stones, and under its cover the Europeans had field began next day, between Wood and Hyder, been placed in reserve till the action should assume who could handle his unwieldy masses with decided a settled form. Hitherto, amid a mass of cover genius. Avoiding a general action, for the first and impediment, which bade defiance to a regular defeat he had sustained from Colonel Smith made formation, the intervals between the rocks, and him cautious, he began a species of predatory sometimes their summits, were occupied with operations, laid aside the heavy cannon so much troops; the smaller openings were converted into used by Indian princes, reduced his baggage, embrasures for guns; and supports successively and came swooping down on our garrisons in arrived from each army those who were succession, capturing forts and making many engaged. It was a series of contests for the possession of rocks, or the positions formed by their union, without any possibility of the regular extension of a line on either side, so that a rock was sometimes seen possessed by Mysoreans within the general scope of the British defence, and by the British among the Mysoreans."* Fighting with all the energy of valour and despair, our soldiers disputed every stone and fragment of rock with the enemy, and often by the bayonet, but, overborne by numbers, confusion at last began to spread among their thinning and straggling ranks. It was at this moment that a happy thought occurred to Captain Brooke, who having been wounded in the escalade on the preceding day, was left with four companies in charge of the baggage, sick, and wounded. Observing a flat rock unoccupied, by a circuitous route and concealed by crags and foliage, he took possession of it and had two pieces of cannon drawn into position thereon by such of his wounded men as could work. With these and the four companies, he opened a sudden and biting fire of grape and musketry on the left flank of Hyder's force-the point from which if any aid from Smith was coming, it must have appeared. To give force and colour to this conviction, Brooke and all his party shouted from time to time, "Hurrah! Hurrah! Smith ! Smith! Smith!" and Wood struggling, unaware of the stratagem, responded with the same cry, on which Hyder at once ordered a retreat. Through his cavalry probably, Hyder was not long in learning that he had been deceived, and returned full of rage to the attack, and was attempting with his horse a charge up hill, to where the British-taking advantage of the lull procured for them by Brooke-were in a strong position, but he failed to achieve anything, and as night closed in, our people were left in possession of the field, on which lay, hors de combat, eight officers and 229 rank and file, with more than 1,000 of the enemy. By this time the ammunition on both sides was completely expended, and Wood lost two of his guns. prisoners. Having by a skilful stratagem turned Wood's attention to a different quarter, he fell suddenly on Bangalore, in the Pettah of which, the colonel had left all his baggage and train of heavy guns, which were at once seized by Hyder, while the misled colonel, with 700 Europeans, 4,000 sepoys, and two brass eighteen-pounders, was hastening to meet him, where he was not. In Bangalore much merchandise and treasure were taken. The inhabitants fled in terror to the fort, and now a dreadful scene ensued. The garrison closed the gates to prevent the confusion consequent on overcrowding, and a multitude of terrified creatures pressed like a human surge against them, seeking to secure themselves and some of their valuables from the ravages of Hyder's Mysoreans, till more than two thousand men, women, and children were crushed or trampled to death. Returning from Oosoor, whither he had been lured, Wood reached Bangalore, only to see in the distance, the dust of Hyder's retiring force—but retiring with everything of value in the place. His troops were now compelled to wander about for the merest supplies, neglected by the Councils of Madras and Bombay, who thought only of making secure the chief city of each presidency. The fleet and active horse of Hyder cut off Wood's foraging parties, beat up and drove in his outposts at the most unexpected times, carried off all supplies, and by day and night harassed his toil-worn troops. In one of those flying attacks, after a running fight of several days and nights, when Hyder was making incredible exertions to utterly cut off the division of Wood, the latter was, to his great surprise, suddenly relieved by the retreat of the enemy. This was about ten o'clock at night on the 22nd of November, after he had lost seven officers and 220 men. When day broke, a great column of dust explained the cause of the sudden deliverance. Major Fitzgerald, the second officer in command of Colonel Smith's division (the colonel being then at Madras), halted at Venicatigherry, and on hearing The great game of manoeuvring troops in the of how Wood was pressed, hastened to his succour. * Colonel Wilkes. In another hour he would have been too late, and 1769.] NIXON'S DETACHMENT. 