Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/469

 Chap. IV.] CHUNDA SAHIB. 435

family, still resident in Pondicherry, as the medium of communication. Chunda ad. 1748.

Sahib, as might be expected, gladly embraced a })ropo3al which promised at the

very outset to give him his freedom. Tlie Mahrattas were equally inclined to chunda sa-

come to terms. So long as Sufder Ali lived they had a special interest in detain- somed i.y

ing their prisoner, because if they allowed him to escape, the instalments to which

they were entitled under their treaty would not be paid. Since his death the

case had altered; for Anwar-u-din, thinking perhaps that he could set the

Mahrattjis at defiance, positively refused to fultil the obligations midertaken by

his predecessor. The Mahrattas, therefore, had no longer any interest in

detaining Chunda Sahib, and readily struck the bargain by which Dupleix

agreed to pay a very heavy ransom for him. The sum is said to have been

7, rupees (£70,000).

Chunda Sahib, attended by his son Aabid Sahib, a few friends who had clung "jb proceed- ings on the to him in misfortune, and a small Mahratta force, left Sattarah in the beginning Kiatna.

of 1748, and proceeded south by slow steps, hoping to be able gradually to rally an army around him. On reaching tlie Kistna, the Rajahs of Chitteldroog and of Bednore, then at open war, applied to him for aid. He gave it to the former ; and on the 24tli of March a battle took place at Myaconda, in which he was defeated and taken prisoner, and his son was slain. He was carried in triumph to Bednore, but soon regained liis liberty, and saw his for- tunes suddenly assume a promising appearance at the moment when they seemed to have become desperate. On the very day when the battle of Myaconda was fought, Nizam-ul-Moolk died. Anwar-u-din thus lost his protector at the time when he stood most in need of him ; and Chunda Sahib obtained powerful assistance from a quarter to which he had never looked for it. It will be necessary, however, before entering on the series of events occasioned by the death of the Nizam-ul-Moolk, to attend to a transaction which occurred about the same time, and in which the English East India Company became committed to a course of policy at variance with that which they had previously professed to ])ursue.

Shortly after hostihties ceased between the British and French, a native Tiie com- prince of the name of Saujohee arrived at Fort St. David, and ai)plied for aid voivcdin to reinstate him on the throne of Tanjore. Seven years had elapsed since he of xanjore. had lost it, and yet, according to his own account, he wtxs not only the lawful heir, but so powerfully supported that he had only to aj)})ear at the head of a small force in order to insm-e success. His appliciition was certainly made at a favourable time. Peace luul been suddenly proclaimed, when the British, ashamed of their discomfiture at Pondicheny, were earnestly longing for an opportunity of regaining their laurels. A large body of troops was assembled and ready for action; but, according to till appearance, from the mere want of an enemy to fight with, they would be obliged to return to Europe without having performed a single achievement. It is not wonderful that under such