The First Anglo-Mysore War: Battles, Strategy and British Defeat

On the death of Aurangzeb in 1707 A.D., rapid disintegration set in throughout the Mughal dominions. Daud Khan, who was left in command of the Carnatic provinces, moved northwards shortly after, nominating as his deputy Sadat-ulla Khan. The territory directly under Sadat-ulla Khan comprised Carnatic Haidarabad, Payinghat, and Carnatic Bijapur, which by this time had come to be known as the provinces of Arcot and Sira respectively. Meanwhile, in Mysore, Chikka Deva Raja had been succeeded by his son, a deaf-mute, and thenceforward that state was ruled by its ministers in the names of puppet Rajas.

Sadat-ulla Khan at first enjoyed, under the suzerainty of the Nizam, undivided control of the two Carnatics, but after four years his jurisdiction was restricted to the province of Arcot, and a new Nawab, Amin Khan, was appointed for Sira. Sadat-ulla Khan resented the removal of the rich State of Mysore from his jurisdiction, and formed a conspiracy with the Nawabs of Cuddapah, Kurnool, and Savanur, and the Maratha chief Morari Rao Ghorpade of Gooty, to seize it. The new Nawab, Amin Khan, compromised by suggesting joint action against the Raja of Mysore, and the confederates levied blackmail to the extent of a crore of rupees. Thenceforward the funds of the unfortunate State of Mysore were regarded as the lawful property of anyone strong enough to demand their surrender.

Meanwhile, one Abdul Nabi Khan, the Pathan Nawab of Cuddapah, theoretically subordinate to Zulfikar Khan, the officer holding joint command of the Carnatics, absorbed four of the five Circars of Carnatic Haidarabad. Before Nizam-ul-Mulk, the first Nizam of Haiderabad, had consolidated his power, Abdul Nabi Khan had become practically independent. He extended his possessions southward along the Eastern Ghats, nearly to the Kaveri, and by 1714 A.D. had made himself master of the Baramahal.

Mysore was one of those provinces that had sprung up after the dissolution of the Vijayanagar kingdom. After reigning for two centuries the Hindu line of princes had grown ineffectual, and their authority was usurped by a prime minister named Nanjeraj.

Under the auspices of Nanjeraj, the celebrated Haidar Ali first rose to prominence. Born in 1702, the son of a petty officer, he began his career with command of a small body of horse and foot, and was soon promoted to the charge of the province of Dindigul, where, through consummate dissimulation and indiscriminate plunder, he steadily increased the forces under his command and paved the way to supplanting the supplanter of the Mysore Raj.

An inroad by the Marathas, which reduced the minister to the greatest straits, gave Haidar his first real opportunity. He came to Nanjeraj’s assistance with the money needed to meet the Maratha demand, and received extensive jaghires in acknowledgment.

By gradually increasing the obligations under which the minister lay, Haidar managed in time to acquire nearly half the dominions of the Mysore Raj. But eventually the jealousy of his patron was awakened, and an army was sent that totally defeated Haidar. He lost none of his self-possession, however; cunningly throwing his pursuer off guard, he raised another army, presented himself before the Mysore capital, and demanded payment of his debts. Payment being impossible, the Raja yielded to necessity and resigned his authority to Haidar, on condition of receiving liberal assignments from the revenues of the province for himself and his minister.

After the death of Nizam-ul-Mulk in 1748, a war of succession followed in which the French and English took sides and for the first time came into political prominence. Nanja Raj, Chief Minister of Mysore, tried to secure the cession of Trichinopoly from Muhammed Ali, Nawab of Arcot, and then intrigued with the French. His share in the war cost him money but brought no gain. It was in this war that the obscure adventurer Haidar Ali became the most powerful subject in the service of Mysore.

