded with the Nizam on the 12th of November in that year, which stipulated that the English should assist him with an auxiliary force, of undefined strength, " to settle the affairs of his government in everything that was right and proper," though it was distinctly understood that the first service in which it was to be employed was the conquest or plunder of Mysore. The government of Madras was then under Mr. Palk, who had gone out to India as a chaplain, but renounced his orders to enter the more lucrative civil service of the Company, in which he amassed a large fortune, and on his retxirn to England was created a baronet. It was this unfortunate treaty which involved the Presidency in a war with Hyder, XH.] THE NIZAM AND HYDER ATTACK THE ENGLISH. 327 and subjected them eventually to the greatest ignominy. The Mahrattas determined to forestal the Nizam, and without waiting for his co-operation, crossed the Kistna in January, 1767, and before the end of March had plundered the northern districts to the extent of seventeen lacs of rupees. Hyder discreetly bought them off by a payment of thirty lacs more. Madhoo Rao, the Peshwa, on his return from this successful expedition in May, met the Nizam's army at Colar, and was requested to share the plunder with it, but he treated the request with derision, and returned to his capital, leaving him and his English ally to settle with Hyder as they best could. Colonel Smith who commanded the contingent Nizam deserts . ,-, ... , , - , ... ,-, -WT. , tue English and of British troops, found, on joining the Nizam s 1767 Hyder> cam P th at this perfidious prince, had already entered into negotiations with Hyder, and the Colonel advised the Presidency to be prepared for the invasion of the Carnatic by their ally, as well as by their enemy. To remove suspicion the Nizam made the strongest protestations of inviolable good faith ; but Colonel Smith, on entering the Mysore territory in May, 1767, perceived such unequivocal tokens of collusion, that he retired with the bulk of his force towards his own frontier, leaving only three bat* talions and some field pieces with the Nizam, at his special request. While this negotiation was in progress, the Nizam was intriguing with Nunjeraj, formerly minister of the old raj of Mysore, for the subversion of Hyder's power. Hyder, who had discovered the plot, invited Nunjeraj to Seringapatam, after taking a solemn oath on the Koran to do him no harm, and, on his arrival, showed him that the oath had been taken on a book of blank leaves, and then stripped him of all hia property, and consigned him to perpetual imprisonment. The bargain being now completed, the Nizam engaged to join in an attack on the Englbh, on receiving an immediate payment of twenty lacs of rupees, and a promise of six lacs of tribute. But this scene of treachery was relieved by one act of gene- 328 HfDER DEFEATED BY THE ENGLISH. [CHAP. rosity ; the English contingent of three battalions was allowed to leave the Nizam's camp without being attacked. The com- bined army of Hyder and the Nizam which now advanced against the English, numbered 42,000 cavalry, 28,000 infantry, and 100 guns, while Colonel Smith was only able to muster 1,030 sabres, and 5,800 bayonets, with 16 guns. The first encounter with the English troops changama, 3rd took place on the 25th of August, when a small Sept., 1767. detachment was surprised and discomfited. The honour of the British flag was, however, retrieved at Chan- gama, where Colonel Smith totally routed the allied force ; but as the Madras Council had entrusted the charge of the com- missariat to their Nabob, Mahomed Ah', and he had, as usual, disappointed them, Colonel Smith found his army straitened for provisions, and was obliged to fall back on Trino- malee, where, after various manoeuvres, he was able to offer battle to the allies. The engagement lasted two days, and ended in their total defeat, with the loss of 4,000 men and 64 guns. Their discomfiture would have been more complete, if the officer sent to improve the victory had not been led into a swamp by his guide, who, like most of the guides attached to this force, was one of Hyder's spies. Meanwhile his eldest son, Tippoo, then seventeen years of age, was em- ployed with a body of 5,000 horse, in plundering the country houses of the Madras gentry in the vicinity of the town, and the members of government escaped capture only by the eagerness of the Mysore troops for booty ; but on hearing the result of the action at Trinomalee, he hastily retired and rejoined his father's camp. For the next three months both paities were engaged in various operations, without interest or result, and Hyder was soon after called to the western coast, and deserted by the Nizam. Expedition The government of Bengal had not only as- Mdteat gal> sisted Madras with money for the support of the with the war, but sent an expedition under Colonel Peach by sea into the Hyderabad territories to create XII.] DISGRACEFUL TREATY WITH THE NIZAM. 329 a diversion. He landed in the Northern Sircars, and pene- trated the country to Warungole, the ancient metropolis of Telingana, only eighty-six miles from Hyderabad. Nizam All began to repent of his alliance with Hyder, which had brought him neither plunder nor territory, but abundant dis- grace. He began, moreover, to tremble for his own capital, on which Colonel Peach was steadily advancing, and he de- termined at once to abandon his ally, and come to terms with the English. After several weeks of negotiation with Colonel Smith, the President at Madras concluded that memorable Treaty of the 23rd of February, 1768, which was not less ignominious than that which had been made two years before. The Nizam had been twice defeated in the south ; his do- minions had been successfully invaded in the north, and his capital was threatened. The President was in a position to dictate his own terms, but he abandoned every advantage and voluntarily placed his government in the most humiliating position. Instead of insisting on the right to hold the Nor- thern Sircars on the strength of the imperial firman, he agreed to pay tribute for them, and to postpone the possession of the Guntoor Sircar, till the death of Basalut Jung, the brother of the Nizam, to whom he had assigned it. Hyder Ah', more- over, who had been absolute master of Mysore for seven years, and was one of the greatest powers in the Deccan, was contemptuously styled Hyder Naik, and treated as a rebel and a usurper. It was also stipulated that the English should conquer the Carnatic Balaghaut from him, and hold it of the Nizam, subject to a tribute of seven lacs of rupees a-year, and, to the payment of chout to the Mahrattas, though they were no parties to the treaty. To crown their folly, the Madras Council again involved their masters in the labyrinth of Deccan politics, by agreeing to assist the Nizam with two battalions of sepoys, and six pieces of artillery, commanded by Europeans, whenever he should require them. The treaty was reprobated by their masters in Leadenhall Street, who indignantly remarked, "We cannot take a view of your con- 330 OPERATIONS ON THE WESTERN COAST. [CHAP. duct from the commencement of your negotiations for the sircars, without the strongest disapprobation, and when we see the opulent fortunes acquired by our servants since that period, it gives but too much weight to the public opinion, that this rage for negotiations, treaties, and alliances has private advantage for its object, more than the public good." Hyder on the Hyder's presence was required on the western western coast, coast, to make head against a formidable expedi- tion fitted out from Bombay against his ports and his naval power. Mangalore and Onore were captured, and the Mysore fleet destroyed ; but in the month of May Hyder descended the ghauts with an imposing force, and completely turned the scale. The British commander at Mangalore, after a wretched defence, re-embarked his troops, 1,500 in number, abandoning, not only all his stores, but 260 of his wounded soldiers, among whom were 80 Europeans. Hyder, after wreaking his vengeance on the districts which had manifested a spirit of rebellion during the brief ascendancy of the English power on the coast, returned, after the lapse of seven months, to prosecute the war in the eastern districts. But the great opportunity which his long absence afforded to the British army in the Carnatic had been completely sacrificed by the imbecility of the Madras authorities. As if the king- dom of Mysore were already in their possession, they had given it away to their Nabob, Mahomed Ah', and he accom- panied the army to take charge of the districts as they were occupied. The provision of the commissariat, on which the movements of the army entirely depended, was, by a fatal error, committed to him, and Colonel Smith, the commandant was controlled and hampered by the deputation of two members of Council to regulate its movements. In spite, however, of these embarrassments, his exertions were attended with such success, that nearly one-half the dominions of Hyder, to- gether with eight of his principal forts, and the most impor- tant mountain passes fell into his hands. Hyder, after a calm consideration of the progress and prospects of the campaign, XH.] TIDE TURNS AGAINST THE ENGLISH. 831 deemed it the part of prudence, in the month of September, to make overtures to Colonel Smith, offering to cede the Baramahal to the Company, and to pay down ten lacs of rupees. But the President and Council, inflated with recent success, made the most extravagant demands, and Hyder broke off the negotiation, and prepared for a mortal conflict. The tide tums ^he tide of success now turned against the against the En- English. Colonel Smith was constrained by the glish, 1768. , . . ' skilful manoeuvres of Hyder to raise the siege of Bangalore, and it was with great difficulty that he was able to maintain his ground. The " field deputies " and the Nabob had remained at Colar, where a body of troops, equal to a division, was idly detained for their protection. They had managed between them to ruin the prospects of the campaign ; the deputies, by their mischievous interference, the Nabob by his neglect in regard to the supply of provisions. On the ap- pearance of a detachment sent by Hyder to terrify them, they hastened back to Madras, accompanied by Colonel Smith, who had been invited to return to the Presidency to make room for a more favourite commander, Colonel Wood. Thus ended all the bright visions of conquest, in which the Madras Council had been indulging during the year, and they were now obliged to limit their efforts to the defence of the Company's territories. On the 6th of December, Hyder descended into the Baramahal, and in the course of six weeks recovered all the districts which he had lost. It was now the turn of the Council to solicit an accommodation with him, but the terms they proposed did not suit him, and, after two months of fruitless negotiations, he resumed his ravages, marking his progress by the flames of villages, and the flight of the wretched inhabitants. Colonel Smith was placed at the head of the troops, and, by his rapid and skilful movements, so effectually baffled the plans of Hyder, that he determined to attempt, by one bold stroke, to bring the war to a termina- Hyder dictates tion. Sending all his guns, heavy baggage, and peace, 1769. infantry back to Mysore by the pass of Ahtoor, 332 HYDER DICTATES PEACE AT MADRAS. [CHAP. he placed himself at the head of 6,000 chosen horse, unen- cumbered by a single gun, and marched a hundred and thirty miles in three days and a half. Early on the morning of the 29th of March, his advanced guard appeared at St. Thome, five miles from Madras, and a messenger soon after an- nounced to the bewildered Council that he had come to con- duct the negotiations in person. Colonel Smith had been rapidly following in his track, and would shortly have reached Madras. Hyder therefore demanded that an order should be immediately sent requiring him to halt, wherever he might be, on the arrival of the communication, which was des- patched by one of his own dromedaries, and the Colonel, to his great chagrin, was obliged to remain inactive during this disgraceful negotiation. Hyder likewise required that Mr. Dupre, who had recently arrived at Madras, to succeed to the office of President, should be sent to his camp to adjust the conditions of peace. On the 4th of April a treaty was con- cluded on the very moderate terms of a mutual restitution of conquests. But it was at the same time stipulated that " in case either of the contracting parties should be attacked, they should from their respective countries mutually assist each other to drive the enemy out." Thus ended this ill-managed and unfortunate war by a treaty dictated by Hyder, under the walls of Madras. Hyder, having concluded peace with the En- nd the glish, and obtained the promise of their support, Mahrattas, began to set the Mahrattas at defiance, and not only withheld the payments due to them, but levied contributions on their districts. Madhoo Rao, the Peshwa. therefore, assembled a large army for the entire and final subjugation of Mysore. The forts in the eastern pro- vinces were rapidly reduced, and the districts laid waste ; and Hyder, knowing that his infantry, even with their high disci- pline, could ill stand the charge of the Mahratta horse, retired westward, and made overtures of peace, offering to pay chout, but refusing to surrender territory. Madhoo Rao XH.J HTDER DEFEATED BY THE MAHRATTAS. 833 demanded a crore of rupees, and the negotiation was broken off. In the month of May, 1771, he was constrained, by the state of his health, to relinquish the command of the Mahratta army, which devolved on Trimbuck mama. Hyder, who dreaded the abilities of the Peshwa, but held the new com- mander in contempt, advanced with 35,000 men and forty guns, to the pass of Milgota, where he found himself en- trapped into a false position. After sustaining an incessant cannonade for eight days, he was constrained, on the 5th of March, to break up Ms encampment, and commence his re- treat to Seringapatam, a distance of about twenty-two miles. The army commenced its stealthy march by nigbt, but it was revealed to the Mahrattas by accident or treachery, and they instantly made a vigorous assault on the retiring force. Hyder, who had been drinking to excess, and had not been able to relieve the effects by his usual period of sleep, was in a state of helpless inebriety. Tippoo was nowhere to be found, and when he presented himself to his father, the next morning, was overwhelmed with abuse,, and beaten without mercy, on which he threw his turban on the ground, and swore by the prophet that he would not draw sword any more that day. The rout was complete, and the carnage prodigious, and the army was saved from extermination only by the avidity of the Mahrattas for plunder. Hyder, on re- covering his senses in the morning, mounted a swift horse, and did not draw rein till he reached his capital. The Mahrattas laid close siege to it, but as they managed it with more than usual absurdity, Hyder had leisure to collect his scattered forces. During these troubles, he repeatedly im- portuned the President of Madras for that succour which the English government was bound, by the recent treaty, to afford him. He offered to pay twenty. lacs of rupees for a brigade of troops, and to cede the Baraniahal, Salem, and Ahtoor, and threatened to throw himself into the arms of the French if the assistance was withheld. The President con- sidered it of vital importance to the honour and interests of 334 MAHKATTA EXPEDITION TO HINDOSTAN. [CHAP. the Company to support Hyder. But he was paralysed by the presence and the interference of Sir John Lindsay, whom the ministry of the day had, by an act of incredible folly, sent out as the King's representative to the court of Mahomed Ali, and that prince was thus relieved from the salutary control of the Madras government. It was two years before thia mischievous mission was recalled, during which time the Nabob was enabled to indulge his extravagant propensities with perfect impunity, to the great delight and benefit of his European creditors. He insisted on an alliance with the Mahrattas, which was supported by Sir John Lindsay, and the Madras Council, not daring to act in opposition to one who was clothed with the royal authority, were constrained to abandon Hyder to his fate. The desolation of his districts, and the exhaustion of his resources, at length compelled him to sue for peace to the Mahrattas, which was not granted without the immediate payment of thirty-six lacs of rupees, besides the sti- pulation of fourteen lacs of rupees of annual tribute, and the cession of territory, which reduced the kingdom of Mysore to narrower limits than it comprised at the beginning of the cen- tury. Nothing exhibits the incapacity of the Madras authori- ties during the war with Hyder so conspicuously as the contrast between the disgrace which he inflicted on them and the humiliation he sustained from the Mahrattas two years later. The breach of faith to which he attributed his misfortunes he never forgot or forgave, and it resulted in establishing Mah- ratta garrisons on the northern frontier of the Carnatic. The incursions of the Mahrattas into Hindostan expedition u> were for a time checked by the battle of Paniput, Hmdostan, an( j ^Q sent an envoy to Bombay to solicit the aid of a sufficient force to establish him in the government at Poona, and offered to defray all the expenses of the troops, as well as to make large grants of territoiy to the Company. The President and Council eagerly grasped at the proposal, and on the 6th of September, 1774, offered to assist him with 2,500 troops, on condition of his advancing fifteen or twenty lacs of rupees, and engaging to cede Salsette and Bassein in perpetuity to the Company. But Raghoba, even in his extremity, refused to alienate Salsette from the Mahratta dominions. While these negotiations were pending, the Bombay authorities received information that a large armament was fitted out at Goa for the recovery of these possessions, and as it was felt that the Portuguese would be more dangerous neighbours than the Mahrattas, an expedition was sent to Salsette, and the island occupied before the end of the year. natrhoba-8 Meanwhile, the Regency at Poona having suc- weatywith cecded by large offers in detaching Holkar and nbay, 1775. gj n( jj a f rom h e cause of Raghoba, moved against him with a body of 30,000 men, and he narrowly escaped being captured by his perfidious allies and delivered up to his enemies. lie retreated hi all haste, leaving his beguin at XIII.] BATTLE OP ARRAS. 