INDIA.] WAR WITH THE KINGDOM OF MYSORE. 237 of his life in an iron cage. When Hyder was thereupon gently reminded of his promise, he answered, that he had literally kept his word, referring in proof to the cage in which the captive was confined, and to the rice and milk allotted for his daily food! * Pursuing his ambitious schemes, Hyder Ali became, not merely the successor of the Rajah, but the founder of the kingdom of Mysore. From his palace at Seringapatam, as from a centre, a new energy was infused through the whole of Southern India. By various wars and by the dispossession of several smaller princes, he extended his frontiers to the northward, nearly to the river Kistna. His posts on the coasts of Malabar, Mangalore especially, gave him the means of founding a marine; and he applied himself with assiduous skill to train and discipline his troops according to the European models. The English at Madras were roused by his ambition, without as yet fully appreciating his genius. We find them at the beginning of 1767 engaged, with little care or forethought, in a confederacy against him with the Nizam and the Mahrattas. Formidable as that confederacy might seem, it was speedily dissipated by the arts of Hyder. At the very outset, a well-timed subsidy bought off the Mahrattas. The Nizam showed no better faith; he was only more tardy in his treason. He took the field in concert with a body of English commanded by Colonel Joseph Smith, but soon began to show symptoms of defection, and at last drew off his troops to join the army of Hyder. A battle ensued near Trinomalee, in September 1767. Colonel Smith had under him no more than 1,500 Europeans and 9,000 Sepoys; while the forces combined on the other side were estimated, probably with much exaggeration, at 70,000 men. Nevertheless, Victory, as usual, declared for the English * Colonel Wilks's Historical Sketches of the South of India, vol. i. p. 434. Sir John Malcolm, in his first mission to Teheran, gives an account of Tootee, a young dancing-girl from Shiraz, and a favourite of the Shah. "Tootee," adds Sir John, "is the Persian word for a parrot, a bird "which is proverbial, in Persian tales for its knowledge and habits of "attachment." (Sketches of Persia, p. 221., ed. 1845.) cause. The Nizam in this action showed himself destitute alike of conduct and of courage. At the outset, he had valiantly cried: "Sooner than yield, I would share the fate "of Nazir Jung."* Yet within an hour afterwards, the Indian prince was in full gallop to the westward; and his troops proved perfectly worthy of such a chief. Almost the only instance of spirit in his army was displayed by one of the ladies of his palace. These he had brought with him on a train of elephants, as spectators of his expected triumph. In his own panic he ordered that these elephants also should be turned for flight. Then, from one of the covered canopies a woman's voice was heard: "This "elephant has not been taught so to turn; he follows the "standard of the empire." Accordingly, though the English shot was falling thick around her, the female assertor of the honour of the empire would not allow her elephant to be drawn aside until first the standard had passed.** On the other hand, the troops of Hyder Ali, both then and afterwards, displayed not merely the effects of a braver chief and of a better discipline, but also the energies of a robuster race. The people within the Ghauts or hill-passes of Southern India, though far below the mountain races of Afghan, are yet far superior to the Hindoos of the plains. In these, the delicacy of limbs and the softness of muscles must be reckoned among the foremost causes of their failure on a battle-field. In these, the utter want of strength in their bodily organisation is only, on some occasions and for some purposes, redeemed by its suppleness. It has been computed, that two English sawyers can perform in one day the work of thirty-two Indians. Yet, as the same authority assures us, see the same men as tumblers, and there are none so extraordinary in the world. Or employ them as *See vol. iv. of this history, p. 313. **Wilks's South of India, vol. ii. p. 38. I am sorry to spoil the story, but it appears that "the loss of several elephants was the consequence of "this damsel's demur." INDIA.] HYDER ALI'S SUCCESS. 239 messengers, and they will go fifty miles a day for twenty or thirty days without intermission.* Our victory at Trinomalee produced as its speedy consequence a treaty of peace with the Nizam. Hyder was left alone; but even thus proved fully a match for the English both of Madras and of Bombay. The latter had fitted out a naval armament which, in the course of the winter, reduced his sea-port of Mangalore and destroyed his rising fleet. Against these new enemies Hyder, like some wild beast at bay, made a sudden bound. Leaving to the eastward a force sufficient to employ and delude Colonel Joseph Smith, he silently descended the western Ghauts, and in May 1768, at the very time when least expected, appeared before the gates of Mangalore. The English garrison taken by surprise, hastily re-embarked in boats, relinquishing all their artillery and stores, and leaving also more than two hundred sick and wounded to the mercy, or rather the politic forbearance, of their crafty