HISTORY OF INDIA, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY. THOMAS KEIGHTLEY, AUTHOR OF THE " HISTORY OF ENGLAND," " HISTORY OF GREECE," " HISTORY OF ROME, : " OUTLINES OF HISTORY," ETC. LONDON: WHITTAKER AND CO., AVE MARIA LANE. K45 PREFACE. The present work may be regarded as supplemental to my History of England. It was not, however, undertaken with that view, but solely at the desire of my publishers, Messrs. Whittaker & Co., who wished to add a History of India to their Popular Library, and deemed me well qualified to write it. It is rather remarkable that my late friend, Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, when I informed him that 1 had (as I then thought) done with history, should have proposed to me this very subject, or rather a History of India and our Colonial Empire in general, to complete my account of the British Empire. In this, as in all my historic epitomes, I have endeavoured (a thing nearly impossible) to unite fulness of information with brevity of narrative ; and I trust, that from it may be derived a tolerably clear idea of the origin and progress of our Indian Empire. For my materials, I am indebted to the Histories of Mill and Wilson, and of Thornton, and the various histories, narratives, and biographies that have appeared, from the days of Clive and Orme, down to our own time. In the First Part, I have chiefly derived my information from Mr. Elphinstone's History of India, and the translations of Ferishta. It was not to be expected, that for the sake of a mere epitome, I should consult the archives of the India House, or carefully examine the Debates of Parliament, or the Reports of Committees. I have only aimed at giving a condensed view of the history, as it is to be found in the works just mentioned. The historic literature of our Indian Empire is very creditable to the servants of the Company. It commences, as is well known, with the " History of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in Indostan," of Orme, the Thucydides, as we may style him, of our Indian Empire ; for, like the illustrious Athenian, he has narrated with fulness, candour, and impartiality, the struggle for dominion of two potent nations ; and viewing the affairs of Bengal as episodic, his work, though unfinished, possesses an epic unity. The style is remarkably clear, and not devoid of picturesqueness and animation ; aud as to the objection that has been made, of his being too minute, I very much doubt if that be a fault, in one who has to furnish materials for all future writers on the same subject. Certain I am, that without reading Orme's work, we shall never fully understand the mode in which the foundations of our wonderful empire in India were laid. It ought to be esteemed one of the classics of our language, and the species of oblivion into which it appears to have fallen is a discredit to our nation. I think, however, that if a new edition of it were published, in the octavo form, with notes by a competent person — Mr. Wilson, for example, — and lithographed copies of the excellent plans which it contains, it would find many readers and purchasers. After Orme's History may be mentioned the various historical writings of Wilks, Duff, Malcolm, Todd, and many others, all of which are extremely valuable. It were greatly to be wished that Mr. Wilson, instead of writing notes to, and continuing the History of Mill, had become himself the historian of our Indian Empire. I know no one so well qualified to write that history in all its fulness, with all the detail which would leave nothing to be desired ; for though Thornton's has many merits, and is written with much impartiality, it is rather a popular history, and the author avoids going much into detail, contenting himself with general views. As to Mill, I always regretted that he should have become the historian of India ; for though I have not the slightest doubt of his honesty, his political notions were too Utopian, and his prejudices so strong, that perhaps a third of his work is useless, and all his elaborate reasonings and theories are refuted by his annotator, often by simply showing that he was unacquainted with the real facts, and was combating a phantom of his own creation. As a writer on public law and political economy, Mr. Mill would, I think, be more in his place than as a historian. PREFACE. On the various epitomes of the History of India, it would be unbecoming in me to make any observations ; if I found fault with them, it might be ascribed to jealousy ; if I praised them, it might be asked why I undertook a work, for which, it was apparent, there was little need. It only remains for me to say a few words on the orthography of Oriental names and terms. Our earlier writers followed in some the Portuguese mode of spelling, in others they gave the sounds of their own language. Sir William Jones adopted the vowel sounds of the Italian language, marking the long vowels with an accent ( CHAPTER IV. House of Ghor— Shuhab-ud-din— His conquests— Slave- kings— Khutb-ud-din—Shems-ud-dinAltumsh— India invaded by the Moguls— Rukn-ud-din— Sultana Rezia — Nasir-ud-din— Anecdotes — Bulbun— Ky Kobad— End of the Dynasty...—... „..«....— 10 CHAPTER V. House of Khilji— Jellal-ud-din— First Invasion of the Deckan— Ala-ud-din— Story of Dewal Devi— Mas- sacre of the Moguls— Mobarek — House of Toghlak — Ghazi Khan— Shah Mohammed— Attempt to invade China — Fictitious Money — Mohammedan Kingdom in the Deckan — Firus-ud-din — Invasion of India by Timur— The Syuds— House of Lodi— Behlol— Secun- der — Ibrahim — End of the Afghan Dominion in India ~ 13 CHAPTER VI. Sultan Baber— His Early Adventures— Conquest of India— His Character— Hum ayun — His Flight from India— Birth of Akber— Humayun's Adventures— He recovers Cabul— And India— His Death— Sheer Shah — Selim— Mohammed 18 CHAPTER VII. Dismemberment of the Empire — The Bahmani Empire — Shiahs and Sunnis— Bejapur — Ahmednugur — Bidr —Golconda— Elichpur— Battle of Talicote— Guzerat The Rajput States 22 CHAPTER VIII. Akber — Behram Khan— Reduction of various Chiefs — Asof Khan — Siege of Chitor — Marriages with Rajput Families — Reduction of Guzerat— Akber's Temerity — Reduction of Bengal— Recovery of Cabul 23 CHAPTER IX. page Akber— Conquest of Cashmire— The Yusofzyes— And Roushenia— Recovery of Candahar — Invasion of the Deckan— Chand Sultana— Prince Selim— Death of Akber — His Character — His Religious System — Hin- doo Village-System — The Revenue — The Army — Royal Magnificence 25 CHAPTER X. Jehangir — Prince Khusru — Niir Jehan — Invasion of the Deckan — Prince Shah Jehan — Mohabut Khan — Seizure of the Emperor — Heroism of Nur Jehan — Death of Jehangir 29 CHAPTER XI. Shah Jehan— Nur Jehan— Magnificence of Shah Jehan —Khan Jehan Lodi— War in the Deckan— Cabul and Balkh — Aurungzib— Sons of the Emperor — Illness of Shah Jehan— War among his Sons— The Emperor dethroned by Aurungzib — Confinement of Prince Morad— Magnificence of Shah Jehan 33 CHAPTER XII. Aurungzib or Alumgir I,— Fate of DSra— Of Shujah —Of Soliman— Death of Meer Jumla— The Marattas —Malajee— Sevajee— Progress of his Power— Aurung- zib's Treatment of him — His Regulations— Chout — TheSadhs 35 CHAPTER XIII. Aurungzib continued— Aurungzib's Bigotry— Further Progress of Sevajee— His Death— Sambajee— Aurung- zib in the Deckan— End of the Kingdoms of Golconda and Bejapur— Capture and Death of Sambajee— Rajah Ram— Difference of the Mogul and the Maratta Troops —Siege of Gingee— Aurungzib's Change of Operations —His Partial Success— His Death and Character 38 CHAPTER XIV. Bahadur Shah — Origin of the Sikhs — Jehandar Shah— The Syuds— FurokhsIr— War in the Deckan —Against the Sikhs— Mohammed Shah— Asof J3h —Fall of the Syuds— The Marattas— Balajee Wiswanat — Bajee Rao— Invasion of Hindustan by the Marattas 42 CHAPTER XV. Persia— Conquest of it by Mahmud the Afghan— Nadir Shah— His Invasion of India— Massacre and Plunder of Delhi— Death of Bajee Rao— Balajee Rao— The Rohillas— Invasion of India by Ahmed Duranee— Ahmed Shah— The Marattas in Hindustan— Ghazi- ud-din— Alumgir II.— Plunder of Delhi by Ahmed Duranee— Conquest of the Punjab by the Marattas— Power of the Marattas— Attempt to make themselves Masters of all India— Battle of Panipat, and Ruin of the Maratta Power 45 CONTENTS. PART II. BRITISH EMPIRE IN INDIA— FIRST PERIOD. CHAPTER I. page Early Trade to India — Discovery of the Monsoons— Por- tuguese Discoveries — Passage of Cape of Good Hope — Voyage of Vasco de Gama— Voyage of Cabral — Se- cond Voyage of Gama — Of the Albuquerques — Soarez — Almeida — Albuquerque— Conquest of Goa — Of Ma- lacca — Extent of Portuguese Empire in the East — Defence of Diu— Of Goa— Voyages of the Dutch— Their Trade and Settlements— The French 49 CHAPTER II. Early Voyages of the English — Land-trade — Travels of Fitch — First Company Established — Voyage of Lan- caster — Of Middleton — Of Sharpey— Second Voyage of Middleton — Of Hippon and Floris — Nature of the English Trade— Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe — Rivalry between the Dutch and English — Depression of the Portuguese— Massacre of Amboyna 54 CHAPTER III. Courten's Association— Settlement at Madras — At Bala- sore— Union of Companies — Defence of the Factory at Surat— Disobedience of their Servants — Conflict with the Native Powers, and Abandonment of Bengal — Rival Company— Union of the Two Companies — Organization of the Company at Home and in India — Privileges obtained in Bengal 58 CHAPTER IV. French Settlements in India— M. de Labourdonnais— M. Dupleix— Taking of Madras— Treaty broken by Dupleix— Attempt on Fort St. David— Siege of Pon- dicherry 62 CHAPTER V. Kingdom of Tanjore— Taking of Devi Cottah— Affairs of the Carnatic — Robert Clive — His Defence of Arcot — Further Successes of Clive — Defeats of the French — Treaty between the French and English— Treatment of Dupleix — Further Operations of the English— Ill- treatment of Bussy 64 CHAPTER VI. Subahdary of Bengal— Aliverdi Khan— Suraj-ud-dowlah —Capture of Calcutta— The Black Hole— Destruction of the Pirate Augria— Expedition to Bengal 70 CHAPTER VII. Retaking of Calcutta— Capture of Hooghly— Attack on the Subahdar's Camp— Capture of Chandernagore— Conspiracy against the Subahdar— Case of Omichund — Battle of Plassy— Death of Suraj-ud-dowlah — of Omichund 73 CHAPTER VIII. War in the Carnatic— Relief of Trichinopoly— Arrival of Count I. ally— Capture of Fort St. David— Invasion of Tanjore— Siege of Madras— Capture of Masulinatam —Mutiny in French Army— Arrival of Coote-Cap- ture of Via;, wash and Carangoly— Battle of Wande- waafa Blege and Capture of Pondleherry — Destruc- tion of the French Power in India— Fate of Lally 77 CHAPTER IX. page Affairs of Bengal— Invasion of Bahar by the Shah-Zada —Conflict with the Dutch— Return of Clive to Eng- land 83 CHAPTER X. Defeat of the Emperor— Death of Meerum — Dethrone- ment of Meer Jaffier — Seizure of Ram Narrain— The Private Trade— Quarrel with Meer Cossim— Affairs at Patna— Restoration of Meer Jaffier— Battle of Geriah —Massacre of English Prisoners— Battle at Patna— Mutiny of Sepoys — Battle at Buxar— Death of Meer Jaffier — His Successor — Presents received 85 CHAPTER XI. Ciive in England— His Return to Bengal— Treaties with the Vizir and Emperor— Clive's Plan of Reform— Salt- Society— Mutiny of English Officers— Suppressed by Clive — His Return to England— Death and Character 90 CHAPTER XII. Affairs in the Carnatic — Rajah of Tanjore — Mohammed Isoof— Mound of the Caveri — The Northern Circars — Hyder Ally— His Early History— War with Hyder— Battle at Trinomalee— Siege of Amboor — Ill-success of the English — Conclusion of Peace — Affairs of Ben- gal 94 CHAPTER XIII. Revenuesof Bengal — Proceedings in England — Appoint- ment of Supervisors— Distress of the Company— Bills regulating it — New Government of Bengal 98 CHAPTER XIV. Early History of Warren Hastings— New Mode of col- lecting the Revenue— New Courts of Justice — Arrest of Mohammed Reza Khan and Shitab Roy — Arrange- ment of the Nabob's Household— Emperor joins the Marattas— The Rohillas— Treaty of Benares— Treat- ment of the Emperor— Extermination of the Rohillas 100 CHAPTER XV. Arrival of Members of Council— Quarrels with Hastings —Death of the Vizir— Abrogation of Treaty— Charges against Hastings— His Conduct— Execution of Nund- comar for Forgery— Death of Col. Monson — Hastings' tendered Resignation— His Exercise of Power— Re- conciliation with Francis— Monstrous Pretensions of the Supreme Court— Appointment of the Chief-Justin- to a new office— Duel between Hastings and Francis.. 103 CHAPTER X\l Affairs of the Marattas — Treaty of Poorundur — Capitu- lation at Waigim March Of Col. Goddard— Takes Siudia's Camp Exploit! of ('apt. I'opliam Capture of Gwalior - Of Baaaeln— Ascent of the Ghats— Trea- ties with the Marattas 110 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVII. page Mohammed Ally's Agent in England— Powers given to Sir John Lindsay — Reduction of Tanjore — Mr. Paul Benneld— Arrest and Death of Lord Pigot— Strange Conduct of Hastings— Capture of the French Posses- sions—Quarrel with the Nizam — War with Hyder Ally — Destruction of Baillie's Detachment — Arrival of Coote — Defence of Wandewash — Victories of the English— Lord Macartney— Reduction of the Dutch Settlements — Destruction of Braithwaite's Detach- ment—Encounters of French and English Fleets- Storm and Famine at Madras— Death of Hyder— Death of Coote— Attack on Cuddalore— Dismissal of Gen. Stuart — Operations on West Coast — Surrender of Bednore— Of Mangelore — Peace with Tippoo 113 CHAPTER XVIII. page Treatment of Cheit Sing— Treaty of Chunar— Treatment of the Begums— Of Fyzoola Khan— The Nabob of Arcot— The Residency of Oude— Departure of Hastings —Succeeded by Mr. Macpherson 121 CHAPTER XIX. Fox's India Bill— Pitt's India Bill— Board of Control- Nabob of Arcot's Debts— Impeachment of Hastings— His Character 125 PART III. BRITISH EMPIRE IN INDIA— SECOND PERIOD. CHAPTER I. page Lord Cornwallis appointed Governor-general— Affairs of Oude — Tippoo's Invasion of Travancore — War re- sumed with him — Operations of the Army under Gen. Medows — Lord Cornwallis takes the Chief Command — Advance to Seringapatam — Retreat from that City — Reduction of Savandroog, and other hill-forts— Second Advance to Seringapatam — Attack on Tippoo's Lines — Preparations for the Siege — Treaty concluded with Tippoo — Departure of Lord Cornwallis — Sir John Shore Governor-general — Affairs of the Nizam — Death of Mohammed Ally— Affairs of Oude 128 CHAPTER II. Lord Mornington Governor-general— Intrigues of Tip- poo — Arrangement with the Nizam — Fruitless At- tempts to treat with Tippoo— Invasion of Mysore — Siege and Capture of Seringapatam — Death and Cha- racter of Tippoo— Settlement of Mysore— Dhoondia... 135 CHAPTER III. Settlement of Tanjore— Of Surat— Of the Carnatic— Fate of Vizir Ally of Oude— Embassy to Persia— Settle- ment of Oude — Expedition to Egypt — Disunion be- tween the Governor-general and Court of Directors- College of Fort William CHAPTER IV. Affairs of the Marattas— Treaty of Baseein— Commence- ment of Maratta War— Sindia's French Troops — Cap- ture of Ahmednugur, Baroach, and Alyghur— Battle of Delhi— Delivery of the Emperor— Capture of Agra — Battle of Laswaree— Of Assye— Capture of Asseer- ghur— Battle of Argam — Capture of Gawylghur— Treaties with the Rajah of Berar and Sindia CHAPTER V. War with Holkar— Col. Monson's Retreat — Siege of Delhi— Battle of Deeg— Rout of Holkar— Capture of Deeg— Siege of Bhurtpore— Conduct of Sindia— Re- signation of the Marquis of Wellesley 146 CHAPTER VI. Lord Cornwallis Governor-general a second time— His System — His Death — Sir George Barlow Governor- gejieral— His Policy — Massacre at Vellore — Lord Minto Governor-general— The Sikhs — Rise of Run- jeet Sing — The Afghans — Embassies to Persia — Case of Ruddy Rao, at Madras — Insurrection in Travan- core— Mutiny of Officers of Madras Army 150 139 142 CHAPTER VII. page Interference with Native States — Expedition to the Persian Gulf— Capture of Isle of Bourbon — Naval Disasters — Capture of Isle of France — Of Java — Decoity— Renewal of Company's Charter....- 156 CHAPTER VIII. Origin of Nepalese War— Plan of the War— Failure at Kalunga — Capture of that Fort — Failure at Jytak — Operations of Gen. Ochterlony — Of the third Division — Of the fourth Division — Surrender of Malan— Inva- sion of Nepal— Treaty of Peace 159 CHAPTER IX. ' Maratta Affairs— Murder of Gangadhar Sastri — Attack on Bhopal— State of things at Maratta Courts— The Pindarries — They ravage the British Territory — Pre- parations for destroying them— Attack on the Resi- dency of Poona— New Treaty with Sindia — British Troops attacked by the Cholera Morbus — Attack on Residency at Nagpur 161 CHAPTER X. Battle of Mahidpiir — Final Reduction of the Pindarries — Pursuit of the Peishwa — Affair at Korijaon — Depo- sition of Peishwa — Battle of Ashti — Deposition of Apa Sahib — Surrender of Peishwa— Concluding Adventures of Apa Sahib, and Cheetoo, the Pindarri — Settlement of India — House of Palmer and Co. — King of Oude— Departure of Lord Hastings— Bishop Middleton 165 CHAPTER XI. Lord Amherst Governor-general— The Burman Empire — War with the Burmese— Capture of Rangoon — Pro- gress of the War — March for Prome — Reduction of Donabew — Occupation of Prome— Reduction of Ara- can — Successive Defeats of the Burmese — Conclusion of Peace — Mutiny at Barrakpore— Affairs of Bhurtpore — Capture and Demolition of the Fortress 168 CHAPTER XII. Lord William Bentinck Governor-general— His Reforms — Abolition of Suttee — Renewal of Company's Charter — Opening of the China-trade — Favour shown to the Indian Usurers— Disputes about Governor-general- ship — Lord Auckland appointed — Disputed Succes- sion in Oude — Deposition of Rajah of Sattara 172 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIII. Condition of Russia— Affairs of Cabul— Russian In- trigues — Resolution to re tore Shah Shujah — Needless Apprehensions of the Influence of Russia — Army of the Indus — March to Kandahar — Capture of Ghuz- nee — Arrival at Cabul — Withdrawal of Troops — Failure at Pishoot— Capture of Forts— Cowardice of Bengal Horsemen— Surrender of Dost Mohammed— Events at Kandahar— Prospects of the Country— March of Gen. Sale to Jellalabad 174 CHAPTER XIV. Description of Cabul, and the British Cantonment — Errors committed — Outbreak in Cabul — Loss of Com- missariat Fort — Taking of Mohammed ShereePs Fort — Of Rika-Bashee Fort — Disasters — Action on the Behmaroo Hills— Loss of Mohammed Shereef's Fort — Negotiations for a Retreat— Murder of the Envoy — Conclusion of Treaty CHAPTER XV. The Retreat— Slaughter at Khoord-Cabul Pass— De- livery of the Women and Children— Massacre at the Tungee Tareekee— In the Jugdulluk Defile— Total Destruction of the Army— Defence of Jellalabad— Of Kandahar — Lord Ellenborough Governor-general — Loss of Ghuznee — Victory at Jellalabad — Advance of Gen. Pollock— Re-occupation of Cabul— Advance of Gen. Nott — Destruction of Ghuznee— Recovery of the Captives— Evacuation of Afghanistan 184 CHAPTER XVI. Transactions in Sinde— Sir C. Napier sent thither— Attack on the Residency — Battle of Meeanee — Reduc- tion of Sinde — Observations on that transaction— Af- fairs of Gwalior— Battle of Maharajpoor— Conclusion of Treaty— Sir Henry Hardinge Governor-general— Death of Runjeet Sing— Affairs of the Punjab— Cam- paign of the Sutlej— Battle of Moodkee — of Ferozeshu- hur— of Aliwal— of Sobraon— Treaties— Conclusion . 188 ERRATA. Page 4, col. 2, line 29, for diameter read circumference. 6, chap. iii. line 6, dele the inhabitants of. HISTORY OF INDIA, PART I. •,».•'• MOHAMMEDAN DOMINION IN INDIA. CHAPTER I. Situation of India— Its Divisions— Hindustan— The Deckan Ri ver8 _ Climate — Natural Productions — Animals — Minerals. The country which, following the ancients, we name India ! , lies in the eastern hemisphere, be- tween the eighth and the thirty-fourth degrees of northern latitude, and the sixty-eighth and ninety- second degrees of eastern longitude. Its length from north to south is about 1 900, and its greatest breadth from west to east about 1500 miles. It is bounded on the north by the lofty range of the Himalaya 2 mountains, on the west by the river Indus, on the east by the high lands eastwards of the Brahmaputra river, while its whole southern coast is washed by the waters of the Indian ocean. This region consists of two distinct parts, sepa- rated by a mountain range. The northern portion is a large oblong plain, the southern a triangular peninsula ; the former is named Hindustan, the latter the Deckan 3 ; the mountain range which di- vides them is called the Vindhya mountains. They commence near the peninsula of Guzerat, and run eastwards to the river Ganges. The only island of any magnitude on the coast of India is the great island of Ceylon, to the east of its southern ex- tremity. The portion of India which we denominate Hin- dustan, comprises the following regions. Eastwards of the Indus, from its mouth to its junction with i India is only the Latin name, the Greeks called it h 'Iv3(k>; sc. ir\ or \uipa. It was derived from that of the river named in Sanscrit Sindhu, i. e. river, of which the Persians made Hindhu, the Hebrews, ejecting n, as usual, Hodu (Esther i. 1), and the Ionian Greeks dropping the aspirate '11-36?, and the people 'U&oi. The Sanscrit name of the country between the Himalaya and the Vindhya moun- tains is Yambudwipa or Bharatakhanda. 2 Snow-mountains; from hima snow, and alaya abode. Hence the Greeks named a part of the range Imaus. 3 The South; in Sanscrit, Dakshina. the Garrah, or united stream of the rivers Beyah and Sutlej, extends a wide sandy desert, like those of Africa or Arabia, as far as the Aravalli hills, which run north wards from the western extremity of the Vindhya range towards the city of Delhi. The whole of this tract, however, is not desert ; its south-eastern portion is remarkably fertile ; it con- tains many oases, and the region along the Indus, and watered by that stream, which overflows an- nually like the Nile, is rich and well inhabited. To the south of the Sandy Desert lie the two peninsulas of Cutch and Guzerat ; and to the north, and ex- tending to the northern boundary of India, lies the fertile region named the Punjab, i. e. Five-rivers, from the five tributaries of the Indus, by which it is watered. Eastwards of the Aravalli range the country rises into an elevated plain, or table-land, to the height of about 2000 feet above the level of the sea. On the south-east it is supported by hills proceeding from the Vindhya ranges, north-east it slopes into the basin of the Ganges. It is now known by the name of Central India. The country thence east- wards is the basin of the Ganges, including in it Bengal, which is not usually reckoned a part of Hindustan. It may be regarded as one great aud extensive plain, though in some places the land rises above the general level. This region appears to have been the original seat of the civilization and power of India. In the Deckan, on the west, the valley of the river Nerbudda lies between the Vindhya and another parallel range named the Injadree or Sat- poora, south of which range is the valley of the river Tapti. The land then rises into a table-land, extending to the extreme point of the peninsula ; it is of varied and undulating surface, in general fertile, but displaying at times tracts of sandy desert. This table-land is supported on the west and east by ranges named the Ghats, of which the western is the higher, and approaches nearer to the sea-coast. On either side of the peninsula between the Ghats and the sea, are strips of land varying in breadth and in fertility. From that y HISTORY OF INDIA. part of Hindustan where the eastern end of the Vindhya range sinks into the plain, an immense tract of forest stretches away southwards into the Deckan, till it reaches the river Godaveri. The rivers of India are numerous and copious. Those of Hindustan have their sources in the Himalaya and Vindhya mountains. From the former descend the Indus and its five tributaries, namely, the Jelum, the Chenab, the Ravi, the Beyah, and the Sutlej 4 ; the Jumnah, the Ganges, the Cusi, and the Brahmaputra, and their tribu- taries. The latter sends forth the Chumbul, the Betwah, the Son, and others, all of which are received in the Jumnah and the Ganges. The rivers of the Deckan, inferior in magnitude to those of Hindustan, pour their waters iuto the sea on either coast of the peninsula,, fea\iag..thftir sources chiefly in the Vindhya and the western Ghats. On the west .coasts are the mouths of the Nerbudda and the Tapt\. the only ptS-eamE of magnitude on this side ; on t'.it east coast are those of the Mahanuddi, the Godaveri, the Kistna, the Palar, the Pannar, the Caveri, and others of less dimensions. The climate of India is of course various, owing to its extent and its difference of elevation ; but it is in general hotter than that of any part of Europe. The annual quantity of rain that falls in India is far beyond that of any country in this continent. The rain is periodical, and is brought by the mon- soon, or south-west wind from the Indian ocean. On the west coast and in Hindustan the rainy season is from May till October, the hottest part of the year, and it is introduced by tremendous storms. At that time the Ganges and other rivers overflow and flood the country, the greater part of Bengal, for example, becoming like one huge lake. Hence in the history we shall often find military operations interrupted by this season. The height of the Ghats and of the table-land prevent the eastern coast from feeling the early effects of the monsoon, and it is not till the month of October, when the monsoon blows from the north-east, that it receives its supply of rain. The vegetable productions of India are nume- rous and valuable. The teak used in ship-building, the wonderful banyan-tree {Fiats Indians), the cocoa, the various palms and acacias, the bamboo which attains to such a prodigious size, and many other useful trees, are abundant. Numerous mul- berries yield food to the silk-worm, the cotton-tree and cotton-shrub are every where to be seen, the ebony, the sandal, and other ornamental woods grow abundantly. India has also, from the most remote ages, been famed for its ginger, pepper, and other spices ; the indigo derives its name from India ; it is the native country of the sugar-cane. Rice ranks among the most celebrated of the natural productions of India ; but it is an error to suppose that it is the principal food of the bulk of the people. Such it is, no doubt, in Bengal, part of Bahar, and the coast of the peninsula ; but rice cannot be cultivated without abundance of mois- ture ; and on the high lands of Central India and the Deckan, for example, it is only a luxury ; the * Hydaspes, Aceslnes, Hydraotes, Hyphasis, were the names given by Alexander's Greek followers to the four of these rivers which they saw ; fur they did not come to the Sutlej. The Sanscrit names, from which three of those are formed, are Vitasta, ChandrabhagA, Acrdvatl, and VipasA. ordinary food of the people of Hindustan being wheat, and that of the people of the Deckan the grains named Jowar, the Durra of the Arabs (Holcua sorgum), and Bajra, small grains which grow in bunches on reedy stems. Mangos, melons, and all sorts of gourds, plantains, pine-apples, and other sweet fruits grow in the greatest plenty. Among the animals of India the elephant is the most famous. It was formerly employed much in war, but now is only used for the carriage of bag- gage. Camels are also numerous in India, but the Indian horses are small, and of inferior quality ; they are only used for riding. The beast of draught is the ox, which is used alike for the plough, the cart, and the carriage. Its colour is white, its form is slender, and it can travel nearly as fast as a horse. India does not produce the precious metals, but its iron has always been famous. Diamonds, and other precious stones, are found there in great quantities. The finest pearls in the world are ob- tained from the beds near the isle of Ceylon. Rock- salt is found in the Punjab, and saltpetre is ob- tained in great quantities in various places. CHAPTER II. Early Inhabitants of India — Hindoos — Their Colonies — Religion — Sects — Morals — Transmigration of Souls — Buddhists — Jains— Sciences and Arts — Laws of Maim — Castes— Government. In our inquiries into the history of any ancient country, one of the first questions which presents itself, and one which rarely can be answered satis- factorily is, who were its original inhabitants, and whence did they come ? With respect to India, this question cannot be answered more satisfactorily than elsewhere. From its nature and position, it is manifest that it must have been one of the earliest abodes of the human race ; and we appear to have some reason to think that here, as in so many other parts of the world, its first occupants were an inferior race, who were invaded and overcome by a more highly endowed portion of our species. In the forests and dales of the Vindhya moun- tains, in the great forest district stretching from Bahar in Hindustan into the Deckan, and along its eastern coast, are still to be met tribes differing essentially from the more cultivated inhabitants of India. They are known by various names. In the west of Bengal and Bahar they are called Cols, in the great forest and in the part of the Vindhya mountains adjoining it, they are named Gonds ; thence westwards in that chain, Blieels; and towards Guzerat, Coolies. In the southern woods of the Deckan they are known by the name of t'olnrees, and a general name for them is l'arias, that is, Mountaineers. They are of small but aetive forms, and dark complexion, with something of the negro in their features, Tiny go nearly naked, are armed with bows and spears, nnd plunder wherever they can. They have a superstition of their own, though they worship ono or two of the Hindoo c;,,ils. Spi- rituous liquors are sought by them with aridity ; they eat the flesh of oxen and of animals that have LANGUAGE, RELIGION. died a natural death. They are objects of horror and detestation to the genuine Hindoos 5 . A very different race meets the view in Hin- dustan, and along the coasts of the Deckan. These are tall and slight, with handsome oval counte- nances, long eyes and eyebrows, dark, smooth, lank hair, an olive skin, but in the cooler regions, and when not much exposed to the weather, even fair, like that of more northern nations. In a word, every thing tends to show their connexion with the Persians, and to prove them to be a por- tion of the Caucasian or Japhetian, thence named the Indo-German family. Their language, the an- cient Sanscrit, and its modern dialects, is clearly akin to the Zend or ancient Persian, the Greek, the Latin, the German, and many other western tongues, while the Tamul, the Telinga, and the other dialects of the Deckan, are as clearly of a totally different family. The more general opinion is, that this superior race came with the Persians from a common country, the high lands of Central Asia, and migrated into India where they subdued the aboriginal tribes, and reduced them to a servile condition. For a long time the Vindhya chain formed their southern limit ; but at length they invaded the Deckan also, and spread their religion and institutions over it. They also sent colonies to the isle of Ceylon, and gradually diffused them over the isles of the Indian Archipelago 6 . There is also reason to suspect that Hindoo colonists settled on the coast of Africa, and thence proceeding down the Nile, gave to Egypt those institutions so similar to those of India. But this, as will easily be seen, must have occurred at a time long prior to the commencement of history. The religion and the political institutions of a people always most justly attract the principal at- tention of the inquirer. The Hindoo religion, as it is now and has been since the commencement of history, is one of the most intricate and degrading systems of polytheism and idolatry that can be conceived ; yet, like every other system, it seems to have been in its origin pure and simple, and gradually to have been corrupted. This appears from the examination of the Hindoo literature, for this people seem always to have possessed the art of writing, and their books claim an age beyond that of the literature of almost any other people. At the head of the literature of the Hindoos stand the four (or rather three) Vedas, each of which contains hymns and prayers, moral precepts, and theological arguments. From the directions which they contain respecting the calendar, it is inferred that the lowest date which can be assigned for their reduction to their present form is the fourteenth century before the birth of Christ. The religious system which these venerable monuments present, is that of a pure monotheism, joined with the worship of beings superior to man, presiding over the elements, the stars and planets. Per- sonified virtues and powers likewise appear in them, but not prominently. Then' general principle is, 5 There is every reason to suppose that our gypsies were originally Bheels. These last are smiths and horsedealers, thieves, jugglers, and dancers ; and they are passionately fond of gold and silver. In all these points they correspond with the gypsies, whose Indian origin is historically certain ; but the gypsies are remarkable for sobriety. C It is probable that the Mysoreans, and the other civilized inhabitants of the Deckan, are descendants of the aborigines. that every thing, "the substance as well as the form of all created beings, was derived from the will of the self-existing Cause." The next authority is the Code or Institutes of Manu, of which we shall presently say more, whose date is the ninth century before our era. In this there is an account of creation, in which the Su- preme Being produced a mundane egg, whence all things, the deities included, arose mediately or im- mediately. This creation, however, only endures for a limited period, when all will be reduced to nothing, Brahma, its support, being absorbed in the divine essence. The inferior deities named in it are Indra, air ; Agni, fire ; Varuna, water ; Prithivi, earth ; Sm-ya, sun ; Chandra, moon ; and some gods of the planets ; Dherma, justice, and other personifications. The two great epic poems, the Ramayuna and the Mahabharata, with the numerous Puranas, as they are named, come next in order, and present the copious and variegated system of popular be- lief and mythology which is known to have pre- vailed for more than 2000 years in India. In this system the Deity is resolved into three persons (the Trimurti, i. e. Three Forms), according to his three great acts of ci'eation, preservation, and de- struction, named Brahma, Vishnoo, and Seeva, to each of which is joined a female principle to denote his active power. These are Seraswati, Lakshmi, and Parvati. This last, the power of Seeva, is also named Deva, Bhavani, and Durga. Beside these deities and those above named, we meet Pavani, wind ; Cuvera, wealth ; Cama, love ; Car- tikeia, war ; Yama, the judge of the dead ; and Ganesa, who presides over entrances and com- mencements. These, too, have their wives and at- tendants, and the whole number of the denizens of the Hindoo Olympus, gods, genii, celestial singers and dancers, and others, is said to exceed three hundred millions. Each of the great deities ha3 a heaven, or celestial abode of his own ; those of Seeva and of Indra are the most renowned, and are luxuriantly described in Hindoo poetry. Unlike the gods of Greece, the deities of India are often represented as strange or hideous in form. Ganesa has the head of an elephant ; Seeva has a necklace of skulls, so also has his wife, whose form is still more direful than his own. A multi- tude of heads or arms is given to a deity to denote his wisdom or power ; for we may notice that all these deformities have arisen from art following too closely the language of poetry and devotion. The Hindoos are divided into two great sects, the adorers of Vishnoo and of Seeva. The latter are by far the most numerous, but the literature of India belongs chiefly to the former. The ten Avatars or incarnations of Vishnoo, in which he took flesh for the good of mankind, form an im- portant part of the religious legends of the priest- hood. The subject of the great epic poem, the Ramayuna, i3 his conquest, in the form of a king named Rama, of the Deckan and Ceylon. A more celebrated, if possible, appearance of Vishnoo (though not one of the ten Avatars), was that in which he was a king's son, like Cyrus, brought up by a herdsman under the name of Crishna to con- ceal him from a tyrant that sought his life. He afterwards overcame and slew the tyrant, and in the great poem, the Mahabharata, which celebrates the wars of the kindred families of the Pandiis and HISTORY OF INDIA. is, we find Chriafana the ally of the former. His youthful adventures among the Co;. is, or milk- maids, arc the theme of poetry, and Chrislma is tlie favourite deity of the women of India. To enumerate "the absurd legends, to describe the numerous ceremonies, the painful and disgust- ing penances of the Hindoo religion, is not possible in our limits. When we take a view of tin m, and more especially recollect, that it is a fixed point with every sect that faith in their god supersedes all religion and morality, we might expect to find the Hindoo character devoid of every estimable quality. But such is by no means the case ; the principles of morality are too deeply seated in the tinman heart, and too essential to the well-being of society to allow them to become extinct, and the religious books of India are too full of its precepts to let thorn fall into oblivion. Accordingly, the most candid observers of the Hindoo character speak favourably of it, and, lascivious as are many of the legends and ceremonies of the Hindoo reli- gion, the chastity and domestic virtues of the Hindoo women are far above the general standard in some Christian countries. Like every other people, the Hindoos have a firm belief in a future state of existence. Their great doctrine on this head is that of the transmigration of souls, according to which, the soul after quitting its present abode, will animate another body, either that of a man or an inferior animal, and as the kind of body depends on a man's conduct in this life, this doctrine, as far as it is not affected by that of faith, is not without moral effect. They also hold that in the intervals of beiug on earth, the soul is, according to its merits, for thousands of years, happy in one of the numerous heavens, or tormented in one of the many hells of their creed. The system of religion here faintly sketched, is the prevalent, almost the only one professed by the modern Hindoos. It is named liraminism from the Bramins, who are its teachers. But five, or even ten centuries before our era, a great reforma- tion of it was effected by a person named Buddha, who rejecting the Vedas and Puranas, and the dis- tinction of castes, taught that all men are brethren and eqnal ; that future happiness, which consisted in absorption in the divinity, was to be obtained by the practice of virtue, by contemplation, and by mortification of the senses. The Buddhist, too, was on no account to deprive; even the smallest in- sect of existence. The sect long flourished in India, but at length the Bramins, aided by the temporal power, succeeded in suppressing it by persecution. Its votaries had already carried it into all the countries north and east of India, and it is com- puted that nearly two-thirds of the people of Asia profe s it. Certainly no other religion can vie with it in extent of away. One of the most curious cir- onmstanoea in Buddhism is its astonishing agree- ment "i ih i In- Church of Rome in ritee, ceremonies, and institutions, Like it, for example, it has mo- nasteries of both sexes, with injunctions of celibacy, The reaemblani ■ -. that the early«Catho- llO missionaries regarded it as a device of the devil to turn men from the truth. There is still in India a Beet named the Jains, who agree in some points with the Buddhists, and like them reject Braminism, But they are not numerous, and the Bramins have Long since lost lie- DOW! i- to | r i .-lit". A contemplative people, as the Hindoos are, must early have turned their thoughts to the sub- jects denominated metaphysical. We accordingly find that all the theories on that subject, formed by the Greeks or by the moderns, were already familiar to the sages of India. Thus the system devised by the excellent Bishop Berkeley, and developed and explained by him with so much ingenuity and elegance, was known in India cen- turies before our era. So also was the atomistic- theory, on which Epicurus founded his philosophy, long familiar to the Hindoos. In astronomy the Hindoos had advaneea far be- fore the Greeks. They were acquainted with the precession of the equinoxes, they knew the causes of eclipses, and had constructed tables by which they might be accurately calculated. Some of their sages had discovered the diurnal revolution of the earth on its axis, and had even with tolerable ac- curacy calculated its diameter. A passage in the Yedas asserts that the pole-stir changes its position, the constellations are named in the epic poems, and the fixed stars are spoken of as bodies of great magnitude, which shone by their own native light. In geometry the Hindoos had made discoveries, which were not made in Europe till modern times. Such were the mode of expressing the area of a triangle in terms of its sides, and that of expressing the proportion of the radius to the diameter of a circle. In arithmetic, they are entitled to the fame of the invention of the decimal system of nota- tion. But, in algebra, the merits of the Hindoos are still higher, and discoveries not made in Europe till the last century were familiar in India for centuries before. This, however, is the latest of their sciences, and the works which treat of it have all been written since the commencement of our era. Finally, the Hindoos were versed in trigo- nometry, in which they went far before the Greeks, and were acquainted with theorems not discovered in Europe till the sixteenth century. All the subtleties of logic, and the refinements of grammar, are to be met with in Sanscrit works on [ these subjects. In the copious poetic literature of India, the niceties and varieties of metre are as numerous as in that of ancient Greece. The San- scrit language is, for copiousness, beauty, flexibility, and nicety of structure, almost without a rival, in the opinion of those most competent to form a judgment on the subject. The wonderful excavated temples of Ellora, Salsette, and Elephantine, and the Pagodas' on the Coromande] coast, prove that in architectural skill, and in the art of sculpture, the ancient Hin- doos far exceeded the Egyptians. That in the most remote ages the Hindoos understood the art of ship-building, and made distant vinages, is proved by their colonies. There is also in the ancient Code of Manu a law relating to the inte- rest of money, in which that lent on bottomry is particularly noticed ; and this, we may could only take place among a people familiar with the si a. For the- political condition of ancient India, the L'l-eat authority is tin- Code of Manu. We think, however, that those inquirers arc wrong, who \\ i will describe the form of the Pagoda in thi quenl put of our work. The nnnie Is a corruption of the Banscril Bhahai urate, holy house. CASTES, GOVERNMENT. suppose this Code to be like that of Justinian, the Code Napoleon, or similar works — a system of laws and regulations which were actually in force, and cited as the law of the land. We rather agree with those who view in it an ideal system, like the Re- public and Laws of Cicero, in which the actual con- stitution and laws of the state are taken as a basis, and such additions made, as in the writer's opinion would bring it nearer to perfection. On this prin- ciple, and we believe on no other, can we account for the extravagant privileges and powers given in it to the Bramins, and the intolerable precepts laid down in it for the regulations of their lives, privileges, and powers which they never possessed, and precepts which they could only partially have obeyed. The great feature of the Laws of Manu is the division of the people into castes 8 like those that prevailed in ancient Egypt. These were four in number, viz. the Bramins, the Cshatriyas, the Vaisyas, and the Sudras, the first of which, it is said, proceeded from the mouth, the second from the arm, the third from the thigh, and the fourth from the foot of Brahma. The Bramins were not, as is generally, but per- haps erroneously stated, a sacerdotal caste, for we nowhere read of their conducting public worship, like the priests of Judsea or Egypt. They seem j rather to have been " an order of men who fol- I lowed a course of religious study and practice j during the first half of their lives, and spent the ! other in a condition of- self-denial and mendicity 9 ." j They were, in fact, a people of philosophers, who I were to be the instructors of the other classes in i their public and private duties ; for, though the ! next two classes might read the Vedas, the Bramin alone was to expound them. The king was to have a Bramin for his counsellor, and justice was to be administered by Bramins ; but the Bramin was to shun all worldly honour, and not to seek to accu- mulate wealth. A Bramin was to spend the first quarter of his life as a student, rendering every, I even the most menial, service to his master, and he was to support himself by begging from door to door. In the next quarter he was to marry and live with his wife and family, discharging the duties of his order, of which the principal was teaching. When this was concluded, he was to become an anchorite, retiring to the woods, clad with bark or the skin of an antelope, letting his hair and nails grow, sleeping on the ground, ex- posed to the rain and sun, " without fire, without a mansion, wholly silent, feeding on roots and fruit." The last stage relieves the Bramin from much of this austerity. He returns to the world, dresses nearly as the ordinary Bramin, is released from all ceremonies and external forms. His only business is contemplation, till at last he quits the body " as a bird leaves the branch of a tree at its pleasure." Such is a sketch of a part of what we may term the ideal of the life of a Bramin ; for, though indi- viduals might and did reduce it to practice, such could never have been done by all the members of a numerous society. » This, like so many other words relating to India, has come to us from the Portuguese. In their language, and in that of Spain, casta is race, kind, or quality; but we know not its origin. » Wilson, note on Mill, i. p. 191. The Cshatriyas were the military caste ; the royal dignity belonged to them, and all places of rank and command ; for the Bramins only ex- pounded the laws, and took no part in the execu- tive government. The Cshatriya was to defend the people, to give alms, read the Vedas, and sacri- fice, and he was to shun sensual gratifications. The Vaisya was to cultivate the land, keep cattle, follow trade, and lend money on interest. He too was to give alms, sacrifice, and read the Vedas. The lot of the Sudra was the most unfavourable. He was to be the servant of all, but his exact sta- tion can hardly be ascertained. In some respects he resembled the Spartan helot ; but though in the Code he is treated with the utmost contempt, and as if he were not of the same species with the higher classes, yet Hindoo nature was always too gentle to allow of such being the practice, and the lot of the Sudra was never so hard as that of the helot or of the middle-age serf. The men of the first three classes might marry into the classes beneath them, but this was not permitted to the women. If a Bramin woman married a Sudra, their son was a Chandala, the lowest of mortals, and if he united himself with a woman of the higher classes, their progeny, says the law, " is more foul than their begetter." It is from these marriages that many of the numerous | sub-divisions of caste have been derived. A name by which the three higher castes are distinguished, is that of the twice-born. A Bramin in his fifteenth, a Cshatriya in his twenty-second, a Vaisya in his twenty-fourth year was solemnly girt with a band or thread, the first of cotton, the second of cwsa-grass, the last of wool, which went over the left shoulder and across the breast. This was regarded as a second birth ; the Sudra who was not admitted to this honour was only a once- born. The government in India was absolute monarchy. The king and all his officers were of the Cshatriya caste. It would appear that the monarch was at liberty to choose his successor among his sons. Great monarchies seem to have been unknown ; though occasionally an able and warlike prince may have made several minor states acknowledge his supremacy. The revenue, as in the case of all ancient mo- narchies, arose chiefly from a share in the produce of the land. In the case of grain, this varied from a twelfth to a sixth, according to the quality of the soil ; it might, if necessary, be raised to a fourth. The king had also a sixth of the produce of trees, of honey, and other natural productions, and of manufactures. There were also duties on mer- chandise, licences for carrying on trades, etc. The country was partitioned into civil and mili- tary divisions. There were lords of one, ten, a hundred, and a thousand villages, and over these were officers of high rank, whose duty it was to inspect them, and correct any abuses they might commit. The military divisions did not coincide with the civil ones ; in each was a body of troops under an approved officer. It is probable that some part of the revenue of the district was assigned for the pay of the officer and his troops. . . It is probable that the village-system, which is of so much importance in modem India, is coeval with the formation of the state ; but as it is not spoken HISTORY OF INDIA. of in the Laws of Mauu, we will defer our notice of it. The preceding very imperfect sketch is intended to give some idea of the condition of India in the ages previous to the time when the expedition of Alexander the Great first brought Europeans into that country, and excited a curiosity about its learning, its laws, and its institutions. Even at that time, wo find, by comparing the accounts of the Greeks with the early Hindoo authorities, that there was a decline, especially in religion; idolatry, and the abominations connected with it, bad spread over the land, and the Suttea or practice of women burning themBeWea with the bodies of their hus- bands, which is not even alluded to in the Laws of Manu, or the epic poems, had come into use. It appears also that the monastic orders, a sure mark of the corruption of religion, existed then in India. CHAPTER III. Earliest notice of India — Alexander the Great — Graeco- Bactrian Kingdom— Vicramaditya — The Khalifat— Inva- sion of India— Decline of the Khalifat— Sebuktegin — Mahmud of Ghuzni— His Invasions of India— Temple of Somnat— Character of Mahmud— End of his Dynasty. India has no history of its own ; our first know- ledge of it, as of so many other countries, is de- rived from the Greeks. Herodotus, when describ- ing the extent of the Persian empire under Darius I., names India as one of the provinces ; but this was only the part of it about the Indus, and as the in- habitants of a strip of country under the Parapa- misus mountains to the west of that river is said to have been possessed by Indians, it is doubtful if the dominion of the Persian monarch extended into the Punjab. When Alexander the Great had overthrown the Persian empire, his lust of conquest led him to India. He took the route trodden by all the invaders of that country, namely, along the valley of the river C'abul, crossed the Indus at pro- bably the modern Attock, and conquered the Pun- jab as far as the Beyah, and but for the mutiny of liis troops, which forced him to return, be might have reached die Ganges. As he probably pro- posed to revisit India, he took care to establish an interest there by extending the dominions of the two rajas Taxiles and Porus, the first of whom had been |,js ally, and the second bis most powerful opponent. II is death, however, and the confusion into which his empire fell, ended all plans for the ■ubjugati f India. The princes of the Macedonian empire which established itself in Bactria held the theCabnl, and extended their claims over India; andMenander, one of these princes, marched Into thai country as far as the Jumna. Mut there was a powerful native empire, named by the Greeks thai of the Praaii, whose capital, named Palibothra la) .-.t the confluence of the Ganges and the Son ; and the Syrian kings, Seleucus and Antiochus, formed alliances with the sovereigns of this empire ''" Bactrian monarch, whose dominion was finally overturned by the hordes of the north, h is to the circumstance of this alliance thai chiefly Indi bted for our knowledge of India al that time, for Ifegasthenee, the ambassador of Seleucus, resided for many years at the court of Palibothra '. The history of India henceforth becomes very obscure. We collect from the Hindoo books, and from inscriptions, that the tribes that possessed Bactria used to make inroads into the Punjab, and that the religious feuds, which ended in the over- throw of Buddhism, raged during this period ; but still all accounts concur in representing the country as being in a very flourishing state. The court of the princes, whose name was Vicramaditya, who reigned at Ayodha, i. e. Oude, and who extended their dominion to the Deckan, was famed for mag- nificence, and for the patronage of genius and science. It was at the court of the first prince of this name, a few years before our era, that Calidasa, the author of the beautiful drama, Sacontala, flou- rished. Foreign trade was carried on extensively during this time, and the products of India were diffused over the Persian, the Roman, and other empires ; but darkness broods over the internal history. While India was thus in repose, the prophet of the Arabs appeared. The inhabitants of the desert, animated by enthusiasm, fell on the effete and feeble empires of Rome and Persia, and every where victory followed their banners. Their em- pire speedily extended from the Ebro to the Oxus. The Khalifehs, or successors of the prophet, had finally fixed their abode at Bagdad on the Tigris ; their dominion extended into Cabul, and but for the decay of enthusiasm, the feuds that broke out, and the inertness and degeneracy always conse- quent on long-established rule in the East, the con- quest of a large part of India might have been achieved. India was, in fact, invaded by the troops of the Khalifehs. In the reign of the Khalifeh Walid 1. an Arab ship was seized at a placed named Dewal, in Sind. Application was made to Diihir, the rajah of that country, for restitution, but he replied that Dewal was not under his authority. The j governor of Basra, for the Khalifeh, would not be satisfied with this reply, and he despatched from Shiraz, under the command of his nephew, named Mohammed Casim (a youth of only twenty years of age), a force of 6000 men to invade the territory of the Hindoo prince (711). Casim led his little army in safety through the desert of Mecran, which, un- der the name of Gedrosia, had so nearly proved fatal to Alexander the Great. He appeared before Dewal, which he reduced, and thence advancing crossed the Indus to Meriin (now Hyderabad), whence he proceeded, apparently northwards, to A lor, the then capital of Sind, but of which the ruins only now remain. His force had by this time been augmented by a body of 200(1 hone from Persia ; but the rajah was awaiting him with an army of f>0,<)00 men. Casim seeing the great dis- parity of numbers, prudently resolved to act on the 1 The prince with whom Seleucus was allied is called Bandracottua. sir w. Jones wat struck with its rMemblanoa to Chandraguptss, i.e. Moon-protected, a celebrated umt in Hindoo story. The history of the two, who were both UlUrpen, in (let, coincides, and thus the first point in Indian chronology was obtained. PallboUira i» thi f PaUliputra, whose ruins are near the modem I'atna. The name which Megaithenes nives the Son is r.rannoboaa, a i na of Its Banscrll name Htrlnyaval EARLY MOHAMMEDAN INVASIONS. defensive, and, choosing a strong position, awaited the attack of the Indians. Fortune favoured him ; a fire-ball, flung from the Arab line, struck the elephant on which the rajah rode, which, in its terror, rushed from the field, and plunged with its rider into the adjoining river. An event of this nature, as we shall frequently see in our subsequent narrative, is decisive of a battle in India ; and though Dahir mounted a horse, and made every effort to rally his troops, the fortune of the day was not to be restored, and he had only the conso- lation of falling bravely in the midst of the enemy's cavalry. His widow defended the town when as- sailed with a courage worthy of her late lord, until the supply of provisions was exhausted. She then proposed to the garrison to devote themselves to death, after the manner of India. They complied with her wishes ; piles were kindled, in the flames of which the women and children voluntarily perished ; the soldiers then, having bathed and devoted themselves, opened the gates, rushed forth sword in hand, and soon fell beneath the weapons of the Moslems. Casim gave the Indians one more great defeat, and thus reduced the whole dominions of rajah Dahir, which seem to have included Mul- tan, the southern extremity of the Punjab. It was always the custom of the Moslems to grant religious toleration to any people who had submitted to their arms. In the present case the rule was to be observed as usual ; but in the towns which had been taken by storm, the Hindoo tem- ples had been rased, and the endowments of the Bramins seized to the use of the state ; and to re- store the revenues, and rebuild the temples, seemed to the scrupulous mind of Casim somewhat more than mere toleration. He referred the matter to the Khalifeh, whose reply was, that those who had submitted were entitled to the privileges of sub- jects ; they should therefore be allowed to rebuild their temples, and celebrate their worship ; the lands and money of the Bramins should be re- stored, and the three per cent, on the revenues which they had hitherto enjoyed should be con- tinued to them. Among the prisoners who had fallen into the hands of Casim were two daughters of the late rajah. Hindoo beauty had always been highly prized by the Arabs, and that of these maidens was such, as made them appear worthy of being presented to the Commander of the Faithful. They were accordingly transmitted to Damascus (then the seat of the Khalifat), but when they were brought into the presence of Walid the elder prin- cess burst into tears, and declared that she was unworthy of his regards, as she had been dis- honoured by Casim. The Khalifeh, filled with rage, issued orders for Casim to be sent to him, sewed up in a raw hide. The orders were obeyed, and when the Hindoo princess beheld his body she cried out, exultingly, that Casim was innocent, but that she had thus avenged the death of her father, and the ruin of her family. The conquests of Casim in India were retained for a space of about thirty-five years, when the Hindoos rose against the Moslems, and expelled them ; and more than two centuries elapsed before they reappeared in India. The Khalifat shared the fate of all Eastern empires ; its princes, degenerated and successful rebels, established independent states. The house of Oramiyah, which, by the murder of Ally, the son-in-law, and fourth successor of the Prophet, had obtained the imperial dignity, reigned at Damascus over the East and the West, during a space of ninety years, when the standard of revolt was raised against them in Khorasan (the northern province of Persia), in favour of the descendants of Abbas, the Prophet's uncle. The latter proved victorious, but they were unable to reduce the western portion of the empire, which thus remained divided. Bagdad, which they built on the banks of the Tigris, became the capital of the Abbasside Khalifehs. The names of Harun-er-rashid, and of his son Almamun, give lustre to this line ; but after the death of the latter, the Khalifehs sank into indolence and sloth, and fortunate adventurers made themselves independent, especially in the eastern parts of the empire, where the population was chiefly Turkish, and of a warlike and predatory character. One of the most celebrated of these lines was that named the Samanee, who came from beyond the Oxus, and during a period of 120 years held the eastern part of Persia. The fifth of these princes had a slave named Alptegin, whom, being a man of ability, he gradually raised, till he made him governor of the province of Khorasan. On the death of the prince, the chiefs consulted as to which of his sons should be his successor, and Alptegin having happened to give his vote against him who proved the successful candidate, he was deprived of his government, and his life was in danger. Followed by a trusty band of dependents, he retired into the mountains of the present Afgha- nistan, and fixed his abode at Ghuzni, whence he could defy the efforts of his enemies. He here reigned over the adjoining country during fourteen years. He gave his only daughter in marriage to Sebuktegin, a Turkish slave, whom he had raised as he had been raised himself by the Samanee prince, and appointed him his successor. As the dominions of Sebuktegin extended along the valley through which the river Cabul runs to its junction with the Indus, the adjacent Hindoo districts had been subject to the incursions of his rude and warlike subjects. Jypal, the rajah of Lahore, therefore, thinking the present a favourable occasion, resolved to become the assailant in turn, and he led an army to the opening of the Cabul valley, beyond Peshawer. The two armies met at this place, but ere they could engage there came on a violent tempest, which so disheartened the Hindoos, that the rajah found it expedient to pro- pose an accommodation. Sebuktegin was at first unwilling to treat, but he finally agreed, on receiv- ing fifty elephants, and the promise of a large sum of money, to allow the rajah to retire unmolested. Messengers arrived soon after at Lahore to de- mand and receive the money that had been pro- mised ; but the rajah cast them into prison, and, having formed alliances with some of the powerful rajahs of Hindustan, he advanced with a force, it is said, of 100,000 horse, and a far larger number of footmen, towards the valley of the Cabul. Sebuk- tegin, though his troops were far inferior in num- ber, relying on their superior discipline, strength, and courage, hesitated not to give battle, and by a succession of well-directed charges of cavalry, he gained a decisive victory. The Hindoos were driven to the Indus with prodigious slaughter, and the riches of their camp became the prey of the victor. HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 999— 1017- The whole country to the Indus submitted to Sebuktegin, who retired, leaving a governor with 10,000 men in Peshawer to maintain his dominion over these provinces. Sebuktegin soon after led his forces over the Oxus to aid the Samanee prince against the hordes of the eastern Tartars. His services were rewarded by his being confirmed in his own government, and that of Khorasan being conferred on his son Mah- mud. He died on his way back to Ghuzni. Mahmud, who was in his thirtieth year, and who had been trained up to arms from his earliest youth, happened to be away at his government when the death of his father occurred. His younger brother Ismael, therefore, having possessed him- self of the treasure accumulated at Ghuzni, and thus being able to secure the support of the chiefs and the army, resolved to contest the empire. Mahmud, having tried the way of accommodation in vain, a battle ensued, in which Ismael was de- feated and captured. He remained a prisoner for life, but was treated with every indulgence that could be bestowed upon him with safety. By taken advantage of the fallen state of the Khalifat and the decline of the power of the Samanee, Mahmud speedily rendered himself inde- pendent, and having received the investiture of Khorasan from the Khalifeh, he assumed the title of Sultan, being the first Moslem prince that bore it (999). Mahmud was brave, prudent, and energetic ; he possessed military skill, he was animated with a passion for glory, he was zealous for Islam, and he was covetous of wealth ; rest, therefore, was alien from his nature and his position. Conquests might easily, no doubt, have been made in the west, and his dominion, possibly, be extended to the Mediter- ranean, but India held out far greater inducements to the Sultan of Ghuzni. Accordingly, in the fourth year of his reign (1001), he led a force along the vale of the Cabul, and near Peshawer he encoun- tered the troops of Jypal of Lahore. The rajah was defeated and made a prisoner, and the victor, traversing the whole of the Punjab, passed the Garrah, and stormed and plundered the city of Butinda. He returned with the booty to Ghuzni, having released Jypal and the other Hindoo pri- soners for a ransom and the promise of tribute. The rajah, on his return to Lahore, disgusted with a life in which he had endured so many disasters, or moved by superstition, transferred his dominions to his son Anungpal, and, mounting a funeral pile, set fire to it with his own hands and expired in the flames. Mahmud again crossed the Indus to punish a rajah who had refused to pay his portion of the tribute imposed on Jypal. His third expedition (1004) was undertaken to punish the Afghan chief of Multan, Abu-'1-Futtch-L6di, who, though a Mos- lem, had rebelled and formed an alliance with Anungpal of Lahore. The troops of Anungpal en- countered those of Mahmud mar Peshawer, and the rajah was defeated and obliged to seek refuge in Cashmir. Mahmud then advanced and laid siege to Multan. At the end of seven days the proffered submission of the chief was accepted; for tidings had reached the Sultan of the invasion of his northern dominions by tlie Tartars. Leav- ing, therefore, the charge of the affairs of India to Sewuk-pAl, a converted Hindoo, he returned with all speed to Ghuzni. A battle fought near Balkh, in which Mahmud employed 500 Indian elephants to great advantage, ended in a signal victory on his part, and the vanquished foe hastened to re- cross the Oxus. The approach of winter prevented Mahmud from passing that river and following up his success. Being now at leisure, he resolved to take ven- geance on Anung-pal for his former unprovoked hostility, and he assembled troops for a fourth descent into India (1008). Anung-pal, aware of his danger, called on the rajahs of the states which had aided his father, representing to them the common danger, as, if he were subdued, they would be attacked in their turn. His arguments ' proved effectual, and a larger army than had yet assem- bled advanced to Peshawer. The sight of their numbers nearly daunted Mahmud, and he acted on the defensive. His camp was surrounded by the Hindoo troops, and the Guckars, a mountain tribe, even forced their way through his intrench- ments, and committed great havoc among his cavalry. At length one of these accidents so fre- quent in Indian warfare gave him the victory. The elephant on which Anung-pal rode, taking flight, ran off the field ; the Hindoos, thinking themselves deserted by their sovereign, gradually gave way ; the troops of Mahmud pressed on, the flight became genei-al, and the slaughter, as usual, immense. Mahmud entered the Punjab, and hearing of the immense wealth said to be con- tained in the temple of Nagarcote, which stood on a hill at the foot of the Himalaya mountains in the district between the Ravi and the Beyah rivers, he resolved to become its possessor. As the garrison had been withdrawn for the late battle, the priests offered no resistance, and the accumulated treasure of ages was conveyed to Ghuzni, where, during a festival of three days, the conqueror displayed it to the view of his subjects. In the year 1010, Mahmud took Multan and brought Abu-'l-Futteh to Ghuzni, where he re- mained a prisoner for life. The following year he penetrated further into India than he had yet done, for he took the city of Tanesan, near the Jumna, plundered its wealthy temple, and brought an im- mense number of captives with him to Ghuzni. Two plundering expeditions to the delicious vale of Cashmere succeeded, in the latter of which the army suffered severely from the weather on its re- turn ; Mahmud then turned his arms northwards, and reduced the whole region between the Oxus and the Jaxartes, after which he thought again of India and of plunder. In this his ninth expedition (1017) he resolved to penetrate to the saered Ganges. With a force of 100,000 horse and 20,000 foot, he set out from Peshawer, and keeping close to the foot of the mountains where the riv< is of the Punjab are most easy to cross, he proceeded till he h:ei passed the .Jumna. He then turned southwards, and led his troops under the walls of t'anouj, a city described as abounding in wealth an.l magnificence, and whose ruins at the present day are said to cover an extent of ground equal to that occupied by London, The rajah, unprepared for resistance, came forth, and surrendered himself and family to the Sultan, by whom he was received to friendship and alliance, and his town was hit uninjured. Mahmud then turned northwards, repassed the ,d. 1022— 30. MAHMCD OF GHUZNI. Jumna, and took, plundered, and destroyed the city of Muttra, one of the principal seats of Hindoo devotion. He then returned to Ghuzni, laden with spoil, and followed by captives. Mahmud returned to India for the tenth time (1022) to the aid of the rajah of Canouj, who had been attacked by the rajah of Calinjer. But his ally had been cut off before he arrived, and neither in this expedition, nor in one which he undertook the following year, was he able to exact vengeance for him. As Jypal II., the rajah of Lahore, was so unwise as to oppose him, when on his way to the aid of Canouj, he deprived him of his do- minions, and annexed them to Ghuzni. This was the first permanent settlement of the Mohamme- dans to the east of the Indus, and led to their future dominion over India. In his twelfth and last expedition to India (1024), Malimud, instead of directing, as before, his course eastwards, turned to the south. On a promontory of the peninsula of Guzerat stood a temple named Somnat, dedicated to the god Seeva, and celebrated for its sanctity and its wealth. The intelligence of its treasures awoke the zeal of the pious sultan, and he resolved to destroy this abode of idols. His army was assembled at Multan, and as the sandy desert was to be crossed in order to reach Guzerat, he collected 20,000 camels for bearing food and water, and directed his soldiers to furnish themselves as abundantly as they could with all things necessary. He thus marched without loss over a space of 350 miles of a soil, presenting now tracts of mere sand, now of bare hard clay, and reached Ajmir, on the east of the Aravalli hills, in safety. The rajah of this place, and his people, fled from the town, which Mahmud plundered, and then, proceeding along the plain on the west of the Aravalli mountains, he at length entered Guzerat, and appeared before its capital, Anhalwara, whose rajah also fled at his approach. Without making any delay, he pushed forwards for Somnat, the object of his wishes. He found the temple sur- rounded on three sides by the sea, and the isthmus on the land side strongly fortified. The garrison defended the works with that desperate valour, which the Hindoos have so often shown in the maintenance of fortified places. On the third clay the adjoining rajahs appeared with a large force for the rescue of the temple, and Malimud was obliged to suspend the siege to engage them. While the battle was raging most strongly, the rajah of Anhalwara arrived with his troops, and the Moslems began to give way. Mahmud threw himself on the earth, imploring the Divine aid, and then springing to horse, cheered his troops and advanced ; his men, ashamed to desert their prince, rushed forwards ; the foe, yielding to the impetuo- sity of their charge, fled with the loss of 5000 men, and the garrison, now hopeless of relief, took to their boats, leaving the temple to its fate. Mahmud, on entering the temple, was dazzled with its magnificence. Fifty-six pillars, it is said, richly carved and adorned with precious stones, supported the roof ; and from a massive golden chain hung the lamp which gave light to the temple. As he advanced to destroy the idol the priests flung themselves at his feet, offering an enormous ran- som if he would spare it. Mahmud paused, his officers were preparing to advise him to accept it, when, crying that he would rather be remembered as the breaker than as the seller of idols, he raised his mace and struck the image. Others followed his example, and a large quantity of diamonds and other precious stones which had been concealed within it, poured forth to reward his zeal and piety 2 . The treasures obtained by the sultan were im- mense, and so delighted was he with the climate of Guzerat, where he remained for some time, that he had thoughts of resigning Cabul to his son, and making it his permanent residence. On reflection, however, he gave up this idea, and setting a Hin- doo prince over the country he prepared to set out on his march homewards. Finding his army somewhat reduced in number, and learning that the rajahs of Ajmir and of Anhalwara had col- lected a force to oppose him, he did not deem it prudent to return by the route he had come. He resolved, therefore, to try a new one, along the sands eastwards of Siud. The hardships and suf- ferings which his troops encountered in this region, especially during three days in which their guides led them astray, are not to be described. Despair seized on all, and many died raging mad ; when at last they reached a pool of water, they saw in it the direct hand of Providence. At length their hard- ships terminated, and they arrived once more at Multan, whence they returned to Ghuzni. But before the end of the year the unwearied Mahmud was again on the Indus, to chastise the people of its west bank, named Juts, who had harassed his troops on their march from Guzerat. They took refuge in the islets of the river, but Mahmud, who had provided himself with boats, pursued them to their retreats, and destroyed nearly the whole of them. Mahmud returned no more to India. The dis- tracted state of Persia now attracted his ambition, and in the three remaining years of his reign he succeeded in making himself master of nearly the whole of that country. He died at Ghuzni, on the 29th of April, 1030, after an active reign of thirty- three years. Sultan Mahmud, of Ghuzni, is one of the most illustrious names in Oriental history ; where vigour, justice, and generosity, are the qualities that most attract praise in a sovereign. For though Mahmud loved wealth, and was insatiable in the acquisition of it, he dispensed it liberally in the rewarding of merit, and the advancement of literature and science. He founded a university in his capital, liberally endowed, and furnished with a museum and an extensive library. It is to him that Persia is indebted for the preservation of her mythic and poetic aunal, in the Shah-nanieh of Ferdousi, to whom he committed the task of clothing them in verse. Unfortunately, his illiberal treatment of the poet is a stain on his memory. Mahmud like- wise adorned Ghuzni with piles of architecture, vying with those which he had admired at Canouj and Muttra, and his nobles emulated each other in 2 This is the account given by Ferishta. Wilson says that the earlier Mohammedan writers have none of these par- ticulars, and he therefore doubts the whole story. S6mnat, he says, was a mere Linga or stone cylinder, and not an image. Mahmud, it is said, carried away the gates of the temple, and set them up in his tomb at Ghuzni; whence, of late years, they, or their successors, have been brought back to India — a measure, in the opinion of many, of no great wisdom. 10 HISTORY OF INDIA. a. d. 1 157—93- following his example. His own tomb, and the mosk named the Celestial Bride, are the most cele- brated of his building*. After the death of Mahmud, his descendants oc- cupied the throne of Ghuzni for about a century and a half ; but they were almost continually en- gaged in hostilities with the Seljitkian Turks, and other tribes on the north and east of their do- minions, and devoted but little of their attention to India. Lahore, however, continued to be the seat of their power in that country ; and the general of one of these princes, on one occasion, led an army over the Ganges (1098). The two last sovereigns of this house, when driven from Ghuzni by the Afghan chiefs of Ghor 3 , fixed their abode in Lahore. The last of these monarchs, Khiisru Malik, was overcome by the Ghorians in the year 118G, and the dynasty of Ghuzni terminated in his person. CHAPTER IV. House of Ghor— Shuhab-ud-din — His conquests — Slave- kings — Khutb-ud-din — Shems-ud-din Altumsh — India invaded by the Moguls — Rukn-ud-din— Sultana Rezia — Nasir-ud-din — Anecdotes — Bulbun— Ky Kobad — End of the Dynasty. GnTAS-UD-ni.v, who succeeded to the Ghorian do- minions in the year 1157, swayed by that strong family affection for which this house was distin- guished, associated in the government his brother Shuhab-ud-din, whose military talents were con- siderable. It is pleasing to observe, that he never had reason to repent of his generosity. The views of Shuhab-ud-din, as soon as the brothers had rest on the north and west of their dominions, were turned to India ; and his conquests there were so extensive, that he may justly be regarded as the true founder of the Mohammedan empire in that country. In the year 1176 he com- meneed his career of conquest by the capture of the city of Och, on the edge of the Desert, near the confluence of the rivers of the Punjab with the Indus. Two years later he invaded Guzerat, but was defeated, and in his retreat he encountered toils and sufferings similar to those experienced by Sultan Mahmud. He then turned his arms against Khusru .Malik, the Glui/.nivide prince of Lahore, and obliged him to give his son as a hostage. He next overran Sind as far as the sea-coast. Again be engaged in hostilities with Khoero of Lahore, who, having formed an alliance with the Guckars, appeared now so formidable, that Shuhab-ud-din deemed it best to have recourse to stratagem. Pre- tending alarms on the side of Khorasau, he made proposals of peace to Khusru, sending him as a pledge of his intentions his son, who was a Kliusn'i, incautiously quitting Lahore, advanced to meet him and Shuhab-ud din, placing himself at the bead of a strong body of cavalrv, and marohing with secrecy, contrived to get be- tween bun and bis capital, and then, surrounding his camp, forced him to surrender (1186). Khusru and his family were *en1 to ( ,1, yas-ud-din, by ' The mountain* of (;hor *ja to the WBll of Cilml and Ghuzni, and eastwards of Kh m horn they were confined in a castle for the rest of their lives. The rival Mohammedan power in India being thus at an end, Shuhab-ud-din had now only the native princes to contend with ; and the want of union which prevailed among them, joined with the inferiority of discipline and experience in their troops, as compared with those hardy warriors whom he drew from the mountains beyond the Indus and the Oxus, appeared to give him greatly the advantage in the contest. Still the struggle was severe, and none fell until after a gallant re- sistance. His first attack (1191) was on Pritwi, the rajah of Delhi and Ajmir. The battle was fought be- tween Tanesar and Carnal, on the great plain to the north of Delhi. The tactics of the invaders were those of the Turkish tribes at all periods of their history, to charge with successive bodies of cavalry, and thus to keep up an unceasing series of attacks ; those of the Hindoos were to keep toge- gether, and endeavour to outflank and surround the enemy. On this occasion the latter tactics prevailed. While Shuhab-ud-din was assailing the centre, he learned that his wings had given way, and soon perceived that he was surrounded. He instantly made a desperate charge into the thickest of the hostile array, and reached and wounded the rajah's brother, when he himself re- ceived a wound, and would have fallen from his horse, had not one of his followers leaped up behind him and carried him off the field. The rout of the Moslems was complete, and they were pur- sued by the victors for a space of forty miles. Shuhab-ud-din returned to Ghuzni, where he remained for two years, apparently engaged in pleasure, but secretly brooding over his defeat, the memory of which deprived him of all rest ; for, as he told an aged councillor, " he never slumbered in ease, or waked but in sorrow and anxiety." At length (1193), having assembled a gallant army, he set out once more to seek for conquest in India. Pritwi and his allies, aware of his approach, had assembled so large a force, that, when Shuhab-ud- din appeared, the rajahs sent to tell him, that if he was prudent they would permit him to retire un- molested. He feigned alarm, represented himself as only his brother's general, and spoke of sending home for instructions. Having thrown them off their guard by this conduct, he crossed at day- break one morning the stream which lay between the two camps, and fell with fury on the unpre- pared Hindoos. Their camp, however, was of such extent, that a part of the troops had time to form ; and while they held the assailants in check the fugitives fell into the rear, and the whole army then advanced in four lines. Shuhab-ud-din and his men fell back, maintaining a running tight till they had drawn the Hindoos out of their ranks, and then a furious charge was made by a body of 12,000 select horsemen, cased in steel armour, and "this prodigious army," says lVrishta, K ooee shaken, like a great building' tottered to its fall, and was lost in its own ruins." Many Hindoo chiefs fell in the fight. Pritwi was made a prisoner, and was put to death in cold blood. The town of Ajmir was taken, a part of its inhabitants were maSBacred, and the rest led into slavery. Shuhab-ud-diu then returned to Ghuzni, leaving the command in India with his general, d. 1202—15. SLAVE-KINGS, KHIJTB-UD-DlN. 11 Khutb-ud-din, who speedily made himself master of the city of Delhi. The next year saw Shuhab-ud-din again in India, where he defeated the rajah of Canouj *, and took the city of that name, and Benares, on the Ganges, one of the greatest seats of Hindoo devo- tion. He then returned to Ghuzni, and in the fol- lowing year he descended anew into India, where he laid siege to the strong fortress of Gwalior, to the south of Agra ; but, being recalled by some troubles in Khorasan, he left the conduct of the siege to Khiitb-ud-din, by whom the place was reduced. It had scarcely fallen, when news ar- rived that the rajah, whom Shuhab-ud-din had set over Ajmir, was hard passed by the rajahs of Guzerat and Nagor. Khutb-ud-din hastened to his relief, but was defeated, and severely wounded, and with difficulty he made his escape to Ajmir. Being reinforced from Ghuzni, he forced the rajahs to raise the siege, and he then carried his arms into Guzerat, where he took and garrisoned its capital, Anhalwara. Meanwhile, another of Shu- hab-ud-din's generals had reduced Oude and North Bahar, and, having waited on Khutb-ud-din to inform him of his success, lie returned and sub- dued the rest of Bahar, and also the greater part of Bengal. Shuhab-ud-din, on the death of his brother (1202), succeeded to the sole monarchy. He was at that time engaged in a war with the shah of Kharism, who had lately risen to power on the ruins of the Seljukees ; and, though victory smiled at first on his arms, he at length met with a total defeat. As a report was spread of his death, many of his officers threw off their allegiance. One declared himself independent in Multan, and the Guckars descending from their mountains ravaged the Punjab, and seized on Lahore. Khutb-ud- din, however, remained unshaken in his fidelity, and the indefatigable sultan was soon in a condi- tion to reduce all the rebels. The Punjab was recovered, and the Guckars were even induced to embrace the Mohammedan faith. Shuhab-ud-din then set out on his return to Ghuzni. When he came to the Indus, he ordered his tent to be pitched close to the stream, that he might enjoy the cool air from its waters. During the night some Guckars, who had lost relations in the late engagement, and who were on the watch for venge- ance, swam across the river, and, entering the tent unobserved, despatched the king with several wounds (1206). The dominion of the house of Ghor ended with Shuhab-ud-din ; for though he was succeeded by his nephew, Mahmud, the authority of that prince was merely nominal, and he died after a reign of only five or six years. A series of civil commo- tions ensued, and all the dominions west of the Indus fell eventually to the monarchs of Kharism. Mahmud, on his accession, had sent the insignia of royalty, and the title of king, to Khutb-ud-din, who remained faithful to him, as he had been to his predecessor, as long as he lived. On the death of Mahmud, he assumed independence, and became the founder of a sovereign dynasty in India. The dynasty of which Khutb-ud-din was the founder is named that of the Slave Kiugs, for such 4 The rajah fell in the battle, and his body, we are told, was recognized by his false teeth. had been the original condition of himself and of his successor, in whose family the line was con- tinued. Slavery in the East, it is well known, is not the degraded condition it was in the free states of an- cient Europe. The slave is considered to be a member of the family ; he is treated, when deserv- ing, with consideration, is often married to a daughter of his master's, or succeeds to his pro- perty in default of heirs, and when the master pursues the path of ambition and attains to domi- nion, his faithful slaves, if possessed of abilities, rise to civil or military dignities. Such was the career of Khutb-ud-din. He was a Turk by birth, and when a child he was brought to Nishapur in Khorasan, and sold to a man of wealth. His mas- ter, finding him a boy of talent, had him instructed in the Persian and Arabian languages. On his death, Khutb-ud-din was sold, and he was pur- chased by a merchant, who presented him to Shu- hab-ud-din, under which able and discerning prince his advancement was rapid. We have seen how exemplary his fidelity was to his prince ; to the honour of Shuhab-ud-din it is to be recorded, that his attachment to his servant was equally firm, and that he never showed the slightest want of confidence in him, or made him feel the caprice of a despot. Khiitb-ud-din had married the daughter of Eldoz, another of his late master's slaves, and who now ruled in Ghuzni. The latter, heedless of this connexion, asserted a claim to dominion over India, and, advancing with an army, made himself master of Lahore. He was speedily, however, driven over the Indus by Khutb-ud-din, who, in his turn, made himself master of Ghuzni. But Eldoz soon after expelled him, and he returned to India, where he spent the remaining brief period of his reign in tranquillity. His reign only lasted four years, but he had governed India during twenty years as the vicegerent of Shuhab-ud-din and his successor. He was succeeded by his son Aram, a prince of no capacity, who, after reigning only a twelve- month, was dethroned by his brother-in-law Al- tumsh(1211). Shems-ud-din Altumsh had also been a Turkish slave. It was said that he was of a noble family, and, like the patriarch Joseph, was sold out of envy by his own brethren. He was purchased by Khutb- ud-din for 50,000 pieces of silver — a proof of his great talents and capacity. He rose rapidly through different stations, and at the time of his revolt he was governor of Bahar. Though a good number of his brother officers had invited him to occupy the throne, many others were opposed to him, and his elevation cost him a battle. Eldoz also, being driven out of Ghuzni by the Kharismians, attempted to obtain possession of India, but he was defeated and captured by Altumsh (1215), and he ended his days in captivity. In was during the reign of Altumsh that the celebrated Chingiz Khan, having united the various tribes of Moguls and Tatars 5 , under his dominion, 5 There has been great confusion made between the Mongols or Moguls, and the Tatars. The difference has been explained by Schmidt: see Bohlen Das alte Indira, i. 101.— The terms originated with Chingis Khan, who named the broad-faced, flat-nosed, yellow-skinned race, who conquered China and other countries, Kokci-Mongho'J, 19 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1236— GG. began to spread devastation over Asia. He burst like :i sturni over Kharism, whose sultan had lnur- di red his ambassadors, defeated liis troops with immense slaughter, and reduced all liis dominions. In the pursuit of that saltan's gallant son and successor Jellal-ud-dm, the Moguls, we are told, paaaed the Indus, and on their return, with the barbarity characteristic of them, as provisions were running short, they massacred 10,000 Indian pri- s .mis rather than give them their liberty. Altomsh reduced to obedience all the Moham- medan chiefs in India who aimed at independence. In the course of his reign he subdued Malwa, which had been hitherto unassailed, and he thus was paramount lord of the whole of India north of the ocean and the Vindhya mountains, with, of course, more or less of authority according to local and other circumstances. He died iu 123G after a reign of twenty-five years Altumsh was succeeded by his son Rukm-ud- din. Unlike his gallant sire, the new monarch gave himself up to the Bociety of dancing women, players, and buffoons, leaving affairs of state to his mother. This woman, who had been a Turkish slave, acted with such cruelty, putting, for ex- ample, to death the females of Altumsh's harem (probably her former rivals), that a rebellion speedily broke out, which ended in the deposition and death of Itukm-ud-din after a reign of only seven mouths, and (an event almost unique in the Mohammedan East) the elevation to the throne of He/.ia the eldest daughter of Altumsh. " Sultana Rezia," says Ferishta, " was endowed with every princely virtue, and those who scruti- nise her actions most severely, will find in her no fault but that she was a woman." Her father had perceived and fostered her talents, and he used even to commit the regency to her during his ab- sence in war. " He saw his sons," he said, "giving themselves up to wine, women, gaming, and the worship of the winds (i. e. Mattery), and therefore thought the government too heavy for their shoul- der., to bear, while Reria, though a woman, had the head and heart of a man, aud was better than twenty such sons." The sultana changed her dress, assumed the royal robes, ami each day sat in public, giving audience and administering justice. A party headed by the late vi/.ir, howevc r, opposed her ele- vation, and even defeated a body of her troops; but she succeeded in sowing discord among the chiefs, and the confederacy dissolved ami melted away. She might now, perhaps, have enjoyed a kmg and prosperous reign, had she not been BUD- • a defect which seems inherent in women invested with sovereign power— she had a favourite. Tin-, man, named Jummul, had been originally an lian slave, ami was consequently dark of ho- as compared With tin- Afghan and Turkish officers. She made him first Master of the Horse, ami then elevated him to the Important post of Amir ul Oinra ('',„„„„„„/,,. „,- OblJMIIOwfors), or Commander-in-Chief of her army, it is not said, '•"ly people; and those irii..-s c»f rjppn Asia, who ur.i.t. Tributary. These i.vi vera ' '"'">' ' f the lair CauOUhU) race. Turk end raUr are, therefore, nearly equivalent. In our Outlines iwinj Klaproth, vre asserted the .'rary. however, that she indulged him in any improper familiarity ; the only charge made against her is, that she allowed him to lift her to her horse. A Turkish chief named Altunia was the first to rebel. The queen marched against him, but her army mutinied. Jummul was slain and herself made a prisoner, and delivered into the hands of the rebel. Her brother Behram was then placed on the throne, but the captive empress, meanwhile, became the wife of Altunia, and at the head of an army they advanced to Delhi to recover the throne. Fortune, however, proved adverse, and they were forced to seek safety in Might. At the head of a second army Rezia again advanced to Delhi ; but her troops, composed of Indians, were, as Ferishta, observes, no match for the Tatars in the service of Behram ; they were defeated, and the queen and her husband being taken in the pursuit were barbarouslv put to death (1239). The reigns of Behram and his successor Masaud offer little to interest. During the reign of the latter (1244) the Moguls made an irruption from the north-east through Tibet into Bengal, the only invasion of India on that side which history re- cords 6 . The throne now came to Nasir-ud-din, a grand- son of Altumsh (124G) who had been thrown into prison on that monarch's death, where he remained till released by Masaud, who sent him as governor to Baraj. The wisdom and policy which he exhi- bited in this office recommended him, it is said, to the Omrahs, by whom he was placed on the vacant throne. He gave the office of vizir to Ghyas-ud- din Bulbun, a man of great talent, who had taken an active part in all the commotions of the late reigns. The reign of this prince, which lasted twenty years, presents the usual series of insurrec- tions of vassals, intrigues of courts, and Mogul in- vasions. He died in 12GG, without heirs, and the throne was occupied by the vi/.ir Bulbun. We are told of Nasir-ud-din, that when he was a prisoner lie used to support himself by copying books, and that he even continued to do so when seated on the throne. One day, as he was showing a Koran of his own writing to one of his Omrahs, the latter pointed out a word which he said was wrong, the king assented and drew a circle round the word. When the 6 m rah was gene he began to efface the circle. " 1 knew," said he tOOnewhowaS present, " that the word was right, but I thought it better to erase it than to touch the heart of a poor man by bringing him to shame." This prince had no concubines, and only one wile, whom he made do all the housewifery herself. One day she complained to him that she hall burned her fingers baking bread, and requested to have a maid to assist her ; but he replied, that he was only a trustee for the state and would burden it with no needless expenses, lie exhorted her to persevere in her duty, and God would reward her. GhyaS-ud-dln Bulbun was a Turk by birth, and related to the emperor Altumsh. When a youth he was taken a prisoner by the .MoguU, ami carried to Bagdad to be sold as a slave. He Was there purchased by a man of piety and learning, who, en ' Mill sec ins to doubl tin- truth of this statement; but, n< Wilson obsi ivcs, ii is not hmc since Nepftl was Invaded by a Chinese army. As we proceed, we shall Bud an Indian China. a.d. 1266- BULBUN— KY KOBAD. 13 discovering who lie was, brought him to Delhi and presented him to Altumsh, by whom he was libe- rally remunerated. Altumsh gave Bulbun one of his daughters in marriage after he had advanced him through a series of offices, civil and military. On the throne Bulbun proved a tyrant. In the time of Altumsh forty of the principal slaves, of whom he was one, had entered into a compact for mutual support, and most of them had attained to high stations. He now wished to put an end to such a system, and he contrived to make away with his surviving confederates. He laid it down as a rule to confer office only on men of family, and he even avoided all converse with men of low origin. He also made it a rule to exclude Hindoos from office. He established rigorous game-laws, and, as in his youth he had exceeded in the use of wine, he now prohibited even moderate indulgence in it. In cases of rebellion he punished not merely the leaders, but even their meanest followers. The ravages of the Moguls had extended so far and wide, that there were few royal houses in Asia of which there were not members reduced to poverty and driven into exile. Many of these princes sought refuge, where almost alone it was to be found, at the court of Bulbun. The men of letters also repaired thither, and by their presence gave lustre to the palace of his eldest son, Moham- med, who loved and encouraged literature. But the emperor's second son Kera was a man of pleasure, and his palace was the resort of players, musicians, and buffoons. The Hindoo population of the region between the Jumnah and Ganges, and southwards, had never been completely subdued, and their plundering ex- cursions had now become very serious evils. Bul- bun directed his forces against them, and slaugh- tered them without mercy, and he cut down, to the extent of a hundred miles, the forests which afforded them a retreat. Togral, the governor of Bengal, having assumed independence, was at first success- ful against the troops sent to reduce him. But the empei'or, though nearly in his eightieth year, took the field against him in person (1285), and the rebel was speedily defeated and slain. The venge- ance of Bulbun was poured forth unsparingly on his adherents, and people of all ranks were exe- cuted. While Bulbun was engaged in suppressing rebel- lion in the east, his gallant son Mohammed had the charge of defending the west against the invasions of the Moguls. One army he defeated and drove off, but soon another appeared ; and, though the prince gained a complete victory over it, he was slain in the pursuit by a party of the enemy's horse. The loss of this his best and ablest son, joined with the cares and anxieties of state, proved too much for the nature of Bulbun, stern and rugged as it was, and he sank beneath the stroke of fate (1286). The Omrahs placed on the throne Ky Kobad, the son of Bakarra Khan the governor of Bengal, one of the sons of Bulbun. Ky Kobad, a youth of eighteen, was devoted to pleasure; "he delighted in love and in the society of silver-bodied damsels with musky tresses." The nobles, swayed by the example of the monarch, gave a loose to enjoyment, and dissoluteness and luxury every where prevailed. The vizir Nizam- ud din, hoping eventually to secure the crown for himself, encouraged his young sovereign in all his excesses; and, in order to alienate the affections of the Turkish soldiery from him, by infusing into his mind doubts of their fidelity, lie persuaded him to invite their chiefs to a banquet and there to mas- sacre them. Bakarra Khan, hearing how matters were going on at court, advanced at the head of his army, in order to put things on a better footing. -The em- peror, induced by his vizir, advanced to oppose him. When the armies were in presence, the father sought an interview with his son, which was grand <1 in spite of the efforts of the vizir, who resolved, however, to make it as humiliating as possible to Bakarra Khan. This prince submitted to every thing till, having come into the royal presence and made several obeisances, he saw the king still sit- ting unmoved on his throne. Overcome by this uttermost mark of filial disrespect, he burst into tears. Ky Kobad, whose nature, like that of most voluptuaries, was weak rather than bad, was over- come. Regardless of his vizir's injunctions, he sprang from the throne, and ran to cast himself at his father's feet ; his father caught him, and they fell weeping on each other's neck, and all present were affected at the sight. But this effect was only transient, and Bakarra Khan, after several inter- views, finding the vizir's influence not to be sub- verted by peaceful means, returned to Bengal, leaving his son to his fate. That fate was not long delayed. Ky Kobad speedily destroyed his constitution by debauchery, and, viewing his vizir as the cause of his ruin, he had him taken off by poison. The reins of govern- ment, which he was unable to hold himself. A became the subject of contest among the leading Omrahs, of whom there were two parties, namely, the Turks and the Afghans ; and it ended in the triumph of the latter, the assassination of Ky Kobad, and the elevation to the throne of Jellal-ud-din Khilji (1288). The unfortunate Ky Kobad had reigned oidy two years. CHAPTER V. House of Khilji — Jellal-ud-din — First Invasion of the Deckan— Ala-ud-din— Story of Dewal Devi— Massacre of the Moguls— Mobarek— House of Toghlak— Ghazi Khan —Shah Mohammed— Attempt to invade China— Fictitious Money— Mohammedan Kingdom in the Deckan— Firus- ud-din— Invasion of India by Timur— The Syuds— House of Lodi— Behlol— Secunder— Ibrahim— End of the Afghan Dominion in India. Jellal-ud-din was seventy years of age when he was placed on the throne of India. Mildness and benevolence, almost vices in an Eastern monarch, distinguished his character. He pardoned rebels, he lightly punished offenders ; hence the frame of government was relaxed, governors withheld their tributes, bands of robbers were collected, and the roads became insecure. It was in the reign of this monarch that the Moslem conquests were extended into the Deckan, which, during the three centuries that the Moham- medans had been in India, had remained hitherto unassailed. The emperor's nephew, Ala-ud-din, was of a very different character from himself. HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1294—1312. Having acted against insurgents in Bundelcund and Malwa, and gained booty and collected troops, lie Bet out (1294) :it the head of only 8000 men from Karrah (between the Jumnah and Ganges), the Beat of his government, and traversing the great forest which spreads thence into the Deckan 7 , he reached Elichpur in Berar unopposed ; for he pre- tended that he had quitted the service of his uncle in disgust, and was going to enter that of a Hindoo rajah. He then turned westwards, and soon ap- peared before Deogiri (now Douletabad), the capital of the Maratta country, which was the main object of the expedition. lie found the rajah Kaindco nearly unprepared for defence. The town was taken" and pillaged, the rajah having retired, after a brief resistance, with what men he could collect, to the adjoining nearly impregnable hill-fort. Here he was besieged by Ala-ud-din, who gave ou\ that his troops were only the advance guard of the army of the king ; and the timid rajah had actually con- eluded a treaty for surrender, when his son re- turned with an army which he had hastily collected, and attacked the besiegers, in reliance on his su- periority of numbers. Victory, however, remained with Ala-ud-din, who now raised his terms ; but the rajah resolved to hold out, expecting his allies to come to his aid. Just then, however, it was discovered that, in their haste to victual the fort, they had taken sacks of salt in mistake for sacks of grain, and that, in consequence, their provisions were nearly run out. An immediate surrender was the result, with the delivery of an immense quantity of money and jewels, and the resignation of Elichpur and its dependencies. Ala-ud-din then retired through Candesh to Malwa. This expedition, when the smallncss of the force and the difficulties of the route through mountains and forests are considered, places the military talents of Ala-ud-din in a high rank. It is much, therefore, to be regretted that treason to his excel- lent uncle should have been united with them. By feigning fear of the king's resentment for having thus aeted without his orders, he induced the un- suspicious old man to come almost alone to Karrah. Ala-ud-din fell at his feet ; the king raised him, and was patting him on the cheek and affectionately reproaching bun for having distrusted an uncle who had reared him and who loved him as his own child, when, on a signal, assassins posted for the purpose rushed forth and stabbed him to the heart. His head was then stuck ou a spear and carried through the camp and city (1295). Ala-ud-din forthwith assumed the royal dignity, and, having gotten the late king's family into his hands, he put his tWO si. us to death. From the vigorous character of Ala-ud-din, it may easily be inferred that his reign was glorious in war; but his internal administration was also beneficial, and general prosperity prevailed among j his subjects. His first expedition was against ' Guzer&t, which now for the first time was perma- nently conquered. For some years then ne was l with Mogul invasions. One of these, apparently aiming a( conquest rather than plunder as hitherto, reached Delhi, driving the Indian army and the people of the country into that city before it (1298). The pressure of famine caused thereby made Ala-ud-din £\\<- up his plan of acting on the defensive, and lead out his troops to action, i Sec above, p. 2. The talents, it is said, of his general Zafar Khan secured him the victory ; but the services of this able man had already drawn on him the jealousy of the king and his brother Alif Khan ; and, the latter leaving him unsupported in the pursuit, a party of the Moguls turned and cut to pieces him and the small detachment that attended him. During the following seven years Mogul invasions were renewed at various intervals, but without success ; they then ceased to occur for many years. Though harassed with these Mogul invasions, Ala-ud-din had still his thoughts turned toward the Deckan ; and when at last they had ceased he sent a force against the rajah of Deogiri, who had withheld his tribute (1306). The commander of this army was a eunuch named Malik Kafur, who having been taken from his master, a merchant in Guzcrat, had come into the possession of the king, whose favour he speedily won, and he, of course, rose to the highest offices, with also, of course, the aver- sion and hatred of the nobles. On this expedition he acted with vigour, and the rajah was forced to submit and accompany him to Delhi, where, how- ever, he was received with favour and dismissed with honours. The following incident occurred on this occasion. At the time of the invasion of Guzerat the rajah having fled, his wife, named Caula Devi, had been made a prisoner and placed in the harem of Ala- ud-din, with whom she speedily became a great favourite. Hearing of this expedition, she requested that every effort might be made to obtain posses- sion of her daughter, Dcwal Devi, who was with her father, the exiled rajah. Alp Khan, the governor of Guzerat, was accordingly directed to attend to this affair, and, having tried in vain the effect of negotiation, he marched his troops against the rajah. Dcwal Devi had been sought in mar- riage by the son of Ram Deo of Deogiri, but the Rajput prince had disdained to bestow the hand of his daughter on a Maratta. Now, however, deem- ing it the lesser evil, he gave his consent, and sent her off under escort to Deogiri. His troops were defeated by Alp Khan, but that availed nothing, as the princess was gone ; and he had arrived within a day's march of Deogiri, where he was to join Kafur, when a party of his men, having gone to view the wonderful caverns of Ellora, fell in with the princess's escort, and captured her with- out knowing who she was. Alp Khan lost no time in conveying her to Delhi, and the king's eldest son, struck with her uncommon beauty, made her ere long his wife. This incident, Mr. Elphinstunc observes, is remarkable, as showing the inter- mixture which had already taken place between the Hindoos and Mohammedans, and also as lead- ing to the first mention of the eaves of Kllora. Kafur afterwards (1309) invaded Telingana, took the strong fort of Warangol, before which an expe- dition sent by way of Bengal had failed, and made the rajah tributary. The following year he marched against tin- rajah ol Carnata, whom he defeated and made a prisoner. He ivdueed the whole eastern part of this territory as far south as the spot named Adam's-bridge, opposite the isle of Ceylon. In the year 1312, Kaffir again entered the Deekan, where he put the reigning rajah of Deogiri to death, and reduced the country to more complete subjec- tion. d. 131G— 24. HOUSE OF TOGHLAK— SHAH MOHAMMED. The constitution of Ala-ud-din had now been worn out by intemperance and luxury, and the in- fluence of Kafur over him was unbounded. This able but unprincipled man now ventured to raise his eyes to the throne. With this view he sought to alienate the mind of the king from his children by representing them as plotting against his life ; he also laboured to remove or destroy every man of rank or influence who he thought might stand in his way. He had succeeded in causing the queen and the two eldest princes to be cast into prison, and he had obtained an order to make away with Alp Khan, when, rebellions having broken out in Guzerat and the Deckan, the tidings threw the king into such paroxysms of rage as brought him to the brink of the grave, and Kafur is said to have accelerated his end by poison (1316). Ala-ud-din had reigned twenty-one years. One of the acts of this monarch was the mascacre of the Mogul converts. At various times bodies of these men had been induced to embrace the Mo- hammedan faith, and to enter the imperial service. At all times they have proved turbulent and inso- lent. Ala-ud-din, aware of their character, suddenly discharged the whole of them from his service, but without any apparent cause. Driven to despera- tion at seeing themselves thus deprived of the means of living, some of them conspired to assassi- nate him. The plot, however, was discovered, and the king, without making any inquiry, ordered the whole of them (15,000, it is said), guilty and inno- cent alike, to be massacred and their families to be sold for slaves. Kafur produced a real or fictitious will of the late monarch, appointing his infant son Omar to be king, with Kafur for his guardian ; and he imme- diately caused the eyes of the two eldest princes to be put out, and sent assassins to murder Mobarik, the third son. But they were induced to spare his life, and, Kafur being shortly after put to death by a conspiracy of the royal guards, Mobarik ascended the throne without opposition. He proved a sensual, bloody tyrant, devoted to the lowest debaucheries, and placing the whole of his confidence in a con- verted Hindoo named Khusru Khan. This man, after effecting the conquest of Malabar, against which he had been sent, and bringing thence a large treasure, proceeded to destroy the nobles or drive them from court, and he filled the capital with Hindoo troops of his own caste. He then (1321) ventured on the deed he had long projected ; he murdered his master and all the members of the royal family, and mounted the throne himself 8 . But Ghazi Khan Toghlak, the governor of the Punjab, refused to yield obedience to him, and, marching to Delhi with his disciplined troops, he put an end to his life and reign. As there was no surviving member of the house of Khilji, Toghlak himself, with the general consent of the people, assumed the royal dignity. The new monarch was the son of one of Bulbun's Turkish slaves by an Indian mother. His reign commenced without blame, and during its short period proved vigorous and beneficent. 8 "The army," says Ferishta, "now remained to be bribed, who loved nothing better than a revolution ; for they had always, upon such an occasion, a donation of six months' pay, immediately divided from the treasury." Mill notices the similar conduct of the praetorian guards at Rome, as an instance of the similarity of military despotisms. An expedition into the Deckan, led by the king's eldest son Juna Khan, proved unsuccessful. He was unable to take the fort of Warangol ; disease broke out in his camp ; some of his officers with their men deserted ; he was pursued on his retreat to Deogiri with great slaughter by the Hindoos, and he reached Delhi with only 3000 men. The next year he was more successful, for he took Warangol and made the rajah a prisoner. The king himself now proceeded in person to Bengal (1324), where Bakarra Khan, the son of Bulbun, still held the government, and the use of royal ornaments was conceded to him by the son of his father's former slave. As Toghlak approached the capital on his return, he was received by his eldest son in a splendid wooden pavilion erected for the occasion. During the ceremonies, the build- ing happened to give way, and the king and his second and favourite son were killed by the fall ; the eldest son, chancing to be absent at the time, escaped. It is certainly possible that the casualty may have been accidental, but the probability is so strongly on the other side as, in our opinion, to amount almost to certainty. Juna, on mounting the throne, took the name of Shah Mohammed. He celebrated his accession with great magnificence, distributing gifts in the utmost profusion to his friends and to men of letters. He was himself the most learned and eloquent prince of his time ; versed in languages, literature, and philosophy ; regular, and even aus- tere in his religious observances ; abstinent from wine and from pleasure ; brave and generous in the field and in the court. But all these noble qualities, which made him the subject of admira- tion, were rendered of no value by a perversity of mind bordering on insanity, and an utter disregard for human suffering in the pursuit of his wild schemes of ambition. In the commencement of his reign, he com- pleted the conquest of the Deckan. Seeing then no object for his ambition in India, he resolved to become the conqueror of Persia, and even of China. For the first he assembled a large army, which, after it had consumed his treasures, dispersed for want of pay, and plundered and wasted the coun- try. In order to the invasion of China, a body of 100,000 horse were sent through the Himalaya mountains to prepare the way for the main army. This force, we are told, reached the frontiers of China, but found there awaiting it so large an army, that, fearing to encounter it, it turned and commenced its retreat. It endured even more than the calamities incident to such a course. It was fallen on by the mountaineers, slaughtered by the pursuing enemy, exhausted by want of provisions, drenched by tremendous rains, and entangled in impervious jungles. At the end of fifteen days hardly a man survived, and thus terminated the magnificent project of the conquest of China. To recruit his shattered finances, Mohammed had now recourse to a novel expedient. He had heard of the paper money of China (to which coun- try the invention is due), and he resolved to imitate it, for which purpose he issued copper tokens as representatives of particular sums of money. But Mohammed was not aware that, for the success of a project of this kind, there must be confidence in the good faith and solvency of the government, and he found that, with all his power, he could not 16 HISTORY OF INDIA. a. d. 1340—98. force his tokens into general circulation. He did abundance of mischief, and caused considerable by the experiment, but his finances re- mained as embarrassed as ever. He then in- ! the taxes, and the hushandmen, driven to desperation, left their lands and lied to the woods. The infuriated monarch, resolved to have at least revenge, used then to order out his troops as if for a grand hunt, surround a tract of country with them, gradually narrow the circle, and tinally daughter all the peasants within it like f game or \n-i-y. The natural consequence was famine and its attendant evils. Rebellions followed. The revolts in the Punjab and in Main a were easily crushed, but the gover- nor of Bengal became and remained independent (1340). The Hindoo states of the Deckan mostly Hung off the Mohammedan yoke. A rebellion in this country being headed by his own nephew, who when taken was flayed alive, the king inarched thither in person, and he was so pleased with the site of Dedgiri, that lie resolved to make it his capital. Forthwith the whole of the inhabitants of Delhi were ordered to quit their homes and hasten to people this town, to which he gave the name of DouletabAd. Twice, then, he permitted them to return to Delhi, and twice he forced them back to the Deckan, once in the very midst of a fan, inc. This plan, too, after causing misery and death to thousands, proved an utter failure. Such are the caprices of despotism. The number of Moguls in the service of the Indian moiiarchs had continually gone on increas- ing, and they now formed a large portion of the imperial army. A body of these troops quartered in Guzerat having revolted, Mohammed marched against them. They retired into the Deckan, and seized on DouletabAd. The king came and be- sieged that town, and he had nearly reduced it, when news of disturbances in Guzerat drew him thither, and he left the conduct of the siege to one of his Omrahs. But the Moguls defeated this gene- ral, and drove him into AJalwa, and before Mo- hammed could march against them he fell sick and died (1351), after a reign of twenty-seven years. It was during the reign of Shah Mohammed that the Moorish traveller Ibn Batuta visited India. Mohammed made him a judge with a most liberal salary, and afterwards sent him on an em- bassy to China. On the death of Mohammed, the Moguls re- turned to the Deckan, and there established an Independent kingdom. Their first king was one of their chiefs, named [smael, an Afghan by birth, who shortly after resigned in favour of Zuffir Khan, one of his ablest officers. This man, whose origi- nal name was lliissun, was also an Afghan, lie had been, it is said, the slave or servant of ;i Bramin astrologer at Delhi, and one day, as in. loughing a piece of land which the" Itrainin had given him, he turned up a treasure j he told his master, who informed the king, by whom llus- suu was made commander of one hundred hone. The Bramin predicted to dim a brilliant career, stipulating to be his minister when he should be king of the Deckan. The prophecy, as we have ■' '"■■ to | a i, and Zuffir kept his word with the Bramin, This i arch died (1867) after n of eleven yean, during which be extended his dominion over the great* c part of the !>• ckan. The title by which he mounted the throne was Ala-ud-din Hussun Gungoo Bahmanee, from which last his dynasty was denominated. Shah Mohammed was succeeded by his nephew Firuz-ud-din. This monarch acknowledged the independence of the kingdoms of Bengal and the Deckan ; he made excellent financial and legal regulations ; he constructed a great number of public works, such as bridges, baths, inns, hos- pitals, mosks, tanks, etc. The most considerable of these was the canal, named after him, from the river Junmah to the Gagur, a portion of which has been restored in our own days, to the infinite ad- vantage of the adjoining districts. Firuz died in the year 1388 ; and in the six following years four princes of the house of Toghlak successively occupied the throne. In the reign of the last of these princes, named Mahmud, several of the provinces assumed independence ; and, finally, a Mogul invasion, such as India had never yet witnessed, swept over and devasted the country. We have seen the hordes that roam the plains of Central Asia, united under Chingiz Khan, spread devastation and misery around almost to the bounds of the earth. A similar scourge now arose to afflict the world, in the person of Timur (commonly called Tamerlane), who, though by birth a Turk and a Mussulman by religion, was able, through his su- perior talents, to combine Turks and Moguls, and run a career of conquest and spoliation nearly equal to that of Chingiz. India, which had escaped the arms of the Mogul conqueror, was destined to be the prey of Timur. In the year 1398 this prince's grandson, Peer Mohammed, having reduced the Afghans of the mountains of Soliman, crossed the Indus, and laid siege to Multan. Timur himself, then taking the same route with Alexander, along, as we may term it, the high-road to India, crossed the mountains of Hindoo Cusli, and reached Cahul. lustead, how- ever, of taking, like that conqueror, the direct line of the river Cahul, he moved southwards through the mountains (probably along the course of the Eurrum) into Bannu, crossed the Indus and the Jelum, and marched down the banks of this river to the city of Tulumba. He levied a heavy contribution on this city, which then was sacked, and its inhabi- tants massacred by his soldiers — without his orders we arc assured ; for such was the fate of most cities that he took; the troops of this most severe and despotic of commanders, strangely on such occasions venturing to fling off the yoke of obe- dience, and never being punished for it ! Being joined by his grandson, from Multan, Timur crossed the Garra, or Sutlej, and directed his march across the Sandy Desert, in nearly a straight line for Delhi, taking in his way Adjudiu and Butncr, the people of which last town were massacred by mistake, as usual. The Indian army was defeated under the walls of Delhi, the king soughl refuge in Guzerat, and Timur was proclaimed emperor of India. The usual course of events took place in Delhi. Heavy contributions wen levied for the monarch, his troops began to plunder, some resistance was offered, and tins led to a genera] ina acre and conflagration. During ti\e days Timur remained a tranquil spectator of all these atrocities, engaged in celebnting a feast in honour Of his victory. When his troops were glutted with blood and plunder, he gave orders for the inarch, a.d. 1412—1526. BEHLOL LODI, SECUNDER, IBRAHIM. 17 and on the day preceding his departure in the stately mosk, erected by Shah Firuz on the banks of the Jumnah, "he offered up to the Divine Majesty the sincere and humble tribute of grateful praise." Laden with plunder, and dragging myriads of captives with him of all ranks, and of both sexes, lie moved northwards to Meerut, where, as usual, there was a general massacre. He then crossed the Ganges, and marched to where that river leaves the mountains, near Hardwar, and then westwards, along the foot of the mountains as far ;is Jummoo, north of Lahore ; he then turned to the south, and leaving India by the usual route, proceeded to make preparations for marching into Anterior Asia, to encounter the Ottoman sultan Bayazid. His visitation of India, which lasted about a year, had been like that of a destroying angel ; he left behind him anarchy, famine, and pestilence. Mahmiid returned to Delhi, but he could recover no authority. After his death (1412) the govern- ment was administered in an imperfect manner, in the name of Timur, by Khizr Khan, the gover- nor of the Punjab. As Khizr was a Syud, or descendant of the Prophet, the dynasty of himself and his three successors is named that of the Syuds. The limits of the empire, under these princes, were reduced almost to the capital ; and Ala-ud- din, the last of them, was glad to resign the throne to Behlol Khan Lodi, the possessor of the Pun- jab, and retire to Budayun, a town about 100 miles east of Delhi (1450). Behlol belonged to the Afghan tribe of Lodi. His grandfather, Ibrahim, was a wealthy merchant, who repaired to the court of Shah Firuz, by whom he was appointed governor of Multan. His sons rose to power and command ; and his grandson made himself master of the Punjab, when the feeble Syuds attempted to destroy the Lodi family ; and the last of them, as we have seen, was obliged to resign to him the throne of Delhi. During an active reign of thirty-nine years, Behlol gave to the empire once more respectable limits. It now reached the Himalaya on the north, the Ganges and Benares on the east. Ferishta relates, that while Behlol was yet a young man, and in a private station, his future I dignity had been prophetically announced to him. I As he was paying his respects one day to a re- I nowned Dervish, the latter, while Behlol was sit- ! ting before him, cried out, in a fit of enthusiasm, j " Who will give me two thousand rupees for the empire of Delhi \ " Behlol replied, that he had only sixteen hundred in the world, but that he would give them ; and, sending for them, he pre- sented them to the holy man, who, laying his hand on his head, saluted him king. Behlol, when ridi- culed by his comrades for his folly, replied, that "if the thing came to pass, he had made a cheap purchase ; if not, the blessing of a holy man could do him no harm." When he attained the empire, he divided his treasures among his friends, and lived with them on terms of the greatest familiarity. He very rarely could be induced to mount his throne, saying, that " it was enough for him that the world knew he was a king, without his making a vain parade of royalty." Though not learned, he patro- nised literature, and was liberal to men of letters. Secunder Lodi, the son and successor of Behlol, was also a man of talent, and in general, just and liberal. It is, however, in his reign, that we first meet with religious bigotry exercised against the Hindoo religion ; for it is remarkable, how tolerant the conduct of the Mohammedan rulers of India had been hitherto. Secunder destroyed the Hin- doo temples, and forbade pilgrimages, and the practice of bathing on festivals in the sacred streams. A Bramin, in a dispute with a Moslem, who reproached him with idolatry, having replied, that " he considered the same God to be the object of all worship, and therefore held the Mohamme- dan and Hindoo religions to be equally good," the bigoted Moslem summoned him before the Cazi, or judge of the city. The king hearing of it, assem- bled the principal doctors of religion to consider the matter, and they decided that the Bramin should have the option of conversion or death. He refused to abandon his own more humane creed, and died a martyr to his faith. A pious Moslem ventured to remonstrate with Secunder, against his prohibition of pilgrimages. " Wretch," cried he, drawing his sword, " do you defend idolatry ? " " No," replied he, " but I maintain that kings ought not to persecute their subjects." The monarch was appeased. When Secunder, on one occasion, was marching against one of his brothers, a Calen- der, or religious mendicant, prayed for his success. " Pray for victory to him," replied he, " who will best promote the good of his subjects." Secunder died in ] 509, having reigned nearly twenty years. His son, Ibrahim, who succeeded, possessed none of his virtues, but courage. His pride was insufferable ; one of his maxims was, that kings have no relations, all are alike his slaves. The Omrahs, of the tribe of Lodi, who used to have the privilege of sitting in the royal presence, were now obliged to stand by the throne, with their hands crossed before them. This conduct of the monarch naturally led to insurrections and rebellions. Ibrahim was at first successful in suppressing them, but at length (1524) Doulat Khan Lodi, governor of the Punjab, called to his aid Baber, a prince of the house of Timur, who now was ruling in Cabul ; and Baber, who had already, as the re- presentative of Timur, put forth claims to the empire of India, cheerfully obeyed the call. He defeated an army which opposed him, took Lahore and some other towns, and was on his way to Delhi, when commotions in Balkh recalled him to Cabul. Having composed them, he returned to India, and at Paniput, on the road to Delhi (1526), he encountered the army of sultan Ibrahim, said to contain 100,000 men, with 1000 elephants. As Baber's force did not exceed 12,000 men, he re- solved to act on the defensive. He linked his cannon together with ropes of twisted leather, with infantry behind, and breastworks in front ; he also protected his flanks with works. Ibrahim, like- wise, fortified his position ; but, instead of awaiting an attack, he attempted to storm the enemy's lines. The result was a repulse, then a defeat and total rout. The earth was covered with the bodies of the slain, among which lay that of sultan Ibrahim. With him terminated the rule of the Afghans in India, and the throne fell to the house of Timur, the greatest and the last of the Mohammedan dynasties, which have ruled in that extensive region. C HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1494— 1527- CHAPTER VI. Sultan baber — His Early Adventures — Conquest of India — His Character — Humaycn — His Flight from India- Birth of Akber— Humayun's Adventures— He recovers Cabul — And India— His Death— Sheer Shah— Selim— Mohammed. Baber, the founder of the Mogul empire in India, was sixth in descent from Timur. His father was Omar Sheykh Mirza, who was married to a Mogul princess of the family of Chingiz. In the division of his father's dominions, while Bokhara and Samarcand fell to one of his brothers, Balkh to another, and Cabul to a third, the portion of Baber was the rich and fertile Ferghana on the Upper Jaxartes. Baber was only twelve yeai's old when (1494) the death of his father left him a throne and a war with two of his uncles. The deaths of these princes favoured him, and in the confusion which ensued, this monarch of fifteen years of age ventured to attempt the conquest of Samarcand, and though he failed more than once, he was finally successful (1497). His ambition, however, was beyond his means ; while he was engaged in Samarcand, one of his principal officers, named Tambol, revolted in Ferghana, and after a reign of only one hundred days, Baber was obliged to quit Samarcand, which immediately cast off its obedience. A severe fit of illness now brought him to the very point of death, and when he recovered, he found Ferghana lost as well as Samarcand. Still he did not despair ; with some slight aid from his Mogul uncle, he succeeded in recovering Ferghana (1499), and while thus oc- cupied, he received invitations to return to Samar- cand, but ere he reached it, he learned that both it and Bokhara had been occupied by the Uzbegs, who now were rising into power 9 . Meantime Tambol had recovered Ferghana, and Baber was now obliged to seek refuge in the rugged moun- tains to the south of that country. Hearing while there, that Shybanee, the Uzbeg Khan, was gone on an expedition, he resolved, though with only 240 followers, to make another attempt on Samarcand. He entered it by night, mastered the guards, and the citizens rose in his favour. The whole country now declared for him, and Shybanee was forced to retire to Bokhara. In vain Baber tried to prevail on the neighbouring princes to unite for their common interests against the Uzbegs. He was forced to give them battle alone, and owing to the baseness of his Mogul troops, who quitted the field to plunder the baggage, he was totally defeated. He then shut himself up within the walls of Samarcand, whence, after having endured siege and famine during four months, ho was obliged once more to seek his safety in Hight. Baber now spent nearly two years in poverty and distress. So low was he brought, that he had nearly determined to retire to China, and there pass tho remainder of his days in obscurity. He succeeded, however, once more in recovering Ferg- hana; but Tambol called in the Uzbegs, ami l!al>cr, after maintaining an obstinate contest in the streets of the city, was forced to Hy, and in his flight he was captured. He, however, regained his liberty, but the whole of the country beyond the Oxus being 9 The Uzbegs were Turks, with a mixture of Mongols. They still possess the country beyond the Oxus. now in the hands of the Uzbegs, he took a last farewell of his favourite Ferghana, and proceeded to try his fortune in more southern regions. He entered Bactria with not more than between two and three hundred followers, most of them only armed with clubs, and two tents, of which the best was reserved for his mother. But the army there declared for him, and at the head of it he entered Cabul (1504), which submitted at once, and of which he never again lost possession. It may sur- prise those who look through the preceding sketch of Baber's exploits and adventures, to learn that he was not yet three-and-twenty years of age ; but such is the real fact. Contests with his old enemies the Uzbegs, with the mountain tribes of Afghanistan, and with his relations of the house of Timur, occupied Baber for many years, and he ran risks at times equal to any he had encountered in his early days. At length he turned his thoughts toward India, and became, as we have seen, the sovereign of that country. After the battle of Paniput, Delhi and Agra opened their gates to the conqueror. But the whole of the country to the east, in which various Afghan chiefs were more or less independent, re- mained yet to be subdued. The summer, too, came on so excessively hot that his troops were unable to endure it, and they clamoured to be led back to Cabul, and some wens even preparing to return without leave. Baber then assembled his officers, and representing to them, that as India had been the great object of their labours, it would be a disgrace to abandon it now, he added, that /« would remain, but that all who wished might re- turn to Cabul. This firmness had the desired effect on the greater number, though some would not remain. Most of the Afghan chiefs, then, find- ing from this that Baber's was not, like Timur's, a mere transient invasion, but that lie was resolved to remain in the country, now made their submis- sion, and others were reduced by Baber's son Humayun. The Mussulmans having thus submitted, or been reduced, Baber had now to take the field against the Hindoos. Sanga, rajah of Mcwar, joined by other rajahs and by Mahmud, a prince of the house of Lodi, advanced with a large army to Sikri, within twenty miles of Agra. The advanced guard of Baber's army was driven back with great loss, but with the usual want of strategic skill cha- racteristic of the Hindoos, the victors, instead of pushing on and completing the victory, retired, and suffered him to take up a position and fortify it. Unluckily for Baber there just then happened to arrive in his camp a celebrated astrologer, who from the aspect of the planet Mars announced a total defeat to the royal army. The spirits of both officers and men were depressed by this untoward prediction, and desertion began to prevail. Baber, though he despised it, saw its dangerous efficacy ; he, therefore, to counteract it, had recourse t«> re- ligion ; he repented of his sins, forswore the use of wine, vowed to let his In aid ROW, and to remit taxes, and then assembling his officers, made a strong appeal to their sense of honour. Tin v swore on the Koran to conquer or die : he then drew up his army in front of his camp, ami galloped from tight to left along tin- line, encouraging the soldiers. The Hindoos advanced to the attack, but were to- a. d. 1527—38. BABER— HUMAYUN. 