In his treaty with the Emperor Shah Alum, Clive had guaranteed that potentate the quiet possession of Allahabad and Corah, with the annual stipend of twenty-six lacs of rupees. This sum from the first was not punctually paid, and for the last two years it had been withheld altogether. The ostensible reason for this was as follows: In the year 17713 Shah Alum, at the instigation it is said of Sujah Dowla, Vizier and Nabob of Oude, who wished to recover possession of Allahabad and Corah, threw himself into the arms of the Mahrattas. Towards the close of the year 1771 the Mahratta chief carried the poor Mogul in triumph to Delhi, and soon after he was hurried by them into the field of battle. Supported by them he invaded Rohilcund, a country which was equally coveted by the Nabob of Oude, to whom the Rohillas applied for assistance. Sujah Dowla not only promised to assist them himself, but likewise to gain for them the more potent co-operation of the company. Accordingly he intimated to Sir Robert Barker, the general who commanded the company’s forces, and to the governor and council at Calcutta, that to allow Shah Alum any stipend would be only furnishing the means of war to the rapacious and turbulent Mahrattas. Previous to this the payment of the stipend had been suspended upon various pleas, but this afforded ground for stopping it altogether. Shah Alum and the English were therefore brought into direct collision. At this moment Major John Morrison, who had previously resigned his commission in the company’s service, repaired to Allahabad to try his fortune with Shah Alum. Morrison was at once raised to the rank of general, and he soon persuaded the Great Mogul to appoint him his ambassador and plenipotentiary to his Britannic Majesty, George III., under the promise of obtaining him a larger sum from the King of England than that which the company had withheld from him. Morrison was furnished with proposals, the chief of which were these:—“The Great Mogul, Shah Alum, as undoubted lord and sovereign of Hindustan, &c., and as having full right so to do, would transfer to his Britannic majesty, Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, with all that the company possessed in those parts, and which was all forfeited by them, upon condition that his Britannic majesty would pay the pecuniary homage of thirty-two lacs, and aid the Great Mogul with troops and arms.” At this time the British parliament were calling the territorial rights of the company in question, and was even meditating the taking those rights to itself, and the reduction of the company to a mere trading body. Had Morrison, indeed, arrived in England with these offers, it is probable that parliament would have taken such a step. Hastings seems to have been under this impression, for when the adventurous officer arrived at the Dutch settlement of Chinchura, on the Hooghly, and demanded a passage to England in one of the company’s ships, he wrote in reply, that he would not allow him a passage in any ship sailing from the port of Calcutta. Nor did his opposition end here. Having heard that the major had engaged a passage in a Danish ship, he successfully exerted his influence to prevent it; and as no other ship sailed for Europe that season, Morrison’s diplomatic career was brought to a premature close. Shortly after, indeed, Shah Alum ceded both Corah and Allahabad to the Mahrattas, which was considered as equivalent to a complete discharge from all the obligations of Clive’s treaty. The Mahrattas signified their intention of taking immediate possession of Allahabad and Corah, and the Nabob of Oude claimed the assistance of the English against them, and a garrison was placed in Allahabad for its protection. This, for a brief season, checked the rapacious Mahrattas; and the attention of Hastings was next directed to the inroads which the Bootans had made in Cooch-Bahar, and the devastations of the Senassie fakeers in the country round Bengal. Both the Bootans and Senassies were checked, and soon after Hastings set out on a visit to the Nabob of Oude, who had solicited a personal conference at Benares, in order to arrange new bargains and treaties with the English. This conference had reference chiefly to the annexation of the Rohilla country, which was threatened by the Mahrattas, to the province of Oude, which was at first agreed upon, but subsequently postponed; the nabob fearing that the price he had agreed to pay for it was beyond his present ability, and Hastings conceiving that such an enterprise would be open to severe animadversion in England. During this conference, however, Hastings committed as glaring an act of injustice as the conquest of Rohilcund would have been. This was the sale of Allahabad and Corah, to Sujah Dowla, for fifty lacs of rupees—twenty of which were paid down on the spot, and the other of which were to be paid in two years. By this act Shah Alum was deprived of his rightful patrimony.

