WELLESLEY'S SOUTHERN WARS. 397 Seringapa no event had so greatly impressed the native imagination as Fall of the capture of Seringapatam, which won for General Harris a tam, 1799. peerage, and for Wellesley an Irish Marquisate. In dealing with the territories of Tipú, Wellesley acted with moderation. The central portion, forming the old State of Mysore, was restored to an infant representative of the Hindu Rájás, whom Haidar Alí had dethroned; the rest of Tipu's dominions was partitioned between the Nizám, the Maráthás, and the English. At about the same time, the Karnátik, or the part of South-eastern India ruled by the Nawáb of Arcot, and also the principality of Tanjore, were placed under direct British administration, thus constituting the Madras Presidency almost as it has existed to the present day. The sons of the slain Tipú were treated by Lord Wellesley with paternal tenderness. They received a magnificent allowance, with semi-royal establishment, first at Vellore, and afterwards in Calcutta. The last of them, Prince Ghulam Muhammad, was long well known as a public-spirited citizen of Calcutta, and an active Justice of the Peace. He died only a few years ago (about 1877). áthás in 1800. The Maráthás had been the nominal allies of the English The Marin both their wars with Tipú. But they had not rendered active assistance, nor were they secured to the English side as the Nizám now was. The Maráthá powers at this time were five in number. The recognised head of the confederacy was the Peshwá of Poona, who ruled the hill country of the Western Ghats, the cradle of the Maráthá race. fertile Province of Gujarát was men of the Gáekwár of Baroda. leaders, Sindhia of Gwalior and held the pre-eminency. Towards the east, the Bhonsla Rájá of Nagpur reigned from Berar to the coast of Orissa. The Wellesley laboured to bring these several Maráthá powers Welleswithin the net of his subsidiary system. In 1802, the necessities ley's dealings with of the Peshwa, who had been defeated by Holkar, and driven the Maras a fugitive into British territory, induced him to sign the áthás. treaty of Bassein. By this he pledged himself to the British to hold communications with no Power, European or Native, except ourselves. He also granted to us Districts for the maintenance of a subsidiary force. This greatly extended the English territorial influence in the Bombay Presidency. But it led to the second Maráthá war, as neither Sindhia nor the Rájá of Nágpur would tolerate the Peshwá's betrayal of Maráthá independence. Second war, The campaigns which followed are perhaps the most Maráthá glorious in the history of the British arms in India. The 1802-04. general plan, and the adequate provision of resources, were due to the Marquis of Wellesley, as also the indomitable spirit which refused to acknowledge defeat. The armies were led by Sir Arthur Wellesley (afterwards Duke of Wellington), and General (afterwards Lord) Lake. Wellesley operated in the Deccan, where, in a few short months, he won the decisive victories of Assaye and Argaum, and captured Ahmadnagar. Lake's campaign in Hindustan was no less brilliant, although it has received less notice from historians. He won pitched battles at Aligarh and Láswárí, and took the cities of Delhi and Agra. He scattered the French troops of Sindhia, and at the same time stood forward as the champion of the Mughal Emperor in his hereditary capital. Before the end of 1803, both Sindhia and the Bhonsla Rájá of Nágpur sued for peace. British 1802-03. Additions to British India, 1803. Sindhia ceded all claims to the territory north of the Jumna, and left the blind old Emperor Shah Alam once more under British protection. The Bhonsla forfeited Orissa to the English, who had already occupied it with a flying column in 1803; and Berar to the Nizám, who gained a fresh addition by every act of complaisance to the British Government. The freebooter Jaswant Ráo Holkar alone remained in the field, supporting his troops by raids through Malwa and Rájputána. The concluding years of Wellesley's rule were occupied with a series of operations against Holkar, which Later dis- brought little credit on the British name. The disastrous retreat of Colonel Monson through Central India (1804) recalled memories of the convention of Wargáum, and of the destruction of Colonel Baillie's