The kingdom of Tanjore had been in a great measure exempt from the ravages of war during hostilities with Hyder, but had contributed little to the defence of the country. Mahomed Ali, from the period of his accession to the throne of the Carnatic had never ceased to covet the possession of it. He now asserted that former Nabobs had obtained contributions from it of sixty, eighty, and even a hundred lacs of rupees, and he importuned the Madras Council to aid him in fleecing the raja. The Court of Directors, impoverished by the expenses of the late war, looked to the resources of Tanjore with a wishful eye, and had instructed their servants at Madras to support the views of the Nabob, if the raja refused to submit to reasonable terms. The demands which the Nabob made, however, were beyond all reason; the raja refused to submit to them, and the Council for some time manifested a virtuous reluctance to enforce them, but were at length induced to send forward an army. The Tanjorines made a very spirited defence, but a breach was at length effected in the fortifications, and the town was on the point of surrendering, when, on the 27th of October, 1771, the Nabob’s second son, who had accompanied the expedition, without consulting his English supporters, signed a treaty with the raja, extorting from him fifty lacs as the compensation for peace. With the aid of the British detachments he then proceeded to plunder the polygars, or zemindars of the two Marawars, and subjected the wretched
inhabitants to the most revolting cruelties, leaving nothing in the track of his soldiers but burnt and desolated villages.
In June, 1773, the Nabob again demanded the aid of the Madras government to crush the raja; he had not, he said, fulfilled his engagements; ten lacs of rupees were still due from him; and he had, moreover, made application to Hyder and to the Mahrattas for support. The Council ridiculed the preposterous idea of going to war with him for arrears. They knew that he had exhausted his treasury to make good the extortionate fine imposed on him, of which he had been enabled to pay five-sixths by mortgaging his districts and his jewels to the Danes at Tranquebar, and the Dutch at Negapatam. As to the overtures he had made to Hyder and the Mahrattas, they remarked that the treaty of 1769 had placed him under the protection of Hyder, and, that, when he found himself abandoned to the tender mercies of the Nabob, who had resolved on his destruction, it was natural that he should seek to strengthen himself by alliances with the other powers of the Deccan. Nevertheless, the President and his Council argued that the existence of such a power as that of the raja in the heart of the country, who would join Hyder and the French in the event of a war, unless the Company supported him in his just rights, was a source of danger; and that it was therefore proper and expedient to embrace this opportunity of reducing him entirely, before the occurrence of such an event. It is difficult to believe that Englishmen and Christians, even in that period of profligacy, could have adopted such a train of reasoning to justify the ruin of an innocent prince. The opponents of the President and Council, however, gave a different account of the origin of this war of extermination, and affirmed that it arose from the resentment of the gentlemen at Madras, when they found that the raja had resorted for loans to the Dutch and the Danes, instead of giving them the benefit of these lucrative transactions. Whatever may have been the motive, an English army marched into Tanjore in September,
1773, deposed the raja and made over his country to the Nabob. The Court of Directors, astounded by the report of this infamous proceeding, lost no time in expelling the President, Mr. Wynch, from the service, and ordering the raja to be restored, placing him for the future under the safeguard of British honour.
The vacant chair at Madras was bestowed on Lord Pigot, who had gone out to Madras forty years before, and, after having risen to the post of President, returned to England with a fortune of forty lacs of rupees, and was honoured with an Irish peerage. The old man was now seized with the mania of going back to Madras as governor. He found, on his arrival, that the system of peculation and extortion had intermediately attained great maturity; and he set himself to the task of cleansing the Augean stable, which set the whole settlement in a blaze. To prevent the restoration of Tanjore to the raja, the Nabob spared no art or intrigue; he went so far as to offer a bribe of sixty lacs of rupees to the governor himself, if he would only postpone the transfer, but the orders of the Court of Directors were peremptory, and Lord Pigot proceeded in person to Tanjore, and seated the raja on the throne on the 11th of April, 1776, leaving an English garrison for the defence of the country. But the restoration was no sooner proclaimed that Mr. Paul Benfield came forward and asserted that he had an assignment on the revenues of Tanjore from the Nabob of sixteen lacs of rupees, and a claim on the standing crop of seven lacs for sums lent to the husbandmen. Nothing can more clearly demonstrate the total demoralization of the public service at the Madras Presidency than the fact that this Benfield, occupying an inferior post, not worth more than 200 or 300 rupees a month, and keeping the grandest equipages at Madras, should not consider it by any means preposterous to assert that he had advanced twenty-three lacs of rupees on the revenues of the province. The Council called for vouchers, which he was unable to produce, but he assured them that the Nabob was
prepared to admit the obligation, of which there could be no doubt, as the claim had evidently been concocted between them to defraud the Company and the raja. After long deliberation the Council, on the 29th of May, 1776, rejected the claim.
But the Council soon repented of this act of virtue. They and the other members of the civil service were creditors of the Nabob to the extent of a crore and a-half of rupees, and they discovered that by rejecting the claim of Benfield, they had impaired their hold on the revenues of Tanjore. The vote was reconsidered; Lord Pigot and his friends strenuously resisted the proceedings, but a majority of seven to five resolved that the assignments made to Paul Benfield were valid. The dispute was widened by other questions, and both parties became inflamed. Lord Pigot unconstitutionally suspended two of the members of Council and ordered the commandant, Sir Robert Fletcher, to be placed under arrest. Fletcher was the officer whom Clive had dismissed ten years before, during the mutiny of the officers in Bengal which he had fomented, but whom the Court of Directors had, out of opposition to Clive, restored to the service. The majority of the Council then assumed the government, and placed Lord Pigot in confinement. The order was executed by Colonel Stuart, who passed the day with him at his country seat, in the most friendly intercourse, and drove out with him in the carriage, when, on a given signal, it was surrounded by troopers, and the governor was hurried off to a place of imprisonment. The Court of Directors, after receiving the report of these violent proceedings, ordered that Lord Pigot should be restored to the office of President, and then resign it. Seven members of Council were dismissed from the service, and the military officers placed on their trial. But before these orders could reach Madras, Lord Pigot was beyond the reach of praise or blame. He sunk under his misfortunes in April, 1777, after a confinement, by no means rigorous, of eight months.