19 tally routed ; several of the rajahs fell, and Sanga escaped with difficulty. After the victory the as- trologer approached to congratulate the sultan, hut Baber poured on him a torrent of abuse, then giv- ing him a large present, he ordered him to quit his dominions (1527). The reduction of Hindoo rajahs and Afghan chiefs now occupied the active sultan, and success uniformly attended him. As the Afghan king of Bengal seemed resolved to retain North Bahar, which belonged to the crown of Delhi, Baber crossed the Ganges at the head of an army ; he then passed the Gagra, behind which the Bengalese army was posted, and speedily drove it off the field, and the king of Bengal was glad to sue for peace. Baber then pursued a body of Afghans who had seized the city of Lucknow in Oude. They retired at his approach, and a division of his troops chased them over the Ganges and the Jumnah (1528). This was the last of sultan Baber's military ex- ploits. He seems now to have fallen into ill-health, and his death was brought on in the following unusual manner. His son Humayun was attacked by a severe disease, the physician had given him over, when Baber, according to a superstition of the East, declared that he would devote his own life for that of the prince. He accordingly walked three times round the bed of the patient, and then spent some moments in prayer, and so strong thence grew his assurance of success, that he re- peatedly cried out, "I have borne it away." From that hour the health of Humayun began to im- prove, and that of Baber to decline. Feeling the approach of death, he called his sons and his mi- nisters about him, and explained to them his last wishes, enjoining concord and unanimity. He then breathed his last (Dec. 26th, 1530), in the fiftieth year of his age, the thirty-eighth of his reign, and the fifth of his residence in India. The character of sultan Baber is the most pleas- ing that is to be met with in Oriental history. It is also the one with which we are best acquainted, for we possess his autobiography, memoirs actually written by himself, in which his thoughts and his feelings are displayed as well as his actions. Here we become acquainted with his love for plants and flowers, his unaffected admiration of beautiful landscapes, his relish for simple and natural plea- sures, his social and amiable temper, his kind and affectionate heart, and his cheerful and buoyant disposition, which no reverses of fortune could overcome. It is very pleasing to hear him telling how he never enjoyed himself more than when, after he had been obliged to quit Samarcand, he at length got a full meal, a quiet night's sleep, and a temporary release from toil and care. Humayun succeeded his able father ; but a plan had been formed for excluding him and giving the crown to another ; for Khalifah, the vizir of Baber, over whose mind he had attained great influence, in order to retain his power, had resolved to set aside his master's own sons, and give the throne to his son-in-law, Mehdi Khaja, a vain, thoughtless young man. Every thing had been arranged, and they were only waiting for the death of Baber, when suddenly Khalifah threw Mehdi into prison, and declared for Humayun. The cause was as follows : — As Khalifah was one day visiting Mehdi, he was summoned to the emperor, who was supposed to be dying. Mehdi attended him with the utmost respect to the door, but as soon as he was out of hearing he muttered to himself, " God willing, I will soon flay your hide off, old boy." Turning round, he saw one standing behind him ; he was confounded ; but seizing the witness's ear, he gave it a twist, saying, hurriedly, " Mind, the red tongue often gives the green head to the winds." The menace, however, did not avail him ; his want of caution lost him the crown. Humayun's reign commenced with the separa- tion of Cabul from India. His brother, Camran, who was governor of the former country, refused to submit to him, and he was obliged to acknow- ledge his independence, and to make the Indus the boundary between their respective dominions. In- surrections of some of the Afghan chiefs hi India succeeded, but they were easily suppressed. A war then followed with Bahadur Shah, the Afghan king of Guzerat, who had lately conquered Malwa, and whose supremacy was acknowledged by the Mohammedan princes of the Deckan. The war was commenced without provocation by Bahadur. When Humayun entered Guzerat, he found the enemy posted in an intrenched camp, well supplied with artillery, which was directed by a Turk from Constantinople, and some Portuguese prisoners — the first mention of Europeans in India. Huma- yun, however, by cutting off his supplies, obliged him to destroy his guns, and fly in the night, leav- ing his army to shift for itself. He fled to Cambay, and thence to the little isle of Diu. The open country readily submitted to Humayun, but the hill-fort of Champaner long held out. At length, one night 300 chosen men, among whom was the emperor himself, scaled it, by fixing iron spikes in the perpendicular rock, while the army made an attack on one of the gates, and it thus was taken (1535). Humayun was soon obliged to quit Guzerat, and take the field agaiust the most formidable of his opponents. This was Sheer Khan, one of the Afghan chiefs in India, a man of considerable talent, who, by taking advantage of the unsettled state of the country, had made himself master of Bahar, and was now engaged in the conquest of Bengal, the capital of which, named Gour, he was besieging when Humayun commenced operations against him, on his return from Guzerat. In order to check the advance of the monarch, and thus gain time for the reduction of Bengal, Sheer Khan placed a strong garrison in the fort of Chunar, on the Ganges, south of Benares, well supplied, and with directions to hold out to the uttermost. The siege accordingly lasted several months. At length the place surrendered, and Humayun pursued his march unimpeded along the Gauges, and crossing that river he entered Gour, from which city Sheer Khan had retired, after having l'educed it. But the rainy season had now commenced ; the country was one sheet of water, no operations could be carried on, and the soldiers suffered severely from the damp, unhealthy climate. After a delay of several months, Humayun found it necessary to commence his retreat. But Sheer Khan had recovered Chunar and Benares ; he was master of all Bahar, his posts extended up the Ganges as far as Canouj ; he was now engaged in the siege of Juan pur; and, as a further proof of his power, he at this time assumed the title of king (1538\ c 2 HISTORY OF INDIA. d. 1539-43. At afongheer a body of troops, which Humayun had Bent in advance under one of his ablest gene- rals, was surprised and defeated by the corps sent against it by Sheer Shin. He himself had reached Bnxir, on the right bank of the Granges, half way between Patna and Benares, when he (band Sheer Sh.ib prepared to cut off his retreat. As the latter had marched thirty-five miles that day, Humayun was urged to attack him at once ; but he declined, and next day Sheer Shah had fortified his position. Humayun followed his example, and then com- menoed forming a bridge of boats over the Ganges. Sheer Shah suffered un to proceed with it for two months ; then, secretly quitting his cam]) with a good part of his troops, he got into the rear of Humayun's position, and, inarching by night, at- tacked his camp in time several places at day- break. Humayun bad just time to leap on horse- back : h<' was preparing to advance against the assailants, when his officers urged him to consult for his safety ; and one of them, seizing his bridle, drew him to the river-side. He plunged into the stream to swim across ; ere he reached the further bank his horse was exhausted and sank, and the same would have been the fate of the monarch, had not a water-carrier, who was crossing on his inflated skin-bag, been at hand, who supported him and brought him over. Humayun himself made his way to Agra ; but his whole army was cut to pieces or drowned, and his queen fell into the hands of Sheer Shah, by whom she was treated with the most scrupulous delicacy and sent to a place of safety (1539). Sheer Shah now resumed operations in Bengal ; and Humayun, being aided by his brother Camran, collected another army, with which he advanced to Canouj. Sheer Shah occupied the opposite bank of the Ganges, and, as Humayun's troops were beginning to desert, he crossed the river by a bridge of boats, and gave battle. But fortune again proved adverse ; his army was totally de- feated and driven into the Ganges. Humayun's horse being wounded, he mounted an elephant which be met, but the driver, when desired to attempt the passage of the river with him, refused ; the king then burled him from his seat on the animal's neck, and gave his place to a eunuch who chanced to be also on the elephant. They entered the- stream, and reached the opposite bank, which proved too steep to be ascended, and the king might have perished, had not two soldiers tied tin ir turbans together, and thus drawn him up. He then, with some difficulty, made his way to Agra (1540). The empire of India was now lost ; for Caiman I the Punjab to Sheer Shall, and retired to <7ii.ul, Laving Humayun to shift for himself. After an ineffectual attempt to get his authority recog- nized in Bind, Humayun resolved to throw himself on the protection of Maldeo, rajah of Marwar. He in order to cross the Sandy Desert, but on reaching Jodpur he learned that he had nothing t.. expect from the rajah. He now resolved to make for Amercot, ■ fori on the Indus, in the inarch thither over the Desert, the Bufferings of himi elf and his followers wen- intense. To obtain water they bad to flghl with the villagers, to whom it »as precion n gold, and, to. -eld to their d "ii found that thej were followed bj a led by Maldeo'a son, a party of whom seized the weiis in which lay their only hope of relief. They were now in despair, but the rajah's son was generous. He advanced with a white (lag, and having gently reproached them for having entered the Hindoo territory and killed kine in it, he supplied them with water, and suf- fered them to proceed. But still the perils of the Desert were to be encountered; all suffered, many died, and Humayun had only seven followers with him when he reached Amercot. Others, however, joined him in a few days. His reception by Rana Persad, the Hindoo prince of Amercot, was cordial and friendly. At Amercot was born his son, the celebrated Akber. His mother was a Persian lady, whom Humayun had met at an entertainment given to him by the mother of his brother Hindal. Struck with her beauty, and finding she was not betrothed, he had instantly made love to and married her. She was far advanced in her pregnancy at the time of crossing the Desert. One of the officers, who had lent her a horse, finding his own ex- hausted, brutally made her dismount, and Huma- yun had to place her on his own horse and walk by her side till he met with a baggage camel. When Akber was born, his father happened not to be at Amercot. It was usual, on such occasions, for the father to give presents to his friends ; but Humayun, when the news reached him, had no- thing but a pod of musk. This he broke up, and distributed with a wish that his son's fame might be diffused through the world like that perfume. Humayun could not collect more than a hundred men for the invasion of Sind, but rajah Persad joined him with his troops ; and when in that country he was joined by other Hindoo rajahs, so that his force at length amounted to 15,000 horse. Ill-fortune or imprudence, however, prevented him from deriving any advantage from it. One of his Moguls offended Persad, who got so little redress when he complained to the emperor, that he and his friends retired from the camp. Humayun, un- able to maintain himself now in Sind, resolved to make his way, if possible, to Candahar, where his brother, Mirza Askeri, then commanded for Cam- ran. He gave out that his intention was to leave his son there, and proceed himself on pilgrimage to Mecca. He had reached Shal, within 130 miles of Candahar, when a horseman, sent by one of his friends, galloped up to his tent, and rushing in, announced that Askeri was at hand with the in- tention of making him a prisoner. He had only time to place bis queen "ii his own horse, and fly with her, leaving the child to the mercy of bis uncle. Askeri, en coming up, pretended that his intentions had been altogether friendly ; he treated bis little nephew with affection, and took him with him to Candahar. Humayun escaped to Sistan, whence the governor sent him to Herat, there to await the pleasure of the Shah of Persia (1543). The present monarch of Persia was Shah Tah- niasp, the second of the Sulfa vi dynasty. He in- vite, 1 Humayun to court, ami treated him with the Utmost respect. But Shah Tahmasp was a bigoted Shiab in his faith, and he insisted on the exiled monarch's conforming to his creed. At their Brat interview Tahmasp required him to wear the red cap, distinctive of the followers of that creed. To this Ik- consented, and a flourish of music an- nounced the important fact. On the subject of the a.d. 1545—53. HUMAYUN— SHEER SHAH. 21 creed itself, Humayun does not appear to have been so compliant, for next day, when Tahmasp, going on a journey, passed by Humayun's palace, and the latter went to the gate to salute him, he went on without noticing him. A few days after, when a large quantity of firewood was sent him, he was told that it would serve for his funeral pile, if he refused to conform. To his request to be allowed to proceed on his pilgrimage a decided negative was returned ; and it was added, that he must become a Shiah, or take the consequence. At length Humayun's resolution gave way, and he signed a paper containing a profession of the Shiah faith, with, probably, an engagement to intro- duce it into India, and an undertaking to put the king of Persia in possession of Candahar, if re- covered by his aid, for which purpose Tahmasp promised a force of 12,000 horse. After some delay Humayun set out (1545) with 700 followers, and in Sistan he was joined by 14,000 Persian horse, commanded by the Shah's son, Morad Mirza. They took the fort of Bost on the river Helmund, and thence marched unopposed to Candahar, which Askeri defended against them for five months. As none of the chiefs of the country had yet joined Humayun, the Persians were talking of raising the siege and retiring ; but just then partizans began to come in, and the garrison suffering from famine, a part of it fled from the town, while others deserted to the besiegers. Askeri was thus obliged to surrender, and the fort and its treasures were ceded to the Persians. The greater part of the army then re- turned home, leaving a garrison under Morad Mirza ; but that prince happening, as we are told, to die suddenly, Humayun contrived to get into the town, where he slaughtered a part of the garrison, and, as a great favour, allowed the remainder to depart. Humayun then advanced to Cabul, whence Camran fled, but while the former was away on another expedition, he returned and recovered that city, and when Humayun besieged him, he had the barbarity to expose the young Akber to the fire of his father's cannon. He was, however, forced to fly ; he then surrendered, and was forgiven ; he rebelled again, defeated Humayun, and recovered Cabul, whence he was again expelled. He finally (1553) sought refuge with the Guckers, by whom he was given up to his brother. Humayun for the first two or three days treated him with kindness. He then determined that he should be blinded. The operation was performed, as usual, by piercing the eyes repeatedly with lancets. This he bore patiently ; but when lemon-juice and salt were squeezed into his eyes he cried out, " O Lord my God ! whatever sins I have committed have been amply punished in this world ; have compassion on me in the next." He went to Mecca, where he died. Circumstances in India now proving favourable, Humayun was encouraged to attempt the recovery of that country. He reduced the Punjab (1555), and a victory at Sirhind opened the way to Delhi and Agra. He did not, however, long live to enjoy his dominion. About six months after his return to Delhi, as he was walking on the terrace of his library, and was descending the stairs (which were on the outside of the building), he heard the call to prayers. He stopped, repeated the creed, and then sat down on the steps, till the crier should have ceased. When he went to rise by the aid of his staff, it slipped on the marble, and he fell over the low parapet of the stairs. He was stunned by the fall, and on the fourth day he breathed his last, in the forty-ninth year of his eventful life, and the twenty-sixth of his reign. We must now take a retrospect of India during the sixteen years' absence of Shah Humayun. Sheer Shah, having taken possession of the Punjab, and suppressed a rebellion in Bengal, turned his arms against the southern Hindoo states, and reduced Malwa. He afterwards besieged the fortress of Raisin, which was held by a Hindoo chief. A surrender was offered on condition of the garrison being allowed to depart with all their pro- perty. The terms were agreed to, and 4000 Raj- puts issued and encamped within a short distance. But Sheer Shah was induced by the arguments of some Mohammedan lawyers to break the treaty, and he surrounded them with his troops and com- menced a general massacre. The Rajputs fell to a man, but not unavenged, as double the number of the assailants lay dead on the plain. No Mo- hammedan prince, but Timur, had as yet been guilty of such an atrocity in India, and it ulti- mately proved the cause of the death of its perpe- trator. For, as he was besieging the fort of Ca- linger, where the rajah refused to accept of any terms, as he was sure they would not be kept, and was himself directing the artillery, a magazine, struck by one of the enemy's shot, blew up, and he was so much injured by the explosion that he only survived a few hours. In this interval the fort was taken, and Sheer Shah, who had not ceased to direct the operations, cried, like Epaminondas and Wolfe, " Thanks be to Almighty God ! " and breathed his last (1545). Though Sheer Shah reigned only five years, he made more internal improvements in the state than most monarchs had done who had occupied the throne for long periods. His principal work was a magnificent causeway extending from Bengal to near the Indus, with caravanserais furnished with provisions at every stage, and wells at every mile and half, and mosks supplied with priests and criers. Along the whole length of this road were planted rows of trees to yield the traveller shade. He was also the first to establish horse-posts along the roads, for the despatch of intelligence and of letters. It was said, that so great was the public security during his reign, that travellers and merchants used to set down their goods and sleep on the highway without apprehension. Adil Khan, the eldest son of Sheer Shah, being a prince of a feeble character, was induced to re- sign his claims in favour of his brother Jelal Khan, on condition of getting the country of Biana. Four of the principal Omrahs were guarantees of this agreement, and when Selim (the name which Jelal assumed) gave reason to suppose that he meant to violate it, they took up arms against him. He, however, reduced them, and the rest of his reign passed in tranquillity. On the death of Selim (1553), his only son, a child of twelve years of age, was murdered by his uncle Mohammed Khan, who then mounted the throne. He proved a monarch of a most odious character, ignorant, fond of low society, and ad- dicted to gross debauchery. His prime minister was a Hindoo, named Hemoo, who had originally HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. lob;\-o(i. kept I small shop, and whose appearance, it is said, was meaner Until his origin. But Hemoo mi a BUD of talent and of resolution, and he ably up held the affairs of his master as long as he lived. .Mohammed's extravagance quickly wasted the imperial treasure. He then to Ripply his neces- sities, or rather to cnrieh his favourites, proceeded to resume the governments and the lands of his nobles. This gave immediate occasion to rebellions. Ibrahim Boot, a member of his own family, seized ou Delhi and Agra. Another relative, Secunder Soor, became independent in the Punjab. The governor of Bengal then rebelled, and while Hemoo was preparing to march against him, lie learned that Kiln had cast off the yoke, and that Huraa- yun had entered India, defeated Secunder, and 'taken Delhi and Agra. Hemoo engaged, defeated, and captured the governor of Bengal. He then was advancing against Humayun, when he received intelligence of the death of that monarch, and the accession of his son Akber, who was then in the Punjab. Encouraged by this intelligence, he ad- vanced without halting, his numbers increased every day, he took Agra by siege, defeated Huma- yun's Mogul troops under the walls of Delhi, occu- pied that city, and then set out for Lahore. Akber was only thirteen years of age ; the general opinion in his court was in favour of a retreat to Cabul ; but Behram Khan, one of his father's ablest and most faithful officers, to whom he had given the conduct of affairs, rejected these timid counsels. With a far inferior force he advanced against Hemoo, whom he encountered at Paniput. In spite of the talent and courage of its leader, the Indian army was defeated, and Hemoo himself was | made a prisoner (1556). Mohammed's reign thus virtually terminated ; and he fell shortly after in battle against another rebel in Bengal. CHAPTER VII. Dismemberment of the Empire— The Bahmani Empire— Shiahs and Sunnis— Bejapur— Ahmednugur— Bidr — Gol- conda— Elichpur — Battle of Talicote — Guzerfit — The Hajput States. Tin: Afghan empire in India began, as we have Men, to be dismembered in the reign of Moham- med Toghlak. As its recovery and reunion long engaged the anna and policy of the house of Timor, it i- ii. .-, nary, for the sake of perspicuity, to take a view of the states formed out of it, and of the general extent and character of the Mussulman dominion in India. When Mohammed mounted the throne, the Afghan empire in India embraced the whole con- tinental part of that country, which we have de- nominated Hindustan, Including Guserai and Bengal ; the Rajput states alone being unsubdued. In the Deckan, the extensive forest tract, named which e\t,i,ds for 600 miles from the to the Godaveri, running from :«)0 to 4(io miles inland, remained still in the hands of the wild aborigines. All the rest „f the Deckan, ex- c< pting a Blip along the WOSl coast, and the south- i rn extremity, acknowledged the sovereignty of the curt of Delhi. The revolt of Bengal commenced the dismem- berment. Tl>e Hindoos then recovered Telingana and the Carnatic, reducing the Moslem dominion in the Deckan within the limits of the Kishna on the south and the meridian of Hyderabad on the east, and forming from their conquests the states of Warangol in the north, and Bejayanugur in the south. After this came the Moslem rebellion in the Deckan, when the court of Delhi ceased to be obeyed to the south of the Nerbudda. Such was the state of the empire at the death of Mohammed, and it continued to have this reduced extent till just before the invasion of Timur, when Guzerat and Malwa asserted their independence, and another independent state was formed, named Juanpur, consisting of the country on the Ganges as far as the centre of Oude. After the departure of Timur the remaining provinces threw off the yoke, and the empire only contained the district round Delhi. The Bahmani empire, founded by Husun Gunga in the Deckan 2 , lasted for about one hundred and seventy years, and during all that time the throne was occupied by his descendants. Their wars were with the two Hindoo states of Warangol and Be- jayanugur, the former of which they subverted, and from the latter they gained the country between the Kishna and the Tumbudra rivers. But in their court and army thei'e prevailed a religious dissension, which eventually dismembered the state. This was the rivalry between the sects of the Shiahs and Sunnis, which, as our readers are doubtless aware, divide the Mohammedan church, the latter acknowledging the first three Khalifchs as rightful successors of the prophet, the former regarding them as usurpers, and maintaining that Ally, the fourth Khalifeh, was the only rightful one. The Persians alone, we believe, nationally hold the Shiah faith ; all the other Moslems, especially the Ottoman Turks, holding the Sunni creed. As the courtiers and the army of the first Bahmani kings were of various countries, Persians, Afghans, Turks, Moguls, even Georgians and Circassians ; there were, of course, among them followers of both creeds. But afterwards, beside the foreigners, there were the Deckanees or native troops, the descendants of the conquerors, and these were of the Sunni faith, as also were the Abassinians, who came over the sea in great numbers to take service with the Bahmani kings. These always took part with the Deckanees against the other foreigners, who were mostly, it would appear, Shiahs. The consequence of this dissension was, that when in the natural order of things in the east the Bahmani kings lunl degenerated, and were no longer able to keep the contending parlies in order, YuSBuf Adil Khan, a Turk who was the head of the foreigners, the Deckanees having got the better of himself and his party, retired to his government of Bejapur, where 1 1 < - made himself independent, and founded the dynasty of Adil Shah. Soon alter, NuAm-ul- Mt'ilk, the leader of the Deckanees, having been assassinated by a Turk, named Kasha Band, his son Ahmed cast ,,ff | MS allegiance, and founded a slate, the capital of which was named Ahmednugur. Kastm Hand having thus attained the chief power at court, continued to govern under the name of a BUOCeSSion of royal puppets ; but his son, Amir 2 Sec above, p. l(i. THE RAJPftTS— AKBER 23 Barid, disliking that circuitous kind of dominion, threw off the mask, put an end to the Bahmani dynasty, and became the first of the Barid dynasty of Bidr. Two other chiefs also made themselves independent ; the one, Kutb Kiili, a Turkman from Persia, founded the dynasty of Kutb Shah, at Golconda, the other, Imad-ul-Mulk, of a family of Hindoo converts, that of Imad Shah, at Elichpur, in Berar. It is hardly necessary to mention that these states were at continual war with one another and with the adjoining Hindoo states. At length their jealousy of the rajah of Bejayanugur caused a temporary confederacy among them. They united their forces to attack him, and, in a fierce and bloody battle, fought (1565) near Talicota, on the banks of the Kishna, they defeated his troops, took himself prisoner, and put him to death in cold blood, and overthrew his monarchy. They, how- ever, benefited themselves hut little, in consequence of their mutual jealousies ; and various petty states were formed out of the ruins of his king- dom. The kings of Golconda alone extended their dominions ; they subdued all Warangol, and con- quered the Carnatic as far south as the river Panar. The kingdom of Guzerat, though small, became the most important of the Mussulman states out of the Deckan ; for we may observe all through In- dian history, that Bengal, notwithstanding its wealth and its extent, owing probably to the feeble character of its people, never acts a conspicuous part in a military point of view. The kings of Guzerat reduced and annexed Malwa to their own kingdom ; they often defeated the Rajputs, they established their supremacy over Candesh, made the kings of Berar and Ahmednugur do them homage, and were frequently engaged in maritime wars with the Portuguese. The native Hindoo states not in the Deckan, at that time and down to the pi-esent day, are those of the Rajputs, i. e. Princes'-sons. These seem to be, as they themselves assert, the descendants of the Cshatriyas of the Laws of Manu. In the states that were overturned by the Mussulmans they sank into the mass of the population, devoting themselves almost exclusively to agriculture ; but where the nature of the country favoured them, they retained their independence. The country held by the Rajputs may be re- garded as lying between the Indus and the Jum- nah, bounded on the south by the Vindhya chain, and extending northwards as far as the parallel of Delhi. It thus contains the Sandy Desert and a great part of Central India, being divided by the Aravalli hills. To the east of these hills, beginning from the north, lie Mewat, Jypur, Ajmir, Harauti, Mewar, Buudelcund, and Malwa, containing many strong towns and fortresses, such as Jypur and Ajmir, Oudipur and Chitor in Mewar, Ujen and Bopal in Malwa, Calinjer in Bundelcund, Rintam- ■bor, Gualior, and many others. The general name for the Rajput country, to the west of the Aravalli range, is Marwar ; it contains the states of Jodpur, Jesalmir, Bicanir, and some smaller ones. As these lie in the Desert, their situation has always protected them ; while those to the east of the mountains were sometimes subdued, sometimes rendered tributary by the Mussulmans. The Rajputs are divided into clans. A kind of feudal system prevails among them ; the founder of each state, after reserving a royal demesne, having partitioned the land among his relations, on the terms of obedience and of military service. They, in their turn, divided then- lands on similar terms ; and thus the chain of dependence was formed, as in feudal Europe. It is interesting to remark how similarity of institutions seems to have operated in forming similarity of character. The Rajputs had pride of birth, lofty spirit, and romantic feelings ; they listened with delight to the spirit-stirring strains of their bards ; they treated their women with a degree of respect rare in the East ; they were guided by strict rules of honour in the treat- ment of their enemies 3 . The preceding sketch will, we trust, enable the reader to form a tolerably clear idea of the political state of India at the time of the accession of Akber. As that monarch was a great political reformer, we reserve our account of its social and internal condition till we have narrated the events of his reign. CHAPTER VIII. Akber — Behram Khan— Reduction of various Chiefs — Asof Khan — Siege of Chitor — Marriages with Rajput Families — Reduction of Guzerat — Akber's Temerity — Reduction of Bengal— Recovery of Cabul. With Akber the history of India assumes once more the appearance of that of a potent and regular empire. This noblest and greatest of eastern monarchs, distinguished alike by courage, enter- prise, talent, and magnanimity, reduced the whole of Hindustan to obedience, and gave it wise laws and political regulations. Many years, however, were occupied in the contests with the various re- fractory chiefs ; and the enumeration of all his various conflicts would only cause weariness to the reader. As Akber was only in his fourteenth year when he came to the crown, the government^ though he was remarkably manly and intelligent for his age, was of necessity administered by Behram Khan, under whose charge his father had placed him, and who now received the title of Khan Baba, i. e. Lord Father, as being guardian of the sovereign. Behram was a Turk by birth. He had adhered to Humayun through all turns of his fortune, and his fidelity to Akber was equally firm. But his temper was arbitrary and his manners haughty and overbearing. The Omrahs, who regarded him as no more than their equal, could ill brook his supe- riority, evinced in so offensive a manner ; and dis- content prevailed in the court and camp. Some of his acts, too, were so flagrantly unjust, as to furnish reasonable ground for apprehension and complaint. Thus, taking advantage of Akber's absence on a hawking party, he put to death Tardi Beg, the general who had lost Delhi to Hemoo, though he had been one of Baber's favourites, and 3 The last great war among the Rajputs was of a romantic character; it was between the rajahs of Jodpur and Jypur, for the hand of a princess of Oudipur. A most copious account of this people will be found in Colonel Tod's Rajas- than. u HISTORY OF INDIA. a. d. 1560—67. was as faithful to Humayun as himself. Another Omrah, who ventured to oppose him, was put to death on some Miu'ht pretext ; and the kind's own tutor, Pea Mohammed, narrowly escaped the ■me late, and was obliged to go on pilgrimage to Meeea. Akber soon grew weary of the state of pupillage in which be «as h. Id. Having concerted bis plans with some of his friends, he took occasion, when on a limiting party, to direct his course to Delhi, under the pretext of his mother's illness. When there, and out of Bahrain's reach, he issued a pro- clamation, announcing that he had taken the go- vernment into his own hands, and forbidding obe- dience to any orders but his own (1560). Behram was thrown into perplexity ; he soon found himself deserted ; his overtures to the king were rejected. He had then thoughts of trying to make himself independent in Malwa ; but he abandoned them, and set out for Najor, with the intention of em- barking in Guzerat and making the pilgrimage to Mr,,. While at Naj6r he received a message from the king, dismissing him from his office, and directing him to proceed on his pilgrimage. He sent his standards, kettledrums, and other ensigns of office to the king, and proceeded to Guzerat ; but meeting there with some further cause of irri- tation, he assembled some troops and attempted to •ease the Punjab. Akber advanced against him in person, and Behram was defeated and obliged to throw himself on his sovereign's mercy. Akber, who always acted with magnanimity, sent some of his principal nobles to meet him and conduct him to the royal ten! Behram threw himself at the king's feet, and began to sob aloud. Akber raised bun, seated him on his right, gave him a dress of honour, and offered him his choice of an extensive government, a high station at court, or an honour- able pilgrimage to Mecca. Pride or prudence counselled him to choose the last ; an ample pen- sion was assigned him, and he set out for Guze- rat ; but as he was preparing to embark he was assassinated by an Afghan, whose father had fallen by his hand in battle. Akber, a youth of only eighteen years of age, had DOW aTUfficult task "to perform. He had to reduce refractory chiefs to obedience, to recover the dominions of the crown, and to introduce order into the internal administration of the state. To •'"'< iphsh this, lie had only the revenues of the Ponjftb and of the country about Delhi and Agra, and a mercenary army of adventurers, collected from various quarters, and consequently without affection or attachment to his person and cause. But, like his grandfather Baber, hv the energy of bis own character, bis talents, and his virtues, he triumphed over difficulties beneath which another would have succumbed. 1 "' the late sultan Mohammed, having collected troops, advanced to Juanpur (I860) where he was ,!. bated by on- of Akber'a generals. But the victor held back the king's part of the •poll, and Akber was obliged to march against him '" person. In like manner, when Baa Bahadur, he Afghan governor of Malwa, had been reduced by Ada.,, Khan, another of Akbert generals, the '■•;"" '•' the victor iraa only prevented b\ the "' toe monarch, who arrived in his Van,,, '" l " 1 '' '"' w "»wareof his approach. Biz Hahu- ''"''•''""'"■"' l •"""•"' toe servico of the emperor who treated him with great liberality, according to his usual custom. There were many Uzbegs in high command in the army of Akber ; and these men, offended by the king's strictness, and also fancying he had a hereditary antipathy to their race, conspired and revolted (1564). They were joined by other chiefs, particularly Asof Khan, who had lately reduced the Hindoo kingdom of Gurrah, on the Nerbudda. This country was governed by a queen, a woman of a high and noble spirit, who had led her own troops to battle, and when she saw them routed and herself wounded, sooner than fall into the hands of the enemy, she ended her life with a dagger. Asof became master of her treasures, which were considerable, and the desire to retain them drove him into rebellion. The war with these rebels lasted for two years, with various success. At length, when Akber had nearly succeeded in reducing them, he was called away to the Punjab, which was invaded by his brother Hakim, who ruled in Cabul. During bis absence the rebels recovered their ground ; but on his return he marched against them, though it was the rainy season, and drove them over the Ganges ; and, while they thought themselves se- cured by the vast body of waters that river now rolled, Akber swam over it at night-fall, with only 2000 men, on horses and elephants, and, lying concealed for the remainder of the night, fell on them at sunrise. Taken thus unprepared, they were thrown into confusion and routed, and they fled in various directions. When Akber had attained his twenty-fifth year (1567), he had reduced all the rebellious chiefs by force, or attached them by his clemency ; and he now was able to turn his thoughts to plans of con- quest. The Rajput states first attracted his atten- tion, and he turned his arms against the Rana of Chitor,a prince of a feeble character, who instantly fled to Guzerat, leaving the defence of the fortress to a chief of great courage and ability, named Jy Mai. Akber made his approach by trenches, and ran two mines ; but when they were fired, only- one of them exploded at once, and it was not till the soldiers were mounting the breach that the fire reached the other, and its explosion did so much injury to the assailants that they were forced to retire, and all the works had to be recommenced. The siege might then have lasted a long time, were it not that, one night, as Akber was visiting the trenches, he happened to see Jy Mai, who was di- recting the repairs of the works by torch-light. He took aim at him with a firelock, and shot him through the head. The, garrison lost heart at the fall of their leader, and, giving up the deb nee of the place, they prepared to devote themselves in the usual Hindoo manner. The women were all committed to the flames, with the body of Jj Mai, and the men then retired to the temples to await the besiegers, who were now mounting the unde- fended breach. A khcr, aware of their desperation, kepi Dp a distant tire, till he bad introduced three hundred war-elephants, in order to trample them to death ; and these animals, we are told, trod them under their feet like grasshoppers, or, taking then, up in their trunks, tossed them into the air, or dashed them against the walls or the pavement. Between the garrison and the townspeople 30,000 persons, it is said, thus perished. a. d. 1568—85. In the course of the following year Akber took the forts of Rintambor and Calinjer. But, though he thus employed arms against some of the Rajput princes, he adopted milder and more politic mea- sures with others. Such was that of forming matrimonial alliances with them. Thus he himself was married to the daughters of the rajahs of Jy- pur and Marwar, and his eldest son to another princess of the house of Jypur. This connexion with the imperial family, instead of being looked on as a loss of caste, was regarded as an honour by all the Rajput princes, except the house of Chitor or Oudipur, which even renounced all affinity with the other rajahs on account of it, affecting to view them as degraded by a connexion with the sove- reigns of Delhi. The province of Guzerat, as we have seen, had been for many years in a state of independence. But now (1572), in consequence of the confusion that prevailed in it, Akber was invited by the minister of the inefficient prince, in whose name the government was carried on, to come and take possession of it. He accepted the invitation ; at Patan he was met by the pageant king, who re- signed his crown to him, and he thence advanced and laid siege to the sea- port town of Surat. Be- fore it was invested, some of the rebel chiefs who were in it retired from it, with the intention of try- ing to join the main body of their forces. Akber pursued them with such precipitation, that one day he found himself with only 156 men in presence of a force of at least 1000 men. With the native chivalry of his character he fell on them, and being repulsed, he took his station in a lane be- tween hedges of cactus, where only two horsemen could advance abreast. Here he maintained him- self, though he ran imminent risk of his life, fight- ing like a common soldier, and at last succeeded in driving the enemies off; but his project of pre- venting their junction with their troops failed. Surat, however, opened its gates, and the whole of Guzerat submitted. Akber returned to Agra ; but he had not been there a month, when he learned that one of the rebel chiefs, named Husun Mirza, had re-appeared in Guzerat, and was besieging the royal governor in Ahmedabad, the capital of the province. As it was now the rainy season, and it was therefore impossible to march a large army, Akber sent for- ward a chosen body of 2000 horse, and then him- self and 300 of his nobles and officers, mounting on camels, followed them at the rate of eighty miles a day. At Patan he was joined by another detachment, which raised his force to 3000 horse and 300 camels. With this inconsiderable force he advanced to within four miles of Ahmedabad, where he ordered the imperial drums to beat. This filled the insurgents with such terror, that it was with difficulty their officers restrained them from flight. Husun then leaving 5000 men to watch the town, advanced with 7000 horsemen against the king. Akber, who had now reached the banks of the river on which the town is built, finding himself deceived in his hopes of being joined by the garrison, and seeing that he had only his own troops to depend on, in order to cut off all chance of retreat from his men, boldly crossed the river, and drew them up on the oppo- site bank. His temerity, as usual, was successful ; the enemy was repulsed, and Husun was wounded and made a prisoner. As many contended for the honour of having captured him, Akber asked him who had taken him : " No one," he replied, " it was the curse of ingratitude that overtook me." During the pursuit Akber remained with abcut 200 horsemen on an eminence. Suddenly he saw a iarge body of horse advancing, and on sending to inquire learned that they were the troops left to watch Ahmedabad. His men began to lose courage and think of retiring ; but Akber, ordering the drums to strike up the royal inarch, charged down upon the enemy, who, thinking that the whole of the royal army must be behind the emi- nence, turned and fled with precipitation. Their leader fell from his horse and was killed by one of the king's guards ; Husun also was assassinated by a Rajput chief, to whom he had been committed, to avenge a former quarrel ; and the two leaders being thus removed the rebellion was at an end. Akber now (1575) deemed the occasion favour- able for re-annexing the wealthy provinces of Bahar and Bengal to the empire. These had been independent and governed by Afghan princes for some years ; but the present king, named Daud, was of a feeble, vicious character. Akber had obtained a promise of tribute from him ; but the unsteady Daud in a moment of prosperity had re-asserted his independence. Akber marched from Agra in the height of the rainy season, advanced and took Bahar without opposition. Leaving then the task of conquering Bengal to his generals, he returned to Agra, and they obliged Daud to retire to Orissa. The whole of Bahar and Bengal was thus reannexed to the imperial crown (1576), and the last remnant of the Afghan monarchy in Hin- dustan was extinguished. But a rebellion, first, of the Mogul chiefs when required to remit the revenues of the province to the court, and then an insurrection of the remaining Afghans, gave the royal troops occupation for some years ; and it was not till 1592 that Bengal was finally reduced to tranquillity. During this time Akber's brother Hakim, the governor, or rather ruler, of Cabul, invaded the Punjab. Akber found it necessary to march in person against him. At his approach Hakim re- tired, and Akber, following up his success, took possession of Cabul. Hakim fled to the moun- tains ; but on his making his submission, the mag- nanimous emperor restored him to his government, and he ever after remained in obedience. An insurrection followed in Guzerat, headed by Mozaffer, the former prince of that country, which gave occupation to Akber's generals for a space of four years. CHAPTER IX. Akber— Conquest of Cashmire — The Yusofzyes — And Roushenia — Recovery of Candahar — Invasion of the Deckan— Chand Sultana— Prince Selim— Death of Akher —His Character— His Religious System— Hindoo Village- System— The Revenue— The Army— Royal Magnificence. In the year 1585 the death of his brother Hakim made it necessary for Akber to go in person to Cabul. This led to a series of conflicts with the » HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1585—95. Iiar.lv tribes that dwelt in the mountains north of that region. But Akber's first exploit was an un- provoked attack on and conquest of the paradisal vale of Cashmire. This region, which is described as a real para- dise, is a valley-plain in the heart of the Himalaya mountains, about half way up them, enclosed on all sides by snowy ranges, and enjoying almost a per- petual spring. The plain and the sides of the hills are covered with various brilliant and fragrant flowers, and filled with trees laden with fruits. (..pious rivulets descend from the hills to water the plain, and they there form two lakes, on the surface of which may be seen numerous artificial Boating gardens. These waters are the origin of tin- .Jilum, one of the rivers of the Punjab, which descends from the vale by a deep ravine. Cash- mire can only be entered by difficult mountain- ! passes. The road crosses rocky ridges, winds through narrow defiles, passes along the face of precipices overhanging rapid streams, and the summit of the mountain when reached is often found impassable from the snow. Cashmiiv, after having been ruled from time immemorial by a succession of Hindoo princes, fell, in the beginning of the fourteenth century, into the hands of a Mohammedan adventurer, and was thenceforth ruled by a series of Mussulman princes. Dissensions in the reigning family gave A kin r the hope of making himself master of the inviting region, and he despatched an army thither from Attoek, which he had lately built at the ferry of the Indus. After encountering many difficulties, it at length penetrated through a pass which had been left unguarded ; but its supplies had been exhausted, and so many difficulties remained yet to be overcome, that the commanders gladly agreed to a treaty, by which the sovereignty of Akber was acknowledged, but on condition that he should not interfere in the internal concerns of the country. But Akber spurned such limited dominion, and he sent in the next year another army, which reduced the whole country to submission. The kiii{; became one of the nobles of the court of Delhi, ami was assigned a large estate in Bahar. Akber paid an immediate visit to his new con- quest. He visited it twice more during his reign ; ami it became the favourite summer residence of his successors. (ashniii-e being thus reduced, Akber turned his arms against the tribes that occupied the fertile valleys on the north of the plain of 1'cshawer, and DOM of tin- Snliman ami Khvber ranges on the south of that plain. The ruling tribe in the former wi n- tin- Yusof/.yes, who, being driven from the neighbourhood of Candahar about a century before, had i ii- to these mountains, and reduced the ori- ginal inhabitants beneath their dominion. The religion! Met of tin- Roushenia, or Enlightened, who rejected the Koran, and taught that nothing existed but God, ami who despised ami rejected all worship ami all religious exercises, prevailed in tin- -outhei-n mountains. P - nt two of his best generals against the Yusofsyes ; but by advancing too far into the mountains, tbey rot entangled in the gorges ami and one ,,f tin- leaders, a Rajput rajah and ma< (avoartta of tin- emperor, was slam, "' I ma troops of both destroyed ; the other , s - alona and on foot. Akber tent another force, under two other generals, who by prudently not entering the mountains, but fortifying positions in various places, and thus preventing the Yii- sofzyes from cultivating their portion of the plain, reduced them to submission. One of them, Mar Sing, then proceeded to act against the Roushenia of the southern hills. He had some partial suc- cess ; but the next year (15J17), while Mar Sing attacked them from the north, Akber sent a body of troops over the Indus to the south of the Khy- ber range, who took them in the rear, and their leader Jelala was thus completely defeated. He, however, kept up the contest till his death in 1G00 ; and, in effect, the tribes of the mountains round the plain of Pt-shawer have never been completely conquered by any dynasty of India or Cabul. In consequence of this contest with these moun- tain tribes, the abode of Akber in these provinces of the Indus was prolonged to a space of fifteen years. It did not however solely engage his atten- tion and his arms, for during that time he esta- blished his authority in Sind 4 (1592), and he also recovered Candahar. For during the confusion which prevailed in the commencement of Akber's reign, Shah Tahmasp had succeeded in regaining that city, of which Humayun had so treacherously- deprived him, and Akber now, by taking advantage of the disturbances in Persia, on the accession of Tahmasp's son Abbas, recovered it without a blow. The rule of Akber now extended from the fron- tiers of Persia to the eastern limit of Bengal, from the sea and the Vindhya range to the lofty Himalaya, the most extensive dominion that had been as yet held by any Mohammedan sovereign of India. It was also the most completely subject to the royal authority, for with the exception of the Rana of Oudipur, and the mountain tribes of Afghanistan, all, Hindoo and Moslem alike, were submissive and faithful subjects or tributaries. It only now remained for Akber to extend his dominion over the Deckan, and here, as is generally the case in the East, the way was prepared for him by civil dissension. In the year 1595 there were in arms no less than four claimants of the throne of Ahmednugur. One of them called in the aid of the imperial forces ; and one army from Giizerat, led by the emperor's son Morad, and another from Malwa, entered the Deckan and rendezvoused near Ahmednugur, of which city the chief who invited them had been in possession, but. while they were advancing he had been obliged to abandon it, and it was now held by the princess t'hand Sultana, or Chand Bibi, as guardian of her infant nephew. She immediately called on the king of Bejapur, who was her relation, and on the chiefs of the three rival parties, to lay aside their enmity for a time, and unite against the invaders. They attended to her call ; one of the chiefs, an Abyssinian named Nehang, cut his way through the imperial troops and entered Almieilnu^ur, while the other two joined their forces with the king of Bejapur, who 1 -It is mentioned," says F.lpliinstone, (ii. 201.) "in the axberntmeh, that the chief of sind employed Portuguese soldiers iii this w.-ir. and li.nl ,-ilso 200 natives di. Europeans. These were, therefore, the ftm Stpog* in India. The same ehii -I' is nl 10 said to have had a fort, defended by an Arab garrison, the first instanee In which 1 have Observed any mention of thai description of mercenaries, afterwards so much esteemed." a.d. 1596—1603. WAR IN THE DECKAN— DEATH OF AKBER. 27 was marching to its relief. Meantime, Chand Bibi defended the town heroically ; she directed the works and encouraged the workmen, shunning no exposure to danger. Prince Morad having run three mines under the ramparts, she countermined two of them, but the third was successful, and effected a large breach in the walls. The storming party advanced, and the soldiers were retiring hi dismay, when Chand Bibi in full armour, a naked sword in her hand, and a veil on her face, flew to the breach and checked the assailants. The gar- rison then hastened to the spot, every kind of mis- sile was employed ; the contest lasted till the evening, when the Moguls retired, intending to re- new the assault in the morning. But at dawn they beheld the breach repaired so, that without the aid of new mines it could not be mounted. Meantime, the confederated army was approach- ing, and though the Moguls were superior in num- bers, they deemed it more prudent to listen to the terms which Chand Bibi proposed, which were that the king of Ahmednugur should surrender to the emperor his claims on Berar, which he had recently conquered (1596). The parties however were at war again in the course of the year. Chand Bibi's prime minister formed a plot against her, and called on the Moguls for aid. Morad, who was still in the Deckan, agreed to give it, and he was joined by the king of Candesh ; on the other hand, the king of Gol- conda joined the allies of Chand Bibi. The armies encountered on the banks of the Godaveri, and the engagement lasted for two days. Though the Moguls claimed the victory, they made little effort to follow it up, and Akber saw that his own pre- sence was requisite in the Deckan. On his reach- ing the Nerbudda (1559), he found that Doule- tabad and other places had been taken by his troops ; and from the banks of the Tapti he sent a force under his son, prince Danial, to invest Ahmednugur, in which Chand Bibi was now besieged by Nehang the Abassinian Chief. Nehong retired at the ap- proach of the Moguls ; but while Chand Bibi, seeing that under the actual state of things in the town defence was hopeless, was negotiating a treaty, the soldiers, instigated by her opponents, burst into the women's apartments, and murdered her. She thus perished, like almost every woman of superior talent in the East, but her death was not un- avenged ; in a few days a breach being practi- cable, the Moguls stormed and gave no quarter to the fighting men. The young king was sent a prisoner to the fort of Gwalior ; but another was set up, and the contest was continued for some years. Akber returned to Agra, leaving prince Danial, who had married a daughter of the king of Bejapur, viceroy of Berar and Candesh, which he had an- nexed to the empire, and committing the prosecu- tion of the war in the Deckan to his celebrated vizir, the able Abul Fazl (1601). The departure of Akber from the Deckan, was caused by the undutiful conduct of his eldest son, prince Selim. This prince, who was now past thirty years of age, was a man naturally not devoid of talent ; but he had impaired his faculties by the immoderate use of wine and opium. Akber, on setting out for the Deckan, had declared him his successor, and made him viceroy of Ajmeer, but Selim, not content with the prospect of the succes- sion, thought to seize at once on the whole of Hin- dustan. He failed in his attempt on Agra, but having made himself master of Bahar and Outle, he assumed the title of king. Akber wrote to remonstrate with him, warning him of the danger of the course he was pursuing ; at the same time assuring him of forgiveness if he returned to his duty. When the emperor returned to Agra, a kind of reconciliation was effected, and Bengal and Orissa were granted to Selim. Shortly after Abul Fazl, who had been recalled trom the Deckan, was fallen on, as he was on his way to Gwalior, by a Hindoo rajah, and he and his attendants were slain. His head was cut off and sent to Selim, who was his mortal enemy, and at whose instigation the rajah had acted. Akber was deeply affected by the fate of his minister ; he shed abundance of tears, and passed two days and nights without sleep. He either was ignorant or dissembled his know- ledge of his son's share in the murder ; but he made, though to no purpose, every effort to take vengeance on the rajah. Selim soon after (1603) came to court, where his father gave him permission to use the insignia of royalty. He soon, however, relapsed into dis- obedience, and returning to his residence at Alla- habad 5 , gave himself up to debauchei-y, and to the practice of the most horrid cruelty 6 . He now also exhibited the utmost antipathy to his own son, prince Khusru, a young man of a light mind and a violent temper, and whom he fancied Akber designed for his successor. After some time Selim returned to court, where he was at first placed in confinement, but was speedily restored to favour. Akber's second son Morad had been dead some years ; he now received intelligence of the death of his third son, prince Danial. Intemperance, the vice of his family, had also caused the death of this prince. He had pledged his word to his father to abstain from the use of wine, and he was so surrounded by persons belonging to the emperor that he could not openly indulge in it. His resource then was to have wine secretly conveyed to him in the barrel of a fowling-piece, and he thus soon brought his days to a termination. His death greatly affected the feeling heart of the emperor, whose own health, in consequence probably of his domestic afflictions, now began to give way. Intrigues with respect to the succession were instantly set on foot, as there were many persons who thought it for their advan- tage that Khusru should occupy the throne. Akber, however, having in the most explicit terms declared Selim his lawful successor, all opposition to him ceased, and at the desire of the^ dying mo- narch, Selim and all the principal Omrahs as- sembled in his chamber. He there addressed them, praying them to forgive him any offences he might have committed against them. Selim in a flood of tears threw himself at his feet ; Akber pointing to his favourite scimitar, made signs to him to gird it on him in his presence. He commended to his care the ladies of his harem, and charged him not to neglect his old friends and dependents. Having then repeated the Moslem confession of faith in the s This city, at the confluence of the Jumna and Ganges, was built by Akber. 6 On one occasion he caused a man to be flayed alive. Akber was horrified when he heard of it. He said he won- dered how the son of a man, who could not even see a dead beast flayed without feeling pain, could commit such an act. HISTORY OF INDIA. presence of a minister of religion, the truly gnat emperor Akber breathed his lust (Oct. IS, HJOj), in the fiftieth year of his reign. Akber was in person BtrODg-built and handsome, and very fair, owing to his northern origin. In his youth he indulged in wine and good living, but all' rwarda become sober and abstemious. He delighted in the chase, especially whore there was hazard and danger, as in that of the tiger and the elephant He was fond of making long journeys on horseback, and would even sometimes walk thirty or forty miles a day. His valour was chivalrous, like that of Alexander the Great ; yet he was not fond of war for its own sake, and Car- rie. 1 it on chiefly from an idea that he had a right to restore the limits of the empire. In temper, Akber was mild and magnanimous, humane and generous. He was fond of religious and philoso- phioal disquisitions, and was most perfectly tolerant of all who differed from him in opinion. Akber was a reformer in religion, in the reve- nue, and in the army. The religious views to which Akber seems to have finally come were either pure deism, or a .Mohammedanism so modified as to differ little from that system. The way in which he proceeded was to examine and hear the arguments in favour of every form of religion. His assistants in these inquiries were two brothers, named Feizi and Abul-Fazl, sons of a man who had taught law and divinity at Agra ; but who had been obliged to leave that place on account of the freedom of his religious sentiments, which had drawn on him per- seeution. Feizi was the first Mussulman who applied himself to Hindoo literature. He learned the Sanscrit language, and by himself or by others under his direction, translations were made of the two great epio poems, of one of the Vedas, and of several other works. Akber was also anxious to have vcroioiis made from the Greek, and a Portu- guese priest, who is called Padre Farabatum, was invited to come from Goa,and instruct some youths, who were then to be employed in making transla- tions from the Greek language. Feizi himself was directed to translate the Gospels. The other brother, Abiil-Fazl, though also a man of letters, and author of the Akbcrnaineh, or History of Akber, which >s Still extant, was a statesman and a general. Akber raised him to the office of vizir, and we have seen his unhappy fate. Beside his confidential discussions with Feizi and Abul-Fazl, Akber used to hold meetings on Fridays, which were attended by the learned men of his court, and he often sent for Bramina and for Mo h a mme d a n Sufees,and heard them explain their different tenets, lie invited Catholic priests from Qoa, and caused them to dispute with the Moham- medan doctors in his presence. He manifested a gnat resped for Christianity, and it is not unlikely that, had he known it in its puritv, he would have embraced it. The creed of Akber was, as we have stated, a kind of modified deism, lie endeavoured to do away with son,,, of the Mohammedan peculiarities and moat of the peculiar obligations of that religion, mob as circumcision, fasting, pilgrimage, and public worship he made to be optional He dis- couraged the itudy of the Arabic language, and for "• lunar year, the monthe with Arabic namea, and ""' "■' "i the rJijra, he Introduced a solar year, with months bearing Persian names, and com- mencing from the vernal equinox nearest to his accession. With respect to the Hindoos, his regu- lations were more of a political cast. He forbade the trial by ordeal, the burning of widows against their will, and marriage before the age of puberty. He allowed Hindoo widows to marry a second time, contrary to the preceding usage. He abolished all taxes on Hindoo pilgrims, as, in his tolerant eyes, every one had a right to serve the Deity in the manner most agreeable to his own views. He also abolished the Jezeeah, or poll-tax, which, in all Mohammedan states, is imposed on those whom the Moslems term infidels. It was the aim of Akber to make all his subjects equal, and from the very commencement of his reign he had employed Hindoos and Mussulmans alike in his service. These innovations of the emperor naturally gave great offence to the bigoted Moslems. His reli- gious system was besidee of too pure and spiritual a character to make much progress, and it died away on the death of its founder. It, however, had some effect in promoting the progress of liberal inquiry in India. In the revenue department of the government, Akber made great improvements in the mode of assessing and collecting the land-tax. As this is intimately connected with the village-system of India, this is perhaps the best place for giving a view of that ancient and celebrated institution. The property in the soil in India, from the most remote ages, seems not, as in some countries, to have lain in the sovereign, or, as in others, in the occupant ; but to have been a joint-possession, a certain portion of the produce belonging to the former and all the remainder to the latter, whose title to his share was as indefeasible as that of the sovereign to his portion. But these proprietors did not stand singly ; union in the East is of absolute necessity for mutual defence and protection. The land, therefore, was in certain determinate and w ell- limited proportions, and all the proprietors belong- ing to it were collected into one town or village, generally about the centre of the land. Each, accord- ingly, formed a little republic in itself, and the ag- gregate of these republics formed the state ; and whether this last was ruled by a Hindoo or a Mo- hammedan prince was a matter of comparative unimportance to the village-republic, which had only to render to it its share of the annual pro- duce. The village collects the revenue it has to pay to the crown and the sums required for local pur- poses j it maintains its own police, and it. adminis- ters justice in a variety of cases among its members. For these ami for other purposes various officers are required, and the following are therefore to be found in a Hindoo village. The Headman (called in the greater pari of I ndia I'atil), is, as his name denotes, the head oi the village, and is its representative in all transactions with the government. He apportions am! collects the revenue, lets the lands that happen to have no occupants, and acts in general as a magistrate. The Accountant, or Patwari, keeps the records, which contain an account of all the lands and their occupants. Healsokeepa the private accounts of the villagers, and acts in general as a notary. The Watchman, or l'\ k, \c, whose duty it is to attend to all the boundaries, both public and private, to AKBER'S REFORMS— JEHANGIR. 29 watch the crops, and to act under the headman as chief of police. In the performance of this duty he has the aid of all his family ; for all village offices are hereditary in particular families. Beside these three essential personages in a Hindoo village, there is the money-changer, who is also the silversmith, the priest, the astrologer, (either of which is also the schoolmaster), the smith, carpenter, worker in leather, potter, and barber ; and in most villages the tailor, the wash- erman, physician, musician, &c. ; and in the south even the dancing-girl. All of these receive a certain portion of the general produce for their maintenance. The general term in India for the villagers is Ryots, and the persons who receive the govern- ment share of the produce are known by the Persian name of Zemindar. When the govern- ment share of the produce of one or more villages is assigned for the payment of civil or military officers, it is named a Jaglieer, and we must care- fully observe that it is only this portion that the Zemindar can demand from the villagers. From this slight view of the village-system, we may now proceed to notice Akber's improvements. A survey was made of all the cultivable lands in the empire. They were then classed according to their fertility, and one third of the average pro- duce was fixed as the government share. This demand however was regulated by circumstances ; land, for example, which had suffered from inun- dation, &c, paid only two fifths for the first year, and so went on increasing till the fifth year, when it paid the full charge. The share of the state being ascertained, it was then commuted for a money-payment, an average being taken of prices for the preceding nineteen years. But if any one thought this too high, he had his option of paying in kind. The settlement was at first annual, but it was afterwards made for ten years, taking an average of the payments of the preceding ten. The emperor's agent in this great reform, and from whom it is named, was the rajah Todar Mai, an eminent Hindoo, and, according to Abul Fazl, bigotedly devoted to his religion. But the tolerant Akber saw his merits and heeded not his reli- gious opinions. Akber divided the empire into fifteen Subahs or provinces, twelve in Hindustan and three in the Deckan, which last were increased to six by his successors. Over each was placed a governor or viceroy, named at first Sipah Salar, but afterwards Subahdar, with complete civil and military autho- rity 7 . All the officers of the revenue were there- fore under him, as also were the Foujdars or mili- tary commanders of districts. An officer named Dewan, whose business was the superintendence of the finances of the province, was afterwards intro- duced into the system. He was appointed by the crown, but was under the viceroy. Instead of the preceding system of granting i At a later period, we believe, there was a division of the Subahs into smaller districts, over each of which was an officer, named Nabob (properly Nawab), i. e. deputy, who was appointed by the Subahdar, and who had the entire civil and military power in his district. Such was the Nabob of the Carnatic, under the Subahdar of the Deckan. About the middle of the eighteenth century, the titles of Subahdar and Nabob were confounded, and we meet with the Nabobs of Oude and Bengal. lands or assignments on the revenue for the pay- ment of the troops, which only led to fraud and oppression, Akber issued regular pay from the treasury, and made previous musters necessary. Though Akber was simple in his habits, his court was most splendid, and the European tra- vellers who visited the court of his son, actually dazzle us with their accounts of the magnificence which they beheld. On the great festivals of the vernal equinox and of the king's birthday, a rich tent was pitched for the monarch, and the ground around to the extent of two acres was covered with carpets of silk and gold, and hangings of velvet embroidered with gold, and pearls, and precious stones. The king was weighed in golden scales against gold, silver, perfumes, &c, which were afterwards distributed among the spectators. The nobility also displayed all their magnificence, and diamonds and other jewels blazed on every side. Richly caparisoned elephants, lions, tigers, and other wild beasts were led past the throne, where were the king and his nobles "sparkling with diamonds like the firmament," and the procession closed with a large body of cavalry arrayed in cloth of gold. CHAPTER X. Jehangir— Prince Khusru— Niir Jehan— Invasion of the Deckan— Prince Shah Jehau— Mohabut Khan— Seizure of the Emperor— Heroism of Nur Jehan— Death of Jehan- gir. Selim on ascending the throne took the title of Jehangir, i. e. Conqueror of the World. He made sundry good regulations ; among others, one strictly prohibiting the use of wine, and regulating that of opium. Another was of rather a curious nature. In order that complaints should be certain to reach the royal ear, he caused a chain to be hung from a part of the palace wall within the reach of every one, and communicating with a set of golden bells in his own apartment. The suitor had then only to pull the chain, and the emperor was instantly aware of his presence. Jehangir had been about four months on the throne, when one night he was awakened with intelligence that prince Khusru had fled from court with a few attendants, and taken the road to Delhi. He instantly sent a party in pursuit of him, and in the morning he set out in person with all the troops he could collect. The prince, mean- time, went on collecting men and plundering the country, and by the time he reached the Punjab, whither he directed his course, he had drawn together a force of 10,000 men. With these he gave battle at Lahore to the advanced guard of his father's army, but met with a total defeat, and as he was flying to Cabul he was taken, in consequence of the boat in which he was crossing the river Jelum having gone aground, and he was brought in chains to the emperor. Jehangir, in whose bosom there was little room for mercy, spared, no doubt, the life of his son, but he exercised his bar- barity on his unfortunate adherents, 700 of whom he impaled along the road leading from one of the gates of Lahore, and he caused the prince to be M HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1C06— 12. carried 0:1 an elephant along the line, with a mace-bearer calling t.. hun in a mockiag I to the salutations of liis servants. He WH then oonducted to bio prison, where he paseed three days in tears without tasting food In the spring of the following year (1606), when Jehangir visited Cabal, be ordered the prince's chains to be taken off, and allowed him to walk in a garden within the citadel. But a conspiracy to releaso him and -mate the emperor being detected, no farther indulgence was allowed. Meantime the emperor's second son, Purviz, who had been sent against the rana of Oudipur, had effected an accommodation with that prince ; but the war wae renewed in the next year. In the l>< ekaa the contest with the Nizam Shahi line of princes still continued ; and in 1600, Malik Amber, their able minister, recovered Ahnieduugur and forced the Moguls to retire. It was in the year 1611, the sixth year of his reign, that the marriage of the emperor with the celebrated Nur Jehan, one of the most remarkable women of the East, took place— an event which had a powerful influence on the whole of his sub- sequent reign. (ihyas-ud-din, the son of a man who had held a high government situation at Teheran, in Persia, having fallen into poverty, resolved to seek his fortune in India. Accompanied by his wife, now neat with child, and his two sons, he set out for that country. On the way to Candahar his wife was delivered of a daughter ; but such was the of their distress, that they found it neces- sary to expose the new-born babe. They placed it on the road by which the caravan was to proceed next day. As it passed along, a wealthy merchant observed the babe, and struck with its beauty, he took it up and resolved to rear it. The mother presented herself and became the nurse of her own child, and the merchant thus became acquainted with the family. He relieved their distress, and finding the father and his sons men of ability, he employed them in his business. In India he re- Qommended them to the emperor, Akber, who gave them employments ; and they gradually rose by their talents to higher posts. The infant which had been exposed, and which was iiamiil Mhir-un-Nissa, or, Sun of Women 3 , gNW up a beautiful and accomplished woman. She need to accompany her mother sometimes in her visits to the ladies of Akber's harem, to which she had BCOeSS, and she there was seeii by prince Selim, who became the captive of her charms. II. r mother perceiving it, made the matter known through one of the ladies to AJkber, who reman- with his sun, and at the same time directed that Nur Jehan should he married off without de- lay, sin- was accordingly united toayoung Per- sian named Shir Afghan Khan, to whom Akber gare a jaghir In Bengal. When Selim came t.> the throne, he sent his brother, Kutb-ud din, as viceroy to Bengal, with directions to procure him the possession of NurJetian. It was boned that the matter might 13 arranged with Shir Khan ; but be proved loan of honour, and he Loved his beautiful saa afterwards named Nttr Mahal, or Light of tiu- n.r. .,,. and Nur Jeban, 01 LJghi of tha World, by which luil name WS "ill lie n< tf.jrt li designate her. wife. Offended at the proposals made to him, he left off wearing arms, to indicate that he was no longer in the royal service ; and when the viceroy, on coming to the part of the country where he resided, summoned him to his presence, he carried a concealed dagger in his dress. The result was that he stabbed the viceroy, and was himself cut to pieces by the guards. His property was seized, and Nur Jehan was sent a prisoner to Delhi. Je- hangir at once made her proposals of marriage ; but she rejected with abhorrence the hand of the murderer of her husband. An ordinary despot would on such an occasion have employed vio- lence ; but the passion of Jehangir seems to have been extinguished by her repugnance, and he gave up his suit and placed her among the attendants of his mother. During the space of about four years, Nur Jehan remained an unnoticed dweller of the harem. She employed her leisure in painting and needlework, in which she excelled, and her works were sold in order to procure her such elegancies as she desired. The fame of these works, it is said, reached the ears of the emperor, and revived his passion. Nur Jehan was no longer able to resist the temptations of empire ; their marriage was celebrated with great pomp, and she received honours such as never had been possessed by a queen in India, her name even being put on the coin of the realm. Her influence was unbounded ; her father was made vizir, her brothers were advanced to high offices. She moderated the caprice and cruelty of the emperor's character ; she made him confine his inebriety to the night and to his private apart- ments ; she increased the magnificence, while she diminished the expenses, of the court °. In a word, her influence, in the early years of her power, was productive of almost unmixed good. Her father proved one of the best and most upright ministers that India had ever seen, and his son, who suc- ceeded him, trod in his footprints. In the year following the emperor's mai-riage (1612), a great plan for reducing the Deckan was formed. Troops were simultaneously to advance from Guzerat and Berar and attack Malik Amber. But the celerity of that chief disconcerted the plan. By desultory attacks of light cavalry, and by cut- ting off its supplies, he so wearied the army of Guzerat, that it was obliged to commence its re- treat, which soon became a flight, and the other army oncoming up, finding Amber's troops Hushed with victory, thought it prudent to retire. The imperial arms were more successful in Mcwar, under the guidance of the emperor's favourite son KhuiTum. He reduced the rana of Oudipur to submission, and acting on the generous principles of his grandfather Akber, when the rana had per- formed his homage he raised him in his arms, and seated him at his side with every mark of kind- ness and respect. All his territory was restored to him, and his son raised to a high rank among the Oinrahs of Jehangir. This conduct gained Khur mm great reputation, and as he had lately mar- ried the daughter of Asof Khan, the brother of NUT Jehan, he also possessed the powerful sup- port of the empress. Prince Khusru was still a prisoner, and any " She is sai.l, lint probably without reason, to have been 1 lie Inventor of otto of roses. a. d. 1621—26. SEIZURE OF THE EMPEROR. hopes that priiice Purviz might have had were ex- tinguished, when the emperor, on sending Khurrum on a great expedition to the Deckan (162C), gave him the royal title — Shah Jehan, i. e. King of the "World. In this expedition Shah Jehan had the most complete success. Amber, deserted by his officers and his allies, was obliged to submit, and to restore Ahmednugur and all his other conquests. The Deckan then remained tolerably quiet for about four years, when (1621) Amber took up arms again, and recovered nearly the whole of the country. Shah Jehan was ordered to march against him ; but for some unexplained reason, he refused to stir unless his brother Khusru was committed to his custody, and allowed to accompany him. The emperor consented, and Shah Jehan then set out. Acting with his usual vigour and ability, he brought Amber to action, gave him a defeat, and made him speedily come to terms of accommodation. Mean- while, the emperor had so severe an attack of asthma, a disease to which he was subject, that his life was deemed to be in imminent danger. Px'ince Purviz hastened to court, but was instantly or- dered back to his government. Just at this time, too, prince Khusru happened to die suddenly, and it is difficult not to suppose that his death was caused by his brother Shah Jehan, in whose custody he was. Against this, however, it is alleged, that as no other crime stains the life of that prince, we should not be hasty to charge him with one of such magnitude. At this very time, Shah Jehan lost the powerful support of the empress. She had married her daughter by her first husband to the emperor's youngest son, Sheriar, and aware, from the vigorous character of Shah Jehan, that she never could hope to maintain her influence when he should be on the throne, she resolved to make every effort to alter the succession. Her father, who used to restrain her, was lately dead, and her brother (the father- in-law of Shah Jehan), who succeeded him, was merely the instrument of her will. The great object of Niir Jehan now was to keep the prince at a distance from his father, and as just at this time the Persians had taken Candahar, the recovery of it was proposed to him as an ob- ject worthy of his fame and his talents. He at first assented, but seeing through the designs of the empress and her party, after he had advanced some way he halted, and refused to quit India unless further securities were given him. Orders were then sent to him to send the greater part of his troops to the capital to join prince Sheriar, to whom the command of the expedition had been transferred ; his principal officers also were or- dered to leave him, and join prince Sheriar. The empress, moreover, to be sure of a good general in case of a civil war, summoned to court from his government at Cabul Mohabut Khan, one of the ablest generals of the time. Jehangir, on his return from one of his usual visits to Cashmire, fixed his court at Lahore (1622). Messages passed between him and his son, but as there appeared to be no hopes of a reconciliation, Shah Jehan put his troops in motion and advanced toward Delhi. The emperor marched from La- hore ; an engagement took place between a part of his forces and of those of the prince, after which the latter retired to Malwa, followed by the impe- rial troops. As some of his generals proved faith- less, he found it necessary to continue his retreat into the Deckan. He reached Telingana, after having been deserted by most of his troops, whence he proceeded to the sea-port of Masulipatam, and thence to Bengal, of which province and of Bahar he made himself master, and he then sent some troops to endeavour to secure the city of Allaha- bad. Meantime prince Purviz and Mohabut Khan, who had pursued him into the Deckan, were ad- vancing to the relief of Allahabad. Shah Jehan crossed the Ganges to engage them ; but the people of the country were opposed to him, they would furnish him neither with provisions nor boats; his Bengal levies deserted, and when he gave battle he was defeated, and forced to fly once more to the Deckan. Here he was joined by Malik Amber; but while he was engaged in some operations against the fort of Burhanpur, prince Purviz and Mohabut Khan reached the Nerbudda. His fol- lowers now deserted in greater numbers than ever, and, quite disheartened, he wrote to beg forgive- ness of his father. But ere anything could be ar- ranged, extraordinary events occurred in the royal court and camp. The emperor, after visiting Cashmire for two successive years, resolved to proceed in the third year (1625) to Cabul, where the Roushanias still gave occupation to his troops. As he was on his way thither, the empress, who secretly hated Mo- habut Khan, caused him to be summoned to court, to answer charges of oppression and embezzlement in Bengal. Having made various excuses to no purpose, he at length set out, attended by a body of 5000 faithful Rajputs. When he approached the camp, he learned that he would not be admitted into the emperor's presence, and seeing that his ruin was resolved on, he determined to play a bold game, and not to be an unresisting victim. The imperial camp was now (1626) on the left bank of the Jelum, which was to be crossed by a bridge of boats. Jehangir intended to send the army over before him, and then to pass the river at his leisure. Mohabut waited till the army was over, and only the emperor with his attendants and guards remaining. He then sent forward 2000 of his Rajputs to seize the bridge, and advanced himself with the remainder to the emperor's quar- ters, which he surrounded. At the head of 200 chosen men he pushed forward to the imperial tent, where he repelled the guards and forced his way in. Jehangir, on awaking, started up and seized his sword. Seeing Mohabut, he called on him to tell the meaning of such conduct ; the latter prostrated himself, and expressed his regret that it should be only thus that he could gain access to the royal presence. Jehangir checked his indig- nation, and as Mohabut observed that it was now his usual time for appearing in public, and re- quested therefore that he would mount his horse and show himself, he tried, under the pretence of dressing himself, to get into the women's apartments in order to consult Nur Jehan. But his design was seen through and prevented, and having dressed himself where he was, he mounted one of his own horses. Mohabut, however, thinking he would be in safer custody on an elephant, prevailed on him to mount one of these animals, on which he placed beside him two armed Rajputs. In this way he proceeded to the tents of Mohabut. sa HISTORY OF INDIA. a. d. 1G26— 27. Nur Jehan did not lose her presence of mind OD tliis important occasion. Finding that all access to the emperor was eat off, she put on a disguise, and entering a palankin of the commonest kind pro- ceeded to the bridge. As the oxden the soldiers there had received were to allow every one that came to pass over, but none to come from the other side, she met with no obstruction, and reached the royal camp in safety. There she inveighed against her brother and the other chiefs as dastards, who had let their sovereign be made a captive be- fore their eyes ; and not confining herself to mere words, she began to make active preparations for attempting his rescue. In the morning, when all her preparations were complete, she put her troops in motion. At their head appeared the high-spirited Nur Jehan herself, ■eated in the howdafa of a lofty elephant, with a bow and two quivers full of arrows. As the Raj- puts had burned the bridge, she was forced to attempt to cross at a dangerous ford lower down the Stream. Hut the whole plan miscarried. Owing to the depth of the stream most of the troops had to swim or to wade very deeply ; hence their powder was all wetted, and being weighed down by their armour and their saturated garments, they could offer but a feeble resistance to the Rajputs, who had the advantage of the ground, and who showered arrows, halls, and rockets on them without ceasing. The elephant of Nitr Jehan was the principal ob- ject of attack ; showers of balls fell round her howdah, one of which wounded the infant daughter of Sheri&r, whom she held in her lap. At length her driver was killed, and her elephant being (rounded in the trunk plunged into the deep water, and was carried down the stream. After making many plunges he reached the shore, and her women on coming up found the empress engaged in ex- tracting the arrow, and in binding up the wound of tin- infant. Seeing that there was now no hope of rescuing her husband by force, she resolved to share Ins captivity, and trust to fortune and her own resources for his deliverance. Mohabut now advanced to Attack, where he made Aaof Khan and other leaders prisoners. But his power was still insecure, as it depended on Ins Rajputs, who, as Hindoos, were offensive to all the other troops. The emperor, too, schooled by Nur Jehan, entered on a course of dissimulation in order to deceive him. He affected to rejoice at being freed from his thraldom to Asof Khan, and he even warned him to be on his guard against the plot! of Nur Jehan. Hy these means he com- pletely blinded .Mohabut, who now thought himself quite secure with respect to the emperor. The object, meantime, of Nur Jehan was, to get into the army which attended the emperor as many I" raoni as possible who wen; in her interest. As tbej now bad reached Cabal, it was deemed neces- inorease the royal guard on account of the Afghani ; and as her partisans came and offered their 'services, many of them were admitted into it. 'I'll.- emperor being now allowed to go hunting "" ••"' elephant, but still guarded by Rajputs, a q«*n»l dai took phvee between them and a parly ol the Ah. lis, as a portion of the royal guards were named, in which many of the latter were Mohabut, on being applied to for redress Che whole body of the Ahdis the,, fell on tome of the Rajputs, killed several, and drove others to the hills, where they were seized and made slaves by the inhabitants, and Mohabut himself was obliged to seek refuge in the imperial tent. Next day the ringleaders were punished ; but the power of Mohabut had received a shock from which it could hardly recover. Nur Jehan now saw that the time for action was arrived. Her agents collected men at various points, and they came into the camp in parties of two and three, as if seeking for service. When she had them thus at hand, she made Jehangir pro- pose a muster of the troops of all the Jaghirdars; and when she herself, as such, was required to fur- nish her contingent, she affected great indignation at being thus treated as an ordinary subject. She asserted, however, that it should do her no dis- credit, and she made the men she had ready join it, as if to make it up to its full complement. When Jehangir was proceeding to review it, he advised Mohabut, out of regard to his safety, not to accom- pany him ; and the latter, no longer able to com- mand, was obliged to consent. When Jehangir reached the centre of the line, the troops closed in on him, and cut off the Rajput horse who at- tended him, and as they were joined by their con- federates, the person of the king was now in com- plete safety. Mohabut retired to some distance with his troops, and Nur Jehan, as her brother was in his hands, was obliged to come to terms with him. She stipulated, however, that he should give his services against Shah Jehan, whom she was re- solved to ci'ush. This prince had advanced from the Deckan as far as Ajmir with only 1000 men. Here one of his principal supporters died, and one half of his men having quitted him, he retired to Sind with the remainder. The state of his health alone pre- vented him from seeking refuge in Persia, when suddenly the aspect of his affairs began to brighten. He heard of the death of his brother Purviz, and further learned that Mohabut, instead of pursuing him, was himself pursued by the troops of the em- peror, with whom he had had a rupture. He therefore hastened to the Deckan, and he there was joined by Mohabut and his troops. The emperor returned to Lahore, and thence set out on his annual visit to Cashmire. While there he had a severe fit of the asthma, to which he was subject. As his life was considered to be in dan- ger, it was resolved to remove him to Lahore, but lie sank under the fatigues of the journey, and expired before he had gone a third of the way (1627). In the reign of Jehangir (lb'lG) Sir Thomas Floe came to India, as ambassador from James I. of England to the Mogul court. He remained then for two years, being treated with much attention, and admitted to the emperor's private drinking- parties. It is chiefly from his narrative that we derive our knowledge of the splendour of the court of Delhi under the monarcns of the house of Timor. Jehangir issued an edict against the use of to- bacco, which had been lately introduced into the east from America. It will be recollected that his British contemporary also had a strong aversion to that plant. a. d. 1627—46. SHAH JEHAN— INVASION OF BALKH. 33 CHAPTER XI. Shah Jehan — Nfir Jehan— Magnificence of Shah Jehan— — Khan Jehan Lodi — War in the Deckan — Cabul and Balkh— Aurungzib— Sons of the Emperor— Illness of Shah Jehan — War among his Sons — The Emperor dethroned by Aurungzib — Confinement of Prince Morad — Magnificence of Shall Jehan. The death of Jehangir was the end of the power of Nur Jehan. Her brother Asof, who sent to summon his son-in-law, Shah Jehan, from the Deekan, placed her in confinement when she at- tempted to support the cause of Shehriar ; but, when all was settled, she was given her liberty, assigned an income equal to 250,000^. a year, and treated with all becoming respect. Though she survived nearly twenty years, she never again meddled in politics. Asof Khan marched for Lahore, where Shehriar had seized the royal treasure, and gained over the troops. Shehriar gave him battle, and, being de- feated, he took refuge in the citadel ; but he was given up by the garrison, and he and two of his cousins who had joined him were put to death by order of Shah Jehan. High honours were bestowed on Asof Khan and on Mohabut,and rich gifts were distributed among his friends and adherents by the munificent mo- narch. Feeling himself firmly seated on his throne, he now gave loose to his taste for magnificent build- ings andcostly entertainments. We are told that, to celebrate the first anniversary of his accession, he caused a suite of tents to be erected in Cash- mire, which it took two months to raise. At the entertainment which lie gave in them, besides being, as was usual, weighed against precious metals which were then distributed among those present, he had vessels filled with jewels waved round his head, and their contents poured over his person (which was supposed to avert misfortune), and these also distributed among the guests. The whole expenses of the festival are said to have exceeded a million and a half of our money. The Deckan first gave occupation to the arms of Shah Jehan. An Afghan, named Khan Jehan Lodi, who had risen to high military command in the imperial service, and who was commanding in the Deckan at the time of the death of Jehangir, thought that he might now venture to aspire to in- dependence. With this view he made peace with the Nizam Shahi prince of Ahmednugur, and gave up to him the late Mogul conquests in the Deckan. Deeming, however, that this course was premature, lie yielded obedience to Shah Jehan, and came, when summoned, to the court at Agra. Here he received either true or false information that de- signs were harboured against him, and he left the city openly at the head of his 2000 Afghans. He was pursued by the royal troops, but he effected his retreat into Gondwana, whence he proceeded to the territory about Ahmednugur. Shah Jehan re- solved to take the field in person ; but one of the generals whom he sent in advance having defeated the army of the Nizam Shahi king, Khan Jehan was forced to fly from the Deckan. He made his way to Bundelcund, but he was there cut off and slain, and his head sent to the emperor (1C30). The death of Khan Jehan did not end the war in the Deckan, which unfortunate country was also visited with all the horrors of famine, in conse- quence of the failure of the periodical rains during two successive years, followed as usual by a pesti- lence. The war was carried on against the kings of Ahmednugur and Bejapur ; but it is needless to enter into the details, as our readers must by this time be tolerably familiar with the course of Indian warfare— the changing of sides, the artifice, the treachery, the ravages, that always form parts of it. Suffice it to say, that the emperor was obliged to re- turn to the Deckan (1635), where, during a stay of nearly two years, he reduced the Mohammedan k ings of Bejapur and Golconda to submission, and put a complete end to the kingdom of Ahmednugur (1637). The sixteen following years of the reign of Shah Jehan were occupied by military transactions in Cabul and its vicinity. In 1637, Alt Merdan Khan, the governor of Candahar, in order to escape from the tyranny of his sovereign the king of Persia, gave that place up to Shah Jehan, and came to reside in Delhi. As he was a man of considerable talents, his reception was most honourable ; he was successively made governor of Cashmire and Cabul, and employed on various occasions both in peace and war. The public works which he executed, particularly the canal at Delhi named from him, proved his skill and judgment, and excited general admiration. Circumstances, apparently favourable, having induced Shah Jehan to assert the claims of his family to the territory of Balkh, which had been seized by the Uzbegs, an army, led by Ali Merdan, entered that country (1644). The approach, how- ever, of winter forced him to retire without having effected any thing, and the next year an expedition was sent thither under a Rajput rajah, in whose army were a body of 14,000 men of his own caste. These, though natives of such a sultry region as India, bore the snows and storms of the Hindu. Cush with the utmost fortitude ; they hewed down timber, formed works, and repelled the repeated attacks of the Uzbegs ; but still the conquest of the country seemed as remote as ever. Shah Jehan then came in person to Cabul (1645), and he sent a large army under his youngest son Morad, with Ali Merdan for his director, to Balkh. This expedition proved successful, and the whole of the country submitted. But next year, when the emperor had returned to Delhi, and Morad, quitting his command without leave, had repaired thither also, the whole of it was overrun by the Uzbegs from beyond the Oxus. Morad was in consequence put in disgrace, the command was transferred to prince Aurungzib the emperor's third son, and Shah Jehan himself returned to Cabul. The prince had some success at first, but he was finally obliged to shut himself up in the city of Balkh. The emperor, having now become aware of the folly of wasting the resources of his empire in the prosecution of so visionary a conquest, made over his rights to one of the contending Uzbeg princes, who had taken refuge at his court. Au- rungzib was directed to deliver up to this prince such places as he still held, and to lead his troops back to Cabul. He obeyed, and commenced his retreat through the passes of the Hindu Cush just as the winter had set in ; and between the snows and the attacks of the mountain tribes his forces suffered so much, that they were happy to escape with the loss of their baggage and horses. M HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1G48— 57. The Bbih of Persia now led u expedition in penon ■gainst Candahir (1648), and by judiciously z the winter nnnann, when the eommunica- tinu with India was cut off by the snow, be forced it to open its gates before Aurungzih, who was sent to its defence, could arrive. The prince made an attempt to recover it, hot failed, and, when in the following year In- renewed the attempt with a t f.iee, lie was equally unsuccessful. The emperor's eldest son, Dara ShekA, then prevailed OO his father to let In, a attempt the recovery of (andaln'ir. He set out with a force much superior t.. any that had y.t Keen employed (1663), bat, with all the efforts of skill and courage that were made, the resistance of the Persian garrison could not de overcome. The siege was raised and Can- dahir was lost to the Mogul empire for ever. Two years of tranquillity ensued, during which Shall Jehan, having completed a revenue survey of his possessions in the Deckan, which had been going on for twenty years, extended to that country the system of collection, devised by Todar Mai in the reign of his grandfather. During this period also died the vizir Said Ullah Khan, celebrated as the most able and upright minister that had ever been seen in India. Aurungzih had soon an opportunity of again appearing in the Deckan, Meer Jumla, the minis- ter of the long of Golconda, having had a quarrel with his master, sought the protection of the empe- ror, who, at the desire of Aurungzib accorded it, and sent a haughty message to the kiug of Gol- conda, and, when that prince refused obedience, Aurungzih was directed to employ force against him. Stratagem being more to the prince's taste than force, he set forth with a small body of troops, aider the pretext of conveying his son Mohammed to Bengal, whin- he was to marry his cousin, the daughter of prince Shujah, the governor of that province. As the way from Aurungabad • thither is by Masulipatam, he thus came within a short distance of Hyderabad, the capital of (loleonda, ami while the king was preparing an entertainment for him, he made so sudden an advance on the town, that the king had only time to fly to the liill-fort of Golconda, The town was plundered and partly burnt ; troops which Aurungzih had ready for the purpose advanced, and the king was finallj . to submit to such terms as the victor was pleased to impose (1666). Immediately after, Aurungzih found a pretext for invading Bejapur, and he would speedily have made a conquest of that king- dom, if more important matters had not drawn his attention elsewhere. Miah Jehftn was now advanced in Mars. He hadfoorsons, Deri Sheko,Shujah, AurungBib.and Morid. 'I'h.- hrsl of these was a man of many estimable qualities, brave, liberal, frank, and gene- rous, hot impetuous, self-willed, and overbearing. Shujah was devoted t., wine and pleasure, hut not devoid oi talent. Morid was dull in intellect, and ftlist. Aurungzih differed from the,,, all per was mild, his heart cold, he was oau- "'■" ; ""' "" -i dissembler, artful and ■ :,t ''"• ■•me time he was handsome in bravo, and affable. Above all, he was (though many nupeCted his si, .eerily) zealously ■ The nnrl.-nt town or Ourta, a DM mile* from ,. bad, had tins bam named b] ,,„„„,.„. devoted to the Mussulman creed, and he carefully practised all the external duties of religion. At one time he strongly professed an intention of quitting the world, and becoming a fakir, i. c. ' devotee. Shah Jehan had of late devolved much of his regal duties on Dara, as heir-apparent. A disease of the kidneys at this time having brought him to the brink of the grave, though Dara did all in his | power to keep his condition a secret, his brothers were accurately informed of it. Shujah, who was governor of Bengal, instantly assumed the royal title, put his troops in motion, and advanced into Bahar on his way to Agra. Morid in like mauner assumed independence in Guzerat. The crafty Aurungzib, though he refused obedience to the orders of Dara, did not assume royalty himself ,- but he resolved to make the stupid Morad the ladder of his ambition. He wrote to him, con- gratulating him on his accession to the crown, at the same time declaring his own intention of re- nouncing the world, and retiring to Mecca. He would previously, however, he said, unite with him against the impious Dara 2 , and join him to oppose the infidel rajah Jeswunt Sing, who it was under- stood had been sent against them. They should then, he added, together seek the presence of their father, free him from undue influence, and try to procure the pardon of their erring brother. Coarse and palpable as this artifice was, it sufficed to deceive Morad (1657). Meantime, Shah Jehan had been able to resume the government, and the conduct of his other sons only served to increase his confidence in Dara. He wrote to Shujah, enjoining him to return to his government immediately ; but that prince, pre- tending to regard this as merely the order of Dara, continued to advance. The imperial troops, led by prince Soliman, the son of Data, then gave him battle, and a defeat near Benares forced him to return to Bengal. Meantime, Aurungzih had joined Morad in Malwa, and near Ujeu they engaged and defeated the rajah Jeswunt Sing, whose brave Rajputs were ill supported by the other troops. The victory was chiefly ascribed to the gallantry of Morad. Aurungzib at the time of their junction, had taken an oath of fidelity to this prince, and he all along acknowledged him and treated him as his superior, though the direction of all measures really lay with himself. As the two princes continued to advance, the emperor, who had set out tor Delhi, returned to Agra, and prepared to take the field in person, in the hopes of effecting an accommodation. He was, however, dissuaded from this course, from which no good seemed likely to result, and the impetUOUB Dara, without waiting for the troops of prince Soliman to join him from Benares, set out, contrary to the injunctions of his father, to engage the rebels. The armies nut within a day's march of Agra. The Rajputs and a body of I cavalry in the army of Diri distinguished tliein- by their daring intrepidity, and Diri Beh himself exhibited the utmost gallantry. Morid displayed his accustomed heroism; the howdafa of his elephant, which was long preserved as a curiosity, was stuck so full of the arrows of the Habeas as to resemble a porcupine, and, when Ins elephant was giving waj before them, he 1 Dflru held his grandfather*! rellgloui opinions, a.d. 1658- DEPOSITION OF SHAH JEHAN— AURUNGZIB. :;.-. ordered his feet to be chained. Aurungzib ex- hibited his usual intrepidity and coolness. He urged his elephant wherever there appeared the greatest danger, crying to his troops, that " God \\as with them, and they had no other refuge or retreat." An event common in Indian warfare decided the battle. A rocket struck Dara's ele- phant, which growing unmanageable, he was obliged to descend and mount a horse. His troops fancied he was slain, a panic spread among them, they gave way, and speedily the whole army was in flight. Dara fled to Agra, but, ashamed to appear before his father, he continued his course for Delhi (1658). Aurungzib, as soon as the victory was gained, threw himself on his knees and returned thanks to Heaven. He then sought the presence of Morad, and congratulated him on his acquisition of a king- dom. On the third day after the battle they appeared before Agra, which offered no resistance. Aurung- zib continued sending messages to his father with the greatest professions of duty, pleading necessity for what he had done. Finding at length that the emperor was not to be drawn from the side of Dara, he sent his son Mohammed to take possession of the citadel in which he resided, and to prevent all communication between him and his friends. Thus ended the reign of Shah Jehan. He survived his deposition seven years, during which time he was treated with attention aud respect ; for Aurungzib was never wantonly cruel, and his conscience pro- bably reproached him for what he had done. Aurungzib, having now no further use for Mo- rad, got rid of him without much ceremony. As they were on their march against Dara, he invited him one day to supper. The wine circulated freely, Aurungzib himself drinking of it, contrary to his usual practice. Morad became, as usual, intoxica- ted, and while he was in that condition his arms were removed and chains were laid on him. He was then placed on an elephant and conveyed a prisoner to Delhi ; meanwhile, three other elephants were sent off in different directions to mislead his friends as to his place of confinement. He was afterwards transferred to Gwalior, the state prison of those days, In this manner was terminated the reign of Shah Jehan, who, though inferior to Baber and Akber, was one of the best sovereigns that India has ever possessed. At no time under the Mussulman dominion, was the country in so flourishing a state. It was filled with noble and prosperous cities ; the police in general was good, justice was fairly ad- ministered, and internal tranquillity preserved. Still we must measure all these advantages by the Asiatic standard, and not expect the same degree of perfection as in modern Europe. India under Shah Jehan could not vie in these respects with the France and England of the present day ; but it was far beyond Spain and Portugal, at any period, in political perfection. The magnificence of Shah Jehan exceeded any thing that had ever been witnessed in India, or perhaps in the East. His court and all relating to it exhibited the extreme of splendour. The cele- brated peacock throne which he constructed is said to have cost nearly six and a half millions sterling. It derived its name from an artificial peacock, in which all the natural hues of the plumage were imitated in precious stones. Shah Jehan built the new city of Delhi, in which the royal palace and the mosque named the Jumini Musjed are two of the most splendid edifices of the East. But his most magnificent work was the Taj Mahal, a mausoleum erected for his queen at Agra. It is composed of white marble, richly adorned with mosaics of costly stone, and for elegance ol design, correctness of taste, and value of materia!, is perhaps without a rival. It is gratifying to ob- serve, that no oppression was employed to procure the means of erecting such stately structures, as the ordinary revenues of the empire proved fully sufficient to defray all the expenses ; and when Shah Jehan ceased to reign the treasury contained a large quantity of money, beside plate and jewels. CHAPTER XII. Aurungzib or Alumgir I.— Fate of Dara— Of Shujah— Of Soliman — Death of Meer Jumla — The Marattas — Malajee — Sevajee— Progress of his Power — Aumngzib's Treat- ment of him— His Regulations— Chout— The Sadhs. Aurungzib, on mounting the throne, assumed the title of Alumgir, or Conqueror of the World. His first operations were against Dara, who was now at Lahore ; but on the approach of Aurungzib he fled thence toward Sind. His son Soliman, being de- serted by his troops, sought a refuge with the rajah of Sirinugur, in the north of India, by whom he was placed in confinement. Shujah, therefore, only remained to contest the throne. The advance of this prince recalled Aurungzib from the pursuit of Dara. Shujah, having crossed the Ganges, was met by Aurungzib ; but they remained three days in presence of each other, neither willing to begin the action. On the fourth day, when Aurungzib had drawn out his troops as usual before daybreak, he was surprised by a great uproar in his rear. This was caused by rajah Jes- wunt Sing, who was now in his service, but who had secretly agreed with Shujah that they should j make a simultaneous attack, front and rear, on the army of Aurungzib. But, though this attack pro- duced great terror and confusion, it proved a failure, as Shujah did not advance till after the sun was risen. Jeswunt, finding himself not supported, and fearing to have the whole army on him, drew off his troops and retired to some distance, and when he found that the battle, as was the case, had gone against Shujah, he marched with all speed for his | own country. Shujah, after his defeat, retired to Bengal, pursued by an army under prince Moham- med and Meer Jumla (1659). Dara meantime had made his way to Guzerat, where, the governor having declared in his favour, he became master of the province. He proposed to form a junction with Jeswunt Sing ; but the crafty Aurungzib had succeeded in winning back that rajah to his side, and when Dara, came within fifty miles of his residence he sent to tell him that he could not venture to join him. Dara, finding him immovable, advanced with his own troops into Ajmir. He there fortified a position on the hills, and awaited the assault of Aurungzib, who soon arrived from Agra. After cannonading it for d 2 M HISTORY OF INDIA. a. d. 1659—63. three days, the e mp eror ordered a general assault. The gove r no r of Gnserdl *m slain, end his fall so diehearteoed Data that he Bed, end all liis troops d isp e r s e d. Eight davs aiwl nights of toilsome marching under a sultry sky, harassed by the incessant at- tacks «,f tip- lavage tribei named Colis, brought ad the few that adhered to him to Ahmed- ala.l, the gates of which he found closed against him. He turned thence and made his way to Catch, with the intention of seeking refuge with the PerahuM in Gaaldahar. He reached the district of Jim, to the- iast of Bind, the chief of which, an Afghan, who had been under great obligations to hhn, received him with all demonstrations of kind- bot his only intention was to betray him, and ".itching his opportunity he made him a pri- son, r and conveyed him to Delhi. I was led into Delhi mounted on an inferior elephant and in chains. He was conducted through the principal streets. The people vented their grief in tears and groans ; but next day, when his betrayer the chief of Jun appeared, they assailed hhn with tiles and stones, and his life was only saved by the vigorous interposition of the police. A lew days after, a mock commission of members of the council and of lawyers sat on the case of Dart, and he was condemned to death as an apos- tate from the Mohammedan faith. Aurongzib, with seeming reluctance, gave orders for the exe- cution of the sentence. The executioners found ad his son cooking some lentils, the only food they would venture to touch for fear of being poiei d. Dara, guessing their purpose, snatched up the knife he had been using and defended him- self manfully till he fell overpowered by numbers. His head wis cut off and carried to Aurungzib, his body was exposed to the public gaze on an ele- phant. Aurungzib ordered the head to be placed "ii a platter, and washed and wiped in his presence. When he had thus assured himself that it was the real head of Data, he began to weep and lament, and th.n ordered it to be placed in the tomb of Hmnavun. Dara's son was sent a prisoner to Qwanor. Meantime, operations were carried on against Bhujah ; but prince Mohammed, displeased at bimself merely ■ puppet in the hands of lit 6T .1 inula, went over to his uncle, who gave him his daughter in marriage. Soon after, however, In- again deserted and returned to Meer Jumla's eamp, where, by his father's orders, he was made a pi laoner and sent to Gwalidr, Meer Jumla then I on Nliiijiih and forced him to retreat to Dacca, whence he fled and sought refuge with the king of Arae.m. lie and his family perished in thai co mi try, but the circumstances" of their fate are unknown (1680). Al I flu* tune the rajah of Sirinugur was in- dnced to deliver up Data's son Soliman. Like his unfortunate rather, he was paraded through the ' haina on a., elephant, and then brought ""• emperor. Hia gallant presence moved many to U are, and his uncle himself affected to be Boliman'a only requeatwaa, that he might " once, and not be subjected to the ' torture of the , .,„». Aurungaib hade I by Mm, lave, wu braised hi n night a large oup full of him not to fear, adding, that he was cautious, not cruel. Soliman also was sent to Gwalidr. Some months after, Morad was discovered in an attempt to make his escape from that fortress, where he also had been placed ; and Aurungzib having instigated the son of a man whom Morad had put to death in Guzerat to prosecute him for murder, a sentence of death was issued against him, and he was executed in prison. The whole imperial family being now dead or in prison, Aurungzib's only object of apprehension was his own general, Meer Jumla, who was com- manding in Bengal. To give him occupation, «he suggested to him the conquest of the kingdom of Assam, which lies to the east of that province in an extensive valley through which the river Burram- pooter flows. Meer Jumla accordingly set out from Dacca (16C2), conveyed his troops up the river in boats, and speedily reduced the country. He wrote in high terms to the emperor, announcing his con- quest and his intention of advancing and opening the way to China. But the rainy season came on, supplies could not be procured, and the natives assailed his camp on all sides. This was succeeded by a pestilence among the troops, and the boastful general was obliged to order a retreat. He died before he reached Dacca, worn out by toil and disease (1663). The emperor gave his rank and honours to his son Ameen. " You," said he to him, "you have lost a father, and / have lost the greatest and the most dangerous of my friends." A severe fit of illness now came to convince Aurungzib of the uncertainty of both his life and his power. Various intrigues were immediately formed ; some would restore Shah Jehan, others secure the succession for the emperor's second son Moazzim, others for his third son Akber. But the courage and the constancy of Aurungzib triumphed over all their machinations and awed them all to obedience. He then set out for Cashmire, in order fully to re-establish his health. It was during the time of his residence in Cash- mire that war first broke out between the Moguls and the Marattas, a people of the Deckan, who were destined to perform so important a part in the future history of India. The country of the Marattas, commencing at the chain of mountains south of the Nerbudda, ex- tended southwards to the parallel of Goa ; the sea bounded it on the west ; it was limited on the east by the river Wurda. A portion of the western Ghats thus runs along it from north to south ; the narrow tract between them and the sea is named the Concan. The people are of the Hindoo reli- gion, and all of low caste, as it is termed; but they probably are not of the Hindoo race*. In appearance and disposition they differ from the people of Hindustan and from most of the other inhabitants of the Deckan. They are low in sta- ture and mean in appearance ; active, persevering, and crafty, never for an instant losing sight of their interest. Unlike the other peoples of India, thev had no rajahs ; their chiefs were merely hereditary thii infusion wns given the first thing in the morning, at Owalior, to the princi whom it was Intended to operate, and he got do (bod till be had swallowed it. its effect was to make aim gradually Ion his strength and Intellect, grow- and itupid, and thus dying by degrees. According to Beraiar, Bolunin did get this fatal beverage. ivs, p, :i ,d. 1662— 65. THE MARATTAS— SEVAJEE. 37 heads of villages or of larger districts. Their name does not occur in the Mohammedan histories till toward the end of the fifteenth century. About the middle of the sixteenth the king of the adjoin- ing realm of Bejapoor began to employ the Ma- ratta instead of the Persian language in his finances, and he enlisted many of them in his army, where they soon displayed their aptitude as light cavalry. The other lungs also employed them ; but it was not until the time of Malik Amber that they began at length to be of im- portance in the Deckan. The principal man among the Marattas, at this time, was a chief, named Jadoo Rao, who claimed for himself a Rajput descent, though probably without reason. There was serving under him a Maratta of respectable family, named Malojee Bosla, and on occasion of some great Hindoo festival he went to Jadoo's house accompanied by his son Shahjee, a boy of five years of age. During the merriment, Jadoo took up on his knees Shahjee and his own daughter, a child three years old, and said, laughing, " They are a fine couple, and ought to be man and wife." Malojee instantly started up, and called the company to witness that the daughter of Jadoo was betrothed to his son. The pride of the chief was offended, and a quarrel was the result. Fortune, however, soon smiled on Malojee ; he rose to power under the Ahmednugur government, and obtained a jagheer, of which the chief place was Poonah, and Jadoo no longer refused to give his daughter to Shahjee. Shahjee also distinguished himself. He entered the service of the king of Bejapoor, and he obtained a large jagheer in Mysore. As he still held that of Poonah, he took his eldest son with him to My- sore, leaving at Poonah his second son Sevajee under the charge of a Bramin, named Dadajee, who had the management of the jagheer. As the young Sevajee grew up, he displayed a character of great spirit and energy, and at sixteen he was beyond the control of Dadajee. His chief associates were his father's horse-soldiers and the people of the neigh- bouring Ghats, and by constant hunting in them he became intimately acquainted with all the passes and defiles of these mountains ; and he was strongly suspected of being concerned in many robberies committed in the Concan. His love of adventure was further increased by the popular ballads of the country, to which he used to listen with delight. On the death of the Bramin, Sevajee took pos- session of the jagheer of Poonah, and ceased to make remittances to his father. He soon felt him- self sufficiently strong to rebel against the king of Bejapoor, and he made himself master of the northern Concan. The king immediately threw Shahjee into prison as a hostage for his sun, and he was told that the door of his dungeon would be built up if Sevajee did not submit within a limited period. Sevajee then immediately entered the service of Shah Jehan, and through that monarch's influence Shahjee was set at liberty. In 1655, when Aurungzib was sent to the Deckan, and was acting against the king of Golconda, Sevajee was so audacious as to plunder the Mogul provinces ; but, when he saw the prince more successful than he had anticipated, he sued for pardon, and was forgiven. When Am-ungzib quitted the Deckan to obtain the throne (1658), Sevajee prosecuted the contest with the king of Bejapoor, whom he finally obliged to make peace with him on advantageous terms (1662). He now maintained an armv of 50,000 horse and 7000 foot. Sevajee began once more to ravage the posses- sions of the Moguls, and Shaista Khan, who com- manded for the emperor in the Deckan, marched against him, defeated his troops, and took posses- sion of Poonah. He took up his quarters in the house in which Sevajee had been reared, and the latter, who was in the adjacent hill-fort of Singhar, resolved to endeavour to derive advantage from his knowledge of the localities. Leaving Singhar one night after dark, and posting parties along the road to support him if needful, he, with twenty-five of his men, joined a marriage procession, and thus entered the town. He made direct for the house, and entered it by a back-door. Shaista had barely time to escape by letting himself down from his bedroom window, and he lost two of his fingers by a cut of a sword made at him as he descended. His son and his attendants were cut to pieces. Sevajee retired unmolested, and he ascended in triumph to Singhar amid the blaze of torches. To this day, the Marattas tell of this exploit of Sevajee's with exultation. Sevajee had now ascertained that it was as light cavalry that the Marattas could be employed to most advantage, and, acting on this persuasion, he placed himself at the head of 4000 horsemen, and made a dash for the wealthy sea-port of Surat. His project was completely successful, the town was defenceless, and he plundered it for six days. His attempts on the factories of the Europeans were repelled ; but he carried off an ample booty in se- curity. He even aspired to form a maritime power ; he fitted out vessels, with which he captured the Mogul ships trading from Surat and other ports; and on one occasion he embarked with 4000 men, and landed and plundered Barcelor in Canara, a wealthy sea-port belonging to Bejapoor. The attack on Surat (which was regarded as a place of some sanctity, as it was there the pilgiims embarked for Mecca), and the capture of some vessels laden with pilgrims, roused the indignation of the bigoted Aurungzib. His ire was further in- flamed, when Sevajee, on the death of his father, assumed the title of rajah, and began to coin money — the mark of independent sovereignty. A Mogul army took the field against him, and siege was laid to his two principal forts. Feeling it more for his interest to submit than to persist in a resistance which would probably be hopeless, he opened a negotiation with the imperial com- mander, and then, quitting his troops, went with a few attendants to his camp. He was received with much distinction, and a treaty was concluded. Of thirty-two forts which he held, he agreed to sur- render twenty with their territory ; the remaining twelve with his other possessions he was to hold as a jagheer, and his son Sambajee, a boy only five years old, was to receive the rank of a commander of 5000 in the imperial service. Sevajee was also to have a kind of per-centage on the revenue of each district under Bejapoor. The emperor wrote a letter confirming all these terms except the last, which was not mentioned. Sevajee then joined the imperial army in its operations against Bejapoor, and then, by special invitation, went to wait on the emperor at Delhi (1665). Aurungzib, though an able and a subtle man, was 38 HISTORY OF INDIA. a. d. 16GG— 76. Dot a wise monarch. Instead of seeking to attach to himself a man of Sevajee's talents and charac- ter by honours and attention, be tried to humble him by making him feel hi* supposed insignificance. Accordingly, when he was about to enter Delhi, an officer of inferior rank RU Bent to meet him. In the imperial presence, when he had made his obeiaanoe and offered his presents, no further notice was taken of him, and he was placed among the officers of the third rank. Unable to control his feelings, he stepped back and fell down in a swoon. When he recovered, he called on them to take his life as they had taken away his honour, and retired without t iking leave or receiving the usual dress of honour. The emperor, who was not prepared for this spirited conduct, ordered him to be closely watched. Sevajee, whose only thoughts were now how to make his escape, began by asking permission to send away his Marattas, as the climate of Delhi, he said, did not agree with them. This was readily granted, as it seemed to leave him quite at the emperor's mercy. He next took to his bed, pretending sickness, and by means of the Hindoo physicians who attended him he kept up a communication with those whom he had sent away. He also adopted the practice of sending large quantities of provisions and sweetmeats to the devotees of both religions ; and when his guards had thus become accustomed to the passage of large baskets, he one night, leaving a servant to occupy his bed, got into one himself, and placed his son in another, and thus passed out unperceived. A horse was prepared, which he mounted, taking his son behind him, and then made his way to Muttra. Leaving his son there with a friend, he shaved off his hair and whiskers, and assumed the disguise of a Hindoo devotee, and, after wandering about for the space of nine months, he at length contrived to reach the Deckan (1666). In this country the imperial arms had not been successful against Bejapoor, and the consequence was, that Sevajee not merely obtained forgiveness and peace from the emperor, but even another jagheer, and his title of rajah was confirmed. He then turned his arms against the kings of Golconda and Beja- poor, and forced them to agree to pay him an annual tribute. A period of tranquillity succeeded, during which Sevajee formed civil and military regulations for his dominions. The collecting and managing of the revenues was committed exclusively to ilra- inins, and measures were devised to preserve the cultivators from oppression, and the government from fraud. The army was raised and paid by the prince ; the pay was high, but all plunder was to to the state. The officers were in regular gradation, from In ads of ten up to heads of five thousand. These held nojagheers, but, like their nun, received pay from th<"' government. The object of Aiiriingy.il> in giving such favour- able terms to Sevajee had been to throw him off his guard, and thus to get him once more into his power, lint the Maratta was too nary to be thus caught, and the emperor «as obliged to declare open war against him ; a measure of which Si speedily made him repent. He Burpri d th< fori liar, plundi red Sural once more, and spread his ravages over tl„. province of Candesh. It is on this occasion that we first bear of the Cftou*, after- wards so famous in Marotta history. This, like the well-known Blackmail of the Scottish High- landers, was a tribute paid for forbearance ; it was a fourth part of the revenues of a country, and as long as it was regularly paid, that country was free from Maratta depredations. Additional forces were now sent into the Deckan against Sevajee, who at length (1672) ventured to give battle to a Mogul army, and defeated it. This was the first regular engagement ever fought between the Moguls and the .Marattas, and its unexpected success had the usual effect of elevating the courage of the one party and depressing that of the other. The war now languished for some years, as Aurungzib had ample employment elsewhere. A war with the north-eastern tribes of the Afghans first occupied him. This lasted for two years, and ended in the unsatisfactory manner in which contests with these tribes usually terminated. When this was concluded a religious insurrection called his troops to the field (1676). There was a sect named Sadhs or Satuamees, a kind of Hindoo Quakers, as they have been termed. They wor- shipped only one God, enjoined the practice of truth, self-denial, temperance, and continence, and prohibited the use of opium and spirituous liquors. As one of these men was engaged in the cultivation of his land not far from Delhi, a dispute arose be- tween him and the Peon or man who looked after the government share of the crop. Each party- was joined by his friends, and the revenue-officers had the worst of it. The people of the country ji lined the Sadhs ; troops were sent against them, but they were routed, and the Mohammedans began to fancy that magic arts rendered them invincible. They even reported that the Sadhs were led by a woman mounted on an enchanted wooden horse. The Rajpoot Zemindars, near Delhi, now began to join the insurgents, and Aurungzib found it neces- sary to send a considerable force against them ; to counteract their magic arts, he directed his sol- diers to wear prayers and amulets on their persons. In the engagement which ensued, the insurgents were totally routed. CHAPTER XIII. Aurungzib continued— Aurungzib's Bigotry — Further Pro- gress of Sevajee— His Death— Sambajee — Aurungafl) in the Dtckaii— End of the Kingdoms of Golconda and Bejlr pur— Capture and Death of Sanibajei — Rajah Ham— Dif- ference of the Mogul and the Maratta Troops— Siege of Gingee— Aurungzib's Change of Operations— His Partial Success— His Death and Character. Tin: attentive reader must have observed the absence of illiberality and intolerance by which the .Mohammedan monarch* of India, especially the house of Timor, had been so honourably dis- tinguished. They had constantly intermarried with the Hindoo royal families, and the Rajpoot rajahs had held high commands in their armies. I'.ui Aurungzib, who was bigoted and narrow- minded, was of course intolerant, and even from the beginning of his reign he gave proofs of this unkiiiglv spirit. Thus, instead of the solar year, which had deen in use in India from the time of AUier, be directed the Mohammedan lunar \car a. d. 1677- WAR WITH RAJPOOTS— DEATH OF SEVAJEE. to be employed, because the former was, he said, the invention of idolaters, and he persisted in it, heedless of all remonstrances and of its disagree- ment with the course of the seasons. He made sundry other changes, all indicative of his aversion to the Hindoos and their religion. At the present time he went still further, and he revived the tax named the Jezeeah, which Akber had abolished, and levied it with the utmost rigour. The imposi- tion of it now caused great murmurs and com- plaints in Delhi, but the people were awed into submission. It, however, completely alienated the Rajpoots from the throne, and in the Deckan it made every Hindoo an open or secret partizan of the Maratta chief, who was the zealous upholder of the Hindoo creed (1677). Shortly after the imposition of the Jezeeah, rajah Jeswunt Sing, who was commanding beyond the Indus, died, and his widow, with her two chil- dren, set out on her return home. As she did so without having applied for permission, and even forced the passage of the Indus, Aurungzib re- solved to seize her children, and surrounded her camp with soldiers for the purpose. The Rajpoot leader, Durga Das, having obtained leave to send the women and children home, the ranee and her children were placed among them in disguise. One of her female attendants remained in the camp to personate her, and her sons were personated in like manner by children of their own age. Au- rungzib, whose suspicions were speedily awakened, sent off instant orders for the ranee and her chil- dren to be brought into the citadel. The Rajpoots, to give the real ranee time to escape, refused compliance ; troops were sent against them, they defended themselves long and obstinately, till the greater part of them were slain ; the supposed ranee and her children were then seized, but the real ranee had reached Jodpoor, and was in safety. This insult to the family of such a man as Jeswunt Sing, together with the imposition of the Jezeeah, made the Rajpoot rajahs resolve to unite in defence of their rights. Their chief was the Rana of Oudipoor 5 . Aurungzib marched in person against him, and forced him to submission ; but he had hardly returned to the capital, when he learned that the Rana had violated the treaty. Troops were now collected from all sides, and the Rana was forced to seek shelter in the Aravalli mountains, while his country was ravaged in the most fearful manner, Aurungzib's orders being to spare nothing, but to make the Rajpoots feel all the horrors of war. The Rajpoots, however, did not suffer without revenge ; they cut off convoys, made night-attacks, and frequently gained impor- tant advantages. Durga Das was even able to seduce, by promise of the crown, the emperor's youngest son Akber from his allegiance, and that prince was soon at the head of 70,000 men, on his march for Ajmeer, where his father was encamped with not more than a thousand. But the sagacious emperor soon saw reason to suppose that the greater part of Akber's troops had not revolted willingly, and he quickly induced them to return to their allegiance. The Rajpoots then, fearing to en- gage the whole Mogul army, retired, and Akber was forced to fly to the protection of the Marattas (1681). 5 The title Rana was peculiar to this rajah. Ranee (above) is a princess. The war with the Rajpoots was continued to the mutual injury of both parties, and Aurungzib was glad to bring it to a close by a treaty honourable to the Rana of Oudipoor, and in which no mention was made of the Jezeeah. But the former amity and confidence was never restored, and war prevailed more or less between them during the remainder of the reign of Aurungzib. We now return to Sevajee. The death of the king of Bejapoor (1672), and the weakness and confusion that thence arose in that state, facilitated the progress of his arms, and in the course of the two following years he reduced the remainder of the Concan and a large tract above the Ghats. He then (1674) had himself crowned again with great solemnity and magnificence, and he changed the Persian titles of his officers into Sanscrit ones. At the same time, to counteract the Moslem bigotry of Aurungzib, he manifested the utmost zeal for the Hindoo religion and all its observances. In the following year (1675), he ventured for the first time to cross the Nerbudda, and plunder the Mogul territory beyond it. Supposing then that he had thus struck terror into the Moguls, which would keep them quiet, he thought he might ven- ture on an act he had long meditated, namely, the recovery of his father's jagheer in Mysore, which was now held by his younger brother, Vencajee. With this view he formed an alliance with the king of Golconda, and then set out with an army of 30,000 horse and 40,000 foot (1676). He passed the river Kistna at Oudupah, and, proceeding by Madras on the sea-coast, appeared before the strong hill-fort of Gingee, which was surrendered to him. He then besieged and took the fort of Vellore, and afterwards that of Ami and others. He had thus recovered the whole of the jagheer, when he was called off to aid his ally against the Moguls and the king of Bejapoor. It was, meantime, arranged that Vencajee should hold the jagheer, paying half the revenue to Sevajee, who, as the king of Gol- conda had come to an arrangement with the Moguls, proceeded homewards, and reached his capital after an absence of eighteen months (1678). Next year (1679) the king of Bejapoor became the object of the attack of the Moguls under their ablest general, Dileer ; and, the capital being hard pressed, the government found it necessary to call in the aid of Sevajee. He agreed to give it ; but, not thinking himself strong enough to attack the besieging army, he sought to make a division by invading and ravaging with unusual severity the Mogul territories. In one of these expeditions he was near being cut off, and escaped with great difficulty. He then, as the town was pressed very hard, began to cut off the supplies of the besiegers, and did it so effectually, that Dileer found it ne- cessary to raise the siege. Sevajee's reward for this aid was an increase of territory, and the ces- sion of the royal rights over his jagheer in the Mysore. What his ulterior projects might have been is unknown, for death carried him off in the fol- lowing year (1680), in the fifty-third year of his age. Like every founder of empire, Sevajee was a man of great talent, activity, and energy. In these qualities none of his successors ever equalled him. Beginning his cai'eer, in effect, as a captain of ban- ditti, he formed a state which became the greatest Hindoo power that modern times have witnessed. This he effected, in a great measure, by taking 40 HISTORY OF INDIA. proper advantage of the errors into which bigotry ■ad over-refined policy led Aurungzib. It is to Serajee'e credit, that lie never was wantonly cruel, and that he always sought to mitigate the horrors of war by humane regulations. Sambajee was a prisoner at the time of his father's death, and, as the violence of his temper was dreaded, ready credence was given to a report that had appointed another of his sons, named Rajah Ram, a boy only ten years old, to succeed. Sambajee, however, gained the troops to his side, and he entered Raigbar as the sovereign. He put the mother of Rajah Ram to a cruel and lingering death, imprisoned that prince and the Bramin mi- nisters of state, and cut off the heads of others, who were nut of that privileged class. He resigned him- self altogether to the indulgence of his vicious in- clinations, giving his confidence and the conduct of his affaire to Caloosba, a bramin from Hindustan, who gained his influence over him by the smooth- ness of his manners and the encouragement he gave to the prince's vices. He dissipated the treasures left by his father, and then exasperated the people by raising the taxes. The troops, left in arrears, appropriated the plunder made in expeditions, and the regular troops of Sevajee thus became the ra- pacious bands which the Marattas continued to be all through their history. While Sambajee was thus relaxing the Maratta power, the emperor Aurungzib, having formed a treaty with the Rana of Oudipoor, entered the Deckan with the intention of reducing the whole of it beneath his dominion (1G83). He halted for some time at Burhampoor, engaged in financial ar- rangements, above all, in enforcing the collection of the impolitic Jezeeah, and thence advanced to Aurungabad, whence ( 16'84) he sent prince Moazzim with a large army to ravage the Concan from one end to the other ; and though the prince encoun- tered no opposition, yet, from the nature of the country, he lost all his horses and bullocks, and his men suffered severely from scarcity of supplies, and when he afterwards emerged from it, and en- camped above the Ghats, most of them perished by an epidemic disease. The emperor now prepared to assail Bejapoor ; he himself proceeded to Ah- mednugur, while prince Moazzim was to advance from the west, and Azim, his other son, with a large army, from the east. But Moazzim was now too weak to advance, Azim was in consequence forced to retire, and meantime Sambajee ravaged the country in the emperor's rear, and took and burned Burhampoor. Giving up for the present his designs against Bejapoor, Aurungzib now directed the whole of his force against the king of Golconda ( 1686). This prince bad appointed to the office of prime minister an al.lc Bnunin, named MudnaPunt, — a thing which gave great offence to the bigoted Mussulmans, and on the approach of the imperial army, Ibrahim Khan, the commander-in-chief, deserted with the greater part of his troops. Mudna Punt was killed in a tumult ; the king was obliged to fly to the hill-fort of Qoloonda, and Hyderabad was taken and plun- dered, peace mi then granted to the king on his paying a large quantity of money. The troops wen next led against Bejapoor, which surrendered after a blockade, and that kingdom ceased to exist. Au- rungzib then treacherously broke the peace with the king of Oolconda, having previously purchased his ministers and seduced his troops. The king held out in his fort for seven months, and then surrendered, and thus that monarchy also was ter- minated. The emperor finally seized on Shahjee's jagheer in the Mysore, and extended bis dominion to the extremity of the peninsula. But the strength which he thus acquired was only apparent, and the commencement of the decline of the empire, as we shall see, really dates from this period. During all this time Sambajee remained inactive, sunk in sloth and debauchery. While he was with a small party enjoying himself at one of his fa- vourite residences in the Concan, one of the Mogul commanders made a sudden march with a select body of troops, surrounded the house, found Sam- bajee in a state of intoxication, and made prisoners both him and Calusha, who was wounded in his defence. They were sent to the emperor, and as Sambajee, when invited to become a Mussulman, replied in insulting and, in the ears of Aurungzib, impious language, he was put to death, contrary to the emperor's usual practice, with circumstances of studied cruelty. Calusha suffered with him (1689). The Maratta chiefs, on the death of Sambajee, acknowledged his infant son Saho as their rajah, appointing his uncle Rajah Ram to be regent. A Mogul army then came and laid siege to Raigbar, and, treachery having made them masters of it, the infant rajah fell into their hands (1690). It was then resolved by the chiefs that Rajah Ram, as the last of the family, should retire to the strong for- tress of Gingee in the Carnatic. He made his way thither in disguise, and when there he assumed the title of rajah. Aurungzib despatched Zulficar Khan, one of his ablest officers, with an army to reduce that fort and thus terminate the war ; but that general not finding his force sufficient called for reinforcements, which could not be sent at that time. He therefore employed his troops in levying contributions on Tanjore and other countries to the south. It was now that the war between the Moguls and the Marattas really commenced. Rajah Ram sent two chiefs named Santagee and Danajee to make divisions in the Maratta country. To every chief permission was given to levy chout and to plunder wherever he could ; numbers of the soldiers who had been employed by the Bejapoor and Golconda governments joined the Marattas, and the Deckan from one end to the other was filled with rapines, burnings, and destruction of every kind and form. Nothing could be more opposite than the appear- ance of the Mogul and Maratta horsemen. The former were mounted on large heavy horses with capacious saddles and ample housings richly orna- mented. They wore wadded coats, over which they had plate or chain armour. They had little or no discipline ; their camp was of huge extent ; they were attended by their women and domestics, and an immense body of traders and market-people followed the camp. The Marattas, on the contrary, were small, active, hardy men, mounted on tlie honea of their country, small and active like them- selves. Their usual food was a cake of millet, with perhaps an onion. They were lightly clad ; their arms were a sword and matchlock, OT ■ bam- boo spear about fourteen feet long, which they managed with great dexterity. Their horses w, ire admirably trained ; their saddle was a pad with a a.d. 1697—1707. LAST YEARS OF AURUNGZIB— HIS CHARACTER. 