which are sung to this day. Gajapati Viziarama Riz, Rdjd of Vizianagram, was at that time the most powerful Hindu noble in the Circar of Chicacole ; and M. Bussy had, as a return for his services, leased that Circar and Rajamahendri to him on very favourable terms. Ranga Rao, the Raja of Bobbili, an estate about 140 miles north of Vizagapatam, had an hereditary feud with the Raja of Vizianagram. The latter used all his influence to persuade Bussy to ruin the Raja of Bobbili. At length a suitable occasion presented itself. A French detachment was attacked by some troops of Ranga Rao; and a French army, accompanied by a large contingent from Vizianagram, proceeded to besiege the Ranga Rao and his and when they perceived that hill-fort of Bobbili. A terrible scene ensued. followers were resolved not to yield resistance
- death
all the w’omen and children in the
fort, was vain, they put to and then died fighting sword in hand, refusing every offer of quarter. An infant son of Ranga Rao was alone rescued from this scene of slaughter. Four of his retainers, seeing their chief fall, made a vow to avenge his death. Having secreted themselves in the jungle for some time, they penetrated by night, and assassinated him.
After settling the government of Chicacole, Bussy returned to Vizagapatam, where he took the English factory which had been established
to Viziardma Raz’s tent
in the middle of the 17th century. In 1689, a rupture occurred between the East India Company and the Mughal Emperor owing
to disputes in Bengal,
and the
Company at Vizagapatam and
all
latter
ordered the possessions of the
to be attacked.
The warehouses were
the English residents put to death.
seized,
In the following year, a
was issued, permitting the Company to have settlements Vizagapatam and other places on the coast. These factories had continued in the Company’s possession up to the time when the French took them. The French did not keep them long. In 1759, Colonel Forde was authorized by Clive to proceed from Bengal to the Northern Circars, and co-operate with the Raja of Vizianagram, who had become dissatisfied with the alliance which his father had fresh farmdn
at
entered into with the French,
and had invited the
the English to wrest the country from them.
assistance
of
Colonel Forde landed
Vizagapatam on the 20th October 1759. After a brief but brilliant campaign, in which he gained a decisive victory over the French in Godavari District, and took from them the fort at Masulipatam, he at
Nizam a grant bestowing certain territory around Masulipatam on the East India Company, and prohibiting any future In 1765, Lord settlement of the French in the Northern Circars. Clive obtained an imperial farmdn granting the Northern Circars to the English ; and in 1768, a treaty was entered into with the Nizdm, who then finally ceded them. Vizagapatam, together with the rest received from the
