INDIA.]

WAR RECOMMENCED BY HYDER.

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they drew into the field, with competent artillerymen, one hundred pieces of artillery.

Besides these resources of skill and of experience, there were other expedients which stand in glaring contrast to the former, but which, in the opinion of the Sovereign of Mysore, were not less conducive to success. He gave orders that, in all the temples of his capital, there should be performed, with the utmost solemnity, the mysterious rite of the JEBBUM. It is singular that both Hyder and his son Tippoo (the one at least a nominal, and the other a zealous, Mussulman) appear to have held implicit faith in the Hindoo forms of superstition which are denoted by that word. The forms are of various kinds. Sometimes, to obtain the end which the prince desires, the Brahmins stand up to their breasts in water, beating the water with their hands, and howling forth their incantations. Sometimes, with the same view, a snake of the Cobra Capella kind is suspended by the tail from the roof of the apartment, while incense is burned at a fire kindled immediately below. In all these ceremonies, the presence of salt was deemed as unlucky as the spilling it in England. *

The Government of Madras was, almost to the last, unconscious of its danger. Early in April 1780, Sir Thomas Rumbold had sailed for England, congratulating himself, in the final Minute he recorded, that all was tranquil, and that no disturbance of the calm was to be feared. His successor, Mr. Whitehill, was a man wholly unequal to the charge. Almost the same might be said of Sir Hector Munro, the commander of the forces; for either age or climate had dealt hardly with the hero of Buxar. Thus the English chiefs were nearly taken by surprise, when, in the height of summer, the horsemen of Mysore, the vanguard of Hyder's army, came dashing down the passes that lead from their wild hills. This was the invasion which some years afterwards

Our

* See Colonel Wilks's South of India, vol. ii. p. 254. note. own superstition as to salt-spilling has, in all probability, an Eastern origin. But there is a curious passage in Cervantes, showing that at one time in Spain it was confined to members of a single noble family—the Mendozas. (Don Quixote, ch. 58. vol. vi. p. 154. ed. Paris, 1814.)

was described with so much glowing eloquence by Burke. This was the "black cloud that hung for a while on the "declivities of the mountains." This was the "menacing "meteor which blackened all the horizon until it sud"denly burst, and poured down the whole of its contents 66 upon the plains of the Carnatic.”*

At the approach of Hyder's army, the frontier-posts, held by Sepoys, surrendered wiih but slight resistance; and his onward progress was marked by fire and the sword. From the summit of St. Thomas's Mount the people of Madras could see, on the horizon, columns of dark smoke ascend from the burning villages. The ladies and the children (and may we not include some gentlemen?) were filled with terror and affright. Their gay villas around the city were forsaken, while the narrow space behind the cannon of Fort St. George was thronged. In the field there were already some not wholly inconsiderable forces. Sir Hector Munro had above five thousand men, and Colonel Baillie above three. Some active and useful aid to these forces was expected from the constant ally of England, the Nabob of Arcot. A Mussulman noble, sent by that potentate, did accordingly arrive, with great ceremony, at Sir Hector's camp. He said to Munro that he was ordered, by Mahomed Ali, to attend him, but had no powers given him to procure either provisions or intelligence the only two things needed. "As I wanted neither a valet nor a cook," says the General, "I told the gentleman I would dispense with his services!"†

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Had Baillie and Munro at once combined their forces, as they might and should, it seems probable, from the much larger number of Europeans in their ranks, that they might have stood firm against all the armies of Mysore. But their torpor, or perhaps their jealousy, delayed them, and thus enabled Hyder to assail them singly, while yet only a few miles asunder. On the 10th of September the troops of Baillie were overwhelmed and cut to pieces. A similar fate might have befallen Munro

*Speech on the Nabob of Arcot's debts, February 28. 1785. The first germ of this fine passage lies perhaps in the κινδυνον ωσπερ νεφος of Demosthenes περι του στεφανου.

† Wilks's South of India, vol. ii. p. 268.

INDIA.]

ENERGY OF HASTINGS.

287

had he not saved himself by a precipitate retreat towards Mount St. Thomas, first casting his artillery into the tanks, and relinquishing his baggage and stores. Thus only the walled towns remained to the English: all the open country was, or would be, Hyder's.

A swift-sailing ship, despatched for the express purpose, brought these ill tidings to Calcutta on the 23rd of the same month. On no occasion, either before or since, were the genius, the energy, the master-spirit of Hastings more signally displayed. In a single day he framed a new system of policy, renouncing his late favourite schemes, and contemplating only the altered state of public affairs. In his own words. "All my "hopes of aggrandising the British name and enlarging "the interests of the Company, gave instant place to the more urgent call to support the existence of both in "the Carnatic; nor did I hesitate a moment to abandon my own views for such an object. The Mahratta war "has been, and is yet, called mine. God knows why. I 66 was forced into it. It began with the acts of others "unknown to me. I never professed any other design "but to support the Presidency of Bombay, if it had "succeeded in the plans which it had formed, or to pro"tect and save them if they failed. . ... Perhaps the war with Hyder may be, in like manner, called my

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war.

