dispossessed by Hyder Ali Khan and Tippoo Sultaun. The early settlement of the country, however, has not been materially delayed by any resistance of this nature. It has, however, been somewhat impeded by the endeavours of a few of the commandants of the principal fortresses to obtain an unreasonable price for their submission, and of others to favour (by a demonstration of an intention to resist) their retreat with the plunder which they had found means to collect. It is to be imputed to one of these causes that the Fort of Gurrumcondah did not surrender to the British detachment by which it was surrounded on behalf of the Nizam, until it had been seriously threatened; and that Lieut.-Colonel Bowser was actually obliged to breach one of the lower walls of the fortress of Gooty before his Highness' garrison was admitted. The refusal of the Kelladar of Jemaulabad (the only place of considerable strength in Canara) to submit to the British Government is to be imputed to a similar cause; but that place will certainly be reduced as soon as the state of the season in Canara will admit of the march of a sufficient force against it; an event which may be expected to have taken place within the course of the month of August.

The only impediment of any importance to the speedy and quiet settlement of the whole of the country assigned to the Rajah of Mysore by the partition treaty, has proceeded from some disturbances which have arisen in the province of Bednore, but which are now happily quelled.

A partizan of the name of Dhoondia, originally in the service of the Patan State of Savanore (or Shanoor) having committed various depredations on the territories of Tippoo Sultaun, had incurred the resentment of that Prince. Tippoo Sultaun having contrived to secure the person of Dhoondia, compelled him to conform to the Mahommedan faith, and afterwards employed him in military service; but, either detecting him in some treacherous projects, or suspecting his fidelity, the Sultaun confined him in irons at Seringapatam some time previous to the commencement of the late war. From this situation he was released, together with several other prisoners, by the inconsiderate humanity of the British troops on the 4th of May. He immediately fled from Seringapatam, and being joined by a few of the Sillahdar cavalry of Tippoo Sultaun's disbanded army, took the direction of Bed

nore, in his way to which province his force received some augmentation, some of the principal Asophs and Killadars in Bednore betrayed their trusts to him; and in this manner many of the principal places of the district had fallen into his hands before it was in the power of Lieut.-General Harris to detach from the army a sufficient force to act against him. In the mean while Dhoondia, had laid the rich country of Bednore under severe contributions, which he exacted with the most unrelenting cruelty, perpetrating throughout the province the most atrocious acts of rapine and murder.

At length a light corps of cavalry and native infantry, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel James Dalrymple of the Madras establishment, moved against Dhoondia from Chitteldroog on the 21st of July, and overtook a party of his banditti, consisting of about 250 horse and 400 infantry. The shocking cruelties which these plunderers had recently committed rendered it necessary to make a severe example; it was, therefore, determined to refuse them quarter, for the purpose of deterring others from similar enormities.

Dhoondia having crossed the Tungbuddra, Hurryhur, a fort on the eastern bank of that river, was taken on the 30th of July by a division of Colonel Dalrymple's detachment.

While Lieutenant-Colonel Dalrymple attacked this banditti on one side, Colonel Stevenson was advancing into Bednore in another direction, at the head of a light force, composed also of native cavalry and infantry. On the 31st of July Colonel Stevenson crossed the Tungbuddra, and advancing against Simoga, took that place by assault on the 8th of August. On the same day the fort of Hoornelly, situated on the western bank of the Tungbuddra, was taken in the same manner by the detachment under the command of Lieut.Colonel Dalrymple.

Both detachments having now effected the passage of the Tungbuddra, it was determined to make a combined attack on the camp of Dhoondia, which occupied a strong position near the town and fort of Shikarpoor. Accordingly Lieut.Colonel Dalrymple, on the 17th of August, charged Dhoondia's cavalry, and drove them with considerable loss into a river situated in their rear. Our infantry at the same time attacked the fort of Shikarpoor, and carried it by assault;

Dhoondia escaped by means of a boat prepared for the occasion.

Colonel Stevenson (the progress of whose detachment had been impeded by difficult roads) now arrived and assumed, as senior officer, the command of the united detachments, and immediately pursued Dhoondia so closely as to compel him to take refuge in the Mahratta territory, within the limits of which Colonel Stevenson, on the 20th of August, saw him encamp with the remnant of his banditti, which it would have been easy for Colonel Stevenson to have taken or destroyed had he been at liberty to pass beyond the boundary of the Mahratta dominion. But my particular orders having strictly prohibited any violation of the frontier of the Mahratta empire, Colonel Stevenson, with great judgment and discretion, halted his army on the line of the boundary, and signified to the Mahratta officer of the adjoining district that the respect of the British Government for the rights of the Mahratta State precluded the further progress of their

army.