859 Dhar, where she gave birth to a son, Bajee Rao, the last of the Peshwas. On the 17th of February, the troops of the Regency overtook him at Wassud, where his army was totally routed and dispersed, and he fled from the field with only a thousand horse. Ten days after this event, Colonel Keating arrived at Surat with the force which had been despatched from Bombay to his aid. Raghoba soon after joined his camp, and, after some further negotiations, affixed his seal on the 6th of March, 1775, to a treaty, known in history as the Treaty of Surat, concluded by the Bombay President, without the authority of the Calcutta Government, and which involved the Company in the first Mahratta war. The President had no evidence that Raghoba was chargable with the assassina- tion of his nephew, but his guilt was universally believed by the Mahrattas, and the alliance of the English with a man branded with the crime of murder created a deep and lasting- prejudice against them. By this treaty the Bombay Govern- ment engaged to furnish Raghoba with 3,000 British troops, and he pledged himself to the payment of eighteen lacs of rupees a-year, made an assignment of lands of the annual value of nineteen lacs, and such was the desperate state of his affairs agreed to concede Salsette and Bassein. The army of Colonel Keating, joined by the troops whom Ragho- ba's officers had succeeded in collecting together after their dispersion, manoeuvred for a month between the Sabermuttee and the Myhee. It was during this period that Colonel Keating indiscreetly attempted to detach Futteh Sing Guick- war from the Poona regency ; but the English troops had as yet achieved nothing, and the Colonel's envoy, a young lieu- tenant, was treated with the most humiliating contempt, jiattie of Arnw, ^ ne Bombay Government having thus embarked i;tu May, me. j n a war ^th the Mahratta Regency, ordered Colonel Keating to quit Guzerat, and march upon Poona ; but, as he moved down to the Myhee, he found the Mahratta army posted at Arras to dispute his progress. It was on this field that the English and Mahratta forces encountered each SfiO TRTCATY WITH RAGHOBA DISALLOWED. [CFIAP. other, for the first time since the gentlemen of the factory at Surat had so gallantly repulsed Sevajee in 1669. The brunt of the action fell on Colonel Keating's brigade, which was attacked by an army of ten tunes its number. The loss of life was severe, but, though the English troops were for a time staggered, their final triumph was complete, and the Mahrattas retreated in haste and disorder to the Nerbudda. Colonel Keating pursued them with vigour, and they con- sidered themselves fortunate in effecting then- escape across the river, after they had thrown all their heavy guns into it. Futteh Sing now hastened to make his peace with the victors, and engaged to furnish Raghoba with twenty-six lacs of rupees in two months, together with a large body of troops, and to secure to the Company a share of the Broach revenues to the extent of two lacs a-year. The Mahratta navy, more- over, which consisted of six vessels, carrying from 26 to 46 guns, was completely crippled by the English commodore. The campaign had been prosperous by sea and land ; the Company had obtained a territorial revenue of twenty-four lacs a-year; the Mahrattas had been driven with disgrace across the Nerbudda, and so effectually damaged was their reputation, that the Nizam was emboldened to take advantage of their distress, and, under the threat of joining Raghoba, exacted a cession of lands valued at eleven lacs a-year. But the brilliant prospects which this success opened up were ruined by the proceedings of the Calcutta triumvirate. The treaty with Raghoba, which appeared likely Treaty with . , * ._,_, , ' / oba disai- to involve a war with the Regency, was severely lowed at CM- condemned by both parties in the Council in Cal- cutta, 1776. rf r cutta, as "impolitic, dangerous, unauthorised, and unjust." When the war, however, had actually commenced, Hastings considered it almost impossible to withdraw from it with honour and safety, before the conclusion ; and he advised that the Bombay Government should be vigorously supported in conducting it, and instructed to bring it to a termination as speedily as possible. But Mr. Francis and his colleagues XTII.] TREATY OF POORUNDER. 361 resented the audacity of the Bombay Council in making war without their consent, ordered the treaty with Raghoba to be immediately annulled, and all the British troops to be with- drawn from the field. At the same time, they announced their intention to send an agent of their own to open an indepen- dent negotiation with the ministers at Poona. In vain did the Bombay Council remonstrate with them on the disgrace of violating a solemn treaty. Colonel Upton was sent to Poona to disavow their proceedings ; their authority was paralysed, and their character wantonly disgraced in the eyes of the princes of India. The Treaty of ^ ne as ^ute ministers at Poona were not slow to Poorumier, take advantage of these discords, and extolled to March 1,1776. ,,,.,,. j c ,, ,, c the skies the wisdom or " the great governor or Calcutta, who had ordered peace to be concluded." When, how- ever, Colonel Upton came to propose that Salsette and Bassein and the assigned revenues of Broach should be retained by the Company, they assumed a lofty tone, and spurned the con- ditions, demanding the immediate surrender of Raghoba and of all the territory recently acquired by the English ; but they offered, as a matter of favour, to contribute twelve lacs of rupees towards the expenses which had been incurred in the war. The majority of the Council had, in fact, cut the sinews of the negotiation by the precipitate recal of the army from the field, but the insolent reply of the Regency roused their in- dignation, and they determined to support Raghoba, and to prosecute the war with all vigour. Letters were at once despatched to the various princes of India to secure then- al- liance, or their neutrality ; a supply of treasure was despatched to Bombay, and troops were ordered to be held in readiness to take the field. But the Poona ministers, after this display of arrogance, unexpectedly conceded the greater part of Colonel Upton's demands, and the Treaty of Poorunder was signed on the 1st of March, 1776, by Succaram Bappoo and Nana Fur- nuvese. It annulled the engagements of the Bombay Govern- ment with Raghoba, who was to disband his army and retire 3G2 TREATY DISAPPROVED IN ENGLAND. [CHAP. to the banks of the Godavery on a pension of three lacs of rupees a-year. The British army was to quit the field. Sal- sette was to be retained by the Company if the Governor- General desired it, but ah 1 the other acquisitions were to be relinquished ; the claim on the revenues of Broach was con- ceded, together with twelve lacs of rupees, towards the ex- penses of the war, "by way of favour." Considering that all the advantages of the campaign had been on the side of the English, the Bombay Presidency was fully justified in repro- bating the treaty, as " highly injurious to the reputation a5 the interests of the Company." It was a flagrant breach of faith with Ragoba, and it served to impair the confidence of the native powers in the engagements of the British Govern- ment. It inspired the Poona Regency with an undue sense of theirown importance, and rendered asecond warinevitable. The Bombay Council did not conceal their anxiety to obstruct the treaty. They gave an asylum to Raghoba at Surat, and throw their field armies into Surat and Broach. The Poona ministers raved at this infraction of the treaty, and threatened to carry lire and sword into every part of the Company's dominions ; but all then: menaces were treated with contempt at Bombay. . . On the 20th of August, 1776, a despatch was Decision of the court, received from the Court of Directors, approving of md!" 80 ' the treaty concluded with Raghoba at Surat, and directing the other Presidencies to give him their support, and to retain the territories which had been ceded by him. The Bombay Council, smarting under the degradation inflicted on them by the Supreme Government, lost no time in turning this favourable decision to account. To the great annoyance of the Poona Regency, they gave countenance to an impostor, who claimed the office of Peshwa, as the identical Sudaseeb Rao Bhao, who had disappeared at the battle of Paniput. They invited Raghoba to Bombay, and settled 10,000 rupees a month on him. The Mahratta cabinet remonstrated against this fresh violation of the treaty of Poorunder, but it was weakened by internal discords. Succararn Bappoo, the head XIII.] REVOLUTION IN FAVOUR OP RAGHOBA. 363 of the ministry, was jealous of the growing power of his younger associate, Nana Furnuvese, who had fled from the field of Paniput, and who united the highest political talent with a singular want of personal courage. His cousin, Maroba Furnuvese, had been the minister of the deceased Madhoo Rao, and took a prominent part in public affairs, but in the interests of Succaram. Mahdajee Sindia was endeavouring to increase his own consequence by acting as umpire between the two factions. To increase the confusion at Poona, a French ad- venturer, of the name of St. Lubin, arrived there in March, 1777, and announced himself as the envoy of the King of France, who was on the eve of a war with the English. He was authorised, as he said, to offer the Mahrattas the support of 2,500 European troops, an abundant supply of stores and munitions of war, and officers to discipline 10,000 sepoys. He affected horror at the connection of the English with the assassin Raghoba, and produced in the durbar, with a burst of grief, a picture of the barbarous murder of Narayun Rao, which had been painted under his direction at Paris. Nana Furnuvese affected to credit his mission, and, with the view of annoying the English government, afforded him eveiy en- couragement, and made over to him the harbour of Choul, only twenty-three miles from Bombay. Revolution in Meanwhile, a despatch was received at Bom- favour of bay and Calcutta from the Court of Directors, Kaghoba, 1778. ... .- a i_ A i. regretting the sacrifices made by the treaty of Poorunder, and stating that, although they considered them- selves bound in honour to adhere to it, yet, if there was any attempt on the part of the Poona Regency to evade its pro- visions, the Bombay Presidency was at liberty to renew the alliance with Raghoba. The President and Council found little difficulty in discovering infractions of a treaty which those who had dictated it never intended to respect but as it suited their interests, and prepared to espouse the cause of Raghoba. Their movements were hastened by the course of events at the Mahratta capital. Moraba Furuuvese, assisted 6 COUNTER REVOLUTION AT FOONA. by Holkar, resolved to support Raghoba, and Succaram Bappoo joined the confederacy, and despatched an envoy to Bombay to request the government to conduct Raghoba to Poona with a military escort. The proposal was eagerly accepted, and preparations were immediately made for the expedition. Hastings, who had now regained his ascendancy in the Council, gave the project his approbation, partly be- cause it was countenanced by Succaram Bappoo, one of the parties to the treaty of Poorunder, but chiefly because Nana Furnuvese was giving encouragement to the French, whose influence in Indian politics he considered the greatest of calamities. In a letter dated the 23rd of March, 1778, he authorized the Bombay Government " to assist in tranquil- lizing the Mahratta state," and engaged to send a large force across the continent to resist the aggressions of- the French, which, in his opinion, threatened the existence of the Com- pany's possessions in the west of India. Nana Furnuvese was obliged to bend to the Counter revolu- tion at Poona, storm, and retire to Poorunder. Hurry Punt, the July ' 1T 5 Mahratta general-in-chief, and one of his parti- zans, was, at the time, on his way to Meritch, to join Sindia in resisting the encroachments of Hyder, to which reference will be made hereafter. They were hastily recalled from the south, and reached Poorunder on the 8th of July, where they united with the army of Holkar, who had been, in the mean- time, detached from the opposite party by a bribe of nine lacs of rupees, and restored Nana Furnuvese again to power. Maroba and his colleagues were arrested on the llth, and many of them put to death, but Succaram Bappoo, whose name it was deemed important to associate with the pro- ceedings of the state, was simply placed under restraint. The party of Raghoba was thus extinguished at Poona. But the Bombay President and Council were not disposed to desert him. They addressed certain questions to the new ministry at Poona ; the replies were considered a violation of the treaty of Poorunder, and it was resolved to put to use the XIIJ.] EXPEDITION TO POONA. 365 liberty granted to them in the despatch of the Court of Di- rectors and in the letter of Hastings. Towards the end of August, he informed them that he was endeavouring 1 to form an alliance with the Rajah of Berar, which would embrace the politics of Poona, and enjoined them to avoid any measure hostile to the Poona Regency. But their passions were en- listed in the cause of Raghoba, which, in effect, they made their own; and without adequate preparation, without a commander on whom they could depend, and without alli- ances, they determined to send a handful of men against the strength of the Mahratta empire. Nana Furnuvese perceived the gathering storm, and prepared to meet it; he enlisted recruits in every direction, repaired and provisioned his forte, and refitted his vessels. Expedition to ^ new * rea ty was now made with Raghoba, roona,jtfth which differed little from that of Surat. An army of 4,000 men, of whom 600 were Europeans, was equipped and entrusted to Colonel Egerton, who had seen some service in Europe, but was little qualified for the duty assigned him. Disregarding the experience so dearly bought in the war with Hyder in 1768, " field deputies,*' under the name of civil commissioners, were sent with the army to control its movements, and to check peculation. Carnac, who had won some credit in the field in Bengal, was ap- pointed the senior commissioner, and he exhibited his fitness for such a trust by a squabble, on the first day, with Colonel Egerton about the military honours to be paid him. The troops, encumbered with 19,000 bullocks besides other cattle, embarked at Panwell on the 25th of November, and, as if it had been designed to afford Nana and Sindia the most ample leisure for preparation, moved at the rate of two miles a day. It was the 23rd of December before the army ascended the ghauts, when its disasters began by the loss of one of the most energetic, bold, and judicious officers in its ranks, Captain Stewart, whose name, after the lapse of half a century, was still held in veneration by the inhabitants 866 DISGRACEFUL CONVENTION OF WURGAUM. [CHAP. of those valleys as Stewart Phakray, or Stewart the gal- lant. Disastrous pro- On the 6th of Jaimai 7 5 Celonel Egerton re- press oniw signed the command to Colonel Cockburn, but though he acted as civil commissioner, the respon- sibility of all subsequent movements rested with Carnac. On the 9th, the army reached Tullygaum, and found it de- stroyed. A report was spread that the enemy intended also to burn Chinchore, and even the capital itself. Carnac was panic-struck, and though within eighteen miles of Poona, with eighteen days' provisions in the camp, ^ determined, in the first instance, to open a negotiation with the enemy, and then to retreat. Raghoba, who, with all his faults, was a gallant soldier, protested against this cowardice, eo contrary to the British character, 'but the commissioners were so com- pletely under the control of their own terrors, that they refused to wait even a single day for the result of their negotiations, threw their heavy guns into a pond, and begun their retreat that very night, hotly pursued by the enemy. The rear-guard, upon which the enemy's assaults were chiefly directed, was commanded by a young and gallant officer of the name of Hartley, who had been in the service about fourteen years, and gained the entire confidence of the sepoys. He received every attack with the utmost steadi- ness and animation, and drove back the enemy at every point. The sepoys fought with perlect enthusiasm. Had the command of the expedition been entrusted to him, ho would, doubtless, have planted the British standard on the battlements of Poona: but in this, as in many subsequent campaigns, while the army contained men of the most heroic mould, and of the highest talent, it was under the command of wretched drivellers. The British force encamped, on the night of the contention of 12th, at Wurgaum, and was assailed in the morn- j^lm ing ky the g 18 brought up by the enemy during the darkness. The troops began to lose heart ; xni.] GODDARD'S EXPEDITION TO BOMBAY. 