41 blanket folded over it. The Maratta slept on the ground, with his spear stuck beside him, and the bridle of his horse tied to his arm, so that, on the slightest alarm, he could spring to horse. It was the Maratta practice never to stand a charge of the heavy Mogul cavalry, but to break and dis- perse before them. But when, wearied with the fruitless chase, the assailants were returning with their horses exhausted, the Marattas were on them on all sides, cutting off stragglers, breaking into their line, and harassing them in every possible manner. It was their especial delight to cut off convoys ; for here plunder, the object next to their heart, was to be obtained, and if they found that treasure was being conveyed nothing could exceed their perseverance and energy. They then sur- rounded the escort in such numbers that they forced it to halt, and by cutting off all communica- tions and supplies they speedily made it surrender. The men were then stripped of their horses and other property, and dismissed ; the chiefs were kept till a ransom was paid. Santajee and Donajee, by throwing themselves between the royal army and Hindustan, and thus cutting off its supplies, seemed likely to endanger its existence. Aurungzib therefore x-esolved to bring the war to as speedy a close as possible. With this view he sent another army, under his son prince Cambakhsh, against Gingee. Zulficar, dis- gusted at being placed under the command of the prince, listened to the overtures of the besieged ; the prince, on his side, equally disgusted at the real command being with Zulficar, entered into commu- nication with Danajee, who had entered the Car- natic with a body of 20,000 horse, and was greatly impeding the operations of the besiegers. The consequence of the dissension between the imperial generals was, that they were obliged to give up the siege and retire to Vandiwash to await the orders of the emperor (1697). The war now assumed a desultory character. At length Zulficar, finding that he must either re- duce Gingee or be removed from his command with disgrace, began to act with vigour, and ere long that fortress was taken. He had however previously given Rajah Ram the opportunity of making his escape (1698). Dissensions had now broken out among the Marattas. Danajee, whose side was taken by the rajah, quarrelled with Santajee ; and as the latter was unpopular with his troops, on account of his efforts to maintain discipline, a conspiracy was or- ganized in his camp, and he was fallen on and slain. Rajah Ram, who had fixed his residence at Sattara, now took the field himself at the head of the largest Maratta army that had yet been as- sembled, and ravaged the whole north of the Deckan. Aurungzib, on his side, changed his plan of operations. Hitherto he had used to remain stationary himself, and send detachments in dif- ferent directions ; now he resolved to divide his whole army into two portions, and while he himself at the head of one should attack the Maratta for- tresses in succession, the other under Zulficar was to engage their armies wherever they appeared in the field. In pursuance of this plan he quitted Birmapuri, where he had resided for some years, and led his forces against Sattara (1700), which surrendered after a siege of some months; during which time Rajah Ram died, and his widow, Tara Bai, assumed the regency for her son Sevajee. This, however, made no change in the war, and Aurungzib went on taking forts, and in the course of four or five years he became master of all the principal ones, the defence of many of which had been desperate. Still the war was as far from its termination as ever. Zulficar's troops were gra- dually worn out with toils and casualties, the Ma- rattas seemed to multiply daily, and, having made a desert of the Deckan, they spread their ravages into Malwa and Guzerat. They gradually began to retake their forts ; they hung about the em- peror's army, intercepted its supplies, cut off detachments, and made it unsafe for any one to stir a yard from the camp. If the troops were led against them, they vanished ; and, when perhaps wearied and worn out with marching in a wrong direction they returned to camp, they heard of some distant town being taken and burned by the Marattas. The finances also had fallen into dis- order, and the emperor could not pay his troops with his accustomed regularity. The war too con- tinued with the Rajputs, and it was also necessary to employ troops against the Jats, a native people near Agra. Under these circumstances Aurungzib proposed an accommodation to the Marattas ; but their terms, as they knew his situation, were exor- bitant. He then led his troops to Ahmednugur, still harassed by the foe, and in that city, whence twenty years before he had set forth elate with hope to the conquest of the Deckan, he breathed his last, in the eighty-ninth year of his age (1707), and the fiftieth of his reign. With all Aurungzib's talents, it was in his reign that the decline of the power of the house of Timur, which afterwards advanced so rapidly, really com- menced. Though this must have occurred in the ordinary course of affairs, much of it may be ascribed to Aurungzib's personal character. Thus his religious bigotry and intolerance alienated the Hindoos at the very time that the Marattas, a na- tive power, were rising into importance ; and hence his overthrow of the Mohammedan states of the Deckan did not add to his power. Then the natural coldness of his heart and his suspicious character put an end to all attachment on the part of his ministers and officers, and even of his children, and little zeal was displayed in his service. Even, however, had he been an Akber, we doubt if the Mogul empire could have been upheld ; the power of the Marattas on one side, and the turn which affairs took in Persia and Cabul on the other, must have wrought its downfal, in spite of valour or wisdom in the sovereign. It is Aurungzib, and not Baber or Akber, that is the object of admiration to the Mussulmans of India. His courage, his ability, and his craft, which they regard as wisdom, are the themes of their praises ; but they are perplexed to find that, despite of them, his reign was a tissue of ill suc- cess, and that the empire dates its decline from it. Aurungzib, of whom numerous letters are ex- tant, never expresses the slightest remorse for his treatment of his father. But he may have felt it, and he was haunted with the idea of a similar fate awaiting himself. He dreaded death and the judgment to come, confessed that he had committed numerous crimes, but sought to justify them with the flimsy excuse that it had been all for the benefit of his children. He concludes his last letter to HISTORY OF INDIA. D. 1/07—12. prince A/.im with these words : " Conic what may, I have launched my vessel on the waves. Farewell, fare-will, farewell." CHAPTER XIV. Bahadur Shah— Origin of the Sikhs— Jehandar Shah — The Syuds— riitoKiisin— War in the Deckan — Against the Sikhs— Mohammed Shah— Asof Jah — Fall of the Syuds— The Marattas— Balajee Wiswanat— Bajee Rao — Invasion of Hindustan by the Marattas. Bv his last will Aurungzib directed that his empire should be divided among his tliree sons ; but, re- gardleaa of it, Azim, the second son, caused himself to be proclaimed emperor of India. Moazzira, who was in Cabul, assumed as the elder the crown, taking the title of Bahadur Shah, and the two brothers prepared to assert their claims by force of arms. A bloody battle was fought to the south of Agra, in which Azim and his two elder sons were slain, and his youngest, an infant, made prisoner. Bahadur then marched into the Deckan, where prince Catnbakhsh refused to submit to him, and in a battle near Hyderabad that prince was de- feated and slain. In order then to sow dissensions among the Marattas, the emperor released Saho the rightful rajah, and promised to make peace with him on favourable terms if he should succeed in making good his title. The Marattas, as was anticipated, split into two parties, and as that of Saho seemed soon to be the stronger, Daud Khan Panni, a Patau, who as Zulficar's deputy was left to govern the Deckan, concluded a treaty with him, by which it was agreed that the chout should be paid him, but not be collected by the Marattas themselves. As war was now to ensue with a power which had lately arisen in the Punjab, Bahadur resolved to bring the war with the Rajputs to a close. He therefore conceded all their demands, and peace was concluded (1709). This new power was the religious sect of the Sikhs", who have since become of such importance in the history of India. This sect commenced about the end of the fifteenth century ; its founder was a man of the name of Nanik, who taught, as others before him had done, that all religious forms were indifferent, and that the Moslem and the Hindoo were alike in the sight of God. To this doctrine, the latter would of course assent, but the fanatic Moslems would not admit of such enlarged charity and its teacher received the crown of martyrdom :,t 'hen- hands (1606). This impolitic cruelty con- certed the Sikhs from quiet religionists into enthu- siastic warriors. They took op arms under his son, HarGovmd ; but the government proved too strong for them, and they were expelled from their sea tain ""• neiflhbourh 1 of Lahore, and forced to take refuge u, the mountains to the north. Here they remained, itill at enmity with the Moslems, till the year 1675, when their chief, Guru Govmd, the 11 ,"' ""• G0Vind, conceived the idea of forming them into a great religious and military republic. Wo believe the oorrecl 1 to beatoui word lo effect his purpose he abolished all distinction of caste and of religion. Mussulman and Hindoo of high or low caste were admitted alike. A pe- culiar dress was to distinguish the Sikh, his clothes were to be blue; he was to allow the hair of his head and of all parts of his body to grow unchecked. He was to be a soldier from his entrance into the society, and always to carry steel about his person. \V hile the usual ceremonies and usages of religion were abolished and new ones substituted, Hin- dooism was not totally renounced ; Bramins were to be held in honour, and the flesh of kine was not to be eaten. But still the Sikhs were unable to resist the im- perial arms. They were hunted down and massa- cred, their forts were taken, and even Guru him- self, it is said, was obliged to take service with the Moguls for a subsistence. The cruelties that were exercised on them, however, only served to give strength to their fanaticism. Under a chief named Bandu, of a more ferocious character than Guru Govind, they burst from their mountains, and over- ran the east of the Punjab, destroying and massa- cring in the most savage manner wherever they came. They penetrated as far as Seharanpoor, to the east of the Jumna, and then fixed themselves in the country between the Sutlej and the moun- tains, whence they soon spread their ravages as far as Delhi on the one side, and as Lahore on the other. It was these last depredations that caused the emperor Bahadur to march in person against them. He speedily routed them, and drove them back to their hills, and having blockaded Bandu in a fortress, he hoped to end the war by his capture. But he contrived to escape in a sally, one of his followers having personated him in order to attract the attention of the enemy. The emperor returned to Lahore, where he died shortly after, in the fifth year of his reign (171'-'); for he" was an old man when he came to the throne. On the death of Bahadur, there was, of course, as we may say, a contest for the. crown. As his eldestson, Jehandar Shah, was a man of no capacity, the troops and nobility in general were in favour of the second son, Azeem. But Zulficar, judging it more for his advantage to have a puppet on The throne, declared for Jehandar, and Azeem was de- feated and slain. Zulficar was immediately made vi/.ir, and he treated with the utmost arrogance and disdain the feeble prince whom lie served, who had indeed forfeited all title to respect by promoting to high offices the low-born relatives of his favourite mistress, who had been a public dancer. Jehandar had put to death all the princes of the blood who were in his power. But Fnrokhstr, the son of Azeem, who was in Bengal, threw him- self on the protection of two able nun, Syuds, „r descendants of the prophet, one of whom, Hussun Ally, was governor of Bahar, and the other \h- dallah, governor of Allahabad. With their aid' he repelled a force that was sent against him. and then advanced to the vicinityof Agra, where he was en- countered by Jehandar and Zulficar at the head of 70,000 men. The battle was long and bloody, and Hussun was even left for dead on the field. But the vieiory finally remained with Ftirokhsir. and Je- btadAr Bed in disguise to Delhi, whither Zulficar led ""•>■'•">. ins of the troops. Zulficar's father Assad Khan, had meantime made the wretched em' I peror a prisoner, ami when Furokhsir approached ,d. 1713—20. FUROKHSIR— MOHAMMED SHAH. 43 the city he and his son went forth to meet hirn, and delivered up to him their late master. Jehan- dar was put to death, Zulficar shared his fate ; the life of Assad was spared (1713). The elevation of Furokhsir was of necessity at- tended by that of the Syuds, his protectors. Ab- dallah, the elder brother, was made vizir, and Hussun, Ameer-ul-Omrah, or commander-in-chief. They thought, as the king's character was mean and feeble, that all power would be theirs, while he would content himself with wealth and plea- sure. But he had a favourite, to whom he gave the title of Meer Jumla, and both were alike jealous of the Syuds, and resolved to destroy them if possible. Their first project was to separate, and thus weaken them. Accordingly Hussun was directed to march against Ajeet Sing, the rajah of Marwar, to whom, at the same time, a secret message was sent, directing him to make an obstinate resistance and protract the war. But the rajah looked to his own interest, and when Hussun offered him fair and honourable terms he accepted them. One of the conditions was that he should give his daughter in marriage to the emperor ; the last matrimonial alliance between the house of Timur and the Raj- put rajahs. Hussun then returned to the capital, and a civil war was on the point of breaking out between the Syuds and the king ; the monarch, however, was soon forced to submit, and to put the gates of his palace into the hands of their troops. It was then arranged that Meer Jumla should go as governor to Bahar, and Hussun to the Deckan, whither he was to lead his army without delay. The daughter of Ajeet Sing had been by this time conducted to the capital. She was lodged in the palace of Hussun, who celebrated her nuptials with the king with unusual magnificence ; he then set out for the Deckan, threatening, if any further attempt were made against his brother's authority, to be back with his army in three weeks from the day he should have heard of it. The plan adopted by the court now was secretly to employ Daud Khan, the Patau, against Hussun. He was directed to stir up the Marattas and others, and, while affecting to co-operate with Hussun, to effect his destruction. But this circuitous course did not suit the bold, daring character of Daud. He proceeded openly against Hussun, and met him boldly in the field. The impetuosity of his charge bore down all opposition, Hussun's troops were flying in all directions, when Daud, heading a charge of 300 Patans armed with battle-axes, was shot by a ball through the head. His fall, of course, decided the fortune of the day, and Hussun then proceeded to act against the Marattas. They adopted their usual tactics; and, finding that he could effect nothing serious against them, and that his presence was required at Delhi, he made a treaty with Saho, one of the conditions of which was that he was to levy chout over the whole of the Deckan. He was in addition to have the sirdtsmuki, or a tenth of j the remainder of the revenue, and. in return he i was to pay a tribute of ten lacs of rupees, to furnish 15,000 horse, and to answer for the tran- ] quillity of the country. The emperor refused to | ratify this treaty, and this served to bring affairs ! between him and the Syuds to a crisis (1717). During this time, the Sikhs had renewed their ravages. An able general was sent against them, ; and they were beaten in all quarters. Bandu and a great number of them were made prisoners. Some were put to death on the spot, but the chief and upwards of 700 others were led to Delhi, where they were paraded through the streets and then be- headed, at the rate of one hundred a day, when they refused to renounce their religion. Bandu, arrayed in a robe of cloth of gold, with a red turban on his head, was exhibited in an iron cage. The heads of his followers were borne around him on pikes. He was given a dagger and ordered to stab his infant son ; on his refusal, the child was slain, and its heart flung in his face. He was then torn to pieces with red-hot pincers. He died praising God, who had raised him up as a scourge to the iniquities of the age. The remaining Sikhs were hunted like wild beasts, but still the sect survived, and, as we shall see, finally attained to empire. During the absence of Hussun, his brother the vizir, being of indolent, luxurious habits, had com- mitted the duties of his office to an Hindoo deputy, whose strictness caused dissatisfaction, and he was in imminent danger from the plots of the king, and of Meer Jumla, who had returned to court. He therefore assembled his adherents, and prepared to stand on his defence. They feared to attack him, and Meer Jumla was obliged to retire to his native province of Multan. But the king immedi- ately formed another plot with rajah Jy Sing and some other leaders of importance. This brought Hussun to Delhi, attended by a body of 10,000 Marattas, and he took possession of the city, and put Furokhsir to death (1719). Two young princes, whom the Syuds successively placed on the throne, having died in the course of a few months, they fixed on a third, who was of a sounder constitution, and whose mother, by whom he had been reared, was a woman of talent. He ascended the throne by the title of Mohammed Shah. The power of the Syuds gave occasion to much discontent among the nobles, and insurrections took place. These, however, they suppressed ; but there was one person whom they had offended, and whose talents made him formidable. This was Cheen Kilich Khan (afterwards named Asof Jah, as we shall henceforth call him), the son of Ghazi- ud-din, of a Toorkee family, one of Aurungzib's favourite officers. He had been made viceroy of the Deckan on the accession of Furokhsir, but had been removed to make room for Hussun. He had notwithstanding taken the side of the Syuds in the late transactions ; but to his mortification he was now only appointed to the government of Malwa. He dissembled his anger, and, having at length drawn together a sufficient number of troops, he raised the standard of revolt, crossed the Ner- budda, and entered the Deckan (1720), where he speedily established his authority, and defeated tile troops sent against him by the Syuds. The intelli- gence of his success caused great consternation to the Syuds ; but the emperor, who, tutored by his mother, had as yet carried himself fairly toward them, was secretly rejoiced at it, and he entered into a plot with some of his leading nobles for the overthrow of their power. It was agreed between the brothers, that Abdallah should as heretofore remain behind, while Hussun, taking the emperor and some of the suspected nobles with him, should lead an army into the Deckan. M HISTORY OF INDIA. a. d. 1722—37. llussun accordingly marclicd from Agra ; but ho ha<] hardly set out when a ferocious Cahnuck, hired for tlie purpose, assassinated him in liis palankeen. His death caused great commotion in tin- camp. His adherents, many of whom were Syuds, took arms to avenge it ; they were opposed by the party of the conspirators and" the supporters of the king, and were finally overcome. When the news reached Delhi, Abdallah placed another prince on the throne, and, assembling an army, advanced to engage that of Mohammed Shah. He was. however, defeated and made a prisoner ; but his life was spared, as he was df the lineage of the Prophet. Mohammed, being now his own master, bestowed the office of vizir on Asof Jah, who, however, being engaged with the affairs of the Deckan, did not come to court immediately. On his arrival (1722), he found the emperor wholly devoted to pleasure, a mere puppet in the hands of his mistress and his favourites. Little harmony was therefore to be expected ; the vizir was disgusted with such con- duct, while the emperor sought no higher gratifica- tion than to see his favourites ridicule the old- fashioned dress and formal manners of the vizir. Toward the end of the following year Asof Jah resigned his office and set out for the Deckan. The emperor parted with him on terms of great cor- diality, but he sent secret orders to Mobarez Khan, the governor of Hyderabad, to endeavour to destroy him and then to take his government. He obeyed, collected an army, and gave Asof battle ; but he met only with defeat and death, and his head, as that of a rebel, was sent to court by the victor. Asof then fixed his seat in Hyderabad, and, though he sent from time to time presents to the emperor, he in other respects acted as an independent prince. His chief care now was to secure himself against the Marattas. The Maratta state at this period had assumed a degree of form and consistency such as it had not as yet possessed. This was owing to the Bramin Balajee Wiswanat, the peshwa or prime minister of rajah Saho. As a mean toward the future extension of the Maratta power, Balajee was care- ful to keep up the claim of chout and rirdismuki, and in the case of the former he claimed, though he did not enforce it, a fourth, not merely of the actual revenue, but of that fixed by Todar Mai and .Malik Amber. It was also part of his plan to parcel out these imposts to different Maratta chiefs, taking care that none should have so much in any urge the rajah to offensive operations against the Moguls in Hindustan. « Let us sink.-," cried he, M the wither- ed trunk, and the branches will fall of them- The rajah gave a willing consent, and Bajee Rio forthwith ravaged Malwa and forced th j, vei-nor of G zzetti t.. consent to the payment of rh„ut (17-'-'-). By this time As„f .lab though! himself suffi- ciently secure in the Deckan to endeavour to set limits to the Maratta power. Having failed in an attempt to get the chout and rirdamma of the dis- trict round Hyderabad commuted for a fixed sum, he affected to doubt whether he was to pay it to Saho or to his rival Samba, who still held the southern part of the Maratta country. The rajah and his peshwa were highly offended, and the latter invaded Asof's territories (1727), and laid siege to Burhampoor. But when Asof and Samba came to its relief he suddenly drew off his forces, and rushed on and ravaged Guzerat, where the chout had not been paid, and then, returning to the Deckan, cut off Asof's supplies in the usual manner, and forced him to renounce his alliance with Samba, and to make some further concessions. Shortly after, Samba was surprised and defeated, and forced to acknowledge Saho's supremacy. Asof Jah and Ba- jee Rao at length deemed it would be more for their mutual interest to be at peace than at enmity, and theyentered into a secret compact of mutual support. Bajee Rao now directed his efforts against Malwa and Guzerat, where he was chiefly opposed by the Rajput rajahs, to whom the court of Delhi had granted the government of these provinces, and his success was such, that at length (173C) he feit himself strong enough to demand as a jaghir Malwa and all the country south of the river Chumbul, with the holy cities Muttra, Allahabad, and Benares. The emperor, however, was not brought low enough yet to concede so much, and Asof Jah, who was growing alarmed at the rapid progress made by the Marattas, resolved to march to the aid of his liege lord. Meanwhile Bajee Rao had arrived within forty miles of Agra, while a portion of his light troops, under Malhar Rao Hol- kar, were ravaging the country beyond the Jumna. Sadut Khan, however, the governor of Oude, marched against them and drove them back. As fame magnified this check into a great victory, Bajee Rao, to efface its effects, passing the Mogul army sent under the vizir to oppose him, made forced marches and suddenly appeared before the gates of Delhi. As his object was only to intimi- date, he did little mischief, and on hearing that the vizir, joined by Sadut Khan, was advancing against him, he drew off his forces and retired to the Deckan (1737). Asof Jah soon after arrived at Delhi, where he was made commander-in-chief, with the fullest powers, and the government of Malwa and Guzerat was conferred on his son Gha/.i-ud-din. Bajee Rao having recrossed the Nerbudda at the head of 80,000 horse, Asof Jah advanced to engage him. But, cautious from age, and relying on his artillery, instead of trying to bring on a pitched battle at once, he resolved to await an attack in a strong position near Bopal. The consequence was that the country round was laid waste, his supplies and detachments were cut off, and at the end of about a month he was obliged to commence a re- treat, harassed by the persevering foe, and finally to enter into a treaty with the peshwa, ceding the country south of the Chumbul, and promising to use all his influence with the emperor to induce him to confirm the cession, and to pay in addition fifty lacs of rupees to the Marattas. Bui ere tins.- matters could be arranged another storm burs! over the ill-fated Indian empire from the point whence such calamities have invariably conn — the north-west frontier, along the vale of the Cabul. a. d. 1722—40. nadir shah. 45 CHAPTER XV. Persia — Conquest of it by Mahmud the Afghan— Nadir Shah— His Invasion of India— Massacre and Plunder of Delhi— Death of Bajee Rao— Balajee Rao— The Rohillas — Invasion of India by Ahmed Duranee— Ahmed Shah — TheMarattas in Hindustan — Ghazi-ud-din — AlumgirII. — Plunder of Delhi by Ahmed Duranee — Conquest of the Punjab by the Marattas— Power of the Marattas— Attempt to make themselves Masters of all India— Battle of Pani- pat, and Ruin of the Maratta Power. The Suffavee dynasty had now occupied the throne of Persia for more than two centuries ; it had, con- sequently, like every other Oriental dynasty, sunk and lost all energy beneath the degrading influence of absolute power. In the reign of Hussun Khan (1722), the Ghiljys, a tribe of the Afghans who in- habited the country about Candahar, and who had some years before made themselves masters of that city, led by an enterprising chief named Mahmud, resolved to attempt the overthrow of the Persian power, with which for some years they had been at war. At the head of only 25,000 hardy warriors, Mahmud marched from Candahar, and directed his course for Isfahan, the Persian capital. In the vicinity of that city he encountered the Persian army, of far superior number, splen- didly equipped, and well supplied with artillery. But victory was on the side of the warriors of the mountains, and the wealthy and luxurious city with 200,000 inhabitants was invested. Though the Afghans were now only 20,000 in number, by their activity and vigilance they were enabled to repel all sallies, and cut off all supplies, and, after sus- taining the horrors of famine for six months, the town was forced to surrender. The king came forth at the head of his- nobles, and placed the crown on the head of the conqueror. After a reign of little more than two years, Mahmud died raging mad, and was succeeded by his nephew named Ashreff (1724). This able prince defended his dominions with success against the Ottoman Turks and the Russians ; but he failed in his contest with the Persians led by the greatest man that modern Persia has produced. A son of Shah Hussun, named Tamasp, had fled from Isfahan, and taken refuge with the tribe of Kajar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Here he was joined by a predatory chief named Nadir, a native of Khorasan, whose daring exploits had rendered him famous in the country. Nadir, at- taching his fortunes to the royal cause, took the name of Tamasp Coolee, or servant of Tamasp, and, under his able guidance, the troops of Persia finally succeeded in driving the Ghiljyes out of the country (1729). Having carried on wars with success in various quarters, Nadir finally felt him- self sufficiently strong to depose Tamasp, and place the diadem on his own brows. This he did with great solemnity in a general assembly of his army and of all the great officers of the realm on the plain of Moghan (1736). Nadir now resolved to avenge on the Ghiljyes the evils they had inflicted on Persia, and to re- store Candahar to the empire. After sustaining a long siege, that city surrendered (1738), and his conquest of the Ghiljye territory brought him now into contact with the dominions of the empe- rors of India, who, as we may have observed, had always possessed the region through which the river Cabul flows. Aware of the distracted state of the Indian government, he took advantage of its tardy recognition of his title, and, making it and some other matters a cause of quarrel, he seized the city of Cabul, and marched for the Indus. Meeting with little or no opposition, he advanced toward the Jumna, and at length, within one hundred miles of Delhi, he encountered the army of Mohammed Shah (1739). The troops of India would have been in no case a match for the hardy warriors led by Nadir ; but the jealousy which prevailed between Asof Jah and Sadut Khan contributed still further to en- feeble them. They were therefore easily overcome in the engagement which ensued, and Mohammed was obliged to enter the camp of Nadir, and ac- company him to Delhi. In that city the Persian troops, whose discipline was high, conducted them- selves with much propriety, until, upon a report of Nadir's death, the inhabitants rose and killed about 700 of them. Nadir then, after making fruit- less efforts to appease the tumult, and having been himself assailed with missiles as he rode through the city for that purpose, gave orders for a general massacre. The butchery lasted from sunrise till late in the afternoon, when he issued orders for it to cease. The number of the slain is variously stated from 150,000 to 8000, but that of 30,000 seems nearer to, though perhaps under the truth. But it was money, not blood, that Nadir sought in India, and the work of pillage now began. Every thing of value belonging to the crown was seized, torture was employed to make the nobles and the inferior inhabitants discover their wealth ; the governors of provinces were forced to yield contri- butions, and Nadir at length, having obtained all the wealth that he thought India could bestow, quitted Delhi after a residence of fifty-eight days, taking with him a treasure estimated at upwards of thirty millions sterling. He formed a treaty with Mohammed, whom he replaced on the throne, by which all the provinces west of the Indus were ceded to Persia ; and this treaty put a final end to the rule of the house of Timur in Afghanistan. The state of misery and distress in the capital and the empire may easily be conceived, and it might have been expected that the Marattas would have taken advantage of it to extend their power in Hindustan. But Bajee Rao preferred resuming operations in the Deckan, where he engaged in hostilities with Nasir Jung, the son and deputy of Asof Jah. He met, however, with a more vigorous opposition than he had anticipated, and was glad to come to an accommodation with his opponent. He then set out on his return to Hindustan, and had reached the Nerbudda when death surprised him (1740). His successor in the office of peshwa was his son Balajee Rao, who was also a man of considerable ability. But he had potent rivals and enemies to contend with, and it required all his address to overcome their intrigues. The most formidable of these rivals was Ragujee Bosla, who had the charge of collecting the chout in Berar and the forest-country to the east of it, which rendered him in fact nearly the sovereign of that region. He even attempted to collect the chout to the north of the Nerbudda, but Balajee marched in person into HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1743—51. that country; and while he was there, and was pre- paring to insist on the execution of the treaty con- cluded with his father l>y Asot' Jah, Ragujee in- vaded Bengal. The emperor, in his alarm, offered to Balajee the cession of Malwa, on condition of liis aiding him against Hagujee. The offer was gladly accepted ; the peshwa forthwith marched through Bahir and reached Moonhedabad, the capital of Bengal, in time to protect it against Ragujee, whom he routed and drove out of the province. He then returned to Sattara (1743). against which he found Ragujee in full march ; and so strong was the confederacy that had been formed against the pLshwa, that he deemed it advisable to detach Ragujee from it by conceding to him the right of levying tribute in Bahir and Bengal, llagujee's attempts on Bengal were finally concluded by the cession of Cuttae, the southern part of Orissa, and the annual payment of twelve lacs of rupees as the chotit of Bengal (1751). The deaths of Asof Jah and of Rajah Saho oc- curred during this period. The former returned to the Deckan to suppress the rebellion of his son, Xasir Jung, and he died there in the year 1748 7 ; Saho's death occurred in the following year. A series of intrigues for the succession followed ; but the pd'shwa succeeded in placing a prince, named Rajah Ram, on the throne. He was then engaged in hos- tilities with the successor of Asof Jah, who was aided by the Trench ; but we shall defer our ac- count of these transactions. The most remarkable event in Hindustan at this time was the rise of the Rohillas, a people destined to act a conspicuous part in the future history. Numbers of the Afghans of the district of Roll (whence they were called Rohillas) had been in the imperial service. There was among them a man named Ally Mohammed, who was said to have been a Hindoo, and who had been adopted by a Rohilla soldier, lie entered the army as a common soldier, and, being a man of talent and energy, he rose, like so many men of the same character, to some rank and influence. He obtained the management of some jagheers ; he gradually increased his posses- sions and took more and more of the Afghans into bifl pay and service, and at length he felt himself strong enough to refuse remitting the income of the lands he held to Delhi. He defeated the troops sent against him, and eventually became master of the country between the Ganges and Oude, hence- forth named Rohilcund. The emperor at length tooli the field against him in person, and he was then obliged t.. submit and content himself with the government of Sirhind (1745). The north-west frontier was destined to send more plunderers in on India. Nadir shah having abhorred for his tyranny by the Persians, a conspiracy was formed against him, and he was • ted in his tent near Meshid (17-17). Ahmed Khan, the chief of the Afghans of the Abdalee who were in his service, having mad..' a fruit* " When ha vai Ural made viceroy ..I the Deckan (above, i of the nferredoi ; and thie ha« been the title down t<> Hi,- present day. mountalni principally about Al1 ""' 1 ' r """ ■ ■ • «plalncd motive, changed 1 1,. ir by which name they are known in Indian hlatory. less effort to avenge him, retired with his men into his own country ; ami his influence was such, that within a short time he was declared king at Candahar, and his dominions extended from the Indus to the frontiers of Persia. Knowing the weakness and the wealth of India, where he had been with Nadir, he resolved to attempt conquest in it, and, passing the Indus with only 12,000 men, he took Lahore and advanced to the Sutlej. Here an army under the vizir and prince Ahmed was prepared to oppose him ; but he crossed the river where there was no ford, got into their rear, and took the town of Sir- hind, where their stores and baggage lay. He then assailed the entrenched camp of the Indians ; but, being repulsed in several attacks, he repassed the river and marched homewards (1748). Within a month after the battle of Sirhind the emperor Mohammed died, and was succeeded by his son Ahmed Shah. The late vizir had been killed by a cannon-ball at Sirhind, and the office was now vacant. Ahmed offered it to Asof Jah, and on his declining it he gave it to Snider Jung, the son of Sadut Khan the viceroy of Oude. As Ahmed Durance was at this time engaged in the western part of his dominions, the vizir, Ally Mohammed being now dead, thought the occasion good for making an attempt to destroy his neighbours the Rohillas. He committed the charge of the war to the Afghan chief of Fur- rockabad, but, this general happening to fall in battle, the vizir endeavoured to derive advantage from that event, by depriving his widow of the greater part of her territory. The people, however, rose and called in the Rohillas ; the vizir was obliged to take the field against them ; his nume- rous but ill-disciplined troops yielded an easy victory to the enemy, and the Rohillas soon ap- peared before the walls of both Luckuow and Allahabad (1750). The vizir saw now no resource but to call in the Marattas. He applied to the two chiefs Holkar and Scindia, to whom the peshwa had given settle- ments in Malwa, and the promise of a large subsidy induced them to lead their forces to his aid ; he also was joined by the rajah of the Jats. At the head of this combined force, he defeated the Ro- hillas, and drove tljcm to the lower ranges of the Himalaya. As he permitted the Marattas to levy their subsidy from the conquered territory, it was many years before the country recovered from the effects of their ravages (1751). When the vizir returned to Delhi, he found that Ahmed Durance had again invaded the Punjab, which had been ceded to him by the emperor on his demand ; he also found that his own influence with the emperor and his mother had been engrossed by a favourite eunuch. This difficulty ho easily removed by inviting the favourite to a banquet, at which he caused him to be assassinated. But this only raised up to him a more formidable opponent in the person of Shuhab-ud-din •, the grandson of Asof Jah, a young man of great energy and ability, whom he bad himself patronised and raised to the rank of Ameer-ul-Omrab, with the title of Qhari- nd-din. This young man readily joined the em- peror against his benefactor. A civil war was car- ried on for six months in the streets of Delhi, when Hither, Ghftil ud din (see i>. -in, died in 1/53, at bad, bj poiaon u »as laid, when on his march agalnal bii brother, Balabul a. d. 1754—60. POWER OF THE MARATTAS. 47 the vizir, learning that a body of Marattas was coming to the aid of his opponents, consented to make peace, and retire to Oude. Ghazi-ud-din then turned his arms against the Jats, and, while he was thus engaged, the emperor, who was grown quite weary of his arrogance and insolence, with- drew, under the pretence of hunting, with what troops he had about him, in order to try to effect his emancipation, but Ghazi-ud-din soon sent the Marattas after him, who made him a prisoner. He forthwith repaired to the imperial camp, where he deposed the emperor, and put out the eyes of both himself and his mother. He then placed on the throne a prince of the blood royal, under the title of Alumgir II. (1754.) The ambitious and active Ghazi-ud-din soon after tried to recover the Punjab from the Duranees ; but he resolved to proceed by stratagem, not by force. The widow of the late governor ruled it in the name of her young son, and the vizir, advancing to Lahore under the pretext of espousing her daughter, to whom he was betrothed, surprised the town, and made the regent a prisoner in her bed. Ahmed Shah, as soon as he heard of this treacher- ous deed, put himself at the head of his army, and speedily appeared within twenty miles of Delhi. Here Ghazi-ud-din, by means of the late regent of the Punjab, with whom he had been reconciled, ob- tained his own pardon. But Ahmed required money, and Delhi became a scene of plunder and mas- sacre, as in the time of Nadir ; for, though Ahmed was not ferocious like him, he was not so well able to restrain his troops, by whom a massacre still more wanton and barbarous was perpetrated on the Hindoo pilgrims at Muttra. The hot weather, which the Afghans cannot endure, coming on, and causing mortality among them, Ahmed led his troops home. He espoused a princess of the house of Timur, and at the request of the feeble emperor, as a protection to him against the vizir, he made an able Rohilla chief, named Najeeb-ud-doula, commander of the forces at Delhi (1757). Ghazi-ud-din, who was then at Furrockabad, set all the regulations of Ahmed Shah at nought ; but, not feeling himself alone sufficiently strong, he called in the never-failing aid of the Marattas. He was joined by a force under the peshwa's brother, Ragoba, and taking possession of Delhi, he laid siege to the fortified palace. It held out for a month, at the end of which time the emperor (Najeeb-ud-doula having previously made his es- cape from it) opened the gates, and received Ghazi-ud-din as his vizir. Ragoba then was in- duced, by the intelligence he received of the state of the Punjab, to attempt the conquest of it. He met with no opposition, the Duranees retiring over the Indus at his approach ; and, leaving a Maratta governor, he returned to the Deckau (1758). Shuja-ud-doula, son of Sufder Jung, of Oude, and the other Mohammedan princes of India, seeing the great increase of the Maratta power, now combined for their mutual protection. The Marattas imme- diately invaded and ravaged Rohilcund in their usual manner ; but Shuja-ud-doula fell suddenly on them, and drove them with great loss over the Ganges, and, as they heard that Ahmed Shah was on his march, they proposed a peace, to which the confederates agreed. The Duranee Shah, who had been engaged in reducing the Belooches in the southern part of his dominions, marched up the Indus to Peshawar, aud then crossed it, and keeping to the mountains, as it was the rainy sea- son, advanced till he reached the other side of the Jumna. He there fell on a body of the Marattas, commanded by Scindia, which he cut to pieces, their leader being among the slain. Another division, under Holkar, as it was making southwards was overtaken by the Duranee troops sent in pursuit of it, and utterly destroyed (1759). At this time Ghazi-ud-din, fearing the vengeance of his royal master should Ahmed Shah be victo- rious, issued his orders for the murder of that un- happy monarch, and placed another prince of the family on the throne ; but his puppet was never acknowledged. Shah Alum, the heir, was at this time in Bengal, where we shall meet him in the progress of our narrative. The Maratta power was now at its height; nearly all India, from Himalaya to Cape Comorin, was either directly subject to it or paid it tribute. The peshwa, who was its real head, had brought it to a degree of order such as it had never previously known. Its army, instead of consisting of mere marauding bands, now contained a large body of well-mounted and well-paid cavalry, and a force of 10,000 infantry, disciplined by those who had served with the Europeans on the coast of Coro- mandel. It also possessed, for the first time, a large train of artillery. The pride and self-con- fidence which this force produced was only stimu- lated to exertion by the account of the disasters of Scindia and Holkar, and it was resolved to make a strenuous effort for the complete empire of India. The command of the Maratta army was given to Sedasheo Rao, the peshwa's cousin, thence called the Bhao, i. e. Brother. He was accompanied by Wiswas Rao, the peshwa's son and heir, and by all the great Bramin and Maratta chiefs. He advanced to Delhi, which had a small Duranee garrison ; the Marattas entered by a neglected bastion, and the citadel yielded to the power of their artillery. The Bhao plundered the palace and every public edi- fice of all their ornaments ; he seized the splendid throne, and stripped off the silver ceiling from the hall of audience. He was going to proclaim Wis- was Rao emperor of India, but he was induced to delay it till he should have driven the Duranees out of the land (1760). It was the advice of the prudent old rajah of the Jats, that the Marattas should leave their in- fantry and artillery in his country, and carry on the war in the usual Maratta fashion with their cavalry, and the climate would then, he said, soon force the Duranees to retire. But the Bhao spurned at this counsel, and resolved on regular warfare. Ahmed Shah was at this time encamped on the frontiers of Oude, arranging matters with Shuja- ud-doula and his other allies ; and as soon as the rains permitted he put his troops in motion, and advanced toward Delhi. A bold and rapid pas- sage of the Jumna which he made inspired the Marattas with such respect for his prowess, that to be out of his reach they retired to Panipat, and there they formed an intrenched camp, defended by their numerous artillery. The Bhao's force consisted of 55,000 regular and 15,000 irregular cavalry, with 15,000 disciplined infantry. He had 200 guns, and numerous wall-pieces, and a large supply of rockets, which were much used in Indian warfare. The whole number within his lines, in- 48 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1761. clu-ivc of the soldiers anil their followers, is stated at 200,000 persons. The army of Ahmed Shah was composed of 40,000 Afghans and Persians, 13,000 Indian horse, and 38,000 Indian infantry, of which the Rohillas were the only effective por- tion. He had about thirty pieces of cannon, and a good many wall-pieces. The Shah encamped in the neighbourhood of the Marnttnn, whose lines he did not venture to attack. Meantime, a body of about 12,000 Maratta cavalry had advanced from the lower Jumna and was cut- ting off his supplies, and great distress began to be felt in bis camp ; but an active detachment came up with the freebooters and cut them to pieces, and the .Maratta camp was now in its turn straitened fur provisions, as the enemy had got the command of the open country. Constant skirmishes took place, and the Marattas made some fruitless attacks on the Durance lines. Ahmed's allies were urgent with him to bring matters to issue by a general action ; but his reply was, " This is a matter of war with which you are not acquainted. In other affairs do as you please, but leave this to me." He used also to say to them, " Do you sleep ; I will take care that no harm befalls you." In effect, he was indefatigable ; he omitted no precaution, and he was on horseback nearly the whole day. At length the Bhao, having endeavoured in vain to effect a peace through the mediation of Shnja- ud-doula, resolved U) conquer or perish in the field, rather than see his whole army die of starvation ; and ere daybreak on the morning of the Cth of January, 17G1, the whole Maratta army, placing their artillery in front, advanced to assail the hostile lines. Ahmed Shah, having had timely information, drew his troops up in front of his camp. The action began by the discharge of the Maratta cannon, which however did no mischief, as the balls went over the enemies' heads. Their disciplined infantry then advanced with charged bayonets on the Ro- hillas who were on the right, and routed them with great slaughter, and then took the centre in flank, which was at the same time assailed in front by the Bhao and Wiswas Rao with the flower of the Maratta cavalry. Ahmed, seeing the peril of his centre, brought up the reserve, but the advantage still was on the side of the Marattas. He then rallied all his men and made his whole line ad- vance, and directed one division to wheel and take them in flank. This manoeuvre was successful. " All at once, as if by enchantment," says the write who was present, " the whole Maratta army turned their backs and fled at full speed, leaving the field of battle covered with heaps of dead." No quarter was given, the pursuit continued for fifteen or twenty miles, the peasantry cut off those that escaped the soldiers, and the whole number of the slain is said to have been 200,000. The Bhao himself and Wiswat Rao were among the dead, and every chief of note was either slain or wounded. The peshwa did not survive the shock which the tidings of this great defeat gave him. Dissensions broke out among the Maratta chiefs, and it was some time before the Maratta power became again formidable. Ahmed Duranee, after his victory, went on to Delhi, whence, after a short stay, he returned to his own country, and never again concerned him- self with the affairs of India. These now began to assume a new character ; for the people from the far West, into whose hands the empire was des- tined to come next, had just at this time begun to establish themselves in Bengal. To relate the formation of their empire is now our task. a.d. 1418—97. DISCOVERY OF THE ROUTE TO INDIA. PART II. BRITISH EMPIRE IN INDIA. CHAPTER I. Early trade to India— Discovery of the Monsoons— Portu- guese Discoveries— Passage of Cape of Good Hope — Voyage of Vasco da Gama— Voyage of Cabral— Second Voyage of Gama — Of the Albuquerques — Soarez — Almeida — Albu- querque—Conquest of Goa— Of Malacca— Extent of Por- tuguese Empire in the East— Defence of Diu — Of Goa — Voyages of the Dutch— Their Trade and Settlements— The French. From the most distant ages, as we have seen, the products of India were conveyed to the West ; but the course was chiefly a land one, from the coast of Arabia Felix, or the head of the Persian Gulf, and the trade was almost entirely in the hands of the Phoenicians. At length, when Alexander the Great had built the city named from himself in Egypt, and that country formed an independent kingdom, under the Ptolemies, the Indian trade began to take a new direction, and vessels leaving the vicinity of the modern Suez proceeded down the Red Sea, along the coast of Arabia, whence they sometimes sailed across the mouth of the Per- sian Gulf to the Indus, and thence round Cutch and Guzerat to the mouth of the Nerbudda, and then occasionally along the coast of Malabar. When they had obtained their cargoes, they returned by the same circuitous route, and the commodities, being conveyed by land to Alexandria, were thence distributed over the West. This, however, was not the common course, for the ships of Egypt in ge- neral went no further than the coast of Arabia, where they purchased the goods which Arabian or Indian vessels had brought thither by the route above described. It seems strange that, in this long-continued in- tercourse with India, the phenomenon of the Mon- soons, and their applicability to the purposes of trade, should never have engaged the thoughts of any of the navigators. It was not till about the middle of the first century of our era, that a mariner named Hippalus, observing the regularity with which the one blows for six months, from the south-west, and the other for an equal period, from the north-east, drew the natural conclusion, that if a vessel were to sail with the former, from the mouth of the Red Sea, she must be carried to some point on the coast of India, and that the other then would bring her back to the place from which she had started. He had the courage to put his theory into practice, and the event fully justified his anti- cipations. The Indian trade now took a new course; but Alexandria continued to be its great emporium. Political changes had no effect on it. The Roman empire was succeeded by that of the Khalifehs, and this by that of the Mamlooks ; but still it was from Alexandria that the spices of the East were dis- persed to the West, the great agents being the Italian traders, especially the Venetians, of whose wealth and power it was the main support. In the fifteenth century, the profits of the eastern trade being manifestly so great, other nations began to long for a share in it, and to meditate on the possibility of making a direct passage to India. The writings of the ancients, which were now becoming better known, informed men of the opinion which had prevailed of the possibility of circumnavigating Africa ; and the knowledge of the globular form of the earth, joined with the notion of India being the most distant region of the East, led to the in- ference, that by steering boldly across the Atlantic one would be sure to reach the coast of India. This last, as is well known, was the idea of Colum- bus, and it led to the discovery of America. The former idea gradually unfolded itself to the Portu- guese, whose situation at the western extremity of Europe, and their familiarity with the sea, and enmity with the Moors of Africa, led them to ex- plore the western coast of that continent. Don Henry, one of the sons of John I. by an English princess, has the honour of being the originator of Portuguese discovery. While governor of Ceuta, he had learned much from the Moors respecting the African nations to the south. This confirmed him in the idea he had conceived of pushing dis- covery southwards, for he had already sent out vessels which had succeeded in doubling Cape Non, the previous limit of southern navigation, and coming in view of Cape Bojador. On his return from Ceuta, Don Henry fixed his abode at Sagrez, near Cape St. Vincent, where he would always have the ocean in view; and to the end of his lite (in 1463) he kept his thoughts directed on the one object of African discovery. In 1418, he sent out a vessel which was to attempt to double Cape Bojador. The attempt proved a failure, in consequence of a storm ; but the island of Porto Santo was discoverd, as that of Madeira was in a future voyage. It was not till 1433 that Cape Bojador was passed, and as the sea beyond that promontory, contrary to expec- tation, was found to be calm and tranquil, the pro- gress of southern discovery was rapid. After the death of Don Henry it languished a little ; but it had struck root too deeply ever to cease. It was speedily resumed, the river Congo and the Gold Coast were discovered, and in 1471 the Portuguese monarch, Don John II., assumed the title of Lord of Guinea. This prince, being now convinced that there must be a termination of the African conti- nent, resolved to make every effort to reach it, and thus to open a route to India. In 1486, he sent out three vessels, under the command of Bartholo- mew Diaz, to make the attempt. Leaving the Congo, Diaz proceeded southwards along the coast, till a tempest came on which drove him out to sea in a southern direction. At the end of thirteen days the tempest ceased, and they then steered .-.o HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1497—1503. eastwards in order to recover the land. But to their amazement, after proceeding for some days, they still saw nothing before them but a wide ocean. They then steered northwards, and soon fell in with the land. They had in effect, without being aware of it, passed the Cape in quest of which they had Bailed. At the desire of Diaz they went on eastwards till they reached what is now named the Great Fish River. As they were re- turning, to their great joy and surprise they discerned the long-sought promontory, to which Diaz gave the name of Cabo Tormentoso, or Stormy Cape, but which appellation the king changed to that of Cape of Good Hope, its present name. Circumstances prevented the king from following up this discovery of a route to India, and it was not till the reign of his successor, Emmanuel, that the project was resumed. In 1497, Vasco da Gama, a gentleman of the royal household, sailed from the Tagus with a squadron of three ships, with orders to make every effort to reach the coast of India; and after a voyage of less than eleven months he arrived at Calicut on the coast of Malabar. The particulars of this voyage require not to be narrated, they are so generally known ; and it has had the good fortune to have been sung in enduring strains by the muse of the renowned but hapless Luis de Camoens. As Gama was proceeding along the east coast of Africa, he found Mozambique, Quiloa, Melinda, and all the other towns inhabited by Mohammedans, or as the Portuguese called them, Moors ' ; and as there happened to be in them some traders or others from the north coast of Africa, who knew the Por- tuguese as the hereditary enemies of their race and creed, they exerted themselves to stir up the hos- tility of the natives against them. In this they succeeded every where but at Melinda, whose prince, on the contrary, became the steady friend of the strangers, and supplied them with a pilot, who carried them to Calicut. Here also Gama found the trade principally in the hands of the Moors, that is, the traders of Arabia and Egypt, who naturally sought to prevent the commercial rivalry of the Europeans, and to destroy them if possible. The sovereign himself, called the Samorim, a Hin- doo in faith, looking only to the benefit of his subjects, was inclined to favour the strangers, who had a faithful friend in a Moor of Tunis, named llonzaide who was settled at Calicut ; but the Moors bribed to their side the Cutwal, or prime minister of the Samorim, and through him the prince himself, and plans were formed for the de- struction of the Portuguese ; but Gama, having had timely information from Monzaide, frustrated them, and set sail on his return to Europe. He arrived in the port of Lisbon on the 29th of August, 1499, after an absence of nearly two years and two months. " Hence we find our writers calling the Mohammedans of India, tloort, The Portuguese called the original nations of India Otntioi, i., Qentilei, and hence our Gentoos. From (ha Portugueaa tauqui [Item rtagnum), a pond, we have made lank, as from casta a race, tail*. They were also in the habit nf putting thali natal torn (m) at the end of words terminating In avowal, and this we have changed into n. Thai ih.-y aall Capa Komarl Comaiim, ourComarin, Samori Sam. .rim, fee. As ll.cir j- smimls like our IA, Wfl meat with Mm i., r Babaab, ..r abyatinla, Mutadabad for Mnorsheda- il Quiloa, and other towns on the coast of Africa, Xtaum, i.e. Ibl ikhs. The court of Portugal resolved to lose no time in taking advantage of this brilliant discovery, and early in the following year a fleet of thirteen ships, carrying twelve hundred men, under the command of Alvarez Cabral, sailed from the Tagus. The circumstance of eight Franciscan friars being put on board, and the admiral being instructed to waste with fire and sword every country that would not listen to their preaching, shows that religious fanaticism, even more than the spirit of commerce, actuated the councils of the Lusitanian monarch. By keeping out to sea in order to avoid the coast of Africa, Cabral had the good fortune to discover Brazil in South America. In his passage round the Cape of Good Hope he encountered fearful tempests, in which he lost four of his ships, on board of one of which was the intrepid Diaz, who first had passed that formidable promontory. Cabral reached Calicut with only six ships ; but this force, and the account of the power of Portugal given by some Hindoos whom Gama had carried away and Cabral had brought back, induced the Samorim to treat him with respect, and he was allowed to establish a factory in Calicut. The Moors, though they at first affected to be friendly disposed, soon began to thwart the Portuguese, and through their influence the native merchants delayed supplying them with the goods for which they had contracted. The Samorim, when applied to, in a fit of impatience bade them to seize the cargo of one of the Moorish ships, but at the same time to pay its full value. Correa, the Portuguese factor, a warm, impetuous man, and urged on by his pretended friends among the Moors, pressed Cabral to execute this project, and the Moors, to draw him on, began ostentatiously to lade a large vessel with the choicest spices, taking care to let the Portuguese know the time appointed for her departure. Cabral, contrary to his better judg- ment, yielded to the instances of Correa and of his men, and, sending his boats, began to transfer her cargo to his own ships. The Moors ran instantly to the king, crying that the Christians had now- shown themselves to be what they always said they were, mere pirates. He gave them permission to redress themselves ; and, joined by a number of the Nairn, as the military class is called in Mala- bar, they made an attack on the Portuguese fac- tory. Correa and fifty men were slain, the rest escaped by jumping into the sea and swimming to the ships. Cabral seized ten Moorish ships and burned them after he had taken out their cargoes ; and then, getting in close to shore, he cannonaded the city till he had set it on fire in several places. He then weighed anchor, and, proceeding south- wards, came to Cochin, the largest city on the coast after Calicut. It has always been the fortune of the colonizers or conquerors of new countries to find allies ready to their hand, in consequence of the tyranny or oppression of the predominant power among the natives. Thus the Spaniards, in their invasion of Mexico, found zealous allies in the Tlasealans ; and now the king of Cochin, an oppressed vassal of the Samorim, became the warm friend of the Portu- guese. Cabral, having supplied himself lure with Pepper, did DOt make any long stay, but went on to Cananor, where he was also well reoaived,and then proceeded on bis homeward voyage. Before he arrived an additional squadron of three bhips had a.d. 1503-10. ALMEiD A— ALBUQUERQUE. 51 been sent out to reinforce him, under John da Nova, who, finding a letter at San Bias on the coast of Africa relating what had occurred and advising him to proceed direct to Cochin, made sail at once to that port. While there, lie defeated a large fleet sent against him by the Samorim. On his home- ward voyage, he discovered the island of St. Helena, as he had fallen in with Ascension Isle as he was going out. In Portugal Cabral's expedition, owing to the loss of life and of shipping in it, was in general re- garded as a failure, and people began to think that it was a hazardous thing for a small kingdom like Portugal to engage in hostilities, at the other end of the world, with a powerful monarch like the Samorim. But the king, like most monarchs, was bent on concpjest and extent of empire ; the pope had lately by a bull divided as it were the world between him and the king of Spain, giving to the one all the countries to be discovered east, to the other those west of a certain line, his infallibility not perceiving that they thus must meet at last ; finally, he reflected that he had allies in the princes of Cochin and Cananor, and might gain others. He therefore assumed the title of " Lord of the Navigation, Conquest, and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, India, and Persia," and sent out a fleet of fifteen sail, under Vasco da Gama, to Cochin and Cananor, and another of five vessels, under Vicente Sodra, to cruize against the Moors at the mouth of the Red Sea (1512). Those who have formed their idea of the cha- racter of Vasco da Gama from the poem of Camoens, or even from the narrative of his first voyage, will be shocked by the account of {he barbarities of which he now was guilty. Having taken a large Moorish ship off the coast of Arabia, he first plun- dered it, and then, shutting the crew up in the hold, set it on fire. When he came before Calicut, and had opened negotiations, he placed on the deck fifty persons whom he had taken out of the vessels which he had captured, and, with an hour-glass in his hand, told the Samorim's envoy, that if he did not receive satisfaction before the sand had run, he would put them all to death ; and, as the reply did not arrive within the limited time, he performed his threat, and then cutting off the hands and feet of his victims sent them on shore. He left Cali- cut, but was induced by an artful Bramin to return in a single ship ; by which rash act he narrowly escaped being captured. Having cruized about for some time, and taken some valuable ships, he returned to Portugal. As soon as he was gone, the Samorim prepared to take vengeance on the king of Cochin. He invaded his territory at the head of a large army, and, on his refusal to give up the Portuguese and abandon thpir alliance, made a furious assault on his capital, took it, and forced him to seek refuge in the adjacent sacred islet of Vipeen. Three separate expeditions now sailed from Portugal (1503), under the brothers Alfonso and Francis Albuquerque and Antonio Saldanha. Francis Albuquerque, who arrived first, having met on the coast of Arabia the remainder of the squadron of Sodra, who had perished in a storm, proceeded to Vipeen and relieved the king of Cochin, who was now reduced to extremity. He then, being joined by his brother, carried on the war against the Samorim, whom he forced to pur- chase peace by the delivery of a large quantity of pepper, and by opening his port to the Portuguese commerce. But the capture of one of his ships by the Portuguese broke this peace, and, after a vain attempt to intimidate him, the Albuquerques sailed for Europe, leaving Duarte Pacheco with a few hundred men for the defence of Cochin. The Samorim now resolved to make every effort to reduce the king of Cochin, and it is asserted that the army he assembled for this purpose num- bered 50,000 men. Two Milanese, who had de- serted to him, taught him, we are told, to cast brass cannon and other European arts of war. The de- fence of the town was committed to Pacheco, for the natives lost all courage ; and seldom have more skill and energy been displayed than during this siege. All the attacks of the enemy were gallantly repelled, and the Samorim at last, having lost a great part of his force by war and sickness, found it necessary to raise the siege and retire. The de- fence of Cochin, by demonstrating to the Portu- guese their great superiority in arms over the Indians, tended greatly to foster their lust of con- quest. Pacheco was succeeded by Lope Soarez, to whom the Samorim sent very advantageous offers of peace. 1 Soarez sailed to Calicut, and all was proceeding satisfactorily, till he made a demand of the surren- der of the two Milanese. At this the negotiator paused, requiring time to consult the Samorim ; but the haughty Soarez would hear of no delay, and instantly began to cannonade the town. He then, at the desire of the king of Cochin, destroyed the town of Cranganor, after which he returned to Portugal. The views of the Portuguese monarch gradually extending, the title of Viceroy of India, with a suitable establishment military and ecclesiastic, was conferred on Francis Almeida, who replaced Soarez ( 1505). Shortly after his arrival, he received a splendid embassy from the Hindoo king of Beja- yanugur, offering his daughter in marriage to the prince of Portugal ; and, though the offer was not accepted, a courteous and friendly answer was returned. The Mamluk sultan of Egypt, incensed at the daring conduct of the Portuguese, and the losses sustained by his subjects, resolved, in conjunction with the Moslem king of Guzerat, to make a vigor- ous effort to extirpate them. An Egyptian fleet of twelve sail was accordingly joined by that of the king of Guzerat, under his ablest general, Aiaz Sultanee (1508), and a furious attack was made by the combined force on a part of the Portuguese fleet, commanded by the viceroy's son Lorenzo, off the port of Chaul, to the south of Bombay. After sus- taining a fight for two successive days, the Portu- guese put to sea and escaped ; but, the ship of Lorenzo Almeida having got entangled in some fishing-stakes, he refused to leave her, and perished fighting gallantly. On this occasion, the cour- teous Aiaz wrote a letter of cousolation to the viceroy. While Almeida was preparing to take vengeance for his son, Alfonso Albuquerque came out with a fleet and a commission to supersede him. Albuquer- que had first proceeded to the coast of Arabia, where he reduced Muscat and other towns, and then sailed up the Persian Gulf, and made the prince of the wealthy isle of Ormuz consent to pay -,1 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1510—36. tribute. When he came to Cochin and showed his commission, Almeida, supported by his principal officers, refused obedience to it, at least till he should have avenged the death of his son. Albu- querque urged, but in vain, that the royal orders were imperative. Almeida sailed with a fleet of nineteen ships to attack the fleets of Egypt and Guzerat. On his way he made an unprovoked assault on the city of Dabul in the Concan, plun- dered and burned the town, and massacred the in- habitants without distinction. He found the con- federates lying at the isle of Diu, on the southern coast of Guzerat. Aiaz proposed to await the attack in the harbour ; but the Egyptian admiral would not consent, and in the action which ensued victory remained with the Portuguese. Aiaz then sent proposals of peace, but Almeida insisted on the Egyptian admiral being delivered up to him. To this demand, Aiaz refused to yield, but offered to restore his Christian captives; and Almeida was obliged to be content with these terms. He then departed, and when he came to Cananor, with the ferocity then characteristic of the Portuguese in India, he massacred all his prisoners. It was with great difficulty that he was induced to resign his office. He finally sailed for Europe, and he fell in a scuffle with the natives in Saldanha bay, on the coast of Africa. Hitherto the Portuguese had made no attempt to acquire territory in India, being content with being masters of the sea and having factories in the cities of the coast. But Albuquerque, a man of lofty and aspiring views, resolved to be the founder of a Portuguese empire in the East. His first at- tempt was on Calicut (1510); but, after performing prodigies of valour, the Portuguese were beaten off with great loss, and Albuquerque himself was carried to his ships stunned with blows, and left for dead. When he had recovered, acting under the advice of Timoza, one of those pirates with which that coast was so long infested, he proceeded to attack Goa, a town in an island of the coast be- longing to the kingdom of Bejapur. The town surrendered on terms of security to commerce and private property, which were faithfully adhered to by Albuquerque, who now assumed the state of a sovereign prince. But the king of Bejapur, having collected a large army, was preparing to recover Goa, and as he succeeded in passing his troops over into the island by night, Albuquerque found it ne- cessary to evacuate the town, and get on board his ships. He retired to Cananor, but soon after, when the king of Bejapur was engaged in a war with the tajah of Bejayanugur, he made another attack and obtained possession of the town, which he strongly fortified, and made the chief seat of the Portuguese power in the East. The aspiring mind of Albuquerque was now directed to a far more distant conquest. The city of .Malacca, situated iii the peninsula of that nam', was the great emporium of the trade between India and (lima and the eastern isles; and Albuquerque, OSing as a pretext some ill treatment which an officer wnt on discovery by Almeida was said to have received there, sailed thither with a force of 800 Portuguese and 600 native troops, and he suc- ceeded in taking the town, where tie- booty paired i i have been immense; bul it was all lost in a St. Mill Which the lleet el Illlteiv,! off' the COBSt of Sumatra, The Portuguese retained poi of Malacca, which became one of their principal settlements (1511). The port of Aden in Arabia, which would give him the command of the Red Sea, next drew the attention of Albuquerque ; but two attempts which he made on that town proved failures. He then resumed his plans on Ormuz, and sailing thither with a force of 1500 European, and COO native troops, he reduced its sovereign to submission, and Ormuz also became a Portuguese possession. Albuquerque had thus founded an empire for his sovereign; but neglect and ingratitude were the only rewards the monarchs of Portugal in those days bestowed on their distinguished subjects. As Albuquerque was returning to Goa, broken in health, he learned that his enemy Soarez was come out as his successor, that officers hostile to him were ap- pointed to the command of the ships and forts; and all this had been done without sending him even a letter. He was at first inclined to give ear to those who counselled him to maintain his power by force ; but he immediately repelled the thought. He re- fused to take nourishment, dictated a brief but manly and pathetic letter to his worthless sovereign, and breathed his last within sight of Goa (1515). Albuquerque was doubtless a man of considerable talent and energy, and is, perhaps, not altogether without claim to the title of Great bestowed on him by his countrymen. It was certainly a splendid con- ception to make a small nation of the West like Portugal mistress of the seas and of the commerce of the eastern regions; and this conception was in fact realised, for, in all their conflicts with the native powers, the Portuguese invariably came off victorious, and their empire continued to exist for an entire century. It was neither the arms of the monarchs of the East, nor the inferior abilities of Albuquerque's successors, that caused its downfal, but the decline of Portugal itself, and the appear- ance in the eastern seas of the other nations of Europe, whose side was almost always taken by the native powers, who abhorred the Portuguese for their religious fanaticism and their barbarous cruelty, in both of which detestable qualities they fully equalled their kinsmen of Spain. The Portuguese dominion, according to the mag- nificent language of their historians, extended from the Cape of Good Hope to the frontiers of China, along a coast 12,000 miles in extent. But this only means that they had forts and factories at various points of this range of coast ; for they prudently refrained from the acquisition of territory. They had various settlements on the east coast of Africa, Ormuz in th<' Persian Gulf, Goa and other places in India ; they were also on the Ganges in Bengal ; they had factories in Ceylon, they possessed Malacca, and their forts commanded Ternate, Tidore, and the other Spice Islands, which, by the way, were the scenes of their greatest atrocities ; and finally, the emperor of China, for their services against a pirate, allowed them to settle on the peninsular of Macao, near tin- city of Canton. They also discovered and opened a trade with the islands of Japan, from which, however, their religious bigotry at length caused their expulsion, ami a massacre of their native converts. Of this extensive empire all that they retain, and Onlj by Sufferance, at tin- present dav is Mozambique, Goa, and Macao ! The most remarkable events in Portuguese his- tory in the i;as;, after ili.' time of Albuquerque, a.d. 1536 -icon. THE DUTCH IN THE EAST. 53 are the defence of Diu and of Goa against the native powers, each of which we will briefly nar- rate. Bahadur Shah, king of Guzerat, when forced to seek refuge in Diu 2 , had allowed the Portuguese to build a factory there, on condition of their aiding him with 500 men in the recovery of his kingdom. When he had succeeded and came to Diu (1536), he found that they were surrounding their factory with a wall, and apparently converting it into a fortification. He remonstrated with Nuno da Cunha, the viceroy, who was there with a fleet, and matters seemed likely to be amicably arranged, when Cunha, having feigned sickness when in- vited to visit the king, the latter, to remove all suspicion, went on board the viceroy's ship with a few attendants. Observing while there some whis- perings and signs passing between the viceroy and his people, he took alarm and quitted the ship in haste. As he was going on shore, an affray, acci- dental or designed, took place, and he threw him- self out of his boat into the sea, where he was stunned by the blow of an oar, and then run through with a halbert. Each side charged the other with treachery, and each probably without reason. Bahadur's successor resolved to take vengeance on the Portuguese, and a large fleet and army from Egypt, now in the hands of the Ottomans, came to his aid (1538). Silveira, the commandant of the fort, had only 600 men, and many of them sickly ; yet he repelled all the attacks of the enemy. After the loss of a prodigious number of men, they made one final assault at midnight, and forced their way into a part of the fort, but were repelled by almost incredible efforts of valour, after which the Turkish admiral gave over the siege and went home. He doubtless was not aware, that there were at the time only forty men fit for service in the garrison. The heroism of the Portuguese women in this siege is celebrated by their historians, particularly that of Anna Fernan- dez, the wife of a physician. In 1545, the king of Guzerat made another attack on the fort, which was defended by John Masca- renhas with only 200 men. A reinforcement of 400 men having come, they insisted on being led out against the enemy, but they were driven back with great loss. At length the viceroy, the cele- brated John de Castro, arrived with a large force, and he attacked the enemy in their entrenchments, routed them with great loss, and, entering the city of Diu pell-mell with them, filled it with bloodshed and massacre. On his return to Goa, he entered the city in triumph, crowned with laurel, and dragging after him the royal standard of Guzerat, music sounding all the while, and the streets ring- ing with acclamations. In 1570, the Adil Shah of Bejapur, and the Nizam Shah of Ahmednugur, formed an alliance for the purpose of driving the Christians from India. The former led his forces, estimated at 100,000 men, against Goa ; the latter invested Chaul near Bombay. Goa was defended by the viceroy Luis de Ataide, who had only 700 soldiers and 1300 monks and armed slaves ; yet he would not detain the homeward-bound ships, by which he might have added 400 men to his force. All the 2 See above, p. 19. attempts of the enemy to pass over into the island failed, and the Portuguese often made attacks on their quarters, in which they displayed their usual courage, and their usual barbarity. When the siege had lasted two months, a reinforcement of 1500 men came from the Moluccas, and the Mos- lems, after one more vigorous attempt, in which they forced their way into the island, but were driven out of it with great slaughter, ceased to act on the offensive. Adil Shah, however, remained in his position some months longer, and then retired, having lost 12,000 men. Chaul was defended against the army of Nizam Shah by an officer named Luis d'Andreda, and a garrison of 2000 men. But, as it was not seated in an island like Goa, the defence of it was far more difficult. During a month the enemy battered it with seventy pieces of cannon, and then made a general assault, and penetrated into the town at different points, but they were every where driven back. When the siege had lasted about six months, an unavailing attempt was made at accommodation, and Nizam Shah, having tried one more furious assault, and being repulsed, drew off his troops. He shortly after formed an alliance with the Portuguese. The Portuguese dominion in the East was thus maintained throughout the sixteenth century. But, meantime, Portugal itself had fallen under the dominion of Philip II. of Spain (1580), and the Dutch, who were also subjects of this monarch, and who used hitherto to purchase the products of the East at Lisbon, and distribute them over the north of Europe, having been driven into rebellion by Philip's tyranny, were in consequence excluded from all the ports in his dominions. They resolved therefore to try to make their way to the East direct, but they feared the naval power of Spain in the Atlantic and the eastern seas. It was at that time a prevalent notion, that the northern extremities of both continents were circumnavigable, and the Dutch were therefore induced to attempt the passage by the north of Europe and Asia ; but, after three successive failures, they saw themselves obliged to abandon this project, and became con- vinced that, if India was to be reached, it could only be by the south. In the year 1596, a company of Dutch merchants sent out a squadron of four well-armed vessels, under the command of Cornelius Houtman, who, during a long residence at Lisbon, had collected the necessary information ; and after a somewhat tedious navigation, they reached the port of Bantam in the island of Java. On the return of this fleet, as the practicability of establishing a trade with the East was now established, the original company was increased ; and, in 1599, a fleet of eight vessels was sent out, under the joint command of Houtman and Van Neck. They visited the coasts of Java and Sumatra, and Van Neck then returned to Amsterdam with four of the vessels richly laden with spices. The trade proved so lucrative, that new companies were formed every year, and new squadrons sent out. Even so early as the year 1600, foi'ty Dutch vessels went round the Cape. The profits on their trade to the East is said to have averaged about thirty-seven per cent. The Dutch at first avoided, as far as possible, all contact with the Portuguese, and carefully ab- stained from visiting the places where they had 54 HISTORY OF INDIA. a. d. 1527—83. settlements. But gradually, as they became confi- dent of their own strength and learned how their rivals were detested by the natives, they began to abandon this pacific policy. They commenced with aiding the natives to surprise the Portuguese fort at Acheen in Sumatra, and then seized some of their settlements in the Moluccas. In 1605, having reinforced their fleet in the East with nine- teen vessels, carrying 2000 veteran soldiers, they attacked and reduced all the remaining Portuguese settlements in the Moluccas, and thus made them- selves masters of the entire trade of the eastern seas. They then made an attempt on Malacca, but met with a repulse, and afterwards aided the natives of Ceylon against the Portuguese ; but it was not until the year 1656, and after a siege of seven months, that they succeeded in reducing their chief settlement, Columbo, and expelling them totally from that island. They had already (1640) reduced Malacca, after an obstinate resist- ance. Having thus established their empire over the isles of the eastern seas, they built, as a capital, at Jacatra, on the north-western coast of the isle of Java, a town which they named Batavia. Un- like the Portuguese, they were not anxious to form establishments on the continent of India, content- ing themselves with the lucrative commerce of the isles, to which they added that of Japan, from which the Portuguese had been driven by the na- tive government. The French also, in the commencement of the seventeenth century, made some feeble attempts to obtain a share in the lucrative trade to the East, and they established an East Indian company ; but their merchants were wanting in the requisite spirit of enterprise, and it was long before they were able to effect a settlement iu India. CHAPTER II. Early Voyages of the English— Land-trade— Travels of Fitch— First Company Established— Voyage of Lancaster —Of Middlfton— Of Sharpey— Second Voyage of Middle- ton— Of Hippon and Floris— Nature of the English Trade —Embassy of Sir Thomas Koe— Rivalry between the Dutch and English— Depression of the Portuguese— Mas- sacre of Amboyna. It is not to be supposed that so enterprising a people as the English should have remained in- active spectators of the attempts of the Dutch to obtain a share in the commerce of the East. On the contrary, they were the very first people in Europe who had resolved to follow the Portuguese thither. So early as the reign of Henry VIII., on the representatione of Robert Thome, a merchant settled at Seville, of the advantages to be derived from the trade to the East, it was resolved to make an attempt toaharein it. Owing to the reaped then entertained for the papal hulls, and to the rights supposed to !"• conferred by discovery, Thorne advised to try the north-west paaaage ; and accord- ingly two voyagea were undertaken in that direc- tion, ol course without success, in the reign of Henry. The drat of these waa as early aa the year In the reign of Edward VI. a squadron, under Sir Hugh Willoughby, was sent out to try to dis- cover a north-east passage. But it met with no- thing but disasters. Willoughby's ship being driven on the coast of Lapland, he and his crew perished by the climate. Chancellor, the second in command, was more fortunate ; for he reached the port of Archangel in Russia, and he became the means of opening a trade with that country to the English merchants. Some further attempts were made to discover a north-east passage ; and, on their proving failures, the north-west course was again resumed. Six efforts were made in the course of a few years, three of the expeditions being commanded by Martin Frobisher, and the others by John Davis, who gave his name to the strait which he discovered. There being now little hope of making a way to India by the north, the English resolved no longer to respect the pretensions of the Portuguese, but to go thither by the Cape of Good Hope. Already (1577) Sir Francis Drake had circumnavigated the globe, and when in the Eastern ocean, he had visited the isles of Ternate and Tidore and other of the Spice Islands, and also Java, in all of which he had met with the most friendly reception from the natives and the greatest encouragement to trade. Drake's success inflamed the spirit of ad- venture then so strong ; and in 1586, Thomas Cavendish, a gentleman of a good family and estate in Suffolk, fitted out a squadron of three ships at his own expense, in order to perform a voyage similar to that of Drake, and to collect all the in- formation requisite for a trade to the East. Like Drake, he passed through the Straits of Magellan, and committed devastation on the coast of Spanish America. He visited the Philippine and Ladrone Islands, then the Moluccas, and finally Java ; and he every where found the Spanish and Portuguese detested, and the people willing to trade with the English. The capture of some of the Portuguese Indiamen about this time, and the information ob- tained from the papers found on board of them, and a narrative published by one Stevens who had sailed with the Portuguese to India, made the English nation more fully aware of the value of the Indian trade and more anxious to share in it. Attempts had even been made to obtain the products of the East by a land-trade. A company, named the Levant Company, had been formed to purchase them on the coast of Asia Minor, whither they had been brought by native caravans. A Russia company had also been established after the discovery of Archangel, and iu 1558, Antony Jenkinson, one of their agents, went from Moscow down the Volga into the Caspian Sea, and visited Persia ami Bokhara, lie repeated this journey Seven times, and the trade thus established was such that, we are told, there were tint e English agents resident at Casvcen in Persia, in the year 1663. The Levant Company also thought that they might import directly from India through the Persian Gulf, and then overland to Aleppo and the coast. Accordingly John Newbury and Ralph Pitch, two ot the partners iu that company, and some others, departed in 1583, furnished with let- ters from Queen Elizabeth to the emperor Akber and tlu> emperor of China. They took the suitable goods with them, and proceeded by Bagdad and a.d. 1585—1609. THE ENGLISH IN THE EAST. 55 Bussora to Ormuz. Here they were thrown into prison by the Portuguese, and then transmitted to Goa, where they were still confined ; and, though at length released, they were so plundered and other- wise ill-used, that they fled from the town (1585). They went first to Belgam, thence to Bejapur and Golconda, and then through Candesh and Malwa to Agra, where one of them, Leader, a jeweller, remained in the service of the emperor. Thence they, or at least Fitch, the narrator, proceeded to Allahabad and Benares, and went even to the con- fines of Bootan, north of Bengal. They visited the Portuguese settlement on the Hooghly, Orissa, and other places, Pegu, and Malacca, and thence proceeded to Cochin, Goa, and Ormuz, whence Fitch returned to England, iu 1591, and published an account of his travels. From Fitch's account it was quite clear that no steady trade could be carried on with India by this route ; and, moreover, none of these circuitous modes of trading with the East would content the ardent spirit of British commerce. Accordingly, in 1589, divers merchants had presented a memo- rial to the Lords of Council, praying permission to send three ships and three pinnaces to India, in order to open a trade with those places in which the Portuguese had no settlements. The fate of this memorial is not known; but in 1591, three ships, under Captain Raymond, sailed for India. Ere, however, they reached the Cape, they had to send home one with the sick, Raymond's own ves- sel was lost in a tempest, and James Lancaster, iu the third, having privateered for some time in the Indian seas against the Portuguese, and taken a good many ships, was wrecked, on his return, in the West Indies, and came home in a French privateer. The boldness and success of the Dutch in 1595 excited the emulation of the English merchants. In 1599, a company was formed, with a stock of about 30,000/,, in 101 shares, of from 1007. to 30007., with a committee of fifteen to manage its affairs. The adventurers, as the shareholders were named, applied to the queen for a warrant, engaging to abstain from all places possessed by Spain or Por- tugal. But the court, afraid of embroiling itself with Spain, hesitated, and the charter was not ob- tained till the following year. The court proposed that the chief command should be given to Sir Edward Michelbourne ; the committee replied, that they were resolved not to employ any gentleman in any place of charge, as the very suspicion of such a thing would drive away a great number of the adventurers. The court gave way, and the chief command was given to Captain Lancaster. The charter now granted constituted the adven- turers a body politic, under the title of " The Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading to the East Indies." Their plan of manage- ment was by a chairman, and a committee of twenty-four, to be annually chosen. They were to trade to all places beyond the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan not already possessed by states in amity with her Majesty. The charter, like all at the time, was exclusive, but the company had the power of granting licenses to trade to other British subjects. The charter was granted for fifteen years, but might be revoked at any time, if not found advantageous to the country, on giving a notice of two vears. As many of the shareholders had not paid up, those who had were invited to be at the whole ex- pense, and to share the whole profits of the voyage. A sum of 68,000/. was thus raised, and on the 2nd of May, 1601, Lancaster sailed from Torbay with four ships and a pinnace, the largest being of 600 tons, with a crew of 200 men. He was furnished with letters from the queen to the sovereigns of the different places to which he might come. The first port he came to in the East was Acheen, in Sumatra, where he formed a treaty of amity and commei'ce, and obtained permission to build a fac- tory. Taking in there a cargo of pepper, he sailed for the Moluccas, hut having captured a large Por- tuguese vessel in the straits of Malacca, and thus got all the goods he required, he sailed to Bantam, and having delivered his letters to the king, and left there some agents, he made sail for England, where he arrived in September, 1603. In the following year the company sent out four ships, uuder Captain (afterwards Sir Henry) Mid- dleton. They sailed to Bantam, where, while two remained to take in cargoes and one went to the Banda isles, Middleton himself sailed to the Mo- luccas. He there found a furious war raging be- tween the kings of Ternate and Tidore, the former aided by the Dutch, the latter by the Portuguese. He also found that the Dutch were likely to prove determined enemies of the English in these regions, as they represented them to the king of Ternate as being nothing better than pirates. This voyage proved very profitable to the adventurers, but they were now threatened with a formidable rivalry ; for the crown granted a license at this very time (1604) to Sir Edward Michelbourne and others, to trade to Cathaya, China, Japan, &c. This, how- ever, proved to be more a piratical than a trading voyage ; for Michelbourne took and plundered Japanese and Chinese, as well as Portuguese ves- sels, without making any attempts to trade. In 1607, the company sent out three ships under Captains Keeling, Hawkins, and D. Middleton. They found the Dutch now busily engaged in re- ducing the native princes in the Moluccas, whence they had expelled the Portuguese, and they were refused by them permission to trade at Banda. Hitherto the English Company had confined their commerce to the islands exclusively ; but now, on being informed by their factors at Bantam and elsewhere that an advantageous trade might be carried on by conveying thither the calicoes and other cloths of India, they resolved to try to open a trade with the port of Surat in Cambay. In 1607, two large ships under Captain Sharpey were sent out for this purpose, but they separated in a storm off the Cape, and never rejoined, and Shar- pey's own ship was wrecked and lost in the Gulf of Cambay. The other reached Sumatra, where she laid in a cargo ; but she also was lost, on her return, on the coast of France, and only about 200 tons of pepper were saved. In 1609, Sir Henry Middleton sailed with three ships, one named the " Trade's Increase," of 1000 tons. His destination was the Red Sea and Surat. On entering the former, he proceeded to the port of Mocha, but while matters seemed to be going on favourably he was treacherously made a pri- soner, and conveyed to Sana in the interior. Hav- ing contrived to effect his escape, he rejoined his ships and sailed for Surat. On coming to the 66 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1009—12. month of the Tapti, on which that city stands, lie found there a Portuguese squadron, whose com- mander informed him, that nnlefla he had a letter of license from the king of Spain or the viceroy of India, he could not permit him to enter the port. Sir Henry replied that he came with letters and presents from his own sovereign to the great .Mogul, who was no vassal to the Portuguese, and that he considered that he had as good a right as they to enter the port. The Portuguese then began to prevent the supply of provisions to them from the town ; and as this caused much distress to the English, who had been so long at sea, and the authorities of the town had secretly signified to Sir Henry that tiny were perfectly willing to trade with him if it were not for fear of the Portuguese, lie resolved to enter the harbour in spite of them. Leaving, then, his large ship out at sea, he ad- vanced with the smaller ones to the mouth of the river. The Portuguese made a great deal of noise and bravado, but did not venture to attack. At length two of their barks rowed out to attack a boat which was taking soundings, but they were driven off and one of them was captured. The English vessels then anchored in the river, and all the future attempts of the Portuguese were re- pelled with loss. A trade was now opened with the town ; but the English agent, Downton, complains bitterly of the native merchants, who, he says, required a profit of fifty per cent, on what they sold, and would hardly allow the value of the freight on what they bought. But the English seem at this time to have had strange notions of commerce. Instead of allowing the native merchants to select such articles as were suited to their trade, they insisted on their taking all the articles which they had on board, especially a great quantity of lead for which the native merchants could hardly get any sale. At length the principal merchant agreed to take the lead ; but as, by the custom of the country, he could annul the bargain by giving twenty-four hours' notice, Sir Henry, to prevent this, put the governor and some others who happened to be on board under arrest till the Indian goods should have been delivered. He thus succeeded in getting rid of his lead and laying in a cargo ; but it was soon after signified to him that the English should have no factory at Surat, and they were obliged to retire from it without even having had time to collect their debts. Sir Henry then proceeded to Dabul, but he found he could effect nothing there. He then returned to Mocha, and exacted some further satisfaction for his seizure. He stopped every vessel lie met, and made her agree to an exchange of goods, himself dictating the terms. Having thus gotten all he wanted, he stood for Ban- tani, whence he sent Downton home in one of the ■hips, intending to follow himself in the Trade's [ncreaie, hut he shortly after fell sick and died. 'I'ln- Company also resolved to make trial of the Coromaadel coast, and in Kill, Captain Hippon, accompanied by a Dutchman named Floris, as factor, sailed thither in a single vessel. Having reached Policat on that coast, where they hoped t.. establish a traffic, they were waited on by the nt of the Dutch settlements there, who informed the,,, ,| ial the Dutch had obtained ■> Kam from the king of Naninga*, prohibiting all J So they called tin- rajafa of 11. j.'iyanugur. other Europeans from trading there without their permission. Hippon replied in high terms ; but lie deemed it prudent to leave that port, and pro- eeeded to Mssnlipatam, where they were near coming to the use of foul meant, as they term it, with the governor. They thence went to Bantam and Patany, where the captain died, and thence to Siam. They then came back to Masulipatam, where matters went on more smoothly than the time before. Floris makes a remark which proves the tendency of traders to glut every market that opens to them. He says, that when he was in Siam four years before the demand for goods was such, that it seemed to him as if all the world could not supply it, while now it was difficult to effect sales at all. A fleet of three ships sent out also in 1611, under Captain John Saris, visited the Moluccas, and thence proceeded to the port of Finando in Japan. They were well received, and the captain and others were taken to court ; but their prospects of estab- lishing a factory were not realized. In January, 1613, the English obtained their first settlement on the continent of India, and what human wisdom could ever have foreseen the consequences ! The emperor Jehangir gave them permission to establish factories at Surat, Gogeh, Cambai, and Ahmedabad in Giizerat. They were to pay a duty of three and a half per cent., and in return were assured of protection. The average profits on the capital invested in the eight voyages made in those ten years (omitting Sharpey's) had been 171 per cent. But we must not look upon these as the legitimate returns of trade. Most of these voyages were piratic as much as commercial, ships when met were plundered, or the goods were taken out of them at the captors' price, and merchants were forced to buy what they did not want, and pay what the sellers demanded. In the succeeding four years, when the trade be- came more regular, the profits fell to 87J per cent., which we may observe still far exceeded those of the Dutch. In the former of these periods, as we may have observed, the trade to the East was carried on rather by a regulated than a joint-stock company. Each voyage was a separate adventure, and those engaged in it managed it as they pleased, and on their own account, subject to the control of the company. As this left but little power in the hands of the directors, or perhaps as they really deemed it not the best mode, they exerted them- selves to have it changed ; and in 1012 it was re- solved that the trade should be carried on only by a joint-Stock, that is, that the shareholders were to place their money in the hands of the governor and directors, to be managed by them for the general interest, and the profits to be divided ac- cording to the shares. The fall in profits under the new arrangement certainly seems to speak in favour of the former system, hut we have, we think, accounted for the difference. For some yean the agent of the company at the Court of the Mogul had been Captain Hawkins \ who had gone thither from Surat, and been re- ceived with great favour, but owing to tin- incon- stancy of .Jehangir, and the manoeuvres of those who were under the influence of the Portuguese, his exertions were fruitless, and he left it toward the « One of those who sailed in 1607. d. 1611— 19. RIVALRY OF THE ENGLISH AND DUTCH. 57 end of 1611, and returned to England. In 1615, however, Sir Thomas Roe arrived at Surat, as ambassador from king James I. to the Mogul court, and at Ajmir he was introduced to the emperor. He was treated with the utmost attention and re- spect, and for some time had good hopes of success, but the same artifices were used against him as against Hawkins. At length he succeeded in ob- taining a sort of treaty, promising the English per- mission to establish factories in Surat, Sind, Bengal, and all other parts of the Mogul dominions. Sir Thomas Roe, who was a man of sense and experience, bestowed some wholesome advice on the Company. He first advises them not to think of having forts, as being a needless expense, and apt to engage them in war, and shows that the Portuguese and Dutch had injured themselves by seeking to have them. " If the emperor," says he, " would offer me ten, I would not accept of one." He further counsels them not to be desirous of having an ambassador at the Mogul court, as 1500 rupees a year spent on two Mogul agents would " serve them better than ten ambassadors," whose rank would be only an impediment. He likewise tells them, that they must suit their goods better to the market than they were in the habit of doing. Finally (and this, as we shall hereafter see, was the most important part), he strongly urges them to give up the practice of giving their servants small salaries and allowing them to trade privately on their own account ; for " all your loss," says he, " is not in the goods brought home." His advice is strictly to prohibit private trade, but to give their servants "great wages to their content, and then," lie adds, "you know what you part from. But then you must make good choice of your servants and use fewer." The Company at this time also got tolerably accurate information from their agents as to the various markets and best kinds of investments. They were told that Surat was the best place to get cotton-cloths, but that only China goods, spices, and money, would be taken there ; these cloths might be sold, and gold, camphor, and benjamin be obtained at Acheen and Jambee in Sumatra, and pepper at Bantam and Jacatra in Java. They might also be sold in Siam for gold and silver, and for deer-skins, which last would answer the Japan market, where, besides, English cloth, silks, lead, &c, might be sold, and silver, copper, and iron, be obtained in return. Diamonds, bezoar- stones, and gold might be had in Borneo, but they did not much recommend that island on account of the treachery of the natives. The cotton-cloths could also be sold at Macassar in the isle of Celebes, and the best rice be had in return. Finally, the same goods might be sold in the Banda isles, and mace and nutmegs be procured in return, if the obstruc- tion of European rivals icere removed. To explain these last words, we must observe that the Dutch and English were nearly at war in the East. Cupidity and a spirit of aggression seem to be inherent in republics. Thus ancient Athens and Rome thought of nothing but conquest and plunder ; the United Provinces were, and the United States are, the most rapacious and unscru- pulous of traders, and the same tendency is to be observed in Great Britain, as it departs from its monarchic and aristocratic character. The Dutch, when they first visited the East, were obliged to keep this spirit a little in restraint with respect to the English, to whom they looked for aid in their still existing struggle with Spain. But when, in 1609, that power had acknowledged their inde- pendence, they began to act with less of reserve, and when, in 1617, the English took possession of Pularoon and Rosengin, two of the Banda Islands, the Dutch attacked their forts, and, failing to take them, they seized two ships bound for these stations, and refused to give them up unless the English renounced all claim to the Spice Islands. We are not, however, to suppose that the Dutch were in this conscious of acting wrong. It was a general principle, and recognized by all the commercial states of Europe at the time, that discovery and oc- cupancy of any new country gave a right of sove- reignty; the natives, if any, being, it would seem, as heathens, incapable of dominion. Accordingly the Dutch Company, in a memorial addressed to king James I. stated, that at their own risk and cost they had expelled the Portuguese from the Spice Islands, and established a treaty with the natives, by which they were to have the exclusive trade of these islands, on the condition of protect- ing them against the Portuguese, and that the agents of the English Company had endeavoured to interfere with these well-established rights, and even to excite the natives against them. To this the English replied, by enumerating the injuries done them by the Dutch, in places where the latter had no factories, and by showing that the Dutch never had occupied the two islands of which they had taken possession 3 . In order to put an end to the rivalries and hostili- ties between the two Companies in the East, a treaty was concluded at London, on the 17th of July, 1619, in which it was stipulated, that there should be a mutual amnesty and restitution of ships and pro- perty ; that the pepper trade of Java should be equally divided, that the English should have a free trade at Pullicat, on paying half the expenses of the garrison, and a third of that of the Moluccas and Banda Islands, on the same condition. Each was to keep ten ships of war in the East for mutual protection, and to endeavour to reduce the exac- tions of the native powers. A council, named the Council of Defence, and composed of four members of each company, was to sit at Jacatra, and attend to the execution of this treaty, which was to be in force for twenty years. But this treaty availed little, for the Dutch were the stronger party in the East. They were willing to restore any ships they had taken of late, but not the goods or stores taken by individuals, as they said the Company could only be responsible for its own acts ; but they would not admit the same rea- soning on the side of the English. They excluded them from their share in the pepper trade, unless they paid for certain fortifications, &c. : they maintained that they had the right of sovereignty wherever they had forts, and that, if the English resided there, it must be under the Dutch laws. 5 Mr. Mill, always ready to put his countrymen in the wrong, says that these islands formed part of a cluster of which the Dutch had seized the principal, " and with the security of which the presence of the English in any of the rest could as little be reconciled, as the security of Great Britain could be reconciled with the dominion of the French in Ireland." We do not see the analogy, for Ireland has suxely been occupied by the English. HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1619— 39. They finally required the English to pay their share of the expenses they had incurred in building forts in the Spice Islands. The English objected that a large part of this expense had been unneces- sary, and that they had only bound themselves for the future expenses. The Dutch, in fine, carried matters with so high a hand, that the English members of the Council of Defence at length wrote home to say that the trade must be abandoned, uidess measures were adopted in Europe to check the oppressive proceedings of the Dutch. Finally, the tragedy at Amboyna, which we shall presently relate, brought affairs to a crisis between the two parties. .Meantime, on the other side of India, the English were gaining on the Portuguese, to whom they were superior in every conflict on the sea. In 1620, two English ships which sailed to the port of Jasques, in Persia, found it blockaded by a Portu- guese fleet. They went back to Surat, and, being there joined by two other ships, they forced their way into the port The Portuguese, having refitted at Ormuz, returned to seek for revenge ; but, though greatly superior in strength, they met with a complete defeat. This victory served to convince the Persians of the naval superiority of the English, and in 1622 a joint attack by the English naval and Persian land forces was proposed and effected, and the city and castle were taken. The English got half the plunder, and they were also granted half the customs of the opposite port of Gombroon, which became their principal station in the Persian Gulf. The facts of the massacre of Amboyna (as it is rather improperly* termed) were as follows. The Dutch had in that island a fort, in which there were about 200 men, while eighteen English were re- siding in a house in the town for purposes of trade. The Dutch, conceiving some suspicion of one of their Japanese soldiers, put him to the torture, and made him confess that he and others of his nation had conspired to seize the fortress. Others were then arrested and tortured. An English surgeon, named Price, who was confined in the fort for in- toxication, was then told that his countrymen were also in the plot, and, on his denying it, he too was racked, and made to confess whatever was desired. A message was then sent to Captain Towerson and the other members of the English factory, request- ing them to visit the governor. On their coining, they weii! arrested, and when they denied all knowledge of the plot they were put to the torture, and, of course, they confessed every thing. When released from the rack, they denied all that they had con- fi M I when under it ; but that mild persuader was again employed, and they again confessed. The issue was, that Towerson and nine others were con- demned to death, ami the rest were pardoned. The oondeirined received the Baorament from the hands of Dutch ministers, fervently protesting their inno- cence, and their heads were stricken off with a sword. A black pall was by way of distinction provided for the captain, and the price of it was actually charged to the English Company. Nine Japanese ami one Portuguese were executed at the Mine time (\cs.i). 1,1 England the a rant of these executions was : with honor and indignation. The Com- pany, to Increase it, had a large picture painted, in which the suffering! of the victims were repre- sented in the most exaggerated manner, and nu- merous pamphlets on the subject appeared every day. The Dutch merchants in London found it even necessary to apply to the government for pro- tection from the excited populace. A commission of inquiry was appointed by the king, and in its report it recommended that an order should be issued for seizing the Dutch East India ships, till satisfaction should have been obtained. The Dutch government, when applied to, coolly replied, that they had sent out orders to allow the English to retire from the Dutch settlements without paying any duties, that they might build forts, but not within less than thirty miles of a Dutch fort; but that all legal and judicial powers should be in the hands of the Dutch, in such places as acknow ledged their authority, and that such were the Moluccas, Banda, and Amboyna, The Company caused their servants to withdraw from the Dutch settlements, and so the matter rested for the present ; but it never ceased to rankle in the public mind. When we consider the unscrupulous character of traders when free from restraint, it will appear far more probable that the conspiracy was a mere pretext for getting rid of the English, than that eighteen men should have hoped to master 200 ; some weight is also to be attached to the declara- tions of dying men. But, on the other hand, before such wanton and fiendish barbarity is laid to the charge of the Dutch, we must suppose the possi- bility of their having acted in error, and viewed the case through the discoloured medium of com- mercial jealousy. They may have persuaded them- selves that there was a conspiracy, and that they had a right to punish those engaged in it ; but, under all extenuating circumstances, their conduct was barbarous and inhuman. CHAPTER III. Courten's Association— Settlement at Madras— At Balasore — Union of Companies— Defence of the factory at Surat— Disobedience of their Servants— Conflict with the Native Powers, and Abandonment of Bengal— Rival Company- Union of the Two Companies— Organization of the Com- pany at Home and in India — Privileges obtained in Bengal. The affairs of the Company were not by any means in a prosperous state at this time. The private trade of their servants was very injurious to them, and the Dutch undersold them ev. ry where. In 1635, an event occurred, which they deemed would be their utter ruin. An association, headed by Sir William Courten, obtained from the crown permission to trade to India, under the pre- text that the Company had done nothing fur the good of the nation. They never ceased to petition the crown, but to no purpose. Courten's adven- tures were successful, his licence was renewed for live y.ars, ami it was directed that his association should not trade to any places where the Company had factories, nor the Company to where they had establishments. At length, on' the Company S en- gaging to raise a new joint-stock, so as to carry on tie- trade on a Sufficient scale. Courten's licence was withdrawn. But still the affairs of the Com- a. d. 1639—86. SETTLEMENTS IN COROMANDEL AND BENGAL. 59 pany languished, and the wai' which ensued be- tween King Charles and the Parliament indisposed men from engaging their money in distant trade. In the year 1639, the Company got their first permanent settlement on the coast of Coromandel. They had already a station at Armegaon, but, not finding it convenient, they obtained permission from the rajah of Chandragheri to erect a fort at Madraspatam, which they named Fort St. George. As early as 1620, an attempt was made to esta- blish a factory at Patna in Bahar ; and in 1624 permission was given to the English to trade to the port of Piplee in Midnapore of Bengal. At length, when Shah Jehan was in the Deckan, one of his daughters happened to be severely burnt ; and, as the English surgeons were in high repute in India, one named Boughton was sent for from Surat. He succeeded in curing the princess, and, by the favour which he acquired by this and other cures, he had influence enough to obtain the privi- lege of free trade to Bengal for the English. A factory was therefore established at the port of Balasore (1642). When the power of England fell into the vigor- ous hands of Cromwell, a war ensued with the Dutch, which, though highly advantageous to the English in Europe, was almost ruinous to the Com- pany in India. At the conclusion of the peace in 1654, the Dutch engaged to make compensation for the affair of Amboyna, and a joint commission was appointed for the purpose. Each party made immense claims, and it ended in a sum of 85,0002. being awarded to be paid to the English Company by the Dutch. A sum of 36151. was awarded to the representatives of those who had suffered at Amboyna, all the satisfaction ever given for that massacre. There was at this time awful confusion in the affairs of the Company. A union had been effected between the original body and Cour ten's associa- tion, now called the Assada Merchants, from their settlement on an island of that name. The stock of the former was joint-stock, while that of the latter and of some other proprietors was called the united joint-stock. The former wished to keep the trade on its original footing ; the latter, who are called the Merchant Adventurers, required that the company should be an open one, like the Turkey, Russia, and Levant Companies. The Council of State, however, decided in favour of joint-stock management, and the two bodies were then united by a charter (1658). In 1661, King Charles II. enlarged the powers of the Company considerably, by a charter which em- powered thein to make peace and war with any prince or people not being Christian, and to seize unlicensed persons within their limits and send them to England. By these last are meant what the Company called interlopers, that is, private English traders, who visited India on their own account, in defiance of the Company's monopoly. When the island of Bombay was given to that same monarch, as part of the dower of the princess Catherine of Portugal, he transferred it to the Com- pany (1668) at an annual rent of 102. in gold. We may here also notice, that the servants of the Company had impressed the natives with a favour- able idea of their valour, by their gallant defence of the factory of Surat, when Sevajee, the Ma- ratta, attacked that town in 1664 and 1670. On the former occasion, the people of the quarter in which the factory stood were profuse in their terms of gratitude for the protection which they had thus experienced, and the governor presented Sir G. Oxenden, the chief of the factory, with a dress of honour ; and, on his report to Aurungzib, a remis- sion of duties was granted to the Company. An instance of disobedience on the part of one of their servants occurred also about this time. With all their efforts, they had not been able to put down the private trading of these men, though they rigidly punished it. Sir Edward Winter, the chief of the factory of Madras, being strongly sus- pected of it, was recalled in 1665 ; but when his successor came out he had the audacity to cast him into prison, under the pretext of his having used disloyal language ; and he held the govern- ment till 1668, when a command of the king to him to resign came out. He then retired, and took refuge with the Dutch at Masulipatam. Mr. Mill on this occasion candidly owns that, all things considered, the Company's servants have been at all times more obedient than was reasonably to have been expected. In 1664, the great Colbert formed the French East India Company. The English Company were of course alarmed; but when (1672) a French fleet of twelve ships came to Surat, the inconsider- ate way in which they traded soon convinced the Company's agents that they had little to apprehend from their rivalry. In consequence of a civil war between the king of Bantam and his son, the English, who had pro- bably taken the side of the former, were expelled by the lalter, when victorious, from that place. All their efforts to effect a return proved abortive, and the Dutch, who not improbably were at the bottom of the affair, remained omnipotent in Java. The Presidency, which had hitherto been at Bantam, was now transferred to Fort St. George. The number of the interlopers was now continually on the increase, and they were even making efforts to obtain permanent settlements on the coasts of the Deckan. The Company therefore, not content with the powers which they already possessed for protecting their monopoly, sought and obtained powers of admiralty jurisdiction, to enable them to seize and condemn their ships. Their servants thus possessed nearly unlimited power over all British subjects in the East, and much injustice was of course perpetrated in the case of the inter- lopers, whose own conduct, however, was not by any means irreprehensible, for many of them made trade but the pretext for piracy. Nothiug, as experience at all times has shown, is so unpalatable to the Company's servants as re- trenchment. It being found at this time impossible to make the revenues of Bombay equal the ex- penditure, the expedient of reducing the latter was adopted. Forthwith Captain Keigwin, the com- mandant of the garrison, joined by the soldiers and people, renounced the authority of the Company and proclaimed that of the king (1683). All efforts to induce them to submit proved unavailing, till a royal command was obtained. Keigwin then sur- rendered on condition of a free pardon for himself and his adherents. In order to prevent the recur- rence of such an event, the seat of government was removed from Surat to Bombay, and in 1087 it was made a regency, with unlimited power over the HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1G86— 1702. rest of the Company's settlements ; Madras at the same time waa made a corporation, with a mayor and aldermen. A couple of yean later, Tegnapatam, to tin- south of Madras, was purchased from a native- prince and fortified, and named Kurt St. David. In Bengal, which was destined to be the great seat of the British power, the avarice and oppres- sion of the Subahd&r Shaista Khan weighed so heavy <>n the Company, that in lb'bVJ Ihey came to the resolution of Beeking redress by force of amis. Ten armed vessels, carrying six companies of in- fantrv, who were to be commanded by the mem- bers of the council, came out with instructions to seize and fortify Chittagong, and to Cany on hosti- lities against the Nabob and the Mogul, till repara- tion had been made for all the losses sustained. But the ships did not arrive together in the Ganges, accident led to a premature commencement of hostilities at the town of Hooghly, whence, after defeating the native troops, and cannonading the town, they retired, as it was an open place, to Chutanuttee (not far from Calcutta), where, when attacked by the Nabob, they made a gallant de- fence, under the command of the agent Charnock. They also took the fort of Tanna and isle of Injallee, and burnt the town of Balasore with forty sail of shipping. In return, their factories at Patna and Cossimbazar were taken and plundered. In the following year an accommodation was effected and they returned to Hooghly, and Sir John Child, the governor of Bombay, came to Bengal to try to effect the re-establishment of the other factories. But, meantime, a ship of war and frigate, under Captain Heath, came from Europe with warlike instruc- tions. Heath forthwith plundered Balasore, and, basing failed in an attempt on Chittagong, he took the Company's servants and effects on board and sailed for .Madras, and thus Bengal was for the present abandoned. Aurungzib, in a rage, seized the factory at Surat, and his fleet attacked and nearly reduced Bombay. The factories at Masuli- patam and Vizagapatam were also seized, and the emperor declared his determination of driving the English out of his dominions. Mutual interest, however, effected an accommodation, the Company made the most abject submissions, and the emperor was aware of the value of the English trade. The factory at Surat was restored, and the fleet ordered away from Bombay (1687). During these transactions, the French were en- gaged in fortifying Pondichorry, a place between Madias and Fort St. David, where they had ob- tained an establishment. The directors now saw or thought they saw the necessity of the acquisition of territory, and be- < ing,as they termed it," a nation in India '." In their instructions to their agents, they praise the conduct of the wise Dutch, who in all their des- patches, have ten times as much on the subject of government and revenue as on that of trade. During the whole of the seventeenth century, the progress of the English nation in the acquisi- tion of wealth had been remarkable. .Men's notions i»l freedom had also expanded, and they could not see the justice of excluding the whole nation from India, because the crown in a despotic period had thought tit to give the monopoly of the trade :;ii Mill would Htm tn Insinuate tha oontrary.they could only have meant district! ubout tiuir factories. thither to a particular association. Various at- tempts, as we have seen, were made to have this monopoly dissolved, but in vain. After the Revolu- tion, as was to be expected, these efforts were re- newed with greater vigour, and applications were made to parliament on the subject, and in 1C90 a committee of the House of Commons recommended that a new company should be established. The Company, however, as it seems had always been their custom 5 , bribed largely, and in 1693 the crown renewed their charter for twenty-one years. This charter, however, the Commons disallowed. The system of bribing individuals being found now to be unavailing, both parties resolved to try that of bribing the nation itself. The Company offered to lend the government 700,000/. at four per cent., their rivals proffered a loan of 2,000.000/. at eight per cent., if they got the monopoly free from the joint-stock obligation. The arguments of both parties being heard, parliament decided in favour I of the highest bidders, who were incorporated as a regulated company, under the title of the General ' Society, and when the greater part of the pro- prietors desired to trade on a joint-stock, another charter formed them into a joint-stock company, named the English Company trading to the East Indies. Perhaps a greater legislative blunder never was committed than this of the parliament allowing the Company, as it were, to strip itself of the whole of its capital. It was, in fact, insuring its ruin ; for on what funds was it to trade ? The old, or London Company, was treated with manifest in- justice ; for, though it was to have the benefit of the three years' notice, the other was allowed to com- mence operations immediately. It, however, lost not courage. It wrote out to its agents, calling on them vigorously to second their efforts against the interlopers, as it termed the others. In such case, they had no doubt of the victory, as one or other must fall, for "two East India Companies in Eng- land," said they, " could no more subsist than two kings regnant at the same time in the one kingdom." Accordingly, in 1090, they sent out thirteen ships with goods to the value of 525,000/., while their im- poverished rivals could only send out three ships with a stock of 1/8,000/. They also managed to obtain from the Mogul government a grant of the towns of Chutanuttee, Govindpore, and Calcutta, at which last place they began cautiously to construct a fort, which they named Fort William, in honour of the regnant sovereign. The two Companies proceeded at first in the usual way in India, trying by lies and calumnies to supplant each other in the favour of the native princes. But people at home, who still had ex- aggerated notions of the value of the Indian trade if properly conducted, were anxious for a union between them. The new Company also wished for it, but the old Company held back, hoping for re- venge, fill the three years were nearly run out. They then came to terms, and a union was effected, by which it was arranged that there should be a 7 Tht hooks of tiir Company being examined by order of parliament, it appeared thai ihey had alwayi been in the I1ai.1t et giving brlbea to great nun Their annual exponas tii in way bad hardij ever exceeded 1200/. bemre the Revolu Hon, inn ati. r that event it gradually Increased, and in 1981 It had risen to 90,000/. See Mill. i. 131. a.d. 1702—15. ORGANIZATION OF THE COMPANY. court of twenty-four directors (twelve from each) to direct the general affairs, and at the end of seven years the funds of the two companies should be formed into one great joint-stock (1702). The title of the Company now became "The United Company of Merchants trading to the East Indies." They now went on together, bickering and jar- ring till 1708, when the government called on them for a loan of 1,200,000/. without interest. Fearing lest, if they should hesitate, another set of adventurers might come forward, they resolved to lay aside all private views, and make the best terms they could with the government. All mat- ters were referred to Lord Godolphin, the lord- treasurer, whose award was to be final. The 6th Anne, c. 1 7, containing this award, was then passed, and the Company permanently formed. The 1.200,000/. with the former advance of 2,000,000/. was to form a loan to government at five per cent., and their privileges were to continue till three years after March 25th, 1726, and re- payment of their capital, &c. &c. The Company having now assumed its final form, and its affairs for some years to come being only the routine of trade, we will here take a view of its constitution and organization at home and in India. Accident or design formed the Company into a body modelled in the same manner as the British nation ; for it consisted of a monarchy, an aristo- cracy, and a democracy. This last was what was termed the Court of Proprietors, in which each holder of stock to the amount of 500/. and upwards, had one vote. They elected annually the directors and the chairman. Ail laws and regulations and all dividends of the profits of trade were made by this court. This court met regularly four times a year ; the direc- tors might summon a court whenever they deemed it necessary, and they were obliged to summon one on a requisition signed b) nine proprietors quali- fied to vote. The twenty-four directors, one of whom was chairman, and another deputy-chairman, formed another court, being the aristocracy of the Com- pany. A director was required to possess at least 2000/. of stock ; he held his seat for only a year, liut might be re-elected. Thirteen members were required to form a court, and they met as often as they deemed it expedient. They were divided into Committees ten in number, namely, of Correspond- ence, Lawsuits, Treasury, Warehouses, Accounts, Buying, House, Shipping, Private Trade, and Preventing the Growth of Private Trade. Most of these names explain themselves ; of the three last it is to be observed that the Company used originally to employ a portion of its capital in building ships, but that it now adopted the plan of chartering, that is hiring, ships for its trade ; that it permitted a private trade to be carried on to some extent in the ships which it chartered, and that it sought to limit that trade as much as pos- sible. The chairman represented the monarchic prin- ciple in the Company. He or his deputy presided in all courts of directors or proprietors. The exports to India consisted of bullion, lead, quick-silver, hardware, and woollen clothes. The imports were calicoes and other cotton goods (piece- goods as they were termed), raw silk, tea, diamonds, porcelain, pepper, drugs, and salt-petre. The mode of selling was, and continued to be, by auction, both in India and England. The factories of the Company consisted of ware- houses for the reception of goods, with counting- houses and apartments for their agents and ser- vants. As the country was always more or less in an unsettled state, these were built strong, so as to be able to resist a sudden attack, and the inmates were all trained to the use of arms. As large ma- nufactures were unknown in India, and the weavers who furnished the piece-goods lived in the villages, and were so poor that they could not work unless advances were made to them, an agent of the Com- pany was sent to each district on this account, and the subdivision of all labour being carried to an extreme extent, this person had no less than five functionaries, with their underlings between him and the weaver. There were the banyan or secre- tary, the gomaslda or broker, with his peons or armed servants, and hurcarahs, or letter-carriers, and he transacted with the weavers through the dallals and pycars, or inferior brokers. It is manifest, to any one who knows the native character, how the poor weaver must have been plundered by all these vultures. The English settlements in India formed now three presidencies, namely, Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta, each absolute within its own limits. Each was composed of a president or governor, and of a council, the latter composed of the senior civil ser- vants ; and all were appointed by the directors at home. Every measure was decided by a majority of votes in the council. The president alone cor- responded with the princes of the country, and he had the command of the troops of the presidency. The civil servants of the Company in India were the writers, factors, and junior and senior mer- chants. The first were, as their name denotes, merely clerks. At the end of five years they be- came factors, and in three years more junior mer- chants. A further period of three years (that is, eleven years in India) raised them to the rank of senior merchants, from which were taken by seniority the members of council, and in general the presidents. The small bodies of troops which it was found necessary to maintain for defence were composed of Europeans, that is, of English, Dutch, French, and Portuguese ; the first usually recruits from England, the mere refuse of the large towns ; the rest, very frequently, deserters. To this rabble was joined another, named Topasses by the natives, from their wearing a hat. These were the native Christians, the descendants of the Portuguese and their converts. They were armed, disciplined, and clad in the European manner ; but they always made wretched soldiers. Finally, at a later period, bodies of the native troops were taken into pay, and armed and trained in the European manner ; but they wore their own dress and were com- manded by their own officers. These were called Sepoys, from the Persian word sipahi, a foot-soldier. Those native troops which used their own arms and their own mode of fighting were called Peons. Justice was administered to the Europeans at each presidency by the Mayor's court, from which there was an appeal to the Council. There was also a Court of Requests, or of Conscience, for de- ciding small money matters. For the native popu- f!2 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 171")— 44. lation in the Company's limits tbere were the Fouj- dery court for criminal, the Cutchery for civil, and the Collector's for revenue cases; each pre- sided over by a servant of the Company, who de- cided by the rules of the native laws. During nearly the whole of the first half of the eighteenth century, the Company were engaged at home in repelling the efforts of the partisans of free trade. Their dividends to the proprietors were usually eight or ten per cent, on their stock. In India the most important event was the acqui- sition of territory and some important privileges from the emperor. The occasion was as follows. In 1715, the president of Calcutta, with the per- mission of the directors, sent two factors on an embassy and with presents to the court of Furokh- sir Shah. But their labour and presents would have been thrown away, were it not that the em- peror, who was suffei-ing from disease, was advised to consult their medical man, Mr. Hamilton. This gentleman's treatment of the disease was success- ful, and the emperor desired him to name his reward. Hamilton showed a nobleness of spirit rarely emulated by the English in India. Instead of seeking to enrich himself, he asked for privileges for the Company. The emperor granted, but the vizir resisted, and then sought to render the grants invalid ; but a seasonable bribe to the favourite eunuch, and the dread of the vizir lest the English should, as in the time of Aurungzib, avenge them- selves on the Mogul shipping, caused them to be confirmed. The principal articles were, that the Company should be allowed to purchase the zemin- daries of thirty-seven towns in Bengal, and that their dustuck, or pass, signed by the president of Calcutta, should exempt the goods under it from examination by the native revenue officers. The principal object of the Company in seeking for those towns, which would have given them a district extending for ten miles from Calcutta on each side of the Hooghly, is said to have been to establish there a colony of native weavers. This the Subahdar of Bengal obviated by preventing the holders of land from selling to the Company. But the affair of the dustucks gave him more trouble, as it actually injured to a great extent the revenues of the province. For nothing could keep the servants of the Company from private trading, and they had now got into their hands the greater part of the native or country trade, not merely that between the different ports of India and the countries to the east, but also of the internal trade of the province ; and the president, who was of course himself engaged in this trade, used to grant his duttuekt for it. This the Subahdar declared his determination to suppress ; and the servants of the Company, not yet able to dictate, could only murmur and submit. CHAPTER IV. French Settlement* in India— M. de LabourdonnaU— M. Dupleix— Taking of Madras— Treaty Ilroken by Duplets —Attempt on Fort St. David— Siege of I'ondicherry. In 1744, a war commenced between France and England, and the former power resolved to extend it to the settlements of the two nations in India. In that country, France now possessed, beside Pondicherry, a factory at Caracol, on the Coloroon river, on the same coast, and another at Mahi, on the Malabar coast ; she had also one at Ciiander- nagore on the Hooghly, in Bengal. The islands named of France and of Bourbon, to the east of Madagascar, had also been colonised by her, and under their present governor, M. de Labourdonnais, they were rising into importance. The governor of the islands was, as we have said, M. de Labourdonnais, a very remarkable man. Born at St. Malo in Brittany, and sent to sea at the age of ten years, he contrived to acquire a knowledge of mathematics and other sciences, and having been two or three voyages to India, and learned the nature of the trade of that part of the world, he resolved to engage in it on his own account. In a few years he realised a considerable fortune. Being invited by the viceroy of Goa to enter the service of the king of Portugal, lie accepted the offer, and was for two years the agent of that government on the coast of Coromandel. He then returned to France, where the ministry at once fixed on him as the person most likely to be able to raise the people of the isles of France and Bourbon from the state, little beyond that of nature, in which they were living. He went thither in 1735, and in the space of eleven years he gave these islands roads, vehicles, beasts of burden, and handicrafts, not one of which had they previously possessed. He introduced the culture of indigo and the sugar cane ; that of the coffee-plant had been accidentally introduced a few years earlier. In all these improvements he had had no one to aid him, and he had to contend against the natural inertness and prejudices of the French character in the colonists, and the malignity of the ship- captains, to whose enormous prices and demands he set limits, and who therefore filled the ears of the directors at home with complaints against him. In 1740, wearied with the opposition he encountered, he wished to resign, but the minister, who knew his worth, would not accept his resignation. The governor of Pondicherry at this time was M. Dupleix. His father was a director of the India Company, who after giving him a suitable education, and sending him some voyages to India and America, by his influence with the Company, had him sent out in 1720 as first member of the council to Pondicherry. Here, having made him- self well acquainted with the nature of the com- merce of the country, ho engaged in it on his own account, being almost the first Frenchman who did so. About ten years after, be was sent to super- intend the factory of Chandernagore, which he raised from depression and languor to activity and importance, and he formed a new establishment at Patna. On his own account he entered largely here into the country trade, and he had not less than twelve ships at sea, belonging to himself and bis partners, Ho was afterwards appointed gover- nor of Pondicherry, when' he exerted himself to strengthen the fortifications, as he had reason to think tin' town might have to sustain an attack. Labonrdonnais, when in Prance in 1740, had stated to the ministry, that, with a sufficient number of armed vessels, ho would undertake to sweep the Eastern seas of the English oommerce, before a fleet could arrive for its protection. His plan was A. D. 1744 — 47. SIEGE OF FORT ST. DAVID AND PONDICHERRY. C3 adopted, but not in the manner he wished, and as the ships which he got belonged mostly to the Company, who were hostile to him, he was required to send them home before war was declared between France and England. When this event occurred, in 1744, he found himself without the means of striking the blow he had meditated. He resolved, however, to do all he could ; but it was not till the spring of 174fi that he was able to put to sea with nine ships, manned with all sort of people that he could collect, nearly a fourth being Caffres or blacks from Madagascar, and elsewhere. With this force he engaged an English squadron of four ships of war and a frigate, and night separated the combatants. The English, instead of renewing the engagement, retired to Trincomalee, in Ceylon, to repair, and Labourdonnais proceeded to Pondi- cherry. Having been grudgingly furnished by Dupleix with some cannon, of which he was in great want, he went in search of the English fleet, but he was unable to bring it to action. He returned to Pondicherry, and, having ascertained that the English fleet had abandoned the coast, he resolved to make an attempt on Madras. On the 14th September, he landed a part of his forces about twelve miles south of that town, and next day, when his fleet was within cannon-shot of it, he himself landed with the remainder, his force being about 1100 Europeans, 400 Sepoys, and 300 Caffres, beside those left on board the ships. The territory of Madras extended about five miles along the shore, and one mile inland. The town consisted of three parts, viz. Fort St. George, or the white town, containing about fifty houses, beside warehouses, &c, surrounded by a slight wall with four bastions, and four batteries ; north of this lay the black town, in two divisions, that next the fort containing the houses of the Arme- nians 8 , and the wealthy native merchants, the other the huts of the inferior natives. The whole popu- lation of the territory is estimated at 250,000, the Europeans were not more than 300, of whom a third were civilians. Such a place could not well be expected to make a successful defence. Accordingly, after having been bombarded for five days, it capitulated, La- bourdonnais having pledged his honour to restore it and be content with a moderate ransom. The contents of the warehouses and magazines of the Company, as being public property, were taken possession of by the French commissaries ; but La- bourdonnais protected the persons and properties of the inhabitants like a man of honour. In thus agreeing to restore Madras, Labourdon- nais acted according to his instructions from home; but the views of Dupleix were different, and he threw every obstacle in the way of the adjustment. At length, the monsoon with its attendant storms having forced Labourdonnais to quit the coast, Dupleix was left at liberty to act as he pleased. But now a new difficulty presented itself in the person of the Nabob of the province. In the pre- ceding year, when Pondicherry was threatened by the English fleet, Dupleix had prevailed on him to declare it under his protection, and to menace Madras if the fleet should attack any place in his dominions. In order to prevent his protecting 8 These Eastern Christians are to be met with all over the East as merchants. Madras in a similar manner, Dupleix had promised to give him that town when taken. The Nabob, however, soon saw that this was all a deception, and the moment Labourdonnais was gone he sent a force of 10,000 men under his son, to drive the French out of Madras. Luckily for them, Labour- donnais had been obliged to leave behind him 1200 disciplined Europeans, and when the Nabob's troops made an attack, they were repelled with some loss. They then retired to Mount St. Thomas, four miles distant to the south, whither the French followed them, and routed them again, and they finally returned to Arcot, the Nabob's capital. The spell which had long held the Euro- peans, respecting the valour and power of the Moguls, was now broken, since they saw the vast superiority of discipline over mere numbers. Dupleix now caused the inhabitants of Pon- dicherry to present to him a memorial, praying that the treaty of ransom for Madras should not be executed ; and, affecting a deference for the public will, he sent orders to the officer in com- mand there to declare the treaty annulled, to seize all property, private as well as public, except clothes, household furniture, and female ornaments, and to arrest and send to Pondicherry all who would not give their parole not to act against the French nation till exchanged. These orders were put into execution with the utmost rigour, and " the French," says Oime, " took possession of the effects of the English with an avaricious exactitude, rarely practised by those who acquire sudden booties." Of all European nations, it may be observed, the French are the most ruthless plunderers, and in all their wars, though glory is in their mouths, plunder is in their hearts. The governor and many others, refusing to give their parole, were con- ducted to Pondicherry, where Dupleix, under pre- tence of doing them honour, gratified his own vanity by causing them to be led in a kind of tri- umphal procession. Many of the other inhabitants made their escape to Fort St. David. Dupleix now directed his efforts against Fort St. David, the only remaining English settlement on that coast. At this place, twelve miles south of Pondicherry, the fort, though smaller, was much stronger than that at Madras, and the native town, named Cuddalore, was surrounded on the land- sides by walls flanked with bastions. On the night of the 19th December, he sent against it a force of 1700 men, mostly Europeans, with two compa- nies of the Caffres of Labourdonnais. To oppose this force the English had only 200 Europeans and 100 Topasses ; for they had not yet, like the French, begun to train Sepoys. They had, however, hired about 2000 Peons, and, what was better, they had engaged the Nabob, by an offer of paying part of the expense, to send his army to their assistance. Accordingly, while the French were taking some rest, previous to their advance to what they re- garded as an easy prey, they saw near 10,000 men advancing to attack them, and they made a preci- pitate retreat with some loss. To detach the Nabob, Dupleix sent a detachment from Madras to ravage his territory, — a command which was executed in the usual French manner, with the utmost insolence and barbarity. This, however, did not make the Nabob change ; but when four ships of Labour- donnais' squadron returned to Pondicherry, and Dupleix boasted loudly of the force he now had, HISTORY OF INDIA. a. d. 1749. the Nabob grew alarmed, and made peace with the French. His son visited Pondieherry, and Dupleix 9 had an opportunity of gratifying him by a con- siderable present, and his own vanity by the dis- play he made on the occasion. Had the Nabob re- mained firm, Pondieherry might have fallen, for an English fleet arrived shortly after, and it might thus have been blockaded by sea and by land. Dupleix now made quite sure of Fort St. George, and on the 13th March (1747) a French army appeared before it, and took up its former position. But just then the English squadron came in view, and the besiegers retired in haste. The garrison was now reinforced from Bombay and other places, and in the following month of January (1748), Major Lawrence, of the king's service, came from England to take the command of the whole of the Company's troops in India. In the month of June following, Dupleix made an attempt to surprise Cuddalore. Major Lawrence, apprised of his design, removed in the daytime the garrison and cannon from it into the fort, as if regarding it as untenable; but at night he brought them back, and when at midnight the enemy came and applied their scaling ladders to the walls, they were received with such a discharge of musketry and artillery, that they all took panic and fled without firing a shot. It was now the turn of Pondieherry to be be- sieged. In the month of August a fleet, composed partly of king's, partly of Company's ships, carry- ing 1400 troops, and commanded by Admiral Bos- cawen, arrived at Fort St. David, and, when joined with that already there, it formed the largest Eu- ropean force yet seen in India. The siege of Pondieherry was at once resolved on, and a confident hope was felt that Madras would be amply revenged. Ou the 8th August, the troops were put in motion, and they advanced to Ariancopang, a small fort, within two miles of Pondieherry. Instead of leaving a small detach- ment to hold the garrison in check (for time was precious, as the monsoon was approaching), they resolved to take it. But the resistance was much more vigorous than they had anticipated, and, after losing several days before it, they had to thank the accidental circumstance of a part of the garrison's magazine taking fire for their success. The gar- rison retired after blowing up the walls, and five days more were wasted in repairing them. They then advanced against the town, but instead of opening their trenches on the north side, where they could have run them to the very foot of the glacis, tiny opened them on the north-west, and at a distance of 1600 yards from the wall, instead of 800 as was then usual, and when they had pushed them to within this last distance of the wall they found themselves prevented by a morass from going any further. Their guns, at that distance, had Rule effect, and the fire of the besieged was double of theirs ; the rains came on, sickness prevailed, storms would soon drive the ships off the coast, and there seemed little chance of taking the town. Thirty-one days after the trenches had been opened, » Dupleix had a great advantage In dealing with the ' nativeH, from the oircumatance of his wife, whom he had ! m Bengal) being ■ Creole, ai sin- is ironed by Onna 1ih.1t is, »!