liberty, than he returned to his old mode of life. It is easy in some of the provinces of India to collect a marauding force a solitary adventurer, without any visible means, but whose courage had been tried, may speedily muster around his banner a formidable force; so that an individual whose powers of evil were despised, may burst upon and lay waste a whole country, at the head of a large body of horsemen. Thus Dhoondiah, though he had been defeated by Colonels Stevenson and Dalrymple, his followers almost cut to pieces, and stripped of his guns, baggage, and elephants, by a native prince, was yet able to break into Mysore, at the head of 5,000 horse.

Against the "King of the two Worlds,"-such was the title assumed by this unruly miscreant, Colonel Wellesley immediately advanced. Dhoondiah took refuge in the Mahratta territory, across the frontiers of which, the Company had enjoined their troops not to march. After some difficulty, arrangements having been concluded with the Peshwa, Colonel Wellesley crossed the Toombuddra, and carried Ranny Bednore by assault. On the 29th of October, feeling the necessity of speed, he pushed on with the cavalry alone. The subsequent movements may be partly described in his own words :-"I marched on the 30th to Hoogurgoor, where I learned that Dhoondiah was here with his baggage. I determined to move on, and attack him. I surprised his camp at 3 o'clock in the evening, with the cavalry; and we drove into the river, or destroyed everybody that was in it, took an elephant, several camels, bullocks, horses innumerable, families, women and children. The guns were gone over, and we made an attempt to dismount them by a fire from this side; but it was

dark, and saw plainly that we should not succeed. I therefore withdrew my guns into the camp. I have a plan for crossing some Europeans over the river, to destroy the guns, which I am afraid I cannot bring off; and then I think I shall have done this business completely. P.S. I have just returned from the river, and have got the guns, six in number. I made the Europeans swim over to seize a boat. The fort was evacuated; and we got the boat and guns." After various heavy and fatiguing marches, and a number of movements, which shewed the accomplished tactician, Colonel Wellesley rode in sight of Dhoondiah, on the 10th of September. The issue of the combat he has described in the following letter addressed to Sir Thomas Munro.

"Camp at Yepalperwy, 11th Sept. 1800.

"DEAR MUNRO,-I have the pleasure to inform you that I gained a complete victory yesterday, in the action with Dhoondiah's army, in which he was killed. His body was recognised, and was brought into the camp, on a gun attached to the 19th dragoons. After I had crossed the Malpoorba it appeared to me to be very clear, that if I pressed upon the King of the two Worlds, with my whole force, on the northern side of the Dooab, his majesty would either cross the Toombuddra with the aid of the Patam chiefs, and would enter Mysore; or he would return into Savanore, and play the devil with my peaceable communications. I therefore determined, at all events, to prevent his majesty from putting those designs in execution; and I marched with my army to Kanagherry. I sent Stevenson towards Deodroog, and along the Kistna, to prevent him from sending his guns and baggage to his ally, the Rajah of Soorapoor; and I pushed forward the whole of the Mahratta and Mogul cavalry in one body, between Stevenson's corps and mine.

"I marched from Kanagherry on the 8th, left my infantry at Nowly, and proceeded on with the cavalry only: and I arrived here on the 9th, the infantry at Chinnoor, about 15 miles in my rear.

"The King of the World broke up on the 9th, from Malgherry, about 25 miles on this side of Raichore, and pro

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ceeded towards the Kestna. But he saw Colonel Stevenson's camp, returned immediately, and encamped on that evening about 9 miles from hence, between this place and Bunnoo. I had early intelligence of his situation; but the night was so bad, and my horses so much fatigued, that I could not move. After a most anxious night, I marched in the morning, and met the King of the World with his army, (about 5000 horse) at the village called Conahgull, about six miles from hence. He had not known of my being so near him in the night; he thought that I was at Chinnoor, and was marching to the westward with the intention of passing between the Mahratta and Mogul cavalry, and me. He drew up, however, in a very strong position, as soon as he perceived me, and the victorious army stood for some time with apparent firmness. I charged them with the 19th and 25th, (afterwards the 22d light dragoons) and the 1st and 2d regiments of cavalry, and drove them before me till they dispersed, and were scattered over the face of the country. I then returned and attacked the royal camp, and got possession of the elephants, camels, baggage, &c. which were still upon the ground. The Mogul and Mahratta cavalry came up about eleven o'clock, and they have been employed ever since, in the pursuit and destruction of the scattered fragments of the victorious army.

