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the food prepared by his keeper, being kept alive by the com- 

 passion of a servant, who shared his small allowance with the 

 general. This was connived at by the officer placed over him, 

 until he was himself threatened with death if his prisoner any 

 longer survived. This being communicated to the general, he ate 

 the poisoned food, which in a few hours terminated his sufferings. 

 The other officers belonging to the Bombay establishment were 

 supposed to have shared the fate of their commander about the 

 same time. A few subalterns, in hopes of better treatment, passed 

 themselves off for officers of higher rank, from a mistaken idea of 

 deference to situation among the Asiatics : this deception cost 

 them their lives, as they would otherwise have been sent with the 

 subaltern officers to their respective, settlements at the conclusion 

 of the peace. 



In comparing the characters of Hyder Ally and Tippoo Sul- 

 taun, the former has greatly the advantage, especially considering 

 his neglected education. Tippoo, born a prince, was educated as 

 heir to a throne, Avhich the Mysore usurper vainly imagined was 

 fixed on a solid foundation; a musnud surrounded by tributary 

 kings and conquered provinces, constantly accumulating. Like 

 other short-sighted mortals, he little imagined the commencement 

 and termination of his dynasty would be comprized within half a 

 century. Sic transit gloria mundi ! — For the despotic sovereignty 

 of this empire, Tippoo was trained by his ambitious father. Hyder 

 could neither read nor write; not that he was of that low origin 

 frequently mentioned: on the contrary, his ancestor first brought 

 into notice, went to India from Arabia, about the middle of the 

 seventeenth century; some fix the period A. D. 1660, when he 



