CHAPTER VII.

War with the Mahrattas—Capture of Gwalior—Siege of Bassein—Treaty of Salbye.

It proved no easy matter to force the Mahrattas to an encounter, which they continued anxious to avoid. Having placed his baggage under the protection of the hill-fort of Pawangurh, Scindia threw out a number of small parties of horse, to give alarm in case of danger, and prevent a surprise. Thus feeling secure, he allowed the British to encamp within six miles of him. The two armies had remained in sight of each other for a week, when, on the morning of the 3rd of April, General Goddard attempted a surprise. Taking the greater part of his troops, and heading them in person, he marched silently along, passed the out-parties of the Mahrattas and their grand guard of several thousand men, and was pushing on for the camp, which was still a mile in front, when the day dawned, and an alarm was given. The main body of the enemy hence stood ready mounted, and even advanced to charge, when a heavy fire from the advancing British obliged them to turn their backs. General Goddard was under the impression that he had gained a victory, and felt mortified when, after encamping, he perceived the enemy still keeping the same distance as before. On the 14th of April he was joined by the expected reinforcement from Madras, under Colonel Browne, and about a week after made another ineffectual attempt on Scindia’s camp, the Mahrattas merely waiting till he came within sufficient distance, and then retiring under a flight of rockets. The effects of this protracted desultory warfare was to make foraging extremely difficult, and General Goddard, shortly after one of his covering parties had been briskly attacked, moved to the Nerbudda, to place his troops in cantonments during the approaching rains.

The Bombay government made pressing application to General Goddard to seize Parneira, a hill fifteen miles north of Damaun, which had been fortified in the time of Sevajee. Before it could be attempted, it was found that their wishes had been anticipated. A Mahratta officer, of the name of Gunnesh Punt, who had been stationed in the Concan, set out on a marauding excursion, and after plundering the districts on the south of the Taptee known by the name of Uthawees Mahal, or Attaweesee, carried his devastations to the vicinity of Surat. On application from the authorities, Lieutenant Welsh, of the Bengal cavalry, was sent forward with the Candahar horse (the designation of a body of cavalry belonging to the Nabob of Oude), and a body of infantry, and not only succeeded in surprising the camp of Gunnesh Punt, but afterwards proceeded southward, and greatly distinguished himself by the capture of three forts in the district of Damaun, one of them this very Parneira, about which the government had been so urgent. At this time, also, the tranquillity of the districts in Gujarat, recently ceded to the Company by Futteh Sing, was insured during the approaching monsoon by the gallantry of a detachment of Bengal sepoys under Major Forbes, who came up with one of Scindia’s detachments near Sinnore, on the Nerbudda, and completely defeated it.

Mention has been made of a Bengal detachment which was preparing to follow Goddard’s overland route to Surat, when it was countermanded, and employed in a different direction. The nature of this employment must now be explained. The Rana of Gohud, the designation of a Jat zemindar, made application to the Bengal government for assistance against the Mahrattas. His territories consisted of a hilly tract, of which Gwalior was the capital; but so little was known of him at the time, that he is merely described as “a chief south of Agra.” Mr. Hastings thought that the application might be turned to account. In this view he was seconded both by Sir Eyre Coote and General Goddard, who strongly recommended a diversion, which might be effected by operating against the Mahrattas in Malwah, through the rana’s territories. Accordingly, on the 2d of December, 1779, a regular treaty with him was concluded, the Company engaging to furnish a force for the defence of his country, at a certain rate for each battalion of sepoys, and he engaging to furnish 10,000 horse, as soon as combined operations against the Mahrattas should be determined on. Of any new territories acquired he was to receive seven-sixteenths, and when peace should be made, he was not only to be included, but his actual possessions, as well as those seized by the Mahrattas, were to be guaranteed to him. Sir Eyre Coote, as has been said, was in favour of a diversion, but he wished it to be attempted on a large scale, and therefore condemned the measure as extremely injudicious, when it was resolved to employ only the detachment with which it had been intended to reinforce General Goddard.

This detachment, under Captain William Popham, consisted of 2400 men, formed into three equal battalions, a small body of cavalry, and a detail of European artillery, with a howitzer and a few field-pieces. Captain Popham crossed the Jumma in the beginning of February, 1780, and immediately attacked and routed a body of Mahrattas, who were plundering in the neighbourhood of Gohud. He then marched, at the request of the rana, against Lahar, a fort situated fifty miles west of Calpee. Though it proved much stronger than he had been led to expect, and a breach had to be made, he resolved to persevere, and having made some impression on the works, without seeing any prospect of effecting a practicable breach, in the ordinary sense of the term, gave orders for the assault, and, by the determined gallantry of the storming party, succeeded, though not without the heavy loss of 125 men. This success was so little expected by Sir Eyre Coote, who, knowing the want of battering cannon, anticipated nothing but disaster, that in consequence of his representations, another detachment of four regular battalions, with a battering train, was held in readiness to cross the Jumma under Major Jacob Carnac.

The capture of Lahar was only the prelude to a much more brilliant achievement. After returning from Lahar, Captain Popham encamped during the rains within a few miles of the celebrated fortress of Gwalior. This place, situated sixty-five miles south of Agra, had been wrested about a year before from the rana, and was in the possession of Scindia, who justly plumed himself upon his conquest, since it was regarded as all but impregnable. Its site is an isolated rock of ochreous sandstone, partially capped with basalt, about a mile and a half in length, by 300 yards in breadth, and at the north end, where loftiest, of the height of 340 feet. The lower part of the rock is sloping, but immediately above the slope the sandstone rises in a precipice, partly natural and partly scarped, so as to seem in some places to be not only perpendicular, but overhanging. Along the verge of the precipice rises a rampart, which, from being of the same height throughout, while the level of the base varies, has an irregular appearance. The entrance to the enclosure is near the north extremity of the east side, and consists of a steep road, succeeded by a huge staircase cut out of the rock, with a width so great, and an acclivity so gentle, that elephants easily ascend it. The outer side of the staircase is protected by a strong and lofty wall, and within it are seven successive gates. Should an enemy surmount all these obstacles, and get within the rampart, his work would only be half finished, as a citadel with six lofty round towers or bastions, connected by curtains of great height and thickness, would still remain to be taken. The town of Gwalior lies along the eastern base of the rock. Hopeless as the capture of such a place by surprise might have appeared to ordinary minds, Captain Popham resolved to attempt it. He had a good coadjutor in the rana, who was himself thoroughly acquainted with the interior, and kept spies within it who would act as guides. After every preparation had been made with the utmost secrecy, the night of the 3d of August was fixed on for the attempt. The command of the advance was given to Captain Bruce, and consisted of two companies of chosen sepoys, headed by four British lieutenants. Immediately behind the sepoys were twenty Europeans; two battalions of sepoys followed. When the attempt was made, the scarped rock was only sixteen feet high, and was easily mounted by scaling ladders. Beyond this a steep ascent of about forty yards led to the bottom of the second wall. This was thirty feet high, and was surmounted by the aid of the spies, who, having managed to ascend, made fast ladders of ropes. Each man, as soon as by this means he reached the top of the wall and got inside, squatted down. Only twenty of the sepoys with Captain Bruce had thus entered, when three of them so far forgot themselves as to shoot some of the garrison as they lay asleep. The alarm was immediately given, but the sepoys stood firm till their comrades mounted to their support. The garrison, intimidated, made a feeble resistance, and Gwalior was taken without the loss of a man.

The Bombay government had every reason to be satisfied with the results of the campaign. Difficulties, however, of a most formidable nature had arisen. They were totally without funds, and knew not from what source they were to be obtained. A most ruinous war had begun to rage in the Carnatic, and the money which the Bengal government had been expected to send to Bombay was more than required to supply the still more urgent necessities of Madras. The expedients to which the Bombay government were obliged to resort evince the extent of their distress. A quantity of copper lying in the Company’s warehouses, and valued at ten or twelve lacs, was sold to the highest bidder; loans on their own credit were proposed for negotiation in Bengal; and a plan was formed for seizing the enemy’s resources, by anticipating them in the collection of the revenue.

It had been determined that General Goddard should open the ensuing campaign with the siege of Bassein. With this view the European part of the army was conveyed to Sulsette by sea, the battering train was prepared at Bombay, and the sepoys were to march by land. Meanwhile the want of funds rendered it necessary to employ the whole disposable force at Bombay in work of a different description. Early in October, five battalions were placed under Colonel Hartley, with instructions to cover as much of the Concan as possible, so as to enable agents from Bombay to collect part of the enemy’s revenues, and secure the rice harvest, which is gathered at the close of the rains. Before he could accomplish this task, his services were required for the purpose of relieving Captain Abington. This officer, on the very night Gwalior was taken, had made a similar attempt on the strong fort of Mullangurb, or Bhow Mullan, situated eastward of the island of Bombay. He succeeded in gaining possession of the lower fort, but the garrison escaped to the upper fort, where they were able to set him at defiance. While he remained in the lower fort, a body of the enemy, to the number of more than 3000, cut off his communication with Kalian or Calliane. He was thus completely surrounded, till Colonel Hartley marched to his relief, and extricated him without loss. The enemy, however, having been reinforced, took up a position on the south-east side of the fort, and began to lay waste the country. Colonel Hartley, who had marched back to Kalian, determined to return and attack them. The enemy, apprised of his advance, came forward to meet him, and for this purpose left their camp standing as if it were perfectly secure. As he approached they retired, apparently meaning to lead him into an ambuscade. Captain Jameson, who was marching with the 8th battalion to assist in the attack, seeing them thus retiring, did not hesitate, unaided as he was, to encounter the whole body, and not only routed them, but gained possession of their camp. This exploit put the troops in high spirits, and Colonel Hartley, taking advantage of their alacrity, drove the enemy entirely from the Concan, and by taking up a position near the Bhore Ghaut, procured a short respite, during which the Bombay government were able to carry out the plan of replenishing their treasury at the expense of the enemy, by anticipating them in the collection of the revenue.

General Goddard arrived before Bassein on the 13th of November, 1780. This place, twenty-eight miles north of Bombay, stands on an island of the same name, separated by a narrow channel from the mainland of the Northern Concan, and was so strong, that it was deemed necessary to attack it by regular approaches. These were practicable only on the north side, where several batteries, principally twenty-four pounders, were erected at the distances of 900, 800, and 500 yards. One of twenty mortars at the last distance did great execution. The division of Colonel Hartley endeavoured to prevent the Mahrattas from attempting to raise the siege. This they were evidently bent on doing, and large numbers of troops, as fast as they could be assembled, were hurried down into the Concan. General Goddard’s precautions having effectually frustrated all endeavours to succour Bassein, the Mahrattas turned their whole force against the covering army. It amounted to upwards of 20,000 horse and foot, led by an able officer of the name of Ramchunder Gunnesh; whereas the force under Colonel Hartley, diminished by casualties and sickness, mustered little more than 2000 effective men. On the 10th of December, while he was occupying a position at Doogaur, nine miles east of Bassein, they attacked him both in front and rear, but notwithstanding the inequality were steadily repulsed. On the following day the attack was renewed with a similar result, though the Mahratta guns did considerable execution. Colonel Hartley’s flanks were secured by two eminences, and Ramchunder Gunnesh perceiving that he could not otherwise force the position, was determined at whatever cost to make himself master of one of them. Accordingly, on the morning of the 12th, while the other Mahratta leaders were ordered to advance in front and rear, Ramchunder in person, at the head of a body of Arab foot, accompanied by 1000 regular infantry under Signior Noronha, a Portuguese officer in the peishwa’s service, approached by a circuitous route, for the purpose of storming the height. Colonel Hartley, having some apprehension of this attack, had prepared for it, by throwing up a small breastwork, and planting a gun on each of the eminences. A thick fog, which had greatly favoured the approach of the assailants, suddenly cleared away when they were just close upon the picket, and the parties stood in full view of each other, face to face. After a momentary pause the work of destruction began. Guns brought from the right of the British line made fearful havoc; but the Mahrattas persevered, and the issue was still doubtful, when their fire suddenly slackened, and a party were seen bearing off a dead body to the rear. It was Ramchunder Gunnesh. The loss of their leader produced the usual effect, and the Mahrattas retired precipitately with heavy loss. General Goddard had meanwhile been successfully prosecuting the siege, and on the 11th of December, the day immediately preceding that of the above victory, Bassein surrendered. It is not unworthy of notice, that at this time the services of Colonel Hartley were lost to the Company. In consequence of the order suspending his rank and pay as colonel, till all his seniors should have again stepped over, he sailed for England to lay his case before the directors. Their fiat was irrevocable; but they showed their sense of his services by recommending him to his majesty, who made him lieutenant-colonel of the 73rd regiment. At a later period he acquired new distinction in India, as Major-general Hartley.

The loss of Bassein, and the defeat of the army, though severely felt by Nana Furnavese, were not destined to prove either so advantageous to the British, or so injurious to the Mahrattas, as might have been anticipated. Immediately after the fall of Bassein, General Goddard, knowing how Colonel Hartley was beset, hastened off to his assistance. On the very day when he joined him, letters dated the 9th of October were received from Bengal, intimating that the governor-general and council intended to make peace with the Mahrattas, and ordering that hostilities should cease, as soon as the peishwa should intimate on his part the same order that had been given. Meanwhile, till the intimation was actually received, the war should be vigorously prosecuted. This extraordinary change in the Bengal councils had been produced by a most formidable confederacy, which aimed at nothing less than the total destruction of British interests in India. In order to detach the Mahrattas from this confederacy, peace with them seemed desirable at almost any price; and in consequence of negotiations which had been entered into with this view, the above letters had been despatched from Bengal. The details will be given in the next chapter, and, in the meantime, not to break the thread of the narrative, the account of the operations in the west of India will be continued.

General Goddard, after spending some time in the capture of Arnaul, a fort on a small island ten miles north of Bassein, thought that his troops might be more usefully employed in making an advanced movement, which by threatening Poonah, might facilitate the negotiations for peace. In pursuance of this “half measure of threatening, without being prepared to carry his threat into execution,” which Duff calls “his first error,” he proceeded towards the mountain passes, in the end of January, 1781. The Bhore Ghaut though guarded by the enemy was easily forced, and the troops which forced it encamped at Kundalla, on the spot which Captain Stewart had occupied three years before, the head-quarters still remaining at the village of Campoly at the bottom of the Ghauts. The whole effective army mustered, exclusive of European officers, 6152 men, of whom 640 were Europeans, and 5512 natives. Nana Furnavese, though under no alarm, thought it good policy to pretend it, and tried to amuse General Goddard with a show of negotiation, while he was straining every nerve to increase the army, and render the surrounding country a desert.

Nana having sent the peishwa, now in his seventh year, to Poorundhur, advanced with the main body of the army, commanded by Hurry Punt Phurkay and Tookajee Holkar, towards the Ghauts, while Pureshram Bhow Putwardhan descended into the Concan to harass detachments and obstruct the communication with Bombay. The movement towards the Ghauts having produced none of the political results anticipated, the negotiation was broken off, and it was resolved that the army should return for cantonment during the rains to Bombay and Kalian. This was resolved; but it was a resolution to which it had already become impossible to give effect, without sacrificing a great part of the stores and equipments. Pureshram Bhow had managed so dexterously, that no detachment or convoy could move without risk of being overpowered. In the beginning of April, General Goddard had sent down to Panwell three battalions of sepoys, ten guns, and the whole of the cavalry to escort a convoy of grain and stores. On the road to Panwell the escort was attacked by Pureshram Bhow, who succeeded in carrying off a considerable number of the cattle. The escort was strong enough to have brought on the convoy in spite of Pureshram Bhow, had he not been strengthened by the arrival of a large force under Holkar. Colonel Browne who commanded the escort, on being made aware of the large army in front of him, could not venture to proceed without a reinforcement. General Goddard was of the same opinion, but unfortunately the greater part of his cattle had gone down in order to assist in bringing up the supplies. The consequence was, that he could not march with his whole army without the sacrifice of a large amount of public property, or with a part without the certainty of being cut off. In this dilemma, all he could do was to forward a message to Bombay, entreating that every disposable man of the garrison should be sent to reinforce the escort. This was immediately done, and Colonel Browne, though exposed during a march of three days to the attack of upwards of 25,000 horse, besides bodies of rocket-men and infantry, succeeded in bringing in his convoy in safety.

On the junction of the detachment on the 15th of April, General Goddard prepared for his retreat. On the 19th, he sent down his guns and baggage to the bottom of the Ghauts. The Mahrattas, while he thought himself unobserved, were watching all his movements. Tookajee Holkar with 15,000, and Pureshram Bhow with 12,000, were below the Ghauts, while Hurry Punt Phurkay was above them with 25,000 horse, 4000 foot, and several field-pieces. The moment General Goddard began his march on the 20th, Hurry Punt’s force poured down into the Concan, and captured a considerable quantity of baggage and ammunition. The whole of the retreat was a succession of attacks and repulses, and Panwell was reached on the 23rd, with a loss of 460 in killed and wounded. After despatching a reinforcement to Tellicherry, which was in imminent danger, and embarking the Madras troops for their own presidency, where they were imperatively required, the remainder of the army was marched to Kallian, and there cantoned for the monsoon.

During this unfortunate campaign, the Bengal government had attempted a powerful diversion, by carrying the war into the heart of Scindia’s territories. A detachment had been prepared under Major Camac, to assist Captain Popham, when it was generally believed that he was on the eve of a reverse. His subsequent brilliant achievements having rendered this reinforcement unnecessary, Major, now Colonel Camac, employed it in invading Malwah. After reducing Sippree he advanced on Seronge, which he reached on the 16th of February. Here he allowed himself to be surrounded by Scindia in person, and reduced to great distress for provisions and forage. In this extremity, he sent off pressing letters for a reinforcement to Colonel Morgan, commanding in Oude, who detached for this purpose Colonel Muir with three battalions of infantry, two regiments of cavalry, and a company of artillery. Meantime, Colonel Camac had no respite from Scindia, and after he had been cannonaded in his camp for seven days, he resolved to attempt a retreat at all hazards. He commenced it at midnight on the 7th of March, and at daybreak, on the discovery of his departure, was pursued and harassed for two successive days till he arrived at Mahantpoor. Here, having forced a supply of provisions, he faced about, and offered battle to his pursuers. Scindia, though always on the alert, kept at the cautious distance of five or six miles. This disposition was continued several nights, till Scindia, convinced that the British commander had no enterprise, became less careful. This was the very result at which Colonel Camac had been aiming, on the suggestion, it is said, of Major Bruce, who led the escalade at Gwalior. On the night of the 24th, when the wily Mahratta suspected no danger, he entered his camp, routed his army, and captured his principal standard, thirteen guns, three elephants, twenty-one camels, and many horses. Nothing could have happened more importantly for raising the fame of the British, and disposing Scindia to listen to overtures of peace. Colonel Muir joined Colonel Camac on the 4th of April, and as senior officer assumed the command. Though their united force kept the field for some time, and afterwards encamped during the rains within Scindia’s territory, nothing further was effected. Attempts to gain over some of the Rajpoot chiefs failed; and even the Rana of Gohud, after Gwalior was made over to him, showed an inclination to make separate terms for himself with Scindia.

The government of Bengal had for some time been engaged in a series of intricate negotiations with Moodajee Bhonsla, who, it was thought, might act as a mediator, and be the means of establishing a general pacification with the Mahrattas. Little progress, however, had been made, when intelligence arrived that a separate agreement with Scindia had been concluded by Colonel Muir. The overture had been made by Scindia, who after his defeat by Colonel Camac, became convinced that he had nothing to gain, and everything to lose, by a contest carried on in the heart of his dominions. It might result in his being driven a fugitive across the Nerbudda, while in the meantime, his rivals at Poonah had the satisfaction of seeing him wasting his internal resources. Influenced by these considerations his demands were moderate. Colonel Muir was to recross the Jumna, and Scindia was to return to Oojin. His territories west of the Jumna were to be restored, with the exception of Gwalior, in the possession of which the Rana of Gohud was not to be molested so long as he conducted himself properly. In return, he would either negotiate a treaty between the British and the Mahrattas generally, or at all events remain neutral. This opening of a new channel of pacification was particularly pleasing to Mr. Hastings, who lost no time in deputing Mr. David Anderson to the camp of Scindia, with full powers to conclude a treaty with the Mahrattas. Nana Furnavese and Hurry Punt would rather have negotiated without the interference of Scindia, but their feelings in this respect could not be openly manifested; and on the 17th of May, 1782, a treaty was concluded at Salbye, thirty-two miles south-east of Gwalior, by Mr. Anderson on the part of the Company, and by Mahadajee Scindia on the part of the peishwa, Nana Furnavese, and all the chiefs of the Mahratta nation. By a singular arrangement, Scindia, who acted as the plenipotentiary of the peishwa, and was, strictly speaking, one of his subjects, became the mutual guarantee of both parties for the performance of the conditions.

