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 CHAPTER IX

The Saviour of India

1778-1784

Elliot's death in September on his way to Nágpur proved to Hastings a bitter sorrow and 'an irreparable loss.' Had the young envoy's life been spared, it is possible that Sir Gilbert Elliot, the Lord Minto of Indian history, might have been less forward in after years to vilify and impeach his dead brother's warm friend. In October Hastings was about to recall Colonel Leslie from a command for which he had shown himself unfitted, when Leslie's death cleared the way for his destined successor, Colonel Goddard, 'one of the best executive officers in the service,' who was to take his orders from Bengal alone, and was also empowered to fill Elliot's place in the negotiations with Berár.

Before the close of January, 1779, the new commander had carried his little army without a check from Bundelkhand across the Narbadá to Burhánpur and Surat. But the main purpose of his march had already been defeated by the disastrous blunder-