• rappees, « ii.it is now called ■ hull ' 1 tier knowledge of the language! of the country laved him from tin- trill attending the dm of common Interprt t» re. it was decided in a council of war to raise the siege. When they retired, Dupleix, as was to be expected, made great pomp and display, and he wrote boastful letters to the Mogul and other native princes, exalting the glorious victory he had gained'. They replied in correspondent strains, and the military character of the French rose, and that of the Eng'lish declined in their estimation. In 1740, the peace of Aix la Chapelle was signed, and Madras was restored to the English, with its fortifications much improved. As it had been found that the Catholic priests at Mount St. Thomas, which was originally a Portuguese settle- ment, used to convey intelligence to the French, it was taken possession of, and the suspected persons were forced to leave it. CHAPTER V. Kingdom of Tanjore— Taking of Devi Cottah— Affairs of the Carnatic— Robert Clive— His Defence of Arcot— Further Successes of Clive— Defeats of the French— Treaty be- tween the French and English— Treatment of Dupleix — Further Operations of the English — Ill-treatment of Bussy. Hitherto the English in India have been nothing more than traders, with a few factories, and a few soldiers occasionally defending themselves against the injustice or oppression of the native powers; the scene now changes, and we shall find them engaging in the quarrels of the native princes, and step by step imperceptibly led on by the force of circumstances to the acquisition of empire. That such a course would have been forced on them by the ambition of Dupleix is certain ; but that they should have been the first to engage in these native affairs is to be regretted, and still more that their motive should have been mere cupidity, at- tended with a disregard of justice and sound policy. The kingdom of Tanjore, which lies to the south of the Caveri river, was one of those minor Hindoo states which obeyed the kingdom of Bejayanugur, on the fall of which it fell under that of Bejapur, its rajah becoming, as usual, a zemindar, and pay- ing a certain annual tribute. Shahjee, the Maratta, contrived to make himself master of Tanjore, and it continued to be governed by his descendants. After the usual intrigues and acts of violence in- herent in Eastern dominion, Pratap Sing, a son of one of these princes by one of his inferior wives, occupied the throne to the prejudice of his better bom brother Sahujee, who had been driven from it by violence in 1741 ; from which time the Eng- lish had always treated him as king of Tanjore, offered him their friendship, and sought his alli- ance against the French. But now, in 1749, Sahujee repaired to Fort St. David, and, repre- senting how much the Tanjorines were in his favour, offered the English, if they would assist him, the paymenl of all their expenses, and in addition the fori and district of Devi Cottah at the ' The French India Company accused Duplets of want of perrons] oourage, bm be replied, ena '<• srsM o3ei ttrmn tew penilait tes rifiiiian; el que h ailmc MMJ lontcuail u sou .'/""■■ d. 1749— 49. AFFAIRS OF THE CARNATIC. 05 mouth of the Colaroon. The offer appeared ad- vantageous ; there were now plenty of men and unoccupied at Fort St. David; the alliance was, therefore, formed, and Captain Cope marched for the Colaroon : which river was crossed, and the troops, taking the right road by accident, reached the fort of Devi Cottah. But no one appeared for Sahujee ; on the contrary, the Tanjorines gave them all the annoyance in their 'power, and, after throwing what shells they had at the fort, the troops retired. To efface the shame of this repulse, another ex- pedition under Major Lawrence was sent by sea. The troops were landed on the north bank of the river, as the ground about the fort, which was on the other bank, was marshy, and the Tanjore troops at hand. Batteries were erected, and when a breach was effected the troops were passed over the river by means of' a raft constructed by one John Moore, a common ship's carpenter, who also, by swimming over in the night and fastening a rope to a tree, contrived the means of working it. As soon as the troops were all over, Major Law- rence resolved to storm at once. Lieutenant Clive solicited and obtained the honour of leading the attack. He advanced, and crossed a rivulet under a heavy fire ; but, as the Sepoys who were behind did not close up, a body of Tanjore horse got in the rear of the Europeans and cut them down all but four. Clive with difficulty made his retreat to the Sepoys ; and the Tanjorines, satisfied with their success, retired. Major Lawrence then advanced with the whole of his force, and the place was taken. An accommodation with the rajah followed. He gave Devi Cottah and its district to the Eng- lish, who in return engaged never to let Sahujee molest him more 011 his allowing him 4000 rupees a year for his support. While the English were thus occupied, Dupleix was aiming at much higher objects. Our readers will recollect that under the great Subahs of the Mogul empire were large but inferior districts governed by Nabobs or deputies. Such an officer under the Subahdar of the Deckan was the Nabob of the Carnatic, the region extending along the coast of Coromaudel from near Pulicat to Cape Comorin, and inland to some way beyond the Ghats. In the early part of this century a chief named Sadut Allah was Nabob of the Carnatic. He died in 1731, and, having no children, he adopt- ed his two nephews, Dost Ally and Bakir Ally, and as, in the dissolution of the empire, Nabobs as well as Subahdars were becoming hereditary, he was succeeded in his office by the former, while the latter became governor of the strong fort of Vel- lore. Dost Ally had two sons and four daughters, of whom one was married to her cousin Mortiz Ally, son of Bakir Ally, and the other to Chunda Sahib, a more distant relative. There was another small Hindoo principality to the west of Tanjore, and standing in the same re- lation as it to the Mogul government. It was named Trichinopoly. Its rajah dying in 1736, a dispute for the succession ensued, and Chunda Sahib, having taken the part of the queen and her adopted son, was admitted by her into the fortress, of which, by treachery, he made himself master, and he was then appointed by the Nabob, his father-in-law, governor of Trichinopoly. This aggression alarmed the king of Tanjore and the other Hindoo rajahs, and they sent to invite the Marattas to come to their aid. In May, 1740, a Maratta army, led by Ragojee, advanced to the Carnatic. A Hindoo officer of the Nabob's having betrayed the passes of the Ghats, they poured down through them. Dost Ally engaged them and fell, and Sufder Ally, his eldest son, retired to Vellore, where he began to negotiate with them. They agreed to retire on receiving a large sum of money and a promise of more, with secret permis- sion to keep Trichinopoly if they were able to take it. They soon returned and laid siege to that town, and Chunda Sahib, after a gallant defence, was made a prisoner and carried to Sattara, and a Ma- ratta named Morari Rao was left governor of Trichinopoly. Meanwhile, Sufder Ally was assas- sinated by his cousin Mortiz, who had succeeded his father as governor of Vellore, and who thus hoped to become the Nabob ; but, his plan not suc- ceeding, he shut himself up in his fortress, and Seid Mohammed, the infant son of Sufder, was proclaimed Nabob. But now Asof Jah, the Nizam or Subahdar of the Deckan, Nadir Shah being gone, had leisure to attend to his province. He entered the Carnatic in 1743, and, though he treated Seid Mohammed with respect, he appointed his own general, Khoja Abdallah, to govern the Carnatic during his mino- rity. He further obliged the Marattas to evacuate Trichinopoly. Khoja Abdallah having died sud- denly, by poison it is said, Asof appointed another of his officers, named Anwar-ud-din, to succeed him, and when soon after the young Nabob was murdered by some Patan 2 soldiers, who demanded their arrears of pay, probably not without the knowledge of Anwar-ud-din, under whose chai'ge he was, Asof made the latter Nabob of the Carnatic. Thus, at the time when the French and English began to engage in native affairs, there was an actual Nabob of the Carnatic, and a family who thought they had a right to the rule of that country. Asof Jah died in 1748, and, as the family of Sadut Allah had always been popular in the Carnatic, Dupleix thought this a good opportunity for an at- tempt to reinstate them. For this purpose he had fixed on Chunda Sahib, who was by far the ablest man of the family, and he had already procured him his liberty by advancing money for his ransom. Ghazi-ud-din, Asof Jah's eldest son, being at the court of Delhi, Nasir Jung, the second son, made himself Subahdar of the Deckan ; but there was a favourite grandson of the late Subahdar, named Moeuffur Jung, whom he was said to have nominated his successor in his will. To this prince Chunda Sahib addressed himself with an offer of his ser- vices, which were gladly accepted ; and Dupleix also caught eagerly at the occasion of extending his influence. It was arranged that they should commence operations in the Carnatic ; and they entered that province at the head of 40,000 men, where they were joined by a body of Europeans and Sepoys, under M. d'Auteuil. They stormed the camp of Anwar, which was under the fort of Amboor (Aug. 3, 1749). Anwar, who is said to have been 107 years old, was slain ; his eldest son was made a prisoner ; his second, Mohammed a This is the name usually given in India to the Afghans and their descendants in that country. HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1750-51. Ally, fled with the wreck of the army to Trichi- nopoly, of which place he was governor. The victors, instead of pursuing hira, loitered some time at Arcot, the Nabob's capital, and then at Pondicberry, where Dupleix displayed his vanity as usual. Having procured money, which had been a chief cause of their delay, they advanced, not against Trichinopoly, but Tanjore, where they hoped to make the rajah pay a large sum as arrears, &c. But while they were thus engaged, Nasir Jung, who had reached the Nerbudda on his way to Delhi, on hearing of the insurrection of his nephew, made a speedy return and descended into the Car- natic. The confederates immediately left Tanjore and returned to Pondicberry. Nasir Jung called on Mohammed Ally and the English to join him ; and the latter, alarmed at the ambitious designs of Dupleix, sent a force of about 700 Europeans to his camp. The two armies were nearly on the point of engaging, when thirteen of the French officers, offended at not getting share of the money which had been obtained at Tanjore, threw up their commissions. This act disheartened the men, and D'Auteuil, fearing to engage under such circum- stances, led back his forces to Pondicberry, whither he was followed by Chunda Sahib. Mozuffur Jung surrendered to his uncle, by whom, in breach of his promise, he was put in fetters. Differences arising between Major Lawrence and the Subahdar, the former led his men back to Madras, and the latter proceeded to Arcot, where he devoted himself to pleasure. Meantime, the French sent an expedition, which seized Masuli- patam at the mouth of the Kistna, and they also seized the pagoda 3 or temple of Trivadi, within fifteen miles of Fort St. David. Mohammed Ally called on the English to assist him in recovering it, and they sent Captain Cope with 400 Europeans and 1500 Sepoys to his aid. But differences arising, as usual, they retired, and the French then easily routed his forces. The French then took by storm Gingee, esteemed the strongest fortress in the Car- natic. This alarmed the Subahdar, and he now offered to negotiate ; but the demands of Dupleix were so high that nothing could be arranged, and he led his troops against Gingee. But the rains now came on, and the Subahdar had become so weary of the contest that he was inclined to grant all that Dupleix demanded. This wily man was, however, playing a double game ; for, while openly treating with the Subahdar, he was in secret com- munication with some discontented Patan chiefs in his army. When all was arranged, at a concerted signal, the commandant at Gingee issued and at- tacked tho camp of the Subahdar ; the traitors tinned him with their forces, and by one of them Nasir Jmig was shot through the heart (1750). Mozuffur Jung now passed from his prison to s The general structure of the pagodas, which are so numerous on the coast of Coromandel, is an area, mostly square, inclosed by a wall fifteen or twenty feet high. The area contains the templet, which are never so high as the wall. In the centre of one or more sides of the will is a gateway, With a high tower rising over it. The great pagoda in the laland oi Beringhatn has seven Ineloiuree, each with in tha oilier, twenty nVe fed high, and fmir feet thick, and each witli four gates and towers, facing the cardinal prints. The outer wall is nearly four miles in circumference. Orme, i. 17S. He proceeded at once to Pondicberry, tade Dupleix governor of the country the throne where he made Dupleix governor of the country from the Kistna to Cape Comorin, and Chunda Sahib his deputy at Arcot. Mohammed Ally was now so depressed in spirit that he offered to Du- pleix to resign all his claims, if the Subahdar would give him a government elsewhere and leave him his treasures. Of the treasures of the late Subahdar, M. Du- pleix's own share is said to have amounted to 300,000/. beside many valuable jewels ; 50,000/. was given to the troops who fought at Gingee ; and a like sum was paid into the treasury of the Com- pany. Mozuffur Jung then set out on his return, attended by a corps of 300 Europeans and 2000 Sepoys, with ten field-pieces, commanded by M. Bussy, an able French officer. The Patan traitors, who were discontented, as their extravagant de- mands had not been complied with at once, had now entered into a new conspiracy ; and when the army entered Cudipah, the territory of one of them, on occasion of a quarrel between the peasantry and some soldiers, the Patan set his master at defiance. The others joined him and occupied the passes, but the French artillery soon put them to flight. Carried on by his ardour, the Subahdar pursued till he came up with one of the traitors, engaging in single combat with whom, he was pierced to the brain by a javelin. In the conster- nation which ensued, Bussy did not lose his presence of mind. Assembling the chiefs, he recommended to them Salabut Jung, a younger son of Asof Jah, who was in the camp, and they conferred at once on him the vacant dignity. The new Subahdar renewed the engagements of his predecessor with the French, and the whole army then pursued its march for Hyderabad. While Dupleix was thus founding a French dominion in India, and drawing on himself the regards of the native princes, the English were sitting as inactive as if they were no ways con- cerned ; and Major Lawrence, even at this critical period, returned to Europe on his private affairs. They offered to acknowledge Chunda Sahib, if Tri- chinopoly was secured to Mohammed Ally ; but Dupleix spurned at such conditions, and Chunda Sahib led his own forces and his French allies against that town. A force, under Captain Gingen, was sent from Fort St. David to impede his pro- gress. At the fort of Volconda, between Arcot and Trichinopoly, an engagement took place ; but the English officers had spent so much time in consultation before they agreed to give battle, that the men lost spirit, and in the action they actually ran away, though the troops of Mohammed Ally that were with them, and even a battalion of Caffres, stood their ground and retreated in good order. The army then continued its retreat before the enemy till it reached Trichinopoly ; the troops of Chunda and the French appeared soon alter and eommemced operations against that city (1751). We have already had occasion to make mention of a young man named Robert Clive. He was the son of a gentleman of small fortune in Shropshire, and bad come out as a writer to Madras, in 1744. When Dupleix broke the treaty made with that place, Clive was one of those who did not eoneeive himself bound by it, and he made bis escape in the disguise of a Dative to Fort St. David. Peeling a predilection for ■ military life, he obtained an A.D. 1751. DEFENCE OF ARCOT. 67 ensign's commission in the Company's service, and he was present at the attack on Pondicherry, in 1748. He led, as we have seen, the storming party at the attack on Devi Cottah. He then returned to the civil service, and, by the influence of Major Lawrence, was appointed commissary for supplying the European troops with provisions. In this ca- pacity lie was present, but did not share in, the disgraceful affair at Volconda. He then accom- panied Mr. Pigot, a member of the Council, in charge of some recruits and stores to Trichinopoly; but they were attacked on their way, and only escaped by the fleetness of their horses. Give, now a captain, was then sent with another small reinforcement, and, after a smart affair with a Frencli party, he reached that place in safety. On his return to Fort St. David, Clive gave a melancholy account of the state of affairs at Tri- chinopoly, and declared that, unless greater efforts were made, the cause of Mohammed Ally would be lost. He proposed to create a diversion by an at- tack on Arcot, and offered to take charge of the expedition himself. The governor, Mr. Saunders, a man of sense and spirit, gave his consent, and by leaving Fort St. David and Madras almost defence- less a force of 200 Europeans and 300 Sepoys was collected, with three field-pieces. There were eight officers, six of whom were civil servants, who had never seen any service. On the way they en- countered a furious storm, and their courage in marching through it appeared so ominous of the final event to the garrison of Arcot, who were 1100 in number, that they quitted the fort, into which Clive marched unopposed (August 31). The city contained 100,000 inhabitants, who remained in tranquillity. There were 3000 or 4000 persons dwelling in the fort, where they were suffered to remain. The garrison had retired only to a little dis- tance, but Clive soon sallied forth and drove them further off. He then spent about ten days repair- ing the fort, and as the garrison, now augmented to 3000 men, were menacing to besiege it, he issued forth one night (September 14), and, entering their camp while they were all asleep, dispersed them without the loss of a single man on his side. He sent soon after the greater part of his little force to escort two eighteen-pounders which were coming to hiin from Madras, and while they were away the enemy came, and made some attempts on the fort ; but they were kept at bay, and on the appearance of the detachment and cannon they re- tired. On the 23rd arrived Chunda's son, Rajah Sahib, with 4000 men from the army at Trichino- poly and 150 Europeans from Pondicherry, and being joined by the troops already about there they entered the town. At noon the next day Clive sallied forth with the four field-pieces, and the greater part of the garrison, to endeavour to drive them out ; but the attempt proved a failure, and he retired with the loss of sixteen Europeans and one officer. On the following day Rajah Sahib was joined by Mortiz Ally, from Vellore, with 2000 men, and he took possession of all the avenues leading to the fort. The fort of Arcot was more than a mile in cir- cuit ; its walls were mostly ruinous, the rampart was too narrow for the use of artillery, the parapet low and slight, the towers were decayed, the ditch was dry in some places, fordable in others ; the two gates had causeways, instead of drawbridges before them. The garrison had now fit for duty only 150 Europeans and 200 Sepoys, with four officers. They were besieged by 150 Europeans, 2000 Sepoys, 3000 cavalry, and 5000 Peons. As there was only food for sixty days for the garrison in the fort, Clive sent away the inhabitants, and the besiegers allowed them to pass. While waiting for battering cannon from Pondicherry, the enemy kept up a fire of musketry, and threw shells from four mortars. In this way they killed suc- cessively three sergeants, who attended Clive in visiting the works. On the 24th October their cannon arrived, and they opened a battery, with which they speedily disabled two of the garrison's eighteen-pounders, and in six days they made a breach of fifty feet in the walls. But when they found that trenches were dug, and other prepara- tions made to defend it, they would not venture to storm till they had effected another breach. At this time, more by way of amusement than any thing else, Clive filled up one of the towers with earth, and then raised a mound on it, so high as to command the palace. On this he mounted a huge old cannon which he had found in the fort, and once in each day he fired it by means of a long train on the palace, when the officers were assem- bled there. On the fourth day, however, it burst, and there was an end to the sport. The enemy in return filled up a large house, so as to command the interior of the fort. They were suffered to complete it, and to mount their cannon on it, but before they could commence firing the garrison, by the fire of an eighteen-pounder, brought down the whole mound in less than an hour. An attempt to reinforce the garrison by a party from Madras, led by Lieutenant Innes, having failed, and the enemy breaching the wall by another battery, Clive, learning that Morari Rao, the Ma- ratta, was within thirty miles of Arcot, with a body of 6000 horse which had been hired by the king of Mysore to assist Mohammed Ally, sent to ask him to come to his relief. Morari wrote to say, that he would instantly send aid to such brave men as the defenders of Arcot, who had now first convinced him that the English could fight. Rajah Sahib, when informed of this, sent (October 30) a flag of truce to the fort, offering the garrison honourable terms, and Clive himself a large sum of money, threatening, if his offers were not accepted, that he would storm the fort immediately and put every- one in it to the sword. Clive in his reply treated his offers with contempt, and added, that he thought better of his prudence than to suppose that he would attempt to storm with such rabble as com- posed his army. Lieutenant Innes' party, having been reinforced, was now advancing under the command of Captain Kilpatrick ; the Marattas arrived, and began to plunder as usual ; a second breach had been effected, and Rajah Sahib now resolved to attempt a storm. On the morning of the 14th of Novem- ber, his troops, animated by superstition (for this was one of the days of a Mohammedan festival, on which whoever falls in battle against the infidels goes straight to Paradise), and intoxicated with bang, marched in four divisions to the gates and breaches of the fort, while a confused multitude advanced to place ladders against the walls. Clive, who had had timely information of their plans, and F 2 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1752. made his arrangements, had lain down to sleep, but, awaking at the alarm, he found all his men at their posts. The attack was furious on all points, hut in the space of an hour the enemy, finding themselves every where repulsed, ceased from the storm, and began to carry off their dead. Perceiving that the; were fired on when so engaged they ceased, and" then renewed their fire on the fort. At two o'clock they asked, and obtained, a trace for two hours to remove their dead. The firing then re- commenced, and was kept up till two in the morn- ing, when it ceased, and at day-break news arrived of their having abandoned the town. The garrison marched out, and took possession of their guns and ammunition. This memorable defence had lasted fifty days, and owing to deaths, wounds, and sickness, the number of those who repelled the storm was only 80 Europeans and 120 Sepoys. To the honour of these last it is recorded, that when provisions be- gan to run short, they proposed to Clive to give them only the water in which the rice had been boiled, for their sustenance. " It is sufficient for our support," said they, " the Europeans require the grain." This fact "is also honourable to Clive, for it proves that his conduct to the native troops must have been kind and conciliatory. Clive now having received a reinforcement took the fort of Timery, and then, with the aid of the Marattas, defeated a large detachment from Pon- dicherry. The fort of Arnee then declared for Mohammed Ally, and Clive now advanced against the pagoda of Conjeveram, which was held by the French. The commandant made two English officers, Revel and Glass, who were his prisoners, write to say, that if the attack was made they would be exposed on the wall ; but they added, that they trusted no regard for them would stop the operations. When some battering cannon had arrived, Clive made a breach, but the garrison, fearing to await a storm, stole away in the night, leaving the two prisoners behind them. Clive then returned to Fort St. David, and when, in the month of January, following (1752), Rajah Sahib had taken the field with 400 Europeans, 2000 Sepoys, and 2500 cavalry, and a train of artillery, Clive marched against him with 380 Europeans, 1300 Sepoys, and six pieces of cannon. He engaged them at a place named Coverspak, and having by a skilful manoeuvre succeeded in capturing their artillery, which was placed in a mango- grove, he gave them a complete defeat. Sixty Europeans surrendered, fifty with 300 Sepoys lay dead ; the loss on Clive's side was forty Europeans and thirty Sepoys killed, and a much greater number wounded. These various successes of Clive destroyed the French influence in this part of the Carnatie, and raised tin reputation of the English in arms in the I the natives, who before had regarded them as far inferior to the French. (live was preparing to march to the relief of Trichinopoly, when Major Lawrence arrived bom England, lie of course took the command, and, ace pained by ('live, of whom he had the highest opinion, ho set out at the head of KM) Europeans and IKio Sepoys, with eight field-pieces. Dupleix sent orders to M. Law, who commanded the French troops then, to intercept them; but in spite of his efforts Lawrence reached the camp in safety, and then prepared to attack that of the French. The latter, conscious of their weakness, passed over to the island of Seringham (as a piece of land insu- lated by the Coleroon, and another branch of the Caveri,'wasnamed),and,when they were there, Clive proposed to Major Lawrence to pass a part of the army over to the further bank of the Coleroon to cut off their supplies. Though there was hazard in the plan, Lawrence consented, giving the com- mand of the detachment to Clive himself. Clive showed his usual activity, and had his usual suc- cess. He first checked, and afterwards forced to surrender M. D'Auteuil, who was advancing with a reinforcement, and shortly after the French in Seringham were obliged to capitulate. The fate of Chunda Sahib, the noblest, most generous, and most honourable of the native princes who appeared on this scene, is to be de- plored. His troops had left him for want of pay, and Law had told him that he was no longer able to protect him. There was at this time at Trichi- nopoly a Mysorean army, with Morari Rao and his Marattas, and also the troops of the rajah of Tanjore, all come to the relief of Mohammed Ally, and it was only from one of these auxiliaries he could hope for protection. Monacjee, the Tanjo- rine general, had made him such fair offers that he was induced to confide in him, and repair to his quarters ; but the faithless Tanjorine immediately placed him in confinement. He then informed all the other parties of his prize ; each was eager to possess him, and Monacjee, seeing he could not re- tain him, ended the dispute by assassinating the unhappy prince *. Major Lawrence now deemed that nothing more was required for establishing the dominion of Mo- hammed Ally in the whole of the Carnatie than the reduction of the fort of Gingee. But, to his amazement, he learned that the Nabob had pro- mised the Mysore regent possession of Trichino- poly, in payment for the aid he had given him. The Nabob, to be sure, made no scruple about breaking his faith ; but the major was more punc- tilious, and a promise was given to the Mysorean, that he should have the place at the end of two months, with which he was obliged to be content, and the English, meantime, left a garrison in the town. It was the plan of Major Lawrence, that the province should first be recovered, and the rents collected, and then siege laid to Gingee ; but this judicious plan was overruled by governor Saunders, and troops were sent in the direction of that fortress. These, however, met with a check, and Dupleix, elated thereby, resolved to send all the troops ho could into the field, and he made prisoners a com- pany of Swiss in the English service, who were proceeding by sea from Madras to Fort St. David. We are to recollect that at this time France and England were at peace, and that the rival Com- panies in the East, though in reality principals, affected to appear only as the allies of the rival Nabobs. The force with which Lawrence set out in pursuit of the enemy was somewhat superior in number, ami they declined a battle till by a feigned retreat he brought them to action within two miles of Fort St. David. Victory was with the English, 4 Mill blsmn M&Jol Lawrence for not liavinp taken liini mit of their hands, as policy anil humanity n'ike dictated; hut, si Wilson observes, the English at thai time wen net in a condition to dictate to the native powers. a.d. 1753—54. TREATY BETWEEN THE COMPANIES. 69 and it would have been more complete, had not the Nabob's horse fallen to plunder, instead of pursu- ing the enemy. Clive was then sent to reduce the forts of Covelong and Chingliput, which he easily effected. He then returned to England on account of his health, and the monsoon now compelled the troops to go into quarters. During the winter, Dupleix managed to form an alliance with the Mysoreans and Marattas, who were at Trichinopoly, where they had made some ineffectual attempts to surprise the fort. This al- liance was kept as secret as possible ; but Major Lawrence got knowledge of it, and, acting on this knowledge, he went so far as to recommend to Captain Dalton, the commandant at Trichinopoly, to seize the two chiefs at a conference, for lie had besides detected a plot of theirs to assassinate Dalton. The advice, however, was not acted on ; the two commanders joined the French, and in January, 1753, the two armies took the field. The majority of Europeans was on the English side, and Lawrence was on the whole an able officer, and his officers and men good, while the French had not a single man capable of commanding, and their men were the very refuse of France. To counterpoise this, Morari's 4000 Marattas were in every respect far superior to the 1500 horse of the Nabob. The former therefore avoided a battle, and cut off supplies; and the time was spent in trifling operations till the end of April, when an express came from Dalton, to say that he had only three weeks' provisions remaining. Major Lawrence immediately marched to his relief, and the French followed to aid the Mysoreans in carrying on the siege. It had all along been the opinion of Major Law- rence, that Trichinopoly should be given up to the Mysoreans ; but the presidency could not endure to part with it. In consequence of their refusal, the two armies remained from May 6, 1753, to October 1 1, 1754, at that town, engaged continually in active operations, the one unable to reduce the fort, the other to raise the siege. Meanwhile, the two Companies in Europe, sick of this war which impeded their commercial profits, had applied to their respective governments, and negotiators on both sides met in London with a view to adjust- ment. In consequence of this arrangement, M. Godheu was appointed to supersede Dupleix and negotiate with Mr. Saunders for the establishment of peace. He reached Pondicherry on the 2nd August; on the 11th October, a suspension of arms for three months was made, and on the 20th December a provisional treaty was signed. By this treaty the English gained, the French gave up, every thing. Among other advantages, they re- signed the four northern Circars, as they are named, which Bussy, by his influence with the Subahdah, had lately obtained for them, and the possession of which gave them the command of the whole coast of Coromandel and Orissa for a length of 600 miles, and which, if retained, might have made them masters of the Deckan. " Few nations," observes Mill, " have ever made to the love of peace sacrifices relatively more important." Dupleix was naturally indignant at seeing the fruits of all his labours thus thrown away. He de- parted after having delivered to Godheu his ac- counts, by which it appeared that he had disbursed near three millions of rupees more than he had received during the war. Of this money a part was his own, the remainder he had borrowed on his own bonds from the French inhabitants of Pondicherry. On his return he applied to the Company for payment; they refused, as they said he had acted without sufficient authority; he instituted a law-suit, but the ministry put an end to the pro- ceedings in the king's name; and all he obtained was letters of protection against his creditors ! A wretched requital for the man who had done so much to extend the French power in India, and who would have done it had he been properly sup- ported from home. But so the French treated all their eminent men in India ; a proof, as it were, of their unworthiness of empire. M. Godheu and Mr. Saunders soon after de- parted for Europe, persuaded that they had esta- blished lasting peace between their nations in India. But such did not prove to be the effect. They were hardly gone, when the grasping Mohammed Ally called on the English to aid him to collect the arrear of tribute from Madura and Tinivelly, two small states lying between Trichinopoly and Cape Comorin. They sent a detachment, the city of Madura was taken, and the Polygars 5 were re- duced to submission. But the money obtained did not pay the cost of the expedition, and the unlucky officer who commanded the detachment was made the scapegoat, and dismissed the Company's service. As the Mysoreans, in consequence of the invasion of their country by the Subahdar, were obliged at this time to retire from before Trichinopoly, and all was therefore quiet in the south, the Nabob came, and was invested with the ensigns of his office with tolerable pomp at Arcot. He now pro- posed to the English to join him, in making the governors of forts and districts yield him a revenue, their share to be one half of what was collected. They consented, and Mortiz Ally of Vellore, who was reputed to be rich, was selected as the first object of attack. Mortiz applied to the French, and M. Deleyrit, the governor of Pondicherry, in- formed the English, that he considered their pre- sent conduct a breach of the treaty, and that, if they did not desist, he would take the field against them. As Vellore was strong, and the French force respectable, the English troops were recalled, and as a matter of course negotiation failed to ex- tract any money from Mortiz Ally. Meantime, the conduct of the Nabob's brother, Maphuz Khan, who was governor of Trichinopoly, had caused disturb- ances in Madura and Tinivelly, and the English wei*e obliged to send troops thither, where the Polygars, defended by their woods and fastnesses, contrived to give them occupation for some years. During this time, the French were withheld from active opposition by the precarious situation of Bussy with the Subahdar. We have seen this able man overcoming the rebellion of the Patan chiefs, and securing the Subahdary for Salabut Jung. By his own talents and the great superiority of his European troops he had maintained him on the throne, having repelled the repeated invasions of 5 In the Index to Orme's History we read, that a Polygar " is always understood to be the chief of a mountainous or woodland district." They are evidently the chiefs of the aboriginal tribes of Colleries, &c. In the account of the siege of Trichinopoly, in Orme, there is frequent mention of the Polygar Tondiman and his country, from which wood was procured. 70 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1756. the Marattas, and obliged them to conclude peace. His influence with that prince was therefore natu- rally very high, and he thus had obtained from him for his countrymen the grant of the four northern Circars. At the same time, his enemies were nu- merous, and among them was the prime minister, Shanavaz Khan. When, after the expedition to Mysore, the Subahdar was engaged in the siege of Savanore (or Shahnoor), held by one of his vassals, Morari Rao, the Maratta, who was aiding the rebel, seeing that the place could not hold out, offered to Bussy, if he would effect an accommodation, to give up his claim for what the French owed him. Bussy agreed, peace was made, and then Shanavaz Khan showed the Subahdah how Bussy preferred to his the interest of his own countrymen, and he pre- vailed on him to dismiss Bussy and his troops from his service, intending to replace them with English. Bussy, aware that his services would be soon again required, made no objection, and set out on his inarch for Masulipatam. On the eighth day, when he had come near to Hyderabad, he found large bodies of troops assembled to obstruct his passage. He therefore resolved to occupy a strong post, and defend himself till reinforcements should arrive from Pondicherry. His defence was gallant and successful, and when the reinforcements, led by Law, arrived, the Subahdar sought a reconciliation, and Bussy rose higher in favour and influence than ever. Application had actually been made to the Pre- sidency of Madras for a body of troops, and they would most willingly have been granted had not intelligence of the most alarming nature just been received from Bengal, whither we must now direct CHAPTER VI. Subahdary of Bengal— Aliverdi Khan — Suraj-ud-dowlah— Capture of Calcutta— The Black Hole— Destruction of the Pirate Angria— Expedition to Bengal. The Subahdary of Bengal and Orissa was at the time of the death of Shah Alum held by Jaffier Khan, a native of Burhanpur, in the Deckan, as deputy to the emperor's second son. In the con- fusion which ensued, Jaffier contrived to become the actual Subahdar of these provinces. He ap- pointed as his Nabob or deputy in Orissa his countryman and son-in-law, Shujah Khan. There wa« a Tartar adventurer, named Mirza Mohammed, whose wife was of kin to Shujah, and, being in great distress, ho and his wife repaired to the residence of their fortunate kinsman, by whom they were very kindly received. Their two sous," Elajee Ahmed, and Mirza Mohaininod Ally, soon after followed them to Orissa, and obtained there favour and employment, Elajee proved to lie an excellent sta t es m an and man of business ; .Mirza, in addition to similar qualities, had great military talents. The two lirothers gained the greatest influence over the mind of Shujah, and administered all the affairs of the province to its manifest advantage, Jaffier died in 1720, appointing as his successor Serafraz Khan, Bhujah'a SOU, and not Shujah him- self. But the activity and address of the two brothers soon defeated this arrangement, and patents were procured from Delhi in favour of Shujah. In 1729, Bahar was added to his Subah, and he appointed Mirza Mohammed, the younger of the brothers, now named Aliverdi Khan, to its government. Shujah died in 1739, and was suc- ceeded by his son Serafraz, who was a weak man, devoted to pleasure. He hated the two brothers, and he could not refrain from insulting and offending them. Aliverdi's interest was considerable at Delhi, and he easily obtained there an appointment to the Subahdary of the three provinces for himself. Serafraz fell in battle against him, and the pro- vinces then cheerfully submitted. His govern- ment of them was wise and humane, and he de- fended them with skill and valour against the Marattas, by whom they were repeatedly invaded. Aliverdi died in 17oC, at the age of eighty, after a reign of fifteen years. He had had threedaugh- ters, and his brother three sons ; and the cousins were all married to each other. The sons of Hajee were men of considerable merit, but they all died before their uncle. The eldest son of the youngest of them had been Aliverdi's favourite from his birth ; his fondness for him was unbounded ; he gave him the title of Suraj-ud-dowlah, or Sun of the State, and after the death of his uncles he was regarded as the future Subahdar. On the death of Aliverdi he assumed the government without opposition. Suraj-ud-doulah was a violent, headstrong, vicious youth. His first act was to endeavour to plunder his relatives of the wealth which they possessed. He was on his march against one of his cousins, who was Nabob of Purneah, when he heard that the Dewan or treasurer of his late uncle at Dacca had sent his family and property by his son Kishendass to Calcutta, by way of security. He had always hated the English, and he was now glad of a cause of quarrel with them ; he sent immediately to demand the surrender of Kishen- dass ; but as the messenger came disguised as a pedlar, and went to the house of Omichund, a rich native merchant, by whom he was introduced to the Presidency, no notice was taken of him, the whole affair being regarded as a trick of Omi- chund to give himself importance. Another mes- sage, however, came from the Subahdar, requiring the English to desist from strengthening their fortifications. But they partly denied the fact, partly justified it as a measure of defence against the French. The young Subahdar was filled with rage, and he appeared forthwith before the factory of Cossimbazar, which surrendered without making any effort at defence. When intelligence of this event reached Cal- cutta, it produced the utmost terror and dismay. There were little more than threescore European soldiers in the place ; most Of the small militia of the place, we are told, knew not the right from the wrong end of their muskets, the works of the fort Wen extensive and weak, there was a very scanty stock of ammunition, and that mostly damaged, and the supply of provisions was small, lint, worse than all, there was insubordination and di- vision within J the military officers hail no skill, and the civil servants neither wisdom nor energy. The Dutch were applied to for aid, but they gave a positive refusal ; the French insultingly replied, A.D. 1756. TAKING OF CALCUTTA— THE BLACK HOLE. that they would join them if they removed with their property to Chandernagore. On the 18th June, the troops of the Subahdar commenced their attack. Those in the fort, aware that the place must fall, agreed to put the women 6 and effects at once on board of a ship that was lying before the fort, and that the men should de- part in the same manner the following night. The women accordingly were embarked, and Messrs. Frankland and Manningham, who took the charge of superintending the embarkation, with a prudent regard for their own safety, remained also on board. Others followed their example, and the ship dropped down the river, followed by all the other vessels, and there only remained two small boats. Into these, in the morning, Mr. Drake the governor, Captain Minchin the commandant, and as many others as could, threw themselves and followed the ships. When their departure was known in the fort, nothing was heard for some time but execrations on them for their baseness and cowardice. A consultation was then held, and Mr. Pearkes, the eldest member of Council in the fort, resigning his claim, the chief command was given to Mr. Hoi well. The number of men capable of service now remaining in the fort was only 190. As there was still a ship lying a little higher up the river, an officer was sent in a boat which had returned, to desire the captain to bring her down immediately. The captain obeyed ; but she struck on a sandbank, and the crew abandoned her. Meantime, the fort was warmly attacked and bravely defended. The garrison made signals with flags by day and by fires at night to recall the vessels, which were at Govindpore ; but not one returned, though, as Orme asserts, a single sloop with only fifteen brave men on board could have carried off all that were in the fort, in spite of all the efforts of the enemy. Next morning (20th) the enemy renewed the assault, twenty-five of the garrison were killed or severely wounded, and seventy were more slightly hurt, and the com- mon men, having broken open the arrack-store, were mostly intoxicated. During a parley, the Subahdar's troops made their way into the fort ; no resistance was offered, and all became prisoners. At eight o'clock the Subahdar entered the fort with his principal officers, and took his seat in the principal room of the factory. Mr. Holwell was brought before him with his hands tied ; he or- dered him to be loosed, and assured him on the word of a soldier that he should suffer no harm. In the evening, the guards, having sought for a place to secure the prisoners for the night and finding none to the purpose, resolved to thrust them all into a room which was just at hand, which the English had used as a place of confinement for the garrison, and which they therefore named the Black Hole. It was a room only eighteen feet by fourteen, with a door and two small windows, all opening into a large verandah. The place might have held twenty persons, but 146 were now to be forced into it ; and, when some ventured to remon- strate, the officer of the guard threatened to cut them down. They entered, and the room was so thronged that the last got in with difficulty, and the door was then locked on them. 6 These were mostly the Portuguese or native Christian women. The night was more sultry even than usual at the time of year, many were wounded, the blood of others was inflamed with liquor. A profuse per- spiration, followed by intense thirst, broke out on every one ; the air was corrupted by their respi- ration, and every attempt made by waving of hats to improve it failed. They tried, but in vain, to burst the door, which shut from within. Mr. Hol- well had at first offered an old Jematdar, or inferior officer, 1000 rupees if he would get them separated in two rooms. He went to try, but, on his return, said it was impossible. He was then offered 2000 ; he retired again, and returned to say that the Su- bahdar was asleep, and that no one could dare to waken him. All hope of release being thus at an end, and their torments increasing every moment, the cry for water became universal. The kind Jematdar had some skins of water brought to the windows ; but the sight of it produced a ferocious battle among the sufferers, each striving to be the first to get it, and their guards, holding up lights, amused themselves with the views of their strug- gles. At length they suffered those who were nearest the windows to convey it to the rest in their hats ; but it proved no relief to their fever. Some then became delirious, others lethargic ; some, in wild prayer, called on Heaven for aid, others poured forth frantic blasphemies. Many abused the guard in the most opprobrious terms, in order to provoke them to fire on them and thus end their miseries. At two o'clock only fifty re- mained alive, and when the door was opened in the morning, twenty-three ghastly forms came forth, all that were now surviving of the number. Mr. Holwell was led into the presence of the Su- bahdar, and when he attempted to draw his atten- tion to his sufferings he was harshly silenced, and questioned about the treasure which the English were supposed to have buried. He and two other gentlemen were then put in fetters ; the rest were told that they might go where they pleased ; an Englishwoman who was among them was reserved for the harem of the general, Meer Jaffier. They repaired without delay to Govindpore, and many of them afterwards died of putrid diseases brought on by their sufferings. Mr. Holwell and his two companions were sent in an open boat to Moorshe- dabad, and there confined ; but, at the prayer of the widow of Aliverdi, the Subahdar gave them their liberty. It was asserted by some, that Suraj-ud-doulah put the prisoners in the Black Hole with a view to their destruction. But, heartless and cruel as he was, we see no reason to charge him with such an atrocity, and in all probability he did not even know where they were placed. Hardened indiffer- ence forms his guilt ; he expressed neither com- passion nor remorse when informed of the catas- trophe, and probably rejoiced at it in his heart. " All was lost," says Orme, " before the Presi- dency of Madras even received intelligence of the danger." On the 15th of July, they heard of the surrender of Cossimbazar. This they thought little of ; but on the 5th of August came the news of the fall of Calcutta, which, he says, " scarcely created more horror and resentment than consternation and perplexity." Fortunately for the interests of the Company, perhaps eventually for those of India itself, Give was now in India. After a stay in England of 7-' HISTORY OF INDIA. d. 1756. two years, the directors had appointed him gover- nor of Fort St. David, and eventually of Madras, and they urged his immediate departure. To ob- viate disputes about rank and precedence between their own and the king's officers, they obtained for him from the crown the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the British army. Clive sailed in 1755, but landed at Bombay instead of Madras ; for it was desired that he should command a body of troops which were to aid the Marattas against the Subah- dar of the Deckan. But here we have the first instance (and we shall meet several) of that in- satiate love of patronage, and desire of interference on the part of the English ministry, which did so much mischief in India. Clive's fitness for this command was undeniable ; but there was a Colonel Scott who had sailed for India only the preceding year as engineer-general, and he was appointed to the command by the influence of the Duke of Cumberland. This was the reason why the direc- tors desired Clive to proceed to Bombay in hopes that something might occur to frustrate this ap- pointment. The death of Colonel Scott did occur, but the treaty between Mr. Saunders and M. Godheu precluded all armed interference in the disputes of the native pi-inces, and the Presidency of Bombay would not, therefore, sanction any mili- tary opei'ations. However, as there was a fleet under Admiral Watson at Bombay, it was resolved to take this opportunity of putting down, in con- cert with the Marattas, the pirates which infested these seas. From the earliest ages these seas had been the haunt of pirates ; the Greeks tell of them, the Portuguese found them there. The Marattas, when they got dominions along the coast, shared of course in this practice, and, as the Sidi or Mogul admiral of the fleet in this sea was a great impedi- ment to them, they assembled a fleet large enough to engage his, and waged a naval war in the time of Rajah Saho. Their commander was named Konajee Angria; he obtained the command of Severndroog, one of their strongest forts, then seduced part of the fleet, and with it destroyed the remainder, and finally made himself master of the coast of the Concan for the length of 120 miles, with the country inland to the foot of the Ghats.* Saho, after an ineffectual attempt to reduce him, was obliged to acknowledge him, on condition of the annual payment of a small tribute, and he and his successors (all named Angria) continued to levy chout at sea, as they termed it, on all who did not purchase their passes. The dominion of the Angrias had now lasted for more than half a century, and the annual ex- pense to the Company for keeping up a fleet to convoy their merchantmen was 50,000/. They, therefore, in the beginning of this year, had lis- tened to a proposal of the Marattas for a joint attack on the forts of the pirates, and Commodore James had taken Severndroog, fort Goa, and Han- cot (henceforth named Fort Victoria), when the setting in of the monsoon obliged him to return to Bombay. At the end of the year it was resolved to attack Gheriah, Angria'i principal stronghold, situated on a rocky promontory, and supposed to be nearly impregnable. Watson, taking (live and his troops on board, proceeded by sea, the Maratta army marched along the coast. Strong as the place was, Angria lost courage ; ho fled to the Marattas, and it was arranged that the place should be delivered to them, and the English thus be de- frauded of their share of the prize money. This coming to Watson's ears, he attacked the fort vigorously, and Clive, landing his men, interposed between it and the Marattas. The fort surren- dered, and the Marattas got nothing, neither did the Company nor the king, for the captors divided all the booty (about 120,000/.) among themselves 7 . The Marattas then reduced all the other forts, and the piratic state of the Angrias was thus tex*- minated. Clive took the command at Fort St. David the very day that Suraj-ud-dowlah captured Calcutta. When news of that event arrived, he was sum- moned to Madras to assisfat the deliberations of the Council. Some were for sending their troops to aid Salabut Jung against Bussy, and merely despatching Admiral Watson and Major Kil- patrick to treat with Suraj-ud-dowlah, and, in case of not succeeding, to try to recover and hold Calcutta. But the opinion of Orme the his- torian 8 prevailed, which was to send the fleet with as large a land force as they could, and attack the Subahdar in his capital, and force him to a peace. This was communicated to Admiral Watson, who gave his consent, and the all-impor- tant question of prize-money was also arranged. But then came the grand difficulty of the command of the land forces. Colonel Lawrence, against whom there could be no objection, was suffering from asthma. Mr. Pigot, on account of the inca- pacity shown by the Bengal Presidency, would have gone himself, were it not that he had not the requisite military experience. There was now at Madras an officer named Adlercron, colonel of one of the king's regiments, and therefore superior to Clive in rank ; but the command was not offered to him because he had no experience in Indian war- fare, and besides he would not engage to return, when requested, to Madras, or to surrender any part of the booty to compensate the losses of the Company. We shall find, as we proceed, that in ' " This had been settled before the expedition left Bom- bay, as well as the respective share of prize-money to the officers and men. It is remarkable what attention was given at this time in India, even before operations were commenced, to adjust the relative claims to eventual booty. Councils of war were held, at which very junior officers aided, and arguments were entered into by the respective parties. The causes of this were various. Besides that spirit of plunder, and that passion for the rapid accumula- tion of wealth which actuated all ranks, the undefined it la- tions of the King's and Company's officers made such pre- vious arrangements indispensable, to prevent those disputes which, but for such precautions, must subsequently have occurred."— Malcolm, Life of Clive, i. 135. On this occasion the naval officers had determined that Clive should only share with a post-captain ; the officers of the troops re- quired that he should share with Rear-admiral Pocock, the second in command. Watson refused, but said he would make up the difference out of his own share ; and he sent the money, but Clive refused to take it. 8 Orme's own modest language remlndi us of Xenophon. " They were opposed by one of the members of the Council, who, having resided nine years in the Company's service at Calcutta, km w the strength and insolence of the Moorish government In Bengal, believed that nothing hut vigorous hostilities would induce the Nabob to make peace or repa- ration, ud considered the force proposed as unequal, e\cii to the retaking of Calcutta." A. D. 1757. RETAKING OF CALCUTTA. 73 the eyes of most officers of the royal army or navy employed in India, the interests of the Com- pany or even of the nation were as nothing in comparison with their own private interests, or even their own caprices or false ideas of honour. Ac- cordingly, Colonel Adlercron, when he found his hopes of making a rapid fortune by the plunder of Bengal disappointed, positively refused to allow more than a third of his regiment to embark, and he insisted on the train of artillery attached to it, as was then the ordinary practice, and which was already on board the ships, being relanded. The council, after remonstrating in vain, were forced to give way, and put the men, guns, and stores on shore again. The expedition thus reduced con- sisted of 900 Europeans, a " fine body of Europeans," Clive terms them, " fall of spirit and resentment for the insults and barbarities inflicted on so many British subjects," and with these 1500 Sepoys. Clive was invested with an independent power in all military affairs, in spite of the reclamations of the doughty Mr. Manningham, who had come as envoy from the Presidency of Calcutta. After not less than two months had been spent in these disputes, the expedition, consisting of five king's and five Company's ships, set sail on the 16th October, and all but two were on the 22ud December at Fulta, a village twenty miles below Calcutta on the Hooghly, where the fugitives from that town were residing. CHAPTER VII. Retaking of Calcutta— Capture of Hooghly— Attack on the Subahdar's Camp— Capture of Chandernagore — Conspiracy against the Subahdar — Case of Omichund —Battle of Ptassy— Death of Suraj-ud-dowlah— of Omichund. The capture of the fort of Budge-Budge, within ten miles of Calcutta, was the commencement of operations, and on the 2nd January (1757), that city was retaken, the garrison having abandoned it. Here the usual disputes between the services occurred. Captain Coote 9 , a king's officer, was appointed by Admiral Watson to be governor, and he refused to admit any of the Company's officers or troops. Clive threatened to put him under arrest, and Watson, when informed of this, sent to tell Clive that he would fire on the fort if he did not evacuate it. Clive set him at defiance, but said that if he would come on shore himself and take the command he would make no objection. This was done, and the admiral having received the keys of the fort delivered them up next day to the Company's servants. Mr. Drake and his friends also made an attempt to get Clive to resign his independent powers, and act under them ; but he knew them too well l , and they met with a positive refusal. On the 10th, a part of the fleet and army ap- peared before the town of Hooghly, twenty miles up the river. A breach was effected, and while * Afterwards Sir Eyre Coote. 1 " I am sorry to say," says Clive, " the loss of private property, and the means of recovering it, seem to be the only objects which take up the thoughts of the Bengal gen- tlemen."— Life of Clive, i. p. 159. the troops were mounting it to storm, the garrison all fled at the other side. The booty here amounted to about a lac and a-half of rupees. Boats and troops were then sent higher up the river, where they destroyed several magazines of rice. They then returned to Calcutta, and on the 3rd of Febru- ary the Subahdar's army of 40,000 men was seen approaching. Negotiations, however, were opened, and two deputies were sent to his camp, but from their report Clive was convinced that the Subahdar was insincere, and was only seeking to gain time. He therefore resolved to attack him at once, though his whole force did not exceed 2000 men. The greater part of the Subahdar's army was encamped outside of the Maratta ditch 2 , while a part, with the general, Meer Jaflier, lay inside of it. At three o'clock in the morning, Clive, having ob- tained 600 sailors from the fleet, put his troops in motion, and at six he entered the enemy's camp without the ditch. But just then, unfortunately, a thick fog, usual at that time of the year, began to overspread the ground, and continually grew more dense. This caused the troops to fall into confusion and to miss their way ; and when at nine o'clock it cleared away, Clive found himself, after marching nearly across the camp, far from the meditated point of attack, and engaged with a large body of the Subahdar's forces. He retired with the loss of 120 Europeans, and 100 Sepoys, and two field-pieces. This was a severe loss out of their small force, but the measure had been neces- sary, and it produced the effect that had been in- tended. The historian, however, says that it was ill-concerted, as the troops were assembled at the wrong place, and at too great a distance 3 . The loss of the Subahdar was twenty-two officers of rank, and 600 men, beside elephants, horses, camels, and bullocks, and his army became quite disheartened. He charged his officers with cow- ardice, and would have retreated at once, had they not promised to be better prepared in future. He then sent to renew the negotiations, and meantime, drew off his whole army to some distance. The admiral being of opinion that nothing but being " well thrashed," as he termed it, would ever make the Subahdar really inclined to peace, wrote to urge Clive to attack him again. But Clive knew that the Company could ill bear the expense of a protracted contest, that war had broken out be- tween France and England, and that the French force at Chandernagore (which was nearly equal to his own) might be joined to that of the Subahdar. Accordingly, on the 9th, a treaty was concluded, by which the Subahdar was to restore the Com- pany's factories, and as much of the plundered effects and moneys, as had been brought to account in his books. He allowed them to fortify Calcutta as they pleased, and to coin money, agreed to let their dustucks exempt goods from duty, and per- mitted them to take possession of the thirty-eight villages, of which they had obtained the grant in 1717. On the 11th, an alliance offensive and de- 2 In 1742, when there was great terror of the Marattas, the native inhabitants obtained permission to dig a ditch at their own expense from Suttanutty to Govindpore, a space of seven miles. They had completed three miles of it, -when finding that Aliverdi was able to keep off the enemy, they ceased. It was called the Maratta ditch.— Orme, ii. 45. 3 Orme, ii. 134. As Malcolm makes no remark, we sup- pose Orme's opinion is correct. 74 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1757- fensive was concluded on the proposal of the Subahdar 4 . Efforts were then made to induce the Subahdar to permit an attack on Chandernagore, as there was actual war between France and England, and Bussy was now in the Circais, and within 200 miles of Calcutta. The request was at first evaded, for he was secretly in correspondence with the French. Proposals were made for the maintenance of peace between the two factories, though the na- tions were at war ; but the admiral would not. con- sent to give effect to any treaty until it was sanc- tioned by the government of Pondicherry, for the conduct of Dupltix in the case of Madras was re- collected. The admiral corresponded with the Subahdar on the subject, seeking to convince him that it was as much for his own interest as that of the English that the place should be attacked. At length, having ascertained that he was intriguing with the French, he wrote him a final letter, in which, among other things, he said, " I will kindle such a flame in your country, as all the water in the Ganges shall not be able to extinguish." " Fare- well," he concludes, " remembe , that he who promises you this, never yet broke his word with you or with any man whatsoever." This letter, aided by a present to the Subahdar's secretary, drew an ambiguous kind of consent, and as the two remaining ships and troops were now arrived, it was resolved to proceed at once to the attack of Chandernagore. Give, who was already near that town, summoned it to surrender on the night of the day the admiral received the Subahdar's letter (13th), and in the morning he attacked the western battery, which was defended during the day, but abandoned in the night. Be- tween this day and the 19th, when the fleet came up, the enemy was driven from ten other batteries, one of three guns playing down the channel, which would have greatly annoyed the ships, and before which the French had sunk four or five vessels. High praise has been bestowed on the manner in ■ which the ships of the line were brought so far up I the river, and laid alongside the batteries of the town ; but only two were engaged, and in three hours from the time they commenced firing the town capitulated. The usual jealousy was shown here again ; for though the place could never have been taken without Give's assistance, and the sur- render was made to Admiral Watson, it was with great reluctance that he consented to Ciive's sign- ing the articles. Though we notice these instances of professional jealousy in the gallant admiral, we must do him the justice to observe, that in disin- terestedness, and in zeal for the interests of his country, very few, if any, of the king's officers sent out to India at this period were his equals. It was the well-founded opinion of Give, that it was impossible for the French and English power to co- exist in India, and he was tberefore resolved to drive the former if possible out of Bengal. But the permission of the Subahdar to attack their re- maining settlements could not be obtained ; it was ascertained that he had actually invited Bussy to < Thornton blames Clivc for not having required repara- tion for the affair of the Black Hole, but we see not what reparation could well he required, and the not noticing that affair, looks as if he did not consider it to have been done designedly. lead his troops into Bengal, and he had in his ser- vice a party of French s under M. Law, the governor of their factory at Cossimbazar, and when at length he was obliged to dismiss them, he let them stay at Rajmahal in Bahar, and supplied them with money for their expenses. The Subahdar was now also relieved from his apprehensions of the Afghans, as Ahmed Durannee had quitted Delhi, and of his continued and intense hatred of the English there were abundant proofs. If the troops and ships de- parted, Calcutta would be again destroyed. In fine, he or they must fall. Under these circumstances, Give felt himself not merely justified in paying no heed to the orders sent him from Madras, to return to the defence of that settlement, but even in taking part in a conspiracy for the dethronement of the Subahdar. Suraj-ud-dowlah was now universally hated, both in his court and camp. The leading persons there were Meer Jaffier, the Bukhshi, or commander-in- chief, a soldier of fortune, to whom Aliverdi had given one of his daughters in marriage ; Roy Dullub the Dewan, or minister of finance, who was of course a Hindoo, and who was intimately asso- ciated with Jugget Seit, the greatest banker in India, or rather the head of the greatest banking- firm. These men, in dread for their lives and properties, seem to have resolved on the overthrow of Suraj-ud-dowlah. It would appear to have been by way of experiment, that on the 23rd April, a chief, named Yar Lattee, who commanded 2000 horse in the Subahdar's service, and was the paid protector of the Seits, sent to propose a secret in- terview to Mr. Watts, the English resident at Moorshedabad. Mr. Watts did not think it safe to grant it, but he sent an agent to him. His pro- posal was, that they should take advantage of Suraj-ud-dowlah's intended departure from Moor- shedabad, to seize that town and proclaim himself Subahdar, in which he assured them of the aid of the Seits and other influential persons. Next day the overture was renewed, but now it was Meer Jaffier, and not Yar Lattee, that was proposed for Subahdar. The offers of Meer Jaffier were com- municated by Watts to Give, and by him to the committee at Calcutta, who, after the hesitation that was to be expected from them, agreed to join in this hazardous affair. The negotiation, however, received a slight check just at this time by the departure of Meer Jaffier from Moorshedabad ; for the Subahdar had encamped an army of 40,000 men at Plassy on the Hooghly, about thirty miles south of that city, with the secret intention of employing it against the English, and he now ordered Meer Jaffier to lead to it a reinfom iment of 15,000 men. Just at this time an agent arrived at Calcutta, bearing a letter from the Maratta Pebhwa, in which he proposed to invade Bengal with 160,000 horse, and offered, if the English would join him, to pav them the double of their losses, and s ecu re them the exclusive commerce of the Ganges, ('live did not court a Maratla alliance, besides, it was doubtful if the letter was genuine, (it however really was so,) and it might be only an artifice of the Subahdar's. 1 1 was therefore resolved to trans- 5 They were composed of those who had escaped from Chandernagore, MUM of whom had, in the usual French fashion, broken their parole. A. D. 1757. CASE OF OMICHUND. 75 mit it to him, as in either case it must produce a good effect. He expressed himself much gratified with the conduct of Clive, and that officer, further to lull his suspicions, ordered his troops into quar- ters, and wrote to the Subahdar, requesting him to do the same with the troops at Plassy. He, how- ever, got only promises ; so he wrote a letter to Watts (30th), in which, among other things, he said, " the Nabob is a villain, and cannot be trusted ; he must be overset, or we must fall ;" and on the 2nd May, he wrote, empowering him to come to a settle- ment with Meer Jaffier, " Tell him," says he, " to fear nothing, that I will join him with 5000 men that never turned their backs, and that if he fails seizing him, we shall be strong enough to drive him out of the country." A treaty was concluded, which beside containing the articles in that made with Suraj-ud-dowlah, gave the French factories and effects to the English, and excluded that na- tion for ever from Bengal ; and the land about Calcutta, and as far south as Culpee, was to be held on Zemindary tenure by the Company, to whom were also to be paid 100 lacs of rupees for their losses, as also fifty to the English, twenty to the Indian, and seven to the Armenian inhabitants of Calcutta. It was also resolved by the Committee, that an additional sum of fifty lacs should be asked for the squadron and the army. " When this was settled," says Clive, " Mr. Becher suggested, that he thought the Committee who managed the great machine of government were entitled to some consideration, as well as the army and navy." There was probably not a man present, on whose mind there was the slightest doubt of the justice of this proposal ; and it ac- cordingly met with a ready assent, and a sum of about ten lacs was specified. When this after- wards came to the knowledge of the admiral, he put in his claim to a share, and Clive was willing to allow it ; but others would not give their con- sent. It is well known what obloquy was after- wards cast on Clive for this and other large sums which he subsequently obtained from Meer Jaffier ; it is therefore worth our while to examine what moral guilt, if any, attached to it. In the first place we are to consider, that the chief motive which led the servants of the Com- pany to India was the hope of obtaining the means of spending the later period of their life at home in independence, if not affluence. The salaries given them by the Company were so miserably small, that it never could have been expected that they could live on them, and they therefore were permitted to engage in private trade. They were also allowed to accept of presents from the native princes and others with whom they transacted any of the affairs of the Company. This practice of giving and receiving presents has, as is well known, prevailed from time immemorial in the East, and no dishonour on either side attaches to it. Further, as we have already seen, it was the custom for a new monarch to distribute presents to his friends, on his accession ; and these, of course, were pro- portionably large, if they had aided him to ascend the throne. As yet, the English had not been con- cerned in any great transaction of this nature ; but they had seen that Muzafar Jung had given large sums to the French Company and their troops, and that Dupleix had, in his private capacity, received from him a sum said to be equal to 200,000^., be- side valuable jewels * ; and that, on the elevation of Salabut Jung, the officers of the French corps received so large a gratification, that even an ensign's share exceeded 50001. , while that of the commander, the renowned Bussy, was 100,000^. 7 Are we then to wonder that, with these examples before his eyes, Clive (for we speak not of the others), who had left England at the age of eigh- teen, and in whose mind romantic, or perhaps even high, principles of honour had never been instilled, should have followed the example of so great a man as Bussy, and not let slip what seemed an honourable occasion of securing affluence ? We should, no doubt, admire him more, if he had thought of the interests of the Company alone, and neglected his own, and in such case he might have had the thanks of the Court of Directors; but most assuredly nothing more, except the applause of his own conscience ; for not a single instance had as yet occurred of their acting with liberality towards any of their servants, and for them he might have ended his days in poverty. Finally, when we expect such heroism of virtue in a ser- vant of the East India Company, we should recol- lect the scandalous and unblushing venality and corruption of public men at that time in England itself 8 . On the whole, every thing considered, we own we cannot blame Clive for making his fortune on this occasion ; but we will not assert that he did not make too large a one, not, however, at the ex- pense of the Company. To resume the narrative. Every thing had been thus far arranged to the satisfaction of all parties, when imminent danger presented itself from an unexpected quarter. The native merchant, Omi- chund, who, beside his other losses at the taking of Calcutta, had been plundered of four lacs of rupees in cash, had followed the Subahdar to Moorsheda- bad, in the hope of obtaining compensation for his losses. He here acquired some influence over the mind of that prince, and he was of great use to Mr. Watts, the resident. It was not thought at first advisable to make him acquainted with the con- spiracy ; but as it was found impossible to elude his penetration, Mr. Watts deemed it the best policy to inform him of the secret. He readily joined in the plan. Of the money to be paid by Meer Jaffier, a very large sum was set down as his share, to reimburse him for his losses, and he had managed to obtain from the Subahdar an order for a sum equivalent to the cash taken from him. But the demon of avarice had taken entire posses- sion of his breast ; and being now fully acquainted with the secret of the plot, and having the lives of all engaged in it at his mercy, he came to Mr. Watts and told him, that he would betray the whole to the Subahdar, unless he got five per cent, on all the money to be paid out of the treasury, and a fourth of the jewels 9 . He, however, consented to leave the matter to the Committee, to whom s See above, p. 66. Orme, i. 162. 1 Orme, i. 250. 8 See our History of England, iii. 8vo. edit. Bishop Watson, in his Life, names the sum which he was informed it cost, to gain the assent of Parliament to the peace of Paris in 1762; and have we not even, at the present day, heard a leading railway director publicly assert, that with plenty of money he would carry any measure through Par- liament, in spite of the ministry? s Orme, ii. 151. He says, that valuing the treasure at 78 HISTORY OF INDIA. a. d. 1757. Mr. Watts immediately wrote. That the claim was beyond all bounds of reason was plain, and the means adopted to enforce it seemed to put him who made it beyond the pale of justice or honour ; but how they were to act was a difficult question, for the lives of many persons, and the actual ex- istence of the English in Bengal, were at stake. Clive instantly suggested the expedient of a ficti- tious treaty. This was approved of, and two treaties were drawn out; a real one, in which there was no mention of Omichund, written on white, and one meant to deceive him, on red, paper. The admiral signed the former, but refused to sign the latter. As, however, the absence of his name would excite Omichund's suspicions, his signature was affixed to it by the Committee. Omichund was deceived, as was expected ; and when he came shortly after to Calcutta, he was received with the greatest appa- rent cordiality. Matters being now finally arranged, and Meer Jaffier having engaged to separate from the Su- bahdar's army with a large body of troops, and to join the English, the troops at Calcutta, reinforced by 150 seamen from the fleet, proceeded, on the 12th June, to Chandernagore, whence Clive wrote to the Subahdar, reproaching him with his breach of faith, but offering to submit their disputes to the arbitration of Meer Jaffier, Roydullub, and others. In conclusion, he told him that, as the rains were so near, he found it necessary to wait upon him immediately. As Mr. Watts had just then effected his escape from Moorshedabad, the Subahdar knew how to interpret this letter, and he advanced with the whole of his army to Plassy. Clive's force consisted of about 3000 men, with nine pieces of cannon. As there appeared no sign of Meer Jaffier's joining him, he became some- what uneasy, and on the 21st he summoned a council of war, in which he proposed the question, whether it would be prudent to attack the Nabob without assistance, or to wait till they were joined by some country power, meaning the Marattas. The usual mode in these councils is, for the young- est officer present to deliver his sentiments the first, and then the rest in due order. But Clive commenced by giving his own opinion in favour of delay. His authority doubtless was of weight, and thirteen out of twenty voted on that side; while seven, among whom was Coote, voted for an im- mediate attack. The council broke up, and, strange as it may appear, shortly after Clive issued orders for the troops to march and cross the river. Mr. Scrafton, who was present with the army, says, that this change of resolution was the consequence of a letter received from Meer Jaffier ; Orme, that when the council broke up, Clive " retired alone into the adjoining grove, where he continued near an hour in deep meditation," and then gave orders for the troops to march ; and Coote stated, that in an hour after the council broke up, Clive in- formed him of his intention to march next morning; while (live himself declared, that he took twenty- four hours to deliberate on the subject. Be this as it may, the troops passed the river on the 22nd, four and a naif millions sterling, Omichund's share would have come to 675,000/. ; but surely that would have been much more than live per cent. Malcolm and Wilson say his demand was thirty lacs of rupees, about 350,000/. and an hour after midnight they reached Plassy, and took up a position there in a grove of mango trees. During the night, the sounds of military music convinced them that the army of the Subahdar was in their immediate vicinity. At daybreak (23rd) it was seen advancing in many columns, with cannon interposed, to the attack. It consisted of 15,000 horse, 35,000 foot, with upwards of forty pieces of artillery. A party of forty or fifty "vagabond Frenchmen," as Orme stvles them, led by an officer named Sinfray, advanced the first, Sinfray calling on the Subahdar's troops to follow ; but they had no confidence in each other, and he called in vain. A cannonade was kept up for some hours on the English, who sheltered themselves by sitting under a high mud-bank. Soon after noon the enemy drew off their cannon, and retired toward their camp. But the French still kept their post, till a party, under Major Kil- patrick, began to move against them, when they retired, carrying off their guns. The whole British force now advanced ; a cannonade was opened on the enemy's camp, one angle of which and an eminence near it were carried, and the whole army fled in confusion, leaving to the victors their camp and all it contained. The pursuit was continued for six miles ; the loss of the enemy was about 500 men ; that of the British in killed and wounded about seventy, mostly Sepoys. Such was the battle, or rather rout, of Plassy, which in effect gave an empire to England. Suraj-ud-dowlah, as Clive observes, " had no confidence in his army, nor his army any con- fidence in him." His most faithful general, Moodun Khan, having been killed by a cannon-ball, he had sent for Meer Jaffier, and casting his turban at his feet, implored him, by the memory of Ali- verdi, their common relative, to forget ail differ- ences and to defend his throne. Jaffier promised, of course, and advised him to recall the troops, and defer the conflict till next morning. This was done ; and the consequence was, the advance of the English. Roydullub then counselled him to retire to Moorshedabad ; to this course his own feai's also urged him, and the inevitable result was the victory of the English ; for Oriental troops never fight when abandoned by their leaders. Meer Jaffier had been playing a double game all through these events. When lie gave the above advice to the Subahdar, he wrote to Clive, desiring him to attack the camp without delay. But the letter did not reach him, and he made the attack of his own account. He also kept his troops sepa- rate ; but his conscience made him suspicious ; and when, after the victory, he had his first inter- view with his allies, the military honours with which he was received startled him, and he gave manifest signs of terror, lie revived, however, when ('live saluted him as Subahdar with much cordiality. A few days after (29th) (live formally seated him on the munud at .Moorshedabad. The unhappy Suraj-ud-dowlah, on arriving at his capital, found no one faithful, and on the night of the 21th, as Meer Jaffier had already entered it, he departed secretly, attended onlv by a eunuch and one of his concubines, with the design of join- ing M. Law. But near Kajniahal he was recog- nized by a devotee whose nose and e;irs lie had cut oil' some months before, and was by him be- A.D. 1757. RELIEF OF TRICHINOPOLY. trayed to the governor of the city, who was Meer Jaffier's brother. He was seized and sent to Moor- shedabad. Jaffier gave some tokens of compassion for him; but his son Meerum, a youtli of a cruel, unscrupulous character, had none, and he caused him to be put to death at once, it is said, without his father's knowledge. The unhappy prisoner had not completed his twentieth year, and he had reigned only fourteen months. What chiefly remained to be done now was, to make the pecuniary payments agreed on in the treaty. On examining the treasury, it was found to contain 150 lacs of rupees, a large sum no doubt, but still far short of what had been ex- pected, and much too little to satisfy the claims of the British. It was then arranged that one half of their demand should be paid immediately, two- thirds in money, and one-third in plate, jewels, and gold, the remainder in three equal annual payments. Seven hundred chests filled with trea- sui-es were conveyed to Calcutta in one hundred boats, adorned with flags, and music sounding from them as they proceeded down the stream. Give at this time received a further gift from Meer Jaffier of sixteen lacs of rupees 1 , which, added to two lacs, his share of what was given to the army, and 2,80,000, his share as second in council, made a sum exceeding 230,000?. sterling. Mr. Watts also received a present of eight lacs. Among those who were present at the meeting for considering the state of the treasury, and by no means the least interested party, was Omichund. He was elated with hopes, and in idea he grasped millions of rupees. When the treaty was read in which he was unmentioned, he became agitated. " That cannot be the treaty," said he, " it was a red one I saw." " Yes, but this is a white one," coolly replied Clive ; then turning to Scrafton, who spoke the native language better than himself, he added, "It is now time to undeceive Omichund ;" Scrafton immediately said, " Omichund, the red treaty is a trick ; you are to have nothing." The unhappy wretch fell back in a swoon into the arms of his attendants, by whom he was conveyed to his palankeen, and thence to his house, where he re- mained for some hours in a state of stupor. A few days after he waited on Clive, who advised him to undertake a pilgrimage. He did as directed, re- turned insane, and died within the space of a year and a half 2 . " The two millions of rupees he expected should have been paid to him, and he left to enjoy them in oblivion and contempt." Such is the opinion of Orme, the friend of Clive. We, however, greatly fear, such is our nature, that had this been done, most persons, though outwardly admiring the mag- 1 It is not improbable that he asked for this money; at least, hinted that he would like to have it. In 1773, when defending himself in the House of Commons, he used these remarkable words, " When I recollect entering the Nabob's treasury, at Moorshedabad, with heaps of gold and silver to the right and left, and these crowned with jewels," striking his hand violently on his head, " By God ! at this moment do I stand astonished at my own moderation." Life of Clive, i. 313. 2 Orme, ii. 182. We do not think Mr. Wilson (Mill, iii. 195) justified in saying, that doubt is thrown on this account by Clive's letter of the 6th August, in which he speaks of Omichund as " a person capable of rendering great services, and therefore not wholly to be discarded," for this was written before his return from his pilgrimage. nanimity of Clive and his associates, would in their secret souls have condemned it, and have said, that he had met with his deserts. The best plan, perhaps, would have been a compromise for a smaller and more reasonable sum. As to the deception practised on him, it must seek its justification from necessity, that most accommo- dating of all justifiers. CHAPTER VIII. War in the Carnatic— Relief of Trichinopoly— Arrival of Count Lally — Capture of Fort St. David — Invasion of Tanjore— Siege of Madras— Capture of Masulipatam — Mutiny in French Army — Arrival of Coote — Capture of Wandewash and Carangoly— Battle of Wandewash — Siege and Capture of Pondicherry — Destruction of the French Power in India— Fate of Lally. While such was the progress of the British power in Bengal, hostilities were continued in the Car- natic. Capt. Calliaud, who was aiding to reduce one of the Nabob's brothers, who was in insurrec- tion in the south, was preparing to renew his attempt on Madura, his first attack on which had failed, when he learned (May 21) that the French troops were within sight of Trichinopoly, where Capt. Smith, who commanded, had only 165 Europeans, and 700 Sepoys, while he had 500 French prisoners to guard, and the advancing force counted 1150 Europeans, and 3000 Sepoys, with several pieces of cannon. Calliaud received this intelligence at three o'clock in the morning, and at six he was on his march. The tents and baggage were left behind, the men carrying their provisions, and a few bullocks con- veyed their ammunition. At six in the evening of the 25th he was within twelve miles of Trichi- nopoly. But now the great difficulty presented itself. The troops of the enemy were so disposed as to command every line by which the town could be approached, and their spies had mingled among the British. Of this last circumstance Calliaud was well aware, but he affected ignorance ; and having apparently selected a road, he proceeded along it for about six miles. The spies went off with the information at nightfall, and the French concentrated their force on the point where they expected him to arrive. But Calliaud turned aside, and marching over rice-fields in a state of irrigation, where the men were knee-deep in mud, and could only advance at the rate of a mile an hour, reached the fort at break of day, and the discharge of twenty-one pieces of cannon to greet their entrance, told the French they had been out- generalled. Calliaud was so weakened by fatigue and mental anxiety, that he had to be supported into the fort by two grenadiers. The French, foiled in their attempt, returned soon after to Pon- dicherry. Bajee Rao, the Maratta, now appeared, demand- ing chout of the Nabob, who settled the account by agreeing to pay down two lacs of rupees, and give orders for two and a half more on the Polygars and others. When this was concluded, he called on his English allies to pay his share out of the rents he had assigned them, for the expenses of 7« HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d.1 758— 59. the war. This they were very unwilling to do, but, as Onr.e says, they " had no alternative, but to pay or fight ;" they chose the former, though Morari Rao and other chiefs offered to aid them ; and Bajee Rao departed, laden with money and bills. On the 28th April, 1758, a French squadron of twelve sail was seen standing in for the road of Fort St. David. It had on board a militavy force, with Count de Lally appointed governor-general of the French possessions iu India. Lally proceeded at once with two of the ships to Pondicherry. The rest were preparing to follow, when they were attacked by the English fleet from Bengal, com- manded by Admiral Pocock 3 . The action was undecisive, and after it the French, as the rigging of the English ships was very much damaged, were enabled to reach Pondicherry. It was with great difficulty that Lally induced the commandant, M. D'Ache' to put to sea again, and then, instead of bearing down on the English squadron, he took advantage of the wind which kept them off, and steered for Fort St. David, before which Lally was lying with the troops, having captured Cuddalore, and laid siege to the fort almost immediately after his landing. The besieging army consisted of 2500 Europeans, and about the same number of Sepoys ; the garrison of upwards of 600 Europeans, and 1600 Sepoys, and other native troops, commanded by Major Polier, a Swiss officer in the service of the Company. The defence had been injudicious ; in the early part of the siege the garrison had wasted their ammunition in the most reckless manner, firing, says Orme, "night and day on every thing they saw, heard, or suspected;" so that when the real need came, they were obliged to husband it. Numbers of the native troops had deserted ; the Europeans were mostly drunken and disorderly, and the supply of water was failing. As soon, therefore, as the French fleet appeared, it was apprehended that it would land more men, and a general assault would be made, which the gar- rison could not withstand. It was in consequence resolved to capitulate ; the following day (June 2) the fort was surrendered, and Lally immediately commenced razing its fortifications. Devi-cottah offered no resistance, and Lally then, in imitation of Dupleix, entered Pondicherry in a triumphal procession, which was succeeded by a Te Deum, and a splendid entertainment. The want of money being the greatest impedi- ment to further operations, Lally, in order to obtain some resolved to enforce payment of a bond of the rajah of Tanjore to the late Chunda Sahib, which had come into his possession. He accord- ingly took the field against the rajah, who called on the English for aid, which was promptly given ; but he then arranged with Lally for an attack on Trichinopoly : again they quarrelled, and Lally threatened to transport himself and his family to the Isle of France. This brought him round once more to the English side, and more troops were sent from Trichinopoly to his aid. Soon after Lally called a council of war to decide on the ques- tion of assault, or retreat ; and it of course recom- mended the latter. The sick and wounded ware sent away at once, and the following day (Aug. 10) was fixed for the departure of the troops. This 3 Admiral Watson had died. decision having come to the knowledge of Monack- jee, the Tanjore general, he resolved to make an attack on the French camp. He commenced by a piece of treachery, sending fifty horsemen, who, under pretence of being deserters, were to assassi- nate the French commander ; but accident led to their being discovered, and they were cut to pieces ; and when the Tanjorines made their attack they were repulsed on all points. Lally effected his retreat, though not without suffering. To ob- literate the disgrace of his failure, he next led his troops against Arcot, of which he gained posses- sion by making liberal promises to the officer in command. Having obtained some supplies of money from various quarters, he now resolved on forming the siege of Madras, and about the middle of December he appeared before that town at the head of 2700 Europeans, and 1000 native troops. The garrison consisted of about 1800 Europeans, 2200 Sepoys, and 200 of the Nabob's cavalry ; it was commanded by Col. Lawrence. The French took possession of the Black Town without opposition. Hence a large quantity of arrack was found, with which most of the Euro- pean soldiers made themselves intoxicated ; and as they were seen from the furt staggering about under its influence, Lieut.-Col. Draper proposed to the commandant to make a sally. He agreed, and five hundred men were selected, and placed under the command of Draper, and one hundred more for a covering party, under Major Brereton. The enemy was taken quite by surprise, and suffered severely from the fire of the English party. A French regiment, which had been drawn up to op- pose them, turned and fled ; and then Draper called on his men to cease firing, and to follow him to take possession of four of the enemy's guns. He ran forward, and discharged his pistol at the head of the officer who commanded them, by whom his fire was returned. Draper then became aware that only four of his men had followed him. The French took courage and returned, and the English were finally obliged to retire, with the loss of about two hundred men, between killed and prisoners. Among the slain was Major Polier, who, to efface the stain on his courage, made by the surrender of Fort St. David, had accompanied Draper as a volunteer. The French had about two hundred men killed and wounded ; and Count d'Esiaigne, one of their ablest officers, was made a prisoner. Lally threw great blame on Bussy (whom he had recalled from the service of the Nizam) for not bringing up Lally's own regiment in time ; but Bussy pleaded want of orders. An officer, named Murphy 4 , proposed a general assault during the night, in four divisions, and Orme thinks it was fortunate for the English that his advice was not followed. On the 2nd January, 1759, Lally commenced firing on the fort from the batteries which he had erected. The defence was alilv ooaduetad by Mr. Pigot, the governor, and by Col. Lawn nee. Fre- quent sallies were made, and the troops at Chingto- nut, which Lally had neglected to take, with the Sepoys <>f Mohammed [goof and some of the Nabob's, and of the Tanjorine cavalry, greatly im- peded the communication of the besiegers with Pondicherry. Major Calliaud was at Tanjore at * Probably an [rlahman, one of the Irish brigade. A. D. 1759. CAPTURE OF MASULIFATAM. 79 this time, endeavouring to get an addition made to this last force ; but the rajah thought the fortunes of the English on the decline ; and as the native bankers seemed to be of the same opinion, Calliaud was unable to procure the money requisite for the payment of the troops if he should send them. His mission, therefore, was of little avail ; but with what men he could get, and a body of Sepoys from Trichinopoly, he came (Feb. 7) to Mt. St. Thomas, and took the command of the troops there, which were acting against the enemy, and which Lally compared to flies, which as soon as they are beaten off on one side return on another. Lally resolved to make an effort to free himself from them ; and on the morning of the 9th he sent two divisions against them, commanded by a rela- tive and namesake of his own. The one consisted of 1200 Sepoys, and 500 native horse ; the other, of 600 foot, and 300 horse, all Europeans. Cal- liaud had 2500 Sepoys, 2200 native horse, 103 Europeans, and ten English troopers under Capt. Vasserot. His native cavalry, when they saw the enemy, set off towards them, as Orme says, "scam- pering, shouting, and flourishing their sabres." But a discharge of the carbines of the first rank of the French cavalry, which brought down four or five of them, made them scamper off in another direction, leaving Calliaud with only the ten troopers. With these he withdrew into an inclosure ; the combat was continued with various success during the day, and in the evening the French retired. As the ammunition of the English was nearly spent, Calliaud led his men during the night to Chingleput, leaving fires burning to deceive the enemy. Lally had now been nearly two months before Madras. A breach was effected, but his officers, when consulted declai'ed, that though it was prac- ticable, it was inaccessible, and they also stated their belief, that with their present force they could not hope to take the fort. Lally was hated by his officers for his pride and insolence ; he was without money or credit ; the Sepoys were deserting fast, and the Europeans threatening to follow their example. He resolved, therefore, to raise the siege, first burning the Black Town by way of revenge. But the appearance of Admiral Pocock, with reinforcements on the 16th, saved the native town. The enemy, after keeping up a hot fire during the night, marched next day for Arcot, in such precipitation that they left behind them fifty- two pieces of cannon, and 150 barrels of gunpow- der. They also left four sick and wounded Euro- peans, whom Lally by letter commended to the humanity of the British governor, and the treat- ment they experienced was such, that proud and ill-conditioned as he was, he expressed himself grateful for it. Thus terminated the last siege of Madras. The English soon took the field again under Major Brereton, as both Lawrence and Draper were in an ill state of health. The French, under the Marquis de Soupires, did not venture to meet them, and they took Conjeveram by assault. To- ward the end of May both armies went into can- tonments. During these events Lally learned that Masuli- patam had fallen into the hands of the English, and the French influence in the Circars had thus been destroyed. One of the rajahs of that country, named Amunderaz, being offended with Bussy, had taken advantage of his departure to attack and capture Vizagapatam. He immediately sent to Madras, calling for aid, and offering to put that place into the hands of the English. As Fort St. David had just fallen, and an attack on Madras was expected, his proposals were rejected. He then addressed himself to Clive, who agreed at once to assist him ; and a force of five hundred Europeans and two thousnnd Sepoys, with thirty pieces of cannon, was sent by sea to Vizagapatam, under the command of Lieut.-Col. Forde, in the month of September. They joined the rajah's " rabble," as Orme irreverently styles his troops ; and after the usual disputes about money, marched against the French troops under M. Conflans, whom they met and totally defeated at Peddalore. They then advanced about forty miles to the attack of Raja- mundra, on the left bank of the Godaveri ; but the French abandoned it at their approach, and cross- ing the river retired to Masulipatam. Want of money for some time impeded the progress of Forde, and meantime the Subahdar had assembled his forces on the Kistna, to march to its relief. Forde, however, advanced, and on the 6th March he came in sight of that town. He was erecting batteries, and making other preparations to attack, when suddenly the whole of his European troops turned out, and threatened to march away if he did not pay them the prize-money then due to them, and engage to give them the whole plunder of Masulipatam when taken. By his promises, however, and representations, he induced them to return to their duty, and the siege proceeded. On the 6th April three breaches were reported to be practicable, and as it appeared that there was only two days' supply of ammunition for the batteries remaining, and intelligence had arrived that the Subahdar and the French (who had recovered Rajahmundza) were approaching, it was resolved to attempt to carry the place by storm. On the 10th the firing was kept up vigorously all through the day, and at ten at night the troops were all under arms. They marched to the main attack in three divisions, two of Europeans, under Captains Fischer and Yorke, and one of Sepoys, under Captain Maclean. Another division under Captain Knox, and a fifth composed of the rajah's troops, were to divert the attention of the enemy by false attacks. Captain Fischer reached the breach, and gained possession of a bastion ; here he was joined by Captain Yorke, who, however, was near losing his life, in consequence of a panic- dread of a mine which seized his men, so that they left him alone with two drummers. He, however, rallied about six-and-thirty of them, but the French had had time to load a cannon with grape, and the discharge of it wounded himself and fifteen others, beside killing some of the remainder. M. Con- flans, however, surrendered at discretion, and the number of the prisoners exceeded that of the cap- tors. There was abundance of stores, and 120 pieces of cannon in the fort ; the other booty also was considerable. Salabut Jung, who was only fifteen miles distant, now seemed inclined to treat. Col. Forde, there- fore, went to his camp, and a treaty was concluded, by which he gave Masulipatam and some other districts to the English, and engaged to dismiss the French in his service, and not to employ them any t_ BO HISTORY OF INDIA. A.D. 1759. more, or to allow them to have any settlements south of the Kistna. The English, on their side, engaged not to aid or protect his enemies. These articles were entirely in favour of the English, and would probably not have been so easily obtained, were it not that Nizam Ally, the Subahdar's brother, whose enmity to Bussy was well known, had received a letter from Give, inviting him to aid Col. Forde, and he had now advanced to Hyderabad, in the hope of supplanting his brother. The Subahdar wanted Forde to give him some of the English troops, and on his refusal he retained the French that were with him. An accommoda- tion, however, was effected with Nizam Ally, who was confirmed in the government of Berar, of which Bussy had caused him to be deprived. Basalut Jung, another brother, then took the French troops and set off for the south, to pro- mote some views of his own. The English forth- with suspected some ulterior designs, and a force, under Major Monson, was sent against the fort of Coverpauk, and to their great surprise, for no one expected it, the fort surrendered at the first sum- mons. Monson then led his troops to Arcot, ex- pecting a similar result, but his hopes being de- ceived, he returned to Conjeveram. On the 10th September the fleets of Pocock and D'Ache engaged, and the battle was, as usual, in- decisive, though the French fled. D'Ache' retired to Pondicherry, whence he sailed for the Islands, in spite of the remonstrances and even threats of Lally. He, however, was induced to leave behind him 400 Africans, and 500 Europeans, which last Lally termed " the scum of the sea." On the night of the 29th an attack was made on the town and fort of Wandewash, by the British troops, under Major Breroton ; but it proved a total failure, owing in a great measure to the cowardice of Major R. Gordon, who was appointed to lead one of the divisions, but who disappeared as soon as the signal for its advance had been given. Lally, when informed of this event, fired one hundred guns in honour of the great victory gained by the French, and sent magnificent accounts of it into all quarters. Bussy was now on his march to join Basalut Jung, and he had proceeded one day's march from Arcot, when he was stopped by intelligence of a mutiny among the troops at that place, which speedily spread to his own camp. More than a year's pay was now due to the troops, and they were ill supplied with provisions. This in reality was owing to the extreme want of money ; but the men thought that D'Ache had brought a large quantity of treasure, and they suspected that Lally had amassed great private wealth. They complained loudly ; and when some of the men of the regiment of Lorraine were punished for some other offences, the whole regiment turned out, and occupied tin- ground lately held by the English. They were soon joined by the other regiments in Wandewash ; they made a sergeant-major their general, and another sergeant major-general, and appointed all other officers, observing the strictest discipline. When the news reached Pondicherry, Lally, the member! of council, and others, gave ail the money and plate they possessed, and the viscount Fumel was sent to negotiate with the mutineers. They listened calmly to his arguments and proposals, and, at the desire of their general, the sergeant* they agreed to return to their duty, on condition of an amnesty, six months' pay in hand, and the remainder in a month. These terms were acceded to, and they returned to Wandewash. Bussy was obliged to advance a month's pay to his men, and to halt till he could give them as much as the others had received. He then proceeded to join Basalut Jung ; but as this person demanded a loan of four lacs of rupees, he could effect nothing to the advantage of the French, and he returned to the Carnatic, bringing with him those French who were with Basalut Jung. As we have seen, it was the want of money that crippled all the operations of the French. An op- portunity now presented itself of obtaining a large sum, and Lally resolved to embrace it. The ap- proaching December harvest in the isle of Sering- ham promised to be unusually abundant, and the government share was valued at six lacs of rupees. Accordingly, toward the end of November, a force of 900 Eui'opeans, 1000 Sepoys, and 200 native horse was sent thither, under the command of M. Crillon. No tidings of its march reached either Madras or Trichinopoly till it had nearly arrived at its destination. It then entered the island, and attacked the pagoda, which was gallantly defended by some Sepoys and other native troops. The cannon of the French, however, soon forced an en- trance, and then they acted with the usual French barbarity. They refused quarter, and when they turned out those who had survived the massacre, they fired on some, and their cavalry pursued and cut down others. It is but justice to add, that the officers did not sanction this conduct of their men. This loss was soon counterbalanced by successes in another quarter. The English force had been increased by exchanges of prisoners, and still more by the arrival of Col. Coote (who had returned to England from Bengal) with 600 men, the remainder of his regiment, and which raised it to its full strength of 1000 men. He was nominated to the command in Bengal, but with permission to remain in Coromandel if deemed advisable. As he deter- mined to remain, major Calliaud was sent with 200 men to Bengal, as Clive had requested might be done in case of Coote's being detained. Coote, who took the chief command, resolved to attempt the reduction of Wandewash. The troops rendezvoused at Conjeveram, whence, while Coote marched with the main body to Arcot, Major Brereton, with a strong detachment, pushed on for Wandewash, and took possession of the town with- out opposition. The fort was commanded by a Killidar, or native governor, and he had with him, beside his own troops, about seventy Europeans. When Coote arrived, batteries were raised and a breach effected. The fort was then summoned to surrender ; but a defiance was returned. The firing was then continued, and, on the following morning, the Killidar sent to treat ; and Coote pledged himself that, if he would deliver np the French who were With him, he should be con- tinued ill his government under the English. All answer was required by two in the afternoon. At that hour the answer had not arrived, and the French appeared on the walls and offered to deliver up the fort. Coote sent ■ party of Sepoys to take possession of the gateway ; but they were not ad- mitted, as it was said the key was in the possi ■fan d. i'/go. BATTLE OF WANDEWASH. of the Killidar. Coote, however, had himself ad- vaueed at the head of another company, and passed the breach ; and thus Wandewash was taken, with- out the loss of a single man. The Killidar had signed the treaty before the troops entered, and in all equity he had a right to the benefit of it ; but the importance of the province, his kindred to Chunda Sahib, his enmity to Mohammed Ally, and his long connexion with the French, " weighed unjustly," says Orme, " more than the respect due to a contract of which he was fulfilling his part." He was conducted a prisoner to Madras, where he haughtily refused to give any account of his trea- sure, which he had sent away to a strong fort in the hills near Vellore. The Nabob said that his capture was of more importance than that of the fort ; yet he offered him his liberty for ten lacs of rupees. From Wandewash Coote marched to the fort of Carangoly, distant thirty-five miles. After effect- ing a breach, he allowed the garrison to march away with all the honours of war, only depriving the Sepoys of their arms. He was now preparing to march against Arcot, where a small detachment, under Captain Wood, had already entered the town. But the return of Bussy frustrated his de- sign ; and being harassed by the French cavalry and some Marattas who had joined them, and the rains coming on, he put his troops into quarters at Coverpauk and the adjacent villages. The two armies did not remain long inactive. Early in January, 1 760, they were in front of each other, between Coverpauk and Arcot. Lally, whose forces had been augmented by the return of Bussy and by the arrival of a great part of the detachment at Seringham, which he had recalled, resolved to make an attack on Conjeveram, where he fancied the English had large magazines of rice. By skilful manoeuvring he contrived to deceive the vigilance of the English for three days, during which he was gradually getting nearer to his ob- ject ; and on the third night he marched for it with his troops in two divisions. In the morning he took possession of the town without resistance ; but no rice was there. The English in fact had no magazines : the system then was, that each day should provide for itself ; if food was to be had the men ate it, if not they fasted. The pagoda there, which was held by the English, contained some military stores ; but as he had no cannon, he could not attack it, and he retired after plundering and setting fire to the town. His most valuable booty was two thousand bullocks. Coote, who had expected that Wandewash would be the object of Lally's attack, set out with his cavalry for Conjeveram the moment intelligence from thence reached him, but found Lally gone. That officer was now preparing for an attempt on Wandewash, contrary to the advice of the experi- enced Bussy, who maintained that it was impos- sible to take it in the face of the whole British army, and advised, as they were so much superior in cavalry, and had the aid of the Marattas, to keep the regular troop together, and let the latter lay waste the British districts. But Lally was headstrong and self-sufficient ; he was jealous of Bussy's popularity, if not of his talents ; and though he could not decently avoid asking his opinion, he took good care never to follow it. Bussy's advice to the contrary, therefore, ensured the attack on Wandewash, whither Lally marched with a part of his forces on the 4th, leaving Bussy with the main body at Trivatore. Coote, when informed of Lally's departure, took a position half way between Wandewash and Chingleput. Lally would hardly give credit to Bussy when he sent to inform him of this movement ; but being at length convinced of its truth, he permitted Bussy to act as he deemed best, and that officer led his troops to Wandewash. It was Coote's intention to wait till the enemy was ready to assault, and then to attack, at his option, either the troops thus en- gaged, or the covering force on the plain. Bussy, who penetrated his design, advised Lally to sus- pend the siege, and to keep his army together till Coote either attacked or retired. This advice was of course rejected, and Lally resolved to persevere in the siege. On his first arrival, Lally had attacked and carried the town, chiefly through his own personal courage, a quality in which he certainly was not by any means deficient. He entrenched the open- ings of the streets toward the fort, and raised a battery ; but as he had to fetch his guns from some distance, it was not till the 20th that it began to play. By night it had produced some effect, and next morning Coote, to whom Captain Sher- lock, the commandant, had sent word, advanced with his cavalry to reconnoitre. Having received further information from Sherlock, he gave orders for the main body to advance. The following day (22nd) his whole army having come up, he drew it out in order of battle on a plain, in view of the French camp ; but their troops remained inactive, and even the firing on the fort seemed to have ceased. He then directed it to move along the south side of the mountain of Wandewash, and in the direction of the fort. He offered battle again, but to no purpose ; and having, by the fire of two guns driven off the French and Maratta cavalry that annoyed him, he moved round the mountain till, as he had proposed, he had placed his army with one flank protected by the fire of the fort, and the other by some impassable ground, while he had the power of attacking at his pleasure the batteries or camp of the enemy. Lally, aware of his error, resolved to give battle at once, in the hope of retrieving it ; and when the armies were within cannon shot, he put himself at the head of his 300 European cavalry, and making a large sweep, came down on that of the English, in which there were only eighty Europeans. The native horse at once turned and fled, but Captain Barker, who had the management of two field- pieces, directed them so ably, that just as the French were coming full speed down on the eighty English, he gave them a point-blank dis- charge, which threw them into such confusion, that they turned and galloped off, Lally being the last to retire. Lally, on his return, gave orders to advance. The regiment of Lorraine, forming twelve in front, bore down on Coote's own, and though received by a galling fire at the distance of fifty yards, still rushed on till the two were mingled and contend- ing with the bayonet. But here the English were as ever superior, and the gallant Frenchmen turned and fled to their camp. Meantime a shot from one of the English guns struck a tumbril laden with powder in a dry tank, 82 HISTORY OF INDIA. a. d. 17C0, 17«1- to the loft of Lally's regiment, and the explosion killed or wounded about eighty of them. The rest fled to the camp, and Major Brercton forthwith advanced to occupy the tank. Bussy, however, who had rallied some of the fugitives, led them back, and a sharp conflict ensued; but the English remained finally masters of the tank, with the loss of their gallant leader. The fight was then main- tained between them and the remainder of Lally's regiment, till two field-pieces were brought to bear on the latter. Bussy then attempted to lead a charge, but his horse being wounded, he was forced to dismount; and then he found that he had been followed by only twenty men. He surrendered to an English party, which surrounded him; and such was the respect in which he was held, that he was admitted to parole on the field, and fur- nished with a pass for Pondicherry. The French camp with stores, ammunition, and twenty-four pieces of cannon was taken. The loss of the English in killed and wounded was about 200, that of the French about 600 men. The num- ber of Europeans is said by Orme to have been 1900 English, 2250 French, while Lally says, 2500 of the former, 1350 of the latter 5 . Coote proceeded to reduce Chingleput, Arcot, and other forts. The important seaport of Carical surrendered on the 5th April, and on the 1st May the only place remaining to the French was Pon- dicherry, and the English army was encamped within four miles of that town. They had been largely reinforced from home, and eleven ships of the line were now on the coast. Hope and con- fidence pervaded all bosoms ; while, within the walls of Pondicherry, all was distrust, animosity, and bitterness. Lally charged the governor and council with peculation and embezzlement ; they retorted by charges of cowardice, folly, and dis- honesty. Aid from France was looked for, but looked for in vain. Still Lally was able to inspire the English with such respect for his forces that they did not ven- ture to lay siege to Pondicherry. He continued to supply the fort with provisions for several months; and on the night of the 4th September, he made a well-planned attack on the English camp, which failed, chiefly in consequence of one of the divi- sions not coming up in time. But reinforcements continued to come to the English camp, and their fleet now counted seventeen ships of the line. The last ships from England brought out com- missions of lieut.