Affairs of the Carnatic—The Manilla expedition—Relations with Mahomed Ali—The treaty of Paris—The Company’s jaghire—Reduction of refractory polygars—Mahomed Issoof—Disputes between Mahomed Ali and the Rajah of Tanjore—Relations with the Soubahdar of the Deccan—The Northern Circars—The rise and progress of Hyder Ali.
Previous to the interruption of the narrative, for the purpose of introducing the preceding account of the Hindoos, our attention was occupied with the important transactions which took place in Bengal during the second government of Lord Clive, and with the reception given to him on his return to England. In the meantime events of considerable moment occurred in the presidency of Madras, and it will therefore now be necessary, on resuming the narrative, to give some explanation of them.
When, by the capture of Pondicherry, the ascendency which the French had endeavoured to establish in India was completely overthrown, the British government, who were anxious to strike a blow at the power of the Spaniards in the East, thought that a fitting opportunity had arrived, and resolved to attempt the capture of Manila, the capital of the Philippine Isles. Hitherto when military or naval operations were contemplated, the East India Company had been accustomed to receive assistance from government; but they were now able to render it, and furnished about 2000 men to the expedition. It sailed from Madras in the summer of 1762, and was successful. In less than a fortnight after operations commenced Manila was taken. As the event does not properly belong to the history of India, it is needless to enter into details, any further than to state, that it ultimately proved little better than a barren conquest. Instead of retaining permanent possession of it, it was agreed to accept of a ransom. The sum stipulated was about £500,000 sterling, but not more than the half of this was ever received.
From the alacrity with which the presidency had entered into the expedition, and the large share which their army took in it, they doubtless anticipated advantages which would more than compensate them, and must therefore have been grievously disappointed when they found that the only effect had been to increase the severe pecuniary pressure under which they were previously suffering. During the great struggle with the French, nearly the whole burden had lain on their shoulders. Mahomed Ali, in whose cause they were ostensibly fighting, was unable to give them any effectual aid. On the contrary, his pretensions and intrigues often threw obstacles in their way, and more than once involved them in quarrels from which they were afterwards unable to disentangle themselves without suffering both in their interests and their reputation. It is true that he was wholly in their power, and could not act in any matter of the least importance without their sanction or support; but it was long before either he or they were fully alive to the true position in which they stood. At all events, they had so long been accustomed to pay him all the external homage due to sovereignty, that they did not venture to act openly on any denial of it, and were often in consequence betrayed into ludicrous inconsistencies. At one time they addressed him as petitioners, and supplicated his favour with mock humility; at another time they threw off all disguise, and rebuked him in the rudest terms for presuming to act as if he possessed a particle of independence. The nabob, who clung to the name perhaps all the more tenaciously from having lost the reality, was deep if not loud in his complaints of the humiliations to which he was subjected, and surrounded himself by a host of dependants, many of them European adventurers, who played upon his weaknesses, and turned them to profit. In this way misunderstandings were constantly arising, and it required little sagacity to foresee that sooner or later a rupture would take place, and transfer the name as well as the reality of power to the hands which were actually wielding it.
Though this was the crisis to which matters were evidently tending, an event took place which seemed calculated, if not designed, to produce an opposite result. The war which had been raging furiously in all quarters of the globe was terminated by the treaty of Paris, definitively signed on the 10th of February, 1763. When peace was only in prospect, Clive volunteered his advice, by transmitting a memorial to Lord Bute, in which he called attention particularly to India. After a narrative, in which he showed how the Company, though at the time “wholly attached to mercantile ideas,” had been obliged by Dupleix’s projects, “to draw the sword,” and how “our successes have been so great that we have accomplished for ourselves, and against the French, exactly everything that the French intended to accomplish for themselves, and against us,” he urged the necessity of introducing into the proposed treaty provisions that would effectually preclude them from attempting to regain their ascendency. Lord Bute, in acknowledging the receipt of Clive’s communication, thanked him for the “very clear and masterly manner” in which he had offered his sentiments “on the interests of this country with respect to our possessions in the East Indies,” and promised to “make a proper use of them.” Sir John Malcolm says that “every attention possible was given to Clive’s suggestions,” and that a very blundering clause which the minister had inserted into the preliminary treaty, from “consulting only his friend Mr. Sullivan and the directors,” was afterwards modified, though not completely cured by the interference of Clive, who, having “only heard by accident” of the extraordinary clause, hastened to the under-secretary of state, and convinced him “of the embarrassment and danger it might produce.” Ultimately the eleventh article of the treaty, in which the mutual rights of the two nations in India are defined, stood as follows:—
“Great Britain shall restore to France, in the condition they now are, the different factories which that crown possessed, as well on the coast of Coromandel and Orissa, as on that of Malabar, as also in Bengal, at the beginning of the year 1749. And France renounces all pretensions to the acquisitions which she has made on the coast of Coromandel and Orissa. And his most Christian majesty shall restore, on his part, all that he may have conquered from Great Britain in the East Indies, and will expressly cause Natal and Tapanouly, in the island of Sumatra, to be restored. And he further engages not to erect fortifications, or to keep troops, in any part of the dominions of the Soubahdar of Bengal; and in order to preserve future peace on the coast of Coromandel and Orissa, the English and French shall acknowledge Mahomed Ali Khan for lawful Nabob of the Carnatic, and Salabut Jung for lawful Soubahdar of the Deccan; and both parties shall renounce all demals and pretensions of satisfaction, with which they might charge each other, or their Indian allies, for the depredations or pillage committed on either side during the war.”
The language of this article is both inaccurate and indefinite, and if really intended to accomplish the objects which Clive had urged on Lord Bute’s attention, employs very inadequate means. The only important concession made by the French, is their engagement “not to erect fortifications, or to keep troops, in any part of the dominions of the Soubahdar of Bengal.” In thus binding themselves, without imposing a similar restriction on the British, they tacitly acquiesced in all the advantages which the latter obtained by the victory of Plassey, and left them at full liberty to continue the course by which they were evidently preparing to become absolute masters of the whole country. This concession, if obtained, as is alleged, because Clive suggested it, is certainly not the least meritorious of his services. It must, however, be remembered that the express abandonment of a power in a certain portion of India was equivalent to a reservation of it in every other portion of it, and that consequently the French were left as free as ever to resume the ambitious schemes into which they had been initiated by Dupleix. The concluding clause of the article was, perhaps, supposed to lay an effectual check on both nations, by the mutual obligation to “acknowledge Mahomed Ali Khan for lawful Nabob of the Carnatic, and Salabut Jung for lawful Soubahdar of the Deccan; but as Sir John Malcolm justly observes, “Nothing could be more preposterous than this guarantee (for to such it amounted) of the title of two Indian princes standing in the relations the Soubahdar of the Deccan and the Nabob of Arcot did to each other, and to their European allies.” The soubahdar was in strict language nothing more than the deputy of the Mogul, and the nabob nothing more than the sub-deputy of this deputy. Their titles were worth nothing except in so far as they were recognized by their superiors. The acknowledgment of such titles by two foreign powers was therefore either a mere absurdity, or an unjustifiable interference with the rights of a third power placed altogether beyond their control. The folly of the clause is even greater than appears on the face of it. The treaty, as Colonel Wilks observes, “acknowledged Salabut Jung as lawful Soubahdar of the Deccan, at a time when that office had, for upwards of a year and a half, been publicly and formally assumed by his brother; for Nizam Ali, who murdered Salabut Jung in September, 1763, had imprisoned him, and ascended the musnud on the 18th of July, 1761.” The fact was well known at Madras, where it had been announced in a letter from Nizam Ali himself, who, so far from affecting to rule in his brother’s name, had distinctly intimated that “the King of Delhi had displaced Salabut Jung for misconduct.”
Blundering as the clause was, it was not destined to be treated as a dead letter. At a later period the British government used it as a pretext for certain extraordinary proceedings, of which the details will afterwards be given, and from the very first was eagerly seized upon by one of the parties acknowledged as furnishing him with new claims to homage, and opening new prospects of further aggrandizement. The nabob, listening to the sycophants who surrounded him, was told that he was henceforth to regard himself as a sovereign potentate, equal in rank to the greatest monarchs of Europe, and of course infinitely superior to all the governors of the Company, since they could not deny that they were only subjects. How he was to turn this new dignity to account, so long as the shadow of power only was left him, was indeed a difficult and delicate problem; but he was determined at all events to make the most of it; for by a strange coincidence the presidency of Madras took a step which looked as if it were intended to proclaim to all the world that they were willing henceforth to conduct themselves as the nabob’s humble and grateful servants. When they originally espoused his cause they made various stipulations, by which Madras and its adjoining territory became a kind of fee simple, and was in future to be enjoyed rent free. To meet the expenses of the war they had obtained assignments to various districts, and while drawing the rents in the nabob’s name, applied them to account of their debts, which were rapidly accumulating against him. Under this form of assignment the presidency might easily have made all the lands within the nabobship available for payment. It occurred to them, however, that districts of which they could draw the revenue, without any liability to account, might form a desirable addition to their resources; and under this idea they made a formal application to the nabob for what they called a jaghire. The homage and service implied in such a tenure could not but be agreeable to the nabob’s feelings; but, perhaps to enhance the apparent value of the grant, or it may be, merely because the arrears which the Company already claimed made it most desirable for him not to diminish any of the sources from which revenue could be drawn, he at first manifested great reluctance to grant the jaghire, and did not consent to it till he had been made aware that a refusal would not avail him. This, at least, is his own account of the matter; and it may be received as substantially correct, as in the answer which was given to it, it was rather evaded than denied. He says that no means were spared to obtain his consent to the grant, and that the president in particular assured him “that if four districts were given, the Company would be extremely pleased and obliged to him, and would ever assist him and his children with a proper force of Europeans, without desiring anything further; that till he had cleared off his debts to the Company, the revenues of those districts, after defraying the expense of the soldiers, should be placed to the credit of his account.” Having little option in the matter, he was disposed to accept these terms; and in order that there might be no mistake, took the precaution of causing them to be committed to writing. But this cautious mode of procedure gave offence to the president, who, after refusing to subscribe the document, addressed a letter to the nabob, in which he was told how ill it became him to attempt to impose conditions upon the Company, since in all their intercourse with him they had been truly the givers, and he only a receiver.
