SECT. V.]

FOURTH INVASION OF AHMED SHAH

135

A.D.

Jung, who had been reconciled. They had no longer the support of Bussy's genius or his troops, and even Ibrahim Khan, the ablest of Bussy's native generals, had been dismissed, and gone over with a powerful and well-served artillery to the Peshwa. The Nizam was reduced to such straits as to 1758 be obliged to agree to whatever terms the Peshwa might dictate, and obliged to surrender four of the most important fortresses in the Deccan, to confirm the possession of Ahmednugur, and to make over districts yielding fifty-six lacs of rupees, which reduced the Mogul possessions in the Deccan to a very narrow circle. The power of the Mahrattas was now at its zenith; it was acknowledged equally on the banks of the Indus and of the Coleroon, and it was predominant both in Hindostan and in the Deccan. The vast resources of the commonwealth were wielded by one chief 1759 and directed to one object, and they began to talk proudly of establishing Hindoo sovereignty throughout the continent of India.

invasion.

Raghoba had left Holkar and Sindia to support the Mahratta interests in the north, and to despoil Rohilcund, of which Sindia had laid waste thirteen hundred The Abdavillages in the course of a month, but he was lee s fourth soon after driven across the Jumna by the nabob Vizier. Just at this juncture the north of India was 1759 astounded by the report that Ahmed Shah Abdalee had crossed the Indus a fourth time in September, with a large army, to recover and extend his possessions. During his advance, Ghazee-ood-deen, dreading an interview between the Abdalee and the emperor Ahmed Shah, whom he had blinded, put him to death, and placed an unknown youth on the throne, who was, however, never acknowledged. Holkar and Sindia were in command of 30,000 horse, but they were widely separated from each other, and the Abdalee determined to attack them before they could form a junction. Sindia was overpowered, and lost Defeat of two-thirds of his army. Holkar was routed with Sindia and great carnage. The news of these reverses only served to inflame the ardour of the Peshwa and his cabinet, 1759 and it was resolved at Poona to make one grand and decisive effort to complete the conquest of India. The command of the force destined to this object was entrusted to Sudaseo Rao Bhow, commonly known as the Bhow, the cousin of the Peshwa, a general who had seen much service and was not wanting in courage and energy, but rash and impetuous, and filled with an overweening conceit of his own abilities.

Holkar.

A.D

The army which now moved up to encounter Ahmed 1760 Shah was the largest with which the Mahrattas had ever The battle taken the field. Its gorgeous equipments of Paniput. formed a strong contrast with that of the humble and hardy mountaineers of Sevajee. The Mahrattas had already begun to assume the pomp of Mahomedan princes The spacious and lofty tents of the chiefs were lined with silks and brocades, and surmounted with glittering ornaments. The finest horses richly caparisoned, and a train of elephants with gaudy housings, accompanied the army. The wealth which had been accumulated during half a century of plunder was ostentatiously displayed; and cloth of gold was the dress of the officers. The military chest was furnished with two crores of rupees. Every Mahratta commander throughout the country was summoned to attend the stirrup of the Bhow, and the whole of the Mahratta cavalry marched under the national standard. It was considered the cause of the Hindoos as opposed to that of the Mahomedans, and the army was therefore joined in its progress by numerous auxiliaries, more especially from Rajpootana. Sooruj Mull, the Jaut chieftain, brought up a contingent of 30,000 men. The army was, however, encumbered with two hundred pieces of cannon, and Sooruj Mull wisely advised the Bhow to leave them at Gwalior or at Jhansi, and resort to the national system of warfare, cutting off the supplies, and harassing the detachments of the enemy; but this sage counsel was haughtily rejected, and the Jaut withdrew from the camp in disgust, together with some of the Rajpoot chieftains. The Bhow entered Delhi and defaced the palaces, tombs, and shrines which had been spared by the Persian and Afghan invader. The 1761 two armies met on the field of Paniput, where for the third time the fate of India was to be decided. That of the Mahrattas consisted of 55,000 cavalry in regular pay, 15,000 predatory horse, and 15,000 infantry, who had been trained under Bussy, and were now commanded by his ablest native general. The Mahomedan force numbered about 80,000 chosen troops, besides irregulars almost as numerous, with seventy pieces of cannon. After a succession of desultory engagements, some of them, however, of considerable magnitude, the Mahrattas formed an entrenched camp, in which, including camp followers, a body little short of 300,000 was collected. Within a short time this vast multitude began to be straitened for provisions. Cooped up in a blockaded encampment, amidst dead and dying

SECT. VI.]

FATAL BATTLE OF PANIPUT

137

animals, and surrounded by famishing soldiers, the officers demanded to be led out against the enemy. The battle began before daybreak on the 7th of January, and the Mahratta chiefs nobly sustained their national reputation; but about two hours after noon Wiswas Rao, the son of the Peshwa, was mortally wounded, and Sudaseo Rao Bhow fled from the field, and the army became irretrievably disorganised. No quarter was asked or given, and the slaughter was prodigious. Not one-fourth of the troops escaped with their lives, and it was calculated that from the opening of the campaign to its close the number of casualties, including camp followers, fell little short of 200,000. Seldom has a defeat been more com- Prodigious plete or disastrous. There were few families slaughter. throughout the Mahratta empire which had not to mourn the loss of some relative. The Peshwa died of a broken heart, and his government never recovered its vigour and integrity. All the Mahratta conquests north of the Nerbudda were lost, and though they were subsequently recovered, it was under separate chieftains, with individual interests, which weakened their allegiance to the central authority. The Abdalee having thus shivered the Hindoo power, turned his back on India, and never interfered again in its affairs. The Mogul throne may be Effect on said to have expired with the battle of Paniput. the Mogul Its territory was broken up into separate and independent principalities; the claimant to the throne 1761 was wandering about Behar with a band of mercenaries; and the nation which was destined to establish a new empire, and, in oriental phrase, to "bring the various "tribes of India under one umbrella," had already laid the foundation of its power in the valley of the Ganges. To the rise and progress of the English Government we now turn.

empire.