129 Wood's field-guns had only five rounds left in the Nixon's detachment, and the most horrible carnage limber-boxes. Major Fitzgerald found Wood extremely depressed, and without hope of further successful contention. The major reported this to Colonel Smith, who laid his letter before the Council, which, long ere this, had begun to see that Wood was not the man to conquer Mysore. He was summoned to Madras, put under arrest and tried by a courtmartial, but escaped dismissal, as incapacity is not a crime. But his treatment was hard, for he was a brave and good soldier, though not adapted to a command so important, and, more than all, so ill supported by the members of the Council themselves. Yet he had done his utmost to discharge his duties faithfully. Colonel Lang succeeded him in the field, but by the end of the year 1768, Hyder recovered every acre of territory he had lost, and to open a new campaign on the offensive, after mustering under Fuzzul Oolla Khan, 7,000 regular troops and a great body of irregulars, with ten guns, he ordered that officer to descend into the low country. After sweeping away the isolated posts left by Colonel Wood, and carrying many forts by attack or treachery, Fuzzul Oolla Khan announced to Hyder that by the 4th December, he would complete his descent by the Guljehatty Pass. The 6th saw Hyder in person descending eastward into the Baramahal, and giving out everywhere, by the voice of emissaries, that he had destroyed the British army, and was preparing for the final conquest of Madras. Early in January, 1769, by carefully eluding a battle and marching rapidly through some of the most unfrequented ghauts or passes, he burst into the Carnatic, and laid waste the British provinces of Tinnevelly and Madura, and penetrated into the district of Pondicherry, where again the standard of France was flying, and where many Frenchmen were beginning to indulge in the hope that our fall in India was, perhaps, at hand. ensued. Under the sabre every man perished, save a Lieutenant Goreham, who, by his knowledge of the native language, prevailed upon an officer of rank to save his life, by giving him a seat on the crupper of his saddle. The Frenchmen at Pondicherry, many of whom joined him, confirmed Hyder in the plan he had already adopted, of avoiding pitched battles with us, and making use of his great cavalry force to cut off all detached parties, and to plunder, burn, and destroy the country from whence we, and our ally, Mohammed Ali, drew supplies. In pursuance of this scheme, Hyder surprised many isolated posts and took many prisoners, whom he sent to Seringapatam, where they were most barbarously and infamously treated. Meanwhile the French had been sedulously engaged in strengthening Pondicherry, where M. Law, who had so often appeared prominently in these wars, looked forward hopefully to restore the French ascendency in India, and he doubted not but that the time had come, when he received a letter from Hyder with the following passage :— "Considering the friendship and regard which the French Company and the sirdars (ie., generals) of their king in Europe bear to me, I am very glad to hear of their happiness and power, also of your health. You have doubtless heard from them the repeated victories which, by the blessing of God, have attended the Circars troops; also the defeat of the English, and my laying waste Trichinopoly, Arcot, and other countries. My victorious armies are now gone towards Madras, near to which they will proceed, when you will certainly send to me a person of distinction, to inform me of certain affairs of your country in Europe as (of) these parts; and till then, be constant in writing me very particular letters advising of the above matters, the situation of affairs in Europe, the English seaports and their sirdars, all of which will be the means of increasing our friendship and regard." Amid these rapid operations, few affairs created Being destitute of cavalry, the British commore interest at the time than the total annihilation manders could neither come up with Hyder, nor of a detachment of 250 British troops under Captain intercept him. Worn out by futile and forced Nixon, whom Hyder attacked with two divisions marches, while they toiled after him, his fleet horseof infantry, numbering some 10,000 men, and men flitted from place to place, and were seldom a cavalry force still more numerous. Undaunted, seen or heard of till they had given some town to Nixon drew up his little band in a good position, the flames. In the course of his operations, Hyder and quietly waited the onslaught of this sea of had proceeded to Cauverypooram, where he sumarmed Indians. Pouring in a volley so close that moned our garrison to surrender, offering to release every shot told, he then charged with the bayonet, all on parole. Seeing the futility of resistance, this and Hyder's infantry reeling under the volley, was accepted; but Hyder, with the usual perfidy actually broke, and turned to leave the field. which made him so hateful, violated the capitulation, But Hyder's cavalry now fell upon the rear of and the garrison, with Captain Frassain, their com mander, were flung into the dreadful dungeons of Seringapatam, where already several prisoners, including Captain Robertson, had succumbed to their sufferings. "We have lost," wrote an officer in March, 1769, "since I joined the army, twenty-nine officers, and 800 European soldiers. Hyder has many of our best men prisoners." The writer adds, that he was three months a prisoner at "Bingaloor," but procured his liberty by curing one of Hyder's wives of a nervous disorder.