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152 the Húglí for Madras. A few days later Coote himself, at the Council's request, sailed from Calcutta to command the army destined to retrieve the disasters and disgrace of the past month.

About the same time Hastings ventured upon another of those 'frantic military exploits' which have helped so largely to the making of our Indian Empire, and have poured a halo of romance over so many pages of our national history. Mindful of Goddard's brilliant march in twenty days from Bundelkhand to Surat, he prepared to send another Bengal column overland to the scene of danger; a distance of 700 miles. In January, 1781, Colonel Thomas Pearse began his march from Midnapur southwards through Orissa, a province then occupied by troops from Berár, whose Rájá had just declined to mediate with the Court of Poona. But Hastings was not to be daunted by the first obstacle that crossed his path. 'Acts,' he wrote, 'that proclaim confidence and a determined spirit in the hour of adversity, are the surest means of retrieving it. Self-distrust will never fail to create a distrust in others, and make them become your enemies; for in no part of the world is the principle of supporting a rising interest and depressing a falling one more prevalent than in India.

Pearse was ordered to march on at all risks, but to avoid a collision with the Berár troops. Anderson's diplomacy, backed by liberal offers of money and help