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Rh acquired ten years previously. Here he established an arsenal under the superintendence of French artificers whose services he obtained from Pondicherry. He also augmented the numbers of his troops, and accumulated considerable wealth by plundering the chiefs in the neighbourhood. The position which Haidar thus attained was the foundation of his future influence, although it was not till the acquisition of Bednúr, as will be hereafter related, that he actually usurped the supreme control.