By the treaty of Salbye, which consisted of seventeen articles, the Company resigned everything for which they had engaged in a long, bloody, and expensive war, and returned to the same state of possession as at the date of the treaty of Poorundhur. Salsette, and a few small islands in the vicinity of Bombay, were confirmed to them, but they lost Bassein, on which their hearts had been so long set, and all the districts and revenues which had been ceded to them in the Guicowar territory, and other parts of Gujarat. Ahmedabad, too, which had been guaranteed to Futteh Sing, returned to the peishwa, and all the territory acquired west of the Jumna was restored to Scindia. In this last cession Gwalior was not excepted, because the Rana of Gohud, by attempting to make separate terms for himself, was held to have forfeited all title to the privileges of an ally. Ragobah, entirely abandoned by the Company, was to receive 25,000 rupees a month from the peishwa, and have the choice of his place of residence. The only articles which might be considered favourable to the Company, were a very vague agreement, that Hyder should restore all his recent conquests from them and the Nabob of Arcot, and an exclusion of all European establishments, except their own and those of the Portuguese, from the Mahratta dominions. Though no part of the treaty, Baroach and its valuable district were made over to Scindia, in testimony of the service rendered by him to the Bombay army at Wurgaom, and of his humane treatment and release of the two English gentlemen left as hostages on that occasion. These were the ostensible grounds of this extraordinary gift, though different grounds were taken by the governor-general and council in justifying it to the directors. It would have the important effect, they said, of attaching so distinguished a chief to the Company’s interests, while the expediency of retaining what was given was doubtful, inasmuch as the expenses were nearly equal to the revenues, disputes about boundaries might arise, and the price of cotton, the staple of the district, had risen in Bombay after the Company obtained possession of it. This last fact, of which more charitable explanations might have been given, was characterized by the governor-general and council as “the natural consequence of a commercial place (being) possessed by men who are dealers in the specific article of trade which it produces.”

While the Bengal government endeavoured to show that the terms obtained were the best that could have been expected in the circumstances, the Bombay government did not hesitate to express a different opinion, and to insinuate that if the negotiation had been left to them, it would have terminated more advantageously. In a letter to the directors, the nature and probable results of the treaty are thus summed up:—“The whole of your possessions to the westward are now reduced to the castle and dependent revenues of Surat, as held since the first acquisition of them, in 1759. A powerful and dangerous neighbour is now placed close to this remaining possession, which it will be necessary to guard with a watchful eye; but it would be equally unavailing and mortifying to expatiate on this subject, or the value of the countries you have lost by this treaty. We shall rejoice should we have future occasion to enumerate the benefits resulting from it. This presidency must, from henceforward, require from the Bengal treasury a large and annual supply of money, for the indispensable occasions of the Company’s concerns under our management.”

Great as were the advantages which the Mahrattas gained by the treaty, it suited the crafty and tortuous policy of Nana Furnavese to seem not perfectly satisfied with it. At Calcutta, it was ratified on the 6th of June, within three weeks of the day on which it was signed; at Poonah it was not ratified till six months had elapsed, nor were the ratifications finally exchanged till the 24th of February, 1783. The delay was partly owing to jealousy of Scindia, who, by acting as guarantee for both parties, had virtually declared himself independent, and partly to a belief that terms still more advantageous might be obtained, by working alternately on the fears of the Company and of Hyder. From the one, Nana Furnavese wished to obtain Salsette, and from the other, his acquisitions of Mahratta territory south of the Kistna. To the Company he represented himself as the steadfast ally of Hyder, while to Hyder he spoke only of his intended ratification of the treaty with the Company, thus playing them off against each other, in the hope of receiving tempting offers from both. It is impossible to say how long he would have continued this game, had not Hyder’s death obliged him to decide in favour of the treaty.

CHAPTER VIII.

War with France—Capture of Pondicherry—Disputes with Nizam Ali and Basalut Jung—War with Hyder Ali—Detachment under Colonel Baillie destroyed—Sir Eyre Coote in command of the Madras army—Lord Macartney Governor of Madras—Defeat of Hyder Ali—Military and naval operations—Death of Hyder Ali—Death of Sir Eyre Coote—Subsequent progress of the war—Peace with France—Peace with Tippoo.

On the 18th of March, 1778, the war with France, which had become inevitable, in consequence of the part she had taken in the contest between the American colonies and the mother country, was formally declared. As soon as intelligence of the event was received in India, the minor French settlements were attacked and proved an easy conquest. Pondicherry threatened a more determined resistance, and General Sir Hector Monroe, commander of the Madras army, took post on a height called the Red Hills, a league from the town in August.

About the same time Sir Edward Vernon arrived off the coast with a British squadron consisting of three ships, carrying respectively sixty, twenty-eight, and twenty guns, a sloop of war, and an Indiaman. A French squadron under M. Tronjolly was lying in the roads. It consisted of three ships, carrying respectively sixty-four, thirty-six, and thirty-two guns, and two Indiamen. Having thus no reason to decline an encounter, it immediately sailed out, prepared for action. The battle was fought on the 10th of August, and was gained by the British, who had, however, suffered so much in their rigging that they were unable to prevent their fleeing enemy from escaping back to Pondicherry. On the 21st, M. Tronjolly again sailed out as if once more to try the fortune of war, and Sir Edward Vernon, to give him full opportunity, cast anchor in the roads inside of him. This was just what the French admiral wanted. He had no intention of fighting, and when morning dawned was nowhere to be seen. He had finally disappeared from the coast.

Pondicherry made a gallant defence. M. Bellecombe the governor was a man of ability and courage, and the garrison had the advantages of fortifications, which, though hastily erected in violation of treaty, were too strong to be forced without regular approaches. The besiegers did not obtain possession of the bound hedge till the 21st of August, nor break ground till the 6th of September. Their batteries, mounting twenty-eight guns and twenty-seven mortars, opened on the 18th, and the approaches were vigorously carried forward in the face of numerous obstacles, partly interposed by the garrison and partly caused by the rain, which fell in torrents. About the middle of October a practicable breach had been effected, and everything was ready for the assault, when M. Bellecombe, convinced that further resistance was useless, offered to capitulate. Favourable terms were given him, and the garrison marched out with all the honours of war.

Though all the settlements of the French in India, with the exception of Mahé, were thus once more annihilated, their power of mischief was by no means destroyed. When unable to carry on hostilities in their own name as principals, they could still intrigue. The effect of their embassy to Poonah, in exciting fears and jealousies which issued in the Mahratta war, has already been seen; the manner in which they took advantage of the misunderstandings which arose in other quarters must now be traced.

The revenue obtained from the Northern Circars having fallen far short of what had been anticipated, the directors ascribed the deficiency to the mode of management pursued, and proposed to assimilate it to that which had been adopted in Bengal. With this view they directed the Madras presidency to appoint a committee of circuit, who were personally to visit the various districts, and report on their condition generally, and more especially on everything relating to finance. Considerable progress had been made by the committee, when Sir Thomas Rumbold, in February, 1778, succeeded to the president’s chair, in consequence of the vacancy caused by the melancholy death of Lord Pigot. Pending the inquiry into the disgraceful proceedings connected with that event, a temporary government had been established, and as the number of the members of council was thereby diminished, the absence of those forming the committee of circuit was inconvenient. On this ground Sir Thomas Rumbold suggested that the information which the committee were collecting might be obtained as effectually, and at much less expense, by bringing the zemindars to Madras, and there arranging with them as to the amounts of their rents. On this suggestion the committee of circuit was suspended, and the zemindars were ordered to repair to the seat of government. The difficulty of carrying this order into effect appears to have been disregarded or overlooked. The length of the journey and the expense of it made it impracticable to many of the zemindars, while almost all the others had a natural dread that the order was intended for a worse purpose than appears on the face of it. The council, however, determined to persist in their resolution, and issued their summons to thirty-one zemindars. Thirteen did not attend; the other eighteen, however much they might grudge the expense, had little reason otherwise to complain, as the arrangements made with them were moderate and judicious, though the governor did not escape suspicion of corruption from having made the arrangements without consulting or afterwards fully explaining them to his council.

Of the absentee zemindars, by far the most important was the Rajah of Vizianagram, in the district of Vizagapatam. He was an indolent and voluptuous man, and had allowed the management of the zemindary to be in a great measure monopolized by his brother Sitaram and his dewan Jagannath, who was connected with him by marriage. Jagannath was his favourite, and had his full confidence: Sitaram, on the contrary, he regarded with distrust, and had even complained of as plotting his ruin. On Sitaram, notwithstanding, the Madras presidency chose to bestow all their favour. He had at once obeyed the summons to repair to Madras, and been appointed renter of one of the principal divisions of the zemindary. By a still greater stretch of power the president displaced Jagannath, and made Sitaram dewan. The rajah earnestly remonstrated against this appointment, and gained nothing but a rebuke and a menace, the council telling him that if he continued obstinately to withstand their “pressing instances” made “conjunctively as well as separately,” they would be “under the necessity of taking such resolutions as will in all probability be extremely painful to you, but which being once passed can never be recalled.” The rajah replied, “I shall consider myself henceforward as divested of all power and consequence whatever, seeing that the board urge me to do that which is contrary to my fixed determination, and that the result of it is to be the losing of my country.” The grounds of future disaffection were thus deeply laid, without any justifiable cause, in an important part of the Company’s territory.

In another quarter the Madras presidency pursued the same reckless course to a far more dangerous extent. By agreement with Nizam Ali in 1768, when the other Northern Circars were finally confirmed to the Company, Guntoor was specially reserved as the jaghire of his brother Basalut Jung, who was to possess for life or during good behaviour. At his death the Company were to obtain possession. Towards the end of 1774, the Madras council learned that Basalut Jung had taken a body of French troops into his service, and was supplying himself with reinforcements and stores by the port of Mootapilly. On communication with the Bengal government, the council were instructed to insist on the immediate dismissal of the troops. With this view, application was made for the co-operation of Nizam Ali, to compel his brother either to dismiss the French from his service, or to resign his life interest in the Circar of Guntoor, for a rent to be fixed at a valuation and paid by the Company. Nizam Ali returned a friendly answer, but though repeated representations were made, no decisive steps were taken, and the French remained as before. In July, 1778, when an immediate rupture with France was anticipated, the council again took up the subject, but instead of again soliciting the interference of Nizam Ali, applied to Mahomed Ali, and through him entered into a direct negotiation with Basalut Jung. At this time his government of Adoni was threatened by Hyder, and as he considered it the more valuable of the two, he offered to cede Guntoor for a fixed rent, and dismiss the French, on condition that the Company would supply troops for his defence. The Madras presidency closed at once with these proposals, and framed them into a treaty, which was concluded with Basalut Jung on the 27th of January, 1779. Shortly after, on obtaining possession of Guntoor, they took the extraordinary step of letting it on a lease of ten years to the Nabob of Arcot, and on the 19th of April, despatched a force under General Harpur for the protection of Basalut Jung in Adoni.

The dismissal of the French by Basalut Jung produced a contingency on which the Madras council had not calculated. Nizam Ali immediately received them into his own service. Here they were evidently capable of being more mischievous than before, and on this account, as well as to explain some of their recent proceedings, and perhaps gain some other advantages, it was deemed expedient to send a resident to the court of Hyderabad. Here Mr. Holland, who had been appointed, arrived on the 6th of April. No sooner had he begun to explain the transaction respecting Guntoor than a change in Nizam Ali’s features was visible. The English, he said, had no right to interfere in the concerns of his family; they had no right to negotiate with Basalut Jung, and they had no right to send troops to Adoni, a dependency on his soubah. In all these respects they were violating the treaty; if they persisted, he would have no alternative but to oppose them. On the 6th of June, probably before they knew how deeply they had offended the Nizam, they instructed Mr. Holland to make a proposal by which he was still more exasperated. The Northern Circars had been granted to the Company by the Mogul absolutely, but as was mentioned in an earlier part of the work, they pusillanimously agreed to hold it of Nizam Ali, and pay him five lacs of peshcush or tribute. On the 5th of June, Sir Thomas Rumbold lodged a minute, in which, after advertising to this fact, and saying truly that this pusillanimous agreement “was a sacrifice of the Company’s rights,” he came to the extraordinary conclusion that the Company would be justified in treating it as so much waste paper. “The time,” he said, “seems favourable to throw off so heavy a burden,” and therefore a strenuous effort must be made either to get rid of the peshcush altogether, or to reduce it in amount. Much management would be necessary in opening the business to the Nizam, and therefore Mr. Holland “must by turns soothe and work upon his apprehensions as occasion may require.” This unprincipled proposal of the president appears to have been at once acquiesced in by his colleagues, and Mr. Holland obeyed his instructions. It was in vain. Nizam Ali knew too much of the dangers which were at this time thickening around the Company to be either soothed or frightened, and he distinctly declared that if the tribute were withheld, he would forthwith prepare for war. He even hinted that he might possibly march against Colonel Harpur, who was setting out for Adoni.

Mr. Holland had been instructed to communicate with the Bengal government, and as the best means of acquainting them with the nature of the transactions intrusted to him, forwarded copies of all the letters which had passed between him and the Madras presidency. Enough was at once seen to justify the severest condemnation, and the supreme council lost no time in interposing their authority. On the 1st of November, 1779, they addressed a letter to the Nizam, lamenting that “the negotiation had been imperceptibly carried beyond the limits originally prescribed to it;” that their intentions were entirely pacific; that there was no intention to depart from the treaty subsisting “between him and the Company;” and that to prevent further misunderstandings, Mr. Holland had been instructed in the meantime to suspend his commission. Nizam Ali expressed much satisfaction with the friendly assurances contained in this letter. The Madras council, on the contrary, were furious. Sir Thomas Rumbold in particular inveighed in bitter and sarcastic terms on the interference of the Bengal government, questioned their right to control a negotiation any further than by the exercise of a veto at its conclusion, and criticized their conduct in the Mahratta war, which, if Nizam Ali was alienated, was, he alleged, the true cause of the alienation. A quarrel with the Bengal government was comparatively a small matter, and the president might have indulged his ill humour at their expense without incurring any severe penalty. All his measures, however, had been taken as if in defiance of the known wishes of the directors, and he had besides laid himself open to charges of personal corruption. The penalty inflicted, not only on him, but also on those of his colleagues who had been forward in countenancing him, will shortly appear.

Though Nizam Ali professed to be satisfied with the explanations given by the Bengal government, he was at this very time engaged in a confederacy, which he is said to have originally suggested, and which aimed at nothing less than the total expulsion of the British from India. The parties were the Mahrattas, Nizam Ali, and Hyder. The Mahrattas of Poonah were to continue operating on the side of Bombay, while those of Berar, Malwah, or Central India, and the more northern parts of Hindoostan, were to make irruptions into Bengal and Behar; Nizam Ali was to invade the Northern Circars, and Hyder was to direct his whole force against Madras. The detail of the negotiations connected with this confederacy was adjusted at Seringapatam, and Hyder immediately commenced preparations for the performance of his share of the compact. The zeal which he thus manifested was dictated partly by policy and partly by revenge—by policy, because, in return for the part which he had promised to take in the confederacy, the Mahrattas had agreed to confirm him in all the territories he had wrested from them, between the Toombudra and the Kistna, to discharge him of all past demands, and to accept of eleven lacs of rupees as the future annual tribute for all his possessions; and by revenge, for all the wrongs and insults which he conceived that the English, at the instigation of his inveterate enemy Mahomed Ali, had heaped upon him since the termination of the former war by the peace of 1769.

It is not to be denied that Hyder had just grounds of complaint. By one of the articles of the above treaty of peace, it was stipulated that in case of attack the contracting parties would assist each other with troops, and yet the very year after, when, in consequence of an invasion by the Mahrattas, he claimed the benefit of this article, the Madras presidency had recourse to a paltry evasion, and refused assistance on the ground that he had brought the attack on himself by resisting the demand of chout, and ought therefore to be considered as the aggressor. Again, in 1771, when the Mahrattas proposed to Hyder to unite for the conquest of the lower countries to the eastward, he communicated the proposal to the Madras government, candidly telling them that he preferred their alliance to that of the Mahrattas, who, he knew, were aiming at his destruction, and that as the condition of prompt and effectual aid he would immediately pay them twenty lacs of rupees, and cede to them the valuable districts of Barahmahal, Salem, and Ahtoor. As an additional inducement to accept of these terms, he warned them that if they were rejected he would be obliged to throw himself upon the French for support. Subsequently he more than once renewed his proposals, and Mahomed Ali, who had hitherto been the great obstacle to their acceptance, professing to see things in a new light, actually sent ambassadors to Seringapatam. Ere long, however, his tortuous policy was resumed, and Hyder, too clear-sighted to be imposed upon, dismissed the ambassadors in May, 1775, by a letter intimating in polite terms, that as the climate appeared to be unfavourable to their health, he could not subject them to further inconvenience. In his personal audience of leave he was more explicit, and thus addressed them:—“You are respectable men, and have acted in conformity to your orders; for seventeen months you have practised evasion, till you are ashamed of the part you have to perform; I will relieve you from the embarrassment, for I will no longer be trifled with; your master is desirous of shortening the thread of amity, but the time is not distant when he will be glad to renew the advances which I have condescended to press upon him in

vain; I have sincerely wished for an alliance in that quarter, but I must do without it, and you must return and say so.”

Immediately after dismissing Mahomed Ali’s ambassadors, Hyder opened a communication with the French, and was received by M. Bellecombe, the governor of Pondicherry, with open arms. Military stores of every description were furnished to him through the French port of Mahé on the Malabar coast, and plans of future co-operation were concerted. Even after this new political connection was formed, Hyder found it convenient not to break finally with the Company, and continued to keep an ambassador or political agent at Madras. This, however, was mainly for the purpose of intelligence. All his sympathies were now with the French, and there cannot be a doubt that if he had not been fully occupied in making the conquest of the countries between the Toombudra and the Kistna, he would not have allowed Pondicherry to fall without an effort to save it. At the same time, as he had no personal interest in the place, there was no immediate call upon him to interfere. It was different with Mahé. Through it, as already explained, his supplies of European troops were received; and therefore, when the Madras government intimated to him that they were about to attempt the reduction of Mahé, he replied that the various settlements, Dutch, French, and English, on the Malabar coast, being situated within his territory, were equally entitled to his protection, and could not be permitted to wage hostilities with each other. Not satisfied with this answer, he instructed his agent to acquaint the governor of Madras in explicit terms, that he would not only defend Mahé if attacked, but retaliate by an incursion into the province of Arcot. Previous to this threat, Colonel Braithwaite had sailed from Madras in command of an expedition against Mahé, and arrived on the Malabar coast. There was some talk of countermanding it, but it was allowed to proceed, and Mahé was captured in the month of March, 1779, though Hyder’s colours were hoisted along with those of the French, to indicate his protection, and his troops assisted in its defence. Hyder meanwhile refrained from executing his threat, but lest it should be supposed that he had abandoned the thought of it, he took occasion, in a letter written in the following month, virtually to repeat it, by assuring the governor that, out of respect to the King of England and the gentlemen of the council of Madras, he had as yet taken no step to retaliate. This hint was so significant, that the governor determined if possible to ascertain his actual designs. The means he employed for this purpose were singular.

The Rev. Mr. Swartz, a Dane, whom Heber justly calls “one of the most active and fearless, as he was one of the most successful missionaries who have appeared since the days of the apostles,” was quietly pursuing his labours in Tanjore, when he received a letter from Sir Hector Monro, with whom he was well acquainted, to come up instantly to Madras, because the governor, Sir Thomas Rumbold, had something of importance to communicate to him. He immediately set out, and learned to his astonishment that he was desired to make a journey to Seringapatam. His own account of the interview is worth quoting:—“Sir Thomas addressed me nearly as follows—It seems that Hyder Ali Khan meditates upon war; he has in some letters expressed his displeasure, and even speaks in a menacing tone. We wish to discover his sentiments in this weighty affair with certainty, and think you are the fittest person for the purpose. You’ll oblige us if you will make a journey thither, sound Hyder Ali, and assure him that we harbour peaceable thoughts. The reason why we have pitched upon you is because you understand Hindoostance, consequently need no translator in your conferences. We are convinced that you’ll act disinterestedly, and won’t allow any one to bribe you. In particular, you can travel privately through the country, without external pomp and parade, and thus the whole journey will remain a secret (which is of great importance to us) until you shall speak with Hyder Naick himself. You will have nothing else to do than to refer Hyder to his own letters, and to answer some dubious circumstances; and if you perceive him to be peaceably disposed, inform him that some principal members of council will come to him for to settle the business finally. As the intention of the journey is good and Christian, namely, to prevent the effusion of human blood, and to preserve this country in peace, this commission militates not against, but highly becomes your sacred office; and therefore we hope you will accept it.”