The negociations between Hastings and the Nabob of Oude occupied three weeks, and on his return to Calcutta, Hastings applied himself to the administration of the province of Bengal. His chief attention was directed to the establishment of a police; to the posting detachments so as to prevent the incursions of the Senassie fakeers, and other marauders; to the formation of local courts throughout the province; to the regulation of taxes and collection of the revenue; to the removal of impolitic taxes, duties, and fees upon native marriages; to the suppression of the peculation and rapacity of the company’s servants; and to other important objects, too numerous for detail. Although some of the means employed by Hastings were not of the purest kind, and others were inconsistent with more modern notions of political economy and justice, yet it is certain that his measures were productive of much benefit to the country, and that all classes of the community of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa were satisfied with their results, and were led to look upon him in the light of a benefactor. It seems to have been to this period that he alluded, when, in after years, nearly all England was accusing him of cruelty and oppression, he remarked:—“I could have gone from Calcutta to Moorshedabad, and from Moorshedabad to Patna and Benares, without a guard, without a sepoy, without any protection but what was to be found in the goodwill and affection of the natives.”

The Nabob of Oude was earnest in his desire to annex the Rohilcund country to his own, and early in the year 1774 he applied to Hastings for the troops with which he had engaged to furnish him for the enterprise. Hastings was somewhat disconcerted at his request, but as the nabob had on his part engaged to pay 210,000 rupees per month for their services, and he wanted money, a brigade, under the command of Colonel Champion, received orders to march into the country of Oude, with the declared purpose of invading Rohilcund. Operations commenced in April, and Colonel Champion gained a great victory over the Rohilla chiefs, on the side of Babul Nulla, which placed the whole country at the mercy of the conquerors. The Nabob of Oude made a cruel use of the victory, by plundering and burning towns and villages which belonged to the quiet Hindu inhabitants; and who, so far from making common cause with the Rohillas, were ready to render all the services they were capable of rendering against them. In this destruction, neither Colonel Champion nor Hastings participated, but as it was by their means that the conquest of the country was effected they shared in the odium of the enterprise. That Hastings did not concur in the nabob’s cruelties is clear from the directions which he wrote to Colonel Champion with reference to the captive family of Hafez Ramet, one of the Rohilla chiefs. He remarked:—“Tell the vizier that the English manners are abhorrent of every species of inhumanity and oppression, and enjoin the gentlest treatment of a vanquished enemy. Require and entreat his observance of this principle towards the family of Hafez. Tell him my instructions to you generally; but urgently enforce the same maxims; and that no part of his conduct will operate so powerfully in winning the affections of the English as instances of benevolence and feeling for others. If these arguments do not prevail, you may inform him directly that you have my orders to insist upon a proper treatment of the family of Hafez Ramet; since in our alliance with him, our national character is involved in every act which subjects his own to reproach; that I shall publicly exculpate this government from the imputation of assenting to such a procedure, and shall reserve it as an objection to any future engagements with him when the present service shall have been accomplished.” There can be no doubt that Colonel Champion complied with these directions, for during the war a strife was kindled between him and the nabob, partly on account of the nabob’s non-assistance in the battle at Babul Nulla, and partly because he resolutely kept all the plunder to himself. Still nothing can justify this war with the Rohillas, and the annexation of the Rohilcund to the country of Oude. It is the more unjustifiable, because money was evidently the chief motive which induced Hastings to assist the rapacious nabob in his enterprise. By it the Afghan race was almost rooted out of the country, for while a few chiefs lingered on the frontiers, the majority, with their followers, sought new settlements in other countries. The Hindu population remained under the rule of the Nabob of Oude.

