Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/462

438 usual attentions to himself, as their representative, and instead of a house, allotted his habitation in a choultry. In their conference, the king said he had sufficiently exposed himself to the resentment of the French, if Madrass should fall, by the assistance he had already sent with Mahomed Issoof, which were 300 horse; but not paid by himself: nevertheless he was willing to lend 400 more, provided Calliaud would discharge their arrears: Calliaud demanded Colonel Kennedy and the Jesuit Estevan, the French hostages whom the king had detained; but the king refused, and let them depart on the 19th, as it were, in his sight. Nevertheless, the horse were so necessary that Calliaud determined not to take offence whilst there remained any probability of getting them, and applied for money to the house of Buccangee, which was by far the most considerable bank in the Carnatic, and had hitherto transacted the greatest part of the Company's exchange throughout the province: but their agents in Tanjore refused to supply any money for bills on Madrass. The king knowing this promised the horse should be ready in four days, if the money was paid. Calliaud then applied to the Dutch government of Negapatam, who proffered a loan, but proposed to furnish it in coins, and at rates, which would have produced a loss of 25 per cent. These disappointments obliged him to seek the money at Tritchinopoly, where he arrived on the 24th, and obtained the promise of a supply from another shop of Buccangee's house established there: he returned on the 27th to Tanjore, where intelligence had been received the day before, that the Nabob with his family, who had left Madrass on the 20th, were arrived at Negapatam, and that his wife, in this short but tempestuous passage, had been brought to bed at sea. At the same time Seid Muctoon the Nabob's agent at Tanjore informed the king, that the Nabob intended to come into the city in his way to Tritchinopoly, and expected to be met, as usual, upon the road; but the embarkation, the season, and above all, the travail of the lady, had convinced the king, contrary to the real motives, that nothing but the despair of Madrass could have induced the English government to expose the prince of their alliance to such risks and distresses;