The state of affairs at Madras was not at all improved by the appointment of Sir Thomas Rumbold, who had been trained up in the Bengal school of corruption, as his successor. The Northern Sircars formed the only territory from which the Madras Presidency derived any revenue, but the malversations of the collectors left but a small portion of it to the state. The Court of Directors had, therefore, been induced to order five of the members of Council to proceed to the province, and after diligent investigation, to place the settlement on a satisfactory basis. Sir Thomas Rumbold, immediately on his arrival at Madras, cancelled the commission, and ordered the zemindars to repair in person to the Presidency, a distance of GOO miles, through a country without a road. The zemindars who were able to afford the cost, were required, on reaching the Presidency, to transact business with the governor alone, to the exclusion of the members of Council. The principal zemindar, Viziram raj, who was, in fact, a local prince, pleaded the injury which his affairs must suffer during his absence, as an excuse for not leaving his estates. But his brother hastened to the Presidency, and having given a bribe of a lac of rupees to the governor’s secretary, was appointed dewan, in spite of all his brother’s remonstrances, and thus obtained the entire control and management of the zemindary. Sir Thomas Rumbold himself was found to have remitted four lacs and a-half of rupees to England after he had been six months at Madras, and the suspicions to which so large a remittance gave rise, were never satisfactorily removed.
The treaty with the Nizam in 1768, had given the reversion of the Guntoor Sircar to the Company, after the death of his brother, Basalut Jung. That prince, with Adoni for the capital of his little principality, was ambitious of increasing his power and territory, and had gradually formed a French corps under M. Lally, which received recruits and supplies through the little seaport of Mootapilly. The Madras government repeatedly remonstrated against the
presence of this corps, to Basalut Jung, and also to his feudal superior, the Nizam, who promised that every article of the treaty should be fulfilled to a hair’s breadth, but the troops were not disbanded. Basalut Jung was at length threatened by the encroachments of Hyder, and opened a communication with Sir Thomas Rumbold, and a treaty was concluded in April, 1779, by which he bound himself to dismiss the French corps, and to entrust the defence of his dominions to an English force, and assign the Guntoor Sircar for its support. Scarcely was the treaty dry, when the Sircar was transferred on a ten years’ lease to Mahomed Ali, that is, to his English creditors, and we are thus furnished with a key to the whole transaction. An English force immediately set out to take possession of the district, and Mr. Holland was deputed to Hyderabad, to expound the transaction to the Nizam. The Nizam expressed the highest resentment at this intrusion into the affairs of his family, and more especially at the military support offered to his brother, who might thus become a formidable rival. But his indignation knew no bounds when Mr. Holland farther requested a remission of the peshcush or tribute payable for the Northern Sircars, which had already been withheld for two years. He called for the treaty and read it over, item by item, before Mr. Holland, and charged the English with violating its provisions, and seeking a quarrel with him. It was under these feelings of irritation that he set himself to organize the grand confederacy for the extermination of the English to which reference has been already made.
Hastings, from whom these transactions had been carefully concealed, no sooner heard of them, than he superseded the authority of the Madras Council at the court of Hyderabad, and assured the Nizam that the intentions of the British government were honourable and pacific, that Guntoor should not be occupied, and that the arrears of peshcush should be discharged as speedily as possible. By these assurances, Hastings was enabled to appease
the Nizam, and to neutralize his hostility as a member of the grand confederacy. This friendly disposition was likewise improved by the discovery he had recently made, that Hyder Ali’s ambition had led him to send a mission to Delhi, and to obtain a sunnud from the phantom of an emperor, conferring on him the whole of the Hyderabad territories. The French troops, which Basalut Jung was constrained to dismiss, were immediately taken into the service of the Nizam, and the anxiety which their presence in the Deccan inspired was greatly augmented. Sir Thomas Rumbold remonstrated, with great vehemence against this interference of the Governor-General. in the political movements of the Madras Presidency; but the measure of his transgressions was now full, and in January, 1781, the Court of Directors after passing the severest censure on his conduct, expelled him from the situation which he had filled and disgraced for more than two years. But he anticipated their decision by deserting his post, and returning to England, as soon as the war with Hyder, which his follies had provoked, was on the eve of breaking out. [Refer to the appendix to this volume.]
Before entering on the narrative of the second Mysore war in 1780, a brief review of Hyder’s progress, after he had been constrained to make peace with the Mahrattas in 1772, appears desirable. The confusion created in the Mahratta counsels by the murder of the young Peshwa, Narayun Rao, afforded Hyder an opportunity of enlarging his territories, which he was not slow to improve. In November of that year he subjugated the principality of Coorg, which offered the noblest resistance, and was, therefore, treated with more than ordinary barbarity. The sum of five rupees was offered for the head of each male, and Hyder took his seat in state to distribute the rewards. After 700 heads had thus been paid for, two of surpassing beauty were laid at his feet, and he was so startled by their comeliness as to order the execution to cease. The circumstance is remarkable, as this is said to have been the only instance in which he ever exhibited any emotion of pity. He
pursued this career of conquest with uninterrupted success, and in one short campaign, extending from September, 1773, to February, 1774, recovered all the districts of which he had been dispossessed by the Mahrattas, and strengthened his power in Malabar. In 1775, he reduced the fortress of Bellary, belonging to Basalut Jung, whom he constrained to purchase peace by the sacrifice of a lac of pagodas. He then proceeded to extinguish the power which Morari Rao, the renowned chieftain of Gooty, had been employed for thirty years in building up, and before the end of 1776, had extinguished the independence of Savanoor.
Raghoba, during his vicissitudes, had been in constant communication with Hyder Ali, who bad acknowledged his title, and furnished him, from time to time, with funds to the extent of sixteen lacs of rupees, receiving in return a confirmation of all the territories he had recently conquered. The cabinet at Poona, alarmed at his encroachments, formed an alliance with the Nizam, hoping, at the same time, to demolish all the hopes of Raghoba. A Mahratta army of 30,000, and a Hyderabad army of 40,000, accordingly took the field in 1776, but were unable to achieve any success. The invasion was renewed the next year, but the general of the Nizam was rendered inactive by the gold of Hyder, and the Mahratta commander-in-chief was obliged to retreat in consequence of the desertion of one of his generals, whom Hyder had corrupted with six lacs of rupees. The year 1778 was marked by the most active and successful exertions on the part of Hyder, and at the close of it he was enabled to contemplate the fertile banks of the Kistna as the northern boundary of his dominions. In May, 1779, he attacked the Nabob of Kurpa, who had sided with his opponents in the recent war, and annexed all his territories.
The resentment which Hyder manifested at the refusal of the government of Madras to afford him any assistance, in 1772, when pressed to
extremity by the Mahrattas, did not prevent his making overtures to them, in 1773, but all his efforts to establish a friendly intercourse were defeated by the machinations of the Nabob, Mahomed Ali. Hyder then turned to the French at Pondicherry, where his envoys were received with great eagerness by the governor, M. Bellecombe.
inveterate hostility and incessant invasions of the Mahrattas, however, induced him again to court the alliance of the English, and he offered his assistance towards the establishment of Raghoba at Poona, asking, in return, only for a supply of stores and arms, and a small body of troops, for which he was willing to make a suitable payment. The proposal, though acceptable both at Calcutta and Madras, was not entertained with any degree of cordiality.
