1798. — The latter, meanwhile, as though there were no such

persons as Afghans or English within the limits of India, was

engaging in domestic affairs of the most paltry character. His

marriage (1st March) with the daughter of the Ghatgai, Shirji

Rao, put him into the hands of that notorious person, whose

ambition soon entangled the young chief in the obscure and

discreditable series of outrages and of intrigues regarding his

uncle's widow, known as the War of the Bais. The cause of these

ladies being espoused by Madhoji's old commander, Lakwa Dada,

whom the younger Sindhia had, as we have seen, raised to the

Lieutenant-Generalship of the Empire, a serious campaign

(commenced in May) was the result. Sindhia's army (nominally the

army of the Emperor) was under the chief command of Ambaji

Inglia, and in 1798 a campaign of some magnitude was undertaken,

with very doubtful results.

The ladies first retreated to the camp of the Peshwa's brother,

Imrat Rao, but were captured by a treacherous attack ordered by

Sindhia's general, and undertaken by M. Drugeon, a French

officer, at the head of two regular brigades, during the

unguarded hours of a religious festival. This was an overt act of

warfare against Sindhia's lawful superior, the Peshwa, in whose

protection the ladies were, and threw the Peshwa into the hands

of the British and their partizans.

Sindhia, for his part, entered into negotiations with the famous

usurper of Mysore, Tippu Sultan, who was the hereditary opponent

of the British, and who soon after lost his kingdom and his life

before the Mahrattas could decide upon an open espousal of his

cause.

1799. — The glory of the coming conquerors now began to light up

the politics of Hindustan. The Afghans retired from Lahor in

January, and were soon discovered to have abandoned their

attempts on Hindustan for the present. But it was not known how

long it might be before they were once more renewed. The

celebrated treaty of "subsidiary alliance" between the British

and the Nizam (22nd June, 1799), occupied the jealous attention

of Sindhia, who had accommodated matters with the Peshwa, and

taken up his quarters at Punah, where his immense material

resources rendered him almost paramount. Still more was his

jealousy aroused by the knowledge that, as long as the attitude

of the Afghans continued to menace the ill-kept peace of the

Empire, the British must be of necessity driven to keep watch in

that quarter, in proportion, at least, as he, for his part, might

be compelled to do so elsewhere. To add to his perplexities,

Jaswant Rao Holkar, the hereditary rival of his house, about this

time escaped from the captivity of Nagpur. to which Sindhia's

influence had consigned him. Thus pressed on all sides, the

Minister restored Lakwa Dada to favour, and by his aid quelled a

fresh outbreak in the Upper Doab, where Shimbunath, the officer

in charge of the Bawani Mahal, had called in the Sikhs in aid of

his attempts at independence. Shimbunath was met and repulsed by

a Moghul officer, named Ashraf Beg; and, hearing that Perron had

sent reinforcements under Captain Smith, retired to the Panjab.

At the same time the Mahratta Governor of Dehli rebelled, but

Perron reduced him after a short siege, and replaced him by

Captain Drugeon, the French officer already mentioned in

reference to the war of the Bais.

Thomas was for the present quite independent; and it may interest

the reader to have a picture, however faint, of the scene in

which this extraordinary conversion of a sailor into a sovereign

took place. Hansi is one of the chief towns of the arid province

curiously enough called Hariana, or "Green land," which lies

between Dehli and the Great Sindh Deserts. When Thomas first

fixed on it as the seat of his administration, it was a ruin

among the fragments of the estates which had belonged to the

deceased Najaf Kuli Khan. His first care was to rebuild the

fortifications and invite settlers; and such was his reputation,

that the people of the adjacent country, long plundered by the

wild tribes of Bhatiana, and by the Jats of the Panjab, were not

slow in availing themselves of his protection. Here, to use his

own words, "I established a mint, and coined my own rupees, which

I made current (!) in my army and country . . . . cast my own

artillery, commenced making muskets, matchlocks, and

powder.....till at length, having gained a capital and country

bordering on the Sikh territories, I wished to put myself in a

capacity, when a favourable opportunity should offer, of

attempting the conquest of the Panjab, and aspired to the honour

of placing the British standard on the banks of the Attock."

His new possessions consisted of 14 Pargannas, forming an

aggregate of 250 townships, and yielding a total revenue of

nearly three lakhs of rupees, — Thomas being forced to make very

moderate settlements with the farmers in order to realize

anything. From his former estates, acquired in the Mahratta

service, which he still retained, he derived nearly a lakh and a

half more.

Having made these arrangements, Thomas consented to join Vaman

Rao, the son of his former patron, in a foray upon the Raja of

Jaipur; and in this was nearly slain, only escaping with the loss

of his lieutenant, John Morris, and some hundreds of his best

men. He then renewed his alliance with Ambaji Sindhia's favourite

general, who was about to renew the war against Lakwa Dada in the

Udaipur country.

This new campaign was the consequence of Lakwa having connived at

the escape of the Bais, a trait of conduct creditable to his

regard for the memory of Madhoji Sindhia, his old master, but

ruinous to his own interests. For the moment, however, the Dada

was completely successful, routing all the detachments sent

against him, and taking possession of a considerable portion of

Rajputana.

Thomas did not join this campaign without undergoing a fresh

danger from the mutiny of his own men. This is a species of peril

to which persons in his position seem to have been peculiarly

open; and it is related that the infamous Sumroo was sometimes

seized by his soldiers, and seated astride upon a heated cannon,

in order to extort money from him. In the gallant Irishman the

troops had a different subject for their experiments; and the

disaffection was soon set at rest by Thomas seizing the

ringleaders with his own hands, and having them blown from guns

on the spot. This is a concrete exhibition of justice which

always commands the respect of Asiatics; and we hear of no more

mutinies in Thomas's army.

1800. — In 1800 the sailor-Raja led his men once more against

their neighbours to the north and northwest of his territories,

and gathered fresh laurels. He was now occupied in no less a

scheme than the conquest of the entire Panjab, from which

enterprise he records that he had intended to return, like

another Nearchus, by way of the Indus, to lay his conquests at

the feet of George the Third of England. But the national foes of

that monarch were soon to abridge the career of his enterprising

subject, the Irish Raja of Hansi. For the present, Perron marched

into the country of the Dattia Raja, in Bandelkhand, and entirely

defeated Lakwa Dada, who soon after cried of his wounds. His

success was at first balanced by Holkar, who routed a detachment

of the Imperial army, under Colonel Hessing, at Ujain. Hessing's

four battalions were completely cut up; and of eleven European

officers, seven were slain and three made prisoners. This event

occurred in June, 1801. But it was not long before the disaster

was retrieved at Indor (the present seat of the Holkar family),

by a fresh force under Colonel Sutherland. Holkar lost

ninety-eight guns, and his capital was seized and sacked by the

victors, about four months after the former battle.

The French commander of the regular troops was indeed now master

of the situation. Victorious in the field, in undisturbed

possession of the Upper Doab, and with a subordinate of his own

nation in charge of the metropolis and person of the sovereign,

General Perron was not disposed to brook the presence of a rival

— and that a Briton — in an independent position of sovereignty

within a few miles of Dehli. The French sailor and the English

sailor having surmounted their respective difficulties, were now,

in fact, face to face, each the only rival that the other had to

encounter in the Empire of Hindustan.

NOTE. — Thomas describes the Begam as small and plump; her

complexion fair, her eyes large and animated. She wore the

Hindustani costume, made of the most costly materials. She spoke

Persian and Urdu fluently, and attended personally to business,

giving audience to her native employee behind a screen. At

darbars she appeared veiled; but in European society she took her

place at table, waited on exclusively by maid-servants. Her

statue, surmounting a group in white marble by Tadolini, stands

over her tomb in the Church at Sardhana.

CHAPTER III.

A.D. 1801-3.

Feuds of the Mahrattas — Perron attacks Thomas — End of Thomas —

Treaty of Bassein — Lord Wellesley — Treaty of Lucknow —

Wellesley supported — Fear of the French — Sindhia threatened —

Influence of Perron - Plans of the French — The First Consul —

Wellesley's Views — War declared — Lake's Force — Sindhia's

European Officers, English and French — Anti-English Feelings and

Fall of Perron — Battle of Dehli — Lake enters the Capital —

Emperor's Petition — No Treaty made.

1801. — THE end was now indeed approaching. Had the Mahrattas

been united, it is possible that their confederacy might have

retrieved the disasters of 1760-1, and attained a position in

Hindustan similar to that which was soon after achieved by the

Sikhs in the Panjab. But this could not be. The Peshwa still

assumed to be Vicegerent of the Empire, as well as head of the

Mahrattas, under the titular supremacy of Satara, and Sindhia

affected to rule in Hindustan as the Peshwa's Deputy. But the new

Peshwa, Baji Rao — having dislodged the usurping minister Nana

Farnavis — had proceeded to provoke the Holkars. Jeswant Rao, the

present head of that clan, took up arms against the Peshwa, whose

side was espoused by Sindhia; and Sindhia consequently found

himself constrained to leave the provinces north of the Narbadda

to the charge of subordinates. Of these the most powerful and the

most arrogant was the promoted Quarter-Master Sergeant, now

General Perron.

As long as the last-named officer was in a subordinate position,

he evinced much honourable manhood. But the extremes of

prosperity and adversity proved alike the innate vulgarity of the

man's nature.

