Page:History of the French in India.djvu/573

 clive's dakixg genius. 547 may have been, it is certain that, three months after ^f/' the departure of Bussy from the Dakhan, Raja Anan-. '„ daraj, ruler of the Srikakolam and Rajamahendri, 1758. raising the standard of revolt, took possession of Vizagapatam, plundered the factory, confined the French agent, hoisted English colours, and wrote to Madras for assistance. Threatened as Madras then was by Lally, aid from it was impossible ; whereupon the Raja appealed in despair to Clive. No one knew better than Clive how to seize an opportunity, no one was more acquainted than he with the advantages which the possession of the Sirkars would infallibly bring in its train. Overruling the advice of the Calcutta Council, who regarded interference in that quarter as little short of madness, he wrote to the Raja promis- ing speedy support, and despatched by sea on October 12, Colonel Forde at the head of 500 Europeans, 2,000 sipahis, and eighteen guns. The fact that, by the despatch of this force, he left himself in Bengal with little more than 300 Europeans at a time when a hostile feeling had risen in the mind of Mir Jafar, and when Bihar was threatened by the united forces of the son of the Emperor of Delhi, and by the Nawwab Wazir of Oudh, testifies in no slight degree to the strong, fearless, and intrepid character of the founder of the British Empire in India. Meanwhile, Conflans was acting in such a manner as to facilitate the plans of the English. Instead of march- ing rapidly upon Vizagapatam and crushing the rebel- lion in its bud, before the rebels could receive assistance from outside, he contented himself with sending repeated applications to Lally for support, whilst he moved leisurely against Rajamahendri. He occupied that town, and was still encamped on the northern bank of the river of the same name, when intelligence reached him that an English force had, on October 20, landed at Vizagapatam. To him intelligence of that nature NN 2