Swartz after short deliberation undertook the commission, influenced, he says, by three reasons:—“1st, Because the mission to Hyder was not attended by any political intrigues; 2d, Because this would enable me to announce the gospel of God my Saviour in many parts where it had never been known before; and 3d, As the honourable Company and the government had shown me repeated kindness, I conceived that by this journey I might give them some marks of my gratitude.” Having despatched a letter to Hyder, he started on his journey, and on the 6th of July, 1779, reached Caroor, the frontier fort of Mysore, forty miles west of Trichinopoly. Here he was detained a month waiting for Hyder’s answer. On the 6th of August he resumed his journey, and on the 25th he arrived at Seringapatam. His first interview with Hyder is thus described:—“When I came to Hyder he desired me to sit down alongside of him. The floor was covered with the most exquisite tapestry. He received me very politely, listened friendly and with seeming pleasure to all I had to say; he spoke very openly and without reserve, and said that the Europeans had broken their solemn promises and engagements, but that nevertheless he was willing to live in peace with them, provided . . . . (There is no means of filling up this unfortunate blank). At last he directed a letter to be wrote, had it read unto me, and said, What I have spoken with you I have shortly mentioned in the letter. You will explain the whole more at length.” During his stay Swartz found ample scope for missionary labour, particularly among a body of European troops, partly French, partly German, and some Malabar Christians. “Every Sunday,” he says, “I performed divine service in German and Malabar, without asking anybody’s leave, but I did it, being bound in conscience to do my duty. We sang, preached, prayed, and nobody presumed to hinder us.” Elsewhere he says:—“The most intimate friends dare not speak their sentiments freely; Hyder has his spies everywhere. But I knew that I might speak of religion, night and day, without giving him the least offence.”

Swartz had many interviews, for he says, “I sat often with Hyder in a hall that is open on the garden side,” but there is no account of any of them, except the last, when he had his audience of leave. On that occasion, Swartz thus explained to him the motives of his journey:—“You may perhaps wonder what could have induced me, a priest, who has nothing to do with political concerns, to come to you, and that on an errand which does not properly belong to my sacerdotal functions. But as I was plainly told that the sole object of my journey was the preservation and confirmation of peace; and having witnessed, more than once, the misery and horrors attending on war, I thought within my own mind, how happy I should deem myself, if I could be of service in cementing a durable friendship between the two governments, and thus securing the blessings of peace to this devoted country and its inhabitants. This I considered as a commission in no wise derogatory to the office of a minister of God, who is a God of peace.” Hyder answered with great cordiality, “Very well! very well! I am of the same opinion with you; and wish that the English may be as studious of peace as you are. If they offer me the hand of peace and concord, I shall not withdraw mine.” Swartz returned from his mission in October, and not till the 23rd of this month did the president make his colleagues even aware that it had been undertaken.

At the very time when Sir Thomas Rumbold was endeavouring to avert war, by means so little promising as the intervention of a Protestant missionary, he and his council were taking measures, the evident tendency of which was to make war inevitable. In the face of the remonstrance by Nizam Ali, and the known offence they were giving to Hyder, they persisted in sending Colonel Harpur with a detachment to the assistance of Basalut Jung at Adoni. This detachment was not ready to depart till August, 1779, and set out with instructions to pursue a route which led for 200 miles through the most difficult passes of the peninsula, and through the territories of Nizam Ali and Hyder, who had openly avowed their determination to stop its progress. This fact the Madras government not only thought proper to ignore, but they even omitted the ordinary courtesy of applying for permission to pass, because they had somehow been led to adopt the novel doctrine, that “friendly states were always at liberty to march troops through each other’s territories.” It was not long before they discovered their mistake. Colonel Harpur was allowed to proceed without molestation, till he was completely entangled in a rugged winding valley between two precipitous hills. Then he saw in front of him a breastwork of felled trees lined with musketry, while troops kept moving on the hills, and a large force was advancing to close up his rear. He had barely time, after perceiving the snare, to escape it by an immediate retreat. On being informed of this obstruction, the Madras government resolved to reinforce the detachment, and to remonstrate with Hyder for what they called his unfriendly behaviour. He answered by intimating his fixed determination, neither to allow an English corps to march to Adoni, nor his most inveterate enemy (Mahomed Ali) to obtain possession of Guntoor by lease or otherwise. This intimation was quickly followed by a body of light troops, who began to lay waste the territory of Adoni up to its very gates. Basalut Jung was now in consternation. He had brought down upon himself the vengeance of Hyder, and was threatened with that of his brother. In this extremity he begged Colonel Harpur to desist from advancing, and implored the Madras government to save him from ruin, by restoring Guntoor. They refused, and justified the refusal by declaring that they were ready to fulfil their part of the agreement. In the midst of all these complications, and while pursuing this headstrong course, Sir Thomas Rumbold was still able to flatter himself that something might be effected by another private mission, and in February, 1780, despatched a Mr. Gray, formerly of the Bengal civil service, on this hopeless errand. Hyder, who seems to have exhausted all his civility on Mr. Swartz, gave a very different reception to Mr. Gray, who without ever being permitted to lay the subject of his visit before Hyder in person, was glad at last to escape from a country, in which, according to his own description, “he had been received and treated as a spy, rather than an ambassador; rather confined than lodged, and the trifling civilities of fruits and flowers were delivered by chobdars, who were uncivil, insolent, greedy, and clamorous.”

Sir Thomas Rumbold quitted Madras in April, 1780, on the score of ill health. Though war, the consequence of his own rashness and incapacity or corruption, was now evidently impending, he was still buoyed with the hope of a lasting peace, and lodged a farewell minute, which, from the amount of delusion it displays, is a curiosity. It commences thus:—“It affords me a particular satisfaction that the whole of the Carnatic and the Company’s northern possessions are at present undisturbed, and in perfect tranquillity, notwithstanding the unsettled state of affairs with respect to the Mahrattas, and the connections occasioned by the march of the Bengal troops across the country to Surat. However well inclined Hyder Ali may be to give disturbance, neither he nor the Nizam have as yet thought proper to put any of their threats into execution, and from the arrival of the fleet with the king’s troops, I think there is the greatest prospect that this part of India will remain quiet, especially if the government here cautiously avoid taking any measures that may be likely to bring on troubles!!” A few days before this minute was lodged, Mr. Gray had arrived at Madras, to announce the total failure of his mission, and the contumely to which he had been subjected. Sir Thomas Rumbold was succeeded by Mr. Whitehill, who was his colleague, and had shared with him in all his mismanagement. Of course, under the new administration no improvement took place, and the crisis was rather hastened than retarded. His power of doing mischief, it is true, was not long possessed, for the government of Bengal, indignant that their orders with respect to Guntoor had not been obeyed, proceeded for the first time to exert a power which the Regulating Act had conferred upon them; and in October, 1780, suspended Mr. Whitehill from his office. This extreme measure was afterwards more than confirmed by the directors, who, by their letter of the 10th of January, 1781, after censuring the abolition of the committee of circuit, the proceeding with regard to the zemindars of the Northern Circars, the treaty with Basalut Jung, and the lease of Guntoor to the nabob, dismissed Sir Thomas Rumbold, Mr. Whitehill, and Mr. Perring from their service, suspended other two members of council, and while admitting that the military conduct of Sir Hector Monro was meritorious, expressed their strongest disapprobation of his conduct in matters not pertaining to his profession.

The restoration of Guntoor, and other conciliatory measures of the Bengal government, had the effect of withdrawing Nizam Ali from the confederacy; but Hyder’s part was taken, and nothing could now divert him from the war which he had determined to wage. In the preparations for it a striking contrast was presented by his activity and the apathy of the imbecile government with which Madras was at this time cursed. On his part everything was arranged with the most scrupulous care, and no department escaped his personal inspection; on theirs everything was left to a kind of hap-hazard: the commissariat was entirely neglected, and no exertion was made either to garrison places of defence or form a field force. They insisted on closing both their ears and their eyes to all the indications of the coming struggle, and sat debating whether war was probable, when they might almost have heard the sound of the enemy’s cannon and seen the smoke of his devastations. Hyder’s account of them was true to the letter:—“I have tried them already, and I know them well; they have no conduct; and even now, when I have assembled my whole force to enter the country, they have not shown the least glimmering of ability.”

Hyder, while thus despising his enemies, must have swelled with pride when, in the month of June, 1780, he moved from his capital at the head of a force “which,” says Colonel Wilks, “had probably not been equalled, and certainly not surpassed, in strength and efficiency, by any native army that had ever been assembled in the south of India.” Its effective strength was estimated at 90,000 men, of whom 28,000 were cavalry. After he began to move he knew that there was no necessity for haste, and advanced leisurely towards the frontier. Most of Mahomed Ali’s officers in command of forts had been already gained, and the numerous spies, whom he had sent forward to seek employment as deceitful guides to the Company’s troops, could not yet render him much service, simply because as yet there were scarcely any troops to mislead. The sluggishness of his opponents thus made it impossible for him to be active. His appearance, while hovering on the mountains, and his subsequent terrific descent, have been described with matchless eloquence by the greatest of modern orators. After describing, in language more rhetorical than accurate, the treacherous dealings of which Hyder Ali had reason to complain, and saying that he had in consequence “resolved, in the gloomy recesses of a mind capacious of such things, to leave the whole Carnatic an everlasting monument of vengeance,” Burke, in his celebrated speech on the Nabob of Arcot’s debts, continues thus:—

“He became at length so confident of his force, so collected in his might, that he made no secret whatsoever of his dreadful resolution. Having terminated his disputes with every enemy and every rival, who buried their mutual animosities in their common detestation, he drew from every quarter whatever a savage ferocity could add to his new rudiments in the art of destruction; and compounding all the materials of fury, havoc, and desolation, into one black cloud, he hung for a while on the declivities of the mountains. Whilst the authors of all these evils were idly and stupidly gazing on this menacing meteor, which blackened all their horizon, it suddenly burst, and poured down the whole of its contents upon the plains of the Carnatic. Then ensued a scene of woe, the like of which no eye had seen, no heart conceived, and which no tongue can adequately tell. All the horrors of war before known or heard of were mercy to that new havoc. A storm of universal fire blasted every field, consumed every house, destroyed every temple. The miserable inhabitants, fleeing from their flaming villages, in part were slaughtered; others, without regard to sex, to age, to the respect of rank or sacredness of function—fathers torn from children, husbands from wives—enveloped in a whirlwind of cavalry, and amidst the goading spears of drivers and the trampling of pursuing horses, were swept into captivity in an unknown and hostile land. Those who were able to evade this tempest, fled to the walled cities; but escaping from fire, sword, and exile, they fell into the jaws of famine.”

This vivid description, though accurate on the whole, might leave an erroneous impression, were it not explained that the desolation was not so universal as represented. Hyder aimed at nothing less than the permanent conquest of the Carnatic, and to convert the whole into a desert would have been to defeat his ultimate object. His merciless desolation, therefore, extended no farther than to interpose a desert between himself and his enemies. This was effected by a line of devastation extending southward from the lake of Pulicat to within a few miles of Pondicherry, and westward from thirty to fifty miles. A similar line, forming a circle thirteen miles in radius, was drawn round Vellore. With these exceptions, and other occasional devastations in carrying on sieges and impeding hostile military operations, “the whole of the country occupied by the invader was,” according to Colonel Wilks, “as well protected as his possessions above the Ghauts.”

From St. Thomas’ Mount, only nine miles from Madras, black columns of smoke were everywhere seen before a single order for the movement of troops was issued. The corps in Guntoor, at first under Colonel Harpur and afterwards under Colonel Baillie, was directed to move southwards; Colonel Braithwaite, in command at Pondicherry, was ordered northwards to Chingleput, and subsequently to Madras. Colonel Cosby, with a detachment from Trichinopoly, was to have acted on the enemy’s communications through the passes, but was ultimately instructed to join the main army. While these orders were being issued, almost every fort in which Mahomed Ali’s officers commanded passed by treachery into the hands of the invader. After the Madras government had been in a manner forced into activity, one of the first arrangements which became necessary was the appointment of a commander. This office naturally devolved on Sir Hector Monro, as commander-in-chief; but his vote in the council was necessary to give the president a majority, and for this purpose, though under a different pretext, it was seriously proposed that he should remain at Madras, while the command in the field should be given to Lord Macleod, who had recently arrived from England, in command of a king’s regiment. A difference of opinion as to the proper place for concentrating the army broke up this arrangement. His lordship proposed the vicinity of Madras; Sir Hector Monro, with less judgment, insisted on Conjeveram, and undertook to carry out his own plan, the president having previously secured his majority by the arbitrary appointment of an additional councillor, on whose vote he could calculate.

Hyder, after descending through the pass of Changama, on the 20th of July, 1780, detached his second son, Kurreem Sahib, with 5000 horse, to plunder Porto Novo, situated on the coast, about forty miles south of Pondicherry, and a still larger body of cavalry to carry on the work of devastation. He himself advanced with the main army, but was so much retarded by the number of places to be occupied, that it was the 21st of August when he arrived before Arcot and invested it. On the 29th he departed abruptly, in consequence of learning that the British army had made its first march from St. Thomas’ Mount on the 26th. The direction taken was Conjeveram, situated forty-two miles south-west. Here Sir Hector Monro arrived on the same day on which Hyder quitted Arcot. The movement to Conjeveram has been severely condemned. Colonel Baillie, still on his march from Guntoor, had arrived without interruption on the 24th at an encampment not more than twenty-five miles from Madras, and by one forced march, or two easy marches, could have effected a junction with the main army. His detachment mustered 2813, the main army 5209; and, of course, the two when united would have formed a respectable force of 8022 men. Instead of waiting for this junction, Sir Hector Monro moved off, as has been seen, in an opposite direction, and sent orders to Colonel Baillie to follow him, by taking an independent route of upwards of fifty miles. Hyder, ever on the alert to take advantage of a blunder, had, on quitting Arcot, detached his son, Tippoo Sultan, or Tippoo Sahib, as he is more usually called, with a select corps of 5000 infantry, 6000 horse, six heavy guns, and a large body of irregulars, to intercept Baillie’s detachment and endeavour to destroy it.

On the 25th of August, Colonel Baillie arrived at the Cortelaur, and committed the serious fault of encamping on its north or left bank. Though then nearly dry, it was liable to be suddenly swollen by mountain rains. It was, in fact, so swollen that very evening, and was found on the next morning to be impassable. After waiting six days, and seeing no indication of a fall in the stream, he sent a letter to the government, proposing to descend to its mouth at Ennore, and be there ferried over. This would have brought him within thirteen miles of Madras. From some cause no answer to this letter reached him, and on the 4th of September he succeeded in crossing, as had been originally intended. Tippoo, who had been watching his movements, did not find an opportunity to attack him till the 6th. On seeing the preparations for this purpose, Colonel Baillie took post at Perembacum, only fourteen miles from Sir Hector Monro’s encampment near Conjeveram. The action lasted three hours, without being decisive. The result was that Colonel Baillie wrote to Sir Hector Monro, stating his inability to join, and hoping that therefore he would be joined at Perembacum, and Tippoo wrote to his father that he had no prospect of succeeding without a reinforcement.

On the 6th, the same day when the action was fought, Hyder, who had been encamped six miles to the westward of the British, made a movement which gave him command of the road by which the detachment was expected. At the same time, a heavy firing was heard in that direction. There could now be no doubt that Colonel Baillie was attacked, and that it would be impossible for him to join without fighting his way through the whole of Hyder’s army. The destruction of the detachment was therefore absolutely certain unless it were relieved; and yet Sir Hector Monro, with this fact fully in his view, lay on his arms during the 6th, 7th, and 8th. The pagoda of Conjeveram was incapable, he said, of standing out a single day, and he could not leave it without sacrificing the provisions, the heavy guns, and most of the baggage of the army.

In the course of the 8th, Colonel Baillie’s letter, giving an account of the action, was received, and on the evening of that day Sir Hector Monro, still determined not to risk the pagoda, fell on the expedient of detaching the flank companies of the army, and sending them off as a reinforcement. This expedient succeeded far better than it deserved. The natural result of it would have been to sacrifice the flank companies, by allowing the enemy to cut them off in detail before they could reach their destination; but by the dexterous management of Colonel Fletcher, the officer in command, who suddenly changed his route, and thereby deceived his own guides, who were in Hyder’s pay, the junction with Colonel Baillie was effected without any loss. Thus augmented, the detachment mustered 3720 men, and no doubt being felt of its being able to reach Conjeveram, it started for that purpose on the night of the 9th.

Hyder, full of indignation at the carelessness which had allowed the junction to take place, did not venture to move on the 9th, because he suspected that he himself was about to be exposed to a double attack, by the main army in front, and the detachment in the rear. He had accordingly made his arrangements to meet this emergency, but on ascertaining from his spies that Sir Hector Monro was not preparing to march, he sent off, as soon as it was dark, the great body of his infantry and guns against the detachment, and kept the camp with a few light guns and the whole of the cavalry. Even this precaution seemed unnecessary, when Sir Hector Monro showed no signs of shaking off his torpor, and he silently quitted the camp to follow his infantry. Colonel Baillie had not advanced half a mile from his position at Perembacum, when he was challenged by the enemy’s videttes, and an attack, more harassing than formidable, was kept up for five or six miles by rocket-men and irregulars. As the detachment advanced, the resistance became more serious. The enemy had not only examined every part of the route which they knew must be taken, but had taken advantage of some artificial cuts made in the ground for purposes of irrigation, to throw up in various places a kind of breastwork, from which they might fire under cover. Notwithstanding these disadvantages, British discipline prevailed, every attack was repulsed, and everything was ready for the continuance of the march, when Colonel Baillie, against the decided opinion of Colonel Fletcher, adopted the fatal resolution of halting for the night. The only opportunity of effecting the junction by taking advantage of the darkness was thus thrown away. In the morning it was too late. Shortly after the detachment began to move, at daylight of the 10th, the enemy commenced a distant cannonade, and Hyder’s whole army was seen advancing. The odds were now fearful, and the British commander was unfortunately deficient in the coolness and presence of mind absolutely necessary to enable him to contend against them. Successive charges of cavalry, under which heavy masses of infantry were moved forward, were necessarily followed by some degree of confusion even in the best-disciplined ranks, while the cross fire of upwards of fifty guns committed fearful havoc. For a time the ten field-pieces of the detachment returned this fire with some effect, but the exhaustion of their ammunition, hastened by the blowing up of two tumbrils, deprived them of this aid, and the whole British corps, crowded together in a helpless posture, were mowed down by hundreds. Many of the men, seeing the destruction which awaited them where they stood, called out to be led on, but no orders had been given, when a combined charge by all the enemy’s cavalry completed the confusion and made further resistance vain. Colonel Baillie, seeing that all was lost, went forward to ask for quarter by waving his handkerchief, and understanding that it had been granted, ordered the Europeans, who still stood in compact order, to lay down their arms. The enemy received Colonel Baillie as a prisoner, and seemed to pause, as if uncertain whether they should accept the surrender of the other troops. A straggling fire kept up by some sepoys, under the influence of panic and without any object, decided them, and they rushed forward to unresisted slaughter. In these atrocities and the others which followed, Hyder’s young soldiers took the lead; they “amused themselves,” says Colonel Wilks, “with fleshing their swords, and exhibiting their skill on men already most inhumanly mangled, on the sick and wounded in the doolies, and even on women and children.” The few who escaped this treatment were indebted to the humane interposition of the French officers, particularly M. Pimorin, who had joined with a small detachment from Mahé shortly before its capture, and M. Lally, whose corps had passed successively from Basalut Jung to Nizam Ali, and from Nizam Ali to Hyder.

The whole of Colonel Baillie’s corps, with its equipments of every description, being totally lost, Sir Hector Monro, who at the time of the ultimate contest is proved to have been not more than two miles distant, moved off in the direction of Conjeveram, to which, he says, “the security of the army determined him to return.” What kind of security he expected is not apparent. He arrived at six o’clock in the evening of the 10th, and by three o’clock on the morning of the 11th, after throwing his heavy guns and stores into the great tank, had commenced his retreat to Chingleput. His reason for this sudden movement was that he must have starved if he remained, as the grain, which had been his main inducement to cling so long and so fatally to Conjeveram, barely sufficed for one day’s consumption. The incessant annoyance of the enemy cost him during the retreat the loss of a large portion of the stores and baggage. At Chingleput he found none of the provisions which were to have been stored there by Mahomed Ali, but the disappointment was more than compensated by the arrival of the important detachment under Colonel Cosby. After hesitating whether to proceed south-east to the Dutch settlement of Sadras-patam, evidently with a view to embarkation, or N.N.E. to St. Thomas’ Mount, he prudently selected the latter route, and after arriving took up a position at Marmalong with a river covering his front. Hyder remained about forty miles distant in his fortified camp at Mooserwauke, which was advantageously placed for any contingency. The campaign, which, though it had lasted only twenty-one days, was full of disgrace and disaster to the British, thus closed.