8C7 the commander was bewildered, and declared that even a retreat had ceased to be possible. Captain Hartley in vain pointed out the mode in which it might be effected with little loss. Overtures were made to Nana Furnuvese, who de- manded the surrender of Raghoba, before he would listen to terms, and the commissioners would have complied with the demand if that prince had not saved them from this infamy by surrendering himself to Sindia. Nana Furnuvese, however, appeared to be impracticable, and the commissioners turned to rfindia to whom they sent Mr. Holmes with full powers to treat. This separate negotiation flattered his vanity and increased his importance, and a convention, known as that of Wurgaum, was concluded under his auspices, which rescued the British army from destruction by the sacrifice of all the acquisitions which had been made since 1773. The advance of the army under Colonel Goddard across the country was countermanded, and for the first time in the history of British India, two hostages were given for the performance of the treaty. The failure of this expedition, which \\as owing to the interference of the imbecile Cariiac, was a severe blow to the interests of the Company, who lost no time in dismissing him, as well as Colonels Egerton and Cockburn, from the service. The Bom- bay Presidency lost its reputation and its strength, and its only hope of safety now rested on the arrival of the Bengal army. This expedition was despatched from the banks o f tne j umna to Bombay through a thousand miles of unknown country, occupied by chiefs who were more likely to prove hostile than friendly. It was described by Mr. Dundas, the Indian minister, as "one of the frantic military exploits of Hastings," but he forgot that it was by u succession of such " frantic exploits " that British power and prestige had been established in India by a handful of foreigners. The force consisted of between 4,000 and 5,000 men, under the command of Colonel Leslie, a fair soldier, but un- equal to such an enterprise. He crossed the Jumna in May, 3C8 WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND ENGLAND. [dTAP. 1778, and was expected to reach the Nerbudda before it was swelled by the rains, but he wasted his time in discussions with petty chiefs, and in the course of five months had only advanced 120 miles. He was accordingly displaced, but died before the news of his supercession reached him, and the com- mand of the army was entrusted by Hastings to Colonel Goddard, one of the brightest names in the history of British India. Through his energy, the expedition advanced at a rapid pace, notwithstanding the opposition of many of the chieftains. The raja of Bhopal, however, treated Goddard with the greatest kindness and hospitality, and furnished his troops with ample supplies, though at the risk of bringing down on himself the vengeance of the Mahratta powers. This generous conduct in a season of difficulty has not been forgotten by the British government in the height of its pros- perity. The house of Bhopal has been treated by successive Governors-General with marked consideration ; it has always been distinguished by its fidelity to the English crown, and the present Muha-ranee is the only female decorated with the most exalted Order of the Star of India. war between During the progress of Colonel Goddard's ex- Engand ai 7th pedition, intelligence was received in Calcutta July, nzs. of the declaration of war between France and England, and the difficulties of Hastings's position were greatly multiplied. The mission of St. Lubin who had not then been detected as a charlatan and the countenance given to him by Nana Furnuvese, created the apprehension that the Mahrattas would be strengthened by a large French arma- ment, and possibly tinder the command of the redoubted Bussy, who had retired to France with a magnificent fortune, and married the neice of the minister, but was thirsting for service in the country where his exploits were still held in honour. Hastings adopted the most vigorous measures to meet this new crisis; he augmented the army; he embodied the militia of Calcutta, to the number of a thousand ; and Bent Mr. Elliott to the Rajah of Berar to secure his alliance by Xin.] GODIVVRD REACHES SCRAT. 8fi9 the ofter of assisting him to obtain the office of Peshwa. The negotiation, the success of which would have involved the Company in endless complications, was happily nipped in the bud when the raja heard that the Bombay government were about to support the claims of Raghoba by force of arms, but he liberally supplied Colonel Goddard with money and provisions, and thus enabled him to reach Boor- hanpore without difficulty on the 30th of January, J779. So strict was the discipline which the Colonel maintained in his army, and so punctual were his payments, that the chiefs and people on the route hastened to furnish him with supplies. At Boorhanpore, he heard of the disaster of the Bombay force at Wurgaum, and immediately turned off to Surat, a distance of 300 miles, which he traversed in twenty days, though he was without any map of the country. By this prompt movement he avoided a body of 20,000 Mahratta horse sent from Poona to intercept him. His timely arrival on the western coast proved the salvation of the Bombay Presidency. The unexpected appearance of so large a force from the banks of the Jumna, augmented the reputation of the British power, and confirmed its influence at the native courts, which the convention of Wurgaum had impaired. Progress of This convention was repudiated equally by the events, 1779. Bombay Council and by Hastings, who directed Colonel Goddard to open a fresh negotiation with Nana Furnuvese, on the basis of the treaty of Poorunder, but with an additional stipulation for the exclusion of the French from the Mahratta dominions. In the meantime, Sindia had granted a jaygeer of twelve lacs of rupees in Bundlecund to Ra- ghoba, and sent him under a slender escort to take possession of it. Raghoba, who was permitted to take his body guard and his guns with him, attacked and overpowered the escort on the route, and escaped to Surat, where he was honourably entertained by Colonel Goddard, who settled an allowance of half a lac of rupees a month on him. The whole scheme was evidently a contrivance of Sindia, to procure the release of 2 B 370 GODDARD'S SUCCESS IN GUZEKAT. [CITAT*. Kaghoba, and hold Nairn Furnuvese in check, by his habitual fears. Towards the close of the year, Succaram Bappoo, being no longer considered necessary, was confined by Nana in the fortress of Pertabgur, 4,000 feet above the level of the plain, from the windows of which he could discern the spot, where, a hundred years before, his ancestor Puntajce had basely betrayed his confiding master, Ufzul Khan, into the hands of Sevajee. The venerable old man was soon after removed to Raigur, where he closed a life which had been marked by every vicissitude of privation and grandeur, of toil and triumph. Goddard's sue- *^^ e mm isters at Poona considered the conven- cess in Guzerat, tion of Wurgaum as a final settlement of their 1779 QQ^ differences with the English, and invited them to unite in an attack on Hyder, who had taken advantage of the confusion of the times to overrun the Mahratta territories up to the banks of the Kistna. But the reception accorded to Eaghoba by Goddard on the 12th of June gave them mortal offence, and they immediately turned round and proposed to Hyder a union against the English, in pursuance of the con- federacy which had been formed by the Nizam at the end of the monsoon. When, therefore, Goddard, who had early in- timation of this alliance, demanded a categorical reply to the proposals he had made, Nana Furnuvese at once stated that the restitution of Salsette, and the surrender of Raghoba were necessary preliminaries to any treaty ; and Goddard im- mediately dismissed the vakeels, and prepared for war. At the same time he endeavoured to negotiate with Futteh Sing Guickwar, whom Hastings had determined to acknowledge as the ruler of Guzerat, biit that prince manifested a disposition to procrastinate, and Goddard lost no time in laying seige to Dubhoy, garrisoned by 2,000 of the Peshwa's troops, which surrendered on the 20th of January, 1780. Futteh Sing now began to negotiate in earnest, and a treaty offensive and de- fensive was concluded six days after, in which it was agreed that he should join the English camp with 3,000 horse, and XIH.] EXPEDIT/ON FROM BENGAL. 371 receive possession of all the Peshwa's territories north or the Myhee, and that certain districts to the south should be made over to the Company. On the 10th of February, Goddard captured the noble city of Ahrnedabad, the modern capital of the province, surrounded by walls of immense extent, and filled with a population of 100,000. The capital was scarcely reduced, when Goddard heard that Sindia and Holkar had forded the Nerbudda with 20,000 horse on the 29th of February, and were advancing to encounter him. Sindia professed great enmity of Nana Furnuvese, arid great friendship for the English, and liberated the two hostages of Wurgaum, whom he had treated with hospitality. He endeavoured to open negotiations, but Goddard could not fail to perceive that his chief object was to waste the season of operations. Seven days were, therefore, allowed him for a definite reply, and as it did not prove satisfactory, Goddard attacked and dispersed his troops on the 2nd, and again on the 14th of April, and cantoned his army for the season on the banks of the ^Xerbudda. Capture of Gwa- On the side of Bengal, the war was conducted iior, 3rd August, w ith brilliant success. Sixty miles south-east o/ 1780 Agra lay the little independent principality of Gohud, erected by a Jaut chieftain on the decay of the Mogd empire. The rana was incessantly threatened by the encroach- ments of Sindia, and solicited the protection of Hastings, who determined to take advantage of the appeal, and despatch ail expedition, chiefly however with the view of creating a salu- tary diversion. It consisted of only 2,400 infantry, with a small body of cavalry, and a detail of European artillery, but it was commanded by Major Popham, one of the best soldiers in the service. He proceeded on his march in February, 1780, and having expelled the Mahratta invaders from the country, attacked the fortress of Lahar, without battering cannon, and carried it by the gallantry of his men. Fifty miles to the south of it lay the fort of Gwalior, on the summit of a stupendous rock, scarped almost entirely round, and 2 B 2 372 CAPTURE OF GWALIOR. [dlAP. deemed throughout India impregnable. Sir Eyre Coote, the veteran hero of the Carnatic, now general-in-chief in Bengal, had declared that any attempt to capture it, more especially without siege guns, would be an act of madness. But Pop- ham had set this " glorious object," as he termed it, before him, and determined to accomplish it. For two months he lay about the fortress, maturing his plans with such secrecy as to baffle all suspicion. On the night of the 3rd of August, the troops selected for the assault proceeded under the guid- ance of Captain Bruce to their destination. Two companies of sepoys led by four European officers, and followed by twenty English soldiers, applied the scaling ladders to the base of the scarped rock, sixteen feet high, then to a steep ascent of forty feet, and, lastly, to a wall of the height of thirty feet. Captain Bruce with twenty sepoys climbed up the battlements before their approach was suspected. The bewildered garrison made but a feeble resistance, and, by break of day, the British ensign was floating over the re- nowned fortress of Gwalior, while the Mahratta troops fled to carry the news to Sindia. The report of this brilliant achievement resounded through India, and wiped out the disgrace of the "infamous convention of Wurgaum," as Hastings termed it, and which he considered "it worth crores to obliterate." Popham was promoted to a majority, and then superseded by Colonel Carnac, who brought au additional force with him, and not only invaded Malwa, but threatened Sindia's capital. That chief was obliged to quit Poona in haste to attend to the defence of his own dominions, and the object of Hastings in this expedition was fully ac- complished. Carnac, however, proved unequal to the enter- prise entrusted to him, and allowed his force to be surrounded by the enemy, who obliged him to retreat, and harassed him at every step. Having at length procured a small supply of provisions for his starving troops, by forced contributions, he called a council of war to determine his future course. Captain Bruce, who was fortunately with the force, urged a XIII.] GRAND CONFEDERACY AGAINST THE ENGLISH. 373 vigorous attack on the enemy's camp during the night, as affording the only chance of deliverance. His advice was adopted, and the surprise and overthrow of Sindia on the 24th of March, 1781, was complete. He lost elephants, horses, baggage, and a large number of troops, but, above all, his re- putation, and that at a time when the credit of Holkar at the capital was elevated by his successful attack on General Goddard's force. Colonel Caruac soon after resigned the command of the brigade to Colonel Muir. Confederacy Towards the close of 1779, intelligence reached against the En- Hastings from various quarters of a general con- plish, 1779. . , . . , , , . . j i ,1 XT- federacy winch had been formed by the Nizam and Hyder, and all the Mahratta ciiiefs, with the exception of the Guickwar, for the expulsion of the English from India. A simultaneous attack was to be made on the three Presiden- cies; on Bombay, by Sindia, Holkar, and the army of the Peshwa ; on Madras by Hyder ; and on Bengal by the Moda- jee Bhonslay, raja of .Nagpore. At no former period had the English power been menaced with greater peril, and it re- quired all the fortitude, resources, and genius of Hastings to meet the crisis. Hyder Ali was the first in the field, and burst on the Carnatic in July, 1780, as will be hereafter nar- rated. The safety of Madras demanded the immediate and undivided attention of Hastings, and he was under the neces- sity of informing Bombay that he could afford it no farther assistance. Mr. Hornby, the President, feeling that he had no resource but in his own efforts, exhibited the greatest vigour and prudence. To. enable him to draw supplies from the Concan, Colonel Hartley was sent to clear the province of the Mahrattas, which he effected with little difficulty, after he had inflicted a severe defeat on them in October, 1780. God- dard marched down from Surat, and laid siege to Bassein on the 13th of November. Nana Furnuvese advanced with a powerful army to recover the Concan, and relieve that fortress. Colonel Hartley had been engaged for upwards of a month in daily skirmishes with the Mahratta force j his ammunition was 374 FAILURE OP GODDARD'S EXPEDITION TO POONA. [CHAP. nearly exhausted ; he was encumbered with 600 sick, and had only 2,000 jaded troops fit for duty ; but he felt the import- ance of maintaining his communications with Goddard, which Nana was endeavouring to cut off, and he took up a strong po- sition at Doogaur, where he sustained the assaultof 20,000 Mah- ratta horse for two days. On the third, the 12th of December, 1780, their gallant and skilful general, Ramchunder Gunnesh, was killed ; the army became dispirited and fled precipitately with heavy loss. Bassein had surrendered on the previous day to Goddard with the loss of only thirteen of his men, and he immediately moved down to the support of Colonel Hartley, and, on surveying the field of action, expressed his admiration of the judicious position he had chosen, and the valour of his troops. This was all the reward. that gallant soldier ever received for his achievements in this war ; he was immediately after superseded, and the public service deprived of his talents at the time when they were most urgently needed. Hastings, alarmed by Hyder's irruption into -g ex- * De Carnatic, considered it important to the to safety of British interests in India to make peace with the Mahrattas, and he proposed a treaty on reasonable terms, through the raja of Nagpore, who, was still friendly to the English though he had joined the con- federacy. But on hearing of the destruction of Baillie's force in the Carnatic, in September, 1780, he considered their affairs desperate, and hesitated to become mediator, except on conditions to which the Governor- General would not accede. Goddard, conceiving that the desire for peace on the part of the Poona durbar would be quickened by an ad- vance towards Poona, ascended the ghauts with a large force. This expedition, which proved to be a total failure, was the only mistake of his career. After having inju- diciously taken post at the Bhore ghaut, he was incessantly harrassed by the Mahratta army, and obliged at length to retreat, when he was vigorously attacked by Holkar with 25,000 horse, and did not reach Bombay without the loss of XIII.] DETACHMENT SENT BY LAND TO MADRAS. 