In 1757, the events of most magnitude on the coast were the capture of Madura by Captain Caillaud[[22]], who commanded the British troops south of the Coleroon; and the defeat of a party[[23]] which attacked Nellore, where the brother[[24]] of the Nabob Mahommed Ali Khan continued in rebellion. The fortress of Chittaput was taken by the French, owing to aid being refused to Nazir Mahommed[[25]], the killadar (or governor) who, holding this fortress independent of the Nabob, was an object of jealousy, and he succeeded in instilling into the minds of the English government a belief that the gallant defender of this important post was in league with the French. Succour was delayed till too late. The brave killadar resisted to the last; and, by his death on the breach, silenced his calumniators, and left the rulers of Madras to regret their unfortunate credulity and prejudice.
The capture of Chittaput was followed by the reduction of a number of small fortresses in the Carnatic. The successes of the French in this province balanced those of the English to the southward, where the gallantry and judgment of Captain Caillaud, and the indefatigable activity of Mahommed Esoof[[26]], the celebrated commandant of sepoys, supported the cause of the English, and of the Nabob Mahommed Ali, against the French and the rebel Maphuze Khan. The latter were aided by several polygars, or petty Hindu chiefs, who possess the wild mountainous tracts of this part of India; and who, from the attachment and habits of their rude followers, are the most troublesome of all enemies to the internal peace of the country.
These indecisive operations had no effect beyond keeping up the flame of war between the French and English, through whom every native power in India that they could influence became engaged in hostilities, in which their interests were deemed subordinate to the primary object which the two rival European nations alike cherished, of expelling each other from the eastern hemisphere.
The French government in Europe appear, at this period, to have determined on an effort to reduce the British settlements on the coast of Coromandel; and the armament they prepared seemed adequate to the object. Fortunately for the English, those who presided in the councils of Louis 15th were either so completely ignorant of Indian policy, or so inveterately prejudiced against their East India Company and its servants, as not only to overlook the advantages that these had gained, but to put aside as useless all who were acquainted with the scene, and to substitute a commander and officers, who, whatever experience they might have had in other quarters of the world, were profoundly ignorant of that to which they were sent, with the expressed hope that, while they reformed the gross abuses of the local government, they would restore the tarnished lustre of the French arms.
The bold and extensive, though, perhaps, premature, schemes of Dupleix had, at first, excited great expectations in France; but when, instead of those successes which his sanguine mind had led his government to anticipate, every despatch brought accounts of some failure or disaster, national vanity, combined with prejudice and ignorance, induced the ministers of that country to throw the whole blame on the Company and on the individuals whom they had employed to manage their affairs abroad. Their political and military conduct underwent equal condemnation; their operations in the field were deemed unskilful, and their connections with native princes, particularly that with the Subah of the Deckan, were pronounced altogether chimerical, and calculated for no object but that of feeding the ambition, or adding to the wealth, of those by whom they were planned or conducted.
Though the form of the local government was not changed, controlling powers were vested in Lieutenant-General Count Lally, who was sent in command of this force, aided by a large staff of officers of high rank and reputation.
The character of Lally, from former services, stood high as a gallant soldier. He was, perhaps, skilled in European warfare, but he was wholly ignorant of the different modes and usages of that science in India; added to which, he was not of a temper to benefit by the experience of others; and his mind appears, before he left France, to have been imbued with the deepest prejudices against his own countrymen in India, as well as the most sovereign contempt for the natives of that country. He was, in consequence, alike indisposed to receive aid from the experience and knowledge of the one, or from the alliance of the other; and evidently expected to subdue all obstacles at the point of the bayonet.
Such was the man whom the French government sent to India. How different was the conduct of the great Chatham! When the troops of his sovereign were ordered to that country to support the national interests, he at once decided[[27]] that neither Lawrence nor Clive should be superseded in their command. Had the ministers of France been endowed with his wisdom, and the troops they so judiciously sent to India been placed under Bussy, there is every ground to conclude that the result of the ensuing campaigns would have been very different. But such was the infatuation or prejudice of the French ministers, that Bussy, slighted in the new arrangements, was left, unnoticed and unhonoured, to submit to the commands and bear the insults of an arrogant superior, whose jealousy of his fame and popularity was increased into perfect fury at the attentions shown him by all ranks, and by a memorial from the six colonels[[28]] who had accompanied him from France, praying he would nominate Bussy, yet only a Lieutenant-Colonel, a Brigadier General, that he might command them, and that their sovereign might derive those benefits which were to be expected from his name and experience.
Lally could not refuse compliance with such a request; but he endeavoured, by bitter sarcasms as to their motives, to detract from the just merits of those by whom it was made.
On the same evening that Lally landed with his troops from the fleet of M. D'Aché, he ordered one thousand Europeans and as many sepoys to move towards Fort St. David. They were led astray by their guides, and arrived at the end of their first march, harassed, and without provisions. To supply them, and to enable the remainder of his force to follow, Lally resorted to means which filled the natives with alarm and indignation. He pressed men of all castes and descriptions to carry baggage, and derided the remonstrances of the Company's Governor, M. Deleyrit, who was forced to submit; for, though he and his councils retained their stations, they were placed completely under the control of the Lieutenant-General.