Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/137

Book II. of the French battalion were killed, and 63 wounded: and about 300 of their Sepoys were either killed or wounded: of Murzafa-jing's army very few were lost. This decisive battle was fought on the 23d of July: the victorious army found the tents of the defeated standing, and great quantities of baggage in the camp, which they plundered: the booty was valuable; sixty elephants, and a great number of horses, were taken; which, with the artillery, arms, and military stores, Chunda-saheb and Murzafa-jing reserved to themselves, and permitted their soldiery to take the rest of the spoil: the French battalion had their reward in money. The next day the army set out for Arcot, the capital, and took possession of the city, and its fort, without meeting any opposition.

Murzafa-jing here assumed all the state and ceremonial of a Soubah; and, as the first mark of his authority, issued letters patent, appointing his friend Chunda-saheb Nabob of the Carnatic, and of all the other dominions which had been under the jurisdiction of An'war-odean Khan. This sudden revolution naturally struck with consternation all the chiefs and princes of the coast of Coromandel, who wished ill to the cause of Chunda-saheb. Foremost of these was the king of Tanjore, whose ancestor, at the time that the Moors conquered the Carnatic, submitted on condition of governing his country by its ancient customs; and for the enjoyment of this privilege agreed to pay an annual tribute, as well as to furnish a contingency of troops whenever the government of the Carnatic should be at war in support of the interest of the great Mogul. When Chunda-saheb, in 1736, was confirmed in the government of Tritchinopoly, he summoned the king of Tanjore to account for arrears of tribute, and pretended that he had in other respects offended against the sovereignty of the emperor. A war ensued, in which Chunda-saheb besieged the capital of Tanjore, but without success. The dread entertained of his ambition by the princes of the southern parts of the peninsula, together with their detestation of the violations committed by his troops in their temples, induced these princes, and above all the king of Tanjore, to solicit the Morattoes to invade the Carnatic, at the same time that Nizam-al-muluck, from other motives, was instigating that people to attack it. The disasters brought on the reigning