Soon after this Rohilla war was concluded, the new constitution, as framed by parliament, came into operation. The new council appointed at Calcutta were General Clavering, and Messrs. Monson, Francis, and Barwell; and Hastings was at their head with the rank of Governor-general of Bengal. At the first meeting of this new council a letter was read from the court of directors, which inculcated unanimity and concord among its members; required them to do all in their power to preserve peace in India; committed to Hastings the charge of carrying on all correspondence with the native powers, the council at the same time being privileged to peruse all letters; recommended a careful revision of all the company’s affairs, alliances, connexions, &c., with the Indian states in the neighbourhood of the three presidencies; and exhorted them to be careful and cautious in the extreme in committing themselves by any alliances or compacts with either the Indians or the European settlers. This council was composed of such discordant materials that the injunction to preserve unanimity and concord had no weight on its members. From the first, indeed, Francis, Clavering, and Monson seem to have been resolved to gain all power in India for themselves. Their design was soon made manifest. In his political negociations, Hastings had assumed a high and almost single authority; and in conformity with this plan, at the close of the Rohilla war, he had appointed his friend Middleton to be resident and agent at the court of the Nabob of Oude, giving him instructions to confer with him alone on all matters of importance. This gave offence to Francis, Clavering, and Monson, who demanded that the correspondence of Middleton, from first to last, should be laid before the council. Hastings objected to this, on the ground that much of it related to merely private matters and opinions; upon which they hinted that his war with the Rohillas arose from sordid motives, and that his whole connexion with the Nabob of Oude had been a series of bad actions, fraud, and selfishness. This language was as unjustifiable as the Rohilla war, for Hastings had not profited in the least by his connexion with the nabob, and was at the time, in fact, a poorer man than when he quitted his inferior employment at Madras: he had sought money, it is true, but it was for the company, and not for himself. This charge was followed by action, equally unjust. As Francis, Clavering, and Monson constituted the majority in the council, they voted the immediate recall of Middleton; regardless of the remonstrance of Hastings, who declared that such a measure would be attended with pernicious consequences, inasmuch as the natives would be taught by such an act that the English authorities were disunited in sentiment, and that the government of Calcutta was falling into a state of revolution. The power of Hastings was, by the confederation of these three members against him, almost annihilated; and towards the close of the year he wrote to the board of directors, complaining of their precipitancy and violence, and to the English premier, vindicating his own conduct. Hastings, however, was subject to the control of this trio, until the 25th of September, 1776, when the majority was reduced to an equality by the death of Colonel Monson, By this event, indeed, Hastings by his casting-vote as governor-general, obtained the superiority, and he at once re-assumed his ancient authority, despite the protestations of Clavering and Francis. On the recall of Middleton the trio had sent Mr. Bristow to reside at Oude, but no sooner had Hastings regained power than he reinstated his friend Middleton in his office. The use which he made of his power seems to have given offence to the board of directors, for while they reprimanded him by letter, they supplied Colonel Monson’s place by Mr. Wheler, who took the part of Francis and Clavering. Before this party, however, could act offensively, it was again reduced to a minority by the death of General Clavering, so that Hastings once more ruled dominant.

