Page:Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan.djvu/9



following sketch of the Musalmán usurpation in Mysore is an attempt to present in a popular form the career of one of the most remarkable personages who have played their parts on the stage of Indian history, together with that of his equally remarkable son–the first distinguished by the energy, enterprise, and daring which enabled him to seize a throne, and the second by his bigotry, his hostility to the English, and the fatuous obstinacy which cost him his crown and his life.

The materials for such a memoir, although often contradictory, according to the source whence they are derived, are sufficiently copious for the greater part of the narrative. The conflicting views of English, French, and native authorities regarding Haidar Alí and his son make it difficult to form an absolutely correct estimate of their career, while the limited space at his disposal precludes the writer from doing full justice to the course of events referred to in the narrative. It was a period, however, of vital importance to the future supremacy of the British in India,