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INVASION BY THE MAHRATTAS.

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dignity, shut and barricaded the doors of the house in which he was confined, set fire to it, and before the flames could be extinguished, he had perished. Several of his attendants are said to have thrown themselves into the burning mansion, and suffered the same fate. A conquest achieved by such deeds of violence soon excited a fierce rebellion, which was suppressed only by severe executions, and by the transportation of a great number of the people to a remote quarter of the Mysorean dominions.

These rapid successes, and the additional resources derived from them, alarmed the great powers of Southern India. Nizam Ali, Subahdar of the Deccan, and Madoo Rao, the Mahratta commander, united in a confederacy to crush the assailant; and the English agreed to place an auxiliary force at the disposal of the former, with the vague commission "to settle the affairs of his government in every thing that is right and proper." It was distinctly understood that they were to co-operate in the invasion of Mysore; and Colonel Smith proceeded to Hydrabad to arrange measures for that purpose. This seems to have been a very doubtful policy, when the Mahrattas alone were fully equal to contend with Hyder; so that the two parties might have been advantageously left to weaken each other by mutual warfare; whereas the aggrandizement of one by the downfall of the other tended directly to overthrow the balance of power.

The three allied armies began to move early in 1767, but in a straggling and ill-combined manner. A month before the two others Madoo Rao had covered with clouds of cavalry the high plains of Mysore. His force alone was more than Hyder dared to encounter in the field. The latter endeavoured to pursue a desultory mode of defence, causing the grain to be buried, the wells to be poisoned, the forage to be consumed, and the cattle to be driven away. Every expedient proved unavailing to stop the progress of these rapid and skilful marauders; their horses fed on the roots of grass; by thrusting iron rods into the earth they discovered from the sound, the resistance, and even from the smell, the places where grain was deposited; while the cattle, to whatever spot they could be removed, were traced out and seized. The Mysorean leader, finding them already in the heart of his dominions, where he had no means of arresting VOL. II.-E

their progress, determined at any price to detach them from the confederacy. Apajee Ram, a Bramin, was sent, and opened a negotiation in a style much differing from European diplomacy. He was received in full durbar by the Mahratta general, who declared his determination not to treat with an opponent who held his legitimate prince in such unworthy captivity; and a murmur of approbation ran through the assembly. The envoy humbly confessed the charge, only adding, that his master, whenever an opposite example was set by his betters, would immediately follow it. Every one now recollected that Madoo Rao held the descendant of Sevajee in exactly the same thraldom as the Mysorean rajah was kept by Hyder; the approving sound was changed into suppressed laughter; the Mahratta chief hung down his head; and a serious negotiation was immediately commenced. He consented, on the payment of thirty-five lacks of rupees, to quit the country and withdraw entirely from the grand alliance. He had gained his end; and when Colonel Tod was sent to urge him to fulfil his engagements, the whole court laughed in that officer's face.

Colonel Smith, meantime, supported only by the poor, ill-paid, and undisciplined troops of the nizam, had entered Mysore. He soon began to suspect that this would prove a very futile expedition; and it was in fact about to assume a character much more disastrous than he anticipated. His Indian ally had taken umbrage on various grounds at the English presidency. They had procured from the Mogul, now a merely nominal potentate, the grant of the valuable territory of the Northern Circars. Mohammed Ali, their ally, whom they had raised to be nabob of the Carnatic, had meantime advanced pretensions to the dominions and rank of the nizam, which the latter suspected the British of secretly favouring. Hyder therefore employed Maphuz Khan, brother to that chief, who, actuated by the fraternal jealousies usually prevalent in India, had come over to the Mysorean interest, to open a secret correspondence with the nizam. This last was easily persuaded that he should most successfully realize his views of aggrandizement by entering into a league with Hyder against Mohammed and that foreign power, of which he was rendering himself the instrument; and accordingly these two parties, who were

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so lately vowing each other's destruction, united in an offensive treaty against the English. Colonel Smith, both from his own observation and from notices given by his faithful ally, soon obtained a clear perception of this change in the position of affairs. It bore rather a serious aspect, considering the distance to which he had advanced into the Mysore territory; but on his remonstrances Nizam Ali concurred in the propriety of his retreat, only desiring that a corps of three battalions should remain with him,-a request which was unaccountably complied with. Yet the Indian prince, on this occasion, displayed honourable feelings very unusual with his countrymen of the same class. Before commencing hostilities he allowed the whole detachment to depart except five companies, and afterward these also, without the least molestation.

