55 2 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
At the time M. Malartic’s proclamation appeared in Bengal, it happened 
that he condition of the several native powers in India, both with relation to 
each other, and the British interests, was far more favourable to the success of 
French intrigue, than it had been at any period, since the peace of Serin- 
gapatam. The French faction at Hyderabad, had risen to a dangerous height. 
Seindeah had lately placed the Boigne’s corps in the hands of Frenchmen. Tippoo 
had manifested a disposition to admit French officers and privates, to an unlimited 
extent, into his service; and the distractions in the Marhatta empire, and the 
policy of the several actors, in that intricate scene of reciprocal distrust and irre¬ 
concilable interests, left little hope of deriving any advantage whatever, from 
their alliance, in the event of a war with Tippoo Sultaun. 
The danger, however, the most to be apprehended, was from the French party 
at Hyderabad. The corps, commanded by French officers, in the service of the 
Nizam, which, during the last war with Mysore, amounted to no more than fif¬ 
teen hundred men, was at that period so defective, in point of discipline, as to be 
rather an object of contempt, than of jealousy, to the governments in India: it 
had gradually augmented its numbers, and improved its discipline, under the com¬ 
mand of the late Monsieur Raymond, until the period of the Marquis Wellesley’s 
arrival in India, when it had nearly reached the number of fourteen thousand men ; 
and had attained a degree of discipline, superior, in every respect, to that of any 
native infantry in India, excepting the seapoys entertained in the Company’s 
service. 
On the 13th of July, the Governor-general sent orders to the government of 
Fort St. George, to assemble such a force in the Guntoor Circar, as might enable 
him to fulfil the subsidiary engagements of the Company, under the new treaty, 
at the earliest possible period, subsequent to his concluson. This measure was 
executed with the utmost degree of promptitude and alacrity by Lieutenant-general 
Harris, (at that time uniting in his person the offices of Governor of Fort St. George, 
and Commander in Chief; to whose zeal, public spirit, and prompt obedience, the 
Governor-general, on this and many other occas ; ons, bore public testimony. 
The British detachment was placed under the command of Lieutenant-colonel 
Roberts. It reached Hyderabad on the 10th of October, and on the 22d of the 
same month, under the orders of his highness the Nizam, and with the co-operation 
of a body of his cavalry, it surrounded the camp of the French army, disarmed all 
