Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/129

Book II satisfied with 700,000 rupees^ and consented to furnish him with 3,000 of their own troops.

With this force, and the spirit of an adventurer, he left Sattarah in the beginning of the year 1748, intending to make conquests wherever opportunity presented itself, until he should acquire, by contributions, the treasures necessary to maintain an army sufficient to attack the province of Arcot. He arrived, during the siege of Pondicherry, on the western confines of the Carnatic, and found two Rajahs at war: he sided with one of them, who, betrayed by some of his officers, was totally defeated in a general battle, in which it is said that Chunda-saheb himself was taken prisoner, but that he was immediately released on producing a declaration from the king of the Morattoes, which enjoined all princes whomsoever to respect his person, on pain of incurring the resentment of the whole Morattoe nation. The greatest part of Chunda-saheb's troops, were dispersed after this defeat, and he was left with only 300 men, when he received an invitation from the Rajah of Chitterdourg, to come to his assistance, and take the command of his army against the Rajah of Bedrour. The territories of these two princes lie near the eastern confines of the country of Canara, which extends along the coast of Malabar between the rivers Alega and Cangrecora. Disasters could not depress the spirit of Chunda-saheb; he marched away, with the handful of men he commanded, and arrived just as the two armies were ready to engage. In this battle his courage and skill were so well seconded by the troops of Chitterdourg, that he obtained a compleat victory: three thousand of the enemy's horse, after the defeat, offered their service to him, whom he took into his pay, and likewise 2,500 of the troops of his ally: so that he was now at the head of 6,000 men: but this force being still insufficient to attempt the conquest of the Camatic, he found resources in the consequences of other events, which had lately happened at Delhi, and in the government of the soubahship of the southern provinces. The Great Mogul Mahomed Schah. who had suffered in 1739 the humiliation of laying his crown at the feet of Thamas Kouli Kan, by whom he was again reinstated in the monarchy of Indostan, continued to govern the empire with so trembling a hand, that the principal officers of his court acted in their several departments without contraul: