Ninety-nine thousand muskets and carbines were also found, eighty-three powder-magazines, and an immense number of shot, shells, &c. The value of the treasure and jewels was estimated at £1,143,216 sterling; the Sultan's throne alone was valued at sixty thousand pagodas (£25,000 sterling). It was a magnificent seat upon a tiger, covered with sheet gold; with a superb canopy, decorated with a costly fringe of fine pearls.
The permanent command of Seringapatam was intrusted to Colonel Wellesley, who exerted himself vigorously to restrain excess, and restore order, tranquillity, and confidence. The inhabitants who had quitted the city soon began to return; the exercise of the industrial arts revived, and the daily commerce incidental to a populous town recovered its wonted activity. The sons of Tippoo, and all the chiefs who continued to hold military command, personally tendered their submission to General Harris, and the example of the chiefs was promptly followed by the whole of the troops. The powerful fortresses throughout Mysore surrendered to the conquerors, and the cultivators of the soil pursued their occupation as if no change had taken place.
Mysore being thus completely conquered, was placed, as to its future arrangements, entirely at the disposal of the British Government, and Lord Mornington now found it expedient to dispose of the newly-acquired territory. To retain it in the hands of the British would be impolitic, from the great and certain drain of men and money it would occasion, as it was then thought, to keep even a precarious possession of it. To place one of Tippoo's sons on the musnud would be to recommence the long and bloody contests which had preceded the fall of the Sultan; for gratitude is rarely the attribute of kings. Policy, therefore, as well as justice, at once pointed out to Lord Mornington the propriety of re-establishing the Hindoo dynasty in an extensive district in the interior, to be formed into a native kingdom, under the protection and control of Great Britain.