After the question of the jaghire was settled, the presidency, as much for their own sakes as that of the nabob, were not indisposed to assist him in collecting the revenue, which had fallen into arrear in almost every district. The ravages of hostile armies in a country not naturally fertile had converted many parts of it into a desert, and many of the governors of districts only stated the simple truth when they declared their inability to pay. Others, again, were avowedly contumacious, and withheld their tribute because they felt confident that payment could not be enforced. It was now necessary, therefore, to make an example of a few of the most refractory. The effect was almost instantaneous; and most of the chiefs within the limits of the nabobship hastened to make their submission, by compounding for arrears, and promising punctuality in future payments. Among the exceptions was Mortiz Ali, governor of Vellore, with whose treachery and villainy some acquaintance was formed in an earlier part of the history. The treasures which he was reputed to possess were sufficient inducement to Mahomed Ali to attempt his reduction; but he was partly influenced by other motives, which to a mind like his were scarcely less powerful. Mortiz Ali had at one time been formally leagued with the French, and was indeed the very last of the puppet nabobs whom Dupleix had set up. He had thus not only thrown off his allegiance, but aspired to sovereign rule; and Mahomed Ali hoped to be able, on gaining possession of the fort, at once to replenish his treasury, and take vengeance on a hated rival. The result was not very satisfactory. Owing either to the strength of the place, or the imperfect means employed to capture it, it held out successfully for three months against the whole army, and when taken did not yield as much treasure as repaid the expense.
Not satisfied with reducing the refractory chiefs belonging to the nabobship properly so called, Mahomed Ali turned his eyes southward, where he expected to reap a more abundant harvest. Tanjore, governed by its rajah, and Tinnevelly and Madura, of which Mahomed Issoof had been appointed renter, were the localities in which the next grand effort for the recovery of revenue was to be made. The quarrel with the rajah was of long standing, and involved a question of still more importance than mere revenue. Tanjore claimed to be an independent kingdom, and its sovereign therefore considered himself entitled to demand tribute rather than to pay it. Accordingly, when the long struggle was carried on at Trichinopoly, both the contending parties were seen courting the alliance of the rajah; while he, on the other hand, after balancing opposing interests, countenanced the one or the other as seemed to himself most expedient. In general, however, he took the side of the Company and their protegé; and it was probably for this reason that on a former occasion, when Mahomed Ali advanced the claim of tribute, and spoke of enforcing it by violent means, Governor Pigot proposed negotiation, and offered to act as umpire, justifying his interference on the ground that the Rajah of Tanjore was an independent prince, and was entitled to have all questions in dispute adjudicated by a neutral party. The proposal, and more especially the ground on which it was put, were most obnoxious to Mahomed Ali; but as the governor insisted, he could not help himself, and a kind of decree arbitral was pronounced, by which the rajah became bound to pay the nabob twenty-two lacs of rupees, by five instalments, as arrears, four lacs as a present, and four as annual tribute; but was compensated to some extent by the cession of two districts which improved his frontier. This settlement, which made Tanjore tributary to Arcot, ought to have satisfied the nabob, but as he had submitted to it with ill-disguised reluctance, he was not long in discovering a new ground of dispute. The fertility for which Tanjore is celebrated depended, as was formerly explained, on an artificial mound, by which the Coleroon, after branching off from the Cauvery, was prevented from again joining it, and thus rendered available for irrigation. The nabob claimed the property of the mound, and, as a consequence, the sole right of keeping it in repair. His object was as apparent as it was malicious. For any honest purpose the right to repair the mound was worse than useless. It was not a privilege, but a burden. It was not so to the rajah, and he therefore strenuously insisted that even if the property of the mound was in the nabob, the right of repairing it belonged by immemorial usage to him. The presidency were again obliged to interfere, and ultimately, after long discussion, frustrated the malevolent intentions of the nabob, by deciding, in accordance with equity, that the right of repairing the mound belonged to the rajah.
The expedition to Tinnevelly and Madura was both of a painful and of a formidable description—painful, because directed against a man who had formerly deserved well of the Company, and was therefore entitled to some degree of indulgence—and formidable, because there was good ground to apprehend that on finding himself treated as an enemy he would make a vigorous and protracted, perhaps even a successful defence against any force that could be mustered to attack him. Mahomed Issoof was a soldier of Clive’s training, and “a worthy disciple,” says Colonel Wilks, “of the school in which he was reared. His perfect fidelity, intelligence, and military talents had deservedly obtained the confidence of Major Lawrence, and he was promoted to the rank of commandant of all the English sepoys, and continued to perform the service of the convoys with admirable vigilance and address.” Indeed, it may be affirmed without exaggeration, that the successes which ultimately terminated in the relief of Trichinopoly, and the capitulation of the French in the island of Seringham, could scarcely have been possible, but for the dexterity displayed by Mahomed Issoof in furnishing supplies, often in the face of a very superior force. He afterwards rendered important aid in the subsequent campaigns in the Carnatic. Latterly he had been stationed in Tinnevelly and Madura, which were kept in a state of constant disturbance by restless and rebellious polygars. Under such circumstances the collection of revenue was a very difficult task, the expenses seldom falling short of the gross sum obtained. Mahomed Issoof, however, was confident of better times, and in the hope of profiting by them, offered to take the burden of collection upon himself, and to pay a fixed sum in the name of rent. The nabob, who had no liking for Mahomed Issoof, would at once have rejected the offer, but the presidency approved of it, and it was accepted. It is not improbable that Mahomed Issoof, in making the offer, was not sincere. His success in life had been great, and having from a very subordinate station raised himself to an important command, he perhaps only became the renter of Madura and Tinnevelly in the belief that he thus took the most effective method of acquiring an independent sovereignty. Such at least was the suspicion of the nabob, and circumstances seemed to justify it, for the rent, moderate as it was, was not paid. The excuse was that no revenue could be levied. The presidency, whose pecuniary difficulties had been constantly increasing, were not satisfied, and, after remonstrance had failed, determined to proceed against Mahomed Issoof, as if he had now himself become the most refractory and formidable of the polygars. Before this determination was declared he had endeavoured to prevent it by the intercession of influential friends, who, knowing how faithfully he had served the Company, could not believe that he now meant to turn traitor. When influence failed, and it was plain that nothing but force would avail him, he began to prepare for the worst, and when the nabob and his allies appeared, met them with defiance. The struggle was severe, and its issue was by no means decided, when an act of treachery made the nabob triumphant. A person of the name of Marchand, belonging to a body of French mercenaries whom Mahomed Issoof had taken into his service, betrayed him into the hands of his enemies. At the conclusion of the contest the presidency found that it had saddled them with a new debt of £1,000,000 sterling.
The Northern Circars, consisting of the five districts of Chicacole, Rajahmundry, Ellore, Condapilly, and Guntoor, had remained, after the expulsion of the French by Colonel Forde, in a very unsettled condition. As they originally belonged to the soubah of the Deccan, they properly reverted to it as soon as the French ceased to render the service in consideration of which the grant to them had been made. The soubahdar had accordingly claimed them; and when negotiating a treaty with the Company, had made them an offer of them on the same terms on which they had been held by the French. This offer, which would have bound the Company to furnish troops for any hostilities in which the soubahdar might engage, was prudently declined. After the treaty of Paris, the possession of the Circars acquired new importance. M. Law, who formerly made some figure in Bengal, became governor at Pondicherry, and showed an inclination to stretch the French rights under the treaty to the utmost. From the vagueness of the terms used it was difficult to say what these rights were, and it was more than doubtful whether the French might not under them comply with the original conditions of the grant of the Circars, and thus, by furnishing troops to the soubahdar, regain their ancient footing. Meanwhile, though the offer of the Circars made by Nizam Ali, after he had imprisoned his brother and usurped his office, was declined, the presidency of Madras had taken an active interest in the management of them. Nizam Ali had granted them under conditions, to one of his servants of the name of Hoossein Ali. The first step necessary for him was to reduce them to subjection; and for this purpose the presidency did not hesitate to furnish him with troops. Three of the Circars were thus reconquered, and were held by Hoossein Ali, on an understanding that on being secured in a reasonable maintenance, he was to put the Company in possession of them.
When Clive arrived at Madras on the outward voyage, to take possession of the government of Bengal, Mr. Palk, who had succeeded Mr. Pigot as governor, called his attention particularly to the Northern Circars. Accordingly, they were not forgotten in the formal grants subsequently obtained from the emperor, and were conveyed to the Company in the following terms:—“In these happy times, our firmaun, full of splendour and worthy obedience, is descended, purporting that whereas Salabut Jung Bahadur, Soubahdar of the Deccan, conferred the Circar of Sicacole, &c., on the French Company, and that, in consequence of its not being confirmed by us, either by firmaun or otherwise, the high, mighty, and glorious chiefs of the Khawns, chosen of the Omrahs, Seapoy Surdars, truly faithful, worthy of receiving favours and obligations, our invariable and never-failing friends and well-wishers, the English Company (having sent a large force for that purpose) did expel the French therefrom: We, therefore, in consideration of the fidelity and good wishes of the high, mighty, &c., English Company, have from our throne, the basis of the world, given them the afore-mentioned Circars by way of iniam, or free gift (without the least participation of any person whatever in the same) from the beginning of the Phussul of Tuccacoul, in the year of Phaly 1172, equal to the month of April, 1762. It is incumbent, therefore, upon you, our sons, omrahs, viziers, governors, mutsedders for the affairs of our dewanship, moolecophils for those of our kingdom, jagueerdars and croories, both now and hereafter, for ever and ever, to use your endeavours in the strengthening and carrying into execution this our most high command, and to cede and give up to the above-mentioned English Company, their heirs and descendants, for ever and ever, the aforesaid Circars; and esteeming them likewise free, exempt, and safe from all displacing and removal, by no means whatever either molest or trouble them on account of the demands of the dewan’s office, or those of our imperial court. Looking upon this high firmaun as an absolute and positive order, obey it implicitly. Dated the 24th of the moon Sophar (12th August, 1765, the same day as the grant of the dewannee of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa) in the sixth year of our reign.”
Nothing can be more explicit than this document. It prevents the opposition of the French, and declares their right to have been always null; while, by carrying the right of the Company as far back as 1762, it includes the Circars and the possessions belonging to them previous to the treaty of Paris. The claims of the soubahdar, though the Company had repeatedly recognized them, are simply ignored. It was not to be supposed that such an unceremonious encroachment on his alleged rights would be for a moment acquiesced in, and it is therefore easy to understand why Clive urged that no time should be lost in entering into actual possession. The conduct of the presidency of Madras on this occasion was so feeble, vacillating, and contradictory, that it is impossible to explain it on any rational principle. In a letter to the directors, dated 14th October, 1765, they state that the sunnuds granting the five Northern Circars had been obtained from the Mogul by Lord Clive at the instance of their governor, Mr. Palk, and then add that they have judged it prudent to defer taking immediate possession, because not aware how far they might be required to send aid in troops to Bengal. In the meantime, they continue, the possession of the sunnuds would prevent the French from regaining a footing in the Circars, and nothing was lost by delaying to act upon them, because the revenue for the next year had been anticipated by Hoossein Ali. These views, announced in October, were totally abandoned in January following, and General Calliaud was ordered to prepare for taking military occupation. On the 3rd of March the grant of the Circars was formally proclaimed at Masulipatam; on the 7th of March the fort of Condapilly, which secured the leading pass into the country, was taken by storm; and the presidency immediately thereafter proceeded to take the administration directly into their own hands, to receive from the zemindars the outstanding balances, and to use every means for discharging Hoossein Ali’s troops. These measures were far too bold to be fully carried out by Mr. Palk and his council; and on the first appearance of opposition from the quarter from which they must certainly have anticipated it, they became as irresolute as ever.