In the month in which this negotiation was in progress, information was received of the commencement of hostilities between France and England, and a force was soon after sent against Pondicherry, the fortifications of which had been completely restored. The place was defended by the gallant Bellecombe for ten weeks with great constancy, but capitulated at length in the month of October, 1778, when the garrison was permitted to march out with all the honours of war. The governor of Madras, in announcing this success to Hyder, offered to renew the negotiations, and to place a resident at his court, but intimated, at the same time, his intention to send an expedition to capture Mahé. This was a small French settlement on the Malabar coast, through which Hyder had, for three years, been in the habit of receiving recruits and supplies of every description from Europe, and the continued occupation of which by his French allies was to him a matter of great importance. He replied that he considered all the foreign settlements, English, French and Dutch, equally under his protection; that he should support the French garrison with all his strength, and retaliate any attack by an invasion of the Carnatic. Hyder’s troops accordingly assisted
in the defence of the fort, and his colours were hoisted side by side with those of the French; but the place sup rendered in March, 1779. Hyder did not disguise his resentment from the governor of Madras, and the tone of hit communications created so much alarm as to induce Sir Thomas Rumbold to send the celebrated missionary, Swartz, to allay his feelings, and to sound his disposition. Hyder received the missionary with great respect, but nothing was gained by the mission except the most unequivocal evidence of his hostility.
While Hyder’s feelings were thus exasperated against the Madras authorities, he received intelligence that Colonel Harper, who had been sent to take possession of Guntoor, was marching through the province of Kurpa, which he had recently conquered, without even asking his permission. His indignation was roused to the highest pitch, and he declared that he would neither allow an English force to occupy Guntoor, or to proceed to Adoni, and his officers were ordered to resist the progress of Colonel Harper by an armed force. Basalut Jung was likewise obliged, by the menaces of Hyder and of the Nizam, to request that the march of the English troops might be countermanded, and the sircar restored; but with this request the Madras Government did not see fit to comply. Meanwhile, an envoy arrived at Seringapatam from Poona, to represent that Hyder, equally with the Mahrattas, had reason to complain of the breach of their engagements by the English Government, and to request him to join the confederacy which had been formed to expel them from India. The Mahratta ministers offered to adjust all their differences with him; to relinquish all claims for arrears of chout, to limit his future payments to eleven lacs of rupees a year, and to confirm the grants of territory up to the Kistna, made by Raghoba. Hyder accepted these proposals with avidity, and agreed to put forth his whole strength for the extermination of the British power. A few months after, Sir
Thomas Rumbold sent Mr. Grey to Seringapatam to offer an affiance with the Mysore state; but he was treated with studied indignity, and informed that the offer of friendship came too late. Osman, Hyder’s minister, in the course of the discussions, took occasion to remark that he had been at Madras, and had seen how the English treated their allies. “Mahomed Ali,” he said, “shewed me several letters he had received from the King of England, but he complained of the lacs of pagodas which each one had cost him.”
For many months Hyder had been making preparations for war on the largest scale, superintending every arrangement in person, though then in his seventy-eighth year, and by the end of June, had equipped the most efficient force ever collected under the standard of a native prince. It consisted of 90,000 horse and foot, a large proportion of which had been trained and was commanded by European officers. It was supported by a powerful artillery, directed by European science and skill, and his commissariat was admirably organized by a brahmin of the name of Poornea. At Madras no preparation was made to meet the coming storm. In a spirit of infatuation which has no parallel in our Indian history, the members of government refused even to acknowledge the danger, and the idea of an invasion became the topic of ridicule. The President informed the Court of Directors with peculiar satisfaction that the country was in perfect tranquillity, and that there was “the greatest prospect that this part of India would remain quiet.” Even so late as the 17th of July while Hyder was advancing through the passes, the commander-in-chief declared that all apprehensions were groundless.
These illusions were speedily dispelled. Hyder, having completed the equipment of his army, and ordered prayers for its success to be put up in the mosques, and offerings to be made in the Hindoo temples, burst on the Carnatic, through the Changama pass, on the
20th of July, 1780, and his progress was marked by the blaze of towns and villages. He appeared anxious, on this occasion, to exhaust all the resources of cruelty which a mind never sensible to pity could suggest. The wretched inhabitants were required to emigrate to Mysore with their flocks and herds, and those who lingered about their homesteads, were mutilated without discrimination. With the exception of four forts held by four English lieutenants every fort, as far as the Coleroon, was surrendered by the commandants of Mahomed Ali, whom Hyder Ali had corrupted. The incredulity of the Council was at length dispelled by the announcement that his troops had surrounded Conjeveram, only fifty miles from Madras. But it was not till black clouds of smoke were seen in every quarter from St. Thomas’s Mount, distant only nine miles from Madras, that any order was issued for the movement of troops to repel the enemy. The main body of the British army encamped at the Mount was about 5,200 strong, and the force sent to occupy Guntoor, now commanded by Colonel Baillie, amounted to about 2,800 men. It was of the last importance that a junction should be at once effected of these two bodies, but Hyder had laid siege to Arcot, which contained the few military stores which the Nabob possessed, and, after a succession of distracted councils at Madras, it was determined to make an effort to relieve it. Sir Hector Munro, the general-in-chief, therefore, proceeded to Conjeveram, and Colonel Baillie, who had arrived within twenty-five miles of Madras, was ordered to make a circuitous march of fifty miles to join him.
Colonel Baillie had reached the banks of the Cortella, then nearly dry, but liable to be swollen by mountain torrents, on the 25th of August, and imprudently encamped on the northern bank. On that night the stream became impassable, and he was unable to cross it before the 4th of September. Hyder immediately despatched his son, Tippoo, with the flower of his army and eighteen guns, to arrest the progress of this brigade. Tippoo
attacked Baillie on the 6th, at a place distant only fourteen miles from Sir Hector’s encampment at Conjeveram. The contest was severe, and the loss on both sides so heavy, that Tippoo informed his father that he could make no impression on the English without reinforcements, while Bailie informed the General that it was no longer in his power to reach Conjeveram.; and therefore hoped, that he would unite with him at the spot where the engagement had taken place. Sir Hector Munro had acquired a brilliant reputation in Bengal sixteen years before, by quelling the first sepoy mutiny, and defeating the Nabob Vizier at Buxar; but on this occasion he exhibited nothing but the most scandalous incapacity. Instead of forming a junction with the other detachment, he allowed Hyder to interpose between the two bodies with the greater part of his army, and then detached Colonel Fletcher with 1,100 men to the support of Baillie. The English force was thus broken up into three divisions, in the vicinity of a powerful and spirited enemy. But so great was the dread which Hyder entertained of British prowess, that he had determined, in case the whole force was united, to raise the siege of Arcot, and retrace his steps. Even Lally, his French general, considered it incredible that Munro would remain inactive, and counselled a retreat, lest the Mysore army should be attacked at the same time in front and rear. Colonel Fletcher, knowing that his guides were in Hyder’s pay, prudently adopted a different route from that which they advised, and was enabled to join Baillie in safety.