* Seeing the perils thickening around them fast, the inept Council at Madras became sensible of their folly, restored Colonel Smith to the command, and recalled those field deputies, whose presence with the army had caused so much mischief. They could not, however, raise a corps of cavalry, and for want of that most necessary arm, Smith, though an able and most energetic officer, could do little more than cover and protect several rich districts, and check some of the flying squadrons; but he was unable to prevent Hyder paying a second visit to Pondicherry to concert measures with his French friends; though Hyder manoeuvred, advancing as if retreating, for Smith was following till both armies were 140 miles to the south of Madras, when the Council, in their terror, besought a forty days' truce (which Hyder cut down to twelve) prior to having a treaty of peace, which Captain Brooke and a Mr. Andrews were empowered to negotiate. † Hyder now suddenly sent off his infantry, guns, and baggage of every description, with orders to retire by the Pass of Ahtoor, and pushing on at the head of 6,000 horse and 200 foot, on the 29th of March "he appeared sudden, and unexpected as a cloud in the Indian summer, upon the heights of St. Thomas, which overlook Madras." Though Fort St. George was strong as ever, the Black Town, the warehouses, the beautiful villas, and little villages around it, were as open and defenceless as in the time of young Tippoo's recent visit, and a great amount of valuable property lay quite at Hyder's mercy, if Colonel Smith's weary infantry failed to arrive in time. Thoroughly dispirited by the unexpected turn the war had taken, the Council, on receiving a characteristic letter from Hyder, who felt himself in a position to dictate terms, did not assume more than they were ready to concede. His first demand was for an alliance, offensive and defensive; but this seemed so objectionable, that Mr. Dupré, member of the Council and next in succession to the chair, declared it would be necessary to break off all negociations if it were persisted in; yet in the end it was substantially conceded. Hyder sent for Mr. Dupré, and his character, the demand, and the pressing circumstances under which it was made, rendered instant compliance necessary. The councillor went to the Mysorean camp on St. Thomas, and, after a series of conferences, the terms of a treaty were adjusted; and on the 3rd and 4th of April it was signed respectively by the governor, the Council, and Hyder Ali. "A mutual restoration of captured places was provided for, and Caroor, an ancient dependency of Mysore, which had been for some time retained by Mohammed Ali, was to be rendered back. After the conclusion of the treaty, difficulties arose from a demand of Hyder for the liberation of some persons kept prisoners by Mohammed Ali, and of the surrender of some stores at Colar. With much persuasion the nabob was induced to comply with the former demand, and the latter was yielded by the British Government, probably because it was felt to be in vain to refuse." And thus ingloriously ended our needless, improvident, and most ill-conducted war with Mysore, a war which showed to the fullest extent the vanity and weakness of the then government of Madras. CHAPTER XXV. FAMINE IN BENGAL.-DEATH OF LORD CLIVE.-INTERFERENCE OF GOVERNMENT. THE Treaty of Madras had not been long signed when in the beginning of the following year, 1770, the financial difficulties of the Company were doubled by calamities that were frightful. Small#Scots Magazine, 1769. + Thornton. pox raged throughout the land with all the rancour of a plague; the crops of rice and paddy-wheat failed; the tanks were empty, and the rivers shrank; disease and starvation stalked grimly together throughout the most populous and fertile 1770.] THE FAMINE IN BENGAL. 131 rice in Bengal had been bought up by the servants of the Company, and when the dire pressure came, it was by them sold at a tariff of ten times beyond its actual, or at least original, value. Prints of the time state in round numbers, that in the province of Bengal two millions of persons perished in two months, including 30,000 Europeans; another account reduces this to 450,000 souls. Such were the statements brought by the Lapwing packet on the 16th September, 1770. Among those who perished of small-pox-dying in his garden-was the actual Nabob of Bengal, who was succeeded by a younger brother named Mobarek-ud-Dowlah, a boy in his tenth year, an event of which the directors at once hastened to take a mercenary advantage, by ordering that during his nonage, his annual allowance should be reduced to sixteen lacs of rupees, thus saving to their own coffers the annual £100,000 which they were under a formal obligation to pay, and to which the nabob's title