patam. They reluctantly acquiesced in the former alternative, knowing well what the deportation meant. The next day, accordingly, all the males were circumcised, while both sexes were compelled to eat beef, as a proof of their conversion. One of the principal victims of Tipú's revenge was the Rájá of Chirakkal[1], of ancient descent, who, having been falsely accused of conspiring, was attacked and killed, and his body hung up after his death. In this raid the Mysore sovereign is said to have carried off large treasures plundered from the temples in Malabar. He crowned his achievements by compelling the princess of Cannanore to marry her daughter to his son, Abd-ul-Khálik.
On the conclusion of the treaty with the Madras Government at Mangalore in 1784, Tipú, inflated with notions of his own prowess, and inspired with hostile feelings against the English, was most anxious to unite himself closely with the French, by whose assistance he hoped to subvert the power he both feared and hated. With this object he sent an embassy, which was instructed, after sounding the views of the Sublime Porte, to repair to France to secure the co-operation of that Government. But the reception which his envoys met with at Constantinople, where Tipú's name had probably never been heard of, was so unfavourable, that they returned in a rage. In 1787 a second embassy, headed by
- ↑ It is from the descendants of this house that females are adopted into the royal family of Travancore.