When every hereditary prince, from the Satlaj to the Narbadda,

acknowledged him as master, and he enjoyed an income equal to

that of the present Viceroy and the Commander-in-Chief of India

combined; at this climacteric of his fortunes, when he was

actually believed to have sent an embassy to the First Consul of

the French Republic, instead of seriously and soberly seeking to

consolidate his position, or resign it with honour, his insolence

prepared the downfall which he underwent with disgrace.

Not content with openly flouting his Mahratta colleagues, and

estranging such of the Europeans as were not his connections or

his creatures, he now summoned George Thomas to Dehli, and called

upon him to enter Sindhia's service — in other words, to own his

(Perron's) supremacy. The British tar repudiated this invitation

with national and professional disdain; upon which a strong

Franco-Mahratta army invaded his territories under Louis

Bourquin, one of Perron's lieutenants. Judgment formed no part of

Thomas's character; but he acted with his wonted decision.

Sweeping round the invading host, he fell upon the detachment at

Georgegarh — one of his forts which was being beleaguered — and

having routed the besiegers with great loss, threw himself into

the place, and protected his front with strong outworks,

resolving to await assistance from Holkar, or to seize a

favourable opportunity to strike another blow.

Events showed the imprudence of this plan. No aid came; the

French being reinforced, invested his camp, so as to produce a

blockade: corruption from the enemy joined with their own

distress to cause many desertions of Thomas's soldiers, till at

length their leader saw no alternative but flight. About 9 P.M.

therefore, on the 10th November, 1801, he suddenly darted forth

at the head of his personal following, and succeeded in reaching

Hansi by a circuitous route, riding the same horse — a fine

Persian — upwards of a hundred miles in less than three days. But

his capital was soon invested by his relentless foes as strictly

as his camp had been; and although the influence of his character

was still shown in the brave defence made by the few select

troops whom neither hope nor fear could force from his side, he

was at last obliged to see the cruelty of taxing their fidelity

any farther. M. Bourquin was much incensed against this obstinate

antagonist; but the latter obtained terms through the mediation

of the other officers, and was allowed to retire to British

territory with the wreck of his fortune, on the 1st of January,

1802. He died in August, on his way down to Calcutta, and was

interred at Barhampur. He left a family, of whom the Begam Sumroo

at first took charge, but their descendants have now become mixed

with the ordinary population of the country.

This extraordinary man was largely endowed by Nature, both

morally and physically. During the time of his brief authority he

settled a turbulent country, and put down some crimes, such as

female infanticide, with which all the power of Britain has not

always coped successfully. It would have been profitable to the

British Government had they supported him in his manful struggles

against Mahratta lawlessness, and against French ambition and

ill-will.

1802. — The overthrow of Thomas was nearly the last of Sindhia's

successes. Having made a final arrangement with the Bais (from

whom we here gladly part), he confined his attention to the

politics of the Deccan, where he underwent a severe defeat from

Holkar, at Punah, in October, 1802. The Peshwa, on whose side

Sindhia had been fighting, sought refuge with the British at

Bassein, and Holkar obtained temporary possession of the Mahratta

capital. On the 31st of December the celebrated treaty of Bassein

was concluded with the Peshwa. It appears from the Wellington

Dispatches, published by Mr. Owen in 1880, that this treaty was

certainly not conceived in a spirit of hostility to Daulat Rao.

He was a party directly, to the preceding negotiations and, by

the agency of his minister, "to the whole transaction." (Owen's

Selection, p. 30.) Still, as Mr. Wheeler has pointed out, this

instrument tended to substitute the British as the paramount

power in Hindustan (Short History, p. 433), and "shut Sindhia out

from the grand object of his ambition, namely, to rule the

Mahratta empire in the name of the Peshwa." One of the articles

of the treaty debarred the Mahrattas from entertaining French

officers. Grant Duff had seen a secret letter written shortly

after the date of the treaty by the Peshwa in which he summoned

Sindhia to Punah. (II. Grant Duff, p. 384.) Then, not only

supplanted by the British as Protector of the Mahratta State, but

alarmed on the score of his position in Hindustan, Sindhia began

to intrigue with the hitherto inactive Mahratta chief, Raghoji,

the Bhonsla Raja of Nagpur.

Aided by the British under the already famous Arthur Wellesley,

the Peshwa soon regained his metropolis, which Sindhia was

preparing to occupy. That chief was still further estranged in

consequence of the disappointment.

Holkar now held aloof, wisely resolving to remain neutral, at

least until his rival should be either overthrown or

irresistible. The Governor- General, Marquis Wellesley, apprised

by his brother and other political officers of the intrigues of

Sindhia, demanded from the latter a categorical explanation of

his intentions. And this not being given, General Wellesley was

ordered to open the campaign in the Deccan, while General Lake

co-operated in the Doab of Hindustan.

In order to appreciate the grounds of this most important

measure, it will be necessary to break through the rule by which

I have been hitherto guided of keeping nothing before the reader

besides the affairs of Hindustan proper. The motives of Lord

Wellesley formed part of a scheme of policy embracing nearly the

whole inhabited world; and whether we think him right or wrong,

we can hardly avoid the conclusion that the virtual assumption of

the Moghul Empire at this time was due to his personal character

and political projects.

As far back as February, 1801, the Governor-General had

co-operated in European affairs by sending a contingent to Egypt

under General Baird; though the force arrived too late to

participate actively in a campaign by which the French were

expelled from that country. A twelvemonth later the Marquis

received official intimation of the virtual conclusion of the

negotiations on which was based the Peace of Amiens. In the

interval he had sent his brother, Mr. Henry Wellesley, to

Lucknow, and had concluded through that agency the famous treaty

of the 10th November, 1801, by which British rule was introduced

into Gorakpur, the Eastern and Central Doab, and a large part of

Rohilkand. The immediate result of this will be seen ere long.

Having inaugurated these important changes in the position of

British power in the East, Lord Wellesley now notified to the

Court of Directors (by whom he had conceived himself thwarted),

his intention to resign his office, and to return to Europe in

the following December. At the same time he issued to General

Lake, the Commander-in-Chief, instructions for a substantial

reduction of the forces. He added however the following

remarkable words: "It is indispensable to our safety in India

that we should be prepared to meet any future crisis of war with

unembarrassed resources;" words whereby he showed that even

reduction was undertaken with an eye to future exertions. In a

similar spirit he rebuked the naval Commander Admiral Rainier,

for refusing to employ against the Mauritius the forces that had

been set free by the evacuation of Egypt; laying down in terms as

decided as courtesy permitted the principle that, as responsible

agent, he had a right to be implicitly obeyed by all His

Majesty's servants.

And that bold assertion received the approbation of King George

III., in a despatch of the 5th May; the further principle being

communicated by the writer, Lord Hobart, in His Majesty's name,

"that it should be explicitly understood that in the distant

possessions of the British empire during the existence of war,

the want of the regular authority should not preclude an attack

upon the enemy in any case that may appear calculated to promote

the public interest."

Thus fortified, the Governor-General was persuaded to reconsider

his intention of at once quitting India, the more so since the

terms in which the Court of Directors recorded their desire that

he should do so, displayed an almost equal confidence, and

amounted, if not to any apology for past obstruction, at least to

a promise of support for the future. In his despatch of 24th

December, 1802, Lord Wellesley plainly alluded to the opening for

extending the British power in India which he considered to be

offered by the then pending treaty of Bassein, though at the same

time he records, apparently without apprehension, the intention

of Sindhia to proceed from Ujan towards Punah to counteract the

machinations of Holkar. On the 11th February, 1803, Lord

Wellesley signified his willingness to remain at his post another

year, though without referring to any military or political

prospects.

But the direction in which his eye was constantly cast is soon

betrayed by a despatch of the 27th March, to General Lake,

conveying instructions for negotiating with General Perron, who,

from motives we shall briefly notice lower down, was anxious to

retire from the service of Sindhia. In this letter Lord Wellesley

plainly says, "I am strongly disposed to accelerate Hr. Perron's

departure, conceiving it to be an event which promises much

advantage to our power in India."

It appears, nevertheless, from the Marquis's address to the

Secret Committee of the Court of Directors of 19th April, 1803,

that, up to that time, he still entertained hopes that Sindhia

would remain inactive, and would see his advantage in giving his

adhesion to the treaty of Bassein, if not from friendship for

England, from hostility to Holkar, against whom that settlement

was primarily and ostensibly directed. Meanwhile, advices

continued to arrive from Europe, showing the extremely precarious

nature of the Peace of Amiens, and the imminent probability of a

renewal of hostilities with France, thus keeping awake the

Governor-General's jealousy of Sindhia's French officers, and

delaying the restoration of French possessions in India, which

had been promised by the treaty.

In May the Marquis proceeded explicitly to forbid the crossing of

the Narbadda by Sindhia, and to warn the Bhonsla Raja of Berar or

Nagpur against joining in the schemes of the former chief, to

whom a long and forcible despatch was sent, through the Resident,

Colonel Collins, in the early part of the following month (vide

W. Desp. p. 120). In this letter Colonel Collins — while vested

with much discretionary power — was distinctly instructed to

"apprise Scindiah (Sindhia) that his proceeding to Poonah, under

any pretext whatever, will infallibly involve him in hostilities

with the British power." The Resident was also to require from

him "an explanation with regard to the object of any confederacy"

with the Bhonsla chiefs of Berar and Nagpur, or with Holkar.

Sindhia met all these approaches with the Oriental resources of

equivocation and delay; apparently unable either to arrange with

due rapidity any definite understanding with the other Mahratta

leaders, or to make up his mind, or persuade his chief advisers

to give a confident and unconditional reception to the friendship

offered him by the British ruler. Whether the latter course would

have saved him is a question that now can only be decided by each

person's interpretation of the despatches above analysed.

