A.D. Mr. Edmon Generalship. It was in connection with his administration that Mr. Edmonstone, who had served under two civilian and three noble Governors-General, and who, after filling stone on the the highest subordinate office in India, became Governor- the Nestor of Leadenhall-street, said, that "he was averse to selecting Governors from among "those who had belonged to the service, and that a person "of eminence and distinction proceeding from England to "fill that office, if duly qualified by talent and character, "carried with him a greater degree of influence, and "inspired more respect than an individual who had been "known in a subordinate capacity." The suppression of piracy in the eastern hemisphere 1809 is the especial vocation of the English nation; and the Suppression attention of Lord Minto was imperatively called, of piracy. at this time, to this duty. The Arabs, who were the bravest soldiers and the most hardy seamen in the east, were also the most notorious pirates. The chief tribe on the sea coast, the Joasmis, had recently embraced Wahabee tenets, and added the fierceness of fanaticism to their national valour; and the only alternative they offered to their captives was the profession of Mahomedanism or death. Their single-masted vessels, manned with about 150 men, sailed in squadrons, and it was rarely that any native craft was able to escape their pursuit. Hitherto they had prudently abstained from molesting English vessels, but they became emboldened by the inactivity of the Company's cruisers, which were forbidden to interfere with them, and they had recently captured a large merchantman, and cut the throats of all the Europeans on board and thrown them into the sea with the pious ejaculation, “Alla Akbar! great is God!" Lord Minto was determined to root out these buccaneers, and sent a powerful armament against their chief stronghold, Ras-al-Kaima. It was defended with Arab obstinacy and carried by British gallantry. The port, with all the valuable merchandise in it the accumulation of numerous piratical expeditions-together with a large fleet of pirate vessels, was delivered to the flames, and piracy was for a time suppressed in these waters. The possession of the Mauritius and of Bourbon by the French in the bay of Bengal exposed British commerce in the eastern seas to the constant depredation of the privateers fitted out in them. The losses susMauritius. tained by the merchants of Calcutta from the Depredations commencement of the war with France in 1793 to the year A.D. 1808 were calculated at between three and four crores of 1810 rupees. By an act of incomprehensible folly, the ministry in England had not only neglected to send an expedition against them, while they were capturing every island in the West Indies, but had positively interdicted any effort on the part of the Indian Government to reduce them. The French cruisers consequently continued to prey on British trade, and to sweep the seas from Madagascar to Java. With six ships of the line and sixteen frigates on the Indian station, six vessels sailing from Calcutta, valued at thirty lacs of rupees, had been captured by French cruisers in as many weeks. A memorial was at length transmitted by the mercantile community to the ministry, complaining of the insecurity of commerce and the supineness of the navy, and the Governor-General and the Admiral were instructed to take decisive measures for the protection of trade. That object, it was supposed, would be attained by blockading the Mauritius; but six of the Company's magnificent Indiamen, valued at more than half a crore of rupees, were captured by French frigates which sailed out of the port, and returned to it in triumph with their prizes, in the teeth of the blockade. An expedition was then sent, in the first instance, to the island of Bourbon, which was captured with a slender effort; but this achievement was overbalanced by a series of unexampled disasters at sea, which were justly attributed to the ignorance and mismanagement of the naval department. Three English frigates were captured, and three set on fire by the French squadron, which maintained its national honour in these seas as nobly as Suffrein in the days of Warren Hastings. Meanwhile, Lord Minto was assembling an armament of overwhelming force, consisting of one 74 gun ship and thirteen frigates, besides sloops and gunboats, and a land force of 11,000 men, which comprised 6,300 European bayonets, and 2,000 seamen and marines, and four volunteer regiments. To oppose this force the French general could only muster 2,000 European soldiers, and a body of halfdisciplined African slaves, and, unwilling to sacrifice the lives of brave men in a hopeless contest, he surrendered 1810 the island on fair and equitable terms. 1811 SECTION IV. LORD MINTO'S ADMINISTRATION—EXPEDITION TO JAVA— A.D. THE subjugation of Holland by the emperor Napoleon placed the Dutch settlements in the east at his command, Expedition and he spared no pains to complete the defences to Java. of the most important of them, the island of Java. He despatched large reinforcements under an officer in whom he had confidence, General Daendels, who repaired the old fortifications and erected new and more formidable works in the vicinity of the capital, Batavia. From some unexplained cause he was superseded by General Jaensens, who had surrendered the Cape to the English squadron four years before. The emperor at his final audience reminded him of this disaster, and said : Sir, remember that a French general does not allow "himself to be captured a second time." Lord Minto, having obtained the permission of the Court of Directors to proceed against the island, summoned to his counsels Mr. afterwards Sir Stamford-Raffles, a member of the government of Penang, who had acquired a knowledge of the condition, the policy, and the language of the various tribes in the eastern archipelago superior to that of every