Thus has ended this warfare; and I shall commence my march in a day or two, towards my own country. An honest killador of Chinnoor, had written to the King of the World by a regular tappale, established for the purpose of giving him intelligence, that I was to be at Nowly on the 8th, and at Chinnoor on the 9th. His majesty was misled by this information, and was nearer me than he expected. The honest killador did all he could to detain me at Chinnoor; but I was not to be prevailed upon to stop, and even went so far as to threaten to hang a great man sent to show me the way, who manifested an inclination to lead me to a different place. My own and the Mahratta cavalry afterwards prevented any communication between his majesty, and the killador.

"The binjarrie must be filled, notwithstanding the conclusion of the war, as I imagine I must have one to carry on in Malabar.

"Believe me yours most sincerely, ARTHUR WELLESLEY." The successful termination of the expedition against Dhoondiah, if not a service calculated to

add very much to Colonel Wellesley's military fame, was yet instrumental in displaying some of the peculiar features of his character; the same judicious arrangements for the supply of the army; ability, and promptitude in manoeuvering, afterwards so conspicuous, were here strikingly manifested. The Governor General in council, expressed his high sense of his services. Tranquillity being now established, he had leisure to attend to the internal economy and political arrangements of the new English possessions in the Mysore. Such ability and deliberate sagacity were visible in his conduct, that the Governor General thought the high qualities displayed by one so young in the service, promised so much, as to justify his being intrusted, upon a suitable opening, with an independent command, in a wider and more important field.

An expedition had for a long time been proposed against Batavia, in which Colonel Wellesley was to have acted second in command to General Baird, and had therefore left his command at Mysore. Various circumstances, which it is needless to detail, caused these views to be abandoned; the force under Baird was despatched to Egypt; and Colonel Wellesley, who had at first been intended to proceed there also, (and had in fact been gazetted as brigadier-general) again resumed his command at Seringapatam. But a nobler conquest than any he had hitherto achieved in India, was soon to be before him. About this time, the Marquis Wellesley received a letter from the Duke of York, stating his high opinion of the Colonel's military conduct and abilities; and his intention of placing him upon the staff in the East Indies, as soon as his standing in the army admitted of his being raised to the rank of major-general. In spite

of these favourable intimations, however, it was his misfortune at this period to have his motives misconstrued and his plans mis-represented. It was most evident that the councils of the East Indian government were then disunited and wavering, and the following letter proves clearly, that he feared lest his present position might hurt his professional prospects; it is interesting, because illustrative of his views and feelings, at this stage of his career :

TO THE HON. H. WELLESLEY,

"Bombay, March 23rd, 1801. "MY DEAR HENRY.-I have received your note of the 3rd of March, but none of your other letters, which you say you have written to me. I hope that you received those which I wrote to you while you were in England, giving an account of how we were going on here. I enclosed them to the Doctor, and desired him to destroy those which should arrive subsequent to your departure, or your return to this country; so that some of them written lately, you will probably never see. I was very anxious about you, as you must have come from the Cape in the track of the French privateers homeward bound; and you were longer on your passage than we had reason to expect you would be.

"I have written a long letter to government this day about my departure from Ceylon, which I hope will explain every thing. Whether it does or not, I shall always consider these expeditions as the most unfortunate circumstances for me, in every point of view, that could have occurred; and as such I shall always lament them.

"I was at the top of the tree in this country; the government of Fort St. George and Bombay, which I had served, placed undiminished confidence in me, and I had received from both strong and repeated marks of their approbation. Before I quitted the Mysore country, I arranged the plan for taking possession of the ceded districts, which was done without striking a blow; and another plan of conquering Wynoad, and re-conquering Malabar; which I am informed has succeeded without loss on our side. But this supercession has ruined all my prospects, founded upon any service that I may have rendered. Upon this point, I must refer you to the letters written to me, and to the governor of Fort St. George, in May last, when an expedition to Batavia was in