Those who desire to study the subject further may refer to the

first volume of Malcolm's Political History, to Mill's History,

and to Grant Duff's concluding volume, but will hardly obtain

much result from their labour. On the one hand, it may be

presumed that, had the British Government really been ambitious

of extending their North-Western frontier, they would have

assisted Thomas in 1801; on the other hand, it is certain that

they supplanted Sindhia at Punah soon afterwards, and that they

had for some years been exceedingly jealous of French influence

in India. In this connection should also be mentioned the

invasion planned by the Czar Paul, in concert with the First

Consul, in 1800, of which the details were first made public in

English by Mr. Michell (Rawlinson's England and Russia in the

East, p. 187). The general fact of Paul's submission to the

ascendancy of Napoleon was, of course, well known to British

statesmen at the time. There was also the fear of an Afghan

invasion, which led to the mission of Malcolm to Persia, and

which was, perhaps, not the mere bugbear which it now appears. A

masterly statement of Lord Wellesley's political complications

will be found in his brother's Memorandum, given as an

Introduction to Professor Owen's Selection, published in 1880. It

is quite clear, again, that Sindhia, for his part, was not

unwilling to see the British espouse the Peshwa's cause as

against Holkar; while it is highly probable that his mind was

worked upon by Perron when the latter found himself under

combined motives of self-interest and of national animosity.

The French General had been losing favour on account of his

increasing unpopularity among the native chiefs of the army; and

had been so contumeliously treated by Daulat Rao Sindhia at

Ujain, in the beginning of the year 1803, that he had resigned

the service. But hardly was the treaty of Bassein communicated to

Sindhia, when Perron consented to remain at his post, and even,

it is believed, drew up a plan for hostilities against the

British, although the latter had shown as yet no intention of

declaring war, but, on the contrary, still maintained a minister

in Sindhia's camp. These facts, together with the statistics that

follow, are chiefly derived from the memoirs of an Anglo-Indian

officer of Perron's, the late Colonel James Skinner, which have

been edited by Mr. Baillie Fraser. "Sindhia and Raghoji together"

(Raghoji was the name of the Bhonsla of Nagpur) "had about

100,000 men, of whom 50,000 were Mahratta horse, generally good,

30,000 regular infantry and artillery, commanded by Europeans;

the rest half-disciplined troops. Sindhia is understood to have

had more than 300 pieces of cannon. The army of Hindustan, under

Perron, consisted of 16,000 to 17,000 regular infantry, and from

15,000 to 20,000 horse, with not less than twenty pieces of

artillery." It may be added, on the authority of Major Thorn,

that his army was commanded by about three hundred European

officers, of whom all but forty were French. In this estimate

must be included the forces of the Begam Sumroo.

The French plans, as far as they can now be learned, were as

follows: — The blind and aged Shah Alam was to be continued upon

the Imperial throne, under the protection of the French Republic.

"This great question being decided," proceeds the memorial from

which I am extracting, "it remains to consider whether it is not

possible that the branches of that unfortunate family may find

protectors who shall assert their sacred rights and break their

ignominious chains. It will then follow that mutual alliance and

a judicious union of powers will secure the permanent sovereignty

of the Emperor, to render his subjects happy in the enjoyment of

personal security and of that wealth which springs from peace,

agriculture, and free trade. The English Company, by its

ignominious treatment of the great Moghul, has forfeited its

rights as Deewan of the Empire." ("Memoir of Lieutenant Lefebre,"

6th August, 1803.)

Lord Wellesley himself records this document, which was found in

Pondicherry, it does not appear exactly how or when; he may have

had an inkling of the policy previously, but the date is

sufficient to show that he had not seen it before going to war

with Sindhia. Lord Wellesley refers, about the same time, to the

magnitude of the establishment sent out to take possession of the

settlements which the French were to recover in India by the

Peace of Amiens, an establishment obviously too large for the

mere management of Pondicherry and Chandarnagar.

Perhaps the memoir in question (which was drawn up by an officer

of the staff sent out on that occasion) may have expressed

correctly the intentions which the First Consul held at the time;

for nobody appears to have been very sincere or much in earnest

on either side at the Peace of Amiens. And it is not impossible

that the paper expresses intentions which might have been more

thoroughly carried out had not the terrible explosion in St.

Domingo subsequently diverted the attention of the French

Government to another hemisphere. At all events it is a

thinly-veiled pretext of aggression; and the accusations against

the English are scandalously false, as will be clear to those who

may have perused the preceding pages. Considering that it was

Perron's own employer who kept the Imperial House in penury and

durance, it was the extreme of impudence for one of Perron's

compatriots to retort the charge upon the English, to whom Shah

Alam was indebted for such brief gleams of good fortune as he had

ever enjoyed, and whose only offence against him had been a

fruitless attempt to withhold him from that premature return to

Dehli, which had been the beginning of his worst misfortunes. It

was, moreover, a gross exaggeration to call the British the

Diwans of the empire now, whatever may have once been their

titular position in Bengal. On the 6th of July Lord Wellesley

received from the ministry in England a hint that war with France

would be likely to be soon renewed; and on the 8th of the same

month he addressed to his commander-in-chief a short private

letter, of which the following extract shows the purport: — "I

wish you to understand, my dear Sir, that I consider the

reduction of Sindhia's power on the north-west frontier of

Hindustan to be an important object in proportion to the

probability of a war with France. M. de Boigne (Sindhia's late

general) is now the chief confident of Bonaparte; he is

constantly at St. Cloud. I leave you to judge why and wherefore."

— (Desp. III. 182.)

The Governor-General here shows his own views, although his

sagacity probably overleaped itself in the imputation against de

Boigne, for which I have found no other authority. Ten days later

he sends Lake more detailed instructions, closing his covering

letter with a sentence especially worthy of the reader's

attention: — "I consider an active effort against Scindhia and

Berar to be the best possible preparation for the renewal of the

war with France." There is little doubt of this being the

key-note of the policy that led the British to the conquest of

Hindustan. — Vide App. E.

On the 31st July, General Wellesley wrote to the Resident at the

court of Sindhia (Colonel Collins) stating that the reasons

assigned by the confederates for not withdrawing their troops

were illusory, and ordering Collins to leave their camp at once.

On the 15th August Lord Wellesley received a packet, which the

collector of Moradabad had transmitted nearly a month before,

containing translation of a letter from the Nawab of Najibabad,

Bhanbu Khan, brother of the late Gholam Kadir, covering copy of a

circular letter in which Sindhia was attempting to stir him and

the other chiefs against the English as "that unprincipled race";

and begging them to co-operate with General Perron. War, however,

had already been declared, and a letter addressed by the

Governor-General to Shah Alam.

The force with which General Lake was to meet the 35,000

Franco-Mahrattas in Hindustan, consisted of eight regiments of

cavalry, of which three were European, one corps of European

infantry, and eleven battalions of Sepoys, beside a proper

complement of guns, with two hundred British artillerymen, making

a total of 10,500, exclusive of the brigade at Anupshahar.

The assembling of this force on the immediate frontier of the

dominion occupied by Sindhia and the French, had been facilitated

by the treaty of the 10th November, 1801, by which Saadat Ali

Khan, whom the British had lately raised to the Viceroyship of

Audh, had ceded to them the frontier provinces above named. This

cession was made in commutation for the subsidy which the Nawab

had been required to pay for the maintenance of the force by

which he was supported against his own subjects. The Peshwa had

previously ceded a portion of Bundelkand by the treaty of

Bassein, and the red colour was thus surely, if slowly, creeping

over the map of India. Perron resisted the cession of the new

frontier under the treaty of Lucknow. The "Old Resident" makes

the following note on the subject: — "When the British came to

Sasnee, which was ceded by the Nawab Wuzier of Lucknow by a

treaty in 1802 to Government, the Pergunnahs of Sasnee,

Akberabad, Jellalee, and Secundra came under British rule, but

not without much bloodshed in the sieges of Sasnee, Bijey Gurh

and Kuchoura fortresses; in all these places we buried the

remains of British officers who first shed their blood for their

King and country. At Sasnee the masonry graves in a decayed

condition are still to be seen. At Bijey Gurh they are in the low

'Duhur' lands apart from the Fort, and at the Kuchoura in Locus

Kanugla, lies the tomb of Major Naivve, Commanding the 2nd

Cavalry, who was shot whilst leading his men to the assault. A

surviving relation of the above officer had a monument built in

1853 at Bhudwas, on the Trunk Road, with the original tablet

which was torn off from the tomb by the villagers, and by chance

discovered by a European overseer of the roads after a lapse of

fifty years."

