Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/415

Malcolm government had already reported in favour of a large pecuniary recognition of his services, and he now memorialised the India House in the same sense, and eventually received a grant of 5,000l., a sum considerably less than the amount Lord Minto had recommended. He remained for some time in great uncertainty as to his future plans. As an Indian officer he was debarred from European service. He failed to obtain, if indeed he really sought, the succession to Jonathan Duncan [q. v.] in the governorship of Bombay. His friends at the board of control went out of office without doing anything for him, and the Duke of Wellington, though his intimate friend, had no patronage available for him. By returning to India he was certain very shortly to obtain the command of a regiment as colonel on full pay, and his chance of political employment was good. Though forty-six years of age he was hale and vigorous. He decided to separate himself from his family, and sailed for India in October 1816.

On the way out he wrote a review of Williams's ‘History of the Bengal Army,’ which appeared in the ‘Quarterly Review,’ vol. xviii. (January 1818). He did not land in India until 17 March 1817, some days after the utmost statutory limits of his five years' furlough had been reached. He was well received by the governor-general, Lord Moira [see ], and, a new Mahratta war being in prospect, he expected early employment. He was soon appointed a brigadier in Sir John Doveton's Deccan army, and during the enforced military inactivity of the hot season he was directed to visit the principal native courts as agent to the governor-general, and to confer with their respective residents. He reached Hyderabad on 24 July, Poonah on 4 Aug., and Nagpoor on 24 Sept. Having thus visited the courts of the nizam, the peishwah, and the bhoonsla within a few months, he joined the army at Hussingabad, on the banks of the Nerbudda; and thence, having communicated with General Adams, who was in command of that division, he made his way to join his own division, the third of the Deccan army, at Hurda on 29 Oct. He at once made preparations for an immediate forward movement against the Pindarees, and on 15 Nov. crossed the Nerbudda at the head of a light field force and started in pursuit of them.

Though nominally a war for the extirpation of the Pindarees, the doubtful fidelity of the native states on the one hand, and the overpowering military preparations of the company on the other, seemed to presage its conversion into a renewed struggle with the Mahratta confederacy. While Malcolm was still operating against the bands of Pindarees on the Nerbudda, open war broke out at Poonah and Nagpore, in spite of his diplomatic visits to those courts a few months before. In November 1817 a revolution took place at Indore, which caused Holkar's forces to be numbered among the enemies of the English. Malcolm, who had been pursuing without success the Pindaree chief Cheetoo, was recalled and joined Sir Thomas Hislop [q. v.], commander-in-chief, at Oujein on 12 Dec. After fruitless negotiation between Malcolm and the envoys of Holkar's durbar, the English army moved on, and on 21 Dec. was fought the battle of Mehidpoor. Malcolm, in command of an advanced guard of horse, dispersed the enemy's cavalry, which were posted so as to menace the English in flank while crossing the Sepree, and then, with two leading brigades, began the engagement before the main body had completed the crossing. He had hardly been in the field since he was a boy; he had never commanded in the field at all. Without waiting to form his two brigades he waved his hat and led his leading files against the enemy at the run. In spite of their deadly fire the enemy's batteries were carried with the bayonet. Throughout Malcolm exposed himself in front of his men more like a subaltern than a general. He saved his life, as he won the battle, as much by good luck as by skill, headed the pursuit with two light battalions, and continued it for several miles. The victory, though complete, was bloody, and it was won by the valour of the sepoy, and not by the tactics of the commander. After Christmas he was despatched, with a mixed force of cavalry and light artillery, towards the north-west in pursuit of the flying enemy. He marched swiftly from Mundissore to Narghur, and thence back to Mundissore, and there on 31 Dec. surprised Holkar, received his messengers, and concluded a treaty of peace on 6 Jan. 1818.

While still concluding his arrangements for the settlement of Holkar's government, he was engaged with his division in operations against Jeswunt Rao Bhao, a rebel viceroy of Scindiah's, pursued him into Mewar, and received his surrender on 14 Feb. During the following months he was busy in negotiations, having for their object the general pacification of the central states, preceded by, and based upon, the voluntary surrender of the peishwah. In conjunction with Brigadier-general Doveton he moved his forces so as actually to menace Badjee Rao's camp in May, and on 1 June had an