416 
SERINGAPATAM. 
Aumil to grant them their lands at whatever price they pleased to 
fix : if he resisted, he was usually murdered. Sometimes Tippoo 
had leisure to punish them, and then he did so most severely; but at 
other times he had more important avocations, and their impunity 
encouraged a repetition of the offence. The natural consequence was, 
that the. actual revenue of the country was rapidly diminishing, and 
even of that not more than two-thirds ever reached the royal trea- 
sury. If there could be any doubts of Tippoo's deserving the title 
I have given him, his conduct in Canara and Malabar would place 
it beyond doubt. The utter extermination of the Nairs of rank, 
who by conquest had become his subjects, seems to have been in- 
tended, and as far as lay in his power, was by him carried into 
effect ; for in Malabar, at its cession to us, there were none remain- 
ing, and in Canara they were diminished one half 
To the assertion, that many had quitted our provinces to live 
under the milder government of Tippoo, it is impossible to give 
any other reply than a positive denial of its truth ; and I am at a 
loss to conjecture on what authority it is stated. Hyder nideed 
carried off from the Carnatic above 60,000 families, of whom only a 
vestige remained when Lord Cornwallis entered Mysore; but these 
unfortunate beings, so far from being satisfied with their situation, 
had found the yoke of Tippoo so heavy, that they joyfully seized 
the first opportunity to return to their native plains. The code of 
laws which Tippoo promulgated, and which has been so much 
praised by an Honourable Gentleman at the India House, was never 
even attempted to be carried into effect, and was merely meant 
by the tyrant to hand him down to posterity as a Mussulmaun 
legislator. 