In Sindhia's armies there were, as we have seen, a number of

officers who were not Frenchmen. These were mostly half-castes,

or (to use a term subsequently invented) Eurasians,

Europeo-Asiatics, or persons of mixed blood; in other words, the

offspring of connections which British officers in those days

often formed with native females. Nearly all these officers,

whether British or half-British, were upon this occasion

discharged from the service by Perron, who had probably very good

reason to believe that they would not join in fighting against

the army of their own sovereign. Carnegie, Stewart, Ferguson,

Lucan, two Skinners, Scott, Birch, and Woodville, are the only

names recorded, but there may have been others also who were

dismissed from the army at Perron's disposal. The prospects of

those who were absent on duty in the Deccan, and elsewhere, soon

became far more serious. Though not at present dismissed, they

were mostly reserved for a still harder fate. Holkar beheaded

Colonel Vickers and seven others; Captain Mackenzie and several

more were confined, and subsequently massacred, by orders of

Sindhia; others perished "in wild Mahratta battle," fighting for

money in causes not their own, nor of the smallest importance to

the world. General Wellesley complained, after the battle of

Assai, of "Sindhia's English officers." He says that his wounded

men heard them give orders for their massacre as they lay upon

the field, and promises to send up a list of their names after

full inquiry (Owen, 311). No such list has ever been heard of;

and it appears, from Lewis F. Smith's memoir, that the European

officers there present were all French, or Italian, or German. It

is barely possible that they used English in conversing,

certainly not probable; but the story was very likely prompted by

the imagination of the wounded men who saw white faces among the

enemy and concluded that they must be their own countrymen. The

only European officers known to have been engaged on the Mahratta

side are Pohlmann and Dupont (both named by Wellesley) and Saleur

of the Begam's service who commanded the baggage-guard; with

perhaps, J. B. da Fontaine.

Although the French officers were now without any Christian

rivals, it does not appear that their position was a satisfactory

one. The reader may refer to Law's remarks on this subject,

during the Emperor's unsuccessful attempts to the eastward. The

isolation and impossibility of trusting native colleagues, of

which that gallant adventurer complained, were still, and always

must be, fatal to the free exercise of civilized minds serving an

Asiatic ruler. All the accounts that we have of those times

combine to show that, whoever was the native master, the

condition of the European servant was precarious, and his

influence for good weak. On the 24th of June, 1802, Colonel

Collins, the British Resident at the Court of Sindhia, had

written thus to his Government in regard to Perron whom he had

lately visited at Aligarh: — "General Perron has been

peremptorily directed by Sindhia to give up all the Mahals

(estates) in his possession not appertaining to his own jaidad

(fief); and I understand that the General is highly displeased

with the conduct of Sindhia's ministers on this occasion,

insomuch that he entertains serious intentions of relinquishing

his present command."

This intention, as we have already seen, was at one time on the

point of being carried out, and Perron was evidently at the time

sincere in his complaints.

It is not however possible to use, as Mill does, these

discontents — alleged by Perron in conversation with a British

political officer — as a complete proof of his not having had,

towards the British, hostile views of his own. The whole tenor of

Colonel Skinner's Memoir, already frequently cited (the work, be

it remembered, of a person in the service at the time), is to

show an intense feeling of hostility on Perron's part towards the

British, both as a community of individuals and as a power in

India. It is more than probable that but for the Treaty of

Bassein, which gave the British in India the command of the

Indian Ocean and the Western Coast, and but for the

contemporaneous successes of Abercromby and Hutchinson in Egypt,

Perron, supported by the troops of the French Republic, might

have proved to the British a most formidable assailant. Skinner

gives a graphic account of his vainly attempting to get

reinstated by Perron, who said: "Go away, Monsieur Skinner! I no

trust." He would not trust officers with British blood and

sympathies.

But such was the fortune, and such were the deserts of those by

whom England was at that time served, that they were able,

without much expense of either time or labour, to conquer the

half-hearted resistance of the French, and the divided councils

of the Mahrattas. Holkar not only did not join Sindhia, but

assisted the British cause by his known rivalry. Arthur Wellesley

gave earnest of his future glory by the hard-fought battle of

Assai, in which the Begam Sumroo's little contingent, under its

French officers, gave Sindhia what support they could; and

General Lake overthrew the resistance of M. Perron's army at

Aligarh, and soon reduced the Fort, in spite of the gallant

defence offered by the garrison. Mention has been made of this

Fort in the account of the overthrow of Najaf Khan's successors

by Sindhia (sup. p. 145). Since those days it had been much

improved. The following is the account of the Dehli Gazette's

"old Resident." — "The Fort of Allyqurh was made by the Jauts

while the place was under the Delhi Kings. Nawab Nujjuff Khan,

the Governor, improved the fortification, and de Boigne brought

it into a regular defensive state according to the French system.

Perron and Pedron subsequently added their skill in strengthening

the fortress, which commanded a wide open plain, the most part

being under water during the heavy rains on account of the lands

being low." The gate was blown in and the place rapidly stormed

by the 76th, piloted by a Mr. Lucan, who was made a captain in

the British service for his treachery. He was afterwards taken

prisoner during Monson's retreat and put to death by Holkar's

orders. The enemy were commanded by natives, having withdrawn

their confidence from Perron's French Lieutenant, Colonel Pedron,

who was on that occasion made prisoner by the troops. Perron

himself, having first retreated upon Agra, and thence on Mathra,

came over to the English with two subordinates, and was at once

allowed a free passage to Chandarnagar with his family and his

property. Bourquien, who commanded the army in Dehli, attempted

to intrigue for the chief command, but was put under arrest by

his native officers; and the Mahratta army, like sheep without a

shepherd, came out to meet the advancing British on the Hindan, a

few miles to the east of the capital, on the old road from the

town of Sikandrabad, so often mentioned in this narrative. After

they had killed six officers and about 160 men by a furious

cannonade, their obstinacy was broken down by the undeniable and

well-disciplined pertinacity of the 27th Dragoons and the 76th

Foot; and they suffered a loss of 3,000 men and sixty-eight

pieces of artillery, mounted in the best French style. This

decisive victory was gained on the 11th September, 1803; when on

the 14th the army crossed the Jamna, and General Bourquien, with

four other French officers, threw themselves upon British

protection. Their example was soon after followed by the

Chevalier du Drenec and two other officers from the army of the

Deccan; and shortly after by Hessing and other European officers

in command of the garrison at Agra, which had at first confined

them, but afterwards capitulated through their mediation.

No sooner did the ill-starred Emperor hear of the sudden

overthrow of his custodians, than he opened formal negotiations

with the British General, with whom he had been already treating

secretly. The result was that on the 16th, the Heir Apparent,

Mirza Akbar, was despatched to wait upon General Lake in camp,

and conduct him to the presence of the blind old man, who was the

legitimate and undoubted fountain of all honour and power in

Hindustan. The prince vindicated his dignity in a manner peculiar

to Asiatics, by keeping the conqueror waiting for three hours.

The cavalcade was at last formed, and, after a slow progress of

five miles, reached the palace as the sun was setting. Rapid

motion was rendered impossible by the dense collection of nearly

100,000 persons in the narrow ways; and even the courts of the

Palace were on this occasion thronged with spectators, free at

last. A tattered awning had been raised over the entrance to the

famous Diwan-i-Khas, and underneath, on a mockery of a throne,

was seated the descendant of Akbar and of Aurangzeb. It would be

interesting to know what was the exact manner of General Lake's

reception, and what were the speeches on either side; but the

inflated enthusiasm of the "Court-Newsman," and the sonorous

generalities of Major Thorn and the Marquess Wellesley, are all

the evidence which survives. According to the latter, the people

of Dehli were filled with admiring joy, and the Emperor with

dignified thankfulness; according to the former, so great was the

virtue of the joyful tears shed on this occasion by the Monarch,

that they restored his eyesight — the eyesight destroyed fifteen

years before by Gholam Kadir's dagger. Such is the nature of the

stones offered by these writers to the seeker for historical

nourishment.

What is certain is, that the British General received the title

of Khan Dauran, which was considered the second in the Empire,

and which implied perhaps a recognition of the claims of the Audh

Nawab to be hereditary Vazir; while the British Government

"waived all question of the Imperial prerogative and authority" —

in other words virtually reserved them to itself. The Emperor was

only sovereign in the city and small surrounding district; and

even that sovereignty was to be exercised under the control of a

British Resident, who was to pay his Majesty the net proceeds,

besides a monthly stipend of 90,000 rupees.

These conditions received the sanction of Government, and are

recorded in despatches. No treaty is forthcoming; although native

tradition asserts that one was executed, but afterwards

suppressed; the copy recorded in the palace archives having been

purloined at the instigation of the British. This suspicion is

entirely unfounded; no treaty was ever concluded with Shah Alam,

though his Majesty formed the subject of a clause in the treaty

with Sindhia. This is of importance, as serving to show the

position to which the Court of Directors was supposed to have

succeeded; namely to that of Vakil-mutlak or Plenipotentiary

Vicegerent of the Empire, in the room of the Mahratta Peshwa and

his once all-powerful Deputy. They were subjects of George III.,

no doubt, but servants of Shah Alam; money continued to be struck

in the Emperor's name, and the laws then prevailing in Hindustan

remained in force. The very disclaimer of all intention to usurp

the royal prerogative or assert "on the part of His Majesty (Shah

Alam) any of the claims which, as Emperor of Hindustan he might

be considered to possess upon the provinces composing the Moghul

Empire," is full of significance.

On the 1st November Lake overthrew the brigade of du Drenec in

the bloody battle of Laswari; and Arthur Wellesley having been

equally victorious a second time in the Deccan, Sindhia consented

to the Treaty of Sarji-Arjangaon. By that instrument Daulat. Rao

Sindhia ceded, besides other territories, all his conquests in

the Doab.

Thus passed into the hands of British delegates the

administration of the sceptre of Hindustan: a sceptre which had

been swayed with success as long as it protected life, order, and

property, leaving free scope to conduct, to commerce, and to

conscience; nor failed in discharging the former class of

obligations until after it had ceased to recognize the latter.

CHAPTER IV.

CONCLUSION.

Effects of climate — Early immigrants — French and English —

Mohammedan power not overthrown by British — Perron's

administration — Changes since then — The Talukdars - Lake's

friendly intentions — Talukdars' misconduct — Their power curbed

— No protection for life, property, or traffic — Such things

still dependent on foreign aid — Conclusion.

