MYSORE, CANARY, AND MALABAR. 
67 
and pleasant than Mysore ; many of the families having originally CH \PTER 
come from the lower Carnatic , and settled here on the Establish- 
ment of a Mussulman government. Numbers of the houses which May 20, &c. 
had been thus deserted, are now occupied by the officers of the 
garrison. 
The old palace of the Mysore Rajas at Seringapatam is in a ruin- Mi a of 
ous condition. At the time of the siege, the family was reduced Mysore ' 
to tire lowest ebb. The old Raja Crishna , who was first confined by 
Hyder, died without issue ; but left his wife in charge of a relation, 
whom he had adopted as his son. This young man soon died, not with- 
out suspicion of unfair means. His infant son, the present Raja, was 
under the charge of the old lady, and of Nundi Raja his mother’s 
father, a respectable old relative, who now superintends his educa- 
tion. Shortly before the siege, the whole family had been stripped, 
by the merciless Meer Saduc , of even the poorest ornaments ; and 
the child, from bad treatment, was so sickly, that his death was ex- 
pected to happen very soon. This was a thing probably wished for 
by the Sultan, the family having fallen into such contempt that 
the shadow of a Raja would no longer have been necessary. The 
family of the Raja , having been closely shut up in the old palace, 
knew very little, during the Siege, of what was going forward ; and 
in the confusion of the assault, having been left by their guards, 
they took refuge in the temple of Sri Ranga, either with a view of 
being protected by the god, or of being defended by the surround- 
ing walls from the attack of plunderers. On the restoration of the 
prince to the throne of his ancestors, a place for his residence was 
very much wanted; the necessity of keeping the island of Seringa- 
patam for a military station, having-rendered the palaces there very 
unfit for the purpose. Tippoo , with his usual policy of destroying 
every monument of the former government, had razed Mysore , and 
removed the stones of the palace and temples to a neighbouring 
height, where he was building a fort; which, from its being situ- 
ated on a place commanding an extensive view, was called Nazarbar . 
\ 
