In pursuance of this line of policy, the Governor-General appointed a commission for the arrangement of the affairs of Mysore; consisting of General Harris, the Hon. Colonel Wellesley, the Hon. Henry Wellesley, and Lieutenant-Colonels Kirkpatrick and Close. The first step taken by the Commissioners was to make a provision for the surviving officers and chiefs of the Sultan, and for the families of those slain during the campaign – a measure which produced the most salutary effect upon the minds of the Mahomedan inhabitants of Mysore. Their next duty was to remove the families of Hyder and Tippoo from Seringapatam to the Carnatic; and this important service having devolved upon Colonel Wellesley, the two families, including thirteen sons of Tippoo, and some hundreds of women belonging to the harems of Hyder and his successor, were removed to the fortress of Vellore, without tumult or difficulty, and in a manner eminently calculated to soothe the feelings of the exiled princes.
The Commissioners next visited the son of Chiaum Raj, the last of the ancient race who had occupied the musnud, whom, together with five of his father's seven wives, they found in the most abject state of poverty and wretchedness.[1] Having signified through Poormeah, the late Sultan's Prime Minister (though a Brahmin), the intentions of the British Government to restore them to their original rank, a written answer was sent by the grandmother and aunt of the young Rajah, in which, after expressing their happiness at the pleasing prospects before them, they add: "Forty-two years have elapsed since our government ceased. Now that you have favoured our boy with the sovereignty of this country, and nominated Poormeah to be his Dewan (Minister), we shall, while the sun and moon continue, commit no offence to your Government. We shall at all times con-
- ↑ This last descendant of a royal race, to whom the author of this work had the honour of being introduced at Bangalore in 1812, followed at the period mentioned in the text the humble trade of a potter!
