Hodges *, “ a lhclaneholy witnefs to ifife effects' of the inroad)
“ the multitude coming in from all quarters to Madrasf as a
“ place of refuge, bearing on their fhoulders the fmall remains
“ o f their little property; mothers with infants on their brealts,
“ fathers leading their horfes burthened with their young
“ families; others fitting on the miferable remains of their
“ fortunes on a hackery, and dragged through the dull: by
“ weary bullocks. Every objedt was marked by confufion and
“ difmay; from the 18th to the sjft the numbers daily in-
“ creafing, and it was fuppofed that within the fpace o f three
“ days not lefs than two hundred thoufand of the country peo-
t( pie were received within the Black Town of pdadras ! ”
T ip po 'o Sa e b commanded that part of the army which carried
its devaluations to the walls of the city. There was a moment
in which he might have entered the Black Town with the
fugitives, and burnt it i he might have even taken Fort St.
George, the gates having been left open in the univerfal confufion.
Thefe advantages were happily neglected; he contented
himfelf with carrying a general defolation through the
.environs, and then rejoined his father’s army.
T he prefidency o f Madras had collected about fix thoufand
troops, as foon as it had recovered from its Confufion. They
were ftationed in places moft fit to flop the progrefs of the
enemy. The defeat of the detachment under Colonel Baillie
flung our government into defpondency. Ayder attempted territorial
conqueft. He befieged and took Arcot, and many other
* Hodgçs’s Travels, p. 7.
polls
polls of llrength. He was then proclamed Nabob o f the Carnatic,
and exercifed all the marks of fovereign power*. A t
length the genius o f Mr. H a s t in g s reltored the declining
ilate o f Cat Carnatic. Forces were detached from Colonel
Goddard’s army in Guzerat, and others from Bengal, under the
celebrated C o o t e , who was appointed commander in chief, and
by a feries of unparalleled victories, before related, was both
fword and ihieid to the re-animated country.
G r e a t is the deitruction in Europe by the various effects of
war, the fword, famine and difeafe r but how imall are they
in comparifon of the fame fcourge when inflicted on the inhabitants
of Hindoojlan, Let it be exemplified in the dreadful
inroad jull recited, as given by a writer o f the firlt authority t.
In 1781, perilhed within the "Jaghire of the Carnatic 150,000
i 1782, by ficknefs at Madras - - - - 20,000
1782, inhabitants o f Madras by famine - - 10,000
1782, at Madras, inhabitants of the country forced
in by Ayder - - 50,000
1782, died in removing northward in confequence
. o f the famine - 40,000-
1782, feized and carried from the Carnatic, manufacturers
and youths- - 20,00a
1782, deftroyed during the war in different parts
of the Carnatic - 250,00a
540,000
H a v o ic e o f
I n d i a n W a r v
* War in Afia, p. 171 • fome fay that Tippoo Saeb was fo pr-oclamecL
f Hon. Charles Greville, |i. p. 521.
1 ’ T h e :