FOOTNOTES:
[40] These were the persons who fabricated those reports that were circulated and believed by numbers, respecting promises of aid and support from the officers of Bengal and Bombay.
[41] This fear of being thought afraid, is, perhaps, of all motives of human action one of the weakest, though it wears a mask of boldness, and under that is often productive of infinite mischief.
[42] I thought so at that period, though I have been since convinced I was mistaken.
[43] Sir George Barlow not only thought so, but must, from the Governor General's letter to the secret committee of the 12th of October 1809, have conveyed the same impression to Lord Minto. The merit of foresight will not assuredly be claimed as one among the talents that were displayed by the Governor of Fort St. George upon this memorable occasion.
[44] See Lieutenant-Colonel Malcolm's letter to General Gowdie, in the Appendix.
[45] Lieutenant Maitland, the dismissed quarter-master, was ordered to command the marines; and Lieutenant Forbes, who had been banished to Condapilly, was directed to proceed to relieve an officer of the regiment on duty at Prince of Wales's Island. This second punishment was a torturing revival of those wrongs, of which not only the parties, but all the officers of the corps, had before, with some justice, complained.
[46] Lieutenant-Colonel Barclay afterwards returned me the original note.
[47] The following paragraph of a letter from Lieutenant-Colonel Montresor to Lieutenant-Colonel Doveton, dated Secundrabad, the 10th July, 1809, is a proof of the light in which this measure was viewed, and the use made of it to reclaim the most violent to duty and submission.—"When the address was forwarded from Jaulnah, the officers could not have known that the Government of Madras had taken such steps as were most likely to quiet the public mind, in consequence of the unpleasant state of affairs at Masulipatam. Lieutenant-Colonel Malcolm, whose sound sense, knowledge of the army, and conciliatory manners, peculiarly qualified him for the difficult task of allaying the ferment in the northern division of the army, has already arrived at Masulipatam, and a committee has been ordered to inquire into the late occurrences, composed of three officers among the most popular in the army: therefore I am sure the officers of Jaulnah will see the bad effects of forwarding an address, at this moment, of any nature whatever, as it could only tend to add to the irritation of the public mind." Vide printed Correspondence, No. 2, page 35.
[48] Two days after I went away, and when no event had occurred of any consequence, he was persuaded (as has been before shown) to commence the plan for placing the native corps under check of his Majesty's regiments, and the orders were sent to Hyderabad for the march of the 2d of the 10th to Goa.