-colonel for Majors Brereton and Monson, prior in date to that of Coote. But they were not to assume the command as long as Coote should remain in the Carnatic. This injudi- cious arrangement was made in ignorance of the real state of affairs ; for Coote, it was supposed, had proceeded to his command in Bengal. Mon- son, in whom we shall find little to esteem, instead of, in the spirit of the instructions, agreeing to continue to serve during the siege under Coote, Offered to retire to Madras ; but Coote, to end the difficulty, said that he would proceed with his re- giment at once to Bengal; and when Monson 5 Mill, true to his system of depreciating his countrymen, says that Orme's account of the French appears to be con- jectural, While Lally may parhapi he trusted for the account or his own lure s, as it was given in the fare of his enemies, who could contradict it if untrue. Hut these enemies were French also, and his account is false on the face of it. declared to the presidency that, if that regiment went, there was little hope of taking Pondicherry, Coote, unlike Adlercron, agreed to leave it and go to Bengal alone. Pondicherry, like most towns in that part of India, had a bound-hedge composed of trees and prickly plants. The use of these hedges was, to keep off a sudden attack. The present one com- mencing at the river opposite the fort of Arianco- pang, went round till it reached the sea-coast on the north, enclosing an area of seven square miles, which would feed as much cattle as might support the garrison for some time. It was defended by four redoubts, on the four roads leading from the town. To get possession of the hedge and its re- doubts was of the utmost importance to the Eng- lish. Coote, whose plan was to commence by reducing the fort of Ariancopang, had prevailed on Admiral Stevens to lend him 400 marines for the purpose; but in the council he yielded his own judgment to that of Monson, and the expedition was suspended, and the marines sent on board. Monson, whose plan was to attack the four re- doubts together, as soon as he got the command, proceeded to put it into execution. The attack was in some measure successful, and might per- haps have been completely so, were it not that Major R. Gordon became again invisible at the critical moment. The French abandoned three of the redoubts and several pieces of cannon ; but the loss of the English was severe. Among the wounded was Monson himself, and as Major R. Gordon, the next in rank, lost no time in displaying his incom- petence by exposing the troops to a night attack, from which nothing but their own daring valour preserved them, Monson wrote immediately to request that Coote, who was still at Madras, would come and take the command. The presidency joined in the request, and Coote, who had no false notions of honour, gave a willing consent The blockade was continued, and in December famine began to be felt in the town. On the 27th, Lally turned out of it the natives to the number of 1400, and during eight days these poor creatures roamed about the enclosure, feeding on the roots of the grass, prevented from going out of it by the guards of the besiegers, fired on by cannon and musketry when they approached the gates of the town. At length the English commander allowed them to pass, and the expressions of gratitude uttered by the unhappy creatures were loud and fervent. On the 30th a furious storm came on ; the sea rushed over the beach, sweeping away the English batteries and redoubts, carrying off tents, and destroying ammunition. Some ships of the block- ading squadron were stranded, others much in- jured. But the inundation was so far of service, that, as it covered the ground with water so that artillery could not be moved through it, the garri- son were unable to make a sally. Every effort wu speedily made to repair the damage, and on the L2th January, 17<>1, the besiegers began to open trenches. On tin- evening of the loth a ling Of truce appeared, announcing the approach of a deputation. The envoys came on foot, the fort containing neither horses nor palankeen-bearerB, They bore a memorial from Lally full of absurd gasconade, and charges of breach of faith on the English, but ottering to surrender at discretion; A. D. 17G1. AFFAIRS OF BENGAL. and another from the governor and council, claim- ing security for the persons, property, and religion of the inhabitants. The terms were granted, and next day (18th) the English took possession of the town and citadel. The roar of 1000 pieces of can- non from ships, walls, redoubts, and batteries, saluted the English flag when it was seen to wave over the conquered town. As the French had destroyed the fortifications of Fort St. David, and Lally's instructions were to destroy all the maritime possessions of the Eng- lish, the Company had issued similar orders in retaliation. The fortifications, therefore, of Pon- dicherry were demolished. Mr. Pigot claimed the conquest for the Company; but a council of the officers of the army and navy met and refused compliance. He then declared that the presidency would not issue any money for the support of the king's troops or the French prisoners, and they were obliged to yield, though they protested against his authority. Gingee, and Thiagur, and Mahe, on the coast of Malabar, soon after surrendered to the forces sent against them, and nothing remained to the French in India but their mere trading factories at Calicut and Surat ; and thus, in the space of less than twenty years, were ended for ever their brilliant dreams of an empire in the East. And surely, without national prejudice, we may say that it was fortunate for the people of India that the contest had this tei'mination. Of all na- tions of Europe the French seem to be the least fitted for holding dominion over another people. Their national vanity and their inborn insolence disqualify them : they have none of the dignity of character requisite for such an office. In the con- duct of the British in India there is doubtless much to condemn ; but much is to be ascribed to inevitable ignorance, and they have gone on in a steady course of improvement. But had the French obtained the same power there, we fear the pages of the historian would present a far dif- ferent picture, and we might have to contemplate razzias, and scenes of plunder, violence, insolence, and cruelty, of which Englishmen are incapable ; ending eventually in their massacre and expulsion. Lally returned to France. His conduct in India had been intemperate and overbearing, and had made him many enemies ; but it had been honest and disinterested, and he had shown both skill and courage. The ministry and the Company, who had not supported him, resolved to make him the scapegoat of their own misdeeds, and he was thrown into the Bastille, and then, as if that was too honourable for him, into a common prison. Frivo- lous charges were made against him, and the Par- liament of Paris condemned him to death. When the sentence was read to him in his dungeon, he was so filled with surprise and indignation, that he snatched up a pair of compasses he had been using, and attempted to plunge them into his heart ; but his hand was held. That very day he was led through Paris in a dung-cart, to the Greve, with a gag in his mouth, to prevent his addressing the people ; and his head was stricken off. Voltaire exposed this " murder committed with the sword of justice," as Orme terms it ; and his son Lally Tolendal became an instrument in the hand of Providence for destroying the effete and tyrannous monarchy which had perpetrated that dark deed. CHAPTER IX. Affairs of Bengal— Invasion of Bahar by the Shah-Zada- Conflict with the Dutch— Return of Clive to England. Having thus brought the affairs of the Carnatic down to the period of the overthrow of the French power in India, we now return to those of Bengal. A revolution in the East is usually attended by minor commotions within the state, made by those who hope to gain or who fear to lose wealth or power. Jaffier Khan was a weak man, and too much attached to his own family, and his son Meerum was known to be cruel and unscrupulous. Moreover it had been a part of the policy of the prudent Aliverdi to employ Hindoos in places of trust and profit, and the Moslems coveted their places and their wealth. The consequence was, that very soon Roy Dullub, Abdul Sing, rajah of Purneah, Rajah Ram, manager of Midnapore, and Rajah Ram Narrain, governor of Patna, were driven into rebellion, and Shujah-uddowlah, of Oude, who now had Law and his French with him, menaced Bahar. Clive, therefore, found it neces- sary to accompany the Nabob to Patna, with the greater part of his forces, though he thereby left Calcutta exposed, if the French, as was feared, could have sent a force against it. By the in- fluence which his mental energy gave him over the vacillating Nabob, and by the confidence reposed in his honour by Ram Narrain, he effected an ac- commodation, and the latter was left in possession of his government, from which Meer Jaffier had proposed to remove him in favour of his brother, whom Clive designates as "a greater fool than himself." Clive also, while at Patna, obtained for the Company a monopoly of the saltpetre of that province. It was an advantage, no doubt, for them ; but it was also one for the Nabob, who re- ceived as much as ever, and more regular payment. But his officers were displeased, as they lost their usual bribes and presents from the contractors. Clive was accompanied to Moorshedabad by Roy Dullub, whom he had pledged himself to protect, and he then returned to Calcutta. Soon after his return, a vessel arrived from England, bringing out the arrangements made by the Directors after they heard of the misfortunes in Bengal. The first, made in August, 1757, ap- pointed a committee of five, in which Clive was to preside ; the second, made in November, dismissed Mr. Drake, whose incompetence was undisputed, and appointed a council of ten, the four senior members of which were to preside alternately for three months each. In this no mention whatever was made of Clive ; but this was little regarded ; and the members of the Council were unanimous in their request to him to take the office of presi- dent, as he alone was adequate to the conducting of affairs at that critical period. Irritated by the supposed insult of the Directors, he at first re- fused ; but he finally yielded to his zeal for the public service and the united solicitations of all ranks and parties in Bengal. The truth, however, is, no slight was intended. It was supposed he had returned to Madras ; and as soon as intelli- gence arrived of the battle of Plassy, and of his remaining in Bengal, the Directors appointed him to the office of president. G2 84 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1759. It was soon after this that Give sent the expedi- tion under Col. Forde to the Deckan, much against the will of many members of the council, who thought only of Bengal, while he thought of the British interests in India. Meantime intrigue was at work, as usual, at Moorshedabad, and Roy Dullub was deprived of his employment, and disgraced. A chief agent in this business was Nundcomar, another Hindoo, and governor of Hooghly, who envied his wealth and his success. His attachment to the English was also a high crime in the eyes of the Nabob and his son. Just at this time Clive had invited the Nabob to Calcutta. He accepted the invita- tion, and he had no sooner set out, than Meerum, as no doubt had been arranged, was going to at- tack Roy Dullub's house, when Mr. Scrafton, the resident, marched a company of men to protect him, and sent word to Mr. Watts, who was with the Nabob. This prince of course denied all know- ledge of the transaction, and consented to Roy Dullub's accompanying them to Calcutta. Some time after the minister's family were allowed to join him there, and his property was saved from the meditated plunder. An attempt was then made to deprive him of the English protection, by means of a forged letter, on which was founded a charge of plots against the Nabob's life. But this artifice could not elude Clive's sagacity. Early in the year 1759 the Shah Zada, heir- apparent, eldest son of the emperor of Delhi, weary of the state of thraldom in which the im- perial family was held by the Vizier Ghazi-ud-din, and instigated by the Subahdar of Oude, fled from the capital, and collecting a force of about 8000 men, resolved to attempt to make himself master of Bahar. Ram Narrain was reported to have in- vited him, and the Seits to have supplied him with money ; it was also asserted that he had been joined by M. Law. On the other hand, the con- duct of his son gave the Nabob great anxiety even for his life, and his troops were in a state of mutiny, and refused to march unless their arrears were paid. His only dependence was on Clive, to whom both himself and Mr. Hastings, the resi- dent, wrote frequent and pressing letters. Clive at once assured the Nabob of support, and at the same time, through Mr. Amyatt, the agent at Patna, bade Ram Narrain to rely on his pro- tection against the Nabob. He put himself at the head of a force of about 450 Europeans and 2500 Sepoys, and set out for Patna. The news of his approach gave courage to the governor, who had linn wavering; he repelled the attacks of the enemy, and soon after the Shah Zada broke up his camp, and made a precipitate retreat. Re- pelled from Oude, to whose ruler he was no longer of use, and proclaimed a rebel by his father, he sought the British protection ; but, connected as (live was with Meer Jaffier, he found himself obliged to refuse it; he sent him, however, a present of money equal to about 1000/. to aid him in effect- iog liis escape. This expedition of the Shah Zada was of service to both Meer Jaffier and to Clive. For the em- peror (or rather Gha/i-ud-din), when lie beard of it, appointed his second son Subahdar of Bengal, &c, with Meer Jaffier as his AfatO OP deputy, ami sent orders to the hitter and to (live, who, through his interest had been made an Omrali of the em- pire, to make that prince a prisoner. Hence they both, while pursuing their own interests, were acting the part of dutiful subjects to the crown. To Clive the great advantage was, that Meer Jaffier took this occasion of presenting him a jagheer for the support of his new dignity. It was the quit rent of the territory granted to the Com- pany, and was estimated at nearly thirty lacs of rupees a year 6 . There was peace at this time between England and Holland, but we are not to suppose that mutual hostilities in the East were thereby precluded. Though the Dutch, who had also suffered from the rapacity of Shujah-ud-dowlah, rejoiced at his fall, and congratulated the English on their effecting it, they refused to recognise Meer Jaffier, and on his passing their factory of Chinsura on his way to Calcutta, they did not pay him the compliment of a salute. The offended Nabob stopped their trade, and they then, in their usual manner, made a most submissive apology. Mutual jealousy of the Eng- lish soon drew them more closely together. The Nabob was annoyed at the state of tutelage in which he was held; the Dutch were jealous of the English monopoly of saltpetre (though they got it cheaper than ever), and annoyed at their vessels being obliged to take English pilots, a necessary precaution against the French. It was said that they then concerted between them that the Dutch should bring a large force from Batavia to counter- balance that of the English, and support the Na- bob. But then came the invasion of the Shah- Zada, which united the Nabob more closely than ever with Clive ; and when intelligence came that the Dutch were fitting out a large expedition at Batavia, he issued a purirannah to the governor of Chinsura, prohibiting their admission there. Soon after a Dutch ship arrived full of troops. The Nabob sent another purvannah, and the Dutch re- plied, that she came by stress of weather, and would depart forthwith. They endeavoured, how- ever, to land the troops, but were prevented by the vigilance of the English, who searched the boats, and sent back the soldiers they found in them. Early in October, while the Nabob was en a visit at Calcutta, news came that six or seven more Dutch ships "crammed with soldiers,'' had entered the river. The Nabob, conscious that it was his encouragement had brought them, said, he would go to his town of Hooghly for a few days, and make them be sent away. Instead, however, of stopping them, he went to a place between it and Chinsura, where he received the Dutch most graciously, and sent to tell the English that he had granted them some slight indulgence in their trade. and that they would send away their ships and troops as soon as the season would permit. But that this was all deception was manifest, for the season was then as favourable as could be desired, and soon after news arrived that the ships were moving up the river, and that the Dutch were enlisting troops of all kinds, which could not be done without the connivance, at least, of the Nabob. 8 Clive, when created an Omrah, had. through Jugget Seit, asked for a jagheer to support his new dignity, but it docs not appear thai tie specified any amount, and lie got DO answer at the lime. The present one was given him by the advice of Jugget Seit. A.D. 1759, 1760. DEFEAT OF THE EMPEROR. 85 It is to be recollected, that at this time a part of the troops were with Col. Forde in the Deckan, another part at Patna, and that those from home destined for Bengal had been stopped at Madras, so that the garrison of Fort William was very weak ; and, moreover, there were only three ships of war in the river. To suffer the Dutch, how- ever, to pass, might endanger the very existence of the English in Bengal ; and it, moreover, was be- lieved to be the politics of the Nabob's durbar, to let the rivals weaken each other, and then try to reduce both, or, at worst, to side with the stronger. On the other side there was the hazard of being overcome, and the doubt, if they would be justified in commencing hostilities against an ally of Eng- land, in case the Dutch should attempt to pass the batteries. But while feeble-minded men were hesitating, and even representing to Clive his per- sonal risk, in order to dissuade him, he replied, that " a public man may occasionally be called on to act with a halter round his neck," and resolved at all hazards to maintain the interest and honour of his country, and resist the Dutch if they offered to advance '. From the embarrassment about being the ag- gressors, the Dutch soon relieved them by seizing vessels, guns, and stores, making prisoners, and pulling down the English flag. It was concluded from this, that they had been advised of a war between the two nations in Europe, or that they counted on the Nabob's aid or neutrality. As their plans were not known, the greater part of the troops were stationed at the batteries named Char- nock's and Tanna's, under Capt. Knox, while Col. Forde, who had returned from the Deckan on ac- count of his health, marched with another party in the direction of Chinsura, to intercept the Dutch troops if they should debark below the batteries, and march for that place by land. The three ships were directed to come above the batteries, where fire-boats were placed, and other preparations made. On the 21st November the Dutch ships came to anchor, a little below the batteries, and on the 23rd they landed on the opposite shore 700 Europeans, and about 800 Buggoses, i. e. Malays. On the same day orders were sent to Commodore Wilson, to de- mand restitution of the ships, men, and property, or " to fight, sink, burn, and destroy " the Dutch ships on their refusal. Next day (24th) the demand was made, and refused, and the commodore then obeyed his further instructions. Unequal as were the forces, in two hours six of the Dutch ships struck ; the seventh ran down the river, but she was met and captured. On the same day Col. Forde was attacked in the ruins of Chandernagore, by the garrison of Chin- sura ; but he routed and pursued them to the bar- riers of that town, which (being now joined by Capt. Knox from the batteries) he was preparing to invest, when he heard of the approach of the troops from the ships. Though his whole force did not amount to 400 Europeans, and 800 Sepoys, he advanced to meet them. The action was " short, bloody, and decisive ;" for it lasted only half an hour, and the Dutch had 120 Europeans, and 200 Malays killed ; 150 wounded, and 350 Europeans, 7 When Clive formed this resolution, almost the whole of his property was in the hands of the Dutch, through whom he was remitting it to Europe. with fourteen officers, and 200 Malays, made pri- soners. Forde then returned, and sat down before Chinsura. But the Dutch sued for favour ; they disavowed the conduct of their fleet, acknowledging themselves the aggressors, and agreed to pay costs and damages. Their ships were then restored. But the troubles of the Dutch were not yet ended. In a few days Meerum, at the head of' a body of horse, approached Chinsura, making de- mands. They wrote, supplicating the good offices of Clive. By his means a treaty was effected, limiting the number of troops they were to keep to 125 Europeans ; and the young Nabob then with- drew and left them in quiet. Clive now put into execution his plan of return- ing to England, for which he sailed on the 25th February, 1760, the richest man that ever left the shores of India for Europe. His departure was deeply regretted by the Nabob, who saw in him his only support ; and many of the Company's servants augured ill, and but too truly, for the country from his absence. CHAPTER X. Defeat of the Emperor— Death of Meerum— Dethronement of Meer Jaffier— Seizure of Ram Narrain— The Private Trade— Quarrel with Meer Cossim— Affairs at Patna— Restoration of Meer Jaffier— Battle of Geriah— Massacre of English Prisoners— Battle at Patna— Mutiny of Sepoys —Battle at Buxar— Death of Meer Jaffier— His Successor — Presents received. By the rotation system which had been established the office of governor now came to Mr. Holwell, the fifth on the list, those above him having died or returned to Europe. Col. Forde also returned, and the chief military command lay with Col. Calliaud. On the 1 8th January this officer had marched for Patna, accompanied by a large native force, under Meerum. For the late Shah-Zada, who was now emperor, his father having been murdered 8 , was again before that city. Col. Calliaud had written to Ram Narrain, to avoid an engagement ; but he gave no heed to the advice, fought, and was defeated. On the 22nd February, Calliaud fought a battle, in which the emperor was totally routed ; and the victory would have been still more com- plete, if Meerum had not refused to give any cavalry for pursuit. The emperor marched for Bengal, followed by Calliaud, who came nearly up with him two or three times, and but for the re- fusal of the Nabob to give any cavalry, would pro- bably have defeated him again. He thus was able to make his way back to Patna, on which, aided by Law and his French, he made two assaults. He was preparing to make a third, when the arrival of a detachment under Capt. Knox forced him to retire. Knox was then sent against the Foujdar of Purneah, who was in arms for the purpose of joining the emperor. He gave him a defeat, and Calliaud and Meerum, who had now arrived at Patna, went in pursuit of him. But here again Meerum impeded success, by x-efusing to give ca- valry. His career, however, was near its close. 8 See above, p. 47. HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1760. On the night of the 2nd July there was a fearful storm, in which the lightning struck the tent of Meerum, and all within it perished. As in the East the troops always disperse on the death of the general, it was resolved to keep that of Meerum a secret ; it was therefore given out that he was un- well, and during a march of seven days to Patna the army never suspected the truth. When it was made known, the troops became clamorous for their arrears of pay ; they reviled the Nabob in the most opprobrious terms, and even menaced him with death. They were only appeased by the efforts of his son-in-law, Meer Cossim, who ad- vanced three lacs of rupees, and became security for the remainder. Violent and unprincipled as Meerum was, and though the Nabob lived in constant apprehension of meeting death at his hands, his removal now led to the overthrow of his father's power. Meer Cossim, an able, ambitious, and unscrupulous man, had, when he advanced the money, insisted on being put into Meerum's place ; and though the Nabob had two other sons and Meerum left one, he was obliged to consent. This, however, did not content Meer Cossim ; he was in correspondence with Mr. Holwell, who hated Meer Jaffier, and the dethronement of that prince was meditated. Meantime Mr. Holwell was superseded by Mr. Vansittart, from Madras, who, on Clive's strong recommendation, had been appointed his successor in Bengal. Mr. Vansittart was a man of many good qualities, and by no means devoid of talent ; but he wanted that which is of vital importance to a man placed as he was — he wanted firmness of purpose and energy of character, and he therefore soon ceased to be master at his own council-board. The expenses of the Company at this time in Ben- gal were very great, and their resources were be- coming every day more limited ; the unthrifty Nabob was of course in arrear, and Mr. Holwell therefore found little difficulty in persuading the governor to adopt his views, and to enter into the plan for the dethronement of that prince. As Mr. Holwell had laid the plan, the task of conducting it was committed to him. Meer Cos- sim obtained permission to come to Calcutta, where he conferred with Mr. Holwell, who agreed to every thing he proposed, except the assassination of the Nabob. At this the former expressed his fears that the latter was not so much his friend as he had supposed. As, however, he could not go on without tlie English, he consented to waive that point ; and it was arranged that the title of Nabob should be left to Meer Jaffier, while all the execu- tive power, along with the office of Dewan, or treasurer, should be transferred to Meer Cossim. The Company, to defray their expenses, were to have the districts of Burdwar, Midnapore, and Chittagong. These terms were approved of by the Select Committee, and a treaty to this effect was signed by them and Meer Cossim. All that now remained was, to inform Meer Jaffier that he had ceased to reign. Mr. Holwell was expected to undertako this task also ; but he declined, for various reasons, and quitted the Com- pany's service. Mr. Vansittart then resolved to undertake the office himself, and, on the 14th Octo- ber, ho arrived at Moorshedabad. Next day lie was visited by the Nabob. II'' dwelt on the evils of the government, and Meer Jaffier expressed his willingness to be guided by his advice for its im- provement. Other visits and notes succeeded, in which the Nabob was urged to choose from among " his children" some capable person to manage the affairs of the state. By dint of importunity he was drawn to confess his own incapacity and the superior fitness of Meer Cossim ; but as he did not seem inclined to act as was wished, it was re- solved to recur to force. The preparations having been made with due secrecy, Col. Calliaud joined his troops with Meer Cossim, and entered the outer court of the palace, where he drew up his men, and sent in to Meer Jaffier a letter from the go- vernor, complaining of his silence during the day, denouncing his evil counsellors, and informing him that he had sent Col. Calliaud with a military force " to wait on him" and expel his evil advisers, and he was exhorted to look on the governor as his best friend, and " to remain satisfied." But his satisfaction was evinced by a transport of rage, in which he vowed he would resist to the last. Cal- liaud remained quiet, to give him time to reflect; and it ended in his submission, stipulating only for his life, honour, and a suitable maintenance. Mr. Vansittart now appeared, and assured him that not only his person, but his government was safe, if he pleased ; but when he found that he was only to have the title, he declined the empty honour, and having obtained permission to settle at Calcutta, he set out for it that very evening. Meer Cossim was forthwith seated on the imisnud, and English and natives joined in offering him their congratu- lations. Thus, in violation of the treaty existing with him, and with a sacrifice of British honour, was Meer Jaffier detlu-oned. Various frivolous reasons, such as his countenancing the Dutch, his being in correspondence with the emperor, and such like, were assigned, to justify the deed ; but the real reason was — money. The Company got five lacs ; but on the night the treaty was signed, Meer Cos- sim had presented to Mr. Vansittart a paper, which proved to be a note for the payment of twenty lacs to the members of the Select Committee. One can hardly be much astray in supposing that this also had been arranged between him and Mr. Holwell, who, however, with the others, rejected it, and bade the president inform him that he mistook their motives. Still he pressed it on them, and at length, as he seemed distressed at their not allow- ing him to give proofs of his gratitude, the kind- hearted president told him that, when affaire were settled and the country flourishing, they would accept such marks of his favour as he might be pleased to bestow. It is needless to add that, in due time, the money was offered and accepted 9 . As it was only the members of the Select Com- mittee that were thus considered, the other mem- bers of council were highly offended, and, in a letter to the Directors, they did not hesitate to hint that this was the real cause of the revolution. They also took great credit to themselves for having had the fortitude to resist the repeated » In the division of the spoil Mr. Vansittart had live lacs of rupees (58,883/.); Mr. Holwell, 2,70,000 (30,937/.); Mr. Sumner, 2,40,000(28,000/.); Mr. M'Guire, 2,55,000 (29,3701.) ; Mr. Smyth, tin' Secretary, 1,34,000 (15,8841.); Major Yorke. who commanded the detachment attendlngon ftfeerCoaaJm, a like sum (15,854/.); and tinally, Col, Calliaud, two Iocs (22,916/.); in all, 17,33,000 rupees (200,209/.). d. 1761. QUARREL WITH MEER COSSIM. «7 offers of Meer Cossim. As we shall see, however, they were in reality little more virtuous than those to whom they were in opposition. To raise the necessary funds for the payments he had to make, the new Nabob began to squeeze the relations and friends of his predecessors, going back as far as the time of Aliverdi Khan. The emperor being still in the vicinity of Patna, the discontented sought refuge with him ; and in order to get him out of the way, Major Carnac, who commanded there, gave him battle and defeated him (Jan. 15, 1761). M. Law and his French were made prisoners ; negotiations were then opened, Major Carnac visited the emperor in his camp, and was accompanied by him back to Patna, whither also came Meer Cossim, who, on engaging to pay an annual tribute of twenty-four lacs of rupees, was acknowledged Subahdar of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa. Meer Cossim shared his predecessor's feelings toward Ram Narrain, who was supposed to be very wealthy. He called on him now to settle his accounts ; but the Hindoo alleged that he owed nothing, the defence and other expenses of the province having consumed all its revenues. Mr. Vansittart supported the Nabob, Major Carnac upheld Ram Narrain ; by which conduct, as he no doubt violated the principles of military subordi- nation, he was removed, and Col. Coote, who was now in Bengal, was sent to command at Patna. But Coote also refused to be instrumental in the destruction of a man for whose safety the British faith had been pledged ; and he too was recalled, and the command at Patna given to Capt. Car- stairs, with directions to obey the chief of the fac- tory. The result was, that Ram Narrain was seized and given up to the Nabob ; and Mr. Van- sittart was thus the instrument of placing another stain on the purity of the British faith and honour. Mr. Vansittart's power, however, soon passed out of his hands. Before Clive left India, a very energetic letter, signed by himself and by Messrs. Holweli, Sumner, Pleydell, and M'Guire, the other members of the Secret Committee, and which told the directors some unpalatable truths, had been sent to the India House. It excited great wrath and indignation, and orders were sent out to Calcutta to dismiss those four civilians. Mr. Holweli had already resigned, and the dismissal of the remaining three left Mr. Vansittart in a minority in the council, so that the powers of government passed into the hands of his opponents, headed by Mr. Amyatt and Mr. Johnstone. One of their first acts was to appoint Mr. Ellis, a violent, intemperate man, resident at Patna, where he soon contrived to irritate the mind of the Na- bob by various petty vexatious acts. In order to soothe him, the governor proposed sending Mr. Hastings to him on a special mission. The council consented, but insisted on adding a clause in his instructions, directing him to apply to the Nabob for payment, for the use of the Company, of the twenty lacs of rupees he had offered the members of the Secret Committee. This Mr. Vansittart very properly resisted; and in reply to Mr. Amyatt, he observed, that that gentleman had never thought of handing over to the Company his share of the money received from Meer Jaffier. But Mr. Amyatt maintained that there was an essential difference between what was received "in common with the whole board, as well as with the army and navy," and what " was intended for five gen- tlemen only." The motion, which was purely fac- tious, was carried of course, but they got nothing, perhaps expected nothing, by it; for the Nabob, in a very spirited reply, utterly denied their claim, as he had neither borrowed from them, nor engaged to pay them any thing. " I owe nobody a single rupee, nor will I pay your demand," is the con- clusion of the reply he delivered to Mr. Hastings. In fact, they had completely mistaken their man, when they substituted Meer Cossim for Meer Jaffier on the musmid. The latter was weak, and could be bullied or cajoled; the former had both energy and capacity. He had reduced his subjects to obedience, and he had, by his financial skill and attention to the collection of his revenues, been able to discharge the whole of his obligations to the Company and its servants. We have already mentioned the subject of the governor's dustuchs or certificates, and their power of exempting the Company's goods from duties. By these goods were meant those brought from England, and those purchased in India for exportation, and none others. This was a fair regulation, merely exempting foreign traders from the onerous and capricious tolls and duties levied on the internal trade of the country at the numerous chokeys or toll-houses by which they passed. As the servants of the Company were allowed to engage in private trade, various attempts were made, as we have seen, to have this trade also covered by the Com- pany's dustuck, but in vain as long as there was vigour in the native governments. As soon, how- ever, as, by the dethronement of Shujah-ud-dowlah, the power and influence of the English became paramount in Bengal, the Company's servants pre- pared to take advantage of the altered circum- stances. While Clive remained in India, their cupidity was held in check, but as soon as he was gone, they rushed with avidity into the internal trade ; salt, betel, tobacco, every thing, in short, became objects of their traffic ; the Company's flag was held to cover every thing ; the gomastahs, or native agents of the Company's servants, acted with the greatest insolence and oppression ; the Nabob's officers in general feared to perform their duty, and his revenue, deprived of one of its prin- cipal sources, began rapidly to decline. Wealthy natives paid even the young writers largely for the use of their name, and thus mere boys were en- abled to live at the rate of 1500/. or 20001 a year. Many natives even had the audacity to assume the habit of English Sepoys or gomastahs, or to raise the English flag, and thus plunder and insult the people with impunity. Meer Cossim made repeated complaints on this subject to Mr. Vansittart, who, on his side, was anxious to remedy the disorder; and when we re- collect the horror of bribes, and the high spirit of disinterestedness lately exhibited by Mr. John- stone and the rest of the majority, we might natu- rally suppose him to have had their most strenuous support. But not so, his only supporter was Mr. Hastings ; for these gentlemen were all deeply engaged in the private trade themselves, and they affected to regard any attempt to interfere with it as the very height of tyranny and injustice. The weak Vansittart himself seemed even to think that their enjoyment of it for five or six years, had 88 HISTORY OF INDIA. d. 1761. given them a kind of prescriptive right to it. tn one interview with the Nahob, however, he made a tolerably fair arrangement; which was, that the Company's servants might engage in the internal trade on paying a duty of nine per cent, once for all on the first moving of the goods. This arrange- ment was not to be published until after the go- vernor's return to Calcutta ; but the Nabob, in his eagerness to derive advantage from it, sent copies of it in all quarters, ordering his officers to act on it, and they began to do so forthwith in a most offensive manner. The council met to take the matter into consideration. There were twelve members present ; including two military men, whose right to vote on any but a professional question was dubious, and all, except the governor and Hastings, declared that the Company and its servants had a right to carry on the inland trade duty free. Some, indeed, were inclined to allow a trifling duty to be levied on certain articles ; but it was finally determined that nothing should pay duty but salt, and that only two and a half per cent. The Nabob complained in various letters to the governor, who could give no redress; collisions took place between his troops and the Sepoys protecting the English private trades; and finally, seeing his revenue in a fair way of disappearing, he issued orders for the cessation of all transit duties in his dominions. On the receipt of this intelligence the council were stricken with dismay ; they saw all their fair visions of enormous wealth rudely dissipated at one stroke. For, we may observe, the levying of duties, from which they were exempt, on the native traders, gave them a virtual monopoly of the whole trade of the country ; while now, when all were put on an equality, the advantage would naturally be on the side of the natives. Their impudence now passed all limits. They maintained, that the conduct of the Nabob was prejudicial to the trade of the Company, and involved a violation of its recognized rights ; and they resolved to insist on his laying on the duties again, their own trade, however, excepted. A deputation, composed of Messrs. Amyatt and Hay, was sent to make this demand (April 4). They met with no success, and the council, determined not to give up their profits, met, and resolved on a recourse to arms (14th). The Nabob, though weakened by a check he had lately received, in an attempt on Nepaul, resolved not to fall without a struggle, and he applied to the emperor and the Vizir of Oude for aid. On the 25th May, some boats, laden with arms for Patna, arrived at Mongheer. The Nabob, judging that they were to be employed against him, ordered the boats to be detained. The deputies applied for their release, which was refused, unless the British force was withdrawn from Patna, or Mr. Amyatt, Mr. M'Guire, or Mr. Hastings, was sent thither instead of Mr. Ellis. They then de- manded their dismissal, and Mr. Amyatt was allowed to depart, but Mr. Hay was detained, as .security for the safety of the Nabob's agents at Calcutta. Meantime, Mr. Ellis, who had been Ions urgent lor discretionary powers, at length extorted them, and he immediately began to prepare for an attack on the fort at I'atna. As soon as he heard of the departure of Mr. Amyatt, lie surprised ami took the town. The governor, after a brief resist- ance, Bed toward Mongheer, ami only the fort and a strong palace held out. The troops were then allowed to disperse, and they were busily engaged in plundering the houses, when the governor, who had met a detachment coming from Mongheer, suddenly returned and fell on them. After a slight conflict, they spiked their cannon, and retired to the factory. It was surrounded, and in the night, yielding to their fears, they got into their boats, and made up the river toward Oude ; but being attacked on their way, they surrendered, and were conducted to Mongheer, whither also were brought the residents of the factory at Cossimbazar, which was attacked and plundered. The Nabob, in the first burst of his indignation, had sent orders to stop Mr. Amyatt, but as he fired from his boats when hailed for that purpose, the boats were boarded, and himself and several of those with him were slain. As soon as it became manifest that there must be hostilities with Meer Cossim (possibly even sooner), Mr. Johnstone and his friends had re- solved to restore Meer Jaffier, and on the 7th July a proclamation to that effect was issued. He agreed to confirm the grants of Meer Cossim to the Com- pany, and to pay them thirty lacs for their losses and expenses ; he was also to make good the losses of private persons ; the former duties were to be levied on the trade of the natives, while that of the English was to be free, with the exception of the 2§ per cent, on salt. He was further to support a force of 12,000 horse, and 12,000 foot ; receive a resident at his court, and make the coin- age of Calcutta be current in his dominions, with- out batta, i. e. allowance. Meantime the British troops, under Major Wil- liams, of the king's service, had taken the field, and were advancing against Moorshedabad. On the 19th they defeated the troops of Meer Cossim, and on the 24th they stormed the lines at Mootegil, and took Moorshedabad ; and on the 2nd August they encountered the army of the Nabob, on the plain of Geriah, near Sootee. These troops were of a superior description to any native troops that the English had yet encountered, for a part of them were armed and disciplined in the European manner, and commanded by a Swiss named Sumroo, who had been a Serjeant in the French service. The battle was obstinate, and lasted for four hours. At one time the enemy broke a part of the British line, and took two pieces of cannon ; but victory finally remained with the Europeans. The enemy fled to the fort of Outanulla, situated between hills and a river, and defended by an intrenchment on which were 100 pieces of cannon. The English approached, and while a feigned attack was made by the bank of the river, the real one was made at the foot of the hills, and after an obstinate contest, they made themselves masters of the fort and all it contained. The forces of Meer Cossim in this place were said to be 60,000 men, while that of the English, Europeans and Sepoys, did not ex- ceed 3000 men. The army now advanced to Mongheer, which Meer Cossim had made his capital, and Strongly fortified. At their approach he fled to Patna, having previously put to death several persons of eminence, among whom was Ram Narrain. On his way he murdered the two S.its, the bankers, whom he had forced to accompany him, lest they should aid the English, and left their bodies e\- A.D. 1764. DEFEAT OF THE VIZIR. posed to birds and beasts of prey, under the guard of some Sepoys. At Patna, when he heard of the surrender of Mongheer, he put into execution a measure he had long threatened — the massacre of his English prisoners. This office was committed to Suniroo, who evinced no repugnance. The vic- tims were fallen on, even their knives and forks having been previously removed, that they might have no means of resistance. Some were shot, others cut to pieces with swords ; they defended themselves as well as they could by throwing bottles and stones. Among them were Mr. Ellis and Mr. Hay ; the total number murdered there and elsewhere is said to have been two hundred. The only person spared was Mr. Fullarton, a surgeon. At the approach of the English, Meer Cossini fled from Patna, and on 6th November that place was taken by storm. They pursued him to the banks of the Caramnassa, which he crossed, and took refuge in Oude. He then repaired to the emperor and vizir who were at Allahabad. He was received with great respect, and the latter promised to enter Bahar in his support. Major Carnac, who commanded the army, was there- fore directed to march to the Caramnassa to op- pose him, but unfortunately his troops were in a state of mutiny in consequence of being dis- appointed of the rewards they had expected. The mutinous spirit was in some degree appeased ; but Carnac, not thinking it advisable to advance, en- camped under the walls of Patna, where, on the morning of the 13th May, he was attacked by the united forces of the vizir and Meer Cossim. The English Sepoys fought nobly, and at sunset the enemy was completely repulsed. Proposals for an accommodation were then made ; but as the Bri- tish authorities insisted on the surrender of Meer Cossim, Sumroo, and the English deserters, and the vizir required that of Bahar, nothing could be effected, and in June the enemy retired into Oude. As the troops behaved so well at Patna, the council thought the mutinous spirit had disap- peared ; but Carnac knew better, and he acted with caution. The command was then transferred to Major Hector Munro, a king's officer who had just arrived with troops from Bombay. On coming to Patna, he found the Sepoys deserting, and even threatening to seize their officers and deliver them up to the enemy, if they did not get an increase of pay, and a donation promised them by Meer Jaffier. One battalion actually went off with their arms to join the enemy. Munro sent 100 Europeans, and a battalion of Sepoys who could be relied on, in pursuit of them, and they came on them when they were asleep in the night, made them prisoners, and brought them back. The major stood ready to receive them with the troops under arms. He ordered their officers to select fifty of the worst of them, and from these a further selection was made of twenty-four, who were tried on the spot by a court-martial of native officers, found guilty of mutiny and desertion, and sentenced to death. Munro then ordered them to be bound to the guns and blown away. When the first four men were called for, four grenadiers stepped forth and claimed it as " a right which belonged to men who had always been first in the post of danger." Their desire was granted, and the guns were fired. The officers of the Sepoys then informed the major that their men would not allow any more to suffer. He immediately ordered the four guns to be loaded with grape, and the Europeans to be drawn up with the guns in in- tervals between them. The Sepoys were then commanded to ground their arms on pain of being fired on if they disobeyed. Sixteen more of the mutineers were then blown away, and the remain- ing four were sent to suffer at another canton- ment. The spirit of mutiny being now at an end, Munro prepared to take the field. Toward the middle of September the army was in motion ; the enemy attempted to defend the passage of the Son, but were repulsed, and on the 22nd October the army reached Buxar, where the troops of the vizir were encamped. Munro proposed making an attack on them before daybreak next morning; but the report of his spies leading him to suspect that, as he wished, the enemy meditated being the assailants, he resolved to await them. At eight o'clock they were announced to be in motion; the troops were drawn out to receive them ; at nine the action commenced, and at twelve the enemy gave way. They retreated, however, leisurely, and by breaking up a bridge of boats, and thus losing 2000 of his men, the vizir saved the re- mainder of his army. His force was estimated at from 40,000 to 60,000 men. Munro had 857 Europeans, 5297 Sepoys, 1918 native cavalry. Of the enemy 2000 lay dead on the field, the British had 847 killed and wounded. The effect of this important battle, which broke the power of the vizir of Oude, was to render the British paramount north of the Vindhya mountains. The day after the battle, the emperor wrote to Major Munro congratulating him on his victory, and seeking his protection against the vizir, who, he said, had treated him as a prisoner. When the British set out for Benares, he marched in the same direction, and every night pitched his tents near their camp. In an interview with Munro, he offered the dominions of Shujah-ud-dowlah, or any thing else they might require for protection, which finally was accorded by the authorities at Cal- cutta, and the descendant of Timur and Baber thus sank into the condition of a dependant on the foreign traders who had humbly crouched before the throne of his ancestors. The vizir, meantime, to console himself for his losses and defeat, plundered his friend Meer Cos- sim of his remaining wealth, in the most shameless manner. Still he would not surrender him to the British ; and he offered, if they would recede from that point, twenty-five lacs of rupees to the Com- pany, as many to the army, and eight to Munro himself. When these terms were refused, he pro- posed to withdraw his protection from Meer Cos- sim, but to let him escape. As to Sumroo, he indicated a very simple course; which was to invite him to an entertainment, at which two or three English officers, who knew his person, should be present, and to put him to death before them. But even this was rejected. The British army then advanced toward Allahabad, and on their way laid siege to the fort of Chunarghur. As Shujah-ud- dowlah was endeavouring to get into the rear of the army, and to seize the emperor, Munro converted the siege into a blockade, and led the rest of the HISTORY OF INDIA. a. d. 1765. army toward Benares. The two armies lay for some time inactive, in presence of each other, and soon after Munro resigned the command, and quitted India. Meer Jaftier did not long enjoy his recovered dignity. He died in the beginning of the year 1765, his natural infirmities being augmented by the mental uneasiness, caused by the incessant de- mands made on him by the English for money. Among these, what he most complained of, and what was urged most pertinaciously, was the com- pensation for private losses. At the time of making the treaty he was assured, that this, at the utmost, would not exceed ten lacs of rupees, but it was gradually increased, and eventually brought up to fifty-three ; and of this great sum, the one-half was extorted from him, though his payments to the Company were not completed ; and they had to borrow from their own servants money, at eight per cent., for their necessary expenses. A new Nabob was now to be appointed, and the choice lay between Jaffier's second son, Ntijum-ud- dowlah, and the son of Meeruin, a boy only six years old. The council decided in favour of the former; for though a long minority might seem to be more for the advantage of the Company, it might render their power more conspicuous than they desired it should be for some time. Mill hints, that the circumstance of the former being of age, and thus able to make presents, which a minor could not do, may possibly have had its weight. In the treaty made with the new Nabob, the Company took into their own hands the military defence of the coun- try ; and with respect to the civil government, the Nabob bound himself to appoint, with their advice, a Naib Subah, or deputy, who should manage it, and not be removed without their consent. The choice of this person also presented a difficulty. Nundcomar, a Hindoo, whom we have seen in the service of Suraj-ud-dowlah, a man of the most faithless and unprincipled character, aud in secret the bitter foe of the English, had ingratiated him- self so much with Meer Jaffier, during his late long residence at Calcutta, that on his restoration he asked permission to employ him as his minister. To this Vansittart was opposed, which was a suffi- cient reason with the majority to grant it. Now, however, as Mr. Vansittart was no longer there to be opposed, and Nundcomar had acted in his usual manner, they refused to consent to his appoint- ment, and proposed Mohammed Reza Khan, a Mussulman, of respectable character ; and in spite of the artifices of Nundcomar, he became the Naib Subah. The Court of Directors had, twice during the past year, written out, condemning the private trade, and giving orders for its cessation. They had partioularly reprobated the article in the treaty with Meer Jaffier, taking off all duties from it, ex- cept the small one on salt. Yet, in the face of that prohibition, the council now had the hardihood to insert that very article in the treaty made with Nujimi-ud-dowlah. Further, the Company had de- vised covenants, to be signed by all the civil and military servants, binding them not to receive any pn-sent beyond one thousand rupees, without Hie consent of the Court of Directors ; and these cove- nants had reached Calcutta before the death of Meer Jaffier ; and when we recollect the principles laid down by Mr. Johnstone, respecting the pre- sents received from Meer Cossim, we might surely expect to find all hands clean on the present occa- sion. But not so ; the covenants were pronounced to be absurd and unreasonable, and presents to the amount of about eleven lacs of rupees were re- ceived from the Nabob l , beside presents from Reza Khan and Jugget Seit, the banker 2 . Meantime, the accounts which had reached Eng- land of the massacre at Fatna, and the war with the vizir, had filled the proprietors with such alarm, that they deemed Clive the only man able to retrieve the Company's affairs in Bengal, and he was accordingly appointed governor of that presi- dency. We must therefore cast a glance at what had been taking place at home of late years. CHAPTER XI. Clive in England— His Return to Bengal— Treaties with the Vizir and Emperor— Clive's Plan of Reform— Salt- So- ciety— Mutiny of English Officers— Suppressed by Clive —His Return to England— Death and Character. Wiien Clive returned to England, in 1760, his income arising from his jagheer and his money was upwards of 40,000/. a year. He met with a most flattering reception from the young king, the ministry, and the Court of Directors. He was created an Irish peer, and had a promise of the order of the Bath. He also became a member of the House of Commons, and, to increase his in- fluence there, purchased seats for several of his friends. But he had his enemies, especially Mr. Lawrence Sulivan, at that time chairman of the Court of Directors ; and he had not been long in England, when he received an intimation from that gentleman that the Directors had some thoughts of questioning his right to his jagheer. The breach between them was widened by the circumstance of their being of opposite sides in politics. As one great mind attracts another, Clive admired and supported Pitt ; lie was also the intimate friend of Mr. George Grenville. Sulivan was of the party of Lord Bute, the actual minister. This nobleman had made overtures to Clive to join him, but they were rejected. It was then resolved, as he could not be gained, to weaken him as much as possible, by attacking his wealth and his character. Clive seems to have considered that it was ne- cessary for him to become a director in order to secure himself. At that time the whole of the directors were annually elected, and the qualifica- tion of a voter was the holding of 500/. stock. This no doubt was presumed to be bona _/? Mr. Spencer, who had lately come from Bomhay, and succeeded Mr. Vansittart, had two lacs of rupees (23, 388/ ); Mr. Johnstone, 2,37,000 (27,050/.); Mr. Senior, 1,72,500 (20,125/.); Mr. Middleton, l,L'2,.-»00 (H,2!)l/); Mr. Leyces- ter, 1,11,500 rupees (18,125/.) These four formed the depu- tation for arranging the treaty with the Nabob. Messrs Pleydell, Burdett, and Gray, member* of council, had each one lae 111,600/.); and Mr. Qldeon Johmtone, the brother of the deputy, and who was not even in the Company's ser- \iee, bad 50,000 i.'.s:i3/.). t The cousin, and sueecssor of those murdered by Meer Cossim. A. D. 1765. CLIVE'S PLAN OF REFORM. 01 elude it, and the practice grew up of what was called splitting totes, that is, giving fictitious qualifi- cations, as in the analogous case of members of parliament. On this occasion Give split 200,000V. ; he was, however, defeated, and the victorious party now resolved to make him feel their vengeance. Orders were immediately sent out to Bengal not to pay any longer to the agents of Lord Clive the rent of his jagheer. No public reason was as- signed ; but Mr. Sulivan, in a private letter to Mr. Vansittart, stated that it was "because all cordiality between the Court of Directors and Lord Clive was at an end." As his only remedy, Clive filed a bill in chancery ; the most eminent legal opinions were taken on both sides, and all were in favour of Clive, whose right to the jagheer, they truly stated, was precisely the same as that of the Company to the lands from which it issued. Nothing could be more flimsy or futile than the reasons assigned by the Directors ; still they went on, and would have gone on harassing him, out of pure spite, had not the intelligence from India arrived which determined the proprietors to ob- tain, if possible, Clive's services once more in that country. At the ensuing election for the Court of Directors, Mr. Sulivan and his party were de- feated, and Mr. Ross, whom Lord Clive supported, became chairman. An arrangement, which Clive himself proposed, was made respecting his jag- heer, namely, that he should enjoy it for ten years, if he lived so long, and if the lands whence it is- sued remained so long in the possession of the Company. He was appointed Governor and Com- mander-in-chief of Bengal, for which he soon after set sail, and he reached Calcutta on the 3rd May, 1765. He was accompanied by Mr. Sumner and Mr. Sykes, who, with Mr. Verelst and Gen. Car- nac, were to form a Select Committee, armed with extraordinary powers for the correction of abuses. On the second day after their arrival the Com- mittee entered on their duties. Mr. Leycester and Mr. Johnstone attempted to dispute their power ; but Clive silenced them by declaring that they should not enter into any discussion on the subject, but might record their dissent if they pleased. They then submitted. Soon after, the subject of the covenants was brought forward, which the Committee insisted should be executed without delay. This also was done, but with much ill-will and discontent. On the complaint of the Nabob that Mohammed Reza Khan had impoverished his treasury by the large amount of presents given to the Company's -servants, an inquiry was instituted into these presents. Mr. Johnstone defended him- self and colleagues by alleging the example of Clive himself ; but he did not state that, at that time, the Company had given no opinion on the subject, whereas he and his companions had acted in direct disobedience to the will of their masters. Moham- med Reza Khan was acquitted of the charges made against him ; but Roy Dullub and Jugget Seit were joined in office with him. On the 3rd May, the very day of Clive's landing, Gen. Carnac defeated at Corah the vizir of Oude, who had been joined by a body of Marattas and other native troops. After this defeat the vizir resolved to throw himself on the geuerosity of the English ; and on the 19th he entered their camp, where he was received with the greatest respect ; but the conclusion of the treaty was deferred till the arrival of Clive. It was deemed the more pru- dent course to restore him the whole of his do- minions, with the exception of Corah and Allah- abad, which were reserved for the emperor. He agreed to pay fifty lacs of rupees for the expenses of the war, and engaged never to harbour or em- ploy Meer Cossim or Sumroo. He also engaged not to molest Rajah Bulwunt Sing, who held under him the zemindaries of Benares and Ghazipur, and who had joined the English. At his earnest desire an article of free trade and factories in his do- minions was omitted in the treaty. The emperor was next to be dealt with. By the arrangement made with him in the time of Meer Jaffier, he was to be paid twenty-six lacs of rupees a year out of the revenues of the three provinces, and have jagheers to the annual amount of five lacs and a half. These jagheers he was now told he must resign, as also his claim to an arrear of thirty-two lacs then due to him. To his remon- strances Clive replied that, in consequence of the war, which had been in a great measure on his account, not a rupee could be paid ; and he was obliged to submit. He was then asked to grant the Company the dewanee of the three provinces, for which they agreed to- yield him twenty-six lacs a year, and to this he gave a ready consent, as he had already offered it ; the nizamut was at the same time assured to the Nabob. The finnan to this important grant bears date 12th August, 1765. It had been previously arranged with the Nabob that he should be content with fifty lacs a year for the support of himself and family, the Company having to bear all the expenses of government 3 . Clive now was able to devote himself to the ar- duous task of effecting reformations and retrench- ments in the service. And here the difficulty was of no little magnitude. As the salaries which the Company gave their servants were notoriously in- adequate to their support 4 , they were allowed, by way of compensation, to receive presents, after the usage of the country, and to engage in private trade. As long as the Company was a mere trad- ing society, the evils which thence resulted were comparatively of little importance ; but now that it had become a sovereign power, whose authority was wielded by its servants, those evils assumed a magnitude which could not have been dreamed of previously. It was easy then for the Company to impose covenants and prohibit private trade ; but to prevent the evils in this way was impossible. Clive saw the difficulty. He saw, too, that the only remedy was to give the servants of the Com- pany such incomes as would enable them to live as their rank required, and offer them a fair prospect of retiring with an independence. But he knew the Company and their frugal mercantile habits too well to hope that they would ever give their consent to large sums being taken for this purpose out of their resources ; and if they were to give it, he had little doubt but that the cupidity of mi- s He was quite delighted at this arrangement. "The only reflection he made on leaving me," says Clive, "was, ' Thank God ! I shall now have as many dancing-girls as I please.' " Life of Clive, iii. 125. 4 That of a member of council was only 2501. a year, of a factor HOI., and of a writer, as lately increased, 130/.; while the rent of even an indifferent house was 200/., and, as Clive asserted, a councillor could not live under 3000/. a year. HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1766. nisters would be excited, and they would be eager to grasp at this mode of providing for the younger 6ons of the nobility and their other supporters, and thus put the affairs of India into the hands of the ignorant and the incapable. The plan which he devised was as follows. At all times (and even down to the present day) the manufacture and sale of salt in India has been a monopoly; it is such even in France. This mono- poly was usually granted to some favourite of the prince, who sold the salt at his own price to the native traders. Clive then proposed that it should be held by a joint-stock society composed of the governor, the members of council, and the prin- cipal civil and military servants of the Company. These shares were to be fifty-six in number, of which the governor was to hold five, the second in council and the general three each, ten members of council and two colonels two each, one chaplain, fourteen senior merchants, and three lieut.-colonels each two-thirds of a share ; the remaining nine shares were to be divided among a certain number of factors, majors, surgeons, and others (twenty- seven in all) in the proportion of a third of a share to each. A committee of four was to manage the affairs of the society. A tax of thirty-five per cent, on the sales was to be paid to the Company, and the selling prices at the different depots was fixed at from twelve to fifteen per cent, less than the average rates of the twenty preceding years. The whole capital of the association was thirty-two lacs of sicca rupees, each member furnishing capi- tal according to his share. A reform was also to be effected in the army; and here Clive experienced his greatest difficulty, for military men have a known horror of retrench- ment. After the battle of Plassy, Meer Jaffier had granted double batta or camp-allowance to the English forces which he was to pay. Clive warned them at the time that it could be only temporary, and the Company would never continue it. His prediction was verified; for as soon as the Nabob assigned the Company certain districts for the ex- penses of the army, orders were sent out to abolish the double batta. These orders were often re- peated, but always neglected, and when Clive was coining out, the subject was strongly urged upon him by the Directors. According to a plan proposed by Clive, the Company's troops had been regimented and formed into three brigades. Of these the first under Lieut.- colonel Sir Robert Fletcher was in garrison at Mongheer, the second under Col. R. Smith was at Allahabad to protect the emperor from the Ma- rattaa; the third was at Bankipore under Col. Sir Robert Marker. An order was issued that, from the 1st January, 1766, double batta to the Euro- pean officers should cease, except to those of the second brigade, while it should be actually in the Held; hall batta was to be allowed to those at I'atna and Mongheer when not on service, but nunc to those at Calcutta. Tin; reduction took place accordingly ; but the officers at Mongheer held secret meetings, at which a general resigna- tion of their commissions was agreed on; their plans were communicated to the other brigades, and about 200 commissions of captains and subal- terns were read] to be placed in the hands of the commanding officer on the 1st June, though they were to oiler to serve as volunteers till the 15th, to give time for an answer to come from Calcutta. They bound themselves by oath to secrecy, and to preserve, at the hazard of their lives, any one of them who should be sentenced to death by a court martial ; each was bound by a penalty of 500/. not to accept of his commission again unless double batta was restored. Subscriptions, to which many civilians contributed, were made for those who might be cashiered. Their hopes were now greatly raised by tidings of the approach of 50,000 or more Marattas to Corah. Col. Smith was in con- sequence ordered to encamp at Serajapur with the whole of the second brigade, except the European regiment which remained at Allahabad on account of the heat. In the month of March, Clive and Gen. Carnac proceeded to Moorshedabad to regulate various important matters. Clive there received a letter from Mr. Verelst and the council, containing a remonstrance from the officers of the third brigade on the subject of the batta. On the 28th April he had a letter from Sir R. Fletcher, informing him that the officers of his brigade intended sending him their commissions at the end of the month. He also enclosed a letter from Sir R. Barker, inti- mating that there was something of the same kind meditated in the third brigade also. A quarrel among the officers, it appears, had brought the whole to light, and it was in consequence of this that they had now fixed the 1st May, instead of 1st June, for their resignation. In his reply to Col. Fletcher, Clive declared that any officer who offered to resign should be dis- missed the service, and never be restored. The knowledge which he soon obtained of the combina- tion being general, did not alter his resolution, though he feared, lest the troops might support their officers. He directed the council to write to Madras for all the officers and cadets that could be spared, and to apply to the free merchants to come forward, and act as officers. At his desire, also, the council resolved, that all commissions tendered should be accepted, and those who tendered them be sent to Calcutta. Early in May, Clive and Carnac set out for Mongheer, and finding, by a letter which he re- ceived from Sir R. Fletcher on the way, that the mutineers were writing to Madras, to prevent the officers there from coming to Bengal, Clive wrote to Calcutta, to direct all private letters for that presidency to be stopped, and to Sir R. Fletcher, to secure the assistance of the sergeants and of the native officers. He had already sent forward such faithful officers as he could collect, and these, on coming to Mongheer, reproached the others with their ingratitude to a man who had lately given so large a sum to form a fund for their invalids and widows. They said that Sir H. Fletcher had never told them of this, and accused him of being the originator of the whole plan. On the 13th, the European soldiers got under arms, to support their officers ; but the appearance of (apt. Smith, with tin- Sepoy battalion, reduced them to order. When Sir K. Fletcher addressed them and distributed money, they told him they had understood that he was to bead them ; but as that was not the ease, they would return to their duty. On the l.">ih ('live arrived, and Sir R. Fletcher then owned that he had known of the plot since January, and that he had affected to approve of it, that nothing a. d. 17CC-67. RETURN OF CLIVE TO ENGLAND. might be done without his knowledge. Clive made no remark. He addressed the troops, mentioning his own donation, and he ordered double pay to the native troops for May and June. In the camp at Serajepur, though a battle was expected every day, all the officers but two ten- dered their resignation ; some immediately, others after the 1st June. The former Col. Smith ordered to proceed at once to Calcutta. At Allahabad the officers of the European regiment declared that they would set out for Calcutta on the 20th May. As Major Smith, who commanded there, found that their men would support them, he sent for an old battalion of Sepoys which had long been under his command ; and these men, having accomplished the march of 104 miles from Serajepur in fifty-four hours, arrived just as the officers were departing. Major Smith then made them submit and apologise, and he sent only six of them to Calcutta, whither Col. Smith also sent one-half of his officers. Owing to the firmness of Lord Clive, of Col. Smith, and others, and to the staunch fidelity of the Se- poys, the mutiny was now at an end. The principal leaders being under arrest and ordered to prepare for trial, consternation and repentance became general. Some had been inveigled, some fright- ened, into the plot. Pardon was therefore extended to many ; but they were obliged to sign a contract to serve three years, and not to retire without having given a year's notice. Six officers were tried and found guilty of mutiny ; but owing to a defect in the Mutiny Act, not one was sentenced to death. Sir R. Fletcher 5 , who was the real author of the mutiny, was tried by court-martial, on the prosecution of Capt. Goddard and some other offi- cers, found guilty, and cashiered. The only civi- lians to whom the charge of aiding the officers could be brought home, though there was no doubt of the guilt of many of high standing, were Mr. Higginson, sub-secretary to the Council, and Mr. Grindal, of the secretary's office. These gentlemen were dismissed. We have just seen Clive's generosity to the army mentioned. The following was the occasion. Meer Jaffier, who was always attached to Clive, and who could not but reflect on how differently he had acted toward him, when dying, left him a legacy of five lacs of rupees. The money was in the hands of the present Nabob's mother, and some took on them to assert that it was a bribe, not a legacy. But of this there was no proof, and the probability is all on the other side. At all events Clive, who had given a solemn pledge that he would not in any way benefit himself by his government of India, declined receiving it. When, however, the double batta was to be taken from the officers, it occurred to him that, by taking this money, he might be able to form a fund for the advantage of themselves and their widows, he de- termined to accept it. The Company sanctioned the project ; Nujum-ud-Dowlah's successor, at Clive's desire, added three lacs more ; and thus was formed the institution at Poplar, for the sup- 1 We shall meet this person again at Madras, selfish and disobedient as ever. A Mr. John Petrie, one of the ring- leaders, whom Clive sent home with a rope about his neck, returned to Bengal some time after high in the civil ser- vice, through the influence of his friends, the Johnstones, probably to spite Clive. port of invalided officers and soldiers of the Com- pany's service, which still exists. While Clive was engaged in quelling the mutiny, the young Nabob died of a malignant fever. His death, as is always the case, was ascribed to poison, and the guilt, without even the sbadow of a proof, was laid on the English. He was succeeded by his brother, Syuf-ud-Dowlah, a youth of sixteen years of age. The profits of the salt monopoly having proved much greater than had been expected, the Com- pany's duty was raised to fifty per cent., which it was calculated would yield 1 60,000^. a year. Clive, having observed the ill effects of employing, as had been done, European agents for the sale, it was now determined that it should be sold at Cal- cutta, or where it was made, to the native dealers, and to them only, excluding Europeans altogether. Clive, jvhen this had been arranged, made a pro- posal for excluding every future governor from engaging in any way in trade, by giving him a per centage of 1 J on the revenues, and making him bind himself by oath in a penalty of 150,000/. not to derive any advantage from his office, beyond this and his usual salary and perquisites. But now letters came from the Directors, order- ing the Society to be suppressed, and the trade to be thrown open and left entirely to the natives, but without any plan for compensating their servants. For the fact was, that the proprietors at home were so clamorous for an increase of dividend, that the Directors feared to make any diminution of their revenue. Clive, however, took upon him to act for what he deemed the real interests of the Com- pany. He confirmed the grant to the Society for one year, after which it was to cease ; thus giving the Directors time to devise some other plan for remunerating their servants. It was the earnest request of the Directors to Clive, that he would remain another year in India; but this the state of his health prohibited, and he quitted its shores for ever in the end of January, 1767. He was once more received in England with every mark of respect ; and, by a vote of the Court of Proprietors, his jagheer was continued to him or his heirs for another term of ten years after the present term should have expired. But a storm was to succeed. Mr. Sulivan was now chairman ; Mr. Johnstone and the other Indian depredators were in England, and they stuck to Clive like bloodhounds, thirsting for vengeance. He had repeatedly, in Parliament, to explain and defend his various acts in India ; and at length, in May, 1773, Col. Burgoyne, as chairman of a com- mittee on Indian affairs, moved a resolution in the House, that Lord Clive had received, at the time of the deposition of Suraj-ud-Dowlah, various sums, amounting to 234,000/., and that " in so doing he abused the power with which he was entrusted, to the evil example of the servants of the public, and to the dishonour and detriment of the state." The motion that he had received those sums was car- ried ; but for the latter part was substituted una- nimously, " that he did at the same time render great and meritorious services to his country." Though thus honourably acquitted, the fact of having been accused preyed on his proud spirit. He was constitutionally melancholy ; his liver had become diseased in India, and he was afflicted with gall-stones, his sufferings from which were so in- 94 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. J7C3. tense that he had for many years been obliged to have constant recourse to opium for relief. Toward the end of November, 1774, he had a very severe attack ; he had recourse to large doses of laudanum, and in a paroxysm of pain he terminated his existence, on the 22nd of that month, having just completed the forty-ninth year of his age. The name of Clive must ever stand prominent in British history, as that of the founder of an em- pire the most extraordinary that has ever appeared. As a military man, though he had not the oppor- tunity of fighting great battles like Coote, his repu- tation stands high, for all the military virtues were united in him ; he was, as his friend Lawrence de- clared, a born soldier. As a statesman, we think he has been underrated ; his vision, it is said, was clear, but not extensive. It seems to us that it was nearly as extensive, as it was possible for that of a practical man to be at that time. It certainly did not penetrate vacancy, like that of Dupleix, and aim at the impossible ; but his opinions on most questions of Indian policy were sound and judicious. In private life Clive was amiable, and strongly attached to his family and friends. That he was covetous of wealth is not to be denied ; but, like another eminent person, if " unsatisfied in get- ting, in bestowing he was most princely 6 ." He was untainted by the mean avarice that degraded Marl- borough ; if he loved wealth, it was not for itself, but for the dignity, power, and influence it be- stowed. His example, no doubt, was injurious, and produced many mean imitators ; but there was this essential difference, that Clive thought of the Company and his country first, and of himself last, and gave way, without a pang, where their in- terests were at variance ; while the gentlemen at Calcutta and Madras seemed only concerned for their own gains, and heedless of all other interests. CHAPTER XII. Affairs in the Carnatic— Rajah of Tanjore — Mohammed Issoof— Mound of the Caveri— The Northern Oircars— Hyder Ally— His Early History— War with Hyder— Bat- tle at Trinomalee— Siege of Amboor— Ill-success of the English— Conclusion of Peace— Affairs of Bengal. We now return to the coast of Coromandel, where, after the capture of Pondicherry, the English power had become supreme. As the expenses of the war had been consider- able, and it had ostensively been carried on for the advantage of Mohammed Ally, he was called on to repay them. Before the surrender of Pondicherry, lie had made an offer to pay at the rate of twenty- eight lacs of rupees a year ; and, in case of that place being taken, if the Company would give him the aid of their forces, to make the renters and others pay up, he would discharge the wholo in one year. Mr. Pigot wrote to him, agreeing to 6 Even before he got the jagheer he gave 50,000/., a sixth of his property, to his family and friends. A portion of it was devoted to the purchase of an annuity of 5()u/. a y.n for his old commander, Gen. Lawrence, and offered in so handsome a manner, that he could receive it without a blush. these terms, and yet shortly after a demand was made on the Nabob for fifty lacs of rupees ; and as no indulgence would be given, he was forced to borrow money at a most usurious rate, in order to discharge it. It was also stipulated that he should repay the expenses of the siege of Pondicherry, and to this he agreed, on condition of all the stores taken there being given up to him. These, how- ever, the servants of the Company had appro- priated to themselves ; and on his complaint, they promised to allow him a certain sum for them in his account. But their masters no sooner heard that lie had gotten credit for this sum in their books, than they ordered it to be recharged to him, and thus he lost the stores altogether. The only way the Nabob saw of getting money, was by forcing it from those who were supposed to have it. As Mortiz Ally, of Vellore, was believed to have great treasure, he was the first object of attack. The English gave troops, and after a siege of three months the place was taken, but the wealth which it contained was far below what had been anticipated. The conquest of Tanjore was what Mohammed Ally next proposed ; but in this the English would not give him their aid. As the king of Tanjore was an independent prince, they offered their me- diation, to which the Nabob yielded a most reluc- tant consent. It was arranged that the rajah should pay twenty-two lacs of rupees, in five instalments, as arrears ; four lacs as a present ; and four an- nually as tribute. When the Directors heard of this treaty, they expressed their opinion that the present of four lacs ought to have been given to the Company for their good offices, and directed that the twenty-two lacs should be paid to them, and credit given for them to the Nabob in his account. On the 10th February, 1763, peace was signed between France and England. By the eleventh article of the treaty, all the factories which the French possessed in India, in 1749, but not their subsequent acquisitions, were to be restored. They were not to keep troops, or erect fortifications in any part of the dominions of the Subahdar of Bengal. Both crowns were to acknowledge Salabut Jung, as lawful Subahdar of the Deckan, and Mohammed Ally, as lawful Nabob of the Carnatic. As the English were able to dictate in the for- mation of this treaty, nothing could be more im- politic than the restoration of the French settle- ments in India. But while in this matter the French government were guided by the judgment of Bussy, the English ministry, as Lord Clive was in opposition, did not deign to ask his advice. He, however, wrote to Lord Bute, and it was on his suggestion that the article relating to Bengal was inserted. It is a remarkable instance of the ente- ral ignorance, with respect to Indian affairs in Europe, that Salabut Jung is spoken of as Subah- dar of the Deckan, though in 1761, two years be- fore, he had been dethroned and imprisoned by bis brother, Nizam Ally. The effect of the treaty" was to hasten his death ; for Nizam Ally, who bad" been hitherto restrained by dread of the" French, s, sing he had nothing to apprehend from them, eausi (1 him to be murdered. The reader of Urine's interesting History must be familiar with the name of Mohammed lie had enlisted with Clive a little before the battle A.D. 1705. EARLY HISTORY OF HYDER ALLY. of Coverpauk, and he rose by his merit till he came to be commander-in-chief of all the Sepoys in the service of the presidency. He was a cool resolute man, and eminently faithful to the Com- pany. The chief scene of his exploits were Ma- dura and Tinivelly, which countries, after the over- throw of the French, he offered to take as a renter. But from their wasted condition he was, it would seem, unable to raise any revenue; at least he had paid no rent. Accordingly, in August, 1763, the Nabob and Company sent a force to reduce him. But he was not a man to fall without a struggle; the month of October of the following year saw him still unsubdued, after causing his assailants great loss of men and treasure. Treachery, how- ever, prevailed against him; a Frenchman named Marchand, who was in his service, betrayed him to the Nabob, who put him to death. A dispute now arose between the Nabob and the rajah of Tanjore respecting the Mound of the Caveri. For the island of Seringham, as it is named, which is formed by the branches of the Caveri, runs very narrow toward its eastern ex- tremity, and the long strip thus formed, and which is called the Mound, if not kept in constant repair, would be swept away, and the remaining waters of the Caveri be carried into the Coleroon or northern branch, and the lands of Tanjore thus be deprived of the waters necessary for their cultivation. The Nabob now asserted that the Mound belonged to him of right, as it really did, but the rajah in- sisted that he was bound to keep it in repair, and this it was not the Nabob's intention to do, as he plainly designed to let it be washed away. The English were obliged to interfere, and it was arranged that the Mound should be repaired by the rajah. In 1765, Nizam Ally, whom henceforth we shall call the Nizam, invaded the Carnatic at the head of a large army, and committed great ravages ; but he retired when he saw the forces of the Eng- lish and the Nabob in the field. Clive, whose power over the emperor was absolute, easily pro- cured a sunnud conferring the Carnatic on Mo- hammed Ally, independent of the Nizam, and he also obtained a similar grant to the English of the four northern Circars. In March, 1766, General Calliaud was sent with a force to take possession of these provinces : but the Nizam threatened to invade the Carnatic; and the government at Ma- dras, who had an exaggerated idea of his power, agreed to pay him a large annual tribute, and as he had given one of the Circars as a jagheer to his brother Bazalut Jung, not to claim it till after the death of that prince, and very unwisely, for it was well known that he was going to attack Mysore, they agreed to support him with their troops. The person who now wielded the power of Mysore was one of those adventurers who, by dint of courage and capacity, joined with freedom from moral restraint, so frequently rise to empire in the East. His name was Hyder Ally Khan; he was the younger son of a man who, from the rank of a common peon, to which family misfortunes had reduced him, rose to that of a foujdar in the ser- vice of the Nabob of Sera. But misfortunes coming on his master, he lost his life in his defence, leav- ing a widow and two sons. Shabas, the elder of these sons, when he grew up, was recommended by his mother's brother to an officer in the service of the rajah of Mysore, and he soon rose to command. Hyder, the younger son, spent his time till he was seven-and-twenty between hunting and voluptuous living. He then joined his brother's corps as a volunteer in 1749, and distinguished himself so much at the siege of a Polygar's fort near Banga- lore, that he drew on himself the notice of Nunjeraj, the commander, by whom he was speedily pro- moted. The kingdom of Mysore was one of those Hindoo states which rose on the fall of Bejayanugur in the 17th century. Its rajahs had consequently by this time sunk into imbecility, and as in the parallel case of the Marattas, their power had passed into the hands of their ministers. The holders of this power, at the present time, were two brothers named Deoraj and Nunjeraj, the latter of whom we have seen aiding the French at Trichinopoly, and in whose service Hyder Ally was engaged. In 1755, Hyder was made foujdar of Dindigul, a fortress built on a high rock in the middle of a plain half-way between Madura and Trichinopoly. He had before this time organised a regular band of freebooters, " brave and faithful thieves," as Wilks styles them, who were bound to deliver up to him one-half of all the plunder they acquired 7 , and with the aid of a wily brahman named Koonde Rao, he devised such a system of checks as made it almost impossible for them to defraud him. Having occasion to act against some refractory Polygars, he sent to court a flaming account of his successes, and of the difficulties he had surmounted, adding a formidable list of killed and wounded. A messenger was despatched with rich presents for the officers, and with money to give to each of the wounded men fourteen rupees a month till he should be cured. The actual number of these was sixty-seven, but on the inspection which took place Hyder mingled with them 700 men whose limbs were well swathed and bandaged. These passed muster with the rest, and Hyder drew the money for the whole, and he allowed the wounded men each seven rupees a month. Another trick which he played the government was, making what a native, who witnessed it, terms " a circular muster," that is, making 10,000 men be counted and passed as 1 8,000. In this way Hyder went on augmenting his wealth, and increasing the number of his ad- herents. Meantime Deoraj retired from public cares, and left the whole burthen of them to Nun- jeraj, Hyder's patron. In 1758, the troops, hav- ing mutinied for payment of their arrears, Hyder came to his aid, and by carefully going through the accounts 8 (in which he was an adept), and thus reducing them, and by a partial payment he restored harmony. His rewards, in consequence, were ample; among others, Bangalore and its dis- trict were given to him as a jagheer. In the be- ginning of the following year the Marattas made an inroad, and when the army was ordered to march against them, most of the chiefs declared that they could not obey on account of the arrears due to the men. Hyder, who knew that the 1 Thus, in the confusion which ensued on the death of Nasir Jung, in 1750 (see p. 66), they contrived to cany off two camels laden with gold coin. 8 Though Hyder could neither read nor write, he had the power of making long arithmetical calculations in his mind, with great rapidity and correctness. 96 HISTORY OF INDIA. a. d. I7C7. arrears were very small, offered to discharge them. He thus got the chief command, and most of the other commanders, who were of ancient families, then resigned. He soon brought the Marattas to terms, and, on his return to court, he was received with extraordinary honours, Nunjeraj, a thing un- precedented, even rising at his approach and em- bracing him. Gratitude, of course, was not one of Hyder's vir- tues, and a scheme was soon concerted for the overthrow of his patron. The troops, as was arranged, came to Hyder and demanded their arrears of pay. He told them that he paid his own men regularly, and that it was not to him that the others were to look. They then requested that he would obtain payment from Nunjeraj; and several applications were made, but to no purpose, as there was really no money. They finally re- quired that Hyder should go at their head and sit in dhurna 9 at the house of Nunjeraj. With affected reluctance he complied; and the result was, that Nunjeraj, unable to satisfy them, told them that the rajah had taken the direction of his own affairs, and that he was retiring from public life. Some of the soldiers, as directed, then called out to remove the dhurna to the residence of the rajah. This was done, and the rajah having re- quired Koonde Rao to be sent in to him, the brah- min returned with a promise that the demands of the troops should be satisfied, provided Hyder took an oath to renounce all connexion with the usurper Nunjeraj. With this hard condition, also, he was forced to comply, and he then was admitted to an audience. On coming out he tendered his personal security to the troops for their arrears, and it was cheerfully accepted, and thus ended the drama. Large assignments of revenue were made to him for that purpose, and thus more than half the rajah's dominions came under his control. Beside the Brahmin, his chief coadjutor in this affair, had been a lady of the royal family, and she and Koonde Rao (who was now dewan) seeing that the power of Nunjeraj had fallen into the hands of a far abler man, conspired to over- throw him. Taking advantage of the absence of the greater part of his troops, while he was en- camped with a small force under the walls of Seringapatam, the capital, the Brahmin caused a cannonade from all the works to be opened upon him. Hyder was sending for his friend the Brah- min, when he learned the truth. He then retired with his cavalry, leaving his family and his in- fantry behind. He was now thrown on the world, and having been defeated by some troops led by the Brahmin, he went unarmed and as a suppliant to the abode of Nunjeraj. Being admitted, he threw himself at his feet, imploring forgiveness, and ascribing all his misfortunes to his ingratitude to his benefactor, whom he entreated to resume his place at the head of the state. Nunjeraj, though he knew him, was deceived. He gave him his forces and the influence of his name ; by means of forged letters Hyder frightened Koonde Rao away from his army, which he then attacked 9 That is, without tasting food, from which the person against whom it is done, is also expected to abstain. It is usual for creditors, who cannot obtain payment, to get a Brahmin to sit in dhurna at the door of the debtor for the guilt contracted; if the Brahmin should expire, it is of the deepest die. and defeated. He was soon able to dictate terms to the rajah, one of which was, the surrender of Koonde Rao, whose life, however, he engaged to spare '. Districts were then assigned for the sup- port of the rajah and of Nunjeraj, and the fortu- nate Mussulman adventurer thus became in effect the sovereign of the Hindoo realm of Mysore. (1759.) In 1761 Bazalut Jung, for the sum of three lacs of rupees, made Hyder Nabob of Sera ; and it was reduced by their united forces. Hyder continued to extend his conquests, and in 1763 he made him- self master of the realm of Bednore, in whose capi- tal he obtained a treasure which, he owned, chiefly led to his subsequent greatness. An invasion of the Marattas occupied him during the next year, and he was obliged to purchase their departure by the payment of thirty-two lacs of rupees, and the cession of some territory. In 1766 he made a descent on the western coast, and conquered Mala- bar. While he was there the rajah died ; and he immediately sent orders for that prince's eldest son to succeed, and he resumed the districts which had been assigned for the support of the royal family, giving instead of them an annual pension. In 1767 the Nizam and the Marattas made war on Hyder Ally. The latter, with their usual cele- brity," were the first to take the field. To impede their progress, Hyder laid waste the country in a fearful manner ; but, unchecked by his measures, they still advanced, and reached Sera, where Hyder's brother-in-law surrendered to them the fort and district, without even a show of fighting. Hyder, now alarmed, made proposals to the Ma- rattas, and they retired on being well paid. The troops of the Nizam, with an English force under Col. Joseph Smith, entered the territories of Mysore. Ere long, however, Smith saw reason to believe that their ally was playing the English false, and that he was actually in treaty with Hyder. He therefore kept his corps separate. As Col. Wood was advancing from Trichinopoly, he put his troops in motion to join him, and on the way (Sept. 3) he was attacked by Hyder with a large force. The action commenced at two, and ended at dusk, in the total defeat of the Mysoreans. As the British troops were in great want of pro- visions, and feared another attack, they made a forced march of twenty-seven hours for Trino- malee, not halting for either refreshment or repose. Here they had hoped to find abundance of pro- visions, but they were miserably disappointed ; and leaving the sick and wounded in the town, Smith had to move his troops about in quest of supplies, while the country was scoured by 40,000 of the enemy's cavalry. Hyder and the Nizam (for they were now allies) deferred making an attack, until the want of food should have reduced the strength of the English, but Smith was fortunate enough to discover some large hoards of grain, and thus his men were kept in a state of efficiency. On the 22nd the enemy commenced a distant cannonade on his left ; in order to turn their left, lie made a movement from his right round a hill ; the enemy did the same, iu order to intercept the English, 1 When the rajah and the ladies of the palace joined in entreaties for his life, Hyder replied, that he would not only 6pare it, but keep him like a parroquet. He kept his word, but not as they understood it, for he confined him iu an iron cage. a.d. 1767- WAR WITH HYDER ALLY. M who they thought were retreating ; and thus, to their mutual surprise, they encountered. The first struggle was for the hill, which Capt. Cooke se- cured for the English. The two armies were then drawn out in array of battle. The English had 1400 infantry and 30 cavalry, Europeans, 9000 Sepoys, and 1500 of Mohammed Ally's good-for- nothing cavalry. The army of the allies is stated at 70,000, one half of which was cavalry. It was drawn up in a crescent, half-circling the British army. The English cannon having nearly silenced that of the enemy, was turned on the dense masses of their cavalry, who, having stood the fire for some minutes in the expectation of getting orders to charge, and receiving none, at length turned and fled. Hyder, who saw that all was lost, drew off his cannon, and advised the Nizam to do the same ; but he spurned at the idea, and declared that he would sooner perish. The approach of the English, however, abated his courage, and he soon was one of the most forward in flight. The victors captured 64 pieces of cannon ; their loss was 150 men, that of the enemy was supposed to be 4000. As the rains were approaching, the English went into cantonments. But the active Hyder continued his operations ; and having reduced one or two small places, he proceeded to attack Amboor, which, seated on the summit of a granite moun- tain, was defended by Capt. Calvert, with a small garrison. Hyder having dismantled the lower fort, Calvert retired to the citadel. The Killidar being discovered to be in correspondence with Hyder, he and his men were disarmed. Hyder, though disconcerted, continued to fire on the fort, and at length effected a breach, but in an inacces- sible place. He made various attempts to surprise the fort, but in vain ; and he offered Calvert a large sum of money and the command of half of his army, if he would surrender ; but he was told to send no more such messages, if he respected the lives of his servants, as the bearers would be hanged in the breach 2 . The siege had commenced on the 10th November ; and on the 7th December, the troops of Col. Smith, marching to the relief of Amboor, were in sight. At their approach, Hyder retired, and ascending the Ghats, quitted the Carnatic. The Nizam, weary of the war, had already en- tered into secret communication with Col. Smith. It came to the knowledge of Hyder, who affected not to be displeased regarding it, as being for their eventual advantage. The Nizam, thus relieved from anxiety, speedily concluded a treaty, by which the revenues of the Carnatic Balagat, a country now held by Hyder, were transferred to the Eng- lish, on their agreeing to pay the Nizam seven lacs a year, and the Marattas their chout ; and the tri- bute for the Circars was reduced from nine lacs perpetual to seven lacs a year for a term of six years. While Hyder was engaged in the Carnatic, some of the Malabar chiefs resolved to make an effort to recover their independence. A force was sent by sea from Bombay to their aid. Mangalor and some other places were taken ; but an attempt on 2 It is lamentable to read that this gallant officer was afterwards tried by court-martial, and convicted, of defraud- ing tile Company by false returns. r Cananor miscarried, with considerable loss. Iu May, 1768, Hyder suddenly appeared before Mangalor, with an overwhelming force ; and the English were obliged to quit the place with such precipitation, that they left behind them all their artillery and stores, and even their sick and wounded, consisting of 80 Europeans and 180 Sepoys. Hyder, declaring to the Malabar chief's that he had found their country a source more of | expense than profit, offered to give it up if paid his expenses ; and he thus was enabled to retire with a large sum of money for the war against the English. The war this year was adverse to the English, very much in consequence of the Presidency having imitated the practice of the jealous repub- lics of Venice and the United Provinces, in sending two members of council to the army as field- deputies, without whose consent no operations could be carried on. One of the first acts of these civilians was to cause the loss of the fort of Mul- wagul, by insisting on the European garrison being withdrawn, and their place supplied by some of the troops of Mohammed Ally. Col. Wood, in an attempt to recover it with a small force, fell in with the entire army of Hyder, and he was on the eve of being totally routed, when a stratagem of Capt. Brooke, who commanded the baggage-guard, turned the event of the contest. This officer, who had with him only four companies and two guns, drew these last by a circuitous and concealed route up to the summit of a flat rock, where they were to be served by the wounded artillerymen, while all the rest of the sick and wounded, who were able to move, were to swell the ranks on the sum- mit. When all was ready, the guns opened a fire of grape on the enemy's left flank, and all, both sick and well, raised a shout of, " Hurra ! Smith ! Smith !" Both sides thought Smith was arrived ; and Wood, taking advantage of the confusion it caused, drew up his men in such a manner that he was able to repel all Hyder's subsequent attacks, and force him to retire with loss 3 . Some time after, Col. Wood, by making an at- tempt to relieve Oosoor, which Hyder was besieg- ing, left Baglor exposed to attack, of which the active enemy took advantage ; and the consequence was, that two thousand persons lost their lives in the rush which they made to get into the fort when the Mysoreans entered the town. Wood, on his return from Oosoor, again fell in with Hyder's army, and would probably have been defeated, had not Major Fitzgerald, on hearing the firing, has- tened to the spot with the other division of the English army ; and Hyder retired at his approach. Wood, though brave even to temerity, was now in such a state of despondence that, on the represent- ations of Fitzgerald, he was removed from the command, and ordered to proceed to Madras under arrest. The forts held by the English were now falling everywhere into the hands of Hyder. In Decem- ber he entered the district of Baramahal; and, as he was advancing to the reduction of Eroad, he fell in with a party of 50 Europeans and 200 Sepoys, under Capt. Nixon. When the enemy advanced to the attack, the Europeans fired, and 3 The Romans defeated the Samnites by a similar strata- gem. See our History of Rome, p. 157. HISTORY OF INDIA. a. d. 1768. , then rushed on with the bayonet. They perished, oppressed by numbers ; the Sepoys were cut down in their ranks ; and of the whole party no one escaped but Lieutenant Goreham, whose knowledge of the language enabled him to obtain quarter from one of Hyder's officers. Hyder then made Goreham translate into English a summons to Capt. Orton to surrender Eroad, inviting him at the same time to come in person to Hyder's tent, and assuring him of liberty to depart if a surrender could not be arranged. Strange to say, he came, and was of course detained ; for, as Hyder alleged, and as we regret to say was the case, Capt. Robin- son, the second in command, had been taken some time before, and was dismissed under parole not to serve again during the war. Hyder, however, offered Orton leave to depart, if he would write an order for the surrender of the place, the garrison having liberty to retire with their property to Tri- chinopoly. He at first refused, but finally con- sented ; and Robinson actually obeyed the order ! The garrison, as might have been expected, were marched prisoners to Seringapatam, and there Robinson ended his days in a dungeon. The same was the fate of the garrison of another fort, which surrendered on the condition of being allowed to depart on parole ; Robinson's conduct, and that of the government who employed him, being in both cases Hyder's excuse. Nearly all their previous acquisitions had now been wrested from the Company ; and in the be- ginning of 1768, Hyder sent one of his generals to Madura and Tinnivelly, while he himself ravaged the country about the Caveri. The Presidency, partly to save the unfortunate peasantry from ruin, partly urged by want of money — for they had been obliged to suspend their investments for England, and even so they had not funds to carry on the war more than four months — made proposals for an accommodation. At Hyder's desire Capt. Brooke was sent to him, on whose report of his intentions, Mr. Andrews, a member of council, repaired to his camp, and returned with proposals to be submitted to the Council. These, however, being deemed inadmissible, hostilities were resumed. Col. Smith again took the command of the army ; but no en- counter of any moment occurred. In the latter end of March, when the two armies were about 140 miles south of Madras, Hyder, suddenly dis- missing his infantry and the greater part of his cavalry, put himself at the head of 6000 horse, and, on the 29th, he appeared on Mount St. Thomas, near Madras, whence he despatched a letter to the governor, requesting that Mr. Dupre", a member of council, might be sent to him. As it was in Hy- der's power to plunder the town, ravage the country, and pillage and destroy the garden-houses of the president and council, before Smith's troops could arrive, his demand was complied with at once, and a treaty was concluded, of which the two principal articles were, a mutual restitution of conquests and mutual aid in defensive wars. Thus was terminate 1, and with more advantage to the English than they had any reasonable right to expect, a war imprudently, if not unjustly com- menced, and feebly and unskilfully conducted by the president 4 and council of Madras. The Di- * The President was Mr. Palk, a clergyman, and I n la ive of Gen. Lawn-nee. rectors threw much vague blame on them, especi- ally for the very wisest part of their conduct, the conclusion of peace, which they said would tend to lower them iu the eyes of the natives. The reply of the presidency was, that " they were compelled to make peace for want of money to wage war." While such was the state of affairs in the Car- natic, Bengal was enjoying tranquillity. Clive had been succeeded by Mr. Verelst as chief governor; and at the close of the year 176!) this gentleman resigned, and was succeeded by Mr. Cartier. In 1767, the Duranee Shah made the last of those expeditions with which India has been so often afflicted, from the mountains of Afghanistan. His march was directed for Delhi, in which case he would probably have encountered the troops of the English. But he did not come beyond the Punjab, where he had some contests with the Sikhs. An expedition was soon after sent by the government of Calcutta to restore the rajah of Nepal who had been expelled; but from the nature of the country it was unable to effect its purpose. In 1768 came out a peremptory order to end the trade of the Company's servants in salt and the other articles, and to leave it entirely to the natives ; the governor's one and one-eighth on the revenue was also to cease. To replace these, a commission of two and a half per cent, on the net produce of the dewannee revenues was granted, to be divided into one hundred equal shares, of which the governor was to have thirty-five, and others in proportion. CHAPTER XIII. Revenues of Bengal— Proceedings in England— Appoint- ment of Supervisors — Distress of the Company — Bills regulating it— New Government of Bengal. When Clive obtained the deieannee of Bengal for the Company, he expressed a decided opinion that, after paying all the expenses of government, it would leave a considerable annual surplus revenue. Had Clive remained in India, and had his plans and suggestions been acted on by the Directors at home, such might have been the result. But this, as we have seen, was not done ; adequate salaries were not secured to the servants of the Company ; the restrictions on private trade were withdrawn, and, moreover, a new mode of diverting to indi- viduals a large share of the revenue sprang up. This was the civil and military charges for build- ings, &c. " Every man now," says Clive, " who is permitted to make a bill, makes a fortun. ." The division of the powers of government be- tween the Nabob and the Company was productive of mischief, and had its effect in diminishing tin- revenue, which was further reduced by the evasion of tho payment of duties by the servants of the Company. Capital was continually going out of the country, for the investments to England and China, which now, instead of being purchased by goods and bullion sent from home, were to he fur- nished from the revenues of the province ; and as these revenues were every day more absorbed iii the expenses of government, and checked or inter ccptcd in the ways We have mentioned, the iffi. a. d. 1768— 70. PROCEEDINGS IN ENGLAND. culty of obtaining the necessary sums continually increased. Add to this, that the war with Hyder was a great drain on the exchequer of Bengal, Toward the end of 1769 it appeared that there was an excess of disbursements over receipts, and the remedy proposed was, " to open their treasury door for remittances;" that is, to receive the large sums which the servants of the Company were annually sending home, and to give bills for them on the Company in England. This was, no doubt, a very agreeable mode to all parties in Bengal, but it threw the Company at home into great difficulties when the amount of these bills hap- pened to exceed that of the sale of the investments out of which they were to be paid. To prevent this evil, the Directors limited the amount for which they permitted the government of Bengal to draw bills on them, and their wealth-amassing servants then paid their surplus cash into the French and Dutch factories, getting in return bills on Europe, and thus these Companies were enabled, in a great measure, to trade on British capital. Such was the condition of the finances of Bengal when Mr. Cartier succeeded to the office of gover- nor on the 24th December, 1769. In the follow- ing year, the annual rains were withheld by Pro- vidence, and India was visited by dearth and famine, which swept away one-third of the popula- tion of Bengal, and made a proportionate reduction in the revenue. In the same year the young rajah died, and was succeeded by his brother Mubark- ud-dowlah. The president and council continued the allowance to him which had been arranged by Clive, but the Directors wrote out that, as he was a minor, they thought sixteen lacs of rupeees quite enough for his support, and ordered no more to be paid, and thus, how justly we need not say, they added thirty-four lacs a year to their revenues. While such were the proceedings in India, the proprietors at home were not negligent of their own interests. Filled with vague notions of the inexhaustible wealth of the East, and having be- fore their eyes the huge fortunes accumulated in a few years by the servants of the Company, and which were displayed in many cases with an Ori- ental pomp and magnificence, they panted for a share in the golden harvest. For some years past, the dividends on East India stock had been six per cent.; but, in 1766, a vote of the Court of Proprietors raised it at once to ten per cent. In vain did the Directors, who knew the real state of things, and that money must be taken up at a heavy rate of interest to pay this dividend, remon- strate ; in a general court on the 6th May, 1767, a dividend of twelve and a half per cent, was voted 5 . But their cupidity was destined to meet a check. The idea of the wealth of India and the desire to partake in it, had also seized the ministers of the crown ; & committee of the House of Commons to inquire into the state of the Company had been voted by parliament, which met early in Novem- ber, 1766, chiefly for this purpose, and a few days after the proprietors had voted themselves twelve 5 The Directors had instituted legal proceedings against Johnstone, and the others who had taken presents at Nujum-ud-dowlah's accession. These men, who were now at home with plenty of money, and of course of influence, seized the present occasion of procuring a vote of the pro- prietors to drop the prosecutions. Life of Clive, iii. 185. and a half per cent., a bill passed the house for- bidding any increase of dividend for the present, and directing that dividends should only be voted by ballot, and in general courts summoned ex- pressly for the purpose. It was insisted on the part of the ministry, that the territorial acquisi- tions of the Company, or those of any subjects, belonged to the crown. But they did not observe that the dewannee was of quite a different nature; and that the Company was merely a zemindar to the emperor, to whom, or to the Nabob, the de- wannee should of right revert, if the Company were required to resign it, or if their charter should expire; and the only question was, whether the crown or the Company should have the sur- plus revenue of Bengal, a thing which, in reality, had no existence at the very time they were dis- puting about it. After a vast deal of argument and contention, an act was passed in April, 1 769, allowing the Company to retain the revenues of Bengal for a term of five years, on condition of paying every year 400,00(W. into the exchequer ; they might, if the revenues allowed it, increase their dividends up to twelve and a half per cent., at the rate of one per cent, in each year ; if the dividend fell below ten per cent., the payment into the exchequer should be reduced in proportion, and should cease altogether if it fell to six per cent. It was also provided that the Company should annually export a certain quantity of British goods, provide for the payment of their simple contract debts, the reduction of their bonded debt, &c. &c. The whole blame of the disappointment of the golden dreams of India was thrown on those who had the management of the Company's affairs in that country, and it was resolved to institute a strict investigation on the spot. For this purpose, under the title of Supervisors, and vested with nearly the whole powers of the Company, Mr. Van- sittart, Mr. Scrafton, and Col. Forde, all of whom had been high in office in India, were selected to proceed thither. They sailed in a frigate which was sent out at the desire of the Company ; but the frigate and those on board of her were never heard of more. She probably foundered or went down in a hurricane. The debt of the Company in India went on ac- cumulating ; they were utterly unable to provide for the bills drawn on them, and yet, with all their difficulties staring them in the face, the Directors had the temerity to propose to the proprietors, in 1770, to raise their dividend to 12, and in the two following years, to 12§ percent. These augmenta- tions were cheerfully voted ; but such a desperate course had its inevitable results. In July, 1 772, the deficit in their accounts was 1,293,000/. They applied to the Bank for a loan of 400,000/., and when they had obtained this, for a further loan of 300,0001, but that body would only give 200,000/. ; and on the 10th August, the chairman, and deputy waited on Lord North, the minister, and told him that nothing short of the loan of a million would save the Company from ruin. The minister had the Company now completely in his power. There had been two committees sitting on the subject of Indian affairs ; the one called the Secret, the other (which was open) the Select Committee ; and thus some, though rather imperfect, knowledge of the subject had been eli- h 2 100 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1773. cited. The proposal of the Company to send out another set of supervisors was negatived, and a determination to regulate their affairs, whether they would or not, was openly expressed. A bill, embodying the views of the ministry, was brought in ; and as by it the constitution of the Company would be greatly altered, all possible opposition to it was made, both in and out of Parliament. The Company and the shareholders who would be dis- franchised by it petitioned, and were heard by counsel at the bar of both houses against it. The city of London also petitioned against it, as of dangerous consequence to all corporations what- ever. But in vain : the propositions of the minister were carried by large majorities ; and in June and July, 1773, two acts respecting the Company re- ceived the royal assent. The first was financial. Government agreed to lend the Company 1,400,000/. at 4 per cent., and not to demand the 400,000/. a year till that debt had been discharged ; the Company during that time was not to divide more than 6 per cent., and not more than 7 per cent, till their bond-debt was reduced to 1,500,0002. After this, the Government was to receive three-fourths of the surplus re- ceipts, and the other fourth to go to the liquidation of the bond-debt, or to the formation of a fund for contingent expenses ; the territorial possessions to remain to the Company for the remaining six years of their charter. By the other bill, the qualification for voting in the Court of Proprietors was raised from 500/. to 1000/. ; the holder of 3000/. stock to have two, of 6000/. three, and of 10,000/. four votes ; the stock to have been in the possession of the voter for twelve months. The Directors were to be elected for four years, a fourth to go out annually. The government of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa was to be vested in a governor-general, with a salary of 25,000/. a year ; and four councillors, with 8000/. a year each. The other presidencies were to be subordinate to that of Bengal. A supreme court of judicature was to be established at Calcutta, consisting of a chief justice, with 8000/. a year, and three puisne judges, with each 6000/. a year, to be appointed by the Crown. The first governor- general and councillors were to be named in the act, and were to hold their office for five years ; the Company were then to appoint, subject to the approbation of the Crown. All the Indian cor- respondence relating to civil, military, or financial affairs was to be laid before the ministry. No person in the King's or Company's service was to receive presents ; the governor, councillors, and judges were not to engage in trade. Such were the legislative acts which led to a new sera in the history of the Company. For those who, writing long after the events, judge all mea- sures and events by an imaginary standard of right, and make do allowance for human ignorance and fallibility, nothing is more easy than to find fault with, and condemn all these measures 6 ; but ' Mr. Mill is, if we may use the term, of the Smell-funqns school of philosophy, whose followers find fault with every thine, propose nothing, and their censures are frequently contradicted by experience. Thus he sneers at the idea of huge salaries being any security against corruption, "as if there was a point of saturation in cupidity ," yet cxpcricn. •, both in India and England, has shown that it (1 a security, to the eye of candour they will perhaps appear as good as could well have been devised at the time. The one which, as we shall see, proved the greatest failure, was the Supreme Court ; but with the high ideas which prevailed, and still too much prevail, of the absolute perfection of English law, we need not wonder at its establishment. The governor-general appointed under the act was Warren Hastings, Esq., the actual governor of Bengal ; the councillors were Mr. Barwell, a civil servant of the Company, Gen. Clavering, Col. Monson 7 , and Mr. Philip Francis 8 . The chief- justice was Sir Elijah Impey ; the puisne judges, Messrs. Hyde, Lemaistre, and Chambers. CHAPTER XIV. Early History of Warren Hastings— New Mode of collecting the Revenue — New Courts of Justice— Arrest of Moham- med Reza Khan and Shitab Roy — Arrangement of the Nabob's Household — Emperor joins the Marattas — The Rohillas — Treaty of Benares— Treatment of the Emperor — Extermination of the Rohillas. Mr. Cartier was succeeded in the beginning of 1772, as governor of Bengal, by Warren Hastings, Esq., the second member of council at Madras. This distinguished man, whose name will ever be associated with that of the British empire in India, was born in the year 1732, of an ancient, honourable, but greatly reduced family. After having been at one or two ordinary schools, he was placed by his uncle at that of Westminster. Here he greatly distinguished himself ; but on the death of his uncle, the charge of him fell to a very distant relation, who being an East India Director, and not liking to be at the expense of giving him a classical education, resolved to send him out as a writer to Bengal. Hastings reached Calcutta on the 8th October, 1750, just within two months of completing his eighteenth year. After stopping a couple of years in that city, he was sent to the factory of Cossim- bazar, and he was there when it was taken by Stiraj-ud-dowlah. He was made a prisoner, but suffered to go at large, the chief of one of the Dutch factories giving bail for his appearance, and he remained at Moorshedabad. He afterwards joined the fugitives from Calcutta at Fulta. In the subsequent negotiations with that prince, Hast- ings was joined with Mr. Ainyatt, and after his overthrow he was placed as a kind of resident at the court of Meer Jaffier. Clive saw his talents, and seems to have reposed much confidence in him. After Give's departure he remained at the court of Meer Jaffier, and had a share in the act of his deposition, though it does not appear that he approved of it. When Mr. Sumner and others were dismissed, he became a member of council at and the best that could be devised. On one point Mr. Mill gives a decided opinion in faiour of a measure, namely, the use Of the ballot in popular elections; but with the example of the United States before our eyes, few now, we hope, will he found to share his admiration for that mode of voting. 7 See above, p. 82. * Suspected to be the author of The Letters of Junius. He had all the requisite malignity and disregard of truth. A.D. 1772. ARREST OF MOHAMMED REZA KHAN. ini Calcutta, and lie there gave his support to Mr. Vansittart against the domineering majority. In 1762 he was sent on a mission to Meer Cossimj but his prudent and moderate suggestions were rejected by Johnstone and his party. In 1764, Mr. Hastings returned to England in the same ship with Mr. Vansittart. He was then the pos- sessor of only a very moderate fortune, and no servant of the Company had ever left India with a fairer character. The narrowness of his circumstances soon obliged Hastings to seek for employment again in India. The knowledge which he displayed when ex- amined on Indian affairs in the House of Com- mons had increased his friends in the Direction; and in 1769 he was appoiuted second in council at Fort St. George, and a member of the select committee there, nominated for the purpose of restoring the Company's affairs in the Carnatic. His succession to the office of president after Mr. Dupre', the present occupant, was also secured to him. In Madras, Hastings devoted his energies to im- proving the mode of providing the Company's in- vestments; and his conduct gave so much satisfac- tion to the Directors, that, in 1771, they nominated him second in council in Bengal, with the assurance that, on Mr. Carder's retirement, he should be his successor. This' event took place early in 1772, and Hastings became governor of Bengal. The plan of divided sovereignty between the Nabob and the Company, devised by Clive, had not been found to answer, and the produce of the dewannee was nothing like what had been calcu- lated on. It was therefore deemed advisable in 1769 that servants of the Company, named super- visors, should be placed in each district, for the purpose of superintending the native functionaries; and two councils, with authority over the super- visors, be established, the one at Moorshedabad, and the other at Patna. This plan, however, was not found to answer any better than the former; and the Directors, anxious to get an income in any way, determined to effect a social revolution, such as had never hitherto taken place in India, and, as they expressed it, " to stand forth as Dewan," and manage and collect the revenues by the direct agency of their own servants. The plan adopted by Mr. Hastings and the council for collecting the revenues was, to let the lands on leases of five years; a committee, composed of the president and four members of council, should make circuits of superintendence through the country ; the super- visors should be named collectors, and each have a native dewan joined with him ; no collector's banyam or servant should be allowed to form any part of the revenues, and no presents should be accepted by any person high or low; and no money be lent on interest to any persons connected with the land. As the terms offered for the lands did not prove satisfactory, the plan of letting them by auction was adopted, the preference being given to the actual zemindar or other middleman, when he offered a fair value; if not, he was pensioned off, and the lands let to another. The ryot was secured against taxation by a lease. The Khalsa, or supreme court of revenue, was removed to Calcutta ; the office of Naib Dewan was abolished ; the council formed a board of reve- nue; and a native functionary named Roy Royan acted in the Khalsa as superintendent of the dis- trict dewans. As the new system did away with the zemindary courts, those great instruments of oppression, two new ones were appointed in each district ; a cri- minal named Foujdaree Adawlut, presided over by the collector with the Cazee and Muf tee of the dis- trict, and two Moolavees or Mohammedan lawyers ; and a civil, named Mofussul Dewanee Adawlut, of which the collector also was president, aided by the dewan of the district, and other native officers. Two courts of appeal were established at Calcutta, a criminal, named Nizamut Suddur Adawlut, and a civil, named Suddur Dewanee Adawlut. - The office of Naib^.Dswan of Bengal 'ha'd been held by Mohammad Reza Khau, whom Clive had made Naib Nizdm to the young. Nabob. -.Against this man ser'ous charges, AlVap'oafer.-Hy-ovfghutifig with the infamohs Niihddomar," had reached the Directors, and they sent out strict orders to seize himself, his family, his partizans and adherents, and bring them prisoners to Calcutta. This busi- ness was managed with great secrecy and dispatoh by Hastings; and one of the chief reasons he as- signs for so doing is, that Mohammed Reza Khan must, from his great wealth, have established "an interest with such of the Company's agents, as, by actual authority, or by representations to the Honourable Company, might be able to promote or obstruct his views ;" in plain English, he must have bought them. Shitab Roy, the upright and honourable Naib Dewan of Patna, probably as a partizan or adherent, was also arrested and sent to Calcutta. Neither of them, however, was thrown into prison, they were only required not to leave that city. The charges against Mohammed Reza Khan were, monopoly of rice in the time of the famine, embezzlement of the money of the Nizamut, a balance due and not accounted for by him since the death of Meer Jaffier, as renter of Dacca, and a correspondence with the emperor and the Ma- ratt;is. On all these charges he was honourably acquitted, after all the evidence that could be ob- tained against him had been produced. Shitab Roy, against whom there was really no charge, was likewise acquitted, and he was immediately appointed Roy Royan and Naib Nazim of Bahar ; but he died soon after his arrival at Patna, and his son was appointed to succeed him in both his offices. It is due to Mr. Hastings to observe, that throughout all this business he seems to have acted with great fairness. A very important part of the office of the Naib Nazim was the superintendence of the person and household of the Nabob. This it was resolved to divide into two offices, analogous to the guardian- ships of the person and of the property appointed by our court of Chancery. There were two per- sons who seemed to have a claim to the former office ; the mother of the Nabob, and his uncle Ateram-ud-Dowlah, the brother of Meer Jaffier. Yet both of these were set aside, and the office was bestowed on Mooni Begum, a second wife or concubine of Meer Jaffier's. The reason assigned was, the ascendancy she had over the mind of the Nabob, being the only person of whom he stood in awe, and her having no children of her own. Hastings, in a private letter to the Directors, gives a further reason — her being the declared 102 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1772. enemy of Mohammed Reza Khan, and therefore likely to be active in procuring evidence against him. As to the uncle, there was the danger of himself or his sons, as next heirs, practising against the life of the Nabob. The reasons for rejecting the mother do not appear. The other office, Dewan of the household, was given to Rajah Goordass, the son of Nundcomar. The reason assigned was, their known enmity to Mohammed Reza Khan. It was expected that his own probity, joined with the talent of his fa- ther, by whom it was known he would be influenced, though it was hoped not controlled, would cause him to- perform the duties of the office in a credit- able maimer \ ', ' ! I • ♦ < " The emperor Shall Alum 'na3, from the time that Give, had .made the, arrangement with him, been mo£t" anxious* tp ^prevail: on thrt 'English to convey him to "Delia,' and" replace him "oh the 'throne of his ancestors. Unable to prevail on them, he had lis- tened to the overtures of the Maratta chiefs Tukajee Holkar, Madhajee Sindia, and Kishn Visajee, whom the Peishwa had sent with a large force into Hin- dustan, in order to recover the influence lost at the battle of Paniput, and to punish the Rohillas for their share in that event. They of course exacted hard conditions for their services ; the emperor had no alternative but to submit, and on the 25 th December, 1771> ne made his entrance into Delhi. The Mara ttas, having suffered him to remain there only a few days, hurried him into the field, and their united force entered the nearest part of the Rohilla territory, Seheranpur, the jagheer of the late minister, Nujub-ud-Dowlah, and which was now held by his son, Zabita Khan. This chief, though he made a spirited defence, was defeated and forced to fly to the camp of Shujah-ud-Dowlah, and his country was ravaged by the Marattas, who, regardless of their ally, kept all the plunder to themselves. The principal remaining Sirdar {chief) of the Rohillas now was Hafez Rahmut Khan ; and through him an agreement was formed with Shujah-ud-Dowlah, by which, on the Rohillas en- 1 gaging to pay him forty lacs of rupees, he under- j took to cause the Marattas to retire from their country. Of these lacs Hafez paid five ; and as the Marattas soon after retired of their own accord on account of the rains, he demanded that the bond should be cancelled ; but the vizir still retained it. In all these transactions Sir Robert Barker acted a prominent part, with the approbation of the government of Calcutta. The emperor had returned to Delhi, highly dis- gusted with his allies. On his refusal to comply with some more of their demands, they invested Delhi, and on the 22nd December, 1772, about a year from the time they had put him into posses- sion of it, he was forced to surrender it to their arms. He became now a mere instrument in their hands, and the first use they made of their power was to force him to cede to them the provinces of Allahabad and Corah. The Marattas now prepared to cross the Ganges and enter Rohilcuud again ; and they made great » Some members of the Council objected to this appoint- ment, on account of the political character of Nundcomar. Hastings, in reply, asserted that it was without blemish, " though." he adds, " he will not take on him to Vindicate his moral character." offers to the Rohillas if they would give them a free passage through their country to Oude. The Rohillas temporized ; the vizir exerted him- self to prevent that union, and, as Hafez Rahmut asserts, offered to give up the forty lacs of rupees ; and they finally united their troops with his and the English, when they entered their country, to oppose the passage of the Ganges by the Marattas. No action, however, took place ; and in May, the state of their affairs in the Deckau obliged this people to return to their own country. In all these transactions little, if any, blame at- taches to the conduct of the Rohillas. But, as we have already seen *, their country had always been an object of cupidity to the rulers of Oude. In a meeting between the vizir and Mr. Hastings at Benares, in the month of September, the former asked for an English force to put him in posses- sion of the Rohilla country. In this project he was actually encouraged by the latter ; and it was finally arranged that he should bear all the ex- penses of the English troops which should be given him, and pay the Company forty lacs of rupees on the accomplishment of the enterprise. In his own account of this transaction, Mr. Has- tings never says one word of its justice or the con- trary ; he only speaks of expediency. The vizir, he says, was the only useful ally of the Company ; the acquisition of the Rohilla country would be very beneficial to him and the Company ; and he dwells on the advantage of getting forty lacs of rupees, and having a large portion of their army supported at the expense of their ally. When writing an account of this Benares treaty (the whole of which we have not yet seen), he says, " I am not apt to attribute a large share of merit to my own actions ; but I own that this is one of the few to which I can, with confidence, affix my own approbation." The remaining part of the treaty related to the emperor. On the pretext of his having joined the enemies of the Company, and given to them the provinces which had been assigned him, they were resumed, and were given to the vizir for fifty lacs of rupees, twenty to be paid down, and the re- mainder in two equal annual instalments. On the application of the emperor for the arrears of his tribute, and his demand of punctual payment in future, Mr. Hastings' reply was, that he " would not consent to let a rupee pass out of Bengal, till it had recovered from its distresses, which had been principally occasioned by the vast drains that had been made of its specie, for his remittances ; " in other words, that he should get nothing more from the Company. No act more flagrantly unjust than this is to be found in history. The emperor's right to confer the dewannee, and other advantages acquired for the Company, was undoubted, and the annual sum which he was to receive was their own offer. There was no condition made with him that ho should not attempt to regain posseanan of his paternal dominions ; and though the Company might consider the Marattas dangerous, tiny were not, properly sneaking, their enemies. As to his cession of the provinces, it was well known to have been an act of compulsion; and from the specimen he had had of the Marattas, there was little likeli- 1 See above, p. 46. A. D. 1774. EXTERMINATION OF ROHILLAS. 103 hood of his again seeking their friendship, and as the vizir was unable to defend his own dominions without the help of the English, they might as well defend the two provinces for the descendant of Timur as for him. But even granting a political necessity in this matter, the refusal of the tribute was robbery and breach of faith. Still the whole of the guilt must not fall on Hastings, who in this, as in so many other points, only carried out the wishes of his masters, who had long been watching for a pretext to stop the payment of the tribute. On the llth November, 1768, they had written out, " If the emperor flings himself into the hands of the Marattas, or any other power, we are dis- engaged from him, and it may open a fair oppor- tunity of withholding the twenty-six lacs we now pay him." And on the treaty of Benares they bestowed their entire approbation. Another point arranged with the vizir in the Benares conference was, the appointment of a civil agent to reside at his court and be the me- dium of communication between him and the go- vernor. This task had hitherto been usually executed'by the military officer on the spot, but it was a part of Hastings' policy to raise the civil over the military power. The first resident, as these agents were called, at the court of the Vizir was Mr. Nathaniel Middleton, and he was directed to communicate secretly with the governor. The vizir did not seem inclined to attack the Rohillas at once. He advanced towards Delhi, and assisted the emperor in taking Agra from the Jats, gave him some money, and finally concluded a treaty by which the troops of the emperor were to join him against the Rohillas, and he was in re- turn to have a share of the plunder, and half the conquered country. In November the vizir unexpectedly called on the president for the promised aid. Hastings had some difficulty in obtaining the assent of his col- leagues; but in January, 1774, the second brigade received orders to join the vizir; in February Col. Champion came and took the command of it, and it entered the territory of Oude, and on the 17th of April the allied forces entered the Rohilla country. On the 19th, Col. Champion wrote to the president, stating that the Rohilla chiefs were most anxious for accommodation, but that the de- mands of the vizir had now risen to two crores of rupees ! Aware now that arms, not equity, must decide their fate, the Rohillas prepared for action. On the morning of the 23rd, the English advanced to the attack. Col. Champion, as a generous enemy, bestows the highest praise on the desperate valour and even the military skill displayed by the Ro- hillas and their leaders. But valour was unavail- ing; and after a severe contest of nearly three hours, they fled, leaving 2000 slain, including many Sirdars, among whom were the gallant Hafez Rah- raut and one of his sons. The doughty vizir, it will easily be believed, had no share in this vic- tory. He had even refused to lend some of his cannon, and broke his promise of being at hand with his cavalry. But when the victory was gained, and plunder was in prospect, then his troops put forth their activity, and, says Col. Champion, " We had the honour of the day, and these banditti the profit." According to the same authority, the ex- cesses committed by the vizir and his troops, and his barbarous treatment, not only of the Rohillas, but of the innocent Hindoo cultivators, were shock- ing to humanity 2 . The army shortly after marched to Bissouly, in the centre of the Rohilla country, where they found the emperor's general, Nujuf Khan, with his army. As the country might now be regarded as conquered, and as the emperor had performed his part of the treaty, though the rapidity of the Eng- lish had prevented his sharing in the conquest, Nujuf Khan demanded for him his share of the country and of the plunder. The vizir was unable to deny the treaty ; but positive orders came from Calcutta to the English commander, to support him in the violation of it; and of course it was set at nought. A Rohilla chief, named Fyzoola Khan, was still in arms at the foot of the mountains. He sent, offering to hold his district as a renter from the vizir ; but the latter positively declared that he would suffer no Rohilla chief to remain beyond the Ganges. The army was then put in motion to attack him ; but when they came near to where he was posted, the vizir, from some unexplained rea- son, became anxious for accommodation. After a good deal of negotiation, it was agreed that Fyzoola Khan should surrender one half of his effects to the vizir, and receive in return a jagheer of nearly fifteen lacs of rupees in Rohilcund. CHAPTER XV. Arrival of Members of Council— Quarrels with Hastings- Death of the Vizir— Abrogation of Treaty— Charges against Hastings— His Conduct — Execution of Nundcomar for Forgery — Death of Col. Monson — Hastings' tendered Resignation— His Exercise of Power— Reconciliation with Francis — Monstrous Pretensions of the Supreme Court — Appointment of the Chief-Justice to a new office— Duel between Hastings and Francis. On the 14th October, the vessel carrying the new members of council and the judges of the Supreme Court anchored in the Hooghly. Mr. Hastings immediately sent the second member of council to congratulate them on their safe arrival. They landed at Calcutta on the 19th, under a salute from the batteries, and were conducted by an officer of the governor's staff to his private residence, where all the members of the government were assembled to receive them. But courtesies of this kind had little effect on the minds of those to whom they were shown. The men whom Parliament in its wisdom (that is, the favour of the minister) had selected to regulate the affairs of an empire, had remarked on their landing that the batteries had fired only seventeen, instead of twenty-one guns, and that no guard of honour had met them on the beach ; and they showed much real or affected indignation. 