106 CONQUEST OF MYSORE. 



the most solemn injunctions to follow a course directlv op- 

 posite to that which, throughout the whole of his adminis- 

 tration, he.did actually pursue. He was instructed not to 

 engage, if possible, in hostilities with any native power ; 

 and yet he waged deadly war with every one of them. 

 He was desired not to add by conquest a single acre to the 

 company's territory, and he subdued for them all India 

 from the Himmaleh to Cape Comorin. Yet his adherents 

 contend that he acted steadily and uniformly in the spirit 

 of his instructions ; and that, in deviating so widely from 

 the wishes of his employers, he was carried along by a cur- 

 rent of circumstances which existed prior to any step taken 

 by him in the administration of that country. 



He had no sooner assumed the reins of government than 

 his attention was roused by a most remarkable proceeding 

 on the part of the Sultan of Mysore. That prince, like 

 his father Hyder, had been long connected in close alliance 

 with the French, as the power by whose aid he hoped to 

 subvert the dominion of the English. This connexion 

 was in a great measure broken by the expulsion of those 

 allies from India upon the breaking out of the revolutionary 

 war; but Tippoo had listened with the utmost eagerness 

 to the accounts of their success against Britain and the 

 continental nations, and had been led to hope for their as- 

 sistance in the re-establishment of his own greatness. 

 While he was in this disposition, in the beginning of the 

 year 1797, Ripaud, the captain of a French privateer, ar- 

 rived at Mangalore, to solicit the means of repairing his 

 shattered vessel. There he met with Gholaum Ali, whom 

 the sultan had formerly employed on an embassy to France ; 

 and, finding a field open for the display of a little vain- 

 glory, he represented himself as second in command at the 

 Mauritius, and stated that he had come to give notice of a 

 large force bong ready al that island to co-operate with 

 Tippoo in driving from India their common enemy. He 

 was immediately forwarded to Seringapatam, where the 

 sultan, contrary to the advice of his most prudent coun- 

 sellors, who assured him that this stranger was an impostor, 

 received him into his entire confidence. After a number 

 of little arrangements and transactions, he sent two am- 

 bassadors along with Ripaad to the Isle of France, to adjust 

 the terms of a treaty offensive and defensive. The mis- 