The consternation produced at Madras by the results of this campaign was nearly equalled at Calcutta, when the intelligence arrived by a swift ship which had been despatched for the purpose. There, however, better and more vigorous counsels prevailed, and it was at once resolved to make every effort to supply Madras both with money and with troops. Not less important was the consent of Sir Eyre Coote to proceed to the scene of war and take the chief command. He arrived at Madras on the 5th of November, 1780, bringing with him fifteen lacs of treasure, and such a reinforcement as could be immediately spared. A considerable body of native infantry was ordered to proceed through the territories of Moodajee Bhonsla, whom Mr. Hastings had succeeded in withdrawing from the confederacy after he had actually sent 30,000 horse towards Cuttack for the purpose of invading Bengal. The same ship which carried Sir Eyre Coote conveyed the letter by which the Bengal government suspended Mr. Whitehill from the office of governor. Mr. Smith, as senior member of council, took the chair. He was one of only two members who had sounded the note of alarm and aroused their colleagues from their infatuated apathy when Hyder was on the eve of making his descent, and there was therefore good reason to hope that his administration would display more wisdom and vigour than that which preceded it.

On the 19th of September, Hyder quitted his fortified camp near Conjeveram to resume his ground before Arcot. Mahomed Ali, who regarded this place as his capital, had expended a large sum in surrounding it with a rampart, bastions, and ditch, regularly constructed by an European engineer, but destitute of ravelins and lunettes. Hyder was guided in forming his approaches and batteries by French officers, and after six weeks’ open trenches, having made two practicable breaches, ordered a simultaneous assault by two columns, the one headed by his son Tippoo, and the other by Maha Mirza Khan. Tippoo failed, but Maha Mirza succeeded, and Tippoo, thus enabled to rally, made a second attempt and succeeded also. The European troops retired to the citadel, and might have made a good defence, had not Hyder found means of corrupting the native garrison and compelled a capitulation.

Sir Eyre Coote was not able to move before the 17th of January, 1781. His equipment was much crippled by the want of draught and carriage cattle, which could not be procured while the enemy’s cavalry were in possession of the country. This want was partially remedied by employing small vessels, with provisions and stores, to accompany the movements of the army. Hyder was about this time engaged at once in the siege of five different places defended by English officers. One of these, Amboor, had fallen on the 13th; another, Chingleput, was relieved by Sir Eyre Coote on the 19th. About thirteen miles south-west is the fort of Carangoly. Its works had been improved by Hyder, and it had a garrison of 700 men; but as information had been received that the garrison were evacuating it and carrying off the provisions, Sir Eyre Coote at midnight of the 20th sent a detachment of 1000 men to obtain possession of it. The information proved false, and Captain Davis, who commanded the detachment, was surprised on his arrival to find the garrison ready to give him a warm reception. His orders having been peremptory, he determined to make the attempt notwithstanding, and after blowing open the gate, succeeded, though at considerable loss, in effecting a capture. The provisions obtained in the place afforded a very seasonable relief, but a still more important result was the confidence with which it inspired the troops, who regarded the fall of Carangoly as the first favourable turn in the tide of fortune.

The next place to be attended to was Wandiwash. When the other forts in the possession of Mahomed Ali’s officers were falling by treachery into the hands of Hyder, Lieutenant Flint had preserved Wandiwash by an act of singular daring. As Hyder was known to be in the neighbourhood, and the fidelity of the killedar or native commandant was suspected, the lieutenant was despatched with 100 firelocks on the almost hopeless errand of attempting to gain admission into it. With the greatest difficulty, and by pursuing unfrequented paths, he reached its vicinity and announced his approach. The killedar returned for answer that he would fire upon him if he came within range of the guns. He moved on in spite of this threat, and on meeting a picket sent to stop him on the verge of the esplanade, had the address to persuade the officer that he must have misunderstood his orders, and that the meaning could only be to stop them if they proved not to be friends. He was thus allowed to move on till he was within musket-shot of the ramparts, and saw them lined with troops. On this he announced that he had a letter from the nabob, and was ordered to deliver it only into the killedar’s own hands. For this purpose he demanded admission with a few attendants. The killedar refused, but at length agreed to receive the letter in the space between the gate and the barrier of the sortie. Lieutenant Flint was admitted with four faithful sepoy attendants, and found the killedar sitting on a carpet, surrounded by several officers, with thirty swordsmen as his personal guard, and a hundred sepoys drawn up for his protection. After the first compliments the lieutenant confessed that he had no letter, but offered as an equivalent for it the order of his own government, issued in concert with the nabob. This order the killedar treated with contempt, and told the bearer of it to return as he came. Lieutenant Flint declared this to be impossible, as the country was in the enemy’s possession, and was continuing to remonstrate when the killedar rose to depart. On this he suddenly seized him, and threatened him with instant death if a hand was moved for rescue. The four sepoys were in an instant by their leader’s side, and pointed their swords at the killedar’s breast. In the confusion of the moment the remainder of the small detachment made good their entrance. That very day it was to have been surrendered to Hyder. Ultimately, the better part of the garrison were induced to place themselves under Lieutenant Flint’s command, and the place was secured.

Wandiwash was now in command of Lieutenant Flint, and from the very remarkable manner in which he had obtained possession of it, great interest was felt in both camps as to its future fate. Early in December, 1780, when the first preparations were made for investing it, the wives and families of the sepoys departed, in the hope of being permitted to reside with their friends in the villages. Hyder caused them all to be collected, and on the morning of the 30th of December, when the approaches had been carried within fifty yards of the ditch, a motley crowd of old men, women, and children, were seen approaching the place surrounded by guards, and preceded by a flag of truce. Lieutenant Flint saw that there was not a moment to be lost. Besides himself there was only another European in the place, and there could be little doubt that the garrison, most of whom were resting from the fatigues of the night, would not be able to resist the screams and entreaties which implored a surrender as the only means of saving those who were dearest to them from barbarous treatment. Fortunately the bearer of the flag was considerably in front, and Lieutenant Flint, after pointing a gun and giving due notice, fired. The shot appeared to take effect, for the flag fell, and the crowd, frightened by this and a few additional discharges over their heads, dispersed with the utmost precipitation.

The future details of the siege, though interesting, and displaying remarkable ability and fertility of resource on the part of the commander, cannot be given at length. On the 16th of January, when the enemy had entered the ditch by galleries in two places on the west face, and another gallery on the south was nearly completed, they attempted, by a well-managed feint, to lead the garrison into an ambuscade, but the only effect was to give Lieutenant Flint an opportunity of making a sortie, which succeeded in rendering many of the besiegers’ operations useless. Five days had been employed by the enemy in repairing this damage, when, on the 22d, the news of the capture of Carangoly so frightened them, that they evacuated the batteries and trenches, and sent off their tents and baggage to Arcot. The following day they raised the siege, and on the 24th Sir Eyre Coote made his appearance. He was just in time. In another day the ammunition of the garrison would have been exhausted. By a curious coincidence, the siege was raised on the same day of the same month on which Sir Eyre Coote raised it twenty-one years before, by the victor of Wandiwash.

After the relief of Wandiwash nearly six months elapsed before any operations of importance were undertaken. The British commissariat was so defective, that Sir Eyre Coote was under the necessity of selecting, not the positions which were strategically the best, but those which promised to furnish him with the means of saving his army from starvation. On the 25th of January a French fleet appeared off Madras, and Sir Eyre, who received the intelligence on the day when he was setting out from Wandiwash for the relief of Permacoil, immediately changed his direction, and began to march north-east for the protection of the capital from the danger with which it was threatened. On learning that, contrary to general belief, the fleet had no troops on board, he returned to his intention of relieving Permacoil, and then continued his southward march to Pondicherry, for the purpose of destroying the country by which alone the French fleet could communicate with the shore. He had scarcely completed these operations when Hyder’s army appeared in great force. Sir Eyre Coote had calculated on being able to outstrip Hyder, and reach the fertile countries south of the Coleroon, where there would be no risk of want. This had now become impossible, and he was therefore forced to decide whether to move northward, so as to draw nearer to the main source of supply at Madras, or southward to Cuddalore, which it was important either to dismantle or protect, lest by falling into the hands of the enemy it might facilitate the future operations of the troops expected from France. The northward movement would have been preferred, but was impossible, as there was only one day’s rice in the camp. Nothing therefore remained but to move southward. This was almost a desperate alternative, as it was known that even at Cuddalore the supplies would not suffice for more than three days’ consumption. Sir Eyre Coote, moving parallel to Hyder’s army, arrived, not without some loss of stores, at Cuddalore on the 8th of February, and as the French fleet, still at Pondicherry, made it impossible for him to obtain any supplies by sea, his situation became critical. “I cannot,” he writes, “command rice enough to move either to the northward or the southward. I offered him (Hyder) battle yesterday, but I no sooner showed myself than he moved off, and has taken possession of, and strengthened all the roads leading to the southward. I have written to Nagore in the most pressing terms for supplies; I depend upon every effort in your power—everything must be risked to assist me; my difficulties are great indeed. I need say no more to induce you to take such steps as will speedily enable me to act as becomes a soldier.” The gloomy forebodings of this despatch must soon, according to all human calculation, have been realized by the destruction or surrender of the British army, had not relief come from an unexpected quarter. M. d’Orves, the French admiral, from motives never satisfactorily explained, suddenly disappeared from the coast. The change thus produced in Sir Eyre Coote’s prospect appears in a brief despatch—“The French fleet under sail, standing to the eastward; there is not a moment to be lost in sending me provisions; that supplied, I will answer for the rest.”

Though the more immediate danger was removed, the supplies were still so deficient, and so many other obstacles were thrown in the way by Hyder’s skilful and cautious tactics, that the British army remained almost stationary from the 8th of February to the 16th of June. This period of inaction, while the expenses of the war were scarcely lessened by it, was so mortifying to the Madras government, that they ventured to submit to Sir Eyre Coote a kind of remonstrance, in the form of an elaborate exposition of his present military position, in which they discussed the propriety of adopting a northern or a southern movement. The veteran commander, whose temper had not improved with his years, did not relish this exposition, which he regarded as a covert attack on his military character, and made a very sarcastic reply. After pointing out the advantages secured by his present position, and telling the council that the powers which they had conferred upon him, additional to those which he already possessed as commander-in-chief of the British forces in India, had only loaded him with labour and anxiety, foreign to his duties and appertaining to themselves, he continues thus:—“Having stated the circumstances which proved the impossibility of marching this army at all, it does not seem immediately necessary that I should enter upon an inquiry whether a southern or a northern movement is to be preferred.” After remarking, that from the non-arrival of supplies which ought to have been sent, a necessity of moving northward seemed to be approaching, he adds, “I am happy in thinking I shall do (so), without apprehending any material danger, from even a more formidable enemy than a body of horse, which you have, with so much precision, pointed out as the only impediment I am likely to meet with in taking a northern route. In justice to both myself and the service, I promise you that the army I now command shall not remain unemployed, if you will only supply me with provisions, and the means of carrying them.”

The British army, owing to its wretched equipment, was kept stationary near Cuddalore until the middle of June. Hyder’s presence and devastations prevented it from moving inland, and its movement along the coast was only practicable by the substitution of ships for an ordinary commissariat. It thus depended on the co-operation of the fleet, which was kept cruising off the coast for this purpose, and to meet the possible contingency of a defeat, when it might be employed in embarking the wreck of the army. On the 16th of June, Sir Eyre Coote moved southward, and on the 18th he crossed the Velaur. His object was to attempt the capture of the fortified pagoda of Chilambrum, situated three miles south of that river, and about twenty-five miles beyond Cuddalore. The pagoda was one of the posts which Hyder had selected and materially strengthened, both to arrest the southward progress of the British and serve as a depôt for himself and his French allies. Sir Eyre Coote, finding no enemy in force near it, and having been informed that its garrison consisted only of a small body of irregulars, thought it possible to carry it by a sudden night assault. With this view, he proceeded at dusk with four battalions of sepoys and eight pieces of ordnance, gained possession of the pettah or town without difficulty, forced the second line of defence, and pushed on with the greatest spirit to the body of the place. Here the progress of the assailants was suddenly arrested. The garrison, supposed to be only a few irregulars, consisted of nearly 3000 effective men, under an officer of reputation, who, in addition to the ordinary means of defence, had provided bundles of oiled straw and other combustibles, by which the whole space through which the assailants had to pass was suddenly converted into a mass of flame. The sepoys, panic-struck, could not be rallied, and the attempt was necessarily abandoned.

After this repulse, Sir Eyre Coote recrossed the Velaur, and encamped near Porto Novo at its mouth. Here Admiral Sir Edward Hughes arrived on the 24th of June. He brought intelligence that Lord Macartney had assumed the government of Madras, and that he himself was under orders to commence immediate hostilities against the Dutch. An attack on Negapatam was first suggested, but the preference was given to the reduction of Chilambrum by the united efforts of the army and the fleet. Before the necessary steps could be taken for this purpose, Hyder encamped with his whole army at the distance of a few miles. He had been in the south, collecting an enormous booty in money, merchandise, cattle, and human beings. The last consisted partly of weavers and their families, who were seized and sent off to people the island of Seringapatam, and partly of boys and females, indiscriminately captured, the former destined, after a forced conversion to Islamism, to be, and the latter to become the mothers of, military slaves. On hearing of the attempt on Chilambrum, Hyder marched 100 miles in two days and a half, and having placed himself between the British army and Cuddalore, began to fortify himself in a position not more than three miles from their encampment.

By this means, he both frustrated the intended siege of Chilambrum and covered his own designs against Cuddalore. The circumstances were so critical that Sir Eyre Coote summoned a council of war. The resolution adopted was, that the preparations for the siege should be abandoned, and that attempts should be made to turn or force the enemy’s position, or to bring on a general action. To make this possible, four days’ rice, to be carried on the soldiers’ backs, were landed from the fleet.

By seven o’clock on the morning of the 1st of July, the British had quitted their encampment. The road to Cuddalore lay N.N.W., and on its left was the termination of a lagoon. Considerable bodies of cavalry, with this lagoon behind their right and centre, covered the plain. Hyder’s select cavalry, with some light artillery, was drawn up behind the lagoon. Sir Eyre Coote formed his army—necessarily diminished by a strong baggage guard, which moved between his right and the sea—into two lines, and advanced in order of battle over the plain. After thus marching about a mile and a half, the enemy’s position was clearly distinguished. It was strengthened by front and flanking batteries, and extended from commanding grounds on the right across the Cuddalore road, to a point on the left, where the sand-hills of the shore gave a support to this flank. After an hour spent in reconnoitring, during which the enemy kept up an incessant but distant cannonade, while not a single shot was returned, Sir Eyre Coote, at nine o’clock, ordered both his lines to break into column, and in this order moved rapidly to the eastward of the sand-hills. These, which run parallel to the coast and are about 1100 yards from the sea, covered the greater part of this movement. On reaching an opening in the sand-hill range, where Hyder had made a practicable road, a height commanding it was occupied, the first line pushed through, and after clearing the pass of a strong body of the enemy, deployed again into order of battle, with its front to the west. Waiting with impatience under a heavy fire, till the height should be effectually occupied by the artillery of the second line, Sir Eyre Coote moved on with the first, his right covered by a long thick hedge, and his left protected by a corps and some guns in column. Hyder had in the meantime removed the artillery of his batteries to a line at right angles with the former, and commenced a tremendous cannonade. The British line still continuing to advance, an attempt was made to overwhelm it by a general charge of cavalry. This failed, and by four o’clock the enemy’s line was forced, and compelled to a precipitate retreat. Meanwhile, a strong body of infantry, with their guns, and a large mass of cavalry, attempted to fall on the British rear. The second line met this attack, and after a close and severe contest, completely foiled it, driving it from the contiguous heights, and frustrating all its efforts to seize the commanding position first occupied. The failure of the cavalry attack on the first British line has been already mentioned. A similar charge, which ought to have been made at the same time on the second line, was at first retarded by the fall of its commander, and afterwards owed its repulse, in no small degree, to a schooner of the fleet, which, approaching the shore as near as soundings would permit, opened an effective flanking fire, from which the mass of cavalry sought shelter under a sand-hill.

All these operations had been viewed by Hyder from a gentle eminence in the rear, where he sat cross-legged on a choukee, a portable stool about nine inches high, covered by a carpet. The near approach of the British first line had induced him to order the retreat, first of his guns and afterwards of his infantry and cavalry; but when a hint was given of his own personal danger, he received it with a torrent of the obscene abuse which formed his only eloquence, and he continued to sit “obstinately stupid with vexation,” till a groom, who had been long in his service, and was a kind of privileged person, ventured to lay hold of his legs, and put on his slippers, saying, “We will beat them to-morrow; in the meanwhile, mount your horse.” Once mounted, he was quickly out of sight. The British first line rested on the ground abandoned by the enemy, and owing to the casualties of the day, was not joined by the second line till midnight. The victory now gained is known by the name of Porto Novo. Had not a heavy rain prevented it, the battle would have been fought on the 30th of June. Had it been postponed to the 2d of July, it could scarcely have been fought at all. The road in the sand-hills through which the attack was made had been prepared by Hyder, for the purpose of drawing his guns to a large work, which was to have received twenty guns, and would have commanded every part of the ground on which Sir Eyre Coote so ably manoeuvred. In another day this work would have been completed, and the consequence to all appearance would have been, that the British army could not possibly have been extricated. Its force in this battle was 8476 men, of whom 830 were cavalry, 598 artillery, and 7048 infantry. The loss in killed and wounded was only 306. Hyder’s army, though deprived of a large detachment, absent under Tippo on other service, must have been about 65,000; his loss, at the lowest computation, could not have been less than 10,000. The physical resources of the British army were not improved by this victory, which could not be followed up, from the continued deficiency of provisions and equipment. The moral effect, however, was immense, and the troops, previously sinking into despondency, became full of confidence.

During his father’s operations, Tippoo had taken Thiagur, situated about forty miles west of Cuddalore, and had then moved rapidly to the north-east, with thirteen battering cannon, to resume the siege of Wandiwash. Meanwhile, the detachment sent from Bengal through the territories of the Rajah of Berar had arrived at Nellore; and Sir Eyre, for the purpose both of facilitating its junction and succouring Wandiwash, began to move in a northerly direction, keeping near the coast, in order to draw supplies from the ships. Until he reached Pondicherry, he was in expectation of another general action; but Hyder, after tantalizing him with this hope, struck his tents, and moved off to the westward. On this, Sir Eyre Coote quitted the coast, and moved northwest to Carangoly. While here, on the 21st of July, he learned that Tippoo, after his batteries were ready to be opened, had suddenly quitted Wandiwash. Before decamping he tried the effect of an escalade, to which Lieutenant (now Captain) Flint, was too much on the alert to give any chance of success. It was not difficult to divine Tippoo’s destination. He was in hopes of repeating the disaster inflicted on Colonel Baillie, and was hastening to intercept the Bengal detachment. Sir Eyre Coote, having now nothing to detain him, set off for its protection, and with this view marched by Chingleput to St. Thomas’ Mount.

The ordinary road from Madras to Nellore passes to the westward of the lagoon of Pulicat, an inlet of the sea, about thirty-five miles long from north to south, and nowhere above eleven miles in breadth. Tippoo had prepared impediments and ambush on this road, but had overlooked the fact that there was another route between the lake and the sea, which, though interrupted by openings in the lagoon where it communicates with the sea, was still practicable. By this route the detachment had passed, and arrived at the fort of Pulicat, recently captured from the Dutch, without the necessity of firing a shot. Thirty miles of the journey to St. Thomas’ Mount still remained, but Sir Eyre Coote was not the man to repeat the blunder which had been committed by Sir Hector Monro, and made two marches north, which enabled him on the following day to effect a junction with this detachment, which added nearly a third to his numerical strength.

The great objects of the campaign would have been the relief of Vellore and the siege of Arcot, but all the cattle which had been collected were unable, after other necessary purposes were provided for, to carry more than rice adequate to one and a half day’s consumption of the army. These great objects being thus impracticable, Sir Eyre Coote turned his attention to Tripassore, a fort of some importance from its position, thirty-three miles west from Madras, on one of the roads leading to Arcot. The intermediate fort of Poonomallee being already in British possession, he was able, by using it as a depôt, to bring forward a sufficiency of grain to attempt Tripassore. He arrived before it on the 19th of August, and having made a good breach by the 22d, was preparing for the assault, when a flag of truce appeared, with an offer to capitulate on terms. These were refused, and no alternative was given but an unconditional surrender in a quarter of an hour, or an assault. This answer had scarcely been given when Hyder was seen in full approach with his whole army. Not to lose a moment, the troops were ordered to storm instantly, and had just emerged from the trenches when the surrender was announced, and the storming party were allowed to take possession without opposition. The moment the capture was perceived Hyder drew off.

Hyder, while Sir Eyre Coote was effecting a junction with the Bengal detachment, had returned to his camp at Mooserwauke. This spot, from the success which he had obtained near it in the former campaign, he considered fortunate. The ground on which Colonel Baillie met with his disaster, he of course considered still more fortunate, and he had therefore determined to offer battle to Sir Eyre Coote on this ground, and if possible, on the same day of the same lunar month, the 11th of Ramzan. This day was not the same according to our mode of computation, for Baillie’s defeat took place on the 10th of September, whereas that now fixed upon was the 31st of August. To Mahometans, however, it was the very same; and Hyder, who had selected the ground after carefully ascertaining its strategical advantages, was confirmed in his selection by all the astrologers, whose prognostics promised success on any day of the month, but more especially on the 11th.

