Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan, Volume 1.djvu/63

Book I. transaction. The general joy with which the youth was received, on his arrival in the province, eclipsed all the homage that was paid to the sovereign power of his guardian; and it is supposed that the provisional Nabob did not behold without jealousy these demonstrations of the public attachment to the son of Subder-ally.

An'war-odean however did not discover any symptoms of discontent in his treatment of the young prince: on the contrary, he maintained him in a splendor adequate to his birth, and assigned the palace in the fort of Arcot for his residence. Here the young Seid Mahomed passed some time without any other inquietude, than that which he received from the importunities of a band of Pitan soldiers, who had been in the service of his father, and who pretended that a long arrear of pay was due to them.

The Pitans, whose country is in the most northern part of the Empire, are the bravest of the Mahomedan soldiery levied in Indostan. From a consciousness of this superiority, together with a reliance on the national connection which exists amongst them howsoever dispersed into the services of different princes, they have acquired an insolence and audacity of manners, which distinguishes them, as much as the hardness of their physiognomy, from every other race of men in the Empire: they treat even the lords they Serve with very little of that respect which characterises all the other dependents of a sovereign in Indostan. From the known ferocity of their temper, it is thought dangerous to inflict punishment on them, even when they deserve it; as a strong spirit of revenge has familiarised them with assassination, which they seldom fail to employ whenever the smallness of their numbers disables them from taking vengeance by more open attacks. The Pitans, who had served Subder-ally Khan, continued to present themselves every day before his son, demanding their arrears with clamour and insolence. In the month of June a wedding of one of the relations of Subder-ally was celebrated in the fort of Arcot. The young prince, as being the head of the family, was invited to preside at the ceremony. The customary invitations were likewise given to all the other relations,