375 450, killed and wounded. The discomfiture of this renowned general was considered by the Mahrattas one of their most signal victories, and it was a fortunate circumstance that at this critical period the troops of Sindia should have been en- gaged in defending his own territories, many hundred miles distant. This inauspicious expedition, which terminated on the 23rd"0f April, 1781, was the last operation of the war, although more than a twelvemonth elapsed before the conclusion of peace. Arrangement ^e ra ja of Berar, to support appearances with with Bhonsiay, his confederates, sent an army of 30,000 horse in October, 1779, under his son Chimnajee towards Cuttack, for the ostensible purpose of invading Bengal, but he endeavoured to convince Hastings that his intentions were not hostile, by prolonging its march for seven months, and then employing it in the reduction of a fort in Orissa. To relieve Madras from the pressure of Hyder's army, Hastings resolved to aid it by a force from Bengal. But a body of Bengal sepoys, who had recently been ordered to embark at Vizagapatam for Madras, objecting to a sea voyage on account of their caste prejudices, had murdered their officers, and committed great outrages. To avoid the recur- rence of such a scene, Hastings determined to send the Bengal detachment along the coast by land, though the distance was seven hundred miles, and the route lay through unknown and hostile provinces. This was another of those " frantic military exploits " of Hastings, which served to overawe the native princes, and to establish the ascendancy of British power. Colonel Pearce started with the army on the 9th of January, 1781, and it was on the line of march in Orissa that one-half his force perished of cholera, and this is apparently the first notice which we have of the exist- ence of a disease which has proved the mysterious scourge of the nineteenth century. Colonel Pearce experienced the same friendly support from the raja of Nagpore, which that prince had previously given to Goddard. Hastings, with the 376 TItEATY WITH SINDIA. [dlAP. view of detaching the raja from the confederacy, and enlist- ing him against Hyder, had made him a promise of sixteen lacs of rupees, of which three had already been paid. Chim- najee was, at this time, iu great distress for money, and Hastings eagerly embraced the opportunity of offering the remainder of the sum, on the condition of a treaty of alliance, which was soon after concluded, with the proviso that 2,000 of the raja's horse should accompany the detachment, and act against Hyder. " Thus," remarked Hastings, with exul- tation, " have we converted an ostensible enemy into a de- clared friend, and transferred the most formidable member of the confederacy, after Hyder, to our own party, saved Bengal from a state of dangerous alarm, if not from actual invasion, and all the horrors of a predatory war, and have completed the strength of Colonel Pearce's detachment." The signal defeat of Sindia by Colonel Camac Treaty with ' sindia, ism convinced him that he had every thing to lose by Oct., i78i. a contegt w i t h t h e English in the heart of his dominions, which might end in driving him across the Ner- budda without land or friends, and extinguishing his influence in the Mahratta commonwealth. He accordingly made over- tures to Colonel Muir, which Hastings was but too happy to entertain, and they terminated in a treaty which was con- cluded on the 13th of October. The territory west of the Jumna, from which he had been expelled by Major Popham, was restored to him, with the exception of the fort of Gwalior, which was reserved for the rana of Gohucl, and he engaged to negotiate a treaty between the other belligerents and the British government, but, at all events, to stand neutral. The treaty gave great umbrage to Nana Furnuvese, partly because it acknowledged Sindia as an independent power, but chiefly because this assumption of the office of plenipotentiary served to increase his power and his importance. Treaty of Hastings's anxiety for peace with the Mahrattn nth Regency was quickened by the arrival of a French J May, ma. . . , . ,. armament on the coast which, under existing cir- XIII.] TKEATY OF SALBYE WITH THE SIAHRATTAS. 377 cumstances, might, he feared " result in the extirpation of our nation from the Carmvtic." " It was not," he said, " peace with conditions of advantage he wanted, but speedy peace, for which he would sacrifice every foot of ground he had acquired from the Mahrattas." After a variety of disappoint- ments, the treaty of Salbye was at length completed on the 17th of May, 1782, and signed by Mr. Anderson on the part, of the Company, and by Sindia on behalf of the Feshwa and the Mahratta chiefs, he becoming at the same time the mutual guarantee of both parties for the performance of its conditions. All the territory acquired by the British arms since the treaty of Poorunder was restored. Futteh Sing Guickwar was re- placed in his original position in Gnzerat. Raghoba was to be allowed three lacs of rupees a year, with liberty to choose his own place of residence. Hyder was to be required to re- linquish all his conquests in the Carnatic, and to release all his prisoners within six months, and, in case of refusal, was to be attacked by the forces of the Peshwa. But Nana Fumuvese, after having accepted the treaty, hesitated to ratify it, in the hope of making better terms with Hyder. After many months of anxiety, Hastings became impatient of further delay, and on the 4th of December instructed Mr. Anderson to demand the fulfilment of Sindia's promises, and the imme- diate ratification of the treaty, stating that he should other- wise be under the necessty of making a separate peace with Hyder, which would leave him at liberty to carry all his forces towards the Kistna, and not only secure the possessions he had conquered from the Mahrattas, but augment them. On the 5th of December, Hastings received a copy of the resolution of the House of Commons, that it was the duty of the Court of Directors to remove him from the head of affairs inasmuch as he had acted in a manner repugnant to the honour and policy of the British nation, and he began to tremble for the ratifica- tion of the treaty, when this resolution should be known in every durbar in India. On the 7th all anxiety was removed by the death of Hyder, of which Nana Furiiuvese was no 378 AFFAIRS OF TANJORE. [CHAP. sooner informed than he affixed the Peshwa's seal to the treaty, without any farther hesitation. CHAPTER XIV. HASTINGS'S ADMINISTRATION AFFAIRS OF MADRAS, TKK SECOND MYSORE WAR, 1771 1784. Affairs of kingdom of Tanjore had been in a great Ta^ore, 1771 measure exempt from the ravages of war during hostilities with Hyder, but had contributed little to the defence of the country. Mahomed AH, from the period of his accession to the throne of the Carnatic had never ceased to covet the possession of it. He now asserted that former Nabobs had obtained contributions from it of sixty, eighty. and even a hundred lacs of rupees, and he importuned the Madras Council to aid him in fleecing the raja. The Court of Directors, impoverished by the expenses of the late war, looked to the resources of Tanjore with a wishful eye, and had instructed their servants at Madras to support the views of the Nabob, if the raja refused to submit to reasonable terms. The demands which the Nabob made, however, were beyond all reason ; the raja refused to submit to them, and the Council for some time manifested a virtuous reluctance to enforce them, but were at length induced to send forward an army. The Taujorines made a very spirited defence, but a breach was at length effected in the fortifications, and the town was on the point of surrendering, when, on the 27th of October, 1771, the Nabob's second son, who had accompanied the expedition, without consulting his English supporters, signed a treaty with the raja, extorting from him fifty lacs as the compensation for peace. With the aid of the British de- tachments he then proceeded to plunder the polygars, or zemindars of the two Marawars, and subjected the wretched XIV.] SECOND ATTACK OP TANJORE. 379 inhabitants to the most revolting cmelties, leaving nothing in the track of his soldiers but burnt and desolated villages. second attack * u J 6 ) 1773, the Nabob again demanded the onTanjore, aid of the Madras government to crush the raja; he had not, he said, fulfilled his engagements; ten lacs of rupees were still due from him; and he had, moreover, made application to Hyder and to the Mahrattas for support. The Council ridiculed the preposterous idea of going to war with him for arrears. They knew that he had exhausted his treasury to make good the extortionate fine imposed on him, of which he had been enabled to pay five-sixths by mortgag- ing his districts and his jewels to the Danes at Tranquebar, and the Dutch at Negapatam. As to the overtures he had made to Hyder and the Mahrattas, they remarked that the treaty of 1769 had placed him under the protection of Hyder, and, that, when he found himself abandoned to the tender mercies of the Nabob, who had resolved on his destruction, it was natural that he should seek to strengthen himself by alliances with the other powers of the Deccan. Nevertheless, the President and his Council argued that the existence of such a power as that of the raja in the heart of the country, who would join Hyder and the French in the event of a war, unless the Company supported him in his just rights, was a source of danger ; and that it was therefore proper and ex- pedient to embrace this opportunity of reducing him entirely, before the occurrence of such an event. It is difficult to believe that Englishmen and Christians, even in that period of profligacy, could have adopted such a train of reasoning to justify the ruin of an innocent prince. The opponents of the President and Council, however, gave a different account of the origin of this war of extermination, and affirmed that it arose from the resentment of the gentlemen at Madras, when they found that the raja had resorted for loans to the Dutch and the Danes, instead of giving them the benefit of these lucrative transactions. Whatever may have been the motive, an English army marched into Tanjore in September, 380 LORD PIGOT, GOVERNOR OF MADRAS. [CHAP. 1773, deposed the raja and made over his country to the Nabob. The Court of Directors, astounded by the report of this infamous proceeding, lost no time in expelling the Presi- dent, Mr. Wynch, from the service, and ordering the raja to be restored, placing him for the future under the safeguard of British honour. Lord Pigot, The vacant chair at Madras was bestowed on BfotoTnai Lord Pi s ot who had ne out to Madras fortv Dec., 1775. years before, and, after having risen to the post of President, returned to England with a fortune of forty lacs of rupees, and was honoured with an Irish peerage. The old man was now seized with the mania of going back to Madras as governor. He found, on his arrival, that the system of peculation and extortion had intermediately attained great maturity ; and he set himself to the task of cleansing the Augean stable, which set the whole settlement in a blaze. To prevent the restoration of Tanjore to the raja, the Nabob spared no art or intrigue ; he went so far as to offer a bribe of sixty lacs of rupees to the governor himself, if he would only postpone the transfer, but the orders of the Court of Directors were peremptory, and Lord Pigot proceeded in person to Tanjore, and seated the raja on the throne on the llth of April, 1776, leaving an English garrison for the defence of the country. But the restoration was no sooner proclaimed that Mr. Paul Benfield came forward and asserted that he had an assignment on the revenues of Tanjore from the Nabob of six- teen lacs of rupees, and a claim on the standing crop of seven lacs for sums lent to the husbandmen. Nothing can more clearly demonstrate the total demoralization of the public service at the Madras Presidency than the fact that this Benfield, occupy- ing an inferior post, not worth more than 200 or 300 rupees a month, and keeping the grandest equipages at Madras, should not consider it by any means preposterous to assert that he had advanced twenty-three lacs of rupees on the revenues of the province. The Council called for vouchers, which he was unable to produce, but he assured them that the Nabob was XIV.] DEPOSITION AND DEATH OP PIGOT. 381 prepared to admit the obligation, of which there could be no doubt, as the claim had evidently been concocted between them to defraud the Company and the raja. After long' deliberation the Council, on the 29th of May, 1776, rejected the claim. But the Council soon repented of this act of Deposition and death of Pigot virtue. They and the other members of the civil 177677. service were creditors of the Nabob to the extent of a crore and a-half of rupees, and they discovered that by rejecting the claim of Benfield, they had impaired their hold on the revenues of Tanjore. The vote was reconsidered ; Lord Pigot and his friends strenuously resisted the proceedings, but a majority of seven to five resolved that the assignments made to Paul Benfield were valid. The dispute was widened by other questions, and both parties became inflamed. Lord Pigot unconstitutionally suspended two of the members of Council and ordered the commandant, Sir Eobert Fletcher, to be placed under arrest. Fletcher was the officer whom Clivo had dismissed ten years before, during the mutiny of the officers in Bengal which he had fomented, but whom the Court of Directors had, out of opposition to Clive, restored to the service. The majority of the Council then assumed the government, and placed Lord Pigot in confinement, The order was executed by Colonel Stuart, who passed the day with him at his country seat, in the most friendly intercourse, and drove out with him in the carriage, when, on a given signal, it was surrounded by troopers, and the governor was hurried off to a place of imprisonment. The Court of Directors, after receiving the report of these violent proceedings, ordered that Lord Pigot should be re- stored to the office of President, and then resign it. Seven members of Council were dismissed from the service, and the military officers placed on their trial. But before these orders could reach Madras, Lord Pigot was beyond the reach of praise or blame. He sunk under his misfortunes in April, 1777, after a confinement, by no means rigorous, of eight mouths. 382 EUMBOLD, GOVERXOR OP MADRAS. [CHAP. go- The state of affairs at Madras was not at all MadnL,8th improved by the appointment of Sir Thomas Feb. 1778. Rumboid, who had been trained up in the Bengal school of corruption, as his successor. The Northern Sircars formed the only territory from which the Madras Presidency derived any revenue, but the malversations of the collectors left but a small portion of it to the state. The Court of Di- rectora had, therefore, been induced to order five of the members of Council to proceed to the province, and after diligent investigation, to place the settlement on a satisfactory basis. Sir Thomas Rumboid, immediately on his arrival at Madras, cancelled the commission, and ordered the zemindars to repair in person to the Presidency, a distance of 600 miles, through a country without a road. The zemindars who were able to afford the cost, were required, on reaching the Presi- dency, to transact business with the governor alone, to the exclusion of the members of Council. The principal zemindar, Viziram raj, who was, in fact, a local prince, pleaded the injury which his affairs must suffer during his absence, as an excuse for not leaving his estates. But his brother hastened to the Presidency, and having given a bribe of a lac of rupees to the governor's secretary, was appointed dewan, in spite of all his brother's remonstrances, and thus obtained the entire control and management of the zemindary. Sir Thomas Rumboid himself was found to have remitted four lacs and a-half of rupees to England after he had been six months at Madras, and the suspicions to which so large a remittance gave rise, were never satifactorily removed. Thec-unroor The treaty with the Nizam in 1768, had given sircar, 1778. ^ ne reversion of the Guntoor Sircar to the Company, after the death of his brother, Basalut Jung. That prince, with Adoni for the capital of his little principality, was am- bitious of increasing his power and territory, and had gra- dually formed a French corps under M. Lally, which received recruits and supplies through the little seaport of Mootapilly. The Madras government repeatedly remonstrated against the XIV.] THE GUNTOOR SIRKAR. 383 presence of this corps, to Basalut Jung, and also to his feudal superior, the Nizam, who promised that every article of the treaty should be fulfilled to a hair's breadth, but the troops were not disbanded. Basalut Jung was at length threatened by the encroachments of Hyder, and opened a communication with Sir Thomas Rumbold, and a treaty was concluded in April, 1779, by which he bound himself to dismiss the French corps, and to entrust the defence of his dominions to an English force, and assign the Guntoor Sircar for its support. Scarcely was the treaty dry, when the Sircar was transferred on a ten years' lease to Mahomed Ali, that is, to his English creditors, and we are thus furnished with a key to the whole transaction. An English force immediately set out to take possession of the district, and Mr. Holland was deputed to Hyderabad, to expound the transaction to the Nizam. The Nizam expressed the highest resentment at this intrusion into the affairs of his family, and more especially at the military support offered to his brother, who might thus become a for- midable rival. But his indignation knew no bounds when Mr. Holland farther requested a remission of the peshcush or tribute payable for the Northern Sircars, which had already been withheld for two years. He called for the treaty and read it over, item by item, before Mr. Holland, and charged the English with violating its provisions, and seeking a quarrel with him. It was under these feelings of irritation that he get himself to organize the grand confederacy for the exter- mination of the English to which reference has been already made. Dismissal of Hastings, from whom these transactions had itumboid, 1781. fo een ca refully concealed, no sooner heard of them, than he superseded the authority of the Madras Council at the court of Hyderabad, and assured the Nizam that the in- tentions of the British government were honourable and pacific, that Guntoor should not be occupied, and that the arrears of peshcush should be discharged as speedily as pos- sible. By these assurances, Hastings was enabled to appease 384 DISMISSAL OF ttUMBOLD. [CHAP. the Nizam, and to neutralize his hostility as a member of the grand confederacy. This friendly disposition was likewise improved by the discovery he had recently made, that Hyder Air's ambition had led him to send a mission to Delhi, and to obtain a sunnud from the phantom of an emperor, conferring on him the whole of the Hyderabad territories. The French troops, which Basalut Juug was constrained to dismiss, were immediately taken into the service of the Nizam, and the anxiety which their presence in the Deccan inspired was greatly augmented. Sir Thomas Kumbold remonstrated, with great vehemence against this interference of the Governor-General, in the political movements of the Madras Presidency ; but the measure of his transgressions was now full, and in January, 1781, the Court of Directors after passing the severest censure on his conduct, expelled him from the situation which he had filled and disgraced for more than two years. But he anticipated their decision by deserting his post, and returning to England, as soon as the war with Hyder, which his follies had provoked, was on the eve of breaking out.