AFTER many blunderings and much labour, the judgment of history

appears to have formed the final conclusion that the physical

conditions of a given country will always be the chief

determining agents in forming the national character of those who

inhabit it; and that the people of one country, transplanted into

another, where the soil and the sun act in a manner to which they

have not been accustomed, will, in the course of a few

generations, exhibit habits of mind and body very different to

what characterized them in their original seats.

It is therefore without legitimate cause for surprise that we

hear from scholars that the feeble folk of Hindustan are the

direct and often unmixed representatives of the dominant races of

the world. To begin with the Hindus: the Brahmans and some of the

other classes are believed to be descended from the brave and

civilized peoples of ancient Asia, of whom sacred and profane

writers make such frequent mention, of some of the founders of

Nineveh and Babylon, and of the later empire of the Medes and

Persians, which was on the eve of subjugating Europe when stopped

by the Greeks at Marathon and Salamis. Nay, more, the ancient

Greeks and Romans themselves, together with the modern

inhabitants of Europe, are alike descended from the same grand

stock.

The Mohamadans, again, are mainly of three noble tribes. The

earlier Mohamadan invaders of India belonged to the victorious

Arabian warriors of the Crescent, or to their early allies, the

bold mountaineers of Ghazni and of Ghor; and their descendants

are still to be found in India, chiefly under the names

respectively of Shaikh and Pathan. A few Saiyids will also be

found of this stock.

In later days came hordes of Turks and Mongols (Tartars as they

are generically though inaccurately called by Europeans), the

people of Janghiz and of Timur, terrible us the locusts of

prophecy — the land before them like the garden of Eden, and

behind them a desolate wilderness.

To these, again, succeeded many Persians, chiefly Saiyids, or

so-called descendants of the Prophet; a later race of Afghans,

also called Pathans, and a fresh inroad of Tartars (converted to

Islam) who finally founded the Moghul Empire. Under the regime

thus established the civilization of India assumed a Persian

type; and the term "Moghul" in the present day, in India

signifies rather a Persian than a Turkman or Tartar. They add the

word "Beg" to their names, and are usually of the Shiah

denomination; as also are the descendants of the Persian Saiyids.

The Saiyids of Arab origin take the title of "Mir;" the Pathans

are commonly known by the affix "Khan." All but the offspring of

converted Hindus represent foreign invasions by races more

warlike than the people of India.

All these mighty conquerors, one after another, succumbed to the

enervating nature of the climate of Hindustan, with its fertile

soil and scanty motives to an exertion which, in that heat, must

always be peculiarly unwelcome.

It is not, however, the heat alone which causes this degeneracy.

Arabia is one of the hottest countries in the world, but the

Arabs have at one time or another overthrown both the Roman

Empire of Byzantium and the Gothic monarchy of Spain. On the

other hand, the lovely climate of Kashmir produces men more

effeminate than the Hindustanis, some of whom indeed, notably the

peasantry of the Upper Doab, are often powerful men, innured to

considerable outdoor labour; their country is far hotter. But the

curse of Hindustan, as of Kashmir, and more or less of all

countries where life is easy, lies in the absence of motives to

sustained exertion; owing to which emulation languishes into

envy, and the competitive instincts, missing their true vent,

exhibit themselves chiefly in backbiting and malice. Whatever

advantage may be derived by Kashmiris from their climate is shown

in the superiority of their intellects.

Hence, after the battle of Panipat, 1761, which exhausted the

victors almost as much as it exhausted the vanquished, and left

Hindustan so completely plundered as to afford no further

incitements to invasion, little other immigration took place; and

the effete and worn-out inhabitants were left to wrangle, in

their own degenerate way, over the ruined greatness of their

fathers. The anarchy and misery to the mass of the population

that marked these times have been partly shown to the reader of

these pages.

But there was fresh blood at hand from a most unexpected quarter.

Bred in a climate which gives hardness to the frame (while it

increases the number of human wants as much as it does the

difficulty of satisfying them), the younger sons of the poorer

gentry of England and France, then (at least) the two most active

nations of Europe, began to seek in both hemispheres those means

of sharing in the gifts of fortune which were denied to them by

the laws and institutions of their own countries. Their struggles

convulsed India and America at once. Still the empire of

Hindustan did not fall by their contests there; nor were the

valour and ambition of the new comers the only causes of its fall

when at last the catastrophe arrived. But when, to predisposing

causes, there was now added the grossest incompetence on the part

of nearly all natives concerned in the administration, it became

inevitable that one or other of the competing European nations

should grasp the prize. Any one who wishes to study this subject

in its romantic details should refer to Colonel Malleson's two

works on the French in India. Living under a better Home

Government, and more regularly supported and supplied, the

English prevailed.

In sketching a part of the process of substituting foreign rule

for anarchy, it has been my task to exhibit the main events which

caused, or accompanied the preparation of the tabula rasa, upon

which was to be traced the British Empire of India. It has been

shown that the occupation of the seaboard, and a few of the

provinces thereto contiguous, long constituted the whole of the

position; and that it was only in self-protection, and after long

abstinence, that the "Company of Merchants" finally assumed the

central power. Upper India, in the meanwhile, stood to their

Calcutta Government in a very similar relation to that occupied,

successively, by the Panjab and by Afghanistan in later times

towards its successors. This, though absolutely true, has been

popularly ignored, owing to the accident of Calcutta continuing

to be the chief seat of the Supreme Government after the empire

had become British; but the events of 1857 are sufficient to show

that, for the native imagination, Hindustan is the centre, and

Dehli still the metropolis of the Empire. The idea, however, that

the British have wrested the Empire from the Mohamadans is a

mistake. The Mohamadans were beaten down — almost everywhere

except in Bengal — before the British appeared upon the scene;

Bengal they would not have been able to hold, and the name of the

"Mahratta Ditch" of Calcutta shows how near even the British

there were to extirpation by India's new masters. Had the British

not won the battles of Plassey and Buxar, the whole Empire would

ere now have become the fighting ground of Sikhs, Rajputs, and

Mahrattas. Except the Nizam of the Deccan there was not a

vigorous Musalman ruler in India after the firman of Farokhsiar

in 1716; the Nizam owed his power to the British after the battle

of Kurdla (sup. p. 229), and it was chiefly British support that

maintained the feeble shadow of the Moghul Empire, from the death

of Alamgir II. to the retirement of Mr. Hastings. Not only

Haidarabad but all the other existing Musalman principalities of

modern India owe their existence, directly, or indirectly, to the

British intervention.

It only now remains to notice, as well as the available materials

will permit, what was the social condition of these capital

territories of the empire when they passed into the hands of the

ultimate conquerors.

Perhaps the best picture is that presented in a work published by

order of the local Government, more than half a century later,

upon the condition of that portion of the country which was under

the personal management of the French general.

This record informs us that, having obtained this territory for

the maintenance of the army, Perron reigned over it in the

plenitude of sovereignty. "He maintained all the state and

dignity of an oriental despot, contracting alliances with the

more potent Rajahs and overawing by his military superiority, the

petty chiefs. At Dehli, and within the circuit of the imperial

dominions, his authority was paramount to that of the Emperor.

His attention was chiefly directed to the prompt realization of

revenue. Pargannahs were generally farmed; a few were allotted as

jaidad to chiefs on condition of military service; [of the lands

in the neighbourhood of Aligarh] the revenue was collected by the

large bodies of troops always concentrated at head-quarters. A

brigade was stationed at Sikandrabad for the express purpose of

realizing collections. In the event of any resistance on the part

of a land-holder, who might be in balance, a severe and immediate

example was made by the plunder and destruction of his village;

and life was not unfrequently shed in the harsh and hasty

measures which were resorted to. The arrangements for the

administration of justice were very defective; there was no fixed

form of procedure, and neither Hindu nor Mohamadan law was

regularly administered. The suppression of crime was regarded as

a matter of secondary importance. There was an officer styled the

Bakshi Adalat, whose business was to receive reports from the

Amils [officials] in the interior, and communicate General

Perron's orders respecting the disposal of any offenders

apprehended by them. No trial was held; the proof rested on the

Amil's report, and the punishment was left to General Perron's

judgment.

"Such was the weakness of the administration that the Zamindars

tyrannized over the people with impunity, levying imposts at

their pleasure, and applying the revenues solely to their own

use." The "Old Resident" thus compares the past and present of

Aligarh: — "Under the native rule no one attempted to build a

showy masonry house for fear of being noticed as one possessing

property, and thus become subject to heavy taxations. Even in de

Boigne and Perron's time it was the same as before, people lived

in a very low state both as regards their food and clothes, their

marriages were not costly, and none of their females dared to put

jewels on. In such a state of things, the well-to-do accumulated

money and could not enjoy it, they buried it under ground, and

often from death and other causes the wealth got into other hands

by the sudden discovery of the place. What a mighty change in the

space of seventy years the city of Coel bears now to what it did

before? elegant houses now stand in the city everywhere, and the

market is well stocked with articles of trade and consumption.

Bankers and money changers have their shops open, free from any

apprehension of danger, and the females go about with their

trinkets and jewels, all enjoying the wholesome protection of

law. The bazar street of the city of Coel was very narrow in

Perron's time, and neither he nor de Boigne ever paid any

attention to the improvement or welfare of the people. Their time

was principally occupied in military tactics and preserving order

in the country. They knew and were told by their own officers

that their rule was only for the time being, and that a war with

Scindhia would change the state of affairs, and with it

eventually these provinces."