On the 25th the council met. The Governor-General proposed, that a treaty not merely of peace but of alliance should be tendered to the Mahrattas, yielding the main points at issue in the war; that every soldier available in Bengal should at once be shipped off to Madras; that fifteen Lacs of Rupees should without delay be despatched to the same quarter; that Sir Eyre Coote, as alone sufficient, should be requested to assume the chief command against Mysore; and that the powers allowed to the Supreme Presidency by the Act of 1773 should be strained to the utmost, by superseding Mr. Whitehill, the new and incapable Governor of Fort St. George. Francis, whose hatreds were as usual much stronger than his patriotism, raised his voice almost for

* Letter to L. Sulivan, Esq., October 28. 1780.

the last time in India to declare, that he would have sent only one half of the money and none of the troops. Nevertheless, the proposals of Hastings were carried through, and Sir Eyre Coote obeyed the honourable call to the scenes of his past glory. In the first days of November he landed at Madras. No sooner had he taken his seat in Council, than he produced the document from Hastings suspending Mr. Whitehill. That gentleman, though taken by surprise, attempted some faint demur, but, the majority of the Council acquiescing, he was compelled to retire, and the member next in seniority succeeded to the Chair.

Hyder Ali, since his great successes over Baillie and Munro, had reduced the fort of Arcot, and was besieging Wandewash and Vellore. But the arrival of the new commander and of the reinforcements from Bengal struck his mind with awe. He raised the siege of both places when, in January 1781, he saw Coote take the field, though still with most scanty forces and inadequate supplies. Sir Eyre, apprehensive of a rising among the French so lately subdued, next marched south and encamped on the Red Hills of Pondicherry. Later in the season he advanced to Porto Novo, a haven some forty miles further to the southward. There, on the 1st of July, he succeeded in bringing Hyder to a battle. He had only between eight and nine thousand men to oppose to the myriads of Mysore. Yet such was the ascendancy of European valour and European skill, that after six hours of conflict Hyder's forces fled in utter disarray, leaving on the field several thousand dead and wounded, while upon the side of the English the loss scarcely exceeded four hundred men.

Hyder himself had watched the progress of the battle from a small eminence, seated cross-legged on a stool. Amazed at his own reverses, he could scarce believe his eyes; and when some of his followers suggested that it was time to move, he answered them only by a torrent of abuse. At last, a groom who had long served him and was, in some sort, a privileged man, boldly seized his master's feet and forced on his slippers; exclaiming as he thus equipped him for flight: "We will beat them to"morrow; in the meanwhile mount your horse!" Hyder

INDIA.]

VICTORY AT POLLILORE.

289

took the counsel, and was quickly beyond the reach of danger.

The victory at Porto Novo was not left unimproved by Coote. He turned, and with good effect, towards Wandewash, which was again besieged. "Wandewash is safe - thus he wrote to the Government of Madras "it being the third time in my life I have had the "honour to relieve it." Hyder then fell back to what he deemed a lucky spot, as it certainly was a strong position; the very ground on which, in the preceding year, he had defeated Baillie. There, on the 27th of August, he engaged in another battle with Sir Eyre. In this action, to which a neighbouring village gave its name of Pollilore, the ground was so unfavourable to the English, that Sir Hector Munro, who commanded the first line, could not forbear a remonstrance to his chief. "You "talk to me, Sir, when you should be doing your duty!" -such was the stern reply; a reply which, rankling in the mind of Munro, caused him to retire from active service to Madras, and from thence next year to England.* The results of Pollilore were far less decisive, and purchased by much heavier sacrifice than those of Porto Novo; yet still, at the close, the flight of Hyder from his chosen ground left to Coote, undoubtedly, both the honour and the advantage of the day. The open country was recovered; and the Carnatic was saved.

From Calcutta the Governor-General had lost no time in commencing a negotiation for peace with the Mahrattas. But this was long protracted by the number of their chiefs, and the intricacy of the relations between them; and it was not till the spring of 1782 that the treaties were finally concluded at Salbye. Meanwhile, the entire strain of the war, both with Poonah and Mysore, fell upon the Presidency of Bengal, from which, nevertheless, large remittances were still expected by the Directors and Proprietors at home. Under these pressing circumstances, Hastings was compelled to seek new

* Sir Hector survived till 1806, dying quietly at his seat in Rossshire. (Ann. Regist. for that year, p. 366.) Some years before, his son, a young officer serving in Bengal, was killed by a Royal tiger, which," says an eye-witness, "rushed into the jungle with him 'with as much ease as I could lift a kitten!" (Ibid. 1793, p. 31.)