The two brigades advanced till the evening of the 9th September, and a short march would have completed their junction with the main body; but by an act of incredible fatuity, Baillie ordered his men to lie on their arms for the night. Meanwhile, Hyder having ascertained through his spies that Munro was making no preparation for moving, despatched the remainder of his army against Baillie, who had no sooner commenced his march in the morning, that he found himself enveloped by the
whole of the Mysore army. It was in vain that his men performed prodigies of valour, and repeatedly stormed the batteries. The enemy had chosen their positions with great skill, and poured in a destructive fire. The European soldiers, though they had sustained thirteen attacks, and were reduced to 300, still called out to be led against their assailants; but Baillie refused to sacrifice the lives of these brave men, and held out a flag of truce. They had no sooner laid down their arms, however, than Hyder’s men rushed upon them, and would have butchered the whole body, if the French officers had not interposed to save them. Of 86 officers, 70 were killed or wounded, and the whole army, with all its stores, baggage and equipments was totally and irretrievably lost. Sir Hector Munro’s force was only two miles distant at the time, and if he had came up during the engagement, the defeat would have been turned into a victory, and the fortunes of the war completely changed. On the following day he threw his heavy guns into the great tank, or pond, at Conjeveram, and retreated in haste and disorder to Madras, hotly pursued by the enemy, and losing baggage at every turn. And thus terminated in disaster and disgrace, this brief campaign of twenty-one days, in which the heroism of the men formed a melancholy contrast to the utter incompetence of their generals.
A vessel was immediately dispatched to Calcutta with information of the disaster. To the embarrassment of a war with the Mahrattas, was now added a war with Hyder, which had commenced with the greatest reverse the English arms had hitherto sustained in India. But never did the genius of Hastings appear to more advantage than in this emergency. “All my hopes,” he wrote, “of aggrandizing the British name and enlarging the interests of the Company, have given instant place to the more urgent call to support the existence of both in the Carnatic, nor did I hesitate a moment to abandon my own views for such an object.” Mr. Whitehill, the governor of Madras,
who had persisted in retaining Guntoor, after he had received orders from Calcutta to restore it, was suspended from his office, to the great satisfaction of the settlement, though, as Hastings remarked, “the creature made some show of resistance.” All the troops which could be spared were immediately despatched, together with fifteen lacs of rupees, for the sole use of the army, and not as a civil supply; and such was the energy displayed on this occasion, that the whole embarkation, and all the measures projected for so great an occasion, were completed within three weeks. The veteran, Sir Eyre Coote, had succeeded Sir John Clavering, as commander-in-chief in Bengal, and was solicited to proceed to Madras, and restore the honour of the British name. He was now advanced in years, and feeble in health, but he would not decline this honourable summons to the scene of his early triumphs. But the boldest measure which Hastings adopted at this crisis, was to stop the Company’s investment, and apply the funds to the expedition. Even this provision, however, was found to be insufficient. It was a subject of exultation, that during the eight years of his administration, he had not only discharged debts to the extent of a crore and a half of rupees, but replenished the treasury with double that sum; it was, therefore, with no ordinary chagrin that he was now obliged to have recourse to a loan.
Sir Eyre Coote reached Madras on the 5th of November, and found the equipment of the army so wretched, and the difficulty of obtaining draft and carriage cattle in a country swept by hostile cavalry so great, that it was the 17th of January before he was able to move his army. Hyder had resumed the siege of Arcot, and its small European garrison, after holding out for six weeks, was obliged to retire to the citadel which Clive had defended for fifty days. But the Nabob’s brahmin commandant, under Hyder’s influence, spread a spirit of disaffection among the native troops to such an extent that the European officers had no alternative but to capitulate. Hyder was at
the same time engaged in besieging five other forts, one of which, Wandewash, was defended by Lieutenant Flint and a brother officer, with such romantic valour and such military skill that the siege became one of the most honourable events of the war. This distinguished officer, however, received no other reward for his eminent services but the applause of Sir Eyre Coote, whose admiration of the resources which had been employed knew no bounds. The Court of Directors refused even to promote him to the command of a company. Soon after, Sir Eyre Coote revived the drooping spirits of the army by the capture of Carangolly, which Hyder had fortified with great care.
On the 8th of February, the general marched southwards to Cuddalore, where he was subjected to the most mortifying embarrassment for supplies, which he could receive only by sea. The hostile armies remained inactive for four months, Coote unable to move for want of provisions, and Hyder dreading an encounter with him. On the 18th of June, Coote attacked the fortified and well-provisioned temple of Chillumbrum, but met with a repulse. Hyder was elated by this his first success against the renowned English commander, and resolved to risk a general engagement. Though on the verge of eighty, he marched up to Cuddalore, a hundred miles in two days and a half, and took up a strong position in its neighbourhood, which he began to fortify. Coote, ignorant of the nature or strength of the enemy’s works, resolved, as his last resource, to sally forth and attack them. His battering guns were sent on board the vessels lying off the town, together with every other impediment, and the troops marched to the assault with the remaining provisions, enough only for four days, on their backs. After advancing a little distance, Coote perceived a road which Hyder had been cutting through the sand hills the previous night, and immediately pushed his detachments through the gap in the teeth of a heavy cannonade. After a long and arduous engagement, of six hours’
duration, the valour of the British troops was rewarded by a complete victory, with the loss of only 300 men. The result of the action was most decisive. Hyder, who had lost 10,000 soldiers, abandoned his designs on Trichinopoly, and Tippoo raised the siege of Wandewash, which the gallant Flint still continued to defend.