From a report written so near the time as 1808 confirmation of

these statements is readily obtained. The Collector of Aligarh,

in addressing the Board formed for constructing a system of

administration in the conquered provinces, recommended cautious

measures in regard to the assessment of the land tax or

Government rental. He stated that, in consequence of former

misrule, and owing to the ravages of famine in 1785, and other

past seasons, or to the habits induced by years of petty but

chronic warfare, the land was fallen, in a great measure, into a

state of nature. He anticipated an increase in cultivation and

revenue of thirty-two per cent., if six years of peace should

follow.

The great landholders, whether originally officials, or farmers

who had succeeded in making good a position before the conquest,

were numerous in this neighbourhood. The principal persons of

importance were, to the westward, Jats, from Bhartpur; the

eastward, Musalmans descended from converted Bargujar Rajputs.

The long dissensions of the past had swept away the Moghul

nobility, few or none of whom now held land on any large scale.

These Jats and these Musalmans were among the ancestors of the

famous Talukdars of the North-West Provinces; and as the

limitation of their power has been the subject of much

controversy, justice to the earlier British administrators

requires that we should carefully note the position which they

had held under the Franco-Mahratta rule, and the conditions under

which they become members of British India.

We have already seen that the Talukdars (to use by anticipation a

term now generally understood, though not applied to the large

landholders at the time) were in the habit of making unauthorized

collections, which they applied to their own use. Every

considerable village had its Sayar Chabutra (customs-platform),

where goods in transit paid such dues as seemed good to the rural

potentates. Besides this, they derived a considerable income from

shares in the booty acquired by highwaymen and banditti, of whom

the number was constantly maintained by desertions from the army,

and was still further swollen at the conquest by the general

disbandment which ensued.

Both of these sources of emolument were summarily condemned by

General Lake; though he issued a proclamation guaranteeing the

landholders in the full possession of their legitimate rights.

But the rights of fighting one another, and of plundering

traders, were as dear to the Barons of Hindustan as ever they had

been to their precursors in mediΎval Europe; and, in the fancied

security of their strong earthen ramparts, they very generally

maintained these unsocial privileges.

So far back as the beginning of 1803, before war had been

declared upon Sindhia, the whole force of the British in Upper

India, headed by the Commander-in-Chief himself, had been

employed in the reduction of some of the forts in that portion of

the Doab which had been ceded by the Nawab of Audh during the

preceding year. The same course was pursued, after long

forbearance, towards the Musalman chiefs of the conquered

provinces. In December, 1804, they had rebelled in the

neighbourhood of Aligarh, and occupied nearly the whole of the

surrounding district. Captain Woods, commanding the fort of

Aligarh, could only occasionally spare troops for the collector's

support; and the rebellion was not finally suppressed until the

following July, by a strong detachment sent from headquarters.

They again broke out in October, 1806, after having in the

interim amassed large supplies by the plunder of their tenantry;

the whole of the northern part of the Aligarh district, and the

southern part of the adjoining district of Bolandshahar were

overrun; the forts of Kamona and Ganora were armed and placed in

a state of defence; and the former defended against the British

army under Major-General Dickens, on the 19th November, 1807,

with such effect that the loss of the assailants, in officers and

men, exceeded that sustained in many pitched battles. The

subjugation of the tribe shortly followed.

The Jat Talukdars of the Aligarh district were not finally

reduced to submission for nearly ten years more; and there is

reason to believe that during this long interval they had

continued to form the usual incubus upon the development of

society, by impeding commerce and disturbing agriculture. At

length the destruction of the fort of Hatras and the expulsion of

Daya Ram the contumacious Raja, put the finishing stroke to this

state of things in March, 1817.

It may be fairly assumed that the protection of life and

property, and that amount of security under which merchants will

distribute the productions of other countries, and husbandmen

raise the means of subsistence from the soil, are among the

primary duties of Government. But in the dark days of which our

narrative has had to take note, such obligations had not been

recognized.

"It is a matter of fact," say the authors of the "Statistics"

before me, "that in those days the highways were unoccupied, and

the travellers walked through by-ways. The facility of escape

into the Begam Sumroo's territories, the protection afforded by

the heavy jungles and numerous forts which then studded the

country, and the ready sale for plundered property, combined to

foster robbery."

A special force was raised by the British conquerors, and placed

under the command of Colonel Gardner, distinguished Mahratta

officer. His exertions were completely successful, as far as the

actual gangs then in operation were concerned; but unfortunately

they were soon encouraged to renewed attempts by the countenance

which they received from Hira Sing, another Jat Talukdar. This

system also was finally concluded by the destruction of the Raja

of Hatras; nor will fourteen years appear a long time for the

reorganization of order, which had been in abeyance for more than

forty.

The following extract from Vol. I. of Forbes's Oriental Memoirs,

is the result of observations made in a more southern part of the

country between 1763 and 1783, and published, not with a purpose,

or in controversy, but in the calm evening of retirement, and at

least thirty years later. "Marre was the nearest Mahratta town of

consequence to the hot wells; by crossing the river it was within

a pleasant walk, and we made frequent excursions to an excavated

mountain in its vicinity. Marre is fortified, large, and

populous; the governor resided at Poona, inattentive to the

misery of the people, whom his duan, or deputy, oppressed in a

cruel manner; indeed the system of the Mahratta government is so

uniformly oppressive that it appears extraordinary to hear of a

mild and equitable administration; venality and corruption guide

the helm of State and pervade the departments; if the sovereign

requires money the men in office and governors of provinces must

supply it; the arbitrary monarch seldom inquires by what means it

is procured; this affords them an opportunity of exacting a

larger sum from their duans, who fleece the manufacturers and

farmers to a still greater amount than they had furnished; thus

the country is subjected to a general system of tyranny. From the

chieftains and nobles of the realm to the humblest peasant in a

village, neither the property nor the life of a subject can be

called his own. When Providence has blessed the land with the

former and the latter rain, and the seed sown produces an

hundredfold, the Indian ryot, conscious that the harvest may be

reaped by other hands, cannot like an English farmer behold his

ripening crop with joyful eyes; his cattle are in the same

predicament; liable to be seized, without a compensation, for

warlike service or any other despotic mandate; money he must not

be known to possess; if by superior talent or persevering

industry he should have accumulated a little more than his

neighbours, he makes no improvements, lives no better than

before, and through fear and distrust buries it in the earth,

without informing his children of the concealment." And again at

Vol. II. p. 339 — "Of all Oriental despots the arbitrary power of

the Mahrattas falls perhaps with the most oppressive weight; they

extort money by every kind of vexatious cruelty, without

supporting commerce, agriculture, and the usual sources of wealth

and prosperity in well-governed States." We have further pictures

of native rule, drawn in 1807, by the collectors of the

newly-acquired districts of Etawah and Koel, and to be found at

pages 314 and 337 of the North-West Provinces Selections from

Revenue Records, published in 1873. Says the Collector of Etawah;

— "The warlike tribes of this country, from disposition and

habit, prefer plunder to peace, and court the exchange of the

ploughshare for the sword. Foreign invasion and intestine tumults

had materially checked population; whilst the poverty of the

country, and the rapacity of its governors had almost annihilated

commerce or had confined it, for the most part, to a few wealthy

residents from the Lower Provinces" (to the Babu "Zemindar"). But

he of Koel is even more bold: — "The consequences of the various

revolutions which have taken place are sufficiently evident in an

impoverished country and a declining population; the form of

government which has existed has not operated to relieve the

necessities of the subjects, or to improve the resources of this

extensive empire, by the encouragement of husbandry and commerce;

and military life has been embraced by a large body of the

people. Habits of peace and industry have been neglected for the

profession of arms, which was more suited to the disposition of

the people and to the character of the times, and which has also

tended to affect the revenue and to thin the population. The

system of rent-oppression and extortion likewise, which has

prevailed, has operated with the most injurious influence upon

the country. The exertions of the landholders have been

discouraged, and means of cultivation denied them by depriving

them of the fair profits of their industry. They have found every

attempt at improvement, instead of being beneficial to

themselves, to have been subservient only to the rapacity of the

Government, or of farmers; and without any inducement to

stimulate their labours, agriculture as a natural consequence has

languished and declined."

Aligarh (Koel) details are the more noticeable because they

relate to the part of the country which had been first occupied

by the conquering British, and still more because, having been

under the immediate management of General Perron, that part may

be supposed to have been a somewhat more favourable specimen than

districts whose management had not had the advantage of European

supervision. In districts administered exclusively by Asiatics,

or which were more exposed to Sikh incursions, or where the

natural advantages of soil, situation and climate were inferior,

much greater misery, no doubt, prevailed; but what has been shown

was perhaps bad enough. An administration without law, an

aristocracy without conscience, roads without traffic, and fields

overgrown by forest — such is the least discreditable picture

that we have been able to exhibit of the results of

self-government by the natives of Hindustan, immediately

preceding British rule.

On the whole record of the past there emerge clearly a few

indisputable truths. Setting apart the community of colour, and

to a less degree of language, the British are no more foreigners

to the people of India than the people of one part of India may

be, and often are, to the people of another. Demoralized by the

hereditary and traditional influence of many generations of

misgovernment and of anarchy, none of these populations have as

yet shown fitness for supreme rule over the entire peninsula,

vast and thickly inhabited as it is. For example, the Brahmans

and their system fell before the fury of the early Muslims, as

these, again, were subdued by the Moghuls. When the Pathans and

Moghuls in their turn became domesticated in Hindustan they

formed nothing more than two new castes of Indians, having lost

the pride and vigour of their hardy mountain ancestry. The

alliance of a refugee, like M. Law, or of a runaway seaman, like

George Thomas, became an object of as much importance as that of

a Muslim noble with a horde of followers.