Nizam Ali, who had some ground for suspecting the nabob of a design to supplant him, had, at the time when the presidency of Madras were preparing to assist Hoossein Ali, made a sudden incursion into the Carnatic, with the avowed purpose of calling the nabob to account for some claims which he had against him; but, after committing great ravages, suddenly retraced his steps on finding that he was to be opposed, and made his peace with the presidency by sending Governor Palk a friendly letter and the present of an elephant. When General Calliaud entered the Circars he was absent on an expedition to Berar against the Mahrattas, and immediately on learning how advantage had been taken of his absence, hastened back to Hyderabad in great indignation. Making no secret of his intentions, he began to prepare for another irruption into the Carnatic. The courage of the presidency fell at once, and they sent
orders to Calliaud to hasten to Hyderabad, for the purpose of negotiating a treaty. Even before this, they had induced the nabob to send a messenger to the soubahdar, for the purpose of appeasing him, and assuring him that, notwithstanding appearances to the contrary, the governor and council were truly desirous to cultivate his friendship. Nizam Ali refused to listen to the messenger, or to any proposition which seemed to come directly or indirectly from the nabob. The mission of Calliaud was more acceptable, and could hardly have failed of success, as he was prepared to concede almost everything that Nizam Ali could ask, whether to satisfy his offended dignity or secure his interest. The Mogul had granted the Circars to the Company, to be held immediately of himself, free of every kind of claim; the presidency of Madras entered into a treaty by which they agreed to hold them of Nizam Ali, subject to an annual tribute of nine lacs of rupees. As if to make his sovereignty and their humiliation still more manifest, the diamond mines were specially reserved to him.
The worst has not yet been told. The Circars were, as we have seen, formerly offered to the Company on the same terms on which they were held by the French, and declined on the express ground that they must thus have been obliged to take part in all the military undertakings of the soubahdar; and yet in the treaty they bound themselves to do this very thing in its most objectionable form, by engaging to have a body of troops ready “to settle, in everything right and proper, the affairs of his highness’s government.” In other words, his highness was to have full power to call upon them for troops to an indefinite extent, and drag them into every war in which his tyranny or ambition might involve him. In attempting to justify the monstrous provisions of this so-called “treaty of alliance and friendship between the Company and the Nizam,” they appealed to the authority of Lord Clive, who, regarding the Mahrattas as the most dangerous enemies to the peace of India, proposed to form a general confederacy against them, and had suggested, in a letter to Mr. Palk, that the Nizam might be induced to join it, by an offer to support him with a body of 200 infantry, 100 artillery, and three battalions of sepoys. Another part of his lordship’s plan was to gain possession from the Mahrattas of the part of Orissa between Ganjam and Balasore, and thus form a continuous communication between the presidencies of Madras and Bengal. Without entering into the merits of the plan, it is obvious that it gives no countenance to an indefinite supply of troops for any purpose which Nizam Ali might consider right and proper. Well might the directors, in commenting on the treaty, and pointing out the inconsistencies apparent throughout in all that the presidency had done respecting the Circars, commence with saying, “We have taken the negotiations and treaty with the Soubah of the Deccan into our most serious consideration, and are much alarmed at the state of your affairs.” There was, indeed, greater ground for alarm than the directors suspected; for at the very time when the treaty was signed, Nizam Ali was actually preparing to involve the Company in a war which was not to cease till it had brought them to the brink of ruin.
The enemy to be encountered was the celebrated Hyder Ali, who had now made himself one of the leading powers of India. He has already, in the course of the history, attracted incidental notice; but as he is about to become a principal figure, this seems the proper place to give some account of his rise and progress.
Mahomed Bhelole, a devotee from the Punjab, quitted it with his two sons for the Deccan, and settled at the town of Alund, in the district of Kulburga, about 100 miles west of Hyderabad. Here he subsisted on the profits of a fakir’s mokun, a place where Mahometan travellers of moderate fortune usually lodge. His sons, Mahomed Ali and Mahomed Wellee, continued to reside with him after their marriage, till the hope of improving their fortunes induced them to proceed southward into the Mysore. At first they fixed their residence at Sera, where they were engaged as peons in collecting the town customs; at a later period they removed to Colar, about 100 miles north-east of Seringapatam. Here Mahomed Ali died, leaving a widow and a son, Futteh Mahomed, whom she had born to him at Sera. Mahomed Wellee was ungenerous enough to take advantage of their misfortune, and, seizing upon the whole family property, turned them out of doors. They found a protector in an officer who commanded a small number of peons, and at the proper age enrolled the youth among them. Futteh Mahomed, thus trained to be a soldier, gained the favour of the governor of Sera by his gallantry, and was made a naick or petty officer, with the command of twenty peons. This humble appointment sufficed to change his name to Futteh Naick, and pave the way to further advancement. After the death of his first wife, by whom he had three sons, he married the daughter of a nevuyet of respectable family. Under ordinary circumstances it would have been considered presumptuous in a naick to aspire to such an alliance, but the father having been robbed and murdered as he was travelling with his family from the Concan to Arcot, the widow, who had arrived with a son, Ibrahim Sahib, and two daughters at Colar, in the utmost distress, was induced to give the elder in marriage to Futteh Naick. At a later period, the younger, her sister having previously died without issue, became his third wife. By her, when he had become foujedar or provincial commandant of Colar, and was residing at Boodicoota, which was his jaghire, he had two sons. The elder was named Shabaz; the younger was Hyder. Futteh Naick, who, in consequence of his appointment as foujedar, had obtained the title of Futteh Mahomed Khan, fell with one of the sons of his first marriage, in a bloody battle fought to decide the right to the office of Soubahdar of Sera. Previous to the battle, Abdool Russool, the son of Futteh Mahomed’s original patron, had, according to a practice which prevailed in similar cases, endeavoured to make sure of the fidelity of his principal officers, by confining their families in the fort of Great Balipoor, which was his jaghire. Though he lost both the battle and his life, the jaghire was secured to his son Abbas Kooli Khan, who had the meanness to take advantage of the imprisonment of the families of his father’s officers, and plundered them under various pretexts. The widow of Futteh Mahomed, and her two boys—Shabaz, nine, and Hyder, seven years of age—were not permitted to escape. A sum alleged to be due by their father, as foujedar of Colar, was demanded from them, and when they declared their inability to pay, was extorted from them by torture.
Thus cruelly plundered, the widow repaired with her sons to Bangalore, where her brother, Ibrahim Sahib, in the service of the killedar of the place, commanded a few peons. He took them under his protection, and when Shabaz was sufficiently grown, procured his admission into the military service at Seringapatam. The youth was not long in distinguishing himself, and gradually rose to the command of 200 horse and 1000 peons. Hyder gave less promise. At the age of twenty-seven he remained unemployed, and so uneducated that he was then, and indeed ever after, unacquainted with the first elements of reading and writing. His habits were very irregular, and he would frequently absent himself for weeks from his home, living sometimes in the woods, in his favourite pursuit of the chase, amid danger and privation, and sometimes far less creditably, in riot and licentious pleasure. In 1749, when the troops of Mysore were besieging the fort of Deonhully, situated twenty-four miles north-east of Bangalore, he joined his brother’s corps as a volunteer horseman, and seemed for the first time to have found his true vocation. By taking the lead in every service of danger, he gained the particular favour of Nunjeraj, the Mysore commander, who was conducting the siege, and at its close by capitulation, was appointed to the command of fifty horse and 200 infantry, and to the charge of one of the gates of the fort.
The Mysore troops had scarcely marched from Deonhully to Seringapatam when they were ordered off to the plains of Arcot to join Nazir Jung, who had succeeded his father Nizam-ul-Moolk, as Soubahdar of the Deccan. Hyder and his brother took part in this expedition, under the command of Berki Vincat Row, one of the best of the Mysore generals. The events which followed have been detailed in an earlier part of this work. When Nazir Jung was, through the intrigues of Dupleix, treacherously abandoned by a large portion of his army, the Mysore troops remained faithful, and Hyder distinguished himself in an attack on the flank of the French column. When the day was lost, and Nazir Jung had fallen by the hands of the Nabob of Kurpa or Cuddapah, under circumstances amounting to assassination, Hyder managed to turn the event to his own profit. He had in pay a body of 300 select Beder peons, briefly described as brave and faithful thieves, who usually repaid more than the expenses of their establishment by means of plunder, levied without scruple, as opportunity occurred, from friends as well as foes. On the first alarm of a disastrous issue, the person in charge of Nazir Jung’s treasure began to load it on camels. Two of these, laden with gold coins, were dexterously separated from the crowd by Hyder’s peons, and carried off to his station at Deonhully. With this spoil, and a considerable number of horses and muskets afterwards picked up and brought home to the fort, the foundation of his fortunes was laid. During the operations before Trichinopoly, where the Mysoreans under Nunjeraj acted at first as the allies of the French, Hyder continued to rise in that commander’s favour. He was accordingly enabled to augment the number of his Beder peons, and enrich himself by their plunder, which by the aid of Kundee Row, a talented Brahmin accountant, whom he had early taken into his service, was reduced to a regular system, which is thus described by Colonel Wilks:—“The plunderers received, besides their direct pay, one-half of the booty which was realized; the other half was appropriated by Hyder, under a combination of checks which rendered it nearly impossible to secrete any portion of the plunder. Moveable property of every description was their object; and, as already noticed, they did not hesitate to acquire it by simple theft from friends, when that could be done without suspicion, and with more convenience than from enemies. Nothing was unseasonable or unacceptable, from convoys of grain, down to the clothes, turbans, and ear-rings of travellers or villagers, whether men, women, or children. Cattle and sheep were among the most profitable heads of plunder; muskets and horses were sometimes obtained in booty, sometimes by purchase.” A man who like Hyder could neither read nor write, might seem devoid of the qualification necessary to carry out such a system; but, besides the assistance of Kundee Row, he had a most extraordinary memory, and could perform long arithmetical calculations more quickly and not less accurately than the most expert accountant. Accordingly, with the number of his followers his wealth and consequence rapidly increased. In 1755, when he left Trichinopoly, he had all the usual appendages of a chief of rank, and received pay for 1500 horse, 3000 regular infantry, 2000 peons, and four guns, with their equipments.
