NOTE.

The eight letters which should have followed the preceding one, covering the period between March 8th and August 13th, 1784, are all missing, and there is no trace of their contents in the Correspondence or the Copies of Private Letters, or in Gleig's Biography.

278

CHAPTER III.

AUGUST, SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER, 1784.

Affairs of Benares, Oudh and Delhi.

OWING to the disappearance of eight letters of this series, we find Hastings, at the opening of the present chapter, engrossed in an entirely new set of interests. Happily the course of events can in some degree be traced by means of his letters to the Council and other documents printed in the State Papers, but many of the connecting links are lost. On crossing the boundary of the Presidency he found himself at once in a district sorely afflicted with famine. The failure of the rains, and consequently of the crops, for three years in succession had caused terrible scarcity, as mentioned in Letter XXIV., from the Karamnasa as far as the north of the Panjab. The people of Bengal had suffered very little, both because the rains there had been fairly regular, and because Hastings had taken stringent measures to prevent the artificial enhancing of the price of grain. But in the territories under the rule of the native princes the state of affairs was terrible, and Hastings says that from Buxar to Benares he was followed by the clamours of the discontented inhabitants. The Naib, or administrator of the province during the minority of the

1 It is possible that none of these reached Mrs Hastings, as they seem all to have been despatched by unusual routes, the sailing-season having passed. See infra, p. 296.

Zamindar, acknowledged to the Governor-General that his principle was to exact the revenues rigidly, regardless of the failure of the rains, so that the few cultivators who had succeeded in raising a crop saw the whole produce swept from them to make up the deficiencies of their neighbours. With such terror had the people learnt to regard any representative of government that Hastings found every town and village deserted as he approached, though he had sent the Naib before him to promise protection to the inhabitants. Learning his kindly intentions, they returned to pursue him with complaints, and to profit by the daily distribution of grain which was carried out at his expense.1 Arrived in Benares, he found a pleasing contrast in the peace and contentment prevailing in the city, due to the regulations he had devised and the administration of Ali Ibrahim Khan, and he was encouraged to set to work on a scheme for the reform of the whole civil system of the zamindari, including the tenure of land, the assessment of revenue, and the appointment of officials.

After a stay of five days in Benares, which he gained by making forced marches, while the escort followed more slowly, Hastings continued his journey, and arrived at Lucknow on March 27th. Here he found the NawabVizier and his ministers all eagerness to meet his views, but Bristow, even in departing, had done what he could to render the task of reconstruction difficult. He had carried off all the accounts of his office, leaving Wombwell, the accountant, without any details, either of expenditure or money received. Among his assistants, whose salary was in arrears, he had divided a sum of three lakhs, but with so much partiality that while his favourites received more than was due to them, those whom he disliked had nothing. To crown all, he had taken away with him the very carpets and curtains

1 Seïr-ul-Mutaqharin.

belonging to the house lent him by the Nawab-Vizier. Instead of devoting himself at once to the work for which he had come, Hastings was obliged to wait while the separate accounts were collected from the officials who had handed them in, but he was able on April 21st to despatch bills for thirteen lakhs to Calcutta, in part payment of the Nawab- Vizier's debt - provided largely by Almas Ali Khan, who had returned to the rescue of his master now that his enemy Bristow was removed. Five lakhs more was expected in a few days from the Rohilla chief, Faiz Ullah Khan, and other sums as the collectors could furnish them, but Hastings forbore to urge the ministers to haste, in view of the state of the country. He durst not speak confidently of the future, for fear of another bad season, but believed that otherwise there were the fairest hopes of a final settlement.

While the Governor-General was thus employed in providing for the welfare of Benares and Oudh, another and even larger task presented itself to him. When he visited the Upper Provinces in 1781, he had enter. tained a hope of extending his journey as far as Delhi, and obtaining an interview with the Emperor Shah Alam, but circumstances had prevented its realisation. The state of things in the Mogul capital could not well have been worse than it was. As regarded the government of his territories, the unhappy potentate was entirely in the hands of his principal minister, while his action in external affairs was controlled by the Marathas. Najif Khan, who had ruled him for many years, died in 1782, and Hastings thought the opportunity favourable for stepping in "to relieve the Shah from the thraldom of his ministers, and to establish his authority at least in his own domains." Three or four different parties were contending for Najif Khan's vacant place, and Hastings was of opinion that "a small exertion of 1 Instructions to Major Browne in State Papers.

our force might have turned the scale in favour of the Shah, and it might have been done without any expense to ourselves." But the Council feared to take the responsibility, and he was obliged to content himself with appointing Major Browne as his own personal Agent at the Court of Delhi, with detailed secret instructions, of which the Council were actually, though not technically, cognizant. Now, in April, 1784, he writes to them that affairs are much changed. "Many successive revolutions have since taken place. One competitor has sunk after another. Some have fallen by

the sword, and others have retired with their armies to their own jaghirs, till at length the administration at the capital has fallen into the hands of Afrasiab Cawn. In these various revolutions the Shah himself has had little share. Each successive minister has acted under his name and assumed his authority."

This Afrasiab Khan, "Bukshi (Bakhshi, paymaster, hence commander-in-chief), of Indostan," who had brought about the murder of his immediate predecessor, Mirza Shafi, had established his dominion over the Emperor even more firmly than Najif Khan had done. Imperial edicts, or shokas, inspired by him, proclaimed him as the possessor of the entire powers of the state, and the one faithful servant that remained to the imperial house, Mujid-u-Daula, was reduced to impotence. At this time Afrasiab Khan was anxious to consolidate his power by allying himself with the English, and with characteristic duplicity sought to effect his purpose by arousing in Hastings' mind doubts as to the honesty of Sindhia. Liberally supporting his assertions by means of forged documents, he declared that Sindhia aspired to dominate the remaining Mogul territories, using them as a pied à terre from which to invade Oudh, bring about the restoration of the Rohilla chiefs and of Chait Singh, and impose a double indemnity on Bengal in the shape of the Maratha chauth and the tribute formerly payable to