Colonel Smith, seeing himself now threatened by the united attack of these two great powers, with an army of 43,000 horse and 28,000 foot, while he himself had only 6000 foot and 1000 horse, limited his efforts to fortifying the passes of the Ghauts by which they might be expected to descend into the Carnatic; but from ignorance of the local positions, he left undefended those very openings which were the most favourable for their purpose. Through these they easily penetrated, and, threatening the rear of the English, obliged them instantly to retire. The confederates attacked him near Changama, but were completely repulsed; though, in consequence of their horsemen having plundered the slender store of rice belonging to his army, this victory was converted almost into a defeat, and he was obliged to retreat day and night till he reached Trinomalee. The war now assumed a distressing character. The British officer had his force raised to ten thousand, for the most part regular infantry, which gave him a superiority in the field; but his cavalry were few and inefficient, while the enemy covered all the country with the finest light-horse in the world, which cut off all his supplies, and left him no command over any spot beyond that on which he was actually encamped. At the same time Tippoo, son to Hyder, afterward so deadly an enemy to the English name, then only a boy of seventeen, made a rapid excursion with 5000 horse to the vicinity of Madras, and had nearly surprised several of the European residents in their country houses. The Indian

princes expected to see their adversary reduced to extremity by the want of provisions; but this was averted by the discovery of some hidden stores, which, according to national custom, had been buried in the earth. The nizam, imprudent and impatient, insisted that they should no longer wait the slow operation of famine, but bring on a general action. They made the attack at Trinomalee, confident in their superior numbers and vast masses of cavalry; but Smith, by an able movement round a mountain, and by the skill with which his artillery was served, completely baffled the efforts of this great though irregular host. The pursuit was marked by a singular occurrence. The nizam, according to his absurd practice, had ranged in the rear a long line of elephants, on which his favourite ladies, seated in pomp, surveyed the battle. When the field was seen to be lost, orders were sent that this cavalcade should retreat at full speed; but a female voice, issuing from a splendid vehicle borne by one of these animals, called, "This elephant has not been instructed so to turn; he follows the standard of the empire." The consequence was, that before the flag passed, several of these huge quadrupeds had fallen, and the balls were already flying among the fair fugitives.

The nizam, on witnessing these disasters and the disappointment of all his hopes of aggrandizement at the expense of the English, began to waver in the alliance. Another check sustained near Amboor, and the invasion of his territory by a detachment from Bengal, confirmed him in the resolution to detach himself from Hyder, and agree to a separate treaty. It was concluded on the 23d February, 1768. Under the pressure of such circumstances he obtained tolerable terms; but was obliged to consent that the tribute paid for the Circars should be reduced, and continue only six years; and also that no opposition should be made to the appropriation by the British of a considerable extent of Hyder's dominions.

The presidency of Madras felt now the highest exultation, and sent immediate orders to Colonel Smith to enter Mysore, and strike a blow at the centre of Hyder's power. That officer represented the impossibility of subsisting his army in the elevated and barren territory around Bangalore, which upon this plan must have been the first object of attack. He rather proposed, in the first instance, to

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Occupy the fertile country extending along the foot of the Ghauts, and make it the basis of future operations. The council adopted the very questionable policy of combining these two plans; directing Smith to march upon Bangalore, while Colonel Wood with a separate detachment should conduct operations in the district adjoining the mountains. With this scheme they coupled the very injudicious measure of sending two commissioners to direct and assist, but more properly to obstruct, the operations of the commander, while they engaged Mohammed Ali, the most unfit of all persons, to collect the revenue of the conquered territory. Operations were meantime favoured by a movement of British troops from Bombay, which had reduced Mangalore, Onore, and other important places on the western coast.. Colonel Wood was thus enabled to overrun all the territory against which his arms were directed, subduing every place of consequence, while Smith arrived in the vicinity of Bangalore, and made preparations to besiege that important key of the kingdom. Thus in a few months Hyder had lost one-half of his dominions, and saw the centre of his power menaced. Having directed, however, in the first instance, his whole force against the western districts, he succeeded in completely retrieving affairs there, and driving the English out of all the places which they had occupied. He then returned to the eastward to make head against the Madras army, which, though it had overrun an extensive tract of country, held it by a very precarious tenure. His numerical force was indeed much diminished by the defection of the nizam, but the remaining troops, being entirely under his own guidance, proved nearly as effective. The presidency incessantly urged Smith to besiege Bangalore, as the operation by which the war was to be brought to a crisis; but he replied that it was impossible to do so without previously defeating Hyder's army; and though that chief continually hovered round and harassed the English, he diligently and skilfully shunned a general action. Sensible, however, of the present superiority of his opponents, he made overtures, and showed a willingness to submit to very considerable sacrifices; offering to cede the frontier district of Baramahl, and to pay ten lacks of rupees for the expenses of the war; but the presidency, still buoyed up with hopes of conquest,

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