Before entering on the Memoirs of Clive, it will be useful to take a succinct view of the state of India, at the period when he commenced his career in that country, and more especially of the coast of Coromandel, which was the scene on which he first displayed those talents that were afterwards to raise him to such eminence.

The emperors of Delhi, since the death of Aurungzebe (A. D. 1707), had rapidly declined from the power they once possessed. The government of distant countries was intrusted to soubahdars (or viceroys), who invariably took advantage of the dissensions in the imperial family, or the weakness of a reigning prince, to endeavour to render themselves independent. The same motives and principles which governed the conduct of these vicegerents, actuated those whose allegiance and obedience they claimed in virtue of their delegated powers from the nominal Sovereign of India. Hindoo rajahs, and Mahomedan nabobs owned or rejected the sway of their superiors according to their means of resistance; while the Mahrattas, a name unknown to the military history of Asia before the middle of the seventeenth century, threatened, by a system[1] of predatory warfare, to complete the destruction of these Mahomedan conquerors, whose chiefs, whether engaged in contest for the imperial Crown, the high office of soubahdar, or the inferior rank of nabob, appear to have lost, in their rancorous hostility to each other, all sense of union and of common danger, and to have blindly courted the aid of allies who (a little foresight would have shown them) were rising fast to greatness upon their ruin. These observations on the conduct of the Mahomedan princes are not more applicable to the connections they formed with the Mahrattas, than to those which, in the eighteenth century, they began to contract with Europeans. The Portuguese, who had discovered a passage to India in 1498, enjoyed the exclusive commerce with that country for a complete century; but their short and brilliant career was essentially different from that of the European nations who succeeded them. Their establishments were all maritime. They conquered and subdued the princes and chiefs on the shores and islands of India; but seldom, if ever, carried their arms into the interior, or engaged in any of those offensive and defensive alliances with native states, that must have hurried them into contests, to support which the resources and strength of the mother country would have been altogether inadequate. In consequence of this policy, their established character for valour, and the strength of their fortifications, they did not become objects of attack to the principal native powers of India. Neither the Emperors of Delhi, nor their princely delegates had, or desired to have, any naval force. They attached no value to the sea-coast or to islands, but as they might produce them profit through the medium of customs: and the increased commerce, consequent to the settlement of the Portuguese at Goa and other parts, was calculated to reconcile them to a nation, whose warfare on the continent of India was almost entirely limited to contest with the petty princes and chiefs who occupied or claimed the shores where they desired to settle.

The effect of the victories gained over these princes was improved by the valour, wisdom, and energy of the great men[2] who first established the Portuguese power in India; but all these impressions were lost by the subsequent conduct of their degenerate successors, who, selected by the favour, or removed by the caprice, of a weak and corrupt court, became the ready instruments of tyranny and oppression. This evil was augmented by the continual changes of their local rulers, and by other circumstances, calculated to bring ultimate ruin on their affairs, even had that not been accelerated by the attack of European states; to which the very considerations which saved them from the hostility of the great native princes of India left them peculiarly exposed. Every settlement which they had made depended exclusively upon their possessing a superiority at sea, and having no rivals either in commerce or war; but their monopoly of the trade of India, for so long a period, arose chiefly from a respect to their right as the first settlers, which extended even to that of the exclusive navigation to that country by the Cape of Good Hope. When this right was invaded, when their fleets came in contact with those of Holland and England, their power fell as rapidly as it had risen; and, like a meteor, left no trace but a recollection of its dazzling and short-lived splendour.

The successful voyages of Drake and others excited the merchants of England to seek establishments in India: but the enterprise of individuals was deemed unequal to so expensive and hazardous an undertaking; and a company was formed, to open and pursue a channel of commerce, from which such great gains were anticipated. This company and the nation were stimulated to greater efforts by the Dutch, having at this period (the close of the sixteenth century) sent several ships round the Cape of Good Hope. The English now began to settle in different parts of India. The first factory was established at Surat, in 1612, and continued to have the control over all the petty settlements on the western side of the peninsula, till the cession of Bombay, made in 1668 by the King to the Company, when that town, from its fine harbour, and central situation for commerce, soon rose to be the superior settlement in that part of India; while Madras obtained the same rank on the coast of Coromandel, and for some period counted Calcutta[3] as one of its subordinates. The latter at the period when Clive's career in India commenced, had become independent, and, like the settlements of Madras and Bombay, was under the government of a president and select committee; but it was still, in its establishment and means of defence, inferior to either of the other presidencies.