The first day’s march of the British army from Tripassore was performed on the 26th of August, and brought it to the vicinity of Perembacum. On the 27th the advanced guard arrived about nine o’clock in the morning, at the very spot on which Colonel Baillie made his fatal halt, on the night of the 9th of September, 1780. Large bodies of cavalry had previously been seen to the south-west, and the enemy was now seen in full force in front, and toward both flanks. The action immediately commenced, and continued for upwards of eight hours with doubtful result. Hyder knew every inch of the ground, and had left nothing undone to secure all its advantages. Ultimately, however, by seizing the village of Pollilore, which has since given its name to the battle, Sir Eyre Coote turned the enemy’s left by his first, and his right by his second line, and having thus compelled him to retreat, encamped before dusk on the ground which he abandoned. This fact, according to the usual criterion, entitles him to claim the victory, though the Mysoreans insisted on representing it as a drawn battle. The quantity of cover afforded by the nature of the ground, made the casualties fewer than might have been anticipated, from the length and severity of the contest. The British army, 11,000 strong, lost only 421 in killed, wounded, and missing. The Mysoreans, who, from having brought their whole disposable force into the action, must have mustered 80,000 men, lost about 2000.

This dubious victory did not improve the condition of the English army, which, in fact, possessed nothing but arms, and was left destitute of every other requisite. Sir Eyre was at length disgusted with this state of matters. He felt that he was wasting his time, and even endangering his military reputation, by remaining at the head of troops while denied the means of employing them with effect, and he therefore went down to Madras determined to resign. Some of the polygars, whose territories lie along the Eastern Ghauts, and to the west of the lake of Pulicat, had professed a desire to give in their adhesion to the British, and as this seemed to open up a more favourable prospect, Lord Macartney succeeded in persuading the veteran commander-in-chief to make one further trial. He therefore made two days’ march from Tripassore to Tritany, passing along the skirts of the polygars’ territories. None of them furnished any aid, and he only received new promises to be followed by new disappointments. While thus situated, Colonel Lang, the commandant at Vellore, acquainted him, that unless relieved, the exhaustion of his provisions would compel him to an early surrender. At the same time Hyder was reported to be near the hill of Sholingur, not more than twelve miles distant, and to be strengthening his position for the purpose of frustrating any attempt to relieve Vellore. Sir Eyre Coote resolved to try the effect of another action, and leaving his heavy guns and every impediment in the little fort of Poloor, which had fallen into his hands, made a short march of seven miles on the 26th of September. The night proved tempestuous, and Hyder, who was encamped considerably in advance of the position which he was fortifying, felt so confident of the inability of the British to move, in consequence of the drenching of their tents and the miserable state of their cattle, that he allowed his own cattle to be sent off for several miles to better pasture, and many of the troops, together with most of the drivers and followers, to disperse in search of grain, or for the supply of other wants.

In the morning Sir Eyre Coote, having gone out to reconnoitre, ascended an eminence from which he observed a long ridge of rocks occupied by troops belonging to the enemy. Desirous of further information he sent forward a brigade to dislodge these troops. In performing this duty the brigade mounted to the top of the ridge, and beheld to their astonishment Hyder’s whole army not more than three miles off in a southern direction. Sir Eyre Coote ordered the whole army to hasten forward, and succeeded in coming front to front with the main body of the enemy, who stood drawn up at the distance of two miles in advance of their encampment, which was then in the very act of being struck. Hyder, though taken by surprise, made all his arrangements with great coolness and judgment. His object was to act on the defensive as long as possible, so as to enable his troops to recover from a certain degree of confusion into which they had been thrown, and the stragglers and cattle to return. Sir Eyre Coote’s object on the contrary was to precipitate a general action, and he therefore, after a few masterly manœuvres, ordered his whole line to advance. The enemy’s cavalry in two principal masses endeavoured to repel or impede the advance by making repeated charges, during which great havoc was made among them by showers of grape and musketry. These charges, though they failed in their immediate object, served the purpose of the enemy so far, by enabling him during the delay caused by the struggle to carry off all his guns except one six-pounder. All the rest of his army soon followed. The victory was thus gained with a loss on the part of the victors of only 100 men killed and wounded. The loss of the enemy exceeded 5000. The trophies taken were the above gun and three cavalry standards; but Sir Eyre Coote, in a despatch written on the field of battle, says that he would willingly have exchanged them and the whole credit of the victory for seven days’ rice.

The extremity to which Vellore was reduced from want of provisions, induced Sir Eyre Coote to run the risk of sending a detachment twenty miles in advance, in the hope that it might be able to intercept some of the convoys of grain which the enemy were frequently sending down by the Damaracherla Pass. He was himself at this time in the polygar districts of Vencatigherry and Calastry, into which he had moved for the usual purpose of obtaining the means of subsistence. The detachment consisted of five battalions with their guns, two flank companies of an European regiment, and a small portion of cavalry. The enemy soon made their appearance, and Sir Eyre Coote, having been made aware of it, was hastening forward, when he met a few of his own irregular horse in flight, and was told by them that the whole detachment had been cut to pieces. Unable to give entire credit to these dismal news, he advanced other two miles and was relieved by a note from Colonel Owen, the commander of the detachment, intimating its safety in a strong position. It had indeed been attacked by Hyder in person, at the head of nearly his whole regular infantry and select cavalry, when beyond the pass, and it had not succeeded in gaining it without the loss of all the camp equipage and baggage.

Vellore was now in the crisis of its fate. Not one day’s grain was in store, and the garrison had for some time been subsisting on grain purchased in distant villages, and brought in by stealth on dark nights. The approaching moonlight would deprive them of this resource, and the commandant had made Sir Eyre Coote aware that the only alternative which remained was either to throw in an immediate supply, or make a movement to cover the escape of the garrison. While in the north among the polygars, a small surplus of rice had been obtained and reserved for the relief of Vellore. Sir Eyre determined to make a last effort, and advanced by three marches from his encampment among the hills. Hyder on this occasion betrayed his fear of another general encounter by retiring to the other side of the Paliar; and Vellore was saved for the present by a supply of rice adequate to six weeks’ consumption. After this most seasonable relief, Sir Eyre Coote was obliged for his own subsistence to return to the Pollams, a district of which Chittoor, situated twenty miles N.N.W. of Vellore, might be considered the capital. This place was reported to be the intermediate depôt of the provisions sent to the enemy through the Damaracherla Pass, and as its strength was not great Sir Eyre Coote laid siege to it, and took it in four days. Great, however, was his disappointment on finding that it contained no grain. As it would be impossible to subsist in this country during the monsoon, it was necessary to retire. The direction chosen was Tripassore, which it was necessary to relieve from a siege, and at which the army arrived on the 22d of November, 1781, after a forced march over an incipient inundation. The whole march from Chittoor was distressing. The food was so scanty that one-half of the army fasted alternately from day to day, and multitudes of camp followers died of starvation. Meanwhile the monsoon broke, the country became inundated, cattle and their stores were lost, an excellent corps of cavalry formed from the wreck of Mahomed Ali’s horse were deprived of nearly half their numbers, and many of the followers not cut off by famine perished in the swollen streams. From Tripassore the army continued its march southwards, and finally entered into cantonments in the neighbourhood of Madras. The campaign, notwithstanding its dazzling triumphs, had yielded no solid advantages. The enemy was still in almost undisputed possession of the country, and the prospect of driving him from it was faint indeed.

While Hyder was personally conducting the campaign in the north of the Carnatic, his troops were not inactive in the south. Shortly after his invasion he had made an incursion into the provinces of Trichinopoly and Tanjore, and subjected the greater part of both to his dominion. In Tanjore, in particular, with the exception of the capital, around which he had for the distance of about twelve miles drawn his usual circle of devastation, he was in undisturbed possession of the whole country, and drew the revenues as regularly as those of Mysore. On the commencement of British hostilities with the Dutch, he immediately concluded a defensive treaty with them, by which reciprocal operation was stipulated, and in return for the cession of Nagore and other possessions of the Company to the Dutch, and the promise of providing for the security of Negapatam, they undertook to assist him in maintaining his ground in Tanjore, and eventually in obtaining possession of its capital. Previous to this treaty the Company had made considerable exertions to collect a field-force in Tanjore, and given the command of it to Colonel Braithwaite, who as soon as he felt himself strong enough to leave the capital in which he had been shut up, attempted the capture of some of the nearest posts. In two of these attempts he failed, and having been wounded, was obliged to resign the command to Colonel Nixon, who, by means of reinforcements, was enabled to take the field at the head of 3500 men. By placing his officers and sergeants at the head of the forlorn hope he captured two forts, but sustained so heavy a loss that he hesitated to attempt a third. Meanwhile, Colonel Braithwaite had recovered, and having resumed the command, attacked a body of Hyder’s troops double his own in number, and drove them in disorder and with great loss from a fortified position.

Sir Hector Monro, who had been acting as second in command to Sir Eyre Coote, and doing good service, had retired soon after the battle of Pollilore on the plea of ill health, and proceeded to Madras, with the view of sailing for England. It was believed that the ostensible cause of his retirement was not the real one, and that he had taken offence at a harsh answer given by Sir Eyre Coote to some advice which he tendered him. Being thus still fit for duty he had easily been persuaded by Lord Macartney to assume the direction of the siege of Negapatam. The requisite equipments for this purpose were embarked in the fleet under Sir Edward Hughes, and arrived at Nagore, a few miles northward, on the 20th of October, 1781. To assist in the siege, Colonel Braithwaite, after returning to his command in the city of Tanjore, gave his disposable troops to Colonel Nixon, who arrived on the 21st, and made a successful attack on the enemy’s troops when evacuating Nagore. The siege of Negapatam was afterwards conducted with much skill and spirit. On the 3rd of November the trenches were opened, and the place capitulated. What added to the honour of the capture was the disproportion between besiegers and besieged. The former never exceeded 4000; the latter, including a number of Hyder’s troops who had joined according to treaty, were not less than 8000. Immediately after the surrender, the monsoon set in, and placed the fleet in imminent danger; but towards the close of the year the weather permitted the embarkation of marines and sailors, who had been landed to assist in the siege, and the fleet having on board a detachment of volunteer sepoys and artillerymen, sailed for Ceylon, when it effected the capture of Trincomalee.

The period to which Vellore had been provisioned having expired, Sir Eyre Coote, though he had previously intimated his intention to resign, and was still suffering from illness, determined to undertake its relief in person. On the 2d of January, 1782, he joined the army, now encamped a little beyond Tripassore; on the morning of the 5th, when his servant entered, he found him senseless. He had been struck by apoplexy. The Madras government, anxious to save so valuable a life, urged his immediate conveyance to Madras, and were not a little astonished to learn that on the very next morning, the 6th, having so far recovered as to admit of his being carried by palanquin, he had started with the army for Vellore. On the 9th, Hyder made his appearance, but found all the arrangements so skilfully made, that his meditated attack was abandoned, and on the 11th, the very day which the commandant had declared to be the last on which he could hold out, Vellore was victualled anew for other three months. The army commenced its return on the 13th, and Hyder, by the boldness of his movements, seemed determined to risk a general action. It proved only a feint, and Tripassore was reached without incident.

Malabar had also been the scene of military operations. In 1780, when the war was just commenced, Hyder detached a force for the reduction of Tellicherry, which was now the only possession of the Company on that coast. This place, though very imperfectly fortified and garrisoned, was enabled by timely aid from Bombay to make a protracted defence, and by the arrival of reinforcements under Major Abington, on the 18th of January, 1782, to raise the siege by a brilliant achievement—the capture of all the enemy’s cannon, amounting to sixty pieces, all their baggage, equipments, and above 1200 prisoners, including the Mysorean general, Sirdar Khan.

This success of the Company on the Malabar coast was counterbalanced by a disaster in Tanjore. Here Colonel Braithwaite had succeeded in re-establishing the rajah’s authority. Unfortunately, he gave credit to intelligence which had been given solely for the purpose of misleading, and remained encamped with 2000 men on a plain, till, unconscious even of the enemy’s approach, he allowed himself to be entirely surrounded. He attempted to retreat, and was ably seconded by his officers and troops. All, however, proved unavailing, and he shared a fate very similar to that of Colonel Baillie. M. Lally, whose fortune it was to be present on both occasions, again exerted himself to arrest the carnage and give succour to the wounded.

While gains and losses were thus counterbalancing each other on both sides, all the combatants were giving way to gloomy anticipations. The British were aware that a strong body of French troops might soon be expected, and reflecting on how little advantage they had yet gained in the struggle, knew not how they would be able to maintain it at all, when, in addition to Hyder’s immense numerical superiority, they would be obliged to cope with some of the best-disciplined troops of Europe. Hyder, on the other hand, imputing their long-delayed arrival to mere evasion, had almost ceased to hope for it. At the same time he knew that the confederacy had already been broken up. Nizam Ali had been bought off by the restoration of Guntoor, and Moodajee Bhonsla by a large sum of money; while Mahadajee Scindia had been induced to withdraw, partly by liberal promises, and partly by the dread of being obliged to carry on the war in the centre of his own territories, and at his own cost. The Mahrattas of Poonah, too, were on the eve of concluding peace with the Company. Hyder, while pondering over these events and his future prospects, is said to have thus expressed himself to his minister Poonaea:—“Between me and the English there were perhaps mutual grounds of dissatisfaction, but no sufficient cause for war, and I might have made them my friends in spite of Mahomed Ali, the most treacherous of men. The defeat of many Baillies and Braithwaites will not destroy them. I can ruin their resources by land, but I cannot dry up the sea; and I must be first weary of a war in which I can gain nothing.” The result of his reflections was a determination to abandon his scheme of conquest in the east, concentrate his force, and to devote his attention, first, to the expulsion of the British from the western coast, and afterwards to the preservation of his own dominions. In accordance with these views, he began, in the early part of 1782, to demolish his minor posts in Coromandel, mined the fortifications of Arcot preparatory to blowing them up, sent off all his heavy guns and stores, and forced the inhabitants of the Carnatic who were in his power to emigrate with their flocks and herds to Mysore.

His determination to move to the west was probably precipitated by a general rebellion of the Nairs of Malabar, and of the Rajahs of Bullum and Coorg, whose territories lie along the summits of the Western Ghauts, overlooking that province. Before setting off in person, he despatched three strong detachments, one under Mukhdom Ali to Malabar, another under Woffadar to Coorg, and the third under Sheik Ayaz, generally named in English accounts Hyat Sahib, to Bullum. He was vigorously carrying out his scheme by a thorough spoliation of the Carnatic, and in a few days would have sprung the mines of Arcot and departed, leaving nothing but ruin behind him. Even then his absence would have been a great deliverance, but those who looked for it were not at this time to see it realized. On the 10th of March, 1782, a French force of 3000 men, including a regiment of Africans, landed at Porto Novo, and produced a complete revolution in Hyder’s plans. Having satisfied himself by a personal interview with Admiral Suffrein, and M. Cossigny, who commanded the troops, that a still larger division, under the command of the celebrated Marquis of Bussy, might be expected, he concerted with them the operations that were to be prosecuted in the interval. The most important of these was the reduction of Cuddalore, which was to be used as a French depôt.

The French fleet, consisting of twelve ships of the line and eighteen other ships, chiefly transports, had made the coast considerably to the north of Pulicat, the same day that Sir Edward Hughes, on his return from the capture of Trincomalee, anchored with six ships in the roads of Madras. M. Suffrein, believing that these constituted the whole British fleet, set sail in the hope of being able to surprise it in the open roads, and effect its destruction. Fortunately, three other ships of the line had arrived from England, and Sir Edward Hughes, though still numerically inferior, was not afraid to risk the encounter. M. Suffrein hesitated, and on standing away to the southward, was followed by the British fleet, which succeeded in capturing six transports, one of them the more valuable that it was laden with troops intended for M. Bussy. It was immediately subsequent to this action that the French admiral landed at Porto Novo the troops already mentioned. Afterwards he proceeded to Point de Galle, which had been fixed as the rendezvous of the scattered convoy; while the English admiral sought the opposite extremity of Ceylon, and anchored in the harbour of Trincomalee to repair the damages of his ships, most of them having suffered severely. This done, he returned to Madras early in March.

About the same time with the French armament, another, having the same destination, sailed from England. Both armaments met with misfortunes, but those of the French greatly preponderated. A convoy, carrying the first division of the troops intended for M. Bussy, was captured by Admiral Kempenfelt, in December, 1781, and a second shared the same fate in April, 1782. Both armaments had the Cape of Good Hope for their first destination, the object of the French being to continue that settlement in the hands of the Dutch, their new allies, and that of the British to wrest it from them. Admiral Suffrein arrived first, and anchored in Simon’s Bay, situated in the bottom of False Bay, to the eastward of the Cape. The British squadron, having captured a Dutch ship when nearing the Cape, obtained intelligence which enabled them to capture a number of Dutch Indiamen in Saldanha Bay. As the previous arrival of the French had frustrated the intended attack on Cape Town, Commodore Johnstone returned with the prizes and three frigates to England, and left the remainder of the squadron thus crippled, by being deprived of its frigates, to proceed for Bombay. In making this voyage, a fifty-gun ship, accidentally separated, was taken by the French. The other three ships already mentioned as having joined Sir Edward Hughes in Madras Roads previous to his action, belonged to this squadron. These ships had on board, under General Medows, part of the troops intended to reinforce the Madras army. The other part of the troops intended for the same purpose were employed on the western coast, in consequence of an open rupture between Sir Eyre Coote and Lord Macartney. To this unfortunate quarrel a brief reference must be made.

Sir Eyre Coote’s powers were not well defined. He was commander-in-chief of all the king’s and Company’s troops in India. He was also a member of the supreme council of Bengal, and at the same time, when acting within its territories, a member of the council of Madras. In the latter capacity he had only a single vote, and was bound by the decision of the majority, but in the other capacity, and more especially in that of commander-in-chief, he was not disposed to admit that a subordinate presidency had any right to interfere with him. For a time Lord Macartney left him entirely to his own judgment, and matters went on smoothly; but at last some degree of interference could not be avoided, and a collision took place. When the arrangements for the Dutch captures were made, Sir Eyre Coote was in the field, and was not consulted. He complained of this as an invasion of his constitutional authority as commander-in-chief of all the presidencies. This was rather unreasonable. Another complaint was better founded. Mr. Sullivan, political resident at Tanjore, had a general superintendence of all the southern provinces, and thus became the medium of communication between the two coasts. He was authorized by Lord Macartney to open all his despatches, and send in duplicate only such parts of their contents as might seem to be required. The intervening country was wholly in the hands of the enemy, and the advantage of communicating in this manner was, that while the despatches themselves could not have been transmitted, their substance was copied out on thin paper, inserted in a quill, and forwarded by means of spies, or other secret messengers. Mr. Sullivan in his zeal gave too large an interpretation to Lord Macartney’s permission, and opened despatches addressed to the naval and military commanders at Madras. This practice, however useful it might be, was unjustifiable without express authority; and the admiral, Sir Edward Hughes, joined Sir Eyre Coote in a letter which they addressed to Lord Macartney, complaining of Mr. Sullivan’s conduct, as an illegal assumption of authority which they could not delegate to any man, and much less to a man who must necessarily be uninformed of their intentions and plans. These misunderstandings were embittered by Sir Eyre Coote’s incessant complaint that no proper attention was paid to the wants of the army, and by Lord Macartney’s replies, in which, amidst a superfluity of complimentary language, he threw out insinuations that the army as it was should be capable of much more than was accomplished by it. It is unnecessary to dwell further on this unhappy quarrel.

The importance of preserving Trincomalee, and of covering a convoy of troops and stores from England, induced Sir Edward Hughes to sail in the end of March, 1782, for the northward of Ceylon. M. Suffrein, who also knew of the expected convoy, was equally on the alert, and set sail in the same direction. The hostile fleets came in sight of each other on the 8th of April, fifteen leagues from Trincomalee. The British force consisted of eleven ships, carrying 732 guns, and the French of twelve, carrying 770. After a variety of manœuvres, a sanguinary battle was fought on the 12th, but without any decisive result. Both fleets, too much crippled to renew the action, anchored in sight of each other till the 19th, when the French made sail to repair their damages at Baticolo, in Ceylon, and the British pursued their original destination to Trincomalee. While the hostile fleets were so equally matched, the armies, which depended on their co-operation, could not adopt decisive measures. Hyder was first in motion, and during the absence of the fleets took Cuddalore, which, having only a garrison of 400 sepoys and five artillerymen, yielded without resistance. Though a weak place, its position made it important, and the possession of it gave the French what they had hitherto much wanted, a convenient depôt.