force by Haidar Alí. The repulse of Lake in person at the siege of Bhartpur (Bhurtpore) is memorable as an instance of a British army in India having to turn back with its object unaccomplished (1805). Bhartpur was not finally taken till 1827. asters, 1804-05. India after in the in the south. Lord Wellesley during his six years of office carried out almost every part of his territorial scheme. In Northern India, Lord Lake's campaigns, 1803-05, brought the NorthWestern Provinces (the ancient Madhya-desha) under British rule, together with the custody of the puppet Emperor. The new Districts were amalgamated with those previously acquired from the Nawáb Wazír of Oudh into the 'Ceded and Conquered Provinces.' This partition of Northern India remained till the Sikh wars of 1845 and 1848-49 gave us the Punjab. In South-eastern India, we have seen that Lord Wellesley's con LORD MINTO-LORD HASTINGS. 399 quests constituted the Madras Presidency almost as it exists at this date. In South-western India, the Peshwá was reduced to a vassal of the Company. But the territories now under the Governor of Bombay were not finally built up into their present form until the last Maráthá war in 1818. The financial strain caused by these great operations of Lord Wellesley had meanwhile exhausted the patience of the Court of Directors at home. In 1805, Lord Cornwallis was Marquis of sent out as Governor-General a second time, with instructions Cornwallis again, to bring about peace at any price, while Holkar was still unsub- 1805. dued, and with Sindhia threatening a fresh war. But Cornwallis was now an old man, and broken down in health. Travelling up to the north-west during the rainy season, he sank and died at Gházipur, before he had been ten weeks in the country. His immediate successor was Sir George Barlow, a civil Sir George servant of the Company, who as a locum tenens had no alter- Barlow, 1805. native but to carry out the commands of his employers. Under these orders, he curtailed the area of British territory, and, in violation of engagements, abandoned the Rájput chiefs to the cruel mercies of Holkar and Sindhia. During his administration, also, occurred the mutiny of the Madras sepoys at Vellore (1806), which, although promptly suppressed, sent a shock of insecurity throughout the Empire. The feebly economical policy of this interregnum proved a most disastrous But, fortunately, the rule soon passed into firmer hands. one. 1807-13. Lord Minto, Governor-General from 1807 to 1813, con- Earl of solidated the conquests which Wellesley had acquired. His Minto, only military exploits were the occupation of the island of the Mauritius, and the conquest of Java by an expedition which he accompanied in person. The condition of Central India continued to be disturbed, but Lord Minto succeeded in preventing any violent outbreaks without himself having recourse to the sword. The Company had ordered him to follow a policy of non-intervention, and he managed to obey his orders without injuring the prestige of the British name. Under his auspices, the Indian Government opened relations with a new set of foreign powers, by sending embassies to the Punjab, to Afghánistán, and to Persia. The ambassadors had been trained in the school of Wellesley, and formed, perhaps, the most illustrious trio of 'politicals' whom the Indian services have produced. Metcalfe went as envoy to the Sikh Court of Ranjit Singh at Lahore; Elphinstone met the Sháh of Afghán Lord Moira istán at Peshawar; and Malcolm was despatched to Persia. It cannot be said that these missions were fruitful of permanent results; but they introduced the English to a new set of diplomatic relations, and widened the sphere of their influence. The successor of Lord Minto was the Earl of Moira, better (Marquis of known by his later title as the Marquis of Hastings. The Hastings), Marquis of Hastings completed Lord Wellesley's conquests 1814-23. in Central India, and left the Bombay Presidency almost The Gurkhas of Nepál. Nepál war, as it stands at present. His long rule of nine years, from 1814 to 1823, was marked by two wars of the first magnitude— namely, the campaigns against the Gurkhas of Nepál, and the last Maráthá struggle. After over The Gurkhas, the present ruling race in Nepál, trace their descent from Hindu immigrants and claim a