* Before entering on the narrative of the second Progress of iiy n ugnes followed him, and a third naval engagement was fought on the Gth of July, with no 400 IXEECISIVE ACTIONS AT SEA. [dTAP. other result than to defeat the views of the French on that town. Suffrein retired to Cuddalore where he repaired the damage his fleet had sustained with incredible speed and energy, and then sailed southwards. Lord Macartney had received intelligence that a second French force had arrived at Point de Galle, and that Bussy himself was immediately expected on the coast. He began to tremble for the safety both of Negapatam and Trincomalee, and urged Admiral Hughes to follow the French fleet with all expedition. But the energy of that officer by no means corresponded with his skill and courage, and he was, moreover, jealous of any in- terference with his command, and in this instance did not hesitate to sacrifice the interests of his country to his own caprice. Suffrein hastened to Galle, embarked the force of 2,400, which had recently arrived, and landed them at Trin- comalee. The siege was pushed with extraordinary vigour, and the garrison was obliged to capitulate on the 31st of August, though on the most honourable terms. Four days later the dilatory Hughes looked into the harbour, and saw the French colours flying on the ramparts. The next day wit- nessed the fourth action between the two fleets, but though it lasted throughout the day, it terminated like all which had preceded it, without any result. The approach of darkness separated the combatants. This was the last and the se- verest naval engagement of the year, which was marked as much by the exertions of the fleets, as by the inactivity of the armies. Admiral Hughes returned to Madras, and an- Haghes sails for . ' Bombay, isth nounced the necessity or proceeding forthwith to October, 1782. B om i, a y to re fit his vessels, which had kept the sea during the monsoon of 1781, and had sustained serious damage in four successive general actions. The governor represented to him the desperate condition to which the interests of the Company would be reduced by his departure, and earnestly pressed him to remain. Hyder, he said, was master of the Carnatic; the possession of Trincomalee would XIV.] GAT.E AND FAMINE AT VADTUS. 401 give the French the undisputed command of the sea, and enable them to intercept the supplies of grain, on which .Madras depended for its existence. Bussy, moreover, was hourly expected with large reinforcements. But the admiral turned a deaf ear to every remonstrance, and, looking only to the safety of the fleet for which he was responsible, set sail for Bombay on the 15th of October. That same night the mon- soon set in with a terrific gale ; the shore was strewed for miles with wrecks ; the largest vessels went down at their anchors, and a hundred coasting craft, laden with 30,000 bags of rice, were irretrievably lost. Four days after Admiral Bickerton anchored in the roads, and, after landing 4,000 troops which he had brought out from England, put to sea again to join his own commander. Madras was now sub- jected to all the horrors of famine. The ravages of Hyder had driven the wretched inhabitants of the surrounding dis- trict for shelter and subsistence into the town, and for some time the number of deaths amounted to 1,500 a week. Sir Eyre Coote's shattered constitution obliged him to return to Bengal, and the monsoon suspended all military operations. After the relief of Tellicherry, on the Malabar E vents E im Petitions were now addressed to Parliament by nnd the sudder both Europeans and natives, praying for a redress lurt, 1780. Q f these intolerable grievances. But as tho remedy might be long in coming, the sagacity of Hastings discovered a more immediate antidote, The Provincial Coun- 414 IH E. IMPET, FIRST JUDGE OP THE SUDPER. [CHAP. oils established in 1773, held both revenue and civil courts ; and an appeal from their decisions lay to the Sudder Dewannj'- Adawlut, or chief court of appeal in Calcutta, in which the Governor-General and the Council were appointed to presidfc, which, however, their political and administrative duties seldom allowed them to do. In April, 1780, Hastings re- modelled the whole system, separated the fiscal from the civil jurisdiction, leaving the former with the Provincial courts, and entrusting the latter to the civil courts which he estab- lished in each district, "with an appeal to the Sudder Dewanriy. He then offered the post of chief judge of this court to Sir Elijah Impey, upon a salary of 7,000 rupees a month, which was accepted without any hesitation. This appoint- ment, together with that of another of the Crown judges as Commissioner of the Dutch settlement of Chinsurah, which had been recently captured, at once quieted the Supreme Court, and released the Government from its embarrassments. The position in which this arrangement placed Remarks on this r arrangement, the Chief Justice, proved highly advantageous to the interests of the country. The judges of the new civil courts who were young and inexperienced, were placed under his supervision and guidance, and he was thus enabled to give form and consistency to the system of civil judicature. Though bred in all the technicalities of English law, he drew up a code of regulations for the administration of justice in the interior, comprised in ninety-five sections, brief and clear, and exactly adapted to the simplicity of native habits ; and it has formed the basis of all subsequent legisla- lation at the Bengal Presidency. But this arrangement was assailed with great animosity, both in the Court of Directors and in the House of Commons. Sir Elijah was recalled for having accepted the office, and Hastings was eventually impeached, in addition to the other crimes charged against him, for having conferred it. But, after the lapse of eighty years, the wisdom of this proceeding has been triumphantly vindicated by the Parliamentary enactment of 1860, which XV.] CITEYT STNG. 415 placed the Chief justice of the Supreme Court at the head of the Company's Court of Appeal, and by amalgamating the two Courts, committed to him the duty of supervising the judicial system of the Presidency. On the receipt of trio petitions from Calcutta before alluded to, Parliament passed an Act in which the functions of the Supreme Court were more distinctly defined, and it continued from that period to the hour of its extinction, to enjoy the confidence and admira- tion of the entire community, European and native, for the equity and impartiality of its decisions. Cheyt sinfa ^ ne pecuniary difficulties of the government of delinquency, Bengal were at tliis time most critical. There was war with Ilyder, who was triumphant in the Carnatic ; war with the French, with the Dutch, and with the Mahrattas. The entire expense of all these wars fell upon the treasury in Bengal; a debt of a crore of rupees had been incurred, and the credit of Government was at the lowest ebb. Hastings was under the necessity of looking to other sources than the ordinary revenues of the country for supplies, and he was induced to make an additional demand on Cheyt Sing, the raja of Benares. The grandfather of the raja had begun life with the rent of half a village, but amidst the distraction of the times, had succeeded in acquiring a territory, which yielded 50 lacs of rupees a year. The district was transferred by the Nabob Vizier to the British government in 1775, and the rajah received a sunnud from the Governor-General, which stipulated that his annual tribute should be limited to twenty- two lacs and a-half a year- Hastings's demand was therefore stigmatised by his opponents as a breach of faith. But the tenure of Benares was more that of a feudatory than of a mere zemindar, which appears evident from the fact, that Hastings, when irritated by his opposition, threatened to reduce him to the condition of a simple zemindar, like the raja of Burdwan. By the law and constitution of India, he was liable, in cases of emergency, to be called on for extraordinary aids by his superior lord. Such payments had formerly been 416 ITARTIXGS'S EXCESSIVE 1KMAND ANT) IIIS PA NO EH. made to his liege, the Nabob of Ouole, and he was equally bound to meet the requisition made upon him on the present emergency by Hastings, of 2,000 horse and five lacs of rupees. The rajah pleaded poverty, and endeavoured t> evade the payment of the full amount, but Hastings had received intimation from various quarters that his hoards exceeded two crores of rupees, and he persuaded himself that the rajah's reluctance to comply with his demands, was a crime. He determined, therefore, "to make him pay largely for his pardon, to exact a severe vengeance for his delinquency, and to draw from his guilt the means of relief to the Com- pany's distresses." c gin , g Hastings was about to proceed to Benares to excessive fine, meet the vakeel of the raja of Berar, and nego- tiate a peace with the Regency at Poona. Cheyt Sing was fully apprised of his resentment, and hastened to avert it by waiting on him as he entered the province, and humbly beseeching him to accept twenty lacs of rupees. The offer was rejected with scorn, and the sum of fifty lacs peremptorily demanded. On his arrival at Benares on the 15th of August, 1781, Hastings sent the raja a statement of his complaints, and placed him under arrest, by sending four companies of sepoys to take the place of his own guards. The city of Benares, the citadel of Hindooism, and the great focus of political intrigue, had always been notorious for its turbulence. On the present occasion, the populace, roused by the indignity inflicted on the raja, rose upon the sepoys. who had brought no ammunition with them, and slaughtered both them and their officers. During this emeute, the raja himself escaped across the river to his fortified palace at Kamnugur. The situation of Hastings was perilous in the extreme ; the native force on which he depended for protec- tion was annihilated, and he, and the thirty gentlemen with him, had only their own weapons to trust to. Happily the infuriated retainers of the raja crowded tumultuously after him, and quitted the city, instead of attacking Hastings in his XV.] PLUNDER OF BIDGEGUR. 417 defenceless state. The whole province was speedily in a blaze of revolt, and the zemindars of Behar, who had ever been disaffected towards the English, were ripe for insurrec- tion. It was at this critical period, while beleaguered in Benares, that Hastings exhibited his rare strength of nerve, by continuing and completing his negotiations with Sindia, as if he had been tranquilly residing in Calcutta. Equally remarkable was the confidence that Sindia manifested in the destinies of the English, by affixing his seal to the treaty, while he knew that the life of the Governor-General was in jeopardy. His situation at Benares, notwithstanding the rapid arrival of troops from different quarters, was not, how- ever, considered defensible, and he made his escape during the night, by a window, and rowed down to Chunar. Capture of "^ ne ra j a collected a force of 20,000 men, but did , 9th not cease to importune Hastings for a reconcilia- tion, which was wisely rejected, lest it should bo attributed to fear. The raja's troops were successively de- feated, and he took refuge in Bidgegur, but not deeming himself safe there, fled to Bundlecund with as much treasure as his elephants and camels could carry. The begums, who were left behind, surrendered the fortress on the 9th of November. In a private letter to the commander of the troops, in reference to the treasure which was supposed to be deposited in Bidgegur, Hastings had incautiously remarked, " With regard to the booty, that is rather your consideration than mine. I should be sorry that any of your officers and soldiers lost any part of the reward to which they are so well entitled." On the strength of this communication, the officers proceeded at once to divide the booty, amounting to forty lacs of rupees, among themselves and the troops. Hastings was especially mortified at the loss of the treasure with which he had hoped to replenish the empty treasury of the Company. The officers were invited to return it, and to Leave their claims to the equitable decision of the Supreme Council, but they manifested their discretion by refusing to 2 E 418 THE BEGUMS OP OUDE [CHAP. trust their interests to the arbitrament of a pauper govern- ment. In extenuation of the odious proceedings of Hastings towards Cheyt Sing, it was asserted that he was disaffected to the British Government ; but, in this case, Hastings would not have ventured to enter the capital with so slender an escort. Cheyt Sing was culpable in having hesitated to afford immediate aid to his liege sovereign in a great public exigency, but the imposition of a fine of fifty lacs of rupees for withholding payment of one-tenth of the sum, had an aspect of vindictiveness which it is impossible to palliate ; and although Hastings was so blinded by his own judgment as to claim merit for the transaction, it has always been considered a dark 'spot in his administration, and. it will hereafter appear that it was on this point that the question of his impeachment eventually turned. Cheyt Sing en- joyed an asylum at Grwalior for twenty-nine years. His nephew was raised to the throne, and the tribute augmented from twenty-two and a half to forty lacs a year. The begums of The disappointment which Hastings had x- Oude, 1782. perienced regarding these treasures increased his embarrassment. The treasury in Calcutta was drained for the support of more than sixty thousand troops required for the war at Bombay and Madras, and money was indispensable. It was in these 'circumstances that the Nabob vizier waited on him at Chunar, and represented the impossibility of making- good from his exhausted country ihe arrears of a crore and a half of rupees due to the Company, and of continuing to maintain the English troops stationed in his dominions. But these troops were indispensably necessary to their defence, and the withdrawal of them would have been immediately followed by a Mahratta invasion. He entreated Hastings to relieve him from the charge of at least one brigade, and to allow him to take possession of the wealth and the jaygeers of the begums, to enable him to discharge his obligations to the Company. Hastings subsequently affirmed that if the Vizier had not made this proposal, he himself would never XV.] PLUNDERED BY THE NABOB. 419 have suggested it. At the same time, it was represented to him that the begums had abetted the rebellion, as he called it, of Cheyt Sing, and supplied him with troops and money. The charge rested chiefly on the assertion of one Colonel Hannay, who had obtained service with the Nabob vizier, and fleeced him to the extent of thirty lacs of rupees in three years. It was supported by affidavits taken before Sir Elijah Irnpey, the chief judge of the Supreme Court, who pro- ceeded to Lucknow for the purpose ; a most extraordinary pilgrimage, as was justly said, for a most extraordinary pur- pose yet it was utterly without foundation. But under the pressure of circumstances, Hastings brought himself round to the belief that " the begums had made war on the Company ;" he yielded to the solicitation of the Vizier, and his con- sent to the spoliation of the princesses was duly embodied in a treaty. The Nabob returned to Lucknow, and after some little hesitation, to save appearances and to throw the odium of the transaction on the Governor- General, surrounded the palace of the begums with guards, seized and fettered the two eunuchs who were their confidential ministers, sequestered their .estates, and extorted, at several times, sums to the amount of seventy-six lacs of rupees, which .were paid over to the Company. To these treasures and jaygeers the begums had originally no legitimate title, ,as we have ex- plained in a preceding chapter; they were state property, liable for the obligations of the state; but six years had elapsed since the Nabob however reluctantly it matters not had assigned them to the begums, under the official guarantee of the representative of the Governor-General. The coercive measure now adopted admits therefore of no moral extenuation. Yet so little was Hastings alive to the objectionable character of this transaction, that he ridiculed the censure which " men of virtue " might cast upon it. But the men of virtue and of political integrity in his own land have regarded it as a stain on his administration, however consonant it may have been with the Mahomedan law of 2 E2 420 FTZOOLLA KHAN. euccession, or the practice of Oriental courts. As to the barbarities practised on the begums and their servants by the Nabob, Hastings cannot be held personally answerable for them ; the odium which they have fixed on his administration, was the revenge of civilization for an alliance with barbarism, for a most objectionable object. Fyzooiia Khan, Fyzoolla Khan, the Eohilla chieftain, was, in 1780. 1774, left in possession of Rampoora and several other jaygeers, of the annual value of fifteen lacs of rupees. He devoted his attention with great zeal to the encourage- ment of agriculture and the improvement of the country, and with such success as to double his rent-roll in seven years, without overtaxing his subjects. He was bound by treaty not to increase his military force beyond 5,000 men, of whom 3,000 were to be at the disposal of the Nabob vizier, when he happened to be engaged in war. In November, 1780, Hastings, distracted by the intelligence of Colonel Baillie's defeat, instructed the Vizier to demand the aid of 5,000 troops for the defence of Behar, to liberate the English regiments for service at Madras. Fyzoolla Khan, with all humility, made an offer of 2,000 horse and 1,000 foot. Hastings, who always expected prompt obedience to his requisitions, was exasperated at this hesitation, and under the alarm created by Cheyt Sing's proceedings, assented, without adequate consideration, to the request made by the Vizier to dispossess Fyzcolla Khan of the whole of his zemindary and annex it to his own dominions: but he soon after discovered and acknowledged the error he had com- mitted in this interpretation of the treaty, revoked the per- mission he had given to the Vizier, and released Fyzoolla Khan from the obligation of furnishing any quota of troops in future, on the payment of fifteen lacs of rupees. Censure of the These proceedings were severely condemned by HMttafjTre- tne Court f Directors who pronounced the de- signs, i783-. m and on Cheyt Sing, a breach of faith, and ordered him to be restored to his estates. Under the in- XT.] HASTINGS RETIRES FROM INDIA. 