The Bengal brigade sent down the coast under Colonel Pearce, had been recruited after the havoc of the cholera, and reached Pulicat, forty miles north of Madras, in July, 1781. Hyder detached Tippoo with a large force to intercept it, and Coote marched 150 miles from Porto Novo to form a junction with it, which he effected on the 2nd of August. A similar movement, even with less foresight and vigour on the part of Sir Hector Munro in the preceding year, would have saved Baillie’s army from destruction. Hyder had unaccountably allowed Coote to march through the country without that obstruction which he could have offered at every step, but he determined to make up for his neglect by opposing his return with great vigour, and advanced with the whole of the Mysore army to the spot where a twelvemonth before he had exterminated Baillie’s force. He considered this a most fortunate spot for another battle, and his astrologers predicted a certain victory, if it took place on the same lucky day of the same lunar month, the 11th Ramzan, or the 27th of August. The engagement, called after the neighbouring village, Pollilore, lasted throughout the day, but the result was doubtful, both parties firing a salute for victory. The action cost Hyder 2,000 men, while the loss on the side of the English was about 400. The next day, Coote’s army was employed in the melancholy duty of interring the remains of Colonel Baillie’s detachment in the same graves with their own dead. Vellore, one of the few fortresses left to the English, was at this time straitened for provisions, and the commandant represented the impossibility of holding out unless he was relieved. Coote advanced to raise the siege, and Hyder marched to
prevent the attempt.
The armies met again for the third time during the year at Solingur, on the 27th of September, 1781. Hyder having come to the conclusion that Coote could not, or would not, attack him on that day, had allowed his cattle and the drivers and followers to disperse, and the rapid movement of the British columns took him by surprise. Coote obtained a complete victory, which, owing to his admirable dispositions, involved the loss of only 100 men, while that of the Mysore army exceeded 5,000. Within a few days, however, Vellore was again reduced to extremity for supplies, and though the monsoon had set in, Coote made three forced marches, and provisioned it for three months. Hyder did not venture again to attack him, and the British army soon after retired into cantonments at Madras, after a campaign in which all the plans of Hyder were baffled by the consummate strategy of Coote, and Coote’s expectations were defeated by the wretched state of his equipments and the total absence of a commissariat.
The question of filling up the vacant chair at Madras now came up before the Court of Directors. In the brief period of seven years, two governors had been dismissed by them, and one suspended by Hastings, for gross misconduct, and a fourth had been deposed by his own Council, and died in confinement. The service was thoroughly demoralised; and it was, therefore, determined to try the experiment of placing the government in the hands of a new man, uncontaminated with the general corruption, and a stranger to all local associations, who might be expected to bring dignity to the office, and restore vigour to the administration. The choice fell on Lord Macartney, a nobleman of much political experience, and imbued with a high sense of honour. He reached Madras on the 22nd of June, and brought the first intelligence of the declaration of war with the Dutch. Their principal settlement on the coast, at Negapatam, 160 miles south of Madras, was at the time garrisoned by a body of 6,500 troops, and Hyder Ali lost no time in
opening negotiations with the chief, which resulted in a treaty on the basis of mutual co-operation against the English. Lord Macartney was anxious to prevent this formidable accession to the resources of Hyder, and resolved to attack the town, while he was able to reckon upon the assistance of the fleet, before the approaching change of the monsoon. Without abstracting a single soldier from the army of Sir Eyre Coote, who discountenanced the expedition, he drew together a force from Tanjore and Madras, and placed it under the command of Sir Hector Munro.
The fleet contributed a large body of marines and seamen, to whose steadiness and gallantry the early surrender of the place was chiefly owing. It fell on the 12th of November, and was found to contain, in addition to a large quantity of military stores, two annual investments of great value. In the following January, Trincomalee, the noblest harbour in the island of Ceylon, was also wrested from the Dutch.
The pressure of events on the coast forced the question of the Carnatic revenues on the consideration of the government at Madras and Calcutta. The heavy expenses of the war fell exclusively on the Company’s treasury; the province itself contributed nothing to its own defence, as the Nabob and his creditors absorbed the little revenue which was raised. While the troops of Coote were on half rations, the officers of the Nabob were selling the provisions collected for their support, and remitting the proceeds to his private purse. All his efforts were directed to impede, and often to counteract, the movements of the British troops. Not a single soldier in his pay was sent to Coote’s camp, while his officers betrayed every fort to the enemy; and his own brother made over the fortress of Chundergiree to Hyder, with all the grain stored in it – for a consideration. The venality and political profligacy of the Nabob’s court, unmatched in India, was the constant theme of Coote’s indignant remonstrance. The nuisance became at length insupportable,
and the Nabob, after repeated evasions, was constrained to resign the revenues of the Carnatic for a period of five years, at the least, with a reservation of one-sixth for his personal expenditure and for his creditors.
Colonel Brathwaite, who had assisted at the capture of Negapatam, was subsequently employed in establishing the Nabob’s authority in Tanjore, which Tippoo had been sent to ravage. The Colonel was encamped on the banks of the Coleroon, when, owing to the treachery of his guides who were all in the pay of the enemy, he was surprised by Tippoo, with 20,000 horse and foot, and 20 guns. The valour and constancy of British troops have seldom been more conspicuous than on this trying occasion. During twenty-six hours of unremitted conflict they sustained without flinching the repeated charges of the Mysore horse, and the fire of their cannon, but sunk at length from wounds and exhaustion, and would have been annihilated by the troops of Tippoo, but for the generous exertions of the French officers, who appreciated their heroism. This disaster was counterbalanced by a victory on the opposite coast. Tellicherry, a fortified factory, and the only English possession in Malabar, had sustained a siege of eighteen months by a Mysore force. Early in February, the garrison, which had been reinforced, made a sortie, and captured 1,200 of the enemy, together with all their baggage, equipments, and 60 pieces of cannon. The reverse thus inflicted on Hyder emboldened the conquered Nairs to rise throughout the province, and created a violent reaction in Coorg.
Hyder began to give way to despondency. He had been foiled in every engagement with Sir Eyre Coote in which he was not signally defeated. He was deceived, as he supposed, by his French allies, who had engaged to come to his assistance, but had failed him for twenty months. The revolt, kindled on the western coast, might extend to his capital. The Governor-General had succeeded in detaching Sindia, and the Nizam and Bhonslay from
the confederacy, and the Poona durbar now threatened to unite with the English, and compel him to accede to a peace which would deprive him of all the advantages of the war, unless he consented to resign to them the territories he had acquired between the Toombudra and the Kistna, and abandon all claims on the poligars south of that river. He disburdened his feelings to his minister, Poornea. He lamented his folly in having provoked a war with the English. There were, he admitted, mutual grounds of dissatisfaction, but still he might have made them his friends notwithstanding the intrigues of the wretched Nabob. “The defeat of many Brathwaites and many Baillies,” he said, “will not crush them. I may ruin their resources by land, but I cannot dry up the sea, and I must be exhausted by a war in which I can gain nothing by fighting.” He resolved, therefore, to abandon all operations in the Carnatic, and to concentrate his efforts on the western coast. He had issued instructions for the entire destruction of the districts on the Coromandel coast, that he might leave no vestige of human habitation behind him, and had ordered the defences of Arcot to be undermined, when all these gloomy forebodings were at once dissipated by the appearance of the long expected French armament on the coast.