It was time that all the divisions in the council of Calcutta were brought to a close; for at this period, 1777, danger was gathering round the Anglo Indian government on various sides. During the period of the control of Francis, Monson, and Clavering in the council of Calcutta, the presidency of Bombay dispatched some troops, under Colonel Keating, to aid Ragoba—who set himself up for the Peishwa of the Mahrattas—against the confederated Mahratta chiefs, with whom he was at war. The presidency of Bombay were induced to take part in this war by the grant which Ragoba made them of Salsette, Bassein, and other places in the territory of the Mahrattas. At first, Colonel Keating was successful in his war with the Mahratta confederacy; but subsequently his movements were impeded by the discontents of the peishwa’s troops, who refused to cross the Nerbuddah until they should be paid their arrears. Ragoba, however, found means not only to pay his troops, but to buy off some of the chiefs of the hostile confederacy; and then he and his English allies marched upon Poona, which was a kind of Mahratta capital. But the assistance which the presidency of Bombay had given displeased the supreme council of Calcutta; and at this point they issued orders for the recall of the troops from Poona. After this the council of Calcutta sent an agent of their own, Colonel Upton, to undertake treaties, and to pursue a different line of policy to that which the presidency of Bombay had adopted—he being instructed to treat, not with Ragoba, but with the chiefs of the Mahratta confederacy. A treaty was concluded, by which the Mahratta chiefs agreed to yield Salsette and the small islands near it to the supreme council at Calcutta, upon condition that aid should be afforded them against Ragoba. This treaty, for a time, put an end to war; for Ragoba, being deprived of English assistance, had no power to withstand his enemies; and therefore he was compelled to lay down his arms and flee for his life. By the year 1778, however, the Mahratta chiefs who had been parties to the treaty with Colonel Upton became weary of their bargain. Fresh intrigues were formed at Poona; intrigues which were supported by French influence, agents from that nation being at this period at work in India, as well as in America, to sap the foundation of the English power. As the presidency of Bombay were nearest to this scene of Mahratta intrigue, and were likely to be the most affected by it, they wrote letters to the supreme council at Calcutta, recommending a new alliance with Ragoba, in order to anticipate the designs of the French and the Mahratta chiefs. Soon after Hastings received this letter, he heard that a fresh quarrel had arisen among the Mahratta chiefs at Poona, and that Baboo, at the head of a powerful faction, had declared for Ragoba, and had applied to the presidency of Bombay for assistance. Hastings, conceiving that if the faction opposed to Baboo and Ragoba should prevail, the territories of Bombay would be in danger, proposed in council that every assistance should be given, and that an army should be forthwith sent from Calcutta and Bombay. He was the more induced to make this proposition because he always had disapproved of the treaty, and because he was of opinion that great danger would arise to the Anglo-Indian government from a union of the French with Mahrattas, if not checked on the instant. Hastings carried his proposition by means of his casting vote; and orders were issued for assembling an army at Culpee, on the east of the Hooghly river, and about thirty-three miles below Calcutta. The command of this army was given to Colonel Leslie, and it began its march in the month of June, almost simultaneously with the receipt of a letter, containing the information that war had been declared between England and France. This news quickened the operations of Hastings. It was represented by his opponents, Francis and Wheler, that the army should be recalled, as Bengal was as likely to be attacked as Bombay; but Hastings insisted that the army should proceed, as Bengal could be well defended without it. Hastings then commenced a series of measures of defence against French aggression. He seized Chandernagore and all the French factories in Bengal; sent orders to the presidency of Madras to occupy Pondicherry; threw up strong works near Calcutta; collected a vast number of vessels of all kinds, and improvised a regular marine establishment; and raised nine new battalions of sepoys, and a numerous corps of native artillery. In the meantime the army under Colonel Leslie was marching towards the acme of action. In his progress he was directed to conciliate and captivate the goodwill of the rulers and people in every district through which his line of inarch lay; but at the same time he was to fight his way where he could not win it by conciliation. Leslie had to engage with a Mahratta chief, called Ballajee, and with the young Rajah of Bondilcund; but these were overcome without great difficulty; and having reached Rajaghur, a principal city of Bondilcund, on the 17th of August, he halted there, for the purpose of entering into private negociations with the pretenders and chiefs of that country. Colonel Leslie remained so long at Rajaghur, that Hastings thought it necessary to recall him to