421 fluence of this vote of censure Hastings's colleagues in Council not only withdrew their support from him, but became united in their opposition to him, and he complained, with great reason that while he was still held responsible for the safety of India, his degradation had been proclaimed at every court in India. " If," he said, " I am to be threatened with dismission, my acts reprobated, the whole responsibility of the government thrown on me, with only an equal voice in Council, I cannot discharge my trust with credit or effect." In a letter to the Court of Directors of the 20th of March, 1783, after appealing to them to attest the patience and temper with which he had submitted to all the indignities heaped upon him during his long service, he announced his determination to quit their service, and re- quested that a successor might be immediately nominated. During the year 1784 he proceeded to Lucknow, and in compliance with the requisition of the Court of Directors, restored the jaygeers to the begums, through the agency of the Nabob vizier. He adjusted all accounts between Oude and the Company, made every arrangement for the payment of the English troops employed in its defence, and then with- drew the Residency, which had become odious to the Vizier by its interference with his government, not less than by its depredations. On his return to Calcutta, Hastings addressed valedictory letters to all the princes and chiefs of India, and having laid the keys of the treasury on the table of the Council Board, and delivered the keys of the fort to his successor, Mr. Macpherson, embarked for England in Febru- ary, 1785, after a most eventful administration of thirteen years. TT t . , Hastings reached England on the 13th of June, Hastings s recep- tion in England, and experienced the most gracious reception from the King and Queen; and even the Court of Direc- tors greeted him with a courteous address. By one of the most influential members of the House of Lords, he was described as the Company's great minister the powerful Chatham of 422 IMPEACHMENT OF HASTINGS. [CHAP. the east. The Ministry, with one exception, evinced the most friendly disposition towards him, and the preeminent services he had rendered to his country in the East fully justi- fied his expectations of a peerage. But that exception was fatal to all his hopes. Mr. Pitt, the prime minister, had imbibed a vehement prejudice against him. He admitted that he was a great and wonderful man, and that the charges against him were ridiculous and absurd; but, he had committed four transgressions he had attempted to extend the British dominions in India, which the minister highly disapproved of ; he had forfeited the confidence of the native princes ; he had disobeyed the orders of the Court of Directors ; and he had fixed enormous salaries to offices in India. There was, more- over, an adverse resolution on the records of the House of Commons, and until it was done away with by a vote of thanks for his great services, Mr. Pitt affirmed that he could not advise his Majesty to confer any honour on him ; yet the minister's favourite colleague, Mr. Dundas, with whom that damnatory vote originated, had subsequently .declared, that Hastings's conduct was worthy of every praise he could bestow, and of every support his Majesty's ministers could afford him ; and he went so far as expressly to pronounce him the saviour of India. As to the vote of thanks, Mr. Pitt had only to propose it to the House, and it would have been carried by acclamation. Seven days after Hastings landed in England, ^ r - Burke, one of the most distinguished leaders ment, 2oth o f the Whigs, gave notice in the House of Corn- June, 1785. mons that he would on a future day, make a motion regarding the conduct of a gentleman recently re- turned from India. But a meeting of the party was held soon after, and it was resolved, with great unanimity, to be unadvisable to embark in a crusade against him. There was therefore every reason to conclude that the menace of a pro- secution would have blown over, but for the imprudence and arrogance of Major John Scott, the confidential agent and XV.] HASTINGS HEARD IN REPLY. 423 evil genius of Hastings. Like other retired Indians of ample fortune he had purchased a borough and entered Parliament. On the first day of the ensuing session of 1786, he rose and defied Burke to make good his threat. After this challenge, Burke had no option but to pursue his intention, and he entered upon the impeachment with all the ardour of his enthusiastic nature. His political associates, who had been lukewarm on the subject, felt themselves bound in honour to rally round and support him ; and this celebrated trial is thus traced up to the mistaken zeal of Hastings's own friend, Major Scott, who emphatically " bullied " Burke into the pro- secution. His first motion was for the production of papers, but the House resolved, that he should state his case before he applied for documents to support it. On the 4th of April, Burke brought forward Charges against r Hastings, 4th eleven charges, to which eleven others were sub- sequently added. For many years he had made the politics and the people of India and their ancient history his particular study, and no man in the House has ever been more familiar with all questions relating to that country. He was a worshipper of ancient institutions and dynasties, and having followed the career of Hastings step by step, gradually contracted a feeling of personal animosity towards him, for his attempts to subvert them in the East. But all the mate- rials of the charges were supplied by Mr. Francis, Hastings's rancorous opponent in India, who had obtained a seat in Par- liament, and determined to hunt him down with all the rancour which might have been expected from the writer of Junius's letters. After the charges had been introduced, Hastings obtained permission to be heard in reply, and on the 1st of May appeared at the bar, bending beneath the weight of a document more prolix than even a Bengal dispatch. He read on till he was exhausted, when the clerks of the House came to his aid, and mumbled through its inter- minable pages, the reading of which required a second day. The only impression produced on the House was one of weari- 424 THE THREE PRINCIPAL CHARGES. [CHAP. ness and impatience ; yet so ignorant was Hastings of English sensibilities as to persuade himself that the idea of the reply was conceived in a happy hour, and by a blessed inspiration, and that "it instantly turned all minds to his own way." Of the twenty-two charges, only three were of The three prm- * ' J cipai charges, any serious importance, and they referred to the 1 7ftfi first Rohilla war, toCheyt Sing, and to the begums of Oude. The rest such as that of having in six revolu- tions, brought the fertile and beautiful provinces of Furruck- abad to a state of the most deplorable ruin, and of having impoverished and depopulated Oude, and rendered the country, which was once a garden, an uninhabited desert, were the mere litter of Mr. Francis's malignity. The first charge accused him of having " hired British soldiers for the purpose of extirpating the innocent and helpless people inhabiting the Rohillas." But the first Rohilla war had received the appro- bation of the Court of Directors ; it had taken place fourteen years before, and whatever might have been its criminality, Parliament had condoned it by subsequently reappointing Hastings Governor-General. Mr. Dundas explained that when he proposed a vote of censure to the House on this transac- tion, he considered it sufficient for the recall of Hastings ; but he had never supposed that it involved the necessity of a prosecution. Both he and Mr. Pitt voted against the charge, and it was consequently negatived by 119 to 67. The charge of wanton cruelty and extortion against the raja of Benares, was brought forward by Fox, in a speech of surpassing ability, but he rested his argument solely on the principle that Cheyt Sing was an independent prince, no way liable to be called on for succour by the Bengal Government. Mr. Pitt, who was expected to support Hastings in this case also, resisted this opinion, and asserted that Cheyt Sing was a vassal cf the Bengal empire, and owed allegiance to it, and was subject to extraordinary demands on extraordinary emergencies. But, he added, the whole of Hastings's conduct showed that he intended to punish the raja with too much severity, inflicting XV.] MB. PITT VOTES AGAINST HASTINGS. 425 a fine of fifty lacs for a default of only five lacs. He voted, therefore, for the motion, which was carried by 119 to 79. The adoption of this charge by the Ministry, was the turning point of the impeachment, which, after this decision, became inevitable. The third important charge, which referred to the confiscation of the treasures and estates of the begums of Oude, was entrusted to Mr. Sheridan, and the speech of six hours' duration with which he introduced it, has been justly considered the greatest effort of oratory in ancient and modern times. Mr. Pitt, himself, described it as possessing everything that genius or art could furnish, to agitate and control the human mind. The House was enraptured by his eloquence, and gave an unusual sign of applause by clapping of hands, in which even the strangers were allowed to join without rebuke. The debate was adjourned to the next day, on the extraordinary plea that, under spell of the orator, the members had lost their self-possession. When the House resumed, Mr. Pitt came forward and asserted, that Hastings's conduct regarding the treasures of the begxuns bore the strongest marks of criminality, though he did not impute to him. the cruelties said to have been practised. After this decla- ration, the charge was supported by a majority of three to one. It was therefore resolved that Warren Hastings should be impeached before the Lords of high crimes and misdemeanours during the period of his Indian government ; and as the Lords refused the use of their own chamber, Westminster Hall was ordered to be fitted up for the occasion. Tnai of "^he trial wn i ca commenced on the 13th of Hastings. Has February, 1788, presented the most august spectacle which had been witnessed in England for more than a century the impeachment by the Commons of England, before the highest tribunal in the land, of the man who had consolidated the power of Great Britain in the East. The scene was one of unexampled dignity and gran- deur. The Queen and the Princesses, the Prince of Wales, and his royal brothers, with their trains, led the procession. 4-26 HASTING S'S TRIAL. [CHAP. The peers in their ermine, were marshalled two and two according to their rank from their own chamber to the hall. But the most interesting spectacle was the galaxy of genius grouped together in the seats appropriated to the managers of the trial Fox, and Burke, and Sheridan, and Grey, and Windham, men of imperishable renown in the annals of their country. In the presence of this illustrious assembly, Warren Hastings, who had given law to the princes and people of India for thirteen years, appeared in the position of a culprit, and was required to go down upon his knees. He was immediately commanded to rise, and accommodated with a seat; but of all the indignities which had been heaped on him hi England or in India, this ignominious cere- monial was that which most acutely wounded his feelings. The Lord Chancellor, who presided in the Court, and who had been his own school-fellow at Westminster, concluded his address with much solemnity, " Conduct your defence in a hanner that may befit your station and the magnitude of the charges against you, and estimate rightly the high character of those you have to answer the Commons of Great Britain." To which Hastings replied with great dignity, " I am come to this high tribunal, equally impressed with a confidence in my own integrity, and in the justice of the Court before which I stand." The pleadings were opened by Burke in a speech of such transcendent power, that Hastings himself was carried away by the torrent of eloquence, and remarked that for half an hour he really considered himself the greatest miscreant in England. The management of the impeachment, for any detail of which, however, it is not possible to find space hi this brief sketch, was left by Mr. Pitt in the hands of his opponents, the Whigs, and it was conducted in a spirit of rancour, which in this age of moderation, is regarded with amazement. The whole proceeding is inseparably connected with the traditions and the credit of that party, and, hence, after the lapse of three-quarters of a century, its political chief Still considers that the ''whole of Basting-s's policy was XT.J HIS ACQUITTAL. 427 conceived in an Indian spirit of trick, perfidy, cruelty and falsehood." To acquit Hastings of criminality would ne- cessarily imply the severest reflection on the conduct of those who applied to him the epithets of " thief," " tyrant," " robber," " cheat," " swindler," " sharper," " captain-general of iniquity," and " spider of hell," and then expressed their regret that the English language did not afford terms more adequate to the enormity of his offences. The trial dragged on for seven years, and terminated on the 23rd of April, 1795, in his complete and honourable acquittal. It cost him ten lacs of rupees r and reduced him to poverty, but it has conferred immortality on his name. Character and No man acting on so great a theatre, and in administration circumstances of such extreme difficulty has ever of Hastings, , . . * had his public conduct, and his private corres- pondence subjected to an ordeal like that to which Hastings was exposed, and there are few who could have come out of it with such credit. In the opinion of the ablest, though most censorious of the historians of British India, "He was beyond all question the most eminent of the chief rulers whom the Company has ever employed, nor is there any one of them who would not have succumbed under the difficulties he had to encounter." The impartial verdict of posterity has long- since acquitted him of the crimes charged on him. That ne was not free from blame, the preceding narrative has abund- antly shown, but his offences are cast into the shade when we contemplate the grandeur of his whole career, and we may adopt the opinion of one of the most eminent statesmen of the day, " Though he was not blameless, if there was a bald place on his head it ought to be covered with laurels." His presidency was a great epoch in the history of our Indian empire. On his arrival in Bengal, as governor, he found the Company in possession of a large and fertile territory, but without any rule of government except that which had descended to it from its commercial institutions, and no ruin of policy but that which the accident of the 428 CHARACTER OF HIS ADMINISTRATION". [CHAP. day supplied. It was he who organised the administration and consolidated the political power of the British empire in the East. While he was anxious to avoid territorical acquisi- tions, he set his heart on extending oar political influence to every court, and making the Company the leading power in India, and the arbitrer of its destinies. This task he accom- plished while opposed and thwarted by his colleagues, counter- acted and reviled by his superiors, and enjoying but accidental and temporary authority. While the king of England and his ministers were losing an empire in the west, he was building upon an empire in the east. To the natives of India his impeachment was an incomprehensible enigma. They had followed him to his embarkation with their regrets, and when he had been deprived of all power, and had become the butt of persecution, the princes of India, whose confidence he was said to have forfeited, hastened to offer him the spontaneous homage of their admiration. Nor to this day is he regarded in India in any other light than as one of the most moderate and most honourable, as well as the ablest of British rulers. Select ana The exclusive privileges granted to the East mitteei78i I n( ^ a Company were to expire upon three years' 82- notice, after the 25th of March, 1780, and negotia- tions were therefore opened between the India-house and the Treasury, towards the close of that year, which turned chiefly on two points, the right of the Crown to all territories ac- quired by its subjects, and the share due to the public of the advantages which the Company enjoyed. On the 9th of April, 1781, Lord North brought forward eight propositions in the House of Commons relative to the government of India, so unpalatable that the Court of Directors refused to apply for the renewal of the Charter on such terms. But the Company was strong in the House and in the country, while the Ministry was tottering. A compromise was, therefore, effected between the parties. The question of right to the territories acquired in India was left in abeyance, and the existing privileges were extended with scarcely any modifica- X.V.] SELECT AND SECRET COSrMITTEES. 429 tion to a period of three years, after notice had been given on the 1st of March, 1791. The Company was likewise required to pay to the Treasury the sum of forty lacs of rupees in lieu of all arrears due to the nation, and three- fourths of their surplus profits, after the payment of a divi- dend of eight per cent., were to go to the state. In February of the year 1781, the petitions, formerly mentioned, from the inhabitants of Calcutta against the encroachments of the Supreme Court were presented to the House, and it was agreed to refer them to a Select Committee, of which Mr. Burke was the life and soul, and which is remembered by the twelve able reports drawn up by his pen and submitted to Parlia- ment. It was these reports which for the first time diffused through the community in England a distinct view of the origin and progress of our rule in India, and of the im- portance of the national interests which had grown up. On the receipt of the intelligence of Hyder Ali's irruption into the Carnatic, the Minister moved for the appointment of a Secret Committee to inquire into the cause of the war, and the state of the British possessions on that coast. Six reports were presented by this Committee, through its chairman, Mr. Dundas. Motion for the On the 9th of April, 1782, Mr. Dundas moved recall of that the reports be referred to a Committee of the whole House, and in a speech of three houi's' duration, denounced the conduct of the Presidencies in India, whom he charged with having plunged the nation into wars for the sake of conquest, violated the engagement of treaties, and plundered and oppressed the natives. He censured the Court of Directors for reprobating the conduct of their servants abroad only when it was not attended with profit. The House at once adopted the charges brought against Sir Thomas Rumbold, the late governor of Madras, and a bill of pains and penalties was introduced, but in consequence of the unsettled state of parties, it dropped through, leaving the black stain of his iniquities still attached to his character. 