TIPPOO'S CRUELTY. 459 at Onore, were summoned to Tippoo's durbar, and received with respectful politeness, which he well knew how to assume. After being seated on the carpet they were each presented with a cup of poisoned coffee; it was offered first to the general, as of the highest rank guessing its cruel purport, he hesitated to take it. Mr. Stewart, better acquainted with the sultaun's character, advised him to acquiesce, otherwise insult would be added to cruelty, and taking the cup intended for himself, drank it off, and was in a few minutes either carried out in the struggles of death, or expired at the tyrant's feet. His example was then followed by his fellows in misfortune, which speedily terminated their misery! There seems some improbability in this story; not that any deed of death was too cruel for Tippoo's character, but I believe it is not very common for the sentence to be executed in the presence of an oriental sovereign. That such instances have occurred, the Persian annals, and those of the house of Timur, sufficiently testify; and Tippoo's favourite mechanical tiger affords great reason to suppose he would have enjoyed the direful spectacle. Nothing more strongly marks his savage propensity than this toy; for it was no more. Although the registers of cruelty, exceeding even Tippoo's refinement, furnish instances of death by similar mechanism, where the devoted wretch met his fate in the embrace of a lovely female; where the automaton, smiling at his terror, plunged a dagger in his heart. The plaything of the Mysore tyrant, equally evincing his diabolical disposition, had at least a more innocent tendency. The mechanical tiger was 460 TIPPOO'S CRUELTY. found in a room of the sultaun's palace at Seringapatam, appropriated for the reception of musical instruments, and hence called the ragmehal. It was sent among the presents to his Britannic Majesty, and thus described: "This piece of mechanism representsa royal tiger in the act of devouring a prostrate European. There are some barrels, in imitation of an organ, within the body of the tiger, and a row of keys of natural notes. The sounds produced by the organ are intended to resemble the cries of a person in distress, intermixed with the roar of a tiger. The machinery is so contrived, that while the organ is playing, the hand of the European is often lifted up, to express his helpless and deplorable condition. The whole of this design was executed by order of Tippoo Sultaun, who frequently amused himself with a sight of this emblematical triumph of the Khoodadaud (or God-given) sircar over the English." A human being, who could pass his hours of relaxation and amusement in this savage manner, may be easily supposed to have enjoyed the death of an European who unhappily fell into his power, whether effected by poison, sword, or bow-string. The gentlemen arrived from Mangulore also communicated an additional instance of the tyrant's rigid and cruel discipline during the siege of that fortress. The sultaun, on being informed that the killedar who commanded it when taken by the English, had since treated them with kindness, determined to sacrifice him for which purpose, ordering his regular troops from the trenches, and assembling them with the rest TIPPOO'S CRUELTY. 461 of his army, on a hill within view of the Mangulore ramparts, he rode before the lines, surrounded by his guard of silver lances, and all the state insignia. A gallows having been previously erected, the order of death was issued, and the killedar conducted to the spot. While standing under the gibbet with a halter round his neck, Mahomed Ally, an officer of high rank, and a great favourite of the late nabob, Hyder Ally, came forward, and in the most earnest manner supplicated for a pardon, which being indignantly refused, Mahomed Ally ordered his brigade to follow him in an imprudent attempt to prevent the execution. They were soon overpowered, and a dreadful example immediately followed, in the presence of the two generals. The officers and colour-bearers were blown from the guns; the noses and ears of the sepoys were cut off; and Mahomed Ally, after beholding the execution of his friend, was ordered into confinement, and cut off on the road by a private order from the sultaun. Thus perished two of the best and bravest officers in his service. Their only crime consisted in having shown too much humanity to the English during the siege of Mangulore: who, from the ramparts, were witnesses of this melancholy spectacle. The other account of the fate of the British officers captured at Bednore, was, that all above the rank of lieutenant were put to death; by what means was not particularly stated, excepting in the case of General Mathews, who being closely confined, and suspecting he was to be taken off by poison, refused for many days to taste the food prepared by his keeper, being kept alive by the compassion of a servant, who shared 462 TIPPOO AND HYDER ALLY. his small allowance with the general. This was connived at by the officer placed over him, until he was himself threatened with death if his prisoner any longer survived. This being communicated to the general, he ate the poisoned food, which in a few hours terminated his sufferings. The other officers belonging to the Bombay establishment were supposed to have shared the fate of their commander about the same time. A few subalterns, in hopes of better treatment, passed themselves off for officers of higher rank, from a mistaken idea of deference to situation among the Asiatics; this deception cost them their lives, as they would otherwise have been sent with the subaltern officers to their respective settlements, at the conclusion of the peace. In comparing the characters of Hyder Ally and Tippoo Sultaun, the former has greatly the advantage, especially considering his neglected education. Tippoo, born a prince, was educated as heir to a throne, which the Mysore usurper vainly imagined was fixed on a solid foundation; a musnud surrounded by tributary kings and conquered provinces, constantly accumulating. Like other short-sighted mortals, he little imagined the commencement and termination of his dynasty would be comprized within half a century. Sic transit gloria mundi! For the despotic sovereignty of this empire, Tippoo was trained by his ambitious father. Hyder could neither read nor write; not that he was of that low origin frequently mentioned: on the contrary, his ancestors first brought into notice, went to India from Arabia, about the middle of the seventeenth century; some fix the period A. D. 1660, when he was appointed mullah, or priest, at the musjeed of Viziapore. Hyder must have been born about the year 1718, as it is said in the manuscript found at Nellore, that his father Futty Naik, who commanded a considerable body of horse and foot in the service of Abdul Russul Khan, nabob of Sirpy, fell in battle in 1728, when Hyder, Futty Naik's youngest son, was ten years of age. An elder brother and an uncle of Hyder having engaged themselves in the service of the rajah of Mysore, Hyder accompanied them in all their military operations; thus engaging, from a child, in active scenes, his education was neglected; and, whether from thoughtlessness on one side, or idleness on the other, Hyder Naik, as he was then called, was not taught either to read or write, nor did he afterwards ever acquire any literary knowledge. When thirty years of age, Hyder, as a soldier of fortune, at the head of fifty matchlock peons, and five horses, offered his services to Nunderauz, commander in chief and duan to the rajah of Mysore: here properly commenced his military career. In less than three years he increased his troop to one hundred horse, and five hundred sepoys, whom he armed with European firelocks, and attached two field-pieces to his own little corps. Another account, taken like the above, chiefly from Mahomedan historians, says that in the year of the Hejira 1140, A.D. 1727, Futty Naik, the father of Hyder Ally, with a corps of a thousand men, entered into the service of the rajah of Seringapatam; or more properly Srirungaputton: so called from the temple of Sriunga, dedicated to the beautiful Hindoo deity Sri, the goddess of fecundity, similar to the Ceres of |