SERINGAPATAM. 
429 
became independent. In the kingdom of Mysore, there were at least 
seventeen of these, who continued unsubdued till the time of Hyder 
and his son, who, in this respect judging wisely, expelled from the 
country an useless race of beings, leaving no one betweeen the Sove- 
reign, as proprietor of the soil, and the ryot, as cultivator. On the 
restoration of the Hindoo princes, the Zemindars applied to Purnea 
to be reinstated, and would probably have succeeded, had not 
Colonel Close opposed their claims, as unreasonable, arguing with 
them that the Rajah had found them dispossessed, and that it could 
not be expected he would, without necessity, surrender to them so 
large a proportion of his dominions. He ultimately gained his 
object, by inducing some to accept small pensions, and by placing 
others about the person of the Rajah in a military capacity. Mysore 
exists, therefore, without a Zemindar, and the consequence has been, 
that for five years not a tumult has taken place in it, while the 
neighbouring provinces have been torn by war and insurrections. 
March 3. — I dedicated this day to the viewing of Seringapatam. 
My first visit was to the curtain where the breach had been made. I 
was attended by several gentlemen who were present at the storming, 
and who kindly pointed out every circumstance to me. The attack 
was most judiciously made on a part where the Asiatic error of a 
long curtain had rendered a breach easy. The enfilading fire from 
the Bombay army, on the opposite side of the river, rendered the 
continuing on the ramparts a service of the greatest danger. The 
wretched natives, who were obliged to be there, had dug themselves 
holes in the earth, as some protection from the shot. In these they 
were taking their dinner, when the storming party entered, who 
put to death numbers of them before they could get out. 
