INDIA.] COLONEL GODDARD. 275 The artillery was his share to the burthens of the war. reinforced by recruits from the native Lascars; while the Europeans at Calcutta, to the number of one thousand, were enrolled as Militia in case of need. "Mr. Francis " 66 66 thus writes the Governor-General to a private friend- "affects to regard our means as insufficient, our resources as already exhausted, a French invasion as "impending, and the country incapable of resistance. I am, for my own part, confirmed in my opinion, that the "French, if they ever attempt the invasion of Bengal, "must make their way to it by an alliance with one of "the powers of the country; and the only power with "which that can be at present effected is the Mahratta." To this Mahratta expedition, therefore, the eyes of Hastings were anxiously turned. At first it was far from prospering. The commanding officer, Colonel Leslie, instead of pursuing his march after he had crossed the Jumna, loitered during four months, without the least necessity, in the plains of Bundelcund. His recall was unanimously voted in the Council-chamber at Calcutta, and was only anticipated by tidings of his death. His successor, Colonel Goddard, was an excellent and enterprising officer. He advanced at once into Berar. But further delays ensued in consequence of successive revolutions at the Court of Poonah. To await the effects of these, orders to halt were sent to Colonel Goddard from the Council of Bombay. Perhaps, however, their real object was to clutch the expected credit for themselves, since before the close of the year they sent forth an expedition of their own. That body of troops exceeded 4000 in number; it was accompanied by Ragoba; and the principal officer who served in it was Colonel Egerton. But by a most infelicitous arrangement, the superintendence and control of the expedition was vested by the Council in a travelling Committee; or, in other words, field-deputies, according to the former precedents of Holland. On climbing the Ghauts or passes and entering the Mahrattas' territory, Colonel Egerton was not joined, as Ragoba had encouraged him to hope, by any chief of importance, nor by any considerable number of adherents. On the contrary, he saw around him irregular troops of hostile cavalry, retiring as he advanced, but active and successful in cutting off his supplies. His own movements at this juncture were sufficiently deliberate: only eight miles in eleven days. In January, 1779, he had reached a point within sixteen miles of Poonah. There he found an army assembled to oppose him, and the Committee-men, losing courage, made up their minds to a retreat. A retreat was begun accordingly that night, and continued until the next afternoon, when, at a place called Wargaum, the English found themselves surrounded and hemmed in. One brave subaltern, Captain Hartley, offered to cut his way through, and to carry back the little army to Bombay, declaring that he could rely upon his men. His superior officers, on the other hand, deemed any such attempt chimerical, and determined to seek their safety in negotiation. The terms required for their unmolested passage were hard indeed, yet, hard though they were, could not be disputed unless by arms. It was agreed that all the acquisitions gained by the English from the Mahrattas, since the peace of 1756, should be restored. It was further agreed, that the person of Ragoba should be given up, not indeed to the Poonah chiefs, but to Scindiah. In mitigation of this last ignominious clause we may observe that, even previously, Ragoba, seeing the ill plight of the English army, and despairing of its safe return by force of arms, had declared his own intention of surrendering himself to Scindiah, as to a mediator and umpire rather than an enemy. Already for some days had he been in correspondence with that chief. The Committee felt, therefore, the less scruple in consenting to his surrender when required as a stipulation of their treaty. Yet, in spite of some such extenuating circumstances, the convention of Wargaum may justly be regarded as the most discreditable to the arms of England ever framed since they had first appeared on Indian soil. To the English, in all three Presidencies, it seemed like a Saratoga in miniature. To the French partisans throughout India it gave a bolder spirit and a louder tone. It combined, if not the whole Mahratta empire, yet several more of the Mahratta chiefs against us. It revived the hopes, and disclosed the animosity, both of INDIA.] SCINDIAH AND HOLKAR. 277 the Nizam and Hyder Ali; but on the mind of the Governor-General it had no effect. As ever, that was firm and fearless. He refused to alter his plans: he refused to recall his troops. On the contrary, he at once directed Goddard to advance. General Goddard (for to that higher rank was he speedily promoted) justified the confidence of Hastings by his energy and skill. In his campaign of that year, and of the following, he, in great measure, retrieved and worthily maintained the honour of the British arms. At one time we see him reduce by storm the fort of Ahmedabad; at another time, by a siege, the city of Bassein. On another occasion he appears gaining a victory over the entire force, 40,000 strong, of Scindiah and Holkar combined. Meanwhile Ragoba had found early means to escape from the hands of Scindiah, and took shelter in Surat. Thus the advantages to the Mahrattas from the day of Wargaum proved fleeting and short-lived. In a hilly district lying to the south of Agra, and bearing, at that time, the name of Gohud, Hastings waged war upon a smaller scale. With the Hindoo prince, or Rana, of that district he had concluded an alliance. The Rana being, in consequence, attacked by the Mahrattas, applied to his confederates in Bengal; and a small body of troops, under Captain Popham, was sent to his support. Not merely did Captain Popham, with little assistance from the Rana, clear Gohud from its invaders, but he carried the war into some of the Mahratta country; he besieged and reduced the city of Lahar; and he gained renown throughout the East when he took, by escalade, a rock-fortress which was deemed impregnable the "castled crag of Gwalior.