Page:A Brief History of the Indian Peoples.djvu/181

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 * 1858. || Earl Canning.
 * 1862. || Earl of Elgin.
 * 1863. || Sir Robert Napier, afterwards Lord Napier of Magdala (officiating).
 * 1863. || Sir William Denison (officiating).
 * 1864. || Sir John Lawrence, Bart. (Lord Lawrence).
 * 1869. || Earl of Mayo.
 * 1872. || Sir John Strachey (officiating).
 * 1872. || Lord Napier of Merchistoun (officiating).
 * 1872. || Lord (aft. Earl of) Northbrook.
 * 1876. || Lord (aft. Earl of) Lytton.
 * 1880. || Marquess of Ripon.
 * 1884. || Earl of Dufferin (afterwards Marquess of Dufferin and Ava).
 * 1888. || Marquess of Lansdowne.
 * }
 * 1872. || Sir John Strachey (officiating).
 * 1872. || Lord Napier of Merchistoun (officiating).
 * 1872. || Lord (aft. Earl of) Northbrook.
 * 1876. || Lord (aft. Earl of) Lytton.
 * 1880. || Marquess of Ripon.
 * 1884. || Earl of Dufferin (afterwards Marquess of Dufferin and Ava).
 * 1888. || Marquess of Lansdowne.
 * }
 * 1880. || Marquess of Ripon.
 * 1884. || Earl of Dufferin (afterwards Marquess of Dufferin and Ava).
 * 1888. || Marquess of Lansdowne.
 * }
 * 1888. || Marquess of Lansdowne.
 * }

The French and English in the South.—The political history of the British in India begins in the eighteenth century with the French wars in the Karnátik. It was at Arcot, in the Madras Presidency, that Clive's star first shone forth; and it was on the field of Wandiwash in the same Presidency that the French dream of an Indian Empire was for ever shattered. Fort St. George, or Madras, was, as we have seen, the first territorial possession of the English on the mainland of India, having been founded by Mr. Francis Day in 1639. The French settlement of Pondicherri, about 100 miles lower down the Coromandel coast, was established in 1674; and for many years the English and French traded side by side without rivalry or territorial ambition.

Southern India after 1707.—On the death of the Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb, in 1707, Southern India gradually became independent of Delhi. In the Deccan proper, the Nizám-ul Múlk founded a hereditary dynasty, with Haidarábád for its capital, which exercised a nominal authority over the entire south. The Karnátik, or the lowland tract between the central plateau and the Bay of Bengal, was ruled by a deputy of the Nizám, known as the Nawáb of Arcot, who in his turn asserted claims to hereditary sovereignty. Farther south, Trichinopoli was the capital of a Hindu Rájá; Tanjore formed another Hindu kingdom under a degenerate descendant of the Maráthá leader, Sivají. Inland, Mysore was gradually growing into a third Hindu State; while everywhere local chieftains, called pálegárs or náyaks, were in semi-independent possession of citadels or hill-forts. These represented the feudal chiefs or