[1803 A.D.]

service. All these armies, not great in numerical amount, but most formidable in their discipline, were all in motion, at one and the same time, to close round the enemy from the south and the north, from the east and the west; "from the sea, the mountains, and the forests, over the salt plains of Cuttack, and the high plains of the Deccan, and through the passes of the Ghats, and over the rivers of Hindustan, and out of the rank swamps of the basin of the Ganges." (Martineau.)

It was the 3rd of August when the British resident quitted Sindhia's camp. His departure was the signal for immediate hostilities. On the 6th of August General Wellesley wrote a letter to Sindhia, characterised by his usual decisive language: "I offered you peace on terms of equality, and honourable to all parties; you have chosen war, and are responsible for all conscquences." On the 12th of August, he had advanced through roads rendered almost impassable by violent rains, and had taken the strong fort of Ahmednagar. General Lake was equally prompt in his movements. The French force under Perron fled before him, retreating from Coel, which Lake then occupied.

Perron, in a few days, put himself under British protection, and was received with kindness. He complained of the treachery of his officers, and is supposed not to have been insensible to the attractions of drafts upon the treasury of Calcutta. On the 4th of September, the strong fortress of Aligarh was taken by a storming party of the army of Lake. The Bombay and the Madras armies were equally successful in their advances. On the 6th of August, General Wellesley had sent orders to the officer in command of the Bombay army to attack Broach. In a little more than three weeks Broach had surrendered. On the 12th of September, Lake obtained a great victory over the troops of Sindhia, and over the French army which Perron had formed. They were commanded by another Frenchman, Bourquien. On the following day the British were in possession of Delhi. Lake restored the Mughal emperor, Shah Alam, who had been deposed, and thus propitiated the Mohammedan population of Hindustan.

The triumphant career of Lake was followed up in the battles of Muttra and Agra, and was completed in the great victory of Laswari on the 1st of November. He was worthy of all honour. The thanks of parliament and a peerage were never more properly bestowed than upon the senior general in this astonishing campaign.

Colonel Stevenson was to the east of General Wellesley, after the capture of Ahmednagar. It was necessary to effect a junction of their two armies. Wellesley directed Stevenson to take a bold course: "Move forward yourself with the company's cavalry, and all the nizam's, and a battalion, and dash at the first party that comes into your neighbourhood. A long defensive war will ruin us. By any other plan we shall lose our supplies." On the 21st of August Wellesley's cavalry was passing the wide Godavari. They passed in wicker boats covered with bullock skins. During a month, Wellesley and Stevenson were pursuing Sindhia's forces, united with those of the rajah of Berar, each of the British commanders never allowing the enemy to rest, and marching always with the rapidity which could alone keep pace with the Mahratta cavalry. On the 21st of September Wellesley and Stevenson were a little to the east of Aurangabad. They were sufficiently near to each other to concert a plan of joint operations against the Mahratta armies, which had been reinforced with sixteen battalions of infantry, commanded by French officers, and with a train of artillery. This formidable force was concentrated on the banks of the Kaitna.

[1803 A.D.]

BATTLE OF ASSAYE (1803 A.D.)

On the 22nd of September the division under Wellesley, and the division' under Stevenson, marched with the intention to attack the enemy. There was a range of hills between the British and the Mahrattas. One division marched by the eastern road round the hills; the other by the western road. They encamped that night at the two extremities of the range of hills. On the morning of the 23rd, General Wellesley received information that Sindhia and Bhonsla had moved off with their cavalry, but that their infantry were still in camp, and were about to follow the cavalry. Their camp might be seen from a rising ground. "It was obvious that the attack was no longer to be delayed," writes Wellesley. It was no longer to be delayed, although Colonel Stevenson had not arrived with his detachment. He was misled by his guides. In his latter years, the duke of Wellington i related to "an early and intimate friend" how he formed his plan.