When Hyder removed from Trichinopoly, it was to occupy the higher position of foujedar of Dindigul. This fort, situated sixty miles south-west of Trichinopoly, crowns a rock which rises in the midst of a valley, bounded on the west by a range of mountains separating it from the Malabar coast, and on the east by a lower range separating it from Madura. It had been seized by Mysore in 1745, but might have been claimed by Mahomed Ali, as belonging to the province of Madura. It was therefore deemed necessary to guard against any attempt which he and his English allies might make to recover possession of it, and Nunjeraj, in whose favour Hyder had continued to rise, saw no one so well qualified to be intrusted with this important charge. The polygars of the adjoining districts were, moreover, leagued together to resist the payment of tribute, and this was an additional reason for conferring the foujedarry of the fort on an officer of proved ability.
Hyder set out for Dindigul at the head of 5000 regular infantry, 2500 horse, 2000 peons, and six guns. Kundee Row he left behind, to watch over his interests. On approaching the districts of the refractory polygars, Hyder lulled them into security by insidious offers of compromise, and was allowed to pass through their country as a friend, till he had reached a position which gave him the command of it. In this way he was able first to sweep off all the cattle, which according to his system were sold off at high prices, generally to their former owners, and then, though not without an obstinate contest, to crush all opposition. Hyder, to make the most of this exploit, sent a despatch with a very exaggerated account of it, and a long list of his killed and wounded, to Nunjeraj, who, delighted with the news, sent a special commissioner with rich presents to Hyder and the officers who had distinguished themselves, and an allowance called zuckhum puttee, given to the wounded, to compensate for their wounds and defray the expenses of their cure. The true number of wounded was sixty-seven, but Hyder, who had purchased the connivance of the commissioner, managed to muster 700, who appeared with their legs or arms bandaged. The zuckhum puttee allowed was at the rate of fourteen rupees monthly to each man while under cure. To the really wounded he gave seven, the surplus of course going into his own pocket, or into the common stock of plunder. Meanwhile, Kundee Row was busy at court sounding the praises of his master, exaggerating the disturbed state of the country, urging the necessity of augmented forces, and obtaining assignments of territorial revenue for their maintenance. It would seem that Hyder’s design of attempting to usurp sovereignty was now fully formed, for he had begun, by means of skilful artificers, procured from Seringham, Trichinopoly, and Pondicherry, and directed by French masters, to organize a regular artillery, arsenal, and laboratory.
The state of the government of Mysore greatly favoured Hyder’s ambition. Nunjeraj and his brother Deo Raj had made themselves absolute masters, and left to the rajah only such appendages of royalty as were necessary to enable them to use him as a tool. Hitherto this had been accomplished without much difficulty, but latterly the rajah, who had attained the age of twenty-seven, had shown symptoms of impatience, and had even talked of imprisoning the usurpers. They were fully on their guard, but deeming it impolitic to use open violence, at first simply remonstrated, and requested him to dismiss his evil counsellors. On his refusal, Nunjeraj, whose daughter was married to the rajah, did not scruple to propose that she should be induced to poison him. Deo Raj refused his sanction to this scheme, and the lady herself, when it was suggested to her, rejected it with abhorrence. Nunjeraj in this dilemma determined to take his own way. Having forced an entrance into the palace, by blowing open the gates which had been barricaded against him, he caused the rajah to take his seat in the hall of audience, and look on in silent terror while the noses and ears of his most faithful attendants were cut off. Thus horribly mutilated, they were turned into the street, while Nunjeraj replaced them with his own creatures, whom he presented to the rajah with an insulting mockery of respect.
This outrageous proceeding gave such offence and disgust to Deo Raj that he broke off all intercourse with his brother, and in February, 1757, quitted Seringapatam with his family and a small body of troops, to fix his residence at Sattimungalum, on the banks of the Bhovany. After taking this step, Deo Raj sent orders to the amils or collectors of several districts to pay the revenues in future to himself. On some of these districts Hyder had assignments, and he was thus in danger of being drawn into the quarrel between the two brothers. As he was not yet prepared to carry matters with a high hand, he resolved to take a peaceful course, and on the recommendation of Kundee Row, he prepared to try the effect of his personal presence at the Mysore capital. Before he reached it an important event had taken place. In March, 1757, Balajee Rao, with his Mahrattas, appeared in the neighbourhood of Seringapatam, and demanded a contribution. Nunjeraj first pleaded inability, and then attempted resistance. Neither availed him, and he was obliged to buy off the enemy by agreeing to a payment of thirty-five lacs of rupees. All the cash and jewels which he could raise for this purpose amounted only to five lacs, and he had no alternative but to surrender a large tract of territory as security for the balance.
When Hyder arrived, the Mahrattas had departed, but he found their agents engaged in collecting the revenue, and a body of 6000 horse in possession of the districts which had been pledged. At his interview with Nunjeraj he expressed his surprise that on so great an emergency the troops at Dindigul had not been sent for, hinting that their presence might have led to a very different result. As the best thing that now remained, his advice was, that the Mahratta troops should be expelled as soon as the setting in of the rains would make it impossible for them to receive any assistance from their countrymen. Their return in the following season might certainly be expected, but this was one great reason of the advice which he gave, as it assured him that his services would then be required. The more immediate object of his visit to the capital was then discussed, and it was arranged that he should, in company with Kundee Row, visit Deo Raj at his retreat. He was greatly aided in his negotiation by circumstances which had occurred before he left Dindigul. The Nair Rajah of Palghaut, a district situated on the eastern frontier of Malabar, where a great depression in the Ghauts opens a communication between the two sides of the Indian peninsula, was at war with the Rajahs of Cochin and Calicut, and being sore pressed, applied for aid to Hyder. He saw his advantage in granting it, and detached his brother-in-law, Mukhdoom Sahib, with 2000 horse, 5000 infantry, and five guns. This powerful force completely turned the scale, and the enemy, after Mukhdoom Sahib had carried his arms to the sea-coast, agreed to restore all their conquests from Palghaut, and pay twelve lacs of rupees by instalments. Hyder’s detachment remained to receive payment. From what has been said of the character of his troops, it is easy to understand how anxious the inhabitants were to be rid of them. Accordingly, they made secret application to Deo Raj, offering to make payment to him if he would send Hindoos to receive it, and free them from the presence of Mussulmans. This transaction furnished an easy means of adjustment between Deo Raj and Hyder, the former agreeing to withdraw his claim on Hyder’s assigned districts, and give security for the payment of three lacs of rupees, as the expenses of the expedition to Malabar, and the latter agreeing to recall the detachment, and permit Deo Raj to levy the contribution from the Rajahs of Cochin and Calicut by his own agents.
Shortly after his return to Dindigul, Hyder, who had been repeatedly urged by the French to make a diversion in their favour, by taking advantage of the disturbances in Madura and Tinnevelly, and wrestling these provinces from Mahomed Ali and his English allies, was convinced that his large body of unoccupied troops could not be employed to better purpose. He commenced with seizing the post of Sholavandan, in the pass between Dindigul and Madura, and advancing to the vicinity of the latter, swept off the whole of the cattle and moveables of the surrounding country. Madura itself was too strong to be taken by a sudden effort, and before he could prepare to besiege it, he learned that Mahomed Issoof was marching from Trichinopoly with a small body of veteran troops, to its relief. Hyder resolved to intercept him. Had he taken proper advantage of his great superiority in numbers he must have been successful; but, by a blunder, he huddled them together in the mouth of a pass, where the greater part of them were prevented from acting. Mahomed Issoof was too skilful not to perceive his advantage, and hastening forward, succeeded by a vigorous attack in gaining a complete victory. Hyder made no effort to redeem the disgrace, and returned to Dindigul.
Meanwhile, the misgovernment which prevailed at Seringapatam was producing its bitter fruits. The troops, in order to obtain their arrears of pay, had employed the ceremony of dherna against Nunjeraj, and reduced him to the necessity of selling the provision stores of the capital as a means of appeasing them. On receiving this information, Hyder quitted Dindigul, with all his disposable troops, and desired Kundee Row again to meet him at Sattimungalum. On his arrival here he waited on Deo Raj, and by representing the fatal effects of his quarrel with Nunjeraj, prevailed upon him to accompany him in the direction of the capital. So great, however, was his reluctance to the journey, that he made repeated halts, and on arriving at the town of Mysore refused to proceed further. Hyder and Kundee Row proceeded to Seringapatam. One condition, declared by Deo Raj to be indispensable, was, that Nunjeraj should make some atonement for his proceedings at the palace. This was arranged without difficulty; and Nunjeraj having submitted to some humiliations, a salute was fired from all the guns of the citadel, to announce the rajah’s forgiveness and favour. The public reconciliation of the brothers followed; and after Nunjeraj had gone to Mysore, and made the most abject apologies, Deo Raj allowed himself to be conducted in a kind of triumphal procession to Seringapatam. He had been six days there when he died. The death appears to have been natural, though a suspicion of poison was, without any great breach of charity, entertained by many.
The army had not received full payment of arrears, and continued to clamour for the balance. It was a sore subject with Nunjeraj; and as he had no idea of again submitting to the rigours of the dherna, he begged Hyder and Kundee Row to make the best arrangement in their power. This was the very thing which Hyder had all along desired, and he managed so craftily, that while he was only maturing his own ambitious designs, all parties regarded him as a common benefactor. There were some, however, whose suspicions were strongly roused, and even openly declared. Among these the most formidable was Herri Sing, a Rajpoot officer of cavalry, in the service of Mysore. He stood as high in the favour of Deo Raj as Hyder in that of Nunjeraj. The two had repeatedly crossed each other’s path, and made no secret of their mutual enmity. Herri Sing, indeed, who piqued himself on his pure descent and chivalrous spirit, always spoke of Hyder contemptuously, and refused to give him a higher title than that of naick. Hyder watched his opportunity, and took his revenge. Herri Sing had been selected by Deo Raj to collect the military contribution in Malabar. He found it almost a hopeless task; and on hearing of the sudden death of his patron, hastened back to the province of Coimbatoor, and halted near a frontier village of Tanjore, ostensibly to refresh his troops, but really to negotiate with the rajah the terms on which he was to enter his service. Hyder may have represented this intention as treason against Mysore; but it is more probable that he regarded his own enmity as a sufficient ground for any procedure however violent. On pretence of sending back a portion of his followers to Dindigul, he detached Mukhdoom Sahib with 1000 horse and 2000 infantry. The nature of his instructions may be learned from the event. In the dead of the night, when Herri Sing was carelessly encamped, without any suspicion of danger, he was surprised by Mukhdoom, and massacred, with a large portion of his troops. Hyder, so far from denying his share in the atrocity, gloried in it, and even selected out of the spoil three guns and fifteen beautiful horses as a present to the rajah. It must have been graciously received, for he immediately after received an assignment on Coimbatoor for the three lacs of rupees promised him as the expenses of the Malabar war, and was put in possession of the fort and district of Bangalore as his personal jaghire.