In the year 1698, another East India Company was formed, and received an exclusive right of trade in consideration of a loan to government; but the charter of the old Company was a few months afterwards confirmed, and the trade to the East Indies was divided between the two Companies. The jarring interests of these bodies, who obtained advantages over each other according to the favour of corrupt and changing administrations in England, had brought such distress on both, that, in 1702, their prayer to unite was attended to; a new charter was granted, and from that period they have been denominated "The United East India Company." By this charter, they were permitted to employ civil servants, to raise troops, and to make war and peace in India. Their policy, however, had been to avoid (as being ruinous to their commercial pursuits) all grounds of offence to native states; and they had not even made those fortifications which were necessary to defend their property from spoliation. The conduct which they thus pursued had been strongly recommended[4] to them by Sir Thomas Roe when ambassador at the court of the Emperor of Delhi, and a modern historian[5] of India observes, that "if Sir Thomas Roe had lived to the present day, he might have urged the trade with China as a proof, by experiment, of the proposition he advanced." But assuredly no cases ever existed more opposite than those of China and India. Though the government of the former, by a rigid system of exclusion, keeps European settlers dependent upon its own power, it secures them against all enemies. The native powers of the latter, by engaging in alliance, and inviting to interference in internal politics, the subjects of one European state, leave to the other, who may be in rivalry or hostility with it, no option between certain ruin, and employing means of self-defence and retaliation. This truth was never more completely evinced than in 1744, when war was declared between France and England. On receipt of this intelligence, the forces under the control of the companies of the two nations on the coast of Coromandel, prepared to prosecute hostilities by land and sea, upon a scale which involved both in a scene of operations more suited to empires than to commercial factories. The results of these operations will appear wonderful to him who only considers the handful of troops which either party could bring into the field; but the improvements which, within the last two centuries, had taken place in Europe, gave its soldiers an incalculable advantage over those of Asia, before the latter were taught, by repeated defeats, to make war upon more equal terms with their European opponents. The superiority of a well-constructed machine over manual labour is not more extraordinary, than the advantages which discipline and the improvements in fire-arms and artillery afford to a regular body of troops over an irregular and badly armed force. No valour can equalise the combat, and the impressions produced by defeat are rendered tenfold greater by a comparison of numbers. The well-commanded, and well-trained battalion moves amidst ten thousand of its rabble opponents, like a giant with a thousand hands, which defend or strike, according to the dictates of one mind, and to whom an unconnected force, where every individual acts for himself, can offer neither injury nor resistance.

It is to this fact far more than to the want of personal courage in the men, or pusillanimity in their leaders, that we must refer the astonishing success of small numbers of disciplined troops, in the early wars of India; and it was from observing this success that the rulers of the country so eagerly courted their aid.

It was, undoubtedly, good policy in the English to abstain from all interference with native states. It must have been obvious that, from the moment they left the limits of their factories, they would be involved beyond the possibility of retreat; and that the consequence of the course of policy in which they engaged could be no further foreseen, than that it was opposed to all those principles of commercial pursuit, upon which their establishments were founded. With such a prospect, nothing could justify the authorities in India in the part they acted, but proof that it was one to which they were compelled, in order to prevent positive ruin, and to support the honour and the interests of their country against a powerful enemy. Whether or not they had this justification at the moment when the following Memoir opens, will be seen by a short view of the state of affairs in the Carnatic at that eventful period of our history in India.

