Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/208

202 devastation which the agriculture of the country had suffered; during which an epidemic sickness broke out, and carried off many of the distressed inhabitants by sudden deaths, which the patient simplicity and superstition of their character imputed to the visitation of a goddess, Lacheme, coming, they knew not whence, from the North. The shroffs, who had lent money to Moodilee on the mortgaged harvest, would not suffer him to depart until they saw the country recovering; which obliged Captain Calliaud to remain at Tinivelly some time longer, in order to superintend and encourage the various operations which were necessary to restore the cultivation. The Presidency, whilst waiting the result of this expedition, had, howsoever unwilling, been obliged to engage in hostilities in the Carnatic. The Nabob, in the beginning of the year, had demanded of his brother Nazeabulla, the governor of Nelore, a subsidy of 100,000 rupees above the usual tribute; which the country could afford to pay, having suffered little from the distresses of the war, to which the rest of the Carnatic had so long been exposed; but Nazeabulla equivocated and apologized. Ichlass Khan, the brother of the Nabob's buxey or general, marching at this time with 500 horse, and other troops, to collect the tributes of the northern Polygars, advanced as far as Serapely, a fort 12 miles south of Nelore, and proposed an interview with Nazeabulla, who accepted the visit, giving his oath on the Koran; but requested Ichlass Khan to come with few attendants, lest quarrels should arise between them and his own. The visit produced no change in Nazeabulla's excuses for not paying the money, and Ichlass Khan left the city in the evening without harm; but, after it grew dark, his escort was attacked by an ambuscade of matchlock-men in the bushes near the road, and one of them was killed. The Nabob imputed this outrage to the instigation and example of his other brother Maphuze Khan at Madura, and of an adventurer Meersaeb, who was in possession of Elavanasore, and plundering wherever he listed. The anguish which the Nabob expressed at this second rebellion rising in his own family, determined the presidency to comply with his earnest request to reduce