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1779.

be regarded, he should be constrained to oppose them. To the apology, urged CHAP. IV. by Mr. Holland, that the probability of an immediate attack by Hyder Ali left not sufficient time for consulting him, the Nizam replied that Hyder had no immediate intention to molest his brother, but was meditating a speedy attack upon Carnatic, to be conducted, like the former invasion of that province, by · plundering and burning, while he avoided a battle. The Nizam was jealous of the presence of a British force with Bazalut Jung, who, with such assistance, he doubted not, would soon aspire at independence. The French troops he had taken into his own service immediately after they were dismissed by his brother; but he assured the British resident that he had adopted this expedient solely to prevent them from passing into the service of Hyder or the Mahrattas; and described them as of little value, the wreck of the army of Bussy, augmented by persons of all nations. This was a contingency which, in their eagerness to see the French discharged by Bazalut Jung, the Presidency had somewhat overlooked. It was no doubt true, as they alleged, that had the Nizam consulted the friendship of the English, he would have ordered the French troops to the coast, whence with other prisoners they might have been sent on their passage to Europe.

In the Select Committee, on the 5th of June, it was proposed by the Governor, and agreed, that the peshcush or tribute, of five lacs of rupees, which the Company were bound by their treaty to pay, in compromise, for possession of the Northern Circars, the Nizam should be solicited to remit. The payment of it had already been suspended for two years, partly on the pretence that the French troops were not dismissed, partly on account of the exhausted state of their finances. When this proposal was announced by Mr. Holland to the Nizam, he became highly agitated; and declared his conviction that the English no longer meant to observe the treaty; for which reason he also must prepare for

war.

of the Madras

with the Ni

zam, severely

Governor

Mr. Holland, who had received instructions to communicate with the Supreme Transactions Council, conveyed intelligence of these transactions to Bengal, by sending, on the Presidency 3d of September, copies of the letters which had passed between him and the Presidency of Madras. On the 25th of October, the subject was taken into condemned by consideration at Calcutta ; when the proceedings of the Madras Presidency, in General and forming a treaty with Bazalut Jung without the interposition of his immediate sovereign, the Company's ally; and in withholding the payment, and proposing the abolition of the peshcush; underwent the most severe condemnation; as tending to impeach the character of the English for justice and faith, and to

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Council.

1779.

Book V. raise them up a formidable enemy, when they were already exposed to unusual difficulties and dangers. It was agreed, that the case demanded the interference of the Superior Board; and a letter was written on the 1st of November, 1779, to assure the Nizam that the intentions of the English government were truly pacific, notwithstanding the interpretation which he put upon the proceedings of the Council at Madras. Mr. Holland was directed to suspend his negotiations till he should receive further instructions from his own Presidency. Letters were also written to that Presidency, acquainting them, in terms studiously inoffensive and mild, with the aberrations which it appeared to the Supreme Council that they had made from the line of propriety and prudence. The Nizam declared the highest satisfaction with the friendly assurances which the Supreme Council had expressed. But their interference excited the highest indignation and resentment in the Council of Madras. On the 30th of December a minute was entered by Sir Thomas Rumbold, the President, in which he treats the censure which had been passed on their conduct as undeserved, and its language unbecoming; denies the right of the Supreme Council thus to interfere in the transactions of another Presidency, and argues that their controling power extended to the conclusion alone of a treaty, not to the intermediate negotiation; he turns the attack upon the Bengal Presidency; enters into a severe investigation of the policy and conduct of the Mahratta war, which in every particular he condemns; this it was which had alienated the mind of the Subahdar, not the regulation with his brother, or the proposed remission of the peshcush; the retention of a peshcush offended not the conscience of the Bengal Presidency, when themselves were the gainers, the unfortunate Emperor of India the sufferer, and when it was a peshcush stipulated and secured by treaty for the most important grants. In terms of nearly the same import the letter was couched in which the Presidency of Madras returned an answer to that of Bengal, and along with which they transmitted the minute of their President.

The Directors punish the principal

Members of the Madras

The Presidency of Madras had not only taken Guntoor on lease from Bazalut Jung, they had also transferred it, on a lease of ten years, to the Nabob of Arcot; though well aware how little the Directors were pleased with his mode of exaction, either in their jaghire, or in his own dominions.