Bengal, and to confide the command of the army to Lieutenant-Colonel Goddard; at the same time declaring by letters to the Rajah of Bondilcund and his competitors, that all Leslie’s treaties and agreements were invalid. Goddard proved to be a much more active officer than his predecessor. On receiving his command he quitted Bondilcund, and crossing the Nerbudda came to the city of Nagpoor, where he established a friendly relation with the Mahrattas of Berar, and where he received dispatches from Bombay, acquainting him that the presidency had put an army in motion for Poona, under the command of Colonel Egerton, and that the two armies were to meet in the neighbourhood of that city. Egerton arrived at the destined point first; and disastrous consequences ensued to his army. In his camp were two civil commissioners, whom the Bombay government had sent to share the authority and direct the movements of Egerton. These civilians, seeing a large body of Mahratta horse before them, overcome by fear, ordered a retreat; and the Mahrattas following them, cut to pieces nearly four hundred men, and carried away the greater part of their baggage and provisions. Alarmed at their position, the civilians now sent a deputation to the Mahrattas, to know upon what terras they would permit them to march back to Bombay without molestation. The Mahrattas demanded that Ragoba should be delivered to them; and Ragoba was forthwith sent to their camp. But this weak compliance had the effect of emboldening the Mahratta chiefs. They demanded a second price for permitting the retreat; and this price was a treaty by which the English should agree to give up all the acquisitions they had made in that part of India since 1756, and send orders to Colonel Goddard to return to Bengal. A treaty was signed to this effect; and having delivered up two hostages as sureties for its fulfilment, the dishonoured army was permitted to march back to Bombay. When Colonel Goddard heard of these reverses he was at Boorhampoor, the ancient capital of Candeish, and nearly a thousand miles, by the route he had taken, from Calcutta. He had been detained in this city by perplexing letters and advices from the field-commissioners; and on receiving the intelligence, he resolved to march to Surat on the western coast, where he would be in an English settlement, with the sea open to Bombay, and ready to act as occasion might require or orders from Calcutta might direct. Favoured by the natives, whose goodwill he had gained by the strict discipline which he maintained among his troops during his march from Rajaghur to Boorhampoor, he reached Surat, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles, in nineteen days. On his arrival Goddard was promoted to the rank of general; and shortly after he received the commands of the supreme council at Calcutta, to take upon himself all future wars or negociations with the Mahrattas. He proposed an amicable treaty with the Mahratta confederated chiefs, on condition that they would annul the recent treaty with Colonel Egerton, and give up all connexion with the French. At the time he proposed this treaty, Ragoba, who had escaped from Poona, was at Surat; and the chiefs replied that they would listen to no negociation until he was given up, and until Salsette was restored to them. Goddard now took the field; and in a few days the fortress of Dubhoy was reduced, and the city of Ahmedabad, the capital of Guzerat, carried by storm. His progress was arrested by the intelligence that a large Mahratta army, under the chiefs Scindia and Holkar, was marching upon Surat. Goddard resolved to attack that army, and he marched back for that purpose. At first he was prevented by a desire which the chiefs expressed for peace, and negociations were entered into; but it was soon found that they were not sincere, and that their chief motive was to delay the time until the setting in of the rains should interrupt the campaign. Négociations were broken off, and the chiefs hastily retreated; but Goddard followed them, surprised and defeated them in their very camp; and by that victory obtained possession of all the country between the mountains and the sea. The Mahrattas fled in all directions; and Goddard having taken possession of all the towns, put his army into cantonments.

During these events Hastings had formed an alliance with the Ranna of Gohud, who ruled over a hilly country between the territories of Scindia the Mahratta chief, and those of the Nabob of Oude. At the time this alliance was made the territories of the Ranna of Gohud were invaded by the Mahrattas, and Captain Popham was sent to assist him in repelling the invaders. Popham not only drove out the Mahrattas from the dominions of the Ranna, but followed them into their own territories, where he stormed the fortress of Labor, and took that of Gualior, winch the natives deemed impregnable, by escalade. Gualior was not more than fifty miles from Agra, which was Scindia’s capital; and alarmed at his progress, the Mahrattas abandoned all the neighbouring country, and took refuge in that city. The Mahratta war, as conducted by Goddard and Popham, promised a complete triumph; but the victors were stopped at this point by another Mysorean war, which threatened to ruin the English power and possessions on the Coromandel coast.