On 22 January 1760, the French were vanquished by the British at Wandiwash. The French General Lally, as a last resort, appealed to Haidar for help. Haidar sent his brother-in-law, Makhdum Ali, to Pondicherry to negotiate a treaty by which Mysore would receive Tiyaga, a fort commanding the Attur Pass, and, at the conclusion of the war, Trichinopoly, Madurai, and Tinnevelly. Makhdum Ali reached Pondicherry before the end of June and ratified the treaty, but was recalled with all his forces by Haidar’s urgent need at home: the conspiracy of Khande Rao with the puppet Raja and the Marathas had nearly ended Haidar’s career. Makhdum Ali, after hard fighting, reached as far as Kelamangalam and occupied Anchettidurgam, where he was closely blockaded, and every attempt by Haidar’s force at Anekal to relieve him failed.

Haidar then resorted to bribing the Marathas to desert Khande Rao. The bribe succeeded: three lakhs were paid and the Baramahal was ceded. Haidar joined his brother-in-law, defeated Khande Rao, and assumed supreme control of Mysore’s affairs.

In 1761 the Marathas were destroyed at the Third Battle of Panipat, fighting against the Afghan Abdali. That same year, emboldened by the catastrophe at Panipat, Haidar Ali usurped the government of Mysore outright.

There followed a temporary lull in the strife between England and France, brought about by the Treaty of Paris of 1763. Nizam Ali had usurped the soubedari of the Deccan, and French recognition of his claims had made Muhammed Ali’s Nawabship more secure.

The year 1766 saw the death of the Raja Chick Kishen Raj, whose nominal honours passed to his son, Nanjiraj Wadiyar. Haidar, having by then reduced Malabar to subjection, was free to grapple with the triple alliance forming between the English, Nizam Ali, and the Marathas.

Haidar’s rising power had already led the Marathas to send an expedition against him in 1765. He was defeated and forced to cede a large extent of territory besides paying a heavy indemnity. Within a year, however, he proved that his resources were far from exhausted, extending his territory by fresh acquisitions on the Western Coast — which led the Nizam and the Marathas to form the confederacy referred to above, with the aim of effectually humbling his pride.

The English were invited to join in crushing the man truthfully described as the common enemy to the peace of Southern India, and they agreed to join the confederacy. This led to the war of 1767–69, a war the English entered against Haidar without any real provocation, and indeed in blindness to their own interests, which at the time were bound up with the maintenance of Haidar’s independence.

The British administration had considered Haidar’s rising power a mere adventure. But the British were compelled to wage four major wars against Haidar and his equally formidable son Tipu to establish their supremacy in the Carnatic. These conflicts are known to history as the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Mysore Wars.

Reasons for the War

Haidar Ali, in alliance with Basalat Jang, brother of the Haidarabad Nizam, drove the Marathas out of Sira, made Basalat Jang Nawab of Sira, and bestowed a title upon him. This seizure of Sira was regarded by the Marathas as an insult, and brought speedy retribution. In 1764 the Peshwa himself invaded Mysore; by June, Haidar had suffered a crushing defeat, and in February of the following year he bought off the Marathas with an indemnity of thirty-two lakhs. In 1766 the pageant Raja died, and his son, a youth of eighteen, was placed on the throne by Haidar. The young prince chafed against Haidar’s authority; Haidar confiscated all his property and placed him in confinement — an act that determined the Marathas and Nizam Ali, and precipitated the First Mysore War.

The war of 1767–69 was a sequel to the treaty of 12 November 1766 between the Company, represented by General Calliaud, and Nizam Ali. In pursuance of their undertaking, the Marathas, the Nizam, and the English agreed on plans for a joint invasion of Haidar’s territory.

Early Advances by the Maratha and Nizam’s Forces, and Haidar’s Strategy

It was arranged that the Nizam, together with the English, should reduce the fort of Bangalore, while the Marathas advanced across the Kistna in pursuit of an attack on Mysore. Early in 1767 the advance was made, but Haidar succeeded in buying off the Marathas.

The Marathas moved first, early in March 1767, before their allies could join them, and had overrun the Mysore dominions as far as the Baramahal, bringing Haidar to his knees. He agreed to withdraw from the war on payment of seventeen and a half lakhs in cash, with Kolar District pledged as security for a like sum in addition. The balance was paid in early May, and on the 11th of that month the Marathas finally moved northward. Soon after, Haidar detached the Nizam as well from the confederacy.

