DISPUTE ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT OF ARCOT.

In order to understand the military transactions of the English company in India, the reader will take notice, that immediately after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, mons. Dupleix, who commanded for the French in that country, began by his intrigues to sow the seeds of dissension among the nabobs, that he might be the better able to fish in troubled waters. Nizam Almuluck, the mogul’s viceroy of Decan, having the right of nominating a governor of the Carnatic, now more generally known by the name of the nabob of Arcot, appointed Anaverdy Khan to that office, in the year one thousand seven hundred and forty-five. The viceroy dying, was succeeded in his viceroyalty, or subaship, by his second son Nazirzing, whom the mogul confirmed. He was opposed in his pretensions by his own cousin Muzapherzing, who had recourse to the assistance of M. Dupleix, and obtained from him a reinforcement of Europeans and artillery, in consideration of many presents and promises, which he fulfilled in the sequel. Thus reinforced, and joined by one Chunda Saib, an active Indian chief, he took the field against his kinsman Nazirzing, who was supported by a body of English troops under colonel Laurence. The French, dreading an engagement, retired in the night; and Muzapherzing, seeing himself abandoned by all his own troops, appealed to the clemency of his cousin, who spared his life, but detained him as a state prisoner. In this situation, he formed a conspiracy against his kinsman’s life, with Nazirzing’s prime minister, and the nabobs of Cadupab and Condaneor, then in his camp; and the conspirators were encouraged in their scheme by Dupleix and Chunda Saib, who had retired to Pondicherry. Thus stimulated, they murdered Nazirzing in his camp, and proclaimed Muzapherzing viceroy of Decan. In the tents of the murdered viceroy they found an immense treasure, of which a great share fell to M. Dupleix, whom Muzapherzing the usurper at this time associated in the government. By virtue of this association, the Frenchman assumed the state and formalities of an eastern prince; and he and his colleague Muzapherzing appointed Chunda Saib nabob of Arcot; Anaverdy Khan, the late nabob, had been, in the year one thousand seven hundred and forty-nine, defeated and slain by Muzapherzing and Chunda Saib, with the assistance of their French auxiliaries; and his son Mahommed Ali Khan had put himself under the protection of the English at Madras, and was confirmed by Nazirzing, as his father’s successor in the nabobship, or government of Arcot. This government, therefore, was disputed between Mahommed Ali Khan, appointed by the legal viceroy Nazirzing, supported by the English company, and Chunda Saib, nominated by the usurper Muzapherzing, and protected by Dupleix, who commanded at Pondicherry. Muzapherzing did not long survive his usurpation. In the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-one, the same nabobs who had promoted him to his kinsman’s place, thinking themselves ill rewarded for their services, fell upon him suddenly, routed his troops, and put him to death: and next day the chiefs of the army proclaimed Sallabatzing, brother to Nazirzing, viceroy of Decan; on the other hand, the mogul appointed Gauzedy Khan, who was the elder brother of Sallabatzing; and this prince confirmed Mahommed Ali Khan in the government of Arcot; but the affairs of the mogul’s court were then in such confusion, that he could not spare an army to support the nomination he had made. Chunda Saib, nabob of Arcot, having been deposed by the great mogul, who placed Anaverdy Khan in his room, ha resolved to recover his government by force, and had recourse to the French general at Pondicherry, who reinforced him with two thousand sepoys, or soldiers of the country, sixty caffrees, and four hundred and twenty French troops, on condition that, if he proved successful in his enterprise, he should cede to the French the town of Velur, in the neighbourhood of Pondicherry, with its dependencies, consisting of forty-five villages. Thus reinforced, he defeated his rival Anaverdy Khan, who lost his life in the engagement, reassumed the government of Arcot, and punctually performed the conditions which had been stipulated by his French allies.