Bowser, he might lose the opportunity for striking an effectual blow at Dhoondiah, he pressed forward with his cavalry only, and at Malowny, on the Malpoorba, came on the detached camp of the freebooter; cut up or drove into the river all the combatants he found there; took animals, bag'gage, etc., and closed the affair by making a party of his European dragoons swim across the river, and seize a boat. By this means he contrived to possess himself of the enemy's guns, which had been transported to the opposite bank before his arrival. After various forced marches, he found himself within a few miles of Dhoondiah's main body on the 9th September; but was compelled by bad weather and jaded horses to hold his hand for a few hours. After a night's delay, impatient lest his prey should escape him, he overtook Doondiah's army, consisting of upwards of 5000 horse, which was drawn up in a very strong position near the village of Conagull. Having rapidly formed the British dragoons and Native cavalry, he decided, by one resolute charge, led on by himself, the fate of the bandit and his followers. They were all cut up or dispersed, everything in their camp taken, and Dhoondiah himself, "King of the two Worlds, slain. His body was recognized among the dead, and having been lashed on a galloper-gun attached to the 19th Light Dragoons, was brought into the British camp. Colonel Wellesley seemed to make light of this battle, but it was a very dashing affair nevertheless. The following passage from his letter to Major Monro on the subject, displays more humour than the gallant writer has often had credit for :- "Thus has ended this warfare; and I shall commence my march in a day or two towards my own country. An honest killedar of Chinnoor had written to the King of the World by a regular tappal, 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 killedar 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 road, who manifested an inclination to show me a good road to a different place. My own and the Mahratta cavalry afterwards prevented any communication between his Majesty and the killedar."

HIS HUMANITY AND DISINTERESTEDNESS.

37

It was fortunate for the "King of the two Worlds" that he departed from the stage of life so respectably. Had he been secured alive, the probability is great, from the letter of Colonel Wellesley's instructions, that Dhoondiah's royalty would not have saved him from a rope.

A circumstance most creditable to the humanity of the victor deserves to be recorded. When the baggage of the freebooter was overtaken, a beautiful boy, four years old, was found, and brought to Colonel Wellesley's tent. His name was Sulabuth Khan, and he proved to be the favourite son of Dhoondiah. Not only did Colonel Wellesley afford his present protection to the orphan; but on leaving the East for Europe, he deposited a considerable sum of money with Colonel Symmonds, to defray the expenses of his future maintenance and education. Sulabuth grew up a handsome and intelligent youth-was placed in the service of the Rajah of Mysore, and continued in it till his death.

In the month of December of the same year (1800) Colonel Wellesley was appointed to command a body of troops assembled at Trincomalee, in the island of Ceylon, for foreign service. In offering him this command, Lord Mornington gave him the option of accepting or declining it without prejudice to his future interests; observing that it was one which was likely to obtain for him some credit and to be attended with great pecuniary advantages; but learning by a letter from Lord Clive that his absence would be highly detrimental to the interests of Mysore, he at once declined the appointment. The correspondence to which this affair gave rise, exhibits Colonel Wellesley's disinterestedness and devotion to public duty, in a most agreeable light. "Lord Mornington, in his letter to me," says he, "thinks the service is one from which I may derive some credit; but I feel all that entirely out of the question, and I leave to Lord Clive to decide according to his sense of the public convenience."*

About this time letters arrived from the home Government, ordering that 3,000 men should be immediately dispatched to the Red Sea, to act against the French in Upper Egypt, and announcing that a force was about to be sent to the Mediterranean, under the command of Sir Ralph Aber

* Despatches.

crombie, for driving the French out of Lower Egypt. No sooner had Wellesley read these despatches, than, knowing that his force at Trincomalee was the only disposable force, without orders or instructions, which it was not possible to obtain in time, he proceeded to act on his own responsibility, and removed it from Ceylon to Bombay, where it Iwould be some thousand miles nearer the Red Sea and Egypt. He seems fully to have expected to have had the command of this expedition; however, on arriving at Bombay, he found that his precautionary measure had met with the disapproval of the authorities, and that it had been conferred upon Sir David Baird; after exploding his vexation in a letter to his brother, he appears to have thought little more about it. Even after his supercession (for so he termed it) the delay in the arrival of General Baird, with the knowledge that it was essential that no time should be lost in making the intended diversion in favour of Sir Ralph Abercrombie, seems to have decided him on setting sail without him; but after communicating this intention to his brother, he was taken suddenly ill and prevented from carrying his plan into effect. A few days afterwards General Baird arrived and assumed the command.

It was obviously the wish of the government that Colonel Wellesley should go out second in command; and whatever might have been his own disinclination, he had evidently the intention of following, if he should not be able to accompany, the expedition. But his illness, coupled with the fact that Lord Wellesley had, at the instance of Lord Clive, left the matter completely optional to him, induced him to alter his intention.

Towards the latter end of April, Colonel Wellesley "reassumed his command in Mysore, and devoted himself, with the greatest assiduity, to the civil and military administration of that territory. He visited the several provinces ; made himself thoroughly acquainted with their situation and wants; and applied himself vigorously, and with the happiest effect, to the reform of those abuses which had crept in during the latter part of the reign of Tippoo Saib.

An extensive hiatus occurs in Colonel Wellesley's correspondence at this period, which is wholly unaccounted for by Colonel Gurwood or any of his biographers. Fore