lanpore, whose Dewán claims descent from a Loháni Afghan, on whom the title was bestowed by the Emperor Akbar. The present Dewán proved himself our true friend during the mutiny. Rádhanpore was founded in the seventeenth century by a Persian adventurer from Isphahán. These two chiefs alone have the power of trying for capital offences.

Máhi Kánta.-In the Máhi Kanta Agency there are three score and odd petty chiefs, whose estates, with those of the Rájah of Idar, cover an area of 4,000 square miles, peopled by 311,000 souls. The only chief worth mentioning is the Rájah of Idar, a State founded in the eighteenth century by two younger brothers of the Rajah of Joudhpore. The engagements of the remainder with the Indian Government may, in the words of Colonel Malleson, be generally described as "engagements on their part not to rob or steal."

Rewa Kánta-The Rewa Kánta States, on the east of Baroda, cover an area of about 4,900 square miles, peopled mainly by Hindoos and Bheels. Among the sixty chiefs who have feudal relations with us, the Rájah of Rájpipla stands first. The tribute which his ancestors paid to Akbar, was afterwards transferred to the Gaikwár, but a portion of it is now paid to his British protectors. Chota Oodeypore and Deogurh Baria, both founded by Chohan Rajpoots, passed under our protection in 1803. These two States yield a revenue, the one of 100,000 the other of 75,000 rupees a year. The revenues of the remaining chiefships are still smaller, though some of them have an area of several hundred square miles. Another group of small chiefships lies about the borders of Khandeish and Násik.

CHAPTER XXX.

NATIVE STATES-SOUTHERN INDIA.

Hyderabad-Mysore-Cochin-Travancore-Padukatta-Petty Hill Chiefs.

Hyderabad. The largest Native State in India is that of Hyderábád, with an area of 98,000 square miles, larger than that of Great Britain, and a population of nearly nine millions. The first Nizám, or Subahdár of the Deccan, as he once was called, was Chín Kilick Khán, a Turkish noble whose father had held high office under Aurungzebe. Under a show of allegiance to the Delhi Emperors, Chin Kilick, otherwise Asaf Jah, extended his sway from the Nerbudda to Trichinopoli, and from Musulipatám to Beejápore. After his death in 1748, the quarrels and intrigues of his sons brought the Mahráttas, the French, and finally the English into conflict or alliance with the rival claimants to the kingly power. Our first treaty with the reigning Nizám was made in 1759, when Salábat Jang ceded one of his districts, and promised to dismiss his French allies. A few years later a fresh alliance was sealed by the cession of more territory, in exchange for a British subsidy. In the war with Tippoo Sultán in 1790, Nizam Ali found

his advantage in siding with his English friends, and his prudence was rewarded with a slice of Tippoo's kingdom. After the fall of Seringapatam, the Nizám's share of Tippoo's forfeited dominions was made over to the East India Company, as a provision for the payment of those auxiliary troops which he had bound himself to maintain under British officers, for the special purposes of British rule.

His successor, Sikandar Jah, was an indolent, pleasureloving prince, who bore little love for his English protectors. But the services rendered by his troops during Lord Hastings's war with the Pindárees and Mahrattas in 1817-19, won for their sovereign a further increase of territory, and a final release from all feudal dues to his Mahratta neighbours. From that time, however, the internal affairs of Hyderabad, in spite of English interference, fell into worse and worse disorder. The country was misgoverned, its revenues were plundered by greedy adventurers, a large body of unpaid or badly-paid soldiers preyed upon the people, the great landholders waged war with each other, the Indian Government pressed in vain for the arrears of interest due on its loans to the Nizam. At last, in 1853, British forbearance could wait no longer. Under pressure from Lord Dalhousie, the Nizám of that day ceded in trust to his English creditors the fertile province of Berár, on condition that its surplus revenues, after defraying the cost of the Nizám's Contingent, should be handed over to the Nizám's Treasury.

The capital is a large and populous fortified city, tenanted chiefly by Mussulmans of various races and

sects, and adorned with numerous mosques, a fine palace, and the imposing group of buildings which form the Residency. A sea of verdure divides the city from the neighbouring cantonment of Sikunderábád. Not many miles off is the famous battle-field of Assaye, where "the Sepoy General," Sir Arthur Wellesley, with his 4,500 English and native troops routed some 50,000 Mahrattas in September, 1803.

The ruined city of Golconda is a few miles west of Hyderabad.

During the troubles of 1857, our hold on Southern India was greatly strengthened by the goodwill or, at least, the timely quiesence of Hyderabad. Happily for us, a wise and powerful minister, the Nawáb Salár Jung, guided the counsels of the new Nizám. Any incipient rising was promptly quelled, and a part of the Nizam's Contingent fought bravely under English leading, side by side with the sepoys of Bombay and Madras. In return for these services, half a million of the Nizám's public debt was cancelled, and a part of the ceded districts given back to him. His able minister became Sir Salár Jung, G.C.S.I., the new Order specially created to do honour to those Indian princes and nobles who had stood most loyally in their allegiance to the British Empire, and of those who otherwise deserved well of England for good service done for India. Under that minister's guidance, Hyderálád has ever since made steady progress in the paths of peace, order, and general welldoing. On the death of the last Nizám, in 1869, a Council of Regency, headed by Sir Salár Jung, took the government into their hands during the minority of

Afzal-ud-daula's heir, then a delicate child of only four years. Watered by the Godávari, the Kistna, the Warda, and their respective feeders, Hyderabad is rich in natural resources, which have yet to be fairly developed. Renowned in former days for the diamonds of Golconda, it has lately opened up new stores of wealth in the coalfields which spread far along the Warda Valley. There is an English Resident at the Nizám's Court, and a strong British garrison hard by, in the suburb of Secundrábád. The present Nizam is now eleven years of age, receives a salute of 21 guns and has a revenue of £3,000,000.

Mysore.-South of the Nizám's country, lies the woody and rugged table-land of Mysore, covering a surface of 29,000 square miles, peopled by more than five million souls. Mysore, best known historically as the seat of a Mahomedan power which gave us no little cause for anxiety, from the days of Warren Hastings to those of Lord Wellesley. Two able, bold and ambitious rulers, Hyder Ali, a Pathán officer from Lahore, and his son Tippoo, succeeded for more than thirty years in holding the spoils first won by the former, against the onsets, single or combined, of Mahratta, Mogul, and English

arms.

In 1799 Tippoo Sultan relying upon aid from France, was rash enough to defy for the third time the British power, when Seringapatam was taken by storm under General Harris and Sir David Baird. After the place had fallen the body of the Sultan was found in a gateway under a heap of slain, preferring as he had said a soldier's death to an ignominious surrender.