Page:Sir Thomas Munro and the British Settlement of the Madras Presidency.djvu/62

 54 SIR THOMAS MUNRO

ratifying the definitive treaty, that notwithstanding his having already sent his two eldest sons as hostages, and a million sterling, it was believed that hostilities would be renewed. His Lordship furnished him with the means of protraction by adopting a revenue instead of a geographical division of his country. It was stipulated that the confederates were to take portions of his territories contiguous to their own, and by their own choice, which should amount to half his revenue. He was desired to send out an account of his revenues, that the selection might be made. He replied that he had none — that they had all been lost at Bangalore and other places ; and on being told that in that case the allies would make the partition agreeable to statements in their own possession, he sent out accounts in which the frontier countries were overrated, and all those in the centre of his kingdom, which he knew he would retain for himself, undervalued. The fabrication was obvious, not only in this particular, but also in his diminishing the total amount of his revenue about thirty lacs of rupees. The confederates, however, after a few days, consented to submit to this double loss for the sake of peace ; but Tipii, after gaining one point, deter- mined to try his success on some others. The value of the whole had been fixed ; but on proceeding to fix that of the districts which were to be ceded, he threw so many obstacles in the way, that the allies found themselves at last compelled to adopt the measure with which they ought to have begun. A list was sent to him, which he was told contained half his