Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/457

Rh a grove of noble tamarind-trees guarding a heathen temple, with a tank beyond, on whose banks the tall and exquisitely graceful areca-palm is growing, branchless, tapering, slender, and crowned with an evergreen tuft of waving and glittering leaves.

Canara, or Carnata, was anciently a Hindu kingdom, embracing the noble table-land on which Bangalore now stands. Its capital, Bijapore, is now a heap of ruins, covering a surface of many miles. In common with every portion of this thrice-conquered land, the sword and torch have spread desolation and misery through all its borders. Almost within our own day, its king, whose capital was then Mysore, gave Bangalore as a jaghire or fief, from which to support himself while commander of his master's forces, to Hyder Ali. This daring, able, and unscrupulous man, who soon dethroned his sovereign to establish a dynasty of his own, fortified the place strongly, and made it one of his chief strongholds. The fort is in shape an oval, and about a mile in circumference, and is surrounded by a deep ditch. By Hyder and his son it was deemed almost impregnable. But the stronghold did not prove strong enough to resist the cannonade of British artillerists.