Early in 1781, the French government made preparations for the despatch of a powerful fleet and army to India, under the command of the veteran Bussy, but the capture of two successive convoys by English cruizers retarded the execution of the plan. The first division at length reached the Mauritius, and was at once sent forward to the Coromandel coast. The death of the admiral during the voyage gave the command of the fleet to Suffrein, an officer of extraordinary enterprise and resources. He made the coast off Pulicat with twelve sail of the line and eighteen transports, as Admiral Hughes was returning in January, 1782, from the capture of Trincomalee. Hughes, who had only six vessels with him, was fortunately reinforced by three
others which had arrived from England, and bore down on the French squadron, and succeeded in cutting off six of the transports. The action was indecisive, and Suffrein proceeded to Porto Novo, where he landed 2,000 French soldiers and 1,000 Africans. Soon after, Hyder had an interview with the French commanders, when it was determined to attempt the reduction of Cuddalore, and await the arrival of Bussy for larger operations. The extensive fortifications of that place had been incautiously left in charge of only 400 sepoys and five artillerymen, and it surrendered without any show of resistance. A few weeks after, the important post of Permacoil was captured by Hyder. On the 12th of April, there was a second action between the fleets, but without any decisive result, and both the admirals were obliged to retire and refit their disabled vessels.
Coote began now in his turn to despond; he considered the aspect of affairs, not only embarrassing, but even desperate. In the hope of bringing on a general action, he marched to Wandewash, which was besieged by the united armies of the French and of Hyder, but they refused the challenge, and retired to Pondicherry. With the view of drawing them from the position which they had strongly fortified, Coote determined to attempt the capture of Arnee, the chief depot of Hyder in the southern provinces. Tippoo was sent to protect it, and an engagement ensued on the 2nd of Jane, the only result of which was the capture of one gun and eleven tumbrils, while Hyder was enabled to accomplish his object of rescuing his treasure and stores from danger. Six weeks after, he drew a young officer, who had been entrusted with a large detachment, into an ambuscade, enveloped it with his cavalry, and inflicted on it the loss of two guns and 166 men.
Suffrein now appeared before Negapatam, which he was desirous of obtaining as a depot for the French army. Hughes followed him, and a third naval engagement was fought on the 6th of July, with no
other result than to defeat the views of the French on that town. Suffrein retired to Cuddalore where he repaired the damage his fleet had sustained with incredible speed and energy, and then sailed southwards. Lord Macartney had received intelligence that a second French force had arrived at Point de Galle, and that Bussy himself was immediately expected on the coast. He began to tremble for the safety both of Negapatam and Trincomalee, and urged Admiral Hughes to follow the French fleet with all expedition. But the energy of that officer by no means corresponded with his skill and courage, and he was, moreover, jealous of any interference with his command, and in this instance did not hesitate to sacrifice the interests of his country to his own caprice. Suffrein hastened to Galle, embarked the force of 2,400, which had recently arrived, and landed them at Trincomalee. The siege was pushed with extraordinary vigour, and the garrison was obliged to capitulate on the 31st of August, though on the most honourable terms. Four days later the dilatory Hughes looked into the harbour, and saw the French colours flying on the ramparts. The next day witnessed the fourth action between the two fleets, but though it lasted throughout the day, it terminated like all which had preceded it, without any result. The approach of darkness separated the combatants. This was the last and the severest naval engagement of the year, which was marked as much by the exertions of the fleets, as by the inactivity of the armies.
Admiral Hughes returned to Madras, and announced the necessity of proceeding forthwith to Bombay to refit his vessels, which had kept the sea during the monsoon of 1781, and had sustained serious damage in four successive general actions. The governor represented to him the desperate condition to which the interests of the Company would be reduced by his departure, and earnestly pressed him to remain. Hyder, he said, was master of the Carnatic; the possession of Trincomalee would
give the French the undisputed command of the sea, and enable them to intercept the supplies of grain, on which Madras depended for its existence. Bussy, moreover, was hourly expected with large reinforcements. But the admiral turned a deaf ear to every remonstrance, and, looking only to the safety of the fleet for which he was responsible, set sail for Bombay on the 15th of October. That same night the monsoon set in with a terrific gale; the shore was strewed for miles with wrecks; the largest vessels went down at their anchors, and a hundred coasting craft, laden with 30,000 bags of rice, were irretrievably lost. Four days after Admiral Bickerton anchored in the roads, and, after landing 4,000 troops which he had brought out from England, put to sea again to join his own commander. Madras was now subjected to all the horrors of famine. The ravages of Hyder had driven the wretched inhabitants of the surrounding district for shelter and subsistence into the town, and for some time the number of deaths amounted to 1,500 a week. Sir Eyre Coote’s shattered constitution obliged him to return to Bengal, and the monsoon suspended all military operations.
After the relief of Tellicherry, on the Malabar coast, and the defeat of the Mysore army in February, 1782, Colonel Humberstone, who had succeeded to the command of the force, marched southward and entirely routed Mukdoom Ali, Hyder’s general and relative, whose loss exceeded 2,000 men. To create a diversion and relieve the pressure on the Company’s army on the Coromandel coast, the colonel marched into the heart of the country to lay siege to Palghaut, one of the strongest of the fortresses which Hyder had erected in the south, but, on a close reconnoitre, found it less assailable than he had expected. Hyder lost no time in despatching Tippoo with a large force and a French contingent to drive back this invasion. But the Bombay government was no sooner informed of the colonel’s hazardous advance into the interior, than they sent him peremptory orders to return to the coast. This
retrograde movement he considered a great misfortune, but it proved the salvation of his army. On the 19th of November Tippoo overtook the retiring force, which was constrained to fight every step of its march, and arrived at dusk on the banks of the Paniani; but, regarding them as a sure and easy prey, he neglected to watch their movements, and the colonel, having discovered a ford, passed his whole army over under cover of the night, and reached the town of Paniani the next day. On the 29th of November Tippoo made an assault in four columns on the British army, but was driven back with great loss. He then determined to blockade the force, and wait the arrival of his heavy equipments, when, on the 12th of December, his whole army was seen to strike its tents and march off to the eastward.
A dromedary express had arrived the preceding evening with intelligence of the death of Hyder Ali. His health had been declining during the year, and his end was hastened by the fatigues of the field. He died at the advanced age of eighty, leaving behind him the reputation of one of the ablest, most enterprising, and most successful adventurers in the modern history of India.