On the 11th of May, Hyder and the French having united their forces, appeared before Permacoil, and Sir Eyre Coote, while hastening to its relief, but retarded by a violent and destructive storm, had the mortification to learn that it had capitulated on the 16th, and that the enemy were advancing on Wandiwash. He hastened forward and offered them battle. Notwithstanding their great numerical superiority, they declined it, and moved off towards Pondicherry. He followed, and found them encamped in a strong position, which had been previously prepared, in the vicinity of Kilianur. Acting on instructions from M. Bussy, to avoid a general action before his arrival, they refused to quit their ground, and as it was impossible to force it, Sir Eyre Coote set off in the direction of Wandiwash. His destination was Arnee, situated twenty-three miles north-west of it. Hyder had made this place his principal depôt for all that remained to him in the lower countries, and Sir Eyre Coote had determined to make a dash at it. It was too strong to be taken by a sudden assault, but Captain Flint, at Wandiwash, had for some time been bargaining for its surrender by treachery. Even should this fail, an advance threatening it seemed the most promising method of drawing the enemy from his strong position at Kilianur. Such, indeed, was the result. The very evening on which the British army departed, Hyder detached Tippoo to proceed by forced marches, for the purpose of throwing a strong reinforcement into Arnee, and followed himself the following morning with his allies, whose instructions did not allow them to accompany him.

About eight o’clock on the 2d of June, when Sir Eyre Coote was preparing to encamp, after a short march, near Arnee, a cannonade, brisk but distant, was opened on both his front and rear. A series of skilful and admirably executed manœuvres, for the purpose of at once protecting the baggage and closing with the enemy, produced a desultory struggle rather than a battle, which terminated a little before sunset, with the capture from the enemy of one gun and eleven tumbrils and ammunition carts. With cavalry, a long train of retreating artillery would have been secured. As usual, the want of depôts or any means of commanding food made it impossible to follow up the victory. The surrender of Arnee by treachery, and the capture of it by surprise or force, being now deemed hopeless, Sir Eyre Coote moved against the enemy on the 4th; but Hyder, having no wish for a new encounter, easily eluded it, and even succeeded by an ambuscade in cutting off 166 Europeans, and capturing fifty-four horses and two guns. This achievement so elated him after his recent defeats, that on his return to camp he ordered a salute, as a demonstration of victory. Climate and fatigue had produced so much sickness among the Europeans, that Sir Eyre Coote deemed it necessary again to retire. After halting four days at Wandiwash to refresh, he resumed his march, and on the 18th of June arrived in the vicinity of Madras.

Vellore was again in extremity, and the commandant had intimated his inability to hold out beyond the 1st of July. Sir Eyre Coote having declared that no relief could be obtained from the army, Lord Macartney taxed his own ingenuity, and devised a scheme which owed its success to its extreme improbability. While Hyder’s attention was occupied with the movements subsequent to the battle of Arnee, his lordship prepared a convoy of 500 bullocks, 24 carts, and 2000 coolies, loaded with provisions, and gave them an escort of 100 irregular sepoys, under the command of an ensign. They moved on the 6th of June to the skirts of the hills, and being there joined by a detachment of 1500 polygars, succeeded by forced marches in depositing the convoy safe in Vellore. Hyder, who had not even suspected the movement, took the only revenge in his power, by intercepting the escort and compelling it to surrender at discretion.

M. Suffrein had set his heart on the possession of Negapatam, as the best depôt for the future operations of his countrymen, and took the first opportunity of bringing his squadron before it. Sir Edward Hughes immediately sailed from Madras to encounter him. The strength of the fleets was nearly equal, and the battle which took place proved indecisive. The French, however, so far acknowledged defeat that they abandoned their designs on Negapatam. They were never able to resume them, as the Madras government, by a very doubtful policy, without consulting Sir Eyre Coote, caused the place to be destroyed. After the action of Negapatam the British admiral made preparations for the revictualling of Trincomalee. Before he could reach it M. Suffrein had anticipated him. At an appointed rendezvous on the coast of Ceylon he had obtained a reinforcement of two ships of the line, a frigate, and eight transports full of troops, and hastened off to Trincomalee, where he landed 2400 men, and pushed the siege with so much vigour as to induce a speedy surrender. The captors were scarcely in possession when Sir Edward Hughes made his appearance, and had the mortification to see the French colours flying as well on shore as in the roads. The French fleet now mustered fifteen sail of the line; the British, with only twelve, did not hesitate to meet them, and another battle was fought without capture. The British fleet returned to Madras before proceeding to Bombay to refit; the French fleet to Cuddalore, where it landed the troops and military stores which had been received in transports. M. Suffrein afterwards sailed back to Trincomalee, but deemed its shelter so imperfect, that he took shelter during the monsoon at Acheen in Sumatra. On the 15th of October, the day on which he left Cuddalore, a hurricane drove the British fleet from Madras Roads, and destroyed a great number of country ships laden with grain, intended to avert an impending famine.

The subsequent operations of the campaign were of a desultory character. Hyder’s attention was chiefly directed to his detachments in Malabar. The French, too feeble to act separately, obeyed their instructions by acting on the defensive. Sir Eyre Coote, estimating their military prowess perhaps above its real worth, was more than usually cautious, and attempted nothing more important than the relief of Vellore, which he effected in August, by supplying it with provisions sufficient to last till the 1st of March, 1783. In the course of the campaign Hyder made some approaches to negotiation, through Colonel Braithwaite, who was a prisoner in his camp. He afterwards sent an envoy to the British camp, without giving him any definite proposals. Nothing can prove more strikingly the extent to which the quarrel between the civil and military authorities had been carried, than the fact that when Lord Macartney made official inquiries concerning the nature of Hyder’s communications, Sir Eyre Coote declined to satisfy him. This was a state of matters which could not last; and accordingly, Sir Eyre Coote, on the plea of declining health—a plea for which, unfortunately, there was only too good foundation—resigned his command to Major-general Stuart, an officer who was next him in seniority, and had lost a leg at the battle of Pollilore.

On the Malabar coast, the relief of Tellicherry by Major Abington, and the destruction of the Mysorean army under Sirdar Khan, in January, 1782, had been followed by the reduction of Calicut, and the arrival of 1000 men from Bombay under Colonel Humberstone, who, as senior officer, having assumed the command of the whole troops, including those under Major Abington, and been joined by a body of Nairs anxious to throw off Hyder’s yoke, moved about twenty miles south of Calicut, and near Tricalore came in contact with the detachment under Mukhdom Ali. An action took place on a site which the Mysorean general had injudiciously chosen, and the result was that he lost his own life, and more than 1500 of his troops were killed, wounded, or taken prisoners. After an unavailing pursuit of the fleeing enemy, Colonel Humberstone turned southward, intending to attempt the capture of Palghautcherry, situated on an affluent of the Ponany, about sixty miles from the town of that name, at its mouth, and sixty-eight miles south-east of Calicut. A violent storm, which dispersed his boats, spoiling the provisions carried in them, and damaged his ammunition, frustrated his design, and he marched his troops to the towns of Tannoor and Ponany. The enemy rallied at Ramgerry, a place to the eastward, nearly equidistant from these two towns, and becoming troublesome, were attacked and defeated with the loss of two guns. The state of the weather induced Colonel Humberstone to seek better shelter, and he returned to pass the monsoon at Calicut. His force had been intended to reinforce the Madras army, but as circumstances had led to his landing at Calicut, Sir Eyre Coote, though disappointed, placed him under the orders of the Bombay government, and strongly recommended such a powerful diversion in the west, as might have the effect of obliging Hyder to move in that direction. Before this could be effected, Colonel Humberstone was again in motion, to execute his favourite design on Palghautcherry. The Ponany allowed his stores to be carried thirty miles inland by boats. At Ramgerry, of which he had obtained possession, he left his battering train and heavy equipments in charge of a battalion of sepoys, and marched with eight light pieces and the remainder of his force to reconnoitre at Palghautcherry, before undertaking to attack it. He found it far stronger than he supposed; and while returning westward to the ground he had first occupied near the place, was attacked by a sortie of the garrison, which cost him nearly the whole of his provisions, and produced a panic among the Nairs. He fell back on a small place called Mangaricotta, but did not reach it before he had sustained a formidable attack, and suffered most severely from rains, which fell from the 21st to the 24th of October, with as much severity as during any period of the monsoon. He was still at Mangaricotta on the 10th of November, when he received orders from Bombay to return to the coast. He marched without delay, but must have been much retarded, as it was the 20th of November when he reached Ponany, closely followed by Tippoo and Lally, who, with a superior force, had been endeavouring by forced marches to overtake him.

Colonel Macleod, sent by Sir Eyre Coote, having previously arrived, immediately assumed the command, and began to strengthen his position at Ponany by some field-works. Before these were finished, Tippo made a bold and determined attack upon them before day, but was repulsed at the point of the bayonet. This unsuccessful attack cost the Mysoreans 100 killed and about 1000 wounded. The British loss in killed and wounded, was eighty-seven, of whom nearly a half were Europeans. On the 20th of November, the day succeeding this attack, Sir Edward Hughes, making the voyage to Bombay, came in sight of Ponany, and on learning the state of affairs offered either to embark the troops or leave a reinforcement of 450 Europeans. Colonel Macleod preferred the latter, and was able thereafter to muster in all 800 Europeans, 1000 sepoys, and 1200 peons of Travancore. Tippoo, after his repulse, retired to some distance, to await the arrival of his heavy equipments, and resume the attack on Ponany. Suddenly, on the 12th December, the light troops, which had continued to watch the British position, became invisible, and subsequent reports made it certain that the whole Mysorean troops were moving eastward by forced marches. Hyder was dead.

This event, which had been preceded by a marked decline of health, was immediately caused by a disease of a rather singular nature. The first indication of it is a swelling behind the neck, or the upper portion of the back, and it is hence named by the Mahometans, sertun or kercheng, “the crab,” from an imaginary resemblance of the swelling to the figure of that animal; while the Hindoos call it raj-pora, “the royal sore or boil,” from its being supposed to be peculiar to persons of rank. Hindoo, Mahometan, and French physicians tried in vain to arrest its progress, and Hyder expired in the camp on the 7th of December, 1782. His two leading ministers, the Brahmins Poorna and Kishen Row, when his recovery became improbable, had agreed to conceal the death, as the only means by which they could keep the army together, until the arrival of Tippoo. They accordingly placed the body in a large chest filled with beer, a powder composed of various fragrant substances, and sent it off in the same way as valuable plunder was wont to be sent off to Seringapatam. The confidential servants who accompanied it, were ordered to deposit it in the tomb of Hyder’s father at Colar, where it remained till it was afterwards removed to a splendid mausoleum in the capital. Successive couriers having been despatched to intimate the event to Tippoo, all the business of the state and of the camp went on as usual in the name of Hyder. The principal officers of the army and the foreign envoys made their daily inquiries, and were assured that although extremely weak he was slowly recovering. The real fact, however, began to be whispered, and two ambitious chiefs conspired to give the nominal sovereignty to Abd-ul-Kerreem, Hyder’s second son, who was of weak intellect, while they should retain the real power in their own hands; but this conspiracy was so quickly and effectually put down, that the deception was still kept up.

On the sixteenth day after Hyder’s death, when the army began to march in the direction by which Tippo was expected, the royal palanquin with the accustomed retinue issued at the usual hour, and due silence was maintained, not to disturb the illustrious patient supposed to be within. A few marches brought the army to Chucklamoor on the Pennar, which had been selected as the place of rendezvous, because it was nearly equidistant from Cuddalore and the Changama Pass, and was thus conveniently situated for communicating both with the east and the west.

Tippo received his first despatches on the 11th, and was in full march the next morning. His arrival in the camp took place on the 2d of January, 1783. In the evening he gave audience to all the principal officers, receiving them seated on a plain carpet, because he wished it to be understood that grief would not yet allow him to ascend the musnud. This affectation deceived no one, and was soon laid aside. The Mysorean army at the time of Hyder’s death, exclusive of garrisons and provincial troops, mustered about 90,000 men; the amount in the treasury at Seringapatam was three crores of rupees (£3,000,000 sterling) in cash, besides accumulated plunder in jewels and valuables, to such an extent as almost defied computation.

Shortly after Tippoo’s arrival, he was joined by a French force, consisting of 900 Europeans, 250 Caffres and Topasses, 2000 sepoys, and 22 pieces of artillery. The course of operations to be pursued was forthwith discussed. The French proposed that the capture of Madras should first be attempted, but Tippoo took advantage of the non-arrival of M. Bussy, in whose absence the French, as they had themselves repeatedly declared, were restricted to defensive operations. His plan, therefore, was to leave a respectable division of his army under Seyed Sahib, to co-operate with M. Bussy as soon as he should arrive, and be prepared to assume the offensive, and to set out with the remainder of his army to the west, where the diversion made by the British and their rapid successes demanded all his attention. Before following him on this expedition, and giving a narrative of the events which led to it, it will be necessary to return to the Coromandel coast, and attend to some extraordinary proceedings in which the civil and military authorities of the Madras presidency took opposite sides.

As soon as Hyder’s death was rumoured, the Madras government urged General Stuart, their new commander-in-chief, to take advantage of the confusion which it might be expected to produce in the enemy’s camp, more especially in the absence of the heir apparent, and march immediately to the scene of action, even though his preparations should not be complete. The answer he returned was that “he did not believe that Hyder was dead, and, if he were, the army would be ready for every action in proper time.” A few days after, when the rumour was converted into certainty, and there was reason to believe that the anticipated confusion in the enemy’s camp was in some measure realized, the government repeated their urgency, and were answered by an expression of astonishment that “there could be so little reflection as to talk of undertakings against the enemy.” These answers were neither courteous nor reasonable, as General Stuart had previously declared, that “upon any real emergency the army might and must move, and would be ready to do so.” The truth is, that in being appointed commander-in-chief, he meant to imitate Sir Eyre Coote, and as unskilful imitators often do, stretched his claims to prerogative even farther than that distinguished general, with all the extraordinary powers conferred upon him, ventured to carry them. His idea was, that in the management of the army he was entitled to exercise his own judgment, and was not bound to listen to instructions from any quarter. He was a king’s officer, the Company was only a trading corporation; and he made no secret of his opinion, that though they were his paymasters he was not at all accountable to them, at least in regard to the troops belonging to the crown. In opposition to these extravagant views, Lord Macartney lodged a minute, in which he justly observed—“His majesty has been graciously pleased to send out troops to the assistance of the Company; he has expressly declared them to be for their service, and they are actually in their pay. The king has formed regulations for their interior discipline, and has reserved to himself to fill up the vacancies which may happen in them; but how they are to be employed, and when and where their services are to be performed, must depend on those whom they are sent to serve. The authority to conduct all military operations lodged in the Company’s representatives, cannot be separated from the authority over the troops which are to execute them.” In another part of the same minute, he says, “The commander-in-chief of your forces, in addition to the power and influence which that station confers, asserts and maintains, in a separate capacity, an independent authority over the king’s troops, which now constitute the principal strength of your army, and avows obedience to another authority, superior and preferable to that which he owes to your representatives. We conceive that there is but a slight transition from refusal to employ the king’s troops upon a requisition from the civil government, to the employing them without a requisition; and we submit to you to what uses such an authority might be applied and where the consequence might end.” The soundness of this argument is unquestionable. The practical application of it, however, is not without difficulty, and it may be questioned whether Lord Macartney did not push it to an extreme, when, in the exercise of his “authority to direct all military operations,” he proffered military advice to Sir Eyre Coote, and directed some other operations of which an account remains to be given.

General Stuart, who had rashly and thrasonically pledged himself, that “upon any real emergency the army might and must move, and would be ready to do so,” was not able or did not choose to put it in motion till the 15th of January, 1783, exactly thirteen days after Tippo had arrived in the camp, and been peaceably proclaimed. Even then he only moved with provisions to the intermediate depôt of Tripassore, and did not fairly start on the campaign till three weeks later, when of course all the advantages which might have been taken of Hyder’s death had been thrown away. This campaign Lord Macartney undertook to direct, and, as might have been anticipated from his professional ignorance, did not direct wisely. He had already, contrary to the advice of Sir Eyre Coote, demolished Negapatam, and now proceeded, contrary to the same advice, but with the concurrence of his new commander-in-chief, to demolish the two forts of Carangoly and Wandiwash. This system of demolition was adopted on the ground that these places could not be successfully defended, and yet no sooner were they destroyed than the folly of the proceeding became apparent. On Tippo’s departure to the west they were in no danger from the enemy, and would on the contrary have furnished important bases for future operations, defensive and aggressive. The greater part of February, devoted to these demolitions, was thus spent in doing mischief. The only instance in which a better spirit was manifested was in the vicinity of Wandiwash, where General Stuart offered battle to the united forces of the French and the Mysoreans, and they declined it. The only operation of any consequence in March, was the re-victualling of Vellore. This was effected without interruption, as Tippo had already ascended the western passes, after having destroyed the works of Arcot, and every other post of any consequence, except Arnee, which was left as a depôt for the division of troops left behind under Seyed Sahib.

During the absence of Sir Edward Hughes at Bombay, M. Suffrein had, on the 19th of January, 1783, made his appearance at the head of the Bay of Bengal, and captured a large number of vessels laden with rice for Madras, which was now suffering all the horrors of famine. Fortunately a still larger number of vessels had previously been despatched, but their supplies, though sufficient for the army, left little surplus for a crowded population, largely increased beyond its usual amount by fugitives driven in from the surrounding country by Hyder’s devastations. It was therefore necessary to have recourse to the extreme measure of expelling the great mass of the natives, and sending them northwards, chiefly to Nellore, where the ravages of war had not been felt. The misery thus inflicted must have been great, but appears to have been far less than was endured by those whom they left behind. Burke’s description, in continuance of the passage already quoted from his celebrated speech on the Nabob of Arcot’s debts, is believed not to be overdrawn:—“The alms of the settlement, in this dreadful exigency, were certainly liberal, and all was done by charity that private charity could do; but it was a people in beggary—it was a nation which stretched out its hands for food. For months together these creatures of sufferance, whose very excess and luxury in their most plenteous days had fallen short of the allowance of our austerest fasts, silent, patient, resigned, without sedition or disturbance, almost without complaint, perished by a hundred a day in the streets of Madras; every day seventy at least laid their bodies in the streets, or on the glacis of Tanjore, and expired of famine in the granary of India.”

Had M. Suffrein, in proceeding southwards, looked into Madras, matters would have been still worse, for he could not have failed to capture or destroy a great number of provision and other merchant ships; but partly from dread of Sir Edward Hughes, who might possibly be anchored there on his return from Bombay, and partly in the hope of finding M. Bussy at Trincomalee, the place of rendezvous, he hastened on for that port. Here he was joined by M. Bussy with the last reinforcements from the Isle of France, in the beginning of March, and immediately set sail for Cuddalore. Having landed the troops and their long-expected commander, he returned to Trincomalee to refit, and on the evening of the 10th of April, a few hours after entering its harbour, had the mortification to see Sir Edward Hughes with his fleet pursuing their course to Madras. M. Bussy must have been still more mortified when he found, that in consequence of the capture of convoys by the British, and the departure of one of his regiments, under M. Cossigny, for the west with Tippoo, how miserably short his whole force fell of his original calculations. The Madras government were of course proportionably elated, and immediately on the arrival of Sir Edward Hughes, determined to lose no time in carrying out their long-meditated attack on Cuddalore. All this time there was an immediate expectation of the arrival of Sir Eyre Coote. He had improved in health, obtained powers adequate to his wishes from the governor and council of Bengal, as the supreme government, and had announced his approaching return to resume the command. For this purpose he embarked with a large supply of money in the Company’s armed ship Resolution, and towards the end of the voyage, was chased for two days by some French ships of the line. His agitation and anxiety, which kept him on deck night and day, were too much for a frame broken down both by age and disease, and he died on the 28th of April, two days after the vessel had safely reached Madras. Grief for the loss of so distinguished a soldier could not but be universal, and was fully manifested by all classes; but it has been said that the melancholy event was the means of preventing a collision which might have been attended with serious consequences. Lord Macartney, who, on Sir Eyre Coote’s departure, had assumed the full exercise of what he conceived to be his legal powers, was not disposed to place them again in abeyance, and had resolved to contest the right of the supreme council to confer something like a military dictatorship on any individual, however eminent, within the limits of the Madras presidency. The death of Sir Eyre Coote rendered it unnecessary to decide this very important question, but the known determination of Lord Macartney to have raised it, probably increased the marked estrangement which had already taken place between his lordship and the governor-general, and of which some striking manifestations will yet be seen.

On the 21st of April, five days before Sir Eyre Coote’s arrival, General Stuart, who had returned with his army to the vicinity of Madras, commenced his march towards Cuddalore. From the state of feeling between him and the governor, little harmony was to be expected, and accordingly we find his lordship complaining that the army had occupied forty days, at the average of less than three miles a day, in performing the distance of twelve ordinary marches, and the general sneering at theory, and declaring that he had advanced as fast as was practically compatible with his means of transport. The fort of Cuddalore forms a quadrangle of unequal sides, inclosed by an indifferent rampart and ditch. Each angle has a bastion, but there are no outworks, except an advanced one at the north-east. Woody heights, called the Bandapollam Hills, embrace the western face and south-western angle at varying distances from two to four miles, the intervening space being occupied by rice fields. About a mile and a half to the north are the ruins of Fort St. David, situated on a peninsula formed by a small stream and the mouth of the Pennar. Along the eastern face runs an estuary, leaving a narrow strip of land between it and the sea. General Stuart, after arriving within a march of Cuddalore, made a circuit behind the Bandapollam Hills, and took up a position about two miles south, with his left resting on them, his centre fronting the north, and his right towards the estuary. M. Bussy took up an intermediate position between the British and Cuddalore, with his left on the estuary, and his right thrown a little back, so as to rest on a gentle eminence where the rice fields commenced.

