436
HISTORY OF INDIA.
[Book II J.
state of Taigore.
.D. 1749. circumstances the application of Saujohee was welcomed by many. The motives which influenced them, iiowever, were not such as the governor and council of the presidency could adopt, and their resolution to give a.ssistance was j^laced on very different grounds. Besides endeavom-ing to secure the Company against loss by binding Saujohee if successful to bear the whole expense of the war, they also stipulated for the cession of the fort of Devicotta, advantageously situated at the mouths of the Coleroon, and of the district attached to it. On such low grounds, and for such selfish objects the Company were made to appear for the first time in the very (questionable character of mere mercenaries, lending out their troops for hire, and sending them to spend their Ijlood in a native quarrel with which they had no concern.
The kingdom of Tanjore, in which this injudicious campaign was to be carried on, consisted of a tract extending from the Colei'oon soutliwards alon;; the coast about seventy, and inland about sixty miles. It had fallen into the hands of the Mahrattas in the time of Sevajee, and was approjoriated by his brother, Venkajee, who died after a reign of six years, leavuig tliree sons. It passed to all of them in succession in the order of their birth. But on the death of the last, as the}^ had all left children, a number of rival claimants appeared, and a civil war ensued, during which three irregular successions took place within seven years. The whole power of the government had been usm-ped by Seid, the commander of the fort of Tanjore, who set up puppet kings at pleasure. In this way Saujohee, after wearing the crown for several years, had been set aside to make way for Pertaub Sing, his illegitimate brother. It is obdous from this account that the actual possessor of the throne of Tanjore at the time when Saujohee made his application at Fort St. Dadd was an usurper; but this affords no justification of the conduct of the governor and councU, who had no right to embroil the Company in a war for mercenary objects, and who had, moreover, on several occasions not only recognized him as sovereign, but courted his alliance.
The force by which it was expected that Saujohee would recover the king- dom of Tanjore, consisted of 430 Europeans and 1000 sepoys, with fom" field- pieces and four small mortars. The troops, accompanied by Saujohee, and com- manded by Captain Cope, set out in the end of March, 1749 ; the battering cannon and provisions proceeded by sea in four ships, two of them of the line. Much time appears to have been lost, for it was the 1 3th of April before the army encamped on the banks of the Valaru, near its mouth at Portonovo, though the distance fi-om Fort St. David did not exceed twenty miles. Time, however, was not the most serious loss. The wroncj season had been chosen. The cliange of monsoon from north to soutli took place on the very evening of then* arrival, and was accompanied with a dreadful hm'ricane, which continued to rage till four o'clock next morning, and with such fury, that many of the draught bullocks and horees were killed, the tents of the camp were blown to rags, and all the military stores
Expedition to it under Captain Cope.