Poornea, a Mahratta brahmin, the ablest of Hyder’s ministers, in conjunction with his distinguished colleague, Kishen Rao, a Canarese brahmin, assumed the management of affairs, and acted with consummate prudence. Tippoo, the son and successor of Hyder, was four hundred miles distant, and an Asiatic army, deprived of its head, always becomes a scene of intrigue and confusion. Hyder’s death was therefore carefully concealed in the camp. The body was embalmed and sent under an escort to the capital, as it had been usual to despatch chests of valuable plunder. All answers to letters were issued, and all orders published in his name, and his closed palanquin, with the accustomed retinue, moved out at the usual hour from the canvas inclosure of his tent. Tippoo, on receiving intelligence of his father’s death, immediately abandoned the western campaign,
and hastened to join the army on the Coromandel coast, which he reached on the 2nd of January. The troops were gratified by the payment of arrears, and a liberal donative; the ministers who had maintained the royal authority at this difficult crisis were confirmed in office; and Tippoo at once succeeded to the command of a splendid army of 100,000 men, and to a treasury filled with three crores of rupees, besides an accumulation of jewels and valuables, which Poornea declared to be of countless value.
Far different was the course of events at Madras. The same fatality which had marked the proceedings of the Presidency for the last fifteen years, seemed still to influence its councils. There was a vigorous governor, but an imbecile general. Sir Eyre Coote’s departure for Bengal had placed the army under the charge of General Stuart, and Lord Macartney entreated him to take advantage of the consternation occasioned by the death of Hyder, to attack the Mysore army before the arrival of Tippoo. The general had never ceased to obstruct every movement since he succeeded to the command of the army, and be now affected to disbelieve the report of Hyder’s death, and when it could no longer be a matter of dispute, refused to move until the “proper time,” of which he considered himself the sole judge. The golden opportunity of striking a decisive blow was thus lost, and the war prolonged for fifteen months. General Stuart had the entire conduct of the war in his hands, with an increased army and liberal supplies; but sixty days were suffered to elapse after the death of Hyder, before he could be persuaded to move, and even then, he did nothing but demolish the fortifications of three forts which Sir Eyre Coote had been anxious to preserve. The anxiety which his incapacity created, was, however, happily relieved by the abrupt departure of Tippoo. The alarming intelligence which he received of the progress of a British force on the western coast, induced him to proceed in person to meet the danger, with the
flower of his army, after having destroyed the works at Arcot, and, indeed, every remaining post except Arnee. Bussy was hourly expected with large reinforcements, and if the entire Mysore army had been strengthened by a European force, directed by the genius of that commander, Madras, entrusted to the wretched Stuart, would have been in imminent peril. From this danger the Presidency was rescued by the injudicious movement of Tippoo. Leaving him to pursue his course to the western coast, we continue the narrative of events around Madras.
The plans of Bussy had been impeded by a succession of untoward events; but although, on landing at Cuddalore on the 10th of April, 1783, he found himself at the head of 2,300 Europeans and 5,000 French sepoys, he had also the mortification to find that Hyder was dead, and that Tippoo had gone to the opposite coast, leaving a force of only 3,500 men to co-operate with him. Admiral Hughes had also returned with his fleet to the coast, and General Stuart, having no longer any excuse for delay, marched towards Cuddalore, with a fine park of artillery, and 14,500 men, of whom 3,000 were Europeans. Nothing was wanting to the efficiency of this splendid force, except a commander; and the troops were, therefore, looking with the greatest eagerness for their venerable and beloved general, Sir Eyre Coote, again to lead them on to victory; but the veteran died two days after his arrival at Madras, on the 26th of April. The expedition moved towards Cuddalore under the command of General Stuart, but only at the rate of three miles a day. He sat down before that fortified town on the 7th of June, and on the 13th, attacked a formidable position of the French, who were obliged to retire to the citadel, with the loss of thirteen guns. The honour of the day was due to the extraordinary gallantry of the subordinate officers and men; but it was dearly purchased by the loss of 62 officers and 920 Europeans, killed or mortally wounded. On the same day, Suffrein appeared in the offing,
with sixteen vessels, and Admiral Hughes, who was anchored off Porto Novo, came up to meet him with eighteen ships. Notwithstanding -this apparent superiority over the French, he was essentially weaker, as no fewer than 2,700 of his sailors were disabled by scurvy. Suffrein had borrowed 1,200 soldiers from Bussy, and the two fleets met on the 20th of June, but the severe action which ensued, like the four which had preceded it, was without any decisive result. Night again parted the combatants, and Hughes finding his vessels crippled, his crews dying of scurvy, and his supply of water running short, bore up for Madras to refit; while Suffrein, not only restored the 1,200 men lent him by Bussy, but reinforced the French army with 2,400 marines and sailors from his fleet. With this addition to his force, Bussy made a sortie in the dark on the 25th of June, but was repulsed with the loss of 450 men. It was on this occasion that the young and gallant French serjeant, Bernadotte, who subsequently became one of Napoleon’s marshals, and king of Sweden, fell into the hands of the English. General Stuart had been bustling about Cuddalore for three weeks, and yet the siege could scarcely be said to have commenced. His force was daily wasting away from sickness, fatigue and wounds; while Bussy, strengthened by the reinforcement from the fleet, and having free communication with the country around, was waiting for the maturity of his errors to strike some decisive blow. Considering the great talents of Bussy, and the incompetency of Stuart, there is every reason to apprehend that it would have resulted in the discomfiture and retreat of the English army, the loss of its battering train and baggage, perhaps also, in the siege of Madras. From this danger, the Company was happily relieved by the arrival of intelligence that peace had been concluded in Europe between the belligerents, and all military operations immediately ceased. General Stuart returned to Madras, and was placed under arrest by Lord Macartney, and sent to England. He was the officer who had been employed eight years before in the clandestine
arrest of Lord Pigot, and among the epigrams to which his own arrest gave rise, that of the Nabob’s second son was by no means the least racy: “General Stuart catch one lord, one lord catch General Stuart.”
The abrupt departure of Tippoo to the western coast was occasioned by the success of an expedition sent from Bombay against his possessions in that quarter. General Matthews had been despatched to the succour of Colonel Humberstone at Paniani, but, on bearing of the withdrawal of Tippoo’s army, proceeded along the coast, and took possession of the towns of Mirjee and Onore. During this expedition, five of the Mysore ships of war, carrying from fifty to sixty-four guns, fell into the hands of the British admiral. The Bombay President, having received intelligence of the death of Hyder, directed General Matthews to march at once against Bednore. The general disapproved of the movement, which he considered injudicious and dangerous, but instead of entering into explanations with his superiors, proceeded doggedly to execute it, simply disclaiming all responsibility. The ascent of the ghauts, which had been fortified at every point, presented the most formidable obstacles to an invading force, but the gallantry of the 42nd Highlanders, led by Colonel Macleod, carried all the lower defences, and the army arrived in front of Bednore, when, to the utter astonishment of the general, the place was unconditionally surrendered to him. It afterwards transpired that Hyat Sahib, as he was called by the English, the Mysore commander, who had been a favourite of Hyder, and was consequently regarded with feelings of hatred by Tippoo, had obtained the sight of a letter directed by him to one of the officers in Bednore, ordering him to deprive Hyat of the command, and, if necessary, to put him to death; and Hyat immediately made arrangements for delivering up the fortress and the district to the English.
