1844.] Political Events in the Carnatic, from 1564 to 1687. 449 



Delhi, his stratagem and escape, his extraordinary enterprizes against 

 the Beejapoor chiefs, and his success afterwards, form a series of adven- 

 tures scarcely to be paralleled in Flebustur* history; 

 In his conferences an d within seventeen years, we find him in conse- 



posll^taTebe^n <l uence ° f a treat y Wlth the Hind °° minister of 



encouraged on his Golconda, joined against both the Mogul invaders 



daring visit to Gol- . 5 



condaandtothesud- and their Beejapoor fellow-sufferers, agreeable to 



den circuitous irrup- , , ,. , . . . 



tion into the Lower that unsteady policy which seemed to prognosticate 

 the speedy fall of both these kingdoms, permitted to 

 pass by a circuitous route by Golcondat and the Eastern mountains, 

 through the Balla Ghaut, into the lower country of Carnatic, by Tri- 

 petty, within thirty miles of Madras, to take possession of the strong 

 forts of Gingee and Vellore, which only a few years before, as is al- 

 ready mentioned, had been captured by the Beejapoor generals. 

 62. Of this design and plans, evidence exists in the records of Ma- 

 ll is expedition dras, where the factory then but newly establish- 

 ag Tmi t ts G of g charac- e< *> an( * g arr isoned by two companies of mixed 

 ter evinced in his troops, were in much alarm for his designs, and 



requisitions from r 



Madras. endeavored to propitiate his good- will by presents 



suitable to his tastej and to their situation at the moment. His request 

 of engineers and ordnance from the Europeans of Madras confirm the 

 anecdotes related in his life, of his ideas of the advantage of strong- 

 Contrasted with the holds and fortifications to a new formed state, and 



unskilful operations , . , 



of the Imperialists, we find this cunous illustration of character well 

 contrasted with the little skill exhibited by the Mogul generals in 

 attacking the wretched fortresses of these times ; a fact sufficiently 

 established in the long protracted sieges of Chagna, Golconda, Gingee, 

 and Waken Kaira, some of which lasted ten years, and tended to spin 



* In his earlier adventures, there is a striking resemblance to the mild enterprizes of the Buc- 

 caneers, or Flebusturs. 



t Havart mentions his visit to Golconda, A. D. 1C76, Vol. — p. — and the alarm it occasioned at 

 that effeminate court. 



t In May 1677, he came within 2£ coss of Madras, (Mad. Records.) A curious account is given in 

 the Marhatta Memoirs, wherein his route is desciibed, and of his excursion from the banks of the 

 Kistna into the wilds of Purwuftum, where in a fit of frantic devotion, he was about to relinquish 

 all his ambitious projects, and was with difficulty withdrawn by his confidential friends. He ap- 

 pears at times to have been subject to fits of remorse, and the wilds of Purwuttum arc certainly well 

 calculated to inspire the most gloomy ideas. 



