1844.] Political Events in the Car natic, from 1564 to 1687. 457 



crease of national wealth that has extended to near our own times, and 

 might even vie with the most flourishing state of Agrarian improve- 

 ment that has been attained in civilized Europe.* 



Eckojee's conduct is best explained by referring to the history of his 

 And after its ac- earlier life, and to the difference of character exhi- 

 ?™ P os™ ,r of :Send! bited by the two brothers, sufficiently apparent in 

 mg his conquests. t jj e accoun t f their conference, and the fruitless at- 

 tempts to induce him to extend his dominions by conquest ; the for- 

 bearance that on this occasion, and under such temptations he shewed, 

 induce some doubts of the fidelity of those accounts that represent his 

 acquisition of Tanjore to be attended with peculiar circumstances of 

 flagitious rapacity ; but whether that expedition was influenced by 

 motives of obedience to his lieget sovereign as alleged, or of a spirit 

 of adventure and chivalrous enterprize, not unknown to the Marhatta 

 tribes at that period ; whatever might be the exciting causes of Ecko- 

 jee's expedition to Tanjore, it was conducted with an address and 



And applies to the decision highly favorable to his reputation as a 

 internal improvement 



of his country. statesman and warrior ; though he appears imme- 



diately after to have relinquished the last, for the more pacific occupa- 

 tion of improving and systemizing the natural resources of a fertile 

 country ; and thus he furnishes a third instance of a Hindoo chief 

 studying with assiduity the internal economy of his state, with a suc- 

 cess that enriched his subjects, and ennobled his name. These re- 

 marks on the first Marhatta administration may not be out of place 

 here, in explaining the state of that country, on whose coast the most 

 considerable European factories were then situated. 



77- A more detailed account of the progress of their establishments 

 Documents of the (particularly the English,) would be interesting, and 



early state of the . ... . ... 



Englishsettlements. not without its use; but it is not consistent with the 

 brevity of this attempt, or the defective accounts within our reach at pre- 



" * The countries on the Po, under the systematical arrangement of the Cadastre, and by recourse 

 to irrigation, are presumed to be the richest and most productive lands in Europe, excepting the 

 Flemish Netherlands, nearly equally productive and populous. 



+ This European phrase is used with some diffidence. It is expressly stated, that he was called in 

 to the aid of the Tellinga Naik of Tanjore, as a general of Beejapoor, and it would appear from the 

 language put in his mouth, that he admitted this : " We are managing the affairs of the Padshah of 

 Beejapoor, and in his service, therefore it is not proper to act against the Padshah." — Marhatta 

 Memoir! 