A.D.

SECTION VI.

THE EAST INDIA COMPANY IN BENGAL.

THE wealth which Portugal had acquired in the sixteenth century by the trade to the east raised an earnest desire in England to obtain a share of it; and Drake, The East Cavendish, and other navigators were impelled India by the spirit of maritime enterprise, which Queen Elizabeth fostered, to undertake voyages of discovery in

Company.

A.D. the eastern seas. In 1583 Fitch and three other adven1583 turers traversed the length and breadth of the unknown

continent of India, and the accounts they brought home of the opulence of its various kingdoms, and the grandeur of the cities, opened up the vision of a lucrative commerce to the English nation. The ardour of enterprise was, however, damped by the unsuccessful issue of a voyage of three years undertaken by Captain Lancaster, but it was revived by the report of the first mercantile expedition of the Dutch, which had resulted in a rich return. An association was accordingly formed in London, consisting 1600 of "merchants, ironmongers, clothiers, and other men of "substance," who subscribed the sum of £30,133, for the purpose of opening a trade to the East. The next year Queen Elizabeth granted them a charter of incorporation, under the title of the "East India Company," which for a hundred and fifty years confined itself to commercial pursuits, and then took up arms in defence of its factories, and impelled by the normal law of progression, became master of the continent of India.

The first attention of the Company was drawn to the spice islands in the eastern archipelago, in which the Its first Dutch were endeavouring to supersede the Portuenterprises. guese. The chief object of the India trade at that period was to obtain spices, pepper, cloves, and nutmegs, in return for the exports from England of iron, tin, lead, cloth, cutlery, glass, quicksilver, and Muscovy hides. 1601 The first expedition sailed from Torbay in April, 1601. Eight voyages were undertaken in the next ten years, which yielded a profit of more than a hundred and fifty per cent. A portion of this return was obtained by piracy on their European rivals, which all the maritime nations at that period considered a legitimate source of gain. In 1611 the Company despatched vessels to Surat, then the great emporium of trade on the western coast of India; but the Portuguese were determined to repel the interlopers, and planted a squadron of armed vessels at the mouth of the Taptee. In the several encounters which ensued, the Portuguese were invariably discomfited, and as they were universally dreaded by the natives for their oppressions, the reputation of the English rose high, and they obtained 1613 permission to establish factories at Surat, Ahmedabad, and other towns. These privileges were confirmed by the emperor Jehangeer.

Soon after, the Company prevailed on James I. to send

SECT. VI.J

SETTLEMENT OF MADRAS AND BOMBAY 139

1615

Sir Thomas Roe as his ambassador to the court of Delhi, A.D. where he met with a distinguished reception Sir T. Roe's and obtained further privileges for the Company. embassy. The Company also succeeded in wresting Ormus from the Portuguese, and obtained a commercial footing in the Persian Gulf, but it never proved to be of any value. In 1620 the Company's agents for the first time visited the 1620 valley of the Ganges, and set up a factory at Patna; but it was through the patriotism of Mr. Boughton, Mr. Boughone of their surgeons, that they obtained ton's disinper- terestedness. mission to settle in Bengal. The emperor was at the time in the Deccan, and his daughter being taken seriously ill, he sent to the Company's factory at Surat to request the services of an able physician. Mr. Boughton was despatched to the camp, and effected a cure; and being requested to name his own reward, asked permission to establish factories in Bengal, which was at once granted. Two years after, the emperor's second son, who had been appointed viceroy of Bengal, established his court at Rajmahal. One of the ladies of the seraglio was attacked with disease, and the services of Mr. Boughton were again solicited, and he again declined any personal remuneration, but obtained permission for his masters to plant factories at Hooghly and Balasore.

Madras.

The first factory of the Company on the Coromandel coast was opened at Masulipatam and then transferred to Armegaum; but as the trade did not flourish, the superintendent accepted the invitation of the raja of Chundergiree, the last representative of the Hindoo kingdom of Beejanuger, to settle in his territories, and a plot of ground was accepted at Madraspatam, one of the most inconvenient places for trade on the Coromandel coast, on which the Company erected a fort, called, after the 1639 patron saint of England, Fort St. George, around which arose the city of Madras. Surat continued to be the port of the Company on the western coast till 1662, when, on the marriage of Charles II. to the Infanta Catherine, the daughter of the king of Portugal, he bestowed the port of Bombay as her dowry, and the 1662 Crown, finding it more expensive than profitable, made it over to the Company, who removed their chief establishments to it. The annals of the Company for a period of forty years in Bengal are barren of events. They enjoyed great prosperity, and their trade flourished to such an extent that it was erected into a separate Presidency, but

Bombay.