It was the tidings of this transaction which induced Tippoo to quit the Carnatic, and bend his attention
to the expulsion of the English force from the western provinces, justly fearing lest they should be transferred to the Mahrattas, whom Hastings was urging to attack him. General Matthews, instead of concentrating his force, which did not exceed 1,600, at the most defensible point, frittered it away in small detachments, and the troops were allowed to disperse over the country in search of plunder. Bednore was, however, defended with great valour, and it was not surrendered till it had become a heap of ruins, and further resistance was hopeless. The capitulation was violated as usual, and the men and officers were marched off in irons, and consigned to dungeons. Tippoo fired a salute for this his first victory over the English troops, and then descended to the coast and invested Mangalore, the siege of which is one of the most memorable events of the war. The strength of the garrison, at the commencement of it was only 1,850, while the investing force under Tippoo amounted to 100,000 with 100 guns. The command of the fort had devolved on Colonel Campbell, of the 42nd Highlanders, and a brighter name is not to be found in the annals of British India. It would exceed the limits which can be assigned to this memorable conflict in this brief epitome, to enter into any detail of the siege, or to describe how General Macleod, who was twice sent to relieve it, was, on each occasion, cajoled by Tippoo and left his task incomplete, and how an intermediate convention was disgracefully violated and the privations of the brave garrison augmented. It may be sufficient to state that the colonel and his troops defended the place for nine months with unsurpassed resolution against the whole army of Tippoo, and did not capitulate until their number was reduced to 850, and those mere skeletons.
Whilst Tippoo was thus wasting his strength and his reputation in a siege which cost him half his army, the absence of a Mysore army from the southern provinces, and the peace with France, enabled the Madras government to send a powerful force across the peninsula
into the heart of Mysore. This able plan was devised and executed by Colonel Fullarton, who had embraced the military profession late in life, but exhibited talents of a very high order, and would have brought the war with Tippoo to an honourable termination, if he had not been thwarted by the folly of the Madras authorities. His force consisted of 13,600 men, but the native portion of it was twelve months in arrears. On the 15th of November, he captured the renowned fortress of Palghaut, and on the 26th occupied Coimbatoor; on the 28th, he had made every preparation for an immediate advance on Seringapatam, while the Mysore army was detained before Mangalore. The capital was within his grasp, but before night he received orders not only to suspend operations, but to relinquish all the districts he had occupied. To explain this singular requisition, it is to be remarked that while Hastings was engaged in urging the Mahrattas, in accordance with the treaty of Salbye, to compel Tippoo to make peace on pain of hostilities, Lord Macartney, in defiance of the prohibition of the Supreme Government, to which, on such questions, he was entirely subordinate, opened negotiations with Tippoo, and by a singular infatuation, voluntarily agreed to a suspension of arms till a reply was received. So ignorant was the Governor of Madras of native habits, as not to know that any direct offer of peace to a native prince, rendered peace on honourable terms impossible. Tippoo took no notice of the proposals for three months, and then sent one of the most astute of his officers to cozen the President and Council at Madras. After a month passed in jesuitical diplomacy, the envoy proposed that two gentlemen should be deputed to Tippoo to expedite the negotiations. The silly Council swallowed the bait, and even affirmed that this was a proposal which exactly met their wishes. The object of Tippoo was gained, and he was thus enabled to represent at every durbar in India that the English government had sent commissioners all the way from Madras to Mangalore to sue for peace. It
was at this period and under the influence of this agent, that the commissioners instructed Colonel Fullarton to suspend hostilities, and evacuate his conquests; but he had just heard of the perfidious violation of the convention of Mangalore, and though he ceased to prosecute the war, determined to retain the districts he had conquered. Discussions soon after arose between the envoy of Tippoo and the commissioners, regarding the release of the prisoners and the surrender of Mangalore, which were referred to Lord Macartney. On the 8th of December the Council met and reviewed their position; their finances were ruined, their credit was broken, and the confidence of the Supreme Government was gone. But, instead of ordering Colonel Fullarton with his powerful army to push on to Tippoo’s capital, while he was occupied at Mangalore, and end the war by one bold stroke, they directed him to relinquish all his conquests, and retire within the limits which they prescribed, although Tippoo’s officers had violated their engagements, and retained all the districts they had overrun in the Carnatic, which they were equally bound to evacuate. The missionary Swartz met Colonel Fullarton at the foot of the ghauts as he was marching back, and exclaimed with astonishment, “Is the peace so certain that you quit all before the negotiation is ended. The possession of these two countries would have kept Tippoo in awe, and inclined him to reasonable terms. But you quit the reins, and how will you manage the beast? “The Colonel replied, I cannot help it. Hastings, with his profound knowledge of the native character, reprobated the negotiation, and considered that it should have been entrusted to Colonel Fullerton, and conducted at the head of his army, at the capital. But Hastings was now comparatively powerless. The Court of Directors, a prey to intrigue, had recently renewed their condemnation of his conduct, his own Council deserted him, Lord Macartney set him at defiance, and the negotiations with Tippoo were left to the mismanagement of Madras. The commissioners were marched leisurely through the country,
subjected to every indignity and detained at every stage, till Mangalore had surrendered, when they were allowed to approach the Mysore camp. And there, after having been again insulted by the erection of three gibbets in front of their tents, they at length signed the treaty, on the basis of a mutual restitution of conquests. Of the prisoners who had fallen into the hands of Hyder and Tippoo, the most distinguished had been taken off by poison, or hacked to pieces in the woods; but 190 officers and 900 European soldiers still survived the barbarous treatment to which they had been subjected for several years, and were now liberated. Of the treaty, it may be sufficient to say that it was not more disgraceful than those which the Governors and Council of Madras had been in the habit of making for the last fifteen years. It was injurious not only to the character of the British government, but also to the interests of peace, inasmuch as it entailed the necessity of another war to correct the arrogance with which it inspired Tippoo, and to which he gave expression in the following terms: “On the occasion of the signature of the treaty, the English commissioners stood with their heads uncovered, and the treaty in their hands, for two hours, using every form of flattery and supplication to induce compliance. The vakeels of Poona and Hyderabad united in the most abject entreaties, and his Majesty, the shadow of God, was at length softened into assent.”
This collection transcribed by Chris Gage