Rájput origin. The indigenous inhabitants, called Newars, belong to the Indo-Tibetan stock, and profess Buddhism. The sovereignty of the Gurkhas dates only from 1767-68, when they overran the valley of Khatmandu, and gradually extended their power over the hills and valleys of Nepál. Organized upon a military and feudal basis, they soon became a terror to their neighbours, marching east into Sikkim, west into Kumaun, and south into the Gangetic plains. In the last quarter their victims were British subjects (natives of Bengal), and it became necessary to check their advance. Sir George Barlow and Lord Minto had remonstrated in vain, and nothing was left to Lord Moira but to take up arms. The first campaign of 1814 was unsuccessful. 1814 15 coming the natural difficulties of a malarious climate and precipitous hills, our troops were on several occasions fairly worsted by the impetuous bravery of the little Gurkhas, whose heavy knives or kukris dealt terrible execution. But in the cold weather of 1814, General Ochterlony, who advanced by way campaign. of the Sutlej, stormed one by one the hill forts which still stud the Himalayan States, now under the Punjab Government, and compelled the Nepál darbár to sue for peace. In the following year, 1815, the same general made his brilliant march from Patná into the lofty valley of Khatmandu, and finally dictated the terms which had before been rejected, Treaty of within a few miles of the capital. By the treaty of Segauli, Segauli; which defines the English relations with Nepál to the present Himalayan day, the Gurkhas withdrew on the south-east from Sikkim ; and on the south-west, from their advanced posts in the outer Second cedes tracts, 1815. MARQUIS OF HASTINGS' WORK 401 ranges of the Himalayas, which enabled us to obtain the health-giving stations of Naini Tál, Massuri, and Simla. 1804-17. bands, Meanwhile, the condition of Central India was every year The becoming more unsatisfactory. The great Maráthá chiefs had Pindárís, learned to live as princes rather than as predatory leaders. But their original habits of lawlessness were being followed by a new set of freebooters, known as the Pindárís. As opposed to the Maráthás, who were at least a Hindu nationality bound by the traditions of a united government, the Pindárís were merely plundering bands, closely corresponding to the free companies of medieval Europe. Of no common race, and of no common Pindári religion, they welcomed to their ranks the outlaws and broken 1815. men of all India-Afgháns, Maráthás, or Játs. They represented the débris of the Mughal Empire, which had not been incorporated by any of the local Muhammadan or Hindu powers that sprang up out of its ruins. For a time, indeed, it seemed as if the inheritance of the Mughal might pass to these armies of banditti. In Bengal, similar hordes had formed themselves out of the disbanded Muhammadan troops and the Hindu predatory castes. But they had been dispersed under the vigorous rule of Warren Hastings. Central India, the evil lasted longer, attained a greater scale, and was only stamped out by a regular war. leaders. The Pindári head-quarters were in Málwá, but their depredations were not confined to Central India. In bands, sometimes of a few hundreds, sometimes of many thousands, they rode out on their forays as far as the opposite coasts of Madras and of Bombay. The most powerful of the Pindárí captains, Pindári Amir Khán, had an organized army of many regiments, and several batteries of cannon. Two other leaders, known as Chítu and Karím, at one time paid a ransom to Sindhia of £100,000. To suppress the Pindárí hordes, who were supported by the sympathy, more or less open, of all the Maráthá chiefs, Lord Hastings (1817) collected the strongest British army which had yet been seen in India, numbering 120,000 men. One-half operated from the north, the other half from the south. Sindhia was overawed, and remained quiet. Amir Khán disbanded his army, on condition of being guaranteed the possession of what is now the principality of Tank. The remaining bodies of Pindárís were attacked in Pindárí their homes, surrounded, and cut to pieces. Karim threw war, 1817. himself upon the mercy of the conquerors. Chítu fled to the jungles, and was killed by a tiger. In the same year (1817) and almost in the same month VOL. VI. 2 C |