1768-1772. nine vessels being brought away. Colonel Smith, who had been recalled by orders from the Presidency, was again placed at the head of the English forces, Carnatic. and checked the progress of Hyder, who had recovered most of his conquered districts. Hyder, however, availed himself of an opportunity to push a large body of horse between the English forces and the Carnatic, which country he entered and committed dreadful ravages, approaching within a few miles of Madras, and obliging the Company's troops to retreat. The Presidency entered into a negociation with him, demanding a truce of fifty days: this he refused, but consented to seven, when a treaty, offensive and defensive, was agreed to in April 1769. The prisoners on both sides were released, the conquests mutually restored, and a free trade allowed both in the Carnatic and in the dominions of Hyder. Oude. Madras. During these proceedings, the attention of the Bengal council was attracted by Sujah Dowlah, the Vizier of Oude, who had increased his forces so as to form a considerable army. A treaty was effected, by which he engaged never to increase it beyond a certain stipulated number. The affairs under the Madras Presidency had been so wretchedly conducted, and such dissensions had arisen in the council, that the Court determined to appoint three persons, well acquainted with Indian affairs, in the character of supervisors, to proceed to India, for the purpose of correcting the abuses and establishing such regulations as might appear to be necessary.* In 1772 committees of the House of Commons were appointed to investigate the Company's affairs, and in * Vide (jovernments, page 365. 1773 the Regulating Act was passed, first nominating a governor-general and council, &c. The proceedings of the Madras Government, in con- Madras. cert with the Nabob of Arcot, against the Rajah of Tanjore, led to the appointment of Lord Pigot from home as governor. He reached Fort St. George the latter end of 1775, and succeeded in restoring the 1775-1778 Rajah of Tanjore to the possession of his ancient dominions. The measures connected with the affairs of that kingdom involved his Lordship in opposition with his council. He carried the suspension of two of the members by his casting vote, and put Sir Robert Fletcher, the commander of the forces, under arrest. A plot was formed by the excluded members for securing the person of the president. Colonel Stuart, who succeeded to the command of the forces on the occasion of Sir Robert Fletcher being placed under arrest, though a friend of the governor, entered into the views of the suspended counsellors. His Lordship having been persuaded by Colonel Stuart, on the 24th August 1776, to proceed to a villa a short distance from Madras, appropriated for the use of the governors, and accompanied by the colonel, was surrounded by a party of sepoys on the way, and carried as a prisoner to the Mount. The proceedings, though supported by the Bengal Government and by many of the Directors, was strongly condemned by the majority, and the Proprietors resolved that his Lordship should be reinstated. Before the orders of the Court reached India, his Lordship had sunk under a debilitated constitution and the effects of the violent measures in which he was involved. The proceeding became subsequently a matter of discussion in Parliament.* * Vide Parliament, page 508. 1778. Mahrattas. In 1778 Pondicherry was again captured, and all the French settlements in the East reduced, inducing a well-founded belief that general tranquillity, and a maintenance of the Company's superiority, would be secured. Events, however, little contemplated, arose, which involved the Company in hostilities, and placed their possessions in the peninsula in a very doubtful and hazardous position. At that period the Mahrattas and Hyder Ali were the only two native powers which could afford any ground of alarm. The Mahrattas had sustained a long war against Aurengzebe, and on the decline of the Great Mogul they became one of the most powerful bodies in India. The paramount authority was acknowledged to rest in the Ram Rajah, the immediate descendant of Sevaje, the founder of the Mahratta empire.* The wars between Hyder Ali and the Mahrattas -in which the English (notwithstanding their treaty of 1769 and the repeated applications from Hyder) avoided taking a part-reduced Hyder apparently to inevitable ruin. His fortune, however, triumphed over his danger, and in 1772 he obtained a tolerable peace, without a friend or ally. The coolness of the Madras Government during those proceedings alienated Hyder: Bombay. whilst the measures of the presidency of Bombay, in supporting the interests of Ragonaut Rao (commonly called Ragobah), who had murdered his nephew with the view of succeeding as Paishwa, involved the Company in a war with the Mahrattas. The operations being immediately on the coast, the aid of the shipping materially tended to support the Company's troops. Baroach was besieged and fell; and the island * Vide Major Scott Waring's History of the Mahrattas. of of Salsette was captured, on which occasion the Bom- 1777-1779. bay marine is stated to have highly distinguished itself. The whole of the proceedings were condemned by a majority of the Supreme Council in Bengal, under the authorities vested in them by the act of 1773. Instructions were sent, through Colonel Upton, from Bengal, to negociate a peace: the treaty of Poonah was concluded and ratified in March 1776, by which the island of Salsette, with Baroach and the islands of Caranja, Canary, Elephanta, and Hog Island adjacent to Bombay, were ceded in perpetuity to the Company. The death of Colonel Monson in 1776, and General Clavering in 1777, two of the members of the Supreme Council who had been instrumental in effecting the peace between the Bombay Government and the Mahrattas, left the majority of the council at Calcutta and the Government of Bombay agreed as to the course to be adopted; a fresh war was accordingly commenced against the Mahrattas. The measure was strongly supported by the Bengal Government, who resolved to send a military force by land to Bombay, in aid of the policy which it had been determined to adopt, viz. to effect a treaty with the Rajah of Berar, in order that he might enforce his claims to the throne of the Ram Rajah, and by establishing himself in the Mahratta empire, effectually support his claims on the Nizam. In November 1778 the Bombay Government sent forward Captain Stuart with a small detachment to take possession of the Boru Ghaut, a pass through the mountains of much importance, opening the way to Poonah, which city was within fifty miles of the pass. The object was effected, and the pass fortified. The Bombay army, under Colonel Egerton, having joined Captain Stuart on the 1st January 1779, they marched c 3 1778-1779. marched from Condal, a village immediately beyond the pass. Moodajee Bhoosla, the Rajah of Berar, although aware of the object entertained by the Supreme Government of supporting his pretensions to the throne of the Ram Rajah, used every exertion to produce a friendly understanding between the courts of Poonah and Calcutta, and effected the dismissal of some French officers of note from the former city. At the same time he expostulated with the Governor-general against the expedition of Colonel Goddard, who had been deputed with a considerable force to Bombay, and pointed out the danger to which the detachment would necessarily be exposed in passing through the Mahratta states. His representation was disregarded. Colonel Goddard was sent forward, and though made acquainted on his route with the treaty of Wurgaon, by the provisions of which he was to return to Calcutta, he proceeded on his march, and reached Surat in February 1779, with full powers to treat with the Mahrattas; but with a strict injunction against admitting the French, or giving up any of the conquests or acces |