Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/215

Rh invariably aggrandise his power whilst many adventurers in the same line have repeatedly failed. Setting his talents, perseverance, and policy aside, there is another cause which is not generally known or considered. Other Europeans who have attempted the project which de Boigne realised failed from the want of a fixed and sufficient fund to pay their troops. De Boigne's penetrating genius foresaw and obviated this fatal error. Soon after the establishment of his two brigades, he persuaded Mádhají Sindia to consign some certain pergunnahs for their payments. This was done in 1793. A Jaidad producing sixteen lakhs per annum was granted for the expense of his army, which still continues appropriated to that purpose. * * * This Jaidad has been augmented by the attention and equity of de Boigne to twenty lakhs a year, and is in as high a state of cultivation as the most fertile parts of Banáras; and the ryots are as happy as sensual beings can be, abstracted from intellectual enjoyments."

This contemporary account is in many points confirmed by the remarks given in the memoir of his life published at Chambéry in 1829. "M. de Boigne," it is there stated, "did not limit his cares to the concerns of his army; he directed at the same time his attention to the provinces which Sindia had confided to him. He introduced into them the greatest order. The collection of the public revenue was indeed made by the military authorities according to the custom of