Although nominally at peace with the English, Hyder Ali held them in utter abhorrence. During the last seven years, indeed, he had been concerting schemes with the French at Pondicherry, and improving and increasing his army, with a design of overturning the Anglo-Indian government at Madras, if not in all India. To enable him to raise forces, he had recourse to a system of extortion from his subjects, and plunder from his neighbours, by which means the treasury of Mysore was full even to overflowing. The Madras government was warned of its danger by Mohammed Ali, the Nabob of the Carnatic; but his voice was disregarded, and no preparations were made to ward off the blow. But the presidency of Madras were soon aroused from their slumbers. In the summer of 1780 Hyder Ali suddenly quitted Seringapatam, with one of the finest armies ever seen in Southern India. This army consisted of 30,000 cavalry, 15.,000 drilled infantry, 40,000 irregular troops, 2000 artillery and rocket men, and 400 Europeans, many of whom were Frenchmen. With this force Hyder poured through the ghauts or passes, and burst like a mountain-torrent into the Carnatic. His arms were irresistible. Porto Novo, on the coast, and Conjeveram, close to Trichinopoly, were captured and plundered; almost every fortress opened their gates at his approach; and the whole country north of the Coleroon submitted to his sway. At his approach the people fled in all directions from the fire and the sword towards the English presidency; and the flames kindled by him were seen at night from the top of Mount St. Thomas, which was only nine miles distant from Madras. Alarmed at his progress, the presidency was at first unnerved; but fear having subsided, orders were given to secure some of the strong places held by Mohammed Ali’s troops, on whom no reliance could be placed. Two were thus preserved; but the rest fell into the hands of the victor. The next object of the presidency was to call in a strong force of 3000 men, under Colonel Baillie, from the Northern Circars; and Sir Hector Munro, the commander-in-chief, undertook to meet them at Conjeveram, about fifty miles from the capital. In his route Colonel Baillie was attacked by Hyder Ali’s eldest son, Tippoo, with a large detachment; while Hyder himself interposed his main force between the two divisions of the English forces. Colonel Baillie defeated Tippoo; and soon after he was joined by a reinforcement under Colonel Fletcher and Captain Baird, which raised his corps to 3700 men. Against these Hyder now turned his chief attention; and he succeeded in surrounding them near Conjeveram with his whole host, and upwards of sixty cannon. A dreadful battle took place; and the English, and the sepoys who fought with them, struggled so manfully, that, after a contest of three hours, victory began to declare on their side. Hyder Ali was about to give orders for a retreat, and the French officers, who commanded the artillery, began to draw off their guns; but at that instant, by some accident, the tumbrils containing the ammunition blew up in the centre of the British, lines, and their artillery was rendered useless. This accident changed the fortune of the day; and the conquerors were left at the mercy of the vanquished. Still they long kept their ground; and it was not till all the sepoys were broken and cut to pieces that the British gave way. Even then they rallied for one more desperate effort; and under fire of the enemy’s cannon they gained the ridge of a hill, in which position they formed a square, and defended themselves against thirteen successive attacks; the soldiers fighting with their bayonets, and the officers with their swords. The troops would still have resisted the enemy, had not Colonel Baillie directed them to lay down their arms, and stepping forward, asked for quarter. It is said that even then many would not lay down their arms, and continued to fight under the legs of the elephants and horses. But the struggle was now of no avail; one half of the survivors were cowardly butchered, and the rest were made prisoners, and reserved for a horrible captivity. In this conflict four thousand sepoys and six hundred Europeans were slain, among whom was Colonel Fletcher.