The measure of their offences, in the eyes of the Directors, was now sufficiently full. In their letter of the 10th of January, 1781, after passing the severest censure upon the abolition of the Committee of Circuit, and the progovernment. ceedings with the Zemindars of the four Northern Circars, on the treaty with

Bazalut Jung, the transactions with the Nizam, and the lease of Guntoor to the CHAP. IV. Nabob, they dismiss from their service Sir Thomas Rumbold, President, John Hill, and Peter Perring, Esquires, Members of their Council of Fort St. George; deprive of their seat in council Mr. Smith and Mr. Johnson; and express their strongest displeasure against the commander of their forces Sir Hector Munro.*

* These transactions are minutely detailed in the Second and Third Reports of the Committee of Secrecy, 1781; in the Appendixes to which, the official documents are to be found.

1779.

1778.

French, and

dicherry.

CHAP. V.

War with the French-Pondicherry taken-War with Hyder Ali-Presidency unprepared-Colonel Baillie's Detachment cut off-Supreme Council suspend the Governor of Fort St. George, and send Sir Eyre Coote to Madras-Hyder takes Arcot, and over-runs the greater part of the country-Lord Macartney, Governor of Fort St. George-Negapatnam and Trincomalee taken from the Dutch-Treaty between the Nabob of Arcot and Supreme Council-Assignment of the Nabob's Revenues-Tellicherry invested-Great Armaments sent from both England and France— Disaster of Colonel Brathwaite's Detachment in Tanjore-Madras reduced to a State of Famine-Death of Hyder Ali-Tippoo withdraws the Mysorean Army from Carnatic-Operations and Fate of General Matthews, on the Coast of Malabar-Siege of Mangalore-The General at Madras, refusing to obey the civil Authority, is arrested and sent to Europe-French and English suspend Hostilities in consequence of Intelligence of the Peace in Europe-Operations of Colonel Fullarton in Coimbetore-Peace with Tippoo-Behaviour of Supreme Council to Presidency of Madras.

BOOK V. WAR with the French, instead of being, as formerly, the most alarming to the English of all sources of danger in India, now held a very inferior station War with the among the great objects which occupied their attention. In the beginning of siege of Pon- July, 1778, intelligence was received in Bengal, which, though somewhat premature, was acted upon as certain, that war had commenced between England and France. Without waiting for a formal notification of this event, which might be only waiting till the French had made themselves strong, it was resolved by a stroke, decisive in their present defenceless situation, to take possession of the whole of the French settlements in India. With regard to minor places, the attempt was easy; and Chandernagore, with the factories at Masulipatam and Carical, surrendered without resistance: Pondicherry was the object of importance; and it was resolved to lose no time in taking measures for its reduction. Instructions were sent to Madras, and reached it with unusual

1778.

expedition. Major-General Sir Hector Munro, who commanded the Madras CHAP. V. army, took post on an elevated ground, called the Red Hills, distant about a league from Pondicherry, on the 8th of August; and on the 9th summoned the place to surrender. But his preparations were still so backward, that it was the 21st of August before he took possession of the bound hedge, within cannon shot of the town; and ground was not broken till the 6th of September. It was broken in two places, with a view to carry on attacks upon both sides of the town at once.

tween the

The British squadron, consisting of one ship of sixty guns, one of twenty- Battle beeight, one of twenty, a sloop of war, and an East Indiaman, sailed from French and English fleets. Madras toward the end of July, under the command of Sir Edward Vernon, with a view to block up Pondicherry by sea. This squadron reached the scene of action about the time when Sir Hector Munro encamped on the Red Hills and summoned the fort. The French squadron, under M. Tronjolly, consisting of one ship of sixty-four guns, one of thirty-six, one of thirty-two, and two East Indiamen armed for war, sailed immediately, and prepared for action. The two squadrons met and engaged on the 10th of August. The battle raged with great fury for the space of seventy-four minutes; when the three minor ships of the French squadron quitted the action, and in fifteen minutes after were followed by the rest. The English ships, which, as usually happened in engagements with the French, had suffered chiefly in their rigging, were unable to pursue the French, which had suffered chiefly in their hulls. The French squadron reached Pondicherry the same night: Sailing badly, and opposed by the winds and the current, it was the 20th before the English recovered its station. Early on the morning of the 21st the French squadron was perceived under easy sail standing out of Pondicherry road. During the day the alternate failure and opposition of the winds prevented the squadrons from closing. And towards night the English commander stood in for Pondicherry road, and cast anchor; expecting that the enemy, to whom it was an object of so much importance to keep open the communication of Pondicherry by sea, would proceed in the same direction, and commence the action on the following morning. M. The French Tronjolly availed himself of the night. His squadron was out of sight before from the coast. fleet departs the morning, and was no more heard of upon the coast.

defence Pon

The garrison of Pondicherry was commanded by M. Bellecombe, a man After a gallant whom this abandonment was not sufficient to dismay. Notwithstanding the dicherry surtotal destruction which the works of Pondicherry had sustained in the former renders.

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