"Mr. Hastings, in the midst of his other varied and important avocations," says a well-known writer, "did not lose sight of the interests of science and literature. "A copy of the Mohammedan laws had been translated by Mr. Anderson, under the sanction and patronage of the Government, and sent home to the Court, together with the Bengal Grammar prepared by Messrs. Halked and Wilkins, 500 copies being taken by Government at thirty rupees a copy, as an encouragement of their labours. Mr. (afterwards Sir Charles) Wilkins was also supported 201 In in erecting and working a press for the purpose of printing official papers, &c. The Madrissa, or Mohammedan college for the education of the natives, was established by the Government. order to open a communication by the Red Sea with Europe, the Government built a vessel at Mocha, having been assured that every endeavour would be made to secure the privilege of despatches with the Company's seal being forwarded with facility; the trade with Suez having been prohibited to all British subjects on a complaint to the King's ministers by the Ottoman Porte." * CHAPTER XL. EXPLOITS OF CAPTAIN POPHAM.-CAPTURE OF GWALIOR.-SIEGE OF BASSEIN.-BATTLE OF DOOGAUR.—GODDARD'S DISASTROUS RETREAT.—THE TREATY OF SALBYE. THE Bombay Government now urged General Goddard to seize Parneira, a hill fort fifteen miles north of Dumaun, which had been built in the time of Sevajee, about 150 years before. But ere this could be attempted their wishes were gratified. Gunnesh Punt, a Mahratta warrior, having set out on a plundering expedition, and ravaged the districts on the south of the Tapti river, carried his devastations to the vicinity of Surat. On this, Lieutenant Walsh, of the Bengal Cavalry, was sent out at the head of the Candahar Horse (as some of the Nabob of Oude's cavalry were designated); and this active young officer succeeded not only in surprising the camp of Gunnesh Punt, and routing his people, but in further capturing three forts in the district of Dumaun, one of them being that of Parneira. About the same time, a party of our troops under Major Forbes routed one of Scindia's detachments near Sinnore, on the Nerbudda, and cut it to pieces. The Bengal contingent which was to have followed Goddard in his rapid march to Surat having been countermanded, was employed in a different direction. In consequence of our alliance with the Rana of Gohud, it was deemed advisable to make a diversion, by operating against the Mahrattas in Malwa, by marching through his territories. Sir Eyre Coote was greatly in favour of this measure; but wished that a larger force should be employed than the detachment originally intended to reinforce Colonel Goddard. This body, under Captain William Popham, was 2,400 strong, formed into three battalions of 800 bayonets each, with a small force of native cavalry, and some European gunners with a howitzer and a few field-guns. In the beginning of February, 1780, Captain Popham crossed the Jumna, and attacked and put to flight the Mahrattas who were ravaging the country about Gohud. At the request of the rana, he then marched against Lahar, a fortress fifty miles west of Calpee, which proved a place of greater strength than he expected, for his guns failed to effect a practicable breach, thus he ordered an escalade without one. With resolute gallantry, his stormers fought their way in, and Lahar was ours, but at the loss of 120 rank and file. Sir Eyre Coote, who did not anticipate this success, in consequence, obtained some battering guns, and held them, with four more battalions under Major John Carnac, in readiness to cross the Jumna. These operations preluded a more brilliant affair, for after leaving Lahar, Captain Popham found himself near the famous fortress of Gwalior, before which he encamped during the rains. Few places in India were more celebrated than this Gwalior, in the province of Agra-"the Gibraltar of the East.” It is situated on a hill a mile and a half in length, but in few places more than 300 yards in breadth. The sides are steep, and 340 feet in height. It is, in fact, an isolated rock of ochreous sandstone, * Auber. ness. which was thirty feet high. But this also was surmounted, by the aid of the rana's spies, who, by ropes, made the ladders fast. As each soldier reached the crest of the wall and got inside, he squatted down. At the head of twenty sepoys Captain Bruce had barely entered thus, when some of the former began in a reckless way to shoot the garrison as they lay asleep within the walls. useless alarm was thus given; but the sepoys stood firm till their supports came pouring in; and the garrison, thus surprised and intimidated, made scarcely any resistance, for Gwalior was taken without the loss of a man. With the results of Popham's brilliant little cam partially capped with basalt. The lower portion of the rock is sloping; but immediately above this the sandstone starts up precipitously, and in some places is impending. Along the edge of this precipice rise the ramparts, with Saracenic battlements and towers. The entrance is from