At the time when this battle took place, Sir Hector Munro, who commanded the other main division of the Madras army, was within a short distance of Hyder’s rear, and on discovering the catastrophe, he abandoned his tents and baggage, threw his heavier guns into a tank, and fled to Madras. The country was now at the mercy of Hyder; and Wandewash, Chingleput, Vellore, and Arcot were in a short time either captured or closely besieged. Had it not been for Hastings, the power of the British would have been broken, not only in the Carnatic, but also in the northern Circars. On first discovering the irruption of Hyder Ali, the presidency of Madras despatched a fast-sailing ship to Calcutta, with letters and agents, urging him to send them aid in men and money. The treasury of Calcutta was empty, but Hastings procured fifteen lacs of rupees, which were sent off to Madras as a present supply for the army, and the governor-general immediately set to work to obtain more. Missives and agents were soon seen flying through the country to procure supplies; and Moorshedabad, Patna, Lucknow, and Benares, with all other places where Hastings could put in a claim, whether real or fictitious, were called upon for their contributions. But money would have been of little service in this war without active measures on the part of Hastings. This he saw, and he immediately concluded a peace with Scindia, recalled Popham from the Jumna, and adjusted amicable arrangements with the other Mahratta powers, under the guarantee of the Rajah of Berar He also recalled the inept Governor of Madras, and invited Sir Eyre Coote to take the command of Fort St. George, and the entire management cf the war with Hyder Ali. Sir Eyre Coote had recently returned to India, as commander-in-chief of the Bengal forces, and a member of the supreme council; and although he did not always agree with Hastings at the council-table, he readily fell in with his plans, and undertook the command. Coote set sail with five hundred choice British troops, and six hundred Lascars, with between forty and fifty gentlemen volunteers; and soon after his arrival at Madras, he commenced operations, with 1700 Europeans, and about 5000 native troops, by marching to recover Wandewash, the scene of his great exploit in a previous year. Wandewash was recaptured, and Hyder Ali, terrified at his name, abandoned other sieges, and seemed inclined to fly from, or to treat with the conqueror. At this juncture, however, a French fleet appeared off the coast; and encouraged by it, and also by a repulse which Coote shortly after sustained at the fortified pagoda of Chillambram, he intrenched his army in a strong position, near Cuddalore, where he determined to risk a battle rather than permit the British commander to advance upon Trinchinopoly and Tanjore. His post was exceedingly strong; but Sir Eyre Coote, who had recently been reinforced by some sepoys, sent by Hastings, under the command of Colonel Pearse, advanced from Porto Novo, attacked him in his lines, and completely defeated him. It is said that Hyder Ali now bitterly regretted having allowed himself to be drawn into war by French counsels, and that he as bitterly complained of having been amused by the promises of the assistance of a great French force from Europe. Notwithstanding he risked another battle for the defence of Arcot, on the very spot where Colonel Baillie had suffered his defeat, but where he was this time defeated. Hyder retreated to, and took up his position at, Sholingur; and though Sir Eyre Coote had suffered severe loss in his recent battle, he resolved to seek the enemy, and he pushed forward with such vigour that he nearly surprised the Indians before they could form their ranks. Hyder was again routed, with terrible loss, and Coote was enabled by this victory to march on the fortress of Vellore, one of the keys of the Carnatic, which was besieged by Hyder’s troops, and which he relieved and saved. After this, Coote recovered Chittore, Palipett, and other places, and then, as the rains, the monsoons, and the rising of the rivers put an end to further extensive operations, he went into cantonments.

GEORGE III. 1786-1787

In the meantime Lord Macartney arrived from England as Governor of Madras, His lordship brought intelligence of the declaration of war between England and Holland, and his first care was to make himself master of all the Dutch factories on that coast. Sadras surrendered upon summons; Poulicat submitted on his approach, at the head of some gentlemen volunteers and Madras militia-men; Negapatam was captured; all the other Dutch settlements on the same coast fell into the hands of the British; and Trin-comalee, their principal station in Ceylon, was taken by storm.