The Mahrattas did not tamely submit to the expulsion of their troops and the gross violation of the agreement, on the faith of which they had retired from Seringapatam when they had every prospect of capturing it. Early in 1759, a large force, under Gopaul Herri and Anund Row Rastea, invaded Mysore. It was difficult to muster any force to oppose them. The soldiers as well as chiefs were still clamorous for the arrears, which had been only partially discharged, and refused to move till full payment was made. In this dilemma, Hyder, who had ascertained that the arrears were more fictitious than real, took the responsibility of payment upon himself, and was in consequence appointed to the chief command in the field. Many of the old officers resigned, sooner than submit to what they called the indignity of serving under the naick; but Hyder steadily pursued his course, determined to show that what he wanted in birth he possessed in talent. His dispositions were made with so much ability that Gopaul Herri, after a series of indecisive actions, in which he was generally worsted, proposed negotiation. The terms ultimately agreed to were, that the Mahrattas should receive present payment of thirty-two lacs of rupees, in full of all demands, and renounce all claim on the districts formerly pledged to Balajee Rao. The great difficulty was the present payment; but Hyder, by means of a nezerana, a kind of compulsory benevolence, levied on the principal inhabitants, succeeded in raising the half of the whole amount: for the other half, so great was his influence with the soucars or bankers of the enemy’s camp, his own security was taken, they themselves becoming responsible, on an understanding, ratified by all parties, that Hyder should have the direct management of the revenues of the pledged districts as the fund from which payment was to be drawn. On completing these arrangements, and seeing the Mahrattas in full march for their own country, he returned in triumph to Seringapatam. The rajah, on receiving him at the most splendid durbar which had been held during his reign, saluted him as Futteh Hyder Behauder,1 while Nunjeraj, apparently proud of having discerned his merit, paid him the high compliment of rising on his approach, and embracing him.
Hitherto Nunjeraj, using the rajah as a pageant, wielded the whole power of the state, and perfectly satisfied that he would always find Hyder an obedient and zealous adherent, had sanctioned, if not procured, his appointment as commander-in-chief. A very decided change in their relations was soon to take place. Late events having made Kundee Row a frequent visitor to the palace, he became thoroughly acquainted with the state of feeling in it, and after confidential communication with the old dowager consort of a previous rajah, arranged with her that means should be taken to compel Nunjeraj to retire from public life. Hyder was, of course, privy to the intrigue. The means to be employed was a new demand of the arrears still due to the troops. Accordingly, some officers, instructed by Kundee Row in the part they were to act, waited on Hyder, and asked in a moderate tone that their arrears should be paid. He answered in a similar tone that his own corps was regularly paid, but that he was not the paymaster of the rest of the army. Admitting this, they requested that he would apply to Nunjeraj on their behalf, and he promised to use his best offices. The visit of the officers was daily repeated, each time with greater urgency, till at last they insisted that he should go at their head, and sit in dherna at Nunjeraj’s gate. He professed the greatest aversion to this proceeding; but under the pretence of acting under compulsion, he at last accompanied them. Nunjeraj, who had some knowledge of Kundee Row’s behaviour at the palace, was not to be thus imposed on, and the moment Hyder appeared, saw through the whole plot. As he had no present means of defeating it, he made a merit of necessity, and after adjusting preliminaries in a separate interview with Hyder, came out and announced to the troops that the rajah had assumed the principal direction of his own affairs, and permitted him to retire. It would therefore be unjust to continue any longer sitting in dherna upon him, as he was no longer responsible for their arrears. “Then,” exclaimed a voice, “remove the dherna to the gate of the rajah.” This was carried by acclamation; and Hyder, still under apparent compulsion, accompanied them as before.
This second dherna, forming part of the intrigue, caused no alarm at the palace, and a message from the rajah requested that Kundee Row should be sent to him. After a sham conference Kundee Row came out and intimated to the troops that the rajah would find means to satisfy their demand, provided Hyder would take a solemn oath to obey his orders, and have nothing more to do with the usurper Nunjeraj, for whose retirement, however, a liberal provision would be made. Hyder, of course, took the oath, though with hypocritical reluctance, from its binding him to abandon his old master; and, after a short visit to the palace, returned to say, that as a few days would be required to complete the arrangements, he was himself ready, in the meantime, to be personally responsible for the liquidation of the arrears. With this assurance the troops withdrew, perfectly satisfied.
Under these arrangements, Hyder received new assignments of revenue, which, added to those formerly received, gave him direct possession of more than a half of the rajah’s whole territory. The remainder was also under his immediate control, as Kundee Row had been appointed dewan. The only exception was the jaghire given as a provision to Nunjeraj. Its annual produce was three lacs of pagodas (about £120,000); but out of this he was bound to maintain, for the service of the state, 1000 horse and 3000 infantry. Nunjeraj left the capital in June, 1759, with the professed intention of visiting a celebrated temple, about twenty-five miles southward, but was, or affected to be taken ill at Mysore. Here he fixed his residence, only nine miles from Seringapatam. As this was deemed a dangerous proximity, it was intimated to him, that in consideration of his being relieved from the maintenance of troops two-thirds of his jaghire, assumed to be their annual expense, was to be assigned to Hyder, and that he must remove to a greater distance. Indignant at this treatment, he addressed a letter to Hyder in the following terms:—“I have made you what you are, and now you refuse me a place in which to hide my head. Do what you please, or what you can; I move not from Mysore.” Hyder made no scruple of using compulsion, and commenced a regular siege. From ignorance or design the operations were conducted so sluggishly that three months were wasted before Nunjeraj consented to capitulate, and to remove to Cumnoor, about twenty-five miles further west. To magnify the importance of this success, and delude the rajah into the belief that he was now his own master, he was invited to Mysore, to inspect the approaches and batteries which had been raised for its reduction. This was the first time he had been allowed to visit the ancient residence of his predecessors. Hyder did not forget himself on the occasion, and partly on the ground of the expense incurred in the siege, asked and obtained assignments on the revenues of four additional districts. This demand was opposed even by Kundee Row, and so disgusted him as to become the cause of a coolness between him and his master. The effects of this coolness will afterwards be seen.
The French governor, Lally, when disaster after disaster was overtaking him, entered into communication with Hyder, and in 1760 concluded with him a treaty, the nature and consequences of which have already been described. Hyder had previously contemplated the conquest of the Baramahal, a province situated on the east of Mysore, and taking its name from twelve mountain forts forming the capitals of so many districts. It had formerly belonged to Mysore, but been wrested from it by the Patan Nabob of Kurpa or Cuddapah. An officer who had been governor of it, having been dismissed, pointed out to Hyder that it might easily be reconquered, and it was accordingly determined to attempt it. On the direct road between the Baramahal and Seringapatam lay the fort and district of Anikul, belonging to a polygar. As he might thus have been able to interrupt the communication, it was deemed a necessary preliminary to wrest it from him. This was successfully accomplished by Mukhdoom, Hyder’s brother-in-law, and to him the subjugation of the Baramahal was also intrusted. He had again been successful, and there was now nothing to prevent Hyder from making his way to the very heart of the Carnatic. It was probably the knowledge of this fact that induced Lally to propose an alliance with Hyder, and grant him the favourable terms stipulated in the treaty. The results were at first promising, and when Hyder at the very outset succeeded in defeating the corps which Coote had detached under Major Moore, he was so elated that he resolved to exceed the number of troops which he had agreed to furnish. He was thus taking an active part in the Carnatic war, and indulging the hope of securing a permanent footing within its limits, when an event occurred which brought him to the verge of ruin.
The old dowager princess who had planned the expulsion of Nunjeraj, soon began to perceive that the person substituted for him was likely to prove a more dangerous usurper. The alienation of Kundee Row from Hyder had not escaped her notice, and she therefore ventured to make him again her confidant. She pointed out to him how the greater part of Hyder’s troops were engaged at a distance in the assigned district, in the Baramahal and in the Carnatic. Hyder himself was cantoned under the fire of the garrison, with only 100 horse and 1500 infantry. The rest of his disposable troops, and the greater part of the artillery were on the other side of the river, which was then full: How easy, then, would it be, by taking possession of the fort, and preventing him from receiving any reinforcement, to shut him up within the island, and make him prisoner? A body of Mahratta horse, 20,000 strong, were hovering on the north frontier of Mysore, ready to sell their services, and there would, therefore, be no difficulty in purchasing their aid. Kundee Row heard the proposal with contending emotions. He would rather not have taken part in a plot which aimed at nothing less than the destruction of a master whom he had long served, and to whom, though he now regarded him with altered feelings, he had at one time been devotedly attached. On the other hand, as he could have no doubt as to what the ultimate aims of Hyder were, was he, a Brahmin, to refuse his co-operation when asked to save a Hindoo dynasty from extinction and prevent a Mahometan dynasty from usurping its place? Then why should he overlook the contingent advantages to himself? Might he not one day gain possession of the very seat to which Hyder was aspiring? The temptation was too great for Kundee Row, and he accompanied the rajah and the dowager to the great temple of the capital, to take an oath of mutual fidelity.
In execution of the scheme a negotiation was concluded with Visajee Pundit, the Mahratta leader, who engaged to approach Seringapatam with 6000 horse. Early in the morning of the day on which they were expected, a tremendous cannonade from the fort was suddenly opened on Hyder and his troops. Utterly astonished, he called for Kundee Row, but it was only to learn that he might see him on the works directing the fire of the guns. The full extent of the danger was now disclosed, and Hyder made every possible preparation to meet it. Having placed his troops under the cover of ravines and hollows, and removed his family to a hut beyond the reach of the fire, he secured all the boats and boatmen of the adjoining ferry, and stationed them where they could not be seen from the fort. His troops on the other side, so far from being able to give him assistance, had been surprised by a portion of the garrison previously placed in ambuscade, and completely dispersed. Had the Mahrattas appeared at the appointed time, nothing could have saved him. As usual, however, they were too late, and Kundee Row did not venture to make his final attack without them. While waiting their arrival he endeavoured to amuse Hyder with negotiation. It is said that in the course of it he laboured to convince his old master that he was obliged to act against him, as he was now the rajah’s servant, but retained so much of his old attachment that he would wink at his escape during the night. Be this as it may, Hyder did escape with about 100 horsemen, and a considerable quantity of treasure, by crossing in the boats and swimming over the horses and two camels. On reaching the north bank they loaded the camels and hurried off. Hyder’s family, including the afterwards celebrated Tippoo, then in his ninth year, were left behind and made prisoners. He himself continued his flight to the north-east, and arrived before daybreak at Anikul, a distance of seventy-five miles, with only forty horses, all the rest having broken down from fatigue. From Anikul, which, from being in the charge of his brother-in-law Ismael Ali, was easily secured, he proceeded to Bangalore, which had been nearly lost to him, in consequence of a message from Kundee Row announcing the change which had taken place. Dindigul, at the opposite extremity of Mysore, also was preserved; but these towns, and the Baramahal posts, were all the places on whose fidelity he could calculate. Mukhdoom was still at Pondicherry with a considerable force; but it was more than doubtful if he would ever be able to obey the order given him to hasten across the country with the least possible delay. Besides the obstacles which Kundee Row would interpose, he was encumbered with the plunder collected in Arcot.
