56 



WAR WITH MYSORE. 



The British army could easily have returned in time to 

 secure the fort ; and they had only to fear the plunder 

 of the country-seats, and perhaps of the native town, 

 though this last danger is considered as doubtful ; but they 

 agreed at once to the demands which he made, that Colonel 

 Smith should be ordered to suspend his march, and that 

 M. Dupre, nominated as the future governor, should come 

 out to treat for peace. In the present temper of the belli- 

 gerents, the negotiation was neither long nor difficult ; a 

 treaty was concluded in April, 1769, on the condition of 

 placing the possessions of both parties, with scarcely an 

 exception, on the same footing as before the war. Hyder 

 solicited an alliance offensive and defensive ; the English 

 granted only the last, which, however, was found to involve 

 them in all the responsibility that, by refusing the first, 

 they had sought to escape. 



Hyder, having thus terminated with advantage and glory 

 this great contest with the British, had, as he foresaw, 

 soon to encounter a still more formidable enemy. The 

 Mahrattas, under Madoo Rao, entered his dominions with 

 a force supposed to be at least double that of his army, and 

 led by able commanders. He endeavoured a second time 

 to check them by laying waste his territory ; but the 

 invaders, as before, surmounted every obstacle, and, 

 forming a regular plan of conquest, reduced successively 

 all the strong places, committing the most monstrous 

 cruelties. At one fortress, which had made an obstinate 

 resistance, the barbarian leader ordered the noses and ears 

 of the garrison to be cut off; and sending for the governor, 

 asked if he was not conscious of deserving to be thus 

 mutilated and disgraced ? The other replied* " The mu- 

 tilation will be mine, the disgrace yours ;" an answer, the 

 truth of which so forcibly struck the Mahratta that he dis- 

 missed the prisoner uninjured. 



Madoo Rao being obliged, by severe indisposition, to 

 yield the command to Trimbuck. Mama, Hyder determined 

 to make a stand, and intrenched his army 'in a very strono- 

 position covered by a range of ragged mountains. The hos- 

 tile general did not attempt directly to force this camp, but 

 pointed against it day after day such a harassing cannonade, 

 that the Mysorean at length determined to fall back upon 

 bis capital. He began his march early in the night, hoping 



