40 !• HISTOJfY OF INDIA. [Hook III.
A.D. 1751. with the French, and adjusted, it is said, the terms of a treaty, by which he was to renounce his claims on the nabobship of Arcot, and content liimself with some inferior appointment in the Deccan. The surrender of Trichinopoly, of course, formed a leading stipulation in such a treaty; and, wiien completed, would have formed another most important link in the scheme of French aggrandisement, on which Dupleix was exerting all his energies with every prospect of success.
Wavering Tlic Madras presidency could not but be aware that the ultimate effect of
]><)lirV of tiie
Madras the accomplishment of this scheme would be to drive the British and every presi ency. ^|.|^g^. Europcau rival from the field, and make the French absolute masters of the destinies of India ; but so little were they prepared to take the course which even self-preservation should have dictated, that they voluntarily deprived themselves of the ablest and most experienced officer in their serce, by allowing Major Lawrence to sail for England. When they had thus weakened their hands they began to be alarmed at the consequences of their timorous policy, and wished that they had not so hastily withdrawn their aid from Mahomed Ali. The best reparation they could now make, was to send him a new detachment, and endeavour if possible to dissuade him from the suicidal step which he was understood to be contemplating of making a surrender of Trichinopoly. The aid thus offered consisted only of 280 Europeans and 300 sepoys; but he gladly accepted it, as his fortunes, in consequence of recent events, were assuming a more favourable aspect. He had been a steady adherent of Nazir Jung, and it was not um^easonable to suppose that Salabut Jung would rather confide in his brother's friend than in those who had been the main instruments of his assassination. At all events, as he had removed with his army into the Deccan, it was not likely that he would soon return to the Carnatic. Chunda Sahib would thus be left to fight his own battles, and there seemed no reason to despair of being able to muster a force equal to any which he could bring into the field. Kxpeiiitioti The first campaign in which Mahomed Ali was concerned, after he had
veuy. lenewed his alliance with the British, proved very disastrous. In addition to Trichinopoly, he claimed authority over two temtories or kingdoms; the one, Madui'a, lying immediately south, and the other, Tinnevelly, Ij'ing beyond Ma- dura, and reaching to Cape Comorin. His power in these kingdoms was more nominal than real ; and with the view of establishing it more firmly, he fitted out an expedition, and gave the command of it to his brother, who met with little opposition from the inhabitants, but was paralyzed by a mutinous spirit among his own soldiers. Their sympathies were with Chunda Sahib ; and had not strong measures of repression been used, they would have declared in his favour. In Madura a similar feeling prevailed ; and being fostered by a soldier of fortune, who had once been in the sei'vice, and was still in the interest of Chunda Sahib, gained a complete ascendant in the garrison of the capital.
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