"I was indebted for my success at Assaye to a very ordinary exercise of common sense. The Mahratta chiefs, whom I was marching to overtake, had made a hasty retreat with their infantry and guns, and had got round behind a river on my right, leaving me exposed to an overwhelming force of native cavalry. To get rid of these gentlemen, and to get at the others, I had no chance but getting over the river also. I found a passage, crossed my army over, had no more to fear from the enemy's cloud of cavalry, and my force, small as it was, was just enough to fill the space between that river and another stream that fell into it therabouts, and on which Assaye stood, so that both my flanks were secure. And there I fought and won the battle the bloodiest for the number that I ever saw; and this was all from the common sense of guessing that men did not build villages on opposite sides of a stream without some means of communication between them.'

The battle of Assaye might well be called "the bloodiest for its number" that the hero of so many battles had ever seen. Well might it be so, when the Mahrattas' force was at least seven times as numerous as the British army. It was one o'clock when the enemy's camp was in view, extending from five to seven miles. "We began to advance," writes the brigade-major, "a little after three, and the action was not entirely over till six o'clock. The 74th and 78th regiments, and four battalions of sepoys, moved forward to the attack: the piquets led; and the cavalry brought up the rear to protect the infantry from the enemy's horse. We quote the spirited narrative of an eyewitness, Lieutenant (not Sir) Colin Campbell:

"The line was ordered to advance. The piquets at this period had nearly lost a third of their number, and most of their gun-bullocks were killed. The line moved rapidly and took possession of the first line of guns, where many of the enemy were killed. They then moved on in equally good order and resolution to the second line of guns, from which they very soon drove the enemy; but many of the artillery, who pretended to be dead when we passed on to the second line of guns, turned the guns we had taken upon us, which obliged us to return and again to drive them from them.

At this period the cannonade was truly tremendous. A milk-hedge in their front, which they had to pass to come at the enemy's guns, threw them into a little confusion; but they still pushed forward, and had taken possession of many of their guns, when the second line, which opened on them, obliged them to retire from what they had so dearly purchased. The numbers of the 74th regiment remaining at this period were small; on their returning, some of the enemy's cavalry came forward and cut up many of the wounded officers

[1804-1805 A.D.]

and men. It was at this critical moment that the 19th charged, and saved the remains of the 74th regiment. General Wellesley at the same time threw the 78th regiment forward on their right, to move down on the enemy, who still kept their position at Assaye. This movement, and the charge of the 19th light dragoons, made the enemy retire from all their guns precipitately and they fled across the nullah to our right at the village of Assaye, where numbers of them were cut up by the cavalry. The general was in the thick of the action the whole time, and had a horse killed under him. No man could have shown a better example to the troops than he did. I never saw a man so cool and collected as he was the whole time, though I can assure you, till our troops got orders to advance, the fate of the day seemed doubtful; and if the numerous cavalry of the enemy had done their duty, I hardly think it possible that we could have succeeded. From the European officers who have since surrendered, it appears they had about twelve thousand infantry, and their cavalry is supposed to have been at least twenty thousand, though many make it more. We have now in our possession one hundred and two guns, and all their tumbrils."

In the middle of October Colonel Stevenson obtained possession of the strong fortresses of Asseerghur and Burhanpur. General Wellesley had followed the Mahratta army in their various movements, their stratagems never defeating his vigilance. Šindhia at last desired a truce. This was granted. But it was soon discovered that his cavalry were serving in the army of the rajah of Berar, and that the truce was altogether delusive. On the 29th of November, General Wellesley obtained a victory over the united armies of Sindhia and Bhonsla. The Mahrattas retired in disorder, leaving their cannon, and pursued by moonlight by the British, the Mughal, and the Mysore cavalry. This wonderful campaign, of little more than four months, was finished by the successful termination of the siege of Gawilgarh (December 15th).

The Mahratta war with Sindhia and Bhonsla was at an end. The rajah of Berar, who had sued for a peace, signed a treaty on the 17th. He ceded Cuttack, which was annexed to the British dominions, and he agreed to admit no Europeans but the British within his territories. Sindhia also was completely humbled. A treaty with him was signed on the 30th of December, he agreeing to give up Broach, Ahmednagar, and his forts in the Doab; and to exclude all Europeans except the British. He was to receive the protection which was extended under the subsidiary system to other dependent states.