Meanwhile the Nizam’s army had, by 9 March, reached the Tungabhadra and been joined by Colonel Joseph Smith with six battalions of infantry and some guns. On 24 March the allies learned that the Marathas had been bribed to withdraw.

Colonel Smith soon discovered that Haidar was making overtures to the Nizam as well, overtures the latter was prepared to accept. Smith, who commanded the Madras army, therefore had to act alone. He had marched without delay into the Baramahal, but on perceiving unmistakable signs of the Nizam’s defection, retired toward the Carnatic frontier.

He accordingly withdrew part of his force, though the Madras Government insisted that three battalions remain in the Nizam’s camp. This force was soon afterward permitted by the Nizam to depart, within a few days of the actual outbreak of hostilities between Haidar and the British.

British Conquest of the Baramahal

While the Nizam’s army approached Bangalore from the north, a force of three thousand foot, five hundred of them British, was sent from Madras to seize the Baramahal. The mud forts of Vaniyambadi, Tiruppattur, and Kaveripatnam fell without serious opposition, and on 3 June an unsuccessful attempt was made to storm Krishnagiri. The siege was then converted into a blockade, which absorbed the energies of the whole force and precluded further active operations.

On his return from the Nizam’s camp near Bangalore, Colonel Smith was directed to assume general command of the British troops in the Baramahal. In late August the combined armies of Haidar and Nizam Ali descended the Krishnagiri passes, and on the 25th the transport cattle near the British camp at Kakankarai were surprised and driven off.

Haidar, on advancing and descending the ghats, received a decided check on 25 August at Chengam, and subsequently suffered a further defeat at Tiruvannamalai; but despite these reverses he made his way to Vellore and encamped there during the rains. Colonel Smith at the same time withdrew his forces into cantonments at Wandiwash, Conjeevaram, and Trichinopoly.

The transport cattle grazing near the British camp at Kakankarai, surprised and driven off in late August, prompted Smith’s cavalry to move out hastily for their recovery; they were unexpectedly assailed by superior numbers under Makhdum Ali, who charged into the very lines of the encampment, destroyed about a third of their number, and carried off most of the cattle.

The same evening Haidar appeared before Kaveripatnam and delivered two assaults on the three companies held by Captain McKain, both repulsed; but McKain, finding the place untenable, capitulated on 27 August.

By this time Colonel Wood was advancing with reinforcements from Trichinopoly toward Tiruvannamalai, and it became vital that Colonel Smith join him. Smith, crippled by the loss of cattle on the 25th, could not move until the 28th. He fell back eastward, reaching Singarapet on the 30th, Pallipatti on the 31st, and Chengam on 1 September, with Haidar following close on his heels.

It was fortunate for the British that Haidar did not forestall them and seize the Chengam Pass. On 2 September, Smith turned at bay at Chengam and won a victory, then proceeded to Tiruvannamalai.

There, on the 26th, he brought on a pitched battle with Haidar and won a decisive victory. The Nizam and his army fled; fifty-five field pieces were taken, and Haidar was compelled to retire into the Baramahal. Colonel Smith proceeded to Madras hoping to improve the supply departments.

Haidar, encouraged by the continued inactivity of the British, resumed the offensive, recaptured Tiruppattur on the 5th and Vaniyambadi on the 7th, and appeared before Ambur on the 10th. Vaniyambadi was surrendered by Captain Robinson on parole not to serve again during the war — a promise he subsequently broke.

The Ambur Episode, 1767

Haidar was engaged in investing Amburdrug, a fort of considerable strength built upon the summit of a rocky hill accessible from only one side. The place was invested on 10 November, and within five days the lower fort was so dismantled that Captain Calvert, the English commander, was obliged to retire to the citadel on the summit. His garrison consisted of but one commissioned officer, a sergeant, and fifteen European soldiers, with five hundred sepoys. The fort had, during the early part of the campaign, been left in command of its Muslim killadar, Kuchlis Khan, whom Haidar had secretly persuaded to betray it. The plot was discovered, but only at the critical moment when Calvert was driven from the lower fort. He promptly committed the traitor and his principal officers to confinement in the drug, disarmed the disaffected troops, and set them to menial work connected with the siege.

