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1754.

up by the French. By the stipulation to withdraw effectually from interference CHAP. II. in the affairs of the native princes, Mahomed Ali was left by the fact Nabob of Carnatic or Arcot. And by the stipulation to arrange the territorial possessions of the two nations on the principle of equality, the important acquisition of the four Circars was resigned.* Till the decision of the two Companies in Europe should be given, the contracting parties were to abstain from hostilities, direct or indirect; and their possessions to remain as they were.

That the severe strictures which Dupleix made upon this treaty were in some degree overcharged, is not to be denied. There is no reason to believe him, when he asserts that Trichinopoly was on the point of surrendering for want of supplies; for, at the time of the suspension of arms, the relative advantages of the contending parties appear to have been nearly the same as they had been twelve months before. It is equally impossible to believe what the English writers affirm, that the advantages of the English were now so great as to make it politic on the part of the French to conclude the treaty, unfavourable as it was. Admiral Watson had indeed arrived with a fleet, consisting of three ships and a sloop; having on board a king's regiment of 700 men, with forty artillerymen, and 200 recruits. But 1500 European troops had arrived with Godheu on the part of the French; † and Dupleix boasts, with some reason, that he could have added to these the Mahrattas, the Mysoreans, and, on certain conditions, the King of Tanjore. Bussy too had improved with so much ability that he ruled in a great measure the counsels of

his situation with Salabut Jung, the Subahdar of Deccan.

After displaying, in the most brilliant manner, the extraordinary superiority Transactions

"The two

* Col. Wilks (p. 345) must have read the treaty very carelessly, to imagine that "the substantial Moorish government and dignity of the extensive and valuable provinces of the Northern Circars were not noticed in the treaty," when the very first article of the treaty says, Companies, English and French, shall renounce for ever all Moorish government and dignity, and shall never interfere in any difference that may arise between the princes of the country." Mr. Orme too (so easily is the judgment warped of the best of men when their passions are engaged) imagined it would have been no infringement of the treaty, to assist the Mahrattas with English troops from Bombay, for the purpose of compelling Salabut Jung to dismiss Bussy and the French, and deprive them of the Northern Circars. Orme, i. 406.

† This is the number stated by Laurence, Narrative, p. 95; Orme, i. 371, calls it 1,200; Godheu, in his letter to Dupleix, received two days before his landing, calls it 2,000, (Mem. pour Dupleix, p. 101). And Dupleix himself asserts (Ibid. p. 111) that by the troops newly arrived his force was rendered superior to that of the English.

Mem. pour Dupleix, p. 111.

of Bussy.

1754.

Book IV. of European soldiers, in the subjugation of the Patan rebels, he compelled Salabut Jung to raise the son of Mirzapha Jung, the late Subahdar and the friend of the French, to the government, originally enjoyed by that unfortunate prince, of the strong hold of Adoni and its territory, augmented by the possessions of two of the Patan nobles, by whose treachery the father was slain. "An example of generosity," says Mr. Orme, “which, if true, could not fail to raise admiration in a country, where the merits of the father are so seldom of advantage to the distresses of the son."*

The settlement of the dominions of Salabut Jung was formidably opposed by the Mahrattas, who, in the weakness which ensued upon the death of Nizam al Mulk, were actively employed in adding to their conquests as much as possible of the Subah of Deccan. A Mahratta general, named Balagee Row, had opposed himself, at the head of 25,000 horse, to the march of the Subahdar, between the Kistnah and Golconda, but, by negotiation and a suitable present, was induced to withdraw. Within a few months he appeared again, with a force which would have enabled him to gain important advantages, had not the talents of Bussy, and the execution of European fire-arms, which astonished the Indians, decided in a variety of engagements the fortune of the day. Danger came not from one quarter alone. Ghazee ad dien Khan, the eldest son of Nizam al Mulk, destined by his father to maintain the interests of his family at the court of the Mogul, had apparently acquiesced in the accession of his second brother to the government of Deccan, to which, as to a destined event, he had been accustomed to look. Upon the death however of Nazir Jung, as he had become very uneasy in his situation at court, he solicited, as the eldest son and successor of Nizam al Mulk, the appointment of Subahdar of Deccan. The assent of the Emperor, which was now a mere form without power, was easily obtained; and Ghazee ad dien arrived at Aurengabad in the beginning of October, 1752, at the head, it is said, of 150,000 men, of whom a large body were Mahrattas, commanded by Holkar Malhar. At the same time Balagee Row, and another Mahratta general, named Ragogee Bonsla, in concert, it is said, with Ghazee ad dien Khan, entered the province of Golconda with 100,000 horse. To meet these formidable armies, Salabut Jung and Bussy took the field with very unequal numbers; when Ghazee ad dien Khan suddenly died. He was an old man, worn out by the pleasures of the harem, and his sudden death was by no means a surprising event; but as it was singularly