The Payeen Ghaut, or Lower Carnatic, well known as the dominions of the Nabob of Arcot, extends along the coast of Coromandel, from the southern limits of the Guntoor Circar to Cape Comorin, a distance of about 560 miles. Its breadth, from the sea to the Ghauts (or mountains), which separate it from the territories of Hyderabad and Mysore, is no where above 100 miles; and in some parts little more than fifty. This country was formerly governed by Hindoo princes, but these had for several centuries acknowledged a Mahomedan superior. Its nabob, Sadut Oolla, in the beginning of the eighteenth century (A. D. 1710), having no children, adopted two nephews, the eldest of whom, Doost Ali, on the death of his uncle, declared himself his successor; and the younger, Bauker, became governor of the strong fortress of Vellore. Nizam-ul-MÛlk, who was at this period soubahdar of the Deckan[6], to which district of the empire the Carnatic belonged, offended at the want of deference to his supremacy, evinced by this act of the self-constituted nabob, prevented that regular confirmation of his title which was required from Delhi. Doost Ali had two sons, and several daughters, one of whom was married to Mortaza Ali, the son of his brother at Vellore, and another to a relation of the name of Chunda Sahib, who became soon afterwards his Dewan, or minister; and on the death of the Hindoo prince of Trichinopoly (A. D. 1736), this chief was sent with a force, under pretext of demanding tribute of the Ranee, or queen, but with the real design of making himself master of that fortress,—an object which he effected more by artifice than force. The part he acted after obtaining possession of the capital of the southern part of the Carnatic, combined with his having halted for some days at Pondicherry, with the governor of which he had several interviews, give reason to conclude that Chunda Sahib laid, at this period, the foundation of that friendship, which was subsequently publicly proclaimed between him and the French government.[7]

Sufder Ali, the son of the nabob who had gone with Chunda Sahib to Trichinopoly, returned, after its capture, to Arcot, where a new Dewan, or minister, Meer Assud, was appointed; who took every step he could to prevent the accomplishment of those ambitious designs which he seemed convinced his predecessor in office had formed.

The Marathas had formerly been in possession of a great part of the Carnatic; and one of their chiefs had become Rajah of Tanjore, a small but rich principality, lying to the southward of the Cavery, and fertilised by its waters, and those of the Coleroon. Incited by the reigning rajah, and by the Hindu family who had been expelled from Trichinopoly, 10,000 of this nation, under Ragojee Bhonsela (A. D. 1740), invaded the Carnatic. In the first action with these plunderers, Doost Ali was slain, and his son, Sufder Ali, immediately assumed the title of nabob; but, dreading the results of the Maratha invasion, he sent his family and treasures for protection to Pondicherry. When the war with the Marathas was concluded, he took his family away; but Chunda Sahib left his, fearing, perhaps, the result of the intrigues, which were going on against him. These became too soon apparent; the Marathas retired; but, secretly excited by the court of Arcot, they soon returned, and surrounded Trichinopoly, which they took, after a siege of three months; and, having appointed one of their leaders, Morari Row, to be its governor, they sent Chunda Sahib, whom they had made prisoner, to be confined in a fortress near Sattarah.

Sufder Ali, who was at this time (A. D. 1741) in great alarm at the apprehended resentment of the Soubahdar of the Deckan, to whom he had remitted little or no tribute, went, for security, to reside in the fortress of Vellore, pretending, at the same time, that he was in great poverty, and intended to proceed to Mecca; and, to give more currency to this last report, he sent his son and family to Madras, from whence he said he meant to embark. His minister, Meer Assud, is stated to have advised him to put his family and property under the protection of the English, from a conviction of the intrigues the French were carrying on at this period with Chunda Sahib, of whose ambitious views he continued to entertain the most serious alarm.

The retreat of the Marathas had been purchased by the promise of a large sum, and every district of the Carnatic was heavily assessed to make up this amount. This assessment produced great discontent, and the principal rulers of districts, leagued with Mortaza Ali, in a conspiracy against the nabob, who was assassinated; and his treacherous relative and murderer, having distributed largesses to the army, proclaimed himself nabob, and marched to Arcot.

Mortaza Ali desired to have Sufder Ali's son and property delivered up to him; but the English refused to comply with his request, being urged to this refusal by the Maratha chief Morari Row, and several of the principal officers of the nabob's army. Many of the latter openly expressed their detestation of Mortaza Ali; and the cowardly prince was so alarmed at those symptoms of danger, that he fled in the disguise of a female from his court at Arcot, and found refuge in his stronghold of Vellore.

As soon as the flight of Mortaza Ali was known, the army proclaimed Mahomed Saeed (the young son of Sufder Ali) nabob; and, having appointed a minister, the prince was conveyed to Wandewash, which fortress was commanded by one of his near relations.

Such was the state of the Carnatic, when Nizam-ul-MÛlk, Soubahdar of the Deckan, advanced to Arcot (A. D. 1743). His immense army[8] met with no resistance. This old and celebrated prince is said to have been shocked at the state of anarchy in which he found the fine country he now, for the first time, visited. Every officer who had been trusted with a petty government was introduced as a nabob, till the soubahdar, enraged at this assumption of rank, under cover of delegated authority, exclaimed, "I have seen, this day, eighteen nabobs, in a country where there should be but one; scourge the next fellow who comes with that title!"

