60 WAR WITH MYSORE. 



ties should mutually support each other against the over- 

 whelming power of the Mahrattas. Their conduct, how- 

 ever, in the late war, when they saw his very existence so long 

 endangered without a single effort to relieve him, seems to 

 have thoroughly and finally disgusted him. Ke gave up 

 every hope of profiting by their alliance, and centred all his 

 prospects of aggrandizement in their destruction. The 

 Mahrattas again, whose councils had undergone a complete 

 change, instead of threatening further invasion, sent pro- 

 posals to Hyder for an alliance against the British ; and a 

 treaty preparatory to that object was accordingly concluded. 

 By a singular fatality, the views of the government at 

 Madras had been altered in the opposite direction, having 

 become sensible of the advantages which niijrht be derived 

 from a union with the chief of Mysore. They even made 

 overtures for a close alliance, with promises of co-operation 

 in case of attack from any foreign enemy. His irritation, 

 however, seems to have been only heightened by having 

 that aid which was denied at his utmost need thus pressed 

 upon him at a moment when he could maintain his own 

 ground. At this crisis the war, consequent upon the 

 American contest, broke out between France and England, 

 and was extended to India. The subjects of Louis, with 

 their usual diplomatic activity, immediately opened a com- 

 munication with Hyder, whom they found most favourably 

 disposed towards them ; and he engaged accordingly in 

 that confederacy to which his house so immutably and so 

 fatally adhered. 



As soon as hostilities commenced, the English govern- 

 ment formed a comprehensive plan for the reduction of all 

 the French possessions in India without any exception. 

 Pondicherry soon fell ; to which no opposition was made by 

 Hyder, who even pretended to congratulate them on their 

 success. When, however, they announced their intention 

 of reducing Mahe, on the Malabar coast, he decidedly 

 objected ; urging that the territory around it, having been 

 conquered by him, was now included in his dominions. The 

 British did not consider this argument of sufficient weight 

 to deter them from acting against a Frenrh fort. They 

 accordingly sent an expedition, which speedily reduced the 

 place, although Hyder gave all the aid that he could at the 

 moment supply, in order to defend it. It has been sup. 