Nor is it to be overlooked that, in the best days of Muslim rule

in Hindustan, however much the governing class had the chief

attributes of sovereignty, the details of administration were,

more or less, in the hands of the patient, painstaking natives of

the land. And the immediate decay of the Muslim Empire was

preceded by an attempt to centralize the administration in the

Imperial Durbar, and to cashier and alienate the Hindu element.

But the Hindus remained, as indeed we still see them,

indispensable to the conduct of administrative details.

None the less is it certain that the real, if overbearing,

superiority of the Muslim conquerors had emasculated the Hindu

mind and paved the way for anarchy, which was reached as soon as

immigration ceased and degeneration set in. Holding now the

position once abused and lost by the Muslims, the British in

India are bound alike by honour and by interest to mark the

warning. Called and chosen by fortune and their own enterprise to

rule so many tribes and nations in a stage of evolution so unlike

their own, they have to be wary, gentle, and firm. Their office

is to advance the natives and fit them for a true and noble

political life.

It does not follow that the result will be to tempt the natives

to demand Home Rule. Difficulty there will no doubt always be,

and the end is hidden from our eyes. Moreover, that difficult

will be increased by the unavoidably secular character of

State-education. When races lacking in material resources are

also in a very submissive and very ignorant condition they may be

kept on a dead level of immobility; and that has perhaps been the

ideal of many not incompetent rulers. But it is not one which

will satisfy the spirit of the day in England. Modern Englishmen

have recognized that it is their bounder duty to impart knowledge

in India. On the other hand, their relations towards the people

forbid them to attempt religious instruction. Thus the students

in British-Indian schools and colleges are in a fair way to lose

their own spiritual traditions without gaining anything instead.

It is likely enough that such a system may lead to discontent.

Men who lose their hopes of compensation in another state of

being, will be the more anxious about securing the good things of

that state in which they find themselves placed.

Nevertheless, of discontent there are, plainly, two sorts; and

one sort tends to exclude the other. The multitude may hanker

after the flesh-pots of Egypt, or they may long for the milk and

honey of a Promised Land. In the one case they will be inclined

to obey their leaders, in the other to murmur against them. It

cannot be necessary to dwell upon the application. Let the rulers

of India persuade the people that they are being conducted to

light and to liberty. Let us hold up before those laborious and

gentle millions the picture of a redeemed India moving in an

orderly path among the members of a great Imperial system. That

ideal may never be completely realized in the days of any of the

existing generation. But it is one that may still be profitably

maintained for the contemplation of all who aspire and work for

the strength and welfare of Greater Britain.

NOTE. — The following list of Perron's possessions is taken from

the schedule annexed to the treaty of Sarji Anjangaum (dated 30th

December, 1803):—

Resumed Jaigirs, seven, yielding an annual income of ... ... ...

... 3,75,248

Talukas in the Doab, four ... ... ... 84,047

To the west of the Jamna, three districts ... 65,000

Subah of Saharanpur, eighteen ... ... 4,78,089

Formerly held by General de Boigne in the Doab, twenty-seven ..

20,83,287

To the west of the Jamna, nine ... ... 10,31,852

Grand Total, Rs. 41,12,523

APPENDIX A.

IN the foregoing pages I have endeavoured to steer a middle path

between obliterating all trace of my materials and encumbering

the margin with references that appeared superfluous. Wherever I

have decided a disputed point, I have endeavoured to indicate the

chief sources of information — at least throughout the portions

which form the actual history — and to give my reasons for

following one authority rather than another.

Besides the authorities — English and Persian — which have been

thus cited, the following works have been occasionally

consulted:—

1. Amad us-Saudat. — A history of the Viceroys of Lucknow from

the death of Farokhsiar to the accession of Saadat Ali II., in

1797.

2. Jam-i-Jum. — Genealogical tables of the House of Timur.

3. Tasallat-i-Sahiban Anqriz. — An account of the rise of British

power in Hindustan and Bengal. By Munshi Dhonkal Singh;

originally written for the information of Ranjit Singh, Thakur of

Bhartpur, about the end of the last century.

4. Hal-i-Begam Sahiba. — A little Persian memoir of Begam Sumroo,

full of vagueness and error, written four years after her death,

and from traditional sources.

Much information as to the views of the British chiefs of those

days lies at present inaccessible at the Calcutta Foreign Office;

and it is to be hoped that the Record Commission will ultimately

make public many useful and interesting papers.

Other information perhaps exists, very difficult to be got at, in

the private archives of old native families at Dehli. But the

events of 1857 broke up many of these collections. A continuation

of the Tarikh-i-Mozafari, down to the taking of Dehli by Sir A.

Wilson, would be a most valuable work, if there be any native

author possessed of the three requisites of leisure, knowledge,

and a fearless love of truth.

Some account of the Siar-ul-Mutakharin has been already given

(vide Note to Part II. Chap. i.). The author was a Saiyid of the

noble stock of Taba-Taba, whose father had been employed by

Safdar Jang, in Rohilkand, during that minister's temporary

predominance. The family afterwards migrated to Patna. This

celebrated history — which has been twice translated into

English, and of which an edition in the original Persian has been

likewise printed — is a work of suprising industry, and contains

many just reflections on the position of the English and the

feelings of the people towards them, which are almost as true now

as they were when written. The translation of the S. u. M.. which

has been mentioned in the text, was made by a French creole,

styling himself Mustafa, but whose true name, it is relieved, was

Raymond. The notes are often interesting.

But my chief guide, where no other authority is cited, has been

the Tarikh-i-Mozafari, the work of an Ansari of good family, some

of whose descendants are still living at Panipat. He was the

grandson of Latfula Sadik, a nobleman who had held high office

under the Emperor Mohammad Shah. The historian himself was in

civil employ in Bihar, under the Nawab Mohammad Raza Khan, so

famous in the history of Bengal during the last century. To him

the work was dedicated, and its name is derived from his title of

"Mozafar Jang." The work is laborious, free from party bias, and

much thought of by the educated natives of Hindustan. For access

to Persian MSS. I was indebted to the late Colonel Hamilton,

formerly Commissioner of Dehli, and of his friendly assistance

and encouragement I take this opportunity to make thankful

acknowledgment.

APPENDIX B.

REFERENCE has been made in the text, p. 130, to the tomb of

Sumroo, in Padretola, or Padresanto, at Agra. This is one of the

most ancient Christian cemeteries in Eastern Asia, consisting of

a piece of land situated to the north of the Courts of Justice,

and forming part of the original area attached to the

neighbouring township of Lashkarpur. The estate was conferred

upon the Roman Catholic Mission by the Emperor Akbar, or early in

the reign of his son and successor. It contains many tombs, with

Armenian and Portuguese inscriptions, more than two hundred years

old, and promises, with ordinary care, long to continue in good

preservation, owing to the great dryness of the air and soil. The

mausoleum of the Sumroo family is a handsome octagon building,

surmounted by a low dome rising out of a cornice, with a deep

drip-stone, something in the style of a Constantinople fountain.

The inscription is in Portuguese — a proof, most likely, that

there were no French or English in Agra at the time of its being

made. The following is its text: — AQVI IAZO WALTER REINHARD,

MORREO AOS 4 DE MAYO, NO ANNO DE 1778. ("Here lies Walter

Reinhard, died on the 4th May, in the year 1778.") There is also

a Persian chronogram.

The tomb of John Hessing, hard by, is a still more splendid

edifice, being a copy, in red sandstone, of the famous Taj Mahal,

and on a pretty extensive scale too, though far smaller than the

original. The tomb, which was completed in or about the year of

the British conquest, bears an inscription in good English,

setting forth that the deceased colonel was a Dutchman, who died

Commandant of Agra, in his 63rd year, 21st of July, 1803, just

before Lake's successful siege of the place.

APPENDIX C.

THE following additional particulars regarding M. de Boigne are

the last that the writer has been able to obtain from an

eyewitness; they are from the enthusiastic pages of Colonel Tod,

who knew the general at Chamberi, in 1826.

"Distinguished by his prince, beloved by a numerous and amiable

family, and honoured by his native citizens, the years of the

veteran now numbering more than four score, glide in agreeable

tranquillity in his native city, which, with oriental

magnificence, he is beautifying by an entire new street, and a

handsome dwelling for himself."

His occupation consisted chiefly in dictating the memoirs of his

eventful life to his son, the Comte Charles de Boigne, by whom

they were published in 1829. This statement is also made on the

authority of Tod; but the memoir in my possession - though a

second edition — lays claim to no such authority, but is a modest

compilation, derived in great measure from Grant Duff, and

originally, as appears from the "Advertissement sur cette

edition," produced during the General's lifetime. The Royal

Academic Society of Savoy — of which the veteran was honorary and

perpetual President — gives the most extraordinary account of his

munificence to his native city, which comprised the complete

endowment of a college, a fund of over £4,000 sterling towards

the relief of the poor, a hospital for contagious diseases, an

entire new street leading from the Chateau to the Boulevard, and

the restoration of the Hotel de Ville, besides minor projects

full of wise benevolence. He died on the 21st June, 1830, and his

remains received a magnificent military funeral.

APPENDIX D.