The defence of the upper fort was protracted for many days; repeated surprise attacks were defeated by the garrison’s vigilance, and Haidar, in despair, tried whether the European commandant could be bought as the Muslim killadar had been. Calvert replied that the bearer of any second such proposal would be hanged in sight of the whole Mysore army, and Haidar was obliged to continue active operations.

News of Ambur’s critical condition reached Colonel Smith, who arrived before the fort on 7 December, causing Haidar to raise the siege and retire to Kaveripak. Captain Calvert’s spirited defence of Ambur thus ended with the appearance of Colonel Smith’s detachment from Vellore.

The following day Smith came in touch with Haidar at Vaniyambadi. Haidar fought a rear-guard action, retiring as soon as his retreat was secured, and abandoning Vaniyambadi.

Battle in the Ghats

At this point the allies learned of demonstrations by the Bombay Government against Mysore from the West Coast, by Bengal troops from the Northern Circars against Haidarabad, and of a revolt by the Nayars of Malabar. In consequence, Haidar, on 14 December, sent his heavy guns and baggage westward with Tipu, and four days later the Nizam hurriedly re-ascended the ghats.

Before following his main army, Haidar made one vigorous personal attempt to cut off a convoy of the 1st Battalion of sepoys, in charge of provisions, advancing under Captain R. V. Fitzgerald from Tiruvannamalai. Smith anticipated the move and sent Major Thomas Fitzgerald with two companies of Grenadiers, the 5th Battalion of sepoys, and two field-pieces to reinforce the convoy before Haidar could attack it. Haidar attacked the united forces in person on 29 December, with a force of four thousand horse, two thousand foot, and five guns, and was badly beaten. Immediately after, Haidar followed his main army up the ghats, leaving Makhdum Sahib with a strong force, mainly cavalry, to watch the British and harass their supplies. At the same time the British army was compelled to fall back eastward to save itself from starvation.

Tipu’s Plundering of St. Thome

In 1767, after constant vacillation, the British concluded a treaty with the Nizam for the invasion of Mysore, agreeing to unite their forces with the Nizam’s on the northern frontier of that province. This sudden change of policy was chiefly induced by Haidar Ali’s open espousal of the claim of Maphuze Khan, elder brother of Muhammed Ali, to the Nabobship of the Carnatic.

The forces united only to prove the folly of the scheme, for the Nizam — like the Marathas before him — was bribed to side with Haidar, for whom he presently declared openly, leaving the British commander, Colonel Joseph Smith, to make his way back to his own territory as best he could. He managed to seize the Pass of Chengama, fourteen miles west of Tirunámalei in South Arcot, and held it stoutly against overwhelming odds, retreating to Tiruvannamalai, whence, reinforced, he eventually sallied out and inflicted a complete defeat on the united forces near the town. The Nizam and Haidar retired during the monsoon to the Baramahal, mutually disgusted with one another.

Tipu, Haidar’s son, then only seventeen, had been sent under the guidance of Ghazu Khan, a trusted partisan, to ravage the country around Madras. He advanced to the Choultry Plain, pillaged St. Thome and the neighbouring villages, and plundered the country houses of the Members of Council at the Mount. The Government, powerless, wrote home that continual reinforcements sent to camp had reduced their garrison so low that they were obliged to confine their attention entirely to preserving the Fort and the Black Town, arming for the purpose all the Company’s civil servants, the European inhabitants, Armenians, and Portuguese. They also begged for reinforcements from home.

The Kaveripatnam Episode

For seven months Haidar was fully occupied with affairs in the north and west, leaving the field clear for the British forces — though divided counsels paralysed efficient action.

