236 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



France, to invade our Indian pos- 

 sessions on the side of Persia. 

 His difficulties, under the most 

 favourable circumstances, will 

 indeed be formidable, and he is 

 not at present prepared to encoun- 

 ter them ; but they are not insur- 

 mountable, nor are we invulnera- 

 ble in that quarter. The attempt 

 may be yet long suspended; but 

 we may woefully rue our mistake 

 if we consider it abandoned : and 

 if he shall ever be in a condition 

 to enter seriously on the execution 

 of his threats then will the political 

 importance of Bombay be specially 

 felt and acknowledged by both 

 friend and foe. 



Notwithstanding all our treaties 

 and alliances, there was a pro- 

 pensity in the native powers of 

 India to combine the whole 

 physical force of the peninsula 

 against the English. Powers, de- 

 cidedly hostile to each other 

 coalesced for this purpose during 

 Mr. Hastings's eventful administra- 

 tion. Their policy would have 

 been the same in 1799, but incal- 

 culably more comprehensive ; and 

 had not the views of the original 

 confederates been unexpectedly 

 frustrated, all recollection of the 

 deplorable disasters in the Carnatic 

 would have been lost in the traces 

 of more general and fatal calami- 

 ties. 



The peace with the Mahrattas, 

 which was concluded in May 

 1782, chiefly by means of Sir John 

 Macpherson, at that time retriev- 

 ed the British cause when nearly 

 desperate. The dangers of 1790 

 were averted by Zemaun Shah's 

 precipitate retreat, after sur- 

 mounting the principal obstacles 

 of a long, laborious, and difficult 

 march : and arriving nearly in 



contact with the force under Sir 

 James Craig, assembled on the 

 frontier of Oude for the purpose 

 of opposing him, as related in our 

 historical sketch of that year. 



For this memorable retreat, and 

 all its consequences, so favourable 

 to the ulterior extensive views of 

 the supreme government, the 

 British nation, and particularly 

 the East India company, are in- 

 debted to Mirza Mehedy Aly 

 Khan, who had the merit of first 

 suggesting these measures, which 

 afterwards produced, under his 

 skilful management, a most unex- 

 pected reverse in the condition of 

 all parties. The Mirza at that 

 time filled the office of company's 

 president at Bushire ; having been 

 appointed and deputed by the 

 Bombay government to superin- 

 tend their commercial and politi- 

 cal concerns in the gulph of 

 Persia. 



He was a native of Persia, 

 where his father had been head 

 physician to Nadir Shah, and the 

 son still maintained respectable 

 connexions at the court of the 

 reigning king Futteh Ali Khan. 

 Mehmood and Feroze, two brothers 

 of Zemaun Shah, after an unsuc- 

 cessful domestic quarrel, had been 

 driven into exile, and were brood- 

 ing over their misfortunes at 

 Terhan the present Persian capi- 

 tal. Mehedy rightly judged that 

 the absence of Zemaun with the 

 whole of his army, on a distant 

 and foreign service, presented to 

 them an opportunity equally favour- 

 able for vindicating their own 

 rights and the cause of the 

 company. He accordingly nego- 

 ciated with his friends at the 

 Persian court so successfully, that 

 for an expense not exceeding 



8,500/. 



