Page:Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan.djvu/134

130 It is not therefore surprising that, after protracted negotiations, in which the Madras envoys were subjected to much humiliation, Tipú signed in March, 1784, a peace for the mutual restitution of the places which the two powers had seized, and for the surrender of all prisoners, a convention by which he sacrificed little, and was able to boast that the English had cringed before him. The natural result was that he re-occupied all the southern part of Malabar, and that the fruits of Fullarton's enterprise were thrown away. Even as regards the hundreds of persons languishing in prison, and the thousands whom Tipú had forcibly carried away from their homes, he studiously evaded surrendering more than a very limited number. Indeed, the great majority of those who had suffered imprisonment had either perished from the hardships they endured, or had met with a violent death at the hands of Tipú's executioners. Many of the English officers, besides General Matthews, had been ruthlessly murdered, by poison or other foul means, while natives of the country had been frequently sent to die at Kabáldrúg.