was at least as good as theirs was to the grant of the dewannee." districts, where the people perished unnumbered, | dreadful famine had reached its height, the entire by thousands and tens of thousands, in the fields, in the topes and thickets, in the streets, by the wayside, and in ruined and deserted forts and temples, the dying and the dead lay so thickly that the hot, breathless air became tainted; and though the statistics of death were never correctly known, it is supposed that nearly a third of the entire population perished. "Tender and delicate women whose veils had never been lifted before the public gaze, came forth from those inner chambers in which Eastern jealousy had kept watch over their beauty, and threw themselves before the passersby, imploring a handful of rice for their children. The Hooghly every day rolled down thousands of corpses close to the porticoes and gardens of the English conquerors, and the very streets of Calcutta were blocked up by the dying and the dead." "At this time," says a writer in the London papers, "we could not touch fish, the river was so full of carcases, and of those who did, many died suddenly. . . We had a hundred people employed upon the Cutcherry list (at Calcutta) with dhoolies, sledges, and bearers to carry the dead and throw them into the Ganges. I have counted from my bed-chamber window in the morning when I got up, forty dead bodies lying within twenty yards of the wall, besides many hundreds lying in the agonies of death for want, bending double, with their stomachs quite contracted to their backbones. I have sent my servant to desire those who were able, to remove further off, whilst the poor creatures looking up with arms extended, have cried out, 'Baba! Baba!' (My Father! my Father!) . . One could not pass along the streets without seeing multitudes in their last agonies crying out as ye passed them, 'My God! my God! I am starving -have mercy on me!' whilst on other sides, numbers of dead were seen with dogs, jackals, hogs, and vultures feeding on their carcases. was For these calamities the government could not be entirely blamed, yet some measures ought to have been taken to lessen the evil which was certainly foreseen. There had been long an excessive drought; hence, as the rice crop sure to perish, means should have been taken, if possible, to store the granaries and magazines from other quarters. Instead of doing this, the members of the government certainly stored up grain, but they speculated in it as individual merchants, realising enormous profits on a calamity that was certain to ensue. "One cormorant," we are told, amassed of rice "to the value of fourscore thousand pounds." Ere the *Scots Magazine, Sept., 1771. The great increase of the Company's power and wealth generally, about this time began to attract the attention of the home government, and the directors received a significant notice from Augustus, Duke of Grafton, K.G., then premier, that the progress of their affairs would be brought beforeParliament. Hence, in November, 1766, a committee of the whole House was appointed to inquire into the affairs of the Company, and copies were demanded of all treaties with native princes for the ten preceding years. By this application, which could not be misunderstood, it was evident that the ministry desired that the nation should share in the profits; and hints were thrown out that these might legitimately be employed in relieving the people of some of their heavy taxations, an idea, which, very strangely, seems to have been originally suggested by Lord Clive, then serving in Parliament as member for Shrewsbury. While collecting evidence on which to base their proposed measures, the House subjected Lord Clive and several other civil and military officials of the Company to a severe and somewhat offensive scrutiny, out of which sprang a report, which was in due time brought forward by the chairman, containing the grave charges of cruelty, treachery, and rapacity, against all who were concerned in the famous Bengal Revolution of 1756. Lord Clive found himself the chief object of this attack, which was pressed forward with a degree of rancour, hostility, and party bias that were remark was carried, "That all acquisitions made under the influence of a military force, or by treaty with foreign powers, do of right belong to the state." To this was added the additional and most offensive clause, that, in acquiring his wealth, "Lord Clive had abused the powers with which he had been entrusted." It failed by a small majority; but the sting remained; and though Clive was little of an orator, and seldom addressed the House, he spoke now with equal dignity and force. of mind and happiness than in the trembling affluence of an unsettled fortune. But to be called, after sixteen years, and after an uninterrupted enjoyment of my property, to be questioned, and considered as obtaining it unwarrantably, is hard indeed, and a treatment of which I should not consider the British Senate capable. Yet if this should be the case, I have a conscious innocence within me, that tells me my conduct is irreproachable -Frangas non flectes. They may take from me what |