Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/178

 Wellesley 'judicious and masterly arrangements in respect of supplies' (Suppl. Desp. xiii. 4). In the invasion of Mysore Wellesley had the direction of the nizam's auxiliary corps, to which the 33rd was attached. It consisted of ten battalions of sepoys, ten thousand miscellaneous horsemen, and twenty-six guns. It formed the left of the army in the action at Malavelly on 27 March. The army arrived before Seringapatam on 5 April, and an attack was made on the enemy's outposts that night by two detachments, of which one, under Wellesley, was repulsed with some loss. He determined 'never to suffer an attack to be made by night upon an enemy who is prepared and strongly posted, and whose posts have not been reconnoitred by daylight' (ib. 18 April). He had no share in the storming of Seringapatam, being in command of the reserve in the trenches; but he was sent into the town next day to restore order, and was appointed governor by Harris on 6 May. General (Sir) David Baird [q.v.], who had led the assault, was much mortified at this choice, but there were good reasons for it (Croker, ii. 103).

On the withdrawal of the army in July the command of all the troops left in Mysore fell to Wellesley, and he also controlled the civil administration of Tippoo's successor. He had written in May: 'I intend to ask to be brought away with the army if any civil servant of the company is to be here, or any person with civil authority who is not under my orders' (ib. 8 May). In August he had to take the field against Dhoondiah Waugh, a freebooter who had gathered a large following. Wellesley drove him across the frontier and dispersed his bands; but they resumed their incursions in April 1800, mustering forty thousand men. Having obtained leave to pursue them into the Mahratta territory, Wellesley crossed the Toombuddra, near Hurryhur, on 26 June, took some forts, and, pushing on with four regiments of cavalry, overtook on 30 July part of Dhoondiah's army, encamped on the Malpoorba. The camp was stormed and the guns and stores taken. After chasing the remainder for several weeks, and following them into the nizam's dominions, Wellesley fell in with them at Conahgull on 10 Sept. Dhoondiah himself was killed, and his bands, reduced by this time to five thousand horse, were scattered. His son fell into the hands of Wellesley, who provided for him till his death (Despatches, 26 Oct. 1825).

In May the governor-general had offered Wellesley the command of an expedition which was to be sent against Batavia, but he declined the offer, as it was not for the public interest that he should leave Mysore just then. In November he was sent to Trincomalee to take command of a force of 3,500 men for a descent upon lle de France (Mauritius) and Bourbon; but on 7 Jan. 1801 he learnt from his brother—now Marquis Wellesley—that this force might have to form part of an expedition to Egypt, in which case a general officer must be placed at the head of it. On the 24th Baird was appointed to it, and its destination was changed to Batavia. Before this news reached Trincomalee Wellesley had set out for Bombay with his troops. He had learnt that despatches from England were on their way to Calcutta, desiring that a force should be sent to Egypt, and, in spite of the remonstrance of the governor of Ceylon, Frederick North (afterwards fifth Earl of Guilford) [q. v.], he decided to anticipate the orders of the governor-general. The latter at first disapproved his action, but was satisfied by the reasons given for it (Desp. 18 Feb. and 23 March; Suppl. Desp. 30 March).

On 6 April the expedition, numbering over six thousand men, left Bombay for the Red Sea under Baird. Wellesley was very sore at his supersession, and complained bitterly of it, with too little allowance for the circumstances (Suppl. Desp. 11 and 20 April and 26 May). He yielded to his brother's wish, in which Baird joined, that he should go as second in command; but he was disabled by illness at the last moment (, p. 103). The Susannah, in which he was to have sailed, was lost with all hands in the Red Sea. He sent Baird a careful memorandum containing such information as he had been able to gather bearing on the intended operations (Desp. 9 April).

In May he returned to Mysore, and for the next year and a half he was busily occupied there, bringing the country into order, making roads and fortifications, forming a good bullock-train, and organising the departments. He became major-general by seniority on 29 April 1802. At the end of that year the peshwah, the titular chief of the Mahratta confederacy, signed the treaty of Bassein, by which he accepted the position of a protected prince, and steps were taken to reinstate him at Poonah, whence Holkar had driven him. Wellesley had already furnished a 'memorandum upon operations in the Mahratta territory' (ib. 6 Sept. 1801), and as soon as he learnt that Madras troops were to be used, he offered his services, pointing out that his pursuit of Dhoondiah had made him well acquainted with the country and people. On 28 Nov. he was appointed a major-general on the