Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/397

Book V. the signal of decamping, was beaten, and the whole army crossing the Caveri marched away; leaving the French in possession of the island of Seringham, and the other territories which the Nabob had made over to him on his arrival, and of which he had from that time collected the revenues.

It is difficult to find an example of a prince conducting himself with more weakness than the Mysorean in the course of this war: the Nabob procured his assistance by a promise which he never intended to perform; and indeed, had the Mysorean been endowed with common sagacity, he might have foreseen that the possession of Tritchinopoly, the object of all his endeavours, would have been the greatest misfortune that could have happened to him, since it would certainly sooner or later have involved him in a war with the Mogul government, which probably would have ended in reducing the kingdom of Mysore itself, like the Carnatic, to be a province of the empire. The Nabob's breach of faith in refusing to deliver up the city to him, only served to exasperate; his eagerness to get possession of it, which rendered him as great a dupe to the promises of Mr. Dupleix, as he had been to those of the Nabob; for it is certain, that he at last discovered it himself, that the French never intended to give him Tritchinopoly if they had succeeded in taking it: nor was he less deluded by his ally Morari-row, who after persuading him to assist the French against the Nabob, deserted him as soon as his treasures began to fail. At length, after having wasted three years, absent from his own country at the head of an army of 20,000 men, he was obliged to return without receiving the least compensation for the expences he had incurred, or any security for the reimbursement of them: for what reliance he might have upon the conditional treaty was little better than chimerical, since many unforeseen events might render that convention abortive.

The presidency of Madrass hearing of Salabad-jing's approach to the western confines of the Carnatic, entertained suspicions that he might be tempted, notwithstanding the conditional treaty, to enter the province; from this apprehension they sent orders to colonel Heron to return immediately with the troops under his command to Tritchinopoly: however, Maphuze Khan prevailed upon him to