On 20 January 1768 Haidar marched to the West Coast, reduced Mangalore in May, and, returning to Mysore, sent his army to Bangalore while he himself went to Bednore. After regulating his affairs there and elsewhere, he was free by August to operate again from Bangalore against the English.

The English had failed to take advantage of the open field afforded by Haidar’s absence during those seven months, owing to divided councils between the Commander-in-Chief and the Government of Madras. Colonel Smith was unwilling to advance into the Mysore plateau, given the difficulty of obtaining supplies; his proposed line of action was to occupy the whole country contiguous to the frontier, from Vaniyambadi through the Baramahal and Talaghat down to Dindigul and Palghat, establishing depots as a base for later operations. The Government at Madras, on the other hand, not fully appreciating the obstacles of an advance into enemy territory, wanted to march directly on Bangalore and Seringapatam. The result was a plan devised to carry out both projects with a force inadequate to either.

The English were, however, not wholly idle from January to August 1768. The army was formed into two columns: one under Colonel Smith, with fifteen hundred Europeans and seven thousand five hundred sepoys, to invade the Balaghat, and another under Colonel Wood, with six hundred Europeans and four thousand four hundred sepoys, to reduce the lowland forts in detail. On 23 February, Colonel Smith appeared before Kaveripatnam, which was promptly abandoned, and he then received orders to proceed to the Nizam’s camp at Punganur.

The Nizam had made overtures of peace to Colonel Smith as early as December 1767, and a treaty between the Nizam and the Nawab was concluded on 23 February and signed by the Council on the 26th. Smith shortly afterward returned to the Baramahal and undertook the blockade of Krishnagiri, which surrendered on 2 May 1768.

A second division of the army, meanwhile, was employed under Colonel Wood, who, after capturing the remaining fortified places at the southern end of the Baramahal, proceeded with rapid success to reduce those in the districts of Salem, Erode, Coimbatore, and Dindigul. Haidar had the mortification of hearing of the successive fall of nearly every fortified place in those provinces, Bankagiridurgam alone excepted. Tenkaraikottai, the first place attacked, made a respectable defence but capitulated on the eve of assault. Dharmapuri, though of little strength, was commanded by a brave officer with troops unworthy of him; it was carried by assault, and the resulting slaughter cast such terror before Colonel Wood’s advance that it proved more effective than his cannon. Erode alone, a place of fiscal importance but no military strength, withstood the assault, encouraged by a body of horse who promised to charge the flank and rear of the assailants, and made a feeble effort to do so. All the other places, including Namakkal and Dindigul, though built on hills of granite, surrendered without even a token defence.

Hostilities at Krishnagiri and Its Surroundings

On 8 June an advanced detachment of the British army under Colonel Donald Campbell moved from Krishnagiri and ascended the Budikota Pass; on the 10th, Venkatagirikota was occupied and the direct road to Vellore, via Peddanayakan durgam, secured. Mulbagal was taken on the 23rd, Kolar on the 28th. Meanwhile Colonel Smith had ascended the Budikota Ghat with the main army and arrived at Araleri, where he directed Colonel Campbell to rejoin him.

Capture of Bagalur and Hosur

On 3 July the united forces moved via Bagalur for the siege of Hosur, which fell on the 11th. The Poligar of Bagalur, a feudatory of Haidar, prudently abstained from hostilities with the English, while representing to Haidar his inability to resist and the need to temporize until a better opportunity arose to demonstrate his allegiance.

Shortly after the fall of Hosur, a detachment under Colonel Cosby seized Anekal and Denkanikota. At Hosur, Smith was joined by the advance guard of Morari Rao, the Maratha ruler of Gooty, whose services had been bargained for and secured by the British. Smith then moved to Hoskote, where on 4 August he was joined by Morari Rao in person. That same day Haidar re-entered Bangalore. His first move was a night attack on Morari Rao’s camp at Hoskote, which was repulsed on 22 August. Both armies then turned their attention to the advance of Colonel Wood.

