VIOLENT CONDUCT OF TIPPOO. 77 



Hlihg a decided line of policy. Instead of manifesting the 

 indifference of Hyder on the subject of religion, he was in- 

 spired with a furious zeal in the cause of lslamism, which 

 appeared in the most odious and tyrannical measures. The 

 issue was, that he was buried under the ruins of the em- 

 pire which he inherited, and which his predecessor, by so 

 many arts and crimes, had raised out of nothing. 



The first instance of religious persecution was directed 

 against the Christians on the coast of Canara, who had 

 been converted by the Portuguese. In this case, indeed, 

 he seems to have had a somewhat plausible pretext. In 

 his narrative he asserts, probably not without truth, that the 

 Europeans had originally employed violent means to com- 

 pel the natives to adopt the new creed. Having therefore 

 collected 60,000, by his own statement, but according to 

 Wilks only 30,000, he forcibly inflicted on them the rite of 

 circumcision ; then hurried them to the capital and distrib- 

 uted them in the different garrisons ; a barbarous treat- 

 ment, by which it is said that many perished. By a strange 

 inconsistency he represented it as the highest honour to be 

 thus urged to the profession of the Moslem faith, yet made 

 it the punishment of rebellion and contumacy. The rude 

 mountainous territory of Coorg had always formed a reluc- 

 tant appendage to the kingdom of Mysore. The people 

 had taken advantage of the war with the English to reassert 

 their independence ; holding their conquerors in equal ab- 

 horrence on account of their religion and their disregard 

 for the rights of landed property. They now presented the 

 aspect of a formidable resistance. Tippoo was obliged to 

 march against them with his whole force, when they re- 

 treated into the depth of their forests, which appeared al- 

 most inaccessible. The sultan, however, divided his army 

 into detachments, which formed a complete circle round the 

 unhappy fugitives, and closed in upon them as huntsmen do 

 in pursuit of game. At length the troops penetrated into 

 their secret haunts, and carried off 70,000 victims to un- 

 dergo the abhorred penalties of circumcision and captivity. 

 Elated by these cruel triumphs, Tippoo hesitated not to as- 

 sume the title of padsha, which our historians have not very 

 accurately translated king. It was hitherto appropriated 

 exclusively to the Great Mogul whose supremacy had, till 

 that period, been acknowledged in Mysore ; but no sooner 