430 FOX'S INDIA BILL. [CHAP, On the 30th of May, 1782, Mr. Dundas moved for the recall of Mr. Hastings from Bengal, and Mr. Hornby from Bombay, for having in sundry instances acted in a manner repugnant to the honour and policy of the nation, and thereby brought great calamities on India, and enormous expenses on the Company. The House voted Hastings's recall; the Court of Directors followed the example, but the Court of Proprietors, which at this time comprised men of high standing and great eminence in the country, resolved that the Court of Directors was not bound to pay any attention to the suggestions of only one branch of the legislature, and passed a vote of thanks to Hastings. This act of independence, which was resented by both parties in the House, sealed the doom of that Court. Mr. Dundas declared it to be dangerous in principle and insulting to the authority of Parliament, and when he came into power two years subsequently, assisted in giving a death blow to its power. FOX'S India The pecuniary embarrassments in which the BUI, 1783. Company was involved by the bills drawn for the expenses of the war in the Carnatic, damaged their position in no small degree. On the 5th of March they presented a petition to the House stating that of the sum exacted of them for the benefit of the nation, they had paid thirty lacs, but were unable to find the remainder, though it was only ten lacs, and, moreover, that they could not carry on the government of India for another twelvemonth, without the loan of a crore of rupees. Two Acts were passed for their relief ; but this application, combined -with the reports of the two Committees, and the damaging debates in the House, produced a deep impression on the public mind, and there was a general demand for some measure commensurate with the importance and exigency of the case. Mr. Fox, then at the head of the Coalition Ministry, -was urged by the national voice to legislate for India, and he consequently brought forward his celebrated India Bill. Both Clive and Hastings had recommended to the Prime Ministers of the day, XT.] IT IS DEFEATED. 431 to Lord Chatham and Lord North, that the government of India should be conducted in the name and under the autho- rity of the king. But Mr. Fox's Bill went much further He proposed that all the powers of government should be transferred, for a period of four years, from the Company to a Board consisting of seven Commissioners, to be nominated in the first instance by Parliament, and afterwards by the Crown. The trade of the Company was to be managed by nine assistant-directors, to be eventually chosen by the pro- prietors of India Stock. Another Bill was likewise introduced -for the reform of abuses in India, but its provisions were without vigour or soundness. A hobby of Mr. Francis was also adopted, and the zemindars were declared to be the hereditary proprietors of the lands of which they collected the revenue. As regarded making war or alliances with the native powers, the supreme authority in India was to be placed under more severe restrictions, and rendered more subordinate than before to the Board -of Commissioners, fourteen thousand miles off, in England. The motives of Mr. Fox, in the introduction of Defeat of toss India BUI, this bill, were pure and benevolent. He really believed that it was his mission " to rescue the greatest number of the human race that ever were so grie- viously oppressed, from the greatest tyranny that ever was exercised." But the bill was considered dangerous to the liberties of the nation. The patronage of India was estimated to be worth two crores of rupees a year, arid, as the principle of competitive appointments had not then been discovered, it was believed that the transfer of it to the Crown, or to the minister would destroy the balance of the constitution. It was, therefore, opposed by many from the most patriotic motives. The Court of Directors, threatened with extinction, filled the country with their complaints, and asserted that after such a violation of chartered rights, no institution in England was secure. The cry was echoed in Parliament by thirty or forty of those whom the spoils of the east, or the 432 PITT'S INDIA BILL. [CHAP. jobs of the India-house, had lifted into the senate, and who presented a firm phalanx of opposition to a bill which cut off their children and connections from the prospect of similar fortunes. Every engine was set in motion to defeat this measure, yet it passed the lower House by a triumphant majority of 208 to 102. But the king had been alarmed by the assurance, that it would take the diadem from his head, and place it on the brows of Mr. Fox. He, therefore, adopted the unconstitutional course of authorizing Earl Temple to inform the peers, that he should consider any one who voted for it as no friend of his. The House of Lords therefore threw out the bill, and at midnight the king sent a messenger to the ministers, whom he cordially hated, to announce their dismissal. Mr Pitt's India Mr. William Pitt, then twenty -four years of age, BUI 1784. wag pi ace( j at the head of the new ministry, and, after struggling for several months with an adverse House of Commons, at length appealed to the country, and obtained a majority of 160. The East India Company, then the most powerful corporation in England, had assisted him with their influence at the elections, and their interests were not for- gotten when he was in power. Their chief revenue was derived from the monopoly of the tea trade. They were in arrears for duty to the extent of a crore of rupees, which they asked him to remit. The duty of 50 per cent, then levied on the importation of the article, gave encouragement to smuggling, and thereby diminished the resources of the Com- pany. Mr. Pitt reduced it to 12^ per cent., and endeavoured to make up the loss of sixty lacs of rupees which it entailed, by an increase of the very objectionable tax on windows and light. On the 13th of August, he introduced his India Bill, in a speech in which he denounced, in no equivocal terms, the misconduct of the governors in India. He had before him the three plans for the improvement of the government, which had been drawn up during the previous three years by Lord North, Mr. Dundas and Mr. Fox, from each of which he XV.] PROVISIONS OF MR. PITT'S BILL. 433 borrowed some of the materials of his own bill. lie proposed the appointment of a Board of Commissioners, consisting of six members of the Privy Council, with power to check, superintend and control, all the acts, operations and concerns, connected with the civil and military government, and the revenues of India. The Court of Directors were to submit to the Commissioners, not only the letters received from India, as before, but all those which were transmitted by them. All despatches and orders dictated by the Board were to be im- plicitly obeyed. At the same time a committee of secrecy was constituted, consisting' of three Directors, through whom all important communications from the Board were to be sent ; an interior cabinet was thus established at the India House, which excluded twenty-one of the Directors from all share of political power. The Court of Proprietors, which had recently set the House of Commons at defiance, was restricted from interf ering with any of the decisions of the Board, and was thus reduced to utter insignificance. Two other provisions were inserted, the one to compel every officer returning from India to deliver a schedule of the property he had acquirrd ; the other to establish a separate and august tribunal in England, for the trial of great delinquents. But these anomalous enactments were speedily abrogated. It was also declared in this bill that the pursuit of schemes of conquest was repugnant to the wish, to the honour and the policy of the British nation, and it was therefore enacted, " that it should not be lawful for the Governor-General, without the express authority and concord of the Court of Directors, or of the Secret Committee, either to declare or commence hostilities, or to enter into any treaty for making war against any of the native princes or states iu India, or any treaty guaranteeing the dominions of such princes or states, except when hostilities should have been commenced, or preparations actually made for the attack of the British nation in India, or of some of the states and princes whose dominions it shall be engaged by subsisting treaties to defend." How far this attempt to stop the growth 2 s- 434 COMPARISON OF THE TWO BILLS. [CHAP. of the British empire by Act of Parliament was successful, will be seen in the course of this history. Comparison of It is difficult to account satisfactorily for the the Bms, 1784. reprobation of Mr. Pox's bill, and the commenda- tion bestowed on that of Mr. Pitt. In both the monopoly of the trade to India and China was left .to the Company, and the Directors were to be chosen by the Proprietors. The object of both was the same, to deprive the Court of Directors of all power in the government of India, and transfer it to the Ministry of the day, by whom, in both cases, the Commis- sioners were to be appointed, for the Crown meant its respon- sible Ministers. But, then, Mr. Pitt left to the Company the semblance of power, while he imperceptibly took away the reality. He left the Court of Directors all the trappings of greatness, their grand house, their magnificent banquets, and their vast patronage ; they were still the grandest corporation in the grandest city of the world ; but, there was the check- string behind the machinery, which controlled all its move- ments. From the passing of this bill in 1784, to the period when, in 1858, Mr. Fox's plan was consummated, and the government of India distinctly transferred to the Crown, the administration of India was conducted under the absolute control of the President of the Board, though in the name of the Company. The government of India was a despotism at home, and a despotism abroad. The Indian Minister was, it is true, responsible to Parliament, but the responsibility became a farce, when the members rushed out of the house at the name of India. Mr. Dundas was appointed the first President of the Board, and continued for sixteen years to manage the affairs of India with ability which has never been surpassed. The office has since been considered one of inferior importance and dignity, and, with occasional exceptions, has been left to second, and even third-rate men. Indeed, there are few cir- cumstances more striking in the history of our Indian empire, than the contrast presented by the brilliant genius of its successive Governors-General, and the dull mediocrity of those who have presided over the government at home. xv._] NABOB OF ARGOT'S DEBTS 435 of AT- 1 on which the absolute power cot's debts, of the Indian minister was displayed, referred to the Nabob of Arcot's debts, which had been for many years the great source of demoralization at the Madras Presidency. That prince had long been in the habit of borrow- ing" money at an exorbitant premium and a ruinous interest, and giving assignments, called tunkaws, on the revenue of different districts. When he removed his court to Madras, the town immediately became a scene of the most scandalous intrigue and fraud, into which men of all classes, in and out of the service, plunged with reckless avidity. The traffic in loans to the Nabob was openly prosecuted without disguise or shame, and became the shortest and surest road to fortune. Civilians with ^00 rupees a month rose to sudden opulence, and even the members of Council, who ought to have been the foremost to check these nefarious practises, were them- selves most deeply implicated in them. Government became a mockery, when its highest dignitaries were employed in endeavouring to obtain the control of districts for their private advantage. Hastings, when he took over the revenues of the Carnatic for the prosecution of the war with Hyder, deter- mined to deal summarily with this incubus on its resources. He proposed to deduct one-fourth from the principal, to con- solidate principal and interest to a fixed date, after which all interest was to cease, and to pay off the amalgamated sum by instalments. So thoroughly aware were many of the bondholders that these transactions would not bear the light, that they came readily into the compromise, but the majority, consisting chiefly of the public servants, did not consider it their interest to cut down the great pagoda tree, and destroy all hope of future produce, and the plan fell to the ground. The settlement of these interminable claims product regard- was considered a matter of the first importance ing the loans, ^y a ]j ^he public men who had taken an active part in Indian affairs. The bills of Mr. Dundas and Mr. Fox made provision for investigating their origin aucl 2 F 2 436 DUNDAS DISCHARGES THEM WITHOUT INQUIRY. [CHAP. justice, and establishing a fund for their liquidation. Mr. Pitt's India Bill contained the same enactment, and the Court of Directors entered upon the duty with great zeal ; but before the close of 1784, Mr. Dundas took the affair out of their hands, and determined to pay off the demands without any investigation whatever. To determine the order of payment he divided them into three classes, and directed that the sum of twelve lacs of pagodas should be annually appropriated to this object, giving the precedence, however, to the private debts, over the debt due to the Company. The Court of Directors remonstrated against this preposterous arrange- ment, and justly pleaded their prior right to the repayment of the expenses they had incurred, almost to their own bank- ruptcy, in defending the Carnatic from Hyder's invasion, and for which the Nabob had already made an assignment of seven lacs of pagodas a year. They reprobated the proposal to divert any portion of this sum to satisfy the demands of his fraudulent creditors. But the powers of government had passed out of their hands. The President of the Board of Control refused to reconsider his decision, and the subject was brought before the House in February, 1785. It was on this occasion that Mr. Burke delivered his celebrated speech on the Nabob's debts, and consigned the Benfields, and the Atkinsons, and the whole crew of Madras extortioners, to everlasting infamy. He ascribed the singular course pursued by Mr. Dundas to the exercise of Parliamentary influence. It appeared that Paul Benfield had been enabled to make no fewer than eight members at the recent election, from funds supplied by the Nabob of Arcot, and their votes were placed at the disposal of the Ministry. " This," exclaimed Mr. Burke, " was the golden cup of abominations ; this the chalice of the fornications of rapine, usury, and oppression, which was held out by the gorgeous eastern harlot, which so many of the people so many of the nobles had drained to the very dregs." But so powerful was the Ministry in the House, that they did not condescend even to notice this brilliant speech. Mr. Dundas's XV.] SEQUEL OP THE NABOB'S DEBTS. 437 scheme of liquidation was adopted, the result of which was, to secure to Benfield the undisturbed enjoyment of a sum little short of sixty lacs of rupees, of which he had plundered the Carnatic. Of the three classes into which Mr. Dundas had Sequel of tho Arcot debts, divided the claims, the largest was the consoli- dated loan, as it was called, of 1777, of which the Court of Directors heard, for the first time, in the preceding year, and the amount of which was fixed, with interest, at two crores and twenty lacs of rupees. But it cost the country five crores before the last pagoda was paid off, twenty years later, whereas Hastings's compromise, in 1781, would have discharged the whole debt for a crore and a half. To pursue this stupendous system of fraud to its closing scene, we must anticipate the events of fifty years. To prevent the recurrence of such claims, Mr. Fox's bill made it unlawful for any servant of the Company, civil or military, to be engaged in any money transaction whatever with any protected or other native prince. Mr. Pitt did not think fit to incorporate this wise prohibition in his bill, and the con- sequence was, that while the liquidation of the old debt was in progress, the Nabob and his friends were engaged in fabri- cating fresh loans, and on the payment of the last claim in 1805, new demands to the incredible amount of thirty crores of rupees were presented. But Parliament had learnt wisdom by experience, and instead of again admitting them without inquiry, determined to subject them to the severest scrutiny. A Board of Commissioners, consisting of Bengal civilians, was appointed at Madras to investigate their validity, and another Board in London to receive appeals. The labours of these bodies were prolonged over half a century, when the genuine claims were reduced to about two crores and a half, while a sum little short of a crore had been expended in the investigation. The conduct of the Madras Presidency in the matter of these Carnatic debts, and of the Bengal Presidency in the case of Meer Cassim, and the transit duties, are the 438 THE CARSTATIC REVENUES, [CHAP. two dark spots in our Indian administrations, and they appear all the more scandalous when contrasted with the general integrity and justice of our proceedings. In the next question which Mr. Dundas took in The revenues of the Carnatic, hand the revenues of the Carnatic his decision was equally unfortunate. The irruption of Hyder Ah' into the province had constrained Hastings to demand an assignment of all the revenues of the Carnatic to provide for its defence, with the reservation of one-sixth for the expenses of the Nabob. The Nabob was obliged to submit, but. under the influence of his creditors, who refused to advance money without fresh tunkaws, he spared no exertion or artifice to defeat the arrangement, and at length sent an agent to Hastings to appeal against the measures of Lord Macartney. Hastings imprudently listened to his tale of wrong, and issued an order for the restitution of the assignment. The districts had been placed under the able management of a board of honest men, and had yielded a larger revenue than they had ever produced before ; to surrender them to the Nabob would have reduced the Presidency to destitution at a time when the army was seven months in arrears. An angry discussion arose between Madras and Calcutta, but Lord Macarteny at length succeeded in retaining the revenues, and his conduct received the approbation of the Court of Directors. But Mr. Dundas had not been many months at the head of the Board of. Control before he ordered them to be peremp- torily given back, on the ground that the war had ceased, and that "it was necessary to give to all the powers of India a strong proof of the national faith." The Nabob had received a much larger amount of ready money from the punctual payment of his share of the revenues, than he had ever received before from the districts, and he could therefore have no interest in resuming the management of them. But it was of the highest importance to his creditors, of whom Benfield was the representative, and, at the same time, the Nabob's chief adviser hi all such matters, to regain their hold XVI.] SIR JOHN MA.CPHERSON. 