Colonel Wood’s Movements over Salem, Attur, Dharmapuri, and Elsewhere

Colonel Wood had begun his task of reducing the lowland forts with the siege of Tenkaraikottai, which capitulated on the eve of assault, on 12 February. Dharmapuri was carried by assault; the slaughter of the defenders was so severe that only one other garrison, that of Erode, dared face Wood’s storming party. The forts of Salem, Attur, Sendamangalam, and Namakkal surrendered without a blow. Wood then crossed the Kaveri, secured the plateau, and penetrated to Palghat. He then received orders to join Smith in Mysore and, marching via the Toppur Pass, reached Krishnagiri on 1 September.

Offering the Cession of the Baramahal

Haidar, carefully concealing his movements, had taken up a position at a bend of the defile up which Wood had to march, such that he could enfilade the advancing troops from a chosen position and, in the ensuing confusion, annihilate the British force. As Smith advanced, he received early intelligence of Wood’s and Haidar’s movements and realised that Haidar could be trapped, and sent messengers to warn Colonel Wood.

On reaching the corner of the defile, Smith and Haidar were startled by a regular salute Colonel Wood thought proper in honour of Colonel Smith. The warning was enough: Haidar withdrew, and Smith and Wood joined their forces without opposition, though the chance to deal the enemy a severe blow was lost. Haidar then offered the cession of the Baramahal and an indemnity of ten lakhs as the price of peace. The terms were rejected — a rashness the Government would soon regret.

Attacks on Hosur

The British army next moved on Kolar, while Haidar recovered Mulbagal. On 3 October, Wood retook the Peta but failed at the Fort; the following day Wood was attacked in force by Haidar and barely escaped defeat.

On 14 November, Smith set out from Kolar toward Venkatagirikota with Muhammed Ali and two deputies, whom the Government had thought fit to attach to their Commander-in-Chief. On the first day’s march, news arrived that Haidar was attacking Hosur.

On 16 November, Wood marched to relieve Hosur, reaching Bagalur on the 17th and depositing his baggage, camp equipage, and surplus stores there, with two brass eighteen-pounders, in preparation for a night attack on Haidar’s camp. Wood started from Bagalur at ten at night and reached Hosur at seven the following morning.

Haidar allowed him to enter the fort unmolested; only at two in the afternoon did the sound of firing to the north reveal the true situation. Wood hastily retraced his steps to Bagalur, but arrived too late: Haidar, without attacking the Fort, had entered the Peta, packed nearly all the stores and baggage of the British army onto his carts and gun-carriages, and marched them off to Bangalore with the two eighteen-pounders. By the time Wood reached Bagalur, nearly the whole of Haidar’s army was out of sight. A dreadful panic in the Peta had resulted in the loss of over two thousand human lives and as many bullocks.

On 20 November, Wood returned to Hosur and gave the garrison what ammunition and stores he could spare. On the 21st he marched via Bagalur to Araleri, where he was attacked in force by Haidar on the 22nd and 23rd, and was saved from annihilation only by the arrival of Major Fitzgerald after a forced march from Venkatagiri. Colonel Wood was consequently sent under arrest to Madras, with Colonel Lang assuming command.

Haidar, now temporarily free of Colonel Smith, the only opponent he truly feared, prepared to carry the war into enemy territory. Early in November, Fazl-ulla Khan moved by way of Gajalhatti and the Kaveripuram Pass on Coimbatore, where nearly every post fell into his hands.

Learning that this descent into Coimbatore would be completed by 4 December, Haidar descended eastward into the Baramahal on 6 December by the pass of Palakod, and thence southward through the pass of Thopur. Colonel Lang, now commanding in Mysore, on receiving this long-foreseen intelligence, detached a light but efficient division of five thousand of his best troops under Major Fitzgerald, which marched on the 10th.