*Orme, i. 249.

1754.

opportune for Salabut Jung, it was ascribed to poison, said to be administered, CHAP. II. at his instigation, by the mother of the deceased; and as the event was favourable to the French, the story of its odious cause has been adopted with patriotic credulity by the English historians.* The Mahratta generals still continued the war; but were in every encounter repulsed with so much slaughter by the French, that they soon became desirous of peace, and Salabut Jung was happy to purchase their retreat by the cession of some districts to Balagee Row in the neighbourhood of Boorhanpore; and to Ragogee Bonsla, in the neighbourhood of Berar; where that Mahratta chief had acquired for himself an extensive dominion. By the services which, in all these dangers, Bussy had rendered to the cause of Salabut Jung,† whom he alone preserved upon his throne; his ascendancy with that prince had risen to the greatest height: And though the envy and jealousy of the Ministers, and the weak character of the Subahdar, exposed his influence to perpetual jeopardy; and on one occasion, when he was absent for the recovery of his health, had almost destroyed it; the prudence and dexterity of that able leader enabled him to triumph over all opposition. In the latter end of 1753 he obtained for his country the four important provinces of Mustaphanagar, Ellore, Rajamundry, and Chicacole, called the Northern Circars; "which made the French," says Mr. Orme, "masters of the sea-coast of Coromandel and Orixa, in an uninterrupted line of 600 miles from Medapilly to the Pagoda of Jagernaut ;" and "which," says Colonel Wilks, "not only afforded the requisite pecuniary resources, but furnished the convenient means of receiving reinforcements of men and military stores from Pondicherry and Mauritius; and thus enabled Bussy to extend his political views to the indirect or absolute empire of Deccan and the south." § All these brilliant advantages were now cordially resigned by M. Godheu; and it will certainly be allowed that few nations have ever made, to the love of peace, sacrifices relatively more important.

* The author of the Seer Mutakhareen, whom as better informed I follow in all affairs relating at this period to the court of Delhi, says, (iii. 119) that he died suddenly, without any mention of poison. The story of the poison is, indeed, presented in a note by the translator; who does not however impute the fact to the mother of Ghazee ad dien, but to the ladies of his harem in general.

The oriental historian describes the efficacy of the French operations in battle in such expressions as these: "At which time the French, with their quick musketry and their expe ditious artillery, drew smoke from the Mahratta breasts:" "they lost a vast number of men, whom the French consumed in shoals at the fire-altars of their artillery." Seer Mutakhareen, iii. 118.

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Book IV.

1754.

Dupleix, says Mr. Orme, whose concluding strictures upon his enemy are equally honourable to the writer and the subject; "departed on his voyage to Europe, on the 14th of October, having first delivered his accounts with the French Company to Mr. Godheu, by which it appeared that he had disbursed on their account near three millions of rupees more than he had received during the course of the war. A great part of this sum was furnished out of his own estate, and the rest from moneys which he borrowed at interest, from the French inhabitants at Pondicherry, upon bonds given in his own name. Mr. Godheu referred the discussion of these accounts to the Directors of the Company in France, who, pretending that Mr. Dupleix had made these expenses without sufficient authority, refused to pay any part of the large balance he asserted to be due to him; upon which he commenced a law-suit against the Company; but the ministry interfered and put a stop to the proceedings by the King's - authority, without entering into any discussion of Mr. Dupleix's claims, or taking any measures to satisfy them. However, they gave him letters of protection to secure him from being prosecuted by any of his creditors. So that his fortune was left much less than that which he was possessed of before he entered upon the government of Pondicherry, in 1742. His conduct certainly merited a very different requital from his nation, which never had a subject so desirous and capable of extending its reputation and power in the East Indies; had he been supplied with the forces he desired immediately after the death of Anwaro-dean Khan, or had he afterwards been supported from France in the manner necessary to carry on the extensive projects he had formed, there is no doubt but that he would have placed Chunda Saheb in the nabobship of the Carnatic, given law to the Subah of the Deccan, and perhaps to the throne of Delhi itself, and have established a sovereignty over many of the most valuable provinces of the empire; armed with which power he would easily have reduced all the other European settlements to such restrictions as he might think proper to impose. When we consider that he formed this plan of conquest and dominion at a time when all other Europeans entertained the highest opinion of the strength of the Mogul government, suffering tamely the insolence of its meanest officers, rather than venture to make resistance against a power which they chimerically imagined to be capable of overwhelming them in an instant, we cannot refrain from acknowledging and admiring the sagacity of his genius, which first discovered and despised this illusion."*

* Orme, i. 377. Voltaire says, (Precis du Siecle de Louis XV. ch. xxxiv) Dupleix fut reduit à disputer à Paris les tristes restes de sa fortune contre la Compagnie des Indes, et à solliciter des audiences dans l'antichambre de ses juges. Il en mourut bientôt de chagrin.

1755.

In a short time after the conclusion of this treaty, both Saunders and Godheu CHAP. II. took their departure for Europe; pleasing themselves with the consideration that, by means of their exertions, the blessings of peace between the two nations in India were now permanently bestowed. Never was expectation more completely deceived. Their treaty procured not so much as a moment's repose. The War in MaEnglish proceeded to reduce to the obedience of their Nabob the districts of nivelly. Madura and Tinivelly. The French exclaimed against these transactions, as an infringement of the treaty with Godheu; but, finding their remonstrances without avail, they followed the English example, and sent a body of troops to reduce to their obedience the petty sovereignty of Terriore.

Madura was a small kingdom, bordering on Trichinopoly towards the south; and Tinivelly was a kingdom of similar extent, reaching from the southern extremity of Madura to Cape Comorin. These countries had acknowledged the supremacy of the Mogul government of Deccan, and had paid tribute through the Nabob of Arcot. When Chunda Saheb was master of Trichinopoly, he had set up his own brother as Governor of Madura; but during the disturbances which followed, a soldier of fortune, named Aulum Khan, obtained possession of the city and government. When Aulum Khan marched to the assistance of Chunda Saheb at Trichinopoly, where he lost his life, he left four Patan chiefs to conduct his government, who acted as independent princes, notwithstanding the pretensions of Mahomed Ali, as Nabob of Arcot. То compromise the dispute about Trichinopoly, Mahomed Ali had offered to resign Madura to the Mysoreans. And upon his liberation from the terror of the French arms, by the treaty of Godheu, he prevailed upon the English to afford him a body of troops to collect, as he hoped, and as the English believed, a large arrear of tribute from the southern dependencies of his nabobship.

The troops proceeded to the city of Madura, which they took. The Polygars, as they are called; the lords, or petty sovereigns of the several districts ; overawed by the terror of European arms, offered their submissions, and promised to discharge the demanded arrears; but for the present had little or nothing which they were able to pay. Instead of the quantity of treasure which the Nabob and English expected to receive, the money collected sufficed not to defray the expense of the expedition. The disappointment and ill humour were consequently great. The conduct of the English officer who commanded became the subject of blame. He formed a connexion, which promised to be of considerable importance, with Marawar; a district, governed by two Polygars, which extended along the coast on the eastern side of Madura, from the kingdom of

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