Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/411

 July full of health and vigour, and shortly, by an able paper on the grievances of the East India Company's officers, their scanty pay and slow promotion, attracted the attention of Dundas, president of the board of control. He became acquainted with Sir Alured Clarke [q. v.], then about to proceed to Madras as commander-in-chief, was appointed a member of his staff, and after spending the winter with his parents at Burnfoot, and attending classes at Edinburgh, he sailed for India in May 1795. He never saw his parents again.

In the beginning of September the Cape was reached, and Clarke's opportune arrival with a force of troops turned the scale in the contest then pending between the English and the Dutch. Two months were spent there, and early in 1796 Malcolm was again in Madras, a lieutenant still, but secretary to the commander-in-chief, and in March 1797 he was reappointed to that post by Clarke's successor, General George, lord Harris [q. v.] For a short time he held the profitable appointment of town-major of Fort St. George. But he had long been preparing himself, by reading, inquiry, and correspondence, for the diplomatic employment he desired. He laid before Lord Wellesley (then Lord Mornington), on his landing in India in April 1798, papers which he had drawn up on the native states of India, and when a vacancy occurred in the post of assistant to the resident of Hyderabad, he applied for and obtained the appointment, 10 Sept. 1798. His first service was one of peril. The nizam, under strong pressure from a British force, proclaimed the disbandment of the ‘French corps’ of troops in his service, officered and disciplined by French officers. This was on 21 Oct. The men mutinied; they seized their officers; they assailed Malcolm, whose life was only saved by deserters from his old regiment, the 29th, who formed part of the corps. He returned to the residency, took command of fifteen hundred horse, and with the other British troops so overawed the mutineers that they laid down their arms. He was despatched with the colours of the corps to Calcutta, placed his information before the governor-general and secured his goodwill, and sailed with him in the winter for southern India, to the scene of the coming war with the sultan of Mysore. He joined the nizam's contingent on 19 Jan. 1799, and acted at once as the controlling political officer of the force, and as the channel of communication with the governor-general. Eventually he took command of the infantry, co-operated with Colonel Wellesley and the king's 33rd, and marched upon Seringapatam. The services of Malcolm were expressly commended by the commander-in-chief to the governor-general. He was appointed first secretary to the commission for the settlement of the Mysore government, and took a large part in its arrangements.

Lord Wellesley was then meditating the despatch of an envoy to Persia, the first since Elizabeth's reign, and he selected Malcolm for the mission. The objects were to induce Persia to divert the attention of the Afghans, who constantly menaced an invasion of north-western India, to check French influence, and to promote British trade. He left Madras in the middle of September, passing three weeks at Hyderabad to wind up various matters connected with prize-money and other affairs, and, travelling thence to Poonah and Bombay, he sailed for the Persian Gulf on 29 Dec. 1799. After arranging with the imaum of Muscat for the reception of a regular British agent he proceeded to Bushire, but he was detained there from 1 Feb. 1800 to 22 May by difficulties connected with the forms and ceremonials of the Persian court. He met the prince regent at Shiraz on 15 June, and wisely refused to bate a jot of the utmost state, however trivial, which Persian etiquette prescribed for the reception of the highest envoys. This, however, caused long delay and much ceremonial stickling, and it was not until 23 Sept. that the mission reached Ispahan, where it was received with more pomp and procrastination, and remained upwards of a month. It then proceeded to Teheran, and on 16 Nov. Malcolm was presented to the shah. He opened his negotiations by offering presents on a scale so profuse that his extravagance has been repeatedly and severely commented on, but he found the Persian court childishly open to such influences, and believed himself able by these means not merely to advance the negotiations, but materially to abbreviate the stay and consequent expense of the mission in the country. The chief minister, Hadjee Ibrahim Khan, was appointed to represent the shah, and with him two treaties were arranged, which were signed on 28 Jan. 1801. The first was a commercial treaty providing for unrestricted trade and the cession to the East India Company of the islands of Kishm, Anjam, and Khargh in the Persian Gulf, with liberty to establish factories on the coast or in the interior of Persia. The political treaty engaged the shah to assist in curbing the anticipated aggressions of the ameer, Zemaun Shah, and bound him to exclude the French from Persia, the company guaranteeing him ships, troops, and stores in the event of a French invasion. The