other European at the time. The expedition consisted of 90 sail, on which were embarked 6,000 European troops, and about the same number of sepoys, and was the largest European armament which had ever traversed the eastern Lord Minto determined to accompany it as a volunteer, leading the way in the "Modeste " frigate, commanded by his son, and the whole fleet anchored in the bay of Batavia without a single accident on the 4th August. The entire body of troops under the command of General Jaensens amounted to 17,000, of whom 13,000 were concentrated for the defence of Fort Cornelis, which was strong from its natural position, and had been rendered, as was supposed, impregnable by science. It was an entrenched camp between two streams, one of which was not fordable, and the other was defended by strong bastions and ramparts. The entire circumference of the encampment was five miles, and it was protected by 300 pieces of cannon. seas. Capture of Sir Samuel Ahmuty, the General-in-Chief, determined A.D. at first to assail it by regular approaches, but the attempt 1811 was found to be all but impracticable under a tropical sun, and must have been abandoned Fort Corwhen, on the setting in of the rains, the malaria nelis. of the Batavian marshes prostrated the army. It was resolved, therefore, to carry it by a coup de main, which brought into play the daring spirit of Colonel Gillespie, of Vellore renown, to whom the enterprise was committed. His column marched soon after midnight on the 26th August, and came upon the first redoubt as the day dawned, and carried it at the point of the bayonet. The impetuous valour of his troops mastered the other redoubts in succession, till he found himself in front of the enemy's reserve and of a large body of cavalry posted with powerful artillery in front of the barracks. Having driven them from this position, the Colonel placed himself at the head of the dragoons and horse artillery, and pursued them for ten miles till he had completed the disorganisation of the whole army. Java was won in a single morning, and by the efforts of a single officer. The loss of the French in the field was severe, and 6,000 of their troops, chiefly Europeans, were made prisoners; but the victory cost the invaders 900 in killed and wounded, of whom eightyfive were officers. The Court of Directors had given instructions that on the capture of the island the fortifications should be demolished, and the arms and ammunition distributed among the natives, and the island evacuated. But Lord Minto was not disposed to put weapons into the hands of the natives, and abandon the colonists without arms or fortresses to their vindictive passions, and consign this noble island to the reign of barbarism. He determined to retain it, and committed the government of it to Mr. Raffles, under whose wise and liberal administration it continued to flourish for several years. Minto. Lord Minto returned to Calcutta in 1812, and imme- 1812 diately after learned that he had been superseded in the Government. The usual term of office was con- Supersession sidered to extend to seven years, and Lord Minto of Lord had intimated to the Court of Directors his wish to be relieved early in 1814; but the Prince Regent was anxious to bestow this lucrative post on the favourite of the day, the Earl of Moira, who had recently failed in his attempt to form a ministry. Under the dictation of the Board of Control, the Court of Directors were obliged to pass a resolution for the immediate termination of Lord Minto's administration. Circumstances detained Lord Moira in England longer than he expected, and Lord Minto did not quit India till within three or four months of the time he had fixed for his departure; but the infliction of this indignity on a Governor-General whose government had been without a failure, and who had given A.D. universal satisfaction, reflected equal discredit on the 1812 servile ministry and on their royal master. On the return of Lord Minto from Java, it became necessary for the first time to order troops into the field The The Pinda- to repel the inroads of the Pindarees. rees. earliest trace of these freebooters is to be found in the struggles between Aurungzebe and the Mahrattas, whose armies they accompanied into the field. After the Peshwa had delegated the charge of maintaining the Mahratta power in Hindostan to his lieutenants, Sindia and Holkar, the Pindarees nominally ranged themselves under their standards, and were designated Sindia Shahee and Holkar Shahee Pindarees, but they were not allowed to pitch their tents within the Mahratta encampment. Those chiefs found it useful to attach to their armies a body of freebooters who required no pay, and were content with an unlimited license of plunder, and were always ready to complete the work of destruction. The Pindarees found their account in establishing a connection, although indirect, with established governments, to whom they might look for protection in case of emergency. But this relationship did not restrain the Pindarees from plundering the districts of their patrons when it suited their interests, nor did it prevent the Mahratta princes from seizing the Pindaree leaders after their return from a successful foray, and obliging them to give up a portion of their plunder. The withdrawal of British protection from Central India opened a wide field for plunder, and increased the strength and audacity of the Pindarees. Two of the Pindaree chiefs in the suite of Sindia offered their services to the nabob of Bhopal to plunder the territories of Nagpore; and, when their offer was declined, proceeded to Nagpore, and were readily engaged by the raja to ravage the dominions of Bhopal. On their return the raja did not scruple to break up their encampment and despoil them of the rich booty they had acquired. Of the two leaders, one took refuge with Sindia, and his two sons Dost Mahomed and Wassil Mahomed collected and or |