In

But there was another great Mahratta chieftain yet unsubdued. His intriguing spirit was exercised in urging the other chiefs to break the treaties which they had entered into. The governor-general tried to convert this enemy into a friend by negotiation. Holkar openly defied him; he would come with his army, and sweep and destroy like the waves of the sea. April, 1804, war was declared against Holkar. The war went on through 1804 and 1805. Marquis Wellesley had resigned the government of India at the end of July; and Marquis Cornwallis had succeeded him, before Holkar was subdued. Cornwallis died on the 5th of October, and Sir George Barlow assumed the government. On the 24th of December a treaty was signed with Holkar; and he also agreed to exclude from his territories all Europeans except the British.

FAMINE IN INDIA

Sir Arthur Wellesley (he had received the order of the Bath for his great services) returned to England in 1805. During his voyage home he employed

[1806 A.D.] his active mind in writing an interesting paper on the subject of Dearth in India. There had been a famine in the Deccan in 1803 and 1804, which he had witnessed. The dearth, and its fatal effects, were to be attributed principally to the dry season of 1803. He describes the physical geography of the peninsula; the peculiar cultivation of wet lands or of dry; the dependence of the rice-produce of the wet lands upon the fall of the rain, assisted by the artificial canals, tanks, and wells, many of which were ancient works; and the entire dependence of the dry lands, where what are called dry grains are cultivated, upon the critical arrival and the quantity of the periodical rains. The portions of the Indian Empire to which Sir A. Wellesley directed his attention were far less extensive than at present.

Since 1804 there have been many famines. Awful as the distress has been, it is satisfactory to know that the question which Sir A. Wellesley asked, “in what manner the deficiency produced by the seasons in any particular part could be remedied by the government in that part," has been to some extent answered, by the construction of great canals for irrigation. The eastern and the western Jumna canals, and the Ganges canal, are the grandest of these works, and are capable of irrigating several millions of acres.

In recent years the extension of railways and the improvement of internal communication whereby particular districts suffering from famine can be supplied from more fortunate ones have been the means employed for coping with this scourge and an annual charge has been made on the revenue for funds to be used in time of dearth. Nevertheless the twentieth century opened amidst widespread suffering from this cause which was most marked in the native states. It is said however that the deaths of grown persons were not numerous and when they did occur were attributable to the people's own apathy. On the other hand above five million persons were at one time in receipt of relief, a

After his return from India, the marquis Wellesley had to endure the bitter mortification of finding that his great public services had rendered him a mark for the attacks of James Paull, who, having failed in India of advancement at his hands, returned to England and became a member of parliament. It is unnecessary for us to follow the parliamentary discussions on this subject. The accusations were, in a great degree, the result of private malice and party rancour; and, like all such abuses of the privileges of representative government, their interest very quickly passed away.

MUTINY AT VELLORE (1806 A.D.)

In the affairs of India, an event of far more lasting importance than the assaults upon the marquis Wellesley took place on the 10th of July, 1806. At two o'clock in the morning of that day, the European barracks at Vellore, in which were four companies of the 69th regiment, were surrounded by two battalions of sepoys in the service of the East India Company. Through every door and window these mutineers poured in a destructive fire upon the sleeping soldiers. The sentinels were killed; the sick in the hospital were massacred; the officers' houses were ransacked, and they, with their wives and children, were put to death. Colonel Fancourt, the commander of the 69th fell in the attempt to save his men.

There was a terrible retribution the next day. The 19th regiment of dragoons arrived; took the fort of Vellore from the insurgents; six hundred of the sepoys were cut down; and two hundred were dragged out of their hiding places and shot. The sons of Tipu Sahib, who were residing at Vellore, were

[1806 A.D.]

suspected of being concerned in this mutiny. But there were demonstrations of a spirit of disaffection amongst the native troops in other places. Some extremely foolish regulations had been attempted by the military authorities at Madras with respect to the dress of the sepoys. It was wished to transform the turban into something like a helmet. An opinion had been spread that it was the desire of the British government to convert the native troops to Christianity by forcible means. This notion was disavowed in a subsequent proclamation of the government at Madras. But at that time the zeal of some persons for the conversion of the Hindu population was far from discreet; and in England there was no hesitation in declaring, that "the restless spirit of fanaticism has insinuated itself into our Indian councils;" and that unless checked in time, it will lead to the subversion of our Indian Empire, and the massacre of our countrymen dispersed over that distant land."