110 CONQUEST OF MYSORE. 



English, and discontented on account of their arrears of 

 pay, rose in mutiny against their officers ; when, on being 

 assured of the money due to them, and of future service 

 under other leaders, they laid down their arms. Thus, in 

 a few hours, without a blow being struck, was dissolved a 

 corps of fourteen thousand men, having an arsenal filled 

 with military stores, and a handsome train of artillery. 



Lord Wellcsley, having by these means secured the co- 

 operation of the Hydrabad forces, and by indefatigable ex- 

 ertions having rendered his military establishment efficient,' 

 determined to bring affairs to an immediate crisis. His 

 correspondence with Tippoo had continued friendly till the 

 8th November, 1798, when he wrote a letter, in which,' after 

 discussing some general iopics, he observed that it was- 

 impossible the sultan could suppose him ignorant or indif- 

 ferent as to the intercourse .maintained by him with the 

 French, the inveterate foes of Britain. He and his allies- 

 had on that account been obliged to adopt certain measures 

 of precaution and self-defence. Anxious, however, to sug- 

 gest a plan which might promote the mutual security and 

 welfare of all parties, he proposed to depute Major Doveton, 

 an officer well known to the sultan (having betn employed 

 in 17.94 in conveying back to him the young princes de- 

 tained as hostages), "who will explain to you more fully 

 and particularly the sole means which appear to myself and to 

 the allies of the company to be effectual for the salutary 

 purpose of removing all existing distrust and suspicion." 

 On the 10th December the governor-general wrote another 

 letter, announcing that he was on the point of setting out 

 for Madias, where he hoped to receive his reply. 



Tippoo, apparently before receiving the first despatch, 

 had written, on the 20th November, an expostulation, in 

 rather amicable terms, upon the military preparations of the 

 English, and ;i profession of his own pacific disposition. 

 The letter of 8th November was followed by a long and sus- 

 picious silence. The demands of the governor-general 

 would, at this time, Ikim 1 Itch very moderate, confined to 

 the dismissal of French emissaries, and the exchange of a 

 part of the coast of Malabar lor a territory of equal value 

 in the interior. But Tippoo, who foresaw that some de- 

 mands were to be made upon him, could not bring down his 

 Blind to the necessity ol submission. He (till placed a 