The son of Sufder Ali paid his homage, and was kindly received; but, though directed to be treated with lenity and respect, he was refused leave to return to Wandewash.

Nizam-ul-MÛlk having, by promises and presents, more than by arms, persuaded Morari Row to evacuate Trichinopoly, completed the settlement of the Carnatic, and returned to his capital, Hyderabad.

Khojah Abdulla, a native Toork, from beyond the Oxus, one of his most distinguished officers, who had accompanied him upon his late expedition, was nominated to the government of the Carnatic; but on the morning on which he was to commence his march to Arcot, he was found dead in his bed.[9] The charge of this important province was now given to Anwar-u-Deen, a brave and experienced soldier, of a respectable, though not noble family. He had filled several stations of consequence, and had, for sixteen years, been governor of the extensive districts of Ellore and Rajahmundry.

Nizam-ul-MÛlk, from regard to popular feeling, which was in favour of Mahomed Saeed, the son of Sufder Ali, signified his intention to make that youth nabob of Arcot, whenever he attained the years of manhood; stating, that the officer, to whom he had given the principal charge, was only to hold it till that period: but his placing the young prince under the care of Anwar-u-Deen augured ill for the accomplishment of this object (A. D. 1744). The youth was, however, for some time, treated with great honour and respect; subject only to the disquietude arising from the clamorous demands of some Patan soldiers for arrears of pay. At the marriage of one of his relations, Mahomed Saeed was compelled, by usage, to receive Mortaza Ali, the murderer of his father. The appearance of that chief was ominous. Nothing, however, happened till near the close of the ceremony. When the young prince went forward to meet his guardian Anwar-u-Deen, the captain of the discontented Patans, under the pretence of asking pardon for his former insolence, approached his person, and stabbed him to the heart. As the boy fell lifeless, a hundred swords were drawn, and the Patan leader and his comrades were hewn in pieces. Mortaza Ali was next sought for, but he had fled to Vellore. Anwar-u-Deen was loud in his lamentations, and apparently active in the pursuit of all concerned. The whole of the Patan race were banished, and their houses rased to the ground; but these demonstrations, though they satisfied Nizam-ul-MÛlk, did not lull the suspicion of the public; and it was generally believed that Anwar-u-Deen was concerned with Mortaza Ali in destroying a prince whose right to be nabob, when he came of age, was recognised by the soubahdar of the Deckan, and who enjoyed the attachment of all ranks, not more on account of his promising character, than from the recollection of the benefits the country had enjoyed, for thirty years, under the administration of his ancestors.

When war occurred between England and France, the latter country had every thing to expect from the ability and enterprise of La Bourdonnais, the commander of her fleet, in India, and Dupleix, the governor of the settlements on the coast of Coromandel.

It may be questioned, whether France has ever produced a more skilful or more able naval officer than La Bourdonnais. Nor were his talents limited to the profession to which he belonged: to his efforts and genius the islands of Bourbon and the Mauritius owe all their prosperity. He was as active and successful in improving the colonies of his own country, as he was fortunate and distinguished in his attacks upon those of its enemies.

Before the arrival of La Bourdonnais in India, the English had the superiority at sea, and the French settlements were almost defenceless: but the government of Pondicherry prevailed upon the nabob of Arcot to require the governor of Madras to abstain from making any attack upon the French; and Commodore Barnet, who commanded His Majesty's fleet, was induced, by the entreaty and representations of the Company's government, to adopt a similar line of conduct.

When, however, the French admiral arrived, he resolved to be fettered by no arrangements made on shore, from injuring, to the utmost of his power, the foes of his country. It is mortifying to read the narrative of the events of this year (A. D. 1746), when the superior energy of the French so completely triumphed, both on sea and land. The English fleet, after some indecisive efforts, left the coast, and Madras[10] was taken. La Bourdonnais agreed, however, to restore it to the English, on the payment of a ransom.

Nothing could be more desperate than the situation of the Company's affairs: fortunately, the jealously and collision of the two great men, to whom the interests of France were entrusted, prevented their complete ruin.

