There is every reason to believe that on his return Schwartz not only discharged his mission but exhorted the authorities to play their part with honesty and straightforwardness, and this was not perhaps a welcome or acceptable admonition. Of this remarkable visit not a record remains in the archives of the Company; possibly had such a faithful note been made it would have been a witness against the provocation and trickery which marred their administration. But Schwartz had done his duty and again he refused any personal advantage, even handing over to the Board at Madras the three hundred rupees given him by Hyder. All he would agree to was that an English orphan school might be built with some of it at Tanjore.
Probably amongst the most distinguished of native rulers the name of Hyder Ali stands pre-eminent. He has been called the Napoleon of India, and considering his limitations as an Oriental, if only from the brilliance of his military tactics and personality among his armies, he may deserve that high comparison. It is easy to denounce him as a bloodthirsty tyrant, and much of his character justifies that condemnation, but he had other traits which in fairness must be remembered. He lived in an age and a country where duplicity in politics was the rule rather than the exception, yet it is to his credit that he kept his word with the English, who were not always equally considerate as regards their obligations with him. Mounted on his white elephant in his gaudy uniform of white satin and gold flowers, vain of display as all his fathers were, he was the idol of his troops, who were animated by the example of a man who had no fear and exposed himself to any risks in leading them to victory.
The victim of sensuality, he yet kept his head clear for business, and though he could not read a word he dictated several letters at the same time and his marvellous memory kept him always in touch with the financial and political affairs of his kingdom. Schwartz has given us a picture of his court, and his interview represents Hyder in one of his best moods. He seemed a very Gallio in his religious views and used the Brahmin because it suited his purpose to be guided by the ablest and only educated men. There is no doubt he misled the pious Schwartz in letting him imagine that those boys were the objects of his charity and tender care. As a matter of fact, they simply represented his practice of carrying captive the young natives of any country which came into his hands. He was cruelly severe in his discipline and did not spare his own son when it was needed; his ferocity of revenge and his lust of plunder made him an unsparing enemy and an avaricious thief. And yet, as we have seen in his talk with Schwartz, there was a better side of him and he had a desire at least after truth and justice. It is quite a natural question, when reviewing such a character, to ask oneself what Hyder Ali might have been had he embraced the Christian faith.
CHAPTER X.
THE STRAIN BEGINS TO TELL.
The truce which followed the visit of Schwartz to Hyder Ali was short lived. While the missionary, not without many misgivings, had returned to complete his church and care for his flock, the storm clouds were already on the horizon. His health he finds is not quite so good, the arduous travelling and exposure, in addition to constant preaching work, has begun to tell on him. He complains in some of his letters of pains in his shoulder and side. He is thankful that he can still go out as usual. “For though I was not confined,” he writes, “my right arm gave me so much pain that I was unfit to write, nay to hold a book with it. But now it is much better by the mercy of God. He is the author and preserver of our lives.”
“If He be pleased to let us stand for some time O may He grant us strength to live to His glory and praise! Our time is in His hand.” He is shocked at the luxurious and sinful life which the Europeans are living, careless and corrupt, on the edge of a volcano but blind to consequences. This degeneration in the character of the white men utterly discredited them in the dark watchful eyes of the natives. The tearing up of treaties and breaking of solemn promises had exasperated Hyder Ali and made him resolve to sweep the English with their rotten government into the sea. His ambition was like a roaring furnace; while the enemies were fiddling and dancing he was preparing the immense army of nearly an hundred thousand well trained men, led by French officers and equipped for immediate battle. He swept onward, wasting, burning, killing, behind him a smoking desolation and before him a terror struck and fleeing people. His objective was Madras and then a clean sweep of the enemy all through the Carnatic. It seems inconceivable that the Government could, from sheer apathy, wilful ignorance and vicious living, become so incompetent as to make no provision for defence and take no notice of impending doom until the black clouds of smoke and lurid flames almost reached the City. Here is the comment of Schwartz upon the position:
“Our leaders pursued other things; the welfare of the public was entirely forgotten, private interests, pleasure, luxury were come to a stupendous height. They were warned three months before Hyder’s invasion but they despised the warning saying, ‘Hyder might as well fly as come into the Carnatic!’ None could persuade them to the contrary till they saw his horse at their garden houses. Then consternation seized them, nothing but confusion was visible. Hyder pursued his plan, took one fort after another, till he got possession of Arcot.... Now what is to be done? I say with Jeremy! ‘Be thou not terrible unto me, O God’. This calamity is from the Lord and doubtless He intends to purge us from our sins and take away our dross ... our infidelity, our contempt of divine things is beyond description and brings upon us the wrath of God. Heathens and nominal Christians were asleep and minding nothing but the things of this world. Who knows but they may arise on hearing the thundering voice of the law.”
The grain stores having been destroyed by the enemy, no seed was sown, no harvest could be reaped, and famine, gaunt and deadly, stalked through the land. No strong men were left, only wandering skeletons were met within the miserable and devastated villages. Hyder carried off the healthy children and the flower of the people, the rest were left to die, as Schwartz says: “When passing through the streets early in the morning, the dead were lying in heaps on the dunghills.” And here in this extremity we see the forethought and practical wisdom of Schwartz. With the anticipation of such a famine he had purchased twelve thousand bushels of rice, and when it seemed as if the soldiers would die for want of food, he went to the natives, who had lost all confidence in the word of a European, and got them to bring in their animals and stores, making himself personally responsible that they should be duly paid. “I afterwards settled with the natives and they went home quite satisfied. The Lord also enabled me to consider the poor, so that I had it in my power to feed a large number for the space of seventeen months.”
“Our fort,” he writes, “contained the best part of the inhabitants of the country, who flocked hither to escape the unrelenting cruelty of the enemy. Daily we conversed with these people and tried to convince them of the vanity of their idols and to induce them to return to the living God. They readily own the superior excellence of the Christian doctrine, but remain in their deplorable errors for various frivolous reasons. It were to be wished that the country people having suffered nearly four years all manners of calamity would consider the things which belong to their eternal welfare, for which my assistants pray and labour in conjunction with me. But though this fruit of our labour has not hitherto answered our wishes, still I am happy in being made an instrument of Providence to instruct some and to warn others. Who knows but there may come a time when others may reap what we are sowing.”