* In these and his other military measures Hastings was not left to rely upon his own unassisted judgment. At the first outbreak of the war with France the Cabinet *The strength of this rock-fortress appears at all times to have filled the Gwalior troops with overweening confidence. So lately as 1843, we find the Resident at Gwalior report them as " vauntingly declaring that they are come out to resist the further advance of "the Governor-General, and to make the British force recross the "Chumbul!" (Letter of Colonel Sleeman, Dec. 25. 1843. Gwalior Papers, p. 151.) Only four days afterwards, the great battle of Maharaj-poor corrected this slight misapprehension, of London had determined to send back to the Indian service the most illustrious of its veterans; the same who had led the charge at Wandewash, and received the keys of Pondicherry. Sir Eyre Coote, invested with a two-fold rank as commander of the forces and as member of the Council, arrived at Calcutta in March 1779. He had no disposition to ally himself with Francis, or intrigue against Hastings; yet he gave nearly as much trouble to the latter as ever had Francis himself. The lapse of almost twenty years since his last successes had not been without effect, either on his body or his mind. He had become less active in his movements, and more fretful in his temper. A love of gain had grown up side by side with his love of glory; and strongly impressed with his own great merits, he was ever prone to deem himself slighted or neglected. It required constant care in Hastings to avoid or to explain away any causes of offence between them, while at the same time the Governor-General was striving to obtain for him a large increase to his allowances from the Nabob of Oude, or other less obvious quarters. These additional allowances to Sir Eyre Coote were urged, at a later period, as additional charges against Hastings himself, although he had never sought to derive from them the smallest selfish advantage, and was only zealous-too zealous it might be to carry out his public objects by the helpmates or by the instruments, which he had not chosen, but which a higher authority assigned him.* Neither from Sir Eyre, nor yet from Wheler, at this juncture, did Francis obtain more than occasional support -far distant from the constant concurrence of Clavering and Monson. He found, also, that by his unavailing course of opposition, all his humbler partisans were shut out from every share of patronage and power. At this juncture, therefore, he showed some readiness to relax in his hostility. On the other part, Hastings likewise had several strong motives to desire reconcilement. He wished to rid himself of a daily-recurring obstruction. See Burke's Articles of Charge, xvi. sect. 36., &c. Before the close of 1779, we find Hastings thus write of Sir Eyre:-" My letters "have been all friendly to him; his to me all petulant and suspicious; "I know not why or for what. I bear with him, and will bear, for I am lost if he abandons me." (Memoirs by Gleig, vol. ii. p. 242.) INDIA.] DUEL FOUGHT BY HASTINGS. 279 He wished to release his friend Barwell, who had amassed a large fortune, and who was eager to return with it to England, but who had promised to remain in India, so long as his help was needed. Under these circumstances, early in the year 1780, an engagement was concluded, according to which Francis proposed to desist from systematic opposition, and to acquiesce in all the measures for the prosecution of the Mahratta war, while Hastings undertook to appoint Mr. Fowke, and some other adherents of Francis, to certain lucrative posts. On the faith of this agreement, and with the full consent of Hastings, Barwell embarked for Europe. But, only a few weeks afterwards, the old dissension at the Council-Board burst forth anew. The immediate cause was the expedition in Gohud. Hastings alleged that this was only a branch of his Mahratta war; Francis, on the contrary, maintained that this was a separate object, to which he was not pledged, and which he might freely oppose. The Governor-General, on this occasion, lost, or laid aside, his customary calmness, and in reply to a Minute of his rival, placed on record, in Council, the following words:"I do not trust to Mr. Francis's promises of "candour, convinced that he is incapable of it. I judge "of his public conduct by his private, which I have "found to be void of truth and honour." After such expressions Hastings may be justly charged with the entire blame of the scandal which ensued. When the Council broke up, Francis drew the Governor-General into another chamber, and read to him a challenge; it was accepted by Hastings, and they met on the day but one after- on the morning of the 17th of August. It was between five and six o'clock, and the sun had not yet fully risen on the sacred river and the boundless plain; but there was already the stir of life among the dusky races of Bengal. "I am ashamed," thus afterwards wrote Hastings, "to have been made an actor in this "silly affair; and I declare to you, upon my honour, that "such was my sense of it at the time that I was much "disturbed by an old woman whose curiosity prompted "her to stand by as a spectatress." He adds: "A scene so little comprehended by the natives of this part of "the world, attracted others of the same stamp from the 66 |