Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/127

Book II. power and reputation to attempt the recovery of the government into their own family. There existed indeed at Vandiwash a brother of Seid Mahomed, born after the death of their father, the Nabob Subder-ally; but the infancy of this prince rendered him unfit to appear at the head of a confederacy: And altho' Mortiz-ally, the governor of Velore, was a near relation to the former Nabobs, and possessed a large domain with great treasures, yet he wanted intrepidity sufficient to head a dangerous enterprize, and the knowledge of his treacherous disposition destroyed all confidence in the engagements he might enter into. Of the rest, none had great reputation as generals, nor great power as princes; but, collected under a proper head, their strength might become formidable.

Chunda-saheb had made his way to the highest offices of the government by the services of his sword, and was esteemed the ablest soldier that had of late years appeared in the Carnatic. His contempt of the sordid means by which most of the Indian princes amass treasures, had gained him the affections of the whole province; and an excellent understanding contributed to make his character universally revered. The rest of the chiefs therefore concurred in regarding him as the fittest person to enter into competition with An'war-odean Khan for the Nabobship; but this testimony of their deference for some time only served to rivet his fetters more strongly; for the Morattoes increased their demands in proportion as they found the character of their prisoner rising in importance. The wife and son of Chunda-saheb had remained at Pondicherry from the time that he was carried away by the Morattoes; and the year after that event Mr. Dupleix arrived there, appointed governor-general of the French nation in India, He treated the family of Chunda-saheb, under his protection, with great respect; and by a frequent intercourse with the wife, very soon learnt the state of her husband's affairs, and the dispositions of his relations in the province. His sagacity distinguished, in these latent principles of future convulsions, a possibility of aggrandizing his nation in India, where many causes concurred to prevent their establishments from becoming so eminently advantageous as he was ambitious of rendering them. The English, established in Indostan many years before the French