Meanwhile Hyder exerted himself to the utmost to recover from his almost desperate position. From the bankers of Bangalore he raised a loan of £40,000, many small detachments of his old followers arrived, and adventurers from all quarters flocked to his standard. The most distinguished of these, both in rank and reputation, was Fuzzul Oolla Khan, belonging to an eminent family in Delhi, and son of Dilawer Khan, who had been Nabob of Sera before the Mahrattas under Balajee Rao made a conquest of it. The value at which he rated himself, and was also rated by Hyder, appears from the terms of the stipulation which he concluded with the latter on entering his service. One primary condition was, “that whether on a saddle cloth, a carpet, or a musnud, his place should be on the same seat with Hyder, his officer but his equal; and that he should have the distinction of two honorary attendants standing behind him, holding fans composed of the feathers of the humma, according to the practice of his family.”1
Mukhdoom, about the end of September, 1760, entered the Baramahal, through the pass of Changama, and spent some time in disencumbering himself of his plunder, and collecting the disposable troops of the garrison. Kundee Row, fully alive to the importance of preventing his junction with Hyder, had for this purpose placed his best troops under Gopaul Herri, who commanded the 6000 horse that arrived a day too late at Seringapatam, and had moreover been joined by a detachment of 4000 more. These had been sent to him by Visajee Pundit, who was himself encamped at the summit of the pass of Cudapanatam, leading directly to Vellore. Mukhdoom, opposed by all these troops, was compelled to take post under Anchittydroog, situated near the verge of the descent into the Baramahal, about forty-eight miles south-east of Bangalore. Here he was completely blockaded. Hyder, to whom he reported his critical position, mustered about 4000 men and five guns, all that could be spared from the defence of Bangalore, and placed them under the command of Fuzzul Oolla Khan, who, in attempting to force the blockade, sustained a severe repulse, which obliged him to retreat to Anikul. Mukhdoom was in consequence reduced to extremity, and Hyder’s ruin seemed inevitable, when his good fortune again saved him.
Visajee Pundit had been playing as usual a Mahratta game, and selling himself successively to all the contending parties—first to Kundee Row, as we have seen, at Seringapatam; next to Lally, who was to give him five lacs of rupees as soon as his army should appear in sight of Pondicherry; and next to Mahomed Ali, who, alarmed at this French alliance, agreed in January, 1761, to purchase his immediate departure to Poonah for the large sum of twenty lacs, payable by instalments. Being thus under an obligation to quit the country, Visajee Pundit very readily listened to an overture to the same effect from Hyder, and offered to be contented with the trifling payment of three lacs and the cession of the Baramahal. On payment of the lacs Visajee Pundit hastened off to the northward. Hyder was astonished, and learned with delight that the cession of the Baramahal, which he had delayed, might now be wholly evaded. The great battle of Paniput had been fought, and the Mahrattas, as if they already saw the Abdallees at their gates, were concentrating all their forces for the defence of Poonah. Mukhdoom, thus relieved from blockade, proceeded to Bangalore. Kundee Row, after the expulsion of Hyder from Seringapatam, had, in his own name and that of the rajah, addressed letters explanatory of the transaction to all the neighbouring powers. Among others to the presidency of Madras, who, in retaliation of Hyder’s assistance to the French, and attack upon Madura, had sent a detachment from Trichinopoly to besiege Caroor, a frontier fort of Mysore, situated about forty miles westward. The presidency, scarcely knowing what to make of Kundee Row’s letter, and the contradictory reports which reached them, agreed to a capitulation, which allowed the garrison to depart on giving up possession of the place, and in the meantime refrained from further hostilities. The contest for supremacy in Mysore was now actively carried on. Kundee Row made himself master of the whole of the lower country from the Baramahal to Dindigul, with the single exception of this fort. Hyder’s exertions were scarcely less successful. On the very day when Mukhdoom joined him he took the field with a force so superior that he was able to send a detachment to Salem and Coimbatoor, for the purpose of recovering their revenues. This detachment considerably reduced the numbers of his troops, but he had improved their quality by taking into his pay a French detachment of 200 cavalry and 100 infantry, who, having been stationed in the vicinity of Thiagur, deemed it useless to continue in the service of their own Company after the fall of Pondicherry.
Kundee Row and Hyder, once related as servant and master, but now placed at the head of hostile armies, prepared for the decisive encounter. Hyder’s force amounted to 6000 horse and 5000 foot, with twenty guns; Kundee Row’s, to 7000 horse and 6000 foot, with twenty-eight guns. After some days spent in skirmishing and manoeuvring, Hyder felt his inferiority, and would fain have waited for reinforcements. Kundee Row, on the other hand, confident of his advantage, forced on an engagement, and gained the victory. Hyder sustained a very heavy loss; and though he had managed to retreat in tolerable order, despaired of being able, with his present means, to carry on the campaign. In this extremity he adopted a very singular expedient. Having retreated to Hurdanhully, about forty miles S.S.E. of Seringapatam, he selected 200 horse, including seventy French hussars, and, stealing off by night, arrived next morning at Cunnoor. Unattended, he made his appearance as a supplicant at the door of Nunjeraj, and on being admitted threw himself at his feet, confessed his ingratitude, attributed all his misfortunes to it, and with the utmost earnestness implored his old master to resume the direction of affairs, and take him once more under his protection. Nunjeraj was completely duped, and causing letters to be issued in all quarters, announcing his return to power, not only made Hyder his commander-in-chief, but gave him a body of troops whom he had in his pay amounting to about 2000 horse and 2000 infantry. There was no doubt that Kundee Row, on hearing of the visit to Cunnoor, would immediately set out in that direction. Calculating on this, Hyder had left orders to his army to hang on Kundee Row’s rear and retard his movements. He endeavoured in the meantime to effect a junction. This, Kundee Row, by superior manoeuvring, prevented, and Hyder’s ruin was again imminent, when stratagem once more came to his aid, and effected a deliverance which prowess could not have achieved. While Hyder was retiring, closely pursued, he prepared letters in the name and with the seal of Nunjeraj, and addressed them to Kundee Row’s principal officers. Their purport was to remind them of their engagement to deliver Kundee Row into his hands, and urge them to lose no time in earning the promised reward. The bearer of the letters was instructed to allow himself to be apprehended with them in his possession. The conspiracy to betray and seize Kundee Row was of course a fiction; but he believed it, and consulting only his fears, hastened off at full speed for Seringapatam. His unexplained flight threw his army into disorder. Hyder, in anticipation of this result, had stopped short in front, and had ordered his other division to approach as near as possible in the rear. He thus placed the enemy between two fires, and drove them in confusion from the field, capturing all their infantry, guns, stores, and baggage. The horse, indeed, saved themselves by an early flight, but the infantry, indifferent to everything but pay, were easily induced to change sides, and swell the victor’s army.
Hyder’s way was now clear; but he always trusted more to stratagem than manly warfare. Hearing that a great number of the fugitives had collected, he halted for several days under pretence of collecting the revenue, till he lulled them into security, and cut most of them to pieces during a midnight surprise. This exploit took place on the very island of Seringapatam; but, as he was unwilling
to risk an encounter with the garrison, he immediately retired to the opposite bank, and, while amusing Kundee Row with negotiations, watched his opportunity. The force opposed to him was still formidable, consisting of about 6000 horse, chiefly Mahrattas, and a body of infantry encamped so near the fort as to be partly under its guns. During seven days of tacit armistice, Hyder, encamped without the island, on the opposite bank, made a show of exercising his troops till after sunset. On the eighth day, as if still continuing his evolutions, he made a sudden dash into the river, which was then fordable, and effected a complete surprise. All the heavy equipments and most of the horses fell into his hands, and his whole troops passed over into the island. It only remained to dictate terms, and he sent a message to the rajah. Its substance was, “that Kundee Row was the servant of Hyder, and ought to be given up to him; that large balances were due to Hyder by the state, and ought to be liquidated. If, after payment, the rajah would be pleased to continue him in his service, it was well; if not, he would depart and seek his fortune elsewhere.” The meaning of this language, notwithstanding its affected moderation, was too easily understood, and the terms arranged were, that districts to the amount of three lacs for the rajah and one lac for Nunjeraj should be reserved; that the management of the remainder of the country should be assumed by Hyder, who would provide for the arrears and pay of the army, and all other charges; and that Kundee Row should be given up.
The interview with Nunjeraj, and the stipulations which followed upon it, were forgotten, or occasionally recited in ridiculous forms for Hyder’s amusement during his hours of low conviviality. Before Kundee Row was delivered, intercession was made for him by the rajah and the ladies of the palace; and Hyder, ever ready with a promise to the ear, replied, that “he would not only spare the life of his old servant, but cherish him like a parroquet”—a pet bird in Mahometan harems. When afterwards remonstrated with for severity of treatment, he affirmed that he had kept his word. “If they had any doubt on the subject they were at liberty to see his iron cage and the rice and milk allotted for his food.” The events which made Hyder absolute master of Mysore took place in the latter part of the year 1761.
Basalut Jung, one of the brothers of Salabut Jung, held the government of Adoni, but had begun, like his other brother, Nizam Ali, to aspire to independence. After the battle of Paniput, in 1761, the Mahrattas, who had previously kept him in check, left the field open for his ambition, and in June, 1761, he planned the reduction of Sera, then in their possession, though formerly a nabobship dependent on the Soubahdar of the Deccan. The enterprise seemed to him, after reconnoitring the citadel, too formidable, and he continued his march southward. Hyder, on hearing of his approach, appointed Mukhdoom, now Mukhdoom Ali Khan, killed at Seringapatam, and hastened off early in September to Bangalore. When he arrived he found Basalut Jung engaged in the siege of Oscota, a fort situated only eighteen miles to the north-east. Though of little real strength, the Mahratta garrison derided the feeble efforts of Basalut Jung to take it, and he was preparing to abandon it with an empty military chest when he received a friendly communication from Hyder. Nothing could be more opportune; and, after a negotiation conducted by Fuzzul Oolla Khan, an agreement was entered into, by which he undertook, for a present of three lacs, to invest Hyder with the office of Nabob of Sera. Nothing could be more ludicrous, as both giver and receiver were destitute of the least shadow of title whether by right or possession. This, however, was no obstacle; and regular sunnuds or deeds of investiture were executed, in virtue of which Hyder assumed the title of nabob, and the name of Hyder Ali Khan Bahadur. By this name, or rather the two first words of it, Hyder Ali, he was henceforth usually designated. Fuzzul Oolla Khan was at the same time rewarded for his share in the negotiation by the title of Hybut Jung. A few days after these transactions the two armies united their forces, and Ooscota was captured.