439 on the lands. Lord Macarteny was resolved, if possible, not to witness the misery which the surrender of the assignment would inevitably inflict on the interests of the Madras Presi- dency, and he proceeded to Bengal in the hope of persuading the officiating Governor-General to suspend the execution of the order, pending a reference to England. But he found him unwilling to take on himself the responsibility of interfering with the orders of the Ministry ; and the lands passed into the hands of the Nabob and of his creditors. APPENDIX. PROCEEDINGS OF SIR THOMAS RUMBOLD, GOVERNOR OF MADRAS IN 1778, 1779, AND 1780. SINCE this volume was sent to press, the author has been favoured with a large and valuable collection of papers, compiled from original correspondence, and from printed records long since forgotten, rela- tive to the administration of Sir Thomas Rumbold, at Madras, and intended to relieve his memory from the obloquy which has rested on it for nearly half a century. A careful perusal of this compilation forces the conclusion that the charges brought against him by Colonel Wilks and Mr. Mill were based on erroneous information, and partial investigation. The statements regarding his proceedings, which are now received as historical facts, and the authenticity of which the author of this volume never suspected, are not, as it would appear, to be relied on, and this chapter of Indian history requires to be written afresh. The interests of historical truth demand this candid admission, and render it necessary to plice before the reader the clear explanations which these documents afford, of various points on which his conduct has been impeached. The large sums remitted to England by Sir Thomas Rumbold, soon after his arrival at Madras, have been considered a decisive proof of the corrupt character of his proceedings. But these papers explain that he was for twelve years a civilian on the Bengal establish- ment, and chief of the factory of Patna, and moreover, engaged, like all the civilians of the time, in mercantile transactions ; that the remittances consisted of the property he had left in Bengal in the public securities, as proved by the clearest evidence, and which, combined with his salary as Governor, fully accounted for the fortune he had accumulated, of which he was obliged on his return to deliver a schedule on oath, under the penalty of the confiscation of his entire property, if he erred to the extent of 500. The Court of Directors had directed five of the members of Council at Madras to proceed to the northern sircars, to complete a settlement with the zemindars, and Sir Thomas Rumbold has been censured for cancelling the commission, and directing the zemindars to repair to Madras, where they were required to transact business with him alone. But it is now shown that for this procedure he sub- I. '2 G 442 APPENDIX. mitted his reasons to the Court of Directors, the chief of which was that these landholders were endeavouring to baffle the Commissioners, and that the Court declared themselves perfectly satisfied with the course he had adopted. When the matter came under Parliamentary investigation, it was attested by four witnesses that at the Madras Presidency transactions of this nature had always been conducted by the President himself, and subsequently communicated to the Board. Regarding the bribe of a lac of rupees to his secretary, Mr. Red- head, by Seetaram raj, it is shown that Mr. Redhead never enjoyed the confidence of Sir Thomas, and was dismissed within a few months of his arrival at Madras, and died soon after. A paper was discovered among his effects, which purported to be a translation from the ori- ginal, in the Gentoo language, containing a promise on the part of Seetaram raj to pay him a lac of rupees on the performance of cer- tain services. It was not attested by Seetaram, or by Mr. Redhead. His executors, however, sued the native for the amount in the Mayor's Court, and obtained a decree, which was reversed on appeal by the President in Council. An attempt was made to implicate Sir Thomas in the odium of this transaction, but the counsel for the bill found that it could not be sustained, and abandoned the charge. It is stated in the histories of India, that when Sir" Thomas sum- moned the zemindars of the northern sircars to Madras, Viziram raj, the zemindar of Vizazapatam, declined to obey the injunction, pleading the injury which his estates wo.uld suffer from his absence, but that his brother Seetaram raj hastened thither, and succeeded in obtaining from Sir Thomas Rumbold the entire command of the zemindary, in spite of his brother's remonstrances. The version of this affair given in these papers, and substantiated by documentary evidence, presents it in a totally different aspect. Seetaram was the eldest son, and the lawful heir of the principality, but, under the pressure of palace intrigues, was induced to relinquish his right to his brother, and to consent to act as his dewan, or steward, in which capacity he managed the estates with such fidelity and benefit as in a few years to double the rent-roll. A competitor at length succeeded in poisoning the mind of Viziram raj against his brother, and sup- planted him in his office. Seetaram was at Madras, seeking the intervention of the public authorities before the arrival of Sir Thomas, who determined, if possible, to reconcile the brothers. The new dewan, who was a defaulter to the extent of 90,000, was directed to proceed to the zemindary, and bring up his accounts. Sir Thomas embraced the opportunity of his absence, which relieved Viziram from the spell of his influence, to make up the family/quarrel. Seetaram was re appointed dewan, and continued to live in harmony with his brother, and secured the punctual payment of the public revenue, and promoted the improvement of the family property. The most important series of events elucidated by these documents is that which refers to the transfer of the Guntoor sircar, which has been assumed, without question, as the cause of the confederacy formed to APPENDIX. 440 exterminate the Company, and of the war with Hyder Ali, which spread desolation through the Oarnatic. The statement, which has hitherto been deemed authentic, runs thus : By the treaty made with the Nizam in 1768, a tribute of seven lacs of rupees a-year was to be paid to him for the four sircars, and he was bound to consider the enemies of the Com- pany his enemies. The Guntoor sircar, however, was to remain in the possession of his brother, Basalut Jung, during his life, and then to revert to the Company ; but if he gave protection or assistance to their enemies they were at liberty to take possession of the province and re- tain it. Basalut Jung employed Monsieur Lally to organize an army, commanded by French officers, which was gradually increased to 5UO Europeans and 3,000 sepoys, and was constantly supplied with recruits and stores through the port of Motapilly. In 1779, Basalut Jung, alarmed by the encroachment of Hyder, voluntarily proposed to Sir Thomas Rumbold to lease his territory for its full value to the Company, to dismiss the French force, and to receive a British contingent in its stead. A British force was accordingly sent to take possession of the province,' and Mr. Holland was deputed to Hyderabad to explain this transaction to the Nizam, and to demand the remission of the tribute, which had been withheld for some time The Nizam was exasperated at a proceeding which he considered a breach of the treaty, and im- mediately formed a confederacy with the Mahrattas and Hyder for the extermination of English power in the Deccan. These measures were concealed from Mr. Hastings, who, on becoming cognizant of them, superseded the authority of the Madras Government at the court of the Nizam, ordered the province to be restored, and engaged to make good the tribute ; and by this prompt and conciliatory pro- cedure detached him from the great confederacy. The documents now collected give a totally different aspect to these transactions. The collection of a French force in Guntoor had been an object of alarm equally at Calcutta and at Madras for years before the confederacy was formed. In July, 1775, the Governor- General stated that no time should be lost in removing it, and authorized the Government of Madras to march a body of troops to the frontier, to demand the immediate dismissal of the French force, and, if it was not complied with, to take possession of the country and retain it. The Government of Madras, instead of adopting this extreme measure, sent a remonstrance to the Nizam as Soobudar of the Decoan, and urged the removal of the French corps. He promised to respect the treaty " to a hair's breadth," but constantly evaded compliance with the demand, which was often repeated. The capture of Pondicherry, in 1778, gave a new turn to affairs in the Deccan. and, combined with the recent encroachments of Hyder, who threatened to absorb the Guntoor sircar likewise, induced Basalut Jung to send a vakeel to Madras and offer to make over the province to the Company on the payment of the same sum which he had hitherto derived from it, to dismiss the French, and receive an F.nglish force. A treaty, embody- ing these arrangements, was accordingly drawn up by Sir Thomas Ilumbold, with the full concurrence of bir Eyre Coote, then a member 444 APPENDIX. of the Madras Council, and submitted to Mr. Hastings, who made divers alterations, and then returned it to be carried into effect, with his full concurrence. A detachment of British troops was then sent to occupy the province, who were obliged to cross a corner of a dis- trict which Hvder had recently added to his dominions. The Court of Directors likewise commended the meritorious conduct of Sir Thomas in concluding the treaty. The Nizam and Hyder resented this proceeding, but their indigna- tion only served to demonstrate the wisdom and policy of it. The Nizam reproached his brother for having rented the sircar to the English, when he should have made it over to Hyder Ali. Hyder had resolved to oust Hasalut Jung and take possession of the province, which would give him a position on the flank of the Carnatic, and a port on the Coromandel coast He was irritated by the promptness with which this design was frustrated, and vowed that he would not allow the sircar to pass into the hands of " his old and bitter enemies." By a singular error, accidental or otherwise, the word " enemy " was substituted for "enemies," and the declaration was thus made to ap- ply to Mahomed Ali, the nabob of the Carnatic, and not to the Com- pany, whom Hyder always regarded with a feeling of rancorous hatred. With regard to the tribute of seven lacs of rupees a-year, the papers state that it had fallen into arrears before the arrival of Sir Thomas Kumbold. The Nizam was pressing for payment, and the Madras Government had earnestly entreated the Governor -General to assist them with funds to discharge it. The Madras Presidency was reduced to such a state of poverty, that when the troops had been paid for one month they knew not where to look for the next supply. Mr. Holland was sent to Hyderabad, not to make a positive demand of remission, to be eventually supported by violence, but to solicit a reduction of the sum, on tlie plea of poverty, and if the Nizam appeared to be propitious, to propose the entire relinquishment of it, coupled with certain propositions which it was thought would appear an equivalent for the sacrifice. If they were rejected, he was instructed to assure the Nizam that the current tribute, as well as the arrears, would be paid " as soon as they were in cash." Mr. Holland found, on his ar- rival, that the Nizam had taken the French force dismissed by Basalut Jung into his own service, which, considering that the English were then at war with the French, was a gross breach of the treaty, 'and the Governor of Madras strenuously remonstrated with the Nizam for openly protecting and encouraging the enemies of the Company. Mr. Holland therefore informed him that the payment of the tribute would be made on his giving full satisfaction regarding the French troops. The hostile confederacy formed by the Nizam is attributed, by the historians, to the irritation produced in the mind of the Nizam by the Guntoor transactions and the tribute negotiations. But the documents show that it was formed before they had occurred, and that this fact was admitted by the Governor-General himself. The APPENDIX. 445 animosity of the Nizam, which led to the confederacy, was created by the support given by the British Government to Raghoba, whom he considered his most inveterate enemy. He had earnestly remon- strated with the Bengal Government on this subject, and announced his determination to attack the Company's dominions if the alliance was not relinquished. Another cause of annoyance was the intercep- tion of a letter addressed by the Governor-General to Mr. Elliott, the envoy sent to Nagpore, authorizing him to conclude an alliance with the raja, and to assist him in recovering certain territories from the Nizam. It is shown in the papers that it was thesa two transactions alone which induced the Nizam to form a combination against the Company. It has likewise been believed that the Nizam was detached from the confederacy by the assurance of the Bengal Government that the tribute should be paid, and the Guntoor sircar restored ; but a far more probable cause of this change of policy is to be found so the papers say. in the fact that while the Nizam was inciting Hyder to attack the English, he discovered that Hyder had sent a vakeel to Delhi to obtain from the puppet of an Emperor an imperial grant of the whole of the Nizam's dominions ! These documents deal also with the assertion that the Madras Government, after having given every provocation to Hyder, were taken by surprise when he burst on the Carnatic. But it is stated t'oat every effort was made to conciliate him. The expedition to Mahe was undertaken by orders from home, but when it was found to be obnoxious to Hyder, Sir Thomas proposed that it should be suspended, but was overruled by Sir Eyre Coote. Hyder declared that he would be revenged for Mahe in the Carnatic. The Madras Council were fully aware of his hostility, and repeatedly pointed out the danger to which the Carnatic would be exposed from his assaults, and their inability to defend it. They recommended a union of all the Presidencies to reduce his power. In announcing Hyder 's preparations to Calcutta in November, 1779, Sir Thomas Jlurnbold stated that if he should enter the Carnatic it was beyond their power to prevent the ravages of his horse ; but so late as January, 1780, Mr. Hastings wrote : " I am convinced from Hyder's conduct and disposition that he will never molest us while we pre- serve a good understanding with him." In reference to the desertion of his post on the eve of the war, and the resentment of the Court of Directors, the papers show that the measures of Sir Thomas Rumbold had been uniformly commended by them, and that the first censure of his conduct, which was also accompanied by a sentence of deposition, was written three months after they had received his resignation and appointed his successor, and that his retirement from India was rendered imperative by the advice of the first physicians in Madras. After his return, Mr. Dundus introduced a bill of pains and penalties charging him with high crimes and misdemeanours, and more par- ticularly stigmatising the transaction regarding the Guntoor sircar as having been doiie in a clandestine, treacherous, irregular, and 440 APPENDIX. unjustifiable manner. The law officers of the Crown condemned these proceedings as unjust. Some of the more important allega- tions iu the bill were abandoned, and others broke down when brought to the test of evidence, and the bill itself was withdrawn twenty months after it had been presented, by a motion that it be read that day six months. It is to be hoped that this valuable collection of documeiits will at no distant period be given to the public, for the information of those who take an interest in the history of British India, and the guidance of those who may hereafter treat of this subject. PBINTD BY HAEE1SOJS AJS'D SOXS, ST. MABTIS's LA>'E. DATE DUE 'C 1 7 1969 3 - 1969 GAYLORD PRINTEOIN U.S.