The British, who had arrived on the 7th of June, were employed till the 13th in arranging the landing of stores and other preparations preliminary to more serious operations. M. Bussy was meanwhile active in strengthening his position by means of field-works. These becoming more and more formidable every day, it was determined in a council of war to attack them, and Colonel Kelly, at the head of a division, set out on the 13th, long before daylight, to turn the extreme right of some subsidiary works extending across the rice fields, now dry, to the Bandapollam Hills, and occupied by Mysoreans. These scarcely waited the attack, which was made between four and five o’clock, and fled leaving seven guns behind them. Subsequently, about half-past eight o’clock, a body of grenadiers under Colonel Cathcart, and the pickets under Colonel Stuart of the 78th, attempted, in combination with the troops under Colonel Kelly, to turn the right of the main position, but were received with such a fire of grape and musketry, that Colonel Stuart, who commanded the attack, found it necessary after heavy loss to desist and place his men under cover. The greatest resistance from the enemy had been experienced at a salient work on the right of his main position, and a third attack to carry it and the trenches adjoining was made by two columns sent forward for that purpose under Colonel Bruce. The troops moved forward under a still heavier fire than that which the second attack had encountered, and one flank company of the 101st actually penetrated within the trenches. Unfortunately they were not supported as they ought to have been by the remainder of their regiment, and were driven back, with the whole column to which they belonged, amid frightful carnage, the French, besides plying them with grape and musketry, issuing forth from their trenches and charging them with fury. Colonel Stuart, who had been watching his opportunity, seized the moment when the enemy, in the eagerness of pursuit, had bared their works of defenders, and by a determined attack carried everything before him. He had driven the French right upon its centre, and gained possession of nearly a half of the line of works, when his progress was arrested by fresh troops and superior numbers. He was able, however, to retire slowly to a position now strengthened by the works which he had carried, and his success was evinced, not more by the capture of thirteen guns and of the key of the contested position, than by the retirement of the French during the night within the walls of Cuddalore. The whole affair had been most sanguinary. Though only a comparatively small portion of both armies was engaged, the British computed their loss at 1016; that of the French was probably a third less.

On the same day when this affair took place, M. Suffrein made his appearance in the offing, and Sir Edward Hughes, who was anchored near Porto Novo, eleven miles to the southward, advanced to prevent the communication of the enemy’s fleet with the besieged. The British fleet was suffering dreadfully from scurvy. From the 2d of May to the 7th of June, 1120 men, and in the course of another fortnight, about 1700 more were rendered unfit for duty. In point of ships Sir Edward Hughes was superior, for he had seventeen ships carrying 1202 guns, whereas M. Suffrein had only twelve ships carrying 1018. Crippled as he was by the absence of so many effective men, Sir Edward Hughes was scarcely a match for his antagonist, but seems to have regarded it as a point of honour not to decline the challenge. On the 16th he weighed for the purpose of bringing the enemy to close action, but somehow or other, owing either to better fortune, or superior manoeuvring, M. Suffrein was seen, as soon as the morning of the 17th dawned, riding at anchor off Cuddalore, while the British fleet, which on the previous day occupied the same anchorage, had entirely disappeared. The blockade of Cuddalore, on which the British army had calculated, was thus raised; but this advantage, great as it was, did not satisfy M. Bussy, who, calculating on the interval that must elapse before the besiegers, who had begun to make regular approaches, could threaten an assault, stripped his garrison of 1200 men and sent them on board the fleet, in the hope that M. Suffrein would thus have little difficulty in obtaining some advantage which would effectually cripple his antagonist. Deducting from the British fleet the men lost to it, at least temporarily, by scurvy, and adding to the French fleet Bussy’s reinforcement, their relative strength, compared with what it was on the 2d of May, gave a balance against the former, and in favour of the latter, of not less than 3000 men. After a series of manœuvres the fleets met on the 20th, and an action took place. The British admiral wished to come to close quarters; the French admiral avoided it, and kept up a distant cannonade which served his purpose better, and cost his antagonist in the course of three hours, 532 men. Night separated the combatants. On the following morning Sir Edward Hughes would still have renewed the fight, but on finding that only another distant cannonade was intended, and that his fleet had already suffered so severely as to be completely crippled and in a most inefficient state, he was obliged to adopt the mortifying resolution of sailing away for the roads of Madras, and leave at least the name of victory to his antagonist, who, on the 23d, resumed his anchorage off Cuddalore, and landed, not only the reinforcement lent him, but aid from the fleet to the amount of 2400 men.

M. Bussy now feeling his strength, made a vigorous sortie with his best troops. It took place on the morning of the 25th, while it was still quite dark, but was repulsed with the loss to the French of about 450 men, and scarcely any loss at all to the British. Among the wounded prisoners was a young French sergeant, whose interesting appearance attracted the attention of Colonel Wangenheim, in command of the Hanoverian troops, who ordered him to be taken to his own tents, where he was kindly treated till his recovery and release. Many years after, when the French army under Bernadotte, the future King of Sweden, entered Hanover, Colonel (now General) Wangenheim attended his levee. On being presented, Bernadotte thus accosted him, “You have served, I understand, in India?” “Yes.” “At Cuddalore?” “Yes.” “Do you recollect of taking a wounded sergeant under your protection?” The circumstance had escaped General Wangenheim’s memory, but after a little he recollected it, and said, “He was a very fine young man, and I should like to hear of his welfare.” “I was myself that young man,” rejoined Bernadotte, “and will omit no means within my power of testifying my gratitude.”

The force under General Stuart had never been adequate to the siege of Cuddalore. After M. Bussy’s reinforcement from the fleet, the besieged out-numbered the besiegers, who were gradually wasting away by casualties and sickness, while their labours were continually increasing. They had never been able to invest the place, and could not be said to possess an inch of ground beyond that on which they were encamped. General Stuart, shortly after setting out for Cuddalore, had sent orders to Colonel Fullarton, who was employed with a force south of the Coleroon, to cross that river for the purpose of joining him, should the course of the siege render it expedient. He had also repeatedly and urgently demanded succours from Madras, but obtaining no answer, and having learned that his order to Colonel Fullarton had been countermanded, he intimated his belief that the government had abandoned him to his fate, and his determination to abide the result. It could not have been long doubtful. Bussy was not the man to allow himself to be cooped up within walls by an inferior force, and had determined to attack the British in their camp. “The retreat of the English army, with the loss of its battering train and equipments, is,” says Colonel Wilks, “the most favourable result that could possibly have been anticipated from a continuation of hostilities.” Fortunately at this very crisis, hostilities ceased in consequence of the arrival of a frigate from Madras bearing a flag of truce, and having on board commissioners deputed by that government to intimate to M. Bussy that peace was concluded between Great Britain and France.

On the Malabar coast and in several other districts of the west, various operations had taken place subsequent to Tippo’s sudden departure, on receiving intimation of his father’s death. The Bombay government, on hearing of Colonel Humberstone’s retreat to Ponany, and Tippo’s appearance before that place in full force, determined to despatch their commander-in-chief, Brigadier-general Matthews, to its relief, with as many troops as could be immediately embarked, and to reinforce him as speedily as possible with other troops. At Goa, General Matthews, having learned that Ponany was no longer in danger, resolved to make a descent at Rajahmundroog, situated at the mouth of the Mirjee, and about fifteen miles N.N.W. of Honawar or Onore, situated at the mouth of the Honawar. Could he succeed in capturing these two places, he would be able to command the whole of the fertile country between the two rivers; he would secure his rear and obtain supplies for his army during a meditated advance on Bednore, which, though originally Mahratta territory, was now incorporated with Hyder’s other conquests. Rajahmundroog was easily carried by assault, and the ships were despatched to Ponany for the force there, now commanded by Colonel Macleod. Shortly after his arrival, Honawar was also taken, and along with it five ships of war of fifty to sixty-four guns, and many others of smaller dimensions, forming part of the fleet which it had been one great object of Hyder’s ambition to construct.

Intelligence of Hyder’s death having meanwhile reached Bombay, that government sent positive orders to General Matthews, if the intelligence should prove true, to relinquish all other operations, and “make an immediate push to take possession of Bednore.” At this very time he was pursuing a safe plan for making “a push” at Bednore. The fall of Honawar and Rajahmundroog had secured his rear, as well as a fertile district from which he could draw supplies; and he was preparing for the capture of Mirjee or Mirjan, which would have opened a way to Bednore by the passes of Bilguy. On receiving the positive orders, he resolved to obey them to the very letter, though disclaiming all responsibility for consequences, and declaring that the force at his disposal was totally inadequate to the task assigned it. Precipitately abandoning his own plans, he embarked his troops, and sailing southward, landed at Cundapoor as the nearest point to Bednore. After capturing Cundapoor with some difficulty, in consequence of the resistance of a small field-force forming part of the detachments sent by Hyder from Coromandel, he started for the mountains, but with such imperfect means of conveyance, that the twenty-five miles of low country intervening between them and the coast occupied three days. The ascent of the Ghauts, forming a rugged acclivity of seven miles, presented more serious difficulties. But they yielded one after another; and General Matthews found himself, on the 27th of January, 1783, in the possession of the fort of Hyder-glur on the top of the Ghauts, though it mounted twenty-five pieces of cannon, was well constructed, and had outworks defended by 17,000 men. In taking this place, his loss in killed and wounded amounted only to about fifty. Bednore or Hydernuggur was still fourteen miles distant, but it yielded still more easily than the hill-forts. Sheik Ayaz, or Hyat Sahib, as he was usually called, after retiring into the citadel with only 1350 men, sent Captain Donald Campbell, who had been taken prisoner, to propose terms. These were, “to deliver the fort and country, and to remain under the English as he (Sheik Ayaz) was under the nabob (Hyder).” The terms were of course agreed to, and the conquest of Bednore was completed.

General Matthews, unable to account for his astonishing success, breaks out, in his official despatch, dated 28th January, 1783, into the following exclamation:—“To what can it be owing, but to the divine will, that my army, without provisions or musket ammunition, should have our wants supplied as we advanced; for without the enemy’s rice, and powder and ball, we must have stopped until the army could be furnished!” Having thus very properly attributed his success to its primary cause, he deems it necessary, notwithstanding, to consider how far it may have been produced by the instrumentality of secondary causes, and finds none worthy of mention, except “panic.” It never seems to have occurred to him, that he was at least as much indebted to treachery. Sheik Ayaz stood high in the favour of Hyder, and for this reason was hated by Tippoo, who had no sooner secured his succession, than he sent a secret order to the officer next in authority to Ayaz, to put him to death and assume the government. Ayaz intercepted the order, and immediately made arrangements for surrendering to the British. This was the real cause of the success which seemed to General Matthews so mysterious. The surrender of Bednore was followed by that of most of its dependencies. Among these was Anantpoor, situated about twenty-five miles N.N.E. of the capital, and thirty miles northwest of Sheemoga. Its garrison and inhabitants had sent in their submission, and a British detachment was marching to take possession of it, when Lutf Ali Beg, one of Tippoo’s officers at Sheemoga, learning how matters stood, despatched 300 peons under a trusty officer to supersede the commandant, and keep possession of the place. The British troops, on approaching the place, sent forward a flag of truce. It was fired at, and in retaliation the British having immediately assaulted the place, and taken it, put the garrison to the sword. Still worse atrocities were laid to their charge; but Colonel Wilks, after a diligent use of “the ample means of inquiry within his reach,” pronounces the tragical tale of 400 beautiful women “all bleeding with the wounds of the bayonet, and either already dead or expiring in each other’s arms,” to be in all its parts “destitute of every foundation in truth.”

On the 9th of March, Mangalore, situated on the coast about fifty-five miles S.S.W. of Bednore, surrendered. General Matthews, who had descended to direct the operations of the siege, and paid a visit to Bombay, where, instead of the former positive orders, only general instructions for his guidance were given him, returned to Bednore to defend his new conquests, which were seriously threatened. Large bodies of the enemy were constantly arriving from Coromandel, while the largest force which he could bring into the field amounted only to 400 Europeans and 1200 sepoys. Good reason, therefore, had he for urging the necessity of large reinforcements, and declaring that without them, “it would be a miracle if he could preserve his footing.” Tippoo was advancing with his whole army, and Sheik Ayaz, foreseeing the result, disappeared, to seek an asylum at Bombay. On approaching Bednore, Tippoo divided his forces into two columns. The one, proceeding by the southern route of Couly Droog, took possession of Hyderghur, and thus cut off all communication with the coast; the other, taking the north-eastern route, proceeded directly to Bednore, and completely invested it. A general assault followed, and the British, after attempting a defence to which their force was inadequate, retired, after serious loss, to the citadel. Having defended it till it was a heap of ruins, General Matthews, in accordance with the opinion of a council of war, offered to surrender on certain terms, to which Tippoo agreed, induced, as he himself says, by the short interval which remained for the recovery of Mangalore before the rains. The terms included several articles, one of which guaranteed the safe conduct of the garrison to the coast, and another provided for the security of private and the surrender of public property. Unfortunately, a rapacity, of which too many examples had previously been given, prevailed over a sense of honour and even of self-preservation. In order to appropriate the sum in the treasury, which now belonged of right to Tippoo, the officers of the garrison were told to draw for what sums they pleased, to be afterwards accounted for at Bombay. In this way the treasury was fraudulently emptied. The garrison marched out, in terms of the capitulation, on the 3d of May, 1783. Tippoo, who only wanted a pretext for violating the capitulation, found too good a one in the example thus set him by the prisoners. On being searched, the missing money was found upon them, and instead of being furnished with safe conduct to the coast, they were marched off in irons to various places of imprisonment. Bednore and its dependencies were thus lost as easily as they had been won; and Tippoo, who had not before sat on the musnud, gave public audience upon it, and ordered a salute to be fired in honour of this his first victory.

Tippo, without loss of time, proceeded to Mangalore. A considerable force, which he had previously sent forward under Lutf Ali Beg, had been defeated with the loss of its guns, and he therefore now advanced at the head of his whole army. The defence of Mangalore devolved on Major (afterwards Colonel) Campbell of the 42d. The enemy arrived before it on the 20th, and immediately invested it. The garrison endeavoured, notwithstanding, to keep possession of an outpost about a mile from the town, because it commanded the principal access to it. The two battalions necessary to occupy it were in consequence attacked, after their retreat had been almost cut off, and with the utmost difficulty and considerable loss made their escape. This first success, and the overpowering force which he commanded, made Tippo confident of an early triumph. He soon found his mistake. His flag of truce, demanding an instant surrender, was dismissed without an answer, and he was obliged to have recourse to a regular siege. In this he was greatly assisted by the professional skill and experience of M. Cossigny, the commander of the French regiment which had been lent him. Three regular attacks embraced the faces of the fort accessible by land, and produced not so much breaches as continuous masses of ruin, while attempts at assault were repeated and repelled so often, as to become almost an affair of daily routine.

On the 19th of July, after fifty-six days of open trenches, Colonel Campbell received a letter, signed “Peveron de Morlay, envoy from France to the nabob Tippoo Sultan,” informing him that hostilities had ceased at Cuddalore, in consequence of the peace concluded between Britain and France, and that he was in possession of a letter which he was enjoined by Tippoo to deliver to him in person. This letter from the British commissioners, Messrs. Sadlier and Staunton, had been delivered to M. Bussy for transmission on the 2d of July, and must in all probability have arrived in the camp at Mangalore before the possession of it was thus acknowledged. During these ten days the besiegers had made the most vigorous efforts to make themselves masters of the place. That Peveron de Morlay was capable of this deceitful and dishonourable conduct was proved on subsequent occasions. Nothing could exceed Tippoo’s astonishment and rage, when M. Cossigny intimated that he could give him no further aid, and also compelled the French officers, Lally and Boudenot, to follow his example. By the treaty of peace which Tippoo would now be under the necessity of concluding, a general restitution of conquests would take place, and consequently Mangalore would return to him without an effort. His dogged obstinacy, and his indignation at having been so long foiled, made him overlook this fact, or disregard it, and he determined to persist in the siege. Under cover of the arrangements for admitting M. Peveron to deliver his letter, a body of troops landed, and gained possession of a detached work which commanded the entrance of the harbour, and though an armistice with Tippo was concluded on the 2d of August, he continued every operation short of actual assault with renewed vigour. By the third article of the armistice a bazaar was to be established, where the garrison might buy provisions to the extent of eight days’ stock at a time, and articles not furnished by the bazaar might freely enter from other places, to the extent of a month’s supply. This article was shamefully evaded, and the garrison, instead of being fully supplied, were reduced to the point of starvation.

A fortnight after the armistice, Brigadier-general Macleod, holding the chief command of Malabar and Canara, and on the following day, a detachment of Hanoverians from Madras, destined to reinforce Mangalore, arrived in the offing. The general landed, and took up his residence in the town, but the detachment was ordered off to Tellicherry. Meanwhile, in consequence of the evasion of the articles of the armistice relating to provisions, the stock of the garrison had been so far diminished, that Tippoo, who had been amusing both General Macleod and Colonel Campbell with the announcement of his immediate departure for Seringapatam, thought he had secured the object at which he had all along been aiming, and threw off the mask. In open defiance of the armistice, he declared that the garrison should no longer be supplied with provisions, and immediately commenced repairing his old works, and erecting new batteries. The garrison, from having previously converted into fuel all the materials which might have been available for military purposes, could not retaliate. General Macleod, when he remonstrated, was only told that he was at liberty to depart. He gladly availed himself of the permission, and sailed for Tellicherry to collect means for relieving the garrison.

On the 22d of November, a fleet from the north and another from the south were descried standing for the roads. The garrison were overjoyed. Surely relief was now at hand. “The signal was made,” says Colonel Campbell, “that the troops would land to the southward; they were discovered in the boats; every moment promised a speedy attack. Confidence and joy appeared in every countenance; even the poor, weak, emaciated convalescent, tottering under the weight of his firelock, boldly stood forth to offer what feeble aid his melancholy state admitted of.” All this expectation was most grievously disappointed. General Macleod, instead of carrying out what seemed to be his original intentions, became entangled in a negotiation with Tippoo, and the result was, that after stipulating for a month’s supply of provisions to the garrison, without taking care to see that it was properly furnished, he sailed away on the 2d of December, with the signal flying, of “speedy succour arriving.” Sea-scurvy now began to make great havoc among the garrison, who, on the 20th of December, were again put on short allowance. On the 27th, a vessel bearing General Macleod’s flag, with a snow and five boats, appeared, and on the 31st, a supply of provisions was landed in Tippo’s boats, but no intercourse was permitted between the vessels and the garrison. Only a small part of this supply proved fit for food. The scurvy of course continued to rage; two-thirds of the garrison were in hospital; a great number of the sepoys doing duty had become blind, the consequence, it was supposed, of being obliged to eat rice alone, without salt or any other condiment. Ultimately, on the 26th of January, 1784, Colonel Campbell, after calling a council of war, which deemed it hopeless or useless to resist any longer, capitulated on honourable terms. The only explanation which has ever been given of the shameful desertion of this brave garrison, is, that the preliminary articles of peace stipulated a term of four months to be allowed to the native belligerent powers of India to accede; and that the hostilities necessary to give succour to Mangalore might have been, or seemed to be, an infringement of these articles. There could not be a lamer excuse. The preliminary articles never could have meant, that during the four months indulged to one belligerent for the purpose of making up his mind, he was to be at liberty to make war, while his European antagonist was not to be at liberty to resist him, or, that after concluding an armistice, the native power might violate its obligations, while the European power should be bound to observe them.

The capture of Mangalore had cost Tippoo dear. For nearly nine months it had locked up the services of his main army. It had thus prevented him from realizing his revenues, and had moreover led to the invasion of one of his richest provinces. The events connected with this invasion must be briefly detailed. A Brahmin of the name of Tremalrow, who gave himself out as “the son of the minister of that Rajah of Mysore who had been deposed by Hyder,” having retired to Tanjore, ingratiated himself with the rajah, and was by him through Mr. Swartz introduced to Mr. Sullivan, the resident there. He possessed considerable talents and acquirements, and showed himself to be well acquainted with the government and resources of Mysore. When it was resolved to make a diversion in the south and west, it seemed to Mr. Sullivan that important use might be made of Tremalrow, who professed to be in the confidence of the imprisoned Rance of Mysore, and that full employment might be given to Hyder, by setting up some member of the ancient family as a claimant of its throne. Colonel Lang, who commanded in the south, taking advantage of the departure of Tippoo on his father’s death, marched, accompanied by Tremalrow, and on the 2d of April, 1783, obtained possession of the fort of Caroor, situated on the eastern frontiers of Coimbatoor. The Hindoo colours of Mysore were immediately hoisted on the fort, and the management of the district was conferred on Tremalrow. Shortly after, Colonel Lang resigned the command to Colonel Fullarton, who was ordered to advance for the purpose of relieving the pressure on General Matthews at Bednore. His progress in this direction was stopped by General Stuart, who on the 31st of May sent positive orders to him to cross the Cauvery, and march with the utmost expedition towards Cuddalore. After some delay, he succeeded in crossing in basketboats at Trichinopoly, but had no sooner reached the opposite bank than he received instructions so contradictory, as to place him in a dilemma. Those from General Stuart urged him to hasten on to Cuddalore; those from Lord Macartney ordered him to recross the river and proceed southward. Being a personal friend of Lord Macartney, and indebted to him for his command, his own feelings would have led him to comply with his lordship’s wishes, but believing that his services were more required at Cuddalore, a sense of duty determined him to obey the general. He had accordingly arrived within three forced marches of the British camp, when he received intelligence of the cessation of hostilities.

