Page:History of India Vol 8.djvu/350

 CHAPTER XIV

THE GOVERNOR-GENERALSHIP OF LORD WELLESLEY

1798-1805

Lord Mornington, afterwards Marquis Wellesley, landed at Madras on his way to Calcutta in April, 1798, on the same day when the ambassadors of Tippu disembarked at Mangalore on their return from the Isle of France, bringing a rather shabby collection of volunteers and an assurance from the French governor that his Republic would soon entertain with pleasure Tippu 's offer of alliance and amity. The instructions which had followed the Governor-General unquestionably warranted him in treating these dealings with the French as an act of war on the part of Mysore. "As a general principle," wrote Henry Dundas, President of the Board of Commissioners for Indian affairs, in a letter addressed to him, "I have no hesitation in stating that we are entitled under the circumstances of the present time to consider the admission of any French force into Tippu's army, be it greater or smaller, as direct hostility to us"; and within a few months after reaching Calcutta, Lord Mornington declared that the growth of a French party