LOVERS of detail may like the following view of Begam Sumroo's

fief, as it appeared when it lapsed on her death. The facts and

figures are from the report furnished to the Revenue Board in

1840, by the officer deputed to make the necessary fiscal

settlement. This gentleman begins by saying that the assessments

on the land were annual, but their average rates about one-third

higher than those which prevailed on the neighbouring British

district. In those days, the British took two-thirds of the net

rental, so we see what was left to the Begam's tenants. The

settlement officer at once reduced the total demand of land

revenue from nearly seven lakhs (6,91,388) to little more than

five. But, he did more than that, for he swept away the customs

duties, which he thus describes: — "They were levied on all kinds

of property, and equally on exports and imports; animals, wearing

apparel, and clothes of every description; hides, cotton,

sugar-cane, spices, and all other produce; all were subjected to

a transit duty, in and out. Transfers of lands and houses, and

sugar works, also paid duty; the latter very high."

The good side of this system has been already glanced at (Part

III. Chap. ii.). It was strictly patriarchal. The staple crop

(sugar) was grown on advances from the Begam: and, if a man's

bullocks died, or he required the usual implements of husbandry,

he received a loan from the Treasury, which he was strictly

compelled to apply to its legitimate purpose. The revenue

officers made an annual tour through their respective tracts in

the ploughing season; sometimes encouraging, and oftener

compelling the inhabitants to cultivate. A writer in the Meerut

Universal Magazine stated about the same time, that the actual

presence in the fields of soldiers with fixed bayonets was

sometimes required for this purpose.

The settlement officer adds that the advances to agriculturists

were always recovered at the close of the year, together with

interest at 24 per cent. The cultivators were, in fact,

rack-rented up to the minimum of subsistence. but this much was

insured to them; in other words, they were predial serfs. "To

maintain such system," he proceeds, "required much tact; and,

with the energy of the Begam's administration, this was not

wanting: but when her increasing age and infirmities devolved the

uncontrolled management on her heir, the factitious nature of her

system was clearly demonstrated." The result of these last few

years was, that one-third of the estate of which the fief

consisted fell under "direct management;" the plain meaning of

which is that they were, more or less, abandoned by their owners,

and by the better class of the peasantry, and tilled by a sort of

serfs.

"Nothing, in fact," concludes this portion of the Report "could

more satisfactorily have shown the estimation in which the

British rule is held by those who do not enjoy its blessings than

the rapid return of the population to their homes, which followed

immediately on the lapse." (Trevor Plowden, Esq., to Board of

Revenue, Reports of Revenue Settlement, N. W.P., vol. i.)

This, be it remembered, is the picture of a fief in the heart of

our own provinces, as swayed in quite recent times, by a ruler of

Christian creed desirous of British friendship.

APPENDIX E.

No. CXV.

The GOVERNOR-GENERAL IN COUNCIL to the SECRET COMMITTEE OF THE

HONOURABLE THE COURT OF DIRECTORS. (Extract.)

FORT WILLIAM. June 2nd, 1805.

HONOURABLE SIRS, — The Governor-General in Council now submits to

your honourable Committee the arrangement which has been adopted

by this Government for the purpose of providing for the future

maintenance of his Majesty Shah Allum, and the royal family, and

for the general settlement of his Majesty's affairs, and the

principles upon which that arrangement is formed.

It has never been in the contemplation of this Government to

derive from the charge of supporting and protecting his Majesty,

the privilege of employing the royal prerogative, as an

instrument of establishing any control or ascendancy over the

states and chieftains of India, or of asserting on the part of

his Majesty any of the claims which, in his capacity of Emperor

of Hindustan, his Majesty may be considered to possess upon the

provinces originally composing the Moghul Empire. The benefits

which the Governor-General in Council expected to derive from

placing the King of Dehli and the royal family under the

protection of the British Government are to be traced in the

statements contained in our despatch to your honourable Committee

of the 18th of July, 1804, relative to the evils and

embarrassments to which the British power might have been exposed

by the prosecution of claims and pretensions on the part of the

Mahrattas, or of the French, in the name and under the authority

of his Majesty Shah Allum, if the person and family of that

unhappy monarch had continued under the custody and control of

those powers, and Especially of the French. With reference to

this subject, the Governor-General in Council has the honour to

refer your honourable Committee to the contents of the inclosure

of our despatch of the 13th of July, 1804, marked A, and to the

seventy-third paragraph of that despatch, in proof of the actual

existence of a project for the subversion of the British Empire

in India, founded principally upon the restoration of the

authority of the Emperor Shall Allum under the control and

direction of the agents of France. The difficulty of every

project of that nature has been considerably increased by the

events which have placed the throne of Dehli under the protection

of the Honourable Company. The Governor-General in Council

further contemplated the advantages of the reputation which the

British Government might be expected to derive from the

substitution of a system of lenient protection, accompanied by a

liberal provision for the ease, dignity, and comfort of the aged

monarch and his distressed family, in the room of that oppressive

control and the degraded condition of poverty, distress, and

insult, under which the unhappy representative of the house of

Timur and his numerous family had so long laboured.

Regulated by these principles and views, the attention of the

British Government has been directed exclusively to the object of

forming such an arrangement for the future support of the King

and the royal family, as might secure to them the enjoyment of

every reasonable comfort and convenience, and every practicable

degree of external state and dignity compatible with the extent

of our resources, and with the condition of dependence in which

his Majesty and the Royal Family must necessarily be placed with

relation to the British power. In extending to the Royal Family

the benefits of the British protection, no obligation was imposed

upon us to consider the rights and claims of his Majesty Shah

Allum as Emperor of Hindustan, and the Governor-General has

deemed it equally unnecessary and inexpedient to combine with the

intended provision for his Majesty, and his household, the

consideration of any question connected with the future exercise

of the Imperial prerogative and authority.

The Governor-General in Council has determined to adopt an

arrangement upon the basis of the following provisions: —

That a specified portion of the territories in the vicinity of

Dehli situated on the right bank of the Jamna should be assigned

in part of the provision for the maintenance of the Royal Family.

That those lands should remain under charge of the Resident at

Dehli, and that the revenue should be collected, and justice

should be administered in the name of his Majesty Shah Allum,

under regulations to be fixed by the British Government. That his

Majesty should be permitted to appoint a Deewan, and other

inferior officers to attend at the office of collector, for the

purpose of ascertaining and reporting to his Majesty the amount

of the revenues which should be received, and the charges of

collection, and of satisfying his Majesty's mind that no part of

the produce of the assigned territory was misappropriated. That

two courts of justice should be established for the

administration of civil and criminal justice, according to the

Mahomedan law, to the inhabitants of the city of Dehli, and of

the assigned territory. That no sentences of the criminal courts

extending to death should be carried into execution without the

express sanction of his Majesty, to whom the proceedings in all

trials of this description should be reported, and that sentences

of mutilation should be commuted.

That to provide for the immediate wants of his Majesty and the

Royal household, the following sums should be paid monthly, in

money from the treasury of the Resident at Dehli, to his Majesty

for his private expenses, Sa. Rs. 60,000; to the heir-apparent,

exclusive of certain Jagheers, Sa. Rs. 10,000; to a favourite son

of his Majesty named Mirza Izzut Buksh, Sa. Rs. 5,000; to two

other sons of his Majesty, Sa. Rs. 1,500; to his Majesty's fifty

younger sons and daughters, Sa. Rs. 10,000; to Shah Newanze Khan,

his Majesty's treasurer, 2,50O; to Syud Razzee Khan, British

agent at his Majesty's Court, and related to his Majesty by

marriage, Sa. Rs. 1,000; total per mensem, Sa. Rs. 90,000.

That if the produce of the revenue of the assigned territory

should hereafter admit of it, the monthly sum to be advanced to

his Majesty for his private expenses might be increased to one

lakh of rupees.

That in addition to the sums specified, the sum of Sa. Rs. 10,000

should be annually be paid to his Majesty on certain festivals

agreeably to ancient usage.

The Governor-General in Council deemed the arrangement proposed

by the Resident at Dehli for the establishment of a military

force for the protection of the assigned territory and of the

North-Western frontier of our possessions in Hindustan, to be

judicious, and accordingly resolved to confirm those arrange

meets, with certain modifications calculated to afford a

provision for part of the irregular force in the service of the

British Government, from the expense of which it was an object of

the British Government to be relieved, and also for a proportion

of the European officers heretofore in the service of Dowlut Rao

Scindiah, who quitted that service under the proclamation of the

Governor-General in Council of the 29th August, 1803.

On the basis of this plan of arrangement detailed instructions

were issued to the Resident at Dehli, under the date the 23rd

May, with orders to carry it into effect with the least

practicable delay.

The Governor-General in Council entertains a confident

expectation that the proposed arrangement and provision will be

satisfactory to his Majesty, and will be considered throughout

all the states of India to be consistent with the acknowledged

justice, liberality, and benevolence of the British Government.

The Governor-General in Council also confidently trusts that the

proposed arrangement will be sanctioned by the approbation of

your honourable Committee, and of the honourable the Court of

Directors.

We have the honour to be,

HONOURABLE SIRS,

Your most faithful, humble servants,

(Signed)

WELLESLEY,

G. H. BARLOW,

G. UDNY.

["Wellesley Despatches," vol. iv. p. 553.]

APPENDIX F.

Note to page 209.

SINCE printing the following indication has been found of the

possible original of name printed "Du Drenec." In the "Familles

Francaises" of Count Regis de l'Estourbeillon (Names, 1886) is a

list of extinct Breton families. One of these is given as "Du

Drenec-Keroulas, fondue dans Keroulas." This was, most likely,

the true orthography of the Indian adventurer's name.