the north, and consists of a steep road, succeeded by an enormous staircase, hewn out of the living rock, but so wide and gentle in acclivity that laden elephants can ascend it. A strong and lofty wall protects this staircase, and in it are seven gates of great strength. Should all these difficulties be surmounted, an enemy would find his work but half begun, as within them stands a citadel consisting of six lofty round towers, connected by curtain walls of great height and thick-paign the Bombay Government had every reason to Along the eastern base of the rock lies the be satisfied; but some formidable difficulties had town of Gwalior, which is still greatly benefited by arisen. Their exchequer was empty, and they knew those pilgrims who come to pray at the tomb of not how it was to be replenished. Before the close Ghase-al-Alum, a famous Sufi, who died there in of the preceding year the Carnatic had been seriously 1560; but the fortress had a fame so far back as disturbed, and as a ruinous war had begun to rage 1023, when it was summoned by Mahmoud of there, the money which the Bengal Government Ghizni. During the Mogul government it was had intended to send to Bombay was required to used as a state prison, and within its gloomy walls supply the still more urgent necessities of Madras; several princes have terminated their existence by and the expedients to which the Bombay Council opium or the dagger. were compelled to resort, evince the extent of their monetary necessity. Loans for their own credit were proposed for negotiation in Bengal; a quantity of copper lying in the Company's warehouses, valued at twelve lacs of rupees, was sold to the highest bidder; and a plan was formed to seize the resources of the enemy, by anticipating them in the collection of the revenue. Though the capture of such a rock-built fortress might have seemed hopeless to some men, Captain Popham was not one of them, and he resolved to attempt it. He had a good coadjutor in the rana, and a better still "in Captain Bruce, one of a family insensible to danger," for he was the younger brother of James Bruce, of Kinnaird, the great Abyssinian traveller. Fortunately, the rana was thoroughly acquainted with the interior of this fortress (which Scindia had made a grand depôt for artillery and military stores), and he kept spies within it, who could act as guides. After every preparation had been made with the utmost secrecy, the night of the 3rd of August was chosen for the attempt. The command of the stormers and escalading party was assigned to Captain Bruce, and it consisted of two companies of chosen sepoys, with four lieutenants. It was an old story in the Indian army that one of these subalterns, named Douglas, was the first to volunteer for the forlorn hope, but gave place to his senior, saying, with reference to their historic names, that "where a Bruce led, a Douglas should be proud to follow." Be that as it may, supported by European bayonets and two battalions of sepoys, the escalade crept close to a point where the scarped rock was only sixteen feet in height, and this was easily surmounted by the scaling ladders. Beyond this, a steep ascent led to the base of the second wall, With a view that the new campaign should be opened with the siege of Bassein, the European troops under General Goddard were conveyed by sea to Salsette. The battering train was prepared at Bombay, from whence the sepoys were to proceed by land; but meanwhile the wretched state of the local finances compelled the occupation of all the disposable troops at Bombay in work of a different nature. Thus, early in October, 1780, five battalions were placed under Colonel Hartley, with orders to cover as much as possible of that extensive maritime district named the Concan, which is 220 miles in length by forty in breadth, and peopled by Brahmins of a peculiar race, not acknowledged by the rest in India. This occupation was to enable the Bombay agents to collect part of the enemy's revenues, and secure the rich rice harvest ere the rains fell. Before the colonel could fully achieve this object, his services were required for the relief of Captain Abington, who had made an attempt to surprise the strong fortress of Bhow Mullan, which stands eastward of the Isle of Bombay. He gained possession of the outer wall, but the garrison retired into a species of citadel where they set him at defiance; and while attempting its reduction, his retreat was cut off by more than 3,000 Mahrattas, who completely surrounded him till Hartley came to his relief. Soon after this, the colonel drove the enemy completely out of the Concan; he took possession of the rocky Bhore Ghaut, thus enabling the Bombay treasury to be quietly replenished at the expense of the enemy's crops and rupees, after which, on the 13th of November, General Goddard formally inaugurated the siege of Bassein. Situated at the distance of twenty-eight miles northward of Bombay, this place stands on an island separated by a narrow channel from the mainland of the Northern Concan. Its fortifications -originally the