As Dhoondia had, on several occasions, by acts of robbery and murder, rendered himself extremely obnoxious to the Mahrattas, there is no danger of their affording him an asylum in opposition to the remonstrances of the British Government; and I have received accounts from Colonel Stevenson that Dhoondia Punt Ghoklah, a chief commanding a division of the Peishwa's army, had plundered Dhoondia's camp within a few hours after it had been pitched within the territory of the Mahrattas, had carried away all his elephants, camels, bullocks, and guns, and entirely deprived him of the means of future depredation. The province of Bednore will be completely delivered from the banditti which had acted under Dhoondia's command, for, although they continued to retain some posts in the country at the period of his flight, those posts will certainly be evacuated on the approach of the British troops.

I think it my duty to request the particular attention of your Honourable Court to the judicious and spirited conduct displayed during the late operations against Dhoondia, as well by Colonel Stevenson as by Lieutenant-Colonel Dalrymple; and I am persuaded it will be satisfactory to your Honourable

Court to observe the great activity and energy which has marked this movement of the troops within so short a period after their late brilliant successes, and in the midst of a season of the year which has hitherto been supposed to render military operations impracticable.

Lieutenant-General Harris, with the main body of the army, had advanced to the eastern bank of the Tungbuddra to the support of the detachments under Colonel Stevenson and Colonel Dalrymple. Judging, however, that it was no longer necessary after the dispersion of Dhoondia's followers, and after the flight of their leader, to detain the army in Mysore he immediately determined to form the subsidiary detachment for the permanent protection of Mysore, and to recal the remainder of the forces into the Carnatic. Having made his arrangements for this purpose, and left the honourable Colonel Wellesley in command of the troops which are to remain in Mysore, General Harris quitted the army on the 25th of August at Hoonelly, and arrived here on the 30th following. I am now occupied with him in making the necessary arrangements for the general distribution of the troops into garrison and cantonments.

I have availed myself of the opportunity of my residence at this Presidency to enter into the consideration of various branches of its internal Government, and it is my intention, with the assistance of Lord Clive, to take early measures for the improvement of the administration of your affairs in this quarter.

As I was on the point of closing this despatch, accounts reached me from the army in Mysore, purporting that the fortress of Bednore, and every other place of any consequence in that province, were in the possession of the Company's troops, and that tranquillity was every where established.

I have the honour to be, honourable Sirs,

with the greatest respect,

your most obedient and faithful Servant,

MORNINGTON.

SIR,

No. XXXII.

The Earl of Mornington to Colonel Palmer, Resident at Poonah.

Fort William, Sept. 16th, 1799. I received your letter of the 28th of August on my arrival yesterday at this Presidency.

It would be useless to speculate on the probable motives which have governed the conduct of the Peishwa in the course of the late negotiation. I shall content myself for the present with observing, that I have from the commencement of it entertained considerable doubts of his sincerity.

I desire you will immediately inform the Peishwa and Nana Furnavese that I consider all negotiation on the basis of the treaty of Mysore to be concluded; but that, although I deeply regret his Highness's rejection of an arrangement, which had no other object than the improvement of the friendship and alliance subsisting between the three States, and which was at least as much calculated to promote the interests of the Peishwa as those of the Company and the Nizam, I do not feel any diminution of my amicable disposition towards his Highness.

You will further apprize the Court of Poonah that, conformably to the stipulations of the treaty of Mysore, the Company's Government will proceed immediately, in concert with his Highness the Nizam, to a division of the reserved territory, I rely with confidence that his Highness will take effectual means to prevent any of the officers of his Government from attempting to interrupt, in any degree, the execution of this measure; and that he will compel them to respect the rights of the Company and the Nizam in their recent acquisitions on the side of the Mahratta frontier, with the same solicitude which the Company's Government invariably manifests to respect the rights of all its neighbours.

You will also inform the Peishwa that, although he has not thought proper to accede to the treaty of Mysore, I am not on that account less confident that he will perceive the necessity and propriety of causing all his subjects, of every description, to abstain, with the utmost care, from trespassing in any manner on the territories of the Rajah of Mysore. The