2 In the correspondence between Hastings and the vizir in 1773, there occur these terms, thoroughly exterminate the Rohillas, and exterminate them out of the country. Mill takes the word exterminate in its ordinary English sense, of destroy; while Wilson would take it in its (algebraic) sense, of remove, drive away. The former seems to us the more natural sense. HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1775. Next morning a council was held, and the com- mission and the Company's letter were read. The hitter strongly inculcated unanimity and concord among the members of the government ; it also directed that past abuses and oppressions should be inquired into, and their recurrence be prevented. It would seem that the three new members con- ceived their chief business to be to listen to all kinds of charges from all quarters against the governor-general, and to be at concord only among themselves, and to unite in showing him neither favour nor justice. • At least so we might infer from their conduct ; and henceforth we shall have to contemplate acts and scenes discreditable to the English name. They would fain have set about their self- imposed task at once ; but on Hastings' observing that Mr. Barwell was at some distance, they agreed to wait till the 25th for his return. On that day was read a minute of the governor's, giv- ing a view of his policy and conduct since the time of his appointment. They denounced the treaty j of Benares as impolitic, and the war not only so, j but unjust. But to understand the matter clearly, they required the whole of Mr. Middleton's cor- respondence to be laid before them. This Hastings refused, as that correspondence having been se- cret, it must have contained many other matters which it would not have been honourable, or per- haps even safe, to make public ; but he offered to produce every part of it that related to the subject under consideration. Not content with expressing their indignation and hinting their suspicions, the majority, as we shall henceforth call the three, voted Middleton's immediate recall. It might be supposed, that men who had so peremptorily pronounced on the injustice of the Rohilla war, would have been anxious to obliterate the disgrace of the British name, to cause the innocent Rohillas to be restored to their country, and to force the vizir to make them some com- pensation. But their justice and humanity were of a different kind; and it sufficed them if they could blacken the governor's character. They forthwith wrote, without knowing whether the war was ended or not, to Col. Champion, who was to take Middleton's place for the present, to insist on immediate payment of the forty lacs, the price of the extermination of the Rohillas, and of all other sums due by the vizir on other accounts. He was also to lead his troops, within fourteen days, into Oude ; and in case of the vizir's not complying with his demands, to withdraw from him, and enter the Company's territories. Hastings re- monstrated, but of course in vain, against these measures, as precipitate, and dangerous to the Company's interests. In the beginning of 1775 the vizir died, and was succeeded as Siibahdar of Oude by his son, who took the title of Asof-ud-dowlah, to whom also, after some delay, the emperor granted the office of vizir. In public treaties it is generally under- stood, that they are to be "I a permanent charac- ter, and not to depend mi the life of the persons making them; those therefore made with Shujah- ud-dowlah should in justice extend to his successor. But the majority took a different view. They maintained, that all engagements with the late Subahdar were personal, and that the present one must make new terms for himself; and through Mr. Bristow, whom they had sent to replace Mr. Middleton, they forced a new treaty on Asof-ud- dowlah. By this the Company were to guarantee him Corah and Allahabad, and he in return was to cede to them the territory of Benares, held by Rajah Cheit Sing, raise the allowance to their troops to 200,000 rupees a month, and pay all the money due by his late father. Mr. Hastings re- fused to concur in these terms, as in themselves unjust, and beyond the power of Azof-ud-dowlah to fulfil. The Directors, in their first letter on the subject, disapproved of the conduct of the council, holding their engagements with Shujah-ud -dowlah to be permanent. But in their second, after they had heard of the increase of revenue, and of pay of the troops, they signified their entire approbation of the treaty that had been concluded. In fact, at this time, the Directors were sure to approve of every measure, however unjust, that brought money to their treasury. Every one who could frame a charge of any na- ture against the governor-general met with favour from the majority, who received all sorts of per- sons for this purpose at their private residences. Thither then repaired discontented or place-seeking Englishmen, and crafty natives, especially Nund- comar ; and charges of peculation soon began to be brought forward. The first accusation came from the Ranee of Burdwan, the widow of the ra- jah who had held the zemindary of that district. Her son, a minor, had been at first left under her guardianship, but he had afterwards been with- drawn from it, and the affairs of the zemindary were managed by persons appointed by the Eng- lish. She now accused the Dewan of corruption, and Mr. Graham, the resident, of supporting him for the sake of the bribes which he obtained from him. The majority resolved that the Dewan should be removed, at least for a time, and that the Ranee should, as she desired, be allowed to come to Calcutta with her son. Hastings and Barwell opposed these measures, as unjust or un- necessary. Mr. Graham made an indignant reply. Among other things, he showed that he had left Burdwan six weeks after the rajah's death, an event antedated three years by the Ranee, for the sake of making out a case against him. He also required that the Ranee should give security to pay an equivalent penalty, in case she failed to establish her charges. This was a law or usage of the country, in order to put a check to false or ca- lumnious accusations. The majority, however, would not impose it. A variety of accounts were presented, in which were entered various sums paid by the Dewan to the servants of the Com- pany, among which was a petty sum of 1500 rupees to Mr. Hastings himself ! The whole amounted to upwards of nine lacs ; but nothing could be proved. This charge having failed, a new one was brought forward. A Statement was made by a native, that the foujdar of Hooghly was paid by the Company 72,000 rupees a year, and that out of this he annually paid the governor 36,000, and his native secretary 4000, having only 32,000 for himself ; for which sum the accuser would undertake to do the duties of the office, and thus save the Company 40,000 rupees a year, of which tiny were DOW defrauded by Mr. Hastings. The motives of this person are tolerably clear ; yet the majority went D. 1775. CHARGES AGAINST HASTINGS. ]()-, into the case. The foujdar having objected to be sworn, which Hindoos of high caste regard as a degradation, he was held to be guilty, and dis- missed, and the office was given to another — not, however, the accuser — at 36,000 rupees a year. Any one, we are persuaded, who considers the preceding conduct of the majority, must feel that it was malignity toward Hastings, and not a love of justice, that actuated them. This was certainly Hastings' own feeling ; he viewed them as his ene- mies and his accusers, and would not allow them to be his judges. He denied their right, sitting in council and in his presence, to receive charges against him, and asserted that he would not lower j the dignity of his office by answering charges made ' by any one who chose to come before them. If they wanted to inquire into his conduct, let them resolve themselves into a committee, and then lay the charges before the Supreme Court or the Di- rectors. And he declared his resolution to dissolve the council as soon as they should enter on any inquiry relating to himself. This he always did, and he and Mr. Barwell retired ; but the majority then voted Gen. Clavering into the chair and pro- ceeded. On the 11th March, Mr. Francis stated to the Board that he had been waited on that morning by Nundcomar, who had delivered him a paper which he requested him to lay before them. He did not think, he added, that he had a right to refuse a person of Nundcomar's rank. As to the contents of the paper, he knew them not, but had a suspicion that it contained charges against the governor of taking bribes from himself and from Munnee Begum. Some days after, another paper from Nundcomar was presented; and Monson then moved that he should be called before them to substantiate his charge. Hastings refused in very strong terms, and he dwelt indignantly on the un- worthy conduct of Francis. He said he had ex- pected this attack ; for he had seen a paper con- taining many accusations against him, which he was told had been carried to Col. Monson by Nund- comar, who had been some hours in private with him, explaining the charges. Monson denied having seen any paper containing charges against the governor-general (perhaps he meant he had not read such a paper) ; but he made no reply to the charge of the private interview. The motion, however, was carried of course ; Hastings and Barwell retired ; Nundcomar was then examined, and a resolution was passed, that Hastings had received 3,54,000 rupees, which of right belonged to the Company ; and by another resolution he was called on to refund them. Hastings refused to receive or answer these resolutions ; and it was then resolved that the proceedings should be transmitted to the Company's attorney, to consult counsel how to proceed for the recovery of the money. The facts of the case were these. After Nund- comar had opened the business, as above related, Mr. Grant, accountant to the council at Moorshe- dabad, sent some accounts which he said he had received from a native who had been a clerk in the Nabob's treasury, from which it appeared that Munnee Begum had received 9,67,963 rupees more than she had accounted for. The clerk, when examined, stated that her head-eunuch had endea- voured to induce him to restore the papers and return to her service ; and Mr. Grant declared himself willing to swear that similar attempts had been made on himself. The majority, Hastings and Barwell in vain opposing, determined to send Mr. Goring to investigate the conduct of the Be- gum, whose power was meanwhile to be withdrawn from her and committed to Rajah Goordass. The instructions to Mr. Goring were, to receive from the Begum all the accounts of the Nizamut for the last eight years, and deliver them to gentlemen who were to examine and report on them to the Board. This might be expected to occupy some time ; but he reached Moorshedabad on the 20th May, and on the 22ud he sent to Calcutta memo- randums of payments to Hastings and others, obtained, as it seems, by intimidation, and with a view to the inculpation of Hastings. In these it was stated that 1,50,000 rupees had been given to the governor, as entertainment money, when he went to Moorshedabad, in 1772, and a similar sum to Mr. Middletou. The latter, we may here ob- serve, was never denied ; the former Mr. Hastings, at a subsequent period, acknowledged and at- tempted to justify 3 . The prime mover in all this business, as we may see, was Nundcomar. Him Hastings regarded as his deadly enemy, and him, he owns *, he hated above all men living. We must therefore be cautious in examining every thing relating to this man. In the month of April an indictment was pre- ferred against Nundcomar, and Messrs. Joseph and Francis Fowke, in the Supreme Court, at the in- stance of Mr. Hastings, Mr. Barwell, Mr. G. Van- si ttart, Mr. Hastings' banyan, and the Roy Royan of Calcutta, for a conspiracy, to force a man named Cummal-ud-din to write a petition against them. After the examination before the judges, Mr. F. Fowke was discharged, and Nundcomar and Mr. J. Fowke were held to bail, at the suit of Mr. Has- tings and Mr. Vansittart, the other parties having withdrawn their names. On the following day the majority paid Nundcomar a visit of ceremony. A few days after (May 6) Nundcomar was ar- rested, on a charge of forgery, at the suit of a na- tive named Mohun Persad, and committed to the common gaol, notwithstanding his wealth, his rank, and his being a Brahmin by caste. The majority, of course, declared on his side ; and while he lay in prison, as we have seen, they promoted his son Goordass. He was brought to trial, tried by a jury of Englishmen, found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged. None of the natives, however, had the slightest idea that the sentence would be carried into execution. The fatal day (Aug. 5) at length arrived, and there was no reprieve. Nundcomar 3 In his Defence before the House of Lords. He said that the Act of Parliament prohibiting the receipt of pre- sents had not been passed at that time ; that it was the cus- tom of the country, and that the Nabob, when he visited Calcutta, received one thousand rupees a-day on this ac- count ; that he added nothing to his fortune by it, and must have charged the Company as large a sum if he had not received it. This, however, was two thousand rupees a-day for the time he was at Moorshedabad ; but Hastings was notorious for want of economy in his own affairs, and did not look closely after the expenditure of those about him. Mr. Wilson (Mill, iij. 635), if we rightly understand him, says that this money " was acknowledged, and carried to account." 4 See his letter in Gleig. 106 HISTORY OF INDIA. a. d. 1775. took a solemn leave of his friends, and then occu- pied himself writing notes and examining accounts. He mounted the palankeen which was to convey him to the place of execution, and ascended the steps of the scaffold with the utmost firmness, in the presence of an immense crowd. When all was ready the drop fell, and Nundcomar soon ceased to exist. The Hindoos uttered a wild and piercing cry, and fled from the spot ; and none remained but the officers of justice, and a few Brahmins, who were to take charge of the body. The execution of Nundcomar, it is well known, was the subject of much discussion, and even of a parliamentary impeachment, where Mr. Burke did not hesitate to assert that Mr. Hastings had murdered him by the hands of Sir Elijah Impey. We will, therefore, dwell a little on the subject. The crime for which Nundcomar suffered, was unknown as a capital offence to either Hindoo or Mohammedan laws. The act with which he was charged took place in 1770, and the supreme court with its powers was not created till 1774, he, therefore, it would appear, suffered on an ex post facto law. Further, the law making forgery capital, did not extend to India, as the colonies are never included unless expressly named in the statute, and one Indian for an offence against another Indian should have been tried by a native tribunal. Such were the arguments of those who asserted the injustice of the sentence ; to which it was replied by Sir Elijah Impey, that Nundcomar, by making Calcutta his residence, was amenable to English law, and that the doc- trine was false of a penal statute not extending to a colony not named in it ; that natives had hitherto been subject to, and tried by English law in the courts of Calcutta, and that ignorance of the law is no excuse for the breach of it. As to this last argument, we may observe, that nothing but nar- row-minded legal pedantry would cause any man to make use of it ; the preceding one has more apparent weight ; for owing to an omission in the charter of justice granted in 1753, the company's servants had sometimes extended the penalties of English law to natives, and one native had not long before been tried and convicted of forgery and sentenced to death by the mayor's court, but lie had been recommended to mercy and pardoned. On the whole, by the mere letter of the law, the court that condemned Nundcomar was not to blame. By this alone the judge-', who were mere lawyers, were guided ; the spirit of the law, and the principles of equity, seem to have been un- known to them ; and when the counsel for the prisoner asked the foreman of the jury to join in an application to the judges for mercy, the chief- justice censured him severely in open court. On Hastings this event has cast a shade of sus- picion which, perhaps, will never be dispelled. Nundcomar was his accuser ; he had instituted legal proceedings against him, which were likely to fail ; when a native, who could hardly be sup- posed to know or admire English law, charges him with an offence committed some years before 5 ; ■ Mr. WllMD, however, says (hat proceedings had been commenced by Mohammed Pers&d, in the Dewannee Adawlut, and N'unili -ulnar had 1" en Confined, but was libe- rated i>y Beatings; the forged Instrument had been depo- sited in the mayor's court, and was transferred with all itc the chief justice, who was Hastings' school-fellow and friend, acts with extreme rigour ; Hastings who had power to respite, declines to exercise it, and rather submits to lie under the imputation of removing in this manner a dangerous witness, and of thus deterring others from appearing against him. The very circumstance of the prisoner being his enemy would, we think, have caused a man of generous feelings to make every effort to save his life 6 . As to the majority, who certainly must have had the power to prevent the execution of the sen- tence, we fear that we must agree with Hastings' biographer, in suspecting that they let Nundcomar perish, in order to have a charge against Has- tings. Charges, now that Nundcomar was gone, ceased to come in against the governor-general. By an order of the Court of Directors, Mohammed Reza Khan was appointed to the offices held by Goor- dass, and the latter was made Roy Royan. The Directors also censured Hastings for allowing his banyan to farm several districts in Bengal, con- trary to the finance regulations of 1772. His de- fence was, that he himself had no share in the profits, of which, in fact, there were little or none 7 . The plan which had been devised for collecting the revenue had proved a failure ; the produce was not what had been anticipated, for the farmers in general had contracted for more than they were able to pay. Angi-y debates, of course, took place in the Council. Hastings then proposed that each member should devise a plan, to be forwarded to the Directors. That of himself and Mr. Barwell other papers to the Supreme Court, on whose very first sitting of oyer and terminer the indictment was prepared and tried. This would, indeed, exonerate Hastings com- pletely ; but is it not most strange, that neither he himself i nor any of his defenders should have noticed the circum- j stance? Mill, Gleig, and Thornton, seem all equally igno- ! rant of it. 6 It is said, no doubt, that he could not interfere with the proceedings of the Supreme Court ; but he showed in a sub- sequent case that he could, and would interfere. It is a remarkable trait in Hastings' character, that he never seems to have been conscious of acting wrong. This may, as is asserted, have proceeded from his enormous self- esteem ; but he appears also to have held, that whatever law allows is right. The circumstances of his marriage seem to show this. In the ship in which he sailed to India, in 17f)9, there was as a passenger a German baron, named Imhoff, who was going out as a portrait painter to Madras. He was accompanied by his wife, a very attractive young woman, and by whose charms Hastings was captivated. She attended him in an illness on board. The Intimacy was continued at Madras; they accompanied him to Ben- gal. There is no reason to suppose there was any thing improper between Hastings and the baroness; but all this time, a suit for a divorce was going on in the courts of Franconla; and when it was obtained, Hastings married the lady, taking also her three children, and in the words of the gentle biographer, "the baron returned to his native country a richer man than he ever could have hoped to become, by the mere exercise of his skill as a painter;" i.e. he sold his wile, almost like the former Smithlield sales of wives. It is worthy of remark, that Hastings was the most affectionate of husbands, and that their union was eminently happy. He acted like a fiither to her children. ' Mr. Wilson says he needed to make no defence, as it was collectors that were mentioned (see p. 101), and he was no collector. Hut iurely he acted against the spirit of the law. A. D. 1776-7; HASTINGS' TENDERED RESIGNATION. 107 was to let the districts on leases for life, or for two joint-lives, giving the preference always to the Zemindar, when his offer was a fair one. Mr. Francis, going on the erroneous principle, that the property in the land was neither in the sovereign nor in the cultivator, but in the Zemindar, pro- posed a land-tax, fixed once for all, and never to be changed, on the Zemindars, the ryots to be pro- tected against them by leases. The Directors did not deem it advisable to adopt either of these plans ; but directed that the lands should be let for one year, on the most advantageous terms, but i not by auction. The average of the collections of the preceding years was finally made the basis of the new arrangement, and this continued to be the mode for some years. In the beginning of September, 1770, Col. Mon- son died ; and as this event made the two parties equal in number at the boai'd, and the governor necessarily had the casting voice, Hastings became once more supreme. A very curious and obscure transaction is connected with this affair. In 1775 Hastings, when galled by the mode in which he was continually thwarted by the majo- rity, empowered Mr. Graham and a Col. M'Lean, who were returning to Europe, to tender his resig- nation unless certain conditions therein specified could be obtained. It is to be observed that Lord North's ministry, partly in consequence of the ac- counts they received from the majority, partly from their desire to get the patronage of India, were hostile to Hastings. The same was the case with some of the most influential Directors. On the 8th of May, 1776, a motion was carried in the Court of Directors to addi*ess his majesty, praying him to remove Hastings and Barwell from office. But in a Court of Proprietors on the 15th, a mo- tion that the Directors should be recommended to reconsider their resolution, was carried by a ma- jority of 106, though the whole strength of the ministry and their adherents was put forth to defeat it. The resolution respecting the removal of Hastings and Barwell was afterwards rescinded; but still some of Hastings' friends did not think he could hold out against his powerful enemies, and they endeavoured to secure for him an honour- able retreat. Matters were in part arranged with the minister, and then M'Lean wrote to the Court of Directors, stating that he was authorised to offer the governor-general's resignation, and requesting them to nominate a successor. On the 18th Decem- ber, the letter was taken into consideration, and M'Lean was called in and questioned as to his authority. He offered to give it ; but as in the papers to which he must refer, it was mixed up with very confidential matters, he requested to be allowed to submit them to only three of the Direc- tors. The chairman, deputy, and Mr. Becher were appointed to confer with him, and they reported (Mr. Becher, however, not concurring) that they had seen Mr. Hastings' instructions in his own handwriting, declaring that he would resign if conditions (" of which," they add, " there is no probability ") could not be obtained ; that Mr. G. Vansittart declared that he was present when the instructions were given, and that Mr. Stuart de- clared that Mr. Hastings had told him he had given them. It was then unanimously resolved, « See p. 28. that the resignation should be accepted, and Mr. Wheeler was nominated to fill the vacant place in the council, and the consent of the crown to the appointment was obtained. On the 19th June, 1777, the intelligence reached Bengal. Hastings immediately declared that lie had not resigned, and would not resign ; Clavering maintained that he himself was now governor- general: Barwell adhered to the one, Francis to the other. There were two councils and two go- vernors-general. Orders and counter-orders were issued. There seemed to be no mode of decision but an appeal to force; when Hastings proposed, and the other party agreed to leave the matter to the decision of the judges of the Supreme Court. This decision was, as in justice it must have been, in favour of Hastings; for, in the Directors' letter, his resignation was spoken of not as a thing that had occurred, but which was expected to occur; and Gen. Clavering had no right whatever to as- sume the office till Hastings had formally resigned it to him. But in their mutual desire of annoying each other, neither party thought much of what was right and proper. This soon appeared by the way in which Hast- ings used his victory. He and Barwell immedi- ately passed a series of violent and absurd resolu- tions, declaring that Gen. Clavering, by his late usurpation, had forfeited his office of senior coun- cillor, and his place of commander-in-chief, &c. Mr. Francis tried to act as mediator, and exhibited on the occasion a good deal of sense and judgment; but Hastings would listen to no arguments. The judges were again appealed to, and they again decided agreeably to laws and justice, declaring that Gen. Clavering had not forfeited his offices. Hastings was obliged to yield to this authority : but Barwell soon obtained the post he coveted, for Gen. Clavering died in August, his death being, as it was thought, accelerated by the irritation of his mind, caused by the constant state of warfare in which he was kept; for he seems to have been in the main an honest well-meaning man. Mr. Wheeler now came into the council, and, as he usually sided with Francis, the council was divided as hereto- fore. One of the first acts of Hastings, after the death of Col. Monson, had been to remove Mr. Bristow from the residency of Oude, and re-appoint his friend Middleton. He owned he had no fault to find with Mr. Bristow : and the act need not be too severely censured, as it was merely what takes place in a change of ministry at home. Hastings at the same time reversed another appointment of the majority by recalling Mr. F. Fowke, who had been placed as a kind of resident at Benares in 1775. His pretext was, that the mission had been special, and that its purposes had been accomplished. Next day, however, he moved, and, of course, carried a resolution, that a civil servant of the Company's, with an assistant, should be sent to reside at Benares ! The name of the former was Graham, of the latter Barwell. Justly might Gen. Clavering, in his minute, call this "a vindictive measure, couched under the appearance of a public service." The Directors expressed their strong disapprobation of these measures, and ordered both those gentlemen to be re-instated; but Hast- ings took no heed of their commands. Here again we are not to condemn him too unconditionally; HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1777. n the majority in the Direction were his personal enemies, and were glad of any opportunity of mor- tifying him; and it was to the Proprietors, and not to the Directors, that he looked for support and approbation. Soon after Mr. Wheeler took his seat in council, Mr. Hastings laid before the Board a letter from the young Nabob, complaining of Mohammed Reza Khan's severity, and praying that, as he was now twenty years old, he might be allowed to admi- nister his own government and affairs. Francis and Wheeler said, as that regulation had been made by the Company, the letter should be trans- mitted to the Directors ; Hastings and Barwell maintained that justice admitted of no delay. Each party on this occasion used the arguments of their opponents on the subject in 1775. The prayer of the Nabob was granted ; and then letters came from him requesting that Munnee Begum should have the management of the Nizamut, with- out the interference of any person. Accordingly Goordass and others were reinstated in their offices, and their united salaries came to 18,000 rupees more than Mohammed Reza Khan had received, and the affairs of the country soon fell into a precious state of confusion. A due regard for his own character, and the opinion of the world, would have withheld a man of more pru- dence than Mr. Hastings from engaging in such a business as this 9 . Strange quarrels and as strange reconciliations take place among public men ; we need not there- fore be surprised to find Hastings and Francis reconciled. The occasion was as follows. Mr. Barwell, who had made a large fortune in India, where he had spent three and twenty years, was anxious to return to Europe, and Hastings would thus lose his main support ; for though Sir Eyre Coote, who had come out as commander-in-chief with a seat in council, voted in general with the governor, he was a crotchety man, and could not always be relied on. It was, therefore, natural that Hastings should wish to soften down the enmity of Francis, who on his part was anxious to see Barwell depart from India, where he still lingered at the earnest wish of Hastings. An arrangement was effected by which, on the gover- nor's agreeing to re-instate Bristow, Fowke, and Mohammed Reza Khan, Francis engaged not to oppose him in certain important matters. Mr. Barwell then set sail for Europe. Soon after this a compromise was effected with the chief-justice, which put an end to pretensions of the Supreme Court, which had threatened to ruin the whole of Bengal. When the Supreme Court was instituted it was given most extensive power. It was a court of common law and of equity, of oyer and terminer, and gaol delivery, of admiralty and ecclesiastic affairs. Its criminal jurisdiction, however, was confined to British subjects, or to those in their service ; its civil, to those and to such of the natives us had agreed to Submit to its decision. The division of labour among the members of the English bar is very complete ; the man who » " We always have, and always shall consider a letter of business from that Nabob, the same as a Letter from the Governor-general and the Council," said the Judges of the Supreme Court, in 1775. practises in one court rarely enters another. To find men possessing the knowledge requisite for the judges of the Supreme Court, and with minds sufficiently enlarged to believe that there might be something agreeable to reason, and adapted to the state of the country and of society in India in the native laws, was no doubt nearly impossible. It is probable, however, that the ministry gave them- selves little trouble on this head ; and the men that had interest got the appointments without any great regard to their fitness. Four more unfit men certainly could not have been selected. They were perfect specimens of the narrow-minded, self-sufficient, domineering English lawyer, who, regarding the law of England as being what law- yers, and lawyers alone, proclaim it to be — the perfection of reason, — and holding every other system in sovereign contempt, would force it and their own authority on all those whom, by any legal quirks and subtleties, they could draw within its sphere. When such were the judges, and when we add that a host of attorneys came to India in their train, the reader may be prepared for the results that followed. We have seen an instance of their criminal justice in the case of Nundcomar. In civil mat- ters they had hardly commenced their duties, when their writs flew about in all directions ■ zemindars, and other persons residing at a dis- tance, were ousted on the oath of any person, however mean and discreditable, dragged up to Calcutta, and if they could not give bail, often to a large amount, flung into the noisome prison of that city. Gloom overspread the whole country ; the English law, with all its dark enigmas and incon- ceivable technicalities, hanging over it like a murky cloud. The revenue seemed about to cease altogether ; for the authority of the zemindar was subverted, and the ryot withheld his rent. The provincial courts of Dewannee Adawlut were also rendered inoperative ; for there were attorneys everywhere to advise the defaulters who were brought before them to sue out a writ of habeas cor/ mt in the Supreme Court. The Nizamut, or penal jurisdiction exercised in the name of the Nabob, the Supreme Court dis- dained to recognize. " The Act of Parliament," said one judge, " does not consider him as a sove- reign prince; the jurisdiction of this court extends over all his dominions." "This phantom, this man of straw," said another, " it is an insult to the understanding of the Court to have made the question of his sovereignty." As to the Dewannee of the Company, one of the judges declared that there could be no distinction in law or justice be- tween the Company, as a trading Company, and as Dewan of these provinces, and that in their manage- ment of the revenues they weresubjecl to the juris- diction of the king's eourt. Thus, in effect, did those four presumptuous, inflated men, assume to them- selves the government of the three provinces. We will now give some specimens of their pro- ceedings. On the 2nd January, 1777i a suit com- menced before the Provincial Council of 1'atna, between the widow and the nephew and adopted son of a Mohammedan of rank and property. The widow produced a will in her favour, the nephew maintained it was a forgery, and that at all BVentl his uncle had been for some time of wveteran troops, and the further aid of a fleet ! Gen. Malartie, who had no force whatever at his disposal, could only offer to send the proposals to France, and meantime he issued the above-men- tioned silly proclamation. In March the vakeels returned to their master, taking with them about 100 volunteers, both white and black, mostly the rabble of the islands. These citizens forthwith formed a Jacobin club on the improved model, of which the Sultan became a member, under the title of Citizen Tippoo. The tree and cap of liberty were raised, the emblems of royalty were burnt, and an oath of enmity to that institution taken, and all the wild fooleries of these vagabonds were viewed with approving eyes by the despot, because they shared his hatred of the English. Lord Momington, with the foresight and decision which marks the true statesman, resolved not to allow Tippoo to choose his own time, but to attack him at once, in case of his refusal to comply with the terms he would propose to him. For France at that time, it must be recollected, had a large naval force, and she, who in 1796 sent a fleet and army to Ireland, and this very year another to Egypt, might easily send to sea a fleet carrying troops enough to make Tippoo a formidable enemy; 136 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1798-99. tlie Marattas also might join the confederacy, and I the Duranee Shah pour his troops into Hindustan. I The members of council at Madras hinted at the danger of provoking Tippoo to make, like his father, a sudden irruption into the Carnatic, if they began to make preparations for war. But the Governor- general was not to be daunted by such considera- tions; and he insisted on their reforming and increasing their military establishment at once. A subsidiary treaty was formed with the Nizam, and the force to be maintained in his territories was fixed at 6000 men. The French officers and serjeants in his service were to be dismissed, and the corps commanded by them to be broken up ; and no Frenchman was to betaken into his service, or allowed to reside in his territories, without the consent of the Company. The force under the French amounted now to about 14,000 men, only inferior to the British Sepoys, and well supplied with artillery. Raymond was dead, but his successor, M. Pe"ron, was a far abler officer. As it was feared that it would not submit quietly, no attempt was made till a force from Madras had joined the British troops at Hy- derabad. The resident then called on the Nizam to fulfil that article of the treaty; and when he he- sitated, the British troops were marched near to the station of the French, and he was told that they would act without him. Being now compelled to choose between the two, he sent a body of 2000 horse to aid the British. A mutiny soon broke out in the French corps, and the officers, to escape the fury of their men, surrendered. The whole body of 11,000 men (the rest being away on a de- tachment), laid down their arms on a promise of their arrears of pay and of being continued in the service. The officers were sent to Calcutta, and thence to England, whence they were transmitted to France at the express desire of Lord Morning- ton, who also took care to secure for them their property and the arrears of their pay. An attempt was made to conclude a similar treaty with the Peishwa ; but it proved a failure, chiefly owing to the influence of Siudia. Lord Mornington proposed to obtain from Tip- poo the following securities against his hostile in- tentions : the cession of the whole of his possessions on the Malabar coast ; payment of the expense caused by the preparations for war ; the admission of residents from the allied powers at his court ; and the expulsion and continued exclusion of all Frenchmen from his service and dominions. When intelligence of the destruction of the French fleet at Aboukir by Lord Nelson arrived, it was commu- nicated to him to show him how futile was his reliance on French aid. He was requested, but in vain, to let an English officer proceed to his court to explain the views of the allies. A letter from the Grand Seignior, calling on him to aid him •against the French, was inclosed in one sent to him by the Governor; but he made no reply, and it was discovcred,that an embassy from him to the French Directory was about to sail from the Danish port of Trampjebar. Lord Mornington, who had come in person t<> Madras, now resolved to suspend all further negotiations till the army should have made -.inn' impression on his territory. As it was deemed expedient that Sir Alured Clarke, the ( 'ommander in-eliiol' in Bengal, for whom the command t .t the army in the Carnatic had been destined, should remain at Calcutta, lest Zeman Shah should invade India, the chief com- mand was entrusted to Gen. Harris. The army contained 21,000 men, of whom about a third were Europeans. Corps under Lieut. -cols. Brown and Read were to act to the south of Mysore, to collect and convoy provisions. The Bombay army, of about 6000 men, under Gen. Stuart, was to advance from Malabar. Toward the end of February, the Bombay army ascended the Ghats, and in the beginning of March the army of the Carnatic, joined by the contingent from Hyderabad, and by the troops of the Nizam, which raised it to 37,000 men, ascended from the east, and entered the territory of Mysore. As the Bombay force was the smaller, Tippoo resolved to direct his first efforts against it, and on the 6th March, he suddenly attacked, in front and rear together, a division of three battalions of Sepoys, stationed at Sedasseer, under the command of Col. Montresor. Never was a more gallant resistance offered ; for hours they stood and repelled the re- peated charges of the enemy, till at length Gen. Stuart came up, and after a sharp conflict, drove off the troops that were acting on their rear, and then those in front. Tippoo then drew off his forces, and advanced to oppose Gen. Harris. On the 9th, the allied army entered the territory of Mysore; and so slow was its progress, in conse- quence of the great quantity of artillery and of stores of all kinds which accompanied it, that it did not advance at the rate of more than seven miles a day, and it was not till the 27th that it reached Mallavelli, within forty miles of Seringapatam. Here they found Tippoo occupying some heights, whence he cannonaded them ; and a general action ensued, in which the Sultan was defeated. Sup- posing they would advance by the road taken by Lord Cornwallis, and on which he had destroyed all the forage, he moved now so as to be able to act on their rear on that route. But Gen. Harris took a more southern direction, and crossing the Caveri some miles to the east of Seringapatam, entered a country which had not been wasted. When Tippoo heard of this movement, a chill struck him to the heart, and he said to his officers, " We have arrived at the last stage. What is your determination ?" " To die with you," was the reply ; for despondency had seized on all. Though the British when they crossed the river were only twenty-eight miles from Seringapatam, owing to the want of a sufficient number of draft- bullocks, they were five days marching thither. At length, on the 5th April, they armed on the ground to the south of the city, occupied by the Bombay army in the late war. Tippoo had there formed a new line of entrenchments, which could be supported by the guns of the fort, and his in- fantry lay between it and the river. The next day (nil. Floyd was Miit with a strung division to bring up Gen. Stuart. The Sultan tried in vain to pre- vent their junction, and on the 15th the Bombay army joined that of the Carnatic. On the 9th, Tippoo had written to (ion. Harris, asserting that lie had strictly adhered to treaties, ami demanding the reason of the advance of the English armies, The general referred him for a reply to tin- letters of the Governor-general, which he had not answered. The works of the besiegers ware advanced every day. They had A.D. 1 SIEGE OF SERINGAPATAM. 137 established themselves on the north side of the river also ; and on the 20th a battery from that side began to play against the works of the fort. Tippoo now became alarmed, and he wrote to in- quire what was the pleasure of the English. Lord Mornington, as Mill candidly owns, among his other great qualities, possessed the important one of sagacity in the choice of his instruments, and magnanimity in investing them with full powers to act of themselves, in the affairs with which he had entrusted them. He had appointed Lieut.-cols. Wellesley, Close, and Agnew, as com- missioners to advise and assist, but not to control the general, and he had furnished him with drafts of two treaties, which he was to propose to Tippoo at his option. As scarcity of provisions was ap- prehended in the camp, and it was evidently Tip- poo's interest to wear away the time, if possible, in negotiation, Gen. Harris determined, with the assent of the commissioners, to offer the Sultan the less favourable treaty, and to insist on its acceptance, and the fulfilment of two of the articles within eight-and-forty hours. In addition to the requisitions formerly made by the Governor-gene- ral, of the reception of residents at his court, and dropping of all connexion with the French, he was now required to surrender one-half of his dominions, pay the allies two crores of Sicca ru- pees, half down, half within six months, and give his four sons and four of his generals as hostages. To these terms Tippoo made no reply, and the works of the besiegers advanced. On the night of the 2Cth, Col. Wellesley attacked and earned, though with no trifling loss, the enemy's line of intrenchments. Tippoo now (28th) condescended to reply to the general's proposals, and he stated that he was about to send two vakeels to discuss them. But as his object evi- dently was to gain time, Gen. Harris refused to receive them, unless accompanied by the hostages and the money ; he gave till three o'clock next day for a reply. No reply came ; the Sultan passed alternately from grief to stupor, but at times ex- pressing his belief that his capital would still repel the enemy. On the 30th, a battery began to play on the west angle of the fort ; a second was then con- structed, which commenced firing on the 2nd May. On the evening of the following day the breach was reported practicable ; and early in the morning of the 4th the troops destined for the assault assembled in the trenches, in order that the enemy might not be put on their guard by perceiving any unusual movement. The hour of noon, when the orientals take their repose, was selected for the attack. The storming party consisted of 2400 Europeans, and 1800 Sepoys, divided into two columns ; the command, at his own request, was given to Major-general Baird, who had been for some time a prisoner in Tippoo's hands. At a few minutes after one, Gen. Baird stepped out of the trench, and, drawing his sword, cried, " Now, my brave fellows, follow me, and prove yourselves worthy of the name of British soldiers." Both columns rushed at once from the trenches, under cover of the firing from the batteries. The river, though then shallow, was wide, and its bot- tom rocky ; the discharge of rockets and musketry from the fort was incessant, and numerous troops hastened to the defence of the breach. Yet, in seven minutes from the time that the troops issued from the trenches, the British flag was waving on its summit. When all the troops had come up they divided, one column going to the right, the other to the left, and they were to meet over the eastern gateway. The first met with little resist- ance ; the second suffered severely from the fire of the enemy, its commander, Col. Dunlop, and all the principal officers being either killed or wounded. It however drove its opponents before it, and finally joined the other party over the gateway, and the whole of the works were now in the possession of the British. The palace only remained to be reduced; and as soon as the men had been halted and refreshed so as to be ready to attack in case of its refusal to surrender, Gen. Baird sent Major Allen to offer, on condition of immediate surrender, protection to the Sultan and every other person in it. Major Allen advanced, bearing a white cloth fastened to a ser- geant's halberd, and followed by some troops. The killidar and another officer descended by an unfinished part of the wall to meet him. He gave them most positive assurance, that the promises he made should be fulfilled, but required to be ad- mitted instantly into the palace. To this they objected strongly, but were finally obliged to yield ; and Major Allen taking with him two officers, one of whom spoke the native language with fluency, the whole party ascended by the broken wall, and then went down on a terrace where were a great number of armed men. Here, to give them confidence, he took off his sword, and handed it to the Sultan's officers. They assured him that Tippoo was not in the palace. He urged them not to delay a sur- render, lest the troops outside should grow im- patient of restraint. The killidar and the others then went away, and the British officers soon began to feel rather uneasy. Major Allen had thoughts of trying to get back his sword, but he wisely refrained. The people however on the terrace seemed to be very anxious for the surrender, and they begged that the flag might be held up in a conspicuous place, in order that the British troops might not force the gates. Major Allen now sent an urgent message to the sons of Tippoo, who were in the palace, and they replied that they would admit him as soon as a carpet could be spread for the purpose. Soon after the killidar came and conducted him to their presence. There were two of these princes, one of whom had already been as a hostage in the hands of the English. They assured Major Allen that their father was not in the palace, and on the solemn and reiterated assurances of the major for their safety, they gave orders to throw open the palace-gates, and admit the conquerors. Gen. Baird, who was before the gates, then ordered Major Allen to lead the princes to his presence. With the utmost reluctance they consented, and the general, whose feelings, beside the old irri- tation, had been excited by intelligence of Tippoo having murdered a number of English prisoners, had some thoughts of not keeping the conditions made with them unless they told where their father was. He however finally assured them of protec- tion. The whole palace was then searched, except the zenana, on which a guard was left to prevent the escape of the Sultan if he was in it. The killidar was then severely threatened, and at length he declared that Tippoo lay wounded in a distant 138 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1799. part of the fort, to which he offered to conduct them; and then he led them to a gateway on the north side, where they found the Sultan'9 palankeen and one of his confidential servants lying wounded under it. He pointed to the spot where his master had fallen, and there among a heap of slain was found the dead body of Tippoo. About noon of this day, Tippoo, who was now sunk in despondency, and who, bigot as he was, had had recourse to the superstition of the Bra- mins to discover the future, having performed the requisite ceremonies, sat down to eat his midday meal. He had been informed by two spies, and by one of his principal officers, that the English would certainly make the assault that day ; but he would not believe it. He had not finished his meal when he heard that the storm had commenced. He hastened to the northern rampart, and placing himself behind one of the traverses, fired several shots, and it is said with effect, at the English as they approached. Having received a slight wound, he mounted a horse and rode to another part. As he advanced he received a ball in his right side, and then another in his left breast, and his horse also was shot under him. His faithful servant urged him to discover himself to the English, but the terrors of conscience forbade, and he cried, " Are you mad ? Be silent." His servant then placed him in his palankeen under an arch of a gateway. An English grenadier who came up attempting to seize his rich sword-belt, Tippoo grasped his sword and made a blow at him, and the soldier fired and shot him through the temple. Such was the end of Tippoo Sultan, a man in whom there is nothing to admire or esteem, unless we regard as such implacable hatred, savage cru- elty, deep treachery, and blind religious zeal, united with gross superstition. Yet the philosophic his- torian of our Indian empire extends his favours to this prince also, for he was the bitter foe of the English. He glosses over his bad qualities, refuses to give credit to the details of his cruelties, extols him as a wise ruler, under whom agriculture, blighted elsewhere by English influence, flourished in Mysore, and commends the strict fidelity to him of his officers, without perhaps being aware that all their families were kept as hostages at Seringa- patam. The loss of the British during the whole of the siege was about 1500 killed, wounded, or missing ; of the enemy there fell about 8000 in the storm alone. Tippoo's two elder sons and Kummur-ud- Din, and his other commanders, all made their submission, and all the fortresses on the coast of Canara surrendered to Gen. Stuart when he re- turned to Malabar. Guns, stores, and treasure to a great amount were found in Seringapatam. There were 929 pieces of cannon, 1011,110(1 stand of arms, with abundance of swords, accoutrements and ammu- nition. In specie and jewels there was upwards of l,100,000i., which was distributed among the troops. lint tin- most remarkable capture was Tippoo's library, in which was found a large collection of state-papers, which revealed his incessant activity to raise up < nemics to the English; for it contained his correspondence with the French, the Afghans, tin- Marattas, the Nizam and his officer*, and oven with Mohammed Ally of Arcot; and it fully proved the wisdom of the measures for hia overthrow adopted by Lord Mornington. The conquered territory was now to be disposed of. By the laws of war it might be divided between the British and the Nizam; but Lord Mornington did not think it prudent to enlarge too much that prince's dominions, and he deemed it the better policy to divide a large portion of territory between him and the English, reserving a smaller portion for the Marattas, in case of their agreeing to a treaty to be proposed to them, and to form a new kingdom of Mysore out of the remainder. The choice of a ruler for this kingdom was the next subject of deliberation. If one of Tippoo's sons was reinstated, it was feared that the British dominion would never be secure. Hatred of the English having been instilled into him from his birth, he would probably be for ever plotting against them ; and as the power of the French had now attained an alarming height, and their passion for intrigue was so notorious, they might through his means excite another war in the south of India. It was therefore resolved to set Tippoo's family aside, and to place on the musnud the nearest male descendant of the former rajahs of Mysore. This proved to be a child only five years old, living with the rest of the royal family, in the utmost poverty, at Mysore, the ancient capital. As Tippoo had turned the palace there into a store-house, it was found necessary to erect a temporary shed for the ceremony of the enthronement, which was per- formed in the presence of Gen. Harris, the com- missioners, and the Nizam's chief officers. Out of delicacy toward the sons of Tippoo, this ceremony was not performed until after their departure for the Carnatic, where they were henceforth to reside, with an allowance from the Company far beyond any thing they had enjoyed during the lifetime of their father. As this was in effect the creation of a new state, and the rajah could have no rights or claims but what he derived from those who raised him to the throne, Lord Mornington resolved to exclude the evil of double government, which had proved so mischievous in Arcot, Tanjore, and Oude, and to save the people of Mysore from the fangs of the Madras usurers. By the treaty made with the rajah, the British were to undertake the entire defence of his country for an annual subsidy of seven lacs of star-pagodas, and they were to have the power of regulating, when needful, the manage- ment and collection of the revenues, or of bringing under their own management any part of the terri- tory of Mysore. He was also bound in the most stringent manner neither to employ Europeans, nor to suffer any of them to remain even a day in his territories, without the consent of the Company. The fort and island of Seringapatam were de- clared to belong to the Company, ■ in full right and sovereignty for ever," and stores and provisions from any quarter were always to enter it tax-free. We thus see that the Company was the actual ■Oven ign of the country, and the rajah merely its viceroy; a shadow to veil from Indian eyes the real case, and to obviate European declamation about British ambition and cupidity. I'or the happiness of the people, it was the host form of government that could at that time be adopted. As the Peiahwa refused the territory intended for him, on the terms proposed, the whole of the A.D. 1709. SETTLEMENT OF TANJORE AND SURAT. 139 reserved territory was divided between the Com- pany and the Nizam, the former getting one-third, the latter two-thirds. The share of the Company was Canara, Coimbatore, Daraporam, and Wy- naad, and their dominions, thus extended from sea to sea, south of Mysore. Pensions, to be paid by the rajah of Mysore, were granted to Tippoo's principal officers ; to Kummur-ud-Din, who declined making any terms, trusting entirely to the generosity of the English, was assigned a handsome jagheer out of the re- served territory. All had cheerfully submitted, and the peace of the country seemed only likely to be disturbed by a man, whom the English finding ia irons at Seringapatam had set at liberty. This was a Hindoo adventurer, named Dhoondia, who, having been captured in a plundering excursion into Mysore, had become a Mussulman on com- pulsion. Tippoo took him into favour, and gave him a military command, but afterwards threw him into prison. He now contrived to collect a few horsemen, and moved toward Bednore. His force gradually increased, he got possession of some of the strongest places, and he levied contri- butions in a most merciless manner. Some British troops were sent against him, and having routed his freebooters, and captured his fortresses, they forced him to fly to the territory of the Marattas, who speedily plundered him of all he possessed. He soon, however, again had a large body of fol- lowers, and he captured several of the Maratta forts ; and as it seemed needful to crush him be- fore he became formidable, the English demanded permission to enter the Maratta territory in pur- suit of him ; the permission was given, though re- luctantly, and Col. Wellesley set about reducing him without delay. He soon destroyed a division of his army, on the banks of the Malpoorba, and having followed him over that river, pursued him into the territories of the Nizam, where he routed him again at a place named Conaghul, and Dhoon- dia himself was among the slain. CHAPTER III. Settlement of Tanjore— Of Surat— Of the Carnatic— Fate of Vizir Ally of Oude — Embassy to Persia — Settlement of Oude — Expedition to Egypt— Disunion between the Go- vernor-general and Court of Directors — College of Fort William. The plan of administration which Lord Morning- ton had formed for Mysore, was that which he was resolved to extend, if possible, to all the states connected with the Company. Ample experience had shown that the system of double government, beside being highly injurious to the Company, was ruinous to the people ; for every prince in this condition was sure to be surrounded, exclusive of native depredators, by a famished crew of Euro- pean usurers and adventurers; and to leave them totally independent, would have been destructive alike to all parties. And surely justice will declare that the real interest of the people, and even that of the Company, should take precedence of that pretended one of a ruler who only sought his own gratification, and was usually a mere puppet in the hands of others. The first country in which this change was made, was Tanjore. The Rajah Tuljajee, when dying in 1787, adopted a boy ten years old named Serfojee, or Sarbojee, whom he declared his heir, appointing the venerable missionary Schwartz to be his pri- vate, his own half-brother Amar Sing his public guardian. Amar Sing, however, disputed the validity of the adoption, and the question being referred by the government of Madras to a council of pundits, it was by them pronounced illegal, and Amar Sing was placed on the musnud. In 1793, on the repeated complaints made by Schwartz, of the cruel treatment his ward experienced at the hands of Amar Sing, that youth and the widow of Tuljajee were removed to Madras. It now was asserted that the pundits had been bribed to make their decision, and an appeal was made against it. The opinions of the most learned pundits of the south, and of Bengal and Benares, had been taken, and they were all in favour of the validity of the adoption. The inquiry had lasted for some years, but it had been concluded before Lord Mornington reached India, and he was instructed to restore the young Rajah to his rights. Amar Sing, whose government had been as bad as possible, was deposed, and Serfojee declared Rajah of Tanjore. The English took the whole civil and military administration into their own hands, assigning a splendid provision out of the revenues to the young Rajah. A similar change took place at this time in Surat on the other side of India. Many years ago the English had, at the desire of the inhabitants, taken possession of the castle and fleet, that is, undertaken the defence of that city, while the civil authority was in the hands of the Nabob. Both alike derived their authority from the Emperor, and on the decline of the empire, the chief autho- rity naturally fell into the hands of the English, who have henceforth appointed the Nabob. The evils of divided administration proved the same here as elsewhere, and the death of the Nabob just at this time giving the opportunity of a new arrangement, one was made similar to that in Mysore and Tanjore. The settlement of the Carnatic was .a matter of far more importance. The government of Omdut- ul-Omrah, was not one whit better than that of his father, and he rejected all proposals for modifying the treaty of 1792 ; he even had the audacity to claim a share in the distribution of Tippoo's domi- nions, and positively refused to transfer any por- tion of his territory to the Company for the pay- ment of their expenses for the defence of his coun- try. But at this very time that he was acting in this high manner, documents were found in Tippoo's library, proving that both his father and himself had been in active and confidential correspondence with that prince, to whom they furnished both information and advice. The correspondence had been carried on through two vakeels who had attended Tippoo's sons to Madras. The papers and these men were examined by a commission composed of Col. Close, and of Mr. Webbe, Secre- tary to the Madras government, and though per- haps they did not suffice to convict the Nabobs of actual treachery, they clearly showed their feelings and wishes. The Governor- general was so con- 140 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1801. vinced of this, that he resolved to deprive Omdut- ul-Omrah at once of his power ; and he sent (May 28, 1801,) a despatch to that effect to Lord Give, the governor of Madras, accompanied by a letter to the Nabob. But this last was on his death-bed when they arrived, and motives of humanity pre- vented the delivery of the letter. To preserve order and prevent plunder, a guard of the Com- pany's troops was placed at the palace-gate with his knowledge and consent. He breathed his last on the 15th July. Mr. Webbe and Col. Close immediately proceeded to the palace, where they learned that the Nabob had by a will appointed his reputed son Ally Hussein his successor, with two confidential Khans for his advisers. They had an interview with these Khans, and at their desire further discussion was deferred till after the performance of the funeral. When it was over, the discussion was again renewed ; the commis- sioners insisted on the transfer of the whole ad- ministration, the Khans on the part of the Nabob's family made a counter-proposal. The commis- sioners then insisted on seeing Ally Hussein him- self : to this the Khans showed great reluctance ; but in the next interview he appeared, and ex- pressed his entire acquiescence in what the Khans had done on his part. It was then declared that Lord Give would hold a personal conference with him. The Khans tried in vain to evade this ; and when they had retired to make preparations, Ally Hussein said in a low voice that he had been deceived by them. When the Khans returned, the whole of the party proceeded to the tent of the officer of the guard, where they were met by Lord Give. After the introduction, all were ordered to withdraw, and his Lordship explained every thing to Ally Hussein, who yielded a ready assent to the treaty proposed, and promised to execute it next day. He, however, had totally changed his mind when the deputies came next day to fetch him; and although Lord Give when he saw him pictured to him in the strongest colours the fatal consequence of his persistence in that course, he was not affected, and he received unmoved the intelligence that he was not to be a Nabob. It was now determined that the dignity should be conferred on Azeem-ud-Doulah, the son of Ameer- ul-Omrah, second son of Mohammed Ally. As this young prince was in the palace, and his life might be in danger, if the intentions of the British in his favour were known, the troops at the gate- way were ordered to take possession of the palace. His safety was thus secured ; and shortly after in an interview with Lord Give, he was most agree- ably surprised by the offer of being placed on the musnud. He gave a cheerful consent to the prof- fered terms,, and readily signed the treaty giving them effect ; and thus at length, after years of misery, the prospect of good government began to dawn on the Camatic. The folly of Ally Hussein may excite surprise. In bis last Interview with Lord Give he acknow- ledged that he had been spoken to on the subject. And it is true ; that vile brood of usurers and op- pressors, the disgrace of the English name, that so long had battened on the misery of the Carnatic, left no effort untried to prevent the settlement of that country. 1 1 was they that had drawn up the counter-project, which, as the commissioners ob- s. rveil, had evidently been translated from a western language; and in which the utmost care had been taken to exclude the Company from any share in the management of the funds destined for the payment of Mohammed Ally's debts. But they had no Warren Hastings now to uphold them, and they therefore failed most signally. By a new treaty made at this time with the Nizam, he transferred to the Company his late acquisitions in Mysore, in lieu of payment for the subsidiary force ; an arrangement to the advantage of all parties, but most of all to that of the people of the ceded districts. There now remained only the Nabob of Oude to be dealt with, and he proved a very troublesome person. Before however we come to him, we must conclude the history of his rival, Vizir Ally. He had been allowed to reside at Benares, but it being discovered that he was in communication with Zeman Shah, Mr. Cherry, the agent, was in- structed to inform him, that he must remove to Calcutta. He at first showed great reluctance, but soon ceased to object. Mr. Cherry had been often warned to be on his guard against him, as he had never forgiven the share he had had in his deposition ; but he slighted the warnings. One morning Vizir Ally came with his suite to break- fast with him. He soon began to expatiate on his wrongs, and then suddenly he and his followers fell on and murdered Mr. Cherry and Capt. Conway, who happened to be of the party. As they rushed out they met a Mr. Graham, whom they also slew. They then hastened to the house of Mr. Davis, the judge; but he placed himself with a spear at the head of a narrow staircase, and defended himself so well that he forced them to retire. Troops came now into the town. Vizir Ally attempted to defend his house, which was forced, but not till he had made his escape. He sought refuge in Bhotwul, near Nepal ; then having collected some troops, he made an irruption into Gorukpore; but being routed by the British there, he sought refuge with the rajah of Jyneghur, who surrendered him for a sum of money, only stipulating that his life should be spared, and that he should not be kept in chains. He was then closely imprisoned at Calcutta. The condition of Oude caused well-grounded unea- siness to the Governor-general. Saadut Ally was a slave to avarice, and cared for power only as the means of gratifying that passion. His troops were a disorderly tumultuous rabble, with their pay always of course greatly in arrears. There was also "in Oude the usual swarm of European adven- turers, thinking only of their private gains, and giving the Nabob ruinous counsels. On the other hand, Oude was exposed to invasion by the Ma- rattas, and Zeman Shah was continually threat- ening to pour his hardy Afghans into the plains of India. In 17!>8 he had actually advanced as far as Lahore, when a rebellion, caused by his brother, recalled him home. The defence of Oude rated with the British; for the Vizir's troops were worse than useless, and it therefore behoved them to see that their force in Oude should be adequate to that purpose. In order to avert danger from the side of Cabul, the Governor-general resolved to try to form an alliance with the Shah of Persia, and a splendid embassy, headed by Capt. Malcolm, proceeded to thai oountry. A treaty was concluded, by whioh the Shah engaged to lay waste, with a Urge annv. a.d. 1800—1802. SETTLEMENT OF OUDE. 14! the country of the Afghans, if they should invade India. He also pledged himself not to allow the French in any way to enter his dominions. With respect to the vizir of Oude, Mr. Lumsden, the resident at his court, was instructed to urge the necessity of a reform of his military establishment, i. e. the disbanding of the whole of his troops, ex- cept those requisite for purposes of state and col- lection of revenue, to be replaced by a force entirely British. As Mr. Lumsden did not seem to possess the requisite energy of character for dealing with the vizir, he was replaced in June by Col. Scott. During some months the vizir kept the new resi- dent in play. At length he intimated to him his wish to resign in favour of one of his sons, and retire into private life. This, however, did not meet the views of the Governor-general, who wished the resignation to be made in favour of the Company, more especially as none of his sons were legitimate. He also would require, he said, that as Saadut Ally had inherited his brother's treasure, he should pay that prince's debts before he retired. When the vizir heard of these terms, he gave up his project, which possibly he had never seriously entertained. A whole year had now passed away and nothing had been effected. It was therefore resolved to proceed at once to the reform of the army. Ad- ditional British troops were (1800) marched in, and, delicate as the matter was, the skill and pru- dence of the English agents, and their care to have the troops paid all their arrears in full, prevented any resistance, and by the end of the year the measure was accomplished. The vizir now (1801) made another effort ; he alleged that the revenues of the state were not such as would enable him to pay the subsidy for the British troops. The reply was, that in that case he must resign to the Company the Doab, (the region between the Jumna and Ganges,) and Rohilcund, and more if they were not sufficient. To this, after much evasion and delay, he consented, but with many conditions to which the British authorities could not accede ; for he required to be quite indepen- dent in the remainder of his dominions, the British troops being all kept in the ceded districts ; and by one article he would be left the power of plundering the Begums, and whomever else he pleased. When these were rejected, he tried to defer the business, by expressing his intention of going on a pilgrimage. In the month of September, the Governor-gene- ral, quite wearied out by delay, sent to Lucknow his brother and private secretary, Mr. Henry Wellesley, who at length (Nov. 14) was enabled to conclude a treaty by which the vizir consented to receive in his reserved dominions a body of British troops, and to be guided by the advice of the officers of the Company in the exercise of his authority. Early in the following year (1802) the Governor-general proceeded in person to Lucknow, where the vizir made an earnest but ineffectual effort to be relieved from the presence of a resident at his court. Mr. H. Wellesley was now placed, with the title of Lieut.-governor, at the head of a commission for settling the ceded pro- vinces. Some refractory Zemindars were reduced by force, and the Nabob of Furrokabad was placed on a footing similar to that of the Rajah of Tan- jore, and Nabob of Arcot. Mr. Wellesley then departed for Europe. The whole of the Mohammedan states of India were thus brought under the direct influence of the Company, to the real and great advantage of the people, and even of their rulers. In proceed- ing as he had done, the Governor-general had two great objects in view ; namely, the security of the British interests, and then the happiness of the people. That his views were those of a high statesman can hardly be questioned ; but in the consciousness of superior talent, he was too fond of writing long state-papers, and endeavouring to show that he was proceeding according to the strict rules of European public law, instead of boldly avowing his real motives, and hence has laid himself open to attack. In fact, he was menaced with impeachment for the affair of Oude, and our Benthamite historian actually revels in the dissection of his reasonings, and becomes the zealous defender of Rajahs and Nabobs against the aggressive spirit of the Company's government ; on which, however, (such is his real honesty,) he pronounces the following just eulogium. " I be- lieve it will be found that the Company, during the period of their sovereignty, have done more in behalf of their subjects, have shown more of good- will towards them, have shown less of a selfish attachment to mischievous powers lodged in their own hands, have displayed a more generous wel- come to schemes of improvement, and are now more willing to adopt improvements, not only than any other sovereign existing in the same period, but than all other sovereigns taken together upon the surface of the globe." We must now go back a little in our narrative. When news of the overthrow of Tippoo reached England, the Governor-general was advanced a step in the peerage, and became Marquis Wel- lesley. When the affairs of Mysore had been settled, a body of troops, part British, part native, was directed to assemble under Col. Wellesley at Trin- comalee in Ceylon. It was the intention of the Governor-general to employ them in the reduction of the French islands, privateers from which had been doing incalculable damage to the British commerce. He requested Adm. Rainier, who commanded a British squadron in the Indian seas, to co-operate in the attack ; but that officer, filled with the old professional jealousy, refused, on the pretext, that no such expedition should be under- taken, without the express command of the king ; a principle that would put an end to all free-will, and all enterprise in the service. Lord Wellesley easily exposed its folly, and the authorities at home condemned it ; but the occasion was lost, and British commerce continued to suffer. Lord Wellesley was then thinking of employing these troops against Batavia, when orders from home came to send a force from India, to aid in expelling the French from Egypt. The native troops of the different presidencies cheerfully volunteered for this distant service ; and a force of 7000 men, British and native, embarked at Bom- bay under the command of Gen. Baird. At Jidda they heard of the defeat of the French, and death of Gen. Abercrombie. They landed at Koseir, crossed the desert, and then went down the Nile in boats to the isle of Rhooda, whence they marched to Rosetta ; but ere they arrived a treaty had been arranged with the French. In June, 142 HISTORY OF INDIA. 1802, they embarked at Suez and returned to India, having thus served to give the world a high idea of the power and resources of England. On new-year's day, 1802, Lord Wellesley wrote to the Court of Directors, tendering his resigna- tion. In effect, he had met with treatment from that body which a man of his high spirit could not endure. Nor indeed could harmony have well been expected ; for he was a nobleman and a statesman, while they could not divest themselves of the principles of the counting-house. They had become sovereigns, and yet they would act as merchants. Lord Wellesley had increased the army, a mea- sure of absolute necessity ; the Directors sent a peremptory order for its reduction, which he wisely disobeyed. He gave his brother, Col. Wel- lesley, when left to command in Mysore, such addi- tional allowances as he deemed suitable ; the Court ordered them to be reduced. He had appointed his other brother, and other men of capacity, to situations of trust ; and the Court, assuming a power which it did not possess, insisted on dis- placing them, and nominating others in their place. But it was not merely that his enlarged views of polity went far beyond the limited vision of the Directors, his measures had excited the anger of a powerful, and deeply selfish body, who had great influence in the Court — the ship-owners of London. For, finding that the tonnage allotted to private merchants in the Company's ships was quite in- sufficient, beside being uncertain and dreadfully expensive, he permitted the merchants of Calcutta to take up ships on their own account, for carrying Indian goods to England. As these" ships were Indian-built, the Company and the ship-owners trembled for their respective monopolies, and be- came virulently hostile to the Governor-general, who, however, was supported by the Board of Control. The foundation of the college of Fort William was another measure which transcended the ideas of the Directors, and therefore met with their most strenuous opposition. The duties of the servants of the Company in India were no longer what they had been origi- nally. Formerly they had only to act as clerks and factors, now they were required to discharge the duties of statesmen and judges, as residents at native courts, as collectors of the revenue, as pre- sidents of courts of justice. It appears plain to common sense, though Lord Wellesley seems to have been the first to perceive it, that the mere reading, writing, and arithmetic education of the old writer would no longer suffice, and that a knowledge of the languages, laws, and institutions of India was now become absolutely requisite. To give this and other appropriate branches of know- ledge, the Governor-general, whose own mind was richly stored with the literature of the west, and all whose ideas were vast and magnificent, erected a oollege at Fort William, whither lie proposed that all the young men destined for the three Pre- sidencies should he sent, and where, under the guidaiu I two pious clergymen, they should be subjected to academic discipline, while their minds should be enlarged, and their hearts strengthened by instruction in ethics, history, jurisprudence, ami international law, and be taught the requisite oriental languages by competent native instructors. But the Directors were both affrighted and of- fended ; they ordered the immediate abolition of this splendid institution, and would only permit of meagre establishments at the three Presidencies, for teaching the common dialects of the country. Lord Wellesley's plan was certainly too vast, and was liable to many objections ; but he had made it evident that a change of system was indispens- able, and the Company afterwards founded a col- lege in England for the proper instruction of their young civilians. At the request of both the Court of Directors and the Board of Control, Lord Wellesley con- sented to remain some time longer in India, and he soon had abundant occupation for his time and talents. CHAPTER IV. Affairs of the Marattas — Treaty of Bassein— Commence- ment of Maratta War— Sindia's French Troops— Capture of Ahmednugur, Baroach, and Alyghur — Battle of Delhi — Delivery of the Emperor — Capture of Agra— Battle of Laswaree— Of Assye— Capture of Asseerghur — Battle of Argam— Capture of Gawylghur — Treaties with the Kajah of Berar and Sindia. There were now, in reality, only two powers in India, the English and the Marattas. The former was united under one system, and one hand, and had the support of a powerful empire, and the advantages of European knowledge ; the latter was divided into a number of independent, and sometimes hostile states, and had only the degree of knowledge hereditary in the east. In any con- flict, and such was sure to come, the final result conld hardly be doubtful. Lord Wellesley, to avert the danger of collision, had been anxious to induce the Peishwa, as head of the Maratta name, to form a subsidiary treaty with the British government. That prince was at this time, however, merely a puppet in the hands of Sindia, now the most potent of the Maratta chiefs ; for the power of the Holkar family had nearly ceased. In 1797, Tukajee Holkar died, leaving two legitimate, and two illegitimate sons. The two former disputing the succession, repaired to Poona, where Sindia murdered one, and made the other his dependent, he also possessed himself of the infant child of the murdered prince. But Jeswunt Rao Holkar, one of the remaining sons, having made his escape from Poona, contrived to collect an army of adventurers, and proclaimed his infant nephew, and on the 14th October, 1801, he gave Sindia battle near Indole, the capital of the Holkar family, at the head of nearly 70,000 men. But lie was routed, and fled, with the loss of his artillery and baggage. He, however, speedily re- paired the disaster, and in the following year he marched with a large force for Poona. The Peishwa was anxious to emancipate himself from the power of Sindia, but at the tame time he had a strong dislike to becoming a dependent on the British, lie therefore refused to consent to the proposed treaty until after the defeat of Hol- kar, and the augmented power of Sindia, when he a.d. 1803. COMMENCEMENT OF MARATTA WAR. 14. ,J , offered to subsidize six battalions, but not to be stationed in his dominions, and to assign territory in Hindustan for their payment. As he really had no territory north of the Nerbudda, and there were other objections, this treaty was rejected. The negotiation then languished, till Holkar was within a short distance of Poona. The Peishwa then sent to the resident, Col. Close, offering to agree to the troops being stationed within his ter- ritory, and to assign for their maintenance a dis- trict bordering on the Toombudra. A few days after (October 25, 1802) the troops of the Peishwa and Sindia gave battle to those of Holkar. The Peishwa, to be prepared for the event, moved out of the city with the banner of the empire, and at the same time sent his minister to the resident with the subsidiary treaty, and his seal affixed to it. After a sharp conflict of some hours, victory remained with Holkar. The Peishwa fled to the fort of Singhur, and thence to the coast, whence he was finally conveyed in a British ship to Bassein (December 16). He was there joined by Col. Close, who had remained some time at Poona, where he was treated with great respect by Hol- kar, and on the last day of the year the subsidiary treaty was signed and sealed. The British were now to put the Peishwa in possession of his dominions. For this purpose the whole subsidiary force of the Nizam's territories, and a portion of his own troops, marched to the frontier town of Porainda, within 116 miles of Poona. It was then joined (April 15, 1803) by a large detachment of the Madras army, under Major-gen. (late Col.) Wellesley, to whom the chief command had been assigned by Lord Clive. The whole force now numbered about 24,000 foot, and 12,000 horse. Holkar had retired from Poona, leaving there a garrison of 1500 men. It was reported that it was their intention to plunder and burn the town on the approach of the British, and Gen. Wellesley, in order to prevent this, made a march of sixty miles in thirty-two hours, and ar- rived unexpectedly before Poona. The garrison retired when he appeared (April 20), and soon after (May 13) the Peishwa, accompanied by Col. Close, re-entered his capital. It was a great object with Lord Wellesley to induce Sindia to agree to a treaty, similar to that with the Peishwa. For this purpose Col. Collins had been sent to the camp of that prince, which was now at Burhampur, in the Deckan. Sindia thence moved to meet the army of the rajah of Berar, accompanied at his own desire by Col. Col- lins, to whom, in a conference he said, " After my conference with the rajah of Berar, you shall know whether it will be peace or war." These chiefs met on the 4th June, and after various fruitless efforts to obtain explicit answers from them, the resident quitted Sindia's camp on the 3rd August, and war with the confederates commenced. The plan of the war formed by Lord Wellesley was grand and comprehensive. While Gen. Wel- lesley was to act against the confederates in the Deckan, Gen. Lake, the commander-in-chief, was to enter Sindia's territories from Oude, destroy if possible his army there, under French officers, extend the British dominion to the right bank of the Jumna, and obtain possession of the person of the emperor. It was also intended to annex Bun- delcund, and to take Cuttack from the rajah of Berar, which would give to the British the whole line of coast from Bengal to Cape Comorin. Ac- cording to Lord Wellesley's usual and generous practice, both commanders were vested with the fullest powers, either for war or negotiation. The French corps of Sindia's, which had become so important, had been originally formed by a man named De Boigne, a native of Savoy, who, having entered the French service, had afterwards passed to that of Russia. Having become acquainted with Lord Percy, he afterwards proceeded to Madras, furnished with letters from that nobleman to Lord Macartney, and to Mr. Hastings. He there entered the service of the Nabob of Arcot, but he soon went to Bengal, and telling Hastings that his object was to explore Cashmere and the shores of the Caspian, he proceeded to Lucknow, with letters from him to the vizir and the resident. He, however, stopped there, and engaged in trade; but soon after he entered the service of Sindia, to whom he was strongly recommended by the resi- dent, Mr. Anderson. He disciplined for him two battalions, which were found so effectual, that the number was finally raised to twenty ; and all Sin- dia's victories had been gained by their discipline and prowess. These battalions were officered by both French and Englishmen ; they were formed into three brigades, whose commanders were named Perron, Pedrons, and Sutherland. Some years later, De Boigne, who had amassed a fortune of, it is said, 400,000^., quitted the service of Sindia, and returned to Europe, and the chief command then fell to Perron. Perron had come to India as a common sailor, in a French ship of war. He had entered De Boigne's corps, and bad risen by his talent. As in the usual way districts had been assigned to the former for the support of his troops, Perron suc- ceeded to them, and he consolidated his power, and extended his influence so much, that he had, as Lord Wellesley says, " founded an independent French state on the most vulnerable part of the Company's frontier," namely, on the banks of the Jumna. The two British armies took the field simul- taneously, early in August. On the 8th, Gen. Wellesley appeared before Ahmednugur : and on the refusal of the killidar to surrender, the pettah was carried, and a battery was opened against the fort (10th). Two days after (12th) it surrendered, and Sindia thus lost all his territory- south of the Godaveri. A few days later (29th) the town and fort of Baroach, on the Nerbudda, were taken by a force sent against it, under Col. Wordington. On that very day (29th) Gen. Lake crossed Sin- dia's frontier from Canouj, and proceeded to attack a part of Perron's corps which was stationed near Alyghur. The British cavalry, supported by the infantry and the guns, advanced against it; but the enemy fled without venturing to receive their charge. An attempt to bribe Pedrons, who com- manded in Alyghur, to surrender, having failed, preparations were made for the attack of that fort; and ere break of day, on the 4th September, the storming party, led by Col. Mouson, advanced against it. Though exposed to a destructive fire, they succeeded in blowing open the first gate ; they forced a second, and a third ; at the fourth they could only force the wicket, but they made 144 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1803. their way through it, and mounted the ramparts, and in the space of an hour from the first attack they were masters of Alyghur. They found here a great quantity of stores, and 281 pieces of can- non. Shortly after, Perron put into execution a design he had formed for some time, namely, that of quitting Sindia's service, and retiring with his property, which was large, into the British terri- tory. For this he had various motives ; the English he saw were determined to destroy his power ; but even if they did not, he had been sup- planted in the favour of Sindia, who was both jea- lous and afraid of him, by a native chief named Ambajee Inglia, and this last had intrigued suc- cessfully with his officers. After the capture of Alyghur, he renewed the application he had more than once made to the British authorities ; it was promptly complied with, and he proceeded to Luck- now. Gen. Lake now advanced toward Delhi, and on the 18th, after a march that day of eighteen miles, his troops arrived within six miles of that city. But just as they were going to encamp, the enemy began to appear, and the general on advancing with his cavalry to reconnoitre, found them drawn up in order of battle on a rising ground, their flanks protected by swamps. They were com- manded by a Frenchman named Louis Bouquin. Gen. Lake resolved to attack them, and sent orders to his infantry and artillery to advance. Mean- time the cavalry suffered from the enemy's guns, and the general's own horse was killed under him. He at length ordered the cavalry to fall back, in the hope of drawing the enemy from their position. His plan succeeded; they advanced with their guns; the cavalry still retreated till the infantry came up, they then opened and allowed the latter to pass; and though the enemy continued to rain grape and shot on them, they steadily advanced with their muskets to their shoulders, till within a hundred yards of the enemy's line. They then fired a vol- ley, and, headed by the general, made a charge of bayonets. The enemy broke and fled; the cavalry poured through intervals made by the infantry, and pursued them to the Jumna. The loss of the enemy is stated at 3000, that of the British at 450 men, in killed and wounded. All their stores and ammunition, with sixty-eight pieces of ordnance, fell into the hands of the victors, who encamped next day opposite to Delhi. On the 14th they began to cross the river, and on that same day Bouquin, and four other French officers, surren- dered themselves. In Delhi they found the Emperor Shah Alum, now a blind, helpless, poor old man. He had been for many years a puppet in the hands of the Ma- rattan, but he experienced his worst treatment, not from them, but from Gholam Kadir, a son of Za- bita Khan, the Rohilla, whom he had made hi* Amcer-ul Omrah. The emperor, to escape his tyranny, Bought in secret the aid of Sindia, on whose approach the Rohilla resolved to plunder the palace and retire. For this purpose ho vio- lated eren the sanctity of the Zenana ; and after insulting and abusing the emperor in every possi- ble way, he deprived him of si^ht with his dagger, and then fled to Meerut 3 . When PeROD got the 3 He was afterwards taken, his eyes, earn, nose, hands, and feet were cut off, and he was shut up in an iron-rage. command of this part of India, Delhi was under his authority, and the unhappy emperor met with somewhat kinder treatment. Still his lot was a hard one, and he rejoiced at the prospect of falling into the hands of the British. He received the general seated under a small tattered canopy, the best his fortunes would allow, and bestowed on him all he had to give, a profusion of high sounding titles. To restore him to dominion was now a thing not to be done ; but means were henceforth supplied sufficient to yield him in abundance all the enjoyments of life. Leaving Lieut-col. Ochterlony with a garrison in Delhi, Gen. Lake marched for Agra. On his arrival, (Oct. 4,) he summoned the fort. No answer being returned, he cleared the town of the troops that were in it, and commenced operations for the siege. On the 14th the garrison sent demanding a cessation of hostilities, till they should have proposed terms. The general agreed, and sent an officer to them ; but he found nothing but dissension among them, and while he was there they even recommenced firing. They had only sought to gain time ; on the 17th, however, when the great battery was completed, and began to play on the fort, they offered to capitulate, and next day they marched out, being secured in their persons and property. The ordnance found here exceeded 200 guns. An army composed of fifteen battalions from the Deckan, and two which had escaped from Delhi, provided with a numerous train of artillery, being still in the field, Gen. Lake left Agra (27th) in pursuit of it. By leaving his heavy artillery at Futtipore, and by making forced marches, he reached on the 31st the ground which the enemy had quitted that morning. He now resolved to pursue them with his cavalry, in order to detain them till the infantry should come up ; and setting out at midnight, after a march of twenty-five miles he came up with them soon after day-break (Nov. 1,) near the village of Laswaree *. Supposing them to be in retreat, he departed from his original plan, and resolved to attack them at once. But his cavalry could make no impression, and men and horse were mowed down by the Maratta artillery. At 11 o'clock the infantry came up, and the enemy then sent offering to surrender their guns on terms. He gave them an hour to consider, and when at the end of it no answer had come, ho put his troops in mot inn. The infantry moved in two columns, one of which was to turn the enemy's right and attack the village of Laswaree, the other was to support the first ; the cavalry was formed in two brigades. The march of the first column lay along the bank of a rivulet where they were for some time concealed from the view of the enemy, but as soon as they came in sight, a tremendous fire of grape was opened upon them. The king's 7Gth was at the head of the column, and such was the havoc made in its ranks, that when it arrived at the point from which the charge was to be mad.. Gen. Lake thought it better to attack at once with it and some other infantry which had oome up, than to wait for the rest of the column which had been delayed. As this "handful of heroes," as the general justly termed them, advanced, the} In this condition he was sent to Delhi, hut he died on the road * It lie*. seventy-three miles north-west of Agra. a.d. 1803. BATTLES OF ASSYE AND ARGAM. suffered dreadfully from the enemy's canister- shot, and the Maratta cavalry then bore down on them, but by their steadiness they repelled it ; and while the 29th dragoons made a charge, the infantry advanced on the enemy's line, which they broke and routed. The remainder of the column now came up and joined in the attack on the enemy's second line, which after a stout resist- ance was driven back. The British cavalry then advanced and completed the rout of the enemy, who fled, leaving all their artillery. About 2000 men surrendered, with the camp and baggage. The slain on their side is said to have amounted to 7000 ; the English had 1 72 killed, and 652 wounded. The victory was due to the indomitable valour of the 70th, and the native troops which supported them. The conduct of the general is liable to the charge of temerity and want of judgment ; but of I his courage there could be no doubt. He headed every charge, he had two horses shot under him ; and his son, who was his aid-de-camp, was himself wounded in the arm as he was remounting his gallant father. The victory of Laswaree completed the over- throw of Sindia's power in the north. We will now trace the contemporary course of events in the Deckan. After the reduction of Ahmednugur, Gen. Wel- lesley moved to Aurungabad. The troops of the confederates were now at Jalnapur, forty miles eastward of that city, and their design seemed to be to go on southwards, cross the Godaveri, and advance on Hyderabad. To prevent them he pro- ceeded to that river, and marched along it east- wards. The enemy then moved northwards from Jalnapur till they were joined by sixteen of Sin- dia's disciplined battalions, commanded by two Frenchmen. Meanwhile Col. Stevenson with the Nizam's subsidiary force had taken Jalna ; and as the two British forces were now near each other, the two commanders held a conference (Sept. 21), and arranged a plan for a combined attack on the enemy on the morning of the 24th at a place named Bokerdun, where they were said to be lying. The general was to attack their left, Col. Stevenson their right. The former marched so as to arrive on the 23rd within twelve or fourteen miles of the enemy ; but on that day to his sur- prise, he found himself within six miles of them, for Bokerdun being the name of the district as well as of the town, it was the former his inform- ants had meant. It was only the enemy's right that was at the town ; their camp extended thence several miles to Assye. As Col. Stevenson would not be up till next day, and it was reported that the enemy was about to retire, and as if he himself were now to fall back he might be harassed by them, Gen. Wellesley resolved to give battle, though their army contained four times as much infantry as his own, had a numerous cavalry, abundance of artillery, and was strongly posted. As the enemy's right, in front of which he found himself, consisted wholly of cavalry, he resolved to attack their left; and crossing a river which lay between them, he advanced to the attack with his infantry in two lines, supported by the cavalry in a third. The enemy having occupied the village of Assye with infantry and cannon, Gen. Wellesley directed the officer commanding the pickets on the right to keep out of shot from that place. But he, mistaking the orders, led directly on it, followed by the 74th, which was to support the pickets. The consequence was, that they suffered most severely by the cannonade from Assye, and were also charged by the enemy's cavalry, to repel which the general was obliged to bring the British ca- valry sooner into action than he had intended. It also suffered from the cannonade, and when the time came for employing it in pursuit, it was un- able to act. Another bad result was, that when the cavalry was thus withdrawn from the rear, many of the enemy who had, in Indian fashion, lain on the earth as if dead, rose and turned their guns on the backs of the British. The enemy finally went off, leaving 98 pieces of cannon in the hands of the victors, and 1200 men dead on the field. The loss of the British was very severe : out of a force of 4500 men, they had 428 killed, and 1 138 wounded, a third of the entire number. It was a disputed point among military men, whether Gen. Wellesley was justified in engaging with such a disparity of force ; but all were una- nimous in praise of his skill and conduct in the action. His personal courage also was conspicuous, and two horses were killed under him. When Col. Stevenson came up, he was prevented from going in pursuit of the enemy by the neces- sity there was for the wounded men having the care of his surgeons. He then moved northwards into Candeish, where Burhampur, the capital, opened its gates (Oct. 15), and the strong fortress of Asseerghur, named the Key of the Deckan, capi- tulated as soon as he had opened his batteries against it (20th). Meantime, Gen. Wellesley re- mained in the south, covering his operations, and protecting the territories of the Nizam and the Peishwa by a series of rapid and harassing marches. Sindia, who had now lost the whole of his pos- sessions in the Deckan, became anxious to treat, and his envoys, though without proper credentials, appeared in the camp of Gen. Wellesley. Their master at first disavowed, then acknowledged them ; and at length a cessation of arms was accorded him, provided he always kept at a distance of 40 miles from the British troops : but the general refused to extend it to the troops of the rajah of Berar, whose interests he wished to separate from those of Sindia. Col. Stevenson was now moving, by directions of Gen. Wellesley, to attack the strong hill-fort of Gawylghur, to the north of Elichpur, in Berar ; and meantime that general advanced to support him, descending the Ghats by Rajoora. The rajah of Berar's army, commanded by his brother, was at a place named Parterly, not far from Elich- pur, and the cavalry of Sindia, who had not yet ratified the armistice, lay within four miles of it. Col. Stevenson, on hearing of Gen. Wellesley's ad- vance, prudently halted, and the armies joined (Nov. 29) within view of the enemy's camp, who retired at their approach. The general had no in- tention of pursuit, as the day was hot and the troops had made a long march ; but on his going to put forward the pickets, he saw the enemy drawn up on the plains of Argam, about six miles from where he had intended to encamp. His plan was formed at once : he resolved to attack; and the British troops advanced in a single column, parallel to the enemy's lines, the cavalry leading. The line of 146 HISTORY OF INDIA. the enemy extended five miles ; the village of Ar- gam, with its gardens and enclosures in its rear, and a plain, intersected with water-courses, in its front. Sindia's cavalry was on the right, a body of the irregular horse, named Pindarries, on the left. The British infantry were formed in line for the attack, supported by the cavalry in a second line. When the cannonading began, three regiments of native infantry, who had behaved admirably at Assye, took panic, and were flying, but Gen. Wellesley, who was luckily at hand, stopped and rallied them, and then the whole line advanced in good order. The 76th and 78th regiments cut to pieces a body of Persians, to whom they were op- posed on the right, and the charge of Sindia's cavalry on the left being repelled with great slaughter, the whole line broke and fled, leaving thirty-eight guns, and all their ammunition. The lateness of the day saved them, for it was the opinion of Gen. Wellesley, that if there had been an hour more of daylight, not a man would have escaped. As it was, their loss was very great ; that of the British was only 346 killed and wounded. The British army now marched to Elichpur, where they formed a hospital (Dec. 6), and next day they moved for Gawylghur. This stood on a lofty mountain, on a range between the sources of the Taptee and Poona rivers. It consisted of an inner fort on the steep southern extremity, an outer one to the north, and beyond this a strong wall at the village of Labada. To each of these there was a gate opening to the country : but the two first were so difficult of approach, that it was deemed most advisable to make the attack at the wall, though it imposed the hardship of a toilsome march of thirty miles through the mountains. This task was committed to Col. Stevenson, who over- came the enormous difficulty of dragging artil- lery through these nearly pathless mountains ; and on the night of the 12th he erected his batteries. Gen. Wellesley did the same on the south, to oc- cupy the attention of the enemy. On the night of the 14th, the storming party from the north ad- vanced under the command of Col. Kenny, while two attacks from the south were made by part of the troops of Gen. Wellesley. After a short time the fort was carried, with the loss of 126 men killed and wounded. The rajah of Berar had been already negotiating for peace, and the fall of Gawylghur made him re- double his efforts, and, on the 17th, a treaty was concluded. By this treaty the rajah resigned to the English and their allies, the province of Cut- tack, which had been reduced by a force under Col. Harcourt ; he relinquished all claims on the pos- sessions of the Nizam; he bound himself not to em- ploy any Europeans or Americaus without the consent of the Company ; and agreed to separate himself from the confederacy formed against them by Sindia and other Marutta chiefs. Sindia also was now really anxious for peace, and on the 80th, a similar treaty was concluded with him. He surrendered Baroach and Ahmednngur and their territories, and all the country north <>f those of the rajahs of Jypur and Jodhpur, and the rana of Gohud ; in which however his family, and ministers and officers, were to retain their j&gbi en under the British government. Ho gave up all claims on the British and their allies, and agreed to exclude Frenchmen and others from his ser- vice. The Peishwa having had claims on Bundelcund, the British, as his allies, had entered that country and reduced it. The treaty of Bassein was now modified : the cessions he had made in the Deckan and Guzerat were returned to him, and Bundel- cund was taken in exchange. Early in the following year (1804), Capt Mal- colm was sent to Sindia's camp, and concluded with him (Feb. 27) a treaty of alliance, Sindia agreeing to receive a subsidiary force. Treaties of alliance had also been formed with the rana of Gohud and some of the Rajpoot princes. CHAPTER V. War with Holkar— Col. Mor.son's Retreat— Siege of Delhi- Battle of Deeg— Rout of Holkar— Capture of Deeg— Siege of Bhurtpore — Conduct of Sindia — Resignation of the Marquis of Wellesley. Holkar alone now remained to give trouble to the British government. He had been preparing to take share in the late war, and a body of his troops, led by his friend and confederate Ameer Khan, was actually on its march to join Sindia, when tidings of the battle of Assye caused it to halt. He, however, plundered the territories of some of the British allies, and when warned of the consequences of such conduct, and counselled to send vakeels to the British camp, his demands were so unreasonable and so insolent, that orders were sent (Apr. 10.) to Gens. Lake and Wellesley to commence operations against him. Gen. Wellesley, who had expected, and was therefore prepared for this event, sent orders to Col. Murray, who commanded in Guzerat, to advance toward Sindia's capital, Ojein, in order to co-operate with Gen. Lake, who was now moving in quest of Holkar. This chief having been on a real or pretended pilgrimage to Ajmeer, was now plundering the lands of Jyenuger or Jypoor, to protect the capital of which, a detachment was sent forward under the command of Col. Monson. At its approach, Holkar moved southwards, and the British followed, Monsou's detachment being in advance. As the only place which Holkar now possessed north of the Chumbul was the fort of Tonk, fifty miles south of Jypoor, a detachment was sent to attack it ; and by blowing open the gates in the usual way it was carried (May 15). ll.l- kar being now at too great a distance for pursuit, the general, as the hot winds were prevailing and the cattle even perishing, resolved to lead all the troops but Monson's detachment back into the British territory. There seems to have been no neat wisdom in this determination ; for the hard- ships endured and the loss of men caused by the power of the tii tv wind, were such, that it would have been just as well to advance as to retreat. Holkar had been followed by two corps of native cavalry commanded by Col. Gardiner of the rajah of .1 vpoor's, and Lieut. Lucan of the king's service, and Col. Monson, on being joined by Col. Don from Tonk, moved for Kotah, (150 miles S. E. d. 1804. MONSON'S RETREAT— SIEGE OF DELHI. 147 of Ajmeer,) where he arrived early in June. Being joined by some of the rajah's troops, he advanced still southwards to the strong pass of Mokundra on the frontiers of Malwa, and thence to Hinglais- ghur, a fort belonging to Holkar ninety miles north of ftjein, and which was taken without difficulty (July 2). He thence moved further south, in the hope of being able to communicate with Col. Murray. But that officer after advancing some way, had, it seems, lost courage and fallen back ; and Holkar, who had been keeping the Chumbul between himself and Monson, now taking heart, crossed that river, and approached his camp. Monson had been joined by Lieut. Lucan and his irregular cavalry, and by a corps of Sin- dia's cavalry under his cousin Bappoojee Sindia, and by the treacherous advice it is said of this last, he resolved to retire to the Mokundra pass. He set out on the morning of the 8th, leaving the cavalry on the ground, with directions to follow in half an hour's time. They had marched twelve miles when Bappoojee arrived with tidings that Lucan's corps had been cut to pieces by Holkar. The march was immediately resumed, and next day they reached Mokundra. Here they were attacked on the 11 tli by Holkar's cavalry in three divisions, but they repelled them with severe loss. Monson now fearing that the enemy might get into his rear, leaving his camp standing to deceive them, retired in all haste to Kotah, where on their arrival the rajah refused to receive them, or to supply them with provisions. As the rains had begun, the country was all inundated, and on their march for Tonk the guns became so embedded in the mud, that they were obliged to spike them and leave them. On the 29th they reached Tonk. Col. Monson, as he had been directed by Gen. Lake not to retreat, remained here, and he re- ceived (Aug. 14) some reinforcements and a supply of grain from Agra. At length, not considering the place tenable, he left it (22nd) and advanced to the banks of the Banas, which river not proving then fordable, he was obliged to make a halt ; and this gave the enemy time to bring up all their forces. On the 24th, the river was passed in the face of the enemy, but the baggage had to be abandoned, and on the next night they reached the fort of Khooshulghur, to which a party with the treasure under Capt. Nicholl had been sent for- ward from the Banas. Here Monson discovered that some of his troops (which were all native) were in correspondence with the enemy, and in spite of his precautions nearly two companies deserted. The march was resumed next day, the troops moved in an oblong square ; the enemy's attacks were all repelled with great spirit, and at sunset on the 28th they reached the Biana pass. It was intended to halt there for the night ; but Holkar having brought his guns to bear on them, they found it necessary to proceed. All order now was lost ; the different battalions made for Agra as best they could, and on the 31st the last of them reached that city. Monson's retreat was a most unfortunate event, and was the cause of much loss of men and money in the course of the war ; for it led the people of India to think that Holkar was able to resist the English, gave confidence to that prince, and encou- raged the Jat rajah of Bhurtpore to join him, and was near causing Sindia and the rajah of Berar to resume their arms. Monson was greatly to blame. He had been directed to remain at the passes of Boondee and Lakery to the south of Tonk, and he advanced to the Mokundra pass and even fifty miles beyond it, and in the whole of his proceed- ings he showed a great want of judgment and decision 5 . Murray also was culpable in falling back for so trifling a cause, and the commander- in-chief had perhaps no right to retire when he did, and leave so small a detachment as Monson's at such a distance ; he also greatly, and on very insufficient proofs, underrated the power and re- sources of Holkar : and by his orders not to retreat, he was in a great measure the cause of the retreat proving so disastrous. Holkar now advanced with the whole of -his -army to Muttra, thirty miles north of Agra, and Gen. Lake leaving Cawnpore (Sept. 3), marched to Agra, on reaching which (22nd) he assembled the whole of his force at Secundra, six miles off, and thence (Oct. 1) began his march for Muttra. Holkar, leaving his cavalry to engage his attention, sent off the whole of his infantry and guns to Delhi, and on their arrival (8th), they commenced a cannon- ade on that city. Delhi had never been considered defensible. It was ten miles in circumference, surrounded by an ill-constructed wall, in most places without a para- pet. The whole of the troops that could be brought together to defend it did not exceed 800 men, all natives, and some of them merely irregulars, several of whom had deserted at the approach of the enemy ; and they had only eleven guns, while those of the enemy were 130, and their troops counted 20,000 men. So little hope had Gen. Lake that it would be possible to defend the town, that he wrote to the resident, Col. Ochterlony, directing him to abandon it, and draw the troops into the citadel, for the defence of the emperor. But Lieut.- col. Burn, who commanded the troops, resolved to hold the town. The cannonade of the besiegers was kept up day and night. On the evening of the 10th, a party of the garrison made a sortie, and seized and spiked some of the guns. At daybreak on the 14th, the guns of the enemy opened in every direction, and a large body of their infantry advanced with ladders to the Lahore gate ; but they were driven back with great gallantry, and were obliged to leave their ladders behind. Toward evening they made a show of drawing some guns to another of the gates, but during the night they raised the siege and retired. The siege had lasted nine days, and, as Wilson justly observes, " The defence of Delhi only wants an Orme to form a worthy pendent to that of Arcot by Clive." Holkar now moved northwards, and crossed the Jumna with his cavalry at the ford of Paniput. Gen. Lake advanced to Delhi (18th), where he made a needless stay till the end of the month. He then crossed the Jumna himself with the ca- valry, to act against that of Holkar. Their first service was to relieve the gallant Col. Burn, who on his return to his command at Saharunpore, had been surrounded in a small gurree, or mud- 5 " It is somewhat extraordinary," said Lake of Monson, "that a man, brave as a lion, should have no judgment or reflection." He did not perceive that he was unconsciously drawing nearly his own character. 1 18 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1804 5. fort, at Samlee, by the troops of Holkar. These fled at the appearance of the English, by whom they were rapidly pursued. A few days after, Gen. Fraser left Delhi with the infantry and artillery, in pursuit of those of Holkar, which had not crossed the Jumna. He found them (Nov. 12) encamped, with their right covered by a fortified village, and their left by the fortress of Deeg. Early next morning, the British troops, led by Gen. Fraser in person, having made a detour to avoid a morass which lay before it, attacked and carried the village, and then charging down the hill, the first range of the enemy's guns. The firing from the second range, as they advanced, was tremendous, and their gallant leader lost a leg by a cannon-shot. The command now devolved on Col. Monson, and the second range was soon carried. The troops advanced, carrying battery after battery, for a space of two miles, till they came under the guns of the fort. They then re- turned and attacked a body of the enemy's troops, which some battalions had been left to keep in check, and drove them into the morass, where many of them perished. It was the opinion of Gen. Lake that this was the hardest-fought action that occurred during the war. It was a contest less with men than with guns. Eighty-seven guns were captured. The loss of the English in killed and wounded was upwards of GOO men, among whom their leader was included, whose wound had proved mortal. Meanwhile Gen. Lake was pursuing Holkar so closely, as not to allow him a moment's time For plundering the country. Each day lessened the distance between them, and at length, (ICth) the British having marched 58 miles in the last twenty- four hours, fell suddenly by night on Holkar's camp, near Furrukabad. The surprise was com- plete; the men were mostly sleeping, and the horses at picket, when a discharge of grape from the horse-artillery announced their arrival. Holkar, who would not at first believe that they could pos- sibly be so near, mounted and fled with precipita- tion. His loss was about UOOO men slain, but the number of desertions which followed, reduced his cavalry-force to one half. Ho fled across the Jumna, still pursued by Gen. Lake. Holkar joined the remains of his infantry at Decg, and the British general that of Col. Monson at Muttra ('28th), after having, in the course of a month, marched about 500 miles after the flying foe. The rajah of Bhurtpore, to whom Deeg belonged, had been one of the first of the tributaries of the Marattas to join the British in the late war. He had Bent his troops to their aid, and he had been taken into a defensive alliance. lint it had been discovered that he was in secret communication with Holkar; he had supplied his army at Deeg with provisions and protected its baggage, and his troops had openly taken part in 1 1 1 • ■ battle. It was Hi. ri fore resolved to chastise him, and as soon as a battering-train hud arrived from Agra (Dec 13), Gen. Lake laid siege to Deeg. This town was surrounded by a strong mud-wall, with a deep ditch. The Citadel, Strongly built and fortified, stood in its centre. When ;t breach had been effected (83rd), a storming party marched to it in three divisions, at midnight. They speedily made themselves masters of the town, and the next night the garri- son evacuated the citadel. A large quantity of guns, stores, and ammunition, became the prize of the captors. The year 1804 closed with this event. During the time of Monson's retreat, Col. Mur- ray had advanced into Holkar's dominions, and taken Indore, his capital (Aug. 24). He thence moved northwards, reducing various forts, till he reached the Mokundra pass (Nov. 30), whence he advanced to Shahabad, forty miles west of Nauvor (Dec. 25). In the Deckan Gen. Wellesley, his presence being required in Bengal, had left the chief com- mand with Col. Wallace, and this officer, during the month of October, by reducing the forts of Chandore and Galna, deprived Holkar of all his territory south of the Taptee. On the 1st January, 1805, Gen. Lake being joined by the 75th regiment moved from Muttra, to which he had returned from Deeg, and on the third day he came before the rajah's capital, Bhurt- pore. Having driven in Holkar's battalions, which were lying under its walls, he erected batteries against the town, and when a breach was reported practicable (9th), he gave orders for the assault to be made in the evening. But various causes of delay occurred, and when the storming party came to the ditch, they found the water breast-high. Most of the men stopped here, and those that went over were driven back with great loss. Among the slain was the commander, Col. Mait- , land. A breach having been effected to the right of the former one, a second storm was attempted (21st) ; but the ditch, which had been reported to be narrow, and not very deep, was found to have been made to form a sheet of water in front of the breach. A portable bridge which had been brought, proving too short, it was attempted to lengthen it by a scaling-ladder ; but both fell into the water, and could not be disengaged. An officer and some of the men then swam over, and as- cended the breach, but were forced to retire with speed. The whole of the storming party was now drawn off, having had no less than eighteen officers and 500 men killed and wounded, by the grape- shot and musketry of the garrison. Supplies having come from Agra, and the army having been reinforced by Col. Murray's troops, now under Gen. Jones, and a breach effected in another place, it was resolved to try a third as- sault (Feb. 20). At break of day the garrison made a sortie, and were near carrying the trenches in which the storming party was stationed. The men thus somewhat fatigued and dispirited were then formed into three columns, of which one, led by Col. Don, was to advance to the breach, while another, under Capt. Grant, was to carry the enemy's trenches and guns outside of the town, and a third, under Col. Taylor, was to attack one of the gates. The second was quite successful, nnil w;is near getting into the town with the fugi- tives ; the third, having lost, its soaling-ladders, was forced to retire. When. CoL Don ordered his column to advance, the nun of the king's 75th and 76th, which formed the head of it, refused to move. The 12th and 15th native infantry then tool; their place, and gallantly followed Col. Don, and the former regiment succeeded in planting its colours on the bastion ; but the colonel seeing how little hope there was of success, recalled the whole party. The loss of the British, in killed and SIEGE OF BHURTPORE— CONDUCT OF SINDIA. 149 wouuded on this fatal day, was 894 men. Next morning Gen. Lake appeared on parade, and severely reprimanded the Europeans, who had re- fused to obey orders. They all then offered to j volunteer for another assault, which was made that day under Col. Monson. All that valour could achieve was performed ; but there was in reality no breach, the fire of the garrison was murderous, and they flung down on the assailants as they clambered up the face of the bastion, large logs of wood, flaming cotton steeped in oil, and pots filled with gunpowder and other combustibles. Col. Monson at length ordered a retreat, when nearly 1000 men had been killed or wounded. In these four assaults the British had had up- wards of 3000 men killed and wounded, their guns were almost all become unserviceable, their am- munition was nearly expended, and their provi- sions exhausted, and the men were quite worn out with fatigue. It therefore became necessary to withdraw from before Bhurtpore, the only fortress in India that has successfully resisted the British arms. Gen. Lake assigned various causes for his want of success, such as the strength of the place, the number of its defenders, and, above all, the incapacity of his engineers. But surely the blame ought to rest with the man, who undertook the siege under such disadvantages, and who so wan- tonly squandered the lives of his men. The truth is, that like too many other British commanders, he relied on the valour of his men for covering his own want of skill and knowledge. The rajah was, no doubt, elated with the success of his defence ; but, on the other hand, he saw that Holkar could not hold out against the power of the British, and he resolved to endeavour to secure himself in time. His vakeels, therefore, soon ap- peared in the British camp (March 10), where they were favourably received, and negotiations were commenced. While they were going on, the British cavalry was employed in pursuit of Hol- kar's ; and as the rajah appeared to be trying to gain time, the army was moved (April 8), and took up nearly its former ground, before Bhurt- pore. This made him somewhat uneasy, and at length (17th) a treaty was signed, in which he agreed to pay twenty lacs of rupees for the ex- penses of the war, and give one of his sons as a hostage. During the whole course of this war the conduct of Sindia had been very suspicious. He had en- tertained a vakeel of Holkar's in his camp ; he required the British to put him in possession of Gohud and Gwalior ; he demanded to be supplied with money, to enable him to march from Bur- hampur, where he then was, to Cjein; and he even had the audacity to expect, that in the event of his joining a British force, he should have the com- mand of the whole. While these points were in discussion between him and Mr. Webbe, the resi- dent, his camp was entered by his father-in-law, Shirzee Rao, the most unprincipled man even among the Marattas, and a thorough hater of the English ; and he soon gained unlimited power over the feeble mind of his son-in-law. Sindia soon after put his troops in motion, en- tered the territories of the Nabob of Bhopal, and inarched along the north banks of the Nerbudda for Sagur, a city belonging to the Peishwa, in Bun- delcund, on whom he pretended to have some un- settled claims. He invested that fort; but on the remonstrance of Mr. Jenkins, who, Mr. Webbe being dead, was acting as resident, he commenced his march for Ojein. He, however, made such delays, and such positive information was obtaiued of his being secretly engaged in a plan for a con- federacy against the English, that the resident quitted his camp, and marched to a distance of fourteen miles from it. At Sindia's earnest en- treaty, however, he returned, and during his ab- sence Sindia's whole body of Pindarries fell on his camp, and plundered it of every thing of value, killing and wounding about fifty men of his escort. Sindia expressed great sorrow, but pretended that he had no power over the Pindarries. The resi- dent still continued to accompany his march. Sindia at length (March 22) nearly cast off the mask, by announcing to the resident that it was his intention to march to Bhurtpore, in order to mediate between the contending parties. Lord Wellesley, when informed of this design, resolved to be prepared for war, and in case of its accruing to reduce the power of Sindia, to what he terms "the lowest scale." With this view he directed Col. Close, to whom he gave the same extensive powers as had been held by Gen. Wellesley in the Deckan, to make preparations for reducing the southern part of Sindia's dominions ; and he in- structed the commander-in-chief (now Lord Lake) to oppose his march to Bhurtpore, and at the same time to provide for the safety of the resident. Sindia had advanced (29th) as far as Subdul- ghur on the Chumbul. Two days after he was joined by Ambajee Inglia, and some days later (Apr. 7), Ameer Khan left Bhurtpore with the avowed purpose of joining him also. On that same day, Shh-zee Rao marched toward Bhurtpore with a large body of horse and Pindarries, thinking that the rajah was still at war. From Weir, a place within fifteen miles of it, he wrote to Lord Lake, to say, that he had been sent by Sindia to negotiate ; in reply, he was desired not to advance on any account. He did however advance to within a short distance of that town ; but on the rajah's refusal of a personal interview, he returned to Weir, where he was joined by Holkar with about 3000 or 4000 horse, and they proceeded together to the camp of Sindia, who received Holkar in a most cordial manner, and excused himself for it to the resident by his extreme desire of promoting peace. Holkar had been but a few days there, when, with Sindia's connivance, he seized and tor- tured Ambajee, till he made him pay him a large sum of money. Lord Lake at length (21st) was enabled to leave Bhurtpore, and march in the direction of Sindia's camp. On the tidings of his approach, the confe- derates, in alarm, broke up, and marched for Sheo- pore, a town about half-way to Kotah. Owing to the fatigue, the heat, and the want of water, a great number of their men perished before they reached it. Sindia, still afraid of war, kept the resident with him. From Sheopore they marched (May 10) for Kotah, and they moved thence in the be- ginning of June toward Ajmeer. As Sindia still refused to let Mr. Jenkins depart, instructions were forwarded to Lord Lake to be prepared for war as soon as the season would permit. There can be little doubt, that if military opera- tions had been resumed, the object of Lord Wei- r — 150 HISTORY OF INDIA. d. 1805. lesley, namely, making the English the conservators of the peace of India, would have been attained in a short time, and with little comparative expense. The restless, turbulent Holkar would have been totally crushed, and the weak, ductile Sindia have been rendered powerless for evil; while the rajah of Berar, even if so inclined, could not have suc- ceeded in disturbing the tranquillity of the country. But India was not destined yet to enjoy the bless- ings of internal repose ; the extensive and enlight- ened views of Lord Wellesley were not compre- hended at home by the public, the directors, or even by the ministry ; complaints were made of his ambition, and of the costliness of his adminis- tration ; he was represented as a ruthless oppressor of the native princes : his tender of resignation was therefore accepted, and his successor appointed, and in the end of July he quitted India. The Marquis Wellesley was one of the most brilliant statesmen that have adorned the British cabinet ; the man, in our opinion, most resembling the great Chatham. He was the first governor of India who saw clearly that in that country the British power must be all or nothing. His policy, as we have said, was essentially pacific; and the wars in which he engaged, expensive as they were, were wars of necessity, of which the objects were the security of the British power, and consequent on it the promotion of the happiness of the people of India 6 . In Lord Wellesley we have further to admire the noble confidence which he placed in those to whom the execution of his plans was com- mitted, and the kindness and courtesy with which he always treated them ; his zeal for the intellec- tual culture of the servants of the company ; the lofty disinterestedness with which he rejected all share in the treasures of Seringapatam, though proffered by the crown, and the high-toned feeling which led him, on his return, to refuse to accept of office, though pressed on him, while menaced with impeachment for his conduct in India 7 . Little prolific as Ireland has been in great men, she can boast that in Edmund Burke, she gave the pro- found and upright statesman, who first exposed the misconduct of the British in India, and gave origin to the plans formed for its improvement ; in the Marquis Wellesley, the greatest of its governors- general, and the founder of the system on which our Indian empire rests ; and in the Marquis of Hastings the man who completed the system of his illustrious predecessor. 6 Mill, who is very hostile to Lord Wellesley, devotes scores of pages in the case of the wars with Tippoo and the Marattas, to showing their impolicy, and injustice, and iniquity. He is, of course, easily refuted by Wilson. A witness before the House of Commons, in 1832, thus ex- pressed himself; " All our wars cannot, perhaps, be with propriety consi dured wars of necessity ; but most of those, by which the territories we possess have been obtained, and out of which our subsidiary alliances have grown, have been wars, I think, of necessity, and not of choice. For example, the wart with Tippoo and the Marattas." The name of this witness was James Mill. 1 A Mr. James Paull, who had been engaged in trade in Oude.and while there.was under obligations to Lord Wrllcslcy, having purchased a seat in Parliament, exhibited articles of Impeachment against him for his treatment of the Nabob of Oude. A dissolution took place, and Mr. I'aull did not get into ma next Parliament j but Lord Folkestone (the present lvirl of Radnor) brought forward these charges in a milder form, v>itli, however, no success. CHAPTER VI. Lord Cornwallis Governor-general a second time — His Sys- tem — His Death — Sir George Barlow Governor-general— His Policy — Massacre at Vellore — Lord Minto, Governor- general— The Sikhs— Rise of Runjeet Sing— The Afghans — Embassies to Persia— Case of Ruddy Rao, at Madras — Insurrection in Travancore— Mutiny of Officers of Madras Army. The successor appointed to Lord Wellesley was a man of the most opposite character, and most op- posite views of Indian policy. It was the Marquis Cornwallis, formerly Governor-general of India, and lately Lord-lieutenant of Ireland, where his conduct had gained him a name for temper and moderation. Though now far advanced in years, the public eye fixed on him as the man best quali- fied to restore tranquillity to India, and make it (that vain dream) a source of direct wealth to England ; and his own ambition, or judgment, led him to accept the onerous office. But in truth he was a man of merely respectable talents, and of contracted views, yet obstinate in maintaining his own opinions. His system now was simply to re- verse all that had been done by his great prede- Lord Cornwallis landed at Calcutta on the 30th July. Two days after he wrote to inform the di- rectors of his intention of proceeding to the upper provinces to prevent the renewal of war, by which, he said, nothing was to be gained. In a few days after (Aug. 9), we find him writing from his boats on the river. In this letter he says, that without a great and speedy reduction of expense, it would be impossible to renew the war with Sindia and his confederates. It had been a part of the policy of Lord Wel- lesley to induce the inferior chiefs and their men, in the service of the Maratta princes, to quit it, by offering to take them into British pay. Such num- bers of them had come over, that their pay amounted to a large annual sum, and their services were nearly worthless. Lord Cornwallis resolved to dismiss them, and in order to pay them their arrears, he had recourse to his old plan of retaining the bullion destined for China. The system of subsidiary alliances, though it had in some measure originated with himself, Lord Cornwallis totally condemned. With respect to the Peishwa and the Nizam, he hoped in time to be able to withdraw the British from the disgrace- ful participation, as he expresses it, in their in- trigues, oppression, and chicanery. As to Sindia, his plan was "to compromise, or even to abandon the demand, which had been so repeatedly and so urgently made for the release of the British resi- dency; "and also "to abandon our possession of Gwalior, and our connexion with Gohud." The Jyenugur tribute was also to be restored to him, and he was to be permitted to station a force in two districts, reserved to him in the Doab, as the private estates of his family. On his side, he was to renounce the jaghecrs and pensions granted to him in the former treaty, and to settle a pension ,, n the rana of Gohud. As for Holkar, be was to get hack unconditionally the whole of his territories. There now only remained the Rajpoot and Jat rajahs beyond the Jumna, most 01 whom had a. d. 1805-6. LORD CORNWALLIS' SYSTEM— MASSACRE AT VELLORE. 