foe. Returning to the eastward, Hyder Ali continued to wage the war against, Colonel Smith; inferior on any field of battle, but prevailing in wiles and stratagems, in early intelligence, and in rapid marches. He could not be prevented from laying waste the southern plains of the Carnatic, as the territory of one of the staunchest allies of England, Mahomed Ali, the Nabob of Arcot. Through such ravages, the British troops often underwent severe privations. Moreover, Colonel Smith was trammelled by the same system so often and so justly complained of in the wars of Marlborough - the appointment of field-deputies. Two members of the Council of Madras had been sent into his camp with full powers to control - that is, to clog and thwart - his operations. At length, in the spring of 1769, Hyder Ali became desirous of peace, and resolved to extort it on favourable terms. First, by a dexterous feint he drew off the British * See an Essay by Mr. Orme, in his Historical Fragments of the Mogul Empire, p. 463. forces a hundred and forty miles to the southward of Madras. Then suddenly, at the head of five thousand horsemen, Hyder himself appeared at St. Thomas's Mount, within ten miles of that city. The terrified Members of the Council already, in their mind's eye, saw their country-houses given up to plunder and to flame, and were little inclined to dispute whatever might be asked by an enemy so near at hand. Happily his terms were not high. A treaty was signed, providing that a mutual restoration of conquests should take place, and that the contracting parties should agree to assist each other in all defensive wars. In the career of Hyder Ali, this was by no means the first, nor yet the last occasion, on which he showed himself sincerely desirous of alliance with the English. He did not conceal the fact, that, in order to maintain his power and secure himself, he must lean either on them or on the Mahrattas. He would have preferred the first; it was the vacillation and weakness of the council at Madras that drove him to the latter. Finding his overtures of friendship slighted, he took his part, as always, decidedly and boldly. He became, even in the midst of peace, a known and ardent enemy of the English race and name; ever watchful for any opening to assail them; ever ready to league himself against them with the Mahratta chiefs at Poona, or the French Governors at Pondicherry. It was no common enemy whom the Madras traders (who could, at that period call them statesmen?) thus neglected or defied. The vigorous administration of Hyder at his Court of Seringapatam, has been closely viewed and well described by more than one European in his service. Like the other Indian Princes, he was addicted to licentious pleasure. Unlike them, he was never enslaved by it. Many of his leisure hours were passed in the company of dancing girls. To intoxication likewise he was often prone; and one instance is recorded, how, in that state, he was seen by his whole Court to seize and most severely cane his grown-up son, Tippoo. It may be added, that, on common occa INDIA.] CHARACTER AND GOVERNMENT OF HYDER. 241 sions, his toilet took up a considerable portion of his time. But no sooner did any peril threaten, or any object of ambition rise in view, than all such habits of indulgence were promptly cast aside; and Hyder passed whole days and nights untired in his council-chambers, or on horseback with his cavalry. At all times he was most easy of access; freely receiving all those who desired to see him, except only the Fakirs; a significant token of the degree of esteem in which he held his grandfather's profession. From all others he quickly drew whatever information he desired; and in dealing with them, manifested the keenest insight of their various characters. So far had his education been neglected, that he could neither read nor write. He made no later attempt at scholarship, but relied upon the powers of a most retentive memory, and upon a shrewdness hard to be deceived. He might be careless of his people's welfare for their sake, but he anxiously sought it for his own; he knew that to make them prosperous would, beyond all other causes, make him powerful; and thus through the wide extent of the kingdom that he founded, he never failed to guard them from all vague depredation or inferior tyranny. By such means did he who had first set forth as a freebooter, with one or two score of followers, leave behind him at his peaceful end a well-appointed army of a hundred thousand soldiers, and a treasure of three millions sterling. Yet, prosperous as he seemed, Hyder was not happy. It is recorded of one of his attendants, that after watching for some time his short and uneasy slumbers, he ventured at his waking to inquire of his dreams. "Believe me, my friend," said Hyder, "my dominion, envied though it may be, is in “truth far less desirable than the state of the YOGEES (the "religious mendicants); awake, they see no conspirators; "asleep, they dream of no assassins!"* The character and habits of Hyder Ali are described in his History by M. Le Maitre de La Tour, a Frenchman, who had commanded his artillery. Some considerable extracts from that work will be found in the Annual Register for 1784 (part ii, pp. 18-27.), and may be compared with Mahon, History. VII. 16 |