Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/520

Rh 494 WELLINGTON required for every mouth, the exact weight that could be carried, the distances that could be traversed without exhaustion, the whole body of conditions in short which govern the activity both in peace and war of man and beast. It was to this absolutely complete knowledge of practical details that Wellington ascribed in great part his own success in the highest commands. It is probable, moreover, that he at this time made a serious study of the science and history of warfare. His training at the college of Angers is not sufficient to account for his great technical knowledge; no record, however, exists of the stages by which this was acquired. In 1798 Colonel Wellesley s eldest brother, Lord Mornington, afterwards marquis of Wellesley, arrived in India as governor-general. The war with Tippoo Saib followed. The 33d regiment was attached to the subsidiary force furnished by the nizam, and Colonel Wellesley was entrusted with the command of this division, under the orders of General Harris. In a preliminary attack upon the works of Seringapatam Wellesley met with a repulse ; in the successful assault upon the town he commanded the reserve. Though his military services in this short campaign were not of a striking character, he was appointed by his brother to the supreme military and political command in Mysore. His great faculties now for the first time found opportunity for their exercise. In the settlement and administration of the conquered territory Wellesley rapidly acquired the habits and experience of a statesman. Nor, in the midst of his work of peaceful reorganization, was it possible for him to abandon the life of the soldier. The frontiers of Mysore were harassed by independent chieftains or marauders, especially by one Doondiah, an energetic leader, who had assumed the title of &quot; the king of two worlds.&quot; Wellesley s operations against Doondiah were conducted with extraordinary energy ; his marches in pursuit were prodigious, and his final success complete. More im portant, however, than the military side of these operations was their political character. AVhen pressed in Mysore, Doondiah moved into Mahratta territory, and into this territory it was necessary for Wellesley to follow him. Here, negotiating and bargaining with the Mahratta chiefs, Wellesley acquired a knowledge of their affairs and an in fluence over them such as no other Englishman possessed. Simple and honourable himself, he was shrewd and pene trating in his judgment of Orientals ; and, unlike his great predecessor Clive, he rigidly adhered to the rule of good faith in his own actions, however depraved and however exasperating the conduct of those with whom he had to deal. The result of Wellesley s singular personal ascend ency among the Mahrattas came into full view when the Mahratta war broke out. In the meantime, however, his Indian career seemed likely to be sacrificed to the calls of warfare in another quarter. Wellesley was ordered by the governor-general, in December 1800, to take command of a body of troops collected for foreign service at Trincoma- lee, in Ceylon. It was at first intended that these troops should act against Java or Mauritius ; their destination was, however, altered to Egypt, and a notification was made to Wellesley that in consequence of this change General Baird would be placed in command above him. Though deeply offended at the loss of the command, Wellesley so completely sank all personal grievance in his devotion to the public cause that, in opposition to his instructions, and at the risk of incurring severe censure, he moved the troops on his own responsibility from Trincomalee to Bombay, from the conviction that, if they were to be of any use in Egypt, it was absolutely necessary that they should provision at Bombay without delay. The documents in which Wellesley justified this step prove his singularly clear and profound acquaintance with the conditions of a successful invasion of Egypt from India. At Bombay Wellesley was attacked by fever, and prevented from going on to Egypt. He returned with great satis faction to his government in Mysore, where he remained until the Mahratta war broke out. The power of the Mahratfe peshwa, nominally supreme in the Mahratta territory, had war- been overthrown by his rivals Holkar and others, and he had himself fled from Poona to Bassein on the coast. By the treaty of Bassein, made in December 1802, the Indian Government entered into an alliance with this potentate, and pledged itself to restore his authority. Wellesley was placed in command of the army charged with this task. Starting from Seringapatam, he crossed the frontier on March 12, 1803, and moved through the southern Mahratta territory on Poona. The march was one unbroken success. Wellesley s own arrangements, which displayed the utmost forethought and sagacity in dealing with the physical conditions to be encountered on the march, would no doubt have secured his victory had resistance been encountered; but his personal and diplo matic ascendency among the chieftains of the district worked even more powerfully than the fear of his arms. No hand was raised against him, and a march of six hundred miles was conducted without even a skirmish. &quot; The confidence and respect of every class in the provinces south of the Kistna,&quot; wrote Major Malcolm, the political agent who accompanied the march, &quot;is in a very great degree personal to Major-General Wellesley. To the admiration which the Mahratta chiefs entertain for that officer s military character, and the firm reliance which the inhabitants place on his justice and protection, the extra ordinary success which has hitherto attended the progress of the march must be principally attributed.&quot; Wellesley had intended to reach Poona on the 23d of April. On the night of the 18th, when 60 miles distant from Poona, he re ceived intelligence that Amrut Rao, a rival of the peshwa s, intended to burn the city at the approach of the English. Counting no moment to be lost, Wellesley pressed on with the cavalry, accomplished the march of 60 miles in thirty- two hours, and entered Poona on the afternoon of the 20th, in time to save the city from destruction. The peshwa was now restored to power, and entered into various military obligations with Wellesley, which he very imper fectly fulfilled. In the meantime Sindhia and Holkar, with the raja of Berar, maintained a doubtful but threatening aspect farther north. It was uncertain whether or not a con federacy of the northern Mahrattas had been formed against the British Government. In these critical circum stances, while peace and war hung in the balance, Wellesley was charged with &quot; the general direction and control of all the military and political affairs of the British Government in the territories of the nizam, of the peshwa, and of the Mahratta states and chiefs.&quot; Acting in execution of these powers, he required Sindhia, as a proof of good faith, to withdraw to the north of the Nerbudda. Sindhia not doing so, war was declared on August 6, 1803. Wellesley marched northwards, captured Ahmadnagar on August 11, crossed the Godavery ten days later, and moved against the combined forces of Sindhia and the rajah of Berar. Colonel Stevenson was meanwhile approaching with a second division from the east, and it was intended that the two corps should unite in an attack on the enemy. On the 23d of September Wellesley supposed himself to be still some miles from the Mahratta headquarters ; he suddenly found that the entire forces of Sindhia and the rajah of Berar were close in front of him at Assaye. Weighing the dangers of delay, of retreat, and of an attack with his own unsupported division, Wellesley convinced himself that an immediate attack, though against greatly