151 drawn on themselves the hatred of the Marattas, by their siding with the British. These, however, he resolved to abandon also, giving to them, in lieu of the British protection of which they had been assured, the territory to the west and south of Delhi, which had not been yet disposed of. He hoped that by union among themselves they would be able to resist the power of Sindia, and keep him from making any attempts on the British posses- sions ; for, he adds, " his endeavours to wrest their territories from the hands of the rajahs of Ma- cherry and Bhurtpore may be expected to lay the foundation of interminable contests, which will afford ample and permanent employment to Sin- dia." So, while the generous policy of the so-styled warlike Wellesley would preserve the British em- pire in India, by maintaining peace among the native princes, the Machiavellian policy of the pacific Comwallis would repose it on the " inter- minable contests," the bloodshed and massacre, the invariable concomitants of Indian, especially Maratta, warfare. Lord Lake wrote strongly remonstrating against this unwise and disgraceful system of policy. But ere his letter arrived, the Governor-general was no more. He breathed his last (October 5) at Ghazipore, near Benares. As the British ministry does not seem to have contemplated the death of a man, who sailed for India, oppressed alike with years and infirm health, and no provision had been made for that event, the supreme power now devolved provisionally on Sir George Barlow, the senior member of council. The new Governor lost no time in replying to Lord Lake's letter, which had arrived the day after Lord Comwallis' death. Lord Lake had urged strongly the ill-policy of withdrawing protection from the native princes on the frontier, and shown that the consequence of their contests would be, that a considerable military force should be kept up to guard the British provinces against the large armies of irregulars that would be contending on their frontiers. He also dwelt strongly on the loss of honour and reputation that would follow such conduct. Sir G. Barlow, in reply, announced his determination to carry out the views of his prede- cessor, which were those of the ministry and Court of Directors. " I am of opinion," he added, " that we must derive our security either from the esta- blishment of a controlling power and influence over all the states of India [Lord Wellesley's system], or from the certain operation of contending and irreconcileable interests among the states, whose independence will admit of the prosecution of their individual views of rapine, encroachment, and am- bition [Cornwallis's system], combined with a sys- tematic plan of internal defence, such as has been uniformly contemplated by this government." This last he preferred ; and surely the celebrated " Prince" does not contain any maxim of what is regarded as its diabolical policy, more coolly avowed. No time was lost in giving effect to these prin- ciples. A treaty with Sindia was concluded by Col. Malcolm (November 23), and another with Holkar (December 24), on the banks of the Beyah, in the Punjab, whither he had retired in the hope of engaging the Sikhs to support him. The rajahs of Boondee and Jypoor, both faithful allies of the British, were sacrificed without a scruple. Even the request of Lord Lake, that the alliance with the last should not be renounced till Holkar had passed his territories, on his way home, was re- jected ; the worthy Holkar was not to be deprived of an opportunity of plunder. These rajahs were weak, but those of Macherry and Bhurtpore had some strength ; Lord Lake's representations in their behalf were therefore listened to, and matters were not precipitated. The British government thus, in the words of the Jypoor vakeel, " made its faith subservient to its convenience ; " and Sir George Barlow, a man of limited mental powers, and apparently incapable of appreciating the Wellesley policy, to the exposi- tions of which he had been listening for years, as far as in him lay overturned the British em- pire in India, by acting in blind obedience to the narrow, ignorant, and shortsighted policy of those who thought that an empire could be gained and kgpt without expense, and that the English could remain only one of the powers of India. It is gratifying to see that no policy has ever been more universally condemned ; not a single writer, of any character, has, we believe, attempted to defend it. Lord Lake, who, though in vain, had made every effort to sustain the honour of his country at this dark period, quitted India as soon as he was able, leaving behind him a character for daring valour, and other high qualities, the memory of which is still cherished by the native army. When the account of the death of Lord Com- wallis reached England, the Directors, with the consent of the Board of Control, appointed Sir George Barlow to be Governor-general. He now applied himself sedulously to what nature had best qualified him for, the reduction of expenditure, and the providing of the Company's investment of goods. The former he reduced to one-half, so that the finances were soon in a flourishing condition. He also introduced the British revenue and judicial arrangements into the newly-acquired territories in Cuttack, Bundelcund, and the Doab. While he was thus engaged, alarming tidings arrived from Madras. The fortress of Vellore, which was the residence of Tippoo's family, was garrisoned by portions of one European regiment, the 69th, and of two native regiments, the 1st and 23rd, the former being 370, the latter 1500 in number, the whole commanded by Col. Fancourt, of the 69th. They had separate barracks, and the officers resided in detached private houses. On a sudden, at about three o'clock on the morning of the 10th July, 1806,a general attack on the English posts was made by the native troops. The main body of them attacked the barracks, into which they poured volleys of musketry and discharges of field-pieces which they had placed opposite the doorway. Others watched the houses of the offi- cers to shoot them as they came out, and others broke into the houses of the other Europeans and murdered all they met. They thus before day had killed thirteen officers, among whom was Col. Fancourt, and Lieut.-col. McKerras of the 23rd, and in the barracks there were eighty -two privates killed, and ninety-one wounded. Fear of the bayonet kept them from entering, and the men defended themselves against their fire as well as they could by the beds and furniture. At length some of the officers made their way to the bar- racks, and placing themselves at the head of the I men forced a passage through the assailants and | 162 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1806. reached the ramparts. They then proceeded to the magazine, but found it in the hands of the mutineers. Being thus disappointed in their hopes | of obtaining powder, they returned to the ram- parts, losing many men in their passage to and fro, and there maintained their ground with the bayo- net. The Sepoys now began to disperse in search of plunder, and many of them who had either unwillingly joined the mutiny, or wished to secure what they had got, quitted the fort. As Arcot is only nine miles from Vellore, intelli- gence of what had occurred reached that place at six in the morning. Lieut-col. Gillespie of the 19th dragoons, immediately put himself at the head of a squadron of that regiment, and a strong troop of the 7th native cavalry, and set out for Vellore, directing the rest of the cavalry with the galloper guns to follow without delay. He reached Vellore at eight o'clock, and found the two outer gates of the fort open, the third closed ; but some of the G9th who had taken shelter over it let them- selves down and opened it. They were obliged to wait till ten for the guns, in order to blow open the fourth gate, and when that was effected the cavalry rushed in and joined the G9th, which with Col. Gillespie had already descended from the ram- parts. The mutineers made no steady resistance ; they were bayoneted by the 69th, or cut down by the cavalry. From 300 to 400 were killed, many were made prisoners, and the number was rapidly augmented by these whom the police or the country-people seized on their flight and brought in. Some were afterwards tried by court- martial, condemned and executed, others dis- charged for ever from the service ; the remainder were pardoned. The numbers of the two regiments were erased from the army-list. Various causes were assigned for this outbreak. Some saw in it a plot to overthrow the English power, and raise one of the sons of Tippoo to the throne of Mysore. But none of these princes could be proved to have had any previous commu- nication with the mutineers, and though some of their retainers joined them, and the standard of Mysore was brought from one of their houses (luring the insurrection, it did not appear that the princes had any knowledge of it. Besides, there were Hindoos as well as Mussulmen among the mutineers, who could not be suspected of any affection for the family of Tippoo. As little reason was there for another suspicion that was formed, of its being a general plan of the Mohammedan princes of the Dcckan for the expulsion of the English. There were only two of these princes, the Nizam and the Nabob of Arcot, neither of whom could have done it without the knowledge of the English, and to whom the slightest suspicion of such a plot did not attach. The true cause was the alarm given to the religious feelings of the men by some silly and injudicious military r filia- tions. There have always been in the British army, more perhaps than in any other, a sort of officers m whose eyes the appearance of their men on parade seems to he of more consequence than their efficiency in the field ; and who, therefore, attach wonderful importance to the minutiae of dress and accoutrements, <>i this class was sir John Cra- dock, who now commanded tin- Madras armv. In his anxiety t» assimilate the appearance of the native to the European troops, he forbade the Sepoys to appear on parade with earrings or with coloured marks on their foreheads indicative of caste, and he ordered them to trim their beards and mustachios after a uniform model. They were also ordered to wear n particular kind of undress jacket, leathern stocks, and use a turn- screw somewhat like a cross in shape. These innovations made the men conceive that it was the intention of the government to make them gradu- ally assume the dress, and eventually the religion of the Europeans ; and their suspicions seemed converted into certainty when a new kind of tur- ban, approaching in their eyes to the form of the hat, was decided on as being lighter, and more con- venient ; for in India the hat and its wearer are identified, and to wear a hat is to be a Christian. The men remonstrated firmly, though respectfully, against the use of the new turban ; but the general and the governor, Lord William Bentinck, were equally determined on its adoption, and the result was the massacre at Vellore. There were also symptoms of mutiny in the troops at Hyderabad and other places, but they were checked by the prudence of the commanding officer. Another marked trait of the English character, and which, if ever we lose our Indian empire, will be one of the chief causes of the calamity, was strongly revealed on this occasion. It is that haughtiness, that supercilious contempt for the peo- ple of other countries, which even on the continent of Europe makes us so generally disliked, though held in respect. None of the officers seemed to have endeavoured to gain the affections of their men, or to have taken the trouble of acquiring a sufficient knowledge of their language to be able to communicate readily with them. The conse- quence was, that out of the whole 1500 Sepoys at Vellore only one man, a private named Mustafa Beg, proved faithful. He came to Col. Forbes, who commanded his regiment, on the 27th June, and informed him of the plot ; but that indolent and supercilious officer referred the matter to a committee of native officers, who of course reported that Mustafa Beg was unworthy of credit, and he was placed under arrest. Tippoo's family were removed to Bengal, and their allowance was diminished. Lord W. Bentinck and Sir J. Cradock were both recalled, as their blind spirit of military absolutism was justly re- garded as tile main cause of the disaster. The wings bad now at length, on the death of Mr. Pitt, come into power, and no one who knows them will suppose that they would let so valuable a piece of patronage as the government of India go out of their bands. While young in office tiny, through their president of the Hoard of Control, Lord Minto, had consented to tin- appointment ol SirG. Harlow ; but they soon found means to with- draw their consent, and nominated the Karl of Lauderdale to the office. To this appointment the Directors, on account of that nobleman's will- known republican and free-trade views, objected in the strongest terms ; and the matter was com- promised by conferring the vacant dignity on Lord Minto himself, who, as Sir Gilbert KUiot, had been active in the proceedings against Warren Hastings and Sir Elijah Impoy, and possessed a competent knowledge of Indian affairs. Sir G. Harlow was appointed to succeed Lord W. Heininekat Madras. a.d. 1807-9. RISE OF RUNJEET SING-THE AFFGHANS. 153 Lord Minto reached Calcutta in the end of July, 1807. The whigs were then out of power, but the tories who had succeeded them were generous enough not to recall him. He pursued as much as he was able the pacific policy of his immediate predecessors ; but he soon had proof that such a course was not then practicable in India. It was found that nothing but force would keep the turbu- lent chief's of Bundelcund in order ; and troops under Col. Martindell were engaged for a space of five years in bringing them to obedience. The ablest of these chiefs was an adventurer named Gopal Sing ; and it was found expedient to termi- nate the contest with him by a grant of a jagheer of eighteen villages. The most important event of this contest was the reduction of the hill-fort of Kalinjer, hitherto deemed impregnable. It sur- rendered to Col. Martindell ill Feb. 1812. The emperor Napoleon was now at the summit of power in Europe. He had for many years had vague ideas floating in his mind of transporting a French army to India and overturning the Anglo- Indian empire. If we may credit himself, he had when in Egypt formed the wild scheme of sending, when he should have made that country a pro- vince of France, an army of 60,000 men mounted on horses, camels, and dromedaries, across the de- serts of Arabia, and those on the Persian gulf, to the banks of the Indus. Another no less wild project was that of sending a force of 16,000 men by sea, conveyed by thirty-two ships of the line. But Egypt had been lost, and Nelson had annihi- lated the navy of France at Trafalgar. The French emperor had lately, however, sent to the court of Persia a splendid embassy under Gen. Gardanne (Dec. 1807), and though the object of hostility really was Russia, with which both were at war, the British authorities in India fancied they saw a French invasion looming in the distance, and resolved to prevent its approach if possible by engaging the intervening powers in its interests. These were the Sikhs of the Punjab, the Afghans, and the Persians. After the death of Ahmed Shah Duranee, the Sikhs being left to themselves, had organized a political confederacy in the Punjab. Their dis- tricts, named Misals, were twelve in number ; each had a principal sirdar, or chief, who was to lead in war, and arbitrate in peace. Such a fede- ration, however, could not long stand against indi- vidual talent and ambition. Charat Sing, the chief of one of the smallest Misals, began to en- croach on his neighbours ; his son Maha Sing made still further progress to dominion ; and his grandson, Runjeet Sing, succeeded in bringing under his authority nearly all the chiefs west of the Sutlej. The Sikh rajahs to the east of that river had proffered their submission to the Bri- tish ; but as, though it was accepted, no promise was made to protect them, Runjeet Sing thought he might venture to reduce them. In Oct. 1806 he crossed the Sutlej, and dictated terms of peace to two contending rajahs ; and finding that the British took no notice he returned in the following year. The chiefs, now alarmed, applied to the resident at Delhi for protection ; but before an answer could arrive from Calcutta, Runjeet had repassed the river. As Lord Minto was apprehen- sive of a French invasion, he resolved to conciliate the Sikh if possible ; and in Sept. 1808 Mr. (after- wards Sir Charles) Metcalf, appeared as the British envoy in his camp. He was received very cour- teously, but was told that the Jumna must be the boundary between the two states ; and to prove that he was in earnest, Runjeet crossed the Sutlej, seized two forts, and exacted tribute. But unfor- tunately for his pretensions, the panic of a French invasion had ceased ; and he was told that he should hold nothing beyond the Sutlej but some districts which he had reduced before the time of the submission of the chiefs ; and as Col, Ochterlony had advanced with troops to Ludiana near that river, and Gen. St. Leger was preparing to follow with more, he gave up his hopes of conquest, and signed (April 25, 1809) a treaty of perpetual friendship with the British government. Ahmed Shah, the Afghan, had been succeeded by his son Timoor, whose reign was long and peaceful. On his death his numerous sons con- tended for the throne. Zeman, though not the eldest, with the aid of his younger brother, Shujah- ul-mulk, succeeded in retaining the throne for about seven years; but having put to death the head of the Barukzye clan, which had aided power- fully in his elevation, Futeh Khan, the son of that chief, joined Zemau's bi-other Mahmud, and Ze- man being taken and blinded, Mahmud mounted the throne. This prince being of an indolent tem- per, and too partial to his Persian guards, the Afghans rose against him and placed his brother Shujah at their head. Mahmud was defeated and taken, but not blinded, a piece of humanity which Shujah afterwards found reason to regret. After Shujah had reigned about five years, Mahmud escaped from prison, and joined his son Camrau who was in arms in the west ; they were also joined by the Barukzye chief, but Shah Shujah gave them a defeat. Instead, however, of following up his victory, he returned to celebrate it at Peshawar. It was at this time that a British embassy reached Peshawar (Mar. 15). It was headed by Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone ; and as matters were not then arranged with Runjeet Sing, it had come through the Sandy Desert and Mooltan. It was received with great courtesy, but nothing of any importance was effected. The news of Napo- leon's invasion of Spain had ended all fears for India; and the money which Shah Shujah asked for, and which the envoy advised to give, and which might have averted that prince's future calamities, was refused. In order to counteract the French influence at the court of Persia, the British ministry resolved to send Sir Harford Jones, late resident at Bagdad, thither as ambassador, and meantime Lord Minto had decided on sending Col. Malcolm who had already been there in the time of Lord Wellesley. As the former did not reach Bombay till April, 1809, his Indian rival had already proceeded to Busheer ; but finding that the Persian court still leaned to France, in the hope of getting her media- tion with Russia, he returned to Calcutta, and on his report Lord Minto resolved to commence hos- tilities in the Persian gulf. In the mean time Sir Harford Jones had arrived at Busheer ; and as the Persian monarch now saw the folly of trust- ing to France, he was allowed to proceed to Teh- ran the capital ; the French embassy quitted that city the day before he entered it (Feb. 14, 1809). Lord Minto denying the right of the 154 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1809. home-government to interfere, recalled Sir H. Jones, who was ordered by the ministry not to obey; he also sent Col. Malcolm back to Persia, and both remained at Tehran till 1810, when Sir Gore Ousley came from England as ambassador. Sir George Barlow was, as we have stated, at this time governor of Madras. He had here many difficulties to contend with, and they were aug- mented by his own arbitrary uncomplying temper. The Nabob of Arcot's debts, that fruitful source of mischief, was one of the principal. As the Com- pany was now to discharge them, it was resolved to examine more closely into them, and in 1805, commissioners to sit in England, with others to collect evidence at Madras, were appointed. These last were, for obvious reasons, selected from the civil service of Bengal. The commission sat for a period of five and twenty years, the amount of claims, real and fictitious, was upwards of thirty millions sterling ; that of those which were ad- mitted to be valid, little more than two and a half millions ! A man named Reddy Rao, who had been the late Nabob's principal accountant, was much in favour with the commissioners. When he produced a bond which he himself held, ano- ther native creditor named Papia denied its au- thenticity, and a magistrate on his charge com- mitted Reddy Rao for trial. As the commissioners regarded this as a mere trick to deprive them of essential assistance, the government at their desire directed the law-officers of the Company to conduct his defence. On the trial the chief justice charged strongly in his favour, but the jury found him guilty. Mr. Batley, one of his witnesses, was then prosecuted for perjury, and the jury convicted him also. Reddy Rao was now charged with having paid a debt to another native with a forged bond, knowing it to be such, and he was again found guilty. The chief-justice, fully convinced in his own mind of the innocence of both defen- dants, instead of passing sentence referred the evidence to the king, terming the defendants " not objects of his mercy, but suitors for his justice ;" in fact as the victims of a conspiracy. A pardon accordingly was granted ; but ere it reached Madras, Reddy Rao had poisoned himself. It appears that the juries had been right, that his bond was a for- gery, and that he had been engaged in sundry fraudulent transactions. Some unpleasant events occurred at this time in Travancore. The rajah, who had been taken into a subsidiary alliance, had had four battalions of the company's troops quartered on him. The subsidy having fallen into arrear, he applied to have the force reduced ; and it really was far beyond what was requisite. The resident, Col. Macauley, in return, called on the rajah to reduce a body of his troops, named the Carnatic Brigade ; but he looked on this as the annihilation of his dignity and au- thority, and declined compliance. In all this affair the rajah's adviser and instigator had been his dewan, Vyloo Tambee ; and the resident therefore insisted on his removal. The dewan affected willingness to resign, but in secret he organized an insurrection of the Nairs, the military class ; ho engaged the dewan of Cochin also in the plot, and wruti letters to the surrounding rajahs, to induce them to share in it. The resident, awaro of what was in contemplation, applied for reinforcements of troops : but before they could arrive, his house was surrounded one night (Dec. 28) by a body of armed men, and on his going to the window he was fired at. Before they broke in, he managed to conceal himself, and their search for him proved fruitless. In the morning, they saw a vessel with British colours enter the harbour, and others standing for it. At this sight they fled, and the resident got safely on board the vessel, which proved to be one of those that were bringing troops from Malabar. Col. Chalmers, who commanded at Quilon, lost no time in attacking the Nairs, who were in arms in his vicinity. He was successful in his operations; but they received such accessions from the south that he found it necessary to remain on the defen- sive, though joined by the king's 12th under Col. Picton. On the 15th January, 1809, the dewan, at the head of from 20,000 to 30,000 men, with 18 pieces of cannon, attacked the British lines before daybreak. But, after a conflict of five hours, he was driven off with a loss of 700 men and 15 guns. A few days after (19th), he made an attempt on the post of Cochin, held by Major Hewitt. Being again repulsed, he spread his forces on the land- side, and covered the sea with boats, in order to cut off supplies ; but a frigate, with the resident on board, came and anchored off the town, and her boats quickly destroyed his flotilla. The dewan, shortly after, was guilty of two atro- cities, which deprive him of all claim to our sym- pathy. An assistant-surgeon, named Hume, being taken as he was travelling by night, was brought before him; and though he knew him personally, aud had been benefited by his skill, he ordered him to be put to death. A small vessel, with thirty men of the 12th on board, having touched at Alepi, they were induced to land by the friendly assu- rances of the people , and they were immediately made prisoners, and were murdered, by order of the dewan. The government of Madras now found it neces- sary to make more vigorous exertions. Col. Cuppage, who commanded at Malabar, was ordered to march his troops to Cochin, and join Col. Chal- mers ; and Col. St. Leger was directed to move with a force from Trichiuopoly, and enter Travan- core on the south. As the most practicable passes of the western Ghats are near the southern extre- mity of the peninsula, this officer selected one of them, named the Arambuli pass. This pass was secured by strong lines passing from mountain to mountain, and fortified by redoubts. But in one night (Feb. 10) the British troops carried the whole of them, and entered Travancore. The; met with little or no opposition : Col. Chalmers (19th) sent out two columns under Cols. Picton and Stuart, which attacked and carried the enemy*! fortified camp near Quilon ; Col. Cuppage entered from the north, and thus the whole country was now in the hands of the British. The resident now proceeded to the capital, and formed a MM treaty with the rajah, by which he was to pay up all arrears, and the expenses of the war, disband the Carnatic Brigade, and some Nair battalions that he had, and leave the defence of his country to the subsidiary force. A new dewan was appointed; and he pursued his unfortunate predecessor, who had sought a refuge in the mountains, with sueh vigour, that he was forced to betake himself to a pagoda, which was an ancient sanctuary. But his pursuers, though Hindoos, violated it, and forced a.d. 1809. MUTINY OF OFFICERS OF MADRAS ARMY. their way to a chamber to which he and his brother had retreated. They found the dewan expiring of wounds, probably self-inflicted. The brother was taken, and was hanged, in the presence of the 12th regiment, in the murder of whose companions he had been implicated. The resident gratified a paltry feeling of revenge, and which was strongly condemned by the governor-general, by causing the body of the dewan to be exposed on a gibbet. The reader will recollect the mutiny of the offi- cers in Bengal, suppressed with such vigour by Lord Clive. A similar mutiny now took place in the Madras army. In this service, discontent had prevailed for some time ; the officers were dis- pleased that the means of acquiring fortunes with which to return to Europe, were now so limited ; they were jealous of the favour which they fancied was shown to those of the king's service, and pos- sibly the recollection of the notorious Sir Robert Fletcher, led them to think that they might mutiny with impunity. As early as 1807 Col. St. Legerhad distinguished himself by exciting this spirit of discontent ; but an agitator of higher rank had lately appeared on the scene. Sir J. Cradock had been succeeded as commander-in-chief by Lieut.-gen. Macdowal, of the royal service. But the Court of Directors re- fused to give him a seat in the council, which his predecessor had held, and, in consequence, he re- signed his command, expressing himself on the occasion in terms of great bitterness ; and he lost no opportunity of fomenting the discontent of the officers. What the double batta question had been in Bengal, an allowance, named the Tent-contract, proved in the Carnatic. This was a permanent monthly allowance to the officers commanding na- tive corps, for which they were to provide their men with suitable camp-equipage whenever it should be required. That this should have been greatly abused can need no proof to any one con- versant with the history of the English in India; and its abolition had therefore been recommended by Sir J. Cradock. It had been approved of by the governments of both Madras and Bengal, and it now fell to Sir G. Barlow to carry it into execu- tion. The officers, unwilling to part with, yet unable to deny the defects of, this system, sought for some pretext to justify their opposition. The matter having been referred originally to Col. J. Munro, the quarter-master-general, he had drawn up a report on it, in which, beside the general ob- jections, he had stated some which were capable of individual application. Those who thought them- selves meant, called on the commander-in-chief to bring him to a court-martial ; but finding that it could not legally be done, they resolved to appeal to the Court of Directors. Gen. Macdowal, just before he left Madras for England, affecting to have received competent advice, placed Col. Munro under arrest. The government, on his appeal, commanded him to be liberated ; the commander- in-chief did not dare to disobey, but, ere he sailed (Jan. 30), he published a general order, stating that his departure alone prevented his bringing Col. Munro to trial for various military offences. The government published next day a very intemperate public order, in reply ; and Gen. Macdowal, having flung the torch of discord, sailed for Eng- land, which he never reached, the vessel having gone down on the voyage (1809). The government now suspended Col. Capper and Major Boles, the adjutant, and dep.-adjutant-gene- ral, for having circulated the late general order. They pleaded the duty of military subordination ; but in vain. Capper then sailed for England, but he also was lost on the passage. Boles refused to acknowledge his error ; addresses were forwarded to him from the different divisions of the army, approving of his conduct, and proposing to raise for him by subscription an income, equal to what he had lost. On the 1st May, the government issued a general order, containing a copious list of removals, suspensions, etc., in which appeared the names of Cols. St. Leger, Chalmers, and Cuppage. The officers of the Hyderabad force were in- vidiously praised in this document, for their refusal to participate in these proceedings ; but they scorned the distinction, and to prove their sin- cerity, published a letter to the army and the sus- pended officers, declaring their resolution to make common cause with them ; and an address to the Governor, calling on him to restore those officers, as the only means of preventing the loss of the British empire in India. The troops at Masuli- patam were now in actual insurrection, and it was arranged that they should unite with those at Jalna and at Seringapatam, and marching to Madras, compel the restoration of the officers, and depose the Governor. Sir G. Barlow had brought matters to this dan- gerous state, by his want of temper and of judg- ment ; for it was now a personal quarrel between him and the officers. He was urged to rescind the orders, but he refused, and perhaps was right in so doing, for it would have been yielding to intimida- tion. All the officers were not engaged in the plot ; he was sure of support from Bengal ; the king's troops could be relied on ; and the native troops in general had declared, that they would obey none but the government. The efforts made to separate their men from them, so much irritated the officers at Seringapa- tam, that they rushed into actual rebellion. They drove the king's troops out of the fort, and pre- pared to defend it. Troops were marched against them, and two battalions that were coming to their aid from Chittledroog, were fallen on by the dra- goons (Aug. 11), and dispersed with no small loss. In the night the fort cannonaded the cantonments of the troops, but without injury. In Hyderabad matters had come nearly to the same pass. Col. Close, who had come thither from Poona, tried in vain to bring the officers to a sense of their duty. They summoned the troops from Jalna and Masuli- patam, and the former had actually made two days' march, when the officers at Hyderabad at length saw their conduct in its true light. They wrote a penitential letter to Lord Minto, now at Madras ; they signed the test that had been pro- posed, and wrote to the other stations, calling on their brother officers to do the same. Their ex- ample was every where followed, and tranquillity was thus restored. Four officers were cashiered by sentence of a court-martial, and sixteen were dismissed the service ; all the rest were par- doned. HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1809-10. CHAPTER VII. Interference with Native States-Expedition to the Persian ' Gulf— Capture of Isle of Bourbon— Naval Disasters-Cap- ture of Isle of France-Of Java-Decoity-llenewal of Company's Charter. Though the system of non-interference with the native states was now the avowed policy of the Company's government, Lord Minto had too much sense not to see the danger of too rigorous an adherence to it. Accordingly, when Ameer khan, for Holkar was now insane, made an irruption into Berar, British troops were sent to the aid of the rajah. In like manner, the government interfered to prevent the Peishwa from oppressing some of his jagheerdars. , An Arab tribe, named the Joasmis, who dwelt on the coast westwards of Cape Musendom, along the Persian gulf, had long been notorious for piracy. They had hitherto avoided attacking British ships ; but of late they had begun to attack them also, and it was now deemed expedient to administer some chastisement. In the month of September an expedition sailed from Bombay, which, after dispersing a fleet of their daos, or small vessels, attacked and took their principal town, Ras-el-Khaima. All the houses, the ware- houses filled with valuable goods, and a great num- ber of their largest daos were burnt. Their other forts were also destroyed, and the navigation of the gulf became secure for some years to come 8 . A still more distant and important expedition was soon undertaken. To those who arc not aware of by how little wisdom the world is go- verned, it may seem strange that the French had been suffered for so many years to hold undis- turbed possession of the Isles of France and Bour- bon, into which their vessels of war continually carried the English Indiamen, or vessels engaged in the country-trade. On the contrary, strict in- junctions had been given to the authorities in I ndia not to attempt their reduction, on account of the expense. The value of the captures had, how- ever, of late opened the eyes of the ministry a little, and they gave permission for more active measures. The ulockade of the ports was first thought of, and the little isle of Rodriguez was seized, and made a depot for the supply of the blockading squadron. But this plan proving use- less, it was finally resolved to make an attempt to reduce the Isle of Bourbon. A small force, under Lieut.-col. Keating, sailed from Rodriguez, and landed in that island (Sept. 20) near St. Paul, the dm f town on the western side. They seized, un- perceived, two of the principal batteries; at the third, they encountered a resolute resistance, but they wire finally successful, and became masters of the town, and the shipping in the harbour, includ- ing a frigate of forty-six guns. A convention was now concluded, by 'which all the public property was surrendered to the English, who then departed with it, and the captured shipping. The success of this expedition induced Lord Minto to attempt the reduction of the whole of the French islands. Early in I810,a large reinforcement was sent to CoL Keating, for another attempt on the Isle of H During the lovornmenl of Lord HMtlngi, II wsi found kllilllll.l. Bourbon. On the 0th July they reached the north side of that island, near St. Denis, the capital ; the troops were divided into four brigades, of which one, under Col. Fraser, was to land at Grande Chaloupe, some miles to the west of the town ; and the other three, under Col. Keating, at Rivieres de Pluies, to the east of it. Owing to the violence of the surf, only a part of the last was able to effect a landing ; they seized a battery, and secured them- selves for the night. Meantime, Col. Fraser had landed without loss, and pushed on and occupied the heights to the west of St. Denis. Next morn- ing (8th), the greater part of the remainder of the troops made a landing at Grande Chaloupe, but before they could advance the prize had been won. Col. Fraser had descended the hill, charged with the bayonet the French, who were drawn up in two columns in the plain, supported by a strong redoubt, and routed them. At four o'clock in the afternoon a flag of truce was sent from the town ; and when the rest of the troops had come up, and preparations were made for storming, a surrender of the island, with the troops and public property, was made to the British. The Isle de Bourbon was thus captured with hardly any loss ; but the British naval force was now to experience some unusual disasters. Three French frigates having run into the harbour of Grand Port in the Isle de France, four English frigates resolved to attack them there. But from want of pilotage, the vessels having grounded, and being exposed to the fire of both the French ships and batteries, one was forced to strike her colours, two were burnt by the British themselves, and the fourth was obliged a day or two after to surrender to a squadron that came round from St. Louis, the capital. On the 29th Nov. an expedition composed of troops from Bengal and Madras, counting about 11,000 men, commanded by Gen. Abercrombie, landed in Grande Baye, about fifteen miles north of St. Louis, and immediately commenced their march for that town. Having made their way with difficulty through a wood, they bivouacked for the night, and next morning resumed their march. But the excessive heat ami the want of water obliged them to halt five miles from St. Louis, in the bed of the Pamplemousse river. In the morning (:ilst) the march was again resumed. Gen. Decaen, the governor, though In- had only 2000 Europeans including the crews of ships, be- side the colonists, and the blacks, resolved to give them battle. But one charge of the English Hank battalion put them to Bight. Before evening the formal surrender of the island was effeoted, and thus terminated the last remnant of French domi- nion in the East As Holland now formed a part of the French empire, it became necessary to reduce her oriental possessions also. The home-government had. with its usual wisdom, only sanctioned blockade, but Lord Minto and Adm. Drury deemed it both wiser and safer to attempt their conquest. In February 1810, a small expedition arrived off Ambo\na, and alter a brief resistance it capitulated. In the course of the year, the Bands islands and Ternate also were reduced, and nothing now remained to the hutch in the East bul Java, which it was determined to attack as soon as the troops should have returned from the Isle of France. A.D. 1811. CAPTURE OF JAVA— DECOITY. 157 On the 1st June, 1811, the troops intended for the expedition were assembled at Malacca under the command of Sir Samuel Achmuty ; Lord Minto had accompanied those from Bengal, but only, as he expressed it, as a volunteer. On the 4th August it anchored in the bay of Batavia. It consisted of 12,000 men, half English, half In- dian ; the Dutch troops in the island, native and European, were about 1 7,000, of which Gen. Jansens, the governor, had posted 13,000 in the lines of Cornells, a strong position eight miles from Ba- tavia. The landing was effected without opposition, and the city of Batavia submitted (7th) ; and thence on the third day the troops marched for Cornelis. On the way they found a portion of the Dutch army strongly posted ; but they were un- able to withstand the charge of the British, and they broke and fled, their loss being very severe. The British followed them to Cornelis. Here the main body of the enemy lay in an entrenched camp between two rivers, protected in front and rear by batteries and redoubts mounting 280 pieces of artillery. The situation was so strong, that Gen. Jansens had no doubt but that he would be able to hold out till the rainy season should arrive, and sickness oblige the English to retire. Ground was broken as before a fortress (20th), and batteries were erected and a heavy cannonade was carried on for some days ; but it soon became apparent that the place must be carried by storm, if a tedious course of warfare was to be avoided. It was, therefore, resolved that a division under Col. Gillespie should make an attempt to carry the bridge over the river Slokan, and the redoubt in front of it, while two other attacks should be made on the enemy's lines in front and rear. On the night of the 26th, Col. Gillespie set out; as he had to take a round through an intricate country it was almost daylight when he came near the re- doubt. He then discovered that the rear division had fallen behind ; but instead of waiting for it he resolved to advance at once, trusting that the noise of the firing would bring it up. The redoubt and bridge were speedily carried, the rear-guard came up as was expected ; other redoubts to the right and left were carried also; the division which I was acting in front forced their way in ; all resist- ance was. speedily overcome, and the enemy fled, pursued by Col. Gillespie with the dragoons and horse artillery for a space of ten miles. The British loss was nearly 900 killed and wounded, including 85 officers. The enemy had, it is said, upwards of 1500 slain, and 6000 were made prisoners. That day decided the fate of Java ; for though Gen. Jansens attempted to make another stand in the. eastern part of the island, he was forced to capitulate, and Java became a British possession. Lord Minto then returned to Bengal, having committed the government of Java to Mr. (afterwards Sir Stamford) Raffles, under whom it attained a degree of quiet and prosperity, such as it had never before enjoyed. During the remainder of the period of Lord Minto's government, his attention was devoted to the internal improvement of the country. Of the measures adopted we can only mention those for the suppression of Decoity, or gang-robbery, which had of late increased to an alarming extent. The Decoits bore au extraordinary resemblance to the Whitefeet, Ribbonmen, and suchlike of Ire- land, with the exception that their chief object was plunder. They formed a society, the chief members of which were fully known only to their sirdars or chiefs. During the day they worked like the rest of the people at trades or agriculture ; at night they repaired with arms to the place appointed : the number of a gang varied from ten to sixty, according to circumstances. Having made an offering to Durga, the goddess of thieves, they blackened their faces or put on masks, and then marched with lighted torches to the village where they proposed to rob some money-changer or shopkeeper, or to take vengeance on some one who had given information against a member of their society. On entering the village they fired a shot as a signal for the villagers to keep at home. They then surrounded the house of their victim, which some of them entered. Unless it was a case of vengeance, or that they met with resistance, they seldom committed murder ; but the tortures which they inflicted in order to get information where property was concealed were appalling and often caused death. They then retired, and in the morning were seen about their usual avocations. Though the peasantry often knew well who were Decoits, they feared to give information, and fear or corruption also restrained the police. The government, by improving the efficacy of the police, and by rendering more certain the rewards for information, succeeded in giving a great cheek to Decoity. In the province of Bundwan, of which Mr, Butterworth Bayley was made magistrate in 1810, the practice was almost totally suppressed within a few months by having recourse to the ancient police system of the country : but this example was not followed, for our Indian govern- ments are in general too full of their own wisdom to adopt the usages of the Hindoos. While such was the course of affairs in India, the question of the renewal of the Company's charter was agitated in England, and the cupidity and selfishness of the various parties was display- ing itself under the garb of philanthropy, and regard for the public interest. Toward the end of 1808, Mr. Dundas wrote to the Directors, to know if they wished the question of the Charter to be brought before Parliament. In their reply they asserted the right of the Com- pany to its territorial possessions, and expressed an expectation that they would be allowed to increase their dividends, and that the country would aid them to liquidate their debt. They said nothing about their exclusive privilege, but seemed to take it for granted that it would be continued. We thus see that they had a view to their peculiar interests. Mr. Dundas in reply denied their right to the territory of India ; thought that any surplus revenue should go first to the liquidation of the debt rather than the increase of dividends, and added that the charter would only be renewed on condition of the merchants and manufacturers of Great Britain being allowed to trade in ships of their own to all places within the limits of the Company's exclusive trade, China excepted. This system the Directors pronounced to be ruinous to the Company and country alike, and hinted that they would not seek a renewal of the Charter. Matters remained thus till toward the end of 1811, when the court, in reply to a letter from Mr. 158 HISTORY OF INDIA. Dundas (now Lord Melville), agreed to open the trade, and in April 1812, they petitioned for a renewal of their charter, on these terms. It is probable that the chief opponents of the Company had on this, as on former occasions, been the mer- chants of London ; for though exports were to he permitted from all the ports, the imports were all to be brought to the capital, the merchants and shipowners of which expected to derive thence great advantages. But Liverpool, Bristol, and the other out-ports as they are named, claimed the right of import also, and sent up delegates to London; and petitions to parliament against the Company's monopoly poured in from every trading and manufacturing town in the empire. It is actually amusing to view the brilliant pros- pects that are held forth by commercial men, when their object is the extension of their own trade ; and how utterly heedless they are of the interests, not merely of strangers, but of other classes of their countrymen ; they drive on their free-trade car like that of Juggernath, crushing all before it 9 . But their anticipations are rarely, or never veri- fied ; they have not in general accurate notions of the real condition of other countries, and of the disturbing causes likely to arise ; and, strange as it may appear, they are as much under the in- fluence of imagination as poets or lovers. Owing, perhaps, to want of regular education, and of cor- rect taste, they love to indulge in figures of speech, and their language teems with personifications. The following extract, which Thornton gives from a petition from Sheffield at this time, will illustrate what we have stated. " If the trade of this United Kingdom were per- mitted to flow unimpeded over those extensive, luxuriant, and opulent regions, though it might in the outset, like a torrent repressed and swoln by obstructions, when its sluices were first opened break forth with uncontrollable impetuosity, de- luging, instead of supplying the district before it ; yet that very violence, which at the beginning might be partially injurious, would in the issue prove highly and permanently beneficial : no part being unvisited, the waters of commerce that spread over the face of the land, as they subsided would wear themselves channels, through which they might continue to flow ever afterwards, in regular and fertilizing streams." The simple meaning of this sonorous rhapsody is, that though they might at first glut (as they know they would) the new markets, yet things might end in the esta- blishment of a regular trade. But such high-flown language from the cutlers of Sheffield ! Whatever we may think of the language, the reasoning, and the motives of the members of com- mercial leagues of this kind, it seems certain that in this country they are tolerably sure to carry their point ; and there only remains for those who see their objects, to smile at their disappointed ex- pectations. The Company, on this occasion, made » Ai an Instance of the justice and philanthropy of manu- facture™, we may take the trade in cotton Roods. While Manchester ami other towns were struggling in the forma lion of silk and cotton-manufactories, they were protected hy a duty of seventy or eighty per cent, ad valorem, in some cases hy a total prohibition, against the competition of India, on which their goods have since been forced without any duty at all, nearly to the ruin of the native artizans. as hard a battle as they could ; Warren Hastings, and many other distinguished men who had been in India, asserted the danger of the proposed mea- sures : but the pressure from without was too strong for the ministry to resist it, and by the bill passed in July, 1813, for the renewal of the Com- pany's charter, the trade of the East, with the ex- ception of that to China, was thrown open to the merchants of Great Britain. As most of the wit- nesses had expressed their apprehension of the evils likely to arise from the great influx of Euro- pean colonists into India, and their oppression and robbery of the natives, the power of granting licenses for residence was reserved to the Company *. But there was another party in the country who acted on far purer and higher motives than mer- chants, and whom the ministers found it necessary to conciliate. The greater part of the last century had been a period of extreme religious laxity ; but the serious tone induced by the awful war in which England was engaged with the French republic, had led men's minds to think more deeply on the subject of religion; and numbers, both of the clergy and laity, had returned to the sterner faith held by the reformers, and from which the Church of England in general had departed. This party now held many seats in parliament ; and as their prin- ciples led them to regard salvation as confined to the holders of certain tenets, they became anxious for the spiritual welfare of their brethren in India, and for the conversion of the benighted natives. Their cause was ably advocated by Mr. Wilber- force in the House of Commons; and by a clause in the bill, it was resolved to appoint a bishop and three archdeacons, to superintend the chaplains of the different settlements in India ; and the en- trance of missionaries into that country was to be facilitated. Lord Minto had written in 1811, expressing his wish to leave India in January, 1814. The minis- try, who with wonderful self-denial had allowed one connected with the party opposed to them in politics, to retain for so long a time so high and lucrative an office, could refrain no longer. The Earl of Moira, a nobleman high in the favour and confidence of the Prince Regent, partly from ambi- tion, and partly, we believe, from narrowness of circumstances, was covetous of the government of India, and the Directors were forced to appoint him. As he was a military man, he was, like Lord Cornwallis, made also commander-in-chief, to in- crease his authority and his emoluments. Lord Minto* quitted India toward the close of 1813, and he died the year of his return to Eng- land. His character stands high among those of 1 European colonisation is a gTeat panacea with Mill for the evils of India. He expatiates on the advantages which might be derived " from a body of English gentlemen, who. if they had been encouraged to settle as owners of land, and as manufacturers and jiicrcliants, would at this time have been distributed in great numbers in India." "The per mission," says Wilson, "has been now granted tin m for several years, and where is the numerous body of respectable English landholders, who sn to render inestimable seivie, it In I In- government, in preserving the peace of the country?" —one of Mill's predictions. On another place Wilson oh serves; " An importance is here attached to the admirable effects of colonisation, which it is safe prophecy to forctel will nev« ba realised ; for colonisation never will, never can take place." d. 1814. NEPALESE WAR. 169 the Governors-general for uprightness, disinterest- edness, and firmness, combined with moderation. He was also a man of cultivated mind and taste, and a zealous promoter of learning, both European and Asiatic. CHAPTER VIII. Origin of Nepalese War— Plan of the War— Failure at Ka- lunga — Capture of that Fort— Failure at Jytak— Operations of Gen. Ochterlony— Of the third Division— Of the fourth Division— Surrender of Malan— Invasion of Nepal— Treaty of Peace. Lord Moira. reached Calcutta early in October, 1813. In the course of , the following year he had to engage in war with a people with whom the British had as yet had few relations. The kingdom of Nepal is a valley, bounded on the south by the last and lowest range of the Himalaya mountains, by a loftier range of which on the north it is separated from Tibet. Its peo- ple are mostly of the Bhot, or Tibetian race ; but Hindoo colonies had settled in it, and their rajahs had made themselves sovereigns of the country. About the middle of the 18th century, the chief of a mountain tribe named the Goorkha, taking ad- vantage of the feuds of the rajahs, made himself master of Nepal, and transmitted the sovereignty to his family. As the dominions of the Goorkha princes ex- tended for a length of 700 miles along the British frontier, from the province of Delhi to that of Purneah, in Bengal, and they were of a restless, encroaching disposition, they had so early as 1785 begun to appropriate portions of the British terri- tory. Frequent remonstrances were made, but to little purpose ; and in 1809 it was found necessary to employ force, to drive them out of some lands they had seized. The encroachments, however, were continued, and even on a greater scale ; all attempts at negotiation failed ; and in 1814 both sides prepared for war. Some of the wiser Goorkha chiefs advised accommodation; but Bhim Sah, who as regent governed for the rajah, who was a minor, was resolved to try the fate of arms. His reliance was on the valour of his regular troops, though only 12,000 in number, the strength and difficulty of the country, the ignorance of the British respecting it, and their want of experience in mountain-warfare. The first question with Lord Moira was, whether the war should be defensive or offensive ; and for obvious reasons the latter mode was preferred. The next was, whether the British troops should in one large body enter Nepal, and march direct for Khatmandu, the capital, or make simultaneous attacks on the long line of the Goorkha conquests. In the former case, great and almost insuperable difficulties were apprehended in marching, and obtaining supplies for a large body of men in so rugged a country ; while in the latter, it was to be expected that the chiefs and their people, who had been so recently subjugated, would take part with the British. The latter plan, therefore, was | adopted; and it was determined to make the attack with four divisions, on different points of the fron- tier. The first division, under Gen. Ochterlony, com- posed of 6000 men, was to act against the extreme west of the Goorkha line. The second, of 3500 men, under Gen. (late Col.) Gillespie, was to move more eastwards, and advance against Jytak, one of the principal fortresses of the enemy in those parts; the third, of 4500 men, under Gen. J. S. Wood, was to march from the frontier of Gorukhpur for the fortress of Palpa ; while the fourth, and largest, of about 8000 men, under Gen. Marley, was to advance by Mawanpur, direct on Khatmandu. The second division was the first to take the field. On the 19th October, its advance marched from Saharanpur, and the main body followed on the 22nd. They moved through the Doon, or val- ley of Dehra, and came before the fort of Kalunga, only five miles from that Doon, situated on a steep detached hill. The fort was of stone, and quad- rangular, and in the usual Goorkha manner strengthened by stockades. Its garrison consisted of 600 Goorkhas, under a gallant chief, who re- turned a bold defiance to the summons to surren- der. Camion having been drawn up, and a battery erected, it was resolved to storm (31st). The troops were divided into four columns, and a reserve ; and it was intended to assail the four sides of the fort simultaneously. But three of the columns having to make a circuit, had not arrived when the signal was given, and a sally of the garrison having been repelled by the remaining column, Gen. Gillespie thinking the place might be carried by escalade, ordered the men to advance to the assault. But the fire of the fort proved too severe, and they were forced to retire. Gen. Gillespie then crying that he would take the fort or lose his life, put him- self at the head of the remainder of the column, and advanced against the gate. The men, however, hung back; and as their gallant leader was waving his sword to encourage them, a ball from the fort shot him through the heart. A retreat was then ordered, and the troops withdrew to Dehra, to wait for a battering-train from Delhi. When the train arrived (Nov. 24), the troops, led by Col. Mawbey, marched once more for Kalunga. A breach having been effected (27th), a storm was attempted, but it was repelled with loss, the num- ber of the killed and wounded exceeding that of the garrison. Recourse was now had to bombard- ment ; and as the interior of the fort afforded no shelter, the garrison was reduced in three days to seventy men, with whom the commandant fled from the place. The gallant defence of Kalunga greatly raised the courage of the Goorkhas, and had a material influence on the future events of the war, which might have been averted had Gen. Gillespie acted with common prudence, instead of headlong rashness. The troops now moved westwards, and came within a few miles of the town of Nahan, to the north of which the fort of Jytak lay, on the point where two mountain-ridges met. Here they were joined (Dec. 20) by Gen. Martindell, who took the command; and having occupied Nahan, he ad- vanced to the foot of the range on which Jytak stood. The ascent was extremely steep and rug- ged, and defended by stockades at various points. As it appeared that the garrison obtained their water from wells at some distance from the fort, it ICO HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1814. was resolved to attempt to deprive them of it, and at the same time to carry a strong stockade, erected for the defence of the water. Two columns were formed ; one under Major Ludlow, to move against the stockade, on the nearest side ; the other, under Major Richards, to make a ditour, and attack it in the rear. Both, however, met with ill-success ; the first was driven back by the enemy ; the se- cond, having taken a position near the wells, gal- lantly maintained it against all the efforts of the garrison, until their ammunition was nearly ex- pended, when they retreated by orders of Gen. Martindell, though Major Richards was confident, that if furnished with supplies he could have held the post. All military operations were now sus- pended in this quarter. Gen. Ochterlony, who was opposed to Amar Sing Thapa, the ablest of the Goorkha leaders, was more cautious and judicious in his movements. This country being very mountainous, Amar Sing had constructed three strong stone forts on the moun- tain-ranges, each as usual supported by strong stockades. The first which the British troops came before (Nov. 2), named Nalagurh, surren- dered when cannonaded. They then advanced against Ramgurh, which stood on a higher range. Amar Sing came to its aid with 3000 regular troops, and encamped with his right on the fort, and his left and front protected by stockades. Gen. Ochterlony deeming the front too strong, moved round their left to take them in the rear. But on receiving intelligence of the second repulse at Kalunga, fearing its moral effect on the troops on both sides, he resolved to wait for reinforcements, employing himself meantime in gaining informa- tion, and preparing for further operations. When the expected troops arrived (Dec. 27) he resumed the offensive, and by judicious movements in the direction of Malan, he drew the enemy from Ram- gurh, and other posts, which were then occupied by the British. The severity of the weather and the ruggedness of the country impeded him so much, that he was not able to attempt any thing against Malan till the spring. The third division did not move till the middle of December. The way to Pal pa lay through a difficult mountain pass, which the Goorkhas had strongly stockaded. The stockade was attacked, ami would probably have been carried, but Gen. Wood thinking that it would be impossible to drive the enemy from the thickets in the rear of it, ordered a retreat. He then confined himself to the defence of the frontier till the spring, when at the express command of Lord Moira, he a/lvanced to the town of Bhotwal, from which, however, he soon retired again to the plain ; and as his troops were becoming unhealthy, they were placed, in May, in cantonments at Gorukhpur. The fourth and largest division having assem- bled at Dinapore near Patna, marched (Nov. 28) for Bettiah. Meantime a force under Major Bradshaw was succesf'ully employed in clearing the frontier forests of the (JoorUias. When the main army reached the frontier (Dec. LS), Gen, Marley, instead of advancing without his guns, as he had l)(:en directed, spent the rest of the month waiting lor them, and this gave the enemy time to recover from the alarm into whieh Major Brad- shaw's success had thrown them. The conse- quence was that they attacked two British out- posts, (Jan. 1) cut off one, and nearly destroyed the other. The troops now lost courage and began to desert ; and Gen. Marley having a most exagge- rated idea of the numbers and courage of the Goorkhas, made a retrograde movement to protect the depot at Bettiah, leaving a strong division with Major Roughsedge to protect the frontier. Lord Moira, though very indignant at the conduct of Gen. Marley, reinforced him so largely, that his forces amounted to 13,000 men. But that incapa- ble officer, after spending the whole month of January in indecision, suddenly quitted his camp one morning before day-break, without having given any notice of his intention. About the end of February, Gen. George Wood came and took the command, but he also acted on a timid policy, and effected nothing. While, however, the fame of the British arms was thus tarnished by the inefficiency of the commanders of these two divi- sions, Major Latter, who commanded a small force further eastwards, not only defended the boundary east of the Kusi river, but formed a useful alliance with the rajah of Sikim, a small hill-state east- ward of Nepal. At the same time Col. Gardner with a body of irregulars from Rohilcund had entered Kamaon to the north of that province, and appeared before Almora, its chief town. Another irregular force under Capt. Hearsey^ also entered it from another side ; but it was routed and its commander made a prisoner by the Goorkhas. A regular force under Col. Nicolls, joined Col. Gard- ner before Almora (April 8), and when everything had been prepared, a general attack was made (25th) on the stockades in front of it. After a brief resistance they were carried, and the troops established themselves in the town. Next morning,after a discharge of mortars on the fort, the garrison capitulated, on condition of being allowed to depart with their arms and personal property. Gen. Martindell was at this time engaged in a blockade of the fort of Jytak, patiently waiting for the effects of famine on the garrison. Meantime Gen. Ochterlony was acting with more vigour against the Goorkhas at Malan. In the month of April the British troops were encamped on the banks of a stream in the valley under the ranges on which Malan stood, while the Goorkha posts extended along the ridge from Malan -to the fort of Surajgurh, most of the peaks being occupied and stockaded. In the centre of the line were two points named Ryla and Deothal, which seemed to be assailable, and the possession of which would cut Malan off from most of its outworks. These Gen. Ochterlony resolved to attack ; and he sent (14th) a column against the former under Major lnnis, and one against the latter under Col. Thomson. Another body led by Capt. Showers, was to move from Ratangurh, a pOSl to the right of Malan occupied by the British, and attack the enemy's cantonments under the fort. These attacks proved, on the whole, success- ful, though Capt. Showers was repulsed and lulled. Next day (16th) every effort was made to strengthen Deothal, as it was certain to ho soon attacked j more troops and two guns were sent ii|. to it, and stockades were formed. As was ax peeled, Amar Sing, knowing that if he let the British remain on the mountain, they would soon reduce Malan, resolved to make every effort to drive them down. He, therefore, placed the troops A.D. 1815. INVASION OF NEPAL— TREATY OF PEACE. 161 under the command of Bhakti Sing, a leader of known intrepidity, for the attack, while he himself remained close at hand with the standard and the reserve. The Goorkhas advanced in a semicircle, turning both flanks of the British position. Though swept down by showers of grape from the field- pieces, they rushed on like lions, and poured in such a close fire, that except three officers and as many men, all who served the guns were killed or wounded. The conflict had lasted two hours, when troops having joined from Ryla, Col. Thom- son ordered a charge to be made with bayonets. At this the Goorkhas broke and fled, leaving Bhakti Sing dead on the spot. Ainar Sing retired with the fugitives into the fort, and the body of the fallen leader was sent in to them wrapt in shawls by the victors. Next day two of his wives burned themselves with his corpse. Most of the exterior works of Malan were car- ried in the remaining days of April ; and on the 8th May, a battery was opened on the principal x'edoubt, and preparations were made for storming. But the main body of the garrison, deeming resist- ance hopeless, now came out and surrendered ; and Amar Sing, after making a show of defence for a couple of days, sent his son to propose a con- vention. It was concluded on the following terms : the Goorkhas were to give up all their possessions west of the Jumna ; and the garrison of Malan, part of that of Jytak, and all the members of the Thapa family, were to be allowed to retire to Nepal with their arms and their private property. Most of the men entered the British service. The defeat of their ablest leader made the court of Khatmandu now rather anxious for peace, and the remainder of the year was spent in negotia- tions. At length it became manifest that the only object of the Goorkhas had been to gain time, and that they intended making another appeal to arms. A force amounting to nearly 17,000 men was therefore assembled at Dinapore, and on the fron- tiers, with which Gen. (now Sir David 2 ) Ochterlony took the field early in February. He divided his force into four brigades, of which the first under Col. Kelly was to move to the right and endeavour to enter Nepal by Hariharpur ; the second under Col. Nicolls on the left by Ramnagar ; while the two last, under Sir D. Ochterlony in person, would seek to penetrate to Makwanpur by the Churia- ghati pass. This pass being found both difficult in itself, and strongly defended by tiers of stockades, it was resolved to attempt to enter by another which was discovered, and which proved to be unguarded. It was a long deep ravine, between high banks covered with trees whose branches meeting over it excluded the light of day. On the night of the 14th, Sir D. Ochterlony entered this pass at the head of the third brigade, and on the fourth day he reached Hetaunda on the banks of the Rapti unopposed. Here he was joined by the fourth brigade ; the Goorkhas having abandoned the stockades in the pass when they found that their position had been turned. On the 27th the British troops encamped within two miles of the fortified heights of Makwanpur, and the following morning they took possession of the strong village of Sek- har-Khatri, which its garrison had evacuated. 2 He was first made a Knight Commander of the Bath, and then a Baronet. At noon, however, the Goorkhas returned in greater force, and endeavoured to recover it. ' Additional troops came on both sides ; and at five o'clock the Goorkhas were repelled with a loss of 500 men, that of the British being 45 killed, and 175 wounded. Next day Col. Nicolls joined with the second brigade. Col. Kelly had, meantime, forced the garrison to evacuate the fort of Hari- harpur. Preparations were now made for erect- ing new batteries against Makwanpur, when the commandant, who was brother to the regent, sent to say that he had received the ratification of the treaty which had been previously agreed on. As Sir D. Ochterlony was invested with political as well as military authority, the treaty was con- cluded with some additional cessions of territory ; and peace was re-established, and it has never since been disturbed. The chief articles of this treaty were the aban- doning all claims on the hill-rajahs west of the river Kali, and restoring all the territory taken from the rajah of Sikim, giving up the Tirai or low- lands at the foot of the hills along the southern frontier, and receiving a resident at Khatmandu. As the Nepalese set an exaggerated value on the Tirai, and the desire to retain it had been a chief cause of their breaking off the treaty, a part of it was restored to them to their great satisfaction. This war was a necessary one ; for, unless where justice plainly dictates, concessions can never be made to barbarians, as they will surely ascribe them to weakness. Had all the command- ing officers been like Sir D. Ochterlony, it would also have been a brief and inexpensive war. It was condemned at home of course from the com- mencement ; but when terminated, the highest praises were bestowed on the Governor-general, who was created Marquis of Hastings, and thanks were voted to Sir D. Ochterlony and the officers and men engaged in the war. CHAPTER IX. Maratta Affairs — Murder of Gangadhar Sastri— Attack on Bhopal— State of things at Maratta Courts— The Pindar- ries — They ravage the British Territory— Preparations for destroying them— Attack on the Residency of Poona — New Treaty with Sindia — British Troops attacked by the Cholera Morbus— Attack on Residency at Nagpiir. In the whole of India now, with the exception of the Punjab, there was no power save that of the Marattas capable of disturbing its tranquillity. These, as we have already stated, formed five in- dependent states, all, however, more or less re- garding themselves as one confederation, and the Peishwa as their legitimate superior. That prince, notwithstanding the treaty of Bassein, and the presence of the subsidiary force, still fondly clung to the hope of seeing himself once more the inde- pendent chief of the Maratta nation ; and what he feared to attempt by force, he hoped to compass by intrigue ; he therefore maintained secret agents at the courts of Nagpur, Gwalior 3 , and Indore. Of all the Maratta princes the Guicowar of Guzerat, whose capital was Baroda, was the one 3 Sindia had made this his residence. HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1815. most under British influence. He was in fact in- debted to them for his political existence ; and the exertions of the very able resident, Major Walker, had disentangled and arranged the embarrassed system of his finances, and restored him to inde- pendence and respectability. In 1804, the lease by which the Guicowar held of the Peishwa, a portion of the revenues of Ahmedabad having ex- pired, the former, with the approbation of the British, applied for a lease for ever, in order to put an end to all cause of future dispute. But the views of the Peishwa were quite different, and he refused to renew. In order to try to effect an arrangement, the court of Baroda sent to that of Poona a man named Gangadhar Sastri, and the guarantee of the British government for his safety was obtained. He met with a very cool reception at Poona, while some agents sent thither from a rival party at Baroda were listened to with favour. Aware that he could accomplish nothing, he was anxious to depart ; but he remained at the earnest desire of the resident. The Peishwa's ministers now altered their conduct toward him ; and Trim- bakjee, that prince's chief favourite and adviser, held several private interviews with him, in which he assailed him on his weak side, his vanity, and not without some success. A marriage also was concerted between his son and a sister of the Peishwa's wife ; and he accompanied the court to a sacred place named Nasik, where the ceremony was to be performed. But in consequence of the refusal of his court to ratify a treaty which he had concluded, he deemed it incumbent on him to decline the proffered honour ; and he still further offended the Peishwa by refusing to let his wife visit at the palace, in consequence of the licentious orgies of which it was the scene. No signs of displeasure were, however, let ap- pear ; and Gangadhar was induced to accompany the Peishwa to another place of devotion at Pun- derpur, though the resident was not invited as usual. One evening, when ho had gone home rather unwell from an entertainment, a message came from Trimbak inviting him to repair at once to the temple to perform his devotions, as it would be engaged for the Peishwa next morning. After repeated solicitations he weut at length, and as he was returning from the temple escorted by some of Trimbak's soldiers, five men rushed on him from behind and murdered him. As neither Trimbak nor the Peishwa would make any efforts to dis- cover and apprehend the assassins, and as Gangad- har had been under the protection of the British, the resident felt it to be his duty to insist on satisfaction. The actual assassins, there is little doubt, were the people from Baroda ; but there is as little doubt of Trimbak and even tin- Peishwa having been concerned in the deed. Tiny refused when called on to institute any inquiry ; and the resident then, from prudential motives, taking no notice of the Peishwa's share, insisted on the arrest and delivery of Trimbak. The Peishwa, alter making every effort in his power to avoid it, was forced to comply, and Trimbak was confined in the fort of Taona "in the Me of S.ilsette. Th: territories of the Nawab of Bhopal, which lay between those of Sindia and the rajah of Nag- pur, wore an object of cupidity to these chiefs. In the end of 1813, each sent an' army to the field ; and the united forces laid siege to" the capital. A gallant defence was made by the Nawab and his son, and all the assaults of the besiegers were repelled ; but famine at length began to prey on the garrison, and death and desertion reduced their number to about GOO men. Still they did not yield ; and at length the retirement of the Nag- pur troops, for what cause is unknown, obliged those of Sindia also to withdraw. The rajah of Nagpur died in 1815 ; and as his heir was delicate and of weak intellect, it was found necessary to appoint a regent. After the usual struggle of parties the office was, with the consent of the resident, conferred on Apa Sahib, a nephew of the late rajah. As the opposite party were hostile to the British power, Apa Sahib deemed a close connexion with it his surest policy, and he signed the treaty of subsidiary alliance for which they had so long been anxious. Sindia, after his disappointment at Bhopal, remained quiet, but brooding over plans of ven- geance which he did not perhaps even dream of -executing. His great object was to establish the supreme authority of the Peishwa and consolidate the Maratta empire ; and he secretly had agents at Poona and Nagpur, and received rakreh from Nepal and from Runjeet Sing the Sikh. The leaders of the Pindarries had pledged themselves to obey his orders. The court of Indore had been the scene of atro- cities and profligacy. On the death of Holkar Tulasi Bai, a woman of low rank but of beauty and talent, whom he had made his wife, having no chil- dren of her own, placed on the throne his son by a woman of inferior rank whom she had adopted, and she reigned in his name as regent. She was assisted by Balaram Seth as minister, and by Ghapur Khan, the brother-in-law of Ameer Khan, as commander of the forces. But when the for- mer reproached her with her licentiousness, she caused him to be murdered. The latter then took arms to punish her, and after making a gallant charge herself in person at the head of the Ma- ratta horse, she was obliged to take flight. A reconciliation was then attempted between her and Ameer Khan, under whom Ghapur Khan only acted ; but events of greater importance just then occurred which attracted the attention of all parties. During all this time, Ameer Khan was at the head of a large freebooting party in Rajputana, now aiding one Rajput chief against another, and now plundering on his own account. We have more than once had occasion to men- tion the Pindarries. These were bodies of irregular light-horse, which served without pay, receiving in lieu of it license to plunder. They had originated, it is said, in the time of the Maliommedan king- doms of the Deokan ; they had always served with the Marattas; and when Holkar and Sindia obtained territory themselves, tiny assigned portions of it on the Nerbudds to bodies of these marauders, which were named the Holkar Shahi, and the Sindia Shalii l'mdarries ; of which, the latter were by far the more numerous. The Pindarries were divided into several Durras, or companies, and tin ir principal leaden at this time were Cheetoo,a J.'it, K.nim Khan, a Uohilla, and Dost and Wasil Mohammed, the sons of an officer of raid; in the Nagpfir service. Then was, as we may observe, | no distinction of religion made among them : any A.D. 1815-17. THE PINDARRIES— PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. 163 one who would might join their bands. In their plundering excursions they presented an anomalous appearance ; the leaders and a portion of the men were well armed and mounted, while the rabble rode ponies, and had all sorts of arms, from the matchlock and sword down to the club and pointed stick. They moved with great secrecy and cele- rity, avoided encounters with regular troops, and carried off every thing of value that they could lay their hands on. For a long time they shunned the British terri- tory, confining their ravages to those of the Peishwa, the Nizam, and the rajah of Berar, which they plundered regularly every year. At length, in January, 1812, a body belonging to the party of Dost Mohammed, ventured to penetrate through Bundelcund into Bahar, where they spread great alarm. They retired at the approach of the troops, but with so much booty as held out a strong in- ducement to repeat the attempt. The following year Cheetoo plundered in the district of Surat; but a conflict between him and the leaders of Karim Khan's party, in which he was worsted, and forced to fly, prevented any thing more from being attempted that year. At the end of 1815, the Pin- darries entered and plundered the district of Ma- sulipatam, and in the following spring a large body of them committed fearful ravages during ten days in that district, and those of Guntoor and Cudipah. In December they appeared in the northern Cir- cars. The population was every where flying to the hills and woods for safety ; and it was feared that they would have plundered the far-famed temple of Juggernath. Lord Hastings had seen clearly from the very j beginning the absolute necessity of exterminating the Pindarries, if the peace and tranquillity of India were to be preserved. But the timid policy with respect to the East which was now in vogue in England, their own ignorance, and their dread of the senseless clamour of the opposition, deterred the British ministry from sanctioning the states- man-like views of the Governor-general. Accord- ing to the usual practice of giving places of high trust and confidence to those who have most power and influence, not to those best qualified to fill them, the celebrated Mr. Canning was now President of the Board of Control, and certainly no one more ignorant of the real condition of India ever occupied that position ; and the feeble timid policy which he enjoined, would speedily have lost that empire to England. Fortunately, the audacity of the Pindarries came to the aid of Lord Hastings, and he was suffered to pursue his own plans. His first measure was to inform Sindia that the British government would no longer continue to observe that article in the treaty of 1805, which precluded it from forming alliances with other native states. As soon as this determination was made known, nearly all the Rajput rajahs, and other minor powers, applied to be taken into al- liance ; and though treaties were not immediately concluded with all, they became allies in effect. Ameer Khan, too, offered the services of himself and his troops, if guaranteed in his actual posses- sions. Sindia remained tranquil. Two events occurred at this time, which proved of future importance. The young rajah of Nag- pur died suddenly, and whether his death was natural or otherwise could not at the time be accurately ascertained. At all events, there ap- peared no proof that Apa Sahib was concerned in it ; and he therefore succeeded to the vacant dig- nity. The other was the escape of Trimbak from Tanna. He immediately set about collecting troops; and though the Peishwa affected to be making exertions to take him, it was ascertained that lie had had secret interviews with him, and had sent him supplies of money, and that he was strength- ening his fortresses. Mr. Elphinstone, the resi- dent, directed the subsidiary troops of both Poona and Hyderabad to act against Trimbak's levies. They were accordingly speedily dispersed ; and the Peishwa, in consequence of his duplicity, was com- pelled to sign at Poona a treaty, far more strin- gent than that of Bassein. He was obliged to renounce all claims of supremacy over the other Maratta states, and all territorial rights and claims in the countries north of the Nerbudda. Toward the end of 1817, Lord Hastings having matured his plans, prepared to act against the Pindarries. The troops of Bengal, about 61,000 in number, were formed into four main and two minor divisions. The centre division, under Lord Hastings himself, was at Cawnpore ; the right, under Gen. Donkin, at Agra ; the left, under Gen. Marshall, in Bundelcund ; and on its left were the two smaller divisions, one under Gen. Hardyman, near Mirzapur ; and the other, under Gen. Toone, on the frontiers of South Bahar ; the fourth divi- sion, the reserve, under Sir D. Ochterlony, was to cover Delhi. The army of the Deckan, under Sir T. Hislop, Commander-in-chief of the Madras army, formed five divisions, respectively com- manded by Sir T. Hislop, and by Gens. Doveton, Sir J. Malcolm, Lionel Smith, and Col. Adams. These, with the troops from Guzerat, under Gen. Keir, formed a force of 52,000 men ; and the entire British force thus called into action, amounted to 113,000 men, with 300 pieces of ordnance. Before any of these troops had commenced acting against the Pindarries, the Peishwa madly rushed into war. He had hardly signed the treaty of Poona, when he renewed his intrigues with the other Maratta chiefs ; he commenced a levy of troops, of which he collected a large number about Poona ; and he made every effort to seduce the native officers and men in the British service from their allegiance. Though Mr. Elphinstone knew of his practices and intentions, he did not stop the march of the troops that were to act against the Pindarries; and the principal precaution which he adopted, was to move the quarters of the troops which had been cantoned on the east of the city to Kirki on the north, where there could be a ready communication with the residency which was on that side. To this the Peishwa, who knew the cause, strongly objected, but to no purpose ; the troops moved to their new quarters, where they were joined by some reinforcements. The Peishwa now sent to the resident to say, that unless the newly-arrived troops were sent away, and the rest cantoned in a place which he should point out, he would leave Poona. The resident declined compliance; and as bodies of the Peishwa's troops were now moving to get between the residency and Kirki, he set out and joined the troops. The Marattas then entered the grounds of the residency, where they plundered and burned the buildings. m 2 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1817- The Maratta troops were about 10,000 horse, and as many foot strongly posted, and with their centre protected by a large train of artillery. Tbe British troops, all infantry, were not quite 3000 men. We have more than once had occasion to notice the culpable temerity of British officers in attacking forts with insufficient numbers, and in ignorance of their real condition ; but in the open field temerity had never failed to triumph. Acting on this principle, Mr. Elphiustone and Col. Burr, who commanded the troops, resolved to be the assailants, and to advance without a moment's delay. We need hardly add that their boldness was crowned with complete success, and that, with trifling loss on their own side, they put the enemy to flight. A few days after, Gen. Smith arrived with his troops; and the Marattas who had resumed their former position retired iu the night, when they found the British preparing to attack them. The Peishwa now fled to Poorundur. During the month of November, the first, third, and fifth divisions of the army of the Deckan crossed the Nerbudda,and occupied thewholeof the Pindarrie territory. The Pindarries fled to the north and west, and the head-quarters of the army of the Deckan were now advanced a little to the north of Ojein Sindia's former capital. Meantime Sindia, menaced on one side by the Governor-general, and on the other by Gen. Don- kin, and all his secret dealings with the Peishwa, the Pindarrie chiefs, and the Nepalese being dis- covered, was obliged to sign (Nov. 6) a new treaty, binding himself among other matters, to aid to the utmost of his power in the destruction of the Pin- darries. The very week in which the treaty was signed, the camp of Lord Hastings was assailed by an enemy far more formidable than the troops of Sindia, or the Pindarries. The disease, known by the name of the spasmodic, or Indian cholera, had at all times committed its ravages iu India at par- ticular seasons, and in particular situations ; but about the middle of this year, it assumed the ap- pearance of an epidemic, and commencing in the east of Bengal, it gradually advanced westwards, and by the middle of November it overspread the whole camp of the centre division. Camp- followers, native soldiers, and Europeans, all were swept away by it ; the deaths in the week of its greatest intensity were 764 soldiers and 8000 camp followers. Fortunately it is the nature of this complaint not to remain long in one place; and either from this or from the circumstance of the troops being moved to higher and drier ground, it disappeared early in December. During the remainder of the year the Pindarries were hunted by the troops of the right division of tlir Bengal, and the fifth of the Deckan army, and their leaden now roamed about at the head of a few dispirited followers. Ameer Khan was also forced to disband his troops anil to ratify the alliance which had been arranged. If there was any Maratta prince who had a right to remain attached to uu British, it was A pa Sahib, <>f Nagpur, for it was to their Bupport he was indebted for Ins rank and power. He could not, however, refrain li i intrigue, and he was soon engaged iu secret negotiations with the Peishwa, Sindia, and even the I'iud.irries. His presumption and infatuation were such, that even after the attack on the residency at Poona was known, he accepted from the Peishwa the title of Seuapati, or Commander-in-chief ; and on the day in which he was publicly invested with it (Nov. 24), he displayed the Zeri Patka, or golden banner of the Maratta empire. He had also the audacity to invite Mr. Jenkins, the resident, to be present at this ceremony, asserting that he saw no reason why it should give any offence. The resident, how- ever, viewed the matter in a different light ; and as Apa Sahib's intentions were evidently hostile, preparations were made for the defence of the residency. The residency lay to the west of Nagpur, beyond a low range called the Sitabaldi hills. As the sub- sidiary force had moved against the Pindarries, the resident had only his escort of 400 men ; as there happened, however, to be a small detachment under Col. Scott, only three miles off, it came to the defence of the residency : but still the whole force amounted to only 1300 men; while the rajah's troops, which lay on the other side of the city, con- sisted of 12,000 horse and 8000 foot, 3000 of which last were Arabs. As the Sitabaldi range was ter- minated by two elevations, Col. Scott placed troops on each of them, and the rest of the troops were disposed about the residency. In the early part of the day of the 26th, the rajah's cavalry was seen disposing itself in masses to the west of the residency, while infantry with guns were taking positions between it and the city. Still the rajah talked of peace ; and two of his ministers were actually, toward sunset, in con- ference with the resident, when the Arabs assailed the troops posted on the Sitabaldi hills. The firing was continued through the night ; in the morning (27th) the Maratta army appeared, in dark dense masses of horse and foot, to the south and west of the British position ; and the Arabs, after disabling one of the only two guns the British had on the northern eminence, rushed up the hill, and drove them from that post, to which they then brought up guns, and commenced a cannonade on the right of the line below in the plain. They also advanced up to the other eminence ; the main Maratta army kept closing round, and their guns had already begun to take effect on the small body of horse posted at the residency, when Capt. Fitzgerald, who commanded it, though his orders were to stand firm, made a dash at the foremost masses of the enemy, charged through them several times, dispersed them, seized their guns, and turned them against them, and then returned to his position. The sight of this gallant exploit gave fresh oonrage to the Sepoys on the hill ; they drove the Arabs back, and finally forced them down the hill again with the loss of two of their guns. A fourth of the numbers of the victors, including seventeen officers, were killed or wounded; but Indian history dors Dot include a more gallant action 4 . wii.n his troops had thus been routed, Apa Sahib sent to express his regret for what had 1 A part (if thil force was the 21th Madras infantry. As the Bnl battalion of tiiis regiment had been concerned In the Vellore msitacie, Iti name bad been struck out of the list. A petition was presented from tlic native otliccrs anil nun, praying, in lieu of any other recompense, for the rep mi rii s being rettored to its former number, ami being allowed to resume its former lacings. The prayer of these gallant ami loyal men was granted, of course. A.D. 1817-18. BATTLE OF MAHIDPOll. occurred, and to say that they had acted without his knowledge or consent. He was required to remove his troops to their original position, as the condition of the suspension of hostilities, and he did as required. Reinforcements now came daily to the British ; and finally (Dec. 13), Gen. Doveton, with the whole of the second brigade of the army of the Deckan, encamped at Sitabaldi. Prepara- tions were now made for attacking the rajah's army. If he wished to avert the attack, he was told that he must disband his troops, surrender his ordnance, put the British in temporary possession of Nagpiir, and come to reside for a time at the residency. He assented to these terms late in the day of the 15th, and that night the troops lay on their arms in the field in order of battle. In the morning he sent to say that the Arabs would not suffer him to leave the camp. The troops then prepared to attack ; but before they advanced, word -was sent to Apa Sahib to say that he still might come in, and soon after he x-ode into the lines. At noon, after making as much delay as he could, he sent one of his ministers to deliver up the ordnance. An advance-battery was taken possession of without opposition ; but when the troops advanced to the main body they were re- ceived by a fire of musketry and cannon. They rushed on, and soon carried a battery on the left ; and the cavalry which had been in the action then carried another battery, and pursued the Maratta horse for a distance of three miles. Meantime the infantry had routed the right and centre of the Marattas, and captured their artillery. The Arabs now joined by some Hindustanees, the whole amounting to about 5000 men, threw them- selves into the palace and occupied the approaches to it. Batteries were erected against it with such guns as were at hand ; and an attack was made on the principal gateway, which however failed. It was then resolved to wait for heavy artillery ; but the Arabs now offered to capitulate on being allowed to depart with their families and property, and receiving 50,000 rupees in addition to their arrears of pay. These terms were granted, and they departed. Apa Sahib was restored to his throne, though it had been Lord Hastings' firm determination to depose him ; but as Mr. Jenkins had guaranteed him his rank, his Lordship would not interpose. It is needless to give the terms of the treaty now concluded with him, as he after- wards violated them, and brought on his deposi- tion. CHAPTER X. Battle of Mahidpur— Final Reduction of the Pindarries— Pursuit of the Peishwa— Affair at Korijaon— Deposition of Peishwa— Battle of Ashti— Deposition of Apa Sahib- Surrender of Peishwa— Concluding Adventures of Apa Sahib, and Cheetoo, the Pindarri— Settlement of India- House of Palmer and Co.— King of Oude— Departure of Lord Hastings— Bishop Middleton. Sir T. Hislop was meantime engaged with the troops of Holkar. Tulasi Bai, and her favourite Ganpat Rao, anxious to escape from the violence of their soldiery, had solicited an asylum within the British lines. The asylum was offered ; but the military commanders, Roshan Beg and Ram Din, knowing that the consequence of this arrange- ment would be the disbanding of the troops, and the annihilation of their own power, seized (Dec. 19) Ganpat Rao and Tulasi Bai in the night, and at dawn next day decapitated the latter. They then with Ghafur Khan and other leaders bound themselves by oath to be faithful to each other, and by acting in the name of the young rajah, prepared to engage the British army which was at hand. Before daybreak on the 21st Sir T. Hislop put his troops in motion, and marching along the river Sipra, found the enemy drawn up on the other side of that river opposite the town of Mahidpur. The banks of the river were high, and there was only one ford ; the troops, however, crossed without much loss ; but as they emerged from a ravine leading up to the plain, they were exposed to a heavy cannonade. They however formed, and then attacking the enemy on the right and on the left, drove them off the field. The centre was then attacked with equal success ; and the pursuit was continued till dark. The loss of the British was nearly 800 killed and wounded, that of the enemy was said to be 3000 or more. The battle of Mahidpur in effect broke the power of the Holkar family ; but as the troops still retained a hostile attitude, Sir J. Malcolm moved with a division to disperse them. The Maratta ministers, however, made overtures of peace to him ; and on the 6th January, 1818, a treaty was concluded, which virtually, though not formally, was one of subsidiary alliance. The Pindarri chiefs, Karim Khan and Wasil Mohammed, had been present with their Durras at the battle of Mahidpur. As all the Maratta powers had now been reduced, the pursuit of them, and Cheetoo, and the other leaders, was resumed with vigour. It would be wearisome to relate the details of the several hunts that were kept up after them ; suffice it to say, that with the exception of Cheetoo, who sought refuge in Berar, all the leaders had surrendered before the end of February, and the Pindarri system and power was brought to its close. They were removed to Gorakhpur, where they obtained grants of lands for their subsistence. Karim Khan became there a peaceable, industrious farmer ; but Wasil Mo- hammed, impatient of restraint, attempted to make his escape, and took poison, and died, when he found that he could not effect his purpose. There now remained only the Peishwa to be reduced. Being followed to Poorundur by Gen. Smith, he moved thence to Sattara, the abode of the descendant and representative of Sevajee, and carrying that prince and his family with him, he went on southwards ; but fearing to fall in with the reserve, under Gen. Pritzler, he turned back, and being joined by Trimbak with some troops from Candeish, he pushed on, in the hope of pene- trating into Malwa, and inducing Sindia and Hol- kar to aid him. Finding this course impracticable, he turned westwards, and made for Poona, in the hope of reaching it before Gen. Smith could ar- rive ; and on the last day of the year he was at Chakam, within eighteen miles of that city. Col. Burr, on hearing of the approach of the Peishwa, sent for reinforcements to Seroor. A 106 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1818-19. native battalion 600 strong, with two guns and twenty-six European artillerymen, and a body of 350 native horse, were sent, under the command of Capt. Staunton. On New year's day, on reaching some high ground, they beheld the Peishwa's army of about 20,000 horse and 8000 foot, lying beyond the river Bhima. Capt. Staunton immediately re- solved to throw himself, into a village named Kora- gam, on the banks of that stream. His purpose when he began to move thither being guessed, a strong body of infantry, mostly Arabs, was sent to occupy it, and both parties entered the village at the same time at opposite ends. Each party pre- pared to dislodge the other, and at noon the con- flict began. The British were at first the assail- ants, but being repelled by superior numbers, they were in their turn obliged to act on the defensive. The Arabs, though blown away by the cannon, or driven off by the bayonet, still rushed on like lions, and toward evening they succeeded in capturing one of the guns. They then got into a Choultry, in which the wounded had been placed, and began slaughtering them; but a party of the British" i and likely to be of injurious consequence ; but Sir I ! rushed in, and bayoneted every man that had entered : the rest were then driven off, and the gun was recovered. The British had had two officers, twelve gun- nel's, and fifty native infantry killed ; and three officers, eight gunners, and 103 natives wounded ; and there were near 100 of the horse killed, wounded, and missing. Some, therefore, spoke of surrender- ing ; but Capt. Staunton diverted them from this course, and at nine the Arabs quitted the village. Preparations were made during the night for re- newing the defence ; but before daylight next morning the Peishwa marched away, on hearing of the approach of Gen. Smith. Capt. Staunton led his gallant little band back to Seroor in tri- umph. The Peishwa was now hunted backwards and forwards by the divisions of Generals Smith and Pritzler. These joined (Feb. 8) at Sattara ; and the fort having surrendered, the flag of the rajah was hoisted, and a proclamation issued, announcing the deposition of the Peishwa. The pursuit was then renewed ; and at a place named Ashti, Gen. Smith came up early one morning (20th) with his army, as it was preparing to march. The Peishwa, according to his custom, mounted his horse and fled; but his faithful general, Gokla, made a stand, in order to cover his flight. In the action which ensued, Gen. Smith was wounded, and Gokla slain ; and the whole of the camp, with much valuable property, fell into the hands of the Bri- tish. The rajah of Sattara and his family, who were in the eamp, claimed the British protection. The .bleat at Ashti, and the death of Gokla, proved the utter ruin of the affairs of the Peishwa in the south. All the chiefs hastened to proffer their allegiance to the British, or to the rajah of Batten. Ihe Peishwa, as the rajah of Nagpur bad sent secretly offering to join him, endeavoured to get into Ber&r; but bis troops were met, and scattered, and he Red with only a small party towards Bnrhanpur. In the beginning of April, the rajah of Sattara was formally Installed in the principality which he was to bold under the British protection. The ■ munications of A.p* Sahib with the Ptishwa,and his inveterate hostility to the British having been ascertained, beyond a doubt, Lord Hastings was resolved to deprive him of his power. Accordingly, he was formally deposed, and was sent a prisoner to Hindustan. But on the way, he contrived to make his escape, and he found refuge with one of the Gond chiefs, of the Mahadeo hills, who refused to give him up, though offered a large reward. The Peishwa himself, weary of a life of flight and terror, and aware of the utter hopelessness of the contest, made a voluntary surrender of himself (June 1) to Sir J. Malcolm. He struggled hard to be allowed to retain his dignity ; but on being solemnly assured that compliance was impossible, he at length accepted the terms offered, which were an allowance of not less than eight lacs of rupees a year, and a liberal attention to his re- quests in favour of such of his followers as had been ruined by their devotion to his cause. He was to reside at Benares, or some other sacred place in Hindustan. Lord Hastings ratified these terms, though he regarded them as too favourable. J. Malcolm vindicated his policy, and none of the apprehended dangers have since occurred. At all events, if an error, it was on the right side. The deposed Peishwa has lived ever since in peace and tranquillity. Trimbak, who was excepted from pardon, was taken some time after, aud was kept a prisoner at Chunar till he died. The Maratta power, once so formidable, was now at an end. The two great armies which Lord Hastings had assembled had been dissolved in the month of January, and only small divisions of them remained in the field. These were employed in reducing such fortresses as still held out, and in bringing under obedience the Bheels, and other aboriginal tribes of the Vindhya mountains and forests. The Arabs, who had been in the service of the Maratta princes, being dangerous from their valour and ferocity, were gradually reduced in number ; and most of those that remained were forced to quit India, and return to their own wilds. It was now found necessary to take active mea- sures for the reduction of Apa Sahib. The Maha- deo hills, in which he had taken refuge, are a clus- ter lying to the south of the Nerbudda, about eighty miles from Nagpur. They were BOVered with thickets, and they contained a great place of pilgrimage — a temple of the god Mahadeo, or Seem Hither resorted to him Marattas, Arabs, Pindarries, and other adventurers, to the number of 20,000, as is supposed ; and they carried on a desultory kind of warfare against the British. In the commencement they bad some partial success, and Capt. Sparkcs, and two companies of native infantry, were cut to pieces by them ; they also took the town of Multai, and came within forty miles of Nagpur. Throughout the remainder of the year, the British had to continue this harass- ing species of warfare ; but early in the following year (181!)) it was abandoned, and preparations were made for a concentrated attack on Apa Sahib's head-quarters, Put that chief, knowing his in- ability to make an effectual resistance, would not await the attack. Accompanied by (heetno, the Pindarri, and a few horsemen, he set out for Aseerghur, a Strong fortress of Sindia's, the killi- dar of which he knew to be friendly. Though the a.d. 1819-23. HOUSE OF PALMER AND CO.— BISHOP M1DDLETON. 163 British, when aware of his flight, had guarded all the roads leading to that tort, he contrived to enter it ; but the killidar would not admit Cheetoo and his followers. When, however, the British had driven them under the walls, a fire of matchlocks from the fort repelled their pursuers, and enabled them to escape. Apa Sahib did not remain long at Aseer. In the disguise of a religious mendicant, he made his way first to Burhanpur, and then to Malwa. He was proceeding to Gwalior ; when, finding that Sin- dia would not receive him, he went on to the Pun- jab, where Runjeet Sing gave him shelter. He then went, and stayed some years with a petty rajah, in the Himalaya ; and, finally, he was allowed to return, and reside in Jodhpur, the rajah being security for his good conduct. Cheetoo having lost all his followers, endeavoured to escape into Malwa ; but finding a pass of the Vindhya mountains guarded against him, he took shelter in an adjacent thicket, and he there was devoured by a tiger. In consequence of the conduct of the governor of Aseerghur, siege was laid to that strong fortress, and it soon was forced to capitulate. Abundant proofs were found in it of Sindia's secret dealings with Apa Sahib, and of its having been by his secret directions that he had been received in the fortress, which, to punish him, it was now deter- mined to retain. The consequence of the war, undertaken simply for the suppression of the Pindarries, had, through the madness of the Maratta princes, been to esta- blish the British dominion directly, or indirectly, over the whole of India. The entire dominions of the Peishwa, with the exception of the small ter- ritory granted to the rajah of Sattara, and the large cessions from Berar, came directly under the dominion of the Company. Ajmeer, in Raj pii tana, also became a British possession ; and all the Rajput rajahs, even including the rajah of Udy- piir, who had never acknowledged the supremacy of Mogul, or Maratta, placed themselves cheerfully under British protection. This system of depen- dence and protection also extended to Guzerat and Cutch, and Sindia remained the only prince in India, with whom there was not a subsidiary al- liance. Henceforth, war in India has been nearly unknown, and the allied states, though not free from the evils of misgovernment, have advanced steadily in prosperity and happiness. In all public affairs the Marquis Hastings had displayed a high and noble spirit ; it is therefore to be regretted that in a matter of a somewhat private nature his domestic feelings should have led him to act with imprudence. A Mr. W. Pal- mer, who had been in the military service of the Nizam, had become a banker and merchant at Hyderabad. He was joined by some of the officers of the residency ; and in 1814 the house of Palmer and Co. obtained the sanction of the Bengal government. In 1816, they applied for and ob- tained exemption from the law interdicting loans to native princes by British subjects; and they immediately engaged in extensive pecuniary trans- actions with Chandu Lai, the Nizam's minister. In 1820, they made, with the sanction of the resi- dent, a loan of sixty lacs of rupees to the minister to enable him to pay off arrears and other incum- j brances. Just at this time there came out a posi- [ tive order from the Court of Directors to withdraw the exemption given to the house of Palmer and Co. ; and when Sir Charles Metcalfe, who now be- came resident, instituted an inquiry into the state of affairs, it appeared that no reduction of expen- diture had been made by Chandu Lai ; that the debt to the house of Palmer and Co., — who it appeared had acted on the approved Madras principle in the days of Paul Benfield, — now amounted to nearly 1,000,000?. bearing interest at 25 per cent. ; and that large pensions were settled on the members of the firm, their relations, and dependents. The countenance of the government was immediately withdrawn from the firm, and money was lent to Chandu Lai to enable him to close his account with it. This affair gave afterwards occasion to bitter attacks on the Marquis' character in the Court of Proprietors ; for it happened that a leading partner in the firm was Sir W. Rumbold, who had married a young lady for whom the Marquis avowed he had the feelings of a parent. This partiality blinded the eyes of him who wns the most disinterested of men, and he defended the house of Palmer and Co. much longer than was consistent with a proper regard for his own high character ; but his honour and his integrity came out scatheless from the ordeal. Sadat Ally, the Vizir of Oude, died in the first year of Lord Hastings' administration. His son and successor, with the approbation, and even by the advice of the Governor-general, assumed the title of king. This, though it appears, and pro- bably is, a trifling circumstance, has made him to a certain extent independent ; for he is no longer a mere Subahdar who can be at any time deprived of his authority. Lord Hastings quitted India (Jan. 1, 1823), after an administration of upwards of nine years, the longest there has been except that of Warren Hastings. He carried with him the respect and esteem of all classes both European and native. His foible had been vanity; but with it were united, as is often the case, the high courtesy and urbanity, which win the heart and control the feelings. The thanks of the Court of Directors and Proprie- tors had already been voted to him, and a sum of 60,000/. to purchase him an estate, for his liberal disposition had greatly impaired his circumstances. It was in the time of Lord Hastings that the Church establishment of India was formed. In Nov. 1814, Dr. Middleton, the newly-appointed Bishop of Calcutta, reached his see. But he was a bishop without a clergy, for in the whole of British India at that time there were little more than thirty chaplains. He was a man of learning and piety, and good intentions ; but he was defi- cient in knowledge of the world and human nature, and too full of the idea of the dignity of the epis- copal office. He attached perhaps too much im- portance to things of inferior consequence in the eyes of people of more enlarged views ; and he evinced a somewhat too captious disposition which impaired his influence. But he effected much good notwithstanding. He organized the clerical body, increased the number of chaplains, caused churches to be erected in various parts of India, and founded an extensive missionary college named Bishop's College at Calcutta, which, however, he did not live to see completed, and which has as 168 HISTORY OF INDIA. d. 1824. vet by no means answered the high expectations of its founder. Bishop Middleton breathed his last on the 8th July, 1822. His successor was the pious and ami- able Reginald Heber. CHAPTER XI. Lord Amherst Governor-general— The Burman Empire- War with the Burmese— Capture of Rangoon— Progress of the War— March for Prome— Reduction of Donabew— Occupation of Prome— Reduction of Aracan— Successive Defeats of the Burmese— Conclusion of Peace— Mutiny at Barrakpore— Affairs of Bhurtpore- Capture and Demoli- tion of the Fortress. The person appointed to succeed Lord Hastings had been that brilliant orator and statesman, George Canning ; but the sudden death of his rival, Lord Londonderry, just at this conjuncture, had opened to his view a career much more suited to his taste, and he declined the pomp of Indian sovereignty. The high office was then conferred on Lord Amherst, and he reached Calcutta on the 1st August, 1823, eight months alter the departure of his predecessor. Though the whole of India was under British sway, and no internal commotions were to be ap- prehended, there was a power on the confines which had not yet experienced the British prowess, and with which causes of quarrel had been for some time accumulating. This was the Burman empire in the eastern peninsula, which, being of recent formation, still retained the vigour to which it owed its origin. The peninsula, named by the ancients the Golden Chersonese, by the moderns India beyond the Ganges, is watered by three great rivers, running nearly parallel from north to south. They are named the Irrawaddy, the Menam, and the Cam- bodia. The first runs through the kingdoms of Ava and Pegu ; the second, through that of Siam; and the last through Cochin China. From be- tween the mouths of the Irrawaddy and the Menam, stretches the long narrow peninsula of Malacca ; on the western coast of the great penin- sula, and joining India, lies the country named Aracan. Further north is a state named Cachar, and above it the valley of Assam, through which flows the upper course of the Brahmaputra. Ava, the people of which are named the Bur- mans, seems to have depended on the kingdom of Pegu. In the first half of the last century, the Burmans revolted and reduced Pegu; but they were soon after brought back to their former state of subjection. This, however, did not long con- tinue ; a Burman, named Alompra, who commenced operation!) with only a couple of hundred followers, and augmented his forces as he prospered, even- tually succeeded in ereoting the Burman dominion on the ruins of that of Pegu, the whole of which he conquered. He also subjugated Aracan and Manipur, in the eastern part of Cachar ; and Assam fell under the power of the Burmans, in conse- quence of their being called in by rival claimants ' of the throne. The occupation of Aracan and Assam brought the Burman dominions into contact with those of the British. The Burmans, insolent with success, committed sundry acts of aggression ; and they even had the audacity to claim of Lord Hastings the surrender of Chittagong, Dacca, and Moorshe- dabad, in Bengal, as having been originally depen- dencies of Aracan, with a menace of hostilities in case of a refusal. Lord Hastings treated the de- mand with cool contempt, and there the matter rested when he left India. Soon, however, after the arrival of Lord Amherst, the Burmans made preparations for the conquest of Cachar, whose rajah applied to the British for protection. As it must either be given, or the Burmans be allowed to extend their frontier along the whole east of Ben- gal, the government saw it was no time for hesita- tion. Accordingly, troops were marched from Dacca to S.vlhet, on the frontiers of Cachar ; and when the Burmans invaded that country from Assam and Manipur, the British acted against them. The immediate cause of war, however, be- tween the two powers was the invasion by the Burmans of the little island of Shahpoorea, off the coast of Chittagong, on which the British had placed a guard of thirteen Sepoys, three of whom were killed, and the rest driven off. As the Bur- man court would give no satisfaction for that out- rage, and still advanced its claim to Chittagong, and the other districts, no alternative remained but war; and on the oth March, 1824, war was declared. The plan adopted for the ensuing campaign was, that while a force, under Gen. McMorine, should move along the banks of the Brahmaputra, and enter Assam, where the people were known to be ill-disposed toward their Burman masters, a much larger force, under Sir Archibald Campbell, should attack Rangoon, on the southern coast of Pegu. The former moved from Goolpoor on the 13th, and after encountering much difficulty from the state of the country over which they had to march, entered Assam ; but the Burmese retired as they advanced, and the gradual reduction of the whole country was effected without much diffi- culty. The great expedition was to be composed of troops from Bengal and Madras ; and Port Corn- wallis, the Great Andaman Isle, was the place of rendezvous. The whole number of troops to be employed, European and native, exceeded 11,000 men, all of which, but about 2000, were to come from Madras. In the beginning of May, all the troops, except the second division of the Madras forces, having arrived, the expedition sailed, ac- companied by the Lifl'ey, Commodore Grant, and three other small king's ships, some of the Com- pany's cruisers, and the Diana steamer, the tii>-t of these vessels ever employed in war. On the !»th, they were ott' the mouth of the Rangoon river, and at noon, on the 11th, the Beet reached the town itself. The l.iti'ey quickly silenced the fire of the enemy, the authorities and the inhabitants fled from the town, and at four o'clock the British Hag was waving over it. As the Burmans, like the Nepalese, made great use Of stockades in war, and were very expert in the construction, and cou- rageous in the defence of them, the attacks on these defences gave employment to the British troops for the remainder of the month, and many brilliant actions, though of course on a small t. d. 1824-25. PROGRESS OF THE WAR— MARCH FOR PROME. 169 scale, were performed. Ill-health at this time having obliged Commodore Grant to retire, the chief naval command remained with Capt. Mar- l-yat, of the Larue sloop of war. During the month of June, some more stockades were attacked and carried, at one of which Major R. H. Sale of the 13th regiment distinguished himself by being the first man to mount the enemy's works. But now the effects of the usual error in our Asiatic wars, the not gaining the requisite previous knowledge of the country, began to be felt. The country was all jungle and swamp, and the provisions had all been removed by the Bur- mese. Dysenteiy and fever soon, therefore, began to thin the British ranks; to advance was impossi- ble, and even to remain seemed hazardous. The king of Ava had now sent one of his highest minis- ters to take the chief command, with orders to drive the British out of the country. The latter had fortunately been reinforced by the second division from Madras, when (July 1) the Burmese general made his attack ; but his troops were speedily driven into the jungle, their usual place of retreat, with the loss of 100 men, while the British had not even a single man killed or wounded. The Burmese general was immediately superseded; and his successor prudently resolved to confine his operation to the defence of stock- ades. The principal stockade of the enemy was on a point of land where the river divides into two branches; and to defend it there were other stockades on the banks of the river. Two columns of attack were formed by the British, one under Gen. Machean to go by land, the other under Sir A. Campbell to proceed in boats. Capt. MaiTyat having silenced the firing of the Burmese artillery, the men of this last column pushed off in boats, landed, scaled, and carried the first and second stockades; and the enemy then evacuated the only one remaining in that place. The other column meanwhile had reached the stockades against which it was directed. In ten minutes they had scaled and carried the first stockade they came to, at a second they met a more obstinate resistance, but they carried it also, and then proceeded to attack a third. The Burmese general, who had just been sitting down to dinner when the British first arrived, and who had gone on with his meal, merely ordering his chiefs to go and drive them away, now found it necessary to come to the place of action. The struggle was now hand to hand, and either himself or another chief of high rank was slain in single combat by Major Sale. This third stockade was carried, and then four others in succession, the whole affair having lasted only half an hour, in which time the British had not fired a single shot. The loss of the Burmese was from 800 to 1000 men, their general, and three ' other chiefs of rank, and thirty pieces of artillery. An attack on a place named Kyloo proved a | failure ; but the town of Marteban, on the east side of a bay of that name, was captured, and a great quantity of guns and ammunition was found in its arsenal. But at Ramoo in Chittagong, misfortune befel the British : a party of 350 Sepoys under Capt. Noton, being cut to pieces by the Burmese. The chief, named Mengee Maha Bundoola, who commanded on this occasion, was immediately summoned to court, and the chief command of the army that was to act against the invaders was confided to him. He set out at the head of a large force, and on coming in front of the British position (Dec. 1) he commenced, and with singular rapidity, threw up a line of circumvallation around it, so that with the exception of the channel of the Rangoon in their rear, the British were sur- rounded. At the same time attempts were made to destroy the shipping, by sending fire-rafts down the stream. The Burmese were suffered to go on with their works for two or three days, the only interruption heing a dash among them on the afternoon of the first day, by the gallant Sale, and a small detachment, in which he killed a good number of them and carried off arms and tools. At length (5th) Sir A. Campbell resolved to be the assailant. The point of attack was the enemy's left wing, against which two columns under Ma- jors Sale and Walker were directed, while the flotilla under Capt. Chads, was to move up a creek in their rear, and thence to cauuonade them. The undertaking was eminently successful ; the enemy fled with great loss, that of the assailants was trifling; but Major Walker was among the slain. Two days after (7th), a general attack was made in four columns on the enemy's right, cen- tre, and left. The Burmese, though at first some- what daunted, made a gallant defence, but they were soon routed and driven into the jungle. The Burmese army having reassembled and being reinforced, moved down to the vicinity of Rangoon. Their plan was to set fire to that town, which was built of very inflammable materials, and thus de- stroy the British stores and magazines. The town accordingly was fired (14th) in several places, and simultaneously ; but the garrison succeeded in ex- tinguishing the flames, though not till half the place had been consumed. Next day an attack was made on the Burmese army, one of the boldest deeds that have been achieved in our wars in the East. They were at least 20,000 men occupying a position of great strength, and all the forces that could be spared for the attack did not exceed 1500 men ! Sir A. Campbell divided his small force into two columns, with one of which he proposed himself to attack the enemy in front, while the other under Gen. Willoughby Cotton, should make a detour, and on a given signal fall on the Burmese rear. When all was ready, and Gen. Cotton had answered the signal, the artillery opened, and the troops advanced with their scaling- ladders. The Burmese deemed them mad ; but they saw them still advance and fix their ladders, and in fifteen minutes the British were masters of the whole of these formidable works, and the Bur- mese flying on all sides. The military events of the year 1824 thus closed. Early in the following year, Sir A. Campbell, in order to hasten the termination of the war, having received reinforcements, resolved to advance to Prome, on the Irawaddy, the second city of the kingdom of Ava. Leaving 4000 men with Gen. McCreagh at Rangoon, he marched (Feb. 13) at the head of a column of about 2500 men for the banks of the Irawaddy, along which a water- column of about 1000 men with a large train of artillery under Gen. Cotton was to proceed in a flotilla of sixty boats, escorted by those of the ships of war at Rangoon. Major Sale was meantime with a corps of 750 men to occupy Bassein, on a 170 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1825. i branch of the Irawaddy of that name, and then to join the main army. Sir A. Campbell had proceeded a considerable way on the road to Prome, when tidings of an unpleasant nature from the water-column, caused him to retrace his steps. This column had gone on prosperously till it reached the town of Dona- bew (Mar. 8), on which, on its refusal to surrender, they made an attack in two columns ; but this proving a failure, Gen. Cotton re-embarked his troops. A fatiguing march of some days brought Sir A. Campbell to this place (28th). On perceiv- ing the extent of the works, he preferred as he said, " loss of time to loss of men," and he resolved to proceed with much caution. He summoned the flotilla to his aid, and on its appearing (27th) the garrison made a sally, bringiug with them seven- teen war-elephants carrying armed men on their backs. It was remarked that though the British cavalry charged these animals and shot down their riders, they showed no symptoms of fear, and retreated in good order into the fort. The garri- son gained nothing by this sally ; the boats came up, the troops erected batteries, and on the first day they opened them (April 1), Bundoola, who was in the fort, being killed by a rocket, the other chiefs were unable to retain the men, who departed in the night and made for the jungle. The Eng- lish found in this place grain enough to last the troops for several months. Sir A. Campbell now resumed his march for | Prome, which place he reached (April 25) without encountering any opposition. He found it deserted ] by the enemy, who had left in it 100 pieces of I cannon, and large supplies of grain. As the rains : were now setting in, the troops halted at Prome, | where they remained all through the rainy season. i Sickness prevailed, but not by any means to the ! same extent as at Rangoon. While the main force was thus advancing into I the heart of the enemy's country, the British ' troops were not inactive in other quarters. A 1 force acting under the command of Col. Richards I had cleared Assam of the Burmese, and an attempt | was made to march a corps through Cachar and ' Manipur toward Ava ; but the state of the country | and of the weather rendered it impracticable. A much more important move was made in the j direction of Aracau. An army of 11,000 men which had been assembled at Chittagong under Gen. Morrison with a flotilla under Com. Hayes attached | to it, commenced its march along the coast in Jan- ] uary. It was intended, that after having reduced that province, it should cross the mountains to Ava, and co-operate with the army on the Ira- waddy. It was not till the end of March that the army and flotilla, having ascended the river on which Aracan stands, came in view of that city. They found the enemy from 8000 to 10,000 strong, occupying a range of hills through which a single l>:iss, defended by several pieces of cannon and 3000 men, led to the town. The troops at lirst attempted to scale the hill in front, but the corps sent forward lor this purpose under Gen. Maclean, bond the ascent so steep, and the fire of the . in niv so galling, that tin y were obliged to give over the attempt, not, however, until every one of the ollieeis had been WOUnded. It was now re- solved to change the point of attack and make it on the right, which being protected by a small lake, and having a steeper ascent, was more negli- gently guarded. To divert the enemy's attention a battery was raised and began to play on the works at the pass; but in the night, a party under Gen. Richards made the attack on the works on the right, and carried them without the loss of a man. In the morning the Burmese, after a feeble resistance, abandoned the hills, and the city of Aracan was occupied by the British. The Bur- mese troops were now withdrawn from all their positions, and the whole province was given up to the invaders. But it soon appeared that nothing more could be effected in this quarter. The pro- ject of crossing the mountains, proved to be im- practicable ; the rainy season brought with it fever and dysentery, which were fast sweeping away the troops, and the only plan to save them, was to withdraw them altogether. This was done accordingly, divisions being left on two islands and on a part of the more southern coast that appeared to be less unhealthy. As soon as the rainy season was over, Sir A. Campbell was preparing to resume operations, as it was reported that a large Burmese army was approaching. Overtures for an amicable arrange- ment having been made by the British some time before, a truce to the 18th Oct. was concluded, and a formal interview took place between the two commanders-in-chief to treat of the terms of peace ; but as Sir A. Campbell demanded both territory and money, and the Burmese were not inclined to grant either, after the truce had been further extended to the 2nd of November, hostili- ties were resumed. The English were somewhat unlucky in the commencement. The Burmese having pushed for- ward a division to within a few miles of Prome, a body of native infantry was sent to fall on their left, while another body should attack them in front. But both were repulsed ; and the Burmese army, elate with this success, continued to advance, forming stockades and intrenchments as it pro- ceeded. As they moved slowly, the British gene- ral resolved to be once more the assailant, and, forming two columns, under himself and Gen. Cottoii) he made a general attack on their line (Dec. 1); while the flotilla, now under Sir James Brisbane, cannonaded them. Gen. Cotton's column, having first reached the lines, carried the stockades opposed to them in about ten minutes, and slaugh- tered all they met. The Burmese tied in a panic ; and as they were attempting to pass the river, they were mowed down by the horse artillery of the other column, which had moved rapidly, and got round into their rear. Next day (2nd) the troops advanced to attack the enemy's centre, which was strongly intrenched among hills, inaccessible by land except by one narrow pathway, protected by seven pieces of can- non, while several batteries commanded the liver. But a brigade, led by Col. Sale, quickly carried all the works in trout, and then drove the liurinese from their entire position, while the Hotilla panted their batteries, ami captured their boats and stores. There now only remained the right corps of the liurinese army. This was attacked (5th) in flank and rear by tin' troops, and in front by the flotilla, and it was speedily driven into the woods. The British army now oontinued its march for Ava, but it began to Buffer dreadfully from cho- a. d. 1826. PEACE CONCLUDED— MUTINY AT BARRAKPORE. 171 lera. By the end of the month they were at Patanago, on the left bank of the Irawaddy ; while Melloon, on the opposite bank, was occupied by the Burmese army. Negotiations for peace had been going on, and in the first week in January (1826) a treaty was signed. An armistice till the 18th was concluded, to obtain the ratification of the king. This, however, did not arrive at the appointed time ; and next day (19th) the British batteries were opened on Melloon, and after a cannonade of two hours, the troops destined for the attack*, pushed off across the river. The brigade, under Col. Sale, arriving first, without waiting for the others, landed, and forming, under Major Frith (for Col. Sale had been wounded in the boat), rushed on, and scaled the works, from which the enemy fled, and the other brigades soon completed the rout. The army now continued its forward march, till one day (Feb. 8) intelligence came that a Burmese army was lying about five miles ahead, on the road along which they were proceeding. This was a force of about 18,000 men, commanded by a general, whose title was Nawung Thuring, or Prince of the Setting Sun, and who, having repre- sented to the king that the preceding defeats»had been entirely owing to the incompetence of the generals, pledged himself to drive the invaders out of the country. He had disposed his troops in the form of a crescent, the main road running through the centre ; and as his flanks were covered by jungle, he expected, that as the British could only attack in front, he would be able to envelope them. The British were not able to bring more than 2000 men into action, yet they hesitated not to attack (19th) ; but, instead of making the attack in front, as was expected, they managed to make it on the flanks. It was the first time the Burmese had ventured to meet the invaders in the field, and they stood the charge at first with firmness, but they were soon obliged to give way, and they fled as usual to the jungle ; and the victors entered the town of Pugan, where they found abundance of guns, stores, and ammunition. The march was then resumed for Ava, and the army had reached Yandabo, within four days' march of that city, when the ratification of the treaty of peace was brought by Mr. Price, an American missionary, and Mr. Sanford, an English surgeon, who was a prisoner to the Burmese, both of whom had been for some time past employed by the king, in his negotiations with Sir A. Campbell. By this treaty the Burmese ceded Assam, Aracan, and the country south of Marteban, along the coast of the peninsula. They also resigned all claim to Cachar and the adjoining provinces. They further agreed to pay a crore of rupees, one-fourth down, another at the end of one hundred days (on payment of which the British were to quit the Burman territories), a third at the end of a year, and the fourth at the end of two years. A minis- ter from each state was to reside at the court of the other, and a commercial treaty was to be framed. Thus terminated the Burmese war. Of its ne- cessity, there can hardly be a doubt in the mind of any one acquainted with the character of the peo- ple of the East ; for the contest must have come sooner or later. The skill of the officers, and the valour of the troops, are also beyond question ; and we doubt if the government was so much to blame, as it is generally supposed to have been, in the matter of information and supplies. In the commencement of the Burmese war occurred the mutiny at Barrakpore. The 47th, and two other native regiments, were stationed at that place, and under orders for Rangoon. The Hindoos have in general a dislike to proceed- ing by sea ; they were terrified by the accounts of the swamps and jungles of the Burmese coun- try, and the fate of the detachment at Ramoo had greatly alarmed them. The 47th, when or- dered to appear on parade in marching order one day (Oct. 30) came without their knap- sacks. On the reason being required, they said they were too old ; they were told that new ones were on the way. They then declared that they would not move unless they got double batta, as increased pay had been given to bullock-drivers and others ; and they heard that everything was very dear in the Burmese country. Communica- tion being had with Sir E. Paget, the commander- in-chief, the regiment was again paraded, but it now broke out into open mutiny. Sir E. Paget then came, and as it was thought that the other two regiments could not be relied on, two king's regiments and some artillery were brought from Calcutta. The 47th was drawn up, and the com- mand given to order arms ; it was obeyed : that to ground arms followed, and but one man obeyed. Some guns in the rear then opened a fire on them, and the whole regiment broke and fled. Some were killed, many were made prisoners, of whom a few were executed, and others sentenced to hard labour, and the number of the regiment was struck out of the army-list. This mutiny, however, was not of a dangerous character like that of Vellore ; it was, in the language of the Court of Inquiry held on it, " an ebullition of despair at being com- pelled to march without the means of doing so." As a proof, hardly one of their muskets was found to be loaded, though every man had forty rounds of ball-cartridge. During the Burmese war also, the affairs of Bhurtpore occupied the attention of the British government. The rajah having died in 1823 with- out issue, his brother Buldeo Sing assumed the government, and was acknowledged by the British authorities, it having appeared that the claim of Doorjun Sal, the sou of a younger brother, who pretended to have been adopted by the late rajah, was quite unfounded. Buldeo Sing, aware that he could not live very long, was anxious to get his young son and heir acknowledged as his suc- cessor by the British government, and Sir D. Och- terlony, the resident in Malwa and Rajputana, was very desirous of having this reasonable wish gratified. The government hesitated lest there might be some one with a better title ; but the resident, who knew the truth, and assumed the consent of the government, performed the cere- mony of the investiture of the young rajah (Feb. 1825), and a few days after Buldeo Sing breathed his last. Doorjun Sal immediately began to act. Having gained over some of the troops, he attacked and took the fort, seized the young rajah, and murdered that youth's maternal uncle. Sir D. Ochterlony instantly summoned troops from all parts, collected a large battering-train, and prepared to lay siege to Bhurtpore, and issued a proclamation to the n 172 HISTORY OF INDIA. a. i.. I8j;:-: English, it was the rajah of Sattara ; they had, in effect, '• raised him from the dunghill to the throne," ami to them he was indebted for all he possessed. But Maratta nature was strong in him, and in addition, his intellect was extremely weak. He had hardly, therefore, lieen seated on his throne, when he began to form schemes for overthrowing the power of his benefactors, and making himself the head of the Maratta nation. The means to which he had recourse will give the measure of his intellectual powers. He entered into a correspondence with the Portuguese autho- rities at Goa, to whom he proposed an alliance, by which they were to furnish an army to enable him to recover the Maratta territories, after which he was to reward them in money or lands, or both ! He carried on a correspondence with Apa Sahib, the ex-rajah of Nagpur, and he made efforts to seduce the Company's troops from their allegiance. There has always been in India a crew of English schemers and adventurers, who seek to make a profit of the ignorance and folly of the native princes ; and these vultures swiftly snuffed up the scent of gain at Sattara. It is incredible what sums he lavished on these fellows. He had agents in Bombay, in Calcutta, and even in England, whither he sent no less than two missions. The press in India, now unrestrained, was well feed for abusing its own government, and advocating the pretensions of the rajah. The foolish prince was even induced to purchase a ship, for the purpose of keeping up the communication with England, and his agents employed it in the China trade for their own advantage. The Bombay government, having had sufficient proof of his intrigues, were thinking of deposing him, when in 1839, Sir James Carnac came out as governor of that presidency. He resolved on a milder course, and he went in person to Sattara, to try to induce the rajah to pledge himself to adhere to the treaty of 1819. But all his well- meant efforts met with no success. Like so many other fools, the rajah was obstinate. Th% neces- sary consequence was, that he was deprived of his dignity, and sent to reside in the British territories, and his brother was placed on the vacant throne 8 . CHAPTER XIII. Condition of Russia— Affairs of Cabul— Russian Intrigues — Resolution to restore Shah Shujah— Needless Appre- hensions of the Influence of Russia— Army of the Indus— March to Kandahar — Capture of (ihuznee— Arrival at C&bul— Withdrawal Of Troops— Failure at l'ishoot Cap ture of Forts— Cowardice of Bengal Bursemen— Surrender of Dost Mohammed Events at Kandahar- Proapeeta of the Country— March of Gen. Sale to Jellalabail. The present empire of Russia is one of the most remarkable that have ever appeared. Two cen- turies ago it was of no importance whatever ; it now is one of the leading states of Burope ; yel :is We shall see, it is not its real power so mueh a* its insidious and unprincipled policy that has given it this influence. Unfortunately for the best interests of mankind, I'russia and Austria, the European states nearest to Russia in position, were despo- tisms, and they listened to her fatal insinuations ; ami to perhaps their own ultimate misfortune, it not averted 1>) a timely change of measures, they " F.ven at the present day, both in parliament and in the .101. ga of the evr.ijah of Saltan are occasionally the theme of declaims!! and luisy people. .d. 1837. AFFAIRS OF CABUL— RUSSIAN INTRIGUES. 