Great Balipoor, belonging to the nabobship of Sera, was of course included in the fictitious grant. Basalut Jung had wished to exclude it, but Hyder declared that he would break off the negotiation altogether sooner than consent. This place, it will be recollected, was the jaghire of Abbas Cooli Khan, who so basely plundered and tortured Hyder himself and his widowed mother and brother. He had vowed a full and deep revenge, and was now in hope of being able to gratify it. Abbas Cooli Khan, as soon as he heard of the junction of the two armies, saw his danger, and lost no time in escaping to Madras, a distance of above 200 miles. As he had left his family to their fate, revenge was still possible; and it must be mentioned as one of the few occasions on which Hyder showed himself capable of generous feelings, that, forgetting the injury, and remembering only some kindnesses which he had received in childhood, he presented himself at the gate of the fugitive’s mother, and assured her of his gratitude and respect. He was as good as his word, and ever after treated her and the unoffending members of her family with generosity. The united armies proceeded to Sera, which yielded without much difficulty. Hyder thus succeeded in converting his futile title into a real and substantial possession. About the beginning of 1762 the armies separated, Basalut Jung going north to Adoni, where his presence was required in consequence of the usurpation of supreme power in the Deccan by his brother Nizam; while Hyder moved southward to attempt a new conquest.
Little Balipoor was in the hands of a polygar. Its situation, fourteen miles east of Great Balipoor, and twelve north of Deonhully, made it a very desirable possession for Hyder, who had early set his heart upon it. Immediately north of it lay the territories of the Mahratta chief, Morari Row, who was not likely to acquiesce in a conquest which would bring him into immediate proximity to a powerful neighbour. As the place was almost open, Hyder commenced the siege in the belief that he was about to make a speedy capture, but the polygar for a long time baffled all his efforts, by contesting every inch of ground. In this vigorous defence he was encouraged by the promise of Morari Row to come to his relief. The Mahratta chief, indeed, made the attempt, but failed, and sustained a severe repulse. Disappointed in this hope, the polygar professed to treat, and agreed to pay nine lacs as ransom. On the conclusion of this agreement, Hyder, who had been suffering as much from pestilence as from war, drew off and encamped in the plain near Deonhully, there to remain till the ransom should be paid. Strange to say, he had been foiled at his own favourite weapon. The polygar, after baffling him in fair fight, had proved an overmatch for him even in duplicity, by retiring into the impenetrable fort of Nundidroog, only three miles distant, and allowing Morari Row to throw a body of troops into little Balipoor. Hyder, enraged beyond measure at finding himself a dupe, commenced the siege anew, and in about ten days carried the place by assault. Morari Row acknowledged that he was beaten, by retiring to Gootee, and allowing Hyder to prosecute his victorious career. Place after place submitted, and a large tract of country to the north and north-east of Sera fell into his hands.
Hyder’s attention was in the meantime called to another conquest of still greater importance. The Nabob of Chitteldroog, one of those who had made their submission, informed him that he had a singular visitor in his camp. Buswapa Naick, Rajah of Bednore, had died in 1755, leaving, as his heir, an adopted son, Chen Busveia, about seventeen years of age, under the guardianship of his widow, as ranee. She formed a connection with a person of the name of Nimbeia, and caused so much scandal by her misconduct that the youth ventured to remonstrate with her. The effect was to cost him his life; for in 1757 the widow and her paramour hired a jetti, a kind of athlete, to dislocate his neck while shampooing him in the bath. The visitor in the Chitteldroog camp claimed to be this very Chen Busveia. The jetti, he said, instead of destroying, had preserved him concealed in his house for five years, and he himself was seeking aid in the recovery of his rights. Hyder saw the use that might be made of him, and entered into an agreement to attempt his restoration. Accordingly, in the beginning of 1763, he set out for Bednore, the central district of which, including the capital, extended along the summit of the Western Ghauts, overlooking Canara and Malabar. Here, from the quantity of moisture attracted by the mountains, rain falls during nine months in the year, and vegetation is remarkable for its luxuriance. The forests of teak are magnificent, and the undergrowth forms tangled thickets which are almost impenetrable. The capital and fort of Bednore occupied the centre of a basin, inclosed by hills at the distance of three to six miles. These constituted its real strength, as only a few of the weakest points had been fortified. In addition to the central district, the territories of Bednore extended both eastward over a considerable tract of table-land, and west to the sea-coast of Canara.
On entering the province, Hyder issued a proclamation, calling upon the inhabitants to return to their allegiance. At Simoga, which was situated on the skirts of the woods about forty-three miles from the capital, and became an easy capture, he found a lac of pagodas of four rupees each, and was offered four lacs of pagodas by the ranee as the purchase of his retreat. He continued his advance, and at Coompsee released Lingana, the minister of the late rajah, from imprisonment. Lingana at once gave in his adherence to Hyder, and gave him important information in regard both to the condition and the resources of the country. He also undertook to conduct him by a secret path to the city, without being obliged to encounter the fortifications. Thus instructed, he continued to advance without difficulty, striking terror by cutting off the ears and noses of a small garrison that presumed to fire upon him, and rejecting successive offers from the ranee of twelve lacs of pagodas (£480,000), and eighteen lacs (£720,000). When the ranee and her paramour despaired of accommodation, they fled to the hill-fort of Bellalroydroog, about seventy miles to the southward, leaving orders for the immediate removal of the treasure, and if that proved impracticable, for setting the palace and treasury on fire. The secret path pointed out by Lingana enabled Hyder to defeat these desperate orders, and while his main body made a feigned attack on the forts in front, he was within the city at the head of a select column before his approach was suspected.
Bednore, which is said to have been eight miles in circuit, and had hitherto been exempted from the miseries of war, was one of the richest commercial towns of the East, and must have yielded an immense amount in plunder. In collecting it Hyder was perfectly in his element. In a few hours his official seals were placed on every public and private dwelling above the condition of a hovel, and guards were stationed to prevent any removal of property either by the inhabitants or by his soldiers. The value actually realized in money, jewels, and other available articles, can only be guessed at; but Colonel Wilks says (vol. i. p. 452), that “it may, without risk of exaggeration, be estimated at £12,000,000 sterling, and was throughout life habitually spoken of by Hyder as the foundation of all his subsequent greatness.” The rest of the Bednore territory was easily conquered. Two principal detachments took possession of the seaports of Mangalore and Onore, or Honawar, with Bussoo Raj Droog, or Fortified Island, in front of it; while a third gained Bellalroydroog by the capitulation of the ranee, who surrendered on the general assurance of due consideration for her rank and dignity. She probably expected to be reinstated in the sovereignty; and as an additional inducement to Hyder to grant it, declared her conversion to Islam. He had no such intention, and confined her with her paramour and an adopted son in the hill-fort of Mudgherry, situated among the mountains, fifty-six miles north-west of Bangalore. The pseudo-rajah Chen Busveia was sent to share their prison. Hyder, though aware from the first that he was an impostor, treated him with the greatest external respect till the ranee fell into his power. After that, when he could no longer be of any use, he left him to become the standing joke of the camp, the soldiers amusing themselves by saluting him as the Ghyboo Rajah, or Rajah of the Resurrection. He could not have been dangerous if left at large, but a prison was perhaps the proper place for him.
Bednore was from the first treated by Hyder as a separate kingdom. Seringapatam and its dependencies belonged, he said, to the Rajah of Mysore, but Bednore was his own. Hence he not only administered its affairs by a distinct minister, but changed its name. Having been informed, a few days after the capture, that it had been intended to increase the houses to 90,000, the number which constitutes a nuggur, he exclaimed—“We will not mar the project; it shall be called Hyder Nuggur.” He even contemplated making it his capital, and with that view commenced a splendid palace, and established a mint, in which he struck coins in his own name for the first time. He also ordered the construction of a naval arsenal and dockyard at Honawar. While Hyder was busily occupied with these schemes the rains set in, and the endemic disease, which strangers seldom escape at that season, so seriously impaired his health that he was unable to appear in the public durbar. The servants of the former dynasty, dissatisfied with their new position, entered into a conspiracy to assassinate him. Having received some hints which put him on his guard, he ordered an investigation to be made by a commission composed of persons in whom he placed the greatest confidence. They were themselves accomplices in the conspiracy, and of course reported that his suspicions were groundless. When the report was read to him he was lying shivering in a paroxysm of ague. The true state of matters, however, did not escape him, and the moment the fit was over, he entered the durbar, re-examined the witnesses, and laid bare the whole plot. The commissioners were instantly hanged in his presence, in front of the hall of audience; and before the day closed, above 300 of the principal conspirators were hanging in the leading thoroughfares.
In December, 1763, Fuzzul Oolla Khan was detached for the conquest of Soonda, a small principality north of Bednore, and effected it with facility. About the same time, Reza Ali Khan, son of the late Chunda Sahib, who had retired to Ceylon on the capture of Pondicherry, landed in Canara. On arriving at Hyder’s court he was received with distinction, presented with a jaghire yielding annually a lac of rupees, and employed in several important services. From his long intercourse with the French he was able to assist Hyder in reorganizing his army, which was now clothed in a uniform manner for the first time, and classed into avvul and duum, first and second, or grenadiers and troops of the line. The former, selected not merely for superior strength and stature, but tried steadiness and courage, received higher pay. The system of police was also strictly regulated, and more attention was paid to courtly equipments and etiquette.
Knowing that the conquest of Sera must have given great offence both to the Soubahdar of the Deccan, who claimed it as a dependency, and to the Mahrattas, from whom it was wrested, Hyder made soothing applications to both, and sent to their respective capitals deputies provided with rich gifts, and soucar or bank credit for large sums of money. At Hyderabad, where the want of money was extreme, and everything was venal, the object was easily accomplished, but at Poonah great difficulty was experienced. The Peishwa Balajee Rao had died of a broken heart in consequence of the defeat at Paniput, and been succeeded by his son, Madhoo Row, who, intent on regaining all that had been lost, refused to make a formal cession of any part of his dominions. Hyder, thus made aware that from that quarter an invasion might sooner or later be expected, lost no time in strengthening his frontier. By the annexation of Sera the northern frontier was brought to the river Toombudra; the conquest of Bednore and Soonda had carried it still further, but left a deep gap or indentation formed by Savanoor. Could this province, and also those of Kurnool and Kurpa, or Cuddapah, be included within Hyder’s dominions, he might establish a sort of defensive cordon, extending continuously from the western coast to the Eastern Ghauts, where they are traversed by the Pennar. The accomplishment of this object was now seriously contemplated, though it was foreseen that it could only be realized by either conquering the Patan nabobs of these three provinces, or converting them into sincere and trustworthy allies.