work of the Portuguese in 1531were strong and extensive, though they are ruinous now; hence regular approaches were necessary, and several batteries armed with twenty-four-pounders were thrown up between the distances of 500 and 900 yards. One, of twenty mortars, at the former distance, did great execution, while Hartley's column covered the operations, by preventing the Mahrattas from raising the siege, for which purpose they poured troops through the Concan as fast as they could be mustered. On These forces, 20,000 strong, led by a warlike and able Mahratta officer named Rumchunder Gunnesh, now turned all their fury against the slender covering army of Hartley, now by many casualties reduced to barely 2,000 bayonets. On the 10th of December, while the colonel was in position at Doogaur, he was suddenly assailed by horse and foot in front and rear, but completely repulsed the enemy. the 11th, the attack was resumed, with a similar result, though the well-handled cannon of Gunnesh did considerable execution; and that officer, perceiving that Hartley's flanks were powerfully secured by two eminences, without the capture of which he could not force the position, was resolved at every hazard to make himself master of at least one of them. Thus, on the morning of the 12th, while other Mahratta leaders attacked Hartley again in front and rear, Gunnesh, at the head of his Arab infantry, accompanied by 1,000 other regular infantry led by Senhor Noronha, a Portuguese officer in the service of the peishwa, made a detour for the purpose of capturing the eminence. For this movement the keen foresight of Colonel Hartley had prepared him, by the erection of breastworks, and the planting of a gun upon each height. Under cover of a dense fog, the attacking force came on, but suddenly it cleared away, and the opposing parties were literally face to face. There was a momentary 203 pause, and then the work of havoc began; and it was terribly increased by the arrival of more guns from Hartley's right flank. The Mahrattas came gallantly on again and again, till Rumchunder Gunnesh fell, and the bearing of his dead body rearward through the ranks, caused the whole of his troops to give way with precipitation and after a terrible loss of life. On the day before this, Bassein had surrendered to General Goddard. For his bravery here, Colonel Hartley was afterwards appointed to the command of H.M. 73rd Foot, and at a later period won fresh honours in India as a general officer. Though negotiations for a probable peace were again opened, it was resolved to press the Mahratta war with vigour. Thus General Goddard, after spending some time in front of Arnaul, a fort ten miles north of Bassein, determined to menace Poonah, thinking thereby to hasten the treaty of peace-a menace which he had not quite the force to put in effect. In the end of January, 1781, he forced a passage through the Bhore Ghaut, at the head of only 6,152 men, of whom 640 were Europeans; and the minister, Nana Furnavese, "though under no alarm, thought it good policy to pretend it, and tried to amuse General Goddard with a show of negotiation, while he was straining every nerve to increase the army and render the surrounding country a desert.” For safety he sent the infant peishwa to Poorundhur, and advanced with the main body of the army, under Hurry Punt Phurkay and Tookajee Holkar, towards the Ghauts; while another leader, named Pureshram Bhow Putmordhan, descended into the Concan, to cut off Goddard's foragers and his communication with Bombay, towards which, the menacing of Poonah having produced no result, and the rains being at hand, the general was now anxious to return; but that movement it seemed impossible to effect without sacrificing some of his most necessary material of war. So active was Pureshram Bhow that every detached party was cut off; thus, in April, Goddard had to send to Panwell no less than three battalions of sepoys, ten guns, and all his cavalry, under Colonel Browne, to escort some grain and other stores. En route to that place the escort was attacked by Pureshram Bhow, who would have been beaten off had he not been reinforced by Holkar. Browne, on finding this large combined force in his front, could not venture to proceed to Panwell without an accession of strength. Goddard was aware of the necessity for this, but unluckily the greater part of his cattle had gone down to bring up the supplies; thus he could not march 1781.] MAJOR CARNAC SURROUNDED. 205 The whole retreat was a species of flying battle- time when he was supposed to be in danger; but a succession of furious attacks and firm repulses; as its services were not required thus, Carnac embut in three days the troops, jaded, worn, and ployed them in the invasion of the fertile province harassed, reached Panwell, after leaving 460 killed of Malwa, where he reduced Tipparu, and advanced and wounded by the way. Goddard then dispatched against Seronge, a large open town, so celebrated a reinforcement to Tellicherry, which was in con- for its manufacture of chintzes that it has often |