17* joined her iu the nefarious partition of Poland, which though at the time an anarchic state, pos- sessed many of the elements of constitutional free- dom. By this means Russia attained a powerful influence in their counsels, and in the struggles consequent on the French revolution they learned to regard her as their protectress. While Russia was thus advancing her frontier and her influence toward the civilised states of the west, she was carrying on wars with the Turks and Persians to the south and east ; and triumphing over their ignorance and weakness, she made from them large acquisitions 'of territory. She also extended her dominion over the vast solitudes reaching to the Icy Sea and Pacific Ocean, and acquired a portion of the north-west coast of America. To look at the Russian empire on the map, a superficial observer might be apt to suppose her the most powerful state in the world. But such a supposition would be far wide of the truth. As compared with France or England for example, she is feeble, and we doubt if Prussia might not be able single-handed to resist her aggressions. Russia, in effect, is comparatively speaking poor. Her armies are, therefore, ill equipped and ill sup- plied. During the French war she never could send an army to the field without the aid of English gold. Her troops, though victorious against Turks and Persians, have never, we believe, with equal numbers beaten disciplined European forces. The policy of Russia also proves her consciousness of her real weakness. It is the most false, treacher- ous, and insidious that can be conceived, with nothing in it bold or daring. She sits like a poly- pus on its rock, with feelers out in all directions to try what she can catch. Like a tiger she crouches aud steals on till she can make a spring. She boasts and she lies, she flatters and she be- trays. At this present, moment she dupes the ill- cemented effete Austrian monarchy by a small gift of territory, while under the pretext of com- mon origin she is endeavouring to seduce her sub- jects of the Slavonian race. But we trust in vain ; we feel confident that when the Austrian monarchy falls to pieces, as it seems likely to do, the Bohe- mians and others will never submit to the degrad- ing despotism of the Czar, or accept his insidious offers of protection. Prussia has now at length taken her place among constitutional states, and for the interests of humanity we rejoice thus to see on the wane the influence of the most cordial hater of liberty under every form that exists. We have been led into these reflections from the circumstance of the meddling, insidious policy of Russia having been the cause of much loss and danger to our eastern empire at this time. We have noticed the embassy of Mr. Elphinstone to the court of the Afghan monarch Shujah-ul- mulk, and the refusal of the British government to give that prince the pecuniary aid that he required. Soon after, he was defeated and expelled by his brother Mahmood, whose eyes he had spared. He sought the protection of Runjeet Sing, who stripped him of what wealth he had, and proposed to detain him as a prisoner, but he escaped to the British territory, where he continued to reside. Meantime Mahmood had, through his ingratitude, lost his throne. He had attained it chiefly by the aid of Futtah Khan, a chief of the Barukzye clan, and now at the instigation of his son Kamran, he seized and blinded that chief, and soon after put him to death. The brothers of Futtah Khan took arms to avenge his death, and they drove Mahmood to Herat on the frontiers of Persia, where he soon after died, leaving his rem- nant of dominion to Kamran. The victors divided the remainder. Dost Mohammed, the ablest of the brothers, reigned at Cabul, the others at Kan- dahar. Runjeet Sing made himself master of Peshawur. Count Simonich, the Russian envoy at the court of Persia, thought there was now a fair opportu- nity of setting Russian intrigue at work. He encouraged the Persian Shah to renew some old claims on Afghanistan, and a Persian army laid siege to Herat, which, however, Kamran defended vigorously. For this purpose the envoy gave some supplies of money, and the Russian government, when questioned by that of England, denied every thing of course, and had despatches from Simonich, made no doubt for the purpose, to produce in proof of her honourable conduct. The suspicions of the Indian government being excited, Capt. Alex. Burnes was sent (Sept 1837) on a mission to Cabul. He found that the Russian envoy had agents both there and at Kandahar, who were making the most lavish promises of money and every thing else that was desired. The great object of Dost Mohammed, was the recovery of Peshawur, aud the Russian promised that his government would interfere for that pur- pose ; but he does not seem to have stated how ; while Lord Auckland wrote to say, that British interference was out of the question. The Russian interest was therefore quite in the ascendant, and Capt. Burnes quitted Cabul. He represented in very strong colours to the government the danger to India of the Russo-Persian influence iu Afghan- istan. Mr. McNeill, the envoy in Persia, made similar statements to the home government, and in order to counteract it, it was resolved to send an army to replace Shujah on the throne. There can be no doubt that the British govern- ment violated no principle of public law in this interference. But it is a question whether there was any real danger to be apprehended. We think not. Capt. Burnes, it is evident, was not much of a statesman, and both he and Mr. McNeill gave too much credit to the rhodomontades of the Russians 9 . How, it may be asked, was the Rus- sian to turn this influence to advantage ? The days were gone by when the cavalry of a Nadir Shah, or an Ahmed Duranee could rush down like a storm on the plains of India. A few brigades of the Company's disciplined troops would speedily send them back in dismay to their mountains. But Russia, it may be said, could send officers and discipline the Persians and Afghans. All attempts at disciplining the Persians, however, have failed, and it would, we apprehend, be no easy matter to bring the rude Afghan clansmen to submit to the restraint of discipline. It is also remarkable that the native corps in India disciplined by the French never could withstand those of the British. Finally, it is said, and this we believe is the danger really apprehended, that Russia, having secured the » To the vaunt of the Moscow Gazette, that Russia will dictate the next peace to England at Calcutta, we would make the same reply that the Parthian envoy did to Crassus. See Hist, of Rome, p. 404. 176 HISTORY OF INDIA. friendship of the Persians and the Afghans, could march an army into India. This, however, is the very thing that we think she could not do, if from no other reason, because she could not afford it. As long as the expense extends only to some thou- sands given as presents to chiefs and ministers, or spent in bribing the press in Europe, Russia can easily find the money ; but when it comes to many millions, as it would in this case, her sinews are easily relaxed. And supposing that Russia did march 30,000 or 40,000 men to the Indus, for a greater force is inconceivable, she would there encounter a much larger army, as brave, at least as well disciplined and officered, far better supplied, and animated with a spirit unknown to her serfs. Nay, a force as large perhaps as her own might, while her troops were toiling through the deserts and mountains, sail by steam from England, and reach the Punjab before them. These considerations either did not present themselves, or were thought of no weight, and it was resolved to reseat Shah Shujah on the throne. As usual, the Indian government had bad informa- tion. They were led to suppose that the great majority of the people were longing for the return of the exiled Shah, that little or no opposition was to be expected, and that Dost Mohammed and " his friends, if he have any, must yield to his terms, or become fugitives." A tripartite treaty was therefore concluded (June 26, 1838) with Shah Shujah, and with Runjeet Sing, by which the former renounced all claims for himself and his successors to all the territories on both sides of the Indus held by the latter, including of course Peshawur, which Dost Mohammed was so anxious to X'eeover. Treaties were also formed with the Ameers of Sinde, in order to facilitate the march of the British troops. A large force composed of troops from the armies of Bengal and Bombay was to cross the Indus to the south of the Punjab, and march for Kandahar. It was to be led by the commander-in-chief, Sir Henry Fane, the state of whose health, however, caused the command to be transferred to Sir John Keane, the commander of the Bombay army, and Gens. Sir Willoughby Cotton, Nott, Duncan, Wiltshire, and Briggs, Sale, Graham, and others held command in it. In imitation, as would appear, of the French, whose example seems to have been continually before the eyes of the Indian government at this time, it was pompously named the Army of the Indus. It, however, was held out to be only an auxiliary force in aid of that of Shah Shujah, consisting of a troop of horse artillery, two regiments of cavalry, and five of infantry, raised for him by the British government, and commanded by Gen. Simpson of the Bengal Service. Another force of about 6000 irregulars called the Shahzada'a army, as being commanded by the Shah's son Timoor, was to assemble in Peshawur, and inter Cabul by the Khyber pass, and a Sikh force of 6000 men under Ventura, one of Runjeet'e European generals, was t.> oo operate with it ; the whole to be under the direction of Col. Wade. Mr. Wm. I lay Macnagh- t. n was appointed envoy at the conVt, of Shah Shujah, an. I < \i|>t. Burnes ami others had inferior appointments. About the end of November, the whole of the Bengal contingent was encamped at Ferozepore near the (ihana, about fifty miles south of Lahore. Lord Auckland and his family were with it, and a series of interviews, accompanied by shows, proces- sions, and reviews took place between him and the old Lion of the Punjab, Runjeet Sing. As news had come of the Persians having raised the siege of Herat, a smaller force was now deemed to be sufficient, and orders were given for only a part of the army to advance, the remainder to stay at Ferozepore. Early in December the Shah's troops marched, and on the 16th January (1839) they reached the Indus at Bukkur, and crossed, being soon followed by the Bengal column. But before this last passed over it was learne'd that the Ameers were about to impede the progress of the Bombay troops, and it commenced its march for Hydrabad ; hearing, however, that all had been arranged, it returned to Sukkur, crossed, and joined (Feb. 20) the Shah's troops which had advanced to Shikar- poor. Here, as they were soon to enter the conn- try of the Belooches, and as attacks were to be apprehended, it was decided to change the order of march, and for the British troops to move in advance. They marched, however, unopposed to Dadur at the Bolan pass, through which they entered Afghanistan and advanced to Quetta (Mar. 26). The Bombay column had proceeded by sea, and landing at a place on the coast of Sinde named Vikkur, marched for Tatta, whence it pursued its route for Dadur. On the 16th of April, Sir J. Keane established his head-quarters with the Ben- gal column at Quetta, the Bombay column being still several marches in the rear. The two columns marched in succession through the dangerous and difficult Kojuk pass, and they reached Kandahar the first on the 20th April, the second on the 7th May. On the following day (8th) Shah Shujah was solemnly enthroned with a salute from 110 guns, and the army of the Indus of 7500 men marched in review before the throne. But the people took little interest in the ceremony. In the march from Quetta to Kandahar, though the army had encountered no enemy, its losses and sufferings had been considerable. The extreme scarcity of water in that sultry region caused tor- tures hardly to be endured ; food also was scarce. The horses and camels died also in such numbers that much baggage had to be left behind, and the whole population of the country being robbers, they seized and carried off everything that came in their way. At Kandahar, the troops enjoyed some repose, though provisions still were scarce, and robbers numerous as ever. Hardly any one came to join the standard of Shah Shujah, and when in the usual manner he sent 10,000 rupees for " shoeing the horses," as it was termed, to the chiefs of the Ghiljye elan, and a Koran for them to swear allegiance, they kept, the money and sent back the book. The march was now resumed for Cabul, and on the 20th July the troops reached Nannie, within ten miles of Ghusnee. The British hail been told that the defences of Ghuzncc were weak, and that it was commanded from the adjacent hills, ami also that it would not be defended. They had in consequence left behind at Kandahar a small battering train which they had brought thither with great toil and expense. ' lint all proved contrary to their expectations. The place was stroll-, and the garrison commanded by a. d. 1839 40. CAPTURE OF GHUZNEE— TROOPS WITHDRAWN. 177 a son of the Ameer Dost Mohammed, seemed resolved to defend it to the uttermost. The only possible mode of attack was that of blowing open one of the gates with gunpowder, and thus forcing an entrance. As all the gates, except that of Cabul on the north side, were reported to have been strengthened by a wall built behind them, it was resolved to make the attempt on that gate. For this purpose the troops which had taken up a position on the south side (21st) were that very afternoon put again in motion. As they had to take a round in order to keep out of the reach of the guns of the fort, and a river, and several water courses, and a range of steep high ground lay in their way, they did not reach the appointed ground till long after nightfall ; and as the baggage and camp-followers could not come up they were obliged to bivouack for the night, which they passed without food. They heard the firing of gnus from the fort, which also displayed lights which seemed to be answered by fires through the country. They knew that Meer Ufzul, another son of the Ameer's, was coming with an army to raise the siege, that two Ghiljye chiefs with their forces were at hand, and that the Ghazees or religious fanatics were pouring down from the mountains, as the Ameer had proclaimed a religious war, and unfurled the banner of Islam. The whole of the next day (22nd) was spent in bringing up the baggage, &c, and in making pre- parations for the attack, which was to take place before daylight next morning. The night proved stormy and windy, so that the garrison could not hear their movements ; and while the batteries opened and were answered from the fort, the ex- plosion party, led by Capt. Peat of the Bombay engineers, advanced to the gate, fixed a bag con- taining more than twice the largest quantity of powder used on such occasions, laid the hose and retired. The explosion blew open the gate, the assaulting column led by Brig. Sale pushed on ; a desperate struggle took place in the gateway, in which Sale himself was wounded, but the place was rapidly carried. Meer Ufzul seeing the Bri- tish flag waving on the citadel, retired with all speed, leaving behind him his elephants and his baggage. While the army remained at Ghuznee, a brother of the Ameer's arrived with a proposal of accommodation. He offered to acknowledge Shah Shujah as sovereign, he himself to be vizir. He was told that he must retire to and reside in India. This was refused, and the negotiation ended. After a stay of about a week at Ghuznee, the army resumed its march for Cabul, which city it entered without opposition (Aug. 7)> the Ameer having fled at its approach. The entrance of the Shah had all the honours that the British authori- ties could bestow on it, but the people maintained an ominous silence. The restored monarch now instituted an order of knighthood similar to that of the Bath, to the honours of which several of the officers of the army of the Indus and some civilians were admitted. On the 3rd September, the army of the Shah- zada arrived at Cabul. It had set out on hearing of the march of the army of the Indus from Kanda- har for Ghuznee. As it proceeded through the Khy- ber Pass it had met with some opposition, and lost some men at the fort of Ali Musjid. It occupied Jellalabad, and thence marched unopposed to Cabul. Shah Shujah's possession of the throne was, we should suppose, any thing but secure in the view of any one who knew the Afghans ; but the Indian government thought otherwise, and orders were given for the whole of the Bombay column and a great part of that of Bengal to return to India, leaving a part of the latter under Gen. Nott and Sir Willoughby Cotton. The Bengal troops, led by Sir J. Keane in person, met of course with some annoyance from the wild tribes about the Khyber Pass, but nothing of importance occurred. The Bombay column, under Gen. Wiltshire, on its way home, when it reached Quetta, instead of proceed- ing through the Bolan Pass, moved southwards to attack Kelat, the residence of Mehrab Khan, a Beloochee chief, who had caused them a great deal of loss and annoyance in their march for Kanda- har. The fort was taken after a gallant resistance, and Mehrab Kban fell in the assault. When intelligence of the events in Afghanistan reached England, the whigs, who were now in power, were filled with rapture and exultation. Military success, a thing so rare to them, com- pletely transported them. To read their speeches, one would suppose that El Dorado was found at length ; the commerce which would now be opened with the wealthy regions of Central Asia, would carry off in countless quantities the manufactures of Great Britain, and pour in in return a tide of riches. The thanks of Parliament and of the Com- pany were voted. Lord Auckland was made an earl, Sir J. Keane a baron, with a grant of 200(M. a year to himself and his two next heirs ; Mr. Macnaghten and Col. Henry Pottinger were created baronets ; and orders and grand crosses were be- stowed on several of the military commanders. We would not willingly derogate from the merits of Lord Auckland and Lord Keane, but we surely may say, that never did men do less to deserve their honours. They had merely planned and exe- cuted a measure of which the policy was very dubious, in which they encountered hardly any resistance, and of which the results were uncer- tain in the highest degree. How differently earned were the honours of Lords Wellesley, Lake, and Harris, of Lord Hastings, and Sir D. Ochterlony ! Sir A. Campbell, who had conducted the Burmese war with so much ability, and brought it to a con- clusion, was not rewarded like Sir J. Keane, who but for the taking of Ghuznee would have done almost nothing r . It soon began to appear that the turbulent Afghans would not submit so quietly as had been expected to the rule of Shah Shujah. Early in January, 1840, it was found necessary to send some troops under Col. Orchard against a chief who had occupied the fort of Pishoot, fifty miles from Jellalabad. A breach was made, but the storming party on entering it found that there was an inner gate ; and the powder which they had with them, being country-made, proved so bad, and was be- 1 " Lord Keane contented himself with the superficial success which attended his progress through a country, hitherto untraversed by a European army since the classic days of Alexander the Great ; he hurried off with too gTeat eagerness to enjoy the applause that awaited him in England, and left to his successors the far more arduous task of securing in their grasp the unwieldy prize, of which he had obtained the nominal possession." Eyre, Military Opera- tions, &c, p. 190. I 176 HISTORY OF INDIA. ad. 1840. sides wet, as the rain was falling in torrents, that they were unable to blow it open, and were forced to seek covert. A second attempt also failed; and the soldiers being drenched with the rain and harassed by the fire of the enemy, they were withdrawn. The Afghans however abandoned that and another fort. In March it was found necessary to attack a mud-fort near Bamian, belonging to a chief of the Huzareh tribe, which had hitherto proved friendly. A party was sent under Capt. Garbett, and the fort was taken. The women and children were saved, but the men having retired to the tower and refusing to surrender, fire was put to it and they all perished. An outbreak of the Ghiljyes followed in May ; but the troops sent against them defeated them, and blew up several of their strong- holds. In the autumn Sir R. Sale had to set out to reduce a chief who held some forts in the pro- vince of Kohistan, north of Cabul. Dost Mohammed, who had sought refuge in Turkestan, had there formed an alliance with the Usbegs under the Wallee of Kooloom, (a place to the east of Balkh,) and their united forces pre- pared to march for Cabul through the valley of Bamian. Col. Dennie hearing of their approach, proceeded to that valley, which he entered (Sept. 17) with only a third of his troops, supposing only a few hundreds of the invaders to be there. To his surprise he beheld a force of fiOOO men; and though he had only 500 foot, and 300 horse mostly of the Shah's troops, and two guns, he resolved to be the assailant. Though the enemy had posses- sion of a chain of forts reaching to the mouth of the pass, they made a miserable defence, and fled in confusion to the pass, along which the cavalry pursued them and cut them down. The alliance between the Ameer and the Wallee was dissolved by this disaster; and the former now moved for the Ghorbund pass (north-east of Bamian) in order to join his son Ufzul Khan. Sir R. Sale immedia- tely marched to Purwan, near that pass. The troops having ascended (Nov. 1) a hill overlooking the valley, from which they drove the enemy, the 2nd regiment of Bengal horse was sent in pursuit, as the infantry was detained by the guns. They had got about a mile ahead of the column, when a body of horse, supposed to be led by the Ameer, came down the hill to attack them. Capts. Fraser and 1'onsonby, who commanded the two squadrons, formed their men in line, and led them, as they thought, to the charge. But they soon found them- selves nearly alone in the midst of the enemy. They made their way back, though severely wounded, and saw their men flying. Lieut. Cris- pin the adjutant was killed, as also was Lieut. Broadfoot of the engineers, and Dr. Lord, a medi- cal man of considerable talent. Various recondite reasons, as is usunl, have been assigned for this scandalous conduct, but it seems to have proceeded from men panic and cowardice. All the nun that shared in it were dismissed the service with disgrace, the remainder were drafted into other regimenta, and the name of the regiment was struck out of the list of the Bengal army. Two days after this affair, as Sir Win. Macnagh- ten was returning from taking a ride, a horseman rode up to him, and having ascertained thai he was tin' envoy, told hint that Dost Mohammed was at hand, and claimed his protection. The Ameer I then came up, alighted from his horse and pre- sented his sword. The sword was returned, he was requested to remount, and they both rode on together. A tent was pitched for the Ameer, near the envoy's residence, and some time after he and his family were sent to India. While these various affairs were taking place in the north, the troops of Gen. Nott, who com- manded at Kandahar, were acting against the Beloochees of Khelat and its vicinity, and much toil and some reverses were experienced, and many gallant deeds performed, which our space does not permit us to relate. During the greater part of the following year, (1841) little of importance occurred in the north. In the south, first the Kojeek and then the Ghiljye clan gave some occupation to the troops at Kanda- har. The former took arms on being required to pay tribute. In the attack on their fort of Sebee, Lieut.-Col. Wilson of the Bombay horse and two other officers were lulled and the assailants re- pelled ; but in the night the Kojeeks abandoned the fort. On the 29th May, as a small party led by Capt. Wymer was escorting a convoy from Kandahar to Khelat-e- Ghiljye, it was attacked on the way by a body of Ghiljyes, which during the engage- ment increased from 2500 to 5000 men. They advanced in three columns, attacking simultane- ously in front, flank, and rear. Being checked by the fire of the infantry, they changed their plan of operation, but were again repulsed; and though they showed no lack of courage, they were forced to retire, after keeping up a series of attacks during four or five hours. On the 2nd July, Capt. Woodburn, with no other troops than the indifferent levies of the Shah, defeated a force of 0000 Ghiljyes on the banks of the Helmund. Toward the end of August, Akhtar Khan, the Ghiljye leader on this occasion, and another chief, named Akram Khan, engaged with 5000 men, near Kishwurn, a detachment under Capt. Griffin, but with their usual want of success. At the end of September, the whole of the coun- try presented an unusual, though, as it proved, a deceitful appearance of tranquillity. It was there- fore fondly believed that Shah Shujah was so firmly established, that he had nothing to appre- hend but the occasional outbreaks of the moun- tain-clans, of perpetual occurrence in Afghanistan, and that therefore the greater part of the British troops might with safety be withdrawn. Sir Wil- liam Macnaghtcn, also, proposed proceeding to Bombay, to the government of which he hail been appointed, leaving Sir A. Burnes to take his place in Cabul. Then were, however, a few circum- stances which might have shown to a clear ob- server, that the political horizon could not be as bright as it seemed to be, and that there was mo- mentary danger of a tempest. The Afghans are Mohammedans, of the Soonee creed, and bigoted and fanatic ; and, however it may be with the Sheeahs, the Sooneea have ever shown a hitter aversion to Christians, and a horror at being under their rule; and Shah Shujah was generally regarded as the mere deputy of the English, Ak'har Khan, the Ameer's eldest son, a man of energy and ta- lent, who hail steadily refused to surrender, though earnestly requested by his father, was now at Kooloom, on the watch to take advantage of this a. d. 1840. FORCING OF KHOORD-CABUL— DESCRIPTION OF CABUL. 179 feeling. The chiefs of clans were further displeased at the prospect of regular government, for anarchy was their element ; and the reduction at this time, in the amount of the allowances made them for keeping the tribes at the passes in order, and pre- venting robberies, aided to embitter them. For the Indian government, finding Afghanistan to be such a large and continued drain on its finances, was unceasingly urging on Shah Shujah the necessity of reducing the expenses of his government ; and as he found great difficulty in collecting revenue, he had recourse to retrenchment, and selected these allowances as the object, under the pretext, that from the fall in the price of grain they would really, though reduced, be as good as ever. This reasoning, however, it is plain, would not convince the greedy chiefs. Early in October, three Ghiljye chiefs of note suddenly quitted Cabul. After plundering a rich caravan at Tezeen, they posted themselves in the defile of Khoord Cabul, about ten miles from Cabul, and through which the road to India runs. Just at this time Akbar Khan came to Bamian, so there is reason to suppose the Ghiljyes were acting in concert with him. Gen. Sale's brigade was at Cabul, only waiting for the return of a force which had been sent to act in the valley of Zoormut, to the east of Ghuznee, to set out for its winter-quar- ters at Jellalabad, on its way to India. A part of it was now (9th) sent forward to Bootkhak, at the mouth of the pass of Khoord-Cabul ; and on the 11th, Gen. Sale came in person, with the 13th Light Infantry, and next morning they proceeded to force the pass, which is nearly five miles long, its sides in many places rising to a perpendicular height of more than 500 feet, and approaching to within fifty yards of each other. The Afghans, armed with their Juzaih, or long rifles, occupied the sides, and about the middle of the defile they had raised a strong stone breast-work across it. By sending flanking parties up the sides to dis- lodge the enemy, and by pushing on at all speed, the troops passed through ; and the enemy having retired, a part of them returned, and took their post at Bootkhak. The troops from Zoormut having at length joined, Gen. Sale marched (20th) for Khoord-Cabul, and two days later they reached Tezeen, having encountered much opposition on the way. Capt. Macgregor, the political agent, now made a treaty with the chiefs, in which most of their demands were conceded ; but Afghans have little idea of keeping faith with infidels, and the troops on their march for Gundamuk were harassed as much as ever. On the way from Jug- duluk to that place, they were one day (26th) very vigorously assailed, and lost some men, and a great deal of baggage. At Gundamuk, Gen. Sale having learned that Jellalabad was menaced by the enemy, resolved to march for it forthwith. On reaching it (Nov. 12), he found that the information he had got was correct. He immediately set about re- pairing the defences, which were weak ; and to get rid of the annoyance caused by the enemy, a force, not much exceeding 1000 men in all, was sent out (14th) under Col. Monteith, which speedily put to flight at least 5000 of them. To diminish the con- sumption of provisions, the women and children, and useless part of the male population, were all sent away, and it was resolved to hold the town throughout the winter. CHAPTER XIV. Description of Cabul, and the British Cantonment— Errors committed— Outbreak in Cabul— Loss of Commissariat Fort— Taking of Mohammed Shereefs Fort — Of Rika- Bashee Fort— Disasters— Action on the Behmaroo Hills — Loss of Mohammed Shereefs Fort— Negotiations for a Retreat — Murder of the Envoy — Conclusion of Treaty. Events were, meantime, taking place at Cabul, which will not soon be forgotten. In order to comprehend them, it is requisite to have a tolerably clear idea of that city, and of the positions of the British troops in its vicinity. The city of Cabul is built on both sides of the river of the same name. Adjoining it, on the north-east, is the Bala Hissar, or royal citadel, in which the king resided ; north of which runs some high ground, called the Siah Sung hills, parallel to which on the west, and beyond the river, is another rather higher range, named the Behmaroo hills. From the western, or Kuzzilbash 2 quarter of the city, runs northwards the Kohistan road, close to which on the east, about a mile from the town, was the place selected for the cantonment of the British troops. This was a parallelogram of 1000 yards in length, and 600 in breadth, surrounded by a low rampart and narrow ditch, with round flanking bastions at each corner. Adjoining it on the north was another enclosed space of about half the size, named the Mission Compound, one-half of which was appropriated to the envoy, the other was for the officers of the mission, and his body-guard. The Cabul river flowed about a quarter of a mile to the east, and in the same direction there was a wide canal, about 150 yards from the cantonment. Bridges were made over both the river and the canal. At the south-western angle of the canton- ment was the bazaar village ; beyond which, on the other side of the Kohistan-road, was the Shah Bagh, or royal garden. Lieut. Eyre 3 , from whom we derive this descrip- tion, points out several errors committed by those who placed the cantonment in this position. He says, in the first place, that the Bala Hissar was the only proper place for the troops, that were to keep the city and country in obedience ; and that certainly the magazine, at least, ought to have been there, and not in the cantonment, which was fixed in a low swampy ground, and commanded on all sides by hills or forts. But the greatest error of all, and which he says chiefly contributed to the subse- quent misfortunes, was the placing the Commissariat stores out of the cantonment, and in an old fort more than 400 yards from it, and which was hardly capable of being defended. It would seem as if every thing conspired to bring destruction on the British troops. Sir Wil- loughby Cotton, who had commanded at Cabul, had left the country in the preceding spring. His suc- cessor was Gen. Elphinstone, a man advanced in years, and now suffering from disease, which ap- pears to have had the effect of weakening his in- tellect. He had lost all confidence in his own judgment, and he was swayed at the will of every 2 Persians, or their descendants. 3 For the following events, our authorities have been the work of this officer, already quoted (p. 17/), and the Journal of Lady Sale. N 2 180 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1841. adviser. Conscious of his own unfitness — a thine, by the way, he should have known before he left India — he had obtained permission to resign the command to Gen. Nott, and return to Europe, and he was now on the eve of his departure for India. The superior officers in general *, as we shall see, were ill-qualified to make up for the deficiencies of their chief ; and the envoy, who was a man of courage and energy, had lulled himself into a belief that all was tranquil, and that the people were friendly. The principal part of the troops were in the can- tonment ; a portion, under Brig. Shelton, was en- camped on the other side of the Siah Sung hills ; the 37th Native Infantry, under Major Griffiths, was at Khoord Cabul. The Shah's own troops were principally in the Bala Hissar. Sir A. Burnes, and some of the Europeans in the royal service, resided in or near the Kuzzilbash quarter of the town. Early in the morning of the 2nd November, there was a commotion in the city; the shops were all closed, and a rabble of 200 or 300 attacked the houses of Sir A. Burnes and of Capt. Johnson, the Shah's paymaster. Instead of letting his guard fire on them, which in all probability would have put an end to the outbreak 5 , Sir A. Burnes went and addressed the insurgents from the gallery of his house. But to little purpose; the rabble rushed on, and though his own sepoys, and those of the paymaster, made a gallant stand, they massacred himself, his brother, and Lieut. Broadfoot, a most gallant officer, and every man, woman, and child in the place ; and plundered the paymaster's office of all the money that it contained, and then burned the houses. As soon as what had occurred was known in the cantonment, orders were sent to Brig. Shelton to lead a part of his men into the Bala Hissar, and for the remainder to come into the cantonment ; orders were also sent for the 37th to return from Khoord Cabul. The Shah sent one of his sons with some Afghan troops, his regiment named Campbell's Hindoostauees, and two guns into the city to put down the insurrection ; but they were driven off with great loss by the insurgents, and saved their guns with difficulty. As Capt. Law- rence, the envoy's military secretary, was galloping across to the Bala Hissar, to inform the Shah of Shelton's coming, he was attacked by an Afghan with one of their large knives, and when lie escaped him he was fired at by about fifty men, who came out of the city. Shortly after, Lieut. Sturt, the engineer-officer (son-in-law to Gen. Sale), being sent forward by Brig. Shelton, just as he was en- tering the hall of audience, was fallen on by a well- dressed young man, who gave him three wounds, * The principal were Brig. Shelton, of the 44th, Brig. Anquetil, of the Shah's service, Col. Chambers, 5th Light Cavalry. 5 Both Lady Sale and Lieut. Eyre assert, that Shah Shujah had been the origin of the outbreak, in order to get rid of Sir A. llurnes, whom he disliked. A chief, named Taj Mohammed, went to Burnes the day before, and told him wli.it WM to MOOT, hut he not merely refused to credit him, hut actually Insulted him. On the day of the outbreak several chiefs went to the house of Capt. Trevor, of the 8hah's service, oircring their MsllUaOO, Every thing shows that with a little energy ,111,1 common prudence, it might have been suppressed. one in the face, and then ran into an adjacent building, of which the gates were closed as soon as he had passed them. Though Brig. Shelton ar- rived in the forenoon at the Bala Hissar, and his men were eager to be led against the insurgents, the day was let to pass away in inactivity. Early next morning (3rd), the gallant 37th Native Infantry arrived in cantonments, having made a most orderly march, though followed by about 3000 Ghiljyes, aud without even losing any of its baggage. Some guns and mortars were now sent into the Bala Hissar, with which Brig. Shel- ton was directed to keep up a fire on the city. In the afternoon, Major Swayne was sent toward the city with some troops along the Kohistan road, with orders to proceed along the walls to the left, and to try to effect a junction with some of the troops from the Bala Hissar at the Lahore gate, near that citadel. But he encountered so sharp a fire from the Kohistan gate, and other places, that he found it advisable to return. Soon after, a large body of Afghans were seen to issue from the fort of Mahmood Khan, which was 600 yards south-east of the cantonment, close to the river on the road leading from the Bala Hissar to the Shah Bagh. They drew up in line along the river, and displayed a flag, but a few shots scattered them. An order was now sent for troops to Candahar. Next day (4th) the enemy took possession of the Shah Bagh, and threw a strong garrison into the fort of Mohammed Shereef, which is close to that garden, and within 100 yards of the cantonment, between which and the Commissariat fort they thus cut off communication. The defence of this fort was committed to Ensign Warren, of the 5th Na- tive Infantry, and 100 men. Having reported that he was in danger of being overcome, the general gave hasty orders for a party to go, not to reinforce him, but to bring him off. The attempt was made, but the party was forced to return with great loss. A second attempt also proved a failure. Capt. Boyd, the assistant-commissary-general, having now learned what the general was about, hastened to him, and represented that the loss of that fort would be of irreparable injury, as it contained be- side grain all the stores of rum, medicine, clothing, &c, while there were not more than two days' supply of provisions in cantonments, and he knew not where any more were to be obtained. The general now wrote to Warren, to hold out to the last extremity ; but the note, it would seem, never reached him, and toward night he wrote to say that the enemy were mining the fort, and preparing to burn the gate, and that his men were deserting. Ho was informed, in reply, that he would be rein- forced at two in the morning ! At nine at night a council sat at the general's. The envoy, who was present, strongly urged the ne- cessity of reducing the fort of Mohammed Shrivel. Two men were sent successively to view it ; their report was favourable, but still the council did nothing but agree that a detachment should be sent in the morning. Just, however, as it was getting ready, Warren came in, the enemy having M-t fire tn the gate, and the garrison being obliged to escape through a hole in the wall. This event decided the fate of the British ; the Kuzzilbashcs, who had hitherto been neutral, now declared against them, and they hud hardly a friend re- maining in the country. a.d. 1841. DISASTERS^-ACTION ON BEHMAROO HILLS. In the morning (5th) the troops, especially the native, when they heard of the capture of the fort, were furious to be led to its recapture. Lieut. Eyre now urged the general to send a party to take Mohammed Shereef's fort, by blowing the gate open with gunpowder. He gave his consent ; but, through the want of judgment or of spirit, as it would appear, of Major Swayne, who led the party, the attempt proved a failure. The general recalled the troops, though, according to Lady Sale, the enemy were actually making their escape from the fort. Next day, however (6th), it was regularly breached, stormed, and captured. Some smart fighting then ensued, in an attempt to get possession of the Shah Bagh, but the enemy, though routed in every encounter, assembled in such num- bers that it could not be accomplished. Plans were formed and proposed for recovering the Commissariat-fort, but still the general and his advisers hesitated, and nothing was done. On the 9th, at the express desire of the envoy, Brig. Shel- ton was summoned from the Bala Hissar to assist the general, whose mental incapacity was apparent. He came, but he added little to the wisdom of the council, for his whole thoughts were how to get back to India as quickly as possible, and he urged an immediate retreat to Jellalabad, a course to which the envoy was most strenuously opposed. Excepting undaunted courage, Shelton does not appear to have possessed any of the qualities ne- cessary for command. Despondency prevailed in general among the officers, and spread to the men. The enemy, reinforced by great numbers of Ghil- jyes, now occupied the two ranges of hills between which the cantonment lay. Those on the Siah Sung descended into the plain, and took possession of all the forts in it. As one of these, named the Rika-bashee fort, was opposite and within musket- shot of the Mission Compound, into which the enemy began to pour their shot, and as further, if they were allowed to surround the cantonment it would be impossible to get any provisions, the general, at the express desire of the envoy, who was obliged to take the whole responsibility on himself, ordered a force under Brig. Shelton to advance to storm it (10th). Unfortunately, Capt. Bellew, who was to blow open the gate, missed it, and only blew open a wicket. The storming party, led by Col. Mackrell, then advanced under a sharp fire from the walls. Only the colonel and a few officers and men got in, but the garrison thinking they were followed by all the rest fled out of the opposite gate. But just then a party of the Afghan horse charged round the corner of the fort next the wicket. A cry of " cavalry" was raised, and a bugler by mistake sounding the retreat, the troops began to run. By a most extraordinary display of valour, Brig. Shelton at length succeeded in rallying them, and the fort was taken, but in the meantime all within it had perished, except Lieut. Bird and a Sepoy. For when they found that their comrades had retreated they closed the gate and fastened it with a bayonet ; but the Afghans soon returned, and having contrived to draw the bayonet, rushed in and slaughtered all that were there except those two, who retired into a stable, whence, till they were relieved, they kept up a deadly fire on their assailants, killing upwards of thirty of them. The entire British loss was 200 killed and wounded. Four other forts were evacu- ated by the enemy, and there was found in them a good deal of grain. As they were only able to take away one half of it before nightfall, Capt. Boyd requested Brig. Shelton to leave a guard in a small fort; but he refused, and during the night the Afghans carried off the remainder of the grain. On the 13th, as the enemy were in considerable force on the western heights, whence they fired into the cantonment, Shelton was sent, at the desire of the envoy, to dislodge them. This was done after some hard fighting, the Afghans ad- vancing on the very bayonets of the infantry and driving them down the hill, and " this," says Eyre, " was the last success our arms were destined to experience." On the 15th Major Pottinger, political agent in Kohistan, and Lieut. Haughton, arrived in canton- ments. They were both badly wounded, and had had almost a miraculous escape from Charikar. They had been for several days besieged by large num- bers of Afghans ; the sufferings of themselves and their men (mostly Ghoorkas and Afghans,) from thirst, had been dreadful ; the Mohammedan sol- diers had deserted, and the remainder were de- stroyed in their attempt to reach Cabul. Intelli- gence of another disaster also arrived. A detach- ment under Capt. Woodburn, which was coming from Ghuznee to Cabul, was surprised and cut to pieces by the enemy. Little or nothing was done now till the 22nd. The question of removing into the Bala Hissar was frequently discussed, and Eyre is decidedly of opinion, that had that course been adopted, the subsequent calamities might all have been averted. But Brig. Shelton was so determined on a retreat to Jellalabad, that he set his face against every other proposal. Some ammunition was merely conveyed to the Bala Hissar. The village of Behmaroo, which stands at the north-east extremity of the hills named from it, and about half-a-mile from the cantonment, was the place from which the troops had of late drawn their supplies of grain. On the 22nd, as the enemy was seen crowning the hill over it in large numbers, it was resolved again, at the desire of the envoy, to anticipate them in occupying that village. The task was committed to Major Swayne of the 5th N. I., and just as he had done at the fort of Shereef Shah, instead of entering boldly and charging the enemy who were in the place, he kept his men under cover, doing nothing but merely firing on the houses. Lieut. Eyre was sent with a gun, but could get no position for it except in the open field, where the gunners were exposed to the fire of the enemy's marksmen, as also were the cavalry which were stationed behind it. In the evening the troops were recalled, and in the night Akbar Khan arrived at Cabul. At a council held at the general's that night, it was resolved that a force under Brig. Shelton, should in the morning take the village by assault, and then maintain the hill over it against all the forces of the enemy. The troops set out at two in the morning, and crossing the Kohistan road, ascended a gorge in the Behmaroo heights oppo- site the cantonments, and which divides them into two hills. Having dragged up the only gun they had with them, they brought it to a knoll over the village, and a fire was opened on an inclosure in it, which was supposed to be the enemies' principal bivouack. Several officers now urged Shelton to HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1841. take advantage of the panic of the enemy, and storm the village while it was yet dark, but he would not consent. At daybreak he sent a party to storm under Major Swayne; but this officer missing the gate which was open, came to a wicket which was barricaded, and then as usual got his men under cover. After they had been there about half an hour, suffering from the enemy's fire, they were recalled, as large bodies of men were seen issuing from the city ; and the brigadier, leaving three companies of the 37th N. 1. under Capt. Kershaw as a reserve on the knoll, moved back with the rest to the part of the hill over the gorge. A squadron of irregular horse under Lieut. Walker had been sent down into the plain on the west to intercept fugitives from the village. As the enemy was in great force on the hill beyond the gorge, (10,000 it is said) and their juzails carry a long way, Shelton was advised to erect a sunga or stone breast-work for the defence of the men ; but he refused as usual. The cavalry of the enemy swept the plain to the west, and it was found necessary to recall Lieut. Walker. The British position was, therefore, now surrounded on all sides, except that next the can- tonment. Brig. Shelton had drawn up the infantry in two squares, and placed the cavalry behind them in one mass, thus presenting a broad mark for the enemies' juzails, from which the troops suffered severely. Bodies of the enemies' cavalry were now seen issuing from the Shah Bagh in order to get between the troops and the canton- ment ; but they were checked by some troops in a mnsjeed or tomb, and by a fire from the canton- ment. Swarms of Ghazees had at this time descended in the gorge, and creeping up the other side, picked off the British skirmishers ; and though the brigadier offered 100 rupees to any man who would take a flag which they had planted within thirty yards of the first square, none would stir. As fruitless were the efforts made to get the men to charge bayonets. The Ghazees now made a rush at the gun ; the cavalry refused to charge when ordered, and all but the second square gave way and ran. The officers with great diffi- culty succeeded in rallying them behind this square. The Ghazees then retired, taking with them the limber and horses of the gun. It was now past noon ; fresh assailants poured forth from the town and village, and the firing of the long juzaih was thinning the troops, who were suffering from heat and thirst. Brig. Shel- ton then scut to request Major Kershaw to move up and join him. But that officer, who had been the whole morning hard pressed by the enemy from the village, and who feared if he quitted the knoll his retreat would be cut off, suggested that it would be better for them to fall back on him. By this time the front ranks of the first square had been mowed down, and when they began to retire toward Major Kershaw, the Ghazees made a rush and completely broke the square, All order was now lost j the men rushed down the hill and made for the cantonment ; the reserve followed their .■sample, the enemy poured round them from all sides, and but that the pursuit was cheeked by a fire from the Mission Compound. and that a chief named Osman Khan halted and drew off his men who were foremoal in the pur- suit, hardly a man would have escaped. As it was the loss was tremendous, for as the wounded were left behind they were all massacred. Lieut. Eyre notices and severely comments on not less than six gross errors committed by Brig. Shelton on this disastrous day, namely :— taking but one gun with him ; not storming the village in the dark ; not raising a sunga ; placing the cavalry where it could not act and was exposed to the enemies' fire instead of on the plain ; refus- ing to retreat in time. The last we shall state in the indignant writer's own words : " All," says he, "have heard of the British squares at Water- loo, which defied the repeated desperate onsets of Napoleon's choicest camlnj. At Behmaroo we formed squares to resist the distant fire of infantry, thus presenting a solid mass against the aim of perhaps the best marksmen in the world ; the said squares being securely perched on the summit of a steep and narrow ridge, up which no cavalry could charge with effect. A Peninsular general would consider this to be a novel fashion ; yet Brig. Shelton had the benefit of Peninsular expe- rience in his younger days, and, it must be owned, was never surpassed in dauntless bravery." There remained only two honourable courses now, to retire to the Bala Hissar and defend it to the uttermost, or to make a bold effort to reach Jellalabad. But against the former Shelton and the others made their old objections of difficulty and danger, as if any course could be free from them ; and it was resolved to have recourse to negotiation to effect a retreat to India. A letter from Osman Khan to the envoy having arrived, he requested the opinion of the general as to the possibility of retaining their position ; and he, as no doubt he was instructed, replied that it was impos- sible, and advised negotiation. But the terms proposed by the chiefs were not to be endured, even by those most anxious for retreat. The Bri- tish were required to deliver up Shah Shujah and his family, and lay down their arms, in which case their lives might perhaps be spared and they per- mitted to leave the country. Little occurred during some days. On the night of the 4th, then December, the Afghans made a fruitless attempt to blow open with powder the gate of Mohammed Shereef's fort ; but next day they succeeded in destroying the bridge over the river, at which they had been at work unopposed for the last ten days, though the bridge was of the utmost importance, and it might have been aeenred by placing a party in a small fort close by it, and several officers had solicited to be allowed to do so, but in vain, the principle of the leaden being to listen to no salutary counsel. In the night, Lieut. Stui't succeeded in destroying a mine which the Afghans were running under one of the towers of Mohammed Shereefa fort, and in the morning (fith) its garrison was relieved by a com- pany of the Queen's 44th under Lieut. Gray, and one of the H7th N. I. under Lieut, Ilawtivv. In order to destroy the mine, it had been necessary to make a breach in the wall, which however had been well barricaded ;md secured. But some Afghans having now crept up to it, fired in through the barricade and wounded Lieut. Cray. On his retiring to have his wound dressed, his men lost all COUrage, and they collected their bedding as if lor a rit rent. A sudden rush of the enemy at the breach completed their panic, and tiny flung them- A.D. 1841. NEGOTIATIONS— MURDER OF ENVOY. i;::{ selves precipately over the walls. The Sepoys, who at first remained firm, at length followed their example, and Lieut. Hawtrey was the last to leave the fort, of which the enemy took immediate pos- session. A party of the 44th, who were stationed in the bazaar-village, also showed so much inclina- tion to follow the example of their comrades, that it was found necessary to replace them by a company of the 37th N. I. So matters remained till the 11th, the chief military men being all for negotiation and retreat on almost any terms. On that day the envoy had a meeting with the Afghan chiefs on the plain toward Siah Sung, in which he proposed, as the heads of a treaty, the complete evacuation of the country by the British, they being furnished with supplies on the road, and some chiefs accompany- ing them as hostages ; the Ameer, his family, and others to be allowed to return, and Shah Shujah at his option to remain or to depart with the British ; an amnesty to be granted to all who had sided with the Shah or the British ; means of transport for baggage, &c, to be supplied. After some violent opposition from Akbar Khan, the chiefs assented to these terms, and it was arranged that the British should depart in three days. Next day, however, came a new proposal from the chiefs, namely, that the Shah Shujah should continue to reign on condition of marrying his daughters to the principal chiefs, and of his giving up the prac- tice of keeping the great men standing at his gate waiting for an audience, a practice which had mainly contributed to make him unpopular. Such was the absurd pride of this infatuated prince, that it was with the utmost reluctance he consented to these reasonable terms, in making which, it may however be doubted, if the chiefs were sincere. At two in the afternoon next day (13th), the British troops began to evacuate the Bala Hissar. Akbar Khan was at the gate to escort them ; but his men having endeavoured to force an entrance, the king's guard shut the gate, and a round or two of grape was fired on them ; Akbar Khan, hoping to be able to renew the attempt with better success if the gate was opened to readmit the troops, de- clared that it was now too late, and no longer safe for them to proceed, and that they must wait till morning. But the king refused to let them in; and they had to spend the night exposed to the bitter cola, without shelter or covering. Early in the moriing they set out, and at nine o'clock they readied the cantonment. Tvo days after (16th) the Shah withdrew his consent from the arrangement that had been made, and tiie treaty became as at first. The chiefs now refused to supply provisions or forage, unless all the forts were given up to them ; and though this was putting themselves completely in their power, the general and his council consented. On the 18th tiere was a fall of snow, which covered the ground to the depth of five inches, and remained on it all through the winter. The chiefs now (20th) demanded a portion of the guns and ammunition immediately, and that Brig. Shelton should be given as a hostage. Lieut. Sturt, in indignation, urged tl\e general to break off the treaty, and march at once for Jellalabad. A council sat, but, like all ouncils of war, it decided against action and enteiprise. Gen. Sale had already declared that it was quite impossible for him to march to Cabul, and they now learned that the reinforce- ment which they had expected from Kandahar, had been stopped by the snow. On the 21st, the four hostages which were to be given were agreed on, the chiefs not insisting on She] ton's being one, as he had "expressed a de- cided objection to undertake the duty." Next day, Capt. Skinner, who was living at this time under the protection of Akbar Khan, was the bearer of the following proposals to the envoy, that Ameenoo- lah Khan, one of the principal chiefs, should be seized on the following day, and delivered up to him ; that our troops should occupy the Bala Hissar, and Mohammed Khan's fort ; Shah Shujah continue to reign, and Akbar Khan to be his vizir, and the British troops to remain where they were till spring. The envoy, glad to catch at any thing that promised to extricate him from his present difficulties, assented to this plan, though it had treachery on the face of it, and signed the paper on which it was written. On the following day (23rd), about noon, the envoy set out, accompanied by Captains Lawrence, Trevor, and Mackenzie, to meet Akbar Khan in the plain toward Siah Sung. He requested the general to have two regiments and two guns in readiness for secret service, namely, occupying the fort and the Bala Hissar, and to keep the garrison on the alert, and the walls strongly manned. When those who were with him expressed their appre- hension of the danger he was encountering, from the well-known treachery of the Afghans, he de- clared that he had no confidence in them, but that he thought the chance of success worth the risk. " At any rate," he added, " I would rather suffer a hundred deaths, than live the last six weeks over again." Near the bridge they were met by Akbar Khan, and some other chiefs, among whom was a brother of Ameenoolah's, but even that did not open the envoy's eyes ; neither did the appearance of crowds of armed Afghans, that were hovering about on all sides. After the usual civilities, the envoy presented Akbar Khan with an Arab horse, for which 3000 rupees had been given that morning. They all then sat down near some rising ground, which par- tially concealed them from the cantonment. Capt. Lawrence drew their attention to the number of armed followers that were around them, in order that they might be removed, but Akbar Khan ex- claimed, " No ; they are all in the secret ; " and he scarce had spoken, when the hands of the envoy and his companions were suddenly grasped from behind, and their swords and pistols were snatched away. The three officers were dragged off, and each made to mount behind a chief ; and in their last view of the envoy, they beheld him struggling violently with Akbar Khan, " consternation and horror depicted on his countenance." Numbers of fanatic Ghazees rushed on them, but the chiefs defended them till they reached Mohammed Khan's fort, where Lawrence and Mackenzie were placed in safety ; but Trevor, happening to fall from the horse, was slaughtered without mercy. In the fort, while all were congratulating the chiefs on the success of their stratagem, one voice alone, that of an old Moollah, was raised to condemn it. He cried, that " the name of the Faithful was tar- nished, and that in future no belief could be placed in them ; that the deed was foul, and could never 184 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1842. be of advantage to the authors." In the night they were taken to Akbar Khan's house in the city, where he received them courteously, and ex- pressed his sorrow for the events of the day. They now learned, for the first time, the fate of the envoy and of Capt. Trevor. It seems that the plan which had been arranged, was to seize the person of the envoy, and bring him into the city, where the chiefs hoped to be able to make him consent to any terms they would dictate. But he made so strenuous a resistance, that Akbar Khan, despairing of being able to carry him off alive, and excited by his passions, shot him in the body with a pistol, his own gift at the con- ference ; and the Ghazees then rushed on and hacked him to pieces. His head was cut off, and his body and that of Capt. Trevor, were afterwards exposed in the bazaar of the city. Such was the fate of Sir William Macnaghten, the original author of the ill-omened expedition to Afghanistan. He was a man of considerable ta- lent, but, as would appear, not of correct political views ; full of confidence in himself, and too ready to place confidence in others. His last acts evinced great imprudence ; but it is only fair to conclude that his sufferings, from the lamentable incapacity and total want of decision and energy in his mili- tary coadjutors, had made him desperate, if they had not actually impaired his mental powers. Had he possessed the requisite authority, it is probable that he would have averted the subsequent cala- mities ; for with him, as we may have observed, had originated every measure of energy. It may well be supposed, that the faineans in the cantonment made no effort to avenge his fate. On the contrary, as soon as they had ascertained it, they requested Major Pottinger to act in his place, in carrying on the treaty with the chiefs. These now required, that all the guns but six should be left behind ; that all the treasure should be given up ; and that married men and their families should take the place of the present hostages. Christmas-day passed gloomily. The day follow- ing, letters came from Peshawur announcing the march of reinforcements from India, and Osman Khan offered to escort them all safe to Peshawur for five lacs of rupees. Shortly after arrived some shroffs, or bankers, for the purpose of negotiating bills on India to the amount of fourteen lacs, pay- able on the promise of the late envoy to the chiefs, if the troops were conducted safely to Jellalabad. Major Pottinger protested strongly against thus binding the government, merely to save their own lives and property, and proposed rather to hold out at Cabul, or to march for Jellalabad. But the council of war decided unanimously to treat and to pay any thing, rather than to fight. As the chiefs required four married hostages with their families, a circular was sent round to try if that Dumber would volunteer, on being assured of an allowance of 2000 rupees a month ; but Lieut. Eyre alone consented to remain. The chiefs, there- fore, agreed to waive that part of the treaty ; the bills were given, the guns were transferred, and the sick wire aent into the city, where they were to remain under the protection of the chiefs. CHAPTER XV. The Retreat— Slaughter at Khoord-Cabul Pass— Delivery of the Women and Children — Massacre at the Tungee Tareekee— In the Jugdulluk Defile— Total Destruction of the Army— Defence of Jellalabad— Of Kandahar— Lord Ellenborough Governor-general— Loss of Ghuznee — Vic- tory at Jellalabad— Advance of Gen. Pollock— Re-occupa- tion of Cabul— Advance of Gen. Nott — Destruction of Ghuznee— Recovery of the Captives — Evacuation of Af- ghanistan. At nine o'clock on the morning of Thursday, the 6th January, 1842, the British forces issued from their cantonments to undertake a dreary march, over a country covered with snow and through dangerous defiles, for Jellalabad. They numbered 4500 fighting men, and the camp followers amounted to at least 12,000 men, beside women and chil- dren. An Afghan chief, named Jubbar Khan, was to be their escort. It had been the earnest advice of their Afghan friends, that they should, if pos- sible, get through the Khoord Cabul pass on the first day, but perhaps it was not possible ; at all events, the general would not make the effort, and they advanced only six miles that day. They bi- vouacked for the night in the snow, and numbers died of the cold. The following morning (7th) they marched four miles to Bootkhak ; but, instead of entering the pass, they halted there for the night, at the desire of Akbar Khan, who, it seemed, was now to be their escort. This day they sustained many at- tacks from the Afghans, and were obliged to spike some of their guns. Akbar Khan required that six more hostages should be given, to ensure their not going beyond Tezeen till Gen. Sale should have evacuated Jellalabad ; and next day (8th) Major Pottinger, and Captains Lawrence and Mackenzie, whom he specified, were sent to him. About mid- day the mingled mass began to enter that formid- able defile, of which the sides were filled with ferocious Ghiljyes. The stream which ran foam- ing and roaring through it had to be crossed eight- and-twenty times. No order could be preserved ; soldiers and camp-followers alike pressed on arrid the dense shower of balls from the Ghiljye jindk, and 3000 are stated as the lowest number of tlmse who perished in the pass. In this fatal passage Lady Sale's son-in-law, Lieut. Start, was mortally wounded. That gallant lady herself was also wounded in the arm, as she galloped along with the advance. At length they reached Khoord Cabul, where they bivouacked under a fall of snow which lasted till morning. The troops wen most anxious to go on, justly deeming their only ihance of escape to be in the rapidity of their advance ; but at the desire of Akbar Klian, the genera made them halt. About noon, ('apt. Skinner arriwd with a proposal from that chief, that all the woman ami children in camp should be placed under lis pro- tection, and he promised to escort them safely, keeping them a day's march in the rear of the army. Though little reliance could be phced on Afghan honour, the general was pcrsittded by ('apt. Skinner to trust him, and the niarriol ( fliers with their families, and the other women and chil- dren, were committed to the charge of a party of Afghan horse, sent for the purpose, Hiring this ad. 1842. TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF THE ARMY. day the men belonging; to the Shah's troops began to desert in great numbers. At break of day on the 10th, the whole mixed multitude were again in motion, every one, as usual, pressing forward to the front as the only place of safety. The advance, consisting of the 44th and some troopers, managed at length to get to the front, and reached a narrow gorge (not more it is said than ten feet wide) named the Tunghee Ta- reekee, or Dark Pass, on the height to the right of which the Afghans had taken their post, whence they poured incessant volleys into the gorge. The advance pushed through, though with great loss, and reached Kubbar-e-Jubbar about five miles off, where they were at length joined by some strag- glers, from whom they learned that of all the troops which bad marched that morning from Khoord to Cabul. there remained now only themselves. The whole of the main and rear columns had been cut off, for the men had flung away their arms and Hed, and the Afghans rushing on them sword in hand had massacred them without mercy. The whole British force now consisted of 50 artillery- men with one howitzer, 70 men of the 44th, and 150 troopers. There still remained about 4000 of the camp-followers. The general sent Capt. Skinner to remonstrate with Akbar Khan on this breach of treaty. But he declared, whether truly or not, that it was totally out of his power to restrain the Ghiljyes in their present state of excitement ; and he proposed as the only resource, that the troops should lay down their arms and place themselves under his protection, and he would convey them safe to Jella- labad ; but the camp-followers as being so nume- rous must be left to their fate. To these terms the general could not bring himself to consent, and the march was resumed. Numbers of the camp- followers, and some wounded officers, had gone on before ; and when the troops came to a narrow defile about five miles off, leading into the Tezeen valley from the heights named the Huft Kotul, they found it strewed with dead bodies. The defile was three miles long, and its heights were covered with Ghiljyes ; and but for the dauntless valour and energy of Brig. Shelton, who commanded the rear-guard, the whole of the troops would have been destroyed. At four in the day they reached the ground where they were to bivouack for the night. Not less than 12,000 persons had perished within the last four dreadful days. Capt. Skinner being sent to Akbar Khan, brought back the same answer as before. As it was of the utmost importance to be able to get through the strong pass of Jugdulluk before the enemy should have time to occupy it, the troops, abandoning their last gun, set out at seven in the evening for that place twenty-one miles distant. Owing to the darkness, they did not sustain as much loss as usual, and in the morning (11th) they reached Kuttur-Sung within ten miles of Jugdul- luk. But now every inch of the road was con- tested, and though Shelton with the rear-guard performed prodigies of valour, the fire of the juzails was murderous. At five o'clock, Capt. Skinner who had been sent to Akbar Khan, re- turned with a request from that chief for the general to meet him at a conference, and a demand for Brig. Shelton and Capt. Johnson as hostages for the evacuation of Jellalabad. They all went, and were received with apparent kindness ; food was immediately supplied them, and they enjoyed a refreshing sleep for the first time since they had left Cabul. Akbar Khan had assured them that food and an escort should be sent to the famishing troops. But none came ; and all through the next day (12th) they were exposed to constant attacks from the Afghans, by one of whom Capt. Skinner was treacherously killed. At night, leaving the sick and wounded behind, the survivors set once more forward ; but the Ghiljyes were on the alert, and in the Jugdulluk defile, a massacre similar to that in the Tungee Tareekee ensued. Brig. Anquetil, Col. Chambers, Major Thain, and thirteen other officers were among the slain. Next day (13th) the survivors made their way to Gundamuk, but here the tragedy was completed by a rush of the Afghans sword in hand. Capt. Bellew and about a dozen other officers with some troopers had ridden off for Jellalabad, but of the whole number only one, Dr. Brydon, reached that place. Never, per- haps, since war began among mankind, has the destruction of an army been more complete ; and it is lamentable to think that it was entirely caused by the disgraceful incapacity, ignorance, and wil- fulness of those to whose care it had been com- mitted. Widely different was the conduct of the real soldier who commanded in Jellalabad. Though without money, short of both provisions and ammu- nition, and with a force scarcely adequate to the defence of the place, he refused to obey the order to evacuate it, and calmly awaited the attack of all the forces the Afghans might be able to bring against it. A brigade had been assembled under Col. Wylde to relieve him ; but it proved unable to effect the passage of the Khyber Pass, and it was found necessary to abandon the fort of Ali Mus- jeed. In Kandahar it had at first been attempted to obtain the aid of the neighbouring chiefs by money, and a lac of rupees was thus fruitlessly expended, for they all went off and joined the enemy. As they had assembled in force near the city, Gen. Nott led out his men (Jan. 12) to attack them. He found them posted with a morass in front, and while the British troops were at a distance, they kept up a fire with their matchlocks ; but on their nearer approach they broke and fled with precipi- tation. Such were the closing events of the unfortunate administration of Lord Auckland. How far he was personally to blame for what occurred, it is not easy to ascertain ; but his great error seems to have been the sanctioning the profitless project of restoring Shah Shujah. On the last day of February his successor, Lord Ellenborough, landed at Calcutta. One more disaster befell the British arms in Afghanistan. Col. Palmer, who commanded in Ghuznee, had applied to the authorities at Cabul for permission to repair the works and lay in pro- visions, but to no purpose. At length, just when it was too late, he ventured to act on his own responsibility. On the 20th November came, as we have seen, the first fall of snow, and on the same day the enemy made their appearance. But the next week they retired on hearing of the advance of troops from Kandahar. They soon, HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1842. however (Dec. 7), returned in greater numbers. Policy suggested to turn the inhabitants out of the town; but an unfounded idea of their being faithful to the British, and the reflection on the cruelty of turning so many poor people out to perish in the snow, made the idea be dismissed at once. The consequence was, that they dug a hole through the wall (16th), and admitted their countrymen, and the garrison after a night and a day's hard fighting, had to retire into the citadel. The weather now proved extremely severe, the snow often fell to a depth of two feet, firing was exceeding scarce, and provisions very scanty, the sufferings of the men who were natives of India were almost beyond endurance. A kind of truce, therefore, was made with the enemy (Jan. 15), by which the fort was to be surrendered on the arrival of Shems-ud-din Khan. This person did not arrive till the middle of February, and Col. Palmer continued to amuse him for some time longer. At last the patience of the Afghans was exhausted, and the garrison marched out (March 6), under the security of a treaty signed and sworn to by all the chiefs that they should be escorted in safety to Peshawur, with their arms, baggage, &c. They were to remain in a part of the town under the citadel till the road to Cabul should be clear. But they soon had a specimen of the usual Afghan faith ; the very next day their quarters were attacked, and many of them slain by the Ghazees. This continued till the 10th, during which time Shems-ud-din repeat- edly sent, offering the officers his protection if they would leave the Sepoys to their fate. This they steadily refused to do ; but the men themselves, thinking they had no other chance of escape, re- solved to dig a hole through the wall, and try to reach Peshawur, which they fancied not to be more than fifty or sixty miles off through the mountains. They asked their officers to accompany them, and on their refusal made the attempt, but with the success that might have been anticipated. They got bewildered in the fields, and in the morning they were cut to pieces or made prisoners. The officers had mean time surrendered, and on renewed oaths of kind usage, but they were, of course, ill- treated and plundered. The treatment, however, varied according to the intelligence that came from Jellalabad or Kandahar, and the hopes or fears of their guards. Before Lord Auckland resigned the government, he had been making preparations for the relief of Jellalabad, and immediately after Col. Wylde's repulse, a force of some magnitude was assembled for that purpose at Peshawur, to move under the command of Gen. Pollock ; but it was not till April that that officer was able to inarch for the Khybor Pan. Meanwhile Gen. Sale had succeeded in putting the works of Jellalabad in a condition to resist any attempt of the Afghans, when there occurred (Feb. 19) one of those earthquakes which are common in that country, and which levelled in an instant the greater part of the works. The garrison, undismayed, instantly commenced the labour of restoration, and by the end of the month the town was again in a state of defence. Akbar Khan, who was now only seven miles off, could find no solution of this phenomenon but magio. He soon after invested the place, and kept up a strict blockade. Various gallant sallies took place, and at length (April 7) a brilliant attack was mad.- on his camp. Three columns, two of 500 men each and one of 360 led by Cols. Dennie and Monteith and Capt. Havelock, issued from the town early in the morning. They found the enemy, 0000 in num- ber, drawn out before their camp, their right rest- ing on a fort, their left on the Cabul river ; some works were filled with marksmen. Capt. Have- lock's column succeeded in piercing the enemies' left ; the central one directed its efforts against a square fort in the line which was obstinately de- fended, and here the gallant Dennie fell mortally wounded. The rear of this fort being gained, orders were given for a general attack on the enemies' camp. The Afghans made every effort, by a sustained fire and by charges of cavalry, to check their advance, but in vain ; their line was penetrated on all sides, their guns were captured, and their camp set on fire ; and their whole force was soon in full retreat. Nine days after this vic- tory (16th) Gen. Pollock and his forces reached Jellalabad. By the judicious employment of flanking companies to storm the heights, he had threaded the formidable Khyber Pass without any loss of men or baggage. Gen. Nott still retained Kandahar. Leading out a part of his troops (March 7) he drove the enemy over the rivers Turnak and Urgundab, and then (9th) put them totally to the rout. During his absence an attempt on the city was defeated with great loss to the assailants. In the end of the month, Brig.-gen. England, who was advancing from Sinde, having reached Quetta in safety, was as he moved on from that town so vigorously opposed by the enemy in the passage of a narrow defile, that he was obliged to fall back to Quetta with a loss of 98 men killed and wounded. In this month also occurred an event, which, though of no great consequence in itself, tended to relieve the British government from some em- barrassment, namely, the death of Shah Shujah. As he was riding from the Bala Hissar to his camp at Siah Sung with the eldest son of Nawab Zeman Khan 7 , the latter shot him with a double- barreled gun. There was now a victorious British force at Jel- lalabad, and another at Kandahar, which could be easily reinforced from Sinde. The Afghans, it was clear, could not withstand the British troops in the field, and they never could remain long at unity among themselves. The fine weather, more- over, was at hand, and provisions would be more easily procured. It is of absolute necessity in the Ea6t to make a display of power, as forbearance is sure to be ascribed to impotence. All, therefore, we should suppose, pointed out the policy of the return of the British to Cabul, ami making the Afghans conscious of their power. But such had not been the policy of Lord Auckland. Overwhelmed, as it would appear, by the turn affairs had taken at C.abul, his only thoughl bad been how to get the remaining troops OUt of that fatal country ; and it was for this sole purpose that the forces of Gcuo- rals I'ollock ana England had been assembled. The polio) of his successor was not different ; in all his letters and orders to Sir Joseph Nicholls, the commander-in-chief, to Generals Pollock and Nott, tho theme is the speedy evacuation of Afgha- ' On tho outbreak of November 2, the Afphfins had pro- claimed this person Bain, and struck money in his n.ime. a. d. 1842. ADVANCE OF GENERALS. POLLOCK AND NOTT. 1J!7 nistan, provided the prisoners had been recovered. Against that course these two officers remonstrated in strong terms ; and it was at first conceded, that the troops should not commence their march for India till the autumn, and at length, in the month of July, a reluctant consent was given to their advance on Cabul, if they felt themselves strong enough to do it in safety. From all which it ap- pears quite plain, that the restoration of our mili- tary glory in the eyes of the people of the East, was due solely to those two distinguished officers, both of whom belonged to the Company's ser- vice. As soon as Gen. Pollock had obtained permis- sion to act on the offensive, he had sent out a force under Brig. Monteith, which destroyed five-and- thirty forts in the vicinity of Jellalabad. On the 23rd August, he marched from that place for Gun- damuk. On his arrival there (23rd), he learned that the enemy were in some force at a fort and village two miles off ; and next morning he led a part of his troops against them, but they fled after a slight resistance. The troops remained nearly a fortnight at Gundamuk, and then (Sept. 7) re- sumed their march for Jugduluk, in two divisions, under Sir Robert Sale and Gen. McCaskill. The first division, on coming to a pass on the road, found the heights, which formed a kind of amphi- theatre on the right, held by the enemy, who were thus enabled to fire into the column across a deep ravine, and do some injury. Some troops were sent to dislodge them, before whom they retired without fighting, to the summit of a steep lofty mountain. But hither they were followed, though with great labour and difficulty, and they retired as usual. The first division then advanced to Tezeen, where it was joined by the second. A halt was made for a day, to refresh the cattle be- longing to the latter; and the enemy ascribing this, of course, to the fear of advancing, commenced at- tacking the pickets on the left flank, and when repelled there, on the right, but with as little suc- cess. Next day (13th), when the army commenced its march, all the hills round the valley of Tezeen were occupied by the enemy, and their horse ap- peared in the plain. Troops were sent to dislodge them from the heights, and they advanced boldly to meet them ; but they could not withstand the bayonet, and their horse were scattered by the charge of the British cavalry. At the fatal Huft Kotul, leading out of the valley, the Afghans of- fered a determined resistance, but they were driven from position to position, and the whole British force, emerging from the pass, marched unopposed to Khoord Cabul. The Afghans are said to have had on thisioccasion 1 6,000 men in the field, led by Akbar Khan in person. The British loss was only thirty-two killed and 130 wounded. On the 15th, Gen. Pollock encamped at Cabul ; and next day, amid the roar of artillery, the shouts of the troops, and the sound of martial music, he planted the banner of England on the Bala Hissar. We are now to trace the march of Gen. Nott to the same place. In May, he had been joined by Gen. England, and by the garrison of Khelat-e- Ghiljye, which he had been ordered to withdraw. While the troops sent for this last purpose, under Col. Wymer, were away, the enemy to the number of 10,000 occupied some hills near Kandahar ; but Gen. Nott, with only 1000 infantry, 250 ca- valry, and twelve guns, marched out against them, and carried their positions in less than an hour 8 . When Gen. Nott got permission to move, his confidence in his troops was such, that he resolved to take only a part to Cabul, the rest retired with Gen. England, by way of Quetta, to Sinde. Ou the 9th Aug. Gen. Nott commenced his march, with a large stock of ammunition and provisions for forty days. They met with little annoyance till the 28th, when a party sent out to protect some grass-cutters, whom the enemy had fallen on, came in the ardour of pursuit on an Afghan army, by whom they were driven off with considerable loss. As the attack on the grass-cutters had proceeded from an adjacent fort, a party was sent against it. Some persons came out to sue for forbearance, and an officer and some men were directed to enter, and see if their statements were true. But as they approached the fort, they were greeted with a shower of balls, and the troops then rushed in and slaughtered all in the place, which proved to be full of armed men. Shems-ud-din, of Ghuznee, being now in the vicinity of the British camp in great force, Gen. Nott led out one-half of his troops against him (30th). After a cannonade on both sides the British advanced to the attack, and the enemy at once broke and fled. The troops at length (Sept. 5th) appeared before Ghuznee, and were preparing to make an assault the next day ; but when the morning came it was found that the citadel had been evacuated in the night. As it had been determined to destroy this place, fourteen mines were sprung under the walls of the citadel, and the gateways and principal buildings of the town were fired 9 . On his further march to Cabul, Gen. Nott dispersed a force of 12,000 Afghans, and he reached that city on the 17th, two days after Gen. Pollock. A few days after the arrival of Gen. Nott, a force was sent under Gen. McCaskill against Istalif, a place about twenty miles north-west of Cabul, strongly situated on the side of a mountain. The Afghans reposed great confidence in its strength, but it proved unable to resist the Bri- tish. A great portion of it was destroyed, and the same was the fate of Charikar ; and thus termi- nated the military operations in Afghanistan. The recovery of the prisoners was now the only matter of importance. After the fatal 9th of January, they had been conveyed to the vicinity of Jellalabad, where they had been detained in a fort, at a place named Buddeeabad, while Akbar Khan was engaged in his operations against that town. After his defeat, on the 7th April, they were removed, and taken to different places on the way to Cabul. During these removals, Gen. El- phinstone breathed his last, and his body was sent to Jellalabad for interment. On the 24th May, 8 On this occasion, he said, in a letter to Gen. Pollock, " I would at any time lead 1000 Bengal sepoys against 5000 Afghans. My beautiful native regiment," he adds, "are in perfect health and spirits." ' The tomb of the celebrated Sultan Mahmood was at Ghuznee (above, p. 10), and as it was reported that its doors had belonged to the temple of Somnat (p. 9), Lord Ellen- borough directed that they should be brought as a trophy to India. This absurd act has been commented on and ridi- culed abundantly. We may just observe, that that temple had ceased to exist for ages, and that a great portion of the British troops in Afghanistan were Mussulmans. 188 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1842. they arrived at a fort in a valley, about three miles from Cabul, and there they remained till the 25th August, when they were obliged to set out for Bamian, it being Akbar Khan's declared inten- tion — as Gen. Pollock refused to evacuate the country on condition of their being released — to send them to Kooloom, to be distributed as slaves among the Usbeg chiefs. Their conductor, named Saleh Mohammed Khan, was an Afghan, who had been a subahdar in one of Shah Shujah's regi- ments, but who had deserted to Dost Mohammed in 1840. On the 3rd September, they reached the valley of Bamian, where they remained till the 11th, when a positive order for their immediate departure for Kooloom came from Akbar Khan. All hope of deliverance seemed now at an end, and they were resigning themselves to their fate, when Major Pottinger came to say that Saleh Moham- med had offered to deliver them to the British general, on being assured of 20,000 rupees in cash, and 1000 rupees a month for his life. With this offer they gladly closed, and they all signed their names to the requisite documents. Still they were by no means out of danger, for Akbar Khan was hourly expected to arrive, on his way to Kooloom, and Saleh Mohammed's troops could not be relied on. On the other hand, the Huzareh tribe, that inhabited the valley of Ba- mian where they were, being mostly Sheeahs, were strongly in their favour, and declared their readiness to take up arms on their side against Akbar. Major Pottinger boldly nominated a new governor to the province, in the name of the British government, and made grants to the dif- ferent chiefs ; and the two little forts which they occupied were secured as well as was possible. On the 16th, hearing that Akbar Khan was a fugi- tive in Kohistan, they ventured to commence their flight. Next day, when resting after the descent of a mountain, they beheld a party of horse, emerging from a pass into the valley. These proved to be a body of 600 Kuzzilbash horsemen, who, accompanied by Sir Richmond Shakespear, had set out from Cabul to deliver them, and had travelled ninety miles in two days. No time was lost in advancing, and on the 20th they met at Argundee Gen. Sale and his brigade, who had been sent to meet and protect them. We need not say that the meeting was a most joyful one >. It only remained now to withdraw the troops from Afghanistan, and to renounce all connexion with that country. Dost Mohammed and his family were, accordingly, set at liberty ; and on the return of the army, the Governor-general indulged his taste in a grand military pageant at Feroze- pore, where was a great display of painted ele- phants and triumphal arches, with waving banners and the roaring of artillery. The old doors of Mahmood'i tomb, also, performed a part in this military pantomime. It had also been intended, in imitation of the Romans, to parade Dost Moham- med and his family in the procession, but the good sense of the Grovernor-general, or of his friends, Saved the English name from this stain 2 . 1 Including Ladies Macnaghten and Sale, there were tliir- tera ladles wttn nineteen children, eight of whom belonged to the widow of Capt. Trevor. Lady Sale acknowledge! that, according to Afghan ideas of elegance and omifurt, they had on the whole Ii.cn well treated hy Akbar Khan. * As Lord Auckland commenced with adopting the phra- Thus terminated in pageantry a useless and calamitous war, entered into, as we have Been, without necessity and without the requisite degree of information, and conducted iu a manner calcu- lated to disgrace the British name, had it not been for the talents of a Sale, a Nott, and a Pollock, who spurned at the idea of quitting a country as fugitives which they had entered as conquerors. The expense also proved by no means inconsidera- ble ; for it is asserted that this effort to keep off the Russian bugbear cost the Indian government not less than seventeen millions sterling. CHAPTER XVI. Transactions in Sinde — Sir C. Napier sent thither — Attack on the Residency — Battle of Meeanee — Reduction of Sinde— Observations on that Transaction — Affairs of Gwa- lior— Battle of Maharajpoor— Conclusion of Treaty— Sir Henry Hardinge Governor-general — Death of Runjeet Sing — Affairs of the Punjab— Campaign of the Sutlej — Battle of Moodkee — of Ferozshuhur — of Aliwal— of So- braon— Treaties— Conclusion. After the close of the Afghan expedition, the attention of the government was directed to Sinde, a country with which the British had hitherto had few relations. In 1786, the dominant tribe in Sinde, named Kulbooras, had been displaced by another tribe named Talpoora. Meer Futteh Ally, the chief of this tribe, fixed his abode at Hyderabad, and associated his three brothers in the government with himself. He assigned two other portions of the country to two of his relations, and hence arose the states named Khyrpoor and Meerpoor, in the former of which the system of a plurality of rulers prevailed as at Hyderabad. These rulers of Sinde are usually named the Ameers. Their title, as we have seen, was the usual oriental one of superior might, and was therefore as good as those of most rulers in India. The transactions of the British with the Ameers, were of little moment till 1832, when the English merchants having begun to fancy that a great and lucrative trade might be opened with the nations of Central Asia by means of the Indus, a treaty was, as we have seen, concluded with the Aimers for opening the navigation of that river to the British under certain conditions, two of which were, that they should convey no military stores through the country, and put no armed vessel on the Indus. Some years later (1836), Sinde being menaced by Runjeet Sing, the British government appeared as mediators ; and by a treaty concluded with the Ameers (1838) they agreed to the iesi- denee of a British minister with an escort in their country. About two months after the tripartite treaty was concluded, and as Sinde had formerly paid tribute to Cabal, shah Shujah agree d to give up all claim to this tribute, which he had never received, for such a sum as would be determined by the British government. To this arrangement the Ameers, geology of the French republic, so Lord Ellenborough con- tinued it. His imitation of Buonaparte's bulletin is but too well known for his fame. a.d. 1842-43. BATTLE OF MEEANEE, REDUCTION OF SINDE. 189 however, had not given their consent, and when informed of it they produced a written release from Shah Shujah. The resident confessed himself perplexed by the appearance of this document; but Lord Auckland declared that it was not in- cumbent on the British government " to enter into any formal investigation of the plea adduced by the Ameers," that is, that right or wrong they were to be made to give money for the Cabul ex- pedition. This was followed by a demand of a passage for part of the troops through their coun- try, in contravention of the treaty of 1832. It was now also discovered that one of the Ameers was in correspondence with the court of Persia, and great indignation was expressed at this " dupli- city," in violating the " close alliance " maintained with the British government, an alliance, if it may so be called, forced on the Ameers. To punish this conduct, nothing would content Lord Auck- land short of their signing a subsidiary treaty, by which as large a military force as should seem fit to the Governor-general should be stationed in their country ; and as they were " to derive vast advan- tages" from its presence, they were to bear a part of the expense of its maintenance. The Ameers remonstrated, and referred to the former treaties; but the troops of Sir J. Keane were approaching in one direction, and those of Sir Willoughby Cotton in another, and might was right, so they were obliged to affix their seals to a treaty amended and altered at the Governor-general's pleasure. Such were the dealings of Lord Auckland with the Ameers of Sinde, and in our candid opinion, no transaction on the part of the British in India, so repugnant to the principles of justice, had taken place since the days of Warren Hastings. Lord Ellenborough had now to act on his views of jus- tice, and the law of nations with respect to these princes, who, there is no doubt, when they heard of the disasters at Cabul had hoped to be delivered, and, as it was asserted, had engaged in correspon- dence with parties hostile to the British, but who certainly had done nothing more. Lord Ellen- borough was going at first to threaten them with the confiscation of their territories ; but he finally determined only to require territory in lieu of the tribute which they were to pay on account of the " vast advantages" derived from the subsidiary force, and he sent Major-gen. Sir Charles Napier to exercise the chief military and civil authority in Sinde. Sir C. Napier having reported that the Ameers levied tolls on the river contrary to the treaty, and expressed his opinion that as " the more powerful government would at no distant period swallow up the weaker," it would be better to come to the result at once, " if it could be done with honesty ;" the draft of a treaty was for- warded to him, and he was left to look to the honesty of the transaction himself. By this treaty, certain portions of territory were pointed out to be assigned to the British, and another portion was to be given to the Khan of Bhalpiir, their faithful ally ; the Ameers were to provide fuel for the steamers on the Indus, and if they failed, the Company's servants might cut timber on their territories ; finally, the right of coining, the great mark of sovereignty in the East, was to be taken from them, and the coin was to bear on one side, " the effigy of the sovereign of England." The justice of these harsh measures was based on the authenticity of letters said to have been written by two of the Ameers ; and as that was denied, and it is well known how common and how skilful forgery is in the East, that justice is certainly very problematic. Before this treaty had been accepted by the Ameers, Sir Charles Napier began to act as if it was really in force, and threatened them with amercement if they attempted to collect reve- nue or impose taxes in the districts they were to lose. In order to prevail on the Ameers to divest themselves of their power, Major Outram, who had been resident at Hyderabad, was summoned thither from Bombay, and he succeeded in in- ducing them to set their seals to the instrument of their degradation. But the Beloochees were not satisfied at this humiliation of their chiefs, and the Ameers assured Major Outram, that if Sir Charles Napier continued to advance on Hyderabad, there would be an outbreak. He did however continue his march ; and the consequence was, that an attack was made on the residency (Feb. 15, 1843,) by large masses of horse and foot ; and it was only by getting on board a steamer, that the resident and his escort escaped, though with the loss of the greater part of their property. They reached the camp of Sir C. Napier in safety, and the troops moved on to Meeanee, with- in six miles of Hyderabad on the west side of the river (17th), where they found the forces of the Ameers occupying a strong position. They attacked them at once, and after an obstinate conflict put them to flight. The British loss was 62 killed and 195 wounded, among whom were a great many officers ; that of the enemy was said to have been 5000 men. After the battle, six of the Ameers surrendered, and Sir C. Napier entered Hyderabad as a conqueror (20th). Shortly after (March 24th) he marched out to attack the Ameer of Meerpoor, who was still in arms. He found him with a large force strongly posted behind a deep water-course, where he attacked and defeated him with a loss to the British of 267 killed and wounded. He then advanced and took possession of Meerpoor, and a detachment under Major Woodburn secured the strong fort of Omercote in the desert. The remaining Ameers were gradually reduced to sub- mission, and removed to the Company's territories, and Sinde has remained a British possession. Such is a slight sketch of the history of the occupation of Sinde by the British ; a transaction, as appears to us, at variance with all the princi- ples of justice. Its true origin we believe to have been the vague notion that was entertained of the vast and lucrative markets that might be opened for our manufactures by means of the Indus ; and we know that when the spirit of gain is evoked it cannot be laid by the wand of justice. The arguments by which it is defended are feeble and unsatisfactory. It is said, for example, that the Ameers had gained their power by the sword. How else is power gained in the East % How did we gain our own ? They had possessed it for sixty years, and we had made treaties with them as the rightful rulers of the country. Our own Indian empire, too, is not so very ancient. Their position, it is added, was not " that of a native prince suc- ceeding a long line of ancestors, the object of the hereditary affection of his subjects." Is that our 190 HISTORY OF INDIA. a.d. 1843. own position ! Or where in India, unless perhaps in Rajputana or Travancore, is it to be found ? Again it is said that the overthrow of their power was " duty to the people they had so long mis- governed." Who imposed this duty on us ! Will not this principle justify us in overturning every actual government, not merely in India but every where else, where we think the people may be happier under our own rule ? But the whole plea is mere hypocrisy ; no nation ever yet made conquests with such a view. The trade of the Indus has as yet proved to be of no importance ; our troops perish in Sinde, from the unhealthiness of the climate ; and it is asserted that the annual expenses of government exceed the revenue by one million sterling 3 . Thus was Sinde reduced ; the state of the court of Gwalior next demanded the attention of Lord Ellenborough. Sindia died childless, in 1827 ; and a boy of the family, who was said to be the next heir, became his successor. He too died childless in February, 1843, and his widow, a woman of thirteen years of age, adopted a boy of eight years, reputed to be his nearest relative, and he was appointed Maharajah. As both mother and son were children, by the influence of Col. Spiers the resident, Mama Sahib, the maternal uncle of the late Maharajah, was appointed to be regent. No- thing is more tiresome and unprofitable than try- ing to trace the intrigues of Indian courts ; suffice it then to say, that toward the end of May, Mama Sahib was obliged to quit the camp at Gwalior, by a party of which the young Maharanee, or queen, was the ostensive ; but a man, called the Dada Khasjee Walla, was the real head, and into whose hands fell all the power of the state. As this was plain usurpation, the resident ap- plied for permission to summon troops from Agra, to reinstate the regent ; but Lord Ellenborough gave a most positive refusal. The resident, how- ever, was directed to quit Gwalior, and he retired to Dholpoor, beyond the Chumbul, out of the Ma- ratta territory. The Maharanee became very anxious for his return, but was informed that that could take place only on the condition of the banishment of the Dada, or the delivery of him up to the British government. The letter, however, containing this demand, the Dada contrived to in- tercept ; an act, which the Governor-general de- clared to be " an offence of a most criminal cha- racter against the state of Gwalior, amounting to a 3 By the Indian Correspondent of the Times Newspaper. —As we write, there appears (Times, March 23) a general order of Sir C. Napier's, from which it appears that the army in Sinde is to be reduced to the ordinary garrison of a frontier province. lie asserts, tliat the conquest has not cost a single rupee, " for had the Ameers continued to rule the land, not a soldier could have been withdrawn from the force which occupied Sinde in IMS; on the contrary, strong reinforcements must have been added to it." But not a word of the justice of that occupation. An immense increase of revenue, but of which he cannot tell the amount, has taken place, he says, in Bombay, by the suppression of the smug- gling trade In opium in Sinde; and » commerce is already actively commencing between Kurrecb.ee end Bukkur, ready to branch forth int.. the I'unj.ib." Finally, great harmony prevails between the conquerors and the conquered, if that term can be applied to a people " who have bei n (reed from ling and rulnoui tyranny which, sixty ye was established by traitor) 0T« the country of their mur- dered sovereign." supercession of the Maharanee's authority," an authority of which we now hear for the first time. But the real power in Gwalior lay with the army, which consisted of not less than 30,000 men, and had been commanded in a great measure by European, or half-caste officers, but whom the troops had deprived of their authority. This army was now divided into three parties ; one friendly to the Dada, one hostile to him, and the third neutral. The second party seized the Dada, and Bapoo Setowlea, one of their chiefs, sent to inform the resident of what they had done, and to claim his approval ; but all the efforts of the resident were not able to gain him possession of the Dada's person. The two opposed divisions of the army soon after cannonaded one another for the better part of two days. The firing ceased at the com- mand of the Maharanee, and the chiefs were in- vited to a conference, the result of which was, that Bapoo Setowlea became minister, and the Dada was conducted a prisoner to Agra. This measure was, no doubt, expedited by the presence of a British army on the frontiers; for the alarming state of affairs in the Punjab had obliged Lord Ellenborough to depart from his non-inter- ference system, and resolve to remove danger on the side of Gwalior, in case of a war with the Sikhs. But he had lately (Nov. 1) declared, that the only point to be pressed was the expulsion of the Dada; and that being effected, it was to be supposed that he would stop the further advance of the British troops. On the contrary, at a conference held with some of the chiefs (Dec. 20), he stated that the only condition on which the march of the army could be stopped, was their ratifying within three days a treaty for increasing the contingent under British officers at Gwalior, and assigning districts to be managed under the British government for its support. A right of interference, as grounded on the treaty of Burhanpiir in 1804, was also asserted by the Governor-general. In a conference held on the following day, the subject of a meeting between the Governor-gene- ral and the Maharajah was discussed. It seems to have been the etiquette hitherto, on such occasions, that the latter should cross the frontier to pay the first visit, and the chiefs earnestly requested that this usage might not now be departed from, as the unruly troops of Gwalior might break out, sup- posing the British to have crossed the frontiers with hostile views. Col. Sleeman, the new resi- dent, also wrote, warning the Governor-general of the probable consequence of the troops crowing the Chumbul. But that river had been already passed ■ and a proclamation was issued from llin- gona (25th), announcing that the British army had come to protect the Maharajah's person, and main- tain his authority. That very day, Bapoo Setow- lea, who had been one of the negotiators, quitted the British samp, ami returned to Gwalior to take the eommand of a division of the troops ; and on the following day, Angria, another of the negotia- tors, also departi d, The Marattas had taken np a strong position, at a place named < 'lunula, south of the river Koharee; and Sir Hugh Gough, the oommander-in-ohief, made preparations tor attacking them at that place. Hut on reaching Maharafooor, on their march for Chonds (29th), the British troops, to their .sur- prise, were received by a firo of artillery, a part of d. 1844. BATTLE OF MAHARAJPOOR— AFFAIRS OF PUNJAB. 101 the enemy's forces having moved thither during the night. The plan of attack was now changed ; one column, under Gen. Littler, being directed to advance on Maharajpoor, while another, under Gen. Valiant, was to take it in reverse. In the first, the Queen's 39th, led by Major Bray, and supported by the 56th Native Infantry, drove (in dashing style) the enemy from their guns into the village, where, however, they defended themselves gallantly, and a sanguinary conflict ensued. The second column acted with equal spirit, and the Marattas were driven off with the loss of twenty- eight guns. Gen. Valiant now moved to attack the right of the enemy's position at Chonda. On the way, he had to take three strongly intrenched positions, which the enemy defended with despera- tion, but they all were carried in succession. Gen. Littler's brigade now advanced to attack the main position in front ; and it was carried by a rush of the 39th, whose gallant commander was severely wounded by the blowing up of a tumbril, after he had witnessed the fall of his son, a fine youth, an ensign in the regiment. The Marattas were spee- dily routed in all directions ; but the loss of the victors in killed and wounded was very severe. They had never, perhaps, experienced so obstinate a resistance from a native army in India. On the same day, the left wing, under Gen. Grey, defeated another large body of the Marattas, and captured their guns, twenty-four in number, at a place named Antree, twelve miles south of Gwalioi 1 . No further resistance was now to be appre- hended. On the 5th January (1844), Lord Ellen- borough and the army arrived at Gwalior. A new treaty was concluded, by which, till the Maha- rajah should have attained the age of eighteen, the government was to be conducted by a council of regency, acting under the advice of the British resident ; the contingent force was to be increased, and the revenues of specified districts were to be assigned for its maintenance ; the troops of the Maharajah were never to exceed 9000 men, of which, not more than a third were to be infantry, with twelve field-pieces, and twenty other guns, &c. &c. This treaty was ratified on the 13th, by which time the disbanding of the Gwalior army had nearly been effected. It took place without the slightest commotion ; a part of the men enlisted in the new contingent force, the rest departed, having been paid all their arrears, and receiving a gratuity of three months' pay. Lord Ellenborough reached Calcutta on the anniversary of his landing there, two years before (Feb. 28) ; but the period of his Indian rule had expired ; for in the following month of July, he learned that the Court of Directors had removed him from the office of Governor-general. The motives of the Directors for this act, no instance of which had occurred since the passing of Pitt's India Bill, are only matters of surmise, and we therefore will not enter into them. The ministry, to console his wounded pride, bestowed on him an earldom ; and he was made afterwards First Lord of the Admiralty, an office for which, we believe, he was much better qualified, than for the govern- ment of an empire. The successor to Lord Ellenborough, nominated by the Court of Directors, was Sir Henry Har- dinge, a distinguished military man, and the choice was fully approved of by the ministry. On reach- ing India, he found the condition of the Punjab to be such, that there was every prospect of a ne- cessity for British interference ; and, as we shall see, the necessity arose in a way which might not have been expected. On the 27th June, 1839, not many months after his celebrated interview with Lord Auckland, the Maharajah, Runjeet Sing, breathed his last, at the age of fifty-eight years. The tenacity with which he clung to life, after it had apparently ceased to yield him any enjoyment, is a remarkable pheno- menon in the history of human existence, and curious in the view of the moralist and the philo- sopher. His avarice even yielded to it ; and in the fond persuasion that the decree of fate could be averted with gold, he lavished his treasures on shrines and devotees. But all availed not to save, and the Lion of the Punjab shared the lot of ordinary mortals. His character will always re- main in Indian history as that of one of the most remarkable men that have appeared in it ; and when we consider the disadvantages under which his career commenced, and the power to which he ultimately attained, we may almost venture to style him great. Unlike his contemporary, Mehemet Ally, of Egypt, his empire was obtained without massacre ; and if not humanity, the absence of ferocity was a leading trait of his character. Runjeet was succeeded by his eldest son, Khu- ruk Sing, a person of feeble intellect. His vizir, appointed by his father, was the able Dhyan Sing 4 , one of the Jummoo brothers, as they were named, from Jummoo, the place of their birth, on the left bank of the Chenab, in the Lower Himalaya. They were of the Rajput tribe, named Dogur; and Dhyan, having entered the service of Runjeet Sing, rose speedily to favour and command. He then introduced his brother, Gholab Sing, also a man of talent, to whom the Maharajah gave Jum- moo, in jagheer. A third brother, Suchet Sing, also obtained favour and wealth at the court of Lahore, but he was inferior to his brothers in mental power. We are not to suppose that the Jummoo family were without rivals ; there was, in fact, an opposite party at court ; and Khuruk, like all weak princes, soon had a minion whom he sought to exalt. This was a man of mean origin, but of handsome person, and a bold intriguing dis- position, named Cheit Sing, who, not content with the undue favour he had obtained, laboured to supplant the Jummoo brothers. The consequence was, that Dhyan Sing invited the Maharajah's son, Nou Nehal, to come from Peshawur to court, to aid in removing the favourite ; and on his arri- val (Oct. 8), the citadel was surrounded by the troops of Gholab Sing, at night, and the prince and the brothers entering the apartment of the Maha- rajah, cut Cheit Sing to pieces, and placed the rajah himself under restraint. The government was administered in his name by his son ; but in less than a month he followed his favourite to the tomb, from the effect, it is said, of a slow poison. At the conclusion of the funeral rites of his father, as Nou Nehal was passing on his elephant out of one of the gates of the city, on his way to the Ravee to bathe, a beam fell from it, which killed both him and a son of Gholab Sing's. 4 We may here observe, that every Sikh hears the cogno- men of Sing. 192 HISTORY OF INDIA. a. d. 1844. Sher Sing, the reputed second son of Runjeet, was immediately proclaimed by Dhyan Sing, but Chund Kowr, the mother of Nou Nehal, availing herself of a Sikh rule of succession, by which the title of a man's widow is superior to that of his brother, claimed the throne of her deceased hus- band. She was a woman of energy, and through the influence of her paramour, Ajeet Sing, she obtained the support of the powerful Sindawala family to which he belonged, the next heirs to the throne after the direct line of Runjeet. Dhyan's son Heera Sing and his brother Gholab Sing took the same side, and he was, therefore, obliged to give way, and proclaim Chund Kowr Ranee, or queen (Nov. 30). The Ranee was a woman of the most dissolute habits, and devoid of all prudence and regard to decency ; she also offended the troops by omitting to bestow gifts on them, and by even abridging their privileges. The soldiers soon became turbu- lent, and insurrections broke out in various parts. Sher Sing was now encouraged to maintain his pretensions, and by the advice of Dhyan Sing, who had left Lahore to meet him, he set out with a party of only 500 men for that capital. On his arrival (Jan. 10, 1841), Gen. Ventura went out to him with 6000 men ; and that same day, Dhyan Sing joined him with 15,000 hill-men from his estates in the mountains. Having gained an entrance into the city (14th), they assaulted the citadel, which was gallantly defended against them, chiefly by the troops of Gholab Sing. Dhyan Sing, however, having obtained from the troops a promise of pardon for his brother and son, the citadel surrendered. Gholab and Heera re- tired with their troops beyond the Ravee, the Sin- dawala chiefs to the British territory ; and the Ranee was suffered to remain in the fort with an ample allowance. Sher Sing was proclaimed anew, Dhyan was restored to his offices, Gholab and Heera returned to court, and the latter was ap- pointed commander-in-chief. The Punjab was now destined to feel the evils which are certain to be the result of maintaining a large army as the stay of despotism, as soon as the vigorous hand of him who formed and alone could control it is removed. The darling object of Runjeet Sing had been the formation of an army powerful from its numbers and its discipline. His troops, regular and irregular, horse and foot, exceeded 80,000 men, of which a third were regu- lars disciplined by Messrs. Allard, Ventura, Avita- bili, Court, and other European military adven- turers who had entered his service. His artillery consisted of 376 guns, and about the same number of swivels. These disciplined troops, named the Khalsas, now aware of their strength and their importance, committed what excesses they pleased; and tin- year 1841 is described as a year of terror in the Punjab. In the course of the following year, through the intervention of the British government, a recon- ciliation took place between Sher Sing and the Sindawala chiefs, and they were recalled and restored to their estates. They teem to have acquired in some measure the favour of the Maha- rajah, who was an Indolent luxurious man, and they were treated with much respect by Dhyan Sing, who had now been raised to the highest rani; in the state next to the throne. In what ensued. there is much mystery. A conspiracy is said to have been formed against the Maharajah by the Jummoo and Sindawala chiefs. Dhyan Sing, find- ing the favour of the prince withdrawn from him (1843), retired, in his usual manner, to his estates ; but he was menaced that if he did not return and settle his accounts for the last five years, Gen. Ventura would be sent with his troops against him. He, therefore, appeared at court, and there he addressed his master, and commented on his conduct with much freedom. There was an ap- parent reconciliation ; but Sher Sing seems to have resolved on humbling the Jummoo family if possi- ble. He was warned, it is said, that there was a conspiracy against him, and the very day of the proposed outbreak was even named, but he gave no heed. He was also made to observe how the troops were closing round Lahore, under the pre- text of the approaching festival of the Dussera; but he replied that he wished to see them all assembled on that occasion. There was also another very suspicious circum- stance. A boy of eight or nine years of age, named Dhuleep Sing, whom Runjeet had acknow- ledged as his child, though he knew it not to be the case, was now at Jummoo. Dhyan Sing caused him to be brought to Lahore, and in a public durbar (Aug. 31) he informed the Maharajah of what he had done, and proposed that a salute should be fired on this occasion. Sher Sing in- quired why he was come, and he was told that it was to see his mother, who was sick. Some days after, the Maharajah received private information that Dhyan Sing, and the other chiefs, had sat in secret council at the house of Dhuleep Sing'smother; and Gen. Ventura, having craved an audience, in- formed him that they had certainly conspired against him, that it was with this view they had brought Dhuleep to Lahore, and that Gholab Sing was on his way to aid them. Still he would not give cre- dit to the fact of a conspiracy. When Gholab Sing arrived (Sept. 8), he was received with much fa- vour, and both he and Dhyan Sing were profuse in their declarations of loyalty. On the 15th, as the Maharajah was amusing himself in one of the royal gardens, Ajeet Sing and Lena Sing, two of the Sindawala chiefs, went to him, and while he was examining a rifle, which they offered him (for he was a great gun-fancier), Ajeet shot him in the face with a pistol, and they instantly struck off his head. Lena then went to an adjacent garden, where Pertab, the young son of Maharajah, was at the time, and beheaded him also*. The two chiefs then proceeded toward the city ; and on the way they met Dhyan Sing, who was alone. They told him that there had been a disturbance, and that the Maharajah had been slain, and proposed that lie should go back with them to settle the succession. He consented, and as tiny drew near the gate, Ajeet tired a pistol at him; " (» sirdar, what a foul deed!" he cried, laying his hand on his sword ; but lie was shot down by A jeot's followers. All concord, if ever there was any, between the Sindawala and the .luuinioo chiefs, was now at an end. The former threw themselves into the cita- del, while Heera Sing, accompanied by his uncle, Snchet, went to the Dearest troops, and displaying to them the crimes of the Sindawalas, offered them * Those murders are related in various ways. d. 1844-45. AFFAIRS OF THE PUNJAB. 1<'!'■ '!'■ /'"ill, and their strong entrench- ments (,n the left hank, in which they had left :«UKM) men and 7<* pieces of cannon. This posi< ti..n WEB BO Strong, that Sir Hugh dough did not think himself justified in attacking it till he should have been joined by Sir H. Smith, and have received a siege-train and ammunition from Delhi. When these had arrived, he prepared (Feb. 10) to assail the enemy's works. The infantry was drawn >i|> in three divisions, two resting on the river to the left and right of the enemy's entrenchments, and the third in front; the artillery was placed in a large semicircle surrounding a great portion of them ; tlie cavalry was partly in reserve, partly at a ford, where that of the enemy under Lai Sing was drawn Dp on the Opposite hank. Shortly after daybreak the British batteries opened ; but they were unable to silence those of the enemy. At nine o'clock, therefore, two bri- gades of the division on the British left, supported by artillery, moved to the attack. Pressing on under a tremendous fire, they entered the entrench- ments, driving the Sikhs in confusion before them. The right and centre now advanced to the attack, and a furious conflict raged along the entire line. The Sikhs fought with desperation ; where the entrenchments had been carried by the bayonet, they sought to recover them sword in hand ; and it was not till the cavalry, having entered by single files in openings in the works, made by the sap- pers, and forming again inside, galloped up and down, cutting down the men at the guns and works, and the whole of the infantry and artillery 1 had poured in, that the fire of the Sikhs ceased, and they rushed in masses to the bridge and the river. As they were endeavouring to get across, they were massacred by the discharges of the horse- artillery ; and hundreds and hundreds of them were drowned, and carried along by the waters of the Sutlej. Their total loss is computed at 8000 men ; that of the British was also severe, including Major-general Dick, who commanded the left division. Sixty-seven more of the Sikh guns, and 200 camel-swivels, were captured on this occasion. On the night of the day of this great victory, the advanced brigades of the British were thrown across the Sutlej ; and on the 13th, the whole army was encamped at Kasoor, sixteen miles be- yond that river, on the road to Lahore, where it was joined next day by the Governor-general. On that day (14th) a proclamation was issued, decla- ratory of the intentions of the British government, and calling on the Sikh chiefs to give their aid in establishing a proper government in the Punjab. On the following day (15th), Gholab Sing and two other envoys arrived from Lahore, with full powers to agree to whatever terms the Governor-general might be pleased to dictate. When tidings of the fatal day at Sobraon had reached Lahore, the Ranee and her durbar urged Gholab Sing, who happened to be there, to go to the British camp, and make the best terms for them that he could. He refused, unless the dur- bar and the chief officers, and the punch* nitts of the army, would sign a solemn declaration, that they would abide by such terms as he should succeed in obtaining from the Governor-general. This was done immediately, and he and his colleagues set out for the British camp. Sir II. Ilardinge re- ceived them in solemn durbar, and having observed on the unwarrantable conduct of the chiefs and the army, and commended Qhoiab Sing for his wisdom in keeping himself clear of tlnir proceedings, he referred them to Mr. Currie, his chief secretary, and Major Lawrence, his political agent, for the particulars of the treaty which he would propose, Tlies. • parties remained in conference the gr eate r part of the night, and before they separated the treaty was signing By this treaty the Maharajah was to cede to the British, in perpetuity, the Jullundur Doab, or country between the rivers Beyah ami Sutlej ; to pay a crore and half of rupees lor the expenses of the war ; to disband the present army, and re- organise it ; to surrender all the guns that had been pointed against the British, and cede to theiu a. d. 184G. TREATIES-CONCLUSION. 1!7 the entire control of both banks of the Sutlej, with sundry other arrangements. It was also arranged that the Maharajah should meet the Governor-general on the 18th, at Lul- leana, half-way between the Sutlej and Lahore. The meeting took place accordingly ; the young prince sued for pardon, and was admitted to fa- vour. He accompanied the army on its progress to Lahore ; and on the 20th it encamped on the plain of Mujan Meer, under the walls of that capi- tal. The remains of the Sikh army, now less than 20,000 men, with thirty-five guns, was at Raeban, about eighteen miles east of Lahore, under Tej Sing and Lai Sing. In the afternoon the Maha- rajah was escorted to his palace by some regiments of British cavalry, and a salute of twenty-one guns was fired. On the 22nd, Sir Hugh Gough led a brigade into the city, and took possession of a part of the citadel. On the 8th March, at a conference held for signing the treaty, a letter was presented from the Maharajah, praying that some British regiments, with artillery, might be let to remain for a few months at Lahore, while the Sikh army was being re-organized. To this the Governor-general con- sented, declaring, however, that in no case should they remain longer than to the end of the year. Next day (9th) the treaty was formally ratified in the Governor-general's state-tent, the Maharajah and the Sikh chiefs, the British commanders, and a native officer from every regiment, being present. Instead of the crore of rupees, the Maharajah agreed to cede his possessions in the hill-country, between the Beyah and the Indus, including Cash- mere and Hazara ; the Sikh army was to be re- duced to 20,000 foot and 12,000 horse, and no European or American was to be employed without the sanction of the British ; Gholab Sing was to be recognized as an independent prince, in such terri- tories as the British government should be pleased to make over to him, &c. &c. It having been the intention of the British go- vernment to confer an independent sovereignty on Gholab Sing, a treaty was signed with that chief (16th), by which, on his engaging to pay seventy, five lacs of rupees, the whole of the hill-country between the Indus and the Ravee, including Cash- mere, was made over to him. He was each year to present the British government, in acknowledg- ment of its supremacy, with one horse, twelve shawl-goats, and three pair of Cashmere shawls ; and he was to employ no European or American without its consent. When the accounts of these great victories reached England, they naturally caused high satis- faction, as they proved that all India was reduced to peace, and that any stain which the Afghan calamities might have left on our arms was effaced. The Governor-general and the Commander-in- chief were, as they well deserved to be, raised to the peerage, and the services of the army were gratefully acknowledged. The British troops re- mained at Lahore till the following month of De- cember, when, as they were about to be with- drawn, the Sikh sirdars, fearing the return of the former disorders, unanimously requested that the occupation of the country might be continued during the Maharajah's minority, the troops to be paid out of the revenues of the country, and the government to be carried on under the direction of the British resident. Their wishes were complied with, and for the next ten years the state of Lahore is to remain under this form of government. From the time when hostilities commenced be- tween the French and English in the Carnatic, which led to interference in the concerns of the native princes, till that of the overthrow of the army of the Sikhs, exactly a century has elapsed. During that period the English, from the condition of mere traders with a few factories on the coast of India, have become more completely the sove- reigns of that extensive country, than any prince or any dynasty recorded in history. From the frontiers of Afghanistan to those of Ava, from the Himalaya to Cape Comorin, and including the great isle of Ceylon, there is not a single native state which is not directly or indirectly under their government. While Bengal, Bahar, the Upper Provinces of Delhi and Rohilcund, Sinde, the coast of the Deckan, and a large district in its northern part, with many other places, form di- rectly a portion of the British empire, the two great Mohammedan princes, the King of Oude and the Nizam, and the Hindoo rajahs of Nagpur and Rajputana, and others, are subsidiary allies, to whom the internal administration of their states is left, while the defence of them is committed to a force paid by the state, but raised and officered by the British; and Residents are stationed at their courts to watch over and direct them. In other states, such as Mysore and Tanjore, the prince is a mere cipher, living on a pension, while the go- vernment is conducted by British functionaries. The entire population of India is estimated at about 140 millions, of whom only about eight millions are Mohammedans, and two-thirds of the whole live under the immediate government of the British. Never has so large an empire been formed, with so little public violation of the great principles of justice ?. The wars which led to its formation were almost all wars of necessity ; and had not the French, whose nature is so restless and encroach- ing, also had settlements in India, it may justly be doubted if the British would, even at the present day, appear there in any other character than that of merchants. Further, this empire thus acquired without crime, has been governed, in the main, with justice, directed by a sincere desire to promote the happiness of the people. Many errors, some no doubt of a serious nature, have been committed, but they arose in general from ignorance, and most of them have been corrected by time 8 . With re- spect to the religions or superstitions of the native population, the conduct of the Company's govern- ment has been prudent and judicious. Their sys- 7 The real or apparent exceptions have been fully noticed and animadverted on in the preceding pages. s For instance ; in 1814, the Board of Control, acting on the representations of various persons in India, came to the conclusion, that the judicial system of 1793 had been an unwise departure from native institutions, and that a return to them would be the better course. This was done at Madras, in 1817; but what was the consequence? While the number of suits in these courts was only 362, those in the courts instituted by the English were 71,050; and each year the number of the former went on decreasing. The natives, in fact, saw where the purer justice was to be had ; and their prejudices did not prevent them from seeking it there. 198 HISTORY OF INDIA. a. d. 184fi. tem has been that of non-interference ; but, at the same time, the efforts of Christian missionaries have not been impeded. These zealous men, how- ever, seeing the almost insuperable barriers to con- version, presented by the actual condition of the native mind, have opened numerous schools in which, while no immediate attempts are made at conversion, their efforts are directed to the enlarge- ment and purification of the minds of their pupils ; and books containing a pure morality, and giv- ing correct ideas in geography and other useful branches of knowledge, being used in the schools, the gradual eradication of numerous errors and prejudices, which stand in the way of pure religion, may reasonably be expected to follow. In every point of view, the prospects of India are cheering. War seems now at length to have ceased, and of its renewal, either internally or externally, there is little probability. The troops will, therefore, in future, we may presume, be chiefly employed as police, and a great reduction may be made in their numbers. The savings effected in this and other ways may lead to the diminution of taxation, which presses heavily on the cultivators of the soil ; more attention can now be devoted to the internal administration, and numerous improvements in every department may be effected. Canals and railways may be con- structed, and districts now lying waste will be brought into cultivation. Already the tea-plant is beginning to be cultivated extensively in Assam and in the region under the Himalaya westwards of Nepal, and tea seems likely to become the beverage of a large portion of the population of India. In effect, we cannot assign any limit to the progress of improvement. VVhat is likely to be the duration of this extra- ordinary empire is a question which naturally presents itself. Here, though we know that the works of man, like himself, must terminate, we confess that we cannot even by conjecture fix a limit; and as far as our ken extends, we see nothing to prevent its being co-extensive with that of the British empire in Europe. The invasion and con- quest of it by Russia, the only power that could cause apprehension, is, in our opinion, as we have already stated, a thing of which the possibility can hardly be contemplated. As little likelihood does there appear of any extensive rising on the part of the native population against our authority. The natives are in general attached to the British government, and likely to become more so every day ; and the Mohammedans, who alone feel any discontent, are too few and too widely dispersed to make the attempt with even the remotest pro- spect of success. The troops have on many trying occasions shown that they are not to be seduced from their allegiance to the government whose salt, as they express it, they have eaten. Should Russia attempt to open any communications with the native princes, they could not be concealed from the knowledge of the Residents, neither could these princes augment their forces by a single company without its being known and checked. But in effect the time seems not far distant, when, from the natural progress of things, and to the great benefit of their subjects, the Nizam and the King of Oude will be like the rajahs of Mysore and Tanjore, merely titled pensioners. Whence then danger is to arise we cannot discern, unless it be from the folly and misconduct of the British government itself. But it is not to India alone that the British power and influence in the East extends. 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