HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
429 
distance from the Court, and sent him secretly to the Polygar chief of Chit- 
ticol Durgam. The young Prince had already been eight years under the care of 
the Polygar chief, when Haider attacked him. This circumstance suggested to 
Haider the idea of subjecting the country of Bednor; as he now could attain that 
object without difficulty, under the pretext of re-establishing the young Prince: and 
this ambitious project he finally effected, on condition of paying forty lacks of rupees 
to Mahaderon, and twenty to his Minister. 
. Haider now left the government of Bednor to the care of his son, Tippoo Saib, 
and established Lala Thean, who had espoused his sister, as governor of a fortified 
place in that neighbourhood. He sent also Mir Saib, whose sister he had married, 
to the government of Sirpi; he gave the command of the fort and district of Mais- 
sour to Mir Pharsula Khan, and that of Seringapatam, the capital of the Maissour 
country, to Mucktom Saib. Ibraim Saib, his uncle, was continued in his govern¬ 
ment of Bangalore; and Amian Saib, his nephew, was employed to defend the valley 
of Burmal. 
These arrangements being made, Haider Aly proceeded with a strong detachment 
towards the coast of Malabar, where he entered into a treaty of alliance with a petty 
prince named Ali Rajah, and, with the assistance which he received from him, he 
laid siege to Calicut, the capital and residence of the King of the Naires. This 
place held out during three months, and in the end obtained an honourable capitu¬ 
lation. 
About the same time Mir Saib, the Governor of Sirpi, found means to make 
himself master of Chinnapah, chief of the Polygars ; and, notwithstanding his most 
solemn engagements to the contrary, he sent him prisoner to Bangalore, where he 
died of a broken heart: while Haider, in order to secure his son, who was a 
young man, had him circumcised by force, and instructed in the principles of the 
Mahometan religion. 
The King of Calicut was of the sect of the Bramins, and being very much attached 
to the principles of his religion, he could not permit himself to have any personal 
communication with the Mahometans. He therefore refused, but with the utmost 
civility, the visit that Haider Aly proposed to make him. He, however, sent a 
Bramin to demand the quantity of corn necessary for him to support his daily cha¬ 
rities. The following day Haider sent him sufficient for five hundred persons ; the 
next day a still less quantity, and continued to diminish the boon till it was reduced 