Dupleix, governor of Pondicherry, a man of an ardent and comprehensive mind, cherished, very early, the most ambitious views of raising his nation to unrivalled power in India. He saw, with jealousy, the independent power of La Bourdonnais; and, instead of entering into the plans of that able officer[11], which were directed to the conquest of all the English settlements in India, he acted in direct opposition to his views; nor did he hesitate to violate the pledge the admiral had given.[12]

Possessed, as the French now were, of a very superior force, Dupleix could not endure the thought of restoring Madras to the English; so that, when La Bourdonnais left the coast, he declared the capitulation null and void, and placed a French garrison in the town for its defence.

Anwar-u-Deen, the nabob of Arcot, was not an inattentive observer of these proceedings.

The English, who, in compliance with his intreaties, had refrained from attacking the French, when they could have done so with advantage, expressed a hope that now, when their enemies had the superiority, the nabob would interpose his authority for their protection; but they neglected to accompany this reasonable request with that bribe or offering, which, in an Asiatic court, is deemed an indispensable concomitant of all solicitations for aid; and Dupleix, already deeply versed in Indian politics, neutralised the inclinations of the professed friend of the English, by promising to make him master of Madras, for the repossession of which he intimated that the English would pay a rich ransom. The evasions of the French governor, however, soon convinced the nabob that he had been duped; and he sent an army of 10,000 men, under his son, Maphuze Khan, to retake Madras, which he appears to have thought would be very easily effected. The French garrison, consisting of one battalion, desisted from hostilities as long as they could, but they were at last compelled to retaliate; and the repeated defeats of the besiegers soon obliged them to retreat to Arcot; and that court, whose troops had never before come in contact with disciplined soldiers, seemed as if awakened from the influence of a spell, and viewed with just alarm, in all its magnitude and consequences, the imminent danger they incurred by allowing such settlements to be made upon their shore.

Dupleix, having been considerably reinforced by troops left by La Bourdonnais, determined on the siege of Fort St. David (A. D. 1746), the second settlement of the English on the coast of Coromandel.[13]

The authorities entrusted with that settlement applied for aid to the nabob of Arcot; and that prince, who was full of resentment at the French, readily complied with their request, the English having consented to defray part of the expenses of their auxiliaries.

Maphuze Khan, and his brother, Mahomed Ali, were sent with a considerable body of troops, who, on their arrival, surprised a detachment of the French, that had been sent to take up an advanced position, and compelled them to retreat. The failure of this first, and of another attempt, on Fort St. David, induced Dupleix to try (and not without success) to detach the nabob from his connection with the English; who, deserted by their ally, appeared on the brink of ruin, when the fortunate arrival of an English fleet, under Admiral Griffin (March, 1747), obliged the French governor to draw all his troops within the walls of Pondicherry.

The drooping spirits of the inhabitants of Fort St. David were, at the same time, raised by reinforcements of troops from Tellicherry and Bombay. All these were placed under the orders of Major Lawrence, an officer of high reputation in his Majesty's service (Jan. 1748), who had been nominated to the command of all the Company's forces in India.

The bad success of the French in their attempts against Fort St. David was evidently owing to other causes than the valour of its garrison: but the period was now arrived when the French, in their turn, were to act upon the defensive.

Admiral Boscawen, after an unsuccessful attempt to make himself master of the Mauritius, anchored at Fort St. David with a very considerable armament. The siege of Pondicherry, which he immediately undertook, was the first military service in which Clive distinguished himself. The result was unfortunate, owing chiefly to the lateness of the season. Many questioned the skill of the gallant officer by whom it was conducted: his fame as a naval commander was justly high; but he had little, if any, experience of land service. It is, however, due to his reputation to remark, that he received no aid from the engineer, whose want of knowledge was apparent in every stage of this siege. Dupleix transmitted an account of it to all the princes of Coromandel, and to the Emperor of Delhi; and the result considerably increased his fame in every part of India.

He received, in return, compliments on his own prowess, and on the military character of his nation, which was, at this period, throughout Hindustan, considered greatly superior to that of the English.

The peace concluded between France and England (A. D. 1748) was expected to terminate hostilities in India; but the trading companies of each nation, having received great reinforcements of men, which they were afraid to disband while their rivals retained theirs, both parties appear to have resolved on employing them in the contests of the native princes. "The English," according to a contemporary historian[14], "in the line they pursued on this occasion, acted with great indiscretion; the French, with the utmost ambition."

Such are the only incidents to which it seems necessary to advert in this place. Any others requisite for understanding the transactions of Clive, will be mentioned in the course of the general narrative.