Hyder began with the Nabob of Savanoor, and found it impossible to convince him that an alliance with himself would be more conducive to his interests than that which now bound him to the Mahrattas. The only alternative, therefore, was to employ force; and Fuzzul Oolla Khan, after completing the conquest of Soonda, was instructed to enter Savanoor, and, without actual hostility, try the effect of his presence in the way of terror or persuasion. The nabob Abdul Hekeem Khan disdained to conceal his intentions, and positively refused the proffered alliance. Hyder hereupon hastened to join Fuzzul Oolla Khan, with his army from Bednore. The rashness of the nabob in risking an action in the field, led to his complete discomfiture, and he not only submitted to all that he had previously refused, but to a military contribution of two lacs of rupees. Circumstances recalled Hyder to Bednore, but Fuzzul Oolla Khan, left with a large division of the army, pursued his conquests northward with so much success that several places of strength, including Darwar, belonging to the Mahrattas, fell into his hands, and the Mysore frontier was extended nearly to the banks of the Kistna.
The Mahrattas had never contemplated an attack of their territories from the south, and were therefore the more astonished and alarmed at Fuzzul Oolla Khan’s approach. For some time Madhoo Row had been engaged in active hostility with Nizam Ali, who, at the outset of his usurpation, gave some promise of military talent, and besides recovering Dowletabad by negotiation in 1762, had, in 1763, captured Poonah, and reduced it to ashes. During this struggle Madhoo Row could offer no effectual opposition to Hyder’s proceedings, but in the beginning of 1764 he found himself at leisure to make preparations on a scale proportioned to the greatness of the emergency. Gopaul Row, the Mahratta chief of Meritch, or Meeruj, situated immediately north of the Kistna, was furnished with a strong reinforcement, and ordered to cross the river, and keep the enemy in check till the main army should arrive. He adopted a less prudent course, and on finding his numbers superior to those of Fuzzul Oolla Khan, risked a general engagement, in which he was signally defeated. This battle was fought in April. In May, Madhoo Row appeared at the head of an immense host. Fuzzul Oolla Khan fell back as he advanced, and at last joined Hyder, who had taken up a position at Rettehully, fifty-six miles north-east of Bednore. Woods, extending without interruption between these two places, gave cover to his infantry against cavalry, in which the enemy was far superior in numbers. His army mustered 20,000 horse, 20,000 regular infantry, 20,000 irregular foot, or peons, armed chiefly with matchlocks, and a respectable train of artillery. Madhoo Row had at least double this force in all the branches of cavalry, infantry, and artillery. The Mahrattas, approaching in their usual way, covered the whole country with their cavalry, and were able, by their numerical superiority, to invest Hyder’s camp, and cut off his supplies. He was satisfied at first to remain on the defensive, in the hope that the enemy might be tempted to attack him; but when he found that they declined this, and were in the meantime, by sending out detachments, wrestling from him all his conquests, he determined to bring on a general action, while still keeping so near his position as not to lose the advantages of it. With this view, leaving Fuzzul Oolla Khan in command of the camp, he descended into the plain with 20,000 chosen troops, and commenced a series of manœuvres. By these he hoped to entrap the enemy, but the result was that he only entrapped himself, and when at the distance of six or seven miles from his encampment, discovered Madhoo Row with his whole army closing upon him in every direction. Hyder fought his way back with much skill and courage, but did not reach Rettehully without a severe loss in the flower of his army. The next day the want of supplies obliged him to fall back, and he again sustained a new loss while manœuvring to gain an advantage. Hitherto the campaign had been to him only a series of disasters; and before any more could be attempted the rains set in.
Madhoo Row cantoned his troops to the eastward of Savanoor, and as soon as the rains began to subside, employed himself in sending detachments across the Toombudra, and reducing the whole of the eastern parts of Bednore, and the adjacent parts of Mysore. Hyder’s army, dispirited and sickly, had no inclination to resume active operations. No choice, however, was given them, as Madhoo Row, in the beginning of 1765, began to make preparations for assailing their entrenched camp at Anawutty. With this view he commenced cutting a wide opening in the woods to the south of the encampment, and to form a line of circumvallation around it, by felling the gigantic forests. The object evidently was to hem in Hyder on every side, cut off his communication with Bednore, and reduce him to the necessity of surrendering at discretion. His only escape was a speedy retreat, and this he immediately commenced. Madhoo Row followed close in pursuit, and by interposing between him and a point which he was endeavouring to gain, forced him to a general action, under circumstances so unfavourable that it terminated in a disorderly rout. His troops, afraid to keep the field, retired into the woods, and the garrisons, sharing their terror, surrendered without venturing to stand a siege. By the end of January he had been driven back to the heights around Bednore. Experience had now proved that he committed a great blunder in selecting Bednore for a capital. Its woods had proved a trap rather than an asylum, and he commenced removing his family and treasure to Seringapatam. No longer dreaming of conquest, or even of a continuance of hostilities, he made private advances for negotiation, and procured terms which, though severe, were more favourable than his circumstances entitled him to expect. The leading conditions were, that he should restore all conquests made from Morari Row, abandon all claims on the Nabob and country of Savanoor, and pay thirty-two lacs to Madhoo Row, who agreed on receipt to retire.
During this disastrous campaign in the west, all Hyder’s acquisitions in the east were in a state of revolt. The flames of rebellion had spread over Sera, the two Balipoons, Ooscota, Bangalore, and Deonhully. By the exertions of Hyder’s brother-in-law, Meer Ali Reza, most of these flames were speedily quenched. The polygar of Little Balipoor was also starved out of his mountain fastness of Nundidroog, and obliged to enter into an equivocal capitulation, which ultimately consigned him to perpetual imprisonment in the fort of Coimbatoor. Further to the south-east, Fuzzul Oolla Khan exerted himself in restoring order and levying revenue. Hyder, even in the midst of reverses, had his ear ever open to any ambitious scheme, and on finding a favourable opening, readily turned his attention to the coast of Malabar. The expedition of Mukdoom Sahib, in 1757, had made him well acquainted with its southern districts, and Ali Raja, who held the fort of Cananore, as a dependency of the Rajah of Colastri or Chericul, had, while claiming his protection at Bednore, given him important information with regard to the more northerly portion. The subdivision of the country into little clanships, subject to incessant revolution, made him believe that the conquest would not be difficult; and therefore, after spending the greater part of 1765 in repairing the disasters of the late campaign, he made a descent into Canara, in the beginning of 1766, with the avowed intention of adding Malabar to his dominions.
Proceeding southward from Mangalore, under the guidance of Ali Raja, and with Ali Reza Khan, Chunda Sahib’s son, as his second in command, he crossed the Malabar frontier, and commenced operations by issuing the atrocious mandate to grant no quarter. The Nairs, or military class of the inhabitants, though guilty in their domestic arrangements of very brutal practices, have a proud, independent spirit, and are always ready to die in defence of their freedom. Their want of discipline placed them at a great disadvantage, but their courage compensated for other defects, and Hyder was soon obliged to confess that he had seldom, if ever, encountered so formidable an enemy. Their concealed fire from the woods could not be returned with effect, and whenever a favourable moment occurred, they were on the alert to rush out and inflict serious loss on moving columns. Hyder was able, notwithstanding, by his superior discipline, to advance gradually through the territory of the five northern chiefs, and approach Calicut. Maan Vicran Raj, the zamorin, convinced that resistance would prove unavailing, and being assured that early submission would procure for him special favour, made his appearance in Hyder’s camp on the 11th of April, 1766; and, after a most flattering reception, and a present of valuable jewels, was confirmed in his territories as Hyder’s tributary, on agreeing to pay a military contribution of four lacs of Venetian sequins. Mutual suspicions of insincerity soon arose, and as the monsoon was approaching, while the contribution was unpaid, Hyder believed that it was intended to delay payment till the season would make it impossible for him to enforce it. In this belief he placed both the zamorin and his ministers under restraint, and endeavoured to extort treasure from the latter by subjecting them to torture. The zamorin, to avoid similar indignity and cruelty, barricaded the doors of the house in which he was confined, and setting fire to it, perished in the flames, with many of his attendants; several of those who happened to be excluded rushing in to seek a voluntary death with their master.
Scenes like these, though they increased Hyder’s difficulties, did not awaken in him any feelings of humanity, and he continued to torture as often as he thought treasure could be extracted by it. At the same time he proceeded with the utmost coolness in securing and consolidating his conquest. The fort of Calicut was enlarged and improved, strong posts were stationed in different parts of the country, and the civil administration was intrusted to Madana, an experienced revenue officer. So widely had Hyder spread the terror of his name, that even after he had quitted the country, and was on the way to Coimbatoor, the Rajahs of Cochin and Palghaut sent messengers after him to make their submission and pay tribute. The subjugation of the country was, however, more apparent than real. Under no circumstances would the natives of Malabar have tamely acquiesced in the loss of freedom; and Madana, though a skillful financier, was little acquainted with the means of conciliating favour. His harsh and injudicious proceedings increased the discontent which generally prevailed, and within three months after Hyder’s arrival at Coimbatore the Nairs were in open rebellion. Taking advantage of the swollen rivers, which cut off all communication between the isolated posts or block-houses which had been established throughout the province, they attacked and destroyed them in detail. Hyder lost no time in retracing his steps, and the work of retaliation commenced. At first he hanged or beheaded all his prisoners; but on finding that their numbers continually increased, he conceived the idea of carrying them off and settling them in other parts of his dominions which the ravages of war had depopulated. In carrying out this scheme, the most obvious provisions which humanity dictated were neglected; and disease, famine, and mental misery made fearful ravages. Of 15,000 persons transported, not more than 200 are said to have survived.
When, by these cruel measures, Hyder had rid himself of those whom he believed to be most disaffected, he proclaimed an amnesty to all who should forthwith declare their submission. Many who had taken refuge in the woods were thus induced to return. On this appearance of restored tranquillity, Hyder again departed. As he was continuing his march, the propriety of securing a place of strength, which might serve as a central depôt, and keep open the communication between his new and his old conquests, occurred to him, and he gave orders for the erection of the fort of Palghaut, situated in the great depression of the Western Ghauts, and admirably adapted for the purpose which he had in view. In April, 1766, while Hyder was absent in Malabar, the pageant Rajah of Mysore died. It was deemed good policy to give him a successor; and accordingly orders were sent to place his son, Nunjeraj Wadeyar, a youth of eighteen, on the musnud. In the beginning of 1767 Hyder returned to Seringapatam. One of his first acts was to perform the mock ceremony of doing homage to the new rajah. How little was meant by it soon appeared; for on learning that the young man had expressed some impatience at his degraded position, the three lacs of pagodas allotted for his maintenance were withheld, his palace was even plundered of all its cash and valuables, and his household reduced to the lowest scale. While occupying himself with such niggardly cares, Hyder did not forget that business of greater moment demanded his immediate attention. A most formidable confederacy had been formed against him. Very recently Madhoo Row, single-handed, had compelled him to succumb. What could he hope for on learning that Madhoo Row, Nizam Ali, and the Company were leagued together for his destruction? Such was his position, and it was to prepare for what seemed to be the crisis of his fate, that he had hastened back to the capital. The details must be reserved for another chapter.