On 6 December, Haidar himself marched into the Baramahal via Palakodu and debouched on the Talaghat through the Toppur Pass. Four days later Major Fitzgerald set out in pursuit with his select force of five thousand men, but could not overtake him. Colonel Wood’s short-lived conquests in the Baramahal and Salem, garrisoned mostly by the Nawab’s troops without any mixture of English sepoys, fell one after another: Dharmapuri on 6 December, Tenkaraikottai on the 7th, Omalur on the 12th, Salem on the 15th, Namakkal on the 17th, Karur on the 19th, Erode on the 25th, and Dindigul on the 31st. Fitzgerald pushed straight for Trichinopoly, while Lang fell back from Kolar on Vellore. Within six weeks Haidar had won back every post taken from him except Krishnagiri, Venkatagirikota, and Kolar.

Haidar, descending through the Palakod Pass, was preceded by emissaries in every direction announcing that he had defeated and destroyed the English army and was about to reoccupy his own posts in the lower country preparatory to the conquest of Madras. The garrisons — excepting Erode and Kaveripuram — fell as if a magic wand had accompanied the summons. Major Fitzgerald, following with rapid strides, had the mortification of hearing, at each successive march, of the surrender of the very place he next hoped to relieve.

Haidar’s Intentions to Seize Tiruchirappalli

As Fitzgerald approached the Kaveri, he learned that Haidar had crossed, or was about to cross, the river a little east of Karur, and had determined to leave Fazl-ulla to invest that place and Erode, while he himself proceeded with the main army to attempt Trichinopoly, or to levy contributions on Tanjore and the southern provinces. Deeming Erode safe for the present — knowing that at least two hundred Europeans, twelve hundred regular sepoys, eight pieces of good battering cannon, and two mortars had been allotted to its defence — and knowing Trichinopoly to be defenceless, its troops having been drawn off for the Coimbatore campaign, Fitzgerald inclined eastward to protect the more important objective. This movement sent Haidar in the opposite direction. Karur fell with little resistance, and he moved up the right bank of the Kaveri for the siege of Erode.

The year 1768 closed with the capture of Erode and Kaveripuram, the former disgracefully surrendered by the same Captain Robinson whose earlier breach of parole has already been noted.

Within six weeks of Fazl-ulla Khan’s operations beginning, Haidar had regained all the territory wrested from him in two campaigns, except for Kolar and Venkatagiri — two untenable posts — and Krishnagiri, whose garrison remained safely perched on its rock without much bearing on the war’s future course.

While Fazl-ulla Khan operated from Dindigul against Madurai and Tinnevelly, Haidar moved along the northern bank of the Kaveri eastward, ravaged Trichinopoly, exacted a contribution from the Raja of Tanjore as ransom for his territory, and then marched northward toward Cuddalore, the English retreating before him along the coast, while Colonel Lang fell back from Kolar and the Baramahal on Vellore for the greater security of the metropolis.

Haidar Invades the Carnatic and Ends the First War

Abortive peace negotiations were then opened by the Madras Government, in which, judged by the light of later events, the manly, statesmanlike demeanour of Haidar contrasts pitiably with the blindness of the Nawab’s dupes.

Hostilities resumed on 6 March, and after a series of rapid movements in which Colonel Smith’s masterly dispositions often embarrassed him, Haidar, when a hundred and forty miles south of Madras, suddenly sent the bulk of his army, guns, and baggage through the Baramahal by the Attur Pass, keeping only six thousand cavalry and two hundred chosen infantry for his own purpose. Then, eluding Colonel Smith, he marched a hundred and thirty miles in three and a half days and took up quarters at Little Mount, five miles from Madras.

At Haidar’s request the Government sent out Mr. Du Pre to negotiate terms, and the result was a humiliating treaty establishing an offensive and defensive alliance. All prisoners and places taken during the war were to be restored, including a number of relatives of Chanda Sahib and the former Nawab, then prisoners in Muhammed Ali’s hands. Haidar Ali, appearing on 29 March before Madras, again made overtures for peace, which, after some manoeuvring, were concluded on 3 April.

Haidar dictated peace on his own terms. A treaty signed on 3 April 1769 stipulated the mutual restitution of prisoners and places and a mutual defensive alliance. This war, provoked entirely by the Council of Fort St. George in breach of the orders and policy of the Court of Directors, thus ended in humiliation for the British, and a considerable increase to the Company’s debt.

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