Sir F. Roberts' March on Candahar. 195

in the greatest confusion to the Ghauts, the Mahrattas left Goddard undisputed master of all the country between the mountains and the sea.

Such was the issue of General Goddard's splendid march across India from Calcutta to Bombay; one quite equal, if not superior, to another which has excited such deserved admiration in our own day, the march of Sir Frederick Roberts from Cabul to the relief of Candahar.

196

CHAPTER XX.

THE WARS WITH HYDER ALI AND TIPPOO

WH

SAHIB.

A.D. 1780-1799.

HILE General Goddard was inflicting so decisive a defeat on the Mahratta army, Hastings had succeeded in forming an alliance with the Rajah of Gohud, a Hindu prince, who possessed an extensive country on the banks of the Jumna, between the territories of Holkar and the kingdom of Oude. At the suggestion of Goddard, Colonel Popham was detached from his army with a small force, with which he not only drove out the Mahrattas from the dominions of the Rajah, but took by storm the fortress of Lahar, the capital of Cutchwagar.

On the news of his success reaching Calcutta, Francis of course protested against any extension of the war; but Hastings, who still retained the casting vote, determined to reinforce him as a meritorious officer who was capable of shaking the power of both Scindia and Holkar in the midst of their own country. Before, however, the reinforcements arrived, Popham, withe xtraordinary skill and daring, took by escalade the fortress of Gwalior, one of the very strongest and most important places in all India, built upon a lofty

Capture of Gwalior.

197

and almost perpendicular rock, and defended by a numerous garrison. Although in former times it had been taken more than once during the various wars between the Mussulmans and the Hindus, so strongly had it been fortified by the Mahratta chiefs, that it As it was only was considered to be impregnable. fifty miles from Agra, which was then Scindia's capital, no sooner was it captured by the British than the Mahrattas abandoned all the neighbouring country, and carried their feelings of dismay as far as the capital itself.

Thus the most brilliant successes had been obtained by those two meritorious officers, General Goddard and Colonel Popham, and the Mahratta war promised a complete triumph, when Hyder Ali, who had been concerting schemes with the French at Pondicherry for the space of seven years, determined on opening a campaign against the English. In the summer of 1780 he quitted Seringapatam at the head of an immense force numbering upwards of 85,oco men of all arms, assisted by a small corps of 400 Europeans, chiefly Frenchmen and a few other adventurers.

Before proceeding it may be well to give a brief sketch of the rise of the extraordinary man who had long proved such a thorn in the side of the English. About thirty years before this time, when Clive had just commenced his wondrous career, a Mohammedan soldier of the lowest rank began to distinguish himHis birth was self in the wars of southern India. humble; his father had been a petty revenue officer, and his grandfather a wandering and howling Dervish; But though thus and as for education he had none. meanly descended, and unable to read even the