There was now nothing to prevent Colonel Fullarton from obeying Lord Macartney’s orders, and he proceeded south, his numbers nearly doubled by a reinforcement from the army set free at Cuddalore. The armistice with Tippo reduced him for some time to inaction, but on the 16th of October, having received intelligence from Tellicherry of the violation of the armistice at Mangalore, he determined to assist in the relief of this place, by uniting his forces to those of General Macleod, who was understood to be making preparations for that purpose. As the best means of effecting this junction, Colonel Fullarton set out in the direction of Palghautcherry, and after a difficult and tedious route through the centre of a teak forest, arrived before that fortress, which owed its construction to Hyder, and was as strong as he could make it. The siege, vigorously conducted, terminated in the capture of the place, on the 15th of November. After communicating with Tellicherry, the proposed junction with General Macleod was deemed impracticable, or at least so difficult as to be inexpedient, and Colonel Fullarton determined to take the route to Seringapatam, by the pass of Gujellutty. With this view he set out at the head of a force mustering 13,636 men, and arrived at Coimbatore on the 20th of November. On the 28th, two days before his intended advance, he received a letter from Messrs. Staunton and Sadlier, informing him that they were on their route as duly authorized plenipotentiaries to negotiate with Tippoo, and directing him not only to suspend operations, but to abandon all his conquests and retire within the limits of the Company’s possessions, as at the 26th of July preceding.

As early as February, 1783, before Tippoo’s departure for the west, Lord Macartney and his council had employed a Brahmin of the name of Sambajee, who was the Rajah of Tanjore’s agent at Madras, and was proceeding on his devotions to Conjeveram, to endeavour to sound Tippoo on the subject of peace. Sambajee, proud of appearing as the British envoy, readily undertook the office, and Tippoo, not unwilling to know on what terms he could command peace, directed a person named Sreenowasnow to accompany Sambajee on his return to Madras. Some conferences in consequence took place, but nothing was effected, and Tippoo, on the return of his envoy for instructions, treated the whole matter with contemptuous silence. On the cessation of hostilities between the British and French at Cuddalore, on the 2d of July, Lord Macartney, by agreement with M. Bussy, addressed a letter to Tippoo, inviting him to accede to peace on certain provisional conditions, and announcing a cessation of hostilities till his answer should be received. Tippoo returned a friendly answer, and sent it by a skilful diplomatist, Apajee Ram, whom he had appointed his envoy with the usual credentials. After much discussion, the principle of a mutual restitution of prisoners and conquests seemed to be established, but from time to time difficulties were started by Apajee Ram, and made by him a ground for suggesting, that the great delay occasioned by frequent references to Tippoo, might be saved by sending to his court two gentlemen, so thoroughly acquainted with the views of the Madras government as to render reference unnecessary. The suggestion was at once adopted; and Mr. Sadlier, the second member of council, and Mr. Staunton, Lord Macartney’s private secretary, were appointed commissioners. They set out on the 9th of November, fully anticipating the success of their mission, as Tippoo had sent letters to the peishwa and Scindia declaring his accession to the treaty of Salbye.

The commissioners arrived in the Mysorean camp near Arnee, on the 19th of November, and the very next day despatched the above order to Colonel Fullarton. When it reached him, he was in possession of information that the armistice had been violated, and consequently knew that the commissioners must have issued their order under a very great misconception. He therefore adopted what seemed the only prudent course. He ceased from hostilities without giving up his conquests. Seyed Sahib, the commander of the Mysorean troops in the Carnatic, was found by the commissioners about twenty-five miles beyond Arnee, and a discussion ensued as to the manner in which restoration should be made. They insisted that the places eastward of the Ghauts should first be reciprocally restored, and all the English prisoners be set at liberty, and that then only a similar restitution of places west of the Ghauts should take place. Seyed Sahib and Apajee Ram, on the other hand, insisted that the evacuation of Mangalore should precede the release of the prisoners, and offered “to pledge their faith” that the evacuation should be immediately followed by the release. Here the commissioners differed. Mr. Sadlier was disposed to give up Mangalore and accept of “the pledge” as sufficient security, whereas Mr. Staunton was decidedly of opinion that, before giving up Mangalore and the other western conquests, they ought to be perfectly satisfied of the release of every prisoner. This difference made it necessary to refer to the government, who decided in favour of Mr. Staunton, and at the same time endeavoured to prevent future collision, by the appointment of Mr. Huddlestone as a third plenipotentiary.

No sooner had the Madras government thus decided, than they began to deliberate anew, and on the 8th of December came to an opposite conclusion. Considering the distressed condition of their affairs—ruined finances, broken credit, and a supreme council not only withholding confidence, but supposed to be meditating suspension—they thought it not worth while to continue the war for the possession of Mangalore, and resolved that Colonel Fullarton should be required to make unqualified restitution, as previously ordered by the commissioners. Thus left without any alternative, he evacuated the whole of his conquests, at the very time that Tippoo’s troops remained in force in Coromandel. While making his first march from Coimbatoor, Colonel Fullarton was met by Mr. Swartz, who was proceeding by way of Gujelhutty to join the commissioners at Seringapatam, and act as their interpreter. In accordance with Tippoo’s system of insult, the venerable missionary was stopped at the foot of the pass, and never allowed to proceed farther. His astonishment at finding Colonel Fullarton retiring is thus described by himself:—“Alas! said I, is the peace so certain that you quit all before the negotiation is ended. The possession of these two rich countries would have kept Tippoo in awe, and inclined him to reasonable terms. But you quit the reins, and how will you manage that beast?” The truth of these remarks was soon proved, for on the 26th of January, 1784, before Colonel Fullarton had completed the cantonment of his troops, he received a new despatch from Madras, ordering him “not only to retain possession of Palghaut, should that fort not have been delivered, but likewise to hold fast every inch of ground of which he was in possession, till he should have received accounts of the result of the negotiation.”

The impunity with which Tippoo had hitherto bearded the Madras government naturally encouraged him to insult the commissioners. It had been distinctly agreed, that as the preliminaries of peace had been settled, and nothing remained but to adjust the details, they should, while proceeding through Mysore, have personal intercourse with the British prisoners, and an opportunity of giving them clothes and other requisites with which they had been provided for that purpose. So far from this, they had scarcely passed the frontiers when they found all communication cut off, and, partly for the purpose of contemptuous exhibition, were paraded on camels over routes impracticable to ordinary beasts of burden. On advancing further, they were turned aside from Seringapatam by a letter from Tippoo, informing them that the prisoners, with a view to their liberation, had been forwarded to the frontiers, and inviting them to meet him in his camp. Their progress thither was not allowed to be more rapid than that of the starvation of the garrison, and when only twenty miles distant they received another letter from Tippoo informing them that, at the earnest request of Colonel Campbell, he had agreed to take charge of the fort of Mangalore. Their subsequent treatment was atrocious. Not only was every species of indignity heaped upon them, but three gibbets were erected, one opposite to the tent doors of each commissioner, and it seemed more than probable that the purpose insinuated by the erection would be actually executed. It was certain, at least, that Tippoo was already stained with crimes of as deep a dye, for it had been ascertained that General Matthews and several other officers had by his orders been poisoned in prison, or cut off by some more cruel death.

Shortly after the arrival of the commissioners at Mangalore, General Macleod anchored in the roads with two Company’s ships from Bombay. Finding communication with them all but absolutely interdicted, he declared that he would consider them as imprisoned men, whose orders were of no force; and for the purpose of bringing this point to an issue, sent a messenger on shore with two letters, one addressed to Tippoo, and the other to the commissioners. His messenger was detained, and he sailed away without an answer. A letter sent on the 1st of March, by the commissioners to the commander of one of the ships, required him to send two boats, one of which “must endeavour to come to the beach on seeing a gentleman near it on horseback, holding as a signal a white handkerchief in his hand.” General Macleod, in commenting on this mysterious passage on the 9th of March, says, “The adventure of the white handkerchief was an intended escape of the commissioners from Tippoo, leaving behind them their baggage, revenue,” &c. This assertion, which charges the commissioners with a resolution to provide for their own safety, and leave the soldiers who acted as guard, and the other persons who accompanied them, to their fate, has been strenuously denied; but though the matter continues to be involved in mystery, the fair inference from the narrative given by Colonel Wilks, and “founded,” he says, “on high and incontrovertible living authority,” seems to be, that at least the two junior commissioners meditated something of the kind, and abandoned their design because the officer of their guard had come to the knowledge of it, and sent them the following intimation:—“If there be any embarkation, I hope to see the last private into the boats; but my sentinels have orders to give me precise information, and I have a party saddled in the lines ready to seize as a deserter any and every person who shall attempt a clandestine escape.”

Negotiation, in which all was arrogance on the one hand and pusillanimous submission on the other, continued a little longer, and Tippoo, having gratified his pride to the utmost by the employment of every form of derision, humiliation, and contempt, thought it necessary at last to provide for his own safety. His feigned assent to the treaty of Salbye and practical rejection of it were about to bring upon him a combined attack of the Company and the Mahrattas, and he had sense enough to avert the danger by consenting at last, on the 7th of March, 1784, to sign the treaty of peace. The only thing of consequence that now remained was the restoration of prisoners. Two of the commissioners having returned to Madras by sea, and the third by land, the arrangements for the reception of the prisoners released was intrusted to the officer commanding the escort. This delicate and difficult task he performed with a spirit which strikingly contrasted with the dastardliness previously manifested by his superiors. Before leaving Mangalore he caused proclamation to be made, even within Tippoo’s camp, that he was ready to give protection to all inhabitants of Coromandel who chose to accompany him. In this way he secured the return of about 2000, but it is said that at least 200,000 still remained in captivity. The number of prisoners released was 2680. Of these 180 were officers, 900 British soldiers, and 1600 sepoys. This number, too, ought to have been far larger, but many had sunk under harsh treatment, and not a few had been deliberately murdered. With the latter atrocity Hyder is not chargeable. He acted like a barbarian in keeping his prisoners in irons, chained in pairs, treating them, according to his own expression, as “unruly beasts,” not to be kept quiet in any other way, but he never murdered them. This horrible barbarity was reserved for his fiendish son, who selected for his victims all those who were reputed to have distinguished themselves, and might hereafter prove dangerous opponents. Colonel Baillie died during Hyder’s reign, but Captain Rumley, who charged Tippoo’s guns on the morning of Baillie’s tragedy, and Lieutenant Fraser, one of his staff, were among the first sufferers by the diabolical policy of the new reign. Lieutenant Sampson, captured with Colonel Braithwaite, General Matthews, and most of the captains taken at Bedmore, experienced the same fate. Afterwards, at different periods, other prisoners were carried off to Cabal Droog to be poisoned, or taken out to the woods and hacked to pieces. It almost makes one’s blood boil to think that these execrable deeds were done with impunity, and would have been prevented, had the monster who committed them been previously made aware that signal vengeance would certainly follow.

Mention has been made of the disputes between the civil and military authorities at Madras. After the departure of Sir Eyre Coote they increased in virulence, and the deputies sent from Madras to announce the peace between Britain and France, carried with them orders to General Stuart to repair to the presidency and give an account of his conduct. Having yielded a very reluctant and dilatory obedience, he no sooner made his appearance in the council than the old quarrels were renewed. At last Lord Macartney moved and carried a resolution that General Stuart should be dismissed from the Company’s service. He, on the other hand, challenged this resolution, as not only unjust, but incompetent, and declared his determination still to retain the command of the king’s troops. There was thus a collision, which, if one of the parties did not give way, must ere long have produced something like a civil war. General Stuart had formerly acted a prominent part in a similar collision, and tried to terminate it by arresting Lord Pigot, the governor. The fatal result of that proceeding had not taught him moderation, and it was therefore not impossible that he might be disposed again to try the same remedy. If this was his intention, Lord Macartney anticipated him by employing a party of sepoys to make him prisoner, and, a few days after, shipping him off for England. The kind of retributive justice apparent in this proceeding produced many epigrams. One of these, made by the second son of Mahomed Ali, in broken English, was as follows:—“General Stuart catch one lord; one lord catch General Stuart.”

The dissensions at Madras must have been fomented by the state of feeling known to exist between Mr. Hastings and Lord Macartney. His lordship, not long after his arrival at Madras, intimated his opinion that the government of Bengal had, in some instances, carried their interference with the internal affairs of Madras farther than law or good policy could justify. Mr. Hastings replied in moderate, and even complimentary terms, admitting that he had stretched his powers, because he had no confidence in the previous government, and much farther than he would have done had he known of Lord Macartney’s appointment to the chair. One of the interferences complained of related to the Nabob of Arcot. This ally of the Company had always been much more liberal in promise than performance, and when, in consequence of the invasion of Hyder, the treasury of Madras was completely emptied, it was deemed advisable, in order to replenish it, that some permanent arrangement should be made for the purpose of rendering the nabob’s revenues more available than they had hitherto been. When strongly pressed on the subject the nabob made a number of excuses, and ended by declaring that his future contributions were defined by a treaty which he had just concluded with the government of Bengal. The Madras council having never heard of this treaty were naturally surprised, and on asking explanation discovered that the nabob’s assertion of a treaty was not altogether unfounded. Probably from anticipating the demands which would be made upon him, he had sent deputies to Bengal and entered into a regular negotiation with its government. Ultimately he obtained the consent of the governor-general and council to a number of articles, the most important of which were—that he should be acknowledged independent sovereign of the Carnatic; that he should be entitled to appoint his successor; that he should be exempt from all pecuniary demands, except the expense of ten battalions of troops, to be employed, if necessary, in settling his country; and that certain districts possessed by Hyder should, in the event of their being wrested from him, be added to his dominions. On these conditions the nabob, retaining only as much of his revenues as might be necessary for the maintenance of his family and government, was willing to make over all the rest to the Company during the war, it being understood, however, that in making the collections his agents should act in conjunction with those appointed by the Madras government.

There cannot be a doubt that, in entering into such an agreement, the Bengal government, or, as they were now generally termed, the supreme council, far exceeded their powers. The Madras government, however, without dwelling on the illegality, contented themselves with criticizing the terms of the so-called treaty, and pointing out some of the evils to which it would necessarily lead. This representation was so far successful, that the whole matter was finally left to their decision, and it was arranged by a deed, dated 2d December, 1781, that all the territorial revenues of the nabob should be transferred to the Company for a period of at least five years, without any interference on his part with the collections, but that a sixth of the whole should be paid over to him for his own expenditure; and that any surplus which might arise should be carried to his credit.

Another point in regard to which the supreme council and that of Madras took very different views related to the Northern Circars. Mr. Hastings, in his anxiety to obtain an adequate force to carry on the war with the Mahrattas, entered into a negotiation with Nizam Ali, for the purpose of obtaining from him a body of cavalry, and was willing in return for this aid, to make him a present of the Northern Circars. A treaty binding the Company to this costly sacrifice was arranged, but not having been ratified when Lord Macartney arrived, it was deemed becoming to submit it to his approbation. In common with his colleagues he returned a very decided opinion, condemning the proposed treaty in all its parts. The revenue which Mr. Hastings, in supporting his views, represented as trifling, was shown to amount, exclusive of Guntoor, to about a quarter of a million sterling. The territory, from forming a long and comparative narrow tract along the coast, could be easily defended by a people holding the command of the sea; it moreover gave an almost continuous line of communication between Bengal and the Carnatic, an object to which great importance was justly attached; while the manufactures of the inhabitants furnished an important part of the Company’s investments. In return for this valuable territory, nothing more was to be obtained than the friendship of Nizam Ali, on which no dependence could be placed, and a body of horse so ill-disciplined, that their expense would almost to a certainty exceed the value of their services. These arguments prevailed; but there is reason to suspect that Mr. Hastings, though he yielded, felt sore when he saw the soundness of his judgment questioned, and one of his favourite schemes frustrated.

In the misunderstandings with Sir Eyre Coote, the supreme council took a very decided part against the Madras government, and Mr. Hastings, at the very time when he was expressing an “anxious desire to co-operate with Lord Macartney firmly and liberally for the security of the Carnatic, for the support of his authority, and for the honour of his administration,” did not hesitate to address a letter, in the name of his colleagues, to the Madras council, in which, while intimating that they might have issued a peremptory command, they contented themselves with most earnestly recommending that “Sir Eyre Coote’s wishes in regard to power may be gratified to their fullest possible extent; and that he may be allowed an unparticipated command over all the forces acting under British authority in the Carnatic.” Whether considered as a command or as a recommendation, the obvious meaning of this letter was to convert the commander-in-chief into a military dictator, and to deprive the council of all control over his proceedings, while it left them responsible for the results. Accordingly, while the council, though protesting against the unreasonableness of the injunction, endeavoured to act upon it, they found their hands so completely tied up, that on receiving a requisition to send a detachment to Bombay, they could only answer that it was impossible for them to comply, because they no longer possessed any authority over the troops. This occurrence so far opened the eyes of the supreme council, that they saw the necessity of modifying the dictatorial powers which their letter had conferred. This modification, in so far as it met the wishes of the council, was in contradiction to those of Sir Eyre Coote, who, partly in consequence of it, threw up his command and returned to Bengal. He appears to have succeeded in inducing the supreme council to make him once more dictator, and had arrived at Madras to resume his absolute powers, when the collision with the council, which had to all appearance become inevitable, was prevented by his sudden death. From this time there was no cordiality, and scarcely even a semblance of civility, between Mr. Hastings and Lord Macartney. Accordingly, in answer to complaints of counteraction in the discharge of their functions, we find the supreme council addressing that of Madras in such terms as the following:—“Records of laborious altercation, invective, and mutual complaint, are no satisfaction to the public for a neglect that may cost millions.” Again, “In reply to our desire of unambiguous explanation on a subject of such public concern (the imputed counteraction), you favour us with a collected mass of complaint and invective against this government, against the Nabob of Arcot and his ministers, against the commander-in-chief of all the forces in India, against the commander-in-chief of his majesty’s fleet, against your own provincial commander-in-chief, and again, against this government. Had you been pleased in so general a charge of impeachment to take governance of the co-operative support which was till of late withheld from you by the presidency of Bombay, your description of the universal misconduct of the managers of the public affairs in India (the president and select committee of Fort St. George excepted) would have been complete.” On reading such passages as these, there is no difficulty in believing that at the time when they were written, Mr. Hastings was meditating Lord Macartney’s suspension.

The only other instance of direct collision between the governor-general and the Madras president which it is necessary to notice, took place in regard to the treaty with Tippoo. When the treaty arrived in Bengal, Mr. Hastings was at Lucknow, and the supreme council having full authority to act, did not deem it necessary either to transmit it to him, or wait for his return. They therefore ratified it in due form, and sent it back to Lord Macartney, by whom it was at once transmitted to Tippoo. Some months after, a fresh copy of the treaty was sent from Bengal to Madras. Beside the former signatures, it had that of the governor-general. This of itself was nothing, but there was moreover a declaration appended, which was to all intents and purposes a new article. Its purport was that the nabob, Mahomed Ali, though his name did not appear in the treaty, was entitled to be a party to it. The omission of his name had not been owing to inadvertence. When the treaty was made with Hyder in 1769, the nabob declined to sign it, and had not afterwards fulfilled the promise he had given to ratify it. Acting on this as a precedent, and believing that some advantages might thereby be secured, the Madras government had purposely refrained from making him a party. Probably for this very reason, the nabob desired to be included, and made his complaint to Mr. Hastings, in whom he had on several other occasions found too willing a listener. The result was the second ratification of the treaty, which the Madras government were not only enjoined to transmit to Tippoo, but told in terms harsher than the occasion justified, that if they refused it was “at their peril.” Lord Macartney was now in no humour to comply with such peremptory messages, and on the ground that the treaty was already validly ratified, and that from the suspicious temper of Tippoo a second ratification might be productive of mischievous consequences, persuaded his colleagues to refuse to transmit it. At the same time he took the whole responsibility upon himself, and declared his readiness to brave the wrath of the supreme council, by incurring the penalty of suspension. This would doubtless have been his sentence, had not Mr. Hastings been at the time engaged in transactions which more immediately concerned himself, and required all his attention.