CHAPTER XII.

Lord Mornington leaves Fort William for Madras.-Received by Lord Clive the new Governor.-Change in the Sentiments of the Madras Government respecting the Governor-General's Plans.-Intelligence that Zemaun Shah had advanced to Lahore.-Sir Alured Clarke detained at Calcutta in consequence.-Army of Observation under General Sir J. H. Craig on the Frontiers of Oude.-Tippoo Sultaun's Delays to reply to the Governor-General's Expostulation.—Letter from his Highness to Lord Mornington.-Tippoo's Account of the Embassy to the Mauritius.-He evades Lord Mornington's Propositions.-The Governor-General replies, and points out the dangerous Consequences of Delay. Further Correspondence.-Lord Mornington receives Intelligence of a fresh Embassy from Tippoo to the French, embarked at Tranquebar.-Orders the Army to advance in Mysore.-Military Arrangements.-Letter from Tippoo, saying that he was going on a Hunting Expedition.- Declaration of the Governor-General in the Name of the British Government and the Allies.-Various Private Letters written by Sir Alured Clarke, from Fort William, to Lord Mornington at Madras, during the Progress of the Military Operations.

LORD MORNINGTON now resolved to remove to Madras to hasten the preparations in progress; and in order that he might have the means of more easy communication with Tippoo Sultaun. His Lordship was received at Fort St. George by Lord Clive, who had recently assumed the office of Governor at that presidency. His admirable dispatches and skilful measures, together with the presence of Colonel Wellesley at Madras, had, Mr. Lushington assures us, wrought so great a change in the feelings of the leading men in

the settlement, that when he arrived at Madras in December, he had the satisfaction of seeing all hearts and hands united for the furtherance of his wise and vigorous counsels.

Before his departure from Fort William, intelligence had reached his Lordship that Zemaun Shah had crossed the Indus at Attock, and had reached Lahore with a large army. This movement compelled the Governor-General to leave the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Alured Clarke, in the charge of the government at Calcutta, and to concentrate an army of observation on the frontiers of Oude, under the command of General Sir J. H. Craig.

Tippoo took no notice of the Governor-General's letter of the 8th of November, till the 18th of December; under which date he addressed a communication in reply to Lord Mornington, which was not received at Fort George till the 25th of December. In the Sultaun's letter the following is the account given of the embassy to the Isle of France: "In this Sircar there is a mercantile tribe who employ themselves in trading by sea and land. Their agents purchased a. two-masted vessel, and having loaded her with rice, departed with a view to traffic. It happened that she went to the Mauritius, from whence forty persons, French and of a dark colour, of whom ten or twelve were artificers and the rest servants, paying the hire of the ship, came here in search of employment. Such as chose to take service were entertained, and the remainder departed beyond the confines of this Sircar; and the French, who are full of vice and deceit, have perhaps taken advantage of the departure of the ship to

put about reports with the view to ruffle the minds of both Sircars." With respect to Lord Mornington's proposition to depute Major Doveton to discuss with Tippoo a plan calculated to promote the mutual security and welfare of all parties, the Sultaun replies" It has been understood. By the blessing of the Almighty at the conclusion of the peace, the treaties and engagements entered into among the four Sircars were so firmly established and confirmed as ever to remain fixed and durable, and to be an example to the rulers of the age; nor are they, nor will they ever be, liable to interruption. I cannot imagine that means more effectual than these can be adopted for giving stability to the foundations of friendship and harmony, promoting the security of states, or the welfare and advantage of all parties."

On the 9th of January, 1799, Lord Mornington addressed another expostulation to Tippoo Sultaun, recapitulating the various circumstances connected with his intrigues with France, and replying to the various points in the Sultaun's letter of the 18th of December. "I trust," remarks his Lordship, "that your Highness will favour me with a friendly letter in reply to this; and I most earnestly request that your reply may not be deferred for more than one day after this letter shall reach your presence. Dangerous consequences result from the delay of arduous affairs." On the 11th of January Lord Mornington received a brief complimentary note from Tippoo, written on the 2nd ; it, as usual, professed solicitude for peace and tranquillity, but made no allusion to the proposed negotiation. On the 16th Lord Mornington forwarded to Tippoo

a copy of the letter from the Sublime Porte to the Sultaun of Mysore,* and accompanied that document with an earnest appeal: "May the admonition of the Head of your own faith dispose your mind to the pacific propositions which I have repeatedly, but in vain, submitted to your wisdom! And may you at length receive the ambassador who will be empowered to conclude the definite arrangement of all differences between you and the allies, and to secure the tranquillity of India against the disturbers of the world!"

Tippoo left the Governor-General's solemn and urgent appeal of the 9th of January unanswered during the whole of the month of January, though the distance between Seringapatam and Madras is but three hundred miles; and it became evident that it was the Sultaun's object to delay the commencement of hostilities till the setting in of the rains, which, on the 14th of May, 1791, had defeated Lord Cornwallis's plans for attacking Seringapatam.

At this juncture the Governor-General received intelligence that Tippoo had commissioned two native Vakeels,+ who, together with one of the French officers lately arrived from the Isle of France, were at Tranquebar, about to embark on a mission to Buonaparte or the French Directory. On the 3rd of February, therefore, Lord Mornington dispatched his commands to General Harris, the Commander-in-Chief, to enter the territory of Mysore with the army assembled at Vellore, and to General Stuart to cooperate with the Bombay army from Malabar. The + Envoys.

* Vide supra, page 217.

army at Vellore consisted of 20,000 men,* of whom 2635 were cavalry. The Nizam's contingent, commanded by his Highness's son, Meer Allum, and under him by Colonel Wellesley, (relative to whose appointment to this command we shall have occasion to make some observations hereafter,) consisted of the whole of the British detachment serving in the Deccan, now 6500 strong, with an equal number of the Nizam's infantry, and a large body of horse. The army of Bombay under General Stuart, assembled at Cananore, consisted of 6420 fighting men; while two separate coöperating forces were assembled, under Colonels Brown and Read, in the southern districts of Mysore and the Carnatic, while the Governor-General called upon Vice-Admiral Rainier to be prepared to cooperate with the forces, if necessary, by operations on the coast of Malabar. "An army more completely appointed, more amply and liberally supplied in every department, more perfect in discipline, and in the acknowledged experience, ability, and zeal of its officers," his Lordship remarks, with pardonable exultation,

never took the field in India." The extraordinary expedition with which this vast force was collected and equipped, at once demonstrates the vastness of the resources of the British empire in the East, and the energy of the Governor-General, who found the de

*The army consisted (exclusive of the army of Bombay and of the Nizam's contingent) of - Europeans, 5000; natives, 13,900; battering train, 40; field ordnance, 57; howitzers, 7, rice for 40 days; arrack for 67 days: salt for 40 days; sheep and slaughter-cattle for 28 days; biscuit for 10 days; grain for the cavalry for 20 days; in cash, 5,00,000 